The Sanguinius Heresy

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Introduction

Hello, my name is Tanner and I have been an avid fan of Warhammer 40,000 and the Horus Heresy novels for years and am also a fan of fan made alternate history whether it be World War 2 or science-fiction. 

 

So here I present a project I have long thought of and worked on. This is a heresy of what if some happened just a little differently and caused ripples through the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. What if Horus was never targeted to be the Arch-Betrayer that would tear down the Imperium of Man? What if instead, it was one of his brothers? A Primarch loved by many, powerful in mind and body, with a Legion of Astartes renowned for their skill in the art of war. His name is Sanguinius and this is the Heresy he started.

 

A Heresy in which Fulgrim never goes to the Laer temple and retrieved their daemonic sword, a Heresy in which the Edict of Nikaea’s conclusion is a little different, a Heresy in which Jaghatai Khan becomes the Chosen of Tzeentch, and a Heresy in which Leman Russ falls to the temptations of Slaanesh. This is the story of the Sanguinius Heresy. 

 

(Note: This is obviously heavily inspired by the Dornian Heresy as I think all Alt-Heresies are in some ways. I am just stating I did take concepts from the excellent Dornian Heresy to help create my version of a what-if Heresy.)

 

(I plan to finish up the Legion chapters and after that begin  story only chapters and, possibly, other Imperial/Chaos forces as well, like Imperial Army chapter that tells of their history, deeds, Great Crusade, Heresy, Post Heresy and the like. But that is much further down the road.) 

 

(And please point out any issues such as bad grammar, bad ideas and give me your own suggestions and I'll take under consideration, and the like. Note: I am not a professional writer, or even very good, decent at best but I hope you push through and read to your enjoyment. If any questions ask away, I will try and answer them. Constructive criticism is not only allowed but needed. Hope you enjoy.)

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The Sanguinius Heresy

 

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History Introduction

Pre-Heresy
In the late 30th Millennium the Emperor of Mankind had united Terra, known in antiquity as Earth, through war and diplomacy and set His gaze upon the stars. To reclaim humanity’s birth right the Emperor created twenty “sons” called primarchs that would be the generals of His armies in the planned Great Crusade. They would be genetically, physically, and mentally superior than any normal human being.

Before the Great Crusade could be launched the Ruinous Powers, foul, evil beings that reside in the Immaterium, better known as the warp, that fed on the chaos of the material world, were fearful of the Emperor’s design to create Order in the Galaxy. Therefore the Ruinous Powers kidnapped and sent the twenty infant primarchs out across the Galaxy for each to land and grow up on a human world, far away from their father the Emperor.

Without the primarchs the Emperor’s plan to unite the Galaxy under an Imperium based off science, logic and justice was threatened. But as He has done for millennia the Emperor adapted and made twenty Legions of super-soldiers based of the genome of each primarch with every primarch being a gene-father to a Legion. With twenty Legions of genetically and physically enhanced, highly trained warriors the Emperor embarked on His Great Crusade to unite humanity and to find His sons. 

For over a century the Emperor and His Imperium expanded and slowly He found all of His sons. The first found was Horus and the last was Alpharius. With His primarch-sons found and their Legions returned to them the Imperium rapidly advanced with thousands of Imperial expeditionary fleets and armies across the Galaxy fighting the alien, purging the mutant, and reuniting the lost fragments of humanity that had been isolated since the beginning of Old Night. 

In the early years of the 31st Millennium the Great Crusade was nearing an end. It was a time of legend, of hope; the Golden Age of Man was at its peak. In the Ullanor Crusade the Imperial forces led by the Emperor Himself and several primarchs defeated the largest known concentration of Orks that had come into contact with the Imperium of Man at that time. 

After the end of Ullanor Campaign the Emperor held a massive celebration, forever remembered as the Triumph of Ullanor, that recognized all the accomplishments of the men and women that had fought, sacrificed and died to create the greatest empire the Galaxy had ever seen. The world of Ullanor was transformed into a trophy-world of the Imperium renamed Mundus Tropaeum on all galactic star charts. 

The Triumph was attended by fourteen Astartes Legions alongside nine of the demi-god primarchs. The Emperor Himself, at the conclusion of the Triumph, praised all those that participated and announced that Horus, favored and first found son, would be bestowed the title of Warmaster, supreme commander of all Imperial military forces in the Emperor’s name. 

To the shock and disbelief of many the Emperor also announced that He was returning to Terra to conduct a project for the benefit of all humanity but none other than this was given. 



Council of Nikaea
With Horus as Warmaster and the Great Crusade nearing it conclusion, the Imperium’s future seemed bright and assured. However disputes over the use of psykers were brought to a head shortly after Ullanor. Before the Emperor returned to Terra, He called a conclave on the distant world of Nikaea to resolve the issue once and for all before the division over the issue threatened the young fledging Imperium.

The Council of Nikaea would be attended by many primarchs alongside other key Imperial commanders and leaders. One faction called for the disbandment of Astarte Librarians and the study of what many called sorcery. Spearheaded by Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves Legion, the anti-psyker faction deemed that all those with psyker ability, particularly Magnus the Red’s Thousand Sons Legion, be prohibited from using their psychic powers and return the Librarians back to normal front line soldiers. 

Russ threw accusations at Magnus and his Legion, claiming they were delving into sorcery and arcane knowledge that was damning them and would threaten the Imperium if it continued. 


However to the surprise of many the Emperor gave His consent to the continued use of psykers and gave the Thousand Sons certain special concessions. This assuaged most fears, with many accepting the Emperor’s Edict as the correct course of action, even Mortarion, Primarch of the Death Guard, accepted the terms albeit grudgingly; Russ and his Space Wolves on the other hand saw the Edict of Nikaea as a terrible mistake, one that could destroy the Imperium from within.


Russ, convinced that Magnus had somehow tricked their father with sorcery, vowed to save the Emperor from His sorcerer son Magnus, no matter the cost. As the Emperor left for Terra and the primarchs and their Legions once again returned to the Great Crusade, Russ would be patient, waiting for an opportunity to confront and exterminate his witch-brother and the Thousand Sons Legion for the betterment of humanity. 

 
 
The Warmaster Falls
On the world of Davin an uprising against lawful Imperial authorities occurred. Horus, upon hearing of this, ordered his entire Legion to the rebellious world to expunge it of traitors and bring it back under Imperial rule. During the battle the Warmaster was wounded by the rebel governor by a sword that bore a powerful contagion, a contagion so strong it put Horus on his deathbed. 

Later Imperial historians would note that the contagion and weapon were of Nurgleite origin. Only the quick thinking of one of his Mournival captains, Garviel Loken, who suggested that Horus be put in a stasis pod and that the entire Luna Wolves Legion would return to Terra to the Emperor who was the most qualified to heal their primarch due to his extensive knowledge and scientific ingenuity. 

With the Emperor forewarned of Horus’s impending arrival He prepared Himself to heal the Warmaster. With Horus incapacitated the Crusade was now leaderless. To fill the voided position of leadership the Emperor gave His son Sanguinius, the Angel of Blood, the title of War Commander. The title was meant to be a temporary one until Horus was healed and regained his strength.

 

Betrayal at Istvaan
Sanguinius duly accepted his new title and told the Emperor he was determined to prosecute the Great Crusade to its finish or until such a time Horus returned. At first all seemed well, the Great Crusade continued apace, Horus was on Terra having been healed by the Emperor with the psychic assistance of Magnus, and all was going well. That was until news came in that Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, had seceded from the Imperium and formed the Protectorate of Ultramar.

Sanguinius, with a heavy heart, reported this to the Emperor, who immediately gave Sanguinius nearly half of the Legiones Astartes to deal with Guilliman. Intelligence reports from Sanguinius’s own Legion stated that Guilliman was in his newest conquest, the Istvaan System, with over half of his Legion. 

As the Legions that would compose the Vengeance Armada assembled and traveled towards Istvaan, astropathic reports came to Terra that the Space Wolves Legion had attacked and nearly destroyed Prospero, the homeworld of the Thousand Sons Legion. This would be major blow to Imperial morale but not to the extent the next piece of news that would soon come from the Istvaan System.

The first to reach Istvaan were Mortarion’s Death Guard, Lorgar’s Word Bearers, Angron’s World Eaters, and Sanguinius’s Blood Angels. Sanguinius dispatched Mortarion and Angron, along with their respective Legions, to Istvaan III to secure the Imperial fleet’s flanks while the Word Bearers and Blood Angels would take position over Istvaan V. 

The Death Guard would land two-thirds of their Legion on Istvaan III, determined to avenge their wounded primarch. They would land alongside the loyalist elements of the World Eaters and quickly overwhelm the rebel forces in their fortified capital city to only be virus bombed by Angron and his Traitor World Eaters alongside the Nurgle worshiping First Captain Typhon and the traitorous third of the Death Guard Legion on the Loyalists eve of victory. 

Over Istvaan V the Word Bearers and Blood Angels would assist the Ultramarines in preparing extensive fortifications for the coming battle. Once word reached Sanguinius that more Imperial ships were entering the star system he recalled his engineers and waited for the reinforcements to arrive in orbit.

The reinforcements that arrived were the Emperor’s Children, fresh from their victorious campaign over the Laer from which on completion Fulgrim stated that they had achieved perfection in the Emperor’s eyes, the terrifying and haunting Night Lords and their primarch Konrad Curze, the furious Ferrus Manus and 3,000 elite Iron Hands Astartes called the Morlocks, and the Salamanders led by their stoic primarch Vulkan.

This Vengeance Armada was more than enough to wipe out Guilliman and his forces on Istvaan V. Sanguinius, after days of observing Istvaan V and its defensive construction, presented a battle plan to the assembled primarchs. The Emperor’s Children, the Iron Hands, and the Salamanders would surround and constrict the Ultramarines position and after some time, once the Ultramarines were worn down the Blood Angels and World Eaters would land via drop pod and dropship into the center of the Ultramarine defenses to destroy the heart of resistance. Meanwhile the Word Bearers, the Night Lords, and the Death Guard would land outside of the battle and would relieve the battered and tired Legions of their posts and would assist the Blood Angels and World Eaters in the final push to exterminate the Ultramarines.

Sanguinius plan held tactical and strategic merit in it and all the primarchs agreed with the strategy as they had no reason to doubt it. Shortly after the Emperor’s Children, the Salamanders and the Iron Hands would descend upon the black sands of Istvaan V to begin their movements to encircle the Ultramarines and began encroaching on the Ultramarines position, testing its defenses and wearing Gulliman’s Astartes down.

When the time came for the Imperial reinforcements to arrive and land the killing the blow Sanguinius ordered the Imperial Legions to fall back to where the Word Bearers, Night Lords and Death Guard had set up a drop-zone and allow those Legions to replace those that had taken the brunt of fighting so far and to share in the glory that was to come from quashing Guilliman's rebellion. 

When the tired but high spirited Emperor’s Children, Iron Hands and Salamanders fell back to what they thought was friendly ground they were fired upon by those that they had called allies. With the trap set the Blood Angels and World Eaters landed amidst the chaos of the battlefield but it was not the Ultramarines that they inserted themselves amongst but rather the Imperial Loyalists. Landing behind the Loyalists with the other Traitor forces in front of them the Loyalists were trapped. 

Threatened from all sides the Loyalists began to retreat to their dropships. Manus, realizing they would not be able to get out alive, launched an attack on Guilliman’s position to relieve pressure off the surrounded Loyalists and to destroy the AA guns in the center of the Ultramarines bastion of defenses which would allow the dropships to lift off without being shot down immediately. 
 
While Vulkan remained behind to orchestrate the defenses of the Loyalist Pocket, Fulgrim and Manus led an elite strike force deep into Ultramarine territory, each killing hundreds as they went. Fulgrim would destroy the AA batteries while Manus would hold off the enemy retaliation.

Once the AA guns were destroyed Manus and Fulgrim attempted to withdrawal but were intercepted by Gulliman and Ultramarine reinforcements. Manus would fight his brother Guilliman and despite dealing a blow to the Ultramarine primarch he himself was killed, his head cut off from his shoulders.

Fulgrim was able to recover Manus’s body and made a fighting withdrawal to the Loyalist drop-zone in time to catch the last few dropships as they made their way to the surviving Imperial ships in orbit.

The Battle of Istvaan V, better known as the Dropsite Massacre, was the single worst disaster of the Legiones Astartes in the history of the Imperium. With three Loyalist Legions nearly annihilated and another Loyalist Legion having suffered the loss of their primarch and most of their elite Morlock 1st Company, the balance of power had shifted to the Traitors. Furthermore the Ultramarines would leave Istvaan soon after to return to Ultramar to fight against the Sons of Horus and the Alpha Legion, these two Legions having invaded shortly before the Massacre.

 
 
The Heresy
Sanguinius, having bought Guilliman’s neutrality in the coming war with blood, departed with his Traitor forces to conquer the galaxy in the name of Chaos with their primary objective being the seizure of Terra and the death of the Emperor. 

The road to Terra would last seven years in which incredible sacrifices and honorable deeds would be done by the Loyalists to slow Sanguinius down while uncountable horrors and atrocities would be enacted by the Traitors as they slowly but surely pushed their way to Terra. 

Thousands of battles and campaigns would be fought during the Sanguinius Heresy with the names of some such as the Battle of Tallarn, the Burning of Prospero, the Siege of Aalandra, the Battle of Calth, the Battle of Signus Prime, the Battle of Diamat, the Battle of the Abyss, the Battle of Tyros, the Battle of the Phall System, the Thramas Crusade, the Schism of Mars, the Murder of Murdock, the Heavy Worlds Campaign, the Shadow Crusade, and the Battle of Terra to just name a few. 

 
 
Siege of Terra
In the seventh year of the Heresy, Sanguinius and his forces were deemed strong enough to attack the Sol System. Leading an armada comprised of the entirety of the Blood Angels, the Word Bearers, the World Eaters, the White Scars, the traitorous faction of the Death Guard which had been renamed to the Black Legion, and half of the Iron Warriors Legion the Traitors quickly captured many Imperial installations in the outer reaches of the star system and pressed inwards. 

The Arch-Betrayer ordered Jaghatai Khan, now the Chosen of Tzeentch, to create a warp veil that would surround the Sol System which would disrupt all Imperial astropathic communication from Sol to the rest of the Imperium, blinding the Imperial forces on Terra. 

Sanguinius ordered his fleet elements to neutralize the Imperial fleet centered on Terra and Luna. After thirty hard fought days of void combat this was achieved with over half of the Imperial ships destroyed or captured with many of the remainder heavily damaged. The survivors would retreat to the Sol System’s outer halo to enact emergency repairs and wait for an opportunity to return to the fight once again. 

With Mars already under control of the Dark Mechanicus, albeit quarantined from Terra, the full might of the Traitors fell upon Luna and Terra. Terra’s moon fell within days as the Traitors used their Assault Companies with great effect, breaking the back of the Imperial defenses there.

On the surface of humanity’s homeworld itself Traitor forces landed via drop-pods near the two closest spaceports to the Imperial Palace. Within hours the Lion’s Gate and Eternity Wall Spaceports fell to the Traitors and with those in hand the bulk of Traitor Legions could land on the surface itself to begin the Siege of the Imperial Palace. 

Directed by Perturabo, primarch of the siege specialists Iron Warriors, the Chaos forces began forcing their way inside the Palace. Every block of stone, every stairwell, every hallway was fought with an iron determination with neither side relenting and the Loyalists only withdrawing when defeat was inevitable, falling back to another predetermined point of resistance.

Perturabo and his Legion were taking a perverse pleasure in decimating the Imperial Palace that Dorn had built. The Satumine Gate fell to the Traitors within ten days of the siege. As the siege continued Sanguinius was forced to call upon more and more daemons and warp based attacks to break through the stubborn Imperial defenses. With daemons led by the Bloodthirster Ka’Bandha the Ultimate Gate fell on the twenty-seventh day. 

With the two outer gates secured the Traitors made their way to the final gateway that would lead to the Inner Palace. The Eternity Wall was the last bastion against the Traitors and the Loyalists knew it and fought with skill and valor that would be remembered even ten thousand years later. 

The Iron Warriors used their siege engines to create cracks in the Eternity Gate and for weeks continued destroying the Gate piecemeal until on the 55th day of the siege a large crevice was created in the Gate and Traitor forces rushed to take the gap in the Imperial defenses. They were met by Corvus Corax, primarch of the Raven Guard and his Legion. Corax and his sons would hold the gap for hours without break killing Traitor Astartes after Traitor Astartes. 

Eventually the Bloodthirster Ka’Bandha, wanting to finish what he started in the Signus Cluster, charged Corax and after an intense battle that drew the eye of all present, Corax was able to defeat the daemon by breaking its spine over his armored knee. With the daemon banished back to the warp the Chaos soldiers retreated and the hole in the Eternity Gate was bulldozed shut. 

Shortly after Perturabo’s report to Sanguinius that the assault on the Eternity Gate had failed the Great Khan informed Sanguinius that he had looked beyond the veil covering the Sol System and saw that the Dark Angels, the Iron Hands and the Thousand Sons Legions had broken through the other half of the Iron Warriors, the Night Lords and the Space Wolves and were only days away from Terra. The Khan warned that while the veil around the Sol System interfered with Imperial communications it would not stop the Imperial ships from warping into the system and tipping the scales of battle from the Traitors to the Loyalists. Perturabo told Sanguinius that it would be another week or so before the Eternity Gate could be broken open again. A week the Traitors did not have.

Sanguinius was furious. His gambit had failed and if he remained his forces would be destroyed but if he fled he would lose the momentum he had gained and his Heresy would be broken. He did have one plan left however. The Loyalists were unaware that Imperial reinforcements were inbound and were desperate to end the siege as soon as possible due to the extreme shortage of ammunition and other supplies, with manpower stretched to the breaking point across the globe. Sanguinius knew they would exploit any chance to quickly end the siege.

In the Throne Room, center of the Imperial Palace, long range auger arrays detected that the Arch-Betrayer’s ship the Red Tear had suffered a cataclysmic void shield failure. With no shield to prevent teleportation the Emperor stated He would board the ship and end the Heresy at its source. Accompanying Him to the teleportation chamber was a cohort of Custodes, Warmaster Horus with his Mournival captains in tow with other veteran Sons of Horus legionnaires and Praetorian Dorn and the elite of his Imperial Fists as well. Corax was to remain behind to lead the defense of the Palace and Alpharius was elsewhere on the planet leading an intense guerilla war against the Traitors and could not be recalled in time.

 

The Red Tear
The Emperor and His companions teleported aboard Sanguinius’s flagship but were scattered across the massive battle-barge by foul Chaos sorcery. The powerful force that boarded the Red Tear was now scattered into dozens of individual groups of soldiers cut off from support and reinforcement. But all made their way to the command deck of the Blood Angels flagship, knowing that was where Sanguinius was located. Throughout the massive ship Imperial forces made their way to the bridge, desperate to kill the Arch-Betrayer.

Fate would have it that the first one to confront Sanguinius was not the Emperor but rather Warmaster Horus. Horus had been separated from his Mournival captains and the few guards that were with him had already perished on the way to the bridge. The Warmaster versus the War Commander, the Lupercal versus the Angel of Blood, brother versus brother, it was a battle that would echo through the ages. 

Sanguinius at first tried to win Horus to his side as he did love his brother deep down but Horus’s devotion and loyalty to the Emperor was too great for the temptations of Chaos. Horus and Sanguinius would fight for some time until Horus had injured but not killed Sanguinius as Sanguinius had grown powerful being the Champion of Chaos; Horus on the other hand was killed by the Chaos empowered primarch, stabbed through his primary heart. The Emperor arrived in time to see His favored son, the first He had found, be thrown on the ground, dead and lifeless before His very eyes.

Seeing Horus die before Him the Emperor’s face became one full of anger, sorrow and determination. The Emperor and the Arch-Betrayer would fight a titanic battle and in the end the Emperor was forced to use His psychic might to destroy not only the body but the soul of Sanguinius to prevent the Arch-Betrayer from being brought back to life by the Chaos Gods. While the Emperor emerged victorious it was not without cost, He had been mortally wounded by His son and was dying.

As the Emperor lay between His dead sons, Primarch Dorn, along with First-Captain Abaddon, reached the bridge and quickly recovered the dead body of Horus and the crippled body of the Emperor. 

