The Horus Heresy (according to 2004)

[LSM]

Recently I decided to give the Index Astartes books (collecting the White Dwarfs articles of the same name from the early 2000s) a re-read, ~twenty years on from their publishing.

 

IIRC, these were where we saw a major expansion of the Horus Heresy's lore, which was then followed by the Black Library book series beginning a few years later. So, for "fun", while I did my re-read I decided to take notes on the state of things at that time, as if I was compiling a (brief-ish) outline of "established" things to hand off to the writers for their upcoming books.

 

Some of these points are grossly summarised, doing them little justice. Some are points I thought interesting in how things changed, or how things stayed the same, or just struck me as funny. I tried to establish a rough timeline, but there's often little reference to other events. Some Chapters (like the Salamanders) basically get no 'Heresy lore, while others have significant amounts.

 

(I also tossed in a bit of info from 2002's Codex: Chaos Space Marines, as the four mortal champions feature in the book series.)

 

//

 

THE GREAT CRUSADE

 

-It is believed that Horus is the first of the Primarchs recovered by the Emperor. He is the Emperor's protege, and is given command of the Luna Wolves Legion. They fight side-by-side through much of the early stages of the Great Crusade, saving each others' lives on multiple occasions.

 

-The Emperor leaves Horus in strategic command whenever he is otherwise tasked. Horus vows to always be the Emperor's most valued son.

 

-As the Emperor's attention and time is pulled away more and more, Horus becomes the defacto leader of the Great Crusade. He commonly partakes in the local customs of newly encountered worlds, in an effort to peacefully bring them into the Imperium.

 

-The Emperor finds Lion El'Jonson, Primarch of the First Legion, as the Supreme Grand Master of the Order, knights defending the world of Caliban from creatures of Chaos. The Order is integrated with the Dark Angels, and Luther (the former leader of The Order and brother figure to Jonson) is left in charge of the planet's defence.

 

-Moved by the words of the newly found Primarch Fulgrim, the Emperor allows the Third Legion to be named The Emperor's Children, and to uniquely bear the Imperial Eagle on their chestplates. Too few in number to crusade on their own (due to the accidental destruction of their gene-seed stores), Fulgrim's Legion fights alongside Horus.

 

-Unlike many other Primarchs, who refuse the ignobility, the dark and melancholy Perturabo follows orders and allows his Iron Warriors to provide garrisoning forces on countless worlds. Bitterness grows in the Primarch and his Legion.

 

-Jaghatai Khan, six months after conquering his homeworld, sees in the Emperor a man who can unite all the stars in the night's sky. He swears fealty and takes command of the Fifth Legion, who rename themselves the White Scars and adopt the local practise of ritual facial scarification.

 

-The Emperor visits the Wolf King Leman Russ on the icy world of Fenris alone, challenging him to a competition of his choosing. After bouts of feasting and drinking, a disappointed Emperor insults Russ, and then bests him in the ensuing duel. With bloodied smile and broken fang, Russ swears fealty, taking command of the Space Wolves.

 

-The Imperial Fists, often held in strategic reserve for devastating final blows, become experts in siege craft and the building of fortification. Their Primarch, Rogal Dorn, adopts the tradition of honour duels originally practised by the Terrans in their ranks, and many of the Legion bear duelling scars.

 

-On Nostramo, the Emperor finds a culture terrorised into meek efficiency by The Night Haunter, Konrad Curze. He rules with a mix of benevolent wisdom and gruesome vengeance, while being randomly wracked with psychic visions. With Fulgrim as his tutor, Curze takes charge of the Night Lords.

 

-The beautiful, angelically winged Primarch Sanguinius greets the Emperor. It's said that he has foreseen his father's coming, and is a force of positivity, hope and change in the galaxy.

 

-Iron handed Ferrus Manus tests his metal against the Emperor, and a bond of mutual respect is forged. Ferrus is loath to leave his world of Medusa, but takes charge of the Legion that would become the Iron Hands. He feels it his duty to remove the weak links of humanity, similar to the way that his planet's callous culture leaves the old and infirm to die in its hostile environment.

