primaris books/series in order

[greatcrusade08]

So im looking for help, trouble is i cant accurately summarise what im looking for. Im going to try, and hope my fellow autists can understand my mad ramblings.

 

so im looking for the 40k end times lore, as much as i can get hold of and largely in the right order.

This would cover:

The loss of cadia (ive read the minka lesk ones which cover some of this),

The expansion of the eye of terror.

Return of Big G

Devastation of Baal

Return of the lion

etc

 

i have cawls great works, minka lesk/cadian series, indomitus, leviathon and the dawn of fire series, what am i missing? what order should they be read in?

sorry this is probably going to be a large scale works.

 

Edit:

book series identified:

watcher of the throne series

Edited April 8 by greatcrusade08

[Karhedron]

The Watchers of the Throne novels includes Guilliman's arrival on Terra and his early actions prior to launching the Indomitus Crusade.

[greatcrusade08]

1 hour ago, Karhedron said:

The Watchers of the Throne novels includes Guilliman's arrival on Terra and his early actions prior to launching the Indomitus Crusade.

Thank you, ill create a list in the OP, i have a feeling there are a lot of books

[Tolmeus]

If I remember correctly, the events surrounding the 13th Black Crusade, the fall of Cadia and Guilliman's return were covered in the campaign books ‘The Gathering Storm’. This was then subsequently taken up in more detail in many books, so I think the order would be as follows:

 

Events of the Fall of Cadia:

• "The Gathering Storm - Fall of Cadia" [Campaign book]
• The Fall of Cadia (Robert Rath) - Main Event
• Minska Lesk (Justin D. Hill) - One perspective
• The Hellwinter Gate (Chris Wraight) - One perspective

Events of the Return of Guilliman:

• "The Gathering Storm - Rise of the Primarch" [Campaign book] - Covers the events of the ressurection of Guilliman and his Terran Crusade
• The Carrion Throne - Vaults of Terra (Chris Wraight) - Events on Terra shortly before the opening of the Great Rift
• The Hollow Mountain - Vaults of Terra (Chris Wraight)
• The Emperor's Legion: Watchers of the Throne (Chris Wraight) - Events on Terra during Fall of Cadia, Guilliman returns to Terra
• The Dark City - Vaults of Terra (Chris Wraight)

Indomitus Crusade - Imperium Sanctus:

• Dawn of Fire - Avenging Son (Guy Haley) [Indomitus Crusade series] - Events about the start of the Indomitus Crusade
• The Regent's Shadow: Watchers of the Throne (Chris Wraight) - Events of Terra during und shortly after Guilliman started the Indomitus Crusade
• ------- from now on total focus on the Indomitus Crusade ------------
• Psychic Awakening [Various campaign books]
• Dawn of Fire - The Gate of Bones (Andy Clark)
• Dawn of Fire - The Wolftime (Gav Thorpe)
• Indomitus (Gav Thorpe)
• Dawn of Fire - Throne of Light (Guy Haley)
• Dawn of Fire - The Iron Kingdom (Nick Kyme)
• Dawn of Fire - The Matyr's Tomb (Marc Collins)
• Dawn of Fire - Sea of Souls (Chris Wraight)
• Dawn of Fire - Hand of Abaddon (Nick Kyme)
• Dawn of Fire - The Silent King (Guy Haley)
• Dark Imperium (Guy Haley) - After the events of the "Dawn of Fire" series, Guilliman returns to Ultramar to fight Mortarion
• Dark Imperium - Plague War (Guy Haley)
• Dark Imperium - Godblight (Guy Haley)
• The Great Work (Guy Haley) - After the events of the "Dark Imperium" triology, focus on Belisarius Cawl
• Genefather (Guy Haley) - Events shortly before Guilliman/the Indomitus Crusade travels to Imperium Nihilus, focus on Belisarius Cawl and Fabius Bile

Indomitus Crusade - Imperium Nihilus:

• Dante - Blood Angels (Guy Haley) - shortly before the opening of the Great Rift
• The Devestation of Baal - Blood Angels (Guy Haley) - during the opening of the Great Rift, the Indomitus Crusade arrives
• Darkness in the Blood - Blood Angels (Guy Haley) - Dante as Lord Commander of Imperium Nihilus
• Angron - The Red Angel (David Guymer) - focus on the return of Angron and the World Eaters
• The Lion - Son of the Forest (Mike Brooks) - Return of Lion El'Johnson
• Arcs of Omen [Various campaign books]
• Leviathan (Darius Hinks) (focus on the 4th Tyranic war)
• Leviathan [campaign books]
• Fulgrim - The Perfect Son (Jude Reid)

