Chaos Space Marines, also sometimes called Traitor Marines, Renegade Marines, or Heretic Astartes, are

former Loyalist Space Marines of the Imperium of Man who have chosen to abandon the service of the Emperor of
Mankind and dedicate themselves to the service of Chaos to achieve their own ends.

Such corrupt Astartes normally belong to one of the nine original Traitor Legions that betrayed the Emperor during
the ancient civil war called the Horus Heresy more than 10,000 standard years ago, while others come from Space
Marine Chapters created long after the Heresy ended that have turned Renegade. Chaos can corrupt Astartes of any
time and place just as its siren call leads many lesser men and women to their damnation.

A Chaos Space Marine of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion, the first of the ancient Space Marine Legions to turn to
Chaos before the Horus Heresy.

During the Horus Heresy, the terrible Imperial civil war that pitted the Battle-Brothers of the 18 known Space
Marine Legions against one another, there were two factions. These were the Loyalist Space Marines who continued
to serve the Imperium and the Emperor of Mankind and the Chaos Space Marines of the Traitor Legions who
betrayed the Emperor and pledged their souls to the service of the four Ruinous Powers of Chaos.

Some Traitor Marines pledged their service to all four of the Dark Gods, a malevolent force known as Chaos
Undivided, whilst others preferred to dedicate themselves to the worship of only one of the Ruinous Powers. The
Traitor Legions were led by the Warmaster Horus, once a Primarch of the Imperium and the Emperor's most trusted
friend, son, and adviser before he was corrupted by the promises and lies of the Dark Gods and his own inner flaws
and ambition.

The Traitor Legions were the most powerful component of the forces of Chaos which fought during the Heresy,
which also included the myriad daemons of the Warp, human Traitors from the Imperial Army, the potent infantry
and combat walker forces of the Dark Mechanicum and Chaos Cultists drawn from across the galaxy.

The flesh and Power Armour of Chaos Space Marines often warps and twists into new, darker and inhuman forms
under the influence of the Warp energies they are exposed to as their shapes morph to embody the corrupted
Astartes' new allegiance.

Chaos Space Marines fight for everything they were once forbidden to indulge in as the ascetic servants of the
Emperor and the selfless guardians of Mankind. Pleasure, wealth, mayhem, but above all else, the power to rule their
fellow humans in the name of the Chaos Gods is the driving ambition and goal of every Chaos Space Marine.

In the wake of the birth of the Great Rift, the forces of the Chaos Space Marines under the leadership of Abaddon
the Despoiler now represent the most grave threat to the continued existence of the Imperium of Man.

All Heretic Astartes are ultimately united by this sheer hunger for power. At first, this desire is focused towards
specific goals, but as time passes, it becomes a bone-deep obsession. Though the Dark Gods are given to rewarding
their mortal followers for acts of carnage that further their divine cause, the gifts they bestow upon their favoured
are fickle indeed.

A particularly extravagant slaughter might be rewarded with a blood-red aura that invigorates the supplicant, but it is
just as likely the champion will find his arms being reshaped as axes of bone, or that he has the face of a slavering
hound.
Eventually, the Chaos Space Marine seeks immortality, to ascend to such lofty heights of favour that he is remade as
a Daemon Prince. But for every successful aspirant there are hundreds of failures, mutated beyond recognition into
mewling abominations known as Chaos Spawn.

Contents

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History

The many infamous Chaos Champions of the Traitor Legions during the Horus Heresy.

The Traitor Legions of the Chaos Space Marines represent 9 of the 20 original First Founding Legions of Space
Marines who were created by the Emperor of Mankind from the genomes of his 20 Primarchs in the late 30th
Millennium to fight the Great Crusade that forged the Imperium of Man.

At this time Horus, the Warmaster of the Imperial forces and Primarch of the XVI Legion, the Luna Wolves, (which
the Emperor allowed him to rename the Sons of Horus in his honour before the onset of the Horus Heresy to
demonstrate his status as first-among-equals among the other Primarchs), was corrupted by Chaos. The Warmaster
then instigated the galaxy-wide Imperial civil war known as the Horus Heresy in his determination to replace the
rule of the Emperor with his own.

Chaos Space Marine Engagements with the Imperium, ca. 998.M41.

After the death of Horus at the hands of the Emperor aboard his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, during the Battle of
Terra that saw the conclusion of the Horus Heresy, the remnants of the nine Traitor Legions fled, along with the
other Traitor Imperial forces that now served Chaos, into an area of the galaxy where the Warp bled into realspace,
creating the permanent Warp Storm known as the Eye of Terror.

Due to the nature of Chaos, and the temporal instability of the Warp, many of the very same Chaos Space Marines
who revolted against the Emperor more than 10 millennia ago continue to fight against the Imperium today, having
effectively been granted a tortured immortality by the will of the Ruinous Powers.

Abaddon the Despoiler's Black Crusades and other Chaos incursions.

The Traitor Legions have kept their old names, with the exception of the Sons of Horus who were renamed the
Black Legion by their new leader, Abaddon the Despoiler, once Horus' chief lieutenant and the First Captain of the
Luna Wolves before he followed Horus into damnation. Besides Horus, two other Traitor Primarchs were killed
during or shortly after the Heresy (Alpharius of the Alpha Legion and Konrad Curze of the Night Lords).

The six surviving Traitor Primarchs have since been transformed into Daemon Princes by the Chaos Gods. These
daemonic Primarchs rarely took part in the affairs of their Legions before the birth of the Great Rift. Four of the
Traitor Legions have pledged a singular loyalty to one of the great Chaos Gods, while the others serve the interests
of Chaos as a whole in the form of Chaos Undivided.

Due to the nature of Chaos and those who choose to serve it, not long after the end of the Heresy the Traitor
Legions, save for the Word Bearers, largely stopped operating as unified military organisations and instead devolved
into a series of separate and often competing smaller units called "warbands." The Traitor Marines who command
these warbands, all potent Chaos Champions, seek their own personal glorification and the eventual opportunity to
become Daemon Princes in their own right by earning victories in the cause of Chaos.

Chaos Space Marine activity after the formation of the Great Rift in 999.M41.
Due to the fractious nature of the Dark Gods, the warbands in service to a particular Ruinous Power often view other
Traitor Marine warbands who serve its patron's rival deity as even more appropriate targets for their wrath than the
servants of the Emperor. With such an attitude prevailing among the corrupted Astartes, it has often proven
impossible for the Traitor Legions to present a united front against the Imperium since the death of Horus, which is
one reason why they have never enjoyed a similar series of military successes over the past ten millennia.

The closest thing to unity that has appeared amongst the Traitor Legions and other Chaos Space Marines is when
Abaddon the Despoiler, the Warmaster of Chaos and leader of the Black Legion, launches one of his periodic Black
Crusades into Imperial space under the banner of Chaos Undivided. These were temporary periods of unity amongst
all the forces of Chaos when they seek to overwhelm the Imperium's defences surrounding the Eye of Terror and
drive on Terra once more.

Abaddon is the only Champion of Chaos since Horus himself who is able to command, however begrudgingly and
briefly, the loyalty of all nine Traitor Legions, and he has led twelve Black Crusades out of the Eye of Terror against
the Imperium of Man.

The latest, the 13th Black Crusade, was launched in 999.M41 and proved the most successful for the forces of Chaos
since the Horus Heresy. The Chaos troops managed to destroy the Fortress World of Cadia, at last cracking open the
Cadian Gate. Shortly afterwards, the Great Rift was born, as the strains wrought upon reality by the 13th Black
Crusade caused realspace to crack along a line running from the Eye of Terror in the galactic west to the Hadex
Anomaly in the east. The forces of Chaos are now on the march as never before, though the defenders of the
Imperium have also found themselves reinvigorated by the resurrection of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman.

Yet the Emperor's servants find themselves pressed as never before from all sides by Chaos and other xenos
factions. Abaddon believes it will not be much longer before the Black Legion and the other servants of the Ruinous
Powers will once more stand upon the soil of Terra. Then the galaxy will tremble as the servants of the Dark Gods
rip the Corpse Emperor from His Golden Throne and claim the souls of Mankind for their own.

The Long War - The Woeful Blasphemies of the Chaos Space Marines

A selection of the blasphemous weapons employed by the Chaos Space Marines.

The Long War has raged for ten thousand standard years. The bitterness and spite of the Chaos Space Marines has
spread throughout the galaxy, spilling from the Warp and bleeding back again for time immemorial. Though the
Inquisition takes great pains to quell reports of Chaos incursions in order to spare the common populace of the
Imperium from unconventional thought that might lead to a replication of the heresy, the legends and records persist
across the galaxy, handed down through the generations by the foolish and the brave.

This is a woeful record of recorded blasphemies committed by the Heretic Astartes, compiled from the sealed
archives of the Conclave of Kratos, by order of the Herald of the Convocation Senatorum Imperialis, as ratified by
Order-in-Camera KKL/706404-4334/X8044. Pursuant to the Declaration of Reunification of the Heresy and
Recidivism in each and all of its manifold manifestations with reference to the Sealed Addenda to the 7th Grand
Census Armourial.

M30-M31, Age of Betrayal

 The Great Crusade (ca. 800.M30 - 005.M31) - The Emperor rises from the anarchy of sundered Terra
during the Age of Strife and creates the Primarchs. The first Space Marines are created in turn near the end
of the Unification Wars. With the Warp Storms that isolated Terra during the Age of Strife finally
dissipated, the Emperor goes forth into the galaxy. Over the course of campaigns unnumbered, the
Emperor's Space Marine Legions unite Mankind. The Imperium of Man is born.
 The Horus Heresy (ca. 005.M31 - 014.M31) - The galaxy is torn by bitter rebellion and civil war. Horus
and his nine Traitor Primarchs lay waste to the remaining nine Loyalist Legiones Astartes and all but
 overthrow the Emperor of Mankind. The forces of Chaos are eventually hurled back from Terra and most
are driven into the Eye of Terror during the campaigns of the Great Scouring.
 Fall of Guilliman at Thessala (131.M31) - Fulgrim, the Daemon Primarch of the Emperor's Children
Legion, leads his hedonistic armies in a spiteful strike against the Ultramarines during the Battle of
Thessala. Amongst the swirling pink mists of Slaanesh's favour, Fulgrim hunts down his brother Primarch
Roboute Guilliman and fights him in single combat. Though Guilliman is mighty indeed, his opponent is a
serpentine giant swollen with daemonic power, each of his four arms wielding a poisoned blade. Guilliman
is struck down by a slash across his throat. He is spirited away by his Space Marines and placed in a stasis
field before Fulgrim's poisons can kill him outright. For ten long millennia, Guilliman lingers on the very
threshold of death in the Temple of Correction within the Ultramarines' Fortress of Hera, their fortress-
monastery on Macragge.
 The Legion War (ca. M31) - The banished Traitor Astartes fight among themselves within the Eye of
Terror in a war for resources and slaves which further fractures the already broken Traitor Legions. In the
culmination of the war, the Emperor's Children attack the Daemon World of Maeleum and raze the Sons of
Horus' fortress, stealing the body of their Primarch Horus and vanishing into the Warp.
 The Long War Begins (ca. Early M31) - Thirsty for revenge, the Chaos Space Marines strike out against
the Imperium from the depths of the Eye of Terror. The Adepts of the Administratum are horrified to find
that the number of their invasions consistently increases with every passing solar decade.

M32-M39, Age of Retribution

Swearing to succeed where his gene-father Horus failed, Ezekyle Abaddon takes up the mantle of Warmaster of
Chaos and begins the Long War anew.

 The Black Legion Rises (ca. Unknown Date.M31) - Ascending to dominion of the Sons of Horus,
Abaddon embarks on a quest to slay the clones Fabius Bile has crafted from Horus' remains. Destroying the
Primogenitor's hidden laboratories and the abominations he created, Abaddon leaves behind no trace of his
gene-father. With the final and utter destruction of Horus, Abaddon renames his Legion the Black Legion.
 The 1st Black Crusade of Warmaster Abaddon (781.M31) - The new Warmaster of Chaos, Abaddon the
Despoiler of the Black Legion, makes many bloody pacts with the Dark Powers. On Uralan, Abaddon
recovers the Daemon Sword Drach'nyen after battling his way through the haunted labyrinth to the great
inner chamber where the blade has languished in stasis for many Terran centuries. The howling blade
contains the bound essence of a dangerous Warp entity who has the power to rend reality apart wherever
the weapon strikes. After the recovery of the malefic sword, Abaddon's power swells to inhuman
proportions.
 The Tormented Mine (027.M32) - Faenroc the Forgotten of the Black Legion discovers a world formed
from Warp-infused iron ore. He constructs a vast mine to harvest its wealth for Abaddon, the Warmaster of
Chaos. Slaves prove too fragile to work the mine as the ore mutates them uncontrollably, while some mine
shafts secrete fluids that dissolve the workers within. Faenroc remedies this problem by binding daemonic
entities to his mining machines in a ritual that involves the mass sacrifice of the entire mortal workforce.
 Vengeance from the Void (ca. M32) – Across a hundred scattered systems in the western marches of the
Segmentum Solar, cult uprisings led by a core of Chaos Space Marine warbands drawn from the Iron
Warriors, Night Lords and World Eaters Traitor Legions bring entire planetary governments to their knees
in a year of blood and anarchy. With whole sections on the brink of collapse, events take a dramatic turn
when a combined force of the Adeptus Astartes emerges from the black depths beyond the spiral arm and
launches a sudden and overwhelming attack directly upon the uprising's command. Though many Space
Marines fall in glory, the warlords of the Traitor factions are slain and the uprising fractures into a thousand
localized rebellions which are soon put down by local forces. Subsequent Inquisitorial studies claim that
these Space Marines are drawn from several Chapters, including the Minotaurs, Carcharodons, Death
Eagles and Angels of Absolution. Other evidence however, including their estimated Founding and
projected deployment dates, contradict these assertions, consigning the entire event to conjecture.
 Perturabo's Plague (ca. 400.M32) - The Daemon Primarch Perturabo perverts the eight rituals of
possession, turning them against his enemies. Invoking Nurgle, Perturabo imbues his curse with extreme
contagion and releases it into the mechanical systems of Toil, a vassal Forge World of the Mechanicum.
The raw Chaos spreads through the machines, and the hidden manufactoria begin to change. On the eighth
 solar day, giant cables burst from the earth, daemonic machines hunt the living, and many-legged
cathedrals of industry prowl the wastes. The planet is ultimately scoured of all native flesh.
 The 2nd Black Crusade (597.M32) - Abaddon places a death-curse upon the worlds of the Belis Corona
Sector, infusing them with the touch of the Warp. His fleet attacks the sector's shipyards, destroying dozens
of Imperial Cruisers under construction or repair. The Imperium, focusing on the war in space, musters a
naval force to fight back. Entrusting his flagship to his Sorcerers, the Despoiler then teleports to the
Inquisitorial stronghold of Nemesis Tessera. He topples its hexagrammic "Eldritch Needles," ravaging the
black stone with sustained Melta fire before withdrawing. The Inquisition later find that a critical vault cell
has been opened and its daemonic prisoner -- the legendary nemesis for which the planet is named -- is
missing.
 The Traitorous Eye (Unknown Date.M32) - Drecarth the Sightless forms the Sons of the Eye out of those
Sons of Horus who refused to join Abaddon after the Heresy. In the Battle of the Keening Deep, the Sons
defeat Voslok and his World Eaters, claiming their fortress and hurling their skulls into the soulfires that
rage beneath the planet's crust. Drecarth personally wrests Voslok's daemonic axe from his grip during the
battle, turning the weapon upon its former owner.
 3rd Black Crusade (909.M32) - The Despoiler sends the Daemon Prince Tallomin against the Cadian
Gate in a reckless frontal assault. The daemonic horde that follows in Tallomin's wake accounts for
millions of lives and draws in Imperial Guard regiments and Space Marine Chapters from across the
Segmentum Obscurus. Eventually, the Space Wolves manage to banish Tallomin back to the Warp. Under
the cover provided by the attack, Abaddon leads a strike force to desecrate the Shrine World of Gerstahl,
breaking the ancient seals on the eponymous Imperial Saint's tomb and destroying his remains while the
Imperium's attention is directed elsewhere. This act of supreme violation banishes the saint's spirit,
thwarting the prophecy that he would one day rise again as a Living Saint whilst weakening the planet's
psychic defences.
 Zaraphiston's Penance (Unknown Date.M32) - The Thousand Sons Sorcerer Zaraphiston travels deep
into the heart of the Eye of Terror at the behest of Tzeentch, where he is granted the power of prophecy.
Gifted with a profound understanding of the millennia to come, Zaraphiston pledges his loyalty to Abaddon
the Despoiler.
 The Feral War (ca. 112.M33) - Whilst mining the Feral World of Aggaros, the Adeptus Mechanicus
engage in what at first seems like an embarrassingly one-sided battle -- that is until the primitives bring
their flame-tongued shamans into the fray. The armies of the Adeptus Mechanicus find themselves burnt
from the inside or crushed flat by invisible forces. The retreating Tech-priests call in an old debt from the
Relictors in order to renew the attack. Four solar days later, the Relictors' 3 rd Company fights its way
through psychic pyrotechnics of bewildering force to reach the hidden city of the primitive tribes. Lining
every road are dust-caked statues of the Thousand Sons, each facing a colossal effigy of Ahriman atop a
pyramid of obsidian. Captain Excorius orders the statue of Ahriman torn down. As it topples, every one of
the Thousand Sons comes to life, shrugging off the dust of centuries and opening fire on the Relictors with
a hail of corruscating bolts. Not one of the Adeptus Mechanicus, nor their Relictors allies, survive.
 The Hellion War (ca. 870.M33) – In the wake of the anarchy that followed the murderous internecine
conflict of the War of the False Primarch and its aftermath, the Hellion Sector declares its secession from
the troubled Imperium. Bloodily attacking its neighbours, it becomes quickly apparent that the sector's
rulers had fallen then to the worship of Chaos, and its millions of men-under-arms were corrupted and
given over to darkness, while its mass manufactora were turned to churning forth twisted war machines
consecrated to the dark gods. The ever widening war swells to ravage more than eighty inhabited systems
and uncounted billions die in the fighting. By the dawning of M35, the Hellion Sector and its environs are
reduced to little more than a waste zone of barren worlds and dead hive cities.
 4th Black Crusade (001.M34) - During the El'Phanor War, the Black Legion besiege the Citadel of the
Kromarch upon the world of El'Phanor. Abaddon leads the charge against the gates of the fortress, but so
great is the firepower of the citadel that only a handful of his Chaos Space Marines make it past the kill
zones of the Imperial defenders to the fortification's walls. With a single blow from Drach'nyen, the
Warmaster of Chaos sunders the towering doors of the fortress. In the process he shatters not just a portal
of immense strength, but an ancient empyric barrier, for the citadel's gates incorporated ancient monoliths
that had kept a potent Warp node sealed. The Black Legion and their daemonic allies fall upon the
Kromarch and his kin, conquering the citadel and extinguishing their ancient line.
 The Sin of Pride (498-601.M34) – Over a dozen campaigns, the Adeptus Astartes Shining Blades Chapter
wins a string of victories that ultimately become known as the Beritha Massacres. When the Chapter's
methods are questioned they attack their erstwhile allies and the Red Scorpions Chapter appear unheralded
to bring them to justice. Much blood is shed in the ensuing war and the Shining Blades Chapter’s true
allegiance is revealed as they transform into the servants of the Chaos God Slaanesh. In an act of
overweening pride, the Shining Blades declare themselves the "Flawless Host," a sin of hubris for which
the Red Scorpions vow to exact punishment.
 The Dispute of Iron (ca. 600-730.M34) – Its cause hidden to the eyes of the Imperium, a vast civil war
erupts on the Daemon World of Medrengard and rapidly spreads to the other domains of the Iron Warriors.
Ancient pacts of fealty and alliance are called upon and scores of Chaos Space Marine warbands, Daemons
and Traitor Titan Legions are drawn into the maelstrom of relentless battle. This bitter feud is accredited at
creating several sub-factions of Iron Warriors still active to the present day, such as the Steel Brethren,
while utterly destroying others such as the Shattered Tower. As abruptly as it was begun the war suddenly
ended, leading some to believe that the official conflict had been carried out according to the Daemon-
Primarch Perturabo's design in order to weed out the weak and the unworthy from his scions.
 The Shattering (764.M34) - Craftworld Lugganath comes under vicious attack from a psychically-
shielded fleet of Emperor's Children. The Eldar vessels destroy the first wave of fighters, but the sheer
number of Chaos Space Marine dropships forces a breach in the Craftworld's defences. After a bitterly-
fought boarding action, a teleport relay is established in the Plaza of Reflection and the Emperor's Children
begin to deploy en masse. The Eldar seal off the breach with surgical precision, but they realise their foe's
true intent too late. At the heart of the plaza, several hundred Noise Marines combine their Sonic Weapons
into a psychic explosion that thrums louder and louder throughout Lugganath's psychoplastic architecture
until the air fills with screams. Cracks appear across the Craftworld's sweeping arches, and the thin spires
crumble down onto the raging battle below. Seeing the devastation wrought by the terrible weapons of the
Chaos Space Marines, the Autarchs of Lugganath authorise the use of Hemlock Wraithfighters. The
Emperor's Children eventually retreat before the resultant barrage of necromantic energy, abandoning their
dead and pursued every step of the way by vengeful Harlequins and unflinching, tireless Ghost Warriors.
 The Red Dawn of Iriad IV (435.M35) - Iriad IV, a fortified Industrial World on the cusp of the Eye of
Terror, is invaded by a tide of World Eaters. Captain Revellion, of the Ebon Knights Chapter, leads his men
against his Traitor cousins in a bitterly fought war that sees the corpse count rise spectacularly quickly. The
battle tears across the planet until less than a company of warriors remains on either side. Whilst the World
Eaters do not care that so many of their number have fallen, Captain Revellion is driven to desperation by
the loss of so many of his men and mutters a prayer into the night. Solar hours later, covered head to toe in
blood, Revellion stalks out from the shadows with a dripping Chainsword in either hand. His men shout in
fierce joy as the last of the World Eaters falls, though their victory soon turns to ashes. Unstoppable,
Captain Revellion hacks a swathe through the remaining Ebon Knights. He does not stop there. The
rampaging Captain attacks anything that moves, including his own reflection. District after district is
depopulated as Revellion's pact with Khorne bears slow but terrible fruit. Iriad IV's remaining population is
evacuated and the planet is declared Perditas.
 The Grief of Herodin (973.M35) – A terrible wave of bloodshed and insanity descends from the
Nightmare Rifts. Chaos Space Marines, massed cult-hordes and waves of Daemons falling upon the
Imperium in an orgy of death later termed not an invasion, but a genocide. Amongst the numberless hosts
of the Great Enemy is spotted the Decimator, a towering construct fuelled by the powers of the Warp and
bearing the weapons of hybrid xenos manufacture. The war machine is later linked to the heretek Spektraal
Cult, thought banished during the Scouring.
 The Green Death (437.M36) - The infected Ork warbands invading the Ecclesiarchy Shrine World of
Sanctia evince a terrible new barbarism. They fall upon the planet's defenders and consume them bodily,
devouring the living and the dead alike, as if compelled by a daemonic hunger. Bloating and swelling, the
Orks become obese monstrosities that can move only at a snail's pace. Puzzled by this strange reprieve, the
Adepta Sororitas systematically purge the Orks with Flamer and Bolter. It is then that Mortarion and his
Death Guard make planetfall. The skeletally thin Daemon Primarch looms over the bodies of the Orks as he
stalks to the front lines. At his passing, each Ork bursts apart in a shower of foul fluids, and dozens of
Nurglings spill out from their remains to follow their master. Sanctia falls to the Green Death within twenty
solar hours of Mortarion's arrival, and the plague spreads across the Ecclesiarchy-held system at an
unstoppable pace.
 The 5th Black Crusade (723.M36) - Abaddon scours the Elysia Sector, ordering the destruction of
specific cities, shrines and temples across dozens of its worlds. Each act of violation shatters the Warp-
seals that had held psychic mutation stable in that region of space. On Tarinth, the Despoiler lures the
Warhawks and Venerators Chapters into the ruins of Kasyr Lutien where he traps them between the
daemonic hordes of Khorne and the Black Legion. In a bitter last stand, both Loyalist Chapters are
completely destroyed, their skulls taken by the Daemon Prince Doombreed to be mounted upon Khorne's
throne.
 The Great Degeneration (836.M36) - After the unremitting violence of the xenocidal Quietus Campaign,
the Annihilators Chapter finally succumbs to blood psychosis. Those of the Chapter still able to act
rationally gather at their fortress-monastery in the hope of finding absolution. Instead of redeeming their
sins, however, their corrupted Chaplains lead them in an ancient ritual, leaving their souls wide open to
daemonic influence. Every member of the Chapter is possessed over the course of a single moonlit night,
shifting forms and devolving into armoured half-daemon monstrosities. Calling themselves the Beasts of
Annihilation, the brethren go to war again, though this time it is the Imperium that feels their wrath.
 The 6th Black Crusade (901.M36) -The Warmaster of Chaos visits his wrath upon Drecarth the Sightless.
Abaddon aids the Sons of the Eye in an assault on the Forge World of Arkreath, fighting with them side by
side until the planet's Adeptus Mechanicus defenders are finally crushed and its complex durasteel
ziggurats battered to shapeless lumps of metal that no longer fulfil their function as sophisticated flux-
cages. As the two leaders address their respective forces in the war's aftermath, Abaddon strikes Drecarth
down, forcing him to watch the arrayed Sons of the Eye kneel before slaying him in a ritual display of
violence.
 The Tournament of Blood (Unknown Date.M37) - Displeased with his Chosen, Abaddon pits them
against each other. For eight solar days, the Chosen fight in the gore-spattered holds of the Vengeful Spirit
until only one of them remains. Impaling the victor on the Talon of Horus, Abaddon seals a pact with
Khorne, gaining a powerful daemonic ally in the form of the Bloodthirster Hakk'an'graah.
 The Abyssal Crusade (321.M37 - 112.M38) - Warp Storm Dionys ripples across the galaxy, its ghastly
energies polluting a wide swathe of star systems. In addition to billions of Imperial citizens, no less than
thirty Space Marine Chapters are judged by the charismatic Saint Basillius to be tainted. The Ecclesiarchal
lord gives a choice to those so judged -- seek redemption in the Eye of Terror or be exterminated. Without
exception, the condemned Chapters -- known as the Judged -- choose to embark upon a redemptive
Crusade aimed at purging the Daemon Worlds of the Eye of Terror. Within that great Warp rift, some of
the Chapters are lost forever or destroyed, and a few turn Renegade in order to survive. The most resolute
return to the Imperium nearly 800 standard years later, and discover that their accuser, Saint Basillius
himself, is a servant of Chaos. The corrupted Imperial Saint's demise is swift and bloody.
 The Martyred Sons (416.M37) – Inquisitor-Lord Antonius Coil of the Ordo Malleus discovers the current
location of the nomadic Hell-Forge of Sarum while conducting an Exterminatus against the warp-tainted
Hive Worlds of Goleonda IX, and moves to see it destroyed at last. Along with warships committed from
Battlefleet Reductus and several Militarum Tempestus regiments, he mobilized the aid of three Space
Marine Chapters, the Brazen Claws, the Sons of the Raven and the Celestial Guard, to strike deep into the
perilous Golgotha Wastes against this nightmarish thorn in the Imperium's side. Within sight of the baleful
world, the Imperial fleet is ambushed on all sides by the pale warships of the Warp Ghosts and Black
Wings Chaos Space Marines and the horrific daemon-engines of their Dark Mechanicum allies of Sarum.
In the brutal seventeen hour void battle which follows, the Imperial fleet is encircled and slowly torn to
pieces both from without and from within as Daemons rip open passages into realspace deep onboard the
stalwart vessels. Only the Chapter fleet of the Brazen Claws breaks free from the trap without crippling
losses, while the human contingent of the Imperium's strike forces is annihilated to the last. The ravaged
Celestial Guard Chapter will take nearly a century to rebuild from its grievous losses from its stores of
gene-seed, swearing bitter vengeance against the Warp Ghosts. The fleet-based Sons of the Raven Chapter,
not one of whom escaped the deadly trap, are declared martyred and the great Bell of Lost Souls in the
Tower of Heroes on Terra tolls to mourn their passing. Eighteen standard years later, a corrupted Warspite-
class Battle-Barge, believed once to have been the Seraphina Carricus of the Sons of the Raven Chapter, is
encountered transporting a Warp Ghosts raiding force off Mezoa XV, the withered face of Jo'sun Hernezu
the martyred Chapter's last master worn by its revenant captain.
 Molochai's Folly (772.M37) - Lured by promises of power, Sevastos Molochai, the power-hungry
Planetary Governor of Urskas Sol Tetra, makes long-range contact with a coven of Word Bearers Chaos
 Space Marines. Within eight solar weeks, his planet is turned from a thriving Industrial World into a
daemon-infested nightmare.
 The 7th Black Crusade of Warmaster Abaddon (811.M37) - During the course of the Ghost War, the
Blood Angels join in battle against Abaddon's horde upon the world of Mackan. The Despoiler mercilessly
singles out the Sons of Sanguinius, personally leading a band of Khornate Berzerkers in a gore-spattered
assault against the Blood Angels' Devastator Marine positions. Though only a handful of the Traitors
survive the teeth of the Loyalists' guns, the Blood Angels' Assault Marine troops are unable to reclaim the
bodies of their fallen brothers which have been desecrated by the Despoiler's frenzied warband.
 The Prison of Madness (Unknown Date.M37) - Abaddon conducts experiments on captured Loyalist
Space Marines, torturing them with repeated visions of a future in which the Imperium falls to Chaos.
Despite the psycho-indoctrinated mental resilience of the Adeptus Astartes, such is the ring of truth in these
prophecies that those who do not take their own lives are left as soul-blasted husks that eventually swear
allegiance to the Despoiler.
 Purging of Azoth (999.M37) – At one time known as a firebrand Puritan by whose hand both guilty and
innocent had burned on the pyre, Inquisitor Jhovus Theon himself turns renegade when he falls under the
influence of the denizens of the Warp and in league with Dark Apostles of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion
and triggers a full scale daemonic incursion on the planet Azoth. Theon’s former peers petition the Adeptus
Astartes Revilers Chapter for aid, and while victory is theirs, the subsequent Azoth Drop costs the Chapter
dearly. Having slain the fallen Inquisitor and purged the cursed planet, the surviving battle-brothers are
subjected to mnemonic purgation so that Inquisitor Theon's sins may be expunged for all time from the
annals of the Imperium.
 The 8th Black Crusade (999.M37) - On worlds throughout the Segmentum Obscurus, Abaddon's forces
cull precise numbers of Imperial citizens in the name of Tzeentch. The living-metal monoliths beneath the
crater-cities of Teekus glow brighter with each ritual slaughter until, at the culmination of the ninth, the
structures begin to melt. By the time agents of the Inquisition identify a pattern in the Black Legion's
actions, Abaddon has already achieved his aims.
 The Rise of the Impaler (347.M38) – A warband of the World Eaters Traitor Legion descends on the
outlying worlds of Paramar, the Storm Lords Chapter mounting a bold defence even in the face of
overwhelming odds. The Storm Lords are defeated, a wounded sergeant captured and subjected to brutal
cerebral surgery. At length, the sergeant's spirit is broken and he assumes the name and title "Zhufor the
Impaler," going on to gain control of the berserker warband known as the Skulltakers. Much later, Zhufor
would earn yet another title -- the Butcher of Vraks.
 The Ark of Damnation (Unknown Date.M38) - Flesh Tearers Terminators board the Space Hulk Soul of
Damnation as it drifts dangerously close to the core worlds of the Scelus Sub-sector. In the depths of the
hulk, they uncover a stasis chamber containing a single casket. Inside is an ancient warrior of the Luna
Wolves. When told of his Legion's fate, the ancient Space Marine is filled with rage and takes one of the
Flesh Tearers' craft before disappearing into the void.
 The 9th Black Crusade (537.M38) - As part of a wider strategy to disable the naval fortress Cancephalus,
Abaddon leads his 9th Black Crusade against the heaving population of nearby Antecanis. The seat of the
world's Imperial Commander, Monarchive, is besieged by Abaddon's vanguard. Black Legionaries butcher
their way through the lower levels of the hive, whilst the Despoiler himself storms its inner sanctums. By
the time Astra Militarum from Cancephalus arrive to reinforce the surviving defenders, Abaddon and his
forces have already left the planet's surface. As a gesture of contempt, the Black Legion drop a dozen
cyclonic warheads onto the ruins of Monarchive. The seventeen-year war that ensues eventually robs both
Antecanis and Cancephalus of their most precious resource -- manpower. Without the fleets of the naval
fortress to stop him, Abaddon is able to ravage the sector at will, and his Sorcerers are free to conduct the
rituals required to weaken the walls of reality in that region of space with impunity.
 The Anshur Summoning (892.M38) – A rebellion led by devotees of the heretical Charnel Cult engulfs
the isolated hive world of Anshur, until elements of the Metamarines Chapter of Space Marines are
despatched at the request of the Administratum to reclaim Anshur's industrial output for the Imperium. In a
meticulously planned campaign of surgical strikes and scorched earth assaults, the Metamarines decimate
the cult’s ranks, and in sheer desperation the cult’s leaders invoke the name of dread An'ggrath, summoning
forth the Daemon Lord, who annihilates every living thing on the world of Anshur in a seven year long
orgy of violence and death.
  1st Scouring of Coriolanthe (948.M38) – For three months a warband of the Night Lords Traitor Legion
preys upon the gleaming marble cities of Coriolanthe, turning the white-flagged streets crimson with the
blood of their victims and decorating the rearing stone towers with looped viscera and severed body parts.
At length, the population rises in a maddened frenzy of terror plunging the planet into anarchy. When a
Grey Knights Purgation Force, under the mandate of Inquisitor-Lord Baum, arrives to challenge the
renegades and restore order, they are confronted not just by the Night Lords, but a force of Traitor Titans.
Coriolanthe is reduced to ruins in the ensuing carnage, and the Inquisitor-Lord and all but a handful of Grey
Knights are slain.
 The 10th Black Crusade (001.M39) - Abaddon's armies and Perturabo's Iron Warriors invade the Helican
Sub-sector. While the Black Legion assault the capital world, Thracian Primaris, the Iron Warriors focus
their attack against the Iron Hands Chapter, seeking to settle an old blood debt. The Iron Warriors lay waste
to the worlds of the Medusa System and push the Iron Hands to the brink of extinction. Only when the
Loyalist Chapter receives heavy reinforcement do Abaddon and the Iron Warriors disengage, taking with
them valuable intelligence concerning Medusa's defences.
 The 11th Black Crusade (301.M39) - The Despoiler's fleet becomes lost in the Warp, finally returning to
realspace in the path of WAAAGH! Murgor. In the ruins of Relorria, the Black Legion bring the
Greenskins to battle. After solar months of fighting, Abaddon orders the Black Legion to leave Relorria to
its fate and return to the Eye of Terror -- but not before the Warmaster of Chaos fills the holds of his fleet
with captured Ork Weirdboyz. In conjunction with a coven of his most powerful Sorcerers, he uses the
volatile psychic energies of the Greenskin abductees in a daemonic hybridisation ritual that weakens the
fabric of reality across the Relorrian System.
 The Cruach Mhorn Massacre (304.M39) – After a twelve year campaign to eradicate rebellious factions
within the population of the hive world of Cruach Mhorn, the 3rd Company of the Shadow Hawks is
censured for the widespread culling of the population that marks the end of the campaign and leaves the
world unable to fulfil production quotas owed to the Administratum. Rather than accept the dishonor of
exile on a penitent Crusade, Captain Mahaur leads the survivors of 3rd Company in a series of raids on
Imperial fleets and outposts in the Cruach system before vanishing into the lightless void of the Halo Stars.
 False Flags (799.M39) – An Imperial Navy deep void way station comes under heavy assault by a Space
Marine force later identified by their singular heraldry as belonging to the Celebrants Chapter. Objections
are lodged at the highest possible levels of the Imperial hierarchy, the Celebrants Chapter Master
dismissing the accusations as false and threatening reprisals if they are not retracted. The discord reaches a
climax when the Celebrants withdraw from joint anti-pirate operations in the Arataen Deeps, leading
ultimately to the loss of three entire sub-sectors. Subsequent Ordo Hereticus investigations determine that
the original attack was carried out by the Night Lords in a typically cunning ploy to sow terror amongst the
defenders of the Imperium.
 Relief of Rael's World (814.M39) – With the aid of a cabal of Alpha Legion warleaders, a renegade Dark
Angel by the name of Vhalagar conquers the prison planet of Rael's World, installing himself as a pitiless
tyrant and subjecting the millions of penal inmates to a bloody regime of inexplicable cruelty. At length,
Vhalagar's reign of terror is brought to an abrupt end as a strike force of his former Chapter launches a
devastating surgical strike on his strato-keep lair. It is notable that by the time the Dark Angels force their
way into the primary penal facility, not a single Alpha Legionary is encountered, leaving Vhalagar to
confront his erstwhile brethren alone. Only when he is captured by the Dark Angels and consigned to a
transport vessel back to the Chapter fleet is it revealed that his is host to a potent Daemon. Soon after, the
vessel is lost to the Warp along with over a dozen brethren of the Dark Angels 1st and 2nd Companies.

M40-M41, Age of Apotheosis

 Double-Edged Swords (198-485.M40) - For more than a dozen generations, agents of the Alpha Legion
infiltrate the hive city slums of Ghorstangrad, homeworld of the Emperor's Swords. Through subtle
manipulation of the dominant sects and gangs, the Alpha Legion seed potential future Space Marines with
all manner of deviant philosophies and subconscious triggers. Though many of these brainwashed youths
are rejected by Librarians and Chaplains, some are recruited into the Chapter nonetheless -- a lurking threat
unknown even to the recruits themselves. Almost three standard centuries later, the Alpha Legion mounts a
full-scale invasion of Ghorstangrad. They are met in open battle by the Emperor's Swords. The Alpha
Legion employ hypnotic and disorientating psychic attacks, releasing the nascent personalities of their
 unknowing infiltrators amongst the defending Battle-Brothers. Within solar hours, the Chapter disintegrates
into a morass of battling factions, some of which join forces with the invaders. The Loyalist Emperor's
Swords are entirely destroyed, Ghorstangrad is razed and the gene-seed stores of the Chapter are stolen.
The Alpha Legion withdraws to the Eastern Fringe, its numbers swollen with new Renegades still covered
in the blood of their brethren.
 Garanhir Rebellion (649.M40) – A World Eaters warband, under the command of the notorious murderer
Dhalahk, launches a mass incursion against the world of Garanhir, intent upon spilling the blood of the
faithful in an unprecedented act of veneration of the Blood God. Expecting to find Garanhir unprepared for
attack and ripe for the slaughter, what the Berserkers actually encounter as they charge from the assault
ramps of their drop craft is a world already claimed by war, the populace armed and led by the famously
militant Inquisitor Malphas Kroh and bolstered by a force of Grey Knights Space Marines. Battle is joined
without delay, and while the warriors of Dhalahk make a lethal account of themselves, they are ultimately
slain, the entire warband cut down by the defenders.
 Torment of Sherilax (703.M40) – The population of the pilgrim world of Sherilax falls prey to the fell
temptations of the Dark God Slaanesh. Nihilistic pleasure cults on the planet take such sadistic delight in
slaughtering the planetary governor’s militia in an intense outbreak of violence, they summon the Bringer
of Torments, the Greater Daemon of Slaanesh, Zarakynel.
 The Death of the Witching Moon (013.M41) – The Forge Moon of Keziah, in the strategically vital
Agathon System, falls into an unnatural eclipse which its population is driven to murder and madness in an
endless night of horror. The dread forces of The Tenebrae and Company of Misery reign as dark kings
amid the nightmare, and the baleful light of the "Witching Moon" that Keziah has become spreads calamity
and warp-tainted phenomena wherever it now falls, threatening the entire star system. The first Imperial
attacks by the Astra Militarum, squadrons from Battlefleet Ultima and the Inquisition are hurled back in
tatters by the madness of the black light and the warp-fuelled savagery of the defenders. It is only by the
unexpected arrival of the Charnel Guard Chapter, accompanied by a sacred band of Adepta Sororitas Order
of the Black Sepulchre bearing the holy relic known as the Book of Tears before them, that the imminent
loss of tens of billions of lives on Agathon Prime is prevented, and the insanity-inducing radiance of the
Witching Moon is held back. The Charnel Guard lead a fresh assault as further Adeptus Astartes, including
the Iron Hands, Storm Lords and Angels Porphyr, and Adeptus Mechanicus reinforcements arrive, fighting
a brutal battle of tank and gunship clashes across the soaring metal canyons which raze the moon's surface
and chamber-by-chamber Zone Mortalis actions to purge Keziah of the shadow that has befallen it. The
Chaos Astartes inflict fearful losses on their besiegers before they are driven into the deeper darkness of the
Warp. In the wake of their retreat, all life is purged from Keziah before it is given back to the hands of the
Machine Cult for tech-exorcism and eventual reclamation.
 The 12th Black Crusade of Warmaster Abaddon (ca. 139-160.M41) - Abaddon leads his great fleet into
the Gothic Sector during what becomes known in the Imperium as the Gothic War, capturing two of the
prehistoric star forts known as the Blackstone Fortresses. Under Abaddon's control, the might of the
Blackstone Fortresses is used to destroy entire worlds. The Despoiler's fleet is driven back at great cost,
though Abaddon escapes with the Blackstone Fortresses into the Eye of Terror. The vast engines of
destruction emerge once more into the material universe during Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41.
 The Iron Labyrinth (Unknown Date.M41) - A Chaos fleet spearheaded by the Black Legion cuts a path
into the worlds of the Cadian System. With the aid of the Imperial Fists, the Astra Militarum manage to
break the Chaos forces at the Battle of the Iron Labyrinth, driving them back to the Eye of Terror.
However, what their enemy's seemingly reckless thrust so far in-system achieved remains a mystery to the
Imperial commanders.
 The First War for Armageddon (444.M41) - Imperial forces upon the strategically vital Hive World of
Armageddon struggle to contain an armed rebellion that spontaneously breaks out across both the sub-
continents of Armageddon Prime and Armageddon Secundus. At the height of the civil war, a Space Hulk
enters the system and disgorges a horde from the Daemon Worlds of the Eye of Terror, led by Angron and
accompanied by massed warbands of World Eaters. Angron and his daemon armies carve a red path across
Armageddon Prime and the conquest of the planet appears inevitable until the Daemon Primarch is delayed
drawing Chaotic energy to the planet. During the reprieve, the Imperial forces are reinforced not only by
Space Wolves from nearby Fenris, but also by a company of one hundred Grey Knights Terminators.
Though it costs the lives of all but a handful of the Grey Knights, Angron and his honour guard of
Bloodthirsters are finally driven back into the Warp.
 The Kynbaex Genocides (709.M41) – Adharon's Reavers, a Renegade warband under the former Sons of
Guilliman Captain Adharon, instigates a series of bloody uprisings and mutinies across a dozen worlds of
the Kynbaex Nebula in an effort to topple the already tenuous and overstretched Imperial presence in the
region. Unknown to Adharon, however, the celebrated Rogue Trader Joff Zuckerman and his arch-militant
Thor Malkin, later Inquisitor Malkin, are present in the region forging trade routes to outlying systems.
Zuckerman responds by ordering an immediate and bloody reprisal, crushing the uprisings with his own
fleet and ground forces, led by Thor Malkin, in what became known as the Kynbaex Genocides. Adharon's
Reavers are believed to have fled the region rather than face such a massive reprisal and do not appear
again in mandated Imperial histories until their involvement in the Siege of Vraks over a century later.
 Magdelon Incursion (712.M41) – The renegade Bleak Brotherhood makes a compact with a daemonic
power for aid in coming wars, the price the entity demands being the casting down of the Crystal City of
Magdelon. The renegades enact their pact of the fell bargain, and in so doing attract the attention of the
Space Wolves. The ensuing battle amidst the shattered ruins of the Crystal City is so pleasing to the
denizens of the Warp that a major daemonic incursion is triggered.
 The Constantinus Iconoclasm (746.M41) - The Sons of Guilliman free Nova Terra from a Tyranid attack.
Afterwards, Squad Constantinus hunts down remnants of the Hive Fleet, finding Genestealer Cults within
the noble families of the capital. The entire ruling class is executed. The outraged population rises up
against their Space Marine liberators. His patience gone, Sergeant Constantinus blames the Imperium for
making him a monstrous killer and denounces the Emperor. Constantinus swears to lead Nova Terra's
populace to a better future, and his conviction is infectious. As his oratory takes hold amongst the anarchy,
his agenda of martial discipline is beaten into the fabric of the Nova Terran civilisation. The old order is
thrown down and statues of Constantinus the Liberator are raised in their place. Other servants of the
Ruinous Powers soon arrive, drawn by the anarchy and bloodshed. The rebel sergeant's megalomania
escalates until it plunges the whole sector into war. The rebellion ends only when Constantinus is killed by
agents of the Officio Assassinorum.
 The Plague That Walks (757.M41) - The first recorded outbreak of the Zombie Plague occurs on Hydra
Minoris after Typhus, and his Death Guard foot soldiers, penetrate to the heart of its capital hive city. As
the living begin to fall prey to the painful disease, its true horror is revealed; the dead victims begin to rise
up and attack the living. The resultant Imperial quarantine traps 23 billion uninfected citizens alongside a
rising tide of the hungry undead.
 Legacy of the Luxor Uprisings (812.M41) – A coalition of Alpha Legion warbands foments an uprising
on the Munitorum provender world of Luxor, threatening the supply of war material to war zones across
the northern marches of the Ultima Segmentum. The rebellion is put down by the Ultramarines, but the
population is so embittered by the Chapter's actions that insurrection and rebellion flares on numerous
occasions over the next century. Some strategio-savants even ascribe the fall of the entire Aradme Cluster
some eight decades later to chronic under-supply in the aftermath of the 812.M41 uprising.
 The Skull of Kern'gar (Unknown Date.M41) - Abaddon travels to the Maiden World of Ildanira, seeking
the Skull of Ker'ngar. Though initially confounded on the planet's surface by Eldar snipers from Craftworld
Alaitoc, he orders all cover around his position to be levelled by orbital bombardment. Eldar
reinforcements react swiftly to drive the Despoiler back, but not before he secures his prize.
 The Pilgrimage of Dark Lament (Unknown Date.M41) - Struck by a vision of Abaddon, millions of
Imperial pilgrims abandon their worship of the God-Emperor and turn their voidships toward the Eye of
Terror. After a long and perilous journey in which thousands perish, the pilgrims finally reach worlds held
by the Black Legion, where they are immediately enslaved. Even as they fall beneath the lash of their new
masters, the pilgrims give thanks to the Warmaster of Chaos.
 The Badab War (901-912.M41) - Lugft Huron, Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, declares himself the
Tyrant of Badab and secedes from the Imperium. Eleven standard years of inter-system war follows,
embroiling more than a dozen Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes in one of the largest fratricidal conflicts
between the Astartes since the Horus Heresy itself. Huron's reign is eventually brought to an end, but
despite suffering grievous wounds, he escapes into the Maelstrom with his followers vowing revenge, now
calling himself Huron Blackheart.
 The Skull Harvest (913.M41) – An Administratum tithe-fleet arrives at the three worlds of the Hreidmal
Cluster, seeking the tally of lives and produce due the Imperium, only to find each world laid waste. The
headless corpses of each world's inhabitants lie abandoned, not slain in battle but carefully harvested and
their skulls piled in great towering obelisks. Attempts to demolish these foul monuments bring the
 Slaughterkin warband down upon the Imperial forces, led by Warlord Mahaur the Harvester, and soon the
skulls of the Administratum factors and regiments assigned to their protection are offered in sacrifice to
Khorne atop the rebuilt obelisks.
 Wars of the Paraxial Succession (917.M41) – When the Adeptus Terra praefect of the Medea Cluster,
Lord Sector Parax, is discovered to be harbouring deviant mutation and accused of being in league with the
Ruinous Powers, he is executed before a court of his peers without trial. With no successor however, the
Adeptus Arbites Lord Marshal takes direct control of the Cluster, his rule so brutal that a dozen uprisings
flare up within the year. The entire Cluster erupts into anarchy as the Wars of the Paraxial Succesion draw
in Space Marines, both loyal and renegade, from far and wide.
 Steel Unbound (919.M41) – Following their alliance with Lufgt Huron during the Badab War and their
subsequent voluntary internment under license to the Salamanders Chapter, the Executioners are released to
begin their standard century-long penitent Crusade. In the first decade of the Crusade, a dozen recidivist
cults are purged from the Telamon Cloud and three minor xenos strains infesting the Garya Rifts are
exterminated. The most glorious of many action fought during the opening years of the Crusade is against a
previously unknown pocket empire deep within the galactic core, entirely in the sway of the Ruinous
Powers and maintaining pacts with at least three Traitor Legion warbands and one Traitor Titan Legion.
The Executioners earn countless honours far from the glaze of the Imperium, the only witnesses the agents
dispatched by the High Lords of Terra to track the penitent Chapter's progress through the lawless void.
 The Blood Tide (920.M41) - The T'au Empire expands into uncharted territory, hoping to bring new
populations into their fold. The Tau diplomats forge an uneasy peace upon the planet of Ur-Clemait, a
world that has been consumed with civil war for many Terran centuries, simply by supplying one side of
the warring factions with hi-technology Pulse Weapons. Though most of the remaining population seems
content with the Tau's enforced pacification, the elders and priests of the Old Faith are distraught, insisting
that the Blood Tithe must continue to be met. While most of the wizened priests try to incite rebellion
against the xenos, several attack the Tau directly, clawing feebly at their Battlesuits or even taking their
own lives in messy displays of martyrdom. The puzzled Tau continue their mission of absorption and
assimilation, but before the standard year is out, the Word Bearers arrive to enforce the neglected Blood
Tithe. They attack the newly prosperous world of Ur-Clemait in terrible force, chanting prayers of
appeasement to the Dark Gods as they cut down human and xenos alike. The Tau Fire Caste meet the
invasion head-on, and the world is plunged into an ongoing war far more terrible than the ritual struggles of
old that had once provided payment to keep the Heretic Astartes at bay.
 The Vaxhallian Genocides (926.M41) - The vile Chaos Renegades known as The Purge seek to vent their
hatred of all living things, and choose the verdant Imperial world of Vaxhallia as their victim. The planet's
surface is soon riddled with consumptive disease and crippling famine. Over the course of a single solar
month, The Purge engineer the destruction of no fewer than fourteen billion Imperial citizens.
 The Scourging of Kerrack (932.M41) – The Agri-World of Kerrack has long exported the processed root
of the Cholam trees that cover most of its surface to feed the Astra Militarum regiments prosecuting the
Katbargo Crusades. When the primitive harvester clans turn their hand-scythes against their Imperial
overseers, the world falls to anarchy and war. Warlord Malfaur the Harvester and his Khorne-worshipping
Slaughterkin are found to be behind the Charnel Cults that spring up across Kerrack. The ensuing war is
fought on foot beneath the dense canopy and air-to-air in the skies above, large numbers of the native
defence militia turning traitor and falling to the worship of the dark gods. Deliverance only comes when the
5th Company of the Adeptus Astartes Star Phantoms arrive in-system to resupply, and launch an immediate
and devastating attack upon the rebel stronghold of Calder's Ark, slaying the Harvester and driving the
Slaughterkin from Kerrack.
 The Wolf at Bay (937.M41) - Mustering five companies of Space Wolves, as well as the Cadian 301st and
the Tallarn 14th Regiments of the Astra Militarum, the decorated Inquisitor Pranix attempts to reclaim the
nine Hollow Worlds of Lastrati from the traitorous Red Corsairs. The Drop Pods of the Space Wolves crash
straight through the Hollow Worlds' algae-crusted surface, and war soon rages throughout the catacombs
beneath. The Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart collapses preselected portions of his tunnel networks with cold
precision and timing, isolating and destroying much of the Imperial army sent against him. The invading
forces are forced to withdraw in disarray.
 The Damnation Cache (959-961.M41) - The Despoiler invades the Pandorax System with an alliance of
Traitor Legions. Sweeping aside Imperial resistance, Abaddon breaks into the vaults below the world and
opens the Damnation Cache, an ancient portal to the Warp. A combined force of Dark Angels and Grey
 Knights come to Pandorax's aid in an attempt to stop a daemonic incursion from engulfing the sector, and
eventually succeed in closing the portal. Unbeknownst to the Imperium, however, the Despoiler has already
left Pandorax, taking with him a rogue psyker of prodigious strength.
 The Terminus Est (969.M41) - The plagueship Terminus Est is sighted in the Cando System. It disappears
soon after, but it is already too late. The Zombie Plague ravages all of the planets in the system over the
following solar months, exposing the worst in human nature as brother turns against brother in their
desperation to survive.
 The Promethean War (980.M41) - The Salamanders fight an urban war against the Black Legion on
Heletine. The Order of the Ebon Chalice arrives to reinforce the Space Marines, and together they push
forward, but their advance is halted by the Daemon Prince Gralastyx. Saint Celestine appears suddenly,
storming through the Chaos hordes and slaying Gralastyx, before vanishing once more.
 The Constantinus Iconoclasm Redux (981.M41) – The Adeptus Astartes Night Reapers are heavily
censured after they abandon the Shrine World of Salvation-Gamma to the massed Chaos Space Marine and
mutant forces closing in upon it during the Constantinus Iconoclasm, turning the guns of their gathered war
fleet on the planet in order to grant the population what they consider a merciful end. The Ecclesiarchy
lodges such vociferous objections with the Senatorum Imperialis that the Night Reapers are declared to
have committed a gross dereliction of duty and, as punishment, are consigned to duty along the outer
fringes of the Laanah Rifts. Within a solar decade, contact with the Chapter is almost entirely lost.
 The Perun Cross Incident (989.M41) – Having been conclusively linked to the destruction of the fleet of
the Rogue Trader Baron Stross Yuen, the Night Reapers Chapter is declared Excommunicate Traitoris. The
Minotaurs and Red Templars Chapters are despatched to track them down in the depths of the Laanah Rifts
and bring them to the Emperor's justice. The harrowing of the Night Reapers drags on for three years, with
evidence of the renegades harnessing numerous forms of xenos technology amassing throughout. At length,
the Night Reapers are cornered onboard a vast, pre-human void construct known as the Perun Cross as they
attempt to mine some unknown but no doubt blasphemously potent weapon from its core. In the final
assault, a Grey Knights strike force arrives and boards the Perun Cross, but events take a drastic turn as the
construct, the entire Grey Knights force and a large number of Minotaurs squads are consumed together in
atomic fire. It is assumed that the Night Reapers Chapter is no more, though Imperial forces stationed along
the Laanah Rift remain vigilant for signs that any of the fallen brethren survived the Perun Cross incident.
 Skulls for the Skull Throne (992.M41) - Having long ago amassed more human skulls than he knew what
to do with, Roghrax Bloodhand, of the World Eaters, swears to collect a skull from every warrior species in
the galaxy and offer them up for the throne of his master, Khorne. Bloodhand's masterwork takes a
dramatic new turn with the coming of the Tyranid fleets into the galaxy. Making haste fur the Eastern
Fringe, the maniacal trophy-collector leads his fleet directly into the path of Hive Fleet Kraken. Delighted
at the prospect of collecting such large and impressive skulls, he reaps a grisly bounty from the Tyranids,
which become more varied after every battle.
 The Night of the Steel Daemon (995.M41) - Unbeknownst to the settlers that make their home upon its
crust, the dormant volcanic planet of Abheilung is honeycombed with subterranean forge-vaults where the
Dark Mechanicum lurk. As protein farms and hab-blocks are established high above, the Warpsmiths
below use the livid heat of the planet's core to bind daemons into their allies' strange machines. The surface
settlers continue to expand, until one night, all the volcanoes across Abheilung erupt spectacularly,
incinerating millions in an immense pyroclastic cloud. Out from the molten depths climb great hosts of
Daemon Engines, magma-clad horrors that spill like insects from each volcano's caldera. The mechanical
horde depopulates Abheilung in less than a solar month.
 The Tyrant and the Wolf (995.M41) - Huron Blackheart stages a counterassault upon Parenxes, a world
defended by the Death Hawks and Space Wolves. During the engagement, a series of Red Corsairs strike
forces manage to board, disable and capture the Space Wolf Strike Cruiser, Wolf of Fenris.
 The Fall of Forgefane (997.M41) – The Iron Warriors bastion world of Forgefane is overrun by the
uncountable warrior organisms of Hive Fleet Leviathan. The Iron Warriors and their million-strong armies
of slave-troops mount a masterful but ultimately doomed defence, the scale of which has not been
witnessed for many centuries.
 Ke'lshan Besieged (998.M41) – The Purge warband lays siege to the beleaguered Tau Sept world of
Ke'lshan, which is recovering after a series of invasions by both the Imperium and Hive Fleet Gorgon.
Their attempt to corrupt the world’s atmosphere, turning it into a corrosive soup that would cleanse the
 planet of life, are foiled at great cost by Fio'O Sho'Aun, renowned Tau artificer and weaponsmith, whose
experimental Remoal throne-fighters duel with airborne Blight Drones for control of the skies of Ke'lshan.
 The Reapers at Bay (999.M41) – A reclamator fleet of the Renegade Night Reapers Chapter, thought
destroyed, is cornered by Inquisitor Celaeno of the Ordo Malleus in the bleak expanse of the Caligulan
Nebula. With a full company of the Red Hunters Chapter at his command, spearheaded by the ancient
Fellblade Tellum Veritatis, Celaeno forces a confrontation on one of the many barren worlds found in the
nebula and is met by the warp-tainted armoured vehicles of the Night Reapers. As the Tellum Veritatis
duels with the Daemon-touched Typhon Heavy Siege Tank Nidhoggr amid a plain strewn with the broken
remains of battle tanks, Celaeno is slammed by an errant shell and the Red Hunters retreat, carving oaths of
vengeance into the armoured flanks of Tellum Veritatis.
 The Sons of the Maelstrom (980.999.M41) - A massive Chaos Space Marine fleet emerges from the
Maelstrom with three dozen daemon-infested Space Hulks. The massed fleet brings the Chogoris, Kaelas
and Sessec Systems to their knees, establishing a stranglehold over their space lanes.
 The Great Awakening (982.999.M41) - A ripple of psychic activity passes through the Imperium
awakening the dormant powers of latent psykers across the galaxy. The resultant backlash creates
innumerable Warp rifts, and countless worlds are lost to daemonic incursions. The Thousand Sons are seen
in unprecedented numbers as the psychic apocalypse runs its course.
 The Night of a Thousand Rebellions (992.999.M41) - Carefully seeded rebellions sown across the
Segmentum Pacificus all bear their bloody fruit upon the same solar night. Uprisings and discord strike at
the heart of hundreds of worlds, including the supposedly secure Imperial strongholds of Enceladus,
Darkhold and Minisotira. Contact is lost with large swathes of the Segmentum as the Chaos Space Marines
move in, revealing themselves as the orchestrators of the insurrection.
 The Fall of Vilamus (994.999.M41) - After a series of daring raids leaves the titanic fortress-monastery of
the Marines Errant garrisoned only by a single company of Space Marines, Huron Blackheart sends his
Night Lords allies to infiltrate the fastness and bring down its Power Shields and Defence Lasers.
Teleporting in from low orbit, Chaos Terminators launch a sledgehammer assault upon the fortress'
apothecarion as Huron Blackheart simultaneously moves in to steal the Chapter's relics. Caught in the horns
of a dilemma, the outnumbered and outmanoeuvred Space Marines fail to repel the invasion. The Red
Corsairs withdraw with nearly all of the Chapter's gene-seed, dooming the Marines Errant to a slow demise.
 The Cage is Cracked (999.M41) - Lord Xorphas of the Black Legion invades the planet Amethal
alongside the World Eaters of Khârn the Betrayer and the Crimson Slaughter. An alliance of the Blood
Angels and the Adeptus Mechanicus repels the invaders, but as the planet is consumed in a rising tide of
carnage, the ancient "daemon cage" that forms the planet's interior has its structural integrity breached. The
Chaos invaders are driven off, but the damage has been done. Within the solar year, a nearby Warp Storm
breaks the daemon cage entirely, plunging the system into Warp-haunted mayhem and adding to the
empyric tempest raging across the galaxy.
 The Wrath of Magnus (999.M41) - With the aid of the Tzeentchian trickster known as the Changeling,
the Daemon Primarch of the Thousand Sons, Magnus the Red, gathers his Sorcerers and, at the head of
several war sects of Rubricae, visits his revenge upon the beleaguered world of Fenris, homeworld of the
Space Wolves, during what is known as the Siege of the Fenris System. Soon after, the Thousand Sons
Daemon World of Sortiarius, the Planet of the Sorcerers, returns to realspace from the Eye of Terror
directly above their lost Legion homeworld of Prospero.
 The 13th Black Crusade of Warmaster Abaddon (995.999.M41) - The armies of Chaos invade Cadia
and its many surrounding worlds. The forces of the Dark Gods read like a roll call from epic battles of the
ages. Always in the vanguard are the Black Legion, followed by the Death Guard, World Eaters, Alpha
Legion, Thousand Sons, Night Lords and other Traitor Legions from the annals of the blackest days.
Renegade Space Marine Chapters long thought extinct renew their assaults on the Imperium of Man.
Before them run scabrous Chaos Cultists, deranged mutants and traitorous scum in numbers too great to
count. Behind them march daemons of all the Ruinous Powers, the nightmares of mortals made real, led by
their infernal overlords. After a gruelling campaign with a death toll that spirals into the trillions, Abaddon
the Despoiler succeeds in tearing down the strange pylons that for millions of standard years had held the
Cadian Gate as a stable region of space. Cadia falls soon thereafter, and a wave of Warp Storms roars into
being across the length of the galaxy. Astropaths everywhere fear to open their minds to receive or
broadcast messages, for the Immaterium rings with mind-splitting peals, possibly the sound of the myriad
 tears ripping open in the barrier between the material universe and the Warp, or perhaps the laughter of the
Dark Gods...
 Guilliman Awakes (ca. 999.M41) - Strange events, the appearance of the ancient Archmagos Belisarius
Cawl and a cryptic alliance with a mysterious Aeldari faction known as the Ynnari conspire to awaken the
Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman from his millennia-long slumber in a stasis chamber during the
Ultramar Campaign of the 13th Black Crusade. The Primarch is immediately embroiled in battle as a Chaos
assault by the Black Legion as Abaddon attempts to prevent his return.
 The Great Rift Opens (ca. 999.M41) - Reality tears itself apart from the Hadex Anomaly at the core of the
Jericho Reach in the Eastern Fringe, to the furthest star system of the Segmentum Obscurus. From that hole
come Warp Storms not seen since the Age of Strife, cutting off the galactic north from Terra. The initial
period, known as the Noctis Aeterna -- or the Blackness -- is terrible indeed. For a time, all Warp travel is
impossible and the far-spread planets of the Imperium are isolated, with no travel or astropathic
communication between them. Worlds in their hundreds fall before the ensuing Chaos onslaught. The
pulsing Cicatrix Maledictum spreads like an impenetrable curtain, robbing entire systems of the holy light
of Terra. A chain reaction of Warp cataclysms rips across the Imperium, plunging its worlds into disaster
and awakening the dormant powers of latent psykers across the galaxy. Countless civilisations are lost to
daemonic incursions as the galaxy burns.
 Indomitus (ca. 999.M41 - ca. 111.M42) - In a hundred war zones of the Indomitus Crusade, untested
strike forces of Primaris Space Marines are unleashed into battle against the forces of the Ruinous Powers.
They acquit themselves well, and by the artifice of Belisarius Cawl and the strategic genius of Guilliman
they prove themselves worthy inheritors of the title Adeptus Astartes.
 To Shield the Shrine Worlds (Unknown Date.M42) - The Shrine Worlds of the Imperial Cult are
targeted with especial malice by daemons and the Traitor Legions, most prominent amongst them the Word
Bearers. In an attempt to break the sieges that hold dozens of Shrine Worlds hostage across Segmentums
Solar and Pacificus, the Black Templars launch Crusade after Crusade. In their bloody endeavours they are
assisted by the Iron Hands and a score of other Space Marine Chapters, along with all the forces the
Adeptus Ministorum can muster.
 Crippling Terror (Unknown Date.M42) - Thousands of Imperial planets lying along the edge of the
Great Rift are evacuated as the tapestry of Warp Storms threatens to consume them. On the Forge World
Raeddon, the Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priests gather their most sacred manufacturing relics in
preparation of shipping them off-world. But before the frigates are loaded and launched, an armada of
Black Legion warships emerges from the Warp, forming an impenetrable blockade around the planet.
Before long, hordes of Chaos Space Marine shock troops descend upon the forge world. The bulk of its
Skitarii defenders are deployed to guard the basilica logisticum where the Mechanicus have stored their
invaluable archeotech. However, the Chaos forces do not even attempt to lay siege to this complex. Instead,
they conduct a series of devastating orbital bombardments on the planet's spaceports, obliterating their
static Lascannon arrays before sending in waves of ground troops to mop up the remaining Skitarii. With
Raeddon stripped of its transport capabilities, the Black Legion armada recedes, leaving the Tech-priests
and their precious relics untouched as the Warp Storms envelop them.
 Blacker Pastures (Unknown Date.M42) - The rampant advance of the Hounds of Abaddon through the
Bellicose Stars comes to a grinding halt when they are met by the Imperial Fists on Gandor's Providence.
The sons of Dorn deploy numerous squads of Primaris Astartes Intercessors, creating a series of heavily
defended redoubts across the surface of the Agri-world. Rather than allowing themselves to become bogged
down in a prolonged siege, the Hounds of Abaddon withdraw to wreak destruction elsewhere.
 Gods from the Warp (Unknown Date.M42) - After a solar-months-long battle in the Aralest System, the
Imperial Navy are all but wiped out by a massive war fleet comprising several Black Legion warbands. The
few remaining Imperial forces retreat to Everwatch Stanchion, the heavily fortified orbital docking
platform above Aralest VII, to consolidate their strength. Meanwhile, on the planet's surface, Governor
Melachron Indis marshals his Planetary Defence Forces and prepares for invasion. As the Black Legion
warships approach, dozens of Chaos Cults emerge from amongst the indentured populace of Aralest VII.
These deluded fanatics do not see the Chaos Space Marines as invaders, but rather as saviours who have
emerged from the Great Rift that burns across the sky day and night. Indis is forced to expend his troops in
bloody fights deep inside the hive cities to prevent the planet from falling to the savage cultists before the
Black Legion even arrive. These battles do not go in the governor's favour, for with each passing solar
hour, more and more members of the citizenry join in the anarchic uprising. Indis and the remaining
 fragments of his armies barricade themselves inside the spire of Aralest VII's capital hive and pray to the
Emperor that the naval garrison on Everwatch will soon be able to send them aid. Their prayers are not
answered. The Black Legion, having captured Everwatch Stanchion several solar days earlier, dislodge the
platform from its orbit and send it plummeting down to the planet's surface, directly towards the capital
hive. The explosion created by the colossal impact leaves only a crater where the hive city once stood, and
the ensuing quake is felt across the planet. This display of raw power is the final proof the Chaos Cults
need. No one on Aralest VII now doubts that the warriors of the Black Legion are gods.

