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Questions about the great crusade.


Koriel

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I'm in the midst of writing some fluff for my heresy forces, and I'm looking for some input from those who are more lore knowledgeable then myself.

 

Firstly, for how many years did the great crusade go on? I used to think it was around 200 years, but when i did an online search i got very conflicting answers. Some said 200 and others said as many as 400 years. Has there been any official word from either FW or BL about the matter?

 

And secondly, how many years did Horus serve as the warmaster before the outbreak of the heresy?

 

I get the feeling from all the BL and FW books that the entire timeline has been expanded to accomodate more fluff.

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Horus was found early during the Great Crusade.

 

The Battle of Keylek was fought by Horus and the Luna Wolves, approximately 123 years into the Great Crusade. - Horus Rising, Part I Chapter 9

 

The Ullanor Crusade earned Horus the title of Warmaster at the latter part of the Great Crusade. So, 60-70 years?

Boom

 

 

 

M30
798 The Great Crusade begins
~801 Horus is the first primarch to be found
963 The razing of Monarchia
~981 Alpharius is the last primarch to be found

M31
000 Ullanor concludes, and at the Triumph the Emperor names Horus as Warmaster
001 Nikaea, and later the compliance of 63-19
002 Final compliance of 140-20, then the Blood Angels go to Kayvas
003 War with the Interex, and the Luna Wolves become Sons of Horus
004 Horus falls on Davin's moon. Late 004 and into 005, Prospero is razed
005 Isstvan III begins, and goes on for three months into 006
006 Eisenstein reaches Terra, and Isstvan V occurs mid-006
007 The battle for Calth, followed by the Underworld War which rages for ten years
008 Garro recovers Loken, the only survivor of Isstvan III
009 Guilliman names 'Imperium Secundus' in his plans
010 - 013 I can't say...
014 The Siege of Terra begins. The Heresy ends, and is followed by the Scouring
021 The Second Founding

Horus's treachery from being named Warmaster, up to the truth about Isstvan V reaching Terra, is seven years. The Age of Darkness (about which the Imperium knows very little, looking back on historical records) lasts for seven years. The Scouring also lasts for seven years.

From the time that Horus was named Warmaster, up to the last of the traitors being driven into the Eye of Terror, is 21 years.

The rest of the Heresy and the thousand years after it has already been plotted. Again, I know this because I did it.

 

Courtesy of Laurie Goulding and The First Expedition forum. 

Four years as warmaster seems a remarkably short time for Horus to fall. I always got the impression it was a bit longer than that, and then the time between that and Isstvan also seems really short when you consider the preparation the Heresy would require. 

Do remember though that (unless im mistaken) Imperial Years (those used in 30k/40k) are divided into 1000 equal parts which mean that they last longer or shorter than our 365 day per year system.

 

Theres also the thing about time and space being distorted a bit because of warp travel and the like. So 4 years on the Imperial Calendar couldve been roughly double or triple the amount of time, maybe even more, for Horus.

Imperial Years last the same amount of time as a standard Terran year, record keeping is done in 1/1000's. IIRC one day is split into 3 Imperial units.

 

Because your just dividing 365 by 1000, not creating a new speed at which the Earth orbits the sun.

I always thought that the great crusades were too short and wished that with the heresy series they would expand it.

 

1000 years to conquer a solar system followed by 200 years to conquer most of a galaxy. If the great crusade lasted 500 to 1000 years, with hous I charge for the last 100 years or so it would make the heresy even more tragic, 7 years to undo e work of a millennium.

 

It also gives the primarch's more time to met and get to know each other. The amount they get up to in the background I'm surprised they had time to fight wars.

If there is a contradiction I would probably go with the Massacre/Extermination timeline. Pretty sure LG worked closely with the creators of those (Alan Bligh?) and they're more set-in-stone than a forum post from quite a while ago. We've already seen that some things change behind the scenes, like the sizes of the Legions for example, it wouldn't surprise me if the length of the Heresy fluctuates before the end.

Off the top of my head Isstvan III and Dorn returning to Terra in the above timeline have more space between them now.

Dorn's return to Terra is synonymous with the Triumph at Ullanor. Other than that, there is no real problem with the timeline above other than Alpharius being found before 964.M30 and taking command of his Legion at 981.M30.

The actual heresy itself is supposed to be around 7 years long. When I get the chance I'll dig the actual timeline out of Massacre/Extermination I forget which

 

That is the long-known number, aye, but if the Horus Heresy series (by either BL and/or FW) decides to elongate it via retcon, then I would think that that Laurie Golding list will likely be on the mark. An additional two years, by the look of it, isn't too bad of a retcon, I suppose. 

Dorn didn't make it home until 005.M31. He stayed aboard the Vengeful Spirit during 63-19 when he speaks to Loken. He was waylaid by Warp Storms after beginning his journey home while the Luna Wolves fought on Murder, against the Interex, and the Auretian Technocracy.

Well, I think what we're hitting is "when did the Heresy start?"

 

Officially, it is Istvaan V, not Istvaan III as the beginning of the Heresy is marked by the Imperium, not by us. But many of us put Istvaan III as the start of the Heresy as it is whn Horus fired the first shots of Betrayal.

 

So it isn't truly a retcon so much as us learning how much time there is between the Betrayal and the Massacre and in our, out-universe, relatively-omnipotent viewpoint, we see it as a retcon.

 

Sort of like Calth. We automatically assume that the Word Bearers' objective being to poison the Veridian star is a retcon. But that viewpoint only exists in 30K. In 40K, the Ultramarines will always remember it as a last, spiteful act by the beaten and fleeing Word Bearers.

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