That's roughly my chronological order of the events till now. There are surely some gaps (I did not read all of the available books), so all Fraters are invited to complete this list or alter it

Edit: I have included the additions of the other Fraters (date: 09.04.2025)

 

Edited April 9 by Tolmeus

[greatcrusade08]

Wow thank you, thats incredible.

bit of a dense question, but whats a campaign book?

[Tolmeus]

14 minutes ago, greatcrusade08 said:

but whats a campaign book?

 

There are svereal sources regarding stories or lore when it comes to Warhammer40k:

• The classic approach would be the books released by Black Library, a branch company of Games Workshop that covers the releases of alle the books, for example "Horus Rising" (by Dan Abbnet), "Eisenhorn: Xenos" (by Dan Abnett), "Dante" (by Guy Haley) and so on.
• Games Workshop also publishes campaign books (concentrate on current main events, for example the "Arcs of Omen" campaign that focussed on Abaddon's plans after he achieved the opening of the Great Rift) or codices (concentrate on specific factions of the Table Top game, for example the newly released "Emperor's Children" get a new codex this weekend). Books, campaign books and codices can of course influence each other, which is why we get for each new edition of the Table Top Game also a equivalent book (for example 9th edition release with the "Leviathan" box, "Leviathan" campaign book, "Leviathan" book by Gav Thrope)
• White Dwarf magazines are released on a released on monthly (?) base and also include some stories or information on units

[Tolmeus]

Campaign books are deeply connected to the table top game and continue the current narrative of Warhammer40k, giving new formations, rules, and objectives for missions in the game. Its a collection of all of these things, some lore, some rules, pictures of the new units and so on. But it's not a classic book that covers a story in 300 pages written by an author.

[greatcrusade08]

Ah i see, thank you

[lansalt]

8 hours ago, Tolmeus said:

Events of the Return of Guilliman:

• "The Gathering Storm - Rise of the Primarch" (Campaign book) (Covers the events of the ressurection of Guilliman and his Terran Crusade)
• The Emperor's Legion: Watchers of the Throne (Chris Wraight) - (Events on Terra during Fall of Cadia, Gulliman returns to Terra)

The Vaults of Terra trilogy by Chris Wraight algo goes here. It's set before and during Watchers of the Throne, and features several key events (like what happened to the Astronomican)

[LemartesTheLost]

Obviously not released yet, but you'll be wanting Fulgrim: The Perfect Son once it goes on preorder this weekend.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

The Cypher novel Lord of the Fallen should be added quite early to that reading order. It explains what happened to Cypher after his imprisonment upon Guilliman's arrival on Terra. The ending is a bit cryptic, but offers a springboard for speculation about the actions and motives of certain parties, not all of whom are named Cypher.

 

I'd put the Helbrecht novel Knight of the Throne in there as well since he was on Team Rubicon by that point.

 

You should definitely read Void King before The Martyr's Tomb.

 

You have Indomitus listed, but that book is a mess from a current canon standpoint. Not really Thorpe's fault. The plans for how and when the Imperium learned of the events in the Pariah Nexus changed several times and pretty much made that story impossible as things currently sit. Though I fully expect that The Silent King will re-re-retcon the Nexus storyline and possibly make Indomitus canon again in the process, even if that means invalidating events from other stories, including earlier books in the Dawn of Fire series.

 

Other potential additions would be the Mephiston trilogy, which alternates with the Dante books chronologically, but isn't essential. Likewise, the Lazarus short story and novel are an optional side-path.

[lansalt]

On 4/14/2025 at 2:38 PM, Lord Nord in Gravis Armour said:

You have Indomitus listed, but that book is a mess from a current canon standpoint. Not really Thorpe's fault.

Speaking of that, Ashes of Prospero is another book from him that seems to be in a canon limbo. It should be set after The Wolftime, since it features primaris marines, but AFAIK none of the events in that book have been referenced or recognized elsewhere. It's like GW wants us to forget that the SW 13th great Company (with all their HH tanks and lead by Bulveye) it's supposed to be back for real after decades of teasing it.

