Space Wolves justification for razing Prospero

[tangoalphatwo]

As a long time 40k fan, I have loved the Space Wolves since I was first introduced to 40k. Not only do I love their viking style aesthetics, I like their lore. The Emperor's Gift is a perfect example of how they are seemingly one of the most human of the legions.

 

However there is one major glaring issue, and I'm sure you know where I am going. That is the burning of Prospero. I have read dozens of 40k novels, admittedly most have not focused on the Wolves, but a few have and I have read Russ' primarch novel. I have only now started the Horus Heresy series, I'm still on book 1 so I haven't gotten to Prospero yet, but I know enough of the lore though to know what happens at Prospero.

 

My question to other Wolf fans, and I timidly ask Thousand Sons fans and anyone else too, how do you guys justify Prospero?

 

Cheers

 

(edited for grammar)

Edited January 27, 2022 by tangoalphatwo

[Xenith]

This discussion is regarding two specific factions in the Heresy setting, so is more appropriate for the HH section. 

 

=][= Frater, this is an undoubtedly contentious topic, however as tangoalphatwo has phrased it, please give them the benefit of the doubt and play nice with your reasoning - or link back to the innumerable other dicussions on the topic. =][=

Edited January 28, 2022 by Xenith

[WrathOfTheLion]

What exactly do you mean by justify?

 

For context of the setup, the Space Wolves are following the Emperor's orders, with his Custodian Guard present. It may be a more harsh interpretation of what they were tasked to do, but everything the Space Wolves and Russ did were in line with the orders given.

 

Brother Tyler posted the copy of the warrant granted in a previous thread, which is present in Horus Heresy: Inferno. I'll need to go back and find a link to that thread, or I'll just find it in my copy of the book.

 

Edit: After looking back, it was actually Indefragable that first brought up the writ in the previous thread.

Edited January 28, 2022 by WrathOfTheLion

[Karhedron]

There is no singular answer. "Galaxy in Flames", "A Thousand Sons" and "Prospero Burns" all show or reference the event to some extent. You have mentioned that you have only just started the HH novels so I don't want to give too miuch away. Suffice it to say, the Wolves were following orders although outside factors definitely engineered the situation.

 

"Master of Mankind" also shows the scale of Magnus's actions and why the Emperor wanted him sanctioned.

[Hfran Morkai]

There's a whole host of things.

 

Originally it was sorcery (which I believe was making pacts with warp entities for power or more power) as opposed to psykers that was prohibited by the Council of Nikea. I do believe this is retconned though.

 

The Wolves were sent to deal with Magnus and his Legion, the Emperor knew he was Magnus' most vocal opponent and there is stuff that suggests the Wolves were pivotal in dealing with the purged Legions. The fleet was I believe equipped with weapons for Exterminatus if it came to it.

 

Supposedly Horus changed the orders and/or convinced Russ that Magnus needed to be destroyed.

 

However I do think Russ regretted his actions once he discovered the treachery of Horus.

[WrathOfTheLion]

Page 16 of book VII: Inferno I think is the most definitive source. The writ on that page, states:

 

 

By the Word and the Will of the Master of Mankind, Imperator, Imperatoris, Terra Regnum,

 

It is hereby decreed that Magnus, Primarch of the XVth Legiones Astartes, be brought forth to censure and bound by law to stand before the Throne Imperial of Terra, there to answer for his actions and those of his gene-sons.

 

To this end is Leman Russ, Primarch of the VIth Legiones Astartes, so charged upon the deliverance of his brother, by any and all means he may find needful, without limit in law, sanction or imposition of attainder, unto the limitless void and the last day.

 

So it is written, so it shall be.

 

The last paragraph in the writ makes it abundantly clear that Leman Russ is given the power to do anything he deems necessary to bring Magnus in, including razing the whole planet to the ground on resistance if need be. "By any and all means" and "without limit in law, sanction or imposition of attainder" being the key clauses here, the Space Wolves Legion under Leman Russ is granted the explicit power to do pretty much anything they want by the Emperor.

 

The previous thread that may be helpful is here, which I consulted some as well as looking at my copy of Horus Heresy: Inferno.

 

My further comment and opinion on reading the writ, it's clear to me that it was accounted for that assaulting Prospero was on the table. The wording in that document is not ambiguous in any way that Leman Russ and the Space Wolves were well within their charges to act as they did, whether it be the best decision or not in the long run. It may or may not be the right decision, but that it was their right to make that decision is undeniable and is unambiguous.

