Khainem was born under the name Greld on Gun-deck beta, level four, amid-ships of the Emperors vessel Mighty Arm. He was orphaned at 8 months when his parents were called for defence duty during an Eldar pirate attack, and raised by the beta-four gun crew, whom he became deeply attached to.

When the Arm reached its destination, Thraxes IV, Greld was 11 and enjoyed taking part in the maintenance and drills of Xanthippe, the gun he had assigned himself to. When Inquisitor Laame (Xenos) came aboard on a routine check for 'the Eldar taint', Greld's untrained psychic ability was instantly recognised, and he was dragged in tears from the Arm. The unusual death of his parents and his love for even the coarsest of human life made him an ideal acolyte in the eyes of Laame, who had lost both his previous apprentices to the Eldar and the Tyranids. Greld learned quickly, and was re-named Khainem as a mark of separation from his former life at the age of 22.

Many, many years later, Laame was assigned to investigate possible heresy upon Jezellum; a planet endowed with an atmosphere so psychically charged that it powered a chapel of skilled psykers as a defence against enemy incursions. On route to Jezellum, Laame was struck by a highly efficient virus, and died only hours before planetfall. As the surviving Inquisitorial representative, Khainem took it upon himself to continue his master's duties, and wearing Laame's arcane power armour he began to study a selection of the Imperial Defence Garrison, as per Imperial doctrine.

It was at this point that an immense psychic void, vast as a continent, burst above the chapel, destroying the minds of the vast majority of the psykers, and crippling Khainem's mental abilities permanently. Accompanying this was a Chaos host of thousands, charging form the desert in a wave of scarlet cloth and black ceramite.

The Defence Garrison fought as best they could, cutting down hundreds of the cultists but making no real dent in the attacking force. With no way of informing his superiors of the calamity, Khainem fought valiantly alongside the heroic soldiers and cutting down vast numbers of the heretic spawn with his power fist and laspistol as they were pushed back towards the confines of the chapel's central beacon. Alone, he stood in the ravaged doorway and fired at every head or tentacle that appeared over the balcony wall. His pistol exhausted, he wrenched a defence turret plasma cannon from its wall-mounting and fired it one-handed, the immense weight carried by the servos of his power armour.

The Governor's political aide, a mild man now splattered with his former master's blood, appeared beside him and began firing shell after shell into the horde with a battered shotgun, teeth bared and eyes narrowed. When the firefight finally came to hand-to-hand massacre, it appeared all was lost for the greatly depleted forces of the Imperium, but salvation came form an unlikely ally; Eldar grav-vehicles swooped over the sea of chaos scum, pulses of light spitting from their weapons at choice targets. A skimmer alighted upon the roof and Khainem was borne aloft by swooping hawk aspect warriors, holding the frantically firing adjutant in his free hand.

Awakening later, he discovered his minor injuries had been attended to by the Eldar, and his armour had been significantly augmented. The plasma cannon was strung beneath his left arm, his scanner had an increased range, and his power fist incorporated a chainblade and a shuriken pistol. Khainem was a relatively mild-mannered personality, and all thoughts of hatred and contempt for the Eldar were forgotten, though this charity was suspiciously unexpected from the solitary aliens.

Khainem's questions were left unanswered, and he was deposited whilst drugged upon the planet Hekate II, to awake alongside the General's scribe, Othellan, approximately 45 days after the disaster of Jezellum, Imperial time. He found a cryptic map among his possessions, covered with what appeared to be Eldar runes. Shortly after discovering the map covered an area just south of Flain, the principal city upon Hekate, Khainem was located and approached by Inquisitor Toshiro, who suspected Khainem knew the location of a webway portal upon Hekate.

Convinced this apparent coincidence had been orchestrated by the aliens who had rescued him, Khainem left Othellan to investigate Toshiro and warily led a party of his aides to the ruins and woodland which marked the portal. Unfortunately, as they reached the ruins shots were fired from the ruined buildings and the group were forced to dive for cover. During the ensuing confusion, Khainem took an executioner round in his unarmoured face, putting him out of action.

It was later revealed the unseen shooter was Inquisitor Malvise, assisted by the rogue trader Laura Cronk and her bodyguard Snipes. Malvise was defeated after a running gunfight, but Toshiro's force had to retreat and leave the fallen Khainem when a group of tall aliens appeared and began to harry them with sniper fire. Again, Khainem recovered aboard an Eldar vessel, only to feel two nubs of bone protruding from his forehead. In anger and confusion at such a desecration of mans form, Khainem wrenched himself from the stasis device in which he was entombed, and demanded an explanation from the pointy-eared medics who were observing him. Rightly afraid of the armoured nightmare before them, the Eldar informed him calmly that his skull had been replaced with living wraithbone, and that the operation would be complete should he return to stasis.

Realising his predicament, Khainem decided to trust the aliens, and days later opened his eyes to discover his skull linked to an alien device on his back which had stimulated the rebirth of his psychic mind after Jezellum.