Unit Composition

The Adeptus Astartes were created as the Emperor's ultimate fighting force. Implanted with the gene-seed of the
Primarchs, the Space Marines stand seven Terran feet tall, with thickened bones, two hearts, hyper-dense muscles
and all manner of special organs that allow them to survive and fight in the most hostile conditions. They feel little
pain and heal wounds at a remarkable rate.

Their will is hardened by constant training and fighting, and they battle with dedication and zeal, brooking no
hesitation, mercy or cowardice. All of these things combine with the best weaponry and armour in the galaxy to
make the Space Marines the most fearsome warriors of the Imperium.

The Chaos Space Marines have all of these strengths and skills as well, to which are added the power of Chaos and a
brutal devotion to the Dark Gods. Ever since the Horus Heresy, Space Marines of every Legion and Chapter have
been tempted by the path of Chaos, whether for selfish reasons or great ideals.

Sundered from the Imperium, having turned their backs on the Emperor, these warriors know that there can be no
peace for them, neither forgiveness nor absolution. They are wholly committed to the path they now tread, for good
or ill, and they can expect no quarter from former Battle-Brothers.

The armament of the current Chaos Space Marines differs little from that of their Loyalist counterparts, for the
weapons of the Adeptus Astartes are built to last. Boltguns, in various marks dating back ten thousand standard
years, are their primary weapon, though squads that glorify close assaults and personal combat often favour Bolt
Pistols and ritual knives, Chainswords or Chainaxes. There is little uniformity between squads; much of the
organisation and structure of the force's former Legion or Chapter falls by the wayside as they turn to the path of
Chaos.

In place of appointed Sergeants, the Chaos Space Marines follow the strongest, boldest and most merciless of their
brothers. These blood-soaked soldiers seek to become the favoured of the gods and eventually become mighty
Chaos Champions themselves and so are known as Aspiring Champions.

Their wargear varies dramatically and may include weapons taken as trophies from slain foes as well as arcane
equipment carefully maintained since the Horus Heresy. It is the Aspiring Champions of these units that strive the
hardest to gain recognition amongst the ranks of the Chaos Space Marines, spilling the blood of mighty foes in
single combat in order to draw the gaze of the gods. A composition of a squad of standard Heretic Astartes is as
follows:

 4-19 Chaos Space Marines

 1 Aspiring Champion

Wargear

Whether he be a Traitor from the prehistory of the Imperium or a Renegade turncoat from a more recent conflict, a
Chaos Space Marine will find himself slowly reshaped by the eldritch powers he worships into a form that better
echoes the darkness in his soul. The energies of the Warp will cause an Astartes warrior's flesh and blood to meld
with his armour over time until they become one and the same, just as it conjoins his consciousness with the once-
pure Machine Spirits of his wargear.

As the years pass, a Heretic Astartes grown obsessed with death may find his helm transforming into a flayed skull
that is fused to his own features, whilst one who seeks to glut himself on flesh finds his intestines mingling with the
recycler cables of his Power Armour until he is a living engine of consumption.

Often, these perverted anatomies echo the shapes and hues of the daemon servants of the Ruinous Powers, marking
the Chaos Space Marine as the property of his divine patron, body and soul. A Heretic Astartes commonly wields,
but is not limited to, the following wargear:

Chaos and Loyalist Space Marine Differences

"Rejoice brothers! Your slavery to the False Emperor ends today!"

—Chaos Lord Araghast the Pillager

A Chaos Space Marine of the insidious Alpha Legion with his modified Autocannon.

All men of power can choose to devote their lives to the pursuit of great good or great harm to others, and the Space
Marines are no different from other mortals in this respect. Genetically engineered as an adolescent to be a
transhuman warrior, and armed and armoured with the Imperium's most advanced technology, a Space Marine is
intended to serve as the ultimate defender of Mankind.

Not only is his body protected against the weapons of his foes, but his mind has been toughened through the use of
potent psycho-conditioning and indoctrination methods to expunge all fear, pain and temptation. To become an
Astartes is to surrender one's own life and aspirations to the service of the Emperor and Mankind, and to wholly
dedicate oneself to this singular purpose forever more.

Those who live secure behind the shield of valour created by the Space Marines can never truly understand the
enormity of the sacrifice that the Astartes have made for their fellow men and women -- for they have sacrificed
their own humanity in the service of those they have sworn to protect.

A Chaos Space Marine of the World Eaters Traitor Legion armed with Chainaxes

When an Astartes falls from grace, he will fall further than other mortals. A lifetime dedicated to self-deprivation
and selflessness is simply thrown aside and the Space Marine indulges his newfound independence in thought and
deed to its fullest extent. Freed from the constraints of the discipline, traditions and responsibilities that define the
Adeptus Astartes, a Chaos Space Marine can exercise his every whim, whether it be for bloodshed, mayhem, sensual
pleasures long denied, ambition, love or simple vengeance.

Given full reign to his long-suppressed personal desires, his incredible physical powers and mental strength can be
turned to the pursuit of the most malevolent acts, untrammeled by any sense of either mercy or guilt. When an
Astartes' will finally breaks, the result is catastrophic as the whole edifice of his purpose and psyche tumble into an
often violent maelstrom of unleashed and pent-up desire.

Having been created for combat, most Chaos Space Marines first turn to the only thing they have ever known -- the
pursuit of war. Though their ideals and goals may have been cast aside, their superhuman bodies and tactical and
strategic skills remain intact.

Released from the confines of the need to follow orders and pursue missions prescribed by others, a Chaos Space
Marine can become a cold and psychopathic killer without morals or restraint. He pursues this bloody life to its
fullest extent, glorifying in the power of his genetically enhanced body and the ability it renders him to unleash
death and misery upon those he once served.
A Chaos Space Marine of the Black Legion in combat.

Some Chaos Space Marines never grow past this point and remain bloodthirsty Renegades, corsairs and pirates for
the rest of their long lives. Others, now free to explore the temptations of the galaxy all around them, reach out in all
direction to widen their mental horizons and experiences. Once a subservient cog within their Legion or Chapter's
machinery dedicated to the service of a distant Emperor, a Heretic Astartes may come to relish the chance to be a
master rather than a servant, enslaving nations and whole worlds into the service of himself and the Ruinous Powers.

Others prefer to pursue different avenues, such as the study of once-illicit texts or a passion for technical or
sorcerous knowledge forbidden to the servants of the Imperium. Some Chaos Space Marines prefer to inflict
pleasure and pain upon themselves, pushing their bodies and minds to the limits of what they can withstand and
beyond, desperate for a sensual reward that mortals, even Astartes, were never intended to experience.

To be a Chaos Space Marine is ultimately to feel a near god-like power over other beings, particularly one's fellow
humans. Having been freed for solar decades, if not centuries, from the experience of fear and now released from
responsibility, a Chaos Space Marine does not dread either retribution or punishment for his deeds.

For most Chaos Space Marines, all memories of their heroic pasts are soon lost amidst the rivers of blood and the
ecstacies of new sensation, and any thoughts of the future are but half-imagined cravings for more...more power,
more killing, more pleasure, more pain.

By dedicating himself body and soul to the Dark Gods, an Astartes not only finds a patron who approves and
encourages his new life, but who will actually reward him the further down that path he walks. For one whose sole
existence was once defined by the necessity of self-denial and utter obedience, the euphoria of this realisation of true
freedom can be an even more potent intoxicant than the pride he once felt at being accepted as one of the Emperor's
Space Marines.

It is this temptation that constantly beckons to all Loyalist Space Marines. They cannot claim to be ignorant of its
existence, as the teachings of their Chapter and its Chaplains remind them daily of both their purpose and their
duties. No Space Marine casually walks away from these once-welcome bonds, no matter what might occur in his
life.

For an Astartes to turn to the service of Chaos he must consciously make the choice to walk a radically different
path, to choose profane freedom over righteous service. Once made, it is a decision that can never be recanted, for
from the moment that a Space Marine renounces his service to the Emperor, he is truly lost and irrevocably damned.

The Chaos Space Marines have the same genetic origins as the Space Marines in the gene-seed created by the
Emperor from the genomes of the 20 Primarchs, and thus have the same physical abilities as their uncorrupted
counterparts. Due to their allegiance to Chaos, Veteran Chaos Space Marines often suffer from extreme mutations
(or Chaos "gifts" depending on the point of view). Traitor Marines are virtually immortal due to their sojourns
within the Warp, and their Terran millennia of experience afford them levels of tactical mastery and advanced
battlefield skills that the much younger Loyalist Space Marines have not yet earned.

Many Chaos Space Marines are still equipped with the ancient patterns of Power Armour and weapons they had
when they initially betrayed the Imperium at the start of the Horus Heresy, which are broadly the same as those used
by the current Loyalist Space Marines (although some differences now exist with regard to Jump Packs, Power
Armour appearance, etc). At present in the late 41st Millennium, some 10,000 standard years after the Horus
Heresy, the Imperium of Man has made a few, mostly minuscule technological advancements, due to the recovery of
certain Standard Template Construct (STC) technologies from the interstellar human civilisation that existed during
the Dark Age of Technology.

In most ways the Imperium has either completely stagnated or even regressed from the technological level prevalent
across the human-settled galaxy during the Great Crusade in the early 31st Millennium, though the recent efforts of
Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl following the introduction of the Primaris Space Marines have seen fit to try
and reverse this fear of innovation. Whether this proves to be too little, too late, remains to be seen.

Chaos Space Marines have far more limited access to the handful of new inventions that have appeared on the
galactic scene in the last 10,000 years. In general, anything developed since the Heresy is unavailable to the Traitor
Marines unless it has been captured or was already deployed among Space Marines who went Renegade in more
recent centuries; for example, the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion is well-known for capturing and using more modern
patterns of Imperial tanks and armoured vehicles.

While Chaos Space Marines may possess older technology than their Loyalist counterparts, they compensate for this
weakness through the ability to summon daemons from the Immaterium and make use of daemonic technology like
Daemon Engines, as well as the unbridled power of arcane psychic sorcery drawn from the Warp without fears of
limitation or corruption.

Because the Chaos Space Marines have all dedicated their souls to Chaos, they are extremely fearful of death,
knowing that their souls will ultimately be consumed by the Ruinous Powers, unless they can earn the rare
promotion to become Daemon Princes in their own right. The Chaos Gods do not truly care for their Chaos Space
Marine servants, any more than they do for any mortals who serve them.

The Dark Gods would gladly see their mortal servants'souls tortured for all eternity within their realms in the
Immaterium simply for their own pleasure. Worshipers of Khorne are cursed to feel eternal rage but denied the
ability to slaughter, the children of Nurgle are forever consumed by despair and the wracking pains of a hideous
death, those who serve Slaanesh as their patron will be tortured for the sheer pleasure of the Prince of Chaos until
the end of time, and the servants of Tzeentch know only endless insanity as their souls constantly change in form
and the knowledge of the universe they crave is forever placed just out of their reach. In theory, those souls who
choose to serve Chaos Undivided rather than any individual Chaos God are either shared or fought over by the
Chaos Gods in the afterlife of the Immaterium.

Only the promise of eternal life as a Daemon Prince, a dubious honour earned through unbridled success in the
service of Chaos, reassures those mortals who pledge their lives and souls to the Ruinous Powers. This fear of death,
however, does nothing to slow or halt the vicious might of the Chaos Space Marines, who are quite sure that the
power they have received from the Chaos Gods in return for their souls will ultimately provide them with rule over
their fellows, as they believe is the right of every Astartes. It will also provide the opportunity to earn the necessary
glories required to appease the Dark Gods and claim the daemonic immortality they offer as ultimate reward.

Champions of Chaos

A Chaos Champion of the Traitor Legions.

In the Immaterium, similar thoughts and emotions of the sentient beings of the galaxy join together like rivulets of
water running down a cliffside. They form streams and flows of anguish and desire, pools of hatred and oceans of
pride. For billions of standard years these tides and waves of psychic energy have flowed unceasingly through the
Warp and such is their power that they eventually formed creatures hewed from the energy of the Empyrean.

These instinctual, formless entities eventually gained rudimentary consciousness and the Chaos Gods were born --
great psychic presences composed of the best dreams and worst nightmares of the galaxy's mortals. As the sentient
races of the galaxy prospered and grew, their hopes and dreams, their rage and conflicts and their loves and hatreds,
all fed the growth of the Chaos Gods and nurtured their power. Eventually, the gods reached into the dreams of
mortals to demand both their praise and their service.

A Chaos Space Marine dedicated to the service of the Blood God as a Khornate Berzerker.
A Chaos God can only increase its power through the collective actions and thoughts of the galaxy's mortals,
regardless of their species of origin. Those who worship a Chaos God and behave in a way that feeds its psychic
nature are rewarded with strange gifts, mutations, extraordinary psychic powers and potentially the greatest reward -
- ascension as an immortal Daemon Prince.

As the Chaos Gods battle one another within the Warp and the Realm of Chaos, so too, do their followers wage war
upon one another in the material universe. The victors of these battles earn more power for their masters, although
the machinations and natures of the Chaos Gods are such that often a victory is unnecessary, merely the acts of
sacrifice and battle in and of themselves.

When the devotees of Chaos die, their psychic energy, their souls in the Warp, do not fade away to an unknown
destination, are not destroyed and are not devoured by daemons like the souls of others. Instead their souls are
swallowed by the collective power of the gods, sustaining them and increasing the eternal power of Chaos.

Although untold billions of sentients worship the Chaos Gods under a myriad of different guises, names and aspects,
for the majority of those who serve Chaos, the Dark Gods offer simply the chance for more power and wealth in a
universe where such things are rarely easily attained. But there are those few men and women who dedicate their
lives to becoming true warriors of the Chaos Gods. For these devotees, the allure of Chaos is even stronger. The
Champions of Chaos have a deep, fervent belief in the Ruinous Powers and their commitment is total: they swear
themselves body and soul, in this life and beyond, to Chaos.

Those who dedicate themselves to the service of Chaos are doomed to an all-or-nothing existence as Chaos
Champions in the service of one of the Dark Gods, or even of Chaos Undivided. The reward for those who please
their god is ultimate power; for those who fail, it is only eternal oblivion.

To achieve greatness in the eyes of their god, Chaos Champions will perform any act, no matter how immoral,
insane or vile. A Champion of Chaos does not simply praise and venerate the Chaos Gods, he swears his life and
soul to their service, bargaining away his own essence in exchange for power and the rewards of their patronage.

Granted the forbidden knowledge and strength of Chaos, a Champion can lead armies, conquer whole worlds and
achieve greatness and ultimately, immortality. At the same time, the gods who choose to favour this Champion can
bring their influence to bear upon him, so that even as he furthers his own ambitions, he also furthers the dominance
and plots of his patrons.

Chaos Champions are the leaders of the forces of Chaos and the majority of them are Chaos Space Marines, though
some have far more mundane origins. It is a great irony that the same abilities that make Space Marines the greatest
defenders of the Imperium are also extraordinary assets for those who would become the most potent warriors of the
Chaos Gods.

The genetic alterations that create a Space Marine also make Astartes more resistant to the mutational affects of
exposure to the energies of the Warp, which allows a Chaos Space Marine to better survive the attentions of his
often-capricious new patrons. Just as their bodies benefit from the changes wrought upon them by the ancient
technologies pioneered by the Emperor, so too are the minds of Space Marines honed to an incredible focus and
possessed of a potent force of will.

These are qualities that stand a man in great stead if he wishes to become a Chaos Champion. Those who lack a
certain clarity of thought, the mental steel required to be successful, will soon be engulfed and lost in the constant
anarchy of service to Chaos or will be swiftly overthrown and slain by more ambitious and ruthless subordinates and
comrades. Chaos cares little for loyalty -- power is given to those strong enough to claim its rewards.

Chaos Space Marine Warbands

A Chaos Space Marine warband overrunning an Imperial world.

Save for a few Champions dedicated to the most pure service of Khorne, Chaos Champions do not live and fight
alone. Other followers of Chaos are drawn to them, either through the will of the gods or through the draw of a
Champion's own glory and reputation.

These groups form the warbands of Chaos and they can vary in size from a handful of individuals to massive hosts
that rival an Astra Militarum regiment in size and power. The most successful Chaos Champions command vast
armies of devoted warriors.

For Chaos Space Marines these warbands are mostly composed of comrades they fought alongside in their Traitor
Legions or their Renegade Chapter. Yet it is not uncommon for Renegades with very different histories to find a
common cause in their service to the Ruinous Powers, as Chaos recognises neither hierarchy nor structure, only
results.

These warbands compete with each other as much as they fight against xenos and the forces of the Imperium.
Resources are precious and hard-won in the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom and control of cities, continents and
worlds is vital to the maintenance of power. Most valued over all other things is the favour of the Chaos Gods.
Champions and their warbands must constantly prove their continued dedication to their patrons. The Chaos Gods
are embodiments of the question "What have you done for me lately?"

The Chaos Lord Araghast the Pillager leads a warband of the Black Legion on the world of Aurelia during the
Second Aurelian Crusade.

Champions earn rewards from their gods by destroying their patron's enemies and succeeding on obscure missions
and quests. On the Daemon Worlds in the Eye of Terror, hundreds of warbands struggle in battle to best each other
for possession of daemonic artefacts, ancient knowledge, weapons and war machines left over from the days of the
Horus Heresy and from before the Fall of the Aeldari.

They are pitched into eternal conflict as sacrifices to their gods and to earn the power to summon daemons to their
cause. When not battling one another, the warbands of Chaos Space Marines are a roving threat, for they are
wandering bands of nomadic warriors intent only on slaughter and loot.

From bases hidden in asteroid fields, upon the surfaces of deserted moons, and aboard painstakingly maintained
starships that date back to the Great Crusade, they watch and wait for their prey to appear, gathering strength
wherever a new blow can be struck against the despised Imperium of Man and its hated Corpse Emperor.

Ascension

A mutated Chaos Space Marine of the Emperor's Children.

In the end, every Chaos Champion faces one of three fates. A life of constant warfare is a dangerous one and most
will die upon the field of battle, forgotten by their god as just another failure but immortalised in legend by their
remaining followers and comrades. These Champions are nothing more than blood-soaked sacrifices to Chaos, their
goals and ambitions forever unfulfilled.

A Chaos Champion who survives the constant battles will slowly gain more and more favour from his chosen god.
These rewards come in different forms. Some Champions may be "sent" more followers. Those with a taste for such
things might learn potent spells of psychic sorcery, while all Champions will eventually exhibit strange, inhuman
powers. Most of the "gifts" offered by the Chaos Gods take the form of physical and genetic changes -- mutations.
Some mutations are beneficial, some harmless -- others downright debilitating.

Though such changes can make a Chaos Champion a fearsome warrior, he risks receiving so many such "gifts" and
becoming so mutated that he loses all control of himself and degenerates into the hideous creature known as a Chaos
Spawn. Even the superhuman, genetically-engineered body of an Astartes can only withstand so much genetic
corruption and contain only so much unnatural power.

When this limit is finally breached, the Space Marine or other Champion will be lost forever, transformed into a
gibbering and mindless Chaos Spawn. Driven insane, Chaos Spawn are nothing more than mindless, howling
monsters of tortured, mutated flesh. Most die quickly and painfully, their bodies ripped apart by cascading and
uncontrollable mutations as the power of Chaos is made wholly manifest within them.

Of those who do not die instantly upon surpassing the limit of the Chaos power that their bodies can withstand, some
are abandoned by their warbands to wander the Daemon Worlds until they are slain, while others are kept as pets
and war beasts by those who were once their followers.

But the third fate of a Chaos Champion is the reward to which all devotees of Chaos dedicate themselves: ascension
to daemonhood. The Champion's ultimate reward is ascension to become a Daemon Prince of his patron god. His
flesh is transformed into the immaterial substance of the Warp and his mortal life is entirely cast aside.

A follower of Chaos who ascends to become a Daemon Prince is an immortal and all-powerful warrior who will
serve his god for all eternity and never know death or fear again. Some Daemon Princes leave their mortal followers
behind and join the nightmare hosts of the daemons of Chaos to plague worlds across the gulfs of space and time as
embodiments of the power of their gods. Others choose to remain the leaders of their warband, now granted an
eternity to bask in the adoration of their minions and, perhaps, earn even greater, unimaginable power from the Dark
Gods they serve so well.

The Fickle Aegis of the Warp

Much like the daemonic entities made from the essences of the Ruinous Powers, those wholly claimed by Chaos
have a kind of esoteric protection that can protect them from physical blows. A Chaos Space Marine who has sworn
his soul to one of the Dark Gods may find an incoming bolt transmuted into scarlet liquid at the last moment, or see
a volley of incoming bullets hit home as a shower of writhing grubs.

A Lascannon beam -- potent enough to punch through the hull of a tank -- might simply pass through a Warp-
claimed Champion as if he was no more substantial than a phantasm. Similarly a plasma bolt might be caught in an
outstretched gauntlet, twisted into a ball of fire, and then consumed by the target without harm.

Truly it is said that the favoured of the Ruinous Powers are part daemon, for they are supernatural terrors to a man.
However, it is just as likely that the empyric forces which protect them from the vagaries of fate will do precisely
nothing at a critical moment, especially if the recipient has come to take them for granted. In such contradictions do
the Chaos Gods find humour and justice alike.

The Traitor Legions and Renegade Space Marine Chapters

Chaos Space Marine Traitor Legions

Each of the 9 Astartes Traitor Legions fights using a different style of warfare that is defined by their Legion's
culture and nature; also, 4 of the 9 -- the Emperor's Children, the World Eaters, the Thousand Sons and the Death
Guard -- are dedicated specifically to the service of one of the four major Chaos Gods, Slaanesh, Khorne, Tzeentch
and Nurgle, respectively. The other five Traitor Legions essentially serve the interests of all of the Ruinous Powers
collectively in the form of Chaos Undivided.

The 9 Chaos Space Marine Traitor Legions who joined the rebellion of the Warmaster Horus against the Emperor,
fully one half of the Space Marine Legions created during the First Founding are (in order of their Founding):
 Legion
Primarch Legion Loyalty Primarch Status
Number

Emperor's
III Fulgrim Traitor (Slaanesh) Alive (Daemon Prince)
Children

Traitor (Chaos
IV Perturabo Iron Warriors Alive (Daemon Prince)
Undivided)

Konrad Curze Traitor (Chaos

VIII Night Lords Dead
(Night Haunter) Undivided)

Alive (Daemon Prince)

XII Angron World Eaters Traitor (Khorne) Currently banished to the
Warp

XIV Mortarion Death Guard Traitor (Nurgle) Alive (Daemon Prince)

Thousand
XV Magnus the Red Traitor (Tzeentch) Alive (Daemon Prince)
Sons

Traitor (Chaos
XVI Horus Black Legion Dead
Undivided)

Traitor (Chaos
XVII Lorgar Word Bearers Alive (Daemon Prince)
Undivided)

Traitor (Chaos
Alpharius
XX Alpha Legion Undivided), possibly still Unknown
Omegon
Loyalist

The Emperor's Children

The Emperor's Children were one of the earliest of the Space Marine Legions to declare itself for Horus and his
Traitors, fighting at his side against its own Loyalists during the Istvaan III Atrocity and against the Loyalist Legions
during the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V.

The IIIrd Legion and its Primarch Fulgrim had been corrupted following its encounter with the Slaanesh-worshipping
xenos race known as the Laer and their world of Laeran late in the Great Crusade. The rot spread quickly through
the Legion, and the Emperor's Children embraced Chaos, particularly the Prince of Pleasure, in all its depravity.

Little trace can now be seen of the original armour and equipment of the Emperor's Children, covered as it is by
skins of iridescent fur or scales, jewels, or the fantastical renderings of screaming faces or rutting beasts. The
Emperor's Children fight for sensation and sensory overload, bringing a clashing cacophony of sound, colour, and
energy to the battlefield.

The Iron Warriors

Post-Heresy Iron Warriors' corrupted iconography.

The Iron Warriors once formed the Emperor's legion of siege troops. They fought on a hundred worlds in the Great
Crusade, laying siege to alien citadels and the palaces of Renegades with equal gusto. The Iron Warrior's Primarch,
Perturabo, excelled in the arts of siege and trench warfare above all else, and his treatise on fortifications and their
reduction formed the basis of several sections of the Tactica Imperialis.

The Iron Warriors betrayed the Emperor on Istvaan V, their mazes of bunkers and razor wire becoming a death trap
for their Loyalist brethren instead of the sanctuary they promised to be. The Iron Warriors wear relatively unadorned
armour that is commonly pieced together from the older marks for its heavier frontal protection.

They favour heavy weaponry like Lascannons or Missile Launchers for long-range engagements, although well-
equipped Iron Warriors Assault Squads are also rightly feared. The Iron Warriors also possess the highest number of
Obliterators amongst the Traitor Legions.

The Night Lords

Post-Heresy Night Lords' corrupted iconography.

Led by their saturnine Primarch, Konrad Curze (also known as the "Night Haunter") the Night Lords were greatly
feared even before the Heresy. Curze believed in the use of terror as a weapon and his foes quickly learned to fear
the night.

The Night Lords were one of the first Legions to join Horus' rebellion, turning on what they saw as a weak-willed
Emperor incapable of the strength required to lead and govern the galaxy effectively. Even after the Warmaster's
defeat, the Night Lords have continued to wage an unremitting campaign of terror against the Imperium.

The Night Lords refuse to follow any of the Chaos Gods, and have become cynical, hard-bitten, and frighteningly
ruthless warriors. They fight for the pleasure of it, and for the material rewards it can bring, and not for the worship
of some deity. They look down upon their more dedicated brethren, whether they are fanatical Chaos Space Marines
like the World Eaters, or zealous Loyalist Space Marines like the Dark Angels.

The World Eaters

Post-Heresy World Eaters' corrupted iconography.

Under the Primarch Angron, the World Eaters underwent psycho-surgery that transformed an already fierce legion
into bloodthirsty berserkers through the use of cortical implants known as the Butcher's Nails pioneered on their
Primarch's homeworld of Nuceria.

When they betrayed the Imperium, it was of little surprise that the vast majority dedicated themselves to Khorne.
The XIIth Legion fractured after the Heresy, scattering into many small warbands across the galaxy that frequently
serve as mercenaries to other Chaos commanders.

As is fitting to their patron god, the World Eaters wear armour as red as arterial blood, edged with brass and
decorated with skulls and symbols of Khorne. Most disdain long-ranged warfare, preferring to close with the enemy
to kill them with Chainaxe, Power Sword, and (if need be) Bolt Pistols.

The Death Guard

Post-Heresy Death Guard corrupted iconography.

The Death Guard's sense of loyalty to the Warmaster and their Primarch Mortarion triumphed over their duty to the
Emperor on distant Terra, and so, they unknowingly followed both into damnation. The rebel Death Guard Legion
was marooned in the Warp during the long journey to Terra to join the attack on the Imperial Palace.

A mysterious, unstoppable contagion spread through the trapped fleet, putrefying all it touched. Mortarion himself
became infected and in his delirium he called upon the Powers of Chaos to aid his Space Marines. Mortarion's
fevered ravings were answered by Nurgle, and Mortarion became Nurgle's foremost Daemon Prince.

The Death Guard survived but they continue to bear the marks of Nurgle's first blessings upon them. Their once-
white armour became stained and cracked where the bubbling foulness of their mortal bodies had erupted to the
surface. They bear the three-lobed mark of Nurgle rendered as flies or rotting heads upon banners and shoulder
guards.

Their Bolters and Chainswords are caked with filth and rust but are no less deadly. The Death Guard favour the use
of heavy infantry, particularly Plague Marines, and are notorious for their brutality. Plague and contagion have
become the Death Guard's primary weapons and they can be found anywhere in the galaxy spreading Nurgle's foul
blessings.

The Thousand Sons

Post-Heresy Thousand Sons' corrupted iconography.

The path to damnation for the Thousand Sons Legion of Space Marines was longer than most, but its final plunge
more complete than any. Even before the Horus Heresy the Thousand Sons' cyclopean Primarch Magnus the Red led
his sons in the study of arcane lore and the practice of sorcery despite the Emperor's disapproval and the outright ban
on such practices at the Council of Nikaea.

When Horus gathered his forces the Thousand Sons tried to use their occult powers to warn the Emperor of the
Warmaster's betrayal. The Emperor did not trust Magnus' warnings, disbelieving that Horus would betray Him, and
seeing that Magnus had disobeyed him by using sorcery, He ordered the Thousand Sons' Primarch to be taken
captive and brought in chains to Terra to answer for his disobedience.

Leman Russ and the Space Wolves Legion were sent to escort the Thousand Sons' Primarch to Terra, but their
mission was altered by Horus' scheming, which saw the destruction of the Thousand Sons' homeworld of Prospero.
To survive and protect their accumulated wisdom, the Thousand Sons sought the patronage of the god Tzeentch,
Changer of the Ways, greatest master of magic among the Chaos Gods.

During the terrible battle known as the Burning of Prospero, Tzeentch transported Magnus and his surviving sons to
the Daemon World in the Eye of Terror called the Planet of the Sorcerers. The surviving Thousand Sons have since
been split by internal schisms, their pursuit of occult knowledge estranging them from each other and even their
cyclopean Daemon Primarch.

A cabal of renegade Sorcerers led by their once-Chief Librarian Ahriman unleashed a great sorcerous spell, known
as the Rubric of Ahriman upon the Legion in order to prevent further mutation and corruption of its members by
Chaos. This mighty spell reduced most of the Thousand Sons to soulless suits of animated armour known as Rubric
Marines, but left the surviving Sorcerers unmatched in power.

The Black Legion

Post-Heresy Black Legion iconography.

In the First Founding the XVIth Legion was created as the Luna Wolves. The Emperor subsequently allowed His
favoured son Horus to rename the Legion "the Sons of Horus" in recognition of his accomplishments in the Ullanor
Crusade and in honour of its Primarch, who had been made the first among the Primarchs by his promotion to the
rank of Warmaster.

The Sons of Horus willingly followed their beloved Primarch and Warmaster into rebellion, fighting at the very
forefront of his most important campaigns. The Sons of Horus stood out as the elite of the Chaos armies, with a very
aggressive and efficient method of war -- the fielding of elite and specialised units to destroy enemy command and
isolate divisions from one another -- methods upheld by the Legion still in the age of the Dark Imperium. During the
Heresy massive recruitment of new Astartes from Cthonia occurred, giving the Legion numerical superiority to most
other Space Marine Legions as well.

When Horus was slain by the Emperor at the Battle of Terra, the Legion's morale and pride was shattered. After
their defeat, the Black Legion and their fellow Traitor Legions were driven into the hellish realm of the Eye of
Terror by the vengeful Imperial forces. Soon, the Sons of Horus lost their primacy as the preeminent Legion, as the
Legion Wars ensued. This conflict marked the final collapse of unity between the Chaos-corrupted Space Marine
Legions that had fought together under the banner of Horus Lupercal during the Horus Heresy.

In their despair the Sons of Horus gave themselves to the worship of one Chaos Power after another, and lost many
of their number through possession and madness. The Legion as a whole broke up after the events on Maeleum and
now is largely fleet-based, with several bastions within the Eye.

The Black Legion as it is known at present was formed shortly afterwards under the strong leadership of Abaddon
the Despoiler, the former First Captain of the Sons of Horus originally known as Ezekyle Abaddon, who claimed
Horus' mantle as the Warmaster of Chaos. Now all the leaders of the Black Legion warbands will, in varying
degrees, answer to the Despoiler.

As the Black Legion, the former Sons of Horus repainted their Legion colours to black in memory and permanent
mourning of their fallen Primarch. The Black Legion is also known to recruit members from other Legions, bully
them into alliances, demand tithes, and absorb renegades from newly formed Chaos warbands.

In this way, the Black Legion has become the largest ilk of Chaos Space Marines, and has reclaimed is status of
primacy among them. Daemonkin, Chaos Terminators, and Chosen have a strong presence in the Legion,
corroborating their elite disposition. Its hardened survivors lead warbands against the Imperium to this day, eager to
expunge the bitter memory of Horus' defeat.

The Word Bearers

Post-Heresy Word Bearers' corrupted iconography.

Lorgar, Primarch of the Word Bearers Legion, was a scrupulous and dedicated follower of the Imperial Cult, and in
many ways was the founder of the religion of Emperor-worship called the Lectitio Divinitatus that would one day
become the Adeptus Ministorum.

He led his XVIIth Legion in the building of vast monuments and immense rituals during the Great Crusade to secure
the faith of those that were conquered in the God-Emperor. The Emperor rejected Lorgar's efforts however, telling
him that He needed His Space Marines to fight, not worship, and to serve the secular ideology of the Imperial Truth
which disdained all religion and superstition.

Lorgar's disillusionment with the Emperor's impiety drove him to worship of the Chaos Powers during the
Pilgrimage of Lorgar undertaken some 43 standard years before the start of the Horus Heresy, entities that truly
demanded worship and sacrifice from their followers.
When Horus raised his banner the Word Bearers, who had largely driven Horus into corruption by Chaos from
behind the scenes through his schemes over the decades, eagerly followed him into rebellion along with a thousand
hidden Chaos Cults they had established on the worlds they had brought into Imperial Compliance in the last days of
the Great Crusade.

The Word Bearers' fanatical zealotry has become dedicated to the worship of Chaos in its purest form, unadulterated
by the veneration of any particular Chaos God over the others. In battle the Word Bearers are known to summon
daemons en masse, using them as a horde of deadly effective infantry troops while their Chaos Space Marines
execute specific objectives.

They are the only Traitor Legion that still maintains the rank of Chaplain, the darkly twisted individuals holding this
office now known as Dark Apostles, and leading their brethren in heretical prayers and insane catechisms. Immense
cathedrals and rune-etched monuments still rise in the wake of the Word Bearer's conquests, but now they are
blasphemous dedications to the glory that is Chaos.

The Alpha Legion

Post-Heresy Alpha Legion corrupted iconography.

The Alpha Legion was the twentieth and final Space Marine Legion created in the First Founding. During the Great
Crusade the XXth Legion earned renown for its strict discipline and organisation. The Alpha Legion strove hard to
outshine its brethren in all things and prove their worthiness to be among the older Legions.

The war-lust of the Alpha Legion easily led them into heresy when Horus declared himself against the Emperor,
though some legends say that the Alpha Legion secretly remains loyal to the Emperor in perhaps the greatest of the
many deceptions and ploys it has worked. Here at last was their chance to prove themselves against opponents just
as tough, as battle hardened, and ferocious as themselves.

The Alpha Legion did much to ravage the Eastern Fringe during the Heresy, pursuing their own set of objectives far
from Terra. In the ten millennia since they have continued to strike from bases hidden all over the galaxy. Unusually
the Alpha Legion actively cultivates Chaos Cultists and rebels, multiplying their impact many times over. The
Inquisition holds a special loathing for the Alpha Legion for their part in spreading Chaos Cults and fanning the
embers of heresy into the raging fires of outright rebellion.

Renegade Space Marine Chapters

The Traitor Legions are not the only Space Marines to fall to Chaos. Through the passing of the Terran centuries
since the Horus Heresy, the forces of Chaos have been further swelled by those Space Marines from the later
Foundings who have turned from service to the Emperor of Mankind to pursue their own agendas. With each new
millennium, dozens of disillusioned or power-hungry Chapters defect, just as Horus did. Only the High Lords of
Terra and the Inquisition have any idea of how deep the rot goes. Nonetheless, some Renegades have achieved such
notoriety that their legends resonate throughout entire sectors.

According to the current records of the Inquisition's Ordo Malleus, approximately 50 Loyalist Chapters or elements
of Loyalist Chapters have turned Renegade in the ten millennia since the Horus Heresy. Examples include the Sons
of Malice, the Damned Company of Lord Caustos, the Violators, the Thunder Barons, and the Astral Claws (known
as the Red Corsairs since their rebellion against the Imperium during the Badab War). A more complete list can be
found here.

As they explore their new freedom from the discipline and strict purpose of the Adeptus Astartes, these Space
Marines inevitably turn at some point to the Chaos Gods to gain more power to do as they will, or for protection,
since prolonged independence will jeopardize them if the bloodthirsty Traitor Legions were to become aware of
their existence.
From this point on, they are fated to walk the path of the Chaos Champion. These Renegades are hunted men --
loathed by all the other Space Marine Chapters, who consider it their foremost duty before the Emperor to destroy
any Renegade Astartes lest their vile shame and dishonour leave a black stain upon all the Loyalist Space Marines
who have never turned their face from the light of the Emperor or their duty to Mankind for their own selfish gain.

Though never equal in size or power to the original Astartes Legions, a modern Space Marine Chapter is a potent
military force in its own right and when an entire Chapter turns Renegade, it presents a grave threat to the Imperium.
With all the resources of a Space Marine Chapter at their disposal, the Renegades of Chaos destroy Imperial armies,
conquer Imperial worlds and despoil whole sectors of the Imperium.

This is rare however, as most Chapters usually operate within a number of theatres simultaneously. Therefore, it is
usually separate companies or detachments that will turn Renegade, and will abandon or turn on their Loyalist
brethren. It is perhaps the greatest test of faith for a Space Marine to fight another Astartes, and these internecine
conflicts often have a terrible effect on other nearby Chapters.

In these circumstances, such inter-Chapter wars tend to escalate quickly, engulfing many worlds with bloodshed.
Other Chapters are then employed to suppress the rebellion, but those forces sent to deal with the Renegade Chapter
may actually end up, in whole or in part, becoming corrupted and joining with those they were sent to destroy, just
as occurred to many amongst the Traitor Legions so long ago.

An example of just such an outcome infamously took place in the 34th Millennium during the Obscuran Uprisings.
During the course of 400 Terran years of anarchic separatist rebellions that shook much of the Segmentum
Obscurus, at least 7 Loyalist Space Marine Chapters broke their oaths to the Emperor and took part in the looting
and pillaging of hundreds of these Imperial worlds. Of these Chapters, 2 of them, the Sons of Vengeance and the
Silver Guards -- had at first fought on the side of the Imperium but turned Renegade after their actions against the
Chaos-corrupted Free Council of Hannedra II.

Artefacts of Chaos

Amongst the myriad warbands of the Chaos Space Marines there exist tools of murder whose very names inspire
terror. Some of these Chaos artefacts date back to before the Horus Heresy, before their bearers were corrupted by
the whispers of the Dark Gods. Others are Daemon Weapons forged using the essences of daemons, and exist only
to sow destruction throughout the galaxy.

 Axe of Blind Fury - Bound within this fabled Power Axe is the essence of a Greater Daemon. It rages
against its eternity of servitude, resulting in grievous violence against the enemy and, sometimes, its owner
or his allies.
 The Black Mace - This malefic mace is said to have been cursed by each of the Daemon Primarchs. One
who is struck by it instantly collapses into a mouldering pile of bones, while the curse spreads in a deadly
shock wave to all those foes of the Dark Gods in the vicinity.
 Blade of the Hydra - Long ago, this oversized Chainsword was of purely ceremonial use. Since the
Daemon Prince Gharual of the Nine Sundered Souls was bound inside it, however, the blade has been a
fiendish tool of destruction. Those with a will strong enough to control its multiple thirsting mindsets can
cause the sawtoothed blade to shimmer into not one, but several swords that gnaw and gnash with an
immortal hunger. These extra blades are insubstantial when the wielder wills it, and razor-sharp when the
flesh of his enemies is near. This artefact is only available to the Heretic Astartes of the Alpha Legion.
 Blissgiver - This long-tongued whip or slender blade can render those who feel its sting insensible with
indescribable pleasure. Even those who put aside gratification for a greater duty find their oaths and
promises forgotten, washed away in a tide of sensation that drowns the mind completely. So it is to feel the
kiss of Slaanesh. Though their lives are cruelly torn away almost immediately afterwards, for a few short
moments, they truly know ecstasy and agony entwined. This artefact is only available to the Heretic
Astartes of the Emperor's Children.
 Brass Collar of Bhorgaster - This collar of heavy brass is the bane of Sorcerers, for bound within it is a
Greater Daemon of Khorne that despises magic. A psyker with the temerity to unleash eldritch power near
 this relic finds his mind screaming with pain. Moments later, the empyric energies he has conjured into
being are turned back upon him in a raging inferno of white-hot flame. Those who succumb are
immediately sucked into Khorne's realm, there to die a thousand times over. This artefact is only available
to the Heretic Astartes of the World Eaters.
 Claws of the Black Hunt - These vicious hooked talons have spilt the blood of thousands of victims since
their creation in the soul forges. Worn by the master of the Black Hunt, a vicious ritual that precedes the
greatest of Night Lords invasions, they are so encrusted with gore they are almost black. This congealed
fluid is so thick it cannot even be seared away by the vicious energy field that runs about each claw. This is
seen by some as a clear sign of a gory blessing from destructive gods. Even when the wielder swipes the air
near a foe, not quite making contact, the victim's armour and flesh still mysteriously part as if slashed open
by a fierce and invisible beast. This artefact is only available to the Heretic Astartes of the Night Lords.
 The Cursed Crozius - This artefact was once the rod of office for a founding member of Lorgar's
Chaplains, one of the first of his kind to be sent into the Legiones Astartes in order to watch for signs of
sedition. In truth, it has always been the weapon of an Archtraitor. First used in anger to bludgeon a Praetor
of the White Scars to death, it still bears the indelible stains of that first treacherous kill to this day. The
wielder of the Cursed Crozius is instilled with all the knowledge they need to slay the Loyalist thralls of the
Corpse-God. This artefact is only available to the Heretic Astartes of the Word Bearers.
 Eye of Night - One of the artefacts used by Abaddon to take command of the dreaded Blackstone
Fortresses during the Gothic War, the Eye of Night is a multifaceted obsidian crystal of unknown origin.
The slightest caress of the ebon beam it can unleash causes machines to suffer massive power failure or
catastrophic internal damage. Not even the thickest armour can resist its malignant touch. This artefact is
only available to the Heretic Astartes of the Black Legion.
 Eye of Tzeentch - The Eye of Tzeentch is a relic that has been exposed to wild psychic energies for ten
Terran millennia. Sorcerers who stare into the artefact's unblinking depths can glean the secrets of the
Warp, and use such knowledge to focus their own eldritch powers, enhancing their scope and potency.
 Fleshmetal Exoskeleton - The Fleshmetal Exoskeleton so prized by the Eye of Terror's Warpsmiths bonds
with the wearer's wargear and anatomy alike, so that they embody the maxim "Iron Within, Iron Without"
in a quite literal sense. A blade that manages to penetrate his armour will blunt itself on the hardened flesh
beneath, and those enemies that somehow deal the warrior significant damage will see their adversary's
cabled muscles reknit in a frenzy of silvered fibres until they are rebuilt as strong as ever. This artefact is
only available to the Heretic Astartes of the Iron Warriors.
 G'holl'ax, Fist of Decay - The very essence of pestilence exudes from the fingertips of this malign artefact.
Said to have been gifted by the Lord of Decay himself, the mortal that bears this symbolic weapon is a
herald of contagion and a physical example that none can resist the inescapable grip of decay. The Fist of
Decay is a Power Fist that can only be used by a servant of Nurgle.
 Intoxicating Elixir - This dispenser is filled with a self-replenishing liquid that is pumped into the bearer's
bloodstream by the pint. Some say the liquid, which grants those that partake of it with unholy physical
power, is a nectar distilled from Slaanesh's own pleasure gardens in the Realm of Chaos.
 Puscleaver - This blade bears the infamous Gurgling Doom contagion. One struck by the blade typically
has only a few agonising solar seconds left to live before they finally realise the glory of Nurgle's
generosity and keel over gurgling phlegm. Only servants of the Plague God may wield this artefact.
 Q'o'ak, the Boundless - The daemon Q'o'ak drew Tzeentch's ire for ceaselessly tinkering with the plans of
his Lords of Change, and thus was bound within this sword to stop its tireless meddling. Yet when the
weapon crosses blades with the bearer's enemies, a new victim falls foul of Q'o'ak 's temporal tampering.
How Q'o'ak can traverse time whilst bound within its physical prison is unknown, yet for each soul Q'o'ak
pulls from the path of fate, a fresh plume materialises from the sword's hilt. Q'o'ak is the equivalent of a
Power Sword, a hellforged sword used by daemons or a Force Sword.
 Talisman of Burning Blood - This talisman constantly drips with thick, bubbling gore. The air around it is
so heavy with the charnel stench of the slaughterhouse that it imbues the bearer's limbs with a supernatural
swiftness to match their eagerness to butcher the foe.
 Thaa'ris and Rhi'ol, the Rapacious Talons - Thaa'ris and Rhi'ol were two rival daemons who endlessly
performed at the court of a great Daemon Prince. They drew their patron's displeasure when their
competitive rivalry became the prime focus of their performances, neglecting the court and its lord. They
were bound within two Daemon Weapons, paired claws forever destined to dance at the behest of their
 bearer. These relics replace Lightning Claws or malefic talons and can only be used by the servants of
Slaanesh.
 The Murder Sword - So deadly are the wounds from this blade that some believe it is actually the
Anathame -- the legendary cursed weapon suspected to have laid low the Warmaster Horus within the
swamps of Davin's Plague Moon. The sword is undoubtedly of eldritch provenance, for with a sacrificial
ritual it can become the bane of a certain foe above all others.
 Ul'o'cca, the Black Axe - This axe was found on a Daemon World resting in a cavern marked with
diabolical wards. Thousands of corpses lay at its feet, sacrificial offerings from an unknown warden to
appease its hunger. One brave soul now seeks to feed the daemon by other means. Ul'o'cca replaces a
Power Axe, Force Axe or a daemonic axe.
 Zaall, the Wrathful - Only Khorne's most incensed warriors can wield this sword. A daemon of such
unrestrained anger, Zaall was bound within this blade to give a purpose to the daemon's endless fury. Now
the daemon's anger ebbs and flows like a tide of gore synced to the wrath of its wielder. This relic can be
used as a Power Sword or a hellforged sword used by daemons.

Forces of the Chaos Space Marines

The Forces of Chaos

The "forces of Chaos" is an all-encompassing term that includes the Chaos Space Marines and all the other beings
and entities who serve the Ruinous Powers of Chaos and make war upon the Imperium of Man and the many other
intelligent races of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Among their number are included the Traitor Legions and Renegade Space Marines, human, mutant and alien Chaos
Cultists, Traitor Imperial Guard, Traitor Titan Legions, Renegade Knights, the Tech-priests of the Dark
Mechanicum, Chaos Spawn cannon fodder, and daemons of every shape and level of power as well as countless
other foul beings too horrific to be mentioned here.

All of these forces can be led into battle by the Chaos Space Marines, who are collectively the most powerful mortal
servants of the Ruinous Powers who have ever lived.

The Lost and the Damned

There are also many normal humans and mutants who serve the Ruinous Powers as Chaos Cultists or belong to
ancient Traitor regiments of the Imperial Army, Traitor regiments of the Astra Militarum, or the Dark Mechanicum.

These groups joined Horus in his rebellion and then fled with the Traitor Legions into the Eye of Terror 10 millennia
ago after Horus' defeat or were converted to the service of the Dark Gods in the long millennia since. These groups
are often used by the Chaos Space Marines to bolster their ranks.

These Traitors, mutants and Heretics are collectively labelled the "Lost and the Damned" by the Inquisition.