Edited January 28, 2022 by WrathOfTheLion

[Captain Idaho]

The proof was in the pudding, so to speak. Had the Thousand Sons taken up arms against the Emperor? No. Were they corrupted by Chaos? Yes, as evidenced by the fact the Thousand Sons literally mutated during the battle.

[Jareddm]

You're ordered to escort a convicted prisoner to a new location.  As far as you are aware it is beyond a shadow of a doubt that they committed the crime they were convicted of.  Partway through, it appears the prisoner is making a run for it.  You can either shoot the prisoner or let them go.  From your perspective, shooting them will be immediately fatal and letting them go will mean never catching them again and a pretty good chance they will commit their original crime again.  What do you do?

 

To me, this is the reasoning Russ was going off of.  Not saying it's ironclad or anything, but reasonable based on what we understood he knew.

[tangoalphatwo]

Thank all of you for the wealth of information! You guys are great! That’s why I love this forum. I kind of get Russ’ position a bit more now. Excited to eventually get to, what like the 50th book I’m the HH series,

[Slave to Darkness]

 Excited to eventually get to, what like the 50th book I’m the HH series, that deals with that

Totally worth the wait, your gonna enjoy it.

[Valkyrion]

Magnus wanted the Thousand Sons to practically surrender - he ordered them not to fight. He knew he was headed for censure and was, if not okay with the thought, then accepting of it.

The Space Wolves attacked - no parlay or anything.

 

One can only assume that the inference that Russ's orders were altered is correct, because as said many times by many different Astartes, the Wolves obey. 

 

Horus wanted the two legions to destroy each other, knowing that the Wolves would never turn, and doubtful that Magnus would (see the pseudo dream sequence in Galaxy in Flames or False Gods, I forget which).

 

As it is, only the Thousand Sons were destroyed.

[Karhedron]

Magnus wanted the Thousand Sons to practically surrender - he ordered them not to fight. He knew he was headed for censure and was, if not okay with the thought, then accepting of it.

The Space Wolves attacked - no parlay or anything.

Spoilers for Prospero Burns!

 

Russ did actually call on Magnus to surrender, he begged him to avoid having to take down another brother. However Tzeentch had engineered the presence of Kasper Hawser. Russ believed he was Magnus's agent but in fact he was Tzeentch's pawn. Thus Magnus never received Russ's plea.

 

Russ, thinking Magnus was refusing to surrender ordered an all-out attack. The Thousand Sons then fought back.

 

The only mystery is why Russ called for surrender through Hawser rather than broadcasting a conventional call to surrender. It is clear he wanted to give Magnus a chance to come quietly so it is not clear why he only used this one channel rather than calling for his surrender on all frequencies.

Edited January 29, 2022 by Karhedron

[LukeTheButcher]

 

The only mystery is why Russ called for surrender through Hawser rather than broadcasting a conventional call to surrender. It is clear he wanted to give Magnus a chance to come quietly so it is not clear why he only used this one channel rather than calling for his surrender on all frequencies.

 

 

 

In the Black-Book 'Inferno', pg: 34

"Russ conceded that he would not unleash the full destructive capabilities of his battle fleet without allowing his brother the chance to explain his apparent madness. Broadcasting from the grand flagship of the Legio Custodes, the Orriflamme, the Vox-Imperiosa - the Sanctioned voice of the Silent Sisterhood and the Emperor's Council of Terra - proclaimed the Writ borne by the fleet and called upon the Thousand Sons and upon Magnus himself to answer for his crimes..."

 

So, really depends on which source you want  to go with. AS some of them contradict each other, it can dissolve into a mess of arguments. 

[Petitioner's City]

The black books always have the caveat of (and presented in the form of) an "unreliable narrator" who misconstrues history for ideological ends as much as also just getting the wrong source and/or misreading those sources. I mean I'm a historian, and that is basic historiography and hermeneutics - a historical account is mediated, filtered, flawed, a construct of its author(s) and editor(s), cultural context, media, genre, and even the reader too.

 

Whereas it's harder to argue that with the heresy Black Library books since hardly any are presented with anything less than an omniscient narrator.

 

HOWEVER, of all the heresy BL books that are written in the third person, arguably Prospero Burns with its clockwork construction and play on memoria (and indeed meditation on history) isn't presented from an omniscient point of view. Thematically, it is as much a tale about memory and mythmaking (it's very Gene Wolfe!), which in its recurrent motifs (the clavier, the wet leopard growl, etc) showing Abnett putting his themes into the very style of the work.