Edited April 15 by lansalt

[Tolmeus]

All in all there are several books still not mentioned which all play during or after the Indomitus Crusade, for example Morvenn Vahl, Leonatus, Lazarus, Ephrael Stern, Astorath, Fist of the Imperium, Apocalypse, Spear of the Emperor, Lords of Silence, Huron Blackheart.
But I'm not sure whether I should include them all for the sake of completeness or leave them out, as this would perhaps overload the list, i.e. the overview would be lost.
Shall I do a minimalist list which covers the main story as far as one can say there is one and additionaly one list, that covers all of the stories chronologically?

Edited April 16 by Tolmeus

[Felix Antipodes]

Most of the ones listed are sort of sideshows to the main storyline (there are a couple I’ve yet to get to, but I don’t recall their blurbs listing any essential actions).

Having said that, the nerd in me loves a good list, or even better, two.  I would be pleased to read the result whichever way you go 

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

On 4/15/2025 at 12:52 PM, lansalt said:

Speaking of that, Ashes of Prospero is another book from him that seems to be in a canon limbo. It should be set after The Wolftime, since it features primaris marines, but AFAIK none of the events in that book have been referenced or recognized elsewhere. It's like GW wants us to forget that the SW 13th great Company (with all their HH tanks and lead by Bulveye) it's supposed to be back for real after decades of teasing it.

 

Hopefully the upcoming Space Wolves codex will finally acknowledge those events - that was one of the factors driving the indecision about the book's validity, being left unacknowledged in the last few codex releases. But at least as of the writing of The Wolftime, which was a few years later, it still seemed to be canon as Thorpe showed the same Ultramarines lieutenant forging his association with the Wolves (I believe those are still his only two appearances to date). And The Wolftime ended with Njal setting off on his mini-quest that he was returning from in the opening of Ashes.

 

Granted, none of that means anything given that no one seems to be steering the ship over at Black Library... and certainly not doing anything as esoteric as actually plotting a course.

[Felix Antipodes]

Where the “now” of the setting is concerned, BL has nearly always danced to the design team’s tune.  The strength of BL was putting out stories set in the corners of the setting which didn’t get in the way of the “now” being pushed in the latest BRB or codex.

Even stories closest to the current setting (Vaults of Terra, Dawn of Fire, etc) are merely following the leads set by big brother GW/W40K, either dabbling around the edges or backfilling glossed over parts of the storyline.

This is why the most recent SW codices don’t reflect The Wolftime or any other BL originated plot lines.  I’m wondering if there is some sort of internal rivalry at work here, but probably not.

My issue is sort of the reverse - where are the BL books (or eshorts) following up on Abaddon’s push through the Nachmund Gulf?  Or what is happening around the fringes of the Tyranid push from Pacificus into Segmentum Terra?  We have had more stories in White Dwarf than from BL WRT the Necrontyr shenanigans.  What is going on in Nihilus, etc.  I could go on…

What we, as fans of the setting, need is for someone at GW to sit booth teams down, sort out the details, and work together to each others strengths.

 

Thus ends the rant (wow, where did that come from? )

[Karhedron]

2 hours ago, Lord Nord in Gravis Armour said:

Hopefully the upcoming Space Wolves codex will finally acknowledge those events - that was one of the factors driving the indecision about the book's validity, being left unacknowledged in the last few codex releases.

 

I would not get your hopes up too high. Codices don't seem to be used to advance the narrative anymore, that seems to be the preserve of BL novels or campaign books in the main. 

[greatcrusade08]

On 4/16/2025 at 11:23 AM, Tolmeus said:

All in all there are several books still not mentioned which all play during or after the Indomitus Crusade, for example Morvenn Vahl, Leonatus, Lazarus, Ephrael Stern, Astorath, Fist of the Imperium, Apocalypse, Spear of the Emperor, Lords of Silence, Huron Blackheart.
But I'm not sure whether I should include them all for the sake of completeness or leave them out, as this would perhaps overload the list, i.e. the overview would be lost.
Shall I do a minimalist list which covers the main story as far as one can say there is one and additionaly one list, that covers all of the stories chronologically?

 

For me, i was looking for a complete list, call me Ash Ketchum, i wanna catch them all.

But i really appreciate any efforts in this build, its impressive the knowledge frater have here.