 

-From orbit, The Emperor watches with pride as Angron leads a doomed gladiatorial slave revolt. Before their destruction, the Emperor teleports away his son. Fuelled by the aggression-enhancing neural implants he received when enslaved, Angron remains furious at not being allowed to die with his comrades. He takes command of the World Eaters.

 

-The Emperor meets the newly found Primarch Roboute Guilliman as an equal, astounded by the prosperity and strength of his world of Macragge. The Ultramarines recruit from a network of eight systems, collectively known as Ultramar, and quickly become the largest of the Legions.

 

-On Barbarus the Emperor finds grim Mortarion, on the cusp of freeing his world from its sorcerous Overlord. Mortarion proudly denies the Emperor's offer of assistance, and strikes out alone to finish what he'd started. He fails, overwhelmed by the Overlord's toxins, and his life is saved by the Emperor. He begrudgingly swears fealty.

 

-When the Emperor reunites with Magnus the Red, it is suspected that the two had already been in psychic communication across the stars for some time. Though born a grotesque mutant, with a single enormous eye set in his forehead, coppery skin and bright red hair, Magnus' discovery quells the calls for the Thousand Sons Legion to be purged (their gene-seed producing Marines unstably psychic and exceedingly vulnerable to mutation).

 

-Lorgar, a prominent member of the religious organisation ruling Colchis, has a vision of a warrior in bronze and a cyclops in blue. The latter speaks of his lord's coming, and the world erupts in a holy war at this blasphemy. By the time the Emperor arrives (with Magnus), Lorgar has reshaped the devotion of the planet into worship of the Emperor. Annoyingly lengthy shows of fealty follow.

 

-The Emperor visits the volcanic world of the Primarch Vulkan alone, competing as The Outlander in games of strength and endurance. Vulkan is declared the winner after the Emperor forgoes victory to save his son, but Vulkan swears fealty to one who would value life over pride.

 

-On the recently freed slave-world of Deliverance, freedom fighter Corax meets with the Emperor for a day and a night. Corax takes command of the Raven Guard, on the condition that the Emperor assists in defeating his former oppressors.

 

-A Luna Wolves scout cruiser falls under attack by a swarm of small fighters. Horus reinforces, and finds the enemies lead by Alpharius, last of the missing Primarchs. The two spend months together before Alpharius meets the Emperor and is given command of the nascent Alpha Legion.

 

-Fulgrim names Eidolon as the first Lord Commander of the Emperor's Children, giving him personal tutelage. Roughly thirty others would be raised to such a rank as the Legion grows to a size capable of mounting its own crusade fleets.

 

-The Imperial Fists are ever at the Emperor's side. Rogal Dorn is well regarded by most of his brothers, though some are envious of the favour shown to him, and Perturabo of the Iron Warriors grows to detest him over a perceived slight towards the latter's abilities in siege warfare.

 

-The Blood Angels practise a unique form of Space Marine creation, aspirants spending a year in sarcophagi, being injected with nutrients and the Blood of Sanguinius. Many are gifted strange and vivid dreams, memories of Sanguinius himself.

 

-The Emperor's Children suffer horrific casualties in the conquest of the Laeran system to satisfy their Primarch's boast that it could be taken in a month. The Administratum had predicted that the xenocide of the bio-engineered natives would take decades.

 

-Horus promotes feuding and rivalry between Legions, as a means of pushing them to greater heights. Prominently, the Dark Angels and Space Wolves, Blood Angles and World Eaters, and Imperial Fists and Iron Warriors.

 

-Lucius, one of the Lord Commanders of the Emperor's Children, begins cutting deep grooves in his flesh to link the myriad scars he's received in centuries of assault actions. His peers take this as an act of devotion to the Emperor, but in truth he is an extreme sadomasochist.

 

-Mortarion does not settle well into the Imperium, focusing his Death Guard Legion on the destruction of oppressors. He finds brotherhood only with Konrad Curze and Horus, often acting as anvil to their hammers. So close to Horus is he that Corax and Guilliman question his loyalty to the Emperor.