The Emperor's Children, also sometimes known after their fall as the Lords of Profligacy, are a Traitor Legion of
Chaos Space Marines who devote themselves solely to the service of the Chaos God Slaanesh, the Prince of
Pleasure, though they were originally the Imperium of Man's proud IIIrd Legion of Astartes.
The Emperor's Children was the only Space Marine Legion to bear the Emperor's own name and His own icon -- the
Palatine Aquila -- granted to them by His hand as a symbol of the Legion's martial perfection. Few were ever so
honoured amongst the ancient Space Marine Legions and given less cause to betray the Master of Mankind than the
Emperor's Children.
Given the plaudits and accolades accorded them, few could doubt that they were the embodiment of what the
Emperor had intended the Legiones Astartes to be: noble in action and aspect, excelling in all matters, strong,
civilised, firm of purpose and loyal to the core.
From this height they descended in treachery to the lowest and vilest of creatures, enslaved to pride and consumed
by hedonistic desires that no natural power could fulfill. The Emperor's Children are now a scattered Legion much
like their counterparts the World Eaters, their unity devoured by their allegiance to Chaos.
The Emperor's Children Legion now exists only as scattered, autonomous warbands located in the Eye of Terror
who are dedicated to their own pursuit of corrupt, hedonistic and usually murderous pleasures. The Chaos Space
Marines of the Emperor's Children are known for possessing outlandish mutations and surgical alterations as "gifts"
from Slaanesh which are designed to make them more "perfect" in the eyes of their twisted patron.
The Emperor's Children Traitor Legion exists for no other purpose but to exceed every extreme and to know every
possible sensation. Its warriors are entirely in the thrall of Slaanesh, the Dark Prince of Chaos, but once, the Legion
of the Primarch Fulgrim strived for perfection in all they did, and were counted as one of the most dedicated of all of
the Emperor's followers.
The infant Primarch of the Emperor's Children grew up upon the bleak, dying world of Chemos, a mining colony
long fallen to decay and decline as Old Night claimed the domains of Mankind. Isolated from surrounding systems,
the industry of Chemos had fallen silent, the mines replaced by the reclamation plants and vapour extraction
facilities that kept the dwindling population from vanishing entirely.
Within fifty standard years of his arrival on Chemos, Fulgrim had risen to become its leader, and it was his dream
that the wonders of long lost ages might be rediscovered and rebuilt. However, it was only when the Emperor came
to his world that the Primarch could begin to fully realise his vision.
By that time, it was not simply his homeworld that Fulgrim desired to see elevated to glory, but the entirety of
Mankind. When Fulgrim was introduced to the Space Marine Legion that shared his genetic inheritance, he found
not a resplendent host as did so many of his brothers, but a mere two hundred Battle-Brothers.
An accident had befallen the nascent IIIrd Legion early in the development of its gene-stock, setting it far behind its
fellows. Thus, it was necessary that Fulgrim and his warriors be integrated into the ranks of another Legion until
such time as their numbers were sufficiently restored for them to take to battle on their own. The Legion to which
Fulgrim and his warriors were assigned was the Luna Wolves, the Legion of Horus, and Fulgrim could not have had
a better companion at whose side to master the arts of warfare.
From the earliest days of its service to the Great Crusade, the nascent Legion was recognised for its drive to attain
perfection in all its deeds. It was in recognition of this drive that the Emperor granted the warriors of the Legion the
right to bear the Imperial eagle upon their chest armour, a unique honour at that time. In recognition that the
Emperor was the very pinnacle of the perfection Fulgrim aspired to, the IIIrd Legion was named the "Emperor's
Children," a title it retained even after the calamitous events of the Horus Heresy.
Some would say that it was Fulgrim's impossible desire to attain perfection in all that he did that ultimately led him
and his Legion into the service of Slaanesh. The exact circumstances of Fulgrim's fall are all but lost to history, but
certainly, Horus must have appealed to his refined sensibilities and stoked the fire of what, in retrospect, was an
increasingly disturbing quest to attain otherwise unattainable heights of sensation.
Gifted with the physique and intellect of a Primarch, no endeavour was beyond Fulgrim's attainment. Having
mastered every strategy and tactic of war, he sought ever more esoteric pursuits, turning his hand to every creative
pursuit imaginable, from poetry to sculpture.
As his soul was slowly poisoned by the insidious taint of the Prince of Chaos, Fulgrim's passions grew ever darker
and his drives ever more extreme. At the last, acting at the behest of Horus, he attempted to persuade his brother
Primarch Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands Legion that factions within the nascent Imperium were aligning
themselves against him and his kin, resulting in a bitter confrontation between erstwhile brothers. Though Ferrus
survived the confrontation, the reward for Fulgrim was damnation, setting him well and truly upon the road that led
to the Emperor's Children siding with the Traitors at Istvaan V, and ultimately to Terra.
Though the Emperor's Children were present at the siege of the homeworld of Mankind, they were not numbered
amongst the formations that assaulted the mighty fortifications erected by Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial
Fists Legion, to defend the Imperial Palace. While the World Eaters and other Traitor Legions launched assault after
assault upon the palace, the Emperor's Children are said to have laid waste to the surrounding city and other outlying
regions, slaughtering untold thousands, perhaps even millions, of the Emperor's subjects in an orgy of unfettered
cruelty.
Some have even suggested that the Emperor's Children were using the unprecedented violence of the Siege of Terra
to slay sufficient victims to render their vital fluids into some abominable distillation, a stimulant that would grant
them access to previously unheard of heights of sensation. In the end, the Siege of Terra was lifted when the
Emperor slew the Arch-traitor Horus, and the Emperor's Children were driven from Terra along with the rest of the
Traitors.
Leaving a trail of desecrated worlds and violated populations, the Emperor's Children joined the ranks of those
Legions taking refuge from the Imperium's wrath within the Eye of Terror, beginning a new and devastating series
of wars against their erstwhile allies.
The history of the Emperor's Children in the period that followed the defeat of the Traitor Legions at the Siege of
Terra is largely obscured from Imperial scholars, for obvious reasons. Perhaps the greatest mystery surrounds the
fate of the Primarch Fulgrim himself, for it appears that he disappeared entirely. Some say that the Dark Prince of
Chaos had already granted him apotheosis, and he assumed the mantle of a Daemon Primarch.
There are those that claim that Fulgrim has retreated to some Daemon World of his own creation, and rules there
still, overseeing such debased extremes of sensation and experience as no mortal can imagine. Some of those who
revere Slaanesh regard this mythical place as the holy of holies, and spend entire lifetimes obsessively questing after
it.
Contents
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Legion History
Emperor's Children Legion Post-Heresy Badge
Martial Brotherhood
The IIIrd Legion was created alongside its brother Space Marine Legions during the latter phases of the Unification
Wars on Terra, with many of its finest warriors drawn from the courts and blood vassal populations of Europa. The
nobles of Europa selected the finest of their youth and offered them up to the Emperor of Mankind as tribute and
penance for their previous defiance after their systematic humiliation in battle at the hands of the Imperial Thunder
Regiments.
Among them were sons drawn from each noble family, a fact apocryphally said by some Imperial savants of the
time to have given the Legion its lasting name, reaffirmed in later years by its Primarch after his rediscovery by the
Expeditionary Fleets of the Great Crusade. Of this tithe some Europan noble familes gave in grudging tribute, and
thought of these young men as little more than hostages, while others cooperated with the zeal of true converts to the
Imperial cause.
House Loculus of Komarg is said, for example, to have sent all of its sons to be transformed into Astartes at the time
of their capitulation to Imperial rule, and to have given the firstborn son of each generation thereafter to the IIIrd
Legion willingly.
In later decades, other Terran dynasties followed the example of Europa, filling the ranks of the IIIrd Legion with
the flower of Terran youth who seemed well-matched with the aristocratic blood of its Initiates, forming a martial
brotherhood whose ancestry in war stretched back into the lost ages of human history.
Emperor's Children Legion Pre-Heresy Badge
In these early wars the IIIrd Legion was used to support some of the more notable actions of the nascent Imperial
Army, and in many instances to directly lead its troops in battle. This differed notably from many of the First
Founding Space Marine Legion forces at this time, who were often deployed as unified commands en masse to serve
as shock troops supported by heavy war machinery only.
Coordinating and leading such "lesser" troops seemed a natural fit for the former aristocrats of the IIIrd Legion.
They had a profound ability to understand the strengths and manifold weaknesses of the diverse armies in service to
the Emperor and drew on the long traditions of Terra's military aristocracies to command with surety and purpose.
The Antarctic Clearance campaign during the Unification Wars is, for example, marked as a victory for Army Group
Antilles, but in truth any detailed analysis of the ancient conflict reveals that it was the IIIrd Legion which sculpted
the tactics and strategy of the campaign, and led it to successful completion.
Likewise, when the Bronze Host took Nadarin it was under the eye and with the aid of the IIIrd Legion, and the
Fifth Raising of Jove-Sat II was done principally by their hand, though other names than theirs throng the honour
rolls of the Unification. The examples are numerous, and through them all the IIIrd Legion proved their superb
ability to execute and exceed the intent and expectations of their Emperor in war.
Palatine Aquila
Emperor's Children Legion Colour Scheme as displayed by Mandrakh Blyss, Devourer of the Severed Souls.
It was after the Proximan Betrayal early in the Great Crusade that the IIIrd Legion was granted the exclusive right to
bear the Palatine Aquila, the Emperor's personal standard, in its own heraldry, the only Space Marine Legion
allowed to display the Aquila on its arms and armour until after the Horus Heresy, when the practice spread to all
the Legions that had remained loyal to the Imperium.
This honour was bought in blood as the IIIrd Legion's XVIth Cohort (Chapter), assigned to the Imperial Compliance
ceremonies and as the Emperor's honour guard for Proxima's formal accession into the Imperium, fought and died to
the last warrior alongside the Legio Custodes, never giving ground during the insurrectionist surprise attack on that
world's ceremonial plaza. By their sacrifice was the wounded Emperor, who had suffered injury through the use of a
Vortex Weapon by the enemy, bought time to recover and fight His way clear of the Proximan insurrectionists' trap.
In recognition of this, the standard of the Palatine Aquila so fiercely fought for that day was given to the Astartes of
the IIIrd Legion by the Emperor's own hand, to be their relic ever after, along with the right to end the Proximan
revolt by Exterminatus and so repay the blood that was owed them.
While the great Aquila in its variations signified both the Imperium of humanity and loyalty to the Emperor as its
master, and there is much allegory bound up into its form, for the IIIrd Legion it also now represented their own
deeds as well, an honour never given to another Space Marine Legion before the Great Betrayal.
Pre-Heresy Emperor's Children Legion Colour Scheme
In situations of hazard and utmost danger, the Emperor often used members of the newly redubbed Emperor's
Children Legion as aquilifers and equerries due to their singular character and mien, a responsibility the Legion was
proud to carry. Bearing the palatine eagle standard of the Emperor, members of the IIIrd Legion accompanied
Imperial diplomatic missions and emissaries as bodyguards and agents into the heart of the foe, and in battle bore
the standard and commanded the armies of the newly conquered as instruments of the Emperor's will and judgment
if needed.
The sight of the Emperor's symbol carried by one of His favoured warriors was enough to keep many a wavering
new ally or recently conquered human world in line. These standard bearers, and the honour guards that
accompanied them, symbolically coloured their armour with lacquer of imperial purple to mark their rank and
mission.
So arrayed, none could doubt that these Astartes were the chosen of the Emperor, and such was the record and
esteem with which they functioned that for a time it became common for them to bear the Emperor's wishes and
order to other Legions and Imperial military forces scattered across the new-born Imperium.
The nature of the IIIrd Legion's psychology meant that they would carry the precise meaning and intent of any order
without deviation and with their last breath if needed. In this role, the IIIrd Legion took on the mandate of the
Emperor's will, and no other Legion was so honoured. Others bore His words, but at this time the IIIrd Legion were
His voice. This would not change, even after the Emperor's Children were reunited with their long-lost genetic
forebear and Primarch, Fulgrim.
Gene-Seed Crisis
"Barring the miraculous, our Legion's demise not only seems inexorable, it is also inevitable. Any other conclusion
is unlikely, any hope remote at this point."
— Apothecary Fabius speaking to his vassal brother, Lycaeon

One great disaster made the greatest mark upon the early decades of the IIIrd Legion's existence. This was the
catastrophic loss of nearly the entire gene-seed stock of the Emperor's Children. Coming within a solar year of their
great moment of triumph fighting at the Emperor's side at Proxima, it was to prove a turning point that was to
forever alter the IIIrd Legion's future.
As the Emperor's Wars of Unity broke the bounds of Terra, the pacification of the Selenar gene-cults of Luna and
the Martian Compact allowed the Imperium to produce and equip new Space Marines at an unprecedented rate, and
the Legions began to expand to meet the demands of the vast new war across the stars.
As the gene-forges of Luna began to implant recruits for all the Space Marine Legions, a portion of the IIIrd
Legion's gene-seed reserve was dispatched to Luna for establishment there. What happened next is not clear.
Some claim that elements of the Selenite cults still resistant to the rule of the Imperium and the Imperial Truth
hijacked a defence laser and destroyed the ship carrying the IIIrd Legion's gene-seed, while conflicting accounts
recount that the ship lost control and crashed as it was attempting to dock, whilst others claim that it simply
vanished.
The loss of the IIIrd Legion's gene-seed reserve was a severe blow to the Legion's development, but it would not
have endangered the Legion's survival if a second calamity had not occurred in quick succession.
Like all of the Legiones Astartes, the IIIrd Legion recovered the Progenoid Glands from those of its warriors who
fell in battle. From these organs a fresh set of gene-seed implant organs could be grown and a new Astartes created
to replace the fallen. This system was, however, far from perfect.
The nature of battle, and the manner in which Legionaries died, did not always allow for such recovery. To ensure
that there were always organs ready to implant into new Aspirants, a reserve of gene-seed for every Legion was kept
safe on Terra. From this emergency reserve it should have been possible to keep the IIIrd Legion supplied with new
warriors, and even with the loss of the gene-seed reserve sent to Luna the Legion would have endured and in time
grown; its survival should have been certain. But in a single night that hope was obliterated.
It was discovered that a fast acting viral blight had suddenly infected several of the gene-seed vaults on Terra, its
cause and origin unknown. The Bio-Magi of the Mechanicum tasked with overseeing the gene-stocks feverishly
sought to hold it in check as its progress threatened to wipe out in a matter of solar hours what had taken a century to
build, but the doubtlessly artificial, and many surmised xenos, infection defied treatment, and it was only the
intervention of the Emperor's own peerless bioengineering genius that was to purge the taint.
While many Legions suffered losses from this attack from an unknown quarter, the blight was found to have
destroyed the remaining gene-seed stock of the IIIrd Legion in its entirety. From that moment the IIIrd Legion began
to die.
While other Legions grew in size and glory as the Great Crusade gathered pace, the IIIrd Legion withered. The only
way it could replace losses was from the Progenoid Glands of the dead. Without the Legion's Primarch, the Emperor
and His gene-wrights could only rebuild the IIIrd Legion's gene-seed reserves with painful slowness.
As the process of rebuilding crept forward, the IIIrd Legion's strength dwindled with every battle. It became clear
that the IIIrd Legion would have fallen far below effective strength long before their gene-seed reserves were
rebuilt. The doom of the Legion was inevitable -- and then the Primarch Fulgrim was re-discovered, and everything
changed.
The Phoenician
Fulgrim the Phoenician, Primarch of the Emperor's Children Legion.
After being snatched from the Emperor of Mankind's gene-laboratory deep beneath the Himalazian (Himalayan)
Mountains on Terra, Fulgrim's gestation capsule came to rest on a resource-poor Mining World known as Chemos.
Chemos was a bleak, unforgiving planet warmed by a small binary star and surrounded by a thick nebula dust cloud.
The result was a world that was a place forever shrouded in perpetual twilight.
Chemos had been settled by humanity long before during the Dark Age of Technology as a Mining World but was
isolated from its neighbours by the great Warp Storms that marked the Age of Strife. The problem was that the
resources of the planet were running out and its people were not producing enough food even for their own needs.
Eventually, it fell to a group of fortress factories to produce all the needed resources for Chemos.
The entirety of the Chemosian people had to work every hour of the day, maintaining the vapour mines and
synthesisers. Recreation, art and leisure were sacrificed for survival. Chemos was dependent upon interstellar
commerce for the provision of food, but the world was buffeted by Warp Storms that made it difficult for traders to
reach the planet, thus condemning the Chemosians to a slow death, despite their attempts to impose strict food
rationing and improvise other solutions for providing nutrients.
Scouts from the fortress factory of Callax's branch of the planetary police force, the Caretakers, discovered the
Primarch's gestation capsule after it plummeted to the surface of Chemos and were so impressed by the beauty of the
infant within that they begged the leaders of Callax, its so-called Executives, to spare his life, as orphans were
routinely put to death so they would not further strain a settlement's resources. Fulgrim was spared and given into
the hands of one of his rescuers, a member of the Caretakers, to raise as his own child.
Named after an ancient deity of the Chemosian people, Fulgrim in time became a new legend to the people of that
suffering world. At half the age at which most of the other people of Callax went to work in the vapour mines and
synthesisers, Fulgrim proved able to fulfill all the obligations of an adult labourer.
He came to understand the ramshackle Chemosian mining technology with an intuitive ease that allowed him to
begin to modify it with his extraordinary technical acumen, dramatically increasing its efficiency. By the time he
was only 15 Terran years of age, Fulgrim had risen from the rank of a simple labourer to become one of the
Executives who governed the fortress factory of Callax. As a leader, Fulgrim learned of the terrible plight that faced
Callax and all the other settlements of Chemos as their technology and population gradually declined in the face of
their resource shortages.
Under Fulgrim's direction, teams of engineers travelled far from Callax and the other fortress factories, reclaiming
and repairing many of the most ancient and far-flung of the world's original mining outposts, many of which had not
been used since before the start of the Age of Strife. Mining production skyrocketed, and as resources began to pour
in large amounts into the treasuries of the fortress factories of Chemos for the first time in millennia, Fulgrim
supervised the construction of even more sophisticated and efficient extraction machinery.
This industrial efficiency soon grew to the point that Chemos' mines were actually producing surpluses for the first
time in solar decades, allowing the world to begin to purchase food and other needed materials in large quantities
from passing interstellar traders. Fulgrim, now the recognised planetary leader, fostered the re-emergence of
Chemosian art and culture, important aspects of human life that had long been sacrificed to Chemos' resource
shortages and need for constant labour.
Coming of the Emperor
The Emperor of Mankind.
Not long after this great triumph the world's isolation came to an end. From the perpetually twilit sky emerged a
flight of Stormbird dropships, heavily armoured and battle-scarred and bearing the Palatine Aquila, the personal
badge of the Emperor of Mankind. When he learned of the Aquila, Fulgrim found his memories stirred.
Chemos had no real military forces, but the Stormbirds' landing zone had been surrounded by the Caretakers, the
planetary police force of the fortress cities. Fulgrim ordered the Caretakers to welcome the strangers and take them
to meet with him in Callax.
In his private quarters, Fulgrim met with the heavily armoured warriors from the stars, men who represented a true
civilisation that possessed all the culture and refinement that Fulgrim longed to return to his homeworld. From
amongst the Astartes stepped the shining figure of the Emperor of Mankind, and with one look upon Him, Fulgrim
said nothing and simply dropped to his knees before his father and offered his sword in service.
Fulgrim swore from that moment forward to serve the Emperor and the needs of the Imperium of Man with all his
heart. The Emperor taught His son of Terra and of the Great Crusade He had initiated to reunite all the scattered
worlds of Mankind beneath a single rule so that humanity would no longer face possible extinction at the hands of
the galaxy's hostile forces. Then it could claim its rightful place as the dominant intelligent species in the Milky
Way.
Imperial records do not indicate the exact date of the meeting between Fulgrim and the Emperor; all that is known is
that Fulgrim's vast flagship, the Pride of the Emperor, was completed by the Mechanicum of Mars 160 standard
years before the start of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium.
Fulgrim returned to Terra with the Emperor to meet the IIIrd Legion of Astartes that had been created from his own
genome. But Fulgrim learned to his horror that an accident and then the viral blight had destroyed the majority of the
gene-seed that had been cultivated from his DNA to implant the Astartes of the IIIrd Legion and that without access
to their Primarch's genome, replacing it had proven to be a slow and labourious process.
Fulgrim addressed the two hundred transhuman warriors who were then all that the IIIrd Legion could muster. There
were so few that each of them bore the banner of a company of the Legion that had either perished, or now
numbered only a handful of warriors. They were unbowed and stood with pride, as if in defiance of fate. The
Primarch may have seen an echo of the struggle of Chemos in his remaining gene-sons.
To them he gave the sacred task of bringing the Emperor's wisdom to all the stars in the sky, "You are the Emperor's
chosen, His heralds, His warriors, His children, for this is only the beginning," the Book of Primarchs relates he told
them upon their first meeting. On hearing of Fulgrim's words, the Emperor renamed the IIIrd Legion the "Emperor's
Children", ratifying a name long known within the Legion since their defence of the Master of Mankind during the
Proximan Betrayal early in the Great Crusade but now given the full legal force of Imperial decree.
The Officio Militaris' College of Arms recorded the change and marked the IIIrd Legion's panoply as imperial
purple with the eagle's talon-spur as their emblem and the unique right to bear the Palatine Aquila as executors of
the Imperial will, an honour given only to the Emperor's Children until after the betrayal of the Horus Heresy.
Fulgrim was soon consumed by the idea that he and the Emperor's Children needed to live up to the extraordinary
honour the Emperor had shown them by becoming shining paragons of the perfection inherent in both the Emperor's
person and His vision for Imperial culture and civilisation. The drive for perfection soon consumed the Primarch and
his Legion, from the military tactics they employed to the embrace of an unusually artistic Legion culture and a
concern for aesthetics and their personal appearances that was unsurpassed by any of the other Astartes.
Fulgrim embodied this pursuit of physical beauty and perfection, for long silver hair flowed down his back, his wide
eyes and melodic voice welcomed all who sought his counsel and his full lips often quirked into a wry smile.
Fulgrim made sure that his Power Armour was of the finest quality that could be fabricated by Imperial technology
and was intricately decorated in the purple and golden colours he had chosen for his Legion. Over it he usually wore
a wide variety of intricately embroidered and high-collared cloaks.
Brothers of the Wolves

The Emperor sees the Emperor's Children off, side-by-side with the Luna Wolves, to begin their contribution to the
Great Crusade.
Fulgrim was anxious to begin his conquest of the unknown regions of the galaxy as part of the ongoing Great
Crusade, but realised that his two hundred warriors were far too few to undertake the Crusade on their own. Seeing
the need to nurture the Emperor's Children's recovery now that they could create new gene-seed using Fulgrim's
genome as a template, the Emperor asked the Primarch Horus to mentor his brother Fulgrim and his Legion.
So it was that for over a solar decade the Emperor's Children and the Luna Wolves fought side-by-side. The bond of
brotherhood and trust forged in battle between Fulgrim and Horus, unalike as they were, became unbreakable. So
also did their Legions grow close. Just as unalike as their respective Primarchs were in temperament but equal in
skill, both Legions and their Primarchs seemed to complement one another.
Where Horus was swift and intuitive, Fulgrim was patient and considered. Where the Luna Wolves were direct and
brutal, the Emperor's Children were flexible and subtle. When eventually the Emperor's Children broke away to
stand on their own, they had become oath brothers to the Luna Wolves; it was a bond that treachery one day would
twist into a chain that shackled their souls.
Eventually, over the course of several decades, the Emperor's Children's ranks were swelled by new Astartes who
had been recruited from both Terra and Fulgrim's homeworld of Chemos, where the Legion had established its
fortress-monastery at the old factory fortress of Callax.
When the Emperor's Children were judged to have reached an appropriate size, Fulgrim was given command of the
28th Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade and set off on his own course of conquest, returning dozens of
human-settled worlds to the rule of the Emperor. Among them was the advanced xenos world of Laeran, where
Fulgrim's fate would be sealed.
The Phoenix and the Gorgon
The brotherhood shared by the Primarchs Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus, the Phoenician and the Gorgon, was well
known in the Imperium at the time of the Great Crusade, as the two superhuman leaders formed an instant
connection upon their first meeting.
This initial encounter occurred on Terra, beneath Mount Narodnya, the greatest forge of the Urals, where Ferrus
Manus was busy toiling with the forge-masters who had once served the Terrawatt Clan during the Unification Wars
soon after his arrival from Medusa. The Primarch of the Iron Hands had been demonstrating his phenomenal skill
and the miraculous powers of his liquid metal hands when Fulgrim, the Primarch of the IIIrd Legion, the Emperor's
Children, and his elite Phoenix Guard, had descended upon the sprawling forge complex.
Neither Primarch had yet met the other, but each had felt the shared bonds of alchemy and science that had gone into
their making. Both were like gods unto the terrified artisans, who prostrated themselves before these two mighty
warriors as though fearing a terrible battle might ensure between them. Ferrus Manus later told the tale to the
Astartes of the Xth Legion claiming that Fulgrim had declared that he had come to forge the most perfect weapon
ever created, and that he would bear it in the coming Great Crusade.
Of course the Primarch of the Iron Hands could not let such a boast go unanswered, and he had laughed in Fulgrim's
face, declaring that such pasty hands could never be the equal of his own living metal appendages. Fulgrim accepted
the challenge with regal grace, and both Primarchs had stripped to the waist, working without pause for weeks on
end, the forge ringing with the deafening pounding of hammers, the hiss of cooling metal, and the good natured
insults of the two demigods as they sought to outdo one another.
At the end of three solar months' unceasing toil, both warriors had finished their weapons. Fulgrim had forged an
exquisite warhammer -- Forgebreaker -- that could level a mountain with a single blow, and Ferrus Manus a golden
bladed sword -- Fireblade -- that forever burned with the fire of the forge. Both weapons were unmatched by any yet
crafted by Man, and upon seeing what the other had created, each Primarch declared that his opponent's was the
greater.
Fulgrim declared the golden sword the equal of that borne by the legendary hero Nuada Silverhand, while Ferrus
Manus had sworn that only the mighty thunder gods of Nordyc legend were fit to bear such a magnificent
warhammer. Without another word spoken, both Primarchs had swapped weapons and sealed their eternal friendship
with the craft of their hands.
The weight of the formidable warhammer Forgebreaker was enormous and unbearable for anyone but one of the
Emperor's Astartes. Its haft was the colour of ebony, elaborately worked with threads of gold and silver that formed
the shape of a lightning bolt, and the head was carved into the shape of a mighty eagle, its barbed beak forming the
striking face and its tapered wings the claw.
Anyone who looked upon the mighty warhammer could feel the power radiating from within it and know
instinctively that more than just skill had gone into its forging. Love and honour, loyalty and friendship, death and
vengeance...all were embodied within its majestic form, and the thought that the Iron Hands Primarch's sworn
honour brother had created this weapon made it truly legendary.
According to legend, Ferrus Manus was commonly referred to as "The Gorgon." Some on Terra said the name was
in reference to an ancient legend of the Olympian Hegemony. The Gorgon was a beast of such incredible ugliness
that its very gaze could turn a man to stone. Many would be outraged at the disrespect in the implication of such a
term when referring to a Primarch, but those who knew him best believed that Ferrus Manus quite enjoyed the name,
because in any case, that was not where the name originated.
It was an old nickname Fulgrim had given his brother after their initial meeting. Unlike the Phoenician, Ferrus
Manus had little time for art, music or any of the cultural pastimes the IIIrd Legion's Primarch so enjoyed. It is said
that after the two Primarchs met at Mount Narodnya, they returned to the Imperial Palace where the Primarch
Sanguinius of the Blood Angels Legion had arrived bearing gifts for the Emperor, exquisite statues from the
glowing rock of Baal, priceless gem-stones and wondrous artefacts of aragonite, opal and tourmaline. The lord of
the Blood Angels had brought enough to fill a dozen wings of the Palace with the greatest wonders imaginable.
Of course, Fulgrim was enthralled, finding that another of his brothers shared his love of such incredible beauty, but
Ferrus Manus was unimpressed and said that such things were a waste of their time when there was a galaxy to win
back. Fulgrim laughed and declared Ferrus a "terrible gorgon," saying that if the Primarchs did not value beauty,
then they would never appreciate the stars they were to win back for their father. After that time the name stuck, and
forever after Ferrus Manus was often referred to as The Gorgon.
Fulgrim's Fall
"Pride Go'eth Before Abandon, Vanity Go'eth Before Weakness, Vainglory Go'Eth Before the Fall."
—"The Cantos of Proverbs," the Apocrypha Terra
The Emperor's Children Eitholchin Heavy Support Squad in combat during the pacification of a non-Compliant
world.
A passionate intensity filled the Emperor's Children from the moment Fulgrim knelt in humility before them as their
new commander. It was as if the achievements of the past counted for nothing to them, only the future mattered, a
future in which they could countenance no failure. They pursued all matters with total dedication and focus, and the
skills of war were chief amongst their concerns and they would accept nothing that another could better.
When another Legion excelled in any detail of warfare the Emperor's Children would set out to learn those skills.
They channelled themselves completely into their training and study, allowing it to consume them completely until
mastery was achieved. Once mastered, a method would be evaluated and refined.
The Emperor's Children believed that the only measure of true achievement was to measure oneself against others.
When another Legion was honoured, it was said that the IIIrd Legion took these accolades for their brothers as both
a spur to do better and a wound to their own pride. When they failed to reach the quality of another it created
jealousy. When they did excel it bred contempt for those they had risen above.
And no matter how high they rose, no matter how much they achieved, it was never enough. The achievements they
had gained in the past were dead to them. The Emperor's Children's hunger for perfection was without limit, and
could never be sated. The atrocities that would come later demonstrated the truth of this assessment, but the signs of
the IIIrd Legion's hidden darkness were there long before they fell.
The point at which Fulgrim and the Emperor's Children embraced darkness is not known. Some amongst those who
serve the Emperor pointed to Fulgrim's cleansing of the dangerous xenos known as the Laer as the event that finally
doomed him, as there are indications that the malign forces of Chaos used this event to ensnare Fulgrim and begin
the rapid corruption of the Emperor's Children.
It is believed that Fulgrim first fell from the Emperor's grace on the xenos planet called Laeran, officially designated
as Twenty-Eight-Three, being the third world the 28th Expedition had brought to Imperial Compliance.
Unbeknownst to the IIIrd Legion, the serpentine Laer species were corrupted xenos worshippers of the Chaos God
of Pleasure, Slaanesh.
Though the resource-rich Ocean World of Laeran would be of immeasurable value to the Crusade of the Emperor,
its alien inhabitants did not wish to share what blind fortune had blessed them with. They had refused to see the
manifest destiny that guided Mankind through the stars and had made it abundantly clear that they held the
Imperium in nothing but contempt. The IIIrd Legion's diplomatic advance had been rebuffed with violence, and
honour demanded that they answer in kind.
During the ensuing campaign, the IIIrd Legion's Chief Apothecary Fabius discovered upon examining some of the
corpses of the Laer that the serpentine creatures had been engaged in extensive genetic engineering to perfect their
species, creating a multitude of different castes who were genetically designed to best serve their intended function
in Laer society. Bringing his findings to his Primarch, Fabius explained that the Laer were not so dissimilar to the
Emperor's Children in their approaches to perfection.
He put forward the hypothesis that what the Emperor had made was incredible, but what if it was but the first step
on a longer road? Fabius suggested that if they were to look upon their own flesh they could find new ways to
improve upon it and bring it closer to perfection. The Apothecary may very well have signed his death warrant by
speaking so frankly, but the possibilities that might be opened up were worth any risk.
To attempt to unlock the secrets of the Emperor's work in creating the Astartes would be the greatest undertaking of
his life. Fulgrim inquired if Fabius truly believed that he could enhance the gene-seed of the Astartes. The
Apothecary admitted that he didn't know for certain, but he believed that they had to at least try, for by doing so they
would move closer to perfection -- and only by imperfection would the Emperor's Children fail the Emperor. The
Primarch agreed with the Apothecary's proposition and gave Bile free leave to do what needed to be done.
Emperor's Children Fulgerion Veteran Squad during the Great Crusade.
Fulgrim's 28th Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade conquered Laeran for the Imperium, exterminating its
hostile native reptilian species, the Laer. Laeran was a water world, its continents having sunk beneath its oceans'
waves centuries before when all of its ice caps and glaciers melted. The oceanic world was home to a native sentient
species known as the Laer who were reptilian and serpentine in form but also engaged in extensive genetic
engineering to perfect their species, creating a multitude of different castes who were genetically designed to best
serve their intended function in Laer society.
Having no land area, the Laer, whose technology equalled or even exceeded that of the Imperium in certain areas,
had moved their entire society onto hundreds of floating coral islands that circled a central nexus in the planet's
atmosphere. Each coral island was held aloft by an anti-gravity generator.
What Fulgrim and his Emperor's Children Legion did not know was that the Laer were also an entire civilisation that
had been corrupted by Slaanesh, the Chaos God of Pleasure and Pain. The central nexus point that all of their coral
islands orbited was actually a massive temple dedicated to the Prince of Pleasure at the heart of which lay a potent
Chaos Artefact, a beautifully crafted, single-edged Daemonblade, that served as the physical vessel for a Greater
Daemon of the Prince of Chaos.
The Laer evinced all the signs of what later generations of the Imperium would recognise as Slaaneshi corruption,
including a need for constant extreme sensory inputs, such as riotous colours and constant sound, and the deriving of
pleasure from only the most extreme of sensations, including their own deaths. Completely unaware of the real
dangers he and his Astartes Legion faced on the Chaos-corrupted world, Fulgrim ordered the Emperor's Children
and the other forces of the 28th Expeditionary Fleet to assault the planet and conquer it for the Imperium within a
single Terran month, completely eradicating the Laer species in the process.
Emperor's Children Devastator Marine Squad.
The Council of Terra had decided that the subjugation of the Laer would cost too many Imperial lives and would
take too long. Some estimates indicated that an attempted Imperial Compliance would take as long as ten standard
years. There had even been talk of making Laeran a protectorate of the Imperium. Primarch Fulgrim would not
countenance such talk, for by refusing the Emperor's beneficence, the Laer had effectively sealed their doom.
During the final slaughter of that serpentine xenos race, Fulgrim and his Astartes discovered the great temple
dedicated to Slaanesh that lay on the central floating coral island of Laeran. The Imperium, ignorant of the existence
of the Chaos Powers at this time and holding to the extreme rationalism and atheism of the Imperial Truth, did not
realise the significance of such a find or what they had really discovered. The expedition led by Fulgrim began to be
unwittingly corrupted by the temple's potent and malign influence.
After defeating the temple's fanatical Laer defenders, Fulgrim discovered what the Laer were so fiercely protecting -
- at the centre of the chamber of the unholy temple was a circular block of veined black stone, and embedded within
was a tall silver sword with a gently-curved blade and a crude amethyst gem set in the pommel. This sword was not
only a potent Slaaneshi artefact but also the physical vessel of a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh.
Once Fulgrim had claimed the blade as his own, the daemon within it began whispering in his mind and corrupting
his soul towards the service of Slaanesh. He began to wield the daemonblade more often than his prior weapon, the
great sword Fireblade that had been forged for him on Terra by his fellow Primarch and most favoured brother,
Ferrus Manus. Thinking the whispers in his mind was only his own subconscious speaking to him, Fulgrim began
listening to what it offered.