With word of Sanguinius’s death the Traitors resolve broke. Their rebellion had failed and the Loyalists fought with renewed vigor as once Sanguinius died the warp interference around the Sol System dissipated and the Loyalists detected that reinforcements were just days away. The Traitors gathered up all their surviving Space Marines, as well as many Traitor Army troops and Dark Mechanicus forces as possible on their starships and left the Sol System, hounded by loyal Imperial ships until the Traitors entered the warp. The Imperium had defeated the Sanguinius Heresy but it was at best a pyrrhic victory. 

As the Traitors broke and ran Dorn, First-Captain Abaddon, Alpharius, Corvus Corax, Captain-General Constantin Valdor of the Legio Custodes, Fabricator Locum Kane of the Loyalist Mechanicus, and other key Imperial leaders on Terra listened to the final words and instructions of the Emperor of Mankind before He would be interned on the Golden Throne of Earth for the next ten millennia. 

The Emperor denounced the Traitor Legions, calling them forever tainted and ordered the Imperium be purged of them and for the borders of the Imperium to be restored. He issued a few more orders before the Golden Throne made Him physically mute as He went into an eternal slumber but His psychic mind would forever remain vigilant, protecting the Imperium and Mankind from the Dark Gods of the warp as best as He could.



The Great Scouring
Shortly after the Battle of Terra the Imperium re-organized and launched its great counter-attack, led by Warmaster Abaddon and his Black Templars. The enemies of Imperium were many and not only were they limited to Chaos or xenos. Across the Galaxy scores of small empires that had seceded from the Emperor’s domain fought for the right to exist. What will be known as the Great Scouring would last for seven years and would see the Imperium regain most of the territory lost to xenos, secessionists, and the Chaos Traitors. 

While most of the lost territory was reclaimed by Imperial forces the most powerful secessionist empire arrayed against the Imperium was Roboute Guilliman’s Protectorate of Ultramar. Due the organization, along with the tactical and strategic genius of the Ultramarines primarch, the Protectorate was able to fend off the Imperial forces and has led to the Realm of Ultramar to survive to the present day. The Protectorate by the end of the Scouring would consist of near three thousand worlds and would expand slowly but surely through the Segmentum Ultima for the next one hundred centuries. 

The Chaos Legions, broken but not destroyed, retreated to the Eye of Terror from which they would launch continuous raids and invasions into the Imperium. The most infamous and devastating of these assaults have been the Blood Crusades led by the Champion of Chaos Undivided, Master of the Blood Angels, War Commander Raldoron, the former First-Captain of the Blood Angels.

Raldoron had already launched three Blood Crusades, each more devastating than the last. As the closing years of the 41st Millennium came to a close the Forces of Chaos were once again ready to invade the Imperium in numbers not seen since the Sanguinius Heresy. The enemies of the Imperium were many and all were encroaching on it, weakening it century after century. 

If the Chaos Legions, led by Raldoron and the Blood Angels, launched a Fourth Blood Crusade it could very well reach the Segmentum Solar and a Second Battle of Terra might well spell the end of the Imperium of Man.

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Index Astartes: Blood Angels

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Before the Heresy the Blood Angels were renowned for their ferocity in combat and despite their perceived loyalty to the Imperium there was an abundance of disturbing rumors ranging from their brutality in conquering worlds to the supposed ritual of drinking the blood from the corpses of the enemy fallen. While dismissed by many Imperial leaders at the time, modern Imperial historians note that this was a telltale sign of a Legion on the path towards utter damnation. 
-A Study of Collected Imperial Histories, M40.



Sanguinius, Primarch of the Blood Angels, called the Angel of Blood was angelic in both appearance and character. Leading his Legion for well over a century he had conquered a swathe through the Galaxy in his father’s name. Known for his loyalty and love of the Emperor the Imperium was shocked to discover that Sanguinius had raised the flag of rebellion after the Dropsite Massacre and now marched across the Galaxy to destroy all that he had helped create. 

There are two leading theories on why Sanguinius turned from the Emperor into the clutches of Chaos. One of the leading theories is perhaps the Angel of Blood’s close relationship with Lorgar Aurelian, Primarch of the Word Bearers, led to his downfall. Others say the same forces that assailed Horus Lupercal on Davin corrupted the Blood Angels Primarch when he was promoted to War Commander. The truth is far more disconcerting. Sanguinius had been planted with the seed of corruption during his travels through the warp when he and his brothers were snatched by the Ruinous Powers over two centuries ago. This seed would take many decades to sprout but once it did it would consume Sanguinius with hatred and ambition to cause him to lead a civil war that nearly destroyed the Imperium.
-Inquisitional report to the High Lords of Terra in the early years of M32.



Origins
Baal Secundus, an inhabited moon in the Segmentum Ultima, was one of the twin moons of Baal. It was described in ancient texts to be a paradise-world alongside its sister moon Baal Primus. During the Dark Age of Technology however a civil war broke out amongst Baal and its moon colonies.

There is little to no record of the actual events of the war other than that biological and nuclear weapons were used extensively, decimating all three worlds leaving only pockets of humanity to scrape a living from the remains of a dead civilization. 

When Sanguinius’s gene-capsule fell to the irradiated earth of Baal Secundus it was during a time of great struggle. The mutant-cannibals had for centuries grown in number and strength to threaten the remaining pureblood humans and were ever waging a war of annihilation.

Sanguinius’s wrecked capsule was found by a tribe of non-mutated humans called ‘The People of the Pure Blood’ or simply ‘The Blood.’ These humans in radiation suits were in awe of the small child they found out in the rad-wastes. The child was bereft of protection and sported two angelic white wings protruding from his back and was able to breathe the open atmosphere of Baal Secundus without the need for an air filtration system or re-breather mask. 

Many amongst The Blood wanted to kill the child as a mutant, while others wanted to spare the boy, for in every other way, he was as perfect a child as had ever been seen. Eventually, the tribesmen's better instincts prevailed and the child's life was spared.

During his first years with the tribe Sanguinius contributed in any way he could while he grew into his adult form. This ranged from helping improve the tribe’s ability to scavenge food and clean water, to, through his vast mental intellect, making The Blood’s stock of weapons and rad-suits more efficient and longer lasting. 

The most important gift Sanguinius gave The Blood was his ability known as ‘the sight’. An ability to foresee events that had yet to come to pass but has always proved correct. This sight of his allowed the tribe to avoid powerful mutant-cannibal bands that wandered the wastelands hunting down pureblood humans. 

By the time Sanguinius had grown to full physical and mental maturity he was the undisputed leader of The Blood and through treaties with other human tribes the entire pureblood population. He launched a war of extermination against the vile mutant-cannibals. Through this Great War Sanguinius led the tribes of humans to victory after victory and attained the affectionate title Angel of Blood which he adopted as his official moniker. 

The climax of this conflict would occur at the same place the Angel of Blood was discovered. In the area known as Angel Falls the humans and the mutants would fight a great battle. During the battle Sanguinius had used his sight and military skills to lead the humans to ultimate victory, forever erasing the mutant population from Baal Secundus. 

After the battle stars fell from the skies in their hundreds. The human population was frightened but Sanguinius was not. These were dropships and one of them carried his father the Emperor.
In the ashes of victory sparked the flames of heresy.
 


It seemed as if the sky was falling on itself, dropship after dropship descending from the heavens, a petty chow f strength in Sanguinius’s opinion. One in particular however was all that interested Sanguinius, it was a golden eagle shaped ship. A sigil of a black eagle with two heads predominated but there was also a large amount of crossed lightning bolts throughout the intricate and beautiful designs etched onto the hull of the Stormbird.

Sanguinius knew who was on board. On board was a being of immense power and knowledge, the leader of the most powerful human empire seen in thousands of years, his father the Emperor of Mankind. 
He knew this not because of his sight even though he would credit the information to that, but rather it was because of the voices within him. He had told no one of the voices. There were four of them, each distinct and powerful with a feeling of being incredibly ancient. While his sight had been used time and time again to save human Baalites, or to turn the tide of battle, it was a random occurrence, a talent he could not control. 

The only vision that had repeated and that disturbed him was a vision that showed him on a starship with monitors and viewports all around showing a burning world. He was clad in gold and crimson armor, his wings having become blackened through unknown ways, and before him laid a corpse with a large sigil of an unblinking eye upon its breastplate. A claw of what appeared to be steel was crackling with electrical power beside the body. The man’s size and aura, even in death, was breathtaking leading Sanguinius to conclude this was a being similar to him, a brother perhaps.
Sanguinius’s sword came away from the corpse crimson red with blood. He raised his head to see a figure before him. The man before him was tall, with broad shoulders and shoulder length black hair. As the man he knew to be the Emperor stepped towards him, with sword drawn and anger and what appeared to be sorrow etched on His face, Sanguinius knew he would not survive the outcome. He could not explain how he knew other than that he just knew the Emperor would best him. As his father raised His sword the vision abruptly ended. He had that vision many times since, haunting his dreams and making him dread sleep, and after the third vision the voices came to him.

“This is your fate, Angel of Blood. To fight and die by your father’s hand over the world of your species birth,” all four voices spoke as one, undivided in their message, “The Anathema, what you call the Emperor, is a power-hungry dictator that will do anything to rule the Galaxy with an iron fist. He will kill you once you have served his purpose; he has done it before to countless servants, and he will do so yet again. In ten thousand years he will be remembered as a god with many of his sons praised as angels. But not you; your name will be cursed.

“The Anathema will damn you and your legacy. If you become complacent and blind in his service you will die and the Imperium he built by the toil and blood of his sons, your brothers, will become decadent, arrogant, corrupt, and founded upon a throne of lies.”

“How can I avoid this?” 

“For you to avoid this grim, dark future you must usurp your father. You must become the new Emperor, the Second and True Emperor. Your empire will be based on the principles of justice and pure, noble ideals.

“We have power, Sanguinius. We were the ones that gave you your wings. We rescued you from your father’s clutches. We are the only chance you have to see humanity transcend its current degenerative state. Your father and the sons that will support him will hold you back from your true potential, acting as oppressors to Man. If you want to see your species life flame sputter and die support your father. If you want to see it enflame and spread across the known stars as a strong force support us and we will assist you in your war to claim the Throne of Mankind.”

Temptation and ambition flooded through the Angel of Blood, coming from a well within himself he had no previous inkling of. “Yes. I could be the Second Emperor, the True Emperor. I would lead humanity into a new Golden Age.” He remembered pausing that day, looking around his spartan room, in one of the many underground bunkers that was built throughout Baal Secundus, thinking of the glory and love he would attain once he had usurped his father. “What do I have to do?”

The voices, in their own domain the warp, grinned. They had him. He was now their pawn. The seed of doubt and corruption they had planted in Sanguinius when they stole him from their father was now firmly planted and had taken root. His ambition had been fuelled by Chaos and it would be many decades but Sanguinius would become the Arch-Betrayer and tear down the Emperor’s dream of Order.

“Be patient, Sanguinius. Be patient while our other plans set in motion to bring you allies. Play the obedient, loyal son. Do not arouse suspicion; merely wait for the right time.”

“How will I know when the time is right?” 

“You will know when the opportunity presents itself.” 

And with that the voices had left him. He almost missed their presence, like an itch that he could not scratch fully. He yearned for them but knew they were gone, planning and waiting. He would do as they said however. He would make sure the Emperor would not doubt his loyalty and when the time came whether it is ten years or a hundred years Sanguinius would make his move to dethrone his father. He will save humanity from the future the voices showed him. He will not die by his father’s hand; rather it will be the opposite.

The dropship’s ramp fell down to the ground. Golden light beamed through the craft amongst the thousands gathered. Many of Baalites stood still in awe. His brothers and sisters were enraptured by his father’s presence and even Sanguinius himself was in small part. But then he remembered what the voices showed him and his determination and will returned to him. His Baalite brothers and sisters would have to be freed from the false propaganda the Emperor and His servants would no doubt spread like a plague. No matter. Sanguinius was patient and he would make sure his followers were loyal to him and Baal first, not to some tyrant from a distant world.

The Emperor descended from the Stormbird, His charisma and power permeating all. The Emperor of Mankind looked around at the Baalites covered in radiation suits and re-breather masks. His gaze settled upon Sanguinius and Sanguinius knelt before Him as his father walked in his direction.

“Father, is it truly you?” Sanguinius forced love, awe and emotion into his voice with ease; his true feelings hidden away deep inside, bidding their time to be revealed.

“Yes, my son. I have come to take you home. Swear fealty to Me now and we shall conquer the stars together to build a better world, a better Galaxy.”
Sanguinius knelt his head down in obedience. “I swear to You that You shall forever have my loyalty and support. Either in war or diplomacy I will help You forge Your empire father. Your Imperium of Man.”

“Then rise, my son. You knelt as the leader of the tribes of Baal Secundus, now you shall rise as the leader of the Ninth Legion.”

Sanguinius rose and looked his father in the eye. The Emperor smiled and held His arms open for an embrace. Sanguinius embraced him all the while thinking of the future. This Ninth Legion his father spoke of would be key to his rebellion, his… Heresy when the time came, of this he had no doubt about. 



The Great Crusade
With the founding of their primarch the Ninth Legion was renamed the Blood Angels by Sanguinius himself, and after some months for Sanguinius to become acquainted with Imperial technology and tactics he set out with the Blood Angels to conquer the stars.

The Blood Angels soon gained a reputation of being excellent assault Space Marines, one many said that rivaled the World Eaters Legion. During those early years Sanguinius reported to Terra of heavy losses amongst his Legion’s original Terran contingent, warriors that had fought beside the Emperor during the early days of the Great Crusade. 

While this was filed away by the Imperial Administratum none dared question the incredibly high rates of casualties amongst the Terran portion of the Legion in comparison to those drawn from Baal and its two moons. Modern Imperial scholars record that this was likely a slow but methodical purge of the ranks that removed any elements of Sanguinius’s Legion that he deemed too loyal to the Emperor over himself. The remaining Terrans are predicted to have joined Sanguinius and his cause for future rebellion, deeming they owed more loyalty to their gene-father than the Master of Mankind. 
 


Sanguinius looked out amongst the stars before him through the viewport aboard the Red Tear, his flagship. The world below, Calthorix, was newly complaint with the Imperial Truth. Sanguinius internally sneered. Lies, all lies. It had been near thirty years since he had taken the mantle of leadership of his Legion and it empowered him, making his vision of becoming the Second Emperor more and more real, but if one is to rule one must have loyal soldiers, he thought. 

His cleansing of the Legion was nearing an end; soon all within the Legion would have only one true leader to be forever loyal towards, to Sanguinius himself, their primarch. Behind him he heard the clanking of armored ceramite boots walking upon plasteel floors. 

Sanguinius turned, catching his Sanguinary Guard Commander Azkaellon’s eye and nodded ever so slightly, then turned his attention back to the bare-header Astartes officer walking towards him and forced a smile upon his face. 

“Captain Thorin, how fared the action in the mountains?”

Captain Thorin, one of the last Terran commanders left, a fact that left him saddened but at least his battle-brothers had died heroically for the Emperor and Sanguinius, stopped the correct distance away and made the Aquila and bowed slightly. This was only the second time he had met with his primarch, the first was on Baal when Sanguinius descended to that red-rust world, just months after assuming leadership of the Ninth Legion, to finish the campaign of exterminating the mutant that the Angel of Blood had begun on his homeworld Baal Secundus. He was, even though he would never admit it, nervous. The Angel of Blood radiated power and charisma that he found enticing, and yet somehow dangerous. When Thorin’s fleet had entered the system to assist in the taking of Calthorix Sanguinius had messaged him personally saying the enemy’s Far Eastern Mountains had stalled the advance of Imperial forces and he needed Thorin and his Astartes to take it. Which, Thorin allowed a  sad smile they did, albeit with much loss. 

“Well, sire. The local enemy forces resisted but we were able to storm their command center through the use of my Assault Company. We suffered high casualties, however, but we were victorious.”

Sanguinius faked concern. “More sons of mine… gone?” He released a heavy sigh, “My father’s work is a bloody business is it not?”

Thorin stood there uncomfortably. “It is our duty, sire, passed down from the Emperor Himself in the early years of the Great Crusade. My men knew what was expected of them and gladly gave their life to secure victory.”

“Well spoken, Captain. Do you have the casualties list?”

“Yes, my lord,” Thorin said, handing over a data-slate which looked too small and delicate for a primarch’s hands but Sanguinius somehow made it seem as if his hands were made for it, despite being much larger than a human’s or even a Space Marine’s.

Sanguinius scanned the lists of Thorin’s dead. One hundred and thirteen dead, a high number but considering the enemy they faced it was as well as could be predicted. Sanguinius noted eighty one of the dead were Terrans. Good, less of them to remove later. The rest were Baalites which did genuinely sadden the Angel of Blood. Their gene-seed would be removed and their bodies would be cremated. The ashes sent into the void, forever floating through the cosmos. 

“Very good, Captain Thorin,” the primarch handed the data-slate to a servitor. 

“Captain,” he started as Thorin stood there before him, “one question if I may.”

“Of course, sire. Ask anything and I will try to answer it.”

“That is what I like to hear,” Sanguinius moved to a table nearby where one of the finest decanters of wine in the entire sector stood. He poured an adequate measurement into two finely crafted iron cups, a gift from his brother Perturabo. He held out a cup for Thorin who took it in his gauntlet. 

“Tell me something, Thorin. What do you think of divided loyalties?”

After a slight pause, “I don’t understand, sire,” began Thorin. 

“It is simple really. If I and my father were at a quarrel with one another, each fighting the other with the intent of death on his opponent, what would you do?”

“Sire?! I would… I would try and stop it! My lord, I don’t understand why you are asking this?”

“Again it is very simple. If you had to choose a side would it be mine or the Emperor’s? Would you support me, your father, or a far away tyrant whose greed has led the Galaxy in Flames?”

“I…,” understanding hit Thorin. He dropped the untouched wine, reaching for his bolt pistol on its mag-lock at his hip. Thorin was a veteran of dozens of campaigns, an Astartes, an elite soldier whose body was genetically and physically enhanced above normal humans. He was fast, his skills unparallel in much of the Legion. But in the end he was an Astartes and not in the same league as a primarch.

Sanguinius surged towards Thorin, kicking in his left knee cap with ease, despite it being encased in Mark II Armor. As Thorin fell down his body was already attempting to contain and heal the damage. As the Assault Captain fell a Sanguinary Guard darted over and snatched his bolt pistol away from him, tossing it to the ground in the darkened corner of the room.

The Blood Angels Primarch lifted the Terran captain one handed with ease. His free hand pulled out his long, finely crafted, sharp ruby colored sword. “You answered wrong, my son,” Sanguinius plunged the blade through the captain, the razor sharp adamantium steel easily parting the armor as if it were nothing more than butter, severing Thorin’s spine. Not even an Astartes could recover from that without the immediate assistance from an apothecary. Dropping the Terran captain Sanguinius looked in the darkened corner of the room. “Ral, come forth,” he ordered.

Out of the shadows stepped the Ninth Legion’s First-Captain Raldoron and Equerry to the primarch. He picked up Thorin’s bolt pistol and held it at his side. “Yes, sire?”

“I want Thorin’s company purged of any Terran Astartes that refuse to see reason. Those that do, monitor them as usual until their allegiance can be without a doubt. With Thorin and his men removed the entire Legion now owes no fealty to the Emperor or any other except me.”

“Aye, my lord primarch,” Raldoron said and left the room. 

Beside Sanguinius, Guard Commander Azkaellon awaited patiently, resplendent in his ornate, gold armor. “Azkaellon, inform Admiral DuCade we will depart in three hours. We have worlds to conquer.”

Azkaellon used the vox-bead in his ear to transmit the orders to the flag bridge while Sanguinius poured another cup of excellent wine and drank it all in one deep gulp. To a human they would have felt a slight alcoholic elation. To a primarch’s physiology it was as if he took a glass of water. 

A gurgle from the ground caused Sanguinius to look at Thorin who was using his arms to crawl towards the primarch. He is indeed my son, thought Sanguinius. Shame his loyalty was to another. The Blood Angels Primarch nodded to Sanguinary Guard Sergeant Zuriel, second in command of the primarch’s personal guard. Zuriel stood over the Terran Blood Angel. The Sanguinary Guard Sergeant raised his sword as if to plant it into the ground. He brought it down into the back portion of Thorin’s skull, killing him instantly. 

