Hades

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Hades (哈迪斯)
Alias(es)	Underking; King/Lord of the Underworld; Lord of the Maelstrom; Commander Hades
Species/Race	Human transmigrator; an anomalous Untouchable/Soulless later identified with a Void Dragon Shard 1 45 428
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Death Guard; Imperium of Man; Cult of the Underworld; Sons of the Underworld
Occupation/Role	Death Guard Tech-Sergeant, Deathshroud, commander, anti-psychic warfare pioneer, and later manager of the Imperium 46 132 166 637
Status	Ascended to godhood and entered the Webway after helping isolate Chaos from reality 923
First Appearance	Chapter 1

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Latent Untouchable	11	Connects the weakening and backlash of an Alien Lord's Psychic Power to his own abnormal constitution.
Conscious Null Field control	26	Learns to enlarge and strengthen his Null Field by devouring souls or Psychic Power, at the cost of reduced control.
Obituary-mediated suppression	45	Uses the Emperor-bestowed scythe Obituary to extend his Null Field beyond his body and suppress Psykers or Warp influence.
Blackstone anti-psychic field	185 188	Develops a Blackstone-based field and uses Obituary to break Barbarus's black-tower circuit, dispersing the planet's toxic mist.
Lord of the Underworld	219 220	His field can eliminate Warp energy and human souls; his presence becomes synonymous within the Death Guard with the “Lord of the Underworld.”
Enhanced Underking	315	Receives a new heart, improved circulation, enhanced strength, heightened smell, and Malcador-backed military assets.
Machine manipulator	364 410	Gains the ability to sense, repair, disable, and influence machinery through liquid metal and green electrical arcs.
Void Dragon Shard manifestation	428	Releases sealed power: liquid metal becomes his blood, electrical waves his thoughts, and his combat form manifests a silver mask and extreme destructive capability.
Godhood	923	Ascends as the Lord of the Underworld, devours Chaos and other gods, and opens the way into the Webway.

Background / History

Barbarus

Hades is a transmigrator from Earth who arrives on the toxic death world of Barbarus. Orphaned when aliens kill his parents, he survives from the age of seven in Heller Pass by working communal fields, scavenging resources, and building tools and weapons in his inherited mud house. His initial objectives are simply to survive and eventually join Mortarion's Death Guard. 1

As a youth, Hades becomes an exceptional scythe fighter. During a village defense, he kills the hound that consumed Herrela's father and saves her sister, establishing his first enduring battlefield partnership. Other resistance members avoid him or react to him with hostility, while firearms and more complex weapons malfunction in his hands. 8

His encounters with Barbarus's Alien Lords lead him to identify himself as an Untouchable. He later discovers that his Null Field can grow by consuming Psychic Power or souls, though doing so weakens his precision over it. 11 26

Death Guard service

After entering the Death Guard, Hades undergoes an arming ceremony under Captain Nathaniel Garo and Forge Master Enrique. He takes an oath in High Gothic, receives power armor and bolters, and develops a reputation for technical ability despite his inability to operate firearms normally. 46

He trains intensively with Legion veterans, studies High Gothic in the library, and eventually becomes a Death Guard Tech-Sergeant and Deathshroud. His strategic reports, technical knowledge, and reliable battlefield coordination elevate him rapidly within the Legion. 51 132 166

Mortarion and Hades use Obituary to screen Death Guard warriors for loyalty and mental stability: a warrior holding the scythe is compelled to speak openly while its light reveals potential instability. 85

Cleansing Barbarus

Working with Jin and Sage Kirkland, Hades researches Blackstone and creates a large-scale anti-Psychic Power field. He activates it through Obituary, destroys the black-tower circuit sustaining Barbarus's poisonous fog, and leaves the planet under rain for the first time in living memory. 184 185 188

The people of Barbarus later regard him as a protector associated with good harvests, erecting Blackstone statues of him beside their fields. Hades is deeply unsettled by this reverence, especially because he was once broadly disliked on the planet. 277

Underking and Lord of the Maelstrom

Hades gains increasingly public recognition as the Lord of the Underworld, a title tied to both his Null Field and his influence over the Death Guard. His abilities make ordinary proximity dangerous, and he requests isolated quarters aboard the Endurance to reduce the risk to fellow Legionaries. 219 220

After receiving new physical enhancements and forces from Malcador, Hades expands his role beyond the Death Guard. In the Maelstrom, he builds Fhaos into an industrial and military center without Imperial supply support, using conquest, salvaged resources, Mechanicus expertise, and the Reborn System to sustain his faction. 315 365 366