 

So when it comes to what we see in PB, things are almost always told from Kasper's view - if you choose to read it that way - even if in a third person manner:

 

LEMAN RUSS DOMINATED the command bridge, even though the command bridge was a multi-levelled vault that reminded Hawser of a palace throne room. Officers and servitors attended control positions wrought from brass and gold which encircled the great dome of the bridge and plugged into the bulkhead walls with fat braids of gilded cables, circuits and tubes. These extending fans of tubework made the consoles resemble giant pipe organs. To reinforce the mental image, most control positions had triple or quadruple sets of keyboards. The keys were made of bone, inlaid with instructional marks. Use and age had yellowed some. They looked like the grin of old teeth.

They looked like the keys of a battered clavier.

Hololithic screens, many projected from overhead or under-deck emitters, turned the central part of the command area into a flickering picture gallery. The crew moved among the images, surrounding some for study, adjusting the data flow of others with finger touches of their reactive gloves. Some images were large, others small, or arranged in stacked series that could be flipped through with a deft gesture. As Helwintr, Bear and Godsmote brought him in, Hawser saw one ensign slide a luminous rectangular map of fleet dispersal through the air for his superior’s attention. Some of the slightly incandescent images showed topographical maps, contour overlays, positional guides or course computations. Others scrolled with constant feeds of written data, or showed, in small frames, real-time pict-links to the talking heads of other ship commanders as they reported in.

The air was filled by the mechanical chatter of machinery, the brittle stenographic clack of keys, the crackle of voxed voice messages or Mechanicum vocalisers, the drone of background chatter. Command officers with cuffs and high collars stiff with gold braid rasped orders into vox-mics that were attached to the consoles by flex leads. They held the mics up to their mouths, and the small acoustic side-baffles of the microphone heads obscured the lower parts of their faces like half-masks. Just eyes, without noses or mouths, which reminded Hawser of something.

Cherubs, giggling at private jokes, buzzed through the bridge hustle, carrying messages and communiqué pouches. Insectoid remotes, as perfect and intricate as dragonflies, kept obedient station in the air at the shoulders of their Mechanicum masters, their wings droning in hover-mode at a disturbingly low vibrational threshold.

In the centre of the command bridge was a massive brass and silver armature, an instrument designed for complex celestial display and calculation. It resembled an orrery with its skeletal metal hemispheres and its surrounding discs and measuring orbits, but it was ten metres in diameter and grew out of the desk grille on a stand as thick as a tree trunk. Attendants manned small lectern consoles around it, tapping out small adjustments that caused the main frame of it to turn, realign and spin in subtle measures.

The hemispheric theatre of the planetarium was currently used to display a large-scale hololithic image of a planet. The glowing topographical light map, three dimensional and rotating in an authentic orbital spin showed day and night side and was contained inside the moving, spherical cage of the brass instrument. Smaller side projections hung in the air, enlarging particular surface details, and various declinations, aspectarians, and astronomical ephemerides.

The planet under scrutiny was as beautiful as a star sapphire. The hololithic resolution imaged its greens and blues, its ribbons of cloud and mountain range, its traceries of river basins, its sheened oceans, its turquoise aura of atmosphere. As he got closer, Hawser saw that the vast image was actually a mosaic compiled from thousands of separate detailed pict scans, a work composition that suggested a vast effort of careful and systematic intelligence gathering.

Despite the size and majesty of the planetarium display, Russ was still the most compelling thing in the chamber. As soon as he saw Hawser and his escort arrive, he pushed aside the huddle of Navigators clutching their dossiers of sidereal times and zodiacal interlocks.

‘Bring him!’ he growled, and pointed to the shipmaster’s reclusiam.

Helwintr, Bear and Godsmote led Hawser into the reclusiam space behind the Wolf King. The shipmaster, a stern giant with a long, wirewool beard of grey and an extravagantly peaked cap, saluted and withdrew to give the primarch privacy. Command officers scurried after their immaculately uniformed master, clutching armfuls of data-slates and dockets.

Russ waved a jewelled sceptre and raised falsehood screens around the reclusiam space. The ambient noise of the bridge chatter dropped away. It was suddenly as quiet as a monastic chapel.

The Wolf King idly tossed the sceptre away. It bounced into the seat of the shipmaster’s red-leather throne. He turned to face Hawser. His presence was almost intolerable. A dynamic, lethal energy pulsed within him. He was hunched, his arms clamped around his body, as though he was trying to prevent himself from exploding. If the explosion happened, Hawser had no doubt it would take the entire flagship with it.

‘Do you hear me, brother?’ he asked Hawser.

‘What?’ Hawser replied, trembling. ‘Lord, what are you asking me?’

‘I know you can hear me, brother,’ Russ said. ‘I know you can.’