Chief Apothecary Fabius fighting in the Laer campaign during the Great Crusade.
Eventually, he discovered these were actually the whispers of the daemon that existed within the blade. After a lot of
persuasion from his brother Horus, himself already corrupted by the Ruinous Powers after his injury on the moon of
Davin, Fulgrim gave himself over to Chaos, and found his particular patron in the Prince of Pleasure, who offered
the Primarch a route to the ultimate perfection he so craved for himself and his Astartes, free of all morality and
dependent upon the pursuit of ultimate self-obsession.
With the end of the war on Laeran, the steady stream of wounded and dead to the Apothecarion slowed, leaving
Chief Apothecary Fabius more time to devote to his researches. To ensure the secrecy his experiments demanded, he
had relocated to a little-used research facility aboard the Andronius, a Strike Cruiser under the authority of Lord
Commander Eidolon. Its facilities had been basic at first, but with Eidolon's blessing, he had gathered a bewildering
array of specialist equipment.
Eidolon had taken a personal interest in Bile's work, though he disapproved of his methods. Fulgrim had told the
Lord Commander of the scale of what he was to attempt, for his work would enhance the physiology of the Astartes.
Eidolon informed the Apothecary that when he returned from his more laborious duties, Bile would begin his
experimentation on him. Through the Apothecary's genetic enhancements, the Lord Commander hoped to become
Bile's greatest success, faster, and more deadly then ever before. He wished to become the indispensable right hand
of the Primarch.
Diasporex Persecution
During the latter part of the Great Crusade, the Iron Hands Legion encountered a nomadic, fleet-based civilisation
composed of both humans and xenos known as the Diasporex. The Iron Hands shared the Imperial Truth of the
Emperor of Mankind and offered the human members of the Diasporex the opportunity to separate from their alien
allies and to join the newly forged Imperium, but they declined the Astartes' offer.
Their offer rejected, the Iron Hands passed judgement, and in the following months the Iron Hands fleet attempted
to annihilate the Diasporex, but they proved to be highly skilled and experienced in the realm of naval warfare, and
managed to easily evade crucial battles and even to severely damage the Iron Hands' Strike Cruiser Ferrum.
The Emperor's Children of the 28th Expeditionary Fleet were called in as reinforcements, and so, a joint Imperial
strike force composed of both the Iron Hands and forces from the Emperor's Children Legion launched an all-out
assault against the willful Diasporex. Though the Diasporex knew that a powerful fleet of warships was hunting
them and sought their destruction, they refused to leave the sector and move on to someplace safer.
The Iron Hands' scout ships soon discovered the truth -- the Diasporex used hidden solar collector arrays to collect
fuel for their vessels from a star. This was the reason why the Diasporex remained within the sector. Attacking these
vital fuel stations, the two Imperial Expeditionary Fleets drew the Diasporex fleet out into open battle as the human-
alien alliance sought to avoid utter annihilation at the Imperials' hands.
During the massive naval battle that ensued Fulgrim's personal gunship, the Firebird, came under heavy attack and
soon found itself in trouble. Rushing to his brother's side, Ferrus Manus' flagship, the Battle Barge Fist of Iron, came
rushing to the rescue of his beleaguered brother. To restore his wounded pride, Fulgrim led a brief shipboarding
action where the Emperor's Children wreaked bloody havoc on the troops of the Diasporex.
But ultimate victory was robbed from him when the enemy ship's bridge was taken by one of his subordinate
commanders. For months thereafter, Fulgrim would resent The Gorgon's actions, unable to truly understand the
altruism of Ferrus' deed and the loss of life his selfless act had incurred on his Legion. Under the malignant
influence of the daemon-possessed Laer blade that he wore at all times, Fulgrim could only see self-aggrandisement
in his brother's action, instead of the the heroic deed it had truly been.
Ferrus' critical comments, the wounding darts that Fulgrim believed were meant to undermine him, were in actuality
only jests designed to puncture Fulgrim's self-importance and restore his humility. What Fulgrim perceived as
Ferrus' prideful boasts and rash actions had been deeds of courage that he spitefully dismissed as the influence of
Chaos began to claim the Phoenician's soul.
Horus Heresy
Aeldari Farseer Eldrad Ulthran.
Certain members of the Inquisition who have studied the fragmentary Imperial records of this time now believe that
the Laeran daemonsword began to exert a powerful Chaos influence over Fulgrim, and that the Emperor's Children
forces he had deployed against the Laer may also have been tainted by their exposure to the concentrated Chaos
corruption of that serpentine race, who had fully sworn themselves to the service of Slaanesh. Even while wrestling
with his own Chaos taint, the Primarch of the Emperor's Children soon found himself at the center of the events that
would bring on the Horus Heresy.
Fulgrim met with the renowned Aeldari Farseer Eldrad Ulthran of Craftworld Ulthwe on the Maiden World of
Tarsus, in which the Farseer attempted to warn Fulgrim that Horus had been wounded by the Chaos artefact blade
known as the Kinebrach Anathame at the hands of Eugen Temba, the Planetary Governor of Davin who had fallen
to the influence of the Plague Lord Nurgle.
The wounding had allowed the Chaos Gods to gain a purchase on the Warmaster's soul and he was already turning
to their service as he recuperated from the nearly-mortal wound the Kinebrach blade had given him at the hands of
Temba on the Nurgle-corrupted moon of Davin. Fulgrim reacted with violent outrage at the Farseer's accusations
due to his close friendship with his brother Horus, as his bond with the Warmaster was second only to that he shared
with Ferrus Manus, the Primarch of the Xth Legion.
This outrage was further enhanced by the influence of Fulgrim's daemonblade, which wanted the Primarch to reject
the Aeldari's truth and it led Fulgrim to launch an unprovoked and furious attack on Eldrad and his retinue alongside
his Emperor's Children Captains and his personal Phoenix Guard. In the battle that ensued, the Emperor's Children
slew both the revered Aeldari Wraithlord Khiraen Goldhelm and a potent Avatar of Khaine, which forced the
Farseer and the other Aeldari troops to sorrowfully withdraw, as they realised that Chaos had already claimed yet
another of the Mon-Keigh 's Primarchs.
Yet they had succeeded in killing all of Fulgrim's elite personal Phoenix Guard before their departure. Believing the
Eldar had proven themselves a treacherous race that sought to divide and conquer the Imperium by spreading such
lies about its leaders, Fulgrim, again under the increasing influence of the daemonblade, ordered the destruction by
the 28th Expeditionary Fleet of several other beautiful Eldar Maiden Worlds using hideous virus bombs.
Whilst the exact timing of this meeting remains unknown in Imperial records, it is known that Fulgrim soon met
Horus in person after the Aeldari had provided their warning about the Warmaster's turn to Chaos, and Fulgrim
demanded a personal account of his actions. Instead, Horus, deploying every ounce of his immense charisma,
proved able to sway Fulgrim to his cause and the service of the Ruinous Powers.
Fulgrim's respect for Horus allowed Chaos to find its own way into Fulgrim's heart, destroying Fulgrim's once rock-
solid loyalty to the Emperor, and replacing it with the burning desire to destroy the man who he now believed held
humanity back from the perfection Fulgrim so craved and that Horus convinced him only the Chaos Gods could
truly provide.
Only when Mankind had fully embraced Chaos could it know true perfection, Fulgrim came to believe, and the
Emperor and His false Imperial Truth stood directly in the way of his and the rest of humanity's attainment of that
perfection. In recognition of the trust Horus put in his brother, he gifted him with the potent Chaotic blade known as
the Kinebrach Anathame. Only the two brothers shared the secret of the poisoned blade's true power, as it was the
weapon blessed by the Plague God Nurgle that had almost killed Horus on Davin's feral moon.
Fulgrim was next ordered by Horus to meet with Ferrus Manus, the Primarch of the Iron Hands Legion and
Fulgrim's greatest friend amongst his brother Primarchs, aboard his flagship the Battle Barge Fist of Iron in the hope
that he could be swayed to the side of Horus and the other Traitor Legions who now served Chaos. Fulgrim had sent
the bulk of his Legion and the 28th Expeditionary Fleet on to meet Horus and the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet in the
Istvaan System while he and a small force aided the Iron Hands' 52nd Expeditionary Fleet in retaking the world of
Callinedes IV from Orks.
Great bonds of friendship and brotherhood had long existed between them, and Fulgrim felt that he could convince
Ferrus of the righteousness of Horus' cause. Fulgrim's hope proved disastrously wrong and the meeting of the two
Primarchs in Ferrus' private inner sanctum in his flagship's Anvilarium did not go well, as Ferrus was outraged that
his brothers would turn against their father the Emperor.
The meeting ended in violence as The Gorgon made his difference of opinion over continued loyalty to the Emperor
known to the Phoenician with his weapons, and he was determined to stop Fulgrim's betrayal of the Imperium
before it could begin. Ferrus used his silvery necrodermis hands to destroy Fulgrim's Power Sword Fireblade, but
the explosion knocked him out.
Fulgrim intended to kill his brother with his own weapon, the warhammer Forgebreaker, but proved unable to kill
his oldest friend despite the promptings of the Slaaneshi daemon that now throttled his soul. When Fulgrim emerged
from Ferrus' inner sanctum, he gave a signal to his Phoenix Guard who instantly beheaded all of the Iron Hands
Morlocks Terminators who served as Ferrus Manus' bodyguard with their Power Halberds.
The Emperor's Children also nearly slew the Iron Hands' First Captain Gabriel Santor. Fulgrim successfully fled the
Iron Hands' expeditionary fleet in his personal assault craft, the Firebird, when he ordered his flagship, the Battle
Barge Pride of the Emperor and its Escorts, to open fire upon the ships of the 52nd Expeditionary Fleet. This
surprise attack crippled them and provided a distraction while Fulgrim and the forces of the IIIrd Legion fled into
the Warp to rendezvous with the rest of their 28th Expeditionary Fleet in the Istvaan System.
With their allegiance now settled and their path forward determined, the Chaotic corruption of the Emperor's
Children spread quickly throughout the IIIrd Legion, from Fulgrim to his chief lieutenants, the two Lord
Commanders of the Legion, and then to its company captains and squad sergeants and finally to all but a small
minority of Emperor's Children Astartes who followed the dictates of Slaanesh rather than remaining loyal to the
Emperor. The IIIrd Legion's once-laudable quest for excellence and perfection had been corrupted into a desire to
achieve perfect hedonism and constant, self-absorbed, sensual excess.
Evolution
After another successful Compliance action was conducted on the Imperial world designated Twenty-Eight Four,
Lord Commander Eidolon underwent elective augmentative surgery under the knife of Chief Apothecary Fabius.
The Apothecary implanted a modified tracheal implant that bonded with the Lord Commander's vocal chords,
allowing him to produce a nerve paralysing shriek similar to that employed by certain warrior breeds of the Laer.
When the Apothecary explained the nature of the new organ implanted into the Lord Commander's throat, Eidolon
was outraged that Bile would implant xenos filth within him. Enraged, he ordered the Apothecary to halt the surgery
and release him from the medicae table. But Fabius refused the Lord Commander's orders, for Fulgrim himself had
authorised his work and Eidolon had insisted that the Apothecary work on him upon his return.
The Lord Commander would later make use of this new ability whilst leading his 1st Company in concert with the
Death Guard Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro and his 7th Company against traitorous forces on Istvaan Extremis, the
outermost planet within the Istvaan System. Whilst fighting against a powerful Slaaneshi mutant known as a
Warsinger, Garro was laid low. It was then that Eidolon took hold of the situation and employed his newly acquired
abilities, destroying the Warsinger with a devastating sonic shriek. In light of this, Eidolon may potentially be
considered as one of the first Noise Marines.
Betrayal
The Chaos-corrupted Fulgrim.
Following the Cleansing of Laeren, the rot of corruption had begun to spread throughout the IIIrd Legion. Lord
Commander Vespasian, one of two senior commanders within the hierarchy of the Emperor's Children, staunchly
adhered to his Legion's ethos of perfection of honour, refusing to allow himself to fall to the rampant hubris and
arrogance that had become more common within the ranks of the IIIrd Legion. Over the course of many months,
Vespasian consulted other like-minded Battle-Brothers within the Legion, including 2nd Company commander
Solomon Demeter, about his growing concerns and fears for the future of the Legion.
Vespasian was present during the meeting between Ulthwé Craftworld Farseer Eldrad Ulthran and his Primarch
Fulgrim upon the Eldar Maiden World of Tarsus. He had heard the dire warning presented to them of the
Warmaster's corruption by the then-unknown dark powers of Chaos and the inevitable rebellion that would soon
follow. The Primarch had rejected such accusations as outright heresy and ordered his delegation to attack the
upstart Xenos.
Lord Commander Vespasian reluctantly followed his Primarch's orders and destroyed Tarsus and the rest of the
Maiden Worlds the 28th Expeditionary Fleet had recently encountered through Exterminatus. Weeks later, Fulgrim's
fleet was ordered by the Council of Terra to rendezvous with the Warmaster's 63rd Expeditionary Fleet to inquire
about reports of the their recent conduct and acquire information in regards to Horus's grave injuries acquired on
Davin's feral moon. Vespasian was excluded from this delegation with the Warmaster, further demonstrating the
growing rift between the Lord Commander and his Primarch Fulgrim.
Following this delegation to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet, Fulgrim announced to his senior commanders that he
would lead a small force to join Ferrus Manus and his Iron Hands at Callinedes IV in the Callinedes System under
the pretense of clearing it of an Ork infestation. The rest of the Legion would rendezvous with the Warmaster's 63rd
Expedition at the Istvaan System to halt a growing rebellion.
But the IIIrd Legion wasn't to fight alone, for they were to deploy alongside the Death Guard and the World Eaters.
Though the men of his Legion cheered in adulation at the prospect of fighting with their brother Astartes, Fulgrim's
amusement turned instantly to sorrow as he understood that, but for Vespasian's stubbornness, a great many of these
warriors would have made a fine addition to the army of the Warmaster's new crusade.
With such warriors fighting for the Warmaster, what heights of perfection would have been beyond them?
Vespasian's refusal to allow his men to sample the heady delights of Fabius's chemical stimulants, or to undergo
enhancing surgeries, had condemned the warriors once under his command to death in the Warmaster's trap of
Istvaan III. He realised he should have disposed of Vespasian much sooner, and the mixture of guilt and excitement
at the deaths he had set in motion was a potent cocktail of sensations. When the killing on Istvaan III was done, the
chaff would have been cut from Horus's force, and they would be a sharpened blade aimed at the heart of the corrupt
Imperium.
Vespasian met his end after the operation conducted by the IIIrd Legion to cleanse Callinedes. The Lord
Commander was denied audience with the Primarch, a most unusual occurrence, after numerous requests. A dark
shroud had hung over Vespasian ever since the battle on the deep orbital of the Callinedes System. He felt obliged to
act after he observed Solomon Demeter's 2nd Company being intentionally abandoned by both Captains Kaesoron's
and Vairosean's companies.
Within solar hours, the 2nd Company had been in transit to the Istvaan System to rendezvous with three other
Legions to pacify the rebellious world of Istvaan III. Finally seizing the opportune moment, Vespasian confronted
Fulgrim in his stateroom over the growing corruption and decay of the Legion's ideals that they had been founded
upon. The Lord Commander discovered, much too late, the malign influence of Chaos that had held sway over his
Primarch. With sibilant whispers of the daemon-possessed Laer sword urging him on, Fulgrim murdered Vespasian
in cold blood by stabbing him in the neck with the Anathame.
Istvaan III Atrocity
Loyalist Emperor's Children march down the Triumphal Way to meet their ultimate fate on Istvaan III.
Before Horus openly launched his rebellion to overthrow the Emperor, an opportunity presented itself that would
enable him to get rid of the Loyalist elements within the Astartes Legions under his command. The Imperial
Planetary Governor of Istvaan III, Vardus Praal, had been corrupted by the Chaos God Slaanesh whose cultists had
long been active on the world even before it had been conquered by the Imperium.
Praal had declared his independence from the Imperium, and had begun to practice forbidden Slaaneshi sorcery, so
the Council of Terra charged Horus with the retaking of that world, primarily its capital, the Choral City. This order
merely furthered Horus' plan to overthrow the Emperor. Although the four Legions under his direct command -- the
Sons of Horus, World Eaters, Death Guard and the Emperor's Children -- had already turned Traitor and pledged
themselves to Chaos, there were still some Loyalist elements within each of these Legions that approximated one-
third of each force; many of these warriors were Terran-born Space Marines who had been directly recruited into the
Astartes Legions by the Emperor Himself before being reunited with their Primarchs during the Great Crusade.
Loyalist Emperor's Children Astartes fight valiantly against their traitorous former-allies on Istvaan III.
Horus, under the guise of putting down the rebellion against Imperial Compliance on the world of Istvaan III,
amassed his troops in the Istvaan System. Horus had a plan by which he would destroy all of the remaining Loyalist
elements of the Legions under his command. After a lengthy bombardment of Istvaan III, Horus despatched all of
the known Loyalist Astartes down to the planet, under the pretence of bringing it back into the Imperial fold. At the
moment of victory and the capture of the Choral City, the planetary capital of Istvaan III, these Astartes were
betrayed when a cascade of terrible Life-Eater virus bombs fell onto the world, launched by the Warmaster's orbiting
fleet.
The Loyalist Captain Saul Tarvitz of the Emperor's Children, however, was aboard the Strike Cruiser Andronius and
had discovered the plot to wipe out the Loyalist Astartes of the Traitor Legions. He was able, with help from Battle-
Captain Nathaniel Garro of the Death Guard who was in command of the Death Guard Frigate Eisenstein, to reach
the surface of Istvaan III despite pursuit and warn the Loyalist Space Marines he could find of all four Legions of
their impending doom. Those that heard or passed on Tarvitz's warning took shelter before the virus-bombs struck.
Remnants of Loyalist Emperor's Children battle-brothers prepare to sell their lives dearly during the final assault on
Istvaan III.
The civilian population of Istvaan III received no such protection: 12 billion people died almost at once as the lethal
flesh-dissolving virus called the Life-Eater carried by the bombs infected every living thing on the planet. The
psychic shock of so many deaths at one time shrieked through the Warp, briefly obscuring even the glowing beacon
of the Astronomican.
The Primarch of the World Eaters, Angron, realising that the virus-bombs had not been fully effective at eliminating
all the Loyalists, flew into a rage and hurled himself at the planet at the head of 50 companies of World Eaters
Traitor Marines. Discarding tactics and strategy, the World Eaters Traitors worked themselves into a frenzy of
mindless butchery fed by their growing allegiance to the Blood God Khorne. Horus was furious with Angron for
delaying his plans, but Horus sought to turn the delay into a victory and was obliged to reinforce Angron with troops
from the Sons of Horus, the Death Guard, and the Emperor's Children.
Captain Lucius of the 13th Company of the Emperor's Children Legion.
Fortunately, a contingent of Loyalists led by Battle-Captain Garro escaped Istvaan III aboard the damaged Imperial
frigate Eisenstein and fled to Terra to warn the Emperor that Horus had turned Traitor. On Istvaan III, the remaining
Loyalists, under the command of Captains Tarvitz, Garviel Loken and Tarik Torgaddon, another Loyalist member of
the Sons of Horus, fought bravely against their own traitorous brethren.
Yet, despite some early successes that delayed Horus' plans for three full months while the battle on Istvaan III
played out, their cause was ultimately doomed by their lack of air support and Titan firepower. During the battle, the
Sons of Horus Captains Ezekyle Abaddon and Horus Aximand were sent to confront their former Mournival
brothers, Loken and Torgaddon. Horus Aximand beheaded Torgaddon, but Abaddon failed to kill Loken when the
building they were in collapsed. Loken somehow survived and witnessed the final orbital bombardment of Istvaan
III that ended the Loyalists' desperate defence.
The few remaining Loyalists of the Emperor's Children Legion fought bravely on Istvaan III, under the command of
Captains Saul Tarvitz and Solomon Demeter. To prove his worth and loyalty to Lord Commander Eidolon of the
Emperor's Children -- and thus to Fulgrim -- Captain Lucius of the 13th Company of the Emperor's Children, the
future Champion of Slaanesh known as Lucius the Eternal, turned against the Loyalists that he had fought beside
because of his prior friendship with Saul Tarvitz.
Lucius wanted to punish Tarvitz for taking command of the defence, which had incited Lucius's fierce jealousy of
his fellow captain. Lucius slew many of his former comrades personally, an act for which he was then accepted back
into the IIIrd Legion on the side of the Traitors. In the end, the Loyalists retreated to their last bastion of defence,
only a few hundred of their number remaining. Finally, tired of the conflict, Horus ordered his men to withdraw, and
then had the remains of the Choral City bombarded into dust for a final time from orbit.
Lords of Pleasure
The Chaos-inspired musical masterpiece, the Maraviglia, creates the first Noise Marines of Slaanesh.
Throughout the final days of the Great Crusade, just before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the famed composer
Bequa Kynska of Terra had accompanied the Emperor's Children's 28th Expeditionary Fleet as a Remembrancer
aboard Fulgrim's Battle Barge Pride of the Emperor. Kynska was a jaded musician always in search of further
sensations to create more exhilarating and all-encompassing music, which made her an easy target for Slaaneshi
corruption.
After Kynska accompanied many of the 28th Expedition's Remembrancers to the temple dedicated to Slaanesh on
the xenos world of Laeran, she was touched by the Chaos corruption of that foul place and slowly sought to create
the ultimate orchestral piece that she believed could capture the wondrous sounds she had heard within the Laer
temple. Her ultimate masterpiece was a symphony she named the Maraviglia and which she performed for Fulgrim
and all the assembled Astartes of the Emperor's Children and their support personnel within the Remebrancers'
lounge and theatre called La Fenice aboard the Pride of the Emperor.
To recreate the sounds she had heard, Kynska created new musical instruments whose sonic powers could also be
used for destruction when employed by an individual already corrupted by Slaanesh. As the Maraviglia began, the
cachophony of sound unleashed by these instruments acted as a sorcerous ritual that opened a link between realspace
and the Warp and allowed the power of Slaanesh to directly touch the audience. During the "performance" it was
noted that the musical instruments were able to produce effects variously disorienting, stimulating and downright
murderous.
Chaos mutations ran rampant through the audience and Astartes and mortal humans alike were so overwhelmed by
sensation and uncontrollable emotions that they unleashed an orgy of both sensual hedonism and the most base form
of murder upon one another. Ultimately, the music summoned five Lesser Daemons of Slaanesh known as
Daemonettes from the Warp who possessed the bodies of Kynska and several of her singers and joined in the
slaughter.
During this part of the concert, several Emperor's Children Astartes left their seats and took up the instruments to try
and keep the Chaos music playing and in the course of their untrained fumblings with the instruments discovered
that they could unleash waves of destructive sonic power filled with the strength of Chaos.
These Astartes became the first Noise Marines, who would eventually take to the field on Istvaan V wielding this
strange, new weaponry as a new unit of the IIIrd Legion called the Kakophoni under the command of First Captain
Julius Kaesoron. It was during this performance in La Fenice that the Emperor's Children finally gave themselves
wholly, both body and soul, to the Prince of Pleasure as his most dedicated servants.
Drop Site Massacre
Ferrus Manus confronts Fulgrim amidst the backdrop of the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V during the Horus
Heresy.
When the Loyalist Salamanders, Raven Guard and Iron Hands Legions arrived in the Istvaan System to face Horus
and the Traitor Legions on Istvaan V, the Emperor's Children eagerly took part in the fighting. Thousands of Drop
Pods and Stormbirds were deployed for the drop. The first wave was under the overall command of the Primarch
Ferrus Manus and besides his own Xth Legion, the Salamanders led by Vulkan, and the Raven Guard under the
command of their Primarch Corax joined him.
Vulkan's Legion assaulted the left flank of the Traitors' battle line while Ferrus Manus, the Iron Hands' First Captain
Gabriel Santor, and 10 full companies of elite Morlock Terminators charged straight into the centre of the enemy
lines. Meanwhile, Corax's Legion hit the right flank of the enemy's position. The odds were considered equal;
30,000 Traitor Marines against 40,000 Loyalists. Horus was aware of the location of the Loyalists' chosen drop site
and his troops fell upon the Loyalist Legions.
The battlefield of Istvaan V was a slaughterhouse of epic proportions. Treacherous warriors twisted by hatred fought
their former brothers-in-arms in a conflict unparalleled in its bitterness. The mighty Titan war engines of the
Machine God walked the planet's surface and death followed in their wake. The blood of heroes and traitors flowed
in rivers, and the hooded Adepts of the Dark Mechanicum unleashed perversions of ancient technology stolen from
the Auretian Technocracy to wreak bloody havoc amongst the Loyalists.
All across the Urgall Depression, hundreds died with every passing second, the promise of inevitable death a pall of
darkness that hung over every warrior. The Traitor forces held, but their line was bending beneath the fury of the
first Loyalist assault. It would take only the smallest twists of fate for it to break.
The second wave of "Loyalist" Space Marine Legions descended upon the landing zone on the northern edge of the
Urgall Depression. Hundreds of Stormbirds and Thunderhawks roared towards the surface, their armoured hulls
gleaming as the power of another four Astartes Legions arrived on Isstvan V. Yet the Space Marine Legions of the
reserve were no longer loyal to the Emperor, having already secretly sworn themselves to Chaos and the cause of
Horus. The Night Lords of Konrad Curze, the Iron Warriors of Perturabo, the Word Bearers of Lorgar, and the
Alpha Legion of Alpharius represented a force larger than that which had first begun the assault on Isstvan V. The
secret Traitor Legions mustered in the landing zone, armed and ready for battle, unbloodied and fresh.
Though the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders had managed to make a full combat drop and secured the
drop site, known as the Urgall Depression, they did so at a heavy cost. Overwhelmed with rage, the headstrong
Ferrus Manus disregarded the counsel of his brothers Corax and Vulkan and hurled himself against the fleeing
rebels, seeking to bring Fulgrim to personal combat. His veteran troops -- comprising the majority of the Xth
Legion's Terminators and Dreadnoughts -- followed.
What had begun as a massed strike against the Traitors' position rapidly turned into one of the largest engagements
of the entire Great Crusade. All told, over 60,000 Astartes warriors clashed on the dusky plains of Istvaan V. For all
the wrong reasons, this battle was soon to go down in the annals of Imperial history as one of the most epic
confrontations ever fought.
Fulgrim smiled as his brother Ferrus Manus renewed his attack into the heart of the Traitors' defensive lines atop the
Urgall Depression. Backlit by the flaring strobe of battle, his brother was a magnificent figure of vengeance, his
silver hands and eyes reflecting the fires of slaughter with a brilliant gleam.
For the briefest second, Fulgrim had been sure that Ferrus would pause to muster with the Raven Guard and
Salamanders, but there would be no restraining his brother's aggrieved sense of honour. Around the Phoenician, the
last of the Phoenix Guard awaited the blunt wedge of the Iron Hands, their golden halberds held low and aimed
towards their foes.
Ferrus Manus and his Morlocks charged through the shattered ruin of the defences, his black armour and their
burnished plates scarred and stained with the blood of enemies. Fulgrim's fixed smile faltered as he truly appreciated
the depths of hatred his brother held for him and wondered again how they had come to this point, knowing that any
chance for brotherhood was lost. Only in death would their rivalry end.
The Iron Hands pushed through the defences, the bulky Terminators unstoppable in their relentless advance.
Lightning crackled from the claws of their gauntlets and their red eyes shone with anger. The Phoenix Guard braced
themselves to meet the charge, fully aware of the power of such mighty suits of armour. The Phoenix Guard
answered with a terrible war cry and leapt to meet the Morlocks in a searing clash of blades.
Electric fire blazed from the golden edges of the halberds and the Lightning Claws of the warriors, and a storm of
light and sound flared from each life and death struggle. The battle engulfed the Primarch of the Emperor's Children,
but he stood above it, awaiting the dark armoured giant who strode untouched through the lightning shot carnage as
brothers hacked at one another in hatred. Ferrus had long dreamt of this moment of reckoning, ever since Fulgrim
had come to him with betrayal in his heart. Only one of them would walk away from their final confrontation.
Final Confrontation
Fulgrim versus his former brother Primarch, Ferrus Manus amidst the chaos of the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V.
Ferrus taunted Fulgrim for his betrayal of the Emperor and siding with the Traitor Horus. He thought his brother
mad, for the Warmaster was defeated -- his forces routed and the power of another four Legions would soon be
brought to bear to crush their attempt at rebellion utterly. Unable to contain himself any longer, Fulgrim shook his
head, savouring the final act of betrayal to come, revealing to Ferrus that it was he who was naive.
Horus would never be foolish enough to trap himself like this. He pointed out towards the northern edge of the
Urgall Depression so that Ferrus could see that it was he and his fellow Loyalists who were undone. Ferrus looked
and saw a force larger than that which had begun the assault during the first wave of attack, mustered in the landing
zone, armed and ready for battle.
Dragging their wounded and dead behind them, Corax and Vulkan led their forces back to the drop site to regroup
and to allow the warriors of their recently arrived brother Primarchs of the second wave a measure of the glory in
defeating Horus. Though they voxed hails requesting medical aid and supply, the line of Astartes atop the northern
ridge remained grimly silent as the exhausted warriors of the Raven Guard and Salamanders came to within a
hundred metres of their allies.
It was then that Horus revealed his perfidy and sprang his lethal trap. Inside the black fortress where Horus had
made his lair, a lone flare shot skyward, exploding in a hellish red glow that lit the battlefield below. The fire of
betrayal roared from the barrels of a thousand guns, as the second wave of Astartes revealed where their true
loyalties now lay.
Ferrus looked on in stunned horror as Fulgrim laughed at the look on his brother's face as the forces of his "allies"
opened fire upon the Salamanders and Raven Guard, killing hundreds in the fury of the first few moments, hundreds
more in the seconds following, as volley after volley of Bolter fire and missiles scythed through their unsuspecting
ranks.
Even as terrifying carnage was being wreaked upon the Loyalists below, the retreating forces of the Warmaster
turned and brought their weapons to bear on the enemy warriors within their midst. Hundreds of World Eaters, Sons
of Horus and the Death Guard fell upon the veteran companies of the Iron Hands, and though the warriors of the Xth
Legion continued to fight gallantly, they were hopelessly outnumbered and would soon be hacked to pieces.
Ferrus Manus turned to face Fulgrim, his teeth bared with the volcanic fury of his homeworld. The two Primarchs
leapt at one anther, Ferrus wielding Fireblade and Fulgrim holding Forgebreaker. Their weapons had been forged in
brotherhood, but were now wielded in vengeance, meeting in a blazing plume of energy. The two Primarchs traded
blows with their monstrously powerful weapons, Ferrus Manus wielded his flaming blade in fiery slashes, his every
blow defeated by the ebony hafted hammer he had borne in countless campaigns. Both warriors fought with the
hatred only brothers divided could muster, their armour dented, torn and blackened by their fury.
The two Primarchs traded terrible blows, wounding one another deeply during their fierce struggle. As Ferrus
pushed himself to his feet and staggered towards the wounded Fulgrim, he cried out as he brought the flaming blade
towards his brother's neck. But Fulgrim lashed out as he drew the single-edged, daemonically-possessed sword he
had taken from the Laer temple and blocked the descending weapon.
With the power of Chaos streaming from the blade, diabolical strength flooded Fulgrim's limbs as he pushed against
the power of Ferrus Manus, feeling his brother's surprise at his resistance. Fulgrim managed to surge to his feet and
lashed out, his silver blade biting deep into the breastplate of Ferrus' armour, and the Primarch of the Iron Hands
cried out, falling to his knees once again.
Fireblade slid from his grasp as he gasped in fierce agony. As Fulgrim raised the silver sword in preparation of
delivering the deathblow to Ferrus Manus, he found that he did not possess the fortitude to deliver the killing blow.
In an instant he saw what he had become and what monstrous betrayal he had allowed himself to be party to. He
knew in that eternal moment that he had made a terrible mistake in drawing the sword from the Temple of the Laer,
and he fought to release the damnable blade that had brought him so low.
His grip was locked onto the weapon and even as he recognised how far he had fallen, he knew that he had come too
far to stop, the realisation coupled with the knowledge that everything he had striven for had been a lie. As though
moving in slow motion, Fulgrim saw Ferrus Manus reaching for his fallen sword, his fingers closing around the
wire-wound grip, the flames leaping once more to the blade at its creator's touch.
Fulgrim's blade seemed to move with a life of its own as he swung the blade of his own volition. Fulgrim tried
desperately to pull the blow, but his muscles were no longer his own to control. The daemonic blade sliced through
the genetically-enhanced flesh and bone of one of the Emperor's sons. The Iron Hands' Primarch fell to the ground,
his head decapitated. Ferrus Manus was dead by his brother's own hand
Though Fulgrim had proved the victor, he discovered as he looked down at his battered brother's prostrate body that
everything up until that moment had all been a lie. Fulgrim, as if awakened from a long sleep, was shocked by the
death of Ferrus into thinking clearly about the situation for the first time since his expedition to Laeran, and he was
horrified by what he had done and by the many betrayals that had led brother Astartes to slay one another.
Overcome by his grief, he succumbed to a moment of weakness and foolishly agreed to the daemon's whispering
suggestion that he could find release in oblivion. The Greater Daemon was then freed from the prison of the sword
and fully possessed Fulgrim's body, claiming it for its own, trapping the real Fulgrim's consciousness away within a
psychic prison formed within his own mind but symbolically represented by a painting of the Primarch that stood in
the place of honour in La Fenice, the theatre of the IIIrd Legion's flagship, the Pride of the Emperor.
Fulgrim and the Warmaster
Following the Traitor's victory at Istvaan V, Fulgrim requested a private audience with the Warmaster. Horus was
pleased as his brother presented the grisly trophy of the severed head of Ferrus Manus, as promised. Gloating at this
great accomplishment, Horus wished to share this triumph with his fellow captains.
But the Emperor's Children's Primarch informed Horus that Fulgrim did not possess the fortitude to fulfill his oath to
his brother, so he had done it for him! The Warmaster suddenly realised that the creature that stood before him was
not truly his brother Fulgrim, but some sort of doppelganger. Horus threatened harm against this false Fulgrim,
informing the creature that he could break him like a straw.
The false Fulgrim had no desire to test himself in such a wasteful and fruitless trial of combat. Horus glanced
towards Fulgrim's waist, and relaxed as he saw that this thing masquerading as his brother had come before him
unarmed. Whatever its purpose in unveiling itself, it had not come with violence on its mind. For he had come to
pledge his loyalty to Horus' cause. The false Fulgrim informed Horus that he was actually a creature of the Warp -- a
humble servant of the great power that was the Dark Prince Slaanesh. The Greater Daemon explained to the
horrified Horus that he had claimed Fulgrim's mortal shell as his own, and further explained how pleasing it was to
him.
Horus inquired as to his true brother's fate. The daemon who now inhabited Fulgrim's body explained that Fulgrim
was quite safe, residing within the body now under the control of the Greater Daemon, utterly aware of all that
transpired but unable to do anything to intervene. His cries of anguish were a great comfort to the malefic creature.
Horus was appalled by this turn of events, and said nothing in response to the daemon's revelations. The Daemon-
Fulgrim had pledged its allegiance to his cause and it was a patently powerful Warp entity. Horus thought it best to
keep the creature as an ally, for he certainly could not do without the IIIrd Legion at this juncture.
However, Horus resolved to destroy the daemon and rescue Fulgrim from his torment when the time was right, for
no one deserved to endure such a terrible fate. Horus and the Daemon-Fulgrim agreed to keep its true nature to
themselves. The daemon had no particular desire to reveal itself and Horus was convinced that such a revelation
would create many problems for him with the other Primarchs dedicated to the Traitors' cause.
Traitor Conclave
Four solar days after the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, Horus Lupercal assembled those Primarchs who stood in
opposition to the Imperium aboard his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit. They all knew the costs of the coming
campaign, and their destinies within it. The Traitor fleets were underway.
But after the "unpleasantness" of Istvaan, this was the first time they had gathered as a full fraternity. Eight
Primarchs were present, though only half of them were physically in the room where the gathering took place. This
included Fulgrim, Perturabo, Angron and Lorgar Aurelian. The absent four were nothing more than holographic
projections: three of them -- Konrad Curze, Mortarion and Alpharius -- manifested around the table in the forms of
flickering grey hololithic simulacra.
The fourth of them appeared as a brighter image comprised of the silver radiance of brilliant witchfire. This last
image was of Magnus the Red, who projected himself from afar by sorcerous means, from the Sorcerer's Planet
where he was still licking his wounds from the recent Burning of Prospero by Leman Russ' Space Wolves.
As soon as Lorgar had taken his seat at the council table he could not take his eyes off his brother Fulgrim. The
Warmaster grew ever more weary of his brother's inability to adhere to established planning and his lack of attention
to the important gathering. Before the meeting could properly get underway, Lorgar slowly reached for the ornate
Crozius mace on his back. As he drew the weapon in the company of his closest kin, his eyes remained locked on
one of them, and all physically present felt the deepening chill of psychic frost riming along their armour.
The Word Bearer Primarch accused the thing that mimicked his brother in physical appearance as not being who he
purported to be. Before anyone could react, Lorgar's Crozius mace struck the supposed Emperor's Children
Primarch. Fulgrim crashed into the back wall, his prostrate form crumpled to the ground.
Turning his fierce eyes upon his other brothers Lorgar declared that this pretender was not Fulgrim. The other
Primarchs that were present advanced upon the changeling, drawing their own weapons. The Warmaster tried to
placate the enraged Lorgar, for his merest threat of a confrontation had usually been enough to quell Lorgar from
any rash actions in the past. But as they faced the Aurelian now, even Horus was wide-eyed in the changes wrought
within the Primarch since Istvaan V. Clutching his mace in his crimson coloured gauntlets, defying his brothers,
Lorgar warned them to stay back.
When Horus once again attempted to calm the enraged Primarch, Lorgar was surprised at the sudden realisation that
the Warmaster already knew that Fulgrim was not whom he pretended to be. The Warmaster informed his fellow
Primarchs that he would personally deal with the situation and dismissed them all from his chambers, with the
exception of Lorgar.
The Word Bearers Primarch could see the truth -- this creature was one of the daemons of Chaos -- as whatever was
wearing his brother's skin and armour had its soul hollowed out. Something nestled within, puppeteering the soulless
body of their own brother. What Lorgar couldn't understand was how this had come to pass and why did Horus
continue to protect such a dark secret. The Warmaster explained to his brother that he had not orchestrated Fulgrim's
demise; he was merely containing the aftermath.
Lorgar was perturbed that another sentience now rode within Fulgrim's body. Horus was annoyed at his brother's
line of questioning, for Lorgar and Fulgrim had never been close. Lorgar explained that it mattered because this vile
intrusion was a perversion of the natural order. There was no harmony in such a joining. Not like his own blessed
daemon-possessed gene-sons, the Gal Vorbak.
A living soul had been annihilated for its mortal shell to simply house a greedy, unborn wretch of a daemon. During
Lorgar's Pilgrimage to the Eye of Terror years earlier, he had walked in the Warp itself. He had stood where the
gods and mortals met. Lorgar knew this form of possession was weakness and corruption -- a perversion of what the
Chaos Gods wished for Mankind. The Ruinous Powers wanted allies and willing followers, not soulless husks
ridden by their daemons.
Using his powerful psychic abilities, Lorgar held the daemon at bay. The Warmaster cautioned that he was killing
Fulgrim, but Lorgar replied that it was not their brother, but an "it" -- one that he could destroy if he so wished it.
Lorgar threatened the daemon that he would learn its True Name and banish it back into the Warp.
The Daemon-Fulgrim was helpless against Lorgar's formidable psychic abilities. As the Warmaster attempted to
restrain his brother by placing his hand on Lorgar's shoulder, the Primarch psychically commanded Horus to remove
his hand. Unable to resist, Horus obeyed.
His fingers shivered as they withdrew, and his grey eyes flickered with tension. As the enraged Lorgar strode away
from the council chambers, Horus commented that his brother had changed since crossing blades with Corax on the
surface of Istvaan V. Lorgar replied that everything had changed that night. He then took his leave and returned to
his ship to contemplate what he perceived as utter foulness.
Fulgrim's Fate
Those that served in the IIIrd Legion had no idea that their beloved leader was clawing ineffectually at the bondage
of his own mind. Only Captain Lucius of the 13th Company had appeared to realise that something was amiss with
Fulgrim, but even he had said nothing.
The Daemon-Fulgrim had sensed the burgeoning Warp touch upon the warrior and had presented him with the silver
daemonblade within which the Laer had bound a fragment of its essence, as Fulgrim now wielded the far more
potent Kinebrach Anathame, a gift from Horus. Though the Laer Daemonsword was now bereft of its daemonic
spirit, there was still power within the blade, power that would empower Lucius in the years of death to come.
After the conclave aboard Horus' flagship, the Daemon-Fulgrim and the Emperor's Children Legion were ordered to
Mars to aid the coming civil war within the Mechanicum by the Warmaster. But instead of following his brother's
orders, the increasingly mercurial Primarch decided to disobey, and instead ordered his Legion to assault a
Mechanicum crystal Mining World called Prismatica V.
Unable to deal with his lord's mercurial temperament as well as his fellow senior members of the Legion, Lord
Commander Eidolon questioned the Primarch's orders. This proved to be a tragic miscalculation on Eidolon's part.
Unable to placate his angered lord, the few words he managed to speak on his own behalf inadvertently provoked
the Primarch further.
The paranoid Primarch believed that the Lord Commander was mocking him and planned to betray him. Quicker
than the mind's eye could follow, the Primarch withdrew the Anathame from its scabbard and slew his once-
favoured son. He then held the severed head of the slain Eidolon over the opened casks of victory wine, the viscous
blood dripping from the grisly trophy and mixing with the potent drink which was then shared amongst the senior
members of the IIIrd Legion's inner circle.
Far from upset at the death of the much-despised Eidolon, the ascendent champion of the Emperor's Children,
Lucius, took note of yet another example of Fulgrim's increasingly capricious behaviour. Contemplating upon the
change in his lord, Lucius was inspired to investigate further after receiving a series of dark dreams concerning the
painting of the Primarch that hang in La Fenice, which had been cordoned off and sealed by a detachment of the
Phoenix Guard after the Maraviglia had worked its corrupting influence upon the Legion.
Already concerned by his lord's erratic behaviour and strange moods, Lucius proceeded to scrutinise the Primarch's
every move. His concerns grew even more when he noticed Fulgrim's lack of brotherly-camaraderie and observance
of Legion rituals and tradition. But what truly aroused Lucius' suspicions was the realisation that Fulgrim's
swordsmanship was suddenly inferior to his own superlative skills.
His Primarch was not whom he appeared to be. His suspicions were further confirmed when he witnessed Fulgrim
employing powerful psychic abilities in open combat against a Warhound-class Titan of the Mechanicum during the
IIIrd Legion's assault on Prismatica V.
Lucius continued to receive the strange dreams in his sleep, and began to follow the threads implanted by these
prescient visions. Breaking a standing order, Lucius defied the Primarch and went to investigate La Fenice, the
theatre located aboard the Emperor's Childrens' flagship Pride of the Emperor. This is where the Emperor's Children
had truly fallen to the corrupting influence of Slaanesh, awakened by the operatic symphony known as the
Maraviglia.
Investigating the ruined chamber thoroughly, Lucius discovered above the stage that a great portrait hung above the
smashed wreckage of the proscenium. Even in the dying light, the portrait's magnificence was palpable. A glorious
golden frame held the canvas trapped within its embrace, and the wondrous perfection of the painting was truly
breathtaking.
Clad in his wondrous armour of purple and gold, Fulgrim was portrayed before the great gates of the Heliopolis, the
heart of the flagship, the flaming wings of a great phoenix sweeping up behind him. The firelight of the legendary
bird shone upon his armour, each polished plate seeming to shimmer with the heat of the fire, his hair a cascade of
gold.
The Primarch of the Emperor's Children was lovingly portrayed in perfect detail, every nuance of his grandeur and
the life that made Fulgrim such a vision of beauty captured in the exquisite brushwork. No finer figure of a warrior
had ever existed or ever would again, and to even glimpse such a flawless example of the painter's art was to know
that wonder still existed in the galaxy.
Gazing at the eyes of the painting, Lucius could see the horror within his Primarch's eyes, a horror that had not been
rendered by the skill of a mortal painter. The perfect, exquisite agony burned in the portrait's gaze, the dark pools of
the painted eyes seemed to follow his every movement. Lucius came to the conclusion that somehow, his Primarch
was trapped within the painting, and that the entity that paraded around as their Legion's lord was an imposter.
Determined to free his Primarch by any means at his disposal, Lucius secretly convened the Brotherhood of the
Phoenix -- the exclusive warrior lodge of the IIIrd Legion that only allowed warriors of officer rank to join because
of the Legion's love of hierarchy. This had to be done with the utmost secrecy, for by this time the corrupted senior
officers had become powerful, volatile and self-obssessed with the pursuit of their individual pleasures.
Also, many of these senior officers carried a loathing for Lucius, whom they viewed as a despised upstart. Through
his skilled oratory, the swordsman was able to persuade his mercurial brothers that the Primarch was not himself. He
further challenged their egos and stroked their vanity, tempting them into boldly capturing their Primarch. Shortly
after, the Brotherhood of the Phoenix ambushed the Primarch, and despite taking several casualties, managed to
subdue their lord by rendering him unconscious.
The Primarch was then taken to the Apothecarion of the IIIrd Legion's Chief Apothecary Fabius, where he was
strapped down to one of the examination tables. Here, Fabius, Lucius, Julius Kaesoron and Marius Vairosean
attempted to drive forth the daemonic entity from their lord's mortal shell through a protracted torture session known
as excruciation.
Fulgrim willingly submitted himself to his tormentors' ministrations, and continuously spoke of his perceptions of
reality, events that were currently taking place in the galaxy as Chaos grew in power and the envisioned path for his
Legion. During the torture session, Lucius suddenly realised that they had been misled. Misinterpreting the situation,
they had been duped by their lord.
Lucius immediately bent the knee and prostrated himself before his Primarch as Fulgrim easily tore himself free
from his restraints. His fellow conspirators all bowed to their lord and master. Content that his favoured sons had
learned from the experience, the Primarch did not punish them for their transgressions, for he was not the daemon-
possessed shell of the Phoenix as he had allowed his Astartes to believe, but the man himself.
Fulgrim decided to share with Lucius his motives for such an elaborate ruse. He revealed that he had indeed been
possessed by a daemonic entity for quite some time, an entity that had trapped his disembodied spirit within the
great portrait that had hung in La Fenice. Unwilling to accept his fate, the Primarch had bided his time and used the
tormenting experience to learn of Warp-craft and the infallible ways of daemonkind.
He eventually was able to use this newly acquired arcane knowledge to force the daemon out of his mortal body --
swapping places with the foul entity -- and trapping it within the portrait for all time. Presumably, it was the daemon
that had been sending Lucius the dark dreams in order to attempt to free itself from its prison. In an attempt to
further educate his favoured champion in the unfathomable ways of Chaos, the Primarch's apparent inferiority in his
sword techniques was merely a ploy to manipulate Lucius into challenging him.
The Primarch went on to explain that his mercurial moods and lack of interest in camaraderie and the IIIrd Legion's
rituals were a natural evolution of his nature to achieve perfection along the path laid out by Slaanesh. Fulgrim
announced that he intended to go further than anyone in the realms of sensual experience, intent on pushing the
boundaries of reality to the extreme.
Fulgrim didn't merely want to accomplish these things for the sole acquisition of power, but to experience the
journey -- a journey he wanted his sons to undertake with him. He explained that he had ordered the assault on
Prismatica V to claim the crystal the Mechanicum had been mining there so that it might be used to erect a
wondrous new city of mirrors dedicated to the exploration of sensual pleasure and self-enlightenment through
sensation. But the next step on the Emperor's Children's path towards enlightenment through Chaos was to
rendezvous with the Primarch Perturabo and his Iron Warriors Legion.
Angel Exterminatus
As Horus' rebellion ground on, the Iron Warriors took the time to humble their great enemies, the Imperial Fists,
upon the isolated world of Hydra Cordatus that the Sons of Dorn had recently brought into Imperial Compliance.
Following their victory, word reached Perturabo that Fulgrim and his Emperor's Children Legion, wished to
rendezvous with him to discuss something of great import.
Though the Phoenecian had yet to reveal the true purpose of his visit, he had promised Perturabo that it was
"wondrous." Perturabo knew that his brother had a flair for the melodramatic, which only seemed to have gotten
worse since the IIIrd Legion threw their lot in with the Warmaster.
The Lord of Iron counted none of his fellow Primarchs as close friends, but the Phoenician's adherence to perfection
in all things had once provided common ground between the two superhuman warriors and allowed them to talk as
trusted comrades-in-arms if not beloved brothers. What the Emperor's Children had sought with constant movement
towards the attainment of perfection, the Iron Warriors earned with rigid discipline and methodical planning; two
divergent paths to the same ultimate goal.
Perturabo believed Fulgrim's visit had something to do with the inevitable campaign to be conducted against Mars.
The Warmaster needed the Martian theatre fully secured before they moved against Terra, and he believed that
Fulgrim was there to seek the Iron Warriors' aid in breaking open the forge-cities of the Mechanicum. If he was
right, Perturabo wanted his Legion to have a plan in place to achieve that objective.
Until the Iron Warriors received further orders, Perturabo would humour his brother and listen to what Fulgrim had
to say. While making plans for the upcoming campaign, Perturabo received word that the Emperor's Children had
arrived, unannounced, on the surface of Hydra Cordatus. Over three hundred drop-craft had landed beyond the
mouth of the valley where the Iron Warriors had made their encampment.
The IVth Legion quickly gathered in formation to honour the IIIrd Legion with a vanguard to receive them.
Battalions of Thorakitai Imperial Army troops stood ranked in their tens of thousands. Before them stood two
hundred Grand Battalions of Iron Warriors, fifty thousand warriors in amberdust-burnished warplate. Such a display
of might and magnificence had not been seen since the slaughter unleashed upon the black sands of Istvaan V.
Yet Perturabo and his senior officers looked on in awe at the gaudy cavalcade of noise, colour and spectacle that
emerged from the IIIrd Legion's drop site into the valley. Fulgrim and his Emperor's Children were now completely
unrecognisable from the honourable warriors that had once formed the IIIrd Legion. Perturabo knew something
fundamental had changed within the Emperor's Children, but could not imagine what purpose the disfigurements
and degradations its warriors now sported could possibly serve.
Fulgrim met with his brother Primarch in the private inner sanctum of his command bunker with an enticing offer
that Perturabo could not refuse; the means to make it so that the Lord of Iron's every desire could be made real and
would never disappoint, never fail to live up to his fondest expectations, and never, ever be eclipsed. Fulgrim came
with an offer to unite their mutual forces in battle on a glorious quest. One that might tip the balance of the
Warmaster's rebellion.
Though Perturabo was suspicious of his brother's intentions, perhaps this joint venture would grant understanding
through common cause. Fulgrim revealed his purpose; they were to venture to the Warp Storm that had plagued
Perturabo's dreams all of his life. Within it was hidden an ancient and forbidden xenos weapon known as the Angel
Exterminatus. It had been hidden in the grave of its doom, a weapon of such power that the stars themselves turned
upon it rather than allow it to escape its prison.
Sisypheum
Unknown to both the Emperor's Children and the Iron Warriors, they were being pursued by a ragtag group of
Loyalist Astartes who were survivors of the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V and were determined to stop the
Traitors at all costs. These Loyalist Space Marines were gathered from survivors that had fought their way out of the
killing ground of the Urgall Depression on Istvaan V.
They had managed to escape the Istvaan System aboard an Iron Hands Strike Cruiser known as the Sisypheum. Iron
Hands Astartes and their mortal serfs formed the bulk of the warship's crew, but surviving warriors of the
Salamanders and a single Raven Guard Astartes were also counted among their number.
In the wake of the slaughter, escape from the Istvaan System had been a nerve shredding series of mad dashes under
fire and silent runs through the Traitors' orbital blockade, culminating in a final sprint to the gravipause, the
minimum safe distance between a star's mass and a vessel's ability to survive a Warp Jump. The Sisypheum had
escaped the trap, but not without great cost.
The solar months that followed saw the Sisypheum embark on a series of hit-and-run attacks on Traitor forces on the
northern frontiers of the galaxy, wreaking harm like a lone predator swimming in a dark ocean. Traitor forces
seeking flanking routes through the Segmentum Obscurus were their prey; scout craft, cartographae ships, slow-
moving supply hulks heavily laden with mortal troops, ammunition and weapons.
Disruption and harassment were the Sisypheum 's main objective until contact had been established with disparate
groups of Loyalist forces that had also escaped the massacre, and a stratagem of sorts agreed upon. With the Xth
Legion too scattered to function in a traditional battlefield role, its surviving commanders found their own way to
fight back: as the thorns in the flanks of the leviathan that distract it from the swordthrust to the vitals.
At Cavor Sarta, an Iron Hand known as Sabak Wayland and the lone Raven Guard survivor Nykona Sharrowkyn
had captured an Unlingual Cipher Host -- one of the so-called "Kryptos" -- a hybrid abomination creature of the
Dark Mechanicum that had previously made the Traitors' code network a cryptographic impossibility to break. With
the Kryptos, Loyalist commanders were able to finally access the Traitors' coded communications.
And with this knowledge, the Sisypheum 's Captain, the Iron Hand Ulrach Branthan, had ordered the Sisypheum to
make the circuitous journey to Hydra Cordatus and the meeting of the Traitor Primarchs that had been indicated by
the cracked communications. After learning of Fulgrim's intentions to enter the Eye of Terror and recover the Angel
Exterminatus, the crew of the Sisypheum made their way towards the Warp Rift, aided by a mysterious Eldar guide
with the intention of thwarting the Traitors' plan to acquire the unknown xenos weapon.
Crone World
The destination of the joint fleet of Iron Warriors and Emperor's Children vessels was the lost Aeldari world of
Iydris, a world said to have been favoured by the goddess Lileath. Iydris was one of the legendary Crone Worlds,
which once formed the heart of the fallen Aeldari Empire before they were consumed by the creation of the vast
Warp rift that was the Eye of Terror following the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh.
The lost world was located at the heart of the Eye of Terror, somehow remaining in a fixed position keeping it from
destruction in the gravitational hellstorm of a supermassive black hole that lay at the centre of the eternal Warp
Storm. It was from this epicentre that the galaxy vomited unnatural matter into the void, a dark doorway to an
unknowable destination and an unimaginably powerful singularity whose gravity was so strong that it consumed
light, matter, space and time in its destructive core.
Their ultimate goal was within the Primarchs' grasp; the Sepulchre of Isha's Doom, which sat at the centre of the
citadel of Amon ny-shak Kaelis. The citadel stood astride the entrance to the prison tomb of the Angel Exterminatus.
Before launching a full planetary assault, the Iron Warriors launched a preliminary orbital bombardment around the
citadel, a standard practise when preparing to assault a potentially hostile environment.
A cone of fire gouged the surface of Iydris, burning, pounding and flattening in the blink of an eye structures that
had stood inviolate for tens of thousands of Terran years. A barren ring of pulverised earth encircled the citadel of
Amon ny-shak Kaelis, leaving its walls, towers and temples an isolated island cut off from the rest of the planet's
structures by a billowing firestorm of planet-cracking force.
In the wake of this orbital bombardment flocks of Thunderhawks, Stormbirds, Warhawks and heavy planetary
landers launched from crammed embarkation decks. Bulk tenders descended to low orbit and disgorged thousands
of troop carriers, armour lifters and supply barques. Titanic, gravity-cushioned mass-landers moved with majestic
slowness as two Titans of the Legio Mortis took to the field, and this was but the first wave of the invasion. Another
eight would follow before the martial power of two entire Space Marine Legions and their auxiliary Imperial Army
forces had made planetfall.
Amon ny-shak Kaelis
Fulgrim looks on as his Emperor's Children, his brother Perturabo and the Iron Warriors fight for their lives against
an army of Aeldari revenants within the Sepulchre of Isha's Doom at the heart of the citadel of Amon ny-shak
Kaelis.
The Traitors' assault began five solar hours later, despite the full circuit of fortifications still being incomplete. For
all intents and purposes, the route into the citadel of Amon ny-shak Kaelis was undefended and their route
unopposed. Ever mistrustful of the lack of defences, Perturabo had his Iron Warriors dug in, assuming a perfect
formation outside the walls in a layered barbican that protected the Traitor Legions' line of retreat.
Fulgrim's host broke apart into individual warbands, ranging in size from around a hundred warriors to groups of
nearly a thousand. Each of these autonomous groups appeared to be led by a captain, though such was the bizarre
ornamentation and embellishment on each warrior's armour, it was often impossible to discern specific rankings.
Leaving the fortified bridgehead behind, Perturabo led his Iron Warriors and the Emperor's Children contingent into
the heart of Amon ny-shak Kaelis. The Sepulchre of Isha's Doom was a monumental palace, sprawling and richly
ornamented with bulbous mourn-towers and sweeping, ivory-roofed domes. As the column of Traitors pressed
onwards towards the sepulchre, they were being silently and unknowingly observed by the Loyalist Astartes of the
Sisypheum. Despite being outnumbered a thousand to one, the small force of Loyalist Legionaries devised a means
to find another way into the massive sepulchre.
As the two Primarchs neared their ultimate goal, Fulgrim kept pressing his stern brother with curt impatience to not
linger. Perturabo took the time to study Fulgrim and his assembled host. His brother was sheened in sweat, but it
was not perspiration that beaded his brow, Fulgrim was sweating light. Though it was faint, it was visible to
Perturabo's gene-enhanced sight that saw beyond what even Astartes eyes were capable of detecting.
He wondered if Fulgrim was aware of the radiance bleeding from him and decided he must be. His brother's armour
strained against his body and his features were drawn and tired, as though only by an effort of will was he still
standing. His captains looked no better, like hounds straining at the leash. A number of Fulgrim's Lord Commanders'
flesh was also suffused with a light similar to that enveloping Fulgrim, a deathly radiance that had no place within a
living being.
Perturabo did not trust Fulgrim one bit, knowing that inevitably he would be betrayed by his brother. The Lord of
Iron pressed on, intent on bringing their quest to completion. As they neared their final destination at the heart of the
sepulchre, the power at the heart of Iydris spasmed in hateful recognition of the followers of Slaanesh, known to the
Aeldari as "She Who Thirsts," and awoke its guardians from their slumber.
Thousands of crystalline statues threw off their previous immobility. They moved stiffly, like sleepers awoken from
an aeons-long slumber, and the gems at the heart of their bulbous heads bled vibrant colour into glassy bodies that
suddenly seemed significantly less fragile. This army of wraiths were the Aeldari dead of Iydris.
Soon both the Traitor forces outside the citadel as well as those inside were attacked from all sides by the revenant
army. Like automata, but with a hideously organic feel to their movements, the Aeldari constructs emerged in their
thousands with every passing second.
As Perturabo was busy fighting for his life, Fulgrim slipped away in the midst of the fighting. Realising where he
had gone, the Lord of Iron stepped into the green glow emanating from the centre of the massive chamber. Perturabo
understood that this was no elemental energy or mechanically generated motive force, but the distilled essence of all
those who had died there.
Perturabo descended downwards on an unending spiral towards a point of light that grew no brighter no matter how
far he descended. The journey downwards was never-ending, or so it seemed until it ended. Fulgrim stood at the
origin of a slender bridge that arched out to the centre of a spherical chamber of incredible, sanity-defying
proportions.
The footings of the bridge were anchored on the equator, and a score of other bridges reached out to where a
seething ball of numinous jade light blazed like a miniature sun. Iydris, it transpired, was a hollow world, its core
this colossal void with the impossibly bright sun at its heart.
Perturabo confronted his brother, realising that there was never an Angel Exterminatus. Fulgrim confirmed for
Perturabo that there was no such weapon yet, for he was to be the Angel Exterminatus. Perturabo responded that his
brother always did have an appetite for rampant narcissism, but this was the grandest delusion yet.
Unamused at Fulgrim's explanation, Perturabo took a step towards his brother, Forgebreaker in his hand, intent on
killing him. Fulgrim spoke a single word, and its nightmare syllables tore at Perturabo's brain, causing him to
stumble and drop to one knee. Fulgrim revealed the reason for his brother being drained of energy.
When Fulgrim had arrived on Hydra Cordatus he had presented the Lord of Iron with a gift; a folded cloak of softest
ermine, trimmed with foxbat fur and embroidered with an endlessly repeating pattern of spirals in the golden
proportion. A flattened skull of chromed steel acted as the fastener. Set in the skull's forehead was a gemstone the
size of a fist, black and veined with hair-fine threads of gold.
As they had made their way towards the heart of the Eye of Terror, the large gemstone at the centre of the skull-
carved cloak pin had changed from black to a solid gold colour and pulsed with its own internal heartbeat. This was
the maugetar stone, known as the "Harvester," which had slowly been draining Perturabo's strength and life force.
With the Lord of Iron's sacrifice, Fulgrim would finally be able to achieve apotheosis. The two Primarchs ascended
upwards within the shaft of light, emerging into the chaos that was happening within the heart of the sepulchre.
Apotheosis of Fulgrim
Fulgrim achieves apotheosis, becoming a Daemon Prince of his patron god Slaanesh.
The Primarch of the Emperor's Children hurled his brother aside, and Perturabo fell in a languid arc to land with a
crunch of metal and crystal at the edge of the shaft. Blood trailed the air in a streaming red arc from Perturabo's
chest. The Lord of Iron lay unmoving, his body broken and lifeless.
The attention of every Astartes within the chamber was irrevocably drawn towards the Primarch, for they recognised
that an event of great moment was in the offing. The Phoenician was no longer the same being as had descended
into the planet. He floated in the air above the shaft, which no longer poured its green torrent up to the restless
darkness above, but simply radiated a fading glow of dying light.
Fulgrim's armour was shimmering with vitality, as though the light of a thousand suns were contained within him
and strained to break free. The Primarch's dark, doll-like eyes were twin black holes, doorways to heights of
experience and sensation the likes of which could only be dreamed by madmen and those willing to go to any
lengths to taste them.
Just as Fulgrim was about to achieve his ultimate desire, Perturabo had regained enough of his former strength and
rose to his feet, the maugetar stone in his hand. Perturabo walked towards Fulgrim, keeping the hand holding the
maugetar stone extended over the shaft in the center of the chamber. Perturabo looked his brother in the eye for
some hint of remorse, a sign that he regretted that things had come to this, something to show he felt even a moment
of shame at plotting to murder his brother.
He saw nothing, and his heart broke to know that the Fulgrim he had known long ago was gone, never to return. He
had not thought it possible that anyone could plunge so far as to be beyond redemption. Perturabo knew that Fulgrim
no longer wanted to be an angel, he wanted to be a god. He informed the Phoenician that Mankind had outgrown
such beings a long time ago. Disgusted by Fulgrim's desires, Perturabo hurled the maugetar stone into the deep
shaft.
Suddenly, a barrage of Bolter fire erupted and a handful of Emperor's Children Astartes were pitched from their feet.
Black-armoured Space Marines bearing a mailed fist upon their shoulder guards charged towards the Traitors. It was
the Astartes of the Xth Legion, the Iron Tenth -- the Iron Hands. Soon the battle was joined, as Loyalist fought
Traitor within the expansive chamber.
The noose of battle was closing on the two Primarchs at its centre -- Perturabo locked on his knees, and Fulgrim
hovering in the air as though bound to his brother by ties not even the call of war could break. The Iron Hands were
mired in battle with the Emperor's Children and Iron Warriors, zipping streams of fire blasting back and forth
between them.
During the battle, one of the Loyalist Astartes, the Raven Guard named Sharrowkyn, had acquired the fallen
maugetar stone. He instinctively knew that if this stone was desired by Fulgrim, then it had to be destroyed. Taking a
Bolter from a fallen Emperor's Children Astartes, he aimed the muzzle at the strange gold and black stone and pulled
the trigger. It shattered.
The weakened Perturabo was renewed with the sudden release of his lifeforce from the Chaos relic. Fulgrim's body
arched in sympathetic resonance, for the maugetar stone contained more than just the strength stolen from Perturabo
by Fulgrim. It contained their mingled essences, a power greater than the sum of its parts, a power to fuel an ascent
so brutal that only the combined life-force of two Primarchs could achieve it.
Armour burned from Fulgrim's body, flaking away like golden dust in a hurricane, leaving his monstrously swollen
body naked and his flesh blazing with furnace heat. Spectral flames of shimmering pink and purple licked around his
body, a hungry fire waiting to consume him the moment his focus slipped.
As the Lord of Iron finally pushed himself upright and stood fully erect, he lifted Forgebreaker onto his shoulder.
Fulgrim saw his death in Perturabo's eyes and grinned, knowing that his brother had to do it. Perturabo hefted
Forgebreaker like a headsman at an execution and swung the mighty hammer in a wide arc, splitting the
Phoenician's body wide open. It was done.
The Primarch Fulgrim as a Daemon Prince.
Fulgrim's body exploded under the impact of Perturabo's warhammer, and the cry of release was a shrieking birth
scream. An explosion of pure force ripped from the Phoenician's destroyed flesh, filling the chamber of towers with
a blinding light that was too bright to look upon, too radiant to ignore. Like a newborn sun, the wondrous
incandescence was the centre of all things, a rebirth in fire, new flesh crafted from the ashes of the old.
Every eye in the chamber was turned to the light, though it would surely blind them or drive them to madness.
Through slitted fingers and shimmering reflections, the survivors of the fighting bore witness to something
magnificent and terrible, an agonising death and violent birth combined. A figure floated in the midst of the light,
and it took a moment for Perturabo to recognise the impossibility of what he was seeing.
It was Fulgrim, naked and pristine, his body unsullied by any of the mawkish ornamentations with which he had
defaced his flesh, as perfect as the day the Emperor had first conceived him. Fulgrim's back arched and his bones
split with gunshot cracks. His flesh, once so perfect, now ran fluid and malleable, his form moulding and
remoulding as though an invisible sculptor pressed and worked him like clay upon a wheel.
Fulgrim's legs, extended like the man of Vitruvius, ran and lengthened, fusing together in a writhing serpent's tail,
the skin thickening and sheening with reptilian scales and segmented plates of chitnous armour. Pertubrabo took a
step towards this thing being born from the death of his brother, all the while despairing that this was his brother.
Perturabo had destroyed Fulgrim's mortal shell. This was an immaterial avatar composed of Warp energy, of light
and heat, of soul and desire. What was being done here was an act of will, a creature birthing itself through its own
desire to exist. Fulgrim's face was a mask of agonised rapture, a pain endured for the pleasure it promised.
Two obsidian horns erupted from Fulgrim's brow, curling back over his skull, leaving his perfect face as unsullied as
the most innocent child. Fulgrim ascended into Chaos, a prince of the Neverborn, a lord of the Ruinous Powers, the
chosen and beloved Champion of Slaanesh.
As the newborn Daemon Prince departed into the Empyrean, the first of the Traitor Primarchs to achieve daemonic
apotheosis, he left his brother with a cryptic message that they would one day meet again, and both brothers would
yet renew their bonds. Lifting his hands into the air, a curtain of light rose up from the ground and Fulgrim and all of
his Emperor's Children Chaos Space Marines disappeared in a flare of arcane teleportation energy.
With the disappearance of the Emperor's Children, the Crone World of Iydris began to tear itself apart. The force at
the heart of the world was no more. The strength of the lifeforces of the dead Aeldari that had kept it safe was
failing, and soon the planet would be swallowed by the unimaginable force of the supermassive black hole that lay
at the heart of the Eye of Terror.
Across the chasm, the remaining Iron Hands gathered up their wounded and fell back from the spreading fissures
and heaving ruptures opening in the floor. They looked upon Perturabo with hatred, but decided to make their way
off-world from the doomed planet. They knew that they could not fight the Lord of Iron and live through the
encounter. Perturabo let the Iron Hands depart. Then he led his warriors out of the crumbling citadel. Once aboard
his flagship the Iron Blood, Perturabo watched the final death throes of the Eldar Crone World.
The Iron Blood strained to break orbit, but the force at the heart of the Eye of Terror was reasserting its grip on
reality with a vengeance. Many of the smaller vessels of the Iron Warriors survivor fleet that had followed the
Sisypheum had already been dragged within its embrace, swallowed by the black hole's powerful energies.
Only the capital ships had engines large enough to resist the inexorable pull, but even they were only delaying the
inevitable. Perturabo's Triarchs stood patiently around their lord, awaiting his orders. The Lord of Iron informed
them that he always moved forward, never backwards. They would go into the black hole.
Though his senior commanders believed that it was suicide, the Lord of Iron informed them that Fulgrim had
promised that the two brothers would meet again. The Iron Warriors were not meant to die within the Eye, and there
was only one way onwards. His Astartes moved to carry out his order, and the Iron Warriors fleet plunged deep into
the heart of Terror.
Flames of Rebellion
Over the next seven Terran years that followed the massacre on Istvaan V, Horus' rebellion spread across the galaxy,
consuming the entire Imperium in the flames of the horrific civil war known to history as the Horus Heresy. By the
time the final Siege of Terra began, the Emperor's Children had become only shadows of their former glorious
selves, wholly consumed by the desires of Slaanesh, with every trace of decency long lost.
While the other Traitor Legions assaulted the Imperial Palace, the Emperor's Children instead launched themselves
upon the innocent citizens of Terra, engaging in a mad orgy of rape, terror and mutilation that only barely began to
satiate their all-consuming, Slaanesh-inspired hunger for hedonistic pleasure, pain and sensation.
Billions of Terrans were used as human guinea pigs or raw materials in the Emperor's Childrens' constant desire to
create ever more powerful stimulants, as daemonic hosts to bring Slaaneshi daemonic legions to the fight from the
Warp or were simply slain outright to allow a Traitor Marine the fleeting enjoyment brought on by the sensation of
brutal murder.
Post-Heresy

Lucius the Eternal, Champion of Slaanesh.