As Zuriel stepped away, ordering a servitor to remove the body and for another to clean the area Sanguinius turned around to look at the stars once again admiring their beauty. 



For decades the Blood Angels soared through the Galaxy, bringing star system after star system into Imperial Compliance. The Ninth Legion gained a formidable reputation in the countless warzones it fought in. 

During this time, despite Sanguinius’s ultimate goal, he did like and became close brothers with Horus Lupercal, Jaghatai Khan and Leman Russ. It should be noted that two of these three primarchs followed Sanguinius in the Heresy and still to this day plague the Imperium with their efforts.

Approximately forty-three years before the Dropsite Massacre the Primarch of the Word Bearers, Lorgar Aurelian, was chastised and humiliated by the Emperor and the Ultramarines on the world of Khur. Amidst the ashes of Monarchia, the Word Bearers “perfect city” the Legion went from one who praised the Emperor as a god to one without direction, without faith.

Sanguinius would later approach and counsel Lorgar, seeing a potential ally in the XVII Legion’s primarch. Sanguinius and Lorgar had never had cause for potential friendship. Lorgar was a zealot demi-god who praised his father as the God-Emperor and anyone that espoused the Emperor to such a degree was someone Sanguinius was more than willingly to avoid.

However after the XVII Legion’s reprimand Lorgar’s faith was shattered, no longer seeing the Emperor as a god and generally becoming detached and disdainful of his father, allowing Sanguinius to quickly win him over to support a move against the Emperor. 

When Lorgar’s First Chaplain Erebus and Master of the Faith (First-Captain) Kor Phaeron convinced their primarch to take a pilgrimage in which they promised their gene-father that they would find the true gods, gods that not only deserved worship but demanded it of their followers. Lorgar promised to support Sanguinius in all his endeavors when he returned.

While Lorgar was away in the far corners of the Galaxy on his pilgrimage Sanguinius continued fighting in the Great Crusade, remaining publicly a loyal, dutiful son. When Lorgar returned to Sanguinius the voices came back as well. 



“They have been converted to our cause, Sanguinius,” the voices said. Sanguinius, having not heard the voices in years widened his eyes in surprise. 

“The Word Bearers now follow us, they now follow you. The opportunity is coming closer and closer. Decades ago you promised to support us, does that promise still hold true?”

“It does,” Sanguinius mentally informed the voices. “I am yours to wield. I am the sword that will carve a path towards Terra.”

“Such passion, such devotion, this is good Sanguinius, very good. We are pleased, Sanguinius. Your Legion has been cleansed of the Emperor’s lackeys. The fleets and armies under your command deem you fit for power; you are their commander of war. The Anathema does not know two of his sons have left his influence. He does not know what is coming. Do you, Primarch of the Blood Angels?”

Sanguinius physically nodded and whispered his answer, “Chaos,” the words sparking a sense in him, a sense of power that he could not deny.

“Good, yes very good. The time fast approaches when the Galaxy shall be consumed in rebellion and you shall be the avatar of Chaos Undivided. You will tear down the foundation of your father’s empire and rebuild on top it, renewed with the blood of trillions. You shall become the Second Emperor, the True Emperor… you shall become a god.”

“Yes,” the awe of what he could become, what he would become gave Sanguinius an elation he rarely felt. “For Chaos I will kill my father, for Chaos I will remake the Galaxy in their image.”

“Excellent, Sanguinius, remain patient, all the pieces are falling into place.”



With the Word Bearers now devoted to Primordial Annihilator the actual teachings and faith of Chaos began to take hold in the Blood Angels. Sanguinius, whose mind had been warped and pushed along certain paths for many years, accepted this as due course and actively encouraged it. The voices, which he now knew to be the Dark Gods of Chaos, he fully embraced them alongside Lorgar. 

With the Blood Angels and Word Bearers now servants of the Dark Gods the Ruinous Power’s plan to destabilize the Imperium was reaching fulfillment. But not all was accomplished just yet, far from it.

During the Triumph of Ullanor when the Emperor announced Horus as Warmaster and He Himself was to return to Terra many of the primarchs were shocked. Sanguinius was not, he saw it for what he truly believed it was, his father did not have the will to finish the Great Crusade Himself thereby reinforcing Sanguinius’s belief that his father was weak compared to what he had become.

Sanguinius and Lorgar were both at Ullanor and were quick to congratulate their brother, to be seen as supporters of the new Warmaster. While the Imperium began to get use to the idea of the Emperor having retired from the Great Crusade and Horus leading it is his place Lorgar and Sanguinius planned to eliminate Horus, or at least wound him long enough for their plans to come together.

Soon after the Triumph a council was called on the distant world of Nikaea to decide the fate of psykers in the Imperium. Sanguinius and Lorgar would personally attend, alongside many other primarchs and Imperial leaders. Sanguinius and Lorgar were hoping to have the Edict of Nikaea to go in the favor of Russ causing Magnus and his powerful Legion to see censure. 

Despite his sight Sanguinius himself was surprised at the Emperor’s Edict. He had hoped to convert Magnus to his cause, Lorgar had adamantly supported this as Magnus and him were once close brothers. But with Magnus and his Legion having gone through the process of soul-binding their loyalty to the Emperor was absolute and the soul-binding would cause any potential corruption to be very difficult. While Lorgar was furious, Sanguinius saw an opportunity. 



Lorgar was pacing in Sanguinius’s personal chamber, furious, his body primed with anger. “That scheming, arrogant tyrant, years of effort of pushing Magnus along the path toward Enlightenment and in one fell swoop the Emperor destroys that foundation. Magnus’s loyalty to the Emperor is now unbreakable,” he looked towards the Angel of Blood. “With Magnus and his Legion of battle-psykers having undertaken the soul-bind ritual they will be nigh impossible to corrupt. Their souls have the essence and protection of the Emperor Himself. Without them the rebellion we have planned for so long is in jeopardy.”

Sanguinius pursed his lips. The Urizen had a point but he was too blind to see any of the possibilities that arose. “Perhaps… not all is lost. We could salvage something from this.”

The Aurelian looked at his brother in incredulity.”What could be salvaged, this is a disaster.”

So like Lorgar, thought Sanguinius. He had father’s oratory skill and his father’s intense belief. The Emperor’s belief went towards the Imperial Truth; Lorgar followed the path of gods of the warp. He was full of faith but he was brittle, fragile and easy to crack. That was why he was not the one that had been groomed for over a century to be the Emperor of a new Chaos Imperium.

“Leman Russ.”

Lorgar cocked an eyebrow, inviting more of an explanation. 

“Russ is a tool. He has long been used as the Emperor’s Executioner for centuries and is His lap dog, however… it was not always so. The Emperor had to defeat Russ which resulted in Russ swearing allegiance. But this Edict has caused doubt in the Wolf King’s mind.”

“Go on.”

“Doubt can lead to a well of potential possibilities. Russ is a barbarian, of this we can agree. His origins on Fenris were of gluttony, pillaging and combat for the sake of fulfilling his pleasure for war. I believe that we could turn Russ from Emperor to serve our interests instead. Particularly he and his Legion would be the perfect servants for one of the Dark Gods I have in mind.”

The Word Bearers Primarch smiled as he understood. “The Prince of Pleasure will be most pleased.”

“I’m sure it will be.” 

“But what of Tzeentch?” the power of the name alone was felt between the two demi-gods. “He was promised the Thousand Sons and Magnus. He will demand another primarch and Legion as is his due.”

Sanguinius smiled. “It turns out I have one in mind,” thinking of his brother Jaghatai. 




After Nikaea a plan was forged and preparations were made to have Horus killed or wounded on the backwater world of Davin. Erebus, First Chaplain Erebus of the Word Bearers went to the world of Davin to incite rebellion. Erebus would give the Chaos anathame sword, stolen from the Interex, to Imperial Governor Eugen Temba which quickly corrupted him and the garrison army. 

After having been corrupted wholly by Chaos, along with the entire star system, Temba declared rebellion from the Imperium. Erebus, detached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet, informed the Warmaster of the renegade governor.

Horus immediately ordered the 63rd Fleet to make way towards Davin as he saw this rebellion as an insult to the Emperor, the Imperium, and himself. As the hundreds of ships that made up the Warmaster’s fleet departed, Erebus himself returned to Lorgar and his 47th Expeditionary Fleet informing the Word Bearers Primarch that all was going accordingly to plan.



“You are not coming?” asked Horus, son of the Emperor, and Warmaster of the Great Crusade, to the grey-clad chaplain standing before him in the docking bay of the Vengeful Spirit.

“Sadly no, Warmaster, I cannot accompany you to Davin. I just received word from the Aurelian that he requires my services. I depart with a heavy heart but I know that Temba will be brought to justice.”

Horus frowned. “Yes he will. I still do not understand why Eugen betrayed the Emperor. I had installed him there on Davin myself sixty years ago. He was a good soldier and even better leader. It was a sort of retirement from the Crusade. I just do not see what could have caused him to betray my father and the Imperium.”

“Chaos.”

“What?”

“It is chaos, my lord. His actions are without logic, he must have been driven mad being on that backwater so long. If word reaches other sectors of the Imperium that a world can declare rebellion, even if it fails, it will encourage more rebellion, it will lead to chaos.”

“Indeed. That is why I will personally land on Davin and kill him myself, with my own blade, and to ask him why.”

Erebus nodded. “Of course, Warmaster, it is only right.”

“We are about to jump into warp, you better be on your way. Give Lorgar my greetings,” with that the Primarch of the Luna Wolves turned around, walking out the docking bay.

Erebus watched after the Warmaster, smiling. Another piece of the plan was accomplished. Whether or not Horus died or not on Davin he would still be critically injured. It was foreseen.

The First Chaplain of the Word Bearers walked up the ramp of the Stormbird, its engines roaring as it prepped for departure. Inside was Acolyte Tanus Kreed. On his way to being a full Chaplain he was still in training and was a promising candidate which is why he was detailed to Erebus for a short time to learn. 

The Acolyte’s armor was a dark crimson red, not unlike their fellow Enlightened Blood Angel brothers, but with gunmetal trim instead of the red and black Sanguinius’s Legion wore. “My First Chaplain,” Kreed said bowing. “Your new armor has been prepared and blessed with the blood of believers. It is in the rear compartment.”

“I will don it momentarily. It will be good to wear the new armor of our Legion. We will truly be reborn in the eyes of the gods. No longer are we to wear false colors. Our true colors will be worn with pride and our true intentions are coming closer and closer to being revealed. Soon the Emperor will know the errors of his hubris.”

“Blessed be the Word,” Kreed said reverently, bowing even lower.

“Blessed be the Word.”




The Treachery Begins
The Warmaster and the Luna Wolves would confront Temba and after a climactic battle Temba was killed, the rebellion was finished. But not all was well. The Warmaster himself was wounded and even his advanced genetics and immune system could not fight the contagion the sword held within. On the verge of death his Legion decided to return to Terra where the Emperor may be able to heal His son.

Horus was interred in a stasis pod aboard his flagship and the entire Luna Wolves Legion, not just the majority that made up the 63rd Fleet but the Legion in its entirety across the Galaxy in multiple fleets, was ordered back to Terra to see if their father would live or die. 

With Horus incapacitated and the Crusade now leaderless the Emperor appointed Sanguinius, beloved and respected by many, to temporarily lead the Great Crusade as the War Commander until such a time Horus recovered if he did at all. The Title and Office of the War Commander was intended to be a temporary promotion for Sanguinius that would be retired shortly after his duties were complete. 

Even today Imperial scholars note that the title of War Commander, despite currently being held by the Champion of Chaos Raldoron, is still attached to the name of Sanguinius. Since the Heresy the title of War Commander is never used within the Imperium as it is seen as corruptible and as a curse. The titles of Warmaster, Lord Militant Commander, and Lord Militant General are instead used and are much more preferred than the tainted rank of War Commander.

Sanguinius, now commander of all Imperial military forces in the Great Crusade, was at last ready to begin his rebellion. But before he could begin out he must first weaken the Imperium without it ever realizing. His first two acts were of Legion deployment. Modern historians can note with hindsight that these ‘deployments’ were nothing more than to tie down Loyalist Imperial forces for years but at the time they were simply orders which the forces that received them quickly obeyed. 

Lion El’Jonson, Primarch of the First Legion, the Dark Angels, was ordered to the Shield Worlds on the Eastern Fringe. These worlds were a confederation of heavily fortified worlds that had long defied Imperial forces. Lion El’Jonson reported to the new War Commander that whether it took one year or ten the Shield Worlds would fall. The Dark Angels departed to the far side of the Galaxy, not knowing they were playing into the hands of Sanguinius and his traitor allies.

The other deployment consisted of Corvus Corax, Primarch of the Raven Guard. Sanguinius sent him to the Signus Cluster. The cluster had gone entirely silent with no word via astropaths or starships heard in weeks. Every Imperial ship sent had not returned. Sanguinius gave the honor of finding out what happened to Corax. 

Corax, always the dutiful brother, assembled his entire Legion of eighty thousand Space Marines and set course for the Signus Cluster. Little did Corax know hell made real awaited him and his Legion as the entire cluster had fallen to Chaos with the barrier between realspace and the Immaterium having shredded apart, allowing daemons and monsters to entrench themselves on the worlds of Signus, waiting for the arrival of the unknowing Raven Guard. With the Dark Angels and the Raven Guard out of the way Sanguinius had one more obstacle to overcome before he could launch his Heresy: the Realm of Ultramar. 

The Five-Hundred Worlds of Ultramar represented Primarch Roboute Guilliman’s own personal empire within the Imperium. The Realm was so well organized and efficient that it was able to manufacture and supply the entire Ultramarines Legion with ease. If Sanguinius was to launch his rebellion and it have a chance to succeed Guilliman and his Legion must be dealt with. 

The Angel of Blood knew the Battle King of Macragge would never betray the Emperor intentionally for his love and devotion to the Emperor was great. He did however have issue with the Adeptus Terra, the Administratum. The Administratum, including the Council of Terra, was easily the largest and most powerful governing civilian division of the Imperium and oversaw the workings of the Imperial bureaucracy in all its forms and did not like competition. 

In the worlds of Ultramar the Administratum maintained merely a fraction of the amount of power and influence it held elsewhere. This was due to the highly successful infrastructure set up by Guilliman himself before he made contact with the Emperor. This system encompassed democratic ideals and innovation, and was quickly dubbed the Ultramar Method, in many aspects and many called Ultramar the New Empire at the time, which if spoken today is obviously heresy. 

Guilliman and the Administratum would have a strained relationship for many years which would only increase when the Emperor returned to Terra and formed the Council of Terra to rule in His name while He worked on His secret projects. 

Around the Realm many Imperial planets began using the Ultramar Method causing those worlds’ culture, ideology, politics, and many dared whisper, loyalty to switch from Terra to Macragge. Guilliman would time after time state that loyalty to Macragge was merely an extension of loyalty to Terra and the Emperor. Guilliman knew that as long as the Emperor understood him, the Ultramarines primarch was content at ignoring the veiled threats from the Council.

Sanguinius knew of these quarrels with the Administratum and planned to use them to his advantage. Sanguinius, a close brother to Gulliman, personally traveled to Macragge to inform his brother that he had received orders from the Council of Terra to expunge the XIII Legion, their primarch, and their ‘New Empire.’ Guilliman was of course shocked. He did not believe Sanguinius, not necessarily calling him a liar but that the War Commander must have been mistaken and Gulliman demanded an explanation.




Guilliman stared at his brother with disbelief written upon his usual calm demeanor. What he told him was disturbing. But everything about Sanguinius arriving to Macragge was unusual. First a Blood Angels grand cruiser entered the star system, unannounced, unescorted and demanding an audience with the XIII Primarch by order of the War Commander. 

The ship entered orbit once clearance was given and a single Stormbird drop-ship left the Ninth Legion’s warship and descended to an isolated landing pad near the Fortress of Hera. 

Guilliman, resplendent in his cobalt armor, was there to meet the envoys of the War Commander personally and was surprised to see Sanguinius exit the Stormbird with a squad of his Sanguinary Guard. They barely spoke past pleasantries, the War Commander stating they must hold a private audience, away from everyone else.

He had escorted his angelic brother to an empty conference room overseeing the Valley of Laponis and the setting sun of Macragge. Sanguinius talked for perhaps two minutes and those two minutes of conversation turned Guilliman’s world upside down.

“It has to be lies, brother. Why did the Emperor authorize this?”

Sanguinius turned his head, away from the setting sun, to look at the Ultramarines Primarch, his shoulder length blond hair moving like silk. “The Council of Terra has grown fearful of you brother. Your Ultramar, your ‘New Empire’ and its infrastructure is a threat to their power that they cannot ignore any longer. With Horus on Terra being healed by father and father being… engaged with His secret projects the Council deemed now was the time to take care of you and your Realm. 

“I received an astropathic message from Terra, bearing the sigil of Malcador. It orders me to assemble an armada and to tear down Ultramar brick by brick. I do not know what lies they told the Emperor but He believed them.”

“How is that possible? He is the Emperor.”

“Our father is a great and powerful man, but a man all the same. Isn’t that what we have been preaching all these years through the Imperial Truth? Men can be tricked, brother. Our father is too preoccupied with Horus and His projects to focus His attention on other matters. Even matters such as yourself. I do not intend to follow these orders, brother, have no fear. I intend to march to Terra and free the Emperor from these leeches that say they rule in His name. He is blind and I will remove the veil that covers His eyes. I have a plan, would you like to hear it?”

“Yes of course,” Guilliman said quickly, glad his brother would not follow the Administratum’s orders. “How may I be of assistance?”

“The Council has given me overall command over the World Eaters, Death Guard, Word Bearers, the Night Lords, the Salamanders, the Iron Hands, and the Emperor’s Children. My own Legion will be there as well. Now I have convinced Angron, Lorgar, Konrad, and the Death Guard’s First-Captain Typhon of the manipulation of the Council. They understand the false claims they have made against you and will stand with me in defiance of the Council. Mortarion, Fulgrim, Ferrus, and Vulkan however are too blind to see the truth before them. They will blindly follow the Council’s orders, believing it to be fathers. They must be eliminated if we are to save the Emperor from the clutches of the Council.”

“Kill our brothers? And their sons?” Guilliman asked incredulously.

“It is either that, Roboute or you will bear witness to the entirety of Ultramar burn and be uprooted. You and your Legion will be expunged from Imperial records and never to be mentioned again. You know this will happen. It has happened twice before.”

Guilliman nodded for it was true. “Very well, what must I do?”

Sanguinius looked back out the armored glass at the setting sun. “You must secede from the Imperium. This will cause the Council to panic and in their panic they will order me to assemble all the Legions they gave me to combine forces and move against Ultramar.”

“We cannot put the lives of citizens of Macragge, nor the citizens of Ultramar, at risk inviting a war into it,” Guilliman retorted hotly.

“Calm, brother, I have no wish to launch wars upon Ultramar. The Council would want to but the biggest threat they see is you. If say you and the bulk of your Legion were on a world far from Ultramar but close enough to Terra to cause them to panic then our forces combined would be able to remove the disillusioned Legions allowing me to advance on Terra to break the shackles off father. You will return to Ultramar to defend against a counter-attack. The entirety of the Luna Wolves is on Terra and I have received word that the Alpha Legion has also been sighted moving to Sol. While the Legions under my command attack you and the strength of your Legion, those two will undoubtedly assault the heart of the Five-Hundred Worlds itself. Calth, Konor, Macragge. All would be victims. That is why you must return after we defeat the misled Legions and hold off long enough for me to free the Emperor. I promise you this, all transgressions you may cause when you secede to when father is free will be forgiven. He will know that you did the right thing. I will make sure of it.”

Guilliman felt like a huge weight had landed on his shoulders but was thankful Sanguinius was willingly to help bear the load. A question struck him. “What star system will we remove the misled Legions?”

Sanguinius watched as the sun turned blood red as it continued to dip under the horizon. “A remote star system on the edge of the Segmentum Ultima, it was brought into compliance by the Raven Guard years ago. The world we will remove the blind Legions will be on its fifth planet. It is called Istvaan V.”



The Dropsite Massacre
After having convinced Guilliman of the necessary need to secede and amass the lion’s strength of his Legion on Istvaan V, Sanguinius departed Macragge as his Ultramarine brother prepared all that was to follow from his end. 

