Ruinstorm (HH#46)/Fate of the Traitor legions' homeworld

[Manchu warlord]

Okay, I haven't actually read Ruinstorm (Horus heresy book 46) yet, but I do know it ends with something like:  Guilliman and the Lion agreed to distract the traitor's fleet, so Sanguinius and the Blood Angels could slip through the *gap* and make for Terra.  After that, it said that the Lion would further distract the enemy by going on a rampage on worlds that Horus has captured.  

As I said, I haven't yet read the book, but if you guys have, do tell me if this is so.

 

So now, I found this really cool idea in 1d4chan, and it said that the Lion's rampage took him to murdering the homeworlds of the some the traitor legions:  Cthonia, Chemos, Barbarus, as well as other lesser traitor-held planets, but not Colchis - for Guilliman has marked that one personally.  It is of great wonder why the traitors had no world to return to after the Siege of Terra, and instead they fled to the Eye of Terror.

[Lord_Caerolion]

I think it's mainly because they're on the back foot, in a flight for their lives. Most of their homeworlds are defended, yes, but certainly won't be able to withstand an assault by the basically-untouched Ultramarines Legion, plus all the other Imperial forces. Far better to flee where your new allies can protect you, and the Imperials won't be able to pursue.

[Tarvek Val]

Precisely. Additionally, the Traitor Legions became extremely fractured after the death of Horus. He was basically the superglue holding the treacherous alliance together, and one he died, the ambitions and schemes of the other primarchs and legionaries quickly came to the forefront.

 

The Emperor's Children started raiding the other Traitor Legions and war bands for slaves and materials, which led to them fighting with the World Eaters. On the world of Skalathrax, Khârn the Betrayer led the World Eaters against the Emperor's Children. When everyone retreated from the deadly cold at night, he went insane and started lighting all the shelters on fire, thus shattering both his legion and the Emperor's Children. The EC later tried to reform under Fabius Bile and stole Horus's body from the Sons of Horus, but were again devastated, this time by the newly-birthed Black Legion. Perturabo went to dwell on his fortress world of Medrengard, the Alpha Legion vanished into the depths of space and the warp, the Night Lords split into competing war bands, the Thousand Sons founded the Planet of the Sorcerers.

 

In essence, the Traitor Legions became so weak and internally fractured that they could barely even defend themselves from each other, much less the vengeful forces of the Imperium at large.

[carlisimo]

Dunno, the Scouring was pretty long for the Traitors to make a beeline directly towards the Eye of Terror.  They must have had some territory that they held for a while.  I hope that gets explored more.

[Lord_Caerolion]

Well, Tsagualsa got taken down by the Ultramarines Legion, now that I think about it, but by and large, I believe it's supposed to be that the bulk of the Legions themselves fled directly there, chased by the Loyalists. The majority of the Scouring was retaking planets that had sided with the Traitors, but not necessarily backed by Legion forces. Then you have the enclaves that chose independence rather than siding with one or the other, the ones that fell to Xenos, etc. Even without the Traitor Legions directly involved, there was a lot of work to do during the Scouring.

[karden00]

I imagine that the Scouring is a two sided affair.

On the one hand, any planet/system that declared for Horus and then learned he is super dead, but Guilliman, Dorn, The Lion, The Khagan, and maybe Corax was coming a knocking, I can’t imagine they would really resist.

 

On the other side, traitor astartes may well be willing to hold out to the death. They know their gamble failed, and they are not so deranged as to think they could prevail, but they are willing to go down with the ship.

Mortals, even those in the traitors service? My gut says not so much. Then again, the galaxy is well big enough for fanatics of every stripe.

[mc warhammer]

I imagine that the Scouring is a two sided affair.

On the one hand, any planet/system that declared for Horus and then learned he is super dead, but Guilliman, Dorn, The Lion, The Khagan, and maybe Corax was coming a knocking, I can’t imagine they would really resist. 

 

were those worlds reclaimed or just wiped out ?

[bluntblade]

I think it's mainly because they're on the back foot, in a flight for their lives. Most of their homeworlds are defended, yes, but certainly won't be able to withstand an assault by the basically-untouched Ultramarines Legion, plus all the other Imperial forces. Far better to flee where your new allies can protect you, and the Imperials won't be able to pursue.

I object to basically untouched, having just Read Know No Fear.

[karden00]

I imagine both reclaiming and wiping out will be on the menu when it comes to the scouring.

My point is, we hear of the Iron Cage and Tsagualsa probably because they are outliers. The rest are very likely handily in the Imperial’s hands, given resources and momentum.

Here’s a thought: do systems beyond Terra even know the Emperor fell? If you pledged for Horus, and then waited for him to win the war, only to have Guilliman, The Lion, Russ and The Khagan show up (in the name of the emperor) it’s pretty clear Horus lost, but is it in any way clear the Big E was reduced to Elvis-at-Death status?

