As is often the way in these cases, it appears that Octenheimer was not quite what he seems. At some point, before arriving in the city he had been corrupted by Tzeentch, the Lord of Change. What depraved magical rituals and arcane sacrifices he performed prior to entering government service no one knows, but rumours had spread that he was hoarding Glimmerlings harvested from the Spear of Mallus and using their celestial power of prophecy to help him ‘negotiate’ with people. Unlike so many others, however, the prophecies and visions he gleamed were always uncannily accurate.
In fact, Octenheimer was the key architect, laying the groundwork that led to the Cult of the Fated Path becoming prevalent throughout the city and secretly recruiting Ortam Vermyre, High Arbiter of Excelsis, convincing him that Sigmar was afraid, leading him to believe the Dark Gods Tzeentch was only worthy of his worship and would triumph eventually.
Publicly Octenheimer quit his post with Vermyre several months before the uprising began, leaving Excelsis with very little explanation. However, secretly he was planning a dangerous trip through the Echosteel Realmgate, making his way into Aqshy. Using the glimmerlings Octenheimer had seen a vision of himself standing in the shadows behind a man he had never seen before, wreathed in flame. The man was all in darkness, with only his white goatee as a distinguishing feature.
The path through the realmgate did not go as smoothly as expected. Octenheimer emerged in the Maklatan Desert. Parched and starving, Octenheimer started to see visions of greenskins, a mighty horde rampaging through desert and cities led by a monstrous orruk warlord. As the visions cleared Octenheimer raised his head from the hot desert sands and through hazy eyes he saw a cloud of dust moving towards him. It became clearer faster than he could imagine, and he began to make out avian looking characters, riding brilliant discs of gold. Despite his weakened state, he forced himself to stand, and smiled…
