July 2019 White Dwarf: Indomitus Crusade Lore!

[RikuEru]

This Month' White Dwarf has a 6-page Article on the Indomitus Crusade - filling out holes of information we have been craving since Rise of the Primarch!

 

I only have the German version of the WD, so maybe I translated some of the more uncommon ranks slightly false.

I am sorry.

 

 

Before the Indomitus Crusade:

Guilliman led the Terra-Crusade, composed of dozens of Space Marine Chapters, allied with the Adepta Sororitas, Astra Militarum, the Inquisition and Adeptus Mechanicum.

This culminated in the Battle on Luna, against Magnus and his troops.

 

Many believe this battle influenced the plans for the Indomitus Crusade.

Others believe it was the Defense of the Imperial Palace against the Khorne Incursion just a few days later.

Others believe he already saw the might of the combined Imperial Forces after the Battles in Ultramar and during the Terra-Crusade.

 

It's rumoured he wanted to start the Indomitus Crusades on Terra to imitate the Emperor and the Great Crusade to legitimate his position.

(This is based ten thousand years old legends and ecclesiarchal apokrypha)

Others believe the Indomitus Crusade was not Guilliman's Idea, but something the Emperor told him during their meeting.

 

The Imperium Sanctus (the half on the Terran side of the Rift) believed the Dark Imperium to be dead and gone - even tho their situation wasn't much better.

 

Guilliman knew he couldn't react to all the calls for help.

Vox-thief recordings (acquired by the Inquisition) of Guilliman's private talks confirmed that he was considering to run into the next possible battlezone to help, but knew he had to look at the big picture.

So Guilliman used every bit of his hate and contempt for the enemy as fuel for his plans.

 

He presented his plans to the High Lords of Terra, setting things into motion before he got their approval. He sent messages to Mars, Titan, Jupiter and dozens other worlds and stations in the deep void around the Sol System.

He told Cawl how important speed was for the Ultima Founding.

Guilliman requisitioned every possible ship and started to assemble them in flotillas outside of Neptune.

 

Guilliman met personally with the Abbess Sanctorum and the Fabricator General of Mars asking for help with his plans - though no one knows what he promised them to gain their support.

 

 

The Primarch's Scourge:

Inquisition, Adeptus Custodes, Adeptus Arbiter, Ecclesiarchy and even the Assassinorum were sought out by Guilliman to fight against every uprising unrest and rebellion.

This was dubbed "The Primarch's Scourge".

They started to cleanse Terras Megamakropols of all cults, supposed heretics, mutants and criminals. Xenophile Cultists and Chaos-fanatics were eradicated - while the higher echelons saw corrupt officials, Cult-marketers or egotistical acolytes get killed.

Horton Sch'est - Consul Pre-Eminus of the Navigator Houses - was whipped publicly.

He tried to blackmail the High Lords to get preferential treatment, but Guilliman had no Patience for such political squabbling.

Thanks to the Primarch's Scourge allowed the assembling of the Fleets to go unharmed by sabotage, civil unrest or politics.

 

 

The Ten Fleets assemble:

Guilliman wanted to assemble ten Fleets in and around the Sol-System. These fleets would gather one after another and, once they were fully ready, would depart on pre-determined routes through the Imperium.

Primaris Marines, Mechanicum Troops (from Skitarii up to the Titan-Maniples), the Order of the Black Chalice, the Order of the Sacred Martyr, the Adeptus Custodes, the Inquisition and the Battlefleet Solar would be the main bulk of the Crusade Forces.

 

Requisitioning troops from other Worlds was an act of balance.

Sectors/Armies with a chance of survival were allowed to fight on. Those who were doomed to fail were ordered to retreat towards Terra, even tho the regiments and fleets had bled and died for the defense of these battlezones.

Some declined these orders and stayed where they were, dying to the last man defending their worlds.

Guilliman didn't condemn them, but he needed every man possible. Worlds lost can be re-conquered and re-populated.

 

 

The Crusade Fleets

Guilliman coordinated everything and solved every problem.

Usable Warp-corridors and Concentration Areas for the fleets. Reinforcements, repairs, morale and medicae-staff for the troops.

Ships arrived faster than everyone anticipated.

The Mandeville-points around the Systems of Sol, Gehenna and other systems were so overused, that the Ordo Malleus feared it could lead to empyrical destabilization and possible warp-rifts on the Watch-stations around Sol.

Because of that Guilliman established meeting points for the fleets in the deep void.

Grey Knights were sent to the watch-stations and meeting points.

 

For every ship arriving Guilliman held supply ships, fuel-tenders, agricultural transports and fabricator barques ready to help them.

