Need help for a primarch's lore

[Isghamor]

hey guys, It's since a while that i am trying to develop an interesting lore for the 11th primatch (the forgotten one). What i got down is that its pod fell on a xeno world instead of a human one and it end up growing up among the exodites(for various reasons they didn't kill it straight off the pod). What i can't come up with is a reason for its records to be purged from the archives. since not even Horus suffered such a fate. Thanks for your help. Looking forward to see your ideas :)

[Brother Lunkhead]

Hmmm...…. a worthy challenge I'll get some jumper cables and jolt the ol' brain and see what I can come up with.

[Commissar Molotov]

A Primarch rejecting Humanity would be a terrible blow to the Imperium and even the Emperor Himself - and suggestive that the Primarchs' vaunted infallibility was a lie. It stands to reason that such a situation might be hidden to prevent it corrupting the wider Imperium and its xenophobic ways.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Primarchs are meant to represent aspects of the Emperor. One idea I previously wrote of, was the idea one of the Primarchs represented the Emperor's desire for "true freedom," including the freedom to deny freedom to others- free to commit wanton destruction against the property of other humans, free to use and abuse other humans as playthings, and to be free of guilt while committing what any civilization would judge as a crime. Knowing and fearing the consequences of "true freedom," the Emperor purged that aspect of Himself, losing His ability to truly understand and sympathize with other humans in the process.

 

A Primarch who valued "true freedom" would be an absolute anarchist and iconoclast, forever fighting a civil war; the contradictions of having to simultaneously defend a person's freedom from slavery, AND his right to keep slaves, would drive this Primarch insane.

[Sanctimonius]

I've written this elsewhere but I think it's plausible.

 

I do think the primarch would have ended up on a world with a dominant, or at least powerful, alien presence. These could absolutely be Exodite Eldar. They live a fairly peaceful life, and openly tolerant of the humans they live with - perhaps descended from trading partners from the old Eldar Empire, they opened their doors and welcomed the refugees once they fled the collapsing Eldar Empire and the coming of She Who Thirsts. These Eldar settle on the human world/sector, both content to allow the others to share their home. This is before the coming of the Imperium and its extreme xenophobia, and during/after Old Night - perhaps the Eldar saw something in common with this outcast band of humans, in that their own empires had collapsed as well. 

 

Into this cosmopolitan mix throw one Primarch, salt to taste. This Primarch grows up in a world where humans and xenos live together relatively peacefully. The humans would adore this exemplar of humanity that strides among them, the Eldar might react positively to one who can learn their own tongue without mangling the words. Perhaps they face outside threats of their own - human or Eldar corsairs who attack them from time to time, faced with a coalition of human and Eldar defenders, led by their new general and totem. 

 

This sector is found by the Imperial Crusades. The ships receive messages of cautious greeting, from those who recognise the strength of the newcomers while also knowing their own. After all, Exodites have access to some of the old Eldar tech, while the humans in this setting might have a strong space-faring empire of their own. Greetings are extended, and before long the Imperium learns that another of the Prodigal Sons are returned! Much rejoicing is had, especially by the 11th legion, who have served with honour, with distinction, but have felt incomplete, looking at their brethren legions who have found their own gene-sires. Now they have their leader. Now they have purpose, they have been made whole.

 

This new leader, however, is not so exuberant. He has the measure of the Imperium. The ships are filled with these small, frail men and women, these strange tech-thralls that are more machine than flesh. He meets with the Emperor, who impresses upon him his sacred (but don't call it sacred!) task - to conquer the galaxy in the name of Man. The Primarch looks to the fleet, and sees only the works of Man. Nothing of xenos. Despite his misgivings, he agrees to join this crusade. Perhaps he was mistaken, for a man who made a being as wondrous as himself must be tolerant, yes? Must know that not everything xenos is evil. Just look to his own world to see the truth of that. And even if they are that xenophobic, perhaps he can change the Imperium from within. Perhaps he can convince others like himself that not all xenos want to wear humanity like a flesh-suit. Maybe he met Vulkan, always game for being nice, or Magnus, enlightened enough to know there is worth in the non-human.

 

And so Johnny 11 agrees to head his legion. He agrees to lead them into battles, to protect humans, and the not-bad xenos, to perhaps not be quite to slash-and-burny in their approach. Meanwhile the Imperium compliances his homeworld, bringing it further into the Imperial fold. Not aggressively, not at first, but all it would take is just one arrogant Imperial officiant, just one Eldar who talks a little too much about how everything was better when the Eldar ran things, for things to kick off. Minor rebellion. The Eldar eject all Imperial representatives from their own territory. Worse, the humans do likewise, and their fleets surround the Imperial fleets. Words are exchanged, as are torpedoes, and the Imperial fleet is crippled, and forced to flee.

 

Johnny 11 isn't doing much better. In their zeal to impress their new lord and master, the 11th prosecute a war with much gusto, tearing into their enemies with all the fervour and zeal of a Blood Angel at a blood bank. Johnny is appalled. Being a Primarch he is pretty quick on the uptake, and he sees that space marines are little more than psycho-indoctrinated super-soldiers built to tear their enemies apart. Worse, they seem to rabidly hate xenos. All xenos. There's no distinction for type or personality. Things come to a head when he interferes with a particularly nasty attack - an Eldar orphanage, maybe, or a Squat hospital. Johnny steps in, and before anyone can say 'xeno-lover' he has killed the old chapter master. Johnny castigates his legion, and leaves for his homeworld. 

