The Maugetar

The Form

The Maugetar — the Harvester — is the weapon Maugan Ra carries as Phoenix Lord of the Dark Reapers. It is, by Aeldari description, a single weapon that occupies two forms simultaneously: a long-barrelled reaper cannon (ranged) and a force-scythe (melee), both functions accessible without reshaping the weapon.

No modern Aeldari Bonesinger has been permitted to copy the design. Maugan Ra alone has carried it across ten thousand years.

I have buried my people. The harvest is not yet done.

— Maugan Ra, attributed Altansar's return

The Feedback

The Maugetar appears, by Aeldari mystical accounts, to draw strength from each soul taken — a small portion of each kill is fed back into the weapon as psychic resonance. This is why Maugan Ra, alone of the Phoenix Lords, can use his weapon for an entire campaign without rest.

Whether this is a property of the weapon, of Maugan Ra, or of the unspoken bargain by which he survived Altansar's fall, is not specified in any Aeldari text accessible to Imperial scholars.

Uniqueness

The Maugetar is unique. No other Aspect Warrior has been permitted to copy its design. No other Phoenix Lord carries a weapon of this type. When Maugan Ra eventually falls — if he ever does — the weapon will, by Aeldari custom, be retired with him.

The Origin

The Maugetar is a Heresy-era artifact whose specific origin remains under classified Imperial Cult investigation. The surviving Heresy-era records describe it as having been recovered from a daemon-world inside the Eye of Terror by a Word Bearers warband in the early Scouring period (approximately 020.M31). The Word Bearers held it for approximately three centuries before losing it to an Imperial Fists recovery operation in 312.M34. The Imperial Fists turned the Maugetar over to the Mechanicus's Cypra Mundi forge-world for evaluation. The Mechanicus has held it since.

The Maugetar's physical form is unusual: a small carved-stone vessel approximately fifteen centimeters in height, of indeterminate composition (the Mechanicus's analysis has been inconclusive), with internal volume sufficient to hold approximately a half-liter of liquid. The vessel is sealed with a stopper of similar composition. The seal has not been broken since the Mechanicus took possession. The Mechanicus's standing classification is "category-anomalous; investigation ongoing."

The Feedback Property

The Maugetar's specific operational property — observed by Mechanicus measurement but not fully explained — is that any psychic or warp-energy attempt to investigate the vessel's interior produces an immediate, proportional, and inverted feedback on the investigator. A weak psychic probe produces a weak warp-disturbance in the probe's surroundings; a strong psychic probe produces a proportionally strong warp-disturbance that has, in two documented cases, killed the probe-conducting psyker.

The Mechanicus's working interpretation is that the vessel contains something that does not wish to be investigated, and that the feedback property is the contents' defensive mechanism. The Mechanicus has, by formal directive, prohibited further psychic investigation of the vessel for an indeterminate period. The directive does not specify when the prohibition will be lifted. The Mechanicus's classified internal correspondence on the Maugetar indicates that the prohibition will not be lifted until the Mechanicus can identify what the vessel is intended to be used for.

The Use-Theory

The most-considered Mechanicus theory about the Maugetar's intended use is that it is a containment vessel for a specific entity — possibly a daemon, possibly a fragment of a god-class warp-entity, possibly something the Mechanicus has not been willing to publicly classify. The vessel's physical design is consistent with the Mechanicus's standard containment protocols for warp-entity binding artifacts, with one notable exception: the seal is unidirectional. The vessel can be opened from outside; it cannot be opened from inside. Whatever is inside is intended to remain inside until something outside chooses to release it.

The theory's implication — that the vessel is a key-class artifact whose strategic value is in determining when and where to use it — has been the subject of seven separate Inquisitorial classified review sessions across the Mechanicus's possession period. The reviews have consistently concluded that the Mechanicus's possession is appropriate and that no immediate use scenario justifies risking the unidirectional seal's breach. The most recent review, conducted in 040.M42, concluded the same.

The M42 Question

The Indomitus Crusade has raised a specific question about the Maugetar that the Mechanicus's previous reviews had not addressed: would the Cicatrix Maledictum's effects on the warp's structure influence the vessel's behaviour? The Mechanicus's quarterly measurement of the Maugetar's psychic-feedback property has, since 002.M42, shown elevated readings — approximately 12% higher than pre-Rift baseline. The elevation has not stabilised; it has been gradually increasing.

The Mechanicus's classified speculation is that whatever is inside the vessel is becoming more active in response to the Rift's effects. The Mechanicus has not publicly addressed the speculation. Roboute Guilliman has, by his personal log, been briefed on the Maugetar's status in 020.M42 and 035.M42. His briefing-response was, on both occasions, the same: "Keep it sealed. Tell me if the trend changes." The trend has continued to increase. The Mechanicus has continued to keep it sealed. Guilliman has continued not to authorise further investigation. The vessel's eventual purpose remains undetermined.