The history of the Emperor's Children in the period that followed the defeat of the Traitor Legions at the Siege of
Terra is largely obscured from Imperial scholars, for obvious reasons. When Horus was finally defeated by the
Emperor aboard his Battle Barge the Vengeful Spirit, the Emperor's Children left a trail of depopulated worlds in
their wake as they fled alongside the other Traitor Legions into the Eye of Terror.
As their supply of slaves and playthings was exhausted by their constant abuse, the remains of the IIIrd Legion
resorted to raiding the other Traitor Legions for fresh meat to feed their endless perversions, and in the end were
crushed by their angry brethren in a series of bloody wars known as the Slave Wars that tore the Traitor Legions
apart as they lost the guiding and unifying hand of Horus.
Among the schemes hatched during this time was one by the Apothecary Fabius Bile to steal the corpse of Horus
from the Sons of Horus' fortress on the Daemon World of Maeleum and clone the lost leader to resurrect the
Warmaster and revive the Traitor Legions' fortunes. While Bile's Emperor's Children warbands succeeded in
assaulting the fortress and reclaiming the body, their action roused Ezekyle Abaddon to reassert control over the
Sons of Horus and to launch a counter-assault that ultimately shattered what remaining unity the Emperor's Children
had possessed.
The Cohors Nasicae, Lucius' personal bodyguard.
The newly formed Black Legion unleashed an audacious attack on Harmony, the new throneworld of the Emperor's
Children. Despite being severely outnumbered, Abaddon's cunning plan would carry the day, as the Vengeful Spirit
had been dragging behind them a derelict Thousand Sons vessel which was almost two kilometres long and weighed
eight megatonnes. The Thousand Sons' sorcerer Iskandar Khayon had telekinetically dragged its empty corpse
across the Eye of Terror, just as Abaddon had asked of him. And then he hurled it right into the heart of the IIIrd
Legion's fortress.
Less than a solar minute passed from the moment the derelict vessel entered Harmony's atmosphere to the second it
struck the ground. It proved just long enough to let the population of the world see death falling towards them, but
not long enough to do anything about it. The Vengeful Spirit 's sensors recorded tectonic unrest grave enough to
send tremors rippling across the other side of the world. Harmony itself heaved with torment.
In the aftermath of the devastating attack, Canticle City was no more. Abaddon and his allies later assaulted Bile's
fleeing vessel, cutting down the Clone Lord's vile creations as they fought their way into the heart of the IIIrd
Legion vessel. When they came upon Bile's fleshworks, Abaddon was confronted by the clone known as Horus
Reborn. The two fought a brutal duel, which culminated in the death of the cloned Warmaster.
Utilising the reclaimed Talon of Horus, Abaddon rammed its five claws deeply into the cloned Horus' chest and out
his back. As the cloned demigod's blood rained down on the filthy laboratory floor, the Storm Bolter on the Talon's
back kicked three times, burying six bolts inside Horus' exposed chest and neck. The bolts exploded, blasting the
clone apart from within.
Abaddon proclaimed himself Horus' rightful successor as the Warmaster of Chaos and reestablished the Sons of
Horus as the Black Legion, the mightiest of the Traitor Legions in service to the Ruinous Powers. In the course of
the following conflicts, the Emperor's Childrens' unity as an Astartes Legion was shattered and they devolved into a
series of small, competing warbands.
Because of the losses they suffered on Terra and in the Slave Wars, warbands of the Emperor's Children are rare
today in the galaxy of the late 41st Millennium. This is certainly a boon for the galaxy as the Emperor's Children
love to take prisoners. There is perhaps no worse way to die than at the hands of these superhuman Slaaneshi
fanatics -- save for perhaps facing the tender mercies of the Drukhari.
An Emperor's Children Heretic Astartes showing the full bloom of Slaanesh's "gifts."
Perhaps the greatest mystery surrounds the fate of the Primarch Fulgrim himself, for it appears that he disappeared
entirely. Some say that the Dark Prince of Chaos granted him apotheosis, and he assumed the mantle of a Daemon
Primarch -- his mortal shape transformed into a serpentine form with four arms very similar to the appearance of the
Laer xenos that Fulgrim and his Legion had exterminated when he began his fall to Chaos.
There are those that claim that Fulgrim has retreated to some Daemon World of his own creation, and rules there
still, overseeing such debased extremes of sensation and experience as no mortal can imagine. Some of those who
revere Slaanesh regard this mythical place as the holy of holies, and spend entire lifetimes obsessively questing after
it.
To this day, many of the scattered surviving warbands of the Emperor's Children and the agents of the Inquisition's
Ordo Malleus seek the location of this world, but none have yet returned with that information. Following the Horus
Heresy, Fulgrim was last seen in realspace fighting Roboute Guilliman, the Primarch of the Ultramarines Chapter
and its Successors during the Battle of Thessala in 121.M31.
During their great duel, Fulgrim proved too crafty and guileful, slitting Guilliman's throat with the toxic Anathame
that had nearly slain Horus himself without the intervention of the Chaos Gods to heal him. Guilliman was placed
within a stasis field and returned to the Ultramarines' homeworld of Macragge where his body became a focus for
the devotion of countless generations of Imperial pilgrims, while Fulgrim retreated for a final time into the Warp.
Since the opening of the Great Rift and the resurrection of Guilliman in its wake, there have been rumours of
Fulgrim fighting alongside his Emperor's Children and other Slaaneshi forces. Whether the Phoenician has really
returned to fight the forces of the Corpse Emperor remains to be seen...
Notable Campaigns
Proximan Rebellion (ca. 829.M30) - The Proximan Rebellion is one of the earliest recorded engagements of the as-
yet unnamed IIIrd Legion. Assigned to the Imperial Compliance ceremonies and as the Emperor's honour guard for
Proxima's formal accession into the Imperium, an insurrectionist trap was sprung which resulted in the IIIrd Legion's
XVIth Cohort (Chapter) fighting and dying to the last warrior alongside the Legio Custodes, never giving ground
during the insurrectionist surprise attack on that world's ceremonial plaza. By their sacrifice was the wounded
Emperor, who had suffered injury through the use of a Vortex weapon by the enemy, bought time to recover and
fight his way clear of the Proximan insurrectionists' trap. In recognition of this sacrifice, the standard of the Palatine
Aquila so fiercely fought for that day was given to the Astartes of the IIIrd Legion by the Emperor's own hand, to be
their relic ever after, along with the right to end the Proximan revolt by Exterminatus and so repay the blood that
was owed them. While the great Aquila in its variations signified both the Imperium of Humanity and loyalty to the
Emperor as its master, and there is much allegory bound up in its form, for the IIIrd Legion it also now represented
their own deeds as well, an honour never given to another Space Marine Legion before the Great Betrayal.
Praxil Compliance (Unknown Date.M30) - The Praxil System was settled by humanity in the distant past and had
remained isolated for millennia. Even without Warp-capable starships the people of Praxil had still managed to
flourish instead of regressing to barbarism. Though bringing Praxil into Imperial Compliance would bring the
Imperium great renown, this formidable civilisation refused to bend the knee to the light of the Imperial Truth, and
instead were prepared to fight to maintain their independence. Their warfleet was formidable, and managed to push
back the initial invasion of the Imperial Expeditionary Fleet. But if the Praxil warships proved formidable, their
warriors proved to be downright deadly. Drawn from the system's prison colonies, each was already a formidable
killer and survivor. Implanted with drug glands, vat-grown muscle and bone grafts, mind-wiped and conditioned
with battle-memes, they were lethal and dangerous, even to Astartes. Armoured in partially powered battle plate,
bearing high penetration laser weaponry and fractally sharpened blades, they posed a grave risk to the Imperial
forces. The Imperium wanted Praxil's wealth and resources to harness to the needs of the Great Crusade, and so the
securing of Praxil fell to an Army-Group-sized force of the Emperor's Children, supported by selected elements of
the Imperial Army and the forces of the Mechanicum. Despite meticulous planning, the campaign did not begin well
as substantial losses were inflicted upon the Imperial forces. Changing their strategy, the Emperor's Children
decided that instead of focusing on a systematic conquest of the system's void stations, moons and planets, they
would instead focus upon Praxil's fleet. Without the ability to redeploy their strength, each of the Praxil domains
would become a closed tactical problem. But the Praxil had anticipated such tactics, and instead deployed multiple
strike fleets to attack the Imperial fleet. Substantial losses were incurred during this initial engagement as the Praxil
took advantage and attacked the Imperial toehold on their outer moons and stations. A representative of the War
Council of Terra observed that the Emperor's Children's Lord Commander Iddinam, who was charged with the
command of the Praxil Compliance, would never willingly admit that he needed assistance, and therefore issued a
request to Terra for reinforcements. Soon elements from the Blood Angels Legion under the command of Chapter
Master Raldoron and Marshal Cazimus of the Imperial Fists arrived in-system to augment the beleaguered Imperial
forces. Despite his misgivings and slight to his personal honour, the Lord Commander accepted his cousin Legions'
assistance and immediately drew up plans for prosecuting the second offensive against the Praxil. Utilising the
strength of the Blood Angels and Imperial Fists Legions, the Emperor's Children launched a successful second
offensive against the Praxil that soon saw an Imperial victory. When the Imperium claimed its victory, however,
Lord Commander Iddinam refused to acknowledge his role in effecting the Compliance of Praxil, and would later
have a hand as a prime conspirator of his Legion's treachery during the Istvaan III Atrocity.
Defence of Tranquility (Unknown Date.M30) - The Defence of Tranquility was a protracted and vicious
engagement fought by the Emperor's Children on the periphery of the Dalinite Nebula region during the early phase
of the Great Crusade's progress into the Galactic East. This volatile of region of space would have been bypassed by
the Crusade's forces altogether, leaving its vermin inhabitants to kill themselves in their bloody internecine conflicts,
but there was something present in the region that drew the conquering armies like insects to light -- the Dalinite
Gates. The Dalinite Gates were part of the mysterious series of Warp Gates scattered across the stars that had been
crafted by ancient and forgotten intelligent species of the Milky Way, which allowed starships to cross the vast
distances of space more safely than even the finest Navigators could achieve. This particular Warp Gate, however,
was believed to be a nexus point that could allow access to other Warp Gates across the galaxy, greatly increasing
the ability of the Imperium's fleets to reach new targets and expand the reach of the Emperor's forces. Under the
overall command of Horus of the Luna Wolves Legion, several Imperial Expeditionary Fleets were combined to
prosecute a campaign to purge the Dalinite Nebula. Amongst these Imperial forces were the Emperor's Children,
although at this time their fighting strength was still very limited, comprising a single Cohort of barely 500 warriors.
Nevertheless, the Emperor's Children were given the important role of securing the world of Tranquility on the
trailing edge of the Imperial advance. The world was utterly worthless except that a Warp Gate, designated the
Tranquility Gate, hung in high orbit above the planet's pole and a forward Imperial navigation and signal relay had
been constructed there. The Emperor's Children would stand vigil in case the gate was used to threaten the Imperial
advance. Without warning a fleet of xenos warships emerged from the gate. Outmatching the Imperial vessels in
orbit, the xenos fleet soon mounted a ground assault against Tranquility's surface. Outmatched by the numbers of
xenos committed to the assault, the Emperor's Children were forced to make a tactical withdrawal into the
surrounding maze of Tranquility's fissures and stacks, although in retreat the Emperor's Children were far from
beaten. As the xenos advanced, the Emperor's Children pulled them onwards, striking back, feigning flight and then
punishing the foe at every turn. As the xenos' losses mounted with gathering speed, they frantically attempted to
sweep the surface with fire from their orbiting warships in an attempt to gain an advantage. In response, the Imperial
warships executed a rapid, desperate counterattack -- a murderous, pre-planned engagement at point-blank range as
the xenos directed their weapons downwards, rendering themselves vulnerable. Seven of the nine alien warships
were destroyed in a matter of minutes. Unable to sustain their crushing losses, the remaining xenos craft fled back
through the Warp Gate, leaving their surviving fighters on the planet's surface, dooming them to annihilation at the
hands of the Emperor's Children.
The Fall of the Lords of Gardinaal (Unknown Date.M30) - During the Great Crusade there were many human
worlds, indeed in some cases petty interstellar empires, who resisted the Imperial Truth through fear, fanaticism or
arrogance, and of these some number possessed considerable might of arms, enough to give even the Expeditionary
Fleets of the Great Crusade pause. One such was the Gardinaal; a solar empire at the edge of the Dominion of
Storms to the galactic east. Comprising eleven inhabited worlds, grown strong on industrial power retained through
the Age of Strife and a warlike military aristocracy, it was deemed an ideal prize well-worthy of inclusion intact for
the Imperium. In particular, Gardinaal's extensive and well-equipped armed forces would make ideal inductees into
the ranks of the Imperial Army. As such, negotiations for the inclusion of Gardinaal in the Imperium were deemed
the first course of action, and a full delegation with an honour guard drawn from the Thousand Sons Legion was sent
to meet with the lords of the pocket empire. At first, the talks proved promising, but soon degenerated when the
Lords of Gardinaal's position became laboured and obstructive, believed to be an attempt to forestall an invasion
while the Gardinaal covertly readied itself for war. When the Thousand Sons detachment detected a psychic attempt
to subvert the Imperial emissaries, they intervened, slaughtering the Gardinaal delegation, enabling the Imperial
Expedition to flee, bringing news of the treacherous attack to the Imperium. The nearby 413th Expeditionary Fleet,
under the command of Master Ulan Cicerus and his XVth Chapter of the Ultramarines Legion, a strong Imperial
Army core of Marnean Armsmen and Serranic Peltasts and a demi-legio of the Titan Legio Atarus were dispatched.
Initially, the Imperial forces overcame the defences of Gardinaal's outer worlds and established a blockade in space.
The Ultramarines' attempt to take Gardinaal Prime with minimal collateral loss would prove disastrous, as the
Gardinaal utilised powerful STC weaponry and vehicles never before seen by Imperial forces. The Ultramarines and
Titans were hurled back and forced to retreat off-planet rather than fight on with no possibility of victory. Nearly
half of the demi-legio was lost and the Ultramarines' casualties were just as severe, but worse, over 500,000 troops
of the Imperial Army lay dead or dying on Gardinaal Prime. Repulsed and bled dry, the 413th Expedition was
unable to launch another assault. Breaking from the Warp to answer the Ultramarines call for aid, at the head of a
new war-host, Ferrus Manus led an armada comprised of both the Iron Hands and the Emperor's Children Legions.
The Emperor's Children contingent led a diversionary attack, sowing panic and death across the world but leaving its
infrastructure intact. Descending at the height of the diversionary attacks, the Iron Hands divided the task of taking
Gardinaal Prime's main industrialised zones between the Iron Hands Clans. The assault of the Xth Legion was
relentless and tireless, a battle fought across a thousand engagements spread over an entire world. With their
domains fallen about them, the Lords of Gardinaal offered unconditional surrender to the Imperium. Ferrus Manus
refused and the Iron Hands led the final attack on the capital city. The Ultramarines, desperate to reclaim their
honour from their earlier defeat, requested the honour of crossing the breach into the enemy citadel. The Gorgon
acquiesced to the Ultramarines' request, but the price the warriors of the XIIIth Legion paid was high, for the
defenders' counterattack was powerful, sparing none of their remaining might. When the last of the Lords of
Gardinaal had paid for their intransigence, Ferrus Manus spoke, his orders not a death sentence of a world, but of its
reprieve: "It is done." The Iron Hands fleet left the Gardinaal System shortly afterwards, its other inhabited worlds
pleased to surrender unconditionally to the Imperium's mercy. Though initially faced with famine and hardship,
Gardinaal soon proved a valuable addition to the Imperium and a model of Imperial Compliance.
Extinction of the Katara (Unknown Date.M30) - The xenocide of the alien Katara was a brutal campaign of
extermination carried out against this insular Abhuman civilisation that had evolved in the Kenuit System during the
Age of Strife, turning irrevocably from the purity of the human form and the fellowship of Mankind. When first
discovered by an Emperor's Children fleet, the first signs indicated that the system's Imperial Compliance could be
achieved without bloodshed. Initially offering no resistance, matters only deteriorated when the Katara were asked
directly to formally surrender to the Imperium. Soon a lone Kataran warship arrived and destroyed the Light Cruiser
Locrian before sustaining damage itself and withdrawing. So provoked, acting Lieutenant Commander Abdemon
ordered the invasion of the largest Kataran city-complex the Imperial fleet's augurs could detect. Commencing an
orbital bombardment which cracked open the upper levels of the Kataran city, the Emperor's Children landed,
suspecting that they would face mass resistance to their invasion. Instead, they encountered lone Kataran warriors
clad in strange armour made from an exotic metal who fought with leaf-bladed ceramic axes, plasma-tipped spears
that burned like suns and swords of black glass that could cut ceramite with a delicate stroke. The skill in which the
Kartarans wielded their weapons was dazzling even to the Emperor's Children. The Katara's diplomatic
representatives came forward again after hundreds of their warriors had died in their seemingly insane, staggered
attacks and requested to meet once more under truce. The Kataran diplomat brought a proposal: let the war be
decided by a chosen champion from each side. At the end the victor would claim not only victory for himself but for
his civilisation. Incredibly, Lieutenant Commander Abdemon agreed and said that he would enter the field as the
Imperium's champion. The two warriors fought, until at last both were sheeted in blood. That is when the Imperial
champion got under the alien's guard and delivered the killing blow. With their champion defeated, the Kataran
representatives ordered that all should know that their people had been defeated by an enemy of equal honour but
superior arts. The order given, the Kataran leaders fell on their own swords before the Emperor's Children. Across
all their domains every member of the Katara followed their leaders in death and the Kataran cities became massive
tombs. Though some advocated stripping the now unoccupied worlds and beginning a process of resettlement,
Lieutenant Commander Abdemon and the Emperor's Children refused, decreeing that the Kataran planet would
become a Mortuary World. The cites would remain untouched until time remade them, and the corpses of their
makers returned to dust. Relics were collected from their dead so that the Katara would be remembered as
honourable foes.
Pacification of Schravaan (Mid-800s.M30) - This was a joint Imperial Compliance action conducted by the
Emperor's Children, Iron Warriors, Imperial Fists, and the Luna Wolves Legions against the xenos Badoon on the
world of Schravaan. The Iron Warriors won a great victory when they stormed the final refuge of the Badoon. They
breached the defences and held while the other Legions carried the city beyond. During the following victory feast,
Horus proclaimed Perturabo the greatest master of siege warfare in the Great Crusade. Fulgrim then inquired to his
brother Dorn whether he thought even the defences of the Imperial Palace could resist the Iron Warriors, in which
Dorn replied that he regarded the defences as being proof against any assault if well-planned. Perturabo flew into a
rage and unleashed unfounded accusations against his brother. After this the two rarely spoke, and neither of their
Legions served in the same campaign for the remainder of the Great Crusade.
Compliance of Molech (869.M30) - The Compliance of the newly discovered Knight World of Molech was a
monumental undertaking. Led by the Emperor Himself, the massive joint-Compliance campaign was conducted by
multiple Legiones Astartes, including the Emperor's Children, Luna Wolves, Dark Angels, White Scars and several
thousands troops of the Imperialis Auxilia as well as assets from the Mechanicum and cohorts of the Legio
Titanicus. Cyprian Devine of House Devine was named Planetary Governor of Molech. In the presence of several of
His Primarch sons, the Emperor led them to a hidden Warp portal underground, where He proceeded to enter into
the Realm of Chaos to parley with the Ruinous Powers. When He returned, the Emperor appeared aged, but much
more powerful. He then suppressed His sons' memories of Molech and stationed a large garrison force comprised of
nearly 100 Imperialis Auxilia regiments, three Legio Titanicus cohorts, and detachments from two Space Marine
Legions to protect the secrets of the Warp portal on Molech.
Pacification of the Cheraut System (Mid-900s.M30) - Following the successful joint-Compliance of the Cheraut
System by the Emperor's Children, Imperial Fists and Night Lords Legions, the three Primarchs met in celebration.
After the celebration, the Night Lords Primarch suffered one of his violent fits that often plagued him, and Fulgrim
rushed to Konrad Curze's aid. The Night Haunter then confided in his brother the dire visions that he had seen; his
death at the hands of their father, that many of the Primarchs would die fighting amongst themselves, and that the
light the Emperor brought to his homeworld of Nostramo would destroy it forever. Troubled by these dire portents,
Fulgrim confided in his brother Rogal Dorn. Dorn took exception to this slight on the Emperor's name and
confronted Curze. Shortly thereafter, Dorn was found unconscious and bleeding with great gouges of flesh ripped
away from his torso. Crouching above his fallen brother was the pallid form of the Night Haunter, weeping.
Wracked with self-loathing and guilt, Curze was taken into custody and exiled to his chambers, while his brother
Primarchs discussed what actions to take against their deeply disturbed brother. Hours later, when the council of
Primarchs finally disbanded, they found Night Haunter missing and the Imperial Fists honour guard watching over
him butchered. By the time the Primarchs gave chase, Night Haunter had already disappeared with his Legion into
the Warp.
Cleansing of 28-3 (Laeran) (ca. 000.M31) - Shortly after the beginning of their participation in the Great Crusade on
their own terms, the Emperor`s Children 28th Expeditionary Fleet encountered a hitherto-unknown serpentine alien
race who called themselves the Laer. Analysis of captured scouts and envoys showed the Laer to be concentrated in
a single star system on a single homeworld completely covered by a global ocean called Laeran (officially codified
as Twenty-Eight-Three). Nonetheless, they had the potential to be a powerful foe. Like the Emperor's Children
themselves, the Laer prized perfection in all aspects of civilisation. By the use of chemical manipulation from birth,
individual Laer were adapted to their roles, whether they be workers, soldiers, diplomats, even artists. Observers
from the Adeptus Administratum wondered if perhaps the Laer might be made a protectorate of the Imperium as
conquering such an efficient race could prove to be a long and costly endeavour. Fulgrim refused any notion of co-
operation. Only humanity was perfect, he insisted. For an alien race to hold its own ideals to be comparable to those
of humanity was blasphemy in its most blatant form, and deserved nothing less than annihilation. He ordered his
Lord Commanders to attack immediately, beginning a war that the Council of Terra predicted would last for
decades. Fulgrim heard this prediction, and shook his head. In one month`s time, he promised, the Imperium would
rule Laeran. The Emperor's Children, in concert with Lord Commander Fayle's Imperial Army regiments of the
Archite Palatines, attacked the Laer in space, on the surface of their world, beneath their oceans and over the hulls of
their orbital platforms. Laeran itself was a remarkable world in which the serpentine Laer had used anti-gravity
technology to float massive coral platforms above their world's ocean where they chose to live after global warming
had sunk all of Laer's continental masses. Everywhere the Astartes faced enemies adapted to their conditions by
genetic enhancement -- warships connected directly to their crews' minds using cybernetic technology, the Laer's
amphibious warriors could breathe underwater through gills, their scouts were capable of moving as fast as a Land
Speeder, their gunners possessed eyesight that allowed them to target individual Space Marines miles distant. The
casualties on both sides were horrendous -- it is estimated that, if not for the excellence of the IIIrd Legion's
Apothecaries, more than half of its warriors would have died from their wounds. The Laer never surrendered -- their
last warriors died fighting in the ruins of their capital city to protect their central temple dedicated to the worship of
the Chaos God Slaanesh. One month after he had begun the attack, Fulgrim planted a standard displaying the
Imperial Aquila over their corpses, leaving it the only thing standing unblemished on Laer. Over seven hundred of
his men were dead, six times that number injured, but Fulgrim believed he had kept his promise. Against the most
finely-honed alien warriors ever encountered, humanity had proven itself more powerful.Of course, the conquest of
the Laer represented the beginning of Fulgrim and the entire IIIrd Legion's damnation and the beginning of their turn
away from the service of the Emperor. Yet the Laeran System, for ten thousand standard years now, has been home
to three Imperial cities and a dozen mining colonies, and all traces of its former xenos rulers and their corruption are
gone.
Emperor's Children Legionaries confronting Megarachnids on Murder.
Compliance of 140-20 (Urisarach/"Murder") (ca. 001.M31) - After victory against the Laer, Lord Commander
Eidolon departed the 28th Expeditionary Fleet with the elite 1st Company of the Emperor's Children to take part in
the reinforcement of the IXth Legion, the Blood Angels, upon the Death World of Urisarach, which was officially
codified in Imperial records as One-Forty-Twenty, the twentieth world to be brought into Imperial Compliance by
the 140th Expeditionary Fleet. This world was discovered by that fleet, which was commanded by the Blood Angels
Legion's Captain Khitas Frome. Unable to translate the warnings from the orbiting Interex satellite beacons that
warned approaching starships to stay away from Urisarach since it was a prison world for the dangerous sentient
xenos species known as the Megarachnids, Captain Frome ordered the fleet's entire contingent of three companies of
Space Marines to begin landing operations to investigate and bring the planet into Imperial Compliance. Due to the
extreme atmospheric turbulence, all of the Blood Angels' shuttles attempting to land on the planet became scattered
and were thrown far off-course which left the Imperial landing parties isolated from each other. The atmosphere also
affected Vox (radio) communications and made it difficult for the Imperial forces to coordinate their movements.
Ground teams soon started sending garbled transmissions to the fleet's ships in orbit, reporting that the planet was
inhabited by extremely hostile xenos. As the reports continued, the large arachnid-like xenos were described as too
numerous and formidable to defeat without reinforcements. Not long afterwards, the Blood Angels made urgent
distress calls requesting immediate reinforcements and extraction. The last transmission received by the fleet came
from Captain Khitas Frome himself, who noted through clenched teeth, "This. World. Is. Murder." The name stuck
and became the Imperium's informal appellation for Urisarach thereafter. A company of the Emperor's Children
Legion under the command of Lord Commander Eidolon eventually arrived in response to the Blood Angels'
distress calls. They made the same mistakes the Blood Angels had made, and had their landing parties scattered by
the planet's powerful atmospheric disturbances. While the company took heavy casualties, one landing party led by
Captain Saul Tarvitz discovered a large rock-like structure that resembled a dead tree. This "tree" had the bodies of
several Blood Angels Space Marines impaled on its many branches with flying variants of the Megarachnids
feasting upon the bodies. After destroying the structure, the sky above where the "tree" had been suddenly began to
clear of the violent storms that had afflicted the Imperial forces from the beginning. Captain Tarvitz realised that
these structures were actually artificial weather control devices that were responsible for Murder's heavy
atmospheric turbulence. The Megarachnids immediately went about rebuilding the "tree" and sent hundreds of
warriors to slaughter the last few Emperor's Children who remained. There had been little honour in the initial drop
to the planet's surface, amid the death and frantic nature of the combat against the loathsomely quick Megarachnid
warriors. It had been brutal, intense and bloody work, and many good warriors had met their end beneath Murder's
raging, bruised skies. Thanks to Eidolon's mistakes, there had been precious little glory won until the Luna Wolves
had arrived and brought their strength to bear. Just as the Emperor's Children force were about to be overwhelmed, a
relief force of newly-arrived Luna Wolves Astartes from the Warmaster Horus' own 63rd Expeditionary Fleet began
to land through the breach in the atmosphere. The Megarachnids were scattered and a full-scale assault on the hostile
xenos of Murder began in earnest. Ten companies of Luna Wolves, the remnants of the Emperor's Children, tens of
thousands of Imperial Army soldiers, and several Legio Mortis Titans proceeded to level entire swathes of the grass
stalk forests and destroy every one of the "trees" they encountered, which steadily eroded Murder's atmospheric
barrier. Horus, who was commanding the Imperial assault from his flagship in orbit, was very pleased with the
progress being made. Some consideration had been paid to initiating a withdrawal from Murder now that a proper
landing zone was available to allow an easy extraction of the troops, when an unexpected visitor suddenly arrived.
The Primarch Sanguinius had come to the world to inspect the dead of his original Blood Angels landing force that
had been wiped out early in the campaign. Adding five of his companies of Blood Angels to the Imperial invasion
force, Sanguinius and his forces fought alongside the Warmaster against the aliens. Thousands of Megarachnids
poured out of the forests and canyons of Murder in an endless wave. Despite never retreating from the Imperial
assault, the Megarachnids only continued to lose ground. By the sixth month of the campaign it seemed the
Megarachnids would soon face extinction when the fleet deployed by the Interex arrived in-system to determine
who had assaulted the Megarachnids' reservation world. Finding contact with the highly-advanced humans of the
Interex to be a more pressing issue that needed to be dealt with, the Warmaster ended the campaign against the
xenos of Murder.
Diasporex Persecution, Battle of the Corollis Star (ca. 001.M31) - During the latter part of the Great Crusade, the
Iron Hands Legion's 52nd Expeditionary Fleet encountered a nomadic, fleet-based civilisation composed of both
humans and xenos known as the Diasporex. The Iron Hands shared the Imperial Truth of the Emperor of Mankind
and offered the human members of the Diasporex the opportunity to separate from their alien allies and to join the
newly forged Imperium, but they declined the Astartes' offer. Their offer rejected, the Iron Hands passed judgement,
and in the following months the Iron Hands fleet attempted to annihilate the Diasporex, but they proved to be highly
skilled and experienced in the realm of naval warfare, and managed to easily evade crucial battles and even to
severely damage the Iron Hands' Strike Cruiser Ferrum. The Emperor's Children of the 28th Expeditionary Fleet
were called in as reinforcements, and so, a joint Imperial strike force composed of both the Iron Hands and forces
from the Emperor's Children Legion prepared to launch an all-out assault against the willful Diasporex. Though the
Diasporex knew that a powerful fleet of warships was hunting them and sought their destruction, they refused to
leave the sector and move on to someplace safer. The Iron Hands' scout ships soon discovered the truth -- the
Diasporex used hidden solar collector arrays hidden near the Corollis Star to collect fuel for their vessels. This was
the reason why the Diasporex remained within the sector. Attacking these vital fuel stations, the two Imperial
Expeditionary Fleets drew the Diasporex fleet out into open battle as the human-alien alliance sought to avoid utter
annihilation at the Imperials' hands. During the massive naval battle that ensued Fulgrim's personal gunship, the
Firebird, came under heavy attack and soon found itself in trouble. Rushing to his brother's side, Ferrus Manus'
flagship, the Battle Barge Fist of Iron, came rushing to the rescue of his beleaguered brother. To restore his wounded
pride, Fulgrim led a brief shipboarding action where the Emperor's Children wreaked bloody havoc on the troops of
the Diasporex. But ultimate victory was robbed from him when the enemy ship's bridge was taken by one of his
subordinate commanders. For months thereafter, Fulgrim would resent The Gorgon's actions, unable to truly
understand the altruism of Ferrus' deed and the loss of life his selfless act had incurred on his Legion. Under the
malignant influence of the daemon-possessed Laer blade that he wore at all times, Fulgrim could only see self-
aggrandisement in his brother's action, instead of the the heroic deed it had truly been. Ferrus's critical comments,
the wounding darts that Fulgrim believed were meant to undermine him, were in actuality only jests designed to
puncture Fulgrim's self-importance and restore his humility. What Fulgrim perceived as Ferrus' prideful boasts and
rash actions had been deeds of courage that he spitefully dismissed as the influence of Chaos began to claim the
Phoenician's soul.
Battle of Tarsus (004.M31) - Primarch Fulgrim met with the renowned Eldar Farseer Eldrad Ulthran of Ulthwé
Craftworld on the Maiden World of Tarsus, on which the Farseer attempted to warn Fulgrim of the Warmaster's
corruption after being wounded by a malefic Chaos blade known as the Kinebrach Anathame at the hands of the
traitor Eugen Temba upon Davin's Nurgle-corrupted moon. Temba had been the former Planetary Governor of the
Feral World of Davin who had fallen under the influence of the Plague Lord Nurgle. The injury caused by the
poisonous blade had allowed the Chaos Gods to gain a purchase on the Warmaster's soul. Fulgrim reacted with
violent outrage at the Farseer's accusations due to his close kinship with his brother Horus, as his bond with the
Warmaster was second only to that shared with Ferrus Manus, the Primarch of the Xth Legion. This outrage was
further enhanced by the corrupting influence of Fulgrim's Laer daemonblade, which darkly influenced the Primarch
to reject the Eldar's truth and provoked Fulgrim into launching an unprovoked and furious attack on Eldrad and his
retinue alongside his Emperor's Children Captains and his personal Phoenix Guard. In the battle that ensued, the
Emperor's Children slew both the revered Eldar Wraithlord Khiraen Goldhelm and a potent Avatar of Khaine, which
forced the Farseer and the other Eldar troops to sorrowfully withdraw, as they realised that Chaos had already
claimed yet another of the "Mon-Keigh's" Primarchs. Yet they had succeeded in killing all of Fulgrim's elite
personal Phoenix Guard before their departure. Believing the Eldar had proven themselves a treacherous xenos race
that sought to divide and conquer the Imperium by spreading such lies about its leaders, Fulgrim, again under the
increasing influence of the daemonblade, ordered the destruction of several other beautiful Eldar Maiden Worlds
using hideous virus bombs.
Battle of Deep Orbital DS191 (ca. 004.M31) - Weeks later, following the campaign on Tarsus, Fulgrim's fleet was
ordered by the Council of Terra to rendezvous with the Warmaster's 63rd Expeditionary Fleet to inquire about
reports of the their recent conduct and acquire information in regards to Horus' grave injuries acquired on Davin's
feral moon. Most unusual, was that the IIIrd Legion's Lord Commander Vespasian was excluded from this
delegation to Horus, which demonstrated an ever-growing rift between the Lord Commander and his Primarch.
Following this delegation to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet, Fulgrim announced to his senior commanders that he
would lead a small force to join Ferrus Manus and his Iron Hands at Callinedes IV in the Callinedes System under
the pretense of clearing it of an Ork infestation. The Primarch spearheaded the assault during the pacification of
Deep Orbital DS191, leading the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Companies. During the assault, Captain Solomon Demeter,
commander of the Emperor's Children's 2nd Company, found himself unsupported by the 1st and 3rd Companies as
the battle-plan had laid out. Overextended and in real danger of being cut off and destroyed, the 2nd Company was
only saved from certain destruction by the unplanned and timely arrival of the 10th and 13th Companies under the
commands of Captains Saul Tarvitz and Lucius, two junior officers that Demeter had found himself associating
more and more with as he was systematically frozen out by the IIIrd Legion's high command. A dark shroud hung
over Lord Commander Vespasian after witnessing these dishonourable actions. He felt obliged to act after he
observed Solomon Demeter's 2nd Company being intentionally abandoned by both Captain Kaesoron's and
Vairosean's companies. It was a decision that would cost the honourable Astartes his life when he was murdered by
Fulgrim himself.
Battle of Istvaan Extremis (005.M31) - The elite 1st Company of the Emperor's Children fought in concert with the
Death Guard Legion's 7th Company under the command of Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro against traitorous forces
on Istvaan Extremis, the outermost planet within the Istvaan System. Whilst fighting against a powerful Slaaneshi
psyker known as a Warsinger, Garro sustained serious injuries; crushing damage to his torso, arm and the loss of his
right leg from the mid-thigh down. He was only saved from certain death by the timely ministrations of the
Emperor's Children Chief Apothecary Fabius. Taking stock of the desperate situation, Lord Commander Eidolon
made use of a hitherto unknown ability -- a modified tracheal implant bonded with his vocal chords, that allowed
him to produce a nerve paralysing shriek similar to that employed by certain warrior breeds of the alien Laer. This
powerful ability killed the Warsinger and helped the Astartes carry the day.
Istvaan III Atrocity (005.M31) - The terrible campaign that marked the start of the Horus Heresy and was known to
later generations as the Istvaan III Atrocity began when the Imperial Planetary Governor of Istvaan III, Vardus
Praal, had been corrupted by the Chaos God Slaanesh whose cultists had long been active on the world even before
it had been conquered by the Imperium. Praal had declared his independence from the Imperium, and had begun to
practice forbidden Slaaneshi sorcery, so the Council of Terra charged Horus with the retaking of that world,
primarily its capital, the Choral City. This order merely furthered Horus's plan to overthrow the Emperor. Although
the four Legions under his direct command -- the Sons of Horus, the World Eaters, the Death Guard and the
Emperor's Children -- had already turned Traitor and pledged themselves to Chaos, there were still some Loyalist
elements within each of these Legions that approximated one-third of each force; many of these warriors were
Terran-born Space Marines who had been directly recruited into the Astartes Legions by the Emperor Himself
before being reunited with their Primarchs during the Great Crusade. Horus, under the guise of putting down the
rebellion against Imperial Compliance on the world of Istvaan III, amassed his troops in the Istvaan System. Horus
had a plan by which he would destroy all of the remaining Loyalist elements of the Legions under his command.
After a lengthy bombardment of Istvaan III, Horus despatched all of the known Loyalist Astartes down to the planet,
under the pretence of bringing it back into the Imperium. Initial attacks on the Choral City had washed away any
feelings of unease, the release of the Loyalists' anger and hurt in bloodshed reassuring them that things were as they
should be, and that their earlier misgivings were no cause for concern. But then Captain Saul Tarvitz of the 10th
Company of the Emperor's Children had arrived with an incredible tale of betrayal and imminent attack. Many had
scoffed at Tarvitz's warning, but some had immediately known the truth of it, and had fought to make their brothers
realise their danger. As the monstrous scale of the betrayal sank in, the Loyalist Sons of Horus, World Eaters and
Emperor's Children had raced to find shelter before the deadly viral payload struck the world intended to be their
tomb. The Loyalists on the surface watched in horror as the first streaks of light lit up the sky and the detonations
covered the skies in thick starbursts of deadly viral agents. The screaming of the city as it died haunted them, as they
couldn't even begin to imagine the horror that must have filled the minds of those who watched as the Life Eater
devoured the flesh of their loved ones, before reducing them to disintegrated hunks of rotted, dead matter. Many
within the Loyalist ranks knew what the deadly the Life Eater was, and they knew that within hours the entire planet
would be a charnel house. Then the firestorm had come and razed the surface bare of any signs of its former
inhabitants, burning them to ashen flakes on the wind as it destroyed all in its path and howled across the surface of
Isstvan III in a seething tide of flame. The Primarch of the World Eaters, Angron, realising that the virus-bombs had
not been fully effective at eliminating all the Loyalists, flew into a rage and hurled himself at the planet at the head
of 50 companies of World Eaters Traitor Marines. Discarding tactics and strategy, the World Eaters Traitors worked
themselves into a frenzy of mindless butchery fed by their growing allegiance to the Blood God Khorne. Horus was
furious with Angron for delaying his plans, but Horus sought to turn the delay into a victory and was obliged to
reinforce Angron with troops from the Sons of Horus, the Death Guard, and the Emperor's Children. Fortunately, a
contingent of Loyalists led by Battle-Captain Garro escaped Istvaan III aboard the damaged Imperial frigate
Eisenstein and fled to Terra to warn the Emperor that Horus had turned Traitor. On Istvaan III, the remaining
Loyalists, under the command of Captains Tarvitz, Garviel Loken and Tarik Torgaddon, another Loyalist member of
the Sons of Horus, fought bravely against their own traitorous brethren. Yet, despite some early successes that
delayed Horus' plans for three full months while the battle on Istvaan III played out, their cause was ultimately
doomed by their lack of air support and Titan firepower. During the battle the Sons of Horus Captains Ezekyle
Abaddon and Horus Aximand were sent to confront their former Mournival brothers, Loken and Torgaddon. Horus
Aximand beheaded Torgaddon, but Abaddon failed to kill Loken when the building they were in collapsed. Loken
survived and witnessed the final orbital bombardment of Istvaan III that ended the Loyalists' desperate defence. To
prove his worth and loyalty to Lord Commander Eidolon of the Emperor's Children -- and thus to his Primarch,
Fulgrim -- Captain Lucius of the 13th Company of the Emperor's Children, the future Champion of Slaanesh known
as Lucius the Eternal, turned against the Loyalists that he had fought beside because of his prior friendship with Saul
Tarvitz. Lucius slew many of them personally, an act for which he was then accepted back into the Emperor's
Children Legion on the side of the Traitors. In the end, the Loyalists retreated to their last bastion of defence, only a
few hundred of their number remaining. Finally, tired of the conflict, Horus ordered his men to withdraw, and then
had the remains of the Choral City bombarded into dust for a final time from orbit.
Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V (006.M31) - The world of Istvaan V was the location of the infamous Drop Site
Massacre where the Traitor Legions of the Warmaster Horus redeployed following the virus-bombing of the Traitor
Legions' own Loyalist members at Istvaan III at the start of the Horus Heresy. Upon learning of the terrible atrocity
Horus had committed, the Emperor deployed seven Loyalist Legions of Space Marines to bring Horus to account for
his actions. The Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard made up the first wave of the attack, but were pushed
back by the superior tactics of Horus's maddened Chaos Space Marines. The Loyalist reserves were called in, but the
four Space Marine Legions comprising them -- the Iron Warriors, the Alpha Legion, the Word Bearers and the Night
Lords -- had also secretly betrayed the Emperor and were prepared to follow Horus and swear themselves to Chaos.
Evidence indicates that much of the preparations for the defence of the Urgall Depression fell to the Primarch of the
Emperor's Children at Horus' direct command, with the Emperor's Children themselves charged with manning the
central outermost defence lines where the fighting would be at its fiercest during the initial Loyalist attack. Whether
this was intended as a slight or punishment is a matter of conjecture, but regardless, the cunning, speed and skill that
were invested into what must have been a breakneck series of preparations to raise up the ruins of the ancient
fortress was formidable. When the Loyalists came to attack, they were met not just with fortified xenos ruins, but
cunningly interwoven fields of fire, lethal kill zones, interlocking trench works, hidden approaches and all manner of
ruse de guerre as deadly as any encountered during the Great Crusade. As for the Legion who manned those
defences, though a brief time had passed since the Battle of Istvaan III, already many had succumbed to marked
psychological changes, stigmata and deliberate mutilation, foreshadowing what was to come. The three Loyalist
Legions were almost annihilated in the resulting crossfire, but several thousand survivors from each Legion
managed to escape off-world, though they were too decimated to play much of a further role in the defence of the
Imperium from Horus' betrayal. During the ensuing slaughter, Fulgrim came face-to-face with his former brother
and closest friend, Ferrus Manus. The two Primarchs engaged in a titanic struggle, but in the end The Gorgon was
mortally wounded, and with the urging of the Laer daemonblade that he always carried, Fulgrim beheaded the Iron
Hands' Primarch. The civil war unleashed at Istvaan V pitched the whole Imperium into anarchy and chaos.
Assault on Iydris (006-007.M31) - In the wake of the terrible slaughter of Loyalists at the Drop Site Massacre on
Istvaan V, a small fleet of Astartes from the ravaged Iron Hands and Raven Guard Legions managed to flee off-
world. Among these vessels was the Sisypheum, a Strike Cruiser commanded by the mortally wounded Iron Hands
Captain Ulrach Branthan. Determined to continue to strike against the Traitor Legions wherever and whenever they
could, the crew of the Sisypheum eventually manged to intercept the encoded communications of the Traitors and
learned that the Traitor Primarchs Fulgrim and Perturabo were leading their Emperor's Children and Iron Warriors
Traitor Legions, respectively, into the Warp Rift later named the Eye of Terror by Perturabo in search of an
unknown Eldar weapon known as the Angel Exterminatus which could decisively tip the balance of the Horus
Heresy in favour of the Traitors. The Iron Hands eventually assembled a small fleet of similar Loyalist survivors of
the Drop Site Massacre and made their way into the Eye to stop the Traitors from acquiring this weapon. Once
within the Eye, Fulgrim led the combined Traitor Legion forces to the ancient Eldar Crone World of Iydris, into the
citadel known as Amon ny-shak Kaelis where the Angel Exterminatus was supposedly located. The Traitors were
forced to repel countless attacks by the ancient Eldar defense systems and by attacks from Eldar constructs animated
by the ountless dead Eldar souls of the Crone World. In truth, the entire quest for the Angel Exterminatus had been a
ruse perpetrated upon Perturabo and the Iron Warriors by Fulgrim and the Emperor's Children. Fulgrim, now a
Champion of the Chaos God of Pleasure, Slaanesh, sought apoetheosis to become a Daemon Prince of the Prince of
Chaos. But he needed the power provided by the life force of a Primarch and the sacred energies of a place like an
Eldar Crone World that was sacred to Slaanesh to complete his ascension to daemonhood. Fulgrim had given to
Perturabo a cloak, to which was affixed a skull-shaped pin carrying a relic known as a maugetar stone. As long as
Perturabo was within the confines of the Eldar citadel the stone slowly absorbedhis life force and fed these energies
to Fulgrim. Once Perturabo discovered his brother's perfidy, the Iron Warriors launched an assault upon the
Emperor's Children, and a three-way battle soon developed as the Iron Hands from the Sisypheum and its small
flotilla of Loyalists entered the fray against both Traitor forces, unaware of what was truly happening. In the course
of the combat that followed, Perturabo slew Fulgrim's mortal body with the great warhammer Forgebreaker, which
ironically had originally been forged for Fulgrim by Ferrus Manus. But this action was only the final component in
Fulgrim's ritual of apoetheosis, and his body remade itself into the twisted, serpentine form of a Slaaneshi Daemon
Prince. Fulgrim became the first of the Traitor Primarchs to ascend to daemonhood, but he would not be the last. His
goal achieved, Fulgrim had teleported his Emperor's Children away from Iydris and the Crone World began to
collapse as the potent life forces of the dead that had long sustained it were drained away by Fulgrim's ascension.
The Iron Hands and Perturabo's Iron Warriors successfully fled the crumbling planet, though Perturabo escaped by
taking his fleet deeper into the black hole that lay at the centre of the Eye of Terror. For the first time, one of the
Traitor Legions had turned on another, a situation that was to become all too common as the Dark Gods of Chaos
tightened their grip on Horus' followers.
Siege of the Perfect Fortress (ca. 007.M31) - During the Great Crusade, under guidance of their Primarch, the IIIrd
Legion had erected the so-called "Perfect Fortress" on the world of Narsis. The "Perfect Fortress" was a military
base, but also a Hive City of outstanding beauty, harbouring millions of inhabitants. Its elegant buildings and
colonnades hid both administrative buildings as well as tanks and weapon depots, and every balcony was placed into
a perfect firing position on pre-planned kill-zones. Taking the "Perfect Fortress" would be an arduous task, and
therefore, the Emperor's Children left only a small garrison under Captain Luthris to protect Narsis. It thus came as a
shock when the severely depleted Raven Guard Legion and its allies from the Therion Cohort not only attacked, but
seized the "Perfect Fortress" after only four solar days of battle.
Fall of Batzel III (008.M31) - The Legion's 39th Millennial was destroyed by elements of the Space Wolves Legion
during the storming of the Vykstag Winter Palace.
Battle of Terra (014.M31) - As the events of the Horus Heresy neared their tragic conclusion seven years after the
fateful betrayal at Istvaan III, those Loyalist Legions not committed to the defence of Terra raced through the Warp,
converging on the homeworld of Mankind. The Traitor Legions also massed above Terra to assault the Imperial
Palace. The Battle of Terra was the final confrontation of the Horus Heresy that raged on Terra itself between the
Forces of Chaos led by the Warmaster Horus and the Loyalist armies of the Imperium of Man led by the Emperor of
Mankind Himself. When Horus laid siege to Terra itself, the Emperor's Children were at his side, but they took little
part in the slow process of whittling down the massive defences of the Imperial Palace. Instead Fulgrim turned his
Legion loose on the uncontested areas of the planet, where billions of terrified humans cowered at the sight of the
followers of Chaos, suddenly stripped of the protection they had counted on from the Palace. The brutality and
slaughter of Istvaan repeated itself, but on a far, far greater scale. With the concentration of Chaos around Terra, the
Apothecaries and Sorcerers of the Emperor's Children drew on the power of Slaanesh to enhance their pleasures,
wantonly desecrating not only their minds and bodies, but now their immortal souls as well. Daemons were
summoned and set loose among prisoners, feasting on their flesh as they died, while the Space Marines themselves
sought even greater excesses of carnage and carnality. Fulgrim directed the slaughter with glee, believing that his
Legion were setting their victims free from the chains of the Emperor's rule, and allowing them to feel true
Humanity at the limits of experience. In that time, as the Siege of Terra raged around them, the Emperor's Children
are reckoned to have murdered more than forty times their number of unarmed, defenceless people in their efforts to
create new stimulants to feed their addiction to pleasure. How many more died simply to sate the bloodlust of their
killers cannot be guessed at. The Loyalist forces ultimately proved victorious in their defence of the Imperial Palace,
though only just barely, and Horus was ultimately slain by the full psychic powers unleashed by the Emperor on the
deck of his massive Battle Barge the Vengeful Spirit, though the Master of Mankind was mortally wounded and had
to be interred within the cybernetic life support mechanisms of the advanced psychic augmentation technology
known as the Golden Throne. Those Imperial vessels which pursued Fulgrim's fleet from Terra followed a trail of
devastated worlds, where corpses were piled high, survivors pleaded to be allowed to die to escape their nightmares
and, ominously, thousands more were simply missing, never seen again. Eventually, after countless atrocities, the
Emperor's Children reached the Eye of Terror where they and their fellow traitors hid from the vengeance of the
Imperium. According to the Inquisition's Hades Oracle, the Emperor's Children quickly exhausted their supply of
slaves and playthings, and began to prey upon the only victims available: the slaves and servants of the other Traitor
Legions. The resulting wars were terrible and bloody, but there could be only one eventual result, and finally the
once-proud IIIrd Legion was shattered into multiple warbands, each pursuing their own self-obsessed perversions.
The outcome of the Battle of Terra shaped the destiny of humanity for the next 10,000 standard years and began the
Long War of the Forces of Chaos to overthrow the Corpse Emperor.
The Sons of Horus in combat with the Emperor's Children Traitor Legion within the Eye of Terror during the Slave
Wars of the early 31st Millennium.
Slave Wars (Unknown Date. M31) - The first major conflict between the most powerful servants of the Dark Gods
following the Horus Heresy was started by the Emperor's Children Legion, that Traitor Legion dedicated to the
service of Slaanesh, whose excesses grew more wanton and uncontrollable in the days after the Heresy. As the
supply of slaves the IIIrd Legion had acquired on Terra and other Imperial worlds as they fled to the Eye was
exhausted, the Emperor's Children began to assault the positions of the other Traitor Legions within the Eye of
Terror, plundering their own slave stocks for use in satisfying their perverse, hedonistic whims. It is for this reason
that these campaigns are collectively called the Slave Wars. One of the actions known to the Imperium that occurred
during these conflicts was the Battle of Skalathrax between the Emperor's Children and the World Eaters that saw
the World Eaters finally shattered as a unified Space Marine Legion. The Emperor's Children also destroyed the
fortress of the Sons of Horus Legion on the Daemon World of Maeleum, leading to a failed attempt by the corrupt
Emperor's Children Apothecary Fabius Bile to clone Horus and provide a new leader for the Forces of Chaos.
Abaddon the Despoiler led the Sons of Horus to reclaim Horus' corpse, and destroy the primary fortress of the
Emperor's Children. Abaddon returned it to Maeleum where he had it destroyed so that no further attempts to clone
Horus could ever be attempted. Following this triumph, Abaddon declared himself Horus' successor as the
Warmaster of Chaos and the master of the XVIth Legion. At the same time, he came to the epiphany that Horus was
dead because Horus had been a weak fool, unable to complete his task of slaying the Emperor and taking control of
the galaxy in the name of the Dark Gods. Abaddon swore that he would succeed where Horus had failed in
overthrowing the "Corpse-Emperor" and proclaimed himself the new Warmaster of Chaos. He had the Sons of
Horus repaint their viridian Power Armour black, the colour of mourning and of vengeance, and cast-off the XVIth
Legion's former moniker of the Sons of Horus. From then on, they became known as the Black Legion. The Black
Legion then abandoned the ruins of the Sons of Horus' fortress and left Maeleum behind, choosing to become a
fleet-based Legion with scattered holdings all across the Eye of Terror. Though long, terrible, and bloody, in the end
the dwindling Emperor's Children Legion faced their inevitable defeat at the hands of their fellow Traitor Legions.
The Emperor's Children, like the World Eaters before them, were finally shattered as an organised Space Marine
Legion and broke up into hundreds of disparate and often opposed Chaos Space Marine warbands. It is said by the
adversaries of those who serve Slaanesh that during the Slave Wars the Daemon Primarch Fulgrim was himself
killed by Abaddon and the Black Legion, but the Emperor's Children counter that he was given lordship by Slaanesh
over an unknown Daemon World of unending pleasure, its location unknown even to many of their own ranks.
Flesh Meets Steel (Unknown Date) - The Sensorians, a newly-formed warband of Slaanesh-worshipping Chaos
Space Marines, treat with the Dark Mechanicum in an attempt to pioneer Daemon Engines equipped with suites of
Sonic Weapons. In doing so they learn of the sombre Skitarii of the Forge World of Agripinaa, ancestral enemies of
the Eye of Terror's machine-Hereteks. Appalled by the notion that the Skitarii voluntarily exchange their flesh for
cybernetic replacements, the Emperor's Children stage a grand raid upon the planet under the cover of a Dark
Mechanicum invasion. They capture several maniples of Skitarii, overloading their circuits with barrages of intense
noise and deafening scrapcode, before bearing them back to the Eye of Terror. There they cut out the Skitarii's
bionics and replace them with fleshy equivalents taken from mutants, from corpses, even from fallen Chaos Spawn,
until barely an ounce of metal is left. These Fleshlings of Sensoria, though driven mad by the process, prove a potent
asset for the Emperor's Children in the Long War.
The Eternal Duellist (Unknown Date) - Lucius the Eternal leads a motley warband across the galaxy on the trail of
the deadliest opponents his network of admiring torture-cultists can locate for him. He intends to hunt down the best
melee fighters in the galaxy and beat them in one-on-one combat or die in the attempt. Over the course of several
Terran centuries he defeats the Dark Eldar Archon Vraesque in cursed Shaa-dom, the Emperor's Champion of the
Black Templars at Veilfate, and the Ork Warboss Two-klaws at Octarius Sigma. Eventually, on a nameless moon
near Damnos, Lucius is cut down by the shape-shifting Necron duellist known only as the Phasing Sword. Not even
the Necron's body of living metal can prevent the Slaaneshi Champion's strange possession-curse from taking hold,
however, for the undying Necron takes a cold pride in its victory, and that is the seed of its undoing. Lucius is reborn
inside his killer within solar days, the xenos warrior's necrodermis body drizzling away like molten metal to reveal
the twisted swordsman, as arrogant and maniacal as ever.
The Cacophonicum of Knaus Lambda (Unknown Date) - The warband of Revellian Thrice-Burned captures the
Basilica Morbidus, centrepiece of the Shrine World of Knaus Lambda's majestic Faithful City. Six Dreadclaws slam
through the cathedrum's stained-glass ceiling and disgorge their battle-hungry passengers. The Sonic Weapons of
the hedonistic killers shatters priceless glass sculptures and a king's ransom in jewels. The barefoot Imperial
supplicants and pilgrims that were making their devotions are shredded body and soul by the deafening cacophony,
which is enhanced by the basilica's perfect acoustics. In response, the nearby Schola Progenium complex scrambles
its Tempestus Scions to the site, and a gun battle takes place that sees the city filled with terrified screams. The
cacophony grows so intense that reality itself shimmers and convulses, and a carnival of Slaaneshi Daemonettes
joins the feast. The Faithful City is eventually reconsecrated as the Cacophonicum, becoming a base of operations
that sees Revellian Thrice-Burned and his Emperor's Children reduce every one of Knaus Lambda's fortified
settlements to rubble.
Revenge of the Silver Prince (Unknown Date) - After a long and difficult journey through the Warp, the Khorne
Daemonkin warband known as the Skullsworn overtake their Emperor's Children rivals on the approach to the
Civilised World of Hunter's Haven. The Skullsworn launch a bloody strike three solar days before their fellow
Chaos Space Marines arrive. When the Emperor's Children make planetfall, there is little left of the capital city's
populace but dismembered corpses and decapitated heads stacked in pyramidal piles. Enraged by the Skullsworn's
actions, the daemon overlord known as the Silver Prince leads his bodyguard of Chaos Terminators in a sorcerous
strike directly at the Khornate warband's commanders. The sudden conflict escalates into a grinding war of attrition
that sees both warbands sustain grievous losses; however, both sides revel in the carnage to such an extent neither
will back down. The remaining citizens of Hunter's Haven make use of the reprieve to evacuate, leaving the Chaos
Space Marines to fight amongst themselves.
The Primogenitor Primaris (Unknown Date.M42) - The deranged fleshmaster Fabius Bile is upon the world of
Agrathane Excellia when he witnesses a strike force of Primaris Space Marines in action. Attacking from above, a
strike force from the newly founded Nemesors Chapter captures a fortified Black Legion bastion complex in the
space of a solar hour. Impressed despite himself, Bile develops an obsession with the capture and dissection of these
new, statuesque transhuman warriors. His intent is to blend them body and soul with the dark energies of Chaos in
order to breed his own twisted versions of Primaris Space Marines.
Legion Organisation
The Emperor's Children in review before the Horus Heresy.
Pre-Heresy
The Emperor's Children were organised in a manner that suited the ideals of Fulgrim and their own exacting and
perfectionist nature. As with every other aspect of the IIIrd Legion nothing was left to whim or chance; every action
within the Legion's purview was deliberate and assessed for its aesthetic and functional value.
Fulgrim was fond of remarking that if one was to excel then no detail was too small to consider, and that the quality
of the whole lay in the quality of its constituents. In ordering his Legion it is not surprising then that Fulgrim
favoured formality, conformity and order. The Emperor's Children took much from the structures of the other
Legions when they were first created, though it also added its own layers of terminology, emphasis and balance
while remaining largely true to the long-established Terran patterns for the Legiones Astartes.
A hierarchy of authority and ability existed in every part of the Emperor's Children. Every warrior, piece of
equipment or officer was placed in the function best suited to their strengths and proven ability, and in that sphere
they were expected to excel. Fulgrim also maintained rigid order amongst the divisions of his Legion and command
hierarchy. The fluid variations in size and nature common in certain other Legions like the Luna Wolves played no
part in the Emperor's Children's way of war.
Any change or variation was deliberate and the outcome of careful consideration. Likewise, the appointment and
rank of every warrior of the Emperor's Children was carefully delineated. Honours, symbolic representations of
achievements and marks of renown abounded, but were solely gifted by a superior rather than assumed by an
individual, with those honours granted by the hand of the Primarch held in higher esteem.
Every warrior of the Legion knew his place and value in the sight of the Primarch and the Emperor, and this
translated into a level of personal commitment and bravery that was the equal of any found among the ranks of the
Space Marines, fuelled in no small part by an unshakable faith in their own superiority.
The Emperor's Children were ordered and precise; formation sizes and structure were largely uniform and where
they were not it was either a temporary aberration or a deliberate variation for a particular purpose. Within this
careful order the squad was the base unit that showed most variations in both size and function.
Comprising a handful of Emperor's Children each squad had a particular purpose and specialisation. Squad members
were expected to excel in their allotted roles and would train exhaustively to achieve the pinnacle of efficiency and
unit cohesion. Notably all of the variations in squad type and equipment found in other Legions were present within
the Emperor's Children, as they believed there was no sphere of warfare they could not or should not excel in.
There were, however, certain beliefs held within the Legion's culture about the superiority of certain martial virtues
over others. These were beliefs that had originated as the opinions and inclinations of Fulgrim and had filtered down
through the ranks as ironclad doctrine that was not to be questioned.
One such virtue was the importance of speed, whether in manoeuvre, action or attack, as being of cardinal
importance over strength, endurance or even firepower. The Emperor's Children believed that the decisive warrior
who struck first was the most likely to be victorious, just as the moving target was harder to strike. This doctrine was
made manifest on many levels, from the selection of battle plans to the choice of wargear the Legion favoured.
This factor was made evident in the large numbers of Jump Pack-equipped assault units and Land Speeders, grav-
attacks and Sky Hunter Squads present amongst the IIIrd Legion. In particular, Jetbike-equipped Sky Hunter Squads
dominated the ranks of a number of the Emperor's Children's companies. One often quoted reason for the favour
given to these units seems to be that their mode of warfare appealed to Fulgrim's nature by his own admission: swift
and elegant, they captured much of the old Terran legends of noble knights and mythic champions riding to battle,
their banners streaming behind them and their armour glittering in the sun.
Further practical considerations for the extensive use of high speed vehicles and a reliance on manoeuvre can be
seen in the fact that the Emperor's Children Legion never possessed the active numbers let alone the collective
psychology required to engage in brute attrition warfare as the Iron Warriors or Death Guard did. For Fulgrim,
keeping his Legion as intact as possible while achieving victory was perhaps always a consideration, albeit one
seldom admitted to.
The IIIrd Legion relied greatly on thorough and detailed strategic planning and the flawless execution of its battle
plans by the individual warriors of the Legion. Every aspect of battle was analysed and turned to their advantage,
from terrain and weather to the availability of logistical support and reinforcement; nothing was ever left to chance.
Each component of the Legion's forces as well as any allies or ancillary forces under their command was taken into
account and utilised accordingly. This forethought and almost mechanistic approach to warfare had its dangers as
well as its strengths however; and should an entirely unforeseen contingency occur (as unlikely as this was in most
cases), or some crucial element or strategic asset be unexpectedly removed, the Legion could be wrong-footed,
thrown into confusion and suffer the consequences.
The strength of the Emperor's Children prior to the Istvaan III Atrocity was approximately 110,000 Space Marines
arranged into roughly thirty "Millennials," as the Legion referred to the larger units that were commonly called
Chapters in other Legions. Of these forces, perhaps a quarter to a third were marked for death on Istvaan III as
Imperial Loyalists unlikely to stand with the IIIrd Legion when it joined the Warmaster Horus in his rebellion
against the Emperor.
The losses incurred there by the traitorous portion of the Emperor's Children in the battle to eradicate the Loyalists
also seemed to have been high. Fulgrim may have lost as many as 20,000 warriors in the process of eliminating the
survivors of the initial virus-bombing. This would place the strength of the Emperor's Children Traitor Legion after
Istvaan III in the region of perhaps 50,000 combat-capable Space Marines: a substantial loss of fighting strength by
any measure and a fact that anecdotally is said to have enraged Horus in the extreme.
No reliable account exists of the fatalities suffered by the IIIrd Legion during the excision of the Loyalist elements,
but it is believed to have been proportionately very high. To make matters worse, Fulgrim had returned from his
confrontation with Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands Legion, having failed to sway the Gorgon to side with
the Warmaster, further provoking Horus' ire.
The Emperor's Children also lost an enormous number of armoured vehicles in the protracted intra-Legion battles
which followed the Istvaan III Atrocity. Due to the losses, the Legion had need of every asset it could field at
Istvaan V and so deployed a wide variety of types, classes and patterns of vehicle to the defence of the Urgall
Depression.
Given the favoured rites of war of the Emperor's Children, the most demand was placed on transport vehicles, with
which the Legion could launch rapid counter-strikes and encirclements, engaging cornered Loyalists where and
when they least expected it. Other types of vehicle, in particular super-heavy tanks and mobile artillery, were
assigned at battalion or Millennial level to be utilised by each commander as he saw fit, given the quickly evolving
nature of the battle.
The growing strength of the Emperor's Children in later phases of the war, and the increasing instability and
undisciplined nature of its warriors during the subsequent course of the Heresy, may be linked to the gene-seed
experiments and flesh abominations of its Renegade Apothecaries like Fabius Bile and their haste to replace these
losses and bolster the Legion's strength as the war continued. Unfettered by the restraints of secrecy or fear of
discovery, they would physically change the bodies of the Emperor's Children to reflect their inner, spiritual
corruption by the Prince of Pleasure.
The Emperor's Children had almost no psykers in their midst and never maintained a powerful Librarium before the
Edicts of Nikaea banned the use of psychic powers amongst the Astartes Legions. This was because the
development of psychic powers were the result of a mutation or a series of mutations within the human genome.
A mutation, a random change in the genetic sequence, implied imperfection, and no imperfection could be tolerated
by the Astartes of the IIIrd Legion. Even in the 41st Millennium it is rare to see a Chaos Sorcerer amongst the
warbands of the Emperor's Children.
Like many of the other Astartes Legions of the Great Crusade, the Emperor's Children operated a warrior lodge
system known as the Brotherhood of the Phoenix. They had learned about the existence of warrior lodges within the
other Legions from their time fighting alongside the Luna Wolves, although given the Emperor's Children's love of
formal hierarchy, the Brotherhood of the Phoenix was much more formal in structure and behaviour than their
brethren Legions' warrior lodges and was open for membership only to the Primarch, the Lord Commanders, and the
company captains to maintain the Legion's strict hierarchical leadership structure.
Legion Command Hierarchy
Lord Commander Eidolon.
Fulgrim maintained clear and rigid lines of authority within the Emperor's Children Legion. The Primarch himself
stood in overall command of his Legion and beneath him were ten officers known "Lord Commanders" who led the
first ten Millennials (Chapters) of the Legion. Fulgrim had invested ten of his sons with this exalted rank when the
IIIrd Legion was still recovering from near-extinction and the tradition had remained strong throughout the Great
Crusade.
Forming an inner circle around the Primarch, each Lord Commander was expected to be a paragon example of
leader, warrior and noble. Two of the IIIrd Legion's preeminent officers were the Lord Commanders Eidolon and
Vespasian in the latter days of the Great Crusade. The Primarch Sanguinius of the Blood Angels Legion once called
these ten the "Princes of War," and to them fell the leadership of the largest and greatest campaigns undertaken by
the Emperor's Children.
It was common for a Lord Commander to be given overall command of forces consisting of contingents from other
Legions, millions of soldiers of the Imperial Army, and forces drawn from many militant arms of the Imperium. On
the rare occasion of a true failure in command, a Lord Commander was apt to take his own life in penance.
Authority in the IIIrd Legion descended through an elaborate and multi-tiered command structure which reached
from the Lord Commanders through the Praetorate which in turn comprised officers known as Commanders,
Lieutenant Commanders, Masters, Sub-Commanders, Tribunes Palatine and Ordinary, Captains of various divisions,
to Consuls, Equerries, Ancients of various functions, further down through Centurions and Heralds to the
Praefactors and Sergeants who commanded the Legion's individual squads, down finally to the Legion's line
warriors.
As each Space Marine of the Legion looked to his superior for guidance and leadership by example, and devotedly
followed their lead in matters of style and doctrine, they created a pattern of leadership that bordered on a
personality cult at every level throughout the IIIrd Legion, with Fulgrim himself and beyond him the Emperor
viewed as objects of almost religious devotion.
This fanaticism was well-noted by the Legion's peers (some of whom did not look favourably upon its obsessive
quality in their private councils), and was outmatched perhaps only by that once held by the Word Bearers. That
such fervent loyalty to the Emperor could be so readily set aside in the days before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy
seems incredible, but nevertheless it proved true. Such is the potent elixir of corruption offered by the Ruinous
Powers, and why men and women must guard against their subversion by any means necessary.
Specialist Ranks and Formations
Alongside the division of units commonly found within other Space Marine Legions, the emphasis and regard
placed upon skill and excellence also notably led to the formation of a wide number of unique "elite" or veteran
units within the Emperor's Children Legion.
Sun-Killers - The Sun-Killers were a specialist formation of the Emperor's Children Legion that were all equipped
with Lascannons to provide dedicated heavy fire support for other units. They were formed from the creme of the
Legion's heavy weapons specialists.
Wings of the Phoenician - The Wings of the Phoenician were elite companies of the IIIrd Legion whose Astartes
were specially chosen by Fulgrim to be trained in Jump Pack-assisted close combat assault tactics. The officer who
led the Wings of the Phoenician was known as the "Eagle King."
Phoenix Guard - The Phoenix Guard was the elite unit of the Emperor's Children Legion who were responsible for
performing various formal and ceremonial roles and also served as the Primarch Fulgrim's Honour Guard during the
Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. The number of Phoenix Guard always stood at 200 warriors to commemorate
the first days of the IIIrd Legion's rebirth after Fulgrim was reunited with his gene-sons when the Emperor's
Children had numbered only 200 remaining Astartes. The members of the Phoenix Guard followed their beloved
Phoenician wherever he went as part of their duties, even when he was travelling within the relative safety of the
starships of the Imperial Army and the vessels of the other Space Marine Legions.
Brotherhoods of the Palatine Blades - Perhaps the most famous example of Emperor's Children specialist troops
whose renown spread outside their own Legion were the Brotherhoods of the Palatine Blades. These units were not
permanent formations, but were formed for particular battles against foes deemed worthy, and whose membership
existed outside of the usual rigid rank structure that characterised the IIIrd Legion. When such an enemy was
encountered the senior commanders would draw together the finest swordsmen from amongst the forces present, a
selection made easier by the relentless sparring and duelling that took place between battles to hone the Legion's
skills. Armed with duelling blades, sabres and trophy weapons, the Brotherhoods would then seek out the finest
warriors amongst the enemy on the field of battle. The number and quality of such squads depended on how many of
the Emperor's Children were present in a given warzone and the quality of their foe. When twenty Millennials of the
Legion came together under Fulgrim to destroy the Golden Kings of the Moraeb Drifts, over a hundred of the Blade
Brotherhood took to the field. Amongst them were warriors who had already writ a legend among their Legion;
Lucius, Akurduana, Irmandus and Fulgrim himself led them against the bodyguards of the Heretek kings.
Two members of Fulgrim's elite Honour Guard, the Phoenix Guard, in Terminator Armour.
Phoenix Guard - The Phoenix Guard was the elite unit of Space Marines from the Emperor's Children Legion who
served as the Primarch Fulgrim's Honour Guard during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. The members of
the Phoenix Guard followed their beloved Phoenician wherever he went as part of their duties, even when he was
travelling within the relative safety of the starships of the Imperial Army and the vessels of the other Space Marine
Legions. During the battle to conquer the Xenos world of Laeran, the Phoenix Guard took part in the final
extermination of the serpentine Laer species. The entire unit was slain on the world of Tarsus in the Perdus Region
of the galaxy after Fulgrim, already under the influence of Chaos through the Laer Daemonsword he had captured
on Laeran, took offence at the Eldar Farseer Eldrad Ulthran's warning about Horus' corruption by Chaos, and
proceeded to open fire on the Farseer and his troops from Craftworld Ulthwe. A new Phoenix Guard was then
recruited and accompanied Fulgrim during both his fateful meeting with Horus where he finally embraced Chaos
and in his abortive attempt to recruit Ferrus Manus to the Traitors' cause aboard Ferrus' own flagship where they
successfully slaughtered the Morlock Terminators who served as Ferrus' own bodyguard unit. While the Phoenix
Guard served Fulgrim through the Battle of Terra, it is unknown if the unit still exists and serves as the Daemon
Prince's bodyguard on the unknown Daemon World he now calls home.
Roaring Blades - Long ago, during the era of the Great Crusade, the "Righteous Blades" were one of the most
decorated and respected infantry units in the Imperial Army. Vassals of Fulgrim, the Righteous Blades provided
mortal infantry support for the IIIrd Legion. The Righteous Blades fought on countless worlds in the name of the
Emperor, and won several victories. But when the Emperor's Children turned Traitor and joined the Warmaster
Horus in dedicating themselves to the Dark Gods of Chaos, the Righteous Blades followed suit. The Imperium lost a
proud band of warriors that day, but the Righteous Blades lost their souls, becoming pleasure-addicted acolytes of
Slaanesh. These Emperor-forsaken Heretics then became forever after known as the "Roaring Blades."
Ancient Remembrancer sketch depicting Kakophoni based upon various pict-caputures in the Segmentum Obscurus
war zone; these Astares possessed variant Power Armour of an unknown designation and modification; there was
also extensive modification to helm apparatus auditory receiver/broadcast/address functions and amplification.
Kakophoni (meaning "Cachophony" when translated into Low Gothic) were a specialised anomalous support unit
created during the closing days of the Great Crusade by Chief Apothecary Fabius who sought to "perfect" the gene-
seed of the Astartes by unlocking the secrets of the Emperor's original genetic engineering and then "improving"
upon it through the use of forbidden Chaos knowledge. Enhanced with these forbidden surgical augments and
formidable psycho-sonic weaponry, which was based in part on xenos designs pioneered by the serpentine Laer, the
Kakophoni were unleashed against the Loyalist forces of the Imperium during the Istvaan III Atrocity and the Drop
Site Massacre on Istvaan V. The Kakophoni represented what were in essence the first Noise Marines.
Post-Heresy
The entirety of the IIIrd Legion's careful hierarchy and well-ordered formations was lost after the end of the Horus
Heresy when the Emperor's Children were scattered by their constant battles with the other Traitor Legions during
the Legion Wars in their pursuit of new slaves to torment and enjoy.
By the time of the late 41st Millennium, the Emperor's Children Legion had fragmented into a small number of
Chaos Space Marine warbands of varying size, each led by their own commander who had no allegiance or care for
the other warbands in the Legion.
Each Heretic Astartes now displayed the pathological selfishness common to devotees of Slaanesh and had become
completely self-absorbed in his own quest for new sensations and pleasures, associating with the other members of
his own warband only because their numbers made it easier for these Chaos Space Marines to engage in the battles
and slave-taking that were their primary sources of sensation and pleasure.
Specialist Ranks and Formations
An Emperor's Children Noise Marine.
Noise Marines - Those Emperor's Children who give themselves over completely to the sensations of battle become
Noise Marines. Their armour slowly grows laud-hailer screamers, noise vents and organ batteries that allow them to
produce ear-splitting dins, the perfect complement to the Sonic Weaponry that has made their kind infamous
throughout the Traitor Legions. Even other Space Marines are deafened by the proximity of these maniac thrill-
seekers. As with all followers of Slaanesh, the only focus of life for the Astartes of the Emperor's Children is the
senseless indulgence of every whim and desire. This makes the Emperor's Children the most violent, sadistic, and
debauched creatures imaginable. As part of their dedication to the ways of the Prince of Chaos, many of the
Emperor's Children ultimately became Noise Marines. The original Noise Marines, then known as the Kakophoni,
were created by the Emperor's Children's Chief Apothecary Fabius who sought to "perfect" the gene-seed of the
Astartes by unlocking the secrets of the Emperor's original genetic engineering and then "improving" upon it
through the use of forbidden Chaotic knowledge; due to Fabius' genetic alterations, a Noise Marine's hearing is a
thousand times more sensitive than even a "normal" Space Marine's, and can distinguish between even the subtlest
differences in pitch, tone and volume. A Noise Marine's enhanced hearing affects his whole mind, causing extreme
emotional reactions that make all other sensations seem pale and worthless. The louder and more discordant the
noise, the more extreme the emotional reaction provoked and the resulting pleasure the Noise Marine feels.
Eventually only the din of battle and heightened screams of fear, pain or terror can stir a Noise Marine to feel the
pleasure he so craves. The Noise Marines' name comes from their preference for weapons that use concentrated
sound, including: the Sonic Blaster -- outwardly resembling a Bolter -- produced discordant blasts of sound; the
Blastmaster -- a rifle-like weapon that produces different sonic frequencies that overpower senses and can even
destroy flesh; and the Doom Siren, a loudspeaker surgically melded into the Chaos Space Marine's body that
enhances his own screams into violent torrents of pure sonic force that can knock even the largest enemy off his feet.
Noise Marines also possess an ability called the "Warp Scream". This explosion of sound dulls the sensory reactions
of all those in close vicinity to them. All of this sonic weaponry is descended from the musical instruments invented
by the famed composer Bequa Kynska of Terra, who accompanied the Emperor's Children's 28th Expeditionary
Fleet as a Remembrancer aboard the Battle Barge Pride of the Emperor during the last days of the Great Crusade.
Kynska was a jaded musician always in search of further sensations to create more exhilarating and all-
encompassing music, which made her an easy target for Slaaneshi corruption. After Kynska accompanied many of
the 28th Expedition's Remembrancers to the temple dedicated to Slaanesh on the xenos world of Laeran, she was
touched by the Chaotic corruption of that foul place and slowly sought to create the ultimate orchestral piece that she
believed could capture the wondrous sounds she had heard within the Laer temple. Her ultimate masterpiece was a
symphony she named the Maraviglia and which she performed for Fulgrim and all the assembled Astartes of the
Emperor's Children and their support personnel within the Remebrancers' lounge and theatre called La Fenice
aboard the Pride of the Emperor. To recreate the sounds she had heard, Kynska created new musical instruments
whose sonic powers could also be used for destruction when employed by an individual already corrupted by
Slaanesh. During the performance of the Maraviglia, the cacophony of sound unleashed by these instruments acted
as a ritual that opened a link between realspace and the Warp and allowed the power of Slaanesh to directly touch
the audience. Chaotic mutations ran rampant through the audience and Astartes and humans alike were so
overwhelmed by sensation and uncontrollable emotions that they unleashed an orgy of both sensual hedonism and
the most base form of murder upon one another. Ultimately, the music summoned five Lesser Daemons of Slaanesh
known as Daemonettes from the Warp who possessed the bodies of Kynska and several of her singers and joined in
the slaughter. During this part of the performance, several Emperor's Children Astartes left their seats and took up
the instruments to try and keep the Chaotic music playing and in the course of their untrained fumblings with the
instruments discovered that they could unleash waves of destructive sonic power filled with the strength of Chaos.
When the Emperor's Children engaged the Imperial Loyalists during the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, many of
the Emperor's Children used modified forms of these instruments as sonic weaponry and so became the first Noise
Marines. They gathered under the leadership of the IIIrd Legion's First Captain Julius Kaesoron and formed a single
unit known as the Kakophoni. Not all Noise Marines are members of the Emperor's Children and not all rank-and-
file Emperor's Children are Noise Marines. Other Chaos Space Marine armies may field Noise Marines as part of
their troops, though the original alterations are always based on the work of the Emperor's Children and Noise
Marines are always devotees of Slaanesh.
Legion Combat Doctrine
In the days before the Horus Heresy and the Emperor's Children corruption, the IIIrd Legion accepted nothing less
than perfection in all their endeavours, and worked ceaselessly to perfect their military operations. Each and every
Space Marine trained every waking hour for his assigned task, whether it be as a foot soldier, driver, gunner, scout
or sniper.
Every aspect of battle was analysed and used to their advantage, from terrain and weather to deployment or reserves.
Nothing was left to chance. In combat the Emperor's Children were as brave as any Space Marines who ever lived,
sustained not merely by the example of their peers but by a deep individual belief in their duty.
They fought to the best of their abilities in all conditions, whether the battle was a massive planetary assault or a
simple patrol. It was widely believed that no Space Marine of the Emperor's Children had ever been routed in battle.
Similarly, the IIIrd Legion was highly demanding of the forces allied with it.
Any signs of hesitation or inefficiency in the Imperial Army units serving alongside the Legion or even amongst
their brother Astartes, was not tolerated. The main guiding principle of the Legion was to lead by example, which
was ingrained into every fibre of the Emperor's Children. They had little patience for any other regimen.
To the Emperor's Children, before their fall from grace, war was a matter of perfection incarnated in violence, intent
and action. The IIIrd Legion took great pride both in its excellence on any battlefield, and its ability to
systematically replicate any tactic or strategic deployment it needed, and execute them flawlessly on command.
Of the innumerable such formations and tactics the Emperor's Children operated, one that found favour with the
Legion's Praetors looking to achieve faultless victory -- and thereby glory in the eyes of their peers and Primarch --
was the Marus Skara or "Killing Cut".
Named after one of the most difficult strikes in the lore of the Pan-Europic duelling cults before Terran Unification,
it called for a precisely timed, rapid-moving feint designed to engage an opponent's guard so that a second,
invariably fatal, blow could be dealt against it which there could be no defence from.
Legion Homeworld
Ancient Departmento Cartigraphicae map showing the location of Chemos.
Chemos was once the homeworld of the Emperor's Children before their corruption by the Chaos God Slaanesh and
betrayal of the Emperor of Mankind during the Horus Heresy. Chemos was the planet where the Emperor's
Children's Primarch Fulgrim was discovered by the Emperor during the Great Crusade.
In ancient days it was classified by the Imperium of Man as both a Civilised World and a Mining World. Following
the conclusion of the Horus Heresy, Chemos had an edict of Exterminatus declared against it by the Imperium and
was destroyed, as happened to all of the hopelessly corrupted homeworlds of the Traitor Legions. Since that time,
Chemos has been a Dead World.
In the 41st Millennium, the IIIrd Legion now exists only as small, fragmented warbands, each adopting their own
base within the Eye of Terror from which to strike out at the demesnes of the False Emperor. Rumours also persist
of a Daemon World in the Eye of Terror dedicated to pleasure ruled over by the Daemon Primarch Fulgrim,
although how substantial a detachment of Emperor's Children Chaos Space Marines he retains, if indeed such a
planet exists, is unknown.
Emperor's Children Names
Emperor's Children names are generally derived from those used by the people of ancient Chemos, though they also
sometimes include a name derived from a physical feature, personality quirk, past deed, or other defining feature.
Examples of Emperor's Children names include: Dalian Thorn, Xiander Thest, Saul Vastorian, Fabian the Hedonist,
Lucian the Perfect, Clavius Konemos, Lycon Mirrorborn, Shiron Fortillian, Solomon the Idolator, Laviscus of the
Silken Blade, Posca the Inevitable, Dellinus the Seeker of Pleasures, and Decanus Capersi.
Legion Beliefs
Pre-Heresy
According to the surviving IIIrd Legion monuments seized by the Inquisition, the Emperor's Children did not
literally deify the Emperor, but the strength and passion of their belief in Him was equal to that of any later adherent
of the Imperial Cult. Following Fulgrim's lead, the IIIrd Legion believed that the Emperor represented the pinnacle
of humanity, and that only by following His example was it possible to attain one's full potential as a human being.
Any person or group who resisted this goal was below contempt, not worthy even of consideration as a fellow
human. However, the IIIrd Legion's near-worship of the Emperor was extremely hierarchical. The Emperor's
perfection was thought to be embodied first by the Primarchs, then the officers of the Astartes Legions, and finally
the squad sergeants and the line Space Marines themselves.
Normal humans were expected to try and emulate the perfection of the Astartes as best as their obviously inferior
positions would allow. Inquisition theorists speculate that this belief system is why it was so easy for the entire IIIrd
Legion to be corrupted following the seduction of Fulgrim and his fellow officers, as the entirety of the Legion
would simply emulate the actions and beliefs of those they believed to be the paragons of perfection.
If those paragons claimed that allegiance to the Emperor was now to be replaced by devotion to Slaanesh, then it
was startlingly easy to make this change amongst most of the IIIrd Legion's non-commissioned officers and line
warriors.
The surviving records tell that, before their fall to Chaos, the Emperor's Children believed that the Emperor would
eventually achieve total conquest of the galaxy, and with all hindrances removed there would remain no obstacle to
the ultimate perfection of human civilisation. Whilst their studies of battle were all-important, the Space Marines of
the IIIrd Legion were taught reverence for the cultural aspects of Mankind's civilisation -- music, art and sculpture
among others.
Artisans were brought from all the worlds of the Imperium to fashion the Legion's armour, weapons and vehicles to
the highest standards. The diversity of humanity was highly prized, and there were few restrictions on the avenues of
learning available to the Astartes of the Emperor's Children.
Martial Traditions
The Emperor's Children always strove to be exemplars above all others in the arts of war; paragons of martial virtue
and excellence, scorning those who did not meet their own, perhaps unattainable, standards. This led them to seek
perfection in war as a fluid, lightning-quick force whose battles were preordained victories brought about by a
combination of acute strategic planning and flawless execution.
Their attitudes and manner led some to name them as arrogant and vainglorious long before the Horus Heresy, but
the Legion's warriors were always ready to answer any such slight with blood. Duelling between Battle-Brothers
was a part of many Space Marine Legions' martial traditions.
For some these practices were a matter of training and honing the skills of battle. For others they took on
significance beyond that of practical necessity; they became an end in themselves rather than a means to
effectiveness in war. The fighting pits of the World Eaters Legion are one example, the Blade Feasts of the Imperial
Fists another.
To the Emperor's Children, however, duelling was a fundamental part not only of their training but also of their
psychology. The duel was the ultimate expression of a warrior's skill and prowess, a mirror which reflected his
essence.
The weapons they used to duel with were a key part of this culture, and spoke to their aesthetic appreciation. Many
of the Emperor's Children bore swords crafted by the blade-smiths of a thousand worlds. Among these, the
Charnabal sabres of the Old Terran tradition were a particular mark of quality within the Legion; forged to ancient
rituals and alchemical formulae each blade was a unique product of a master sword maker.
The habit of taking particularly fine weapons from defeated enemies was a strong characteristic of the wider Legion.
If a renowned swordsman encountered a weapon of surpassing quality in the hands of an enemy, he would take it as
a trophy. The swordsman would then practise with the trophy weapon until he wielded it with more skill than its
original wielder, this act representing an almost kabbalistic ritual intended to absorb and defeat the enemy in spirit.
So it was that the champions of the Emperor's Children wielded Racathian glass glaives, friction axes from the
Norvik Sinks, Aegisine "saintie," Tuonela mortuary swords, Terran gladii and Martian-forged power blades to name
but a few. No prohibition existed against weapons taken from aliens or cultures that were otherwise worthy only for
destruction; all that mattered was the quality of the weapon itself.
Perfection of the Flesh
The quest for perfection consumed the Emperor's Children in body as well as spirit. For some it was not enough to
achieve the accolade of perfection, they thirsted to embody that perfection. For these warriors it was not enough that
the Emperor had crafted their flesh, and shaped each with insight and knowledge no other could rival; their granted
transhuman state was simply the beginning of an unfinished path.
Evidence would emerge during the Heresy that many years before Horus' treachery was made manifest, a few
amongst the Emperor's Children Legion believed that they could perhaps improve on what gene-seed, human
breeding and the Emperor's design had made them. They tampered with implanted gene-seed organs, analysed and
modified their Progenoid Glands, and undertook surgical augmentation of those willing subjects who shared their
obsessions.
The blasphemies of flesh this belief would birth only emerged in the darkest years of the terrible Imperial civil war
that would follow after the Istvaan III Atrocity, but its root must have grown long before the Emperor's Children
trod the hot ashes of Istvaan III.
The root of this folly was no doubt to be found in the Legion's Apothecaries, as the Emperor's Children's
Apothecarion in proportion was considerably larger than that of most other Legions, and was both fiercely proud of
its work and acutely paranoid of failure in its responsibility, spurred on no doubt by the weight of memory regarding
the IIIrd Legion's past near-extinction.
In time criminal and outlawed medicae-practices would spread cancerously, become Warp-tainted and swallow all
of the Emperor's Children, but it seems likely that the taint of evil began with a few individuals, and possibly with
just one, Lieutenant Commander Fabius, the Legion's Chief Apothecary at the time of the Heresy whose name has
since become a byword for atrocity and Chaos corruption.
It is certainly known that the Apothecaries of the IIIrd Legion performed more careful purity checks on their
Aspirants and gene-seed before implantation. Did those checks stray and become "correction?" Certainly there were
elements in the Emperor's Children who bore "improvements" before the Istvaan III Atrocity. Some beneath a shell
of apparent superhuman normality concealed augmented senses, modified musculature, even surgical alterations to
their brain structure far from aligned to the Emperor's-ordained pattern set for the Space Marines of the Legiones
Astartes.
Transgenic blasphemy and forbidden technology may have played its part, but above all it was the fact that many of
the Emperor's Children willingly embraced such alteration that was the true corruption that went unnoticed. It seems
that the submission to such procedures was akin to a secret cult within the Emperor's Children. While the warrior
lodges played their part in dragging other Legions into heresy, amongst the Emperor's Children it was their own sins
of the flesh and arrogant pride in their own perfection that helped them on the path to damnation.
Post-Heresy
"Your whimpering pleas are pathetic. My ears have known songs that have made the air weep sweet blood, such was
the bliss. Clearly you need greater encouragement to improve your voice."
— Draknus Fellbane, Anointed of the Majestic Host