 

Meanwhile, news of the impending rebellion is coming to a head. The Imperium does not allow for any defiance, no matter the source. And certainly not from a bunch of pointy-eared gits and their human slaves. A sizeable task force has been dispatched to bring the world back into compliance. Worse, rumours abound (because they often do when you use insane telepaths to communicate via dreams across the galaxy) that maybe the Primarch is involved somehow. Maybe the 11th legion is as well? It's not clear. Just to be safe, all are censured for now, and once they are brought to heel details can be established. The 11th, previously some of the most zealous prosecutors of the crusades, are aghast. Their honour is being cast into the mud, they are even being labeled as traitors by elements of the Imperium. This cannot stand. 

 

Torn between their loyalty to their Emperor and the gene-bred loyalty to their sire, they have to make an impossible decision. Do they side with their Primarch, who is clearly insane or under the sway of those weird pointy-eared aliens, or the Imperium, for whom they have died and bled for decades, first in the Unification Wars, then throughout the galaxy? Some choose their new lord, despite their misgivings. Others? Others choose loyalty, the older loyalty proven time and again. 

 

They do not allow the Imperium to act. Instead, they lead their own, personal crusade. Such a war had never been fought before, father against son, a legion tearing itself apart. The Primarchs were warriors without compare, supreme generals for an age of war. But an entire legion of space marines is a fearsome enemy, and even a whole sector stands no chance. With a short but brutal war, the marines tear down the edifices of the humans and the Eldar, leaving nothing standing, no monument to their shame, no testament to the betrayal. For it is a betrayal, on both sides. From Johnny, who turned his back on his people to protect those not of his kind, and of the marines, killing their own father, destroying the one chance they had at being a true legion at last.

 

The Imperium arrives to a world of death. The marines, having prosecuted their campaign of retribution, have discarded their armour and await judgement. Their father, the Emperor's son, is dead, and lies upon a bier, the many wounds to his body testament to the ferocity of the legion's wrath. The Emperor himself comes, as does Malcador, custodes in tow and ready to lay the smack down; this is not a normal circumstance. But what to do?

 

A legion that valued the Imperium even above their own genetic code. A legion that fought and bled for the Imperial Truth - is this something to be punished? True loyalty, can this really be called a crime? And yet they murdered their own sire. They killed something sacred, even in this age of secularism. A Primarch is a divine thing, and now one lay dead, something that people even debated was possible. Can they really allow the legion to survive, knowing that they had killed Johnny? Knowing that their very existence puts the lie to the very heart of the Imperium - that marines can be fallible, that they can turn on their masters, that Primarchs are not perfect, that they can be killed.

 

In the end the Emperor decides not to destroy the legionaries. Tens of thousands is a force strong enough to make the very heavens quake, and it would be remiss to waste such a resource. And true enough, they were loyal above and beyond the call of duty. But the notion that a Primarch could turn away from the Imperial Truth is not something that could ever become common knowledge. And so the legionaries had to abandon their old names and honours. They had to reshape themselves, remoulded into something new. Perhaps folded into another legion - that Guilliman has done a great job at building an empire, he'll keep a bunch in line, and Lorgar, well, he practically thinks of the Emperor as a god, so he won't let them stray again. 

 

But just to be safe, to allow no knowledge of these events to spread, Malcador will work his magic and the Primarchs who know of their brothers will have that knowledge locked up. To even speak of their existence will be a crime, because we don't want any notion that a Primarch might rebel against the Emperor to become common knowledge. Far safer to just let it lie.  

 

To me the big danger isn't Chaos, not yet. Rather, it's something that strikes at the very core of the Imperium, and the Imperial Truth. That a Primarch can turn away from that, can fight against humanity, is a secret too dangerous to let live, to even let people know of. Imagine if the other Primarchs started to get the idea that they could turn away from the Imperium? Imagine if the trillions of people across the galaxy knew the terrifying truth: that the Primarchs were not perfect. That the space marines could turn, given the right motivation. That the Emperor, for all his power, his foresight, his knowledge, could not see this coming. That the Imperium could fall. 

 

That's a truth worth killing for, and worth erasing from history.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent idea, Sanctimonius. The only thing missing is the VI Legion's (Space Wolves') involvement. Say the xenophobic XI Legionnaires informed Russ of holes in their own Legion planet's defenses, allowing the Wolves to wipe out the xenophilic XI Legionnaires (traitors) with greater efficiency?

[Sanctimonius]

It does depend on when the Wolves became the executioners of the Imperium. There are two legions that fell, maybe they were dealing with the legion that was caught in the Rangdan Xenocides. I'm also not sure if we actually have confirmation that the Wolves were the ones to take out either of the legions - maybe they were appointed to the role after there became a need for them? Say, after two full legions fell. Or maybe they just appointed themselves, it seems like something Russ would do. Either way, they could be worked into this story.

[Isghamor]

Wow this is great!   ty

[Isghamor]

anyway since exodites used the world spirit as infinity circuit. Any chance that said primarch after dying could have ended up there?

[Commissar Molotov]

I've written this elsewhere...

Thanks for this post, Sanctimonius. I'm generally (and regrettably, perhaps) against the idea of developing custom Primarchs and Legions, but your post was really very evocative and showed a great understanding of the 40k universe. It really speaks to the Liber creed of developing background in the cracks of the official universe.

[Sanctimonius]

I think that's a fair concern. GW has built up this mystery for literally decades, and if they ever decide to reveal it they will face a backlash, regardless of how well they do it. Mystery is a big part of the setting, and a lot of people don't want the Primarchs to be explained. As well, any story that does explain them will never be able to satisfy everyone.

 

This is just my own personal headcanon, and I'm fine with it staying that way. I guarantee that plenty of people would hate my idea, even for attempting to come up with some sort of explanation for one of the Primarchs.