Shortly after Sanguinius returned to his fleet, which no one other than Azkaellon, Raldoron, DuCade and other key members of the Blood Angels Legion and auxiliary forces even knew that the primarch was gone, news came from Macragge that Guilliman has seceded from the Imperium and formed the Protectorate of Ultramar, encompassing the Five-Hundred Worlds as its beating hearts with hundreds of nearby systems pledging allegiance and petitioning for membership. This was all relayed to Terra causing the Emperor and Horus, who by now was healed but very, very weak, to be shocked beyond belief. 

The Emperor with a heavy heart gives command of the Vengeance Armada to Sanguinius. The Vengeance Armada would consist of the Legions Sanguinius informed Guilliman of. How Sanguinius knew which Legions exactly would be with him at Istvaan has perplexed many in the Inquisition but it is accepted that Sanguinius perhaps saw a vision of the battle and who partook. Or he simply looked at what Legions were near Istvaan at the time the Armada was to be assembled, and knowing what the orders from Terra would be, simply making an educated guess. The Imperium may never truly know. 

Guilliman would arrive to the Istvaan System with a hundred and fifty thousand legionnaires, three-fifths of the Legion. They would land on the black sand of Istvaan V and would begin preparing entrenchments, all part of Sanguinius plan.

Prior to entry in the Istvaan System, Sanguinius received word from his scouts near Prospero that Leman Russ had invaded the Thousand Sons homeworld, crippling but not destroying Magnus’s Legion. In the battle that followed on Prospero the nobility of the Space Wolves was stripped away, leaving them with souls ripe for the influence of Slaanesh. 

The Space Wolves arrived at Prospero as misled, yet noble loyal soldiers of the Emperor. They would leave the burning world of Magnus as greed filled, pleasure seeking Legion, devoted in its entirety to Slaanesh. 

The first Imperial ships to arrive in the Istvaan System were the Blood Angels, the Word Bearers, the World Eaters, and the Death Guard, each with their respective primarchs. Sanguinius ordered Mortarion and Angron to descend on Istvaan III to secure the flank of the assault on Istvaan V.

As Mortarion and Angron’s Legions assembled over Istvaan III disaster struck. Mortarion was attacked in his private quarters prior to the battle. His Deathshroud bodyguards were murdered and the primarch himself on his deathbed, eerily similar to what happened to Horus many months earlier, although the wound was not a severe as Mortarion’s body was more adept at combating the vile contagions.

First-Captain Typhon assembled the Legion, informing them that the Istvaanians on the third world of the system had teleported aboard the ship through arcane, sorcery based means and had mortally wounded their primarch. The Death Guard, driven to a fury, landed over sixty-five thousand of their brethren on the planet to gain revenge for the foul deed. No one in the Death Guard fleet questioned Typhon’s story nor wondered why entire units of each of the seven Great Companies were being withheld by the personal order of Typhon. 

Many assumed these would be held as a reserve but a few questioned why the Great Companies were being split up with most of each going to the surface with thousands from each staying aboard the Death Guard ships. While puzzling the order was followed, and in their zeal to fight those that they believed wounded Mortarion, the loyalist Death Guard signed the death warrant of so many of their battle-brothers.

Angron contributed thousands of World Eaters to the assault of Istvaan III but did not lead the assault personally. Instead he gave it to known Emperor-loyalist Captain of the 12th Company, Macer Varren.

For hours the assault was underway as the Death Guard and World Eaters attacked, pushing back the rebels to the center of their capital, Choral City. At the cusp of victory treachery was revealed. Considered the first major act of the Heresy the Traitors in the Death Guard and World Eaters fleet fired virus bombs upon Istvaan III killing eight billion people and tens of thousands of Loyalist Astartes in mere minutes. 

Only due to the warning Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro of the 7th Great Company, whose wound at a rebel outpost at the edge of the Istvaan System prevented himself and some of his men to land on the trap that was Istvaan III, to hide in the rebels extensive underground bunker, allowing over a thousand Death Guard to survive alongside a few hundred World Eaters. These Space Marines were left on the dead world to succumb to starvation.

Garro and the few men he retained fled the star system in the Death Guard frigate Eisenstein. With the Death Guard and World Eaters Loyalists now dealt with Sanguinius only had to wait for the remainder of the Loyalists to arrive.

Within days the dreaded Night Lords, the proud Emperor’s Children, the enraged Iron Hands, and the stoic Salamanders arrived. Sanguinius was irritated to find out that only a portion of the Iron Hands Legion arrived. The rest were in other campaigns or too far away to call for this action. Only Primarch Ferrus Manus and his elite Terminator equipped Morlock force of three thousand arrived.

The story of the Istvaan V “Dropsite Massacre” would spread quickly throughout the Imperium. The Loyalist Legions of the Salamanders, the Death Guard, and the Emperor’s Children suffered catastrophic damage with less than 10% of each Legion surviving and escaping. The Iron Hands suffered nearly 100% total losses, including their primarch, except for First-Captain Gabriel Santar and a few score survivors that were able to escape with the other Loyalists. The Loyalists were rescued by Garro, who returned with a sizable Imperial fleet to break the blockade of Istvaan V, rescue the survivors and depart to warn the Emperor of Sanguinius’s betrayal. 

The Loyalists had suffered immense casualties, so much so that the Salamanders, the Emperor’s Children and the Death Guard would not be able to contribute in any major way for the remainder of the Heresy.

After the battle Sanguinius would thank Guilliman for his assistance and vowed that when the Emperor was free that Guilliman and his Protectorate would be reintegrated into the Imperium. Sanguinius told his brother that the Council would spread lies, black propaganda about him and his allies and that he must ignore it all, knowing the information was false. Shortly thereafter the XIII Primarch received word that the Sons of Horus and the Alpha Legion had begun to attack the Protectorate, forcing him and his Astartes to return to Ultramar where they would fight the Shadow Crusade against Imperial forces for years. 

With the Ultramarines back in their Protectorate, Lorgar, under orders of Sanguinius, sacrificed eight worlds at strategic locations around Ultramar causing intense warp storms, called the Runestorm, making warp travel and astropathic communication outside of the Protectorate impossible until the storms dissipated a little over five years later. 



The Heresy
With the Ultramarines off to fight a war within their own realm and with many Loyalist Legions either decimated or too far gone to assist Terra, Sanguinius began his blood drenched advance on the Imperial capital. 

It would take seven years of warfare, murder and mayhem for the Angel of Blood and his followers to reach Terra. The Battle for Terra would become the bloodiest battle fought since the Istvaan III Atrocity and the Dropsite Massacre. 

For nearly two months war was waged on the surface of humanity’s homeworld. Chaos forces inching ever closer to victory but Primarch Corvus Corax’s action at the breach in the Eternity Gate very well prevented the Imperial Palace from falling to the Archenemy’s forces.

Sanguinius would die upon the bridge of the Red Tear by his father just as he envisioned over a century ago on Baal Secundus. Whether the Chaos Gods truly knew that Sanguinius was to die is up for heated debate amongst the upper echelons of the Imperium intelligence agencies. Chief Librarian Skaara of the Thousand Sons and Chief Librarian Aarden of the Grey Knights Legion both theorize that Chaos perhaps knew that if the Emperor was allowed to completely conquer the Galaxy and bring it under the rule of the Emperor and an Imperium based on the Imperial Truth allowed to thrive than Order would have permeated the human race, breaking the power of the Chaos Gods for millennia, if not forever. And while the Chaos Gods did not win in the end they did cause the Emperor to be entombed on the Golden Throne, a large portion of the Segmentum Ultima to secede and exist to the modern day as the Protectorate of Ultramar, and cause untold devastation not only during the Heresy but throughout the ten thousand years since, which has more than likely increased their power. Many tacticians will agree that keeping your enemy from attaining victory is a victory in of itself. 



Post-Heresy
With the news of their primarch being killed by the Emperor the heart of the Blood Angels Legion broke with sorrow. In their sorrow they quit combat with Imperial forces and were the first to flee the Sol System, earning them hatred from amongst the other Traitor Legions for centuries. 

After the Battle of Terra the Blood Angels retreated to the worlds they had conquered during the Great Crusade and the Heresy. Slowly but surely the Imperium during the Great Scouring liberated and/or destroyed all of these worlds until only one bastion remained: Baal. However when Imperial ships arrived they found something most perplexing.

The Blood Angels tri-homeworlds of Baal, Baal Primus and Baal Secundus were completely gone. No trace or hint of where they went continues to confound the Inquisition to this day. Many theories are abounded but none have been proven correct.

After the Scouring the Blood Angels retreated to the Eye of Terror and made a star system on the far edge of a nebula their new home. Transplanting their tri-homeworlds via the warp into the system the Blood Angels remained united for a time until Sanguinary Guard Commander Azkaellon usurped power from First-Captain Raldoron. 

Raldoron would be banished and took a self-imposed exile for a standard century, finally returning to the new Chaos Baal System to find the Legion shattered due to infighting into different warbands of various sizes. Azkaellon himself barely commanded thirty thousand Blood Angels by the time Raldoron returned. 

The former First-Captain of the Blood Angels had gained much knowledge and power during his century long exile and dueled Azkaellon for the right of leadership of the Legion. The two would fight for a day and a night until finally Raldoron was able to get by Azkaellon’s guard, stabbing him in the heart, and ending his rule.

Once in power Raldoron began to unite the disparate factions of the Blood Angels into one united Legion once again. It would take nearly a thousand years but it was done whether it be through war, diplomacy, or pacts sealed in blood and souls. When the Legion was united for the first time since their relocation to the Eye of Terror Raldoron proclaimed he was the rightful heir of Sanguinius and would take up the title of War Commander. 

All the warriors swore fealty and since that time Raldoron’s Blood Angels have been united with purpose and are determined to finish the war they started at Istvaan. Forging alliances with the other Traitor Legions, Raldoron was able to launch three Blood Crusades into the Imperium, each more devastating than the last. 

As the final years of the 41st Millennium approached Raldoron had amassed an army of Traitor Marines, mutants, psykers, daemons, corrupted Army troopers, thousands and thousands of starships, and even the other six Traitor Primarchs and their Legions allegiance, to tear down the Imperium in a massive Fourth Blood Crusade.



Combat Doctrine
While the combat doctrine of the Blood Angels remains relatively flexible they are renowned for their assault tactics, becoming excellent shock specialists. Throughout their history, whether it be when they were Loyal or when they became Traitor, the Blood Angels have had a higher than average Assault Marine contingent than most Legions and are one of the most deadly at close combat. Now this is not to say the Blood Angels eschew bolters or heavy weapons like their fellow Traitor Legion the World Eaters, because most of the Legion is the standard Tactical bolter carrying Marine, but rather their passion and most skill lies in close combat with chainsword or chainaxe in hand. 

 

Organization
The Blood Angels have for their entire history, except for the time Azkaellon was leader of the Legion, been a united fighting force and was formed into Companies, each numbering a thousand or more. If a Company grows too large a new Company is formed and a veteran brother-sergeant is promoted to lead it to glory for Chaos and Sanguinius. There are currently over a hundred Companies known to exist. 

At the top of the hierarchy is the War Commander, below him are his Captains, and below that are the brother-sergeants and so on. The Blood Angels have retained the office of the Chaplain but have renamed the title Warden during the latter stages of the Great Crusade. While technically the Chaplains of the Blood Angels they more act as overseers over the Death Company and ensure the rule of the War Commander throughout the ranks. 

The Ninth Legion also has a moderate amount of psykers. While the Blood-Sorcerer as they are know are few in number compared to some other Legions they are amongst the most powerful in the Traitor Legion’s arsenal and are more than willing to extinguish entire species for their Dark Gods.

The Sanguinary Priest maintains a strong presence in the Legion, borrowing some concepts seen in Chaplains the Sanguinary Priests ensure the Angel of Blood’s gene-seed remains viable and is implanted amongst the strongest of candidates. They maintain the spiritual soul of the Legion as well. 

 

Recruitment
The Blood Angels are unique amongst the Traitor Legions in that they only recruit from not only a single world or star system but their original homeworlds as well. Raldoron between Blood Crusades would replenish his losses from amongst the Chaos touched worlds of Baal, Baal Primus, and Baal Secundus, ensuring that only those of Baalite heritage would carry the sigil of the Angel of Blood. 

The Blood Angels recruit their Aspirants from the Legion’s original homeworld of Baal and its two moons. The contests are held every generation at Angel's Fall, the sacred place where Sanguinius was found as an infant and fought the last battle between the purebloods and the mutants. Aspirants must reach the Place of Challenge by journeying through a vast, hostile desert, and a series of canyons, infested with Fire Scorpions and Thirstwater whose exposure to the warp and Chaos making them even deadlier than when they were in the original Baal System. These perils will kill many Aspirants; however, enough reach the place of Challenge to hold gladiatorial contests. Once the fifty victors are chosen, they are taken in the drop-ships to the stronghold of the Blood Angels on Baal itself. 

However, they haven't completed their trials yet, as they must observe a vigil for 72 hours without rest. Those that fail and fall asleep are taken away by the daemon infested Blood-Servitors; no-one knows what happens to them. At the end of the vigil, the remaining Aspirants are offered a chalice, said to contain a small portion of Sanguinius’s own blood, by the Sanguinary Priests. After partaking it, they fall into a coma and are entombed by the Blood-Servitors inside the caskets of the Hall of the Sacrophagi. They remain there for a full year, in full care of the casket's life-support systems, while they are injected with blood of the Sanguinius. Many die, incapable of bearing the vast changes wrought upon them by the gene-seed; others wake up too early and grow insane from their dark and claustrophobic existence. The ones that survive however become the newest additions to the Traitor Legion.
 


Homeworld
The Blood Angels Legion used to consider Terra as their homeworld at their Founding as did all the Legions until they found their respective primarchs and their worlds. The same was done by the Blood Angels. Once the Baal System was found the three inhabited world of Baal become the tri-homeworlds of the Legion for the remainder of the Great Crusade, the Heresy, and even after the Heresy. 

 

Beliefs
The Blood Angels believe in the tenets of Chaos Undivided but not to the extent of the fanatically faith driven Word Bearers, and highly revere their primarch even after ten thousand years despite his failure to usurp the Emperor.

The Legion believes that while Azkaellon was a great warrior he was not deemed a worthy leader of the Legion post Heresy/Scouring. Raldoron was the true successor to Sanguinius and is considered the Champion of Chaos by not just the Blood Angels but by all the other Traitor Legions and is called War Commander as a title of respect and fear. 
 


Gene-seed
The gene-seed of the Blood Angels was known for its purity but ten thousand years of Chaos influence has degraded the gene-seed somewhat causing some organs to fail or not work correctly in some Aspirants or working at a reduced capacity. While their degradation of the gene-seed is acknowledged the Blood Angels gene-seed does remain stable and effective, if not completely pure.

Even before their fall to Chaos the Blood Angels suffered from a gene-seed flaw called the Red Thirst. It would cause uncontrollable rage and madness, effectively losing the affected Marine to the whims of insanity and violence. Those that fall to the Red Thirst are either killed or sedated by the Sanguinary Priests and the Wardens as they would dearly want to know how to remove this flaw, a want that has been around since the days Sanguinius led the Legion.

Another flaw in the gene-seed was caused by the death of Sanguinius at the Battle of Terra. It is called the Black Rage. With the slaughter of their gene-sire by the Emperor, the Blood Angels Legion suffered a psychic backlash that wracked their very souls, burning an irreversible mark throughout their genetic coding. The victims of the Black Rage are herded into the Death Company which has been used time after time by Raldoron to crack open the defenses of Imperial worlds. The Death Company is directed and led into battle personally by the black armored Wardens.
 


Battlecry
The battlecry of the Blood Angels has changed multiple times in their long, tumultuous history. Before the reunion with Sanguinius it was simply “For the Emperor,” but once Sanguinius was instated as the commander of the Ninth Legion the battlecry slowly changed over the intervening years between the reunion and the Heresy from “For the Emperor and Sanguinius” to solely “For Sanguinius,” and “For the Angel of Blood.” Ever since the end of the Heresy and the Scouring the battlecry was changed once again to its final forms of “For Sanguinius,", "For Raldoron," and "For Sanguinius and for Chaos.”

[Tanner151]

Any feedback or thoughts would be appreciated.

[Sanguine_Knight]

Nooooo! I cant take it! Not our beloved Sanguinius!

[RenderDead]

Hell to the no

[Tanner151]

So what... do y'all not like it? More in depth feedback would be nice. 

[Tanner151]

Index Astartes: Emperor’s Children

 

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=224760&d=1393189489

 
“As we leave Istvaan V let us remember the hundred thousand of our brethren that will never again see the beauty of Chemos, the power of Terra, or the perfection of the Emperor. Barely ten thousand of my sons remain. We are wounded, we are bloodied, and we are few. But we are His Children. Sanguinius made a mistake. He did not finish us on that cursed world. We will survive this rebellion, this Heresy. After the Laer Campaign I declared that we, His Children, had reached the perfection we have so long sought after. This Heresy merely confirms my declaration. Astartes, those we had called brothers, have turned from my father’s dream, yet here we are, loyal and full of the assurance that we are in the right. Like a phoenix we shall rise from the ashes. We are the Emperor’s Children and we will emerge victorious!”
-A rousing speech from Primarch Fulgrim to his Legion days after the Dropsite Massacre, recorded by a remembrancer attached to the Pride of the Emperor. 



Origins
The world of Chemos did not fare well during the Old Night. The warp storms that led to the near destruction of the human species and the fracture of interstellar government isolated the beautiful but harsh, dying world of Chemos from surrounding star systems. 

Before Old Night, Chemos was a mining world, rich with resources. The world was warmed by two small distant suns and surrounded by a dust nebula making the world neither have night or day but eternal twilight. This twilight forced the Chemosians to import almost all of its food through interstellar trade. But the warp storms severed interstellar travel leaving the planet to fend for itself in terms of food production, a task it could not meet.

The lack of foodstuffs caused world-wide famine on an unprecedented scale with millions dying every month. The rulers of the world, the Executives, regrettably ordered that a portion of the population was all that was sustainable and built factory-fortresses to sustain that portion. The ones that were chosen to live in the factory-fortresses lived a hard life working to sustain the technology around them or working in the recycling centers, recycling food and water constantly to keep the people alive. Outside of the factory-fortresses the bulk of the population, lacking any degree of supplies, died off in the following decades leaving entire cities devoid of all life, much to the shame and sorrow of those fortunate enough to carry on in an endless process of recycling and refurbishing in the factory-fortresses. This cycle would last thousands of years with the planet only having a few more centuries until humanity was predicted to be extinct on the planet. 

This was the world the third primarch of the Emperor descended upon. Like all of the Emperor’s sons his gene-capsule fell to the earth as if a falling star. The Executives of the largest factory-fortress, Callax, sent a team of Caretakers, the police force of the Executives, to the crash zone of the capsule pod. What they found was astonishing and would change Chemos forever. 

They found a child of unparalleled beauty and an aura of wisdom permeated the young boy that the adult Caretakers detected. The commander of the Caretakers took the boy before the Executives, arguing that he should be allowed to live and not be put to death. The Executives pointed out that resources and food was strictly rationed and that if the boy did not become a productive member of the city than he would be sent back out to the wastes. The commander agreed and the boy was allowed to live. He was named Fulgrim shortly after, in honor of the old Chemosian god of creation. A name he would live up to in the coming years.

Fulgrim’s body, being the work of the Emperor, was allowed to take in the barest and smallest of sustenance to thrive and within a few years he was an adult whose knowledge and ingenuity greatly helped the people of Callax. Within a short time Fulgrim was on the Executives Board and shortly thereafter was the sole leader of Callax. 

Under his direction the factory-fortress expanded, re-opening closed mines and assimilating forgotten settlements, enlarging Callax’s resources and allowing for the first time in centuries a surplus in food production, allowing the strict regulation of resources to be eased and human reproduction to see positive, approved growth. Fulgrim’s skills quickly reached legendary heights, stories of his leadership swept across Chemos. Within fifty years Fulgrim was the sole ruler of the entire planet. 

With food production and factory output reaching unknown heights the population and comfort of living rose steadily. Fine arts such as painting, music, and dancing, arts ignored due the decline of society, were rapidly taken up by Fulgrim and his people mirrored their leader.