The corruption by Slaanesh of the IIIrd Legion changed all that had gone before. Now the surviving Astartes of the
IIIrd Legion seek only the pursuit of their own most base and hedonistic desires, and hold that morality itself is only
an illusion. The Emperor's Children Traitor Marines believe that Chaos, and more specifically the doctrines of the
Prince of Pleasure, offer a path to a new form of enlightenment for Mankind and all the other thinking species of the
galaxy.
While Slaaneshi devotees may seem to be simply insane and self-obsessed sociopaths to outsiders, true devotees of
the Path of Pain and Pleasure know that these are only the first steps along the road to true self-knowledge offered
by the Dark Prince. While outsiders would claim that the Emperor's Children are simply slaves to their own
obsessive desires and the needs of their foul god, the Primarch Fulgrim once noted that ALL men are slaves to
something, whether it be their own ambition, concept of morality, or even of the Emperor Himself.
The Emperor's Children are now but shadows of their former glory, and countless centuries of infighting amongst
both themselves and their Traitor brethren have irreparably shattered any remaining semblance of cohesion. Wholly
dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure and excess, members operate alone or in autonomous groups, attacking with
unabashed savagery and revelling in the havoc they wreak.
This existence of constant indulgence has rendered these ruthless warriors immune to all but the most extreme
sensations, and they tirelessly subject themselves to the vilest and most deplorable experiences imaginable. Some
dedicate themselves to aural delights and choose to become Noise Marines, servants of Slaanesh whose brains are
conditioned to respond only to deafening sound and the frenzied chords of their sonic weaponry.
The Chaos Space Marines of the Emperor's Children eagerly serve any master willing to indulge their appetite for
barbarous rites and decadent vices. They pursue such acts with a singular and terrifying intensity, which owes its
dark genesis to their many years of rigorous training and self-discipline before their fall.
Now unfettered, their repressed urges and superhuman physiques offer countless possibilities of unspeakable cruelty
and ecstasy in equal measure. The most vicious and imaginative of these warriors often rise to lead their own
debased warbands, and the tales of their appalling atrocities and excesses serve as a dire warning to all who
encounter them.
The Emperor's Children are hedonists of the most extreme kind, and revel in the pleasures of the flesh. Yet none
would survive the flames of war for long outside their ancient battle-plate. Slaanesh gifts his favoured warriors with
the ability to feel pleasure and pain through the layered ceramite of their armour as if it were their own skin, making
every bullet or blade that rebounds from its contours a thrill of sublime pain.
Many Emperor's Children relish the cut and thrust of close combat above all, revelling in the slash of the blade and
the sharp sting of the riposte. Each drop of blood shed is exquisite nectar to these specialists; some even learn to
taste with their blades. Fuelled by sensation, they find pain as invigorating as any intoxicant; to land a blow upon
these demented warriors is to give them a vitalising ecstasy that no mortal could comprehend.
The Long War
"Our Father denied us such pleasures. It is only fitting we share them with his deluded followers."
— Delorial Eum of the Emperor's Children, prior to the Unspeakable Acts at the Shrine of Saint Killian

An Emperor's Children Legionary, transformed through his worship of Slaanesh.

Perfection is normally an impossible goal to achieve. Life is finite, and there is only so much that can be done
through its course. Time pushes ever onward, stealing opportunities and exchanging them for failures and regrets.
This is the truth of existence for all creatures in the mortal realm. There are, however, places where the rules that
govern reality are suspended, where time can be slowed, stopped, or even reversed. Warp rifts such as the Eye of
Terror and the Screaming Vortex are such places.
Within these treacherous domains, the ancient veterans of the Long War experience time differently than those who
fear to enter. Time is theirs to do with as they please. They can spend it honing their skills, plotting vengeance, and
practicing their deadly arts -- and as it is said, practice makes perfect.
The Emperor's Children and other Space Marines whom the Dark Prince released from the shackles of Imperial
dogma have had thousands of Terran years to revel in their freedom. Like all the warriors who fought the Emperor's
tyranny, these Chaos Space Marines have a burning hatred of the Emperor and His simple minions smouldering
within them.
Unlike those others, they have found pleasure in the intensity of this hatred, and this has shown them the value of an
existence in the borders between realspace and the Realm of Chaos. There they are free to linger over an emotion, to
savour the sensations of the passions they feel. They can expose themselves to delightful torments, immerse
themselves in debauched distractions, and experiment with new and gratifying ways to pursue their desire for
revenge.
As far as they are concerned, the followers of Slaanesh believe that Khorne can be content with simply killing, or
Tzeentch with his black schemes. A warrior of Slaanesh has much more interesting things to do to his enemies than
merely ending their lives, and within the timeless realms he and his subjects can experience and experiment with
them all.
Legion Gene-Seed
Much is still extant in the ancient Imperial documentation of the IIIrd Legion's Founding, and from the data it is
apparent that the mark of the Legion's gene-seed and its conditioning produced warriors with finely sculpted
physiques, a noble bearing, and finely-controlled thought processes, with psychological tendencies driven towards
personal achievement and competition to prove individual superiority.
The only physical abnormality registered was the occasional incidence of albinism, and a shift in iris colour to violet
in some recruits. Such minor effects of the gene-seed implantation and conditioning process did nothing to distract
from the aura of aesthetic refinement that clung to the IIIrd Legion, even in the first years, and they were held up as
an archetype to be lauded and by whom other Astartes were judged.
After the near-destruction of the IIIrd Legion during its Founding because of the accident and viral blight affecting
its gene-seed, surviving fragments of the Codex Apothecarion Terra indicate that absolute excellence was demanded
of the Apothecaries who handled and worked on the precious genetic material. This ethos quickly merged with the
Legion's general belief in perfection, so that the Emperor's Children's gene-seed was perhaps the most pure and
stable of all the Space Marine Legions before the start of the Horus Heresy.
Only the finest physical specimens of male adolescence were chosen for implantation, so that the mutation rate of
the gene-seed was practically zero. As the Emperor's Children were dedicated to perfection, there were nearly no
psykers wihin the Legion, for such a mutation, even when beneficial, would be considered to detract from the
overall perfection of the Aspirant.
Every enhancement produced by the gene-seed functioned at peak efficiency, allowing these Space Marines to
achieve their full potential in battle. No other Space Marine Legion achieved such a goal, and the technology and
expertise required have never been rediscovered in the millennia following the Horus Heresy.
Like all the Traitor Legions, however, the Emperor's Children's gene-seed is now so corrupted and riddled with
Chaos mutations that it is functionally useless for creating new Astartes. As such, the Emperor's Children, if they
could pull themselves away from their self-indulgences long enough to care, must steal pure gene-seed stores from
the Loyalist Space Marine Chapters when the opportunity presents itself if they seek to increase their numbers.
Notable Emperor's Children
Fulgrim (Daemon Primarch) - Fulgrim the Phoenician was the Primarch of the Emperor's Children Legion and later
became a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh. Fulgrim regretted his corruption by Chaos and repented of his actions after he
slew his brother Primarch Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands Legion during the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V.
However, the spiritual weakness produced by this moment of clarity led Fulgrim to surrender control of his body to
possession by the Greater Daemon of Slaanesh that inhabited the Daemonsword he had taken from the xenos world
of Laeran. The real Fulgrim became a prisoner in his own body, the state of his soul revealed in a painting kept on
the Emperor's Children Legion's flagship Pride of the Emperor, while the possessed Fulgrim went on to lead his
Legion to ever greater heights of nurder and debauchery in the eyes of the Prince of Pleasure. But Fulgrim used his
captivity to master the ways of the Warp and ultimately cast the daemon from his body, retaking his rightful place
yet having also progressed even further along the path of Chaos as set forth by the Prince of Pleasure. Fulgrim was
ultimately raised to become a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh and now dwells on an unknown Daemon World in the Eye
of Terror. The soul of the real Fulgrim remains trapped in a nightmare from which he can never wake.
Eidolon (Lord Commander) - Eidolon was the first Space Marine selected by Fulgrim to lead an entire company. He
was commonly regarded as the most proficient of all the Lord Commanders of the IIIrd Legion and had been a
dedicated student of the art of warfare in all its aspects. He was decapitated by Fulgrim with the Chaotic blade
known as the Kinebrach Anathame after he dared to question why Fulgrim had ordered the IIIrd Legion to assault
the relatively unimportant Adeptus Mechanicus world of Prismatica V. In a moment of remorse, Fulgrim ordered
Chief Apothecary Fabius to restore the slain Lord Commander back to life, though his resurrection had unforeseen
side-effects. Eidolon would live with pain like no other, driving the Lord Commander mad with joy as a result of his
corruption by Slaanesh. Every instant of life given to him would be spent in a symphony of pain and pleasure.
Forever after, he would be referred to by his brothers simply as "The Risen". Unsubstantiated rumours persist that
Eidolon yet lives; and that he is responsible for hundreds, if not thousands of raids upon Imperial worlds over the
last ten standard millennia. Unsubstantiated evidence suggests Eidolon has served as a lieutenant to Abaddon the
Despoiler, a consort to Queen Sylelle as well as a champion of the Daemon Prince N'Kari.
Vespasian (Lord Commander) (Deceased) - One of two senior Lord Commanders of the IIIrd Legion during the
Great Crusade era. Unlike his counterpart Eidolon, Vespasian was immensely likeable, for his incredible abilities as
a warrior and commander were tempered by a rare humility that made others warm to him immediately. In the
manner of the Emperor's Children, warriors who followed Vespasian would take their lead from him in all things,
his example serving as a model of how they might best achieve perfection through purity of purpose. Following the
campaign against the Laer, over time a rift soon grew between the once-favoured Lord Commander and his
Primarch. Eventually, Vespasian confronted Fulgrim in his staterooms over the growing rot and decay of the ideals
that their Legion was founded on. To his horror Vespasian discovered too late the malign influence that held sway
over his Primarch. Fulgrim murdered Vespasian by stabbing him in the neck with his cursed sword.
Anteus (Lord Commander) - Lord Commander during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
Cyrius (Lord Commander) (Deceased) - Following the Horus Heresy, Lucius finally met his match in
swordsmanship, when the two Emperor's Children Astartes dueled. His agonising death was an experience of
transcendent pleasure, but Slaanesh was loath to let such a promising protege slip into the realm of death. Over the
following weeks, the artificer armour Cyrius wore began to warp and change. His hair fell out in clumps, and dark
lines appeared under his flesh, slowly pushing through his skin as a maze of scar tissue. Soon, Lucius emerged
completely, and all that remained of his executioner was a screaming, writhing face, subsumed for eternity into
Lucius's armour.
Iddinam (Lord Commander) (Deceased) - Lord Commander Iddinam was the commander of an Army Group of
Emperor's Children charged with bringing the Praxil system into Imperial Compliance in order to acquire its vast
wealth and resources without damaging the delicate infrastructure. The Emperor's Children were supported by
selected elements of the Imperial Army and the military forces of the Mechanicum. Despite meticulous planning, the
campaign did not begin well, as substantial losses were inflicted upon the Imperial forces. Changing their strategy,
the Emperor's Children decided that instead of focusing on systematic conquest of the system's void stations, moons
and planets, they would instead focus upon Praxil's fleet. Without the ability to redeploy their strength, each of the
Praxil domains would become a closed tactical problem. But the Praxil had anticipated such tactics, and instead
deployed multiple strike fleets to attack the Imperial fleet. Heavy further losses were incurred during this initial
engagement as the Praxil took advantage and attacked the Imperial toehold on their outer moons and space stations.
A representative of the War Council of Terra observed that Lord Commander Iddinam would never willingly admit
that he needed assistance, and therefore issued a request to Terra for reinforcements. Soon elements from the Blood
Angels under the command of Chapter Master Raldoron and Marshal Cazimus of the Imperial Fists arrived in-
system to augment the beleaguered Imperial forces. Despite his misgivings and the slight to his personal honour, the
Lord Commander accepted his cousin Legions' assistance and immediately drew up plans for prosecuting the second
offensive against the Praxil. Utilising the strength of the Blood Angels and Imperial Fists, the Emperor's Children
launched a successful second offensive against the Praxil that soon saw an Imperial victory. When the Imperium
claimed its victory, however, the Lord Commander refused to be present during the subsequent Compliance
ceremonies or acknowledge his role in effecting the Compliance of Praxil afterwards. Iddinam would later have a
hand as a prime conspirator of his Legion's treachery during the Istvaan III Atrocity. He gave himself over to the
horrors of the Warp before finally being destroyed by the Loyalist Iron Warriors Warsmith Auric Saxton at the
Battle of the Harrow Ravening.
Illois (Lord Commander) (Deceased) - Killed during the Great Crusade
Teliosa (Lord Commander) (Deceased) - Hero of the Madrivane Campaign. Killed during the Great Crusade
Abdemon (Lieutenant Commander) (Deceased) - Abdemon was the Lieutenant Commander of the IIIrd Legion who
prosecuted the xenocide of the Katara, as recounted above. It is said that Abdemon and members of his Cohort
trained and fought with the weapons of the Katara, and bore these relics throughout the rest of the Great Crusade.
Abdemon himself is believed to have died on the traitorous blade of one of his own captains on the field of the
Choral City during the Istvaan III Atrocity.
Fabius (Lieutenant Commander; Chief Apothecary) - Fabius Bile, now called the Clone Lord, was the Chief
Apothecary and a Lieutenant Commander of the Emperor's Children Legion. After the Horus Heresy he left the IIIrd
Legion and the path of Slaanesh behind to pursue his own agenda to unearth the secret genetic engineering
knowledge that the Emperor of Mankind had used to create the Astartes. He is known to have unleashed genocide
and hideous genetic experiments on countless worlds across the galaxy.
Azael Konenos - Azael was a Consul-Delegatus of the Emperor's Children during the 30th and 31st Millennia.
During the Horus Heresy he commanded Battlegroup Jewel Shard from his command vessel, the Avenger-class
Grand Cruiser Ravisher. Following the events upon the Crone World of Iydris within the Eye of Terror, where his
Primarch Fulgrim achieved apotheosis as a Daemon Prince, Azael followed Lord Commander Eidolon into further
debauchery, self-mutilation and sadism which now consumed much of the corrupted III Legion. He later took part in
the harrowing of the White Scars' fleet, and in the Battle of the Kalium Gate and the Battle of Catallus, where he
was offered as a sacrifice by his own Apothecary Von Kalda and was subsequently possessed by the Keeper of
Secrets known as Manushya-Rakshasi. The vile Greater Daemon would go on to possess the crew of the Emperor's
Children Legionaries aboard the vessel Proudheart. Manushya-Rakshasi was ultimately slain by the Primarch
Jaghatai Khan. Azael's fate is unknown.
Flavius Alkenex (Prefector) - Flavius Alkenex was a formidable warrior and prominent officer within the Emperor's
Children Legion. He served within the upper echelons of the IIIrd Legion's organisation as a member of the elite
Phoenix Guard Millenial of the Legion.
Grythan Thorn (Decanus) (Deceased) - Decanus Grythan Thorn was a known figure outside the IIIrd Legion,
serving as Equerry to his Primarch Fulgrim during the Kobal Compliance campaign. Thorn was known to have been
slain during the botched commandeering of the heavy cruiser Sunstone in the early stages of the Istvaan III Atrocity.
Julius Kaesoron (First Captain) - Commander of the elite 1st Company. After Slaaneshi corruption consumed much
of the IIIrd Legion, Kaesoron submitted to the surgical modification experiments of the Apothecary Fabius Bile and
was transformed into one of the first Noise Marines. He gathered the other Noise Marines of the IIIrd Legion around
him before the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V and formed the infamous unit that became known as the
Kakophoni.
Solomon Demeter (Second Captain) (Deceased) - Solomon Demeter was a Captain of the 2nd Company of the
Emperor's Children Space Marine Legion during the Great Crusade and opening days of the Horus Heresy. Unlike
most Astartes of the Emperor's Children, he displayed the qualities of individualism, an exacting and perfectionist
nature and recklessness that set him apart from his peers, making him stand out amongst the senior officers of the
IIIrd Legion. During the opening days of the Horus Heresy, he remained loyal to the Emperor and the tenants of the
Imperial Truth, and so was fated to be sent to the surface of Istvaan III, in what would become known in Imperial
history as the Istvaan III Atrocity, to die alongside the other Loyalist elements of the Space Marine Legions under
the direct command of Warmaster Horus. Though he survived the initial bombardment and was gravely wounded,
he, along with other Loyalist survivors, fought a protracted campaign of attrition against the Traitor forces of the
Warmaster. In a dark twist of fate, Demeter was betrayed by one of his own Battle-Brothers, dying at the hands of
Captain Lucius.
Marius Vairosean (Third Captain) (Deceased) - Marius Vairosean was once the third Captain of the Emperor's
Children Legion during the latter days of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st
Millennium. He was present during many of the most infamous campaigns of the Heresy, including the Istvaan III
Atrocity and the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V. Marius' own quest for perfection would lead him and his entire
Legion along the foul path of Chaotic corruption. Due to the influence of Slaanesh and the hideous ministrations of
the Apothecary Fabius Bile, Vairosean was soon consumed by the corruption of Slaanesh and became one of the
very first Noise Marines in service to the Prince of Pleasure. He eventually became the leader of the Kakophoni, the
Noise Marines unit that formed within the Traitor Emperor's Children Legion after their fall to Chaos. During the
joint expedition undertaken by both the Emperor's Children and the Iron Warriors Legion into the Eye of Terror to
seek out the forbidden xenos weapon known as the Angel Exterminatus, Vairosean was killed by the Drop Site
Massacre survivor Ignatius Numen, an Iron Hands Morlock.
Saul Tarvitz (Tenth Captain) (Presumed Deceased) - Commander of the 10th Company and staunch loyalist. Tarvitz
was a file officer whom did not aspire to anything higher, despite being extremely competitive. Most troops that he
lead greatly respected him, except Lucius, who was enraged the attention Tarvitz receives for his competent
leadership. Captain Tarvitz was supposed to be in the initial drop-assault onto the surface of Istvaan III but had
traded places at the last minute with the Dreadnought Ancient Rylanor. Discovering the treachery of the Warmaster
Horus and his Primarch Fulgrim, Tarvitz willingly placed himself in the line of fire by going to the surface of the
planet to warn his fellow Loyalists. Shortly after safely reaching the surface, Horus ordered the viral bombardment
of the planet, but thanks to Tarvitz's last minute warning, some of the Loyalist forces were able to take cover in air
tight bunkers. Tarvitz, along with his fellow Captains from the Luna Wolves, Garviel Loken and Tarik Torgaddon,
managed to turn the rag-tag Loyalist survivors into a cohesive fighting unit. Tarvitz, a formerly unremarkable line
officer, had transformed a planned massacre into a successful guerrilla war, confounding even the great Horus' best
laid plans. Tarvitz, along with his fellow Loyalists apparently met their final fate on Istvaan III.
Lucius the Eternal (Thirteenth Captain, later Lord Commander) - Lucius the Eternal is the current Chaos Champion
of the Chaos God Slaanesh and a Lord Commander of the Emperor's Children Traitor Legion. Lucius is also known
as the Soulthief, Fulgrim's Champion, and the Scion of Chemos. Lucius has been blessed by Slaanesh so that when
he is slain, no easy task in itself, his killer will eventually transform into Lucius if he takes any pleasure or
satisfaction from the killing. Lucius was once the Captain of the Emperor's Children Legion's 13th Company. He
served alongside his friend and fellow Astartes officer, Captain Saul Tarvitz of the 10th Company, during the Great
Crusade of the 31st Millennium. Lucius' friendship with Tarvitz often displayed those character flaws that lead to
Lucius' ultimate damnation. Where Tarvitz was a grounded and mature Astartes, Lucius was often childish and
egotistical, but already known within his Legion as a superlative swordsman. Lucius's character changed greatly
during the early days of the Horus Heresy. The most obvious change was the appearance of the scars he carved
ritually into his face, changing him from a flawless Space Marine into a corrupt tyrant who gloried in the sensation
of dealing out pain. The reasons recorded for this disfigurement have varied. Some claim they express Lucius's
"devotion and piety" towards the Chaos Gods, others that they were intended to deflect comments that he looked
more like a boy than a warrior. In reality, Lucius met Slaanesh-corrupted Remembrancer and painter who
accompanied the 28th Expeditionary Fleet named Serena D'Angelus. After showing Lucius her hideously scarred
forearms, she explained that each scar was a memorial to one of her victims. Lucius, who had had his nose broken
by Garviel Loken of the Luna Wolves, understood that his appearance would never be flawless again, and so scarred
his face without remorse. After this meeting he added a scar to his body every time he met a worthy opponent, such
as before duelling with his former comrade and best friend, Saul Tarvitz. Lucius' descent into the clutches of Chaos
only deepened during the Battle of Istvaan III after Horus betrayed the Loyalists within his own Traitor Legions to
cleanse his troops of any who remained beholden to the will of the Emperor. Originally forced to fight on the side of
the Loyalist Astartes during the three-month-long battle on that devastated world because his friendship with Tarvitz
had made the Legion's leaders believe he would not support their decision to betray the Emperor of Mankind,
Lucius' pride and jealousy eventually overwhelmed him. Lucius came to resent Tarvitz's role in their success against
the enemy and the respect he commanded from the other Loyalist Astartes. Lucius contacted Lord Commander
Eidolon and promised to deliver Tarvitz -- and break the Loyalists' defences -- for the Warmaster in return for being
reaccepted into the Legion. Eidolon accepted the proposal. Lucius slaughtered a group of 30 Astartes who were
defending the Loyalists' lines to open the way for the Traitors' final assault against their former brethren. Lucius
succeeded in this assassination with the aid of Captain Solomon Demeter of the 2nd Company of the Emperor's
Children, who had also remained a Loyalist and realised too late that Lucius had tricked him into attacking a group
of Loyalist Astartes. Lucius slew the wounded Demeter just after he realised with horror the full extent of his
mistake and Lucius' betrayal. With his place restored in the ranks of the Traitors, Lucius then challenged Tarvitz to a
one-on-one duel to finally determine who was the better warrior. Tarvitz emerged the victor, but Lucius fled the
battle and returned to the arms of his Traitor Legion, having fulfilled his side of the bargain. Lucius returned to his
Legion and ultimately led the other senior officers of the IIIrd Legion in a rebellion against their Primarch Fulgrim
after Lucius came to believe that Fulgrim's body was possessed by a daemon of the Warp. In the course of these
events, Lucius learned that while Fulgrim had been possessed by the Slaaneshi daemon that had once inhabited the
Primarch's Laer daemonblade, that Fulgrim had reasserted contol over his own body and banished the daemon to
imprisonment within the portrait of the Primarch that still remained in La Fenice, the ruined exhibition hall of the
Battle Barge Pride of the Emperor. Awed by Fulgrim's perfection, Lucius then swore his allegiance anew to his
corrupted Primarch. After these events, Lucius eventually rose to become one of two of the remaining Lord
Commanders of the Emperor's Children, after that Traitor Legion had been cemented in thrall to Slaanesh. Lucius
did not obtain that position easily, however, for he was actually slain during an Emperor's Children gladiatorial
game by the Chaos Space Marine he had challenged for the rank, Lord Commander Cyrius. Lucius' death was
described as an experience of such "transcendent pleasure" that it caused Slaanesh himself to intervene and to
reincarnate Lucius within the body of the previously victorious Cyrius; the latter's soul became a trapped, screaming
face within Lucius' Artificer Armour by the will of the Prince of Pleasure.
Hellespon (Captain) - Captain during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
Tyrion (Captain) - Captain during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
Xiandor (Captain) - Captain during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
Odovocar (Captain) - Legion Standard Bearer
Charmosian (Chaplain) (Deceased) - Chaplain of the 18th Company, and one of the senior-most members of the
Legion. He acted as a member of Fulgrim's honour guard during the latter stages of the Legion's corruption. He was
killed by Lucius at Istvaan III when the pair dueled.
Gaius Caphen (Lieutenant) - Second-in-command to Captain Demeter of the 2nd Company. Died of his wounds
before the traitors land on Istvaan III. (Deceased)
Lycaon - Equerry to First Captain Kaesoron of the 1st Company.
Abdle Comendius (Apothecary) (Deceased) - Apothecary Abdle Comendius was a native of Chemos and staunch
Loyalist of the Emperor and the ideals of the Unification. He was betrayed unto his death alongside his Legion's first
wave during the Istvaan III Atrocity, fighting valiantly in the defence of the Precentor's Palace of the Choral City
against the Traitors.
Azeal Konenos "The Silent" - As a mere Centurion, Konenos served as Lord Commander Eidolon's second-in-
command during the ground assault against the Emperor's Children Loyalists during the Istvaan III Atrocity, leading
repeated attacks and sustaining multiple injuries while doing so. This included the destruction of his voice box and
larynx which were later replicated by a crude augmetic as self-inflicted punishment for his failure. He would forever
after be known as "the Silent" after the Istvaan III Atrocity. Like his master, Konenos quickly embraced the Legion's
new philosophy, altering his body further to become one of the most proeminent Noise Marines. Eidolon's continued
favours made that Konenos would eventually be promoted to the rank of Legion Consul, rising in parallel within the
ranks of the Kakophoni to become one of their first Orchestrators.
Solathen (Sergeant) - Solathen commanded Squad Nasicae during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
Raths Luastus (Decurio) (Deceased) - Decurio Raths Luastus was a Terran-borne Astartes of the IIIrd Legion and
staunch Loyalist of the Emperor and believer in the cause of Unification. He served in one of his Legion's Jump
Pack-equipped assault companies. Luastus was slain during the initial Istvaan III attack by a rebel Istvaani "War-
singer", a Slaaneshi battle psyker.
Callion Zaven (Deceased) - Callion Zaven was a Terran-borne veteran Legionary of the Emperor's Children Legion
during the Great Crusade who fought in the earliest campaigns to reconquer the Sol System. He saw fighting on
Jupiter during the early years of the Great Crusade where he was gravely wounded, before the discovery of his
Primarch Fulgrim on the world of Chemos. By the time he got out of the apothecarion, his Legion had already
moved on without him and he soon found himself reluctantly serving as his Legion's emissary in the Crusader Host,
and would do so for many decades, until the Warmaster's betrayal was revealed at Istvaan III. With Horus' treachery
revealed he was imprisoned in Khangba Marwu with the other Crusader Host Legionaries, but eventually had his
sentence commuted by the Malcador the Sigillite, and was offered a place within the ranks of his Knights-Errant. He
was killed aboard the Sons of Horus' flagship, Vengeful Spirit, during the failed assassination attempt on the
Warmaster.
Ancient Rylanor, "Ancient of Rites" (Venerable Dreadnought) - Ancient Rylanor was a venerated hero of the IIIrd
Legion and its "Ancient of Rites" who was mortally wounded battling the Eldar decades before the Horus Heresy
and was interred within the adamantium shell of a Dreadnought. Rylanor was only part of Fulgrim's honour guard
through tradition, though he was increasingly troubled by the direction the IIIrd Legion moved in after the assault on
Laeran. He traded places for the combat drop onto Istvaan III with Saul Tarvitz, who was supposed to go instead as
one of the Emperor's Children Loyalists marked for betrayal and death. Rylanor fought against the Traitors during
the Battle of Istvaan III but it is unknown whether he met his ultimate fate at the hands of his former brothers.
Ancient Sarancos (Dreadnought) - Sarancos was a former champion of the 9th Millennial before being interred
within the adamantium shell of a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought. Sarancos was a part of Lord Commander
Eidolon's Traitor command, and he is thought to have survived the battle on Istvaan III, although he became
mentally unstable owing to a combination of battle damage and trauma.
Ancient Thordorian (Dreadnought) - Thordorian was a Dreadnought of the Emperor's Children during the Great
Crusade era.
Captain Kasperos Telmar, the Radiant King - Kasperos Telmar was an Astartes of the Emperor's Children. A native
of Chemos, Telmar became an accomplished member of his Legion and Captain of the 12th Company during the
Great Crusade. He was part of Fulgrim's select squad of warriors to accompany him to Byzas. During the Horus
Heresy, Telmar fell with the bulk of his Legion to Chaos. After the Heresy, Telmar became a twisted monstrosity of
Slaanesh known as the Radiant King, leading a powerful Emperor's Children warband himself while joining
Eidolon's Phoenix Conclave. In the 34th Millennium Telmar was confronted by his old subordinate Oleander Koh
and Fabius Bile, who convinced him to launch an assault on Craftworld Lugganath. Telmar hoped to not only claim
the craftworld for himself, but to also ascend to daemonhood. During the subsequent battle Telmar consumed a great
many Spirit Stones and began to transform into a Daemon Prince. However he became surrounded by a force of
Harlequins and Lugganathi Warlocks and was cut down before the transformation was completed.
Excrucias - Commanding the warship Herald of Pain, Excrucias' golden-armored Emperor's Children warband
sought the help of the Alpha Legion warband known as the Unsung during the Invasion of Tsadrekha against other
rival Heretic Astartes warbands. Excrucias ultimately hoped to corrupt the psychic beacon on the world in the name
of Slaanesh, but after his plans fell apart he grew bored and left the world.

Legion Fleet
The Emperor's Children are known to have possessed the following vessels in their Legion fleet at the time of the
Horus Heresy:
The IIIrd Legion's flagship, the Pride of the Emperor.
Pride of the Emperor (Gloriana-class Battleship) - Flagship of Primarch Fulgrim and the IIIrd Legion.
Firebird (Assault Ship) - Fulgrim's personal, custom-designed assault ship.
The Agony and the Ecstasy (Battle Barge)
Callidora (Battle Barge)
Proudheart (Battle Barge, modified Dictatus-class Battleship) - Flagship of Lord Commander Eidolon.
Erewhon (Emperor-class Battleship)
Ravisher (Avenger-class Grand Cruiser) - During the Horus Heresy, the Ravisher was the flagship of battle group
Jewel Shard, led by Legion Consul Azael Konenos, Orchestrator of the Kakophoni.
Andronius (Strike Cruiser) - The Andronius, sometimes also called the Andronicus, harboured Chief Apothecary
Fabius' personal laboratory in which he first began his experiments to "improve" upon the Astartes' genetic template
which would ultimately lead to the creation of the very first Noise Marines and countless other genetic atrocities.
The Andronius was also sometimes used as a secondary flagship for the Legion. The Andronius was commanded by
Lord Commander Eidolon during the early stages of the Horus Heresy, it led the Emperor's Children contingent in
the Battle of Istvaan III. In its original form, it held the Gallery of Swords which ran the length of the warship. It had
a transparent roof and was lined with hundreds of statues to honour the heroes of the Legion. Following the Legion's
change of allegiance, these statues were altered, some of them being crudely modified to resemble bull-headed
monsters. Following Fulgrim's order to pursue genetic experimentation on the Astartes of the Legion, Apothecary
Fabius conducted his work from a biomedical research facility located below the Gallery of Swords, accessed
through a hidden entrance contained within a huge mosaic in the Central Apothecarion depicting Fulgrim's victory at
Tarsus. The Andronius was destroyed by the Sisypheum while trying to dock with the Iron Hands vessel in order to
board it, its hull torn apart as the Sisypheum rammed it with phenomenal speed.
Longinus (Strike Cruiser)
Stealth (Strike Cruiser) - A vessel sometimes used by Fulgrim.
Aquiline (Cruiser, unknown class) - With the Proudheart, the Aquiline, Excessive, Infinite Variety and Mortal
Splendour formed the heart of Lord Commander Eidolon's fleet at the Battle of the Kalium Gate and the track for the
Vth Legion.
Excessive (Cruiser, unknown class)
Infinite Variety (Cruiser, unknown class)
Mortal Splendour (Cruiser, unknown class)
Suzerain (Cruiser, unknown class) - IIIrd Legion vessel charged with the protection of the Memnos convoy which
came under attack from the White Scars Legion.
Fulgrim's Virtue (Escort)
Golden Mean (Escort) - Escort of the Callidora.
Infinite Sublime (Escort) - Escort of the Callidora.
Quarzhazat (Lunar-class Cruiser, Halcyon variant) - This vessel was the flagship of Kasperos Telmar, the "Radiant
King."
Pulchritudinous (Lunar-class Cruiser, Halcyon variant) - This Lunar-class Cruisaer was constructed in the Martian
orbital shipyards and was commanded by Fabius Bile. It was known by Telemachon as "the Fleshmarket." The
vessel was taken by the Black Legion at the Battle of Harmony during the Legion Wars and was the site of the duel
where Ezekyle Abaddon slew Bile's clone of Horus. By this point, the vessel was a laboratory of genetically-
engineered atrocities filled not only with mutants and other horrors but clones of the other Primarchs. After its
capture by the Black Legion, the ultimate fate of the Pulchritudinous remains unknown.
Vesalius (Gladius-class Frigate) - The Vesalius was a Gladius-class Frigate captured and renamed by Fabius Bile.
Since coming into his possession it has undergone substantial modifications with captured xenotech and other
heretical technologies, giving its governing Machine Spirit (artificial intelligence) a level of sentience bordering on
Abominable Intelligence.
Herald of Pain (Unknown class) - The Herald of Pain was the flagship of Excrucias, known as Excrucias the
Flawless, a Chaos Lord of the Emperor's Children.
Sybarite (Heavy Cruiser, unknown class) - The Sybarite served the Emperor's Children during the battles of the
Horus Heresy.
Cataclysm of Faith (Space Hulk) - The Cataclysm of Faith was a Space Hulk in the service of the Emperor's
Children in the years following the Great Scouring. After the Wolf Lord Aeska Brokenlip was killed in the depths of
the hulk, a combined fleet from several Chapters began a campaign against the Cataclysm of Faith that lasted several
Terran years. In addition to the Space Wolves, forces from the Dark Angels, Ultramarines, White Scars, and some of
their successors participated in the campaign before the final battle was fought on the Desert World Iela.
Many of the Emperor's Children's vessels were known to launch smaller interceptor craft or fighters known as
Raptors. Imperial records are unclear as to the nature and role of these small vessels.
Legion Artefacts
Blissgiver - This long-tongued whip can render those who feel its sting insensible with indescribable pleasure. Even
those who put aside gratification for a greater duty find their oaths and promises forgotten, washed away in a tide of
sensation that drowns the mind completely. So it is to feel the kiss of Slaanesh. Though their lives are cruelly torn
away almost immediately afterwards, for a few short moments, they truly know ecstasy and agony entwined.
Bolts of Ecstatic Vexation - Fired with a shrill howl, these strangely shaped mass-reactive bolts contain not
explosive charges, but a peculiar cerise gas. Any who catch so much as a whiff of this vapour are driven into a
hallucinatory fugue state where all their dreams and nightmares mingle together into a kaleidoscope of intense
sensation. Even the most fortified bunker or sainted sanctum is of little protection, for the winding tendrils of the
pinkish hallucinogen seek out sane minds as a hungry felid seeks out fresh meat.
Endless Grin - This fleshy mask is the still-living, flayed face of a man who begged Slaanesh to fulfil his wish to
live forever. The Dark Prince was only too pleased to oblige, gifting the unfortunate soul immortality but also
forcing him to present his face to the Chaos Lord Shixe. After murdering the supplicant, Shixe wore that face as a
prized reminder of the occasion for several standard centuries. The Endless Grin has since exchanged hands many
times, but the potency of its anguish has never diminished.
Intoxicating Elixir - This concoction is so valuable that even a minute drop is worth a fortune. Some say it was
brewed by the master fleshcrafters of Commorragh, others that it is nectar from Slaanesh's pleasure gardens, or that
it is the blood of Fulgrim himself. The liquid is self-replenishing, and one who partakes of it harnesses dark physical
power. The Emperor's Children channel it into dispenser arrays so they can dump it into their bloodstream by the
pint.
Shriekwave - This ornate Doom Siren emits a thunderous bass boom and a hypermodulated scream powerful enough
to shatter diamond. The sheer deafening power hits with a physical impact, blasting away all cohesive thought in an
instant. Only those with a tremendous strength of will can hold mind and body together -- those who let their minds
be swept away find their flesh, bone and gristle alike reduced to shuddering pulp by myriad resonant frequencies.
Soulsnare Lash - This fleshy whip has been marinated in the sweat of six Keepers of Secrets during their forbidden
strife-rituals. Barbed hooks run along its length, and its coils are warm yet unsettling to the touch. Should it ensnare
a victim, the poor fool is consumed in aetheric fire that burns the soul from his body, snatching it away for an
eternity of anguish in the six circles of Slaanesh's realm.
Legion Appearance
Legion Colours
Pre-Heresy
Captain Lucius with his personal bodyguard.
Before their corruption at the start of the Horus Heresy, the Space Marines of the IIIrd Legion symbolically coloured
their armour with lacquer of imperial purple and gold to mark their rank and mission as the Emperor's chosen, with
the Emperor's own standard -- the Palatine Aquila -- the golden double-headed eagle, worn upon their chest plates,
granted to them by His own hand for their ancient victory during the Proximan Betrayal.
While this is now a common decoration for Astartes armour in the late 41st Millennium, during the days of the Great
Crusade, only the Emperor's Children were allowed to display the Aquila as a sign of their favour in the eyes of the
Emperor of Mankind. This bolstered their already considerable pride to the point where Horus' flattery and Fulgrim's
obsessions took root all the more easily, eventually leading to their downfall.
As if to mark a break from the wars of the past, the armour that the first warriors of the Space Marine Legions went
to war in was cast in storm cloud grey, and bore only the thunderbolt and lightning marks of Imperial Unity. Over
time the different Legions gained their own marks of distinction and character, as well as iconic names. Like their
brother Legions, soon the Emperor's Children began to decorate their personal armour with honours that reflected
notable skills and deeds.
Their armour displayed the typical aesthetics and complex heraldry that was a hallmark of the IIIrd Legion. For
example, a helmet crest denoted status within the Legion's organisation. White enamel inlay on an individual
warrior's armour was used to denote rank and heraldry and was an older Legion tradition dating back to before its
unification with the Primarch Fulgrim.
Seal papers carried "Oaths of Moment" commending the wearer to fulfill specified duties or ordinances at any cost.
During the latter stage of the Great Crusade, the Emperor's Children's wargear and panoply included considerable
personal adornment and customisation of their armour. A primary example of this would be an Eye of Horus
emblem prominently displayed to denote service with the Warmaster and possible involvement in the Legion's
warrior lodge, the Brotherhood of the Phoenix.
Emperor's Children Traitor Marines
Post-Heresy
During the Heresy, the Emperor's Children repainted their armour in those colours which honour Slaanesh -- pastel
colours such as pink and black; they also favour bright, garish, clashing, sensuous colours for decoration and no two
Emperor's Children Astartes will have the same colour patterns on their Power Armour. They also make wide use of
Noise Marines in their forces.
An excellent description of what an Emperor's Children Astartes looks like in the 41st Millennium is here recounted:
"His armour was enamelled with garish hues, eye-watering purple and squint-inducing gold, and encrusted with
garish decoration and filigree like a tree choked with vines run amok. What flesh that could be seen within the
armour was pale white, and studded with piercings, needles and rings of all varieties. The eyes which gazed out of
that white skull seemed deadened and numb, the pupils so wide and dilated that scarcely any iris was visible. These
were eyes that had seen too much and never quite recovered. It was a condition that was like the opposite of
blindness -- rather than milky orbs that could see nothing, these were black eyes that could see everything, and could
never look away."
Legion Badge
Pre-Heresy Emperor's Children Badges
Pre-Heresy
The Emperor's Children Legion badge during the Great Crusade consisted of a golden eagle's wing that ended in a
talon. This was part of the symbol of the Aquila, the Emperor's personal heraldry, which the Emperor's Children
were the only Legion authorised to wear at the time.
The officers of the IIIrd Legion wore a larger and more elaborate variant of the taloned eagle's wing that was crafted
out of precious metals, usually a gold wing and talon that clutched a purple jewel.
Post-Heresy
Once the Horus Heresy began, the Emperor's Children began to decorate their garish Power Armour with the
blasphemous symbols and sigils of Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure, as well as the eight-pointed Star of Chaos, an
oft-incorporated heretical icon used by all of the Traitor Legions.