 

-Lorgar's Word Bearers Legion are meticulous in the destruction of all other worship found on worlds they conquer, building vast monuments to the Emperor in their wake and spending great amounts of time on converting populaces to worship of the Emperor. Only united in faith can humanity be safe from the alien and internal strife.

 

-The powerfully psychic Captain Typhon of the Death Guard secretly communes with the Dark Powers.

 

-The Luna Wolves tally the greatest number of victories in the Great Crusade, ahead of the Dark Angels and Space Wolves.

 

-The Raven Guard are experts in the assessment of hostile worlds, followed by the careful application of sabotage, assassination, and covert operations. Horus makes frequent use of Corax's Legion, and some attribute many of his victories to their skill.

 

-The Thousand Sons push past the limits of psychic study and delve into sorcery and magic, seeking out knowledge from the creatures of the Warp.

 

-The Night Lords become known for their excessive force and obliviousness to negotiation. Konrad Curze encourages his Legion to decorate themselves with symbols of terror and death, and the mere mention of their presence quells worlds.

 

-As tales of great Dark Angels victories return to Caliban, Luther and its defenders grow bitter and spiteful, their posting a slight to their honour.

 

-Angron orders World Eaters Techmarines to begin performing psycho-surgery on the Legion to increase their battle prowess. Blood rites become a Legion custom, and the "bloodthirsty and unstable" Khârn is a particularly famous champion.

 

-The Alpha Legion develops the habit of building multiple redundancies into every attack, including encouraging treachery amongst its enemies. Roboute Guilliman criticises these tactics for their over-intricateness, and Alpharius pushes his Legion harder in an attempt to win the respect of others.

 

-The Emperor personally rebukes Lorgar and the Word Bearers for the slowness of their crusading, ordering them to stop wasting time with faith. Lorgar is stunned, and at the guidance of Kor Phaeron secretly swears allegiance to Chaos. The Word Bearers thereafter conquer worlds with devastating speed, to the Emperor's approval.

 

-The Imperial Fists win a great victory against the Orks on the world of Necromunda, and recruits begin being drawn from the planet. Rogal Dorn refuses to make Legion vassals of such worlds, as brothers like Perturabo are want to do.

 

-Nostramo slides back into crime and corruption in the absence of Curze, and new Night Lords recruits are gangsters completely lacking in scruples.

 

-The Luna Wolves push hard and rapidly conquer planets, often leaving the job of putting down rebellions to trailing forces of Ultramarines and Iron Warriors. Guilliman lodges official complaint.

 

-Corax is said to dislike the gregarious and boastful Horus, finding him manipulative, and the two almost come to blows. He removes the Raven Guard from Horus' command.

 

-The Ullanor Crusade sees the crushing of a massive Ork empire by Horus. At the conclusion of the campaign, the Emperor names it the greatest victory yet for his Imperium.

 

-Horus is named Warmaster and officially placed in charge of the Great Crusade. The Luna Wolves are renamed the Sons of Horus. It is said that Horus is not content, as the Emperor took too much of the glory of a fight he was not present at.

 

-Mortarion, with a vested hatred of sorcery, and Leman Russ, disapproving of deceit, call upon the Emperor to stop the Thousand Sons' magical practises. A debate is held at Nikaea, and Magnus speaks eloquently in defence. A group of Librarians argue that, while psychic talent should be nurtured, sorcery is inherently ill bargained for. The Emperor immediately decrees a ban on sorcery, but supports the continuing use of psykers in the Legions. Magnus swears an oath to end his magical practise.

 

-With his Primarchs executing the Great Cursade, the Emperor decides to take his place at the heart of the Imperium of Man. He honours Rogal Dorn with taking charge of Terra's defences.

 

-Konrad Curze confesses one of his visions to Fulgrim, who in turn tells Rogal Dorn. Curze fears that he will be killed by their father and their Legions will war against one another. Dorn is enraged by the insult to their father, and almost killed in a fight with Curze. The Night Lords race to Nostramo and destroy their homeworld, under the direction of their Primarch.

 

-Horus deems the Emperor's quitting of the fighting to be a sign of weakness, and of unworthiness.