Ten thousand years later

Hades awakens in the 42nd millennium after a ten-thousand-year sleep on a Tyranid-infested planet. Trazyn's message warns that his presence has been exposed to Warp entities; he is initially left with no armor or weapon beyond a Death Guard-patterned bed and doll. 578

He later re-enters Imperial politics, seeks support from Macragge and the Ultramarines, and agrees to manage the Imperium under the Emperor and Malcador's supervision. His public return to Terra incapacitates humanity around the Imperial Palace with the sheer pressure of his presence before he declares that humanity will be revived. 620 625 637

Appearance

Hades grows from a Barbarus survivor into a figure physically comparable to a Primarch. His later forms combine Death Guard aesthetics, Blackstone technology, and machine-like traits, often making him appear more like a supernatural phenomenon than an ordinary human. 172 314 379

• Larger than standard Death Guard furniture and accommodations; ordinary Legion beds, chairs, tables, and utensils are undersized for him. 172
• Wears the black Armor of Grief, edged with Adamantium and described as unnaturally cold. 314
• Has extensive mechanical augmentation; at least half of his head is metal. 410
• His released Void Dragon Shard form has liquid-metal blood, green electrical arcs, a cold silver mask, and a visible scarlet left eye. 428
• After his later awakening, he is described with white hair, emerald lightning, and a Null Field that can obscure all but a single red eye. 579 596

Personality

Hades is practical, resourceful, and fundamentally survival-oriented. He prefers direct work, technical problem-solving, and battlefield usefulness to ceremony or administration, often complaining that he would rather remain an ordinary grunt than endure command duties. 17 85

Despite his bluntness and occasional opportunism, he is protective of people he considers his own. He helps Herrela's family, worries about Death Guard frightened by his power, rescues Little Herrela from falling ore, and continues to prioritize allies even when broader strategy demands harsh decisions. 11 184 219

He strongly dislikes being worshipped or treated as a distant deity. Hades believes humanity should develop, survive, and govern itself rather than exist as followers of a higher being; nevertheless, he accepts religious authority when it can protect people from Warp corruption or keep the Imperium functional. 313 320 618

His casual humor and lack of regal restraint frequently clash with the image others want for the Underking. He dislikes thrones, grand receptions, and deliberate displays of superiority, preferring candid conversation and practical results. 348 366 625

Abilities & Skills

Null Field

Hades possesses an anomalous anti-psychic field that suppresses Psychic Power, Warp manifestations, souls, and nearby metaphysical phenomena.

• Can compress the field beneath his skin to avoid affecting daily life. 100
• Can expand and darken the field by devouring Psychic Power or souls, though this compromises control. 26
• Creates a Warp “vacuum” powerful enough to disrupt Psykers, Astropaths, Warp entities, and daemonic influence. 100 219
• Can leave controlled gaps or diluted zones inside his field, allowing limited contact with others. 620
• Its full manifestation can induce nausea, weakness, paralysis, and an overwhelming sense of powerlessness in nearby people. 637
• The field can be reached through prayer and ritual, enabling believers to use it to expel Warp contamination. 415 618

Scythe combat

Hades is a specialist scythe wielder whose skill predates his recruitment into the Death Guard.

• Saved Herrela's sister by decapitating a hound in a single strike. 8
• Considers Mortarion the only opponent clearly above him in scythe combat during his Barbarus years. 8
• Demonstrates scythe techniques to Herrela and teaches her related battlefield skills. 24
• Later develops a combat style based on sudden Death Guard counterattacks, combining speed, deception, endurance, and explosive retaliation. 431

Machine manipulation

Hades can influence machinery through green electrical arcs and liquid-metal phenomena.

• Automatically senses the condition of machinery within his line of sight. 364
• Repairs damaged wires, chips, armor, and mechanical components by reconnecting or reinforcing metal. 364
• Can disable and repair enemy vehicles during mechanized combat exercises. 410
• Receives mixed reactions from Machine Spirits: some submit, while others resist or attempt to flee his influence. 364
• Can use his presence to repair damaged Power Armor, as demonstrated on Angerthas. 415

Physical resilience and enhancement

Hades combines exceptional endurance with progressively enhanced biology.