‘Lord, please,’ said Hawser. ‘Explain to me what you’re saying.’

The Wolf King ignored his words. He continued to stare into Hawser’s eyes, as though they were murky pools out of which something might suddenly surface.

‘Magnus, Magnus, Crimson King, brother of mine,’ he said. ‘I know you can hear me. You planted this instrument, this poor unwilling fellow, Ibn Rustah, you planted him among us so you could learn our secrets. Guess what? We’re as smart as you. Smarter, perhaps. We saw your spy for what he was, and we made no effort to remove him. We kept him with us so we could look back at you, Magnus. So we could learn your secrets. An eye can look out and it can look in. You should know that, you who look deeper than most.’

The Wolf King turned and walked a few paces away. He picked up the sceptre again, and sat down in the throne. He rested the sceptre in his lap, leaned his head on one fist and gazed back at Hawser.

‘I’ve got nothing to hide from you, Magnus. Nothing. You know how I work. My enemies should know what’s coming to greet them. It fixes them in the right mental place to be annihilated. I don’t like to hide my strengths or my approach. I’d rather my foe knows the full, unimaginable fury that is about to descend upon him.’

The Wolf King paused. He swallowed. He seemed to be considering his next words.

‘That’s not why I’m talking to you now. I’m talking to you because I hope you’ll listen. I’m talking to you as the personal courtesy extended from one brother to another. What is about to happen should not be happening. You know I do not want this. You know it tears my heart to commit against you, and it breaks the very soul of our father to place his sons in opposition. But you have done this. You have brought this. You have brought this action.’

Russ swallowed again. He looked down at the deck, though he was still directing his words at Hawser.

Hawser stood numb, shaking, rooted to the spot.

‘We gave you every chance, Magnus. We indulged your learning, we gave you room to explore. When we became fearful of where those explorations were leading you, and how they might endanger everything we value, we told you of our concerns. The Council at Nikaea, that was supposed to be a moment of reconciliation. You swore you would renounce the cunning arts. You swore! You swore you would abide by our father’s ruling!’

His voice dropped to a whisper.

‘You did not. You have proved your intent to ignore the Ruling of Nikaea beyond all doubt. So this is on you. You must have known our father’s hands would be tied. He would have no other option than to turn to me to issue sanction.’

Russ looked up into Hawser’s eyes.

‘This is a courtesy, then. From brother to brother. A grace period I would extend to no other enemy. Settle your affairs. Evacuate the civilians from your cities. Deactivate your defence systems. Bring yourself and your Thousand Sons out into the open, and prepare to surrender to me upon my arrival. Please, Magnus. The Wolves of Fenris have been unleashed upon you. Only you have the power to make the consequences bloodless.’

He rose to his feet.

‘Please, Magnus. Please.’

The Wolf King looked away. He turned his back on Hawser.

‘Does he answer?’ he asked, distractedly.

‘I cannot feel an answer,’ Hawser replied, his voice wobbling. ‘But then, I’ve never really known how I work as a conduit.’

Russ grunted.

‘Or if I do,’ Hawser added. He was painfully aware that the other Wolves, especially Helwintr, were glaring at him.

‘I’ve never been totally convinced of that either,’ he said.

The Wolf King made no comment.

‘My lord,’ said Hawser. ‘What… what did your brother do?’

‘He performed an act of maleficarum that drove his sorcery right to the heart of Terra and into the presence of the Emperor,’ said Helwintr.

‘But… why?’ asked Hawser.

‘It was an alleged attempt to communicate a warning,’ said Russ without turning. His voice was a soft grumble, like thunder grinding in the far distance.

‘A warning, my lord?’

‘One of such terrible importance, Magnus felt it was worth exposing his own treachery to reveal it,’ Russ murmured.

‘Forgive me,’ said Hawser, ‘but does that not speak to some loyalty in your brother? Has the warning been examined? Has it been taken seriously?’

Russ turned back to face him.

‘Why would it? My brother is a madman. A dabbling warlock.’

‘Lord,’ said Hawser, ‘he was prepared to admit he was ignoring the edicts of Nikaea, and risk the censure that he knew must result from that admission, to relay a warning. Why would he do that unless the warning was valid?’

‘You’re not a warrior, skjald,’ said the Wolf King in an almost kindly tone. ‘Strategy is not your strong suit. Consider the reverse of your proposition. Magnus wants the ruling of Nikaea overturned. He wants permission and approval to continue with his arcane tinkerings and his foul magics. So he manufactures a threat, something he can warn us about that is so astonishing we would have to forgive him, and set aside our objections. Something so unthinkable, we would have to thank him and tell him he had been right all along. All along. This is his ploy.’