Guilliman achieved this by working around the established bureaucracy, creating his own staff of intermediaries - officially deemed the Officio Logisticarum, named Guilliman's Hand by the fleets.

They were made up by millions of the best Munitorum and Administratum officials, but they were barely able to get it done.

 

The Fleets were named Primus, Secundus, Tertius, etc.

Each of them would be lead by a Fleetmaster.

Even the smallest of these fleets was composed of hundreds of battleships and twice more in supply ships.

 

Each Fleet would be parted further into battlegroups, so they could focus on different battlezones more efficiently, each of them led by a Group-Master.

These would be further parted into smaller, more flexible detachments (called "Einsatzverband").

These battlegroups were still mighty enough to fight in many systems at the same time.

The Group-Masters only answered to their specific Fleetmasters and Guilliman himself.

 

All Fleetmasters and Group-masters were granted with the same requisition rights as a Lord Inquisitor, to requisition resupplies and troops along their way.

Some only took what they needed, others left the "saved" worlds in a desolate state.

 

The Battlegroups were assigned alphanumeric codes - Alphus, Betaris, Cerastus and so on.

 

 

Departure of the Fleets

It took some time for the first Indomitus-Fleets to be ready and take off.

Fleet Tertius, under Fleetmaster Cassandra VanLeskus, was the first to start, to throw itself against a Khornate Bloodcrusade aiming for Sol. They flew into Segmentum Pacificus, before aiming towards the far reaches of Segmentum Tempestus.

 

Fleet Secundus was the second to start, led by the Sisters of the Black Chalice and the Holy Martyr, they aimed for the Eye of Terror. They were supposed to drive immediately into Segmentum Obscurus.

This daring mission was dubbed "Path of the Martyrs", but such missions were needed to buy time to stabilize Imperiun Sanctus.

 

Only after knowing that the system worked and the Officio Logisticarum was able to do its job without Guilliman's direct supervision did he depart.

Fleet Primus was the third to start, with the biggest number of Ultima-founding Greyshields and it contained the most battlegroups. Archmagos Cawl accompanied them on his Makro-Barque "Zar Qaestoris".

Over time the fleet would split up into different spearheads, who would split up even further the farther they got from Terra.

 

 

 

Tempus Indomitus

The Indomitus Fleets would travel through most of known space in many, many warp-jumps.

Every Crusadefleet set their own Tempus Indomitus, using the temproal coordinates of the flagship as a fixture point.

If a ship or whole battlegroup found themselves deviating from their fleet's time, they could simply adjust their records and chronometers - also negating the mind-bogging effects of such temporal problems.

 

 

The Gift of the Primaris

Guilliman also commanded the Fleetmasters to assemble highly elite detachments.

A group of Sisters of Silence, atleast one squad of Custodes and a Conclave of Magos Biologis - carrying sealed and secured canisters and strange, arcane machinery -  accompanied these detachments.

The Sisters would keep Warpstorms at bay and allow safe and fast passage.

The Custodes were Emissaries of Guilliman and the Emperor, making sure no Imperial Official could stop them.

The Magos would bring the technological gift of the Primaris to the specific Chapters.

These Detachments often were accompanied by squads of Ultima-founding Primaris, who would join their new Chapters.

These Forces would find their way to the most distant, embattled and -sometimes- resistant and dangerous Chapters.

 

One such example is described in the Blood Ravens short-short in this same White Dwarf.

The Blood Ravens can't believe what the Custodes bring to them and need severe convincing. But I don't want to spoil that too much.

 

 

This, to me, was one of the juciest, most intriguing parts of the whole Article!

 

The Silent Seventh:

Fleet Septimus was the only fleet to assemble far away from Sol, in a highly secret area, only know to Guilliman and its highest officers.

Size, troop composition and exact mission are unknown.

Those assigned to the Seventh Fleet vanished without a trace, leaving only speculations and rumours about Onyx-decorated Servo-Skulls, which flew through the shadows, carrying Security-Level 'Vermilion Red' Datascrolls.

 

The Article also contains an example most of a Battlegroups Forces that I couldn't write down yet.

If someone's interested, I can do that of course.

 

This article was absolutely awesome, s a whole! I hope we get more of these in future White Dwarfs!

 

To the Mods:

I had to post this here, as I deem it "lore news".

It's not something -only- important to Adeptus Astartes. Nor any other Faction specific Forum.

And I thought it wouldn't get the worthy attention it needed in the Liber.

But obviously feel free to move it, if necessary.

[Lord Marshal]

 

 

Guilliman coordinated everything and solved every problem.

 

Yawn.

[RikuEru]

 

Guilliman coordinated everything and solved every problem.

Yawn.