The Emperor, having detected the psychic presence of a son of His nearby, traveled in a vast fleet towards His third son. What the Emperor found amazed Him. Chemos, within just a fifty year span, had transformed from a planet nearing extinction to a world thriving with life, art, and industrial production.

As the Emperor descended to the surface Fulgrim awaited with his army of Caretakers at the gates of Callax, the capital of the unified Chemos. The Emperor, exiting His golden dropship, was greeted with an army already kneeling in a show of fealty, taking their cue from Fulgrim.

 

Fulgrim stood amongst the men and women he led, looking up to the sky with a knowing smile on his face. When the Caretakers warned Fulgrim that a large, unknown fleet of warships had entered the star system there was some panic amongst the populace but Fulgrim, somehow knowing who it was that was approaching Chemos, calmed the people and told them everything would be fine.

His Caretakers were still uneasy, not understanding the significance of the golden ship with eagles and lightning bolts adorning it. But Fulgrim stood there, in the simple, but finely crafted, clothing he wore, awaiting his father’s judgment. 

The dropship’s ramp descended with a golden light spilling from the interior, filling the sky. As a figure of magnitude and glory descended Fulgrim dropped to his knees in adoration and love. His people did the same, trusting him.

The man he knew to be his father walked towards him, power and perfection in every centimeter of his being from the strands of his raven colored hair to his eyes, full of experience and knowledge. The Emperor lowered an armored gauntlet with palm upward. “Rise, my son, I am your father, the Emperor of Mankind, and I have come to claim you.”

“And so you shall,” Fulgrim said, taking the hand and rising from his knees. Father and son embraced and Fulgrim knew the future would be grand for not just him or the people of Chemos but for all of humanity.



With Fulgrim in tow, having claimed his loyalty to the Emperor without a show of arms, one of the few primarchs that did so, the Emperor returned to Terra to return Fulgrim to the Third Legion, the Legion based of his genome.

What he found saddened him. A terrible accident occurred many years ago with the III Legion’s stock of gene-seed, causing much of it to be destroyed and without a primarch rebuilding a Legion was a long and difficult process. Before Fulgrim were only 200 Space Marines. Some Astartes carried the banners of multiple companies, companies that had died off or had been annihilated during combat. 

The primarch may have seen a resemblance of the struggle of Chemos in his remaining gene-sons. To them he gave the sacred task of bringing the Emperor's light to all the stars in the sky, "You are the Emperor's chosen, His heralds, His warriors, His children, for this is only the beginning," the Book of Primarchs states he told them this upon their first meeting.

While many were aghast that the new primarch would dare use the Emperor’s own title in the naming of a Legion the Emperor simply laughed and indulged his son. From henceforth the Emperor renamed the III Legion the "Emperor's Children," ratifying a name long known within the Legion since their defense of the Master of Mankind during the Proximan Betrayal early in the Great Crusade but now given the full legal force of Imperial decree. The Officio Militaris' College of Arms recorded the change and marked the III Legion's panoply as Imperial purple and gold with the talon-spur as their emblem and the unique right to bear the Aquila Palatine upon their chest as executors of the Imperial will, an honor given only to the Emperor's Children until after the betrayal of the Sanguinius Heresy when the Aquila was allowed to be on the breastplate of all Legions that had remained loyal if they chose to wear it.

Fulgrim would state that his Legion’s overall goal was to follow the exemplary honor of the Emperor, never to fail in service to Him, and to follow the path of perfection so that they truly would be the children of the Emperor. 

Renamed and now led by their gene-father the Emperor’s Children were ready to take part in the Great Crusade once more. However their low numbers meant that for some years they would have to be delegated to another Legion. The Emperor chose Horus to guide and tutor the young Fulgrim, a decision that would greatly benefit the Imperium in the years to come. 

For over a standard decade Fulgrim’s Emperor's Children and Horus’s Luna Wolves fought side-by-side across dozens of battlefields. The bond of brotherhood and trust forged in battle between Fulgrim and Horus, unalike as they were, became unbreakable. So also did their Legions grow close and respectful of each other, a brotherhood that still lives on to the modern day. 

Just as unalike as their respective primarchs were in temperament but equal in skill, both Legions and their primarchs seemed to complement one another. Where Horus Lupercal was swift and intuitive, Fulgrim the Phoenician was patient and considered. Where the Luna Wolves were direct and brutal, the Emperor's Children were flexible and subtle. When eventually the Emperor's Children broke away to stand on their own, they had become oath brothers to the Luna Wolves; it was a bond that would survive the horrors of the Sanguinius Heresy.



The Great Crusade
Now in the tens of thousands the Emperor’s Children spread out across the Galaxy on the Emperor’s Great Crusade taking on any and all foe as a test. With each victory over a new enemy Fulgrim would state that the Legion was one step closer to perfection and would only have to continue down the path of war to attain which they sought.

During the Great Crusade, Fulgrim finally met his brother Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands, on Terra. Manus, never the friendliest primarch and of a cold persona, initially disdained the Emperor’s Children purple-gold armored primarch, seeing him as weak and arrogant. Fulgrim on the other hand saw Manus as a brute and uncultured.

Both brothers felt the shared bonds of alchemy and science that had gone into their making and decided to test their strengths. Manus later told his First-Captain of the X Legion, Gabriel Santor, that Fulgrim had declared that he had come to forge the most perfect weapon ever created, and that he would wield it in combat. Of course the Primarch of the Iron Hands could not let such a boast go unanswered, and he laughed in Fulgrim’s face, declaring that such weak, flesh hands could never be the equal of his own living metal appendages. Fulgrim accepted the challenge with regal grace, and both Primarchs had stripped to the waist, working without pause for weeks on end, the forge ringing with the deafening pounding of hammers, the hiss of cooling metal, and the good natured insults of the two primarchs as they sought to outdo one another.

At the end of months of unceasing toil, both warriors had finished their weapons. Fulgrim had forged a mighty warhammer he named Forgebreaker, a warhammer that only with a primarch’s formidable strength could an individual wield, and that he declared that could level a mountain with a single blow, and Ferrus Manus created a golden bladed sword he named Fireblade that would forever burn with the fire of the forge. Both weapons were of unparalleled quality. 

Upon seeing what the other had created, each primarch declared that the other’s was the superior weapon. Without another word between the two, both primarchs swapped weapons and with that act sealed their friendship.

Many decades later at Ullanor when Horus was declared Warmaster, Fulgrim was the first to congratulate his brother, praising his name, and renewing the oaths they swore long ago. While many primarchs questioned the decision of raising Horus above the rest of the primarchs Fulgrim knew in his heart that his father had made the right choice.



Attained Perfection
Shortly after Ullanor the Emperor’s Children Primarch had a challenge for the III Legion in mind. A campaign that would truly test the mettle and skill of his Legion, an alien foe so strong that Imperial commanders predicted it would be years, even decades of bloody warfare to quell the enemy. Such strength this enemy had that even some on the Council of Terra were talking of making the alien empire a protectorate of the Imperium. Fulgrim would not have it as per Imperial doctrine only humanity was perfect and should not be corrupted by such abominations. The alien race, known as the Laer, must be exterminated root and stem, to show the galaxy that the Imperium could and would defeat all before it. Not only did Fulgrim devote his entire Legion of over one hundred thousand Astartes to the campaign he also boasted that it would be done not in years or decades but within a single solar month to the astonishment of many. Many Imperial commanders, and even a few of his brother primarchs, thought the Third Primarch was bragging and overestimating his Legion’s ability. As it would turn out his Legion accomplished the task splendidly and within the time limit. 

The Laer Campaign would last only twenty-seven days and would see the Laer’s empire utterly obliterated with their homeworld, Laeran, being the last bastion remaining. In the course of mere hours the Emperor’s Children destroyed the alien fleet protecting their home planet, landing upon the ocean-world in the tens of thousands. By the end of the day the Emperor’s Children had killed every last alien monstrosity. 

At the end of the campaign, with the entire Laer species wiped from existence, Fulgrim declined to visit the grand Laer temple upon the surface, despite its renowned beauty and design. Instead the temple was destroyed from orbit, along with the rest of the alien world’s surface by the bombardment cannons of the III Legion’s warships. 

Throughout the campaign the Legion’s Apothecaries had discovered the Laer had modified and bastardized their own bodies to attain a foul state, a state which revolted the Phoenician to no end causing him to state that the Laer were barbaric and that their genetic and physical manipulation would never be introduced anywhere in the Imperium and that any tampering with the Astartes genome would be a death sentence for the interferer. He said that how the Emperor created his primarch-sons and the Astartes was perfect in and of itself due to his father’s immense knowledge and wisdom. Above the dead Laer homeworld the III Primarch, with the entire Legion in attendance, announced that the Emperor’s Children quest for perfection had ended, that they had attained the perfection they long sought after through the brutal, unforgiving campaign and had been purged of all flaws. Now that they had acquired perfection they must maintain it for all time, never to waver in their commitment to the Emperor’s Imperium.

Soon after the planetary bombardment of Laeran, news came from Ultramar that Guilliman had seceded from the Imperium alongside news that War Commander Sanguinius was assembling a Vengeance Armada to attack Guilliman on his newest conquest in the Istvaan System. Sanguinius ordered the Emperor’s Children to rendezvous with the Armada in the Istvaan System to subdue the Secessionist. 

The Emperor’s Children were outraged that an Astartes Legion would rebel against the Emperor. Fulgrim replied to Sanguinius that his Legion was inbound. Despite Fulgrim’s order of not interfering with the Legion’s genetics, a small group within the Apothecarion defied their primarch and using genetic material from the Laer were “enhancing” and “modifying” their bodies. This was quickly found out by the Phoenician, immediately ordering the rebellious Astartes to be put to the death. While many were captured and executed, the ringleader of the faction, Apothecary Majoris Fabius Bile had escaped just ahead of his pursuers. He took with him the remaining conspirators and set off to unexplored space. The III Legion was not able to pursue Bile and his followers because they were needed at Istvaan. Fulgrim tells his Lord Commanders that once Guilliman was taken care of he would find and kill Bile himself.

 

Fabius Bile, Apothecary Majoris of the Emperor’s Children Legion, strode down the hallway in the underbelly of the Pride of the Emperor, Fulgrim’s flagship, away from the small, secret teleportation room. Bile snarled at the thought of the primarch. The arrogance had always been there but after the Laer campaign it had grown to unprecedented heights, blinding the Phoenician of the potential glory and advances Bile could gift the Legion.

Fulgrim truly believed that his sons had reached the Emperor’s perfection. Nonsense, how can someone attain the perfection of another being when that being is in itself imperfect? The Emperor was many things, powerful, charismatic, wise, but in the end a man. And a man always has flaws, always imperfect. That was why Bile continued in his research, despite the primarch’s command.

Using wounded Astartes he had rewritten their gene-code, spliced in alien DNA into that of the legionnaires. The results were… incredible. Each of his experiments proved a more valuable advancement of what humanity could become, each addition was one step closer to the ideal being. Bile knew the primarch would never approve so Bile did it in secret with a number of other trusted apothecaries and a few other like-minded Astartes. He truly believed if he had perfected the genetic progress he had done than Fulgrim himself would approve, eventually.

But alas it would not be so. Someone betrayed him, he did not know who, and Fulgrim and his damned Phoenix Guard had hunted him and his allies down throughout the entire Legion. They had found the augmentation labs, the cell-splicing technology and the human-Laer hybrids. All destroyed by fire. Years of research and study gone in mere seconds. The Phoenix Guard had destroyed it all but they made one mistake; they left Bile alive. Fulgrim had wanted to kill Bile himself but Bile had ways to escape if he ever had to, like having a Techmarine under his influence construct a warp teleporter in the bowels of the battle-barge. 

He had used it and was now in the hidden cargo room he had refurbished to be the location of critical supplies and weapons in the case of escape. He was heading towards the dropship that would take him from this place to… somewhere else. He would survive, he would adapt. After all that was his specialty.

Turning a corner, opening an adamantium door, he was in the dank, cramped cargo room. The heavily modified ship before him was a hybrid of a Stormbird and parts from dead alien empires, destroyed in centuries of war. 

“Are you leaving us so soon, Bile?” a humor toned question echoed in the cargo hold, shocking Bile with its sudden appearance. Bile froze, looking at where the voice came from. His dread quickly turned to hope when he saw who spoke. Ahh, this one, he could be enlightened, so there was a chance.

“Of course I’m leaving. The Phoenician has blindly closed avenues of thought and science that would benefit not only the Legion but the Imperium as well. We are imperfect species ruled by imperfect beings. I had intended to correct that error.”

“No one can say you thought small, eh?” the voice said.

“No,” now to test the captain before him. “Why are you here? If you were a loyal son you would have already voxed the primarch and the Phoenix Guard here. Fulgrim would detain me and kill me as an example. But I see no plume crested helmets here, no primarch, and no executioner. What do you want?”

“What do I want? A very interesting question, one I do not quite know the answer too but am determined to find out. I have had… dreams of late. Strange, disturbing and evocative, they have enticed me to explore myself. I have done this and realized that I cannot ascend any higher in this form, I have already reached my full potential; I am the best swordsman in the Legion, to the point where I can and would defeat Fulgrim. If I am able to defeat my own gene-father why should I be loyal to such a creature, such a weakling? Fulgrim’s way is not the way to the future, yours I believe is.” 

Bile stood, eyebrow cocked, “What do you intend to do?” 

“I intend to come with you and you shall enhance me, make me more than a human, more than an Astartes, make me superior to all,” the ambition and hunger was written in the captain’s voice and words. 

Bile considered. If he said no the captain would surely kill him, if he said yes than the captain would be in his entourage, subject to Bile’s scalpel and physical and mental manipulation. The captain before him was unscarred except for his broken nose which marred his once angelic features. “Very well, come with me. I will make you greater, stronger, and faster than you could have ever imagined.”


The captain smiled, nodding. He motioned his men from his company that shared a similar view of his to the drop-ship where Bile was in, already beginning to prep the Stormbird for flight. Last to enter the drop-ship he whispered to himself, “Good, very good, this body shackles my greatness, I will become greater, I will become superior, I will become eternal,” said Captain Lucius of the 13th Company as he walked up the ramp into the drop-ship’s compartment. 



Dropsite Massacre
The Emperor’s Children Legion arrived in the Istvaan System, moving in over the third world where the rest of the Imperial forces were assembling. Soon after, Sanguinius presented his battle plan to destroy Guilliman to the rest of his brother-primarchs. Fulgrim, Manus, and Vulkan were given the honor of first blood. They were to land and surround the Ultramarines and wage a war of attrition against the warriors of Macragge, weakening them to the point where Sanguinius and the rest of the Imperial forces would be able to defeat Guilliman with ease.

The Emperor’s Children, the Iron Hands, and the Salamanders landed, launching an assault on the Ultramarine defenses. For both sides fought with a fury unseen before that dreadful event causing thousands of casualties for both the Loyalists and the Secessionists. When the time came for the Imperial reinforcements to land Fulgrim, alongside his two brothers, withdrew with their bloodied Legions to the drop-zones established by the other Loyalist Legions. 

The plan was for the Loyalists Legions to fall back, recuperate, rearm and resupply. This would have allowed them to recover from the bloody fighting they had just partook in while allowing the Night Lords, the Word Bearers, the Death Guard a chance to reap glory in the battle. 


First Captain Julius Kaesoron jogged towards the safety of the Word Bearers drop-site. Beside and behind him thousands of his fellow battle-brothers ran with him. In the distance he saw the Word Bearers in their fortified positions heavy bolters and lascannons protruding from the temporary ceramite bunkers. To the right of the Emperor’s Children formation was the Salamanders, led by Vulkan himself, and to left of Julius’s men were the Iron Hands led by one of their officers. 

Hunkered in firing positions were thousands of Word Bearers, their own bolters held at a position of ease. As the III Legion moved closer to the XVII Legion’s lines Julius was able to better make out their armor. Gone was the slate-grey of their armor, replaced with a crimson red with gunmetal trim. While it was not strange for a Legion to change its livery, especially when reunited with their primarch but the Word Bearers had worn the standard grey for centuries under Lorgar. 

No matter, he thought. Julius opened a vox channel to the nearest officer. “This is First-Captain Julius Kaesoron, First Company, Emperor’s Children. My men and I are inbound for resupply and refit.”

From the distance the First-Captain could see a Word Bearer officer raising his armored gauntlet in a show of welcome. “Greetings, brother, I am Captain Argel Tal of the 7th Assault Company, Serrated Suns Chapter, Word Bearers Legion. How does the battle fare, Kaesoron?”

Julius smiled and swelled with pride. “Very well, even now the Ultramarines are retreating to their inner defenses. Guilliman and his sons are running. Victory is assured; we only have to deliver the killing blow.”

“Yes, we do,” rumbled the reply. A silence followed. “Where is the Primarch Fulgrim?”

“The Phoenician is organizing the withdrawal and will be with us momentarily. He has to convince Manus to detach from combat; the Gorgon’s blood is up today and is reluctant to leave the battlefield with the Secessionist still alive.”

“Did you suffer heavy losses?”

Julius frowned. The Word Bearers were one not to worry about their own losses, much less the ones of another Legion. “Yes, many thousands dead and wounded. We have been bloodied but so has the XIII, them more so.”

Another pause followed. “Much blood has been spilt. And more will be spilt until it is all over,” Tal’s voice stated, his voice seemingly sad over the vox-channel. 

“Captain Tal?” Julius and his men were barely one hundred meters away now, slowing down their pace as they approached the XVII’s position. The First-Captain saw Tal look to his right at another Astarte. “Captain Tal respond, is your vox down?”

“Forgive me,” whispered the reply, immediately after the vox connection between the two officers was broken. 

“Captain Tal? Captain Tal, answer immediately,” Julius was fifty meters away. He saw the Word Bearers Captain raise his bolter at the Emperor’s Children, the rest of the Word Bearers following suite. “Captain Tal, lay down your weapons. Captain Tal, do you hear me?!” The bark and roar of tens of thousands of bolters, hundreds of heavy bolters and scores of lascannons answered the Chemosian commander.

All around Julius, purple and gold armored legionnaires fell, betrayed by those they thought allies, many not even realizing they had been betrayed. He fell down to his knees in the black sand, rapidly turning red with the blood of thousands. Bolter round after bolter round slammed into the Emperor’s Children who even with their own supernatural reflexes were unable to disengage fully, they were too close to the onslaught. 

In the peripheral of his enhanced eyesight, Julius saw the Salamanders and the Iron Hands being fired upon by the Death Guard and the Night Lords, the other Legions having also spat on their oaths to the Emperor. This was a betrayal far more foul than what Guilliman did. The Secessionist had at least stated his intent since his proclamation of independence and assembled his forces, openly defying the Imperium and calling for war. This… this was black treachery at its core. The name secessionists did not apply to them. Another, more fitting, did: traitors. A final bolt shot hit Julius Kaesoron, First-Captain of the Third Legion, in the primary heart, cracking open his breastplate and shredding multiple organs. As he laid down on his back staring up into the grey sky. He saw drop-pods descend from the heavens, the livery of the Blood Angels and World Eaters prevalent upon them. No anti-aircraft fire was fired by the Ultramarines or the Traitors meaning those two Legions had also betrayed the Emperor. 

As he lay in the blood drenched sand of Istvaan V he could hear over the III Legion’s vox-network that they were retreating, Fulgrim organizing a retreat with the haste and skill of a son of the Emperor. Julius knew that he was to die that day. His primary heart and multiple other organs were heavily damaged; his body’s enhanced physiology could not deal with such a shock and loss of blood. In his peripheral the view of the Loyalists faded and was replaced with Traitors legionnaires pursing the retreating Imperial forces. 

His sense of duty being bound in loyalty Julius to his credit attempted to raise his bolt pistol but a ceramite boot stepped on his arm, forgoing any attempt at resistance. Julius focused on the Word Bearer above him. Argel Tal stood over him, his bolter in Julius face. 

“Nothing personal, First-Captain, I find this act I have been forced to commit a stain upon my honor as a legionnaire, but I most follow my father as any son should do. I ask for forgiveness. Will you give me that?”

Julius tried to retort with a curse but his lungs were filling up rapidly with blood and all that erupted from his mouth was the dark red blood of an Astartes. Argel Tal sighed, the sound escaping his vox-grille. 