 

THE HORUS HERESY

 

-Horus falls ill – unheard of for a Primarch - on the small feral world of Davin. He is inducted into a local warrior lodge during his coalescence, a custom on the world. Horus' officers notice a change in character thereafter.

 

-Horus introduces the warrior lodges to the Sons of Horus and the other Legions under his command.

 

-The Emperor, having received complaints about the brutality of Angron's World Eaters from multiple sources (Guilliman most prominently), tasks Horus with chastising them. Instead, Horus feeds Angron's discontent with the Emperor.

 

-Horus informs Perturabo of the Iron Warriors that his homeworld of Olympia has rebelled, and gifts him the weapon Forgebreaker.

 

-Horus tells Mortarion that under him, the Imperium will be reconstituted into a just galaxy, where right is ensured by might. Mortarion pledges the Death Guard to support of the Warmaster.

 

-At Tesstra Prime the Alpha Legion allow an enemy force to dig in before pulling off a series of spectacular manoeuvres and manipulations to achieve victory. Alpharius boasts that to have done otherwise would have been too easy. Horus applauds their skill, but Roboute Guilliman calls it out as a giant waste of time and effort.

 

-The Night Lords crusade in a manner of unhinged violence, and Konrad Curze names the Emperor a hypocrite. The Emperor demands Curze's presence on Terra, and starts an inquiry into his actions.

 

-Magnus the Red, having betrayed his oaths to stop practising sorcery, scries the events of Horus' betrayal – from swearing himself to the Dark Gods on Davin to the massacre of Istvaan V. Self-righteously, Magnus conducts an elaborate ritual to commune with the Emperor and deliver his warning, showing his father the value of magic.

 

-The Emperor deems that in slandering Horus, Magnus has been irrevocably duped and corrupted by the very creatures of the Warp he had been warned against. Leman Russ is ordered to unleash his Legion upon the Thousand Sons without restraint.

 

-The Space Wolves fall upon Prospero, homeworld of the Thousand Sons, in an attack unforeseen by the latter's sorcerers. As they're destroyed, Magnus makes a deal with the Chaos god Tzeentch to save what remains of his Legion, and they are spirited away through the Warp, pursued by the cursed Wulfen of the Space Wolves' 13th Company.

 

-The Iron Warriors massacre the population of Olympia. Already fearing the Emperor's response, they receive news of the Space Wolves obliterating the Thousand Sons at the Emperor's order.

 

-The Sons of Horus renounce their oaths to the Emperor and begin worship of Horus and his new gods. The corruption spreads to those under his command in the Adeptus Mechanicus, Collegia Titanica, and Legio Cybernetica. As well, he is able to secretly sway many of his brothers.

 

-Horus moves against Istvaan III, unleashing a virus bombing that kills everything on the planet. Horus holds court on Istvaan V; Angron's World Eaters and Mortarion's Death Guard join Horus, and are at his side.

 

-Captain Garro of the Death Guard and a small group of loyalists mutiny and steal the Eisenstein to warn the Emperor of their Legions' treason.

 

-[Note: in 1989's Space Marine game, it is a World Eaters Captain who takes the ship to Terra, though Garro and one Saul Tarvitz of the Emperor's Children are amongst the Loyalist conspirators.]

 

-The Emperor's Children arrive at Istvaan V to angrily demand Horus account for his actions. Horus sways Fulgrim to a belief in the falseness of the Emperor, and his Legion joins the Traitors.

 

-The Emperor amasses seven full Legions to confront Horus. The majority of the distant Iron Hands are left behind by Ferrus Manus, as he races with his veteran companies to join in the punishment of the traitorous Horus.

 

-The Iron Hands lead the Salamanders and Raven Guard in the initial attack on Istvaan V, and are repulsed by the Traitors' defences.

 

-The second wave of forces at Istvaan V reveal themselves to be Traitors, and the forces of the Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Word Bearers, and Alpha Legion set upon the three Loyalist Legions.

 

-[Note: 2002's Codex: Chaos Space Marines instead lists the four betraying legions at Istvaan V as: the Iron Warriors, World Eaters, Death Guard, and Emperor's Children.]