The Iron Warriors are one of the nine Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines that turned to the service of Chaos
during the Horus Heresy and now fight to overthrow the Imperium of Man. The Iron Warriors, who were originally
the IVth Legion of Space Marines, specialised in the breaking of sieges and assaults on static fortifications, which
made them great rivals of the Imperial Fists Legion, said to construct the greatest static defences in the Imperium. It
was this rivalry between the Legions, and between their Primarchs Perturabo and the Imperial Fists' Rogal Dorn,
that helped turn the Iron Warriors to Chaos.

Like the members of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Loyalist Iron Hands Chapter, the Iron Warriors have a strong
predilection for replacing parts of their body with cybernetic enhancements. When struck with a mutational "gift"
from the Ruinous Powers, most Iron Warriors simply cut off the mutated appendage, if possible, and replace it with
a mechanical one.

The Iron Warriors were the Emperor's finest siege troops and their Primarch, Perturabo, was the equal of Rogal
Dorn in the arts of fortification and strategy. Yet, Perturabo felt himself side-lined by his brother Primarch, whose
every proud boast was, to the master of the Iron Warriors, a barbed insult. When the Horus Heresy came, it was
perhaps inevitable that the two Primarchs should find themselves on opposite sides of the galactic civil war.

Perturabo grew up upon the world of Olympia, a mountainous planet divided into constantly warring city-states. The
infant was found by the servants of Dammekos, the so-called Tyrant of Lochos, and raised by him as his own. The
young Primarch never fully accepted his lot, and became cold and mistrustful of others.

Despite his aloof demeanour, Perturabo learned from the culture in which he found himself the arts of the siege, for
Olympia's warring city-states afforded plenty of opportunity to study both the theory and the practise of this highly
specialised branch of warfare.

When the Great Crusade finally reached Olympia and the Emperor told Perturabo of his place in the wider galaxy,
the Primarch pledged his devotion to the fledgling Imperium, and assumed the mantle of the Primarch of the Iron
Warriors Legion. According to established practise, the Primarch was declared lord of the world on which he had
been raised, effectively deposing his adopted father, and the IV Legion began the process of inducting new recruits
from the most able candidates amongst its peoples.

In the campaigns that followed, the Iron Warriors proved themselves amongst the most able siege troops in the
Emperor's armies. Perturabo was possessed of a keen, cold, and calculating mind well-suited to the highly technical
aspects of such a style of warfare. Furthermore, he was gifted with an affinity with advanced technology, and able to
debate the finer points of the most esoteric arts with the highest placed Adepts of the Mechanicum.
The Iron Warriors received cross training on Mars, further refining this specialisation, until only the Imperial Fists
of Rogal Dorn could equal their expertise. World after world that rejected the future espoused by the Emperor's
Iterators capitulated when confronted with the prospect of a protracted siege by the Iron Warriors, and countless
worlds were brought to Imperial Compliance that would otherwise have been devastated in bitter, and ultimately
pointless wars.

Yet, Perturabo appears to have grown ever more resentful of his role within the Great Crusade, and perhaps in an
effort to prove his superiority over Dorn and others amongst his brother Primarchs, he accepted ever more arduous
missions on behalf of his Legion. Worlds considered by others as unbreakable were cracked open by the methodical
application of overwhelming force, yet this approach to war took a remorseless toll even on the superhuman Space
Marines.

Gruelling preparation culminated in brief but extreme violence, and soon the Iron Warriors came to prefer a
besieged defender to defy them rather than to surrender, so that the pent-up pressure of siege warfare could be
released in the moment of his total defeat. To make matters worse, the Iron Warriors came to be utilised as garrison
troops, small forces detached from the Legion and tasked with guarding the worlds they had worked so hard to bring
to Compliance. While other Primarchs refused point-blank to see their Legions used in such a way, Perturabo
acceded, though with ever-poorer grace.

As the tragic outbreak of the Horus Heresy grew closer, it appears that Perturabo was put under ever increasing
pressure, and as a result the fires of his bitterness were stoked to a raging inferno. Some have postulated that it was
the Warmaster Horus himself who, time after time, engineered events and adjusted deployments to the Primarch's
detriment and further stoke his sense of grievance. Whatever the truth, events came to a head when, following the
death of the Tyrant of Lochos, the people of Olympia rebelled against the rule of the Iron Warriors.

Perturabo's anger was finally unleashed, and upon his return to his homeworld, the Primarch enacted such fearsome
vengeance that countless innocents were slaughtered and entire cities burned. In the aftermath of his vengeance,
Perturabo knew utter despair, barely able to comprehend the crimes he had committed in his rage. But before he
could set about righting his terrible deed, word came of the Warmaster's virus-bombing of Istvaan III, and the Iron
Warriors were ordered to confront the rebels and bring them to justice.

History records little of the machinations Horus must surely have enacted in order to turn the bitter Perturabo to the
cause of the Traitors, but whatever the truth, the Iron Warriors turned upon their brothers at Istvaan V, and in so
doing sealed their damnation for all time.

At last freed of the constraints that had bound him, Perturabo gave free reign to his most destructive urges, laying
waste to world after world in the Warmaster's service. While one part of the IV Legion turned Olympia and its
surrounding star systems into an empire of iron, another lent its expertise to the Siege of Terra, and at last, the sons
of Perturabo could test themselves against those of Rogal Dorn.

It cannot be known whether Dorn's masterfully-constructed defences would have proved the undoing of the Iron
Warriors, for the Warmaster was slain before the matter could be fully determined. Those Iron Warriors that had
taken part in the Battle of Terra fled to the Eye of Terror with the remainder of the Traitors, while those that had
established their own empire around Olympia prepared themselves for the inevitable assault by the Loyalist Legions.

In a reversal of fortune typical of the grim epoch that ushered in the Age of the Imperium, the Imperial Fists were
amongst those who laid siege to these Iron Warriors, and while the Traitors were eventually dislodged, it was only
after a decade-long campaign that culminated in them detonating their nucleonic stockpiles and reducing Olympia to
a blasted waste.

Perhaps the most infamous of all of Perturabo's campaigns, and, so it is said, the deed that earned him the dark
blessing of apotheosis to a Daemon Primarch, took place upon the world of Sebastus IV. Here, the Primarch
constructed the most fearsome of fortifications, a mighty fastness ringed all about with mile after mile of trenches,
redoubts, minefelds and razor wire.
While most fortresses serve the purpose of defending something, and are thus limited in their utility, the so-called
Eternal Fortress had been constructed with but one purpose in mind -- to defy the proud boasts of Rogal Dorn and to
lure him into a trap from which he could not escape.

Despite the protestations of his brother Roboute Guilliman, Dorn succumbed to Perturabo's boast that none could
take his fortress, and led the entire Imperial Fists Legion into what would later become known as the "Iron Cage."
What followed was death and destruction on an unprecedented scale.

Not since the height of the Horus Heresy had a Space Marine Legion suffered such losses as the Imperial Fists
incurred as they dropped straight into the midst of a grand entrapment. As more of his warriors fell to the stratagems
and rouses of the well-prepared Iron Warriors, Dorn's captains counselled the Legion should fall back and regroup,
for they could accept what he could not -- the Imperial Fists had been bested, and in a siege no less.

At length, Rogal Dorn could not, and did not, give the order to withdraw. Rather, Roboute Guilliman decided that he
could not stand by as his brother brought about his own defeat and that of his Legion, and so he deployed the
Ultramarines to relieve the Imperial Fists. Faced with two entire Legions, Perturabo evacuated his own, knowing
that he had achieved what he had set out to do.

By the end of the battle, the Imperial Fists had lost an incredible four hundred Battle-Brothers, with many more
wounded. Perturabo offered up the precious, uncorrupted gene-seed his Legion had taken from the Imperial Fists to
the Chaos Gods for the use of the Traitor Legions, and apotheosis was his reward.

Contents

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Legion History

Iron Warriors Post-Heresy Legion Badge

For solar decades the Iron Warriors Legion was the battering ram of the Great Crusade, a maul used to tear down
every impregnable fortress or unassailable citadel that dared to stand in the path of the Emperor's will. The IVth
Legion became a byword for punishing warfare and for mastery in siege craft, both in defence and assault.

Iron Warriors Pre-Heresy Legion Badge

Its Primarch Perturabo was likewise known as a ruthless and effective warlord; a master strategist whose razor-
edged mind could fathom the hidden weakness in any foe and exploit it with savage and decisive action -- a general
to whom defeat was anathema and victory worth any price paid in blood to gain it.

Iron Warriors Legion Colour Scheme as displayed by Gornoth the Unbending, Thrice-Forged in the Baleful Furnace

This lauded record masked a long-simmering discord within the IVth Legion itself, however. A discord bred by ill-
use and slights both real and imagined which, as time went on, was given outward sign by a marked distance and
growing distrust between the Iron Warriors Legion and the Great Crusade it served. A growing bitterness festered in
the hearts of its increasingly paranoid and withdrawn Primarch.

Pre-Heresy Iron Warriors Legion Colour Scheme

When the treachery of Horus was revealed at Istvaan III, the Iron Warriors were already a Legion in crisis, scattered
over the stars, divided between a hundred different deployments and still reeling from a brutal act of savage
suppression carried out against their own homeworld of Olympia, but they answered the call to punish the Traitor
without hesitation.
But when Perturabo, the Iron Lord of the IVth Legion led the bulk of his Legion to Istvaan V, it was to unleash the
Iron Warriors' fury not against the Traitors, but against those who had remained loyal. The poison that had long
festered within the Legion's soul had at last borne its bitter fruit and in the dark years that followed, billions would
suffer for it.

Unification Wars-era IV Legion Colour Scheme

Serried Ranks and Steel Banners

Founded as its brother-Legions were on Terra during the closing stages of the Unification Wars which presaged the
Emperor's Great Crusade in the middle centuries of the 30th Millennium, considerable surface level detail on the
origins of the IVth Legion remains. Its first muster grounds are noted to have been founded atop the wreckage of a
recidivist fortress on the Auro Plateau of Sek-Amrak.

The warlike gun-tribes, blood grieves and Tek-enclaves in the surrounding area provided the Legion with much of
its earliest waves of recruits as the recalcitrant region was brought fully into the fold of Terran Unification, rapidly
becoming one of the most stalwart of Loyalist domains.

Documentary evidence attests that the IVth Legion gene-seed showed an above-average adaptability and rates of
implant rejection were notably low, particularly in comparison with difficulties in large-scale implantation
encountered with other Progenoid types, which would not be eliminated until the acquisition of the gene-labs of
Luna.

This advantage meant that the IVth Legion's fighting strength was built rapidly, expanding to several fully battle-
ready battalions in size while some of the other nascent Legions were still yet unable to field more than an active
century. This in turn meant that the IVth Legion was very swiftly put to active-service alongside the Ist Legion (Dark
Angels) and Vth Legion (White Scars).

The IVth Legion fought first on Terra in the destruction of the final resisting elements there and then throughout the
pacification of the Sol System. Testament to this fact can be found in surviving frescoes in the Imperial Palace,
according them with the battle honours of the Cydo-Tyre Orbital, the Zidex Archipelago, Ice Station Echo and Mehr
Yasht.

The lattermost of these names, Mehr Yasht, is perhaps the most noteworthy as it was the key battle of the punishing
Venusian campaign and its citation accords "...the serried ranks and proud steel banners of the IV th Legion..." as
going forth and into battle under the direct command of the Emperor Himself to break the back of the deadly Litho-
Gholem armies of the War Witches.

It appears that the IVth Legion's early successes were accordingly rewarded with primary resupply of newer classes
of weapons and war machines as they were made available from the Emperor's alliance with Mars, as well as a
noteworthy short-term increased intake of Terran recruits originally intended for the III rd Legion (Emperor's
Children), swelling its numbers further to replace ongoing losses accrued in battle. (The difficulties caused by the
catastrophic near-loss of the IIIrd Legion's gene-seed to suspected sabotage and a viral blight are dealt with
elsewhere in Imperial historical records).

It was by this gene-seed adaptability and proven success in battle that the IVth Legion became one of the most
numerous of the Legiones Astartes during the earliest years of the Great Crusade, enabling its forces to successfully
split between several substantial early Expeditionary Fleets.

Most notable of these was the 8th Expeditionary Fleet, in which it formed the key and leading elements. This force
conquered or reclaimed twenty-nine coreward system-clusters and annihilated several interstellar xenos realms in a
protracted eleven-year campaign which played a key part in the establishment of the Imperium's control of the
Segmentum Solar.
All were achievements for which it was recognised and commended by the Emperor in turn. The IV th Legion took
from the 8th Expeditionary Fleet the emblem of the Winged Bolt as its first heraldic device and displayed its battle
honours with pride, carrying them as vexilla standards before the dauntless columns of its Legionaries as they
advanced into shot and shell across dozens of worlds conquered by the force of the IV th Legion's arms.

As the forces of the Great Crusade went beyond the boundaries of the Segmentum Solar, pushing onwards with the
Great Crusade's expansion, several sources note that the IVth Legion -- which was not to be united with its Primarch
until the late 840s.M30 -- had quickly lost any specific ties to Terra, either by culture or indeed recruit intake
pattern, although as it pushed ever onwards at the forefront of expansion, its military formation remained rigidly
unchanged.

The IVth Legion's adherence to the organisational structures, fighting methods and panoply laid out as a pattern for
the Legiones Astartes at the very beginning of the Great Crusade remained consistent, with no fresh "stamp" of
culture brought by interaction with a Primarch for many Terran years.

As a result, its methods of warfare too went largely unaltered, regardless of circumstances or enemy, and the Legion
was wont to overcome any obstacles or difficulties they faced with relentless and meticulously applied force of arms
alone rather than cunning stratagem or bloody-handed heroics. These combined factors set them out as being
increasingly different from many of their brother-Legions, as by this period of the Great Crusade, most Space
Marine Legions were now divergent from the basic Terran pattern set as the template during their first muster,
regardless of whether or not they had been united with their Primarch.

Unlike the IVth Legion, their brother-Legions had, within the space of a few short solar decades, evolved to
demonstrate recognisable and, in some cases, extreme character traits and modes of warfare of their own that erred
considerably from the basic pattern, and to these the constancy and pragmatism of the IV th Legion's operations stood
out in contrast.

These traits labelled them as unimaginative, mechanistic and even honourless fighters in the minds of certain other
Space Marine Legions and their masters -- not least of all Horus -- it has been said. Conversely, to some within the
Great Crusade's High Command these traits were positive factors, making the IV th Legion arguably more reliable in
deployment than some of the more esoteric Legions and more ready to meet commands from outside their own
Legion without complaint.

Accordingly, the IVth Legion was increasingly used to fight often inglorious but vital campaigns of backbreaking
attrition and drawn-out bloodshed, and they became in short a "workhorse" Legion, relied upon both for their martial
power and their reliability in following orders to the letter.

Furthermore, whereas substantially-sized Legions such as those of Leman Russ of the Space Wolves, Ferrus Manus
of the Iron Hands, and Horus and his Luna Wolves refused to split their forces at the behest of minor -- and merely
human -- theatre commanders, the IVth Legion did not baulk at any duty to which they were lawfully tasked. They
fought repeatedly in thankless sieges and protracted suppression campaigns which demanded the might of the
Legiones Astartes to secure victory, but which carried little renown.

They also undertook the garrisoning of worlds too dangerous for any but the Legiones Astartes to hold. The IVth
Legion had a single charted course whose direction lay in the hands of others; to follow the orders of the Great
Crusade whether it was tasked to go and to fight and die as it must. From war zone to war zone the IV th Legion went
without respite or fanfare, taking bleak pride in its largely thankless work.

So the Legion subtly began at last to change, just as its formerly great strength in numbers was bled through attrition
and brother-Legions outpaced it in glory. With the benefit of hindsight, it is perhaps possible to see that it was
during these times, even before they were reunited with their Primarch, that a subtle wedge had been driven between
the IVth Legion and its brother-Legions, creating a fracture that would only worsen in time.

The Price of Victory

Iron Warriors Racharus Tactical Squad during the Great Crusade

The IVth Legion from their earliest days operated with determined and disciplined force, as solid and unyielding as
the metal that they would later take as part of their name. They were known to be among the more technologically-
able and proficient Legions by inclination -- although were overshadowed in this somewhat by the Xth Legion (the
Iron Hands) during the Great Crusade's early years -- and preferred to strike always from a position of
overwhelming superiority where able, bringing maximum force directly to bear on a foe.

As its role developed as a main-line fighting force, often shouldering the brunt of extended combat operations, the
IVth Legion put increasingly great store by the formulation of pre-battle strategy in detail and the use of massive,
focused bombardment as a precursor to attack: the calculation of fields of fire, the use of high-intensity shelling, and
the deployment of heavy armour and mechanised forces to spearhead attacks became the IV th Legion's stock-in-
trade. In order to serve this bias, the IVth Legion also amassed the largest dedicated artillery train of perhaps any
Legion in the Great Crusade's history.

Iron Warriors Battle-Brother lays down heavy support during a campaign of the Great Crusade to bring a world into
Imperial Compliance

But while these tactics spoke of a cerebral, pragmatic and calculated approach to warfare, it was equally true of the
Legion that once the battle had commenced, they would not relent from their attack for anything save direct order
from the highest level to withdraw, even if suffering sudden reversals of fortune or unexpectedly high -- even
staggering -- casualties. This bitter stubbornness grew over time within the IV th Legion, and became a point almost
of pride with them -- they refused to fail, regardless of the cost in lives, and were determined to claw victory against
any odds by sheer dint of discipline and firepower.

As the Legion's victories, often unsung, were many, so was their price high. This seeming paradox of pronounced
reliance on rationality and intellect set against infrequent but telling episodes of bloody-minded stubbornness in the
Legion's behaviour was never more apparent than during the liberation of the war-torn Forge World of Incaladion in
a gruelling campaign lasting between 842-843.M30. Although victory was at last achieved, the war would see the
near-annihilation of the 8th Expeditionary Fleet's frontline forces in what was arguably a needlessly costly fashion.

In the aftermath, several critical voices in the Imperial Court and among the Primarchs opined that defeat had been
deliberately courted by the IVth Legion in order to prove that they alone could do what was asked of them, no matter
the odds. During this battle, the Legion refused to withdraw from the field after an initial assault unravelled
spectacularly in the face of unprecedented and unexpected enemy counterattack; they fought on regardless, adhering
to a battle plan already in tatters. Nearly 29,000 of their number fell in the single engagement before enemy forces
were worn down by bloody attrition, including many of the Legion's most veteran units, making the battle one of the
most costly of its age for the Imperium.

What remained of the IVth Legion after Incaladion was a Legion no longer in favour and without a Primarch yet to
speak of. By the end of that decade, it is perhaps accurate to say that the IV th Legion's star had waned greatly as
others rose. Incaladion had cast a pall over the IVth Legion's early successes and seen many of their most senior
commanders slain, as well as the wholesale slaughter of over two million mortal Imperial Army soldiers under their
command.

While once the IVth Legion had been amongst the most numerous of the Space Marine Legions, constant warfare
and attrition had eroded their numbers -- not dangerously to their existence, as the IVth Legion's gene-seed continued
to prove to be of the highest quality as far as ease of implantation went -- but at least to the point where several
others had since eclipsed them in size and range, while certain other Legions, most notably the Luna Wolves and
Dark Angels, outshone them in the glory and in the majesty of their conquests. It was to this IV th Legion, damaged,
disabused and without a clear direction of its own, that their Primarch finally came.

The Lord of Iron

Ancient Remembrancer's sketch of Perturabo, Primarch of the Iron Warriors Legion; illustration taken from
Carpinus' Speculum Historiale

When the twenty infant Primarchs were scattered across the galaxy from Terra still in their gestation pods by the
power of the Chaos Gods, the young child who would become known as Perturabo was discovered on the world of
Olympia, a mountainous planet divided into constantly warring city-states.

The infant was found by the servants of Dammekos, the so-called Tyrant of Lochos, while climbing the sheer cliffs
below the city-state of Lochos. The city guard brought the child before the Tyrant. Intrigued by this odd boy who
showed such skill and talent for an unknown orphan, Dammekos adopted him into his family and raised him as his
own.

Perturabo never trusted the Olympians and, although Dammekos took time and trouble to win the trust and affection
of the boy, Perturabo never responded to his foster father with any warmth. Many saw him as a cold youth, dark and
melancholy, but with a mind as sharp as a razor. Despite his aloof demeanour, Perturabo learned from the culture in
which he found himself the arts of the siege, for Olympia's warring city-states afforded plenty of opportunity to
study both the theory and the practice of this branch of warfare.

Such evidence that remains of the recovery of Perturabo and his installation in the forces of the Great Crusade
indicates that the process occurred swiftly, and with immediate acceptance on Perturabo's part, in marked contrast to
several other Primarchs. It is likely that the tyrant Dammekos was more than willing to bring Olympia into the
Imperium's fold, as its satrap, and the price of voluntarily releasing Perturabo from his service was but a small due to
pay.

Perturabo for his part, it is believed, had already reasoned out his true nature, at least in abstract, as an artificial post-
human being, and indeed expected his creator to one day be revealed to him, even though the particulars no doubt
remained a mystery until the Emperor Himself appeared in orbit with his fleet.

It was remarked upon at the time of his early reception in a number of sources, just what a ravenous mind the new-
found Primarch possessed. While all of the Emperor's post-human sons displayed an intellect and capacity to absorb
and adapt to new knowledge that surpassed that of an unmodified human, Perturabo's capacity for learning was truly
incredible, and it swiftly came to be said that of all of the Emperor's sons, he was the most gifted in terms of raw
scientific and technical intelligence.

Much of this sagacity was turned inwards, however, and Perturabo was from the outset a distant, calculating
mastermind who cared little for the society of others, nor readily deigned to explain his actions or intentions to those
around him, even to his fellow Primarchs upon meeting them, who he was cold and guarded against to the point of
bristling indifference.

To the Emperor such personality foibles mattered little, and in Perturabo He found a new weapon for the arsenal of
the Great Crusade, a warlord and general whose savage might was only eclipsed by his razor-keen intellect. To
Perturabo each battle and each campaign was no more than a problem to be objectified, deconstructed and
overcome, and it would not be long before the first of Mankind's foes would feel the terrible power of this
murderous mind at work.

Iron Within, Iron Without

After a brief period in the Emperor's company, fighting alongside Him and consuming knowledge of the Great
Crusade, its history, war machinery and operations, Perturabo was handed the command of the IV th Legion which
bore his gene-seed, and the transition of authority to him was swift and absolute. At the time, around 35,000
Astartes of the IVth Legion had been mustered to create his independent command, with perhaps half that number
again scattered across the conquered domains of the Imperium in smaller independent garrisons and detachments
bound to their watches and their duties.
Having instituted a full review of the IVth Legion's war record, doctrines and practices and having compared those
with the other Legions, Perturabo found his sons wanting and acted accordingly. His punishment was decimation.
For the Legion's failing all would suffer, as all were guilty. As the edict of decimation would state, "War is
unequivocal, uncaring, unforgiving and blind. Blind also will be the selection of those who will pay the blood price
for the greater failure of your record."

One in ten of the Legion, determined by lottery, was put to death without honour, a deed carried out by each
Legionary's own comrades with their bare hands. At this bloody edict some within the Imperial Court protested,
believing that the Emperor had given absolute power of a Space Marine Legion to a madman, while others, more
guarded in their criticism, opined only that command had been given too soon to the Primarch -- unused as he was to
the ways of the Imperium.

Loudest of these critics was Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, who bridled at the ignominy of the
deaths to which valiant Astartes -- warriors alongside which his own Legion had often fought -- had been thus
consigned. It was a spur of discord between the two Primarchs that, though later eclipsed by other rancours and
feuds among the Emperor's sons, would be one that neither would ever forget. All such criticism the Emperor
silenced.

To those who survived the IVth Legion's self-decimation, the lesson was plain: such was to be the rule of Perturabo,
ruthless and unforgiving, and without favour or preference. Death would be the price of failure in Perturabo's service
and war was to him a binary equation. Their sin was not that they had failed in the Great Crusade's service -- for by
no measure had this been the case, but instead that they had not reached their full potential.

It was not enough for Perturabo that they were merely superior, their fault lay in that among the Legions they were
not already supreme. Perturabo demanded that his Legion would be a peerless engine of war, and he immediately set
about fashioning it into the weapon he desired it to be, a weapon whose edge he would first test against the rest of
the Meratara Cluster at whose edge the Olympia Majoris star system sat.

The Fall of the Black Judges

The first major engagement of the IVth Legion under the direct command of their Primarch was the attack against a
foe who would sorely test the Legion's mettle and open the campaign to bring the Meratara Cluster into Imperial
Compliance.

Taking his newly constituted Expeditionary Fleet, Perturabo drove straight for the heart of the cluster and the hostile
power he knew resided there. On Olympia the enemy Perturabo sought had been little more than legend, but the last
time their shadow had fallen on that world, their coming had led to the slaughter and enslavement of tens of
thousands before their demanded tribute was paid.

They were the self-styled "Black Judges" -- self-appointed arbiters of human purity, life and death. Twisted and
withered creatures that had once been human in ages past, they had extended their lifespans into Terran millennia
with the help of technology as ancient as it was dark. Now their shrivelled and time-ravaged forms were encased in
mechanised war machines controlled by cybernetic implants.

In order to continue to live, they required regular infusions of fresh human genetic material acquired by an
agonisingly fatal extraction process, and from their base upon a barren, ravine-hollowed moon known as the "Rock
of Judgement," they held sway over a dozen nearby human-inhabited worlds through terror, offering a devil's
bargain of protection from xenos assault in return for a regular tribute of the young and healthy.

The IVth Legion, reeling from its punishment at its new master's hands, was shamed into a desperate desire to prove
itself to its Primarch, and it was to be the Black Judges that were to suffer its pent-up hatred and wrath.
The orbital assault on the Rock of Judgement was a direct and brutal affair. Well-defended by defence laser batteries
and swarms of drone-fighter craft and the Black Judges' own Warp-capable battleships, it had withstood marauders
and vengeful enemies for millennia, but against the fury of the IV th Legion it could not prevail.

Smashing through the blockade line of warships heedless of the losses they incurred, with a score of Legion Strike
Cruisers and a dozen Battle Barges burned from stem-to-stern, the Legion grappled their foe at close-quarters,
launching crippling boarding actions and barrages of Melta warhead torpedoes at point-blank range. With the line
broken, the IVth Legion fleet pushed through, using the armoured prows of their largest capital ships and the bulwark
Void Shields of siege frigates to weather the storm of ground fire and force a landing.

Although their true technology carried with it much of the strength of Mankind's mastery over the stars before the
Age of Strife, the Black Judges were few in number, even accounting for the tens of thousands of sable-robed
Accusators and functionaries gene-bred to serve them, and so relied heavily upon static defences and automated
sentry guns for protection.

Spearheaded by Land Raider phalanxes and Shadowsword companies, the IVth Legion surged forward, methodically
eliminating all resistance in a storm of energy blasts, while behind them came wave after wave of mobile siege guns
and artillery whose pulverising shellfire shattered and brought down mountain-faces, burying gun-bastions below in
choking rubble. Such was the apocalyptic firepower of this rolling advance that it obliterated the Black Judges'
vaunted defences metre by metre, erasing them from existence.

It was when the Space Marines smashed their way into the lightless inner sanctums of the Night Courts at the heart
of the towering citadels of obsidian that the bitterest fighting took place. Swept by batteries of lethal neutron rays
and assailed by suicidal mobs of Accusators armed with powered chain-hammers able to split even Legiones
Astartes battle-plate, the casualties mounted, but the IVth Legion did not falter.

Once the fanatics had been slaughtered, the leading elements of the assault wave forced their way bloodily on
through abyssal chambers of nightmarish surgical theatres and abhorrent instruments of the "justice" these debased
oppressors enacted, to their final confrontation with the Black Judges themselves.

Sustained by their dark sciences, each of the Black Judges' armoured life support frames were all but impervious to
Bolter fire, while their razor scourges and ray cannon made each the equal of a Legiones Astartes Dreadnought in
firepower -- and there were hundreds of them. Against these mechanoid killers the warriors of the IV th Legion would
not give ground, although the Legionaries themselves fell in droves, cut into bloody hunks of meat or incinerated in
the molten coffins of their Power Armour.

The darkness soon became a storm of muzzle flash and thunder, pierced by the screams of the dying and the high-
pitched screeching of diseased minds that had lived far beyond human sanity for centuries. As the battle raged on,
the Legionaries took to using mounds of their own dead as cover from the sweeping hellish directed energy rays,
and rallied again and again to charge the blackly glittering judgement engines, suffering the Black Judges'
murderous fury to plant Krak Grenades or discharge point-blank Melta blasts to bring their enemies down.

For an age, the battle hovered on a knife edge; in the confines of the vaults and corridors, the Black Judges had the
advantage, and for every one of them that fell, a dozen or more Astartes also fell to pay the price. It was then that
Perturabo struck.

Having observed the unfolding battle, his superhuman intellect had discerned patterns and vulnerability amid the
chaos and din of war, and had calculated the precise point at which to attack to the greatest effect. The Primarch
himself struck the ranks of the Black Judges like a thunderbolt, throwing them into disarray. Like a vengeful god he
ploughed into the heart of them, blasting and burning them, ripping their machine-frames apart and tearing out the
withered bodies from within with his own gauntleted hands.

As the Black Judges reeled in shock and sought to realign their counterattack against this new and terrible threat, the
gears of Perturabo's plan turned and the elite heavy weapons support units of the IV th Legion, already known by the
informal title of "Havocs", advanced in precisely coordinated attack patterns that predicted their foes' response with
preternatural accuracy. Isolating and blindsiding the Black Judges, the Havocs advanced implacably and ended their
baleful rule, pronouncing sentence of their own with crossfire storms of Autocannon shells and plasma bolts.

By Perturabo's design the enemy was crushed without mercy and their domains were stripped of every valuable
resource and technology; wreckage and weapons flowed to Olympia and the Black Judges' long-guarded secrets fell
also to the newly renamed Iron Warriors and their master, who shared them with the Mechanicum in return for their
aid.

With the world stripped of its resources, the orbital shipyards of the Rock of Judgement, themselves relics of the lost
human age of interstellar conquest, were finally set in orbit afresh around Olympia and set to work fashioning a new
generation of warships under Perturabo's seal.

Conquering the Meratara Cluster

After Perturabo overthrew the vaunted "Black Judges" and claimed their once-held domain for the Imperium, he
purged the xenos Ecto-Saurids of Verikhonia and subjugated the Renegade Knight-fiefdom of Lyxos, completing his
conquest of the cluster. In this last conflict, Perturabo's Legion ended by force a schism that had lasted for millennia
back into the Age of Strife between the fragmented empire and its former masters in the Mechanicum, winning the
Legion much favour with the lords of Mars.

This period was for the IVth Legion a winnowing; a time of trials and testing at their Primarch's hand. With
calculated forethought and savage experiment, Perturabo remade the Legion to his own image -- an image not
echoing the Olympian or Terran ideal -- but one fashioned purely from his own bleak and unflinchingly ruthless
psyche. At the end of the Meratara Cluster campaign, the IV th Legion of old was no more, and the Iron Warriors had
been forged from blood and fire in their place.

By the time Perturabo returned again to Olympia with his renamed force, the machinery of his plans was well into
effect. In alliance with the Mechanicum, new orbital shipyards and foundries burned with frenetic activity. Many
had been torn from dead orbits around conquered stars, dragged to Olympia and refitted and expanded to his
Legion's purpose. The worlds of the Meratara Cluster too now paid their tribute of flesh and blood to the Lord of
Iron to feed his Legion's hunger for fresh warriors, weapons and munitions.

All was by Perturabo's hand and design. In the crucible of war, the Iron Warriors had undergone its reshaping, with
the changes that had occurred seen in many ways to have amplified what was already present in the IV th Legion
rather than changing it beyond recognition; where once the Legion had been ruthless in its willingness to accept
losses in return for victory, now it was utterly driven to the point where such considerations were as beneath it as
mortal fear. War had become a deadly equation which the Iron Warriors were supremely suited to solve; a
relentlessly unyielding engine of war, a beast of steel and fire which swept worlds clean and devoured whole armies.

At the head of a newly constituted force, the 125 th Expeditionary Fleet, into which Perturabo drew the bulk of his
Legion's strength, the Primarch had command of a force which quickly became the battering ram of the Great
Crusade.

As they fought alongside each of their fellow Legions in turn, they gained an unmatched reputation for brutal
efficiency in battle, mastery of armoured warfare and as artillerists without peer among the Legions. It was said of
the Iron Warriors that there was no fortress built by the hand of humanity or that of the xenos they could not smash
down, no stronghold they could not storm and no army they could not drown in its own blood through shot and
shell.

Bitter Resentments
The wedge that had been hammered between the Iron Warriors and the other Space Marine Legions, however, was
only driven home further as time passed, and resentment, pride and paranoia gathered in the hearts of many within
the IVth Legion. By his grim methods and savage example, Perturabo had awoken in his warriors a reflection of his
own dark soul, and within them his own suspicions, malevolent distrust and callous indifference to life grew
alongside the ruthless determination, cold intellect and strength he wished to unlock there.

It is then perhaps not unsurprising, given the IVth Legion's predilection for open battle, its employment in siege
assault -- the most dangerous and unpredictable of all forms of line warfare -- and its willingness at every level from
its Primarch downwards to accept attrition as the price of victory, that the Iron Warriors are estimated in many
sources to have suffered the highest overall number of casualties over time of any of the Legions in the Great
Crusade.

It is also similarly a testament to them and the cold and cruel genius of their Primarch, that such losses were
routinely absorbed by the Legion without serous lasting depreciation of the Iron Warriors' strategic fighting power
and that high casualties rarely resulted in defeat for the IVth Legion. However, despite their genetically enhanced
resilience to mental trauma and psycho-indoctrination, it is believed that such a continuous exposure to loss and
destruction worked a slow and bitter corrosion on the Legion's psyche.

Perturabo and his Legion sought no friends or allies amongst those they served with, save perhaps the agents of the
Mechanicum who aided them in the pursuit of ever more powerful and efficient means of waging war. In their
fellow Legions they saw weaknesses bred by self-deceit, lack of discipline, false mysticism and vanity, and they also
saw insults and slights by them, both real and imagined.

Even many factions of the Mechanicum, to whom Perturabo's technological intellect was a wonder, did not trust him
or his Legion fully, dangerously self-sufficient and adept as they were, and ignorant of the doctrines of the
Omnissiah's faith.

To the forces of the Excertus Imperialis -- the hosts of the Imperial Army and its auxiliaries -- the Iron Warriors'
repute was a dark one indeed. More than any other Legion, the Iron Warriors were seen as not only willing to use
the lives of merely human auxiliaries as a strategic resource, but as deliberate expenditure, as cannon fodder to
deplete an enemy's firepower, in sacrificial waves by the thousand to bring out a foe from their defences, or simply
to gauge an enemy's strengths by observing how fast they could annihilate them.

Such repeated incidents only served to further taint the hated epithet the "Corpse Grinders" among the common
soldiers of the Great Crusade. Open mutiny, put down with predictably thorough slaughter, grew increasingly
frequent in war zones where Excertus Auxillia were under the Iron Warriors' command until, by the Warmaster
Horus' edict, a standing order was effected to ensure that the bulk of such troops given to the Iron Warriors'
command were to be either indentured criminals or enslaved non-Compliants to ameliorate the corrosive effect on
wider morale.

By the last solar decades of the Great Crusade, rivalries as well as often mutual simmering disdain, such as the
antipathy between the Iron Warriors and Raven Guard Legion brought on by friction during the Icessunder War, and
an increasingly bitter rivalry between the Iron Warriors and the Imperial Fists, characterised the Iron Warriors'
relationship with its fellow Legions.

Indeed, even where the Iron Warriors and their Primarch fought successfully alongside their fellow Legions, such as
in the critical war against WAAAGH! Mashogg, their part was often treated with indifference or guarded disdain by
the IVth Legion's contemporaries.

In this latter incident for example, although before Perturabo and the Iron Warriors' arrival in the war zone, Overdog
Mashogg's vast orbital fortifications had previously repulsed attack after attack from both the Space Wolves and the
White Scars Legions.
Perturabo, whose plan succeeded at last in breaking the line and allowing for the Orks' slaughter, is recorded in the
contemporary chronicles of his brother-Legions only as a nameless "comrade-in-arms." This growing schism,
perhaps more obvious in hindsight than it would have appeared at the time, was further exacerbated after the
appointment of Horus as the Imperial Warmaster.

This major re-alignment in the deployment of the Great Crusade saw the renewal and issuing of a string of directives
and disposition orders, some from Terra and others from the Warmaster. These orders continued to bleed the Iron
Warriors Legion and scatter a good part of its strength across a myriad of splinter Expeditionary Fleets, thankless
sieges and garrison postings in the most dangerous, forlorn and isolated corners of the ever-widening Imperium.

Meanwhile, Perturabo's own 125th Expeditionary Fleet was driven into the teeth of deadly foe after deadly foe,
neither asking for, nor being sent reinforcements or additional resources, save for those it could itself generate and
acquire. Perturabo, bitter but iron in his word, complied.

Such events in retrospect only served to foment and amplify the resentment and discord within the IV th Legion and
split it from the Imperium it served, and increasingly to derange its warriors in the face of some of the worst horrors
the Great Crusade would ever face. Indeed, such may have very well been Horus' plan.

As the Great Crusade moved forward, many Iron Warrior citadels were established on liberated worlds,
guaranteeing a safe line of communications and an Imperial occupational force for the planet. Small units of Iron
Warriors were garrisoned in these new fortifications, sometimes in ridiculously small numbers. One often-cited
example was the Iron Keep on Delgas II, where a single Tactical Squad of ten Iron Warriors was stationed, despite
the world having a disgruntled population of almost 130 million people.

Where other Primarchs like Leman Russ, Vulkan and Magnus the Red refused to split their forces, Perturabo obeyed
his orders with increasing bitterness. The Iron Warriors were being turned into a garrison Legion, with tiny
deployments all over the Imperium. The Iron Warriors' indisputable success in siege warfare led to them being
"typecast" so that they became the automatic choice for any siege or garrison mission, ignoring the basic needs of all
the Legion's Astartes for rest and reorganisation. Resentment against the Emperor's relentless demands began to
build up throughout the IVth Legion, and particularly within Perturabo himself.

The Hollow Crown

More so than many of those who would eventually turn Traitor and side with Horus, the motivations and path of
damnation pursued by the Iron Warriors remains perhaps the most unknown and uncertain, save perhaps that of the
history of the Alpha Legion around who little but lies circle.

Once faultlessly loyal, they did not bend but seemed to outsiders instead to suddenly and inexplicably shatter in their
allegiance. Many who view the matter with enough dispassion see, rightly or wrongly, a Legion eroded by too much
horror, too much attrition and death in the service of a cause to which they went unheralded and unthanked. They
see a Primarch and his sons who were slowly laid low with suspicion, malcontent and a growing madness.

But here remains scant evidence of wholesale corruption of the body or the insidious hand of the Ruinous Powers at
work among them, let alone any actual traffic with dark forces before the cataclysm of galactic civil war engulfed
the Imperium. For others the answer is more simply that there grew in the IV th Legion a savage, jealous arrogance
born of nothing more than base bloodlust and malcontent which led the Iron Warriors down the path to their ruin.

There have been some who have contended that the Iron Warriors' fatal flaw was instead a lack of faith at a
fundamental level, that they did not truly believe in the cause of the Great Crusade or the Emperor that they served,
or that they themselves were anything more than machines built to kill. It might then be viewed that ultimately they
were undone by the very pragmatism and logic that had made them such ruthless and effective soldiers, but left them
ill-equipped to fight an enemy as existential as doubt and mortal terror.
If this is true then for Perturabo, his Primarch's mantle became nothing but a license for slaughter without a higher
purpose, his conquests empty and victories hollow. It has been further contended that this was what ultimately
deranged and destroyed them from within, leaving nothing but empty vessels to be filled with the uncaring savagery
and the mirror of the horrors they had borne.

The Horus Heresy

The Iron Warriors during the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V

As the tragic outbreak of the Horus Heresy grew closer, it appears that Perturabo was put under ever-increasing
pressure, and as a result the fires of his bitterness were stoked to a raging inferno. Some have postulated that it was
the Warmaster Horus who, time after time, engineered events and adjusted deployments to the Primarch's
psychological detriment.

For the Iron Warriors Legion the Horus Heresy came as the culmination of a series of reversals and fell tragedies
that had occurred in the latter years of the Great Crusade, stalked the Legion and by their effect both deranged and
twisted is Legionaries.

Foremost of these had been the rebellion of Olympia, the seat of the Legion's domain in the Meratara Cluster and
foundling homeworld of their Primarch Perturabo. With the death of the long-lived Tyrant of Lochos and Satrap of
Olympia, the duplicitous and viperous politics of Olympia had severely degraded into infighting and insurrection.

The violence and division flared up worse than ever before because of the changes the Imperium had wrought onto
Olympia after bringing it to Compliance, and the discontent grew, due to generations of the planet's finest youth
having been tithed for the IVth Legion, never to return.

The shocking start of the rebellion struck at the heart of the Legion and its master, and could not have come at a
worse time, because for over a Terran year, the Iron Warriors Legion had been engaged in the almost single-handed
suppression of a major infiltration of the infamous xenoform known as the Hrud. All such actions in the history of
the Great Crusade had proved costly both in terms of lives and the sanity of those who must fight such nightmares,
and this was to prove the exception.

In the midst of the cleansing of the Hrud Warrens on the world of Gugann, the IVth Legion was notified of the
rebellion of its homeworld. It was Horus himself who broke the news to Perturabo that his homeworld of Olympia
was in rebellion against the Imperium. Dammekos had died and the population had taken up arms against the
Imperium following years of relentless anti-Imperial propaganda by the dead Tyrant.

Perturabo was by this time tired of repeatedly having to prove his worth, and the thought of being the Primarch of
the only Space Marine Legion unable to hold its own homeworld appalled him. Horus bade Perturabo to return to
his place of discovery and presented him with the Power Hammer Forgebreaker, which is believed by some
Imperial scholars to have acted as a conduit through which the Ruinous Powers could manipulate the Iron Warriors'
Primarch.

Perturabo's long-repressed anger was finally unleashed, and upon his return to his homeworld, the Primarch enacted
such fearsome vengeance that countless innocents were slaughtered and entire cities burned. Perturabo and the Iron
Warriors brutally suppressed the rebellion on the streets of the city-states of Olympia.

No one was spared. It was the principle of surrender or no quarter, and the Iron Warriors had grown accustomed to
granting no quarter. Perturabo watched as the Olympian fortifications in which he had once taken such pride were
overcome. By the time the massacre was over, Olympia had been culled into slavery. Five million civilians had been
killed in the process.
As the pyres burned through the long Olympian night, the Iron Warriors slowly realised the extent of what they had
done. One moment they were humanity's heroes assaulting the hideous alien Hrud and the next they were
committing genocide against their own people. In the aftermath of his vengeance, Perturabo knew utter despair,
barely able to comprehend the crimes he had committed in his rage. He knew that the Emperor could never forgive
him for his deeds.

In the wake of this tragedy, the IVth Legion retreated further into a private world of stark violence and bitter
paranoia. Its brutality suppressed the worlds it garrisoned with renewed savagery and unleashed genocidal force
upon the first hints of open rebellion, with many of its commanders growing ever more unhinged and isolated from
the Imperium they served.

But before Perturabo could set about righting his terrible deed, word came of Horus' virus-bombing of the Traitor
Legions' remaining Loyalists at Istvaan III, and the Iron Warriors were ordered by the Emperor to confront the
Traitors and bring them to justice.

The Iron Warriors also received news of the most inconceivable kind: Astartes had slain Astartes. The news would
have been shattering under normal circumstances, but when heard amidst the ruins of a world that were thick with
the stench and corpses of the dead, it was apocalyptic.

Not long after, news arrived that Leman Russ had led his Space Wolves in an attack upon Magnus the Red and his
Thousand Sons upon their homeworld of Prospero for Magnus' continued violation of the Imperial Edicts of Nikaea
forbidding the use of psykers by the Astartes and the practice of psychic sorcery.

Horus had turned Traitor to the Emperor along with his own Sons of Horus Legion. Angron's World Eaters and
Mortarion's Death Guard were also now Traitor Legions. Fulgrim and the Emperor's Children had also declared their
allegiance to Horus' cause and Chaos, and the Renegade Primarch had unsuccessfully tried to turn Ferrus Manus of
the Iron Hands to the worship of the Ruinous Powers. The Iron Warriors were ordered to join the Iron Hands and
five other Loyalist Legions in a task force intended to crush the nascent rebellion against Imperial rule in the Istvaan
System.

Between their bitter rivalry with the Imperial Fists and the guilt derived from their butchery on Olympia, in
retrospect it was no surprise that Perturabo and the IVth Legion turned Traitor to the Imperium. History records little
of the machinations Horus must surely have enacted in order to turn the bitter Perturabo to the cause of the Traitors,
but whatever the truth, the Iron Warriors turned upon their brothers at the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, and in
so doing sealed their damnation and allegiance to the Ruinous Powers.

On Istvaan V, the Iron Warriors, the Night Lords, the Word Bearers and the Alpha Legion were held in reserve,
while Ferrus Manus led his own Iron Hands, along with the Raven Guard and the Salamanders, against the Traitor
positions in the first Loyalist wave.

After being heavily engaged with Horus' forces, the surviving Loyalists of the first wave eagerly sought the shelter
of the Iron Warriors' trenches and bunkers, only to be mercilessly gunned down by their erstwhile allies. Henceforth,
the Iron Warriors have always been known as the "Betrayers of Istvaan" in the wider Imperium.

Hydra Cordatus

Perturabo fighting against the hated Imperial Fists during the final assault of the Hydra Cordatus campaign

As Horus' rebellion ground on, the Iron Warriors took the time to humble their great enemies, the Imperial Fists,
upon the isolated world of Hydra Cordatus that the Sons of Dorn had recently brought into Imperial Compliance.
The Iron Warriors made planetfall in the wake of a saturation bombardment that reduced the valley where the
planet's lone formidable fortress, known as the Cadmean Citadel, was situated and the agri-settlements filling its
fertile deltas to ash.
Magma bombs and mass drivers boiled away the rivers and reduced fecund earth to arid dust. The Cadmean Citadel
was left untouched, and the small garrison of Imperial Fists Legionaries that Rogal Dorn had left behind still found
it difficult to believe that such a precise bombardment was possible. But the Iron Warriors had purposely done this
in order to show the Imperial Fists that they were superior to them in every way.

The technological cunning of the ancient fortress builders, married to the artfully wrought geography and the
courage of the defenders, proceeded to keep the Iron Warriors at bay for almost three solar months. Every day the
Loyalist warriors stayed alive kept the enemy from redeploying and bringing their strength to bear elsewhere against
the forces of the Imperium. Yet, when the Iron Warriors finally overcame the citadel's ancient defences and broke
open its walls they ran amok.

They slaughtered the remaining Imperial Fists Legionaries, the heroic men and women of Hydra Cordatus that had
chosen to stand with them, and the refugees from the devastated fields below the fortress. Fifty-two Imperial Fists
and thirteen thousand men, women and children were crammed within the citadel's walls. When the final assault
came, the Lord of Iron himself spearheaded the audacious attack upon the citadel's defenders, and slaughtered over
thirty Imperial Fists Astartes in a span of only a few minutes.

The rest of the Cadmean Citadel's defenders were slaughtered to a man and the surviving mortal refugees were
enslaved by the Iron Warriors before they moved on to their next objective. Hydra Cordatus was reduced to a barren
desert world by the Traitor Legion's assault.

Empire of Iron

Following the Drop Site Massacre, the IVth Legion transformed Olympia and its surrounding star systems into a so-
called "Empire of Iron." On a dozen worlds, an Iron Warriors Warsmith replaced the Loyalist Imperial Planetary
Governor and tithes were paid to the new rulers under the shadow of fortified battlements.

Following the massacre on Isstvan V, the next major action of the Iron Warriors was the ambush of the Imperial
Fists fleet at the Battle of Phall, in which the Imperial Fists fleet that had been becalmed in the Warp on the way to
the Istvaan System was assaulted by the vessels of the Iron Warriors but managed to successfully escape and make
its way back to Terra.

Angel Exterminatus

Following their victory on Hydra Cordatus, word reached Perturabo that Fulgrim and his Emperor's Children Legion
wished to rendezvous with him to discuss something of great import. Though the Phoenician had yet to reveal the
true purpose of his visit, he had promised Perturabo that it was "wondrous." Perturabo knew that his brother had a
flair for the melodramatic, which only seemed to have gotten worse since the III rd Legion threw their lot in with the
Warmaster.

The Lord of Iron counted none of his fellow Primarchs as close, but the Phoenician's adherence to perfection in all
things had once provided common ground between the two superhuman warriors and allowed them to talk as trusted
comrades-in-arms, if not beloved brothers. What the Emperor's Children had sought with constant movement
towards the attainment of perfection, the Iron Warriors earned with rigid discipline and methodical planning; two
divergent paths to the same ultimate goal.

Perturabo believed Fulgrim's visit had something to do with the inevitable campaign to be conducted against Mars.
The Warmaster needed the Martian theatre fully secured before they moved against Terra, and he believed that
Fulgrim was there to seek the Iron Warriors' aid in breaking open the forge-cities of the Mechanicum. If he was
right, Perturabo wanted his Legion to have a plan in place to achieve that objective.

Until the Iron Warriors received further orders, Perturabo would humour his brother and listen to what Fulgrim had
to say. While making plans for the upcoming campaign, Perturabo received word that the Emperor's Children had
arrived, unannounced, on the surface of Hydra Cordatus. Over three hundred drop-craft had landed beyond the
mouth of the valley where the Iron Warriors had made their encampment.

The IVth Legion quickly gathered in formation to honour the IIIrd Legion with a vanguard to receive them. Battalions
of Thorakitai Imperial Army troops stood ranked in their tens of thousands. Before them stood two hundred Grand
Battalions of Iron Warriors, fifty thousand warriors in amberdust-burnished warplate. Such a display of might and
magnificence had not been seen since the slaughter unleashed upon the black sands of Istvaan V.

Yet Perturabo and his senior officers looked on in awe at the gaudy cavalcade of noise, colour and spectacle that
emerged from the IIIrd Legion's drop site into the valley. Fulgrim and his Emperor's Children were now completely
unrecognisable from the honourable warriors that had once formed the III rd Legion. Perturabo knew something
fundamental had changed within the Emperor's Children, but could not imagine what purpose the disfigurements
and degradations its warriors now sported could possibly serve.

Fulgrim met with his brother Primarch in the private inner sanctum of his command bunker with an enticing offer
that Perturabo could not refuse; the means to make it so that the Lord of Iron's every desire could be made real and
would never disappoint, never fail to live up to his fondest expectations, and never, ever be eclipsed. Fulgrim came
with an offer to unite their mutual forces in battle on a glorious quest. One that might tip the balance of the
Warmaster's rebellion.

Though Perturabo was suspicious of his brother's intentions, perhaps this joint venture would grant understanding
through common cause. Fulgrim revealed his purpose; they were to venture to the Warp rift that had plagued
Perturabo's dreams all of his life. Within it was hidden an ancient and forbidden xenos weapon known as the Angel
Exterminatus. It had been hidden in the grave of its doom, a weapon of such power that the stars themselves turned
upon it rather than allow it to escape its prison.

Sisypheum

Unknown to both the Emperor's Children and the Iron Warriors, they were being pursued by a ragtag group of
Loyalist Astartes who were survivors of the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V and were determined to stop the
Traitors at all costs. These Loyalist Space Marines were gathered from survivors that had fought their way out of the
killing ground of the Urgall Depression on Istvaan V. They had managed to escape the Istvaan System aboard an
Iron Hands Strike Cruiser known as the Sisypheum.

Iron Hands Astartes and their mortal serfs formed the bulk of the warship's crew, but surviving warriors of the
Salamanders and a single Raven Guard Astartes were also counted among their number. In the wake of the
slaughter, escape from the Istvaan System had been a nerve-shredding series of mad dashes under fire and silent
runs through the Traitors' orbital blockade, culminating in a final sprint to the gravipause, the minimum safe
distance between a star's mass and a vessel's ability to survive a Warp Jump also known as a Mandeville Point. The
Sisypheum had escaped the trap, but not without great cost.

The months that followed saw the Sisypheum embark on a series of hit-and-run attacks on Traitor forces on the
northern frontiers of the galaxy, wreaking harm like a lone predator swimming in a dark ocean. Traitor forces
seeking flanking routes through the Segmentum Obscurus were their prey; scout craft, cartographae ships, slow-
moving supply hulks heavily laden with mortal troops, ammunition and weapons.

Disruption and harassment were the Sisypheum 's main objective until contact had been established with disparate
groups of Loyalist forces that had also escaped the massacre, and a stratagem of sorts agreed upon. With the X th
Legion too scattered to function in a traditional battlefield role, its surviving commanders found their own way to
fight back: as the thorns in the flanks of the leviathan that distract it from the swordthrust to the vitals.

At Cavor Sarta, an Iron Hand known as Sabak Wayland and the lone Raven Guard survivor Nykona Sharrowkyn
had captured an Unlingual Cipher Host -- one of the so-called "Kryptos" -- a hybrid abomination creature of the
Dark Mechanicum that had previously made the Traitors' code network a cryptographic impossibility to break. With
the Kryptos, Loyalist commanders were able to finally access the Traitors' coded communications.

And with this knowledge, the Sisypheum 's Captain, the Iron Hand Ulrach Branthan, had ordered the Sisypheum to
make the circuitous journey to Hydra Cordatus and the meeting of the Traitor Primarchs that had been indicated by
the cracked communications. After learning of Fulgrim's intentions to enter the Eye of Terror and recover the Angel
Exterminatus, the crew of the Sisypheum made their way towards the Warp Rift, aided by a mysterious Eldar guide
with the intention of thwarting the Traitors' plan to acquire the unknown xenos weapon.

Crone World

The destination of the joint fleet of Iron Warriors and Emperor's Children vessels was the lost Aeldari world of
Iydris, a world said to have been favoured by the goddess Lileath. Iydris was one of the legendary Crone Worlds,
which once formed the heart of the ancient Aeldari Empire before they were consumed by the creation of the vast
Warp rift that was the Eye of Terror following the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh.

The Crone World was located at the heart of the Eye of Terror, somehow remaining in a fixed position keeping it
from destruction in the gravitational hellstorm of a supermassive black hole that lay at the centre of the eternal Warp
Storm. It was from this epicentre that the galaxy vomited unnatural matter into the void, a dark doorway to an
unknowable destination and an unimaginably powerful singularity whose gravity was so strong that it consumed
light, matter, space and time in its destructive core.

Their ultimate goal was within the Primarchs' grasp; the Sepulchre of Isha's Doom, which sat at the centre of the
citadel of Amon ny-shak Kaelis. The citadel stood astride the entrance to the prison tomb of the Angel Exterminatus.
Before launching a full planetary assault, the Iron Warriors launched a preliminary orbital bombardment around the
citadel, a standard practice when preparing to assault a potentially hostile environment.

A cone of fire gouged the surface of Iydris, burning, pounding and flattening in the blink of an eye structures that
had stood inviolate for tens of thousands of Terran years. A barren ring of pulverised earth encircled the citadel of
Amon ny-shak Kaelis, leaving its walls, towers and temples an isolated island cut off from the rest of the planet's
structures by a billowing firestorm of planet-cracking force.

In the wake of this orbital bombardment flocks of Thunderhawks, Stormbirds, Warhawks and heavy planetary
landers launched from crammed embarkation decks. Bulk tenders descended to low orbit and disgorged thousands
of troop carriers, armour lifters and supply barques. Titanic, gravity-cushioned mass-landers moved with majestic
slowness as two Titans of the Legio Mortis took to the field, and this was but the first wave of the invasion. Another
eight would follow before the martial power of two entire Space Marine Legions and their auxiliary Imperial Army
forces had made planetfall.

Battle of Iydris

Fulgrim looks on as his Emperor's Children, his brother Perturabo and the Iron Warriors fight for their lives against
an army of Aeldari revenants within the Sepulchre of Isha's Doom at the heart of the citadel of Amon ny-shak Kaelis

The Traitors' assault began five solar hours later, despite the full circuit of fortifications still being incomplete. For
all intents and purposes, the route into the citadel of Amon ny-shak Kaelis was undefended and their route
unopposed. Ever mistrustful of the lack of defences, Perturabo had his Iron Warriors dig in, assuming a perfect
formation outside the walls in a layered barbican that protected the Traitor Legions' line of retreat.

Fulgrim's host broke apart into individual warbands, ranging in size from around a hundred warriors to groups of
nearly a thousand. Each of these autonomous groups appeared to be led by a captain, though such was the bizarre
ornamentation and embellishment on each warrior's armour, it was often impossible to discern specific rankings.
Leaving the fortified bridgehead behind, Perturabo led his Iron Warriors and the Emperor's Children contingent into
the heart of Amon ny-shak Kaelis. The Sepulchre of Isha's Doom was a monumental palace, sprawling and richly
ornamented with bulbous mourn-towers and sweeping, ivory-roofed domes. As the column of Traitors pressed
onwards towards the sepulchre, they were being silently and unknowingly observed by the Loyalist Astartes of the
Sisypheum. Despite being outnumbered a thousand to one, the small force of Loyalist Legionaries devised a means
to find another way into the massive sepulchre.