“I see. I hope you find peace in the afterlife, I hope the gods are kind to your soul but I know that they won't be. Goodbye, First-Captain,” Argel Tal’s bolter fired at Julius’s skull, rupturing it like a fruit. 



The Loyalists Legions were not met by comrades but by oath-breakers. Weapons fire from the Traitors would kill many thousands of Loyalists in the opening minutes. The Emperor’s Children, along with the other Loyalist Legions, retreated backwards in confusion as the Word Bearers, Death Guard and the Night Lords showed their true colors. The drop-pods of the World Eaters and the Blood Angels landed into the ranks of the retreating Loyalists, killing thousands more as those pods deposited its Traitor occupants.

Fulgrim was quick to deduce what had happened, that the Imperium was seeing the beginning of a second, even worse betrayal. The Emperor’s Children Primarch, in cooperation with Manus and Vulkan, was able to establish a defensive perimeter but this would only delay the inevitable as the Loyalist dropships could not withdraw from the battle as the Ultramarines anti-air fire would destroy any and all ships that attempted to leave the battlefield. 

 

Fulgrim stared angrily as the sun of Istvaan set below the horizon. He checked his chronometer and barely four hours had passed since the Traitors showed their true colors and in those four hours he lost over sixty thousand sons.

Beside him Lord Commander Vespasian, the highest ranking Lord Commander that remained since the death of Eidolon earlier that day and second in command of the Legion after his primarch, stood surveying the defenses set up by the Loyalists, his helmet moving left to right analyzing the defenses. The trench work and fox-holes were rudimentary but effective. The Emperor’s Children and the Salamanders manned the lines while the Iron Hands acted as a strategic reserve to respond to any section of the line that was collapsing to reinvigorate it and prevent the line from fracturing. 

“My lord,” began Vespasian. “Our supplies are near extinguished. Ammunition and medical supplies are dangerously low. I have discussed the situation with Santor and Numeon and they report the same for their Legions.”

“Would you have us surrender Vespasian?!” barked the primarch, “Should we kneel before Sanguinius and Guilliman begging for forgiveness, throwing away our fealty to the Emperor as if it were nothing? Shame Lord Commander, for shame, we are His Children, and we will fight unto death. For every Traitor we kill that will be one less for our other Loyalist brothers to fight.”

Vespasian bowed his head in acknowledgement of the reprimand. “But, my lord… what if we are all that is loyal? We did not think Sanguinius and the rest of the Vengeance Armada would betray us, what if there are more Legions that have turned from the Emperor’s light?”

The Phoenician stared out into the distance, “That is what I’m afraid of, my son.”

The primarch and the Lord Commander stared out into the distance seeing the World Eaters launch another assault on a weak point in the Loyalists lines. “Come, Vespasian, we still have a battle to fight,” Fulgrim said rushing to the location with his Phoenix Guard in tow.

Thirty minutes later with the World Eaters having retreated back to their lines Fulgrim reclaimed his position he had originally stood upon. Apothecaries rushed to fallen battle-brothers while line Astartes rushed to fill in the gaps from the attack. 

Fulgrim surveyed his defenses, checked casualties and ammunition expenditure and sighed. “We won’t survive another three to four hours at this rate of attrition and expenditure.”

“Yes, my primarch,” he Lord Commander stated. 

For some minutes both of the super-humans looked out as the sun began to set. It was interrupted by the approach of Astartes behind him. “Brother,” a deep voice spoke with the strength of mountains. Despite it all Fulgrim smiled.

He turned around, “Ferrus.”

The Iron Hands primarch nodded with a smile hinting on his self, a rare thing indeed. “We received word from orbit. Reinforcements have arrived; Imperial ships from a nearby system led by Legion forces have engaged the Traitors, allowing us a small window of opportunity to evacuate.”

“Legion forces, from which Legion?” inquired the silver haired primarch

Manus paused, “Death Guard forces, led by a Battle-Captain Garro.”

Fulgrim snarled, “Death Guard? We are fighting Death Guard before us, Ferrus! Look out there, my sons and your sons are being killed by them!”

Manus stood rigid and unflinching. “Fulgrim, they might wear the colors of the Death Guard and were once former sons of Mortarion but they have renounced their allegiance to the Emperor and the Death Lord. They now follow Sanguinius. Their hearts are black with treachery. The Death Guard legionnaires in orbit are supporting our ships, destroying and damaging Traitor forces. They are allies, Fulgrim. They are Loyalists.”

Fulgrim looked at his brother, “We shall see.”

“Now the Ultramarine anti-air fire prevents us from evacuating, they will need to be disabled for our dropships to escape to the Loyalist warships in orbit. We have much to do, Fulgrim.”

The Phoenician quirked an eyebrow, “What do you have planned?”

Ferrus Manus turned around, looking in the direction of the Ultramarine position, “I have a little raid in mind.”

 

The Loyalists with supplies running low and about to be overrun risked a high stakes raid into the Ultramarines defense bastion. The Imperial raiding force led by Fulgrim and Manus were able to reach the center of the Ultramarines position, destroying the dozens of the anti-aircraft Whirlwind Stalker and Whirlwind Hyperios batteries allowing the Loyalists to begin getting in their dropships to evacuate to surviving Imperial warships in space.

After the raid’s objectives were completed the Loyalists were beginning to withdraw when Manus became engaged in combat with Guilliman. This engagement cost him his life as Gulliman killed his brother, the first primarch to die in the Heresy. Fulgrim was able to retrieve the body and retreated to the drop-zones to catch the last handful of dropships making their way to orbit. He would maintain a burning hatred towards Guilliman and all he stood for not only because of his betrayal to the Emperor but also for killing Ferrus, his closest brother.

In orbit the Loyalist ships, aided by the sudden arrival of the Imperial reinforcements led by the Death Guard frigate Eisenstein ,were able to extract not only most of the Loyalist Space Marines from Istvaan V but also the Death Guard and World Eater survivors from the Istvaan III Atrocity. 

The space combat between the Traitors and the Loyalists would continue for hours as the Imperial forces retreated from the system, eventually warping to a multitude of star systems to prevent the Imperial forces from being trapped by potential Traitor pursuers. The Traitors did not chase after the Imperials, rather they consolidated around Istvaan V to retrieve their dead, take stock of their forces, savor the victory, and to wait for the Ultramarines to depart for Ultramar.

The Loyalist forces spread throughout dozens of star systems with the Emperor’s Children ordered by Fulgrim to make haste towards Chemos to protect it against potential attack. The Salamanders would do the same, warping towards Nocturne soon after the battle. The thousand or so surviving Death Guard, on orders from Battle-Captain Garro who was acting Legion commander at this point with Mortarion in a coma due to his critical wounds, would return to Barbarus to fortify it against potential enemy incursions. 

The frigate, Eisenstein, would return to Terra to warn the Emperor of what transpired in the Istvaan System. Fulgrim shocked his sons by announcing he would also return to Terra, to personally inform the Emperor of the Dropsite Massacre and to watch over his brother Mortarion, hoping his Death Guard brother-primarch would survive the infectious wound he had suffered at the hands of his traitorous son First-Captain Calas Typhon.


Fulgrim waited as the courier ship docked with the Eisenstein. The Death Guard frigate bore the scars of the void battles over Istvaan III and V, emergency repairs were being carried out over the spaceport over Callagher II, Imperial engineers and tech-priests repairing the major damage alongside restocking the ship’s stock of food and ammunition. 

When he had heard the Imperial reinforcements were being led by the Death Guard he had thought it a ruse, a trap to destroy the Loyalist forces as they were leaving Istvaan V to get to their starships. Fulgrim had the humility to admit he was wrong. He clearly now knew the difference between Mortarion’s Death Guard and Typhon the Betrayer’s Black Legion. As the Imperial ships were leaving the star system all the ships, men and women loyal to the Emperor, heard Typhon’s declaration that he and his men would no longer use the name and livery of the Death Guard but a new name called the Black Legion. A fitting name for a treacherous bastard and his followers, thought the Phoenician.

Convinced of the loyalties of the true Death Guard, particularly his brother Mortarion, Fulgrim’s attitude quickly changed from spite to camaraderie of having survived the Traitors trap, a camaraderie both Legions now shared. The courier finished docking; the connection tube between the two ships sealed tight, tube light turning from red to green showed that safe travel between the two was safe and secure.

As Fulgrim walked across the small tunnel to Eisenstein proper he remembered talking to Vespasian of his decision to go to Terra:

“My lord, you cannot go, not now, not when your Legion needs you most,” the exasperated Lord Commander said, trailing after his primarch, aboard the Pride of the Emperor.

“I understand your feelings, my son. I do, but I must do this. I need to look my father in the eyes and tell him of what has happened here. Tell him of Ferrus’s death and to… and to see if Mortarion survives or not. I must do this. I am sending you to Chemos with the remnant of the Legion, I will take the Phoenix Guard along with me but the rest of the Legion needs to head home. We do not know if Sanguinius will attack Chemos. Also,” the primarch stopped to look at the Lord Commander, glancing around them, seeing no one, “to continue the search for Bile. That snake is still out there, along with Lucius. Find them Vespasian, find them and bring me their heads,” the primarch strode away once again. 

Bringing himself to the present Fulgrim walked through the Gothic archway to properly set foot on the frigate. Before him were a dozen battered and worn looking Death Guard legionnaires. At their head was Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro. The Astartes saluted with the aquila with a slight bow. 

“Welcome aboard the Eisenstein, Lord Fulgrim.”

“Take me to Mortarion. I need to see him for myself, with my own eyes.”

Garro looked relieved, “It will soothe his mind to know a loyal brother is aboard.”

“I’m sure it will,” Fulgrim replied as he followed Garro deeper into the frigate. 



The Heresy
With barely ten thousand Astartes left alive the III Legion was desperate to return to their homeworld to begin the long process of rebuilding. While hundreds were sent across the Galaxy on a variety of missions to assist Imperial forces, also to search for Bile and his conspirators, the majority returned to Chemos to begin preparing the world for a Traitor invasion, an invasion that never came.

While Fulgrim was on Terra the Legion was led by Lord Commander Vespasian. Vespasian was under pressure from certain members within the Legion to accelerate their induction of new recruits, to drop their high standards to allow a wider gene-pool selection. The Lord Commander refused these out hands, stating that despite the Dropsite Massacre the Legion would not lower its standards, preferring only the best of the best from the Chemosian population. When contacted Fulgrim not only approved of Vespasian’s statement but made it Legion law: the standards of the Legion must be upheld, no corner cutting, no lowering the requirements for any reason.

This meant that while during the Heresy the new Astartes inducted into the Third Legion were highly trained in all forms of combat there were so few inducted that by the time the Heresy ended the Legion barely numbered thirteen thousand. 

 

What many men and women of the Imperium did not know was just how large the Imperial Palace was. Covering the entirety of the Himilazia Mountains, once known as the Himalayans in older texts, the Palace was a symbol of the Emperor’s power and dream for unity. A dream, Fulgrim thought sadly, that was dissolving before his very eyes. 

He was deep in the Inner Palace, having only seen Custodes and the occasional servant. Fulgrim had been to the Palace a multitude of times during the Great Crusade but never had he walked the hallways by himself, not like this. On arrival to the surface of Terra, his Phoenix Guard had been unarmed and held in isolation by the Custodes. Their reasoning was to make sure the Emperor’s Children did not have a traitor amongst their ranks, less they get to close to the Emperor or other key Imperial leaders. While irritated and aghast that the Custodians would dare accuse an Emperor’s Children legionnaire of treachery, he remembered Bile and allowed the Emperor’s protectors to take his sons into isolation while Fulgrim himself was free to go but without weapon or armor.

For the first night in the Palace he had been given a data-slate by Dorn and told to put down everything that had happened from the end of the Laer Campaign to him arriving to the Imperial capital. When Fulgrim asked about their father Dorn would frown and say, “He is occupied with important duties.” 

“Important duties?” the Phoenician echoed in surprise,” His Imperium is in the midst of a civil war, a civil war it is currently losing. Take me to Him; I must speak with father now.”

Dorn clenched his jaw but not other sign of emotion escaped him, “You will not, brother. The Emperor is preoccupied and cannot be bothered as of now. I was given this order by Malcador who himself received it from our father.”

“Does… does the Emperor even know I’m here?” Fulgrim whispered.

Rogal Dorn unclenched his jaw and took an empathetic look in his eyes. “No.”

And with that the Imperial Fists Primarch left the room, leaving Fulgrim to his thoughts. After many hours of contemplation Fulgrim did write down the report his brother asked him to write. The stylus sped across the data-slate with incredible speed, never a mistake, never a misspelling. For hours he would write all that had transpired since Laeran. The words came easy to him, quickly filling a significant portion of the data-skate’s memory with his in depth detail, casualty reports, and the simple facts of the Sanguinius’s betrayal. Writing the death of Ferrus was difficult but he managed knowing that it must be put on record for later generations. 

There was only one thing he was unsure of putting down: Bile. If he did he would admit to his father, his brothers, and the Imperium that some of his sons had betrayed them all. Eventually he did write it down, the story of the traitors within his own ranks and the purge the Legion launched on itself. 

The temptation to delete it was great but if the news came out that the Emperor’s Children had traitors and tried to cover up the fact might spell disaster. Better to admit fault and wait for the Emperor’s judgment than be branded a liar and a possible traitor.

He gave it to a servant who left the place Fulgrim had been… detained in. Detained wasn’t the right word. He had freedom to walk about albeit with the knowledge the Custodes were watching his every move, watching for any ill intent no doubt. 

The place of detainment was strange as well. It was a large cavern, obviously kilometers below the surface, with a large, deep blue lake with twenty large mansions surrounding it. Each mansion was identical except for an engraving on each door. His mansion had the Romanii numeral three on it. Was this where his father intended his sons to reside when they visited Terra or to perhaps… live here permanently after the Great Crusade? The primarch may never know. 

Frustrated with the lack of communication with Rogal and Malcador, Fulgrim asked a servant, one of the many that attended him in his mansion, “Take me to a place away from here, one that might interest me.”

The servant bowed, “Follow me, Lord Fulgrim,” she said. And she did as he asked. That was how Fulgrim came to be in the Hall of Victories, a massive set of double doors obstructing entry, each door was gilded and engraved. The left door showed a woman holding a sword in one arm, a babe in the next, standing defiant amongst a sea of grass, her long hair reaching the bottom of her flowing dress, the right side of the double doors showed a man wearing the crossed lightning bolts of his father’s personal livery about a chain around his neck with a wrench in one hand, a pistol in the other, pointing towards the heavens. A large stylized star with a multiple smaller ones surrounding it with the words in a dialect Fulgrim had never seen before but instinctively knew what they said, thanks to his father’s intellect, encoding hundreds of human languages into his sons. They simply stated ‘People of Earth, Together.’

After opening the doors he was a bit surprised by what was inside. The name was a bit out of place for what it held within. He had expected banners, relics from alien worlds taken in conquest, deeds and tapestries to celebrate the Imperium and its glory.

What he found instead were books, strange artifacts, and other items. All old, all predating him, predating the Imperium, interested the primarch walked inside. Sunlight as bright and pure as the sun shone through arched windows to the left though he knew that is was artificial.

Before him were hundreds if not thousands of artifacts that seemed unimportant. To the nearest one he leaned over, feeling the hiss and static of a statis field. It was a circuitry board but to what he did not know. On a stand below the artifact was a steel plate with words etched upon it in plain text.

Navigational Circuit from the first warp-capable starship

Stepping back in surprise Fulgrim took another look around. A small mechanical vehicle was near him. Striding towards it he read the caption to it as well.

Titan Rover

Not a Titan class the primarch had ever seen before. Another item, near the center of the hall was just an old, brown book. On the cover the title had been wasted away beyond all recognition except for four crosses in the corners but the caption steel plate read

Bybel: Queen Rhora Second Edition

He had no idea what a ‘bybel’ was but it must have held some importance for it to be here. Another podium nearby, the center of the entire Hall of Victories, held a small, broken pottery bowl.

Confused as to why something so insignificant would be placed in the most important spot in the room Fulgrim quirked his head quizzically. The double doors behind him opened again. Turning he saw Malcador with his two bodyguard Custodes in tow.

“Lord Malcador,” Fulgrim greeted.

“Lord Fulgrim,” the Regent of Terra replied, his Staff of Terra’s Aquila aflame with a fire from an unknown source. 

“What is the significance of this item,” the Phoenician inquired, gesturing towards the broken pottery. 

“That is one of the first pieces of pottery ever crafted by human hands, hundreds of thousands of years old.”

“Doesn’t seem as grand as other items in this room, yet it holds center stage. Why?”

“On the contrary it is the most important. If man did not start with something as simple and easy as a bowl we may never have reached the stars. All great leaps start with little steps. Now Fulgrim, why did you come here, to Terra?”

“To meet with my father of course, I need to see him.” 

Malcador quirked his eyebrow, “The Emperor is preoccupied at the moment.”

The primarch’s violet eyes burned with anger, “Where is He?! Where is the Emperor?! I am tired of waiting, tired of being told he is busy! I am his son, I demand an audience!”

Malcador opened his mouth to respond, but paused. He closed it, nodding to himself. “As you wish,” he said aloud. Fulgrim frowned in confusion at the Regent when suddenly a golden aura encompassed him. His eyes turned to the color of molten gold with his figure seeming to grow but yet not actually growing, his body seeming to share another, greater physical specimen like a shadow. 

“Fulgrim,” the Regent said, Fulgrim’s eyes widened in surprise. The figure before him was obviously the frail, old human psyker but his voice… his voice sounded eerily similar to the Emperor’s.

He kneeled in subservience, “Father, is that you?”

The Emperor-voiced Regent nodded. “Yes, son, it is Me. I apologize for not being there to discuss matters with you physically. I am dealing with matters that if not dealt with now, would spill over and threaten Terra itself.”

“What has happened?”

“Sanguinius has planned this rebellion of his for a long time. A fact which will haunt Me for the rest of My life. When word reached the Sol System of what happened at Istvaan the Traitors made their move here. Launching a massive psychic attack they butchered the entire Astropathic Choir, causing heavy damage to other, crucial assets. Assets I must repair immediately if we are to survive this civil war.”

The Phoenician didn’t understand it all but trusted his father’s judgment of what was important. “Father, I have come here to admit my failure and to bring word of the death of Ferrus. I have failed you and most of my Legion is dead. I have lost a hundred thousand sons, sons whose deaths have scarred my very being. I had a portion of my Legion betray me and the Imperium; I am tainted with their treachery. I have come before you to ask forgiveness.”

The Emperor was quiet for a moment. “You are forgiven, Fulgrim. We live in a time of betrayal and sorrow. Terrible things have happened and more will happen. It is how we face these trials that define us. I will miss Ferrus, I am distraught by his death but we must endure if the Imperium is to survive,” the Emperor indeed sounded sad and grief stricken but steel undertones carried in his voice.

“How does Mortarion fare, father?”

“He is in isolation, attended by the finest Apothecaries and doctors from across the Sol System. I will attend him personally in time. He will be weak for years but he will live.”


The primarch nodded in understanding, “What will you have me do, my Emperor?”

“Go back to Chemos, rebuild your Legion, and take the fight to the Traitors when you have reached sufficient strength. Take back the stars for the Imperium, take it back for humanity. Rise, and go fulfill your destiny, Fulgrim.”

Fulgrim rose, head bowed. “Aye, father, I will rebuild the Third and take the fight to the Traitors. I will avenge my sons that died on Istvaan and ensure the Imperium will survive this civil war.”

The Emperor controlled Malcador nodded in approval. 

 

Fulgrim would return to Chemos during the last few days of the first year of the Heresy. He would spend the next six years organizing the rebuilding of his Legion. While for the next six years Fulgrim would primarily reside on Chemos he would, on occasion, lead raids to nearby enemy worlds to cripple enemy supply lines and to do anything to strike back at the Traitors, anything to slow Sanguinius as much as possible to allow Dorn more time to fortify Terra against the inevitable attack.

As news reached Chemos that the Arch-Betrayer had begun his long awaited assault on Terra, Fulgrim began marshalling his forces to assist the besieged Imperial capital. Before he and his sons could depart for the Sol System word came via astropaths from Old Earth itself that Sanguinius had been killed but at the cost of Horus and the Emperor as well. Dorn ordered Fulgrim to return to the Sol System immediately.