 

-Forces of the Thousand Sons appear, and assist the Traitors in the massacre.

 

-With the realisation of their doom, Ferrus Manus mounts an all-or-nothing attack on Horus' command position. The Salamanders and Raven Guard do not follow his lead, earning them the eternal enmity of the Iron Hands. The Loyalists are slaughtered, with only five individuals (of the thirty thousand deployed) making it off world.

 

-Horus' rebellion spreads, engulfing the whole of the Imperium in civil war.

 

-Corax returns to Deliverance, and orders his Apothecaries to dangerously modify the process of Space Marine creation, in an attempt to speed it up and return the Raven Guard to fighting strength.

 

-Over half the Titan Legions side with Horus as the Adeptus Mechanicus is engulfed in its own civil war.

 

-The Emperor's Children's belief in the so-called perfection of the Emperor is quickly supplanted by hedonistic worship of Slaanesh. A million krill farmers are sacrificed on Logres, as they seal their pact with their new god.

 

-The World Eaters become devotees of Khorne, the Blood God, and their brutality reaches new heights. Angron seemingly destroys his homeworld.

 

-The Alpha Legion go out of their way to match themselves against other Space Marine Legions, seemingly ignoring Horus' broader agenda. On the paradise world of Tallarn they defeat a force of White Scars, before the planet is bombed into a wasteland by the Iron Warriors.

 

-The White Scars fight Traitor forces on scores of different worlds, waging lightning fast warfare.

 

-The Raven Guard's experiments are failures, permanently destabilising their gene-seed and creating ferocious monsters instead of Space Marines. The Legion is limited to small actions.

 

-War rages across the galaxy, with Loyalist forces pushing out to combat the Traitors. Horus feints away from this broader fighting, and commits the bulk of his forces for a direct strike at Terra.

 

-On their way to Terra, the Death Guard become stranded in the Warp via the machinations of Captain Typhon, and are subjected to the horrific Destroyer plague. Unable to combat it, Mortarion calls out for deliverance and is answered by the Chaos god Nurgle. Pledging his Legion to its service, the very name of the Death Guard falls out of use as the Legion becomes the Plague Marines. Typhon is rewarded by Nurgle, renaming himself Typhus and becoming host to the Destroyer Hive.

 

-The majority of the Emperor's forces find themselves too far away to respond in time. Only the Imperial Fists, Blood Angels, and White Scars are present at Terra. Battlefleet Solar is defeated, and the Lunar defences are smashed.

 

-The Word Bearers had been long jealous of the praise the Emperor had for the Ultramarines. While the bulk of the Traitor Legion is at Terra under Lorgar, Kor Phaeron leads a second force against Ultramar. The brutal final battle takes place at Calth, where the sun is seeded with poisons. The Word Bearers are eventually driven by the Ultramarine defenders into the Maelstrom.

 

-Horus lays siege to Terra. The Blood Angels heroically hold the Eternity Wall space port, while Sanguinius slays foul daemons in the skies above.

 

-Fabius Bile, apothecary and Lieutenant Commander of the Emperor's Children, conducts horrific experiments on his fellow Legionaries, altering them to be more responsive to stimuli.

 

-Guilliman and the bulk of the Ultramarines, crusading far out at the galactic rim, finally receive word of Horus' betrayal. As they race back to the Segmentum Solar they do battle with the Alpha Legion, and on the world of Eskrador it appears that Guilliman kills Alpharius (to little effect).

 

-Horus lays siege to the Imperial Palace. Rogal Dorn chooses Brother Sigismund from his Legion, the greatest warrior on Terra, to be given the holy duty to slay the greatest Champions of Chaos.

 

-The Emperor's Children ignore the siege of the Imperial Palace, and under the direction of Fulgrim indulge in pursuing their personal pleasures instead. Gleefully slaughtering the Terran civilian population, summoning daemons, and rendering people into exciting new stimulants.

 

-The expertise of the Iron Warriors is used to break down the defences of the Imperial Palace.

 

-Growing further apart from his Legion as they become more and more worshipful of Slaanesh, Fabius Bile quits Terra and strikes out on his own.