[karden00]

 

I think it's mainly because they're on the back foot, in a flight for their lives. Most of their homeworlds are defended, yes, but certainly won't be able to withstand an assault by the basically-untouched Ultramarines Legion, plus all the other Imperial forces. Far better to flee where your new allies can protect you, and the Imperials won't be able to pursue.

I object to basically untouched, having just Read Know No Fear.

Agreed. Relatively untouched may be a better way of putting it. We know they lost something in the order of 50% of their total strength(was it more? Can’t remember), but that still left them with far and away the largest force by the time Horus was toast (maybe the DA had more? But they’re kinda.... undecided)....

 

Basically untouched is totes wrong, but relative to everyone else, they were still extremely potent, numerous, and unified.

[Laughingman]

When the Ultramarines arrived at Khur and Colchis during the scouring  didn't they find civilizations already largely destroyed? I kind of assumed the Homeworlds of the traitor legions were targets of opportunity for vengeful loyalists, in particular those  who had limited ability to engage conventional forces, shattered legions, black shields, loyalist of traitor legions associated with rouge Trader fleets who survived the purging of there legions... 

[nagashnee]

We know from the open day updated HH timeline that the lion does destroy several traitor homeworlds before the heresy is over, tho i cant seem to recall 100% which. IIRC its Chemos and Barbarus confirmed but i need to dig out the pic. 

[Sandlemad]

The Iron Warriors did seem to hang around after Terra, to the point that a notably brutal part of the Scouring appears to have been knocking over their fortress worlds. From the old IA article:

 

The rest of the Iron Warriors defended their small empire based on Olympia, but there was no refuge from the retribution of the loyalist Legions. The Imperial Fists supported the Ultramarines in a decade-long campaign to liberate the subjugated worlds. They discovered the Iron Warriors to be like a barbed hook that, once embedded into a victim, could only be removed with great risk of injuring the patient further. The Olympia garrison held out for two years, eventually triggering their missile stockpiles when defeat was unavoidable. They left a blasted wasteland that, like the other Traitor Legion home worlds, was declared Perdita.

 

It focuses on Olympia but we know they set up more small garrisons than maybe any other legion during the great crusade. The Iron Cage gets most of the attention but Dark Imperium names the IW-held worlds as an 'Empire of Iron'. Apparently it was poorly managed but even a small force of dug-in IW diehards holding the keys to a world's defence systems couldn't be ignored. Now multiply that by dozens of scattered worlds.

 

Overall it sounds much more organised than the headlong flight to the Eye of some other forces.

 

 

On the other side, traitor astartes may well be willing to hold out to the death. They know their gamble failed, and they are not so deranged as to think they could prevail, but they are willing to go down with the ship.
Mortals, even those in the traitors service? My gut says not so much. Then again, the galaxy is well big enough for fanatics of every stripe.

 

I could see some mortals holding out. The Word Bearers ideologically seeded tons of planets or systems - the 'Holy Worlds' - sufficiently to provide the legion with cultist hordes and traitor auxilia. Even if their manpower was nearly exhausted in the supplying troops for the heresy and the push on Terra, you still had many planets of fanatics that might hold out to the bitter end for their overseers.

[Phoebus]

 

 

I think it's mainly because they're on the back foot, in a flight for their lives. Most of their homeworlds are defended, yes, but certainly won't be able to withstand an assault by the basically-untouched Ultramarines Legion, plus all the other Imperial forces. Far better to flee where your new allies can protect you, and the Imperials won't be able to pursue.

I object to basically untouched, having just Read Know No Fear.

Agreed. Relatively untouched may be a better way of putting it. We know they lost something in the order of 50% of their total strength(was it more? Can’t remember), but that still left them with far and away the largest force by the time Horus was toast (maybe the DA had more? But they’re kinda.... undecided)....

 

Basically untouched is totes wrong, but relative to everyone else, they were still extremely potent, numerous, and unified.

 

With twenty-five Chapters, each of which had a nominal strength of 10,000 legionaries, the Ultramarines numbered close to a quarter of a million Space Marines prior to the Horus Heresy. Roughly 80% of that force, or about 200,000 Ultramarines, mustered at Calth. That battle saw roughly 120,000 Ultramarines slain. About half of the survivors were kept at Calth, to prosecute the Underworld War. From that, we can extrapolate that more or less 40,000 Ultramarines were available to leave with Guilliman and combat the XII and XVII Legions. In addition to these, there were roughly 50,000 other Ultramarines, who had been tasked with the protection of Ultramar itself.

 

Following Calth, the Shadow Crusade tore through the Five Hundred Worlds, burning many planets and ruining the War World of Armatura -- the heart of the XIIIth Legion's recruitment efforts. That 2-year period undoubtedly saw the Ultramarines' ranks thinned even more, and their already crippled fleet further reduced. It's not unreasonable to surmise that by the time Imperium Secundus was declared Roboute Guilliman had less than 100,000 Space Marines left in his legion. A great many of these would, as mentioned earlier, remain on Calth and to secure other worlds of Ultramar besides. Roboute Guilliman still had a formidable force, but what he marched past the Ruinstorm was probably smaller than the smallest of the Legiones Astartes at the end of the Great Crusade.