[Tolmeus]

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF ALL BOOKS OF THE INDOMITUS ERA

 

Disclaimer:

What follows is a list of books which should be chronologically ordered regarding their suitable event. I do not claim that this order is objectively correct, as many stories are rather independent and not originally connected to the wider “main” plot as far as there is one. Also, I did not read all of the books.

 

I would ask all of the Fraters to correct this list when they notice a mistake or a novel missing. Therefore, the numbers in front of the books serve more as support for additions than as a binding reading order.

 

Events of the Fall of Cadia:

1.1    "The Gathering Storm - Fall of Cadia" [Campaign book]

1.2    The Fall of Cadia (Robert Rath) - Main Event

1.3    Minska Lesk (Justin D. Hill) - One perspective

1.4    The Hellwinter Gate (Chris Wraight) - One perspective

 

Events of the Return of Guilliman:

2.1    "The Gathering Storm - Rise of the Primarch" [Campaign book] - Covers the events of the ressurection of Guilliman and his Terran Crusade

2.2    Lord of Silence (Chris Wraight) – independent story about the Death Guard during the opening of the Great Rift, slight connection to Cpt. Messinius (see “Dawn of Fire” series)

2.3    The Carrion Throne - Vaults of Terra (Chris Wraight) - Events on Terra shortly before the opening of the Great Rift

2.4    The Hollow Mountain - Vaults of Terra (Chris Wraight)

2.5    The Emperor's Legion: Watchers of the Throne (Chris Wraight) - Events on Terra during Fall of Cadia, Guilliman returns to Terra

2.6    The Dark City - Vaults of Terra (Chris Wraight)

2.7    Cypher – Lord of the Fallen (John French) - explains what happened to Cypher after his imprisonment upon Guilliman's arrival on Terra

 

Indomitus Crusade - Imperium Sanctus:

--- Events about the start of the Indomitus Crusade ---

3.1    Dawn of Fire - Avenging Son (Guy Haley) [Indomitus Crusade series]

3.2    The Regent's Shadow: Watchers of the Throne (Chris Wraight)

--- from now on total focus on the Indomitus Crusade ---

3.3    Psychic Awakening [Various campaign books]

3.4    Dawn of Fire - The Gate of Bones (Andy Clark)

3.5    Dawn of Fire - The Wolftime (Gav Thorpe)

3.6    Ashes of Prospero (Gav Thorpe) – Njal Stormcaller discovers the 13^th Great company

3.7    Indomitus (Gav Thorpe) – Ultramarine strike force meets the Necrons in the Pariah Nexus

3.8    Dawn of Fire - Throne of Light (Guy Haley)

3.9    Apocalypse (Josh Reynolds) – independent story during the Indomitus Crusade, but slight connection to Word Bearers “War of Faith”

3.10 Dawn of Fire - The Iron Kingdom (Nick Kyme)

3.11 Void King (Marc Collins) -

3.12 Dawn of Fire - The Matyr's Tomb (Marc Collins)

3.13 Dawn of Fire - Sea of Souls (Chris Wraight)

3.14 Dawn of Fire - Hand of Abaddon (Nick Kyme)

3.15 Dawn of Fire - The Silent King (Guy Haley)

3.16 Dark Imperium (Guy Haley) - After the events of the "Dawn of Fire" series, Guilliman returns to Ultramar to fight Mortarion

3.17 Dark Imperium - Plague War (Guy Haley)

3.18 Dark Imperium - Godblight (Guy Haley)

3.19 The Great Work (Guy Haley) - After the events of the "Dark Imperium" trilogy, focus on Belisarius Cawl

3.20 Genefather (Guy Haley) - Events shortly before Guilliman/the Indomitus Crusade travels to Imperium Nihilus, focus on Belisarius Cawl and Fabius Bile

 

Indomitus Crusade - Imperium Nihilus:

4.1  Dante - Blood Angels (Guy Haley) - shortly before the opening of the Great Rift

4.2  The Devastation of Baal - Blood Angels (Guy Haley) - during the opening of the Great Rift, the Indomitus Crusade arrives