I paraphrased, so i did not have to quote the whole article in full and get in trouble.

He did so, but at the head of a millions strong Office. And he left once that Officio worked properly.

Also the article was written from a biased in-universe perspective.

 

How did you think the Primarchs coordinated their Great Crusade Efforts? Do you think they threw a dart at a Map and said "I wanna fite whateva lives dere!"?

[Redcomet]

 

Guilliman coordinated everything and solved every problem.

 

Yawn.

Well that was kinda his thing, even back in the day. So would be weird if he was crying over it all of a sudden. And it is not like it hasn’t taken its toll on him, or that the 40k universe is suddenly all roses and sunshine.

[NTaW]

 

 

Guilliman coordinated everything and solved every problem.

Yawn.

Well that was kinda his thing, even back in the day. So would be weird if he was crying over it all of a sudden. And it is not like it hasn’t taken its toll on him, or that the 40k universe is suddenly all roses and sunshine.

Honestly. I'm reading the Dark Imperium books and he's definitely stressed pulling it all together. Solutions are found and things "work out" but not without a cost.

 

It's very interesting to me the way Guilliman has been written so far, I'll be checking this WD article out proper asap. Good summary!

[Marshal Rohr]

Until I see figures and TO&Es I’m skeptical this fixes the problems with the Indomitus Crusade

[Guest Triszin]

Im interested in the 7th fleet.

 

Gives me vibes of the rangdan destroying fleets

 

Also the more lore the better

[Sete]

Guilliman, also guilliman, and yet more guilliman. Yawn indeed.

 

We get it, hes the second coming of the Emperor, just move on. I swear to god the New GW is only about guilliman and stormcast

[redmapa]

Thats alright I guess but alll this lore should have been published right after the main Primaris release, the fact that it took years for GW to flesh out the context of this huge event does lend credence to my prejudice against it and that it has been very half assed so far. Also it is getting very tired to see Guilliman fix everything, even if its just short term.

[Panzer]

Guilliman, also guilliman, and yet more guilliman. Yawn indeed.

We get it, hes the second coming of the Emperor, just move on. I swear to god the New GW is only about guilliman and stormcast

Well Jes Goodwin already said that they want to give Primarchs their spot in the limelight (only loyalist ones apparently) so if there are more to come it will be a while. Currently we are in the “how Guilliman returned and struggled to better the Imperium“ arc. The next one will come eventually, no worries. GW is just very slow when it comes to storytelling since they want to maximize sales before moving on.

[rookie40K]

Thanks for sharing the article. Can’t wait to read it! Getting more information on this stuff is exciting. I think it is great that holes are being filled. Can’t wait for details on Cawl to be worked out.

[Aqui]

What's interesting to me,is that Guilliman met the Abbess Sanctorum. The last one went missing four millennia ago. Either GW has messed up and used the term incorrectly, she's returned, or the Sororitas finally decided to vote for another one after all that time.

[RikuEru]

What's interesting to me,is that Guilliman met the Abbess Sanctorum. The last one went missing four millennia ago. Either GW has messed up and used the term incorrectly, she's returned, or the Sororitas finally decided to vote for another one after all that time.

Maybe it was part of Guilliman's re-adjustment of the High Lords that was hinted at/described in Dark Imperium!?

[Sete]

 

Guilliman, also guilliman, and yet more guilliman. Yawn indeed.

We get it, hes the second coming of the Emperor, just move on. I swear to god the New GW is only about guilliman and stormcast

Well Jes Goodwin already said that they want to give Primarchs their spot in the limelight (only loyalist ones apparently) so if there are more to come it will be a while. Currently we are in the “how Guilliman returned and struggled to better the Imperium“ arc. The next one will come eventually, no worries. GW is just very slow when it comes to storytelling since they want to maximize sales before moving on.

Like i always say, before i die please ;)

[Knight of the Raven]

What's interesting to me,is that Guilliman met the Abbess Sanctorum. The last one went missing four millennia ago. Either GW has messed up and used the term incorrectly, she's returned, or the Sororitas finally decided to vote for another one after all that time.

I did a doubletake as well, but then I realized it was simply the sister in charge of the Convent Sanctorum, as opposed to Sabrina of the Ermine Mantle, whom I assume has been fighting Leman Russ and the missing Phoenix Lords for the last pack of smokes in the Eye of Terror for the past millennium.

 

The thing is that the Convent Sanctorum is on Ophelia VII, far to the galactic south of Terra, where the Convent Prioris is located instead.

 

That the Order of the Ebon Chalice was involved points to a mixup from the German translators or upstream at the Design Studio, seeing as they hail from Holy Terra. The Order of Our Martyred Lady is based on Ophelia VII, but they're also the poster child of the Adepta Sororitas, so it makes sense they get involved anyway.