 

-After fifty five days of fighting, the Imperial Palace is breached.

 

-The shields on Horus' flagship drop. It's unknown why, though it's speculated that Horus wished to cast his psychic sight upon his father's death. (More likely is that overwhelming Dark Angels and Space Wolves reinforcements were approaching, and Horus sought to draw the Emperor to his death before they could arrive.)

 

-Gathering his immediate companions – Rogal Dorn, Sanguinius, and some small forces – the Emperor teleports aboard Horus' ship.

 

-The Emperor's companions are separated, and confront Warp-spawned horrors as they search for Horus. Sanguinius reaches Horus first, and is killed in a psychic assault of boundless pain and evil

 

-When the Emperor arrives at the command bridge, Horus stands triumphant over the corpse of Sanguinius. The Emperor engages Horus in titanic single combat – physically, spiritually, and psychically – and though wounded is victorious, utterly destroying Horus' presence in the Warp.

 

-Rogal Dorn arrives, to find the corpses of his brothers and the body of his dying father. The Sons of Horus fall back immediately. Abaddon, Captain of their first company, takes the body of Horus.

 

-The other Legions of Chaos fall into disarray and likewise flee from Terra. The World Eaters are the last to leave, taking the body of Khârn who they believe to be dead. His apparent revival by the Blood God earns him great prestige.

 

-The Emperor, overcome by the wounds inflicted by Horus, must be interred in the arcane life-support systems of the Golden Throne to survive.

 

DÉNOUMENT

 

-Terra is so devastated that the entire planet must be completely rebuilt.

 

-Jaghatai Khan is said to gift Dorn a dozen of his finest stallions, as a gesture of eternal brotherhood.

 

-Of Captain Garro their are many rumours. One that his Loyalists died prisoners, another that they formed an anti-Death Guard specialist unit, or that he renounced arms and served at the Master Apothecariate. Lastly, that he fell to Nurgle in the end, and still exists as the mighty Lord of Flies.

 

-At some point, the Emperor's Children's champion Lucius is killed in gladiatorial combat by his fellow Lord Commander, Cyrius. His death is a moment of such transcendental pleasure for him that Slaanesh contrives to allow him to possess his killer, and continue the pursuit of such rapture.

 

-Rogal Dorn leaves the shaping of the new Imperium to others and, dressed in the black of penitent mourning, strikes out in an unending crusade of vengeance against the Traitors.

 

-The Traitor Legions are pushed back into the Eye of Terror. A great fortress-tomb is built for Horus, and the Sons of Horus refuse to name a new leader.

 

-The Ultramarines spread throughout the Imperium, attempting to hold it together. They account for nearly half of all Space Marines in the galaxy. Guilliman implements the changes outlined in his Codex Astartes, breaking up the Legions.

 

-The Ultramarines form at least twenty three new Chapters, who collectively refer to themselves as the Primogenitor Chapters.

 

-Dorn, Russ, and Vulkan oppose the breaking up of the Legions. Guilliman, who is backed by Corax and Ferrus Manus [sic], force the issue, and tensions rise to the point that the Imperial Fists are fired upon by the Imperial Navy.

 

-The Imperial Fists are begrudgingly broken into Successor Chapters, including the Black Templars and the Crimson Fists. The fanatical Sigismund is chosen to lead the Black Templars, and they take his colours as their own.

 

-The White Scars, Blood Angels, and Dark Angels are broken into numerous new Chapters. The Iron Hands form two: the Red Talons and Brazen Claws. The depleted Space Wolves refuse to be split.

 

-The Salamanders, always the smallest Legion and suffering from the Massacre at Istvaan V, produce no Successor Chapters. (Later foundings might include the Storm Giants and Black Dragons.) The Legion's gene-seed is notably stable and mutation free, their reduction in reflex time attributed to the high gravity of Nocturne.

 

-The Raven Guard eventually rebuild to the point that Corax can create three new Chapters: The Raptors, Revilers, and Black Guard.

 

-Fulgrim abandons the Emperor's Children. The enemies of Slaanesh claim him dead, but the fragmented Legion's warbands rumour him to have been elevated to the rank of Daemon Prince and gifted a daemon world of limitless pleasure, though they know not where.