‘Do you know what was so unthinkable? asked Hawser.

‘Magnus claimed that great Horus was about to turn against the Imperium,’ said Russ. ‘From the look on your face, Ahmad Ibn Rustah, I see you recognise how ridiculous that sounds.’

Hawser switched his gaze to Helwintr. The priest’s masked face was unreadable.

‘Wolf King, great lord,’ Hawser began, ‘that’s not the first time that warnings concerning the Warmaster have been voiced. Please, lord—’

‘Our skjald refers to the incident involving Eada Haelfwulf, lord,’ said Helwintr.

‘I know of it,’ said Russ. ‘It seems corroborative, I grant you. But once again, consider the strategy. It involved maleficarum turning and twisting one of our own gothi, in the immediate vicinity of you, an identified conduit for the enemy’s power. Of course poor Haelfwulf would gabble out the same damned lie with his dying breath. It’s supposed to make Magnus’s story sound more credible by coming from a secondary source.’

Russ looked down into Hawser’s eyes.

‘Truth is, it’s the proof I need that Magnus is desperately trying to coordinate a campaign of disinformation to support his ruse. He doesn’t need to answer through you, skjald. He’s answered already.’

 

 

But this is something I love about PB - it's not a piece of "realist" fiction, and after the initial scenes of the Ascomani (which are closest to an omniscient narrator) hews so utterly close to Kasper's memories and then in the present day his perceptions and misperceptions of what is happening. I honestly think this is partly why people don't like it - it is a text which makes you doubt it, something that the "Bear" reveal makes very clear.

 

Still it's hard to think that the modern day parts of the novel, including Russ's attempt to speak to Magnus, are fictive. And it's perhaps - because of its focus on narrative, myth and history, and it's closeness to a compromised first-person narrative - a deeper take on the wolves of the heresy period than anything else published.

 

But honestly I'm not sure there is much need to pry deeply beneath the surface of the text to to the wolves needing a justification for their razing (much as it is horrific and - for us - unjustified in its genocidal nature and/or creation of a traitor legion). In terms of the decision making on the eve of the razing, as well as throughout the text to that point, I think Abnett provided a mix of legal justifications (the way Helwinter and Russ explain the assault on terra), cultural justifications (especially maleficarum) and personal justification (no one could believe Horus could turn; Russ's arrogant creation of or belief in a conspiracy theory about Magnus; Magnus's reputed arrogance; etc).

 

Russ's brief soliloquy and then the conservation after with Kasper do so well at explaining why Russ believes as he does - even if we the reader know he is wrong, in terrible bitter dramatic irony.

 

But even so, for Russ, Magnus isn't seen as, per se, a traitor - at least not in the way Horus et al do later. Instead we see something like a police action - Magnus wants Nikaea overturned, and has created an arrogant and maddened plot to do so - something which propaganda against Magnus (and Magnus himself) only make too believable. Unfortunately he stepped too far into "his" plot and now needs censure. And Magnus's people resist - even though they shouldn't have, perhaps. Oh poor Emperor, Russ, Valdor et al - and Magnus - to have been so bitterly misled!

Edited February 2, 2022 by Petitioner's City

[Jackalwolf]

I think the ultimate decision is made when, during the attack the Wolves see the sorcery in action, the mutations, the corruption. Prior to that Russ tried to contact Magnus in order to take him in peacefully, when Magnus didn’t answer, he did a landing that was logically defended against by the Thousand Sons but their fates having been sealed since Magnus did first the deal with Tzeentch to stop the flesh change, that Chaos corruption was palpable and clear. At that point there can be no compromise unfortunately: think about how the Inquisition will exterminatus an entire planet if there’s the risk of one Chaos psyker spreading the taint, now imagine how in front of your eyes legionnaires are mutating and their tutelaries manifest as what they are: Tzeentch demons.

 

Doing so clearly exacted a heavy toll on Russ and his psyche: he’s never the same after that and you can see his confidence crumbling bit by bit until he departs to let a new Vlka Fenryka raise led by Bjorn. He didn’t do so out of pleasure clearly.

 

As a bit of speculation: several theories point that the Wulfen curse is almost a reaction to Chaos taint, triggering in the presence of Chaos taint to “protect” the marine both in soul and body but cursing him to an existence of monstrosity in service of the Emperor. If that’s true the Wolves would have some inherent sixth sense for warp :cussery which would have been ablaze when setting foot in Prospero.

Edited February 17, 2022 by Jackalwolf