[Ishagu]

All sounds very interesting. I'll actually pick the issue up just for the lore.

[Doctor Perils]

Thats alright I guess but alll this lore should have been published right after the main Primaris release, the fact that it took years for GW to flesh out the context of this huge event does lend credence to my prejudice against it and that it has been very half assed so far. Also it is getting very tired to see Guilliman fix everything, even if its just short term.

^ this

 

also

 

 

Horton Sch'est - Consul Pre-Eminus of the Navigator Houses - was whipped publicly.

a - so it's no longer the Paternoval Envoy that seats at the High Lords' table? Not a massive thing if it's just a renaming, but I found the old name simpler and more interesting at the same time

b - I hope this is actually setting up some antagonism between Guilliman and the Navigator Houses, as the Navis Nobilite is waaay too important to the Imperium to just go out and insult like that. The Navis Nobilite, quite apart from how rich, well armed, and influential they are are necessary to any functioning Imperium... Unless they bring back the Pharos or use Astartes Psykers as Navigators (in the same way as Chaos uses Psykers instead of Navigators) - that could in fact turn into a really interesting conflict I hope

 

 

 

Worlds lost can be re-conquered and re-populated.

There are entire Black Library books explaining how easy it is to get Tainted on a Chaos-infested world. How easy is it to re-consecrate those worlds I wonder?

[Sete]

I had a big ol wall of text but i cant be bothered. Guilliman return was poorly handled and ill just finish here. Need to take care of my blood pressure. Not getting any younger here ;)

[Doctor Perils]

I had a big ol wall of text but i cant be bothered. Guilliman return was poorly handled and ill just finish here. Need to take care of my blood pressure. Not getting any younger here

What's done is done - this is definitely worth critiqueing, but not here, and I believe everyone here has heard your thoughts on the subject :)

 

It looks like they're setting up a whole bunch of new plot hooks, and I agree with you that they had better get to them sooner rather than later - if we have to wait three years for more fluff developments and precisions each time, this'll get very annoying very quickly. However, I think they've started to hit their stride with AoS, with fairly major developments at least every year, which I could see them porting back over to 40k

[OutlawSixActual]

First people complain that there was a 100 year jump (which allowed people to play in a setting where Primaris were established), now people complain that some of the gaps are getting filled.

 

Some things just never change

[Knight of the Raven]

I thought some more about this abbess. RikuEru brings a very good point. The Ecclesiarchy forbids the election of a new absolute leader of the Adepta Sororitas (who conveniently enough is also a High Lord of Terra, more specifically the one in charge of the Imperial faction created to monitor this very same Ecclesiarchy, that just so happens to have its own High Lord on the council) until the previous one is found or her fate discovered.

Guilliman is the one creature outside of the Emperor himself who can tell the Ecclesiarchy what to do.

And that gives him someone who owes her position to him as well, which can prove very useful (whether that position still subscribes to 'give it to the one gal who wants it least' or not).
 

There are entire Black Library books explaining how easy it is to get Tainted on a Chaos-infested world. How easy is it to re-consecrate those worlds I wonder?

Purification rituals amount to burning everything to the ground and then sanctifying the ashes with consecrated salt, I believe. The Imperium certainly has the first aspect covered by the fleetload, and if the oceans of the countless worlds under its yoke don't provide enough salt, the sweat and tears of its population do.

(Medrengard remains the first galactic exporter of salt, mind you.)

[Sete]

First people complain that there was a 100 year jump (which allowed people to play in a setting where Primaris were established), now people complain that some of the gaps are getting filled.

 

Some things just never change

No, people are complaining that this should have been out from the beginning from what I have seen ;)

[redmapa]

Honestly I've never heard anyone complain about the 100 year jump, most complains I've seen here and elsewhere (and my own) are that the lore for Primaris, Cawl and Guilliman's return have been poorly handled (With the exception of Guy Hayley's work) because they are just thrown into setting with no lore to back it up but one big Deus Ex Machina thrown our way and despite GW attempts at making them accepted we still dont know how a full Primaris force works, how they are accepted into the less compliant chapters (Primaris Grey Hunters? Crusader squads?) or what exactly is going on with the tension between the Firstborn Marines and the Primaris. There's literally zero development on this and we get an insight on the Indomitus Crusade YEARS after it happened.

 

I love the models but the lore has been an absolute crap show.

[Blindhamster]

They've been improving it, fleshing it out as they go. It wasnt and still isn't perfect but its improving as more becomes available.

 

You get better or you get bitter, I know which I would prefer.

[Sete]

Bitter? ;)