 

-At Skalathrax the World Eaters battle the Emperor's Children. In a lull of the battle, the champion Khârn attacks his own forces. The World Eaters Legion promptly tears itself apart, fracturing into small warbands thereafter. Khârn earns the title The Betrayer, and much favour with his god, who cares not from whence the blood flows.

 

-Given a world by Tzeentch, the Thousand Sons begin to mutate extravagantly, particularly amongst those without the sorcerous might to ward against corruption. Their Chief Librarian, Ahriman, leads a cabal of allies to enact a great spell to purge the Legion of mutation, and inadvertently turns their brethren into autonomous soul-dust, sealed within their armour for ever more. A wrathful Magnus exiles all who took part in the Rubric of Ahriman, scattering much of what remains of his Legion.

 

-Mortarion is elevated to daemonhood and takes control of a world in the Eye of Terror. He reforms the Plague Planet into a twisted image of Barbarus from which he self-loathingly seeks to drag the galaxy to the level of ruin he finds himself in. Typhus is sickened at the sentimentality, and frequently strikes out on his own.

 

-The Dark Angels return to Caliban, and are fired upon. Lion El'Jonson is shocked to discover that Luther and the planet's defenders have been swayed by Chaos. The Lion ruthlessly bombards the planet, before deploying to fight the Traitors. As a warp storm consumes the planet, the Lion duels Luther and is wounded by a sorcerous attack. Caliban is torn apart, the Traitors sucked into the Warp and scattered through space and time. The only part of Caliban that remains is the Legion's fortress, in which a sanity-shattered Luther endlessly repeats that The Lion has been taken by The Watchers.

 

-The Dark Angels' Inner Circle is formed to guard the knowledge of the existence of their Legion's treason, and they vow to hunt these Fallen where and when they appear.

 

-The Iron Warriors maintain an empire around Olympia which takes a decade of campaigning by the Ultramarines and Imperial Fists to destroy.

 

-On Fenris, at a great feast in honour of the Emperor's victory over Horus, Leman Russ freezes in place before falling to his knees, glassy eyed. After quickly issuing instructions to his most trusted retainers, they leave the Great Hall, never to be seen again. His final words: at the end, he will return. For the final battle. For the Wolftime.

 

-The death of Sanguinius at the hands of Horus begins to psychically resonate in the Blood Angels, and as they age they become overwhelmed by the vivid memory of their Primarch's last battle. Some Imperial commanders also voice suspicions that their Chapters seem to literally thirst for blood.

 

-Rumours persist that Ferrus Manus, whose body was never found, was rescued and restored, and now resides on Mars. These are violently refuted by the Iron Hands, who despair at the weakness of mankind. They teach that Ferrus's angered spirit appeared to them when the Emperor fell, and then ascended to an unearthly paradise realm, where he fights eternally, becoming ever stronger, in preparation for the Time of Darkness when he will return. The Iron Hands seek to eliminate any perceived weakness with bionics and hate.

 

-The Word Bearers remain a largely unified Legion under Lorgar (having achieved daemonhood) and his Dark Apostles. They primarily operate from the world of Sicarius in the Eye of Terror, and the factory-world of Ghalmek in the Maelstrom. They once more build vast monuments, now to Chaos.

 

-Fabius Bile is made to flee from the Arden system and into the Eye of Terror by a Salamanders force. He takes up residence on a Crone World, and forges allegiances with all the Traitor Legions.

 

-Perturabo creates a trap for Rogal Dorn and the Imperial Fists at the Eternal Fortress. Dorn boasts that he will drag Perturabo back to Terra in an iron cage, but over three weeks the Iron Warriors systematically destroy their rivals. Perturabo is elevated to Daemon Prince, and it takes two decades of rebuilding before the Imperial Fists can wage war again. Perturabo resides on the daemon world of Medrengard, his superiority established for all time.

 

-The Flesh Tearers, a Blood Angels Successor, are tasked with crushing remaining Traitor strongholds. Their campaigns are reminiscent of the massacres of the World Eaters and Night Lords before them.