• Defeats multiple Tech-Sergeants consecutively in Mars duel cages. 112
• Receives a new heart, circulatory upgrades, enhanced strength, and heightened smell. 315
• Continues fighting while mortally wounded, using Death Guard endurance to defeat Vashtorr. 431
• Can manifest liquid-metal shields and electrical defenses fast enough to respond to attacks across layered dimensional space. 812

Technical and strategic expertise

Hades is an inventive engineer and capable battlefield planner.

• Loots Alien Lord laboratories for steam-mechanical designs, Psychic Power research, materials, and protective equipment. 17
• Designs armor and technical equipment recognized by Death Guard Forge personnel. 46
• Develops Blackstone-based anti-psychic technology with Jin and Kirkland. 185 188
• Creates the Reborn System, a restricted high-computation system intended to serve his faction without becoming uncontrollable. 365 366
• Employs irregular warfare, resource denial, infiltration, and manipulation of hostile forces when conventional combat is disadvantageous. 299 596

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Obituary — Emperor-bestowed warscythe that extends Hades's Null Field and is used to screen Death Guard loyalty. 45 85
• Armor of Grief — black Adamantium-edged battle armor made for Hades by Gold. 314
• Psyker Censers — accessory presented alongside the Armor of Grief. 314
• Crown of Solitude — headgear given to Hades by Jin in place of a requested helmet. 314
• Emperor's finger-bone Null Field suppressor — a relic Hades uses or carries before later losing it. 362 588
• Silver Scythe — weapon used during his higher-powered confrontations with Chaos. 823
• Ork-style infiltration armor — matte-black disguise armor with a hood, Power Claw, retractable boot nails, and a Death Guard emblem. 596
• Death Guard doll — a personal keepsake retained through his awakening and later travels. 578 620

Relationships

• Mortarion — Primarch, commander, and Hades's closest Death Guard connection. Mortarion protects him, relies on his abilities, and struggles with jealousy and distance as Hades gains influence beyond the Legion. 85 299 379
• Herrela — earliest battlefield partner. She is the only resistance fighter initially willing to team with Hades and has romantic feelings he does not recognize. 8 24
• Nathaniel Garo — Captain who receives Hades into the Seventh Company and later helps manage the risks posed by his Null Field. 45 46 219
• Jin — technical associate and loyal assistant. Jin protects Hades's research seclusion, provides equipment, and later carries Sage Kirkland's consciousness. 184 185 314
• Sage Kirkland — Blackstone researcher and fervent believer who assists Hades's anti-psychic projects; his consciousness later survives within Jin. 112 184 618
• Charon — Custodian Guard assigned as Hades's liaison with Terra and caretaker of his Imperial affairs. 187
• The Emperor / Neos — Hades's uneasy ally and patron. The Emperor seeks his loyalty and candor, later entrusting him with managing the Imperium. 318 637
• Angron — friend and Maelstrom ally. Hades is concerned for Angron's recovery, while Angron seeks camaraderie and a future sparring match. 363 365
• Black Butcher — Hades's Space Marine offspring, who meets his gene-father after Hades awakens ten thousand years later. 578
• Buz — Son of the Underworld and political intermediary who advises Hades on Macragge, Terra, and rebuilding military support. 620 625

Cult of the Underworld

• The cult regards Hades as the Lord of the Underworld and decorates its ships, chapels, and Blackstone systems with scythes, black robes, three-headed dogs, statues, and related imagery. 618
• Its doctrine emphasizes that humanity must save itself and help one another against the Warp; the Null Field is portrayed as an equal blessing available to saints and sinners alike. 618
• Hades rejects the claim that he is divine, but accepts the cult as a practical means of protecting humanity and directing anti-Warp efforts. 618
• He guides Mechanicus believers toward productive research goals, including Warp-bypassing interstellar travel and technological development. 362
• The cult also oversees the selection and training of new Soulless, including combat trials against Khorne Daemons. 661

Notable Quotes

“I am a mortal.” 618

“I hope that, in the end, humanity can live freely, autonomously, and independently, not as followers of some existence.” 320

“All living things must die.” 188

Trivia

• Hades cannot reliably use firearms because they malfunction, misfire, or explode when he touches them, yet he can teach others how to shoot. 8 24
• He frequently sleeps at work and has a documented habit of eating pastries while handling urgent business. 85 661
• He dislikes being elevated above others and refuses to sit on the elaborate throne prepared for him aboard the Cocytus. 366
• His early reputation on Barbarus was overwhelmingly negative before he became a local protector and the subject of village statues. 277