4.3  Darkness in the Blood - Blood Angels (Guy Haley) - Dante as Lord Commander of Imperium Nihilus

4.4  Astorath – Angel of Mercy (Guy Haley)

4.5  Angron - The Red Angel (David Guymer) - focus on the return of Angron and the World Eaters

4.6  The Lion - Son of the Forest (Mike Brooks) - Return of Lion El'Johnson

4.7  Arcs of Omen [Various campaign books]

4.8  Leviathan (Darius Hinks) - focus on the 4th Tyranic war

4.9  Leviathan [campaign books]

4.10          Fulgrim - The Perfect Son (Jude Reid)

4.11          Spear of the Emperor (Aaron Demski-Bowden) – independent story, roughly 30 years after the opening of the Great rift

4.12          Broken Crusade (Steven B. Fischer) – independent story, roughly a few hundred years after the Indomitus Crusade

 

(author)

[book format]

- descriptions

[Tolmeus]

Titles that are well within the timeline of these events, but I do not know where to put them:

 

·         Lazarus - Enmity‘s Edge (Gary Kloster)

·         Demonbreaker (Jude Reid)

·         Morvenn Vahl: Spear of Faith (Jude Reid)

·         Leonatus: Lord Solar (Rob Young)

·         Helbrecht – Knight of the Throne (Marc Collins) – Has to go some place between 3.8 and 3.12 since I seem to remember that Helbrecht and Guilliman as an argument about the deployment of the Black Tenplars during the Indomitus Crusade, right?

·         Longshot (Rob Young)

·         Assassinorum – Kingmaker (Rob Young)

·         Karskin (Edoardo Albert)

·         Pilgrims of Fire (Justin D. Hill)

·         Ephrael Stern – The Heretic Saint (David Annandale)

·         Oaths of Damnation (Robbie MacNiven)

·         Renegades – Lord of Excess (Rich McCormick)

·         Dominion Genesis (Jonathan D. Beer)

·         Siege of Vraks (Steve Lyon)

·         Wrath of the Lost (Chris Forrester)

 

Again, you are also welcome to add to this list and suggest where exactly a title should be added to the list.

[Dalmyth]

I'd say remove Siege of Vraks since that's set somewhere between 813-830.M41 instead of the Era Indomitus

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

Spear of the Emperor is actually set over a century after the opening of the Great Rift. It was written back during the time when that was supposed to be "now" going forward, Unfortunately, it can't really be moved back as there have been multiple generations of Primaris marines within the Spears chapter and the long isolation between the halves of the Imperium is referenced as a plot point multiple times. On the other hand, it renders the idea of a firstborn Mentors marine still kicking around in Imperium Sanctus so long somewhat laughable, not to mention the treatment of the Rubicon as something still to be feared and undertaken as a last resort. In current lore, by the twenty-year mark post-Rift, the Rubicon is about as dangerous as an afternoon nap. And the parties undertaking the Rubicon process were coming from the Sanctus side.

 

Enmity's Edge is set concurrent with the Lion's return. It has no impact on the plot other than a mention in the epilogue (not a spoiler since as I said it doesn't affect the story at all and I'm reasonably sure that everyone reading this comment is fully aware by this point that the Lion has returned. At least I would hope...) So setting it right after - or shortly after - Son of the Forest and the conclusion of the Arks of Omen books is the best spot for it.

 

Ashes of Prospero would chronologically be better placed after Throne of Light given the amount of time that has to pass since The Wolftime. But it's probably better read (if one HAS to) right after The Wolftime, so pick your poison...

 

The post-Rift Blood Angels stories (latter sections of Devastation of Baal > Revenant Crusade > Redeemer > Teus of Baal > Angel of Mercy > Darkness in the Blood > City of Light) fit chronologically in between The Great Work and Genefather, though again one might prefer to read those two Cawl novels back-to-back without a bunch of Blood Angels stories in between. Probably best to leave them separated the way you have.

 

Speaking of Blood Angels, their various Captains - including those fleet commanders not attached to companies - are well-documented around and after the Rift's opening, to the point that the Captain in the first Mephiston novel needs to be treated as being misnamed. This unfortunately boots the otherwise-decent Angels of Death series out of canon, as there's simply no place for Captain Orfeo - misnamed or not - to exist within the Blood Angels org. Maybe if they'd gone the tired "lost in the Warp" route, but they didn't. He's clearly meant to be an active company captain at the time of the Rift's opening and those are all accounted for during the Haley trilogy with no room for any of them to participate in the events of Angels of Death.

 

I actually have Knight of the Throne set after The Martyr's Tomb but I don't remember my reasoning for that, so maybe it does belong before.