 

-During the Legion Wars in the Eye, the fortress-tomb of the much-dwindled Sons of Horus is assaulted by a force of allied Traitor Legions. The Emperor's Children steal Horus' corpse and attempt to clone him with the assistance of Fabius Bile.

 

-The remaining Sons of Horus swear fealty to Abaddon, who renounces their past (including destroying Horus' body) and renames them the Black Legion. They begin a succession of Black Crusades out of the Eye of Terror.

 

-Konrad Curze is killed by an Imperial Assassin in the Eastern Fringes. Evidence suggests he allows this to happen, believing it vindicates his beliefs.

 

-Roughly seventy years after the Horus Heresy, Jaghatai Khan leads the White Scars' First Brotherhood through a gateway and into a shadowy realm in pursuit of a Dark Eldar lord. The gateway closes, and the Khan is never seen of again. Chapter seers teach that when the Emperor rises from the Golden Throne and mounts the next Great Crusade, the Khan will return to lead them.

 

-Nearly a century after the Heresy, Corax personally gives the Emperor's peace to all the monstrous would-be Space Marines he had created in desperation. Locking himself in his tower, he prayed to the Emperor for forgiveness. When he emerged after a year he was haggard and wild-eyed, leaving Deliverance on a course for the Eye of Terror, saying but a single word: Nevermore.

 

-Rogal Dorn, disturbed by the increasing deification of the Primarchs, is killed in a decisive boarding action which blunts a Black Crusade. Reinforcements are able to recover what remains there are, and Dorn's skeletal hand becomes the Chapter's most prized relic.

 

-Guilliman is wounded in a fight with a daemonic Fulgrim. The poison in the wound is beyond Ultramarine apothecaries, and they seal their Primarch in a stasis field to prevent his death.

 

 

[calgar101]

Great read, thank you.

[ZeroWolf]

Interesting in what things changed and what things stayed the same. Though it looks like it was mainly primarch related information that was changed like Dorn now only losing a hand and not his life. Or that Alpharius was a twin the whole time.

[calgar101]

 

Interesting in what things changed and what things stayed the same. Though it looks like it was mainly primarch related information that was changed like Dorn now only losing a hand and not his life. Or that Alpharius was a twin the whole time.

 

Largely it remains the same but some tweaks here and there. No mention of Fulgrim falling due to the laer sword, he initially goes to take Horus to task... interesting. 

 

Years ago there was a Dan Abnett interview around the time of Legion an ld he said that Alan Merrett said how "they always thought Alpharius was a twin".

 

[jaxom]

I might have missed it, but there was also the breaking of the Siege. The Dark Angels and Space Wolves destroy much of the traitor legions still in the Palace as they rout upon Horus’s death.

[LSM]

 

I might have missed it, but there was also the breaking of the Siege. The Dark Angels and Space Wolves destroy much of the traitor legions still in the Palace as they rout upon Horus’s death.

 

Yeah, I remember that, as well as Lion El'Jonson being so angry that he and Russ duel, and after Russ lets up The Lion runs him through with his sword. (He gets better.)

 

But it must be in other sources - perhaps their Codexes -  as it's not in the IA articles themselves.

[jaxom]

I thought the The Lion and The Wolf (the inset about their journey to Terra) was in one of them. Maybe it was a non-IA article.

[LSM]

There is a "The Lion and the Wolf" insert, but it tells the tale of how (when fighting together on a world) the enemy Tyrant insulted Russ, who then demanded that the Lion let him lead the assault and claim the Tyrant's head. Jonson had already planned out his assault though, and so ignored Russ' request. Russ, seeing Jonson personally behead the Tyrant, was so enraged that after the battle he went up and punched Jonson. The two preceded to tussle for a day and a night, before Russ started laughing at the absurdity of what they were doing. Jonson then punches Russ, knocking him unconscious, and the Dark Angels depart the planet before he awakes.

 

Thereafter, whenever the Dark Angels and Space Wolves deployed together, they'd first select champions and stage an honour duel.

[jaxom]

Hah, at least I’m only half crazy!