[m_r_parker]

We know from the open day updated HH timeline that the lion does destroy several traitor homeworlds before the heresy is over, tho i cant seem to recall 100% which. IIRC its Chemos and Barbarus confirmed but i need to dig out the pic. 

 

Aye, 'tis Barbarus, Chemos and Davin that are wiped out by the Dark Angels and this occurs before the Siege. Not sure if it's actually the Lion that leads this, the snippets we got just mention 'Dark Angels' so no doubt this will get further explanation later on in the main book series.

[Skalpynock]

Do we know how many years the Scouring lasted? From what I understand it was a pretty long undertaking, at least 20 years.

[Huggtand]

To my knowledge GW has never made a fixed date for the end of the Great Scouring

[Phoebus]

 

We know from the open day updated HH timeline that the lion does destroy several traitor homeworlds before the heresy is over, tho i cant seem to recall 100% which. IIRC its Chemos and Barbarus confirmed but i need to dig out the pic. 

 

Aye, 'tis Barbarus, Chemos and Davin that are wiped out by the Dark Angels and this occurs before the Siege. Not sure if it's actually the Lion that leads this, the snippets we got just mention 'Dark Angels' so no doubt this will get further explanation later on in the main book series.

 

Where is this mentioned? Just curious!

[Huggtand]

I think is was on a seminar at the latest weekender if I'm not mistaken

[m_r_parker]

Don't think it was specifically mentioned in any of the seminars (there may have been a fleeting reference in the BL one), instead those little tidbits were in a HH journal they were selling at the event - a bit like these 40k ones. At the bottom of each page there's a running timeline of events during the Heresy, and towards the end of the book there were the following:

 

029.012.M31 - The Dark Angels destroy Chemos, the home world of the Emperor's Children

 

398.013.M31 - The Dark Angels destroy Barbarus, home world of the Death Guard

[nagashnee]

Don't think it was specifically mentioned in any of the seminars (there may have been a fleeting reference in the BL one), instead those little tidbits were in a HH journal they were selling at the event - a bit like these 40k ones. At the bottom of each page there's a running timeline of events during the Heresy, and towards the end of the book there were the following:

 

029.012.M31 - The Dark Angels destroy Chemos, the home world of the Emperor's Children

 

398.013.M31 - The Dark Angels destroy Barbarus, home world of the Death Guard

 

I am 99% sure they were on one of the seminar timetables.

[Manchu warlord]

Whatever will happen, I certainly would like to read a novel about the Lion, his legion, and other avenger times striking out and make target practices of traitor homeworlds. 
The Lion, as the commander of this task would designate his team as, the "Imperial wrath". 
This what I would like to see:  He initially wanted to destroy all the homeworlds, but then Guilliman was like "do not touch Colchis.  Leave that one to me, brother".

[Indefragable]

In Ruinstorm ...

 

Something something something Chaos needs physical footholds in the material world in order to do its something something shady Chaos stuff something something (the book is really kind of surreal, so don't expect a physics lesson). As part of the plot, the Lion/Guilliman/Sanguinius realize that symbols are weapons in the fight against chaos (stabbing someone in the heart not only, ya know, physiologically destroys their heart that they need to pump blood throughout their veins, but also is a symbolic wound showing that you want them dead enough to stab them in the heart rather than just lob a block of C4 or something at them) and so destroying the symbols of Chaos on these anchor worlds does as much if not more damage to them then just swinging a sword.

 

Thus, at the end of the story, the Lion decides to extend that same logic to the Traitor Legions and virus bomb their homeworlds to symbolically cleanse them from the Galaxy as well as hopefully draw them back from Terra.

 

Guilliman will also act as a distraction and harass the rear of Horus's lines...

 

...so that Sanguinus can make all haste to Terra to fulfill his destiny (because 35% of the entire book is about how Sanguinius' destiny is to face Horus mano-e-mano).

 

I'm trying to have fun with it, but the book was a bit...tricky. Surreal is the best word I can describe. Not a bad read, just very different from others.

 

[karden00]

Whatever will happen, I certainly would like to read a novel about the Lion, his legion, and other avenger times striking out and make target practices of traitor homeworlds.

The Lion, as the commander of this task would designate his team as, the "Imperial wrath".

This what I would like to see: He initially wanted to destroy all the homeworlds, but then Guilliman was like "do not touch Colchis. Leave that one to me, brother".

 

The way you wrote that, brother, is bloody, beautifully hilarious.

[Tarvek Val]

Honestly though... it's the Lion we're talking about here. If he stayed true to character, he would definitely blow up Colchis with every weapon at his disposal, regardless of who told him not to.

 

Remember, one of the main reasons the feud between the Dark Angels and Space Wolves began was because the Lion killed a rebellious ruler that Leman Russ wanted to personally execute himself.

 

Thus, I cannot help but get an image in my head of the Lion hammering the "Exterminatus" button on the bridge of his flagship whilst giggling like a schoolgirl at how mad Guilliman will be when he finds out.