As the two Primarchs neared their ultimate goal, Fulgrim kept pressing his stern brother with curt impatience to not
linger. Perturabo took the time to study Fulgrim and his assembled host. His brother was sheened in sweat, but it
was not perspiration that beaded his brow, Fulgrim was sweating light. Though it was faint, it was visible to
Perturabo's gene-enhanced sight that saw beyond what even Astartes eyes were capable of detecting. He wondered if
Fulgrim was aware of the radiance bleeding from him and decided he must be. His brother's armour strained against
his body and his features were drawn and tired, as though only by an effort of will was he still standing.

His captains looked no better, like hounds straining at the leash. A number of Fulgrim's Lord Commanders' flesh
was also suffused with a light similar to that enveloping Fulgrim, a deathly radiance that had no place within a living
being.

Perturabo did not trust Fulgrim one bit, knowing that inevitably he would be betrayed by his brother. The Lord of
Iron pressed on, intent on bringing their quest to completion. As they neared their final destination at the heart of the
sepulchre, the power at the heart of Iydris spasmed in hateful recognition of the followers of Slaanesh, known to the
Eldar as She Who Thirsts, and awoke its guardians from their slumber.

Thousands of crystalline statues threw off their previous immobility. They moved stiffly, like sleepers awoken from
an aeons-long slumber, and the gems at the heart of their bulbous heads bled vibrant colour into glassy bodies that
suddenly seemed significantly less fragile. This army of wraiths were the ancient Aeldari dead of Iydris. Soon both
the Traitor forces outside the citadel as well as those inside were attacked from all sides by the revenant army.

Like automata, but with a hideously organic feel to their movements, the Aeldari constructs emerged in their
thousands with every passing second. As Perturabo was busy fighting for his life, Fulgrim slipped away in the midst
of the fighting. Realising where he had gone, the Lord of Iron stepped into the green glow emanating from the centre
of the massive chamber. Perturabo understood that this was no elemental energy or mechanically generated motive
force, but the distilled life essence of all those who had died there.

Perturabo descended downwards on an unending spiral towards a point of light that grew no brighter no matter how
far he descended. The journey downwards was never-ending, or so it seemed until it ended. Fulgrim stood at the
origin of a slender bridge that arched out to the centre of a spherical chamber of incredible, sanity-defying
proportions. The footings of the bridge were anchored on the equator, and a score of other bridges reached out to
where a seething ball of numinous jade light blazed like a miniature sun.

Iydris, it transpired, was a hollow world, its core this colossal void with the impossibly bright sun at its heart.
Perturabo confronted his brother, realising that there had never been an Angel Exterminatus. Fulgrim confirmed for
Perturabo that there was no such weapon yet, for he was to be the Angel Exterminatus.

Perturabo responded that his brother always did have an appetite for rampant narcissism, but this was the grandest
delusion yet. Unamused at Fulgrim's explanation, Perturabo took a step towards his brother, Forgebreaker in his
hand, intent on killing him. Fulgrim spoke a single word, its nightmare syllables tore at Perturabo's brain, causing
him to stumble and drop to one knee. Fulgrim revealed the reason for his brother being drained of energy.

When Fulgrim had arrived on Hydra Cordatus he had presented the Lord of Iron with a gift; a folded cloak of softest
ermine, trimmed with foxbat fur and embroidered with an endlessly repeating pattern of spirals in the golden
proportion. A flattened skull of chromed steel acted as the fastener. Set in the skull's forehead was a gemstone the
size of a fist, black and veined with hair-fine threads of gold.
As they had made their way towards the heart of the Eye of Terror, the large gemstone at the centre of the skull-
carved cloak pin had changed from black to a solid gold colour and pulsed with its own internal heartbeat. This was
the maugetar stone, known as the harvester, which had slowly been draining Perturabo's strength and life force.
With the Lord of Iron's sacrifice, Fulgrim would finally be able to achieve apotheosis. The two Primarchs ascended
upwards within the shaft of light, emerging into the chaos that was happening within the heart of the sepulchre.

Apotheosis of Fulgrim

Fulgrim achieves apotheosis, becoming a Daemon Prince of his patron god Slaanesh

The Primarch of the Emperor's Children hurled his brother aside, and Perturabo fell in a languid arc to land with a
crunch of metal and crystal at the edge of the shaft. Blood trailed the air in a streaming red arc from Perturabo's
chest. The Lord of Iron lay unmoving, his body broken and lifeless. The attention of every Astartes within the
chamber was irrevocably drawn towards the Primarch, for they recognised that an event of great moment was in the
offing.

The Phoenician was no longer the same being as had descended into the planet. He floated in the air above the shaft,
which no longer poured its green torrent up to the restless darkness above, but simply radiated a fading glow of
dying light. Fulgrim's armour was shimmering with vitality, as though the light of a thousand suns was contained
within him and strained to break free. The Primarch's dark, doll-like eyes were twin black holes, doorways to
heights of experience and sensation the likes of which could only be dreamed by madmen and those willing to go to
any lengths to taste them.

Just as Fulgrim was about to achieve his ultimate desire, Perturabo had regained enough of his former strength and
rose to his feet, the maugetar stone in his hand. Perturabo walked towards Fulgrim, keeping the hand holding the
maugetar stone extended over the shaft in the center of the chamber. Perturabo looked his brother in the eye for
some hint of remorse, a sign that he regretted that things had come to this, something to show he felt even a moment
of shame at plotting to murder his brother.

He saw nothing, and his heart broke to know that the Fulgrim he had known long ago was gone, never to return. He
had not thought it possible that anyone could plunge so far as to be beyond redemption. Perturabo knew that Fulgrim
no longer wanted to be an angel, he wanted to be a god. He informed the Phoenician that Mankind had outgrown
such beings a long time ago. Disgusted by Fulgrim's desires, Perturabo hurled the maugetar stone into the deep
shaft.

Suddenly, a barrage of Bolter fire erupted and a handful of Emperor's Children Astartes were pitched from their feet.
Black-armoured Space Marines bearing a mailed fist upon their shoulder guards charged towards the Traitors. It was
the Astartes of the Xth Legion, the Iron Tenth -- the Iron Hands. Soon the battle was joined, as Loyalist fought
Traitor within the expansive chamber.

The noose of battle was closing on the two Primarchs at its centre -- Perturabo locked on his knees, and Fulgrim
hovering in the air as though bound to his brother by ties not even the call of war could break. The Iron Hands were
mired in battle with the Emperor's Children and Iron Warriors, zipping streams of fire blasting back and forth
between them.

During the battle, one of the Loyalist Astartes, the Raven Guard named Sharrowkyn, had acquired the fallen
maugetar stone. He instinctively knew that if this stone was desired by Fulgrim, then it had to be destroyed. Taking
a Bolter from a fallen Emperor's Children Astartes, he aimed the muzzle at the strange gold and black stone and
pulled the trigger.

The weakened Perturabo was renewed with the sudden release of his lifeforce from the Chaos relic. Fulgrim's body
arched in sympathetic resonance, for the maugetar stone contained more than just the strength stolen from Perturabo
by Fulgrim. It contained their mingled essences, a power greater than the sum of its parts, a power to fuel an ascent
so brutal that only the combined life-force of two Primarchs could achieve it.
Armour burned from Fulgrim's body, flaking away like golden dust in a hurricane, leaving his monstrously swollen
body naked and his flesh blazing with furnace heat. Spectral flames of shimmering pink and purple licked around his
body, a hungry fire waiting to consume him the moment his focus slipped. As the Lord of Iron finally pushed
himself upright and stood fully erect, he lifted Forgebreaker onto his shoulder.

Fulgrim saw his death in Perturabo's eyes and grinned, knowing that his brother had to do it. Perturabo hefted
Forgebreaker like a headsman at an execution and swung the mighty hammer in a wide arc, splitting the
Phoenician's body wide open. It was done.

The Daemon Prince Fulgrim, champion of Slaanesh

Fulgrim's body exploded under the impact of Perturabo's warhammer, and the cry of release was a shrieking birth
scream. An explosion of pure force ripped from the Phoenician's destroyed flesh, filling the chamber of towers with
a blinding light that was too bright to look upon, too radiant to ignore. Like a newborn sun, the wondrous
incandescence was the centre of all things, a rebirth in fire, new flesh crafted from the ashes of the old. Every eye in
the chamber was turned to the light, though it would surely blind them or drive them to madness.

Through slitted fingers and shimmering reflections, the survivors of the fighting bore witness to something
magnificent and terrible, an agonising death and violent birth combined. A figure floated in the midst of the light,
and it took a moment for Perturabo to recognise the impossibility of what he was seeing. It was Fulgrim, naked and
pristine, his body unsullied by any of the mawkish ornamentations with which he had defaced his flesh, as perfect as
the day the Emperor had first conceived him.

Then Fulgrim's back arched and his bones split with gunshot cracks. His flesh, once so perfect, now ran fluid and
malleable, his form moulding and remoulding as though an invisible sculptor pressed and worked him like clay upon
a wheel. Fulgrim's legs, extended like the man of Vitruvius, ran and lengthened, fusing together in a writhing
serpent's tail, the skin thickening and sheening with reptilian scales and segmented plates of chitinous armour.
Perturabo took a step towards this thing being born from the death of his brother, all the while despairing that this
was his brother.

Perturabo had destroyed Fulgrim's mortal shell. This was an immaterial avatar of light and energy, of soul and
desire. What was being done here was an act of will, a creature birthing itself through its own desire to exist.
Fulgrim's face was a mask of agonised rapture, a pain endured for the pleasure it promised. Two obsidian horns
erupted from Fulgrim's brow, curling back over his skull, leaving his perfect face as unsullied as the most innocent
child.

Fulgrim had ascended into Chaos and become a prince of the Neverborn, a lord of the Ruinous Powers, the chosen
and beloved Champion of Slaanesh. As the newborn Daemon Prince suddenly departed, the first of the Traitor
Primarchs to achieve daemonic apotheosis, he left his brother with a cryptic message that they would one day meet
again, and both brothers would yet renew their bonds. Lifting his hands into the air, a curtain of light rose up from
the ground and Fulgrim and all of his Emperor's Children Chaos Space Marines disappeared in a flare of arcane
teleportation energy.

With the disappearance of the Emperor's Children, the Crone World of Iydris began to tear itself apart. The force at
the heart of the world was no more. The strength of the lifeforces of the dead Aeldari that had kept it safe was
failing, and soon this planet would be swallowed by the unimaginable force of the supermassive black hole that lay
at the heart of the Eye of Terror.

Across the chasm, the remaining Iron Hands gathered up their wounded and fell back from the spreading fissures
and heaving ruptures opening in the floor. They looked upon Perturabo with hatred, but decided to make their way
off-world from the doomed planet. They knew that they could not fight the Lord of Iron and live through the
encounter. Perturabo let the Iron Hands depart. Then he led his warriors out of the crumbling citadel. Once aboard
his flagship the Iron Blood, Perturabo watched the final death throes of the Aeldari Crone World.
The Iron Blood strained to break orbit, but the force at the heart of the Eye of Terror was reasserting its grip on
reality with a vengeance. Many of the smaller vessels of the Iron Warriors survivor fleet that had followed the
Sisypheum had already been dragged within its embrace, swallowed by the black hole's powerful energies. Only the
capital ships had engines large enough to resist the inexorable pull, but even they were only delaying the inevitable.

Perturabo's Triarchs stood patiently around their lord, awaiting his orders. The Lord of Iron informed them that he
always moved forward, never backwards. They would go into the black hole. Though his senior commanders
believed that it was suicide, the Lord of Iron informed them that Fulgrim had promised that the two brothers would
meet again. The Iron Warriors were not meant to die within the Eye, and there was only one way onwards. His
warriors moved to carry out his order, and the Iron Warriors fleet plunged deep into the heart of Terror.

To the Siege of Terra

Warsmith Forrix, commander of the Iron Warriors' 1st Grand Battalion during the Battle of Terra

Fulgrim had spoke true, for Perturabo and his Iron Warriors emerged intact from the Eye of Terror and were
transported through the singularity within the Eye far across the galaxy to the Tallarn System. Once arriving at
Tallarn, Perturabo was made aware of the Chaos relic known as the Cursus of Alganar hidden beneath the planet,
and he immediately drew up plans to acquire it and its power for the Traitors.

The intended raid unexpectedly turned into the protracted conflict known as the Battle of Tallarn, as both the
Traitors and the Imperium poured war material to their respective allies on the verdant world, neither willing to
admit defeat. The Iron Warriors ultimately responded by unleashing a virus-bomb attack on the planet, which
transformed it into a harsh Desert World. Over a million armoured vehicles fought across that newborn desert,
which is reckoned as the largest tank battle in Imperial history, until eventually the Iron Warriors were forced to
retreat without the Cursus.

After their retreat from Tallarn, the Iron Warriors were assigned to guard worlds to the rear of Horus' front that
following the weakening of the Ruinstorm following the Second Battle of Davin were now threatened by the
advance of the Ultramarines. Many of these worlds served as the Traitor's chief supply line.

The Iron Warriors were among the forces of the Traitor Legions who fought for control of Yarant and the Forge
World of Vanaheim during this period.

By late in the Heresy, the Iron Warriors found themselves overextended, under-supplied, and engaged in thankless,
bitter sieges against the forces of Roboute Guilliman. The Iron Warriors took heavy losses during these conflicts and
once more found themselves in a situation of being used piecemeal across the galaxy similar to that of the Great
Crusade. This course of events was finally interrupted when Perturabo received orders to find his brother Primarch
Angron of the World Eaters Legion and muster with them at Ullanor in preparation for the Siege of Terra.

Despite having to abandon the sacrifices made by many of his Iron Warriors on worlds across the galaxy where they
were already engaged, Perturabo dutifully obeyed the command of the Warmaster. Though many Iron Warriors were
lost in the fighting retreats that resulted from the ensuing redeployments, Perturabo succeeded in arriving at Ullanor
with his Legion as well as Angron and his World Eaters.

After seven standard years of bitter civil war following the Drop Site Massacre, a large contingent of the IV th Legion
accompanied Perturabo himself to Terra, where he supervised the siege of the Imperial Palace during the Battle of
Terra. The Iron Warriors found a sublime pleasure in tearing the edifices of the Imperium down.

The Iron Cage

Iron Warriors Astartes lay their trap within the Iron Cage for the Imperial Fists after the Horus Heresy
It cannot be known whether Dorn's masterfully constructed defences would ultimately have proved the undoing of
the Iron Warriors, for Horus was slain by the Emperor aboard his Battleship in orbit of Terra before the matter could
be fully decided. Those Iron Warriors who had taken part in the Siege of Terra fled to the Eye of Terror with the
remainder of the Traitor Legions, but not before fighting a long rearguard action against the Loyalist forces of the
Imperium during the Great Scouring in an attempt to hold on to the pocket empire they had forged out of the star
systems surrounding Olympia.

During this period, the sons of Perturabo found themselves finally free to test themselves against those of Rogal
Dorn. Before his Legion followed suit, Perturabo devised and enacted the one real victory for the Iron Warriors in
the aftermath of the Horus Heresy.

He crafted a trap on the world of Sebastus IV designed to ensnare Rogal Dorn and the Imperial Fists, with whom
Perturabo and his warriors had long harboured a bitter rivalry that had stemmed from each Legion claiming to be the
best force in the Imperium at laying and defending against sieges.

The trap was known as the Eternal Fortress, a keep centered within twenty square Terran miles of bunkers, towers,
minefields, trenches, tank traps and redoubts. Upon hearing of this, Rogal Dorn publicly declared that he "would dig
Perturabo out of his hole and bring him back to Terra in an iron cage."

Rogal Dorn expected an honourable battle, but this was not to be. Beginning by isolating the four companies of the
Imperial Fists that made planetfall from their orbital support, Perturabo began to carefully divide his enemy and
destroy them piecemeal.

Some Imperial Fists Astartes managed to penetrate the defences and reach the center of the Eternal Fortress, only to
find there was no central keep -- simply an open space watched by yet more defences. The fortress was a decoy of
no real value. By the sixth day of the siege, Imperial Fists Astartes were fighting individually, without support, using
the bodies of their own Battle-Brothers for cover.

The siege of the Eternal Fortress, later referred to simply as the "Iron Cage" by the Imperial Fists, lasted for a further
three solar weeks. Relief came in the form of Roboute Guilliman and the Ultramarines, but the siege left Dorn a
broken man, rendered the Imperial Fists Chapter unable to fight for nineteen standard years until they had made
good their terrible losses, and paved the way for Perturabo's ascension to the rank of Daemon Prince of Chaos
Undivided, after the sacrifice of over four hundred Loyalist Space Marines on the bloody landscape of Sebastus IV.
This most infamous of campaigns was the deed that earned Perturabo the dark blessing of apotheosis to become a
Daemon Primarch.

Scouring of Olympia

Under the command of their new Daemon Prince, the majority of the Iron Warriors fled to the Eye of Terror and
secured the Daemon World of Medrengard after the battle of the Iron Cage, from where they could brood on the turn
of events and plot vengeance on the Imperium. Those Iron Warriors who had established their own empire around
Olympia prepared themselves for the inevitable assault by the Loyalist Legions.

There was to be no refuge from the retribution of the Loyalists during the campaigns known as the Great Scouring.
The Imperial Fists supported the Ultramarines in a campaign to liberate the subjugated worlds. In a reversal of
fortune typical of the grim epoch that ushered in the Age of the Imperium, the Imperial Fists were amongst those
who laid siege to these remaining Iron Warriors strongholds, and while the Traitors were eventually dislodged, it
was only after a decade-long campaign that culminated in the Iron Warriors detonating their nucleonic stockpiles
and reducing Olympia to a radioactive waste.

The Iron Warriors' former homeworld was left as a blasted wasteland that was quarantined by the Imperium and
listed as Perdita by the Inquisition, and no further mention of Olympia has been found in Imperial records for more
than 10,000 standard years.
Second Siege of Hydra Cordatus

Pict-capture of the infamous Honsou leading his fellow Iron Warriors in the attack on the world of Hydra Cordatus

During Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, the Iron Warriors, under the command of the
Warsmith Barban Falk, attacked once more the Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World of Hydra Cordatus which
supplied weapons and other war materiel to the Imperium of Man at large, and was one of the few locations in the
galaxy where the Mechanicus secretly stored its tithes of Space Marine gene-seed.

Alongside his chief rivals Forrix and Kroeger, of the 1 st and 2nd Grand Companies, respectively, Honsou was one of
three champions of the Warsmith that laid siege to the large citadel and manufactorum complex known as the Tor
Christo. Deep within this formidable Imperial citadel lay the stasis vaults which contained the genetic material
drawn from the Iron Warriors' most hated and ancient rivals, the Imperial Fists.

The Iron Warriors desperately needed the Astartes' pure gene-seed to reconstitute their numbers as the corrupting
power of Chaos tended to mutate their own gene-seed to the point that it was unusable to replenish their ranks with
new Chaos Space Marines. Honsou was often belittled by his fellow Iron Warriors for having mixed gene-seed
which consisted of spliced Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists genetic material.

He was referred to by his fellows as a "half-breed," due to his gene-seed's mixed heritage. Despite the Imperial
forces arrayed against them, including a large garrison of Astra Militarum troops and even a small detachment of
Titans of the Legio Ignatum protecting the complex's precious contents, in the end the Iron Warriors emerged
triumphant. They defeated the Imperial forces defending Tor Christo as well as an entire company of Imperial Fists
who had arrived as reinforcements to try and prevent the theft of their genetic legacy.

Having greatly pleased the Chaos Gods through his monumental victory over the Imperium, the commanding
Warsmith was allowed to ascend to become a Daemon Prince. Before his final ascension to daemonhood, the
Warsmith appointed Honsou as his successor, handing him command over his Grand Company. He then
commanded Honsou to take the stolen Imperial Fists gene-seed back to the Iron Warriors' Daemon World of
Medrengard within the Eye of Terror. After the Iron Warriors withdrew from Hydra Cordatus they bombarded the
remains of the citadel to dust, leaving behind a lone Imperial survivor to tell the tale of what had occurred.

Medrengard

Warsmith Honsou with his newly grafted arm composed of the living metal Necrodermis

When Honsou returned to the Iron Warriors' homeworld of Medrengard within the nightmarish realm of the Eye of
Terror, he sent the newly obtained gene-seed to the Forces of Chaos' Warmaster Abaddon the Despoiler as was
required, but he secretly kept a small portion of the pure genetic material for himself. With his ill-gotten gains,
Honsou set about constructing an unusual genetic system known as the Daemonculaba -- which combined the
application of technology and the arcane to create new Astartes to swell the ranks of the Iron Warriors.

This process required an adolescent human boy to be sealed within the womb of a genetically-modified human
female slave, known as a Daemonculaba, who had been impregnated with the stolen Astartes gene-seed. The
Daemonculabas either produced horribly mutated freaks known as the Unfleshed (who were cast out into the
wastelands of Medrengard) or a new Chaos-corrupted Astartes ripe for incorporation within the Iron Warriors' ranks.
The Daemonculaba hosts were kept within Warsmith Honsou's fortress of Khalan-Ghol.

Refusing to uphold his predecessor's promise to share the stolen gene-seed amongst his fellow Iron Warriors
commanders, Honsou led his warriors in a brutal civil war with two rival Warsmiths -- Lord Toramino and the
Chaos Dreadnought Berossus. Recently exiled from the Ultramarines Chapter for violating the Codex Astartes,
Captain Uriel Ventris and his best friend, the Veteran Sergeant Pasanius Lysane, were tasked to fulfill a Death Oath
sworn by their Chapter Master Marneus Calgar. They accomplished this by traveling aboard the ancient Daemon
Engine Omphalos Daemonium into the Eye of Terror and infiltrating Medrengard. Once there, they were tasked with
the impossible mission of seeking out and destroying the Daemonculaba.

Engulfed by the Iron Warriors' civil war, Khalan-Ghol was under siege by the Warsmiths Toramino and Berossus.
The Ultramarines enlisted the help of the Raven Guard Renegade Ardaric Vaanes and his group of fellow Space
Marine Renegades, infiltrating the fortress at the height of the siege. However, the group was soon captured by
Honsou's daemon-possessed Iron Warrior bodyguard, Onyx, and taken to the halls of the Savage Morticians, Dark
Mechanicus Tech-priests that had created and oversaw the Daemonculaba process.

Once there, Uriel was entombed inside the womb of one of the Daemonculaba. Honsou showed great interest in
Pasanius' bionic arm of living metal, which was made from Necrodermis, the living metal that comprised the
cybernetic bodies of the Necrons and their C'tan Shards. Pasanius' bionic arm was removed and reattached to
Honsou for him to use. This enraged Pasanius against the Savage Morticians who had performed the surgery, even
as Uriel miraculously fought free of the Chaos-corrupted womb and made good his escape, along with a few
survivors, down a sewage chute.

In the meantime, making one final push against Khalan Gol, the forces of Berossus stormed Honsou's citadel. The
two rival Warsmiths fought a titanic duel, but with the help of his daemon-possessed bodyguard, Honsou eventually
emerged triumphant. With the death of their lord, Berossus' men defected to the forces of the victorious Honsou, and
joined his forces against the rival Toramino.

Leading a band of the mutant Unfleshed, Uriel once again infiltrated Honsou's citadel and successfully destroyed the
Daemonculaba. Uriel also freed the Heart of Blood, one of the most favoured daemonic avatars of the Blood God
Khorne, which had been imprisoned by the Iron Warriors and forced to create and sustain an unbreakable psychic
barrier around the fortress of Khalan-Ghol for over ten thousand Terran years. With the psychic barriers broken, the
Chaos Dreadnought Warsmith Toramino was able to employ psychic attacks against his rival's citadel.

During the ensuing melee, Honsou and his retinue discovered and cornered both Uriel and Pasanius before they
could flee the citadel. But before the Warsmith could have his retinue slay the upstart Ultramarines, the Unfleshed
arrived on the scene and viciously attacked the Iron Warriors and slew them. Fleeing from the battle, Captain
Ventris caught up to Honsou and shot him in the head with his Bolter.

Having fulfilled their Death Oath, the two Ultramarines returned to their Chapter on Macragge. After their
departure, by some dark miracle, Honsou managed to survive the near-fatal wound. The wounded Warsmith then
discovered the Heart of Blood, thoroughly exhausted from its battle with a daemonic rival, and collapsed upon the
floor of the ruined citadel.

Employing the formidable powers of the Heart of Blood against Toramino's attacking forces, Honsou eventually
emerged triumphant. The slaughter and destruction the daemon had unleashed was unlike anything the Warsmith
had ever seen before, its ancient fury deeper than the darkest chasm in the Daemon Primarch Perturabo's lair. It had
reduced everything before it to utter ruin and Medrengard's blazing black sun had gorged on the souls released into
the dead sky.

The Warsmith's Wrath

Though Honsou had emerged as the victor in the brutal conflict between the Iron Warriors Warsmiths, it was a
pyrrhic victory at best. Most of his forces has been smashed by the two rival Warsmiths and their armies during the
internecine war. Despite the losses to his troops and the destruction of the Daemonculaba, Honsou began the task of
rebuilding his forces.

He accomplished this by inviting those surviving Chaos Renegades into his growing army. These Renegades
included the likes of the infamous Chaos Space Marines Ardaric Vaanes and Cadaras Grendal as well as a
loathsome creature known as the Newborn -- a genetic clone of Uriel Ventris who had been created by a
Daemonculaba before their destruction.
The recent destruction of Khalan-Ghol on Medrengard made the Warsmith seethe with rage at the bitter defeat by
the hands of Uriel Ventris. Honsou plotted his vengeance against the upstart Ultramarines captain and his Chapter.
Honsou knew he would not be satisfied until he had inflicted the most wretched humiliations on the one enemy who
had escaped him. Honsou attacked Defence Platform Ultra Nine, an Imperial space station that orbited above Tarsis
Ultra, the sight of Captain Ventris's stunning victory over the Tyranids a few short years before. Honsou's warband
slaughtered everyone aboard the station and seized control of its deadly missile payload.

A salvo of sixteen orbital torpedoes surged from the station's launch bays, followed by another rippling salvo
seconds later. Another three salvos launched until all but one of the platform's entire payload of missiles was
expended. Each missile dropped away rapidly from the platform in a ballistic trajectory towards the planet's surface.
As the missiles reached a predetermined altitude over the planet's surface, each one exploded and spread its viral
payload into the air. Vast quantities of the experimental Heraclitus viral strain were released into the atmosphere. All
across the planet, a terrible rain fell, wreaking terrible damage as the insidious microbes went to work on Tarsis
Ultra's indigenous and xenos vegetation.

The world of Tarsis Ultra had suffered the horror of invasion by the monstrous swarms of the Tyranids. Though the
invasion had been defeated, the dreadful legacy of the alien invaders remained to taint the planet's ecology forever.
From pole to pole, horrific spires of dreadful alien vegetable matter towered over the landscape, slowly choking the
life from the natural landscape. The alien flora had subsumed entire continents, a rapacious instinct to devour
encoded in every strand of its genetic structure. Nutrients were leeched from the soil and used to create hyper-fertile
spore growths that drifted on the heated currents of the air to seed new regions and pollute yet more land.

The Heraclitus virus had been developed from a partial fragment of ancient research conducted by the Mechanicus'
Magos Heraclitus. The bio-toxins were intended to increase the growth rate of crops on Agri-worlds, and were
designed to increase the productivity of such worlds a thousand-fold. Within seconds of the Heraclitus strain's
release into the atmosphere, the alien growths reacted to its touch, surging upwards and over the planet's terrain.
Overwhelmed by mutant growths, poisonous plant life expanded by whole kilometres in seconds as the virulent
growth strain sent its metabolism into overdrive.

Huge amounts of nutrients were sucked from the ground and released as enormous quantities of heat, raising the
ambient temperature of the world in a matter of moments. Oxygen was sucked greedily from the atmosphere by
horrifyingly massive spore chimneys and the planet's protective atmospheric layers were gradually stripped in an
unthinking biological genocide. This was not the rapid death of Exterminatus, but ecological death of global
proportions. Panicked messages were hurled out into the Immaterium and only those with the money, influence or
cunning escaped on hastily-prepared starships that fled the planet's destruction.

In the wake of the attack, billions had been left behind and, weeks later, as the last of the planet's atmosphere was
stripped from it by the hyper-evolved alien biology, hard stellar radiation swept the surface, killing every living
thing and laying waste to all that remained. Months after the launch of the Heraclitus missiles, nothing remained
alive, the deadly alien vegetation killed by lethal levels of radiation and the frigid cold that gripped the planet
without its protective atmosphere. All that now remained of the planet was a dead, lifeless ball of rock, its surface
seared and barren, with only the skeletal remains of its blackened cities left as evidence that human beings had once
lived upon it.

After the death of Tarsis Ultra, Magos Locard of the Adeptus Mechanicus and members of the Skitarii landed upon
the dead planet, attempting to investigate what occurred. Following a lone beacon, the Explorator team found a lone
battered orbital torpedo. Removing the payload bay of the torpedo, the Magos reached inside and removed its
contents -- a cracked helmet, the paint chipped and one eye lens missing. The helmet was a deep blue and bore the
badge of the Ultramarines Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. The helmet was meant to send a message to Uriel
Ventris -- that you don't walk away from a fight with the Warsmith Honsou without paying a price.

The Skull Harvest

In order to rebuild his forces, Honsou travelled to the Badab Sector, the site of the infamous Badab War, to the heart
of the Warp rift called the Maelstrom. Within the heart of this hellish realm lay New Badab, the homeworld of
Huron Blackheart, the infamous Tyrant of Badab and now the leader of the Red Corsairs. Honsou attended the Skull
Harvest, a contest hosted by Blackheart between Chaos warbands where Chaos Champions vied with one another
for supreme dominance, until only one victor emerges. The reigning Champion then took total control of the losing
Champions' warbands.

The Skull Harvest took place within the Arena of Thorns, the large venue that hosted the murderous contest; the
decapitated heads of the fallen were mounted and displayed upon spikes. Blood would be spilled, the weak would
die and the victor would benefit greatly from the Tyrant of Badab's patronage. Honsou was determined to win the
murderous contest at any cost, for he possessed a grand vision of revenge.

With the victories the Warsmith and his champions had won over the following days, Honsou's force had grown
exponentially in size, numbering somewhere in the region of 5,000 soldiers. Scores of armoured units and fighting
machines, as well as all manner of xenos and corsair troops were now his to command. The swords of seventeen
warbands now belonged to Honsou and, by any measure of reckoning, he had a fearsome force with which to wreak
havoc on his enemies. But the Skull Harvest was not yet over and the Tyrant's rule decreed that there could be only
one champion left standing at its end.

As the fourth day of killing drew to an end only the armies of three Champions remained. There were the forces of
Honsou, those of the Blood God Khorne's Champion, Pashtoq Uluvent and his force of 6,000 blood-hungry skull-
takers, and the Pleasure God Slaanesh's Champion, Notha Etassay and his procured warband of 5,000 fighters. And
Warsmith Honsou's warband of Iron Warriors.

On the final day of the Skull Harvest, the three warriors stepped into the arena, clad in their armour and each armed
with their weapon of choice. This stage of the battle would be where each warrior sought to gauge the measure of
the other, searching for signs of weakness or fear to be exploited. Honsou knew he would find neither in these two
opponents, warriors hardened by decades of war and devotion to their Gods. Honsou cared nothing for the thrill of
the fight, nor the honour of the kill. This entire endeavour was a means to a single end.

The Slaaneshi Champion was quickly bested, and Honsou then faced the berserk Uluvent. In the ensuing battle,
Honsou managed to destroy the Khornate Champion's weapon, forcing him to grapple with his opponent in bloody
close quarters. The sheer ferocity of Uluvent's attack nearly overwhelmed Honsou, who only just managed to free
his necrodermis arm and use it to rip open a jagged wound in Uluvent's neck.

Weaponless and bleeding out quickly, the Khornate Champion called for another weapon to finish the duel between
himself and the Warsmith. As he reached for a sword from his ally, the apparent turncoat Cadaras Grendel (who had
recently served Honsou, but had changed allegiances), Grendel reversed his grip and rammed the blade into the
Khornate Champion's chest. The tip of the weapon ripped through the back of Uluvent's armour and the mighty
warrior staggered as Grendel twisted the blade deeper into his chest.

Honsou gave him no chance to recover from his shock and pain, and brought his axe down upon the Khornate
warrior's shoulder, the dark blade smashing the warrior's shoulder guard to splinters and cleaving the champion of
the Blood God from collarbone to pelvis. Honsou then honoured the former Champion's last request, and took his
skull off his neck with a sweep of his axe. Honsou emerged as the sole victor of the Skull Harvest.

At the final tally, Honsou left New Badab with close to 17,000 Chaos warriors sworn in blood to his cause. Pashtoq
Uluvent's warriors, and the others that he had won, were now Honsou's, their banners now bearing the Iron Skull
badge of the Iron Warriors. The Slaaneshi Champion Notha Etassay survived the final battle and then willingly
swore allegiance to Honsou.

As the Warsmith's starship broke orbit over New Badab, numerous other vessels now accompanied it, gifts from the
Tyrant of Badab to be used for the express purpose of dealing death to the hated forces of the Corpse Emperor. In
addition, a ragtag, yet powerful fleet of corsairs and Renegades also formed up around Honsou's flagship. The
Warsmith's fleet departed the Tyrant's domain and set course for the Eastern Fringe and the Realm of Ultramar.

The Invasion of Ultramar and the 13th Black Crusade

The Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn, in his possessed Dreadnought shell

With his army assembled, Honsou was finally ready to unleash his audacious plan for revenge against Uriel Ventris
by completely destroying the Realm of Ultramar during what became known as the Invasion of Ultramar in
999.M41. He would enact his plan with the help of the Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn, who had once been Maloq
Kartho, a Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion during the Horus Heresy.

Learning of the vile daemon's long-standing hatred for the Ultramarines, Honsou was able to enlist the aid of
Abaddon the Despoiler's damned seer Moriana to help free the daemon's spirit from its prison, which had been
trapped within the Warp core of the Star Fort Indomitable by the Ultramarines' Chapter Master Marneus Calgar
decades earlier, in 935.M41.

With his formidable army of Chaos Renegades, Honsou easily captured the Star Fort and was able to free M'kar
from his prison. The Daemon Prince then possessed the armoured Dreadnought chassis of Brother Altarion, an
Ultramarines Astartes assigned to guard the fort. M'kar used Altarion's once-sacred shell as his host-body in order to
remain in the material universe. With his army ready, Honsou's forces first struck within the Realm of Ultramar on
the arid Imperial Agri-World of Tarentus. The newly freed M'kar bound the Indomitable to a Warp Gate and called
forth a huge army of daemons to attack the cities of the planet from within, slaughtering the entire world's
population. When the Ultramarines Chapter responded to the dire threat that Honsou's forces presented, the
Warsmith left a trap for them in the planet's capital city of Axum, which nearly annihilated Captain Uriel Ventris
and the entirety of his 4th Company.

After their success on Tarentus, Honsou's forces next assaulted the Imperial Ocean World of Talassar. After laying
siege to the planet, M'kar quickly forced himself into a position of shared command of the Warsmith's Chaotic army
and divided its forces amongst the various Chaos Champions, a situation neither Chaos Lord could tolerate for any
length of time. The Forces of Chaos gathered by Honsou were dubbed by the Daemon Prince as the "Bloodborn",
much to the Warsmith's resentment. Each subordinate commander was then assigned a different strategic target.

M'kar convinced Honsou to travel to Ventris' homeworld of Calth, with explicit instructions from M'kar to destroy
the Tomb of Ventanus -- the famed Ultramarines Captain who slew the Daemon Prince when he was still a mortal
and a former Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers during the Horus Heresy. M'kar could not himself go near the tomb,
which radiated the power of Imperial faith in the Emperor and was thus anathema to a creature of the Warp.

Armed with the knowledge of Ventris, the clone known as the Newborn was able to find the location of the
subterranean tomb within the Cavernas Draconi on Calth. Honsou and his ally Grendel were led by the Newborn and
eventually discovered the tomb's exact location. As they prepared to destroy it, the keen mind of Honsou perceived
that there was more to M'kar's reluctance to come near the world of Calth than the foul creature had admitted.
Therefore, the Warsmith decided to investigate further and soon discovered that there was an artefact, a Combat
Knife, buried with the long-dead Ultramarines captain that was known as the Shard of Erebus.

Honsou realised that the simple blade was capable of badly harming the Daemon Prince because of the faith that had
been invested within it after so many millennia of devotion. But before the Warsmith could capitalise on the newly
acquired weapon, Captain Ventris and a Command Squad of Ultramarines arrived and began attacking Honsou's
forces. Honsou tasked the Newborn to kill Ventris, but in the ensuing battle the Ultramarines captain was able to
defeat his corrupted clone.

At the height of the battle, the Iron Warriors were overwhelmed and defeated by what appeared to be the ghosts of
Captain Ventanus and his fellow Ultramarines that were housed within the tomb. With his men dead and his quest
for vengeance foiled, Honsou activated the trigger for explosives intended to destroy the tomb. The resulting
explosion buried Captain Ventris and his men, but he and the majority of his allies managed to survive the explosion
and subsequent cave-in.

Upon further investigation, the body of Honsou was never found. However, there is ample evidence that indicates
that the wily Iron Warrior may have survived. A drilling machine that had been used by the Iron Warriors to reach
the tomb complex had also disappeared, indicating that Honsou had probably escaped his well-deserved fate, yet
again.

M'kar survived to eventually face Marneus Calgar once more on the planet Talassar, but his essence was completely
annihilated after Calgar struck him with the Shard of Erebus -- the same blade that Captain Ventanus had used to
slay M'kar's human form of Maloq Kartho on Calth during the Horus Heresy.

The Grand Siege

Having studied the Imperial defences of Segmentum Obscurus in detail via a combination of remote scrying,
methodically applied torture of captive Loyalists and a network of techno-cultist informants, Perturabo learned much
of their capabilities and limitations.

When Cadia finally fell to the Warmaster Abaddon during the 13th Black Crusade and the Cicatrix Maledictum split
the galaxy from end to end, the Daemon Primarch mobilised a thousand armies and coordinated them in a grand
strategy that targeted the most heavily defended Imperial worlds in the Segmentum.

So began a brutal blockade of the Imperium itself. As Perturabo's embittered armies marched forth, menageries of
Daemon Engines and batteries of artillery machines at their side, a dozen fortified worlds previously thought
inviolable were brought to the edge of total disaster by the Iron Warriors' merciless siege tactics.

Notable Campaigns

The galaxy has felt the remorseless wrath of the Iron Warriors on numerous occasions. The death toll taken by
Legions such as the World Eaters or the Black Legion is likely higher, for the Iron Warriors believe in attacks long-
planned and painstakingly executed, but when they strike, they do so with such calculated and unremitting savagery
that nothing can survive.

 Terran Unification Wars (Unknown Date.M30) - The IVth Legion took part in the destruction of the final
resisting elements there and then throughout the pacification of Terra's solar system. Testament to this fact
can be found in surviving frescos in the Imperial Palace, according them with the battle honours of the
Cydo-Tyre Orbital, the Zidec Archipelago, Ice Station Echo and Mehr Yasht. The lattermost of these
names, Mehr Yasht, is perhaps the most noteworthy as it was the key battle of the punishing Venusian
campaign and its citation accords "...the serried ranks and proud steel banners of the IV th Legion..." as
going forth into battle under the direct command of the Emperor Himself to break the back of the deadly
Litho-Gholem armies of the War Witches.
 Compliance of Incaladion (842-843.M30) - The IVth Legion's 8th Expeditionary Fleet's pronounced
reliance on rationality and intellect set against their bloody-minded stubbornness came to the fore during
the Imperial Compliance campaign of the Forge World of Incaladion in a gruelling year-long action.
Although victory was eventually achieved, the operation would see the near-annihilation of the 8th
Expeditionary Fleet's frontline forces in what was arguably a needlessly costly fashion. During this battle,
the Legion refused to withdraw from the field after an initial assault unravelled spectacularly in the face of
unprecedented and unexpected enemy counterattack; they fought on regardless, adhering to a battle plan
already in tatters. Nearly 29,000 of their number fell in the single engagement before enemy forces were
worn down by bloody attrition, including many of the Legion's most veteran units, making the battle one of
the most costly of its age.
 The Fall of the Black Judges (Late 840s.M30) - This was the Iron Warriors' first Imperial Compliance
campaign under the direct command of their Primarch, which was conducted against the barren, ravine-
hollowed moon known as the "Rock of Judgement" and its masters, the heretical Black Judges. These self-
 appointed arbiters of human purity, life and death, were twisted and withered creatures that had once been
human in ages past. They had extended their lifespans into millennia with the help of technology as ancient
as it was dark. Encased within mechanised war machines controlled by cybernetic implants, in order to live
they required regular infusions of fresh human genetic material extracted through a painful, fatal arcane
process. From the Rock of Judgement they held sway over a dozen nearby human-inhabited worlds through
terror, offering a devil's bargain of protection from xenos assault in return for a tribute of the young and
healthy. The IVth Legion, reeling from its enforced Decimation as punishment at its new master's hands,
was shamed into a desperate desire to prove itself to its Primarch, and it was the Black Judges that were to
suffer its pent-up hatred and wrath. By Perturabo's design the enemy was crushed without mercy and their
domains were stripped of every valuable resource and technology; wreckage and weapons flowed to
Olympia and the Black Judges' long guarded secrets fell also to the newly renamed Iron Warriors and their
master, as well as to the Mechanicum in return for their aid. With the world stripped of its resources, the
orbital shipyards of the Rock of Judgement were finally set in orbit afresh around Olympia and set to work
fashioning a new generation of warships under Perturabo's seal. The newly-inducted Astartes recruits from
the Iron Warriors' homeworld of Olympia acquitted themselves well and their triumphant return was
celebrated in the famous Palimodes Fresco, now known only through fragmented holo-recordings.
 Pacification of Schravaan (850s.M30) - This was a joint Imperial Compliance campaign conducted by the
Iron Warriors, Imperial Fists, Emperor's Children and the Luna Wolves Legions against the xenos Badoon
on the world of Schravaan. The Iron Warriors won a great victory when they stormed the final refuge of the
Badoon. They breached the defences and held while the other Legions carried the city beyond. During the
following victory feast, Horus proclaimed Perturabo the greatest master of siege warfare in the Great
Crusade. Fulgrim, the Primarch of the Emperor's Children Legion, then inquired to his brother Dorn
whether he thought even the defences of the Imperial Palace could resist the Iron Warriors, in which Dorn
replied that he regarded the defences as being proof against any assault if well-planned. Perturabo flew into
a rage and unleashed unfounded accusations against his brother. After this the two rarely spoke, and their
Legions did not serve in the same campaign for the remainder of the Crusade.
 WAAAGH! Mashogg (Mid-800s.M30) - In one famous instance, a joint Imperial Compliance campaign
was conducted by the Iron Warriors, Space Wolves and White Scars Legions against the Greenskins.
Legends record that it was the Primarchs Leman Russ and Jaghatai Khan who routed the Orks of Overdog
Mashogg's WAAAGH!, while Perturabo was featured only as the "comrade" who calculated the optimum
way to bypass Mashogg's low orbit defences.
 Compliance of the Araaki Spiral (Mid 800s.M30) - A joint Imperial Compliance campaign was
conducted by the Iron Warriors, Imperial Fists, Dark Angels and White Scars Legions in a region of space
known as the Araaki Spiral. The Araakites were well-versed in the art of building fortresses, and their
strongholds were dug deep around narrow passes, remote hilltops and natural barriers in the landscape.
Once again, the Iron Warriors were sent to a resistant star system to conduct brutal siege-warfare against
formidable fortress-builders. The Araakites knew their craft well and the campaign to take their world for
the Imperium proved both bitter and hostile. It would take many years for the IV th Legion to regain its
former strength from the losses sustained during the drawn-out war of attrition that its Astartes suffered in
the Araaki Spiral. In the wake of the inevitable Imperial victory, great works of art and heroic verse were
composed, celebrating the courage of the other Space Marine Legions, but nowhere in the reams of poetry
and artwork were the grim labours of the Iron Warriors judged worthy of note. Only in a predella to a larger
work painted by a notable Imperial artisan were the warriors of the IV th Legion displayed; it illustrated a
lone Iron Warriors Apothecary removing the gene-seed of a dying Legionary as the flag of the IVth Legion's
greatest rivals, the Imperial Fists, flew over a captured fortress. Perturabo sought out the artist to procure
the piece for himself, only to have it put it to the torch once he had done so. If his sons would not be
honoured properly, he told the horrified artist, then they would not be a part of a record that glorified
another. Afterwards, Rogal Dorn had offered a rich commission for the artist to repaint the predella, but the
artisan wisely refused.
 Nove Shendak Campaign (World Eight-Two-Seventeen) (Mid-800s.M30) - Nove Shendak was a world
of worms; giant creatures, intelligent. Hateful. Their weapons were filaments, metal feathers that they
embedded in themselves to conduct energies out of their bodies. The surface would roil with the filaments
before the worms broke out of it almost at the Imperial defenders' feet. Thick as a man, longer that a person
was tall. They had three mouths in their faces, a dozen teeth in their mouths. They spoke through the mud
in sonic screams and witch-whispers. Early in the Great Crusade, the War Hounds Legion, still without
their primarch, had found three star systems under their thrall, burned them out of their colony nests and
 chased them home. But on their cradle-world the XIIth Legion had found humans. Humans lost to humanity
for who knows how long, crawling on the land while the worms slithered in the marsh seas. Hunting the
humans, farming them. Killing them. The War Hounds, alongside their fellow Astartes Legion the Iron
Warriors, and a large contingent of Imperial Army soldier were charged with exterminating the worms and
liberating the humans of this world. Fighting the worms was next to impossible as the lunar tides dragged
the mud oceans to and fro across the jagged stone continents, making the ground very unstable. The
Imperial forces had to use sentries with high-powered lasguns to read the movements of the mud to hear the
worms moving through it towards them. Explosives were seeded around the earthworks and allowed to sink
to where the worms burrowed. Perturabo had the Iron Warriors build earthworks. They built trenches and
dykes, penned in the mud seas and drained them, drove the worms back, reclaimed land the wretched
humans could build on. And when the worms came out to fight the Imperials, they met the Emperor and
His War Hounds. Though the casualties were horrendous, the War Hounds eventually emerged triumphant.
 Vulpa Straits Hrud Migration (004.M31) - Commanding the 51st Expeditionary Fleet, the Warsmith
Barabas Dantioch led a large Iron Warriors contingent against a massive xenos incursion known as the
Vulpa Straits Hrud Migration. Upon the Fortress World of Gholgis the Hrud infiltrated and destroyed the
Iron Warriors garrison. The intense entropic fields generated by the migratory Hrud swarms caused stone to
age and brought flesh to ruin, turning the Astartes warriors into so much dust and bones, rusting their
armour and jamming their Bolters as the Iron Warriors' fortress crumbled all about them. Only then did the
rachidian beasts creep out of every nook and crevice to attack, stabbing and slicing with their venomous
claws. This left Warsmith Dantioch prematurely aged and crippled. Very few survivors made it out alive as
Stormbirds extracted the survivors from the remains of Gholgis. Many of the Astartes died from premature
aging or were left in aged, superhuman bodies. In the Hrud Migration's aftermath, the worlds of Krak
Fiorina, Stratopolae and Gholghis were lost. The Warsmith questioned Primarch Perturabo's prosecution of
the Hrud extermination campaign, which left half a Grand Company dead. Dantioch soon found himself
relieved from command of the 51st Expeditionary Fleet and permanently garrisoned to the world of Lesser
Damantyne for his presumption.
 Pacification of Gugann and the Olympia Genocide (004.M31) - The Iron Warriors conducted a
campaign against the xenos known as the Hrud upon the world of Gugann. It was during this campaign that
Warmaster Horus broke the news to Perturabo that Olympia was in rebellion. The appointed Imperial
Planetary Governor Dammekos had died and the population, incited by demagogues, had taken up arms.
The thought of being the only Legion unable to hold its own homeworld appalled and infuriated Perturabo.
By this time, Horus was fully corrupted by Chaos, and he sought to make the most of this opportunity. He
presented Perturabo with the hammer Forgebreaker as a mark of respect, signalling the pact between the
two Primarchs. There is still much debate whether this weapon was some kind of conduit through which
the Ruinous Powers could manipulate the Iron Warriors Primarch. The Iron Warriors would go on to
brutally suppress the population on their homeworld, committing genocide against 5 million civilians. This
would seal their fate as the Iron Warriors become fully corrupted by Chaos during this campaign and they
were easily swayed to join Horus' cause.
 Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V (566.006.M31) - Noted as one of the most devastating defeats in the
history of the Adeptus Astartes, the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V saw the Raven Guard and
Salamanders Legions nearly annihilated as effective fighting forces and only the quick thinking and
initiative of the Salamanders allowed a bare few Space Marines of these two Legions to escape that
dreadful day. In response to the treachery of the Warmaster Horus and his betrayal of the Loyalist Astartes
in the Sons of Horus, Emperor's Children, World Eaters and Death Guard Legions at Istvaan III, the
Primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion, Rogal Dorn, on the direction of the Emperor who had learned of
Horus' actions from the Loyalist survivors aboard the Eisenstein, ordered 7 Loyalist Space Marine Legions
to Horus' base on the world of Istvaan V to challenge the Traitors. They would attack in two waves and fall
under the supreme command of the Iron Hands' Primarch Ferrus Manus. The Legions comprising the first
wave were the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders. The Legions comprising the second wave were
the Iron Warriors, Alpha Legion, Night Lords, and a large contingent of Word Bearers that their Primarch
Lorgar had stationed in the star system. Unknown to Dorn and Ferrus Manus, the Night Lords, Alpha
Legion, Iron Warriors and Word Bearers had all turned from their service to the Emperor and secretly
pledged their loyalty to Horus, and been instructed to keep their new allegiance to Chaos a secret. The Iron
Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard were deployed in the first wave of the assault. After they secured the
drop site, they were to have been followed by the arrival of the other four Legions. The first wave secured
the drop site, known as the Urgall Depression, though at a heavy cost. Horus ordered his front line troops to
 fall back in a feint, tempting Ferrus Manus to overstretch his already thin lines. Against the advice of Corax
and Vulkan, Manus led his Veterans against the fleeing Traitor Marines unsupported. Manus then brought
his brother Fulgrim to combat. As the two Primarchs drew their weapons, the Raven Guard and
Salamanders fell back to regroup and allow the second wave's Legions to advance and earn glory. The
secret Traitor Legions mustered in the landing zone, armed and ready for battle, unbloodied and fresh. The
Iron Warriors had claimed the highest ground, taking the Loyalist landing site with all the appearance of
reinforcing it through the erection of prefabricated plasteel bunkers. Bulk landers dropped the battlefield
architecture: dense metal frames fell from the cargo claws of carrier ships at low altitude, and as the
platforms crashed and embedded themselves in the ground, the craftsmen-warriors of the IVth Legion
worked, affixed, bolted and constructed them into hastily-rising firebases. Turrets rose from their protective
housing in the hundreds, while hordes of lobotomised Servitors trundled from the holds of Iron Warriors
troopships, single-minded in their intent to link with the weapons systems' interfaces. The Word Bearers
bolstered their brother Legions on one flank of the Urgall Depression while the Night Lords took positions
on the opposite side. Down the line, past the mounting masses of Iron Warriors battle tanks and assembling
Astartes, First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords and his 1st Company elite, the Atramentar, took up
defensive positions. Both the Word Bearers and the Night Lords were to be the anvil, while the Iron
Warriors would be the hammer yet to fall. The enemy would stagger back to them, exhausted, clutching
empty Bolters and broken blades, believing their presence to be a reprieve. Though the Salamanders and
the Raven Guard voxed hails requesting medical aid and re-supply, the line of Astartes atop the northern
ridge remained grimly silent as the exhausted warriors of the Raven Guard and Salamanders came to within
a hundred metres of their allies. It was then that Horus revealed his perfidy and sprung his lethal trap.
Inside the black fortress where Horus had made his lair, a lone flare shot skyward, exploding in a hellish
red glow that lit the battlefield below. The fire of betrayal roared from the barrels of a thousand guns, as the
second wave of Astartes revealed where their true loyalties now lay. At the same time, the apparent rout of
the Sons of Horus, the World Eaters, Death Guard and Emperor's Children suddenly halted and the Traitors
pressed their attack. As Horus pressed the counterattack he managed to sandwich the Loyalists between the
two Traitor forces, killing most of them. Meanwhile, the Iron Hands were cut off and slaughtered to a man
-- the Veteran Morlock Terminators cut down and the Primarch Ferrus Manus beheaded by Fulgrim. The
Salamanders and Raven Guard could do nothing to help the Iron Hands, and were forced to make a costly
break-out with precious few of their forces. Those Thunderhawk and Stormbird gunships that lifted off and
escaped Istvaan V were far fewer than those that had landed. Corax, the Primarch of the Raven Guard, was
badly wounded and Vulkan's fate was unknown for some time. The remainder of the Iron Hands' Legion
arrived to find their Veterans and Primarch dead and the Salamanders and Raven Guard reduced to a
fraction of their full strength, with both Legions nearly wiped out.
 Siege of Lesser Damantyne (006.M31) - Commanding the 51st Expeditionary Fleet, Warsmith Barabas
Dantioch led a large Iron Warriors detachment in bringing the world of Lesser Damantyne into Imperial
Compliance. The Warsmith would later be laid low during a massive Hrud infestation on the world of
Gholghis which left him prematurely aged and crippled by the attack of those foul xenos. Warsmith
Dantioch left the 51st Expedition to garrison the world of Lesser Damantyne, becoming the planner and
architect of the superbly fortified Schadenhold fortress. During the many months the small Iron Warriors
detachment had garrisoned the planet, they heard disturbing rumours of the galaxy being conquered by the
Traitor forces of the Warmaster Horus. Dantioch suspected that the bulk of the IV th Legion had willingly
joined the Warmaster's cause. When Warsmith Krendl arrived at Lesser Damantyn with the 51 st
Expeditionary Fleet, he came to the Schadenhold with new orders for the Iron Warriors garrison. They
were ordered by their Primarch to prepare for the Traitors' offensive against Terra. Lesser Damantyne
would be used as a resupply point for Horus' forces. Dantioch refused to acquiesce to his Primarch's orders
for the Iron Warriors on Lesser Damantyne remained Loyalists and would not share in their traitorous
brethren's damnation. Krendl vowed to destroy Dantioch's beloved fortress in the name of Horus. Dantioch
commanded his meagre forces against the entire might of the 51 st Expeditionary Fleet and the 14th Grand
Company of the Iron Warriors for 366 standard days, until the Traitors deployed an Imperator-class Titan
to destroy the Schadenhold. Just before the fortress fell, Dantioch and the surviving Loyalist Iron Warriors
teleported aboard the Traitor's flagship and commandeered it. The Warsmith then set course towards Terra
with the aim of helping to fortify and defend the Emperor's Imperial Palace against the forces of the Traitor
Legions. Dantioch's ultimate fate remains unrecorded in Imperial records at this time.
 First Siege of Hydra Cordatus (007.M31) - Unknown to Captain Cassander, the Imperial Fists officer
who had been left in command of the detachment of Space Marines that remained behind on Hydra
 Cordatus after the Imperial Fists' Expeditionary Fleet left, the Warmaster Horus had fallen to the corrupting
influence of Chaos and had instigated a galaxy-wide rebellion in order to overthrow the Imperium of Man
and raise himself up as the new Master of Mankind. Shortly after the disastrous events of the Drop Site
Massacre of Istvaan V had played out to their tragic conclusion, the traitorous Iron Warriors Legion saw
the opportunity to humble their hated rivals, the Imperial Fists, upon the isolated world of Hydra Cordatus
which had only recently been brought into Imperial Compliance. When the order came from Rogal Dorn
for all of the Imperial Fists to return to Terra to begin overseeing the defence of the Imperial Palace,
Captain Cassander had begun preparations to depart immediately, but the sudden death of his vessel's
Navigator had left the detachments of the Imperial Fists upon Hydra Cordatus stranded until a replacement
could be dispatched. The following day, word of the Warmaster's treachery and the massacre on Istvaan V
reached Hydra Cordatus. Pride in an honourable assignment was replaced by frustration and bitter
disappointment that the Imperial Fists present on the world could not fight alongside their Battle-Brothers,
and could not call Horus to account for his perfidy and punish those who had trampled their oaths of loyalty
to the Emperor into the dust. But the chance to make war on the traitorous allies of Horus came soon
enough. The Iron Warriors made planetfall in the wake of a saturation bombardment that reduced the valley
where the Cadmean Citadel was situated and the agri-settlements filling its fertile deltas to ash. Magma
bombs and mass drivers boiled away the rivers and reduced fecund earth to arid dust. The Cadmean Citadel
was left untouched, and Cassander still found it difficult to believe that such a precise bombardment was
possible. But the Iron Warriors had purposely done this in order to show the Imperial Fists that they were
superior to them in every way. The technological cunning of the ancient fortress builders, married to the
artfully wrought geography and the courage of the defenders, proceeded to keep the Iron Warriors at bay
for almost three months. Every day Cassander's warriors stayed alive kept the enemy from redeploying and
bringing their strength to bear elsewhere against the Loyalists. Yet, when the Iron Warriors finally
overcame the citadel's ancient defences and broke open its walls they would run amok. They would
slaughter the remaining Imperial Fists Legionaries, the heroic men and women of Hyrdra Cordatus that had
chosen to stand with them, and the refugees from the devastated fields below