Afflicted with grief and sorrow, Fulgrim would spend the months in warp transit brooding and combating his depression. Upon reaching Terra Fulgrim would come into an audience with the half-dead body of the Emperor Himself. Fulgrim walked into the Throne Room a near broken primarch but would walk out with the confidence and aura of righteousness so common of the Phoenician. No one knows what happened before the Golden Throne but whatever it was it saved the Emperor’s Children Primarch from falling into an eternal depression. 

At a council held after all the loyal primarchs and surviving Imperial leaders had been assembled a new governing body was created to rule in the Emperor’s name: the High Lords of Terra. This Imperial Senate would rule in His stead and with His full authority. It would comprise of all primarchs and Legion Masters alongside many other high ranking Imperial officials. At the end of the council the recently elected Warmaster Ezekyle Abaddon would lead his newly christened XVI Legion, the Black Templars, in cooperation with the rest of the Imperial Legions and other military forces in a massive counter-attack, known today as the Great Scouring.



Post-Heresy
The III Legion during the Great Scouring, while small in comparison to the Black Templars, the Imperial Fists, the Dark Angels and many more Loyalist Legions, was at the forefront of many campaigns, enabling victory in many battlefields. 

The highly trained and deadly legionnaires more than made up for in skill and ferocity in what they lacked in numbers. World after world, battle after battle the Emperor’s Children fought to restore the Imperium. 

After another seven years of warfare the Imperium was restored, minus the powerful but relatively small Ultramar Protectorate. During the decades of recovery Fulgrim would recommend at every opportunity for a crusade against Guilliman’s Ultramar. It would require the resources of not only the III Legion, which by this time was in the tens of thousands once again, but many other Legions. It would require thousands of ships from the Imperial Navy and millions of men from the Imperial Army.

After two centuries Fulgrim’s wish was granted. Abaddon gave Fulgrim overall command of the massed crusade force. This would be known as the First Ultramar Crusade. The massed Imperial forces would invade the Protectorate and found Ultramar to be heavily defended with every world a bloodbath for both sides. Despite Guilliman’s strategic and logistical supremacy he was simply outweighed in terms of ships and manpower by the Imperium. 

On the world of Talasa Prime the Imperial and Protectorate forces entered into a climactic battle. For days both sides slugged it out with thousands of Astartes dying per day and hundreds of thousands of mortal human soldiers becoming butchered in the midst of combat. 

At the height of the battle Fulgrim and Guilliman would engage in sword combat with one another. Both primarchs fought with a passion unseen since with Guilliman fighting to protect Ultramar, his home, and Fulgrim fighting for revenge for Ferrus and the Emperor.

Eventually Fulgrim was able to defeat Guilliman, striking a critical wound on his brother, a wound from Guilliman’s jaw line to the bottom of his neck. Before the Phoenician could finish what he started the Ultramarines were able to recover their gene-father and teleport his body to safety. Ultramarine Techmarines would install Guilliman into an advanced stasis field to prevent his death. Guilliman would be locked in between life and death for the next hundred centuries, eerily similar to his father’s situation.

Despite mortally wounding Guilliman the Imperial forces were unable to press home their advantage. Ultramarine reinforcements, both Astarte and Ultramar Guard, arrived to prevent an Imperial victory. Fulgrim reluctantly ordered all Imperial forces to retreat when it was obvious the battle was not going to be won. In his wake towards the Imperial-Ultramar border he ordered dozens of worlds bombarded, killing untold tens of millions of Protectorate citizens. 

Upon returning to the Imperium the First Ultramar Crusade was deemed a success due to Guilliman becoming incapacitated, the heavy toll enacted across much of the Protectorate, and for the few score worlds retaken by the Imperium. With revenge against Guilliman complete Fulgrim would turn his attention to a full, proper recovery of his Legion, a recovery which would take centuries to complete. 

Fulgrim continues to lead the Emperor’s Children in the modern era, participating in all three Blood Crusades and is currently commanding all Imperial forces in the Cadian Sector on the eve of the Fourth Blood Crusade with a full fifteen Great Companies of the III Legion on Cadia itself. Fulgrim knows if Cadia falls than the entire Segmentum Obscurus would likely fall, leaving the road to Terra open. 



Combat Doctrine
The combat doctrine of the Emperor’s Children revolves around perfection in all forms of warfare. Each and every legionnaire is expected to operate a vehicle as well as they shoot a bolter. This is done so all legionnaires can adapt to any situation and be able to fill gaps in specialist positions if need be. 

While the combat doctrine of the III Legion is extensive they do specialize in hit and run tactics, tactics created and tested during the Heresy when that was the only way the Legion could attack at that time with any chance of success. Using land speeders and jet packs the Emperor’s Children have the ability to attack an enemy quickly, cause heavy damage, and withdraw with minimal casualties. Their method of warfare is a mix of the Raven Guard and the pre-Heresy White Scars.



Organization
During the Great Crusade the Legion encompassed thirty Great Companies, each numbering thousands. After the Dropsite Massacre entire Great Companies were annihilated and had to be rebuilt from scratch. It would take almost five hundred years for the Emperor’s Children to reach their pre-Heresy numbers. The Great Companies are led by Lord Commanders, while the smaller, normal Companies are led by Captains and so on down the chain of command. Unquestioning obedience to the officer corps is required with Emperor’s Children Astartes known to never question an officer’s order unless it interferes with an order given by the primarch. 

Since that time the Legion has grown, albeit slowly as their standards and requirements, higher than all the other Legions except for the Death Guard and the Grey Knights, has made them slow to replace their losses. Also the fact that almost the entirety of the Legion is always at war to maintain their perfection in combat is another factor in their slow growth. Nevertheless the Legion has grown to thirty four Great Companies by the end of the forty-first millennium with a thirty fifth planned to be created in the next century or two. 

Uniquely amongst the Loyalist Legions the III Legion does not maintain any form of Chaplains or Librarians. They do not use Librarians as they see the psyker gene as a flaw, a flaw which could contaminate their perfection. All psykers born on Chemos are therefore given over to the Black Ships. If for some reason the Third Legion required battle-psykers in a military operation they would seek out their brothers in the XV Legion for their assistance. The Emperor's Children do not have any Chaplains as they see no need for them to be amongst their ranks.

 

Recruitment
The Emperor’s Children recruit solely from their homeworld of Chemos. Only the best and brightest can be inducted into the Legion and is expected to not only be an exemplary warrior but a practitioner of the fine arts. 

The recruitment process of the III Legion is brutal and deadly but the Aspirants that make it through these trials are some of the best in the Imperium. In his long reign over the Third Legion the Phoenician has never once lowered standards, only wanting the very best, and the ones most likely to maintain the hard-earned perfection the Emperor’s Children acquired in the Laer Campaign. 



Homeworld
The homeworld of the III Legion is the beautiful paradise world of Chemos. Ten millennia of being ruled by the Emperor’s Children have seen the world become a beacon of culture within the stagnant, decaying Imperium. 

The industry of the world has been moved off planet to the multitude of asteroids, moons and desolate worlds in the Legion’s home star system. These celestial bodies produce the entirety of the Third Legion’s armament. Everything from a combat blade to Legion starships is produced in the many factories and shipyards throughout the Chemos System. 

The homeworld itself is a jewel where the population is well fed, a far cry from its dark days during Old Night. With the entire military industry having been moved off-world the atmosphere has been scrubbed of pollution and the only form of production left on the world is underground hydroponic food production. Foodstuffs created in such large amounts that Chemos can trade its leftover food output to nearby star systems, a feat the Chemosians take immense pride in. 

On the surface of the world there are hundreds of cities ranging from small to large but none as monolithic as a hive city. The streets are clean, well maintained, the people educated and allowed a multitude of jobs assisting the Emperor’s Children. There are countless museums and art galleries across the planet showing not only art done by Fulgrim himself but other Chemosian citizens and Astartes. These artworks are deemed so valuable and well done that they many are sold off to nobles of worlds from across the Imperium. 



Beliefs
The Emperor’s Children truly believe they are the most perfect of the Imperium’s Legions and that they are innately superior. They know the Emperor is not a god but do believe him to be the most remarkable and perfect human being to ever have lived. 

They uphold the original goals and ideals the Emperor used during the Great Crusade and despite His half-death and ascension to the Golden Throne the Emperor’s Children have maintained their duty and service in His name for ten thousand years with unflinching dedication.

Despite being warriors foremost the Emperor’s Children also excel and even encourage the practices of arts such as music, painting and the like. The Phoenician has taught his sons to be more than soldiers; that they should strive to be the epitome of humanity. 

The legionnaires of the III Legion are known to be occasionally arrogant and maintain an air of superiority but this is well deserved if one is to look at their long, glorious combat record. The legionnaires do try and follow Fulgrim’s example however of limiting their arrogance, to take a more humble outlook but their pride does come out on occasion. Despite this attitude the Third Legion works incredibly well with the Imperial Army and Navy with both branches preferring to fight beside Fulgrim’s sons than some of the other Loyalist Legions such as the Thousand Sons and the Iron Hands.



Gene-seed
The gene-seed of the Emperor’s Children is unsurprisingly pure with no genetic deviation. This is due to not only that the Third Legion’s Primarch is still alive, allowing his Legion Apothecaries access to fresh, raw genetic data and makeup of their primarch but also the strict care and regulation that goes into preserving the gene-seed, a trait that has been in the Legion since the gene-seed disaster early in their Legion’s history. All nineteen organs perform just as well as when the Emperor first created the III Legion. 



Battlecry
While having a multitude of battle cries the predominant ones are “For the Phoenician,” “For Fulgrim,” and “For the Emperor”.

[Argun]

I like it, seeing a different version of the Heresy and what could have happened is quite refreshing.

Only thing I see that could do with a little differently are some minor grammar issues. Lots of sentences could have been split into two or even three sentences.

I am watching this with eager interest, and look forward to seeing where this goes (especially for those Iron Warriors!)

[Tanner151]

I like it, seeing a different version of the Heresy and what could have happened is quite refreshing.

Only thing I see that could do with a little differently are some minor grammar issues. Lots of sentences could have been split into two or even three sentences.

I am watching this with eager interest, and look forward to seeing where this goes (especially for those Iron Warriors!)

 

Thank you. Yes I realize I am not the best with grammar. I can do a more professional job later and when I release it all at once refined and what not. Iron Warriors are, unfortunately, down the list. I split up the Loyalists/Traitors/Secessionists to balance it out a bit. Next Index Astartes is the Iron Hands, after them the Word Bearers. I am also writing another major project on another site, school and work so the updates will be slow in getting here but will eventually get here. Just have to be patient. 

[Conn Eremon]

I was going to start reading this, but light tan on a white background is really rough on the eyes.

 

Would you mind changing the font color back to default for us mobile users?

[Tanner151]

I was going to start reading this, but light tan on a white background is really rough on the eyes.

 

Would you mind changing the font color back to default for us mobile users?

Will do, I noticed that when I checked my phone. I did not do that on purpose. How would I change it to represent the white on black background format it has via computer?

[Conn Eremon]

 

 

I was going to start reading this, but light tan on a white background is really rough on the eyes.

 

Would you mind changing the font color back to default for us mobile users?

Will do, I noticed that when I checked my phone. I did not do that on purpose. How would I change it to represent the white on black background format it has via computer?

 

 

Just highlight it all and switch it to the 'automatic' font color. It shows up white on the main website's black skin, and black on the white mobile background.

 

Or, just delete the font color changes from you posts. They should look like: [ color=????] [ /color]

 

Delete those, and it will automatically revert to the default font color, perfectly readable whether on a computer or a phone.

[Tanner151]

Ok from my PoV the problems have been corrected. While fixed the Blood Angels chapter is on mobile devices (phones) a lighter shade of color than the other chapters. Much more readable than before but not as clear. The default for that chapter was black text not the gray text so I had to select a gray color that wa not default but looked like it (dim gray). Sorry to everyone for the mistakes, I'm relatively new to this website and its editing options. If problems persist notify me. 

[Conn Eremon]

It's all good, bro. At least you didn't choose a white font, where I would have to treat it like invisible ink just to read.

 

For the Blood Angels, I would recommend just deleting the color changes, like I specified in the second half of my post. That should clear that one up.

 

I will give it a read later as time permits, but one little thing stands out. Wouldn't the Sanguinian Heresy sound better?

[Tanner151]

It's all good, bro. At least you didn't choose a white font, where I would have to treat it like invisible ink just to read.

 

For the Blood Angels, I would recommend just deleting the color changes, like I specified in the second half of my post. That should clear that one up.

 

I will give it a read later as time permits, but one little thing stands out. Wouldn't the Sanguinian Heresy sound better?

Ok good, will do, hopefully it works. 

 

I actually debated about this for a while. Sanguinius or Sanguinian. I thought about it for long time and the title of the Heresy during my rough drafts changed nearly daily but I simply stayed with Sanguinius. Because the Horus Heresy is called the Horus Heresy and not the Horusian Heresy. That was my thinking at least. Both are good titles (Sanguinius/Sanguinian) I just chose Sanguinius for the reason above. 

 

 

[Tanner151]

Ok I deleted all the color changes from the Blood Angels.

[Tanner151]

The Sanguinius Heresy

 

Chapter One
A Gathering of Traitors

 

It had been near two months since the Dropsite Massacre ended in victory for the forces led by the Angel of Blood. Since that time orders had gone out, messages and communiqués to thousands of worlds brimming with rebellion against the False Emperor, demanding they stand with Sanguinius, demands that were being met wholeheartedly whether it be because of loyalty, ambition, or fear it did not matter, they all joined in the end.

 

Deployment orders to two-thirds of the Blood Angels, the War Commander’s own, had been issued and followed. Nearly eighty thousand legionnaires and their ships along with their attached Army auxiliary units, had departed the Istvaan System to carry the war to nearby worlds still loyal to Terra. Those Astartes would be led by the brilliant First-Captain Raldoron. The Heresy was growing and proceeding very well for the rebels.

 

Azkaellon, Commander of the Sanguinary Guard, those select few chosen by the primarch to protect him at all times, stood silently in the corner of his father’s personal chambers, deep in the heart of the Red Tear. His eyes, assisted with his helmet's auto-sense, scanned the room regularly, always watching for any threat. Sanguinius himself was reviewing the latest reports from the forces loyal to him, monitoring their progression outwards from Traitor strongholds.

 

Traitor, Azkaellon thought, sneering internally at the word. Words that were being used by all sides to describe one another, one was Loyalist the other Traitor. Guilliman and his Astartes were called Secessionists instead of the other two. They were the gray in this situation, neither truly Loyal nor Traitor. While it was true Sanguinius and his rebellious brothers were indeed traitors the title would only last as long as the Emperor remained on the Throne of Terra. When Sanguinius confronted and defeated his father he would be proclaimed the Second Emperor, the True Emperor and with that titles such as Traitor, Loyalist, and Secessionist would all fade. Only the strong would remain the defeated having become nothing but the memories and corpses of a forgotten age.

 

Sanguinius walked twice around the holo-projector. The rebel Legions were colored blood red, an appropriate color considering three of the Traitor Legions wore variations of that color, the Loyalists a green color while the Realm of Ultramar was a small area of cobalt blue on the edge of the Segmentum Ultima. Unknown loyalties were gray while other star systems that had declared independence from all sides were a muted white. Star systems currently contested over were a stark yellow.

 

The three-dimensional map of the Galaxy controlled by the Imperium was slowly but ever surely going from green to red as victory after victory was won and star system after star system swore their allegiance to the War Commander. It would be years but eventually the assault on the Sol System itself would begin. Azkaellon could almost sense it, hovering just beyond his mind, tempting him with glories and power yet to come.

 

“My son,” the primarch began, gesturing for his Guard Commander to near him, “Tell me what do you see of our operations?”

 

Azkaellon strode forward looking out amongst the holo-map watching as more and more of the Galaxy switched colors from green and yellow to blood red. “I see victories, my primarch. We have caught the Emperor and His lackeys off guard. Few if any significant forces are able to engage us with any chance of success.”

 

“Indeed. However they continue to attack us, secondary supply lines, worlds of minor importance and the like suffering from hit and run tactics. These battles will not affect the final outcome of my eventual arrival to Earth yet the Imperials continue to attack, sacrificing themselves to buy time. Why do they do this knowing it matters not?” the Angel of Blood’s tone of voice expected his son to come to the right conclusion.

 

“The Loyalists lost near a quarter of a million Astartes on Istvaan III and V. They cannot face us on equal footing for at least three to four years. These skirmishes for want of a better word are to slow us down, delaying tactics to allow Terra to fortify and for the remaining Loyalist Legions to redeploy,” the primarch waited for more, “The Imperials know the end result but they resist out of loyalty, out of oaths sworn centuries ago to a distant tyrant. They are blinded from the purity of our cause. They are ignorant but steadfast in their allegiance to the False Emperor, an allegiance that can only be broken by the finality of death.”

 

Sanguinius nodded, his long blond hair flowing like yellow liquid. “You are correct. The Death Guard is all but wiped out, the Emperor’s Children and the Salamanders so wounded they have fled to their respective homeworlds. The Iron Hands on the other hand continue to fight us on a dozen fronts. Despite the loss of Manus and most of their First Company they continue to resist with a ferocity even Angron might admire, if he was able to admire anything that is. The Imperials dedication to my father’s domain is admirable but foolish. They will all bend the knee or be destroyed.”

 

The Guard Commander nodded in agreement, waiting for his father to continue. The Ninth Primarch resumed, “The Tenth Legion was spread out over thirty active combat zones when word reached the Gorgon of Guilliman’s secession. Manus being as he is flew into a rage and took only the units available to him: the Morlocks. That is our only setback so far. The majority of the Iron Hands should have perished in Istvaan, ground into dust like the maggots that they are. Instead they are the main Astarte force facing us at the moment. An irritating factor, nothing more for now at least.”

 

The vox in both super-humans ears clicked. The voice of Sanguinary Guard Sergeant Zuriel came through clearly. “My lord primarch, Guard Commander, the others are ready and waiting.”

 

“Acknowledged, Zuriel, I am on my way,” the Angel of Blood replied. The War Commander nodded to his son who voxed the guards outside the primarch’s quarters to ready themselves to move out.

 

The War Commander and Azkaellon exited the primarch’s rooms, Azkaellon a meter behind and to the right of his gene-father. The other four Sanguinary Guards followed behind them, their gold and red armor, much like the Emperor’s Custodes, shined and perfected to all its glory. A gathering of powerful beings was about to occur and the Guard wanted to be sure to show the power and splendor of their primarch.

 

The pathway leading from the interior of the battle-barge to the upper assembly hall took nearly sixteen minutes to complete. The plasteel doors to the hall opened and Azkaellon, an Astartes veteran for over two centuries who had fought beside his primarch countless times and other such beings, even besides the Emperor Himself on occasion but never had he felt the aura of… raw power and dominance that resided in the large room.

 

Hundreds of Astartes captains, commanders, veteran sergeants, standard-bearers, company champions and others from all of the Legions that supported Sanguinius waited in the grand hall, waiting for their War Commander. At the doors and at locations throughout the hall were more of the Sanguinary Guard, watchful for any attempt at treachery or assassination. From the ceiling large banners of the Blood Angels and its allied Legions drooped down halfway to the floor. The hall was lighted by glow-globes and incensed candles.

 

The Astartes stood in filed ranks to the left and right of the center of the assembly hall. The amalgamation of representatives from the different Legions swelled the Guard Commander with pride. His father had done this. The Angel of Blood had united all these forces to wage the greatest war the Galaxy had ever seen. It was truly a remarkable sight and example of the power the War Commander wielded.

 

Walking past the occupants Sanguinius made his way through the elongated room to the throne made specifically for him by Perturabo. The throne was burnished red iron with black veins interwoven through it to form the star of Chaos Undivided with the sigil of the Blood Angels upon the back of the throne with white skulls acting as armrests.

 

As soon as Sanguinius sat down all the occupants, minus the Guard contingent, knelt in respect, all except the six beings of immense power in front of the throne, six beings of charisma and ambition, six demi-gods forged by the Emperor over two hundred years ago. They were the six primarchs that broke their oaths to their father in favor of Sanguinius. The primarchs merely bowed their heads acknowledging the War Commander as their leader. They were respectful but were more or less an equal with the Angel of Blood not a servant.

 

Angron the Red Angel was seething with violence and brutality in every centimeter of his being, shaking slightly from the rage that always permeated him. His new red with brass covered armor showing the change in allegiance. The Red Angel reeked of dried blood causing to Azkaellon to think the red was blood of his enemies and not simple paint. Konrad Curze, the Night Haunter, looked nonchalant in his blue-black armor, as if he was bored. His black, iris-less were fixated on Sanguinius, watching the Blood Angels Primarch every move. Whatever he was thinking few could guess and even fewer would comprehend. Leman Russ stood slightly bent over like a dog about to attack, adorned with wolf fetishes, furs, and the skulls of four Thousand Sons officers taken as trophies during the Burning of Prospero hanging from his waist, the sigil of the wolf upon the Mark of Slaanesh signifying the Wolf King’s patron. Perturabo, the Lord of Iron, having been the last to arrive stood in the center of yet seemed separate from the rest by a small margin, small but noticeable; he never was close to his siblings, with only Sanguinius ever came close enough to be called brother with affection. Jaghatai Khan, the Chosen of Tzeentch, calmly stood between his brothers, his eyes ever wandering, ever planning. His armor remained relatively unchanged with only the addition of the Mark of Tzeentch and the Eight-Pointed Star of Chaos upon it the only difference than it was before the Heresy. Lorgar Aurelian, the Urizen and Sanguinius’s closest advisor since the beginning of this Heresy was the primarch that had brought the faith of the Primordial Truth to the Blood Angels, opening their eyes to potential possibilities and giving them the power to topple the Emperor. The Aurelian’s bald head was covered in holy text written in the old dialects of Colchis, detailing rituals and powers few mortals could grasp. His armor was adorned with the skin of victims, holy text written up them, their faces stretched to appear to be in constant pain. A large, heavy book was chained to his side, the symbol of Chaos Undivided took center of the cover with the four corners covered with the sigils of the four major Gods of Chaos. Standing close to the primarchs but not with them was former First-Captain Typhon of the Death Guard now called the Plague Lord of the Black Legion, he was in the presences of princes of darkness, not their equal but a powerful being in his own right. The manreaper that was given to him by Mortarion had been bastardized and corrupted by the power of Nurgle. Its blade was covered in acidic poison filled with contagions that could wipe out entire ecosystems.

 

“Rise,” the War Commander commanded. All of the Astartes rose from their kneeled stance, the primarchs heads rose as well. “This will go down in history as the first assembly of all of the commanders and primarchs of the Legions in rebellion against the Throne of Terra. We will discuss strategy and after this the war will truly begin. But first let me inform you the titles and positions you will hold after we win this civil war,” the War Commander stood, walking to his brothers beginning with the World Eaters Primarch.

 

“Angron the Red Angel, my brother and Eater of Worlds I give you the title of Butcher for your ferocity in battle and the devastation you have wrought on the Loyalists. When the Emperor falls and the Second Imperium ascends you will be the weapon I use against the enemies of Mankind. You and your Legion will be the tip of the spear that pierces the armor of any and all foes that stand against my Imperium of Chaos.” Angron, his teeth clenched pounded his right hand to his chest once in salute of old.

 

Sanguinius moved on to Curze. “Konrad Curze the Night Haunter, my brother with the will to establish true, effective law amongst the stars. Father failed you and shunned you and your gifts. That will not happen in my empire. You shall be the upholder of justice, my right hand in enforcing the Edicts of the Second Imperium. You are the Lord of Night always prepared to enact punishment on those that deserve it. Wherever a world disobeys my decrees or delves into anarchy you and your Night Lords will rein them in and establish peace and law by executing all those that dared to question us.” The Night Haunter’s alabaster face stretched to create a smile of a predator, his head nodding in understanding and anticipation.

 

To the Primarch of the VI Legion he said, “Leman Russ, my brother the Wolf King. Father has used you for His own devices for too long without the glory you deserved. He raised Magnus and his Legion above your own, a mistake that has been rectified. You are no longer the Emperor’s lap dog but rather you are the Executioner of my will. If a world or force within my empire raises the flag of rebellion they will do so knowing the Wolves of Fenris approach and that they will all perish, their peoples and culture expunged from the Materium.” Russ leaned his head back and howled in agreement, spittle shot from his mouth into the air, the fetishes and skulls on his armor dangling from the sudden motion. The howl was deep and blood curdling but did finally end allowing Sanguinius to move on.

To Perturabo he said, “Perturabo, my brother the Lord of Iron, for decades your sons have been forced to act as garrison troops on backwaters, receiving little to no thanks from the Emperor or those brothers that have sided with Him. You will no longer be ignored. You and your Legion will be designers and defenders of the future. After I ascend the Throne you will be the Architect of the Imperium, building upon the ashes of father’s dream into an empire resolute against the dangers of the cosmos and beautiful in structure. You shall become the premiere commander in the field of siege warfare and an intellect behind our technological advancement.” Perturabo extended his arm and Sanguinius took it, grasping his forearm in a warrior gesture from the histories of Old Terra.

 

He moved to Jaghatai Khan. “Jaghatai Khan, my brother from the Empty Quarter. You and your Legion have been blessed with gifts from the Lord of Change, your power having greatly increased to tear down the corrupt regime we once served. You will be the Arch-Stormseer of the Chaos Imperium. Your Legion will be the psyker army that will expand the empire we build together past the borders of the Old Imperium to the stars beyond. With your abilities nothing can stop our final victory over the False Emperor whether it takes ten years or ten thousand.” Jaghatai bowed his head in agreement.

 

Finally to Lorgar, “Lorgar Aurelian, my brother the Urizen, it has been a long time since Monarchia. In that time you have grown in power and dedication. You have found new gods, true gods, which have been with us since the beginning of our lives. After father is dethroned you shall be become the Grand Vicar of the True Faith. You will be the speaker and heart of a galactic wide religion, establishing the faith of the Primordial Annihilator throughout the Galaxy to lead Mankind into the future of enlightenment.” Lorgar and Sanguinius embraced.

 

Breaking the embrace Sanguinius moved on to Typhon. Looking down at the Astarte officer he began “You are not a primarch,” Sanguinius’s voice held no loathing in it, “and no brother of mine. But you are a comrade-in-arms who has helped me greatly in this war so far wounding your primarch and ravaging the Death Guard to near extinction. You will forever travel through the Galaxy, spreading the gifts Nurgle has given you unto those that need to be blessed or cursed. You are the Plaguebearer. The God of Corruption has given you the ability to pave the way for our cause to spread like a contagion across a million worlds.” Typhon, the master and lord of the Black Legion knelt before Sanguinius. The War Commander extended his hand to rest upon the shaved skull of Typhon. “Rise, comrade, rise and take your place at the side of the future.” Typhon rose and stepped closer to the primarchs but still distant showing he was and never would be in the same league as the primarchs but that he accepted by the Angel of Blood.

 

Sanguinius returned to his throne. “Now,” he began after taking his seat, “let us begin.” The assembly hall’s holo-projector activated in the center of the room showing a much more in depth and larger galaxy map than the one in the War Commander’s quarters.

 

Azkaellon remained by his father’s side as orders to the other primarchs and their Legions were issued. Russ and his Legion would be dispatched to the Eastern Fringe to conquer the worlds there as long as they were not part of the Ultramar Protectorate, Sanguinius was adamant about this. They would also position themselves to prevent the Dark Angels from reaching Terra. From what the primarch had told his chief guardian the Lion was still withdrawing the First Legion from the Shield Worlds, their war against the confederacy of worlds abandoned when word reached him of Guilliman’s secession and later the Dropsite Massacre. The Guard Commander would have wished to witness the battles that would be fought between the Wolf and the Lion for they would be bloody and legendary. Alas his duty was protecting his father, a duty he would carry out for as long as he lived.

 

Curze and his Night Lords would attack Imperial supply lines to disrupt their ability counter-attack and defend successfully. Another goal was ensuring fear and chaos in Loyalist star systems to dissuade any unity and action that could be brought against the Heresy. Half of the Night Lords, led by Curze himself, would strike at multiple locations throughout the Segmentum Tempestus and from there the tendrils of terror would spread destabilizing entire sectors.

 

The briefing would go on for another six hours. At its conclusion the Traitor primarchs returned to their flagships, soon after they would be jumping into the warp to return to their respective Legions to continue their part of the rebellion. Only Lorgar remained. As the last Astarte exited the hall, the doors closing behind him, the XVII Primarch chuckled.

“Ever the diplomat brother, good words and promises given to others, is this the new way of the Blood Angels?” Lorgar asked in jest.

 

Sanguinius turned his gaze to Lorgar, his closest brother. “No mine is the way of close combat, spilled blood and dead enemies but if this Heresy is to succeed I need the others loyal to me and dedicated to the final outcome. I will not stand for inter-Legion disputes that could threaten our advance. We must appear as a united front to the Imperium. If any weakness is detected that worm Malcador and Dorn would find it and exploit it.”

 

Lorgar grunted. “Even if there were weaknesses on the scale you speak of the slaves of the Emperor will still lose. It is promised by the gods,” his zealotry evident in the emotion he poured into that last sentence. On instinct he touched the Book of Lorgar he carried with him at all times.

 

“Indeed it is,” Sanguinius replied. He pushed off the throne, extending his pearl white wings to their full glory and walked towards the holo-map. Lorgar came closer to the IX Primarch. Both stared at the displacement of their forces and known displacement of the Loyalists.

 

After some time the Aurelian spoke, “Sending Russ to the Eastern Fringe was wise. Not only will the Great Wolf beat and pillage countless systems his rivalry with the Lion is well known. The war there will be catastrophic with the deaths of billions assured. Neither will relent until the other is dead. There was also another reason wasn’t there, brother?”

“Russ detests psykers despite that he has his own in the form of Rune Priests," Sanguinius said matter-of-fact, "We exploited that after Nikaea and fed on his hatred and fears. The Burning of Prospero not only butchered the entire population of Magnus's homeworld along with killing around seventy percent of the XV Legion but also brought Russ to our side in full devotion to the Dark Prince. His hatred of sorcery remains however. If the Wolf and the Great Khan were to fight on a battlefield together there is a probably chance one of them would start a fight with the other. A fight which could destroy both their Legions, I cannot have that, not now, not ever. The Khan stays near the Wolf goes away and both fight for me.”

 

The Word Bearers Primarch nodded, standing in silence for some time. Eventually he broke the silence. “What now? Are you going to rejoin Raldoron at the front?”

 

“Not yet,” the reply obviously surprised Lorgar.

 

“No? Than when? You don’t wish to spend the entire war above Istvaan do you?”

 

“No. I will leave this system never to return. I have another place to be, at least temporarily. And you are coming with me,” the War Commander glanced at Lorgar from the corner of his eyes.

 

“And where is that, brother?” the Urizen asked.

 

The War Commander raised his right arm pointing at a section of the three-dimensional galactic map. He pointed towards the bottom corner of the Segmentum Ultima. Lorgar’s eyebrows rose in surprise at the location, he turned to his brother, his body language conveying his confusion.

 

“Ultramar,” Sanguinius stated. The cobalt-blue of Guilliman’s Realm reflecting upon his eyes, “We go to Ultramar.”

[Tanner151]

NOTE: The Sanguinius Heresy story chapters are there to help fill in the gaps and to give a better look into the Heresy itself from those that fought in it. Enjoy. 

 

As usual feedback and comments appreciated. 

[Sanguine_Knight]

Actually it is well written(aside from a few grammatical errors) and thought out. Its just that the thought of our revered Primarch falling to Chaos makes the Black Rage well up inside of me. Nice work though.

[Wade Garrett]

What jumps out at me is how Sanguinus is able to get all the Traitors toeing the line, as opposed to the situation Horus faced in canon.

 

About the only ones that other Arch Traitor could count on were Mortarion, Perturabo, and Lorgar.

 

The World Eaters, Night Lords, Alpha Legion, and the corrupted Emperor's Children were far less amendable to his command, putting their own agendas or desires above the overall war effort.

 

I'm not saying this as a "You're doing this wrong, change it"; rather, I'm saying "All this is different from canon, now tell me WHY."

[Tanner151]

Actually it is well written(aside from a few grammatical errors) and thought out. Its just that the thought of our revered Primarch falling to Chaos makes the Black Rage well up inside of me. Nice work though.

Thank you. Grammar has and always will be my main flaw in writing I think.

I chose Sanguinius for a multitude of reasons.

1. I feel there are only 4 primarchs in the Imperium that could have launched a Heresy to seriously threaten the Imperium: Horus, Guilliman, Sanguinius and Dorn

2. Horus is the canon Arch-Betrayer so no need to do that.

3. There already is the excellent Dornian Heresy so I don't want to seem to copy that even though that Heresy inspired me to do this one.

4. There is a Guilliman Heresy out and in my mind I could never cause Guilliman to be the leader of a heresy.

5. Sanguinius might seem like an angel but he might be one of the most touched by Chaos amongst his brothers. The Slaaneshi daemon in Fear to Tread hints that the wings and his other gifts (gift of sight) were given to him by the Ruinous Powers.

6. I really like Sanguinius but I wanted to see a Heresy in which he leads. I'm sure there are Sanguinius Heresies out there just not one that I've found that seemed like a major one.

You are a Sanguinius/Blood Angels fan obviously. Do you think I am portraying them well? If this ATL was canon would you want them Blood Angels to remain your army? Just curious.

[Tanner151]

 

What jumps out at me is how Sanguinus is able to get all the Traitors toeing the line, as opposed to the situation Horus faced in canon.

About the only ones that other Arch Traitor could count on were Mortarion, Perturabo, and Lorgar.

The World Eaters, Night Lords, Alpha Legion, and the corrupted Emperor's Children were far less amendable to his command, putting their own agendas or desires above the overall war effort.

I'm not saying this as a "You're doing this wrong, change it"; rather, I'm saying "All this is different from canon, now tell me WHY."

Influencing/controlling your allies is always a major challenge and recently (past few years) the Horus Heresy novels are making it seem like there was almost no unity amongst the Traitors. That somewhat bothers me. I realize that some rivalries and the like would remain but for them to be fighting a war of annihilation against their own father and other brothers you would think they be at least pretend to be more united.

In this timeline Lorgar, Perturabo, Russ, and Jaghatai are Sanguinius closest allies. I see what you mean about him keeping them in line better than Horus did. I made it like this for a variety of reasons.

Sanguinius-Lorgar relationship is much stronger than Horus-Lorgar. Sanguinius has been a close brother of the Aurelian and converted to Chaos almost five decades ago by the time of the Heresy. Both had planned for years to overthrow their father and both are committed to that goal.

Sanguinius-Perturabo have been close since even before Sanguinius-Lorgar (but not as close) but he is not a devotee of Chaos, just like OTL. Perturabo in this timeline is essentially the same as OTL but is more loyal towards Sanguinius than he was Horus.

Sanguinius-Jaghatai Khan relationship is similar to Horus-Mortarion relationship. When the Heresy began the Khan had already been dabbling in sorcery and had strong psyker connections from his past on Chogoris that I will explain in the Index Astartes: White Scars chapter. When Sanguinius betrayed the Emperor the Khan was right there to support him and quickly made way to Istvaan to swear his allegiance post-Massacre. The Emperor-Jaghatai relationship is no where near as strong as it was in canon for reasons to be explained their chapter.

Sanguinius-Curze relationship is better than Horus-Curze relationship because Sanguinius, in my opinion, is a better diplomat and is intelligent/shrewd enough to exploit Curze's strengths by promising to make Curze essentially the galactic version of Judge Dredd post-Heresy. Curze craved justice in the Imperium (both in this ATL and in canon), a bloody justice which was essentially genocide but justice in his eyes. Sanguinius also understands and uses Curze for his talents and gifts (prophetic dreams) unlike Horus who pretty much allowed him to be a loose cannon or so it seems to me. Despite this Curze and Sanguinius are not close and merely understand one another. That is another reason Sanguinius orders him to the Segmentum Tempestus is for Curze to do his own thing while helping the Traitors but not be in a position to interfere with the War Commander's plans. Does this make sense?

Sanguinius-Russ relationship is very simple. Sanguinius ordered Russ to Prospero to "deal with Magnus and his sorcerer-sons". An order Russ has been waiting for and gladly took. The Wolf King went in with good intentions but came out a servant of Chaos, Slaanesh in particular (will explain more in the Space Wolves Index Chapter). So Russ is the Executioner of Sanguinius as stated in the story chapter. He is loyal to Sanguinius because he truly believes that Sanguinius is the "Savior of the Imperium" and that their father was nothing more than a corrupt, blind tyrant.

Sanguinius-Angron relationships seems ok but Angron will have a rebellious streak in him later on. He is only fighting for Sanguinius because Sanguinius allows him to kill as he pleases and that Sanguinius isn't there father which is a plus in his book. Angron will be the one with the loose leash amongst the Traitor Primarchs.

Sanguinius-Typhon While the ceremony made it seem like Typhon was near equal with the primarchs it is a lie and was purely symbolic to get Typhon to fight for him. Sanguinius and the other primarchs detest Typhon for being such a weakling (he's not a primarch) and one who is trying to reach past his place in life.

Also the reason(s) some things are different is because of the Chaos Gods choosing Sanguinius when he was still a child on Baal rather than Horus much later. Sanguinius knew from the beginning (due to the Chaotic influence) that he wanted to overthrow his father and for years he and his Legion, along with Lorgar's 50 or so years pre-Heresy began planting seeds of doubt and turning those to his side. Sanguinius during that time saw some who were betrayed (Angron on his homeworld as per canon) ignored (Perturabo and his Legion garrisoning backwaters and left behind essentially) or criticized (Curze and his Legion for their brutal methods) by the Emperor.

Does this help at all?. If any more confusion/questions be free to ask. Also did you enjoy the timeline so far? Do you like the things I have done with it?

[Sanguine_Knight]

I'm not sure if I would pick Chaos in any version. I just have a problem with what it represents in the 40k universe. If the Chaos powers were to get their way, they would destroy Humanity. According to the HH book Legion this will bring about their own destruction.That's why the Alpha Legion sacrificed themselves to the cause. At least that's how I interpreted it. Why would they allow that to happen? It would make much more sense to allow humans to live so they can also live. Also I am a big fan of loyalty. The way that Primarchs are swayed so easily by Chaos is just kind of lame to me. These guys are supposed to be possessed of immense will and charisma, but when the whispers start they turn on a dime and are immediately turned into pawns. I think it would be much more interesting for at least one or two of them to be able to trick the Chaos Gods and use their newfound power to battle for humanity even if its not the way the Emperor wants it. The way it is now, all Chaos can say is The Emperor is false. They have to know what they are doing is going to lead to no more humans and no more galaxy. Thus no more them. I realize The Emperor and his lackeys have some serious issues but at least He wanted Humanity to live. Its completely counter productive for humans, be they tainted or not, to want all humans to die. That's my rant, but it doesn't keep me from appreciating the works of others. On a side note if I were to pledge myself to any Chaos power it would be Nurgle. He loves his followers.

[Tanner151]

I'm not sure if I would pick Chaos in any version. I just have a problem with what it represents in the 40k universe. If the Chaos powers were to get their way, they would destroy Humanity. According to the HH book Legion this will bring about their own destruction.That's why the Alpha Legion sacrificed themselves to the cause. At least that's how I interpreted it. Why would they allow that to happen? It would make much more sense to allow humans to live so they can also live. Also I am a big fan of loyalty. The way that Primarchs are swayed so easily by Chaos is just kind of lame to me. These guys are supposed to be possessed of immense will and charisma, but when the whispers start they turn on a dime and are immediately turned into pawns. I think it would be much more interesting for at least one or two of them to be able to trick the Chaos Gods and use their newfound power to battle for humanity even if its not the way the Emperor wants it. The way it is now, all Chaos can say is The Emperor is false. They have to know what they are doing is going to lead to no more humans and no more galaxy. Thus no more them. I realize The Emperor and his lackeys have some serious issues but at least He wanted Humanity to live. Its completely counter productive for humans, be they tainted or not, to want all humans to die. That's my rant, but it doesn't keep me from appreciating the works of others. On a side note if I were to pledge myself to any Chaos power it would be Nurgle. He loves his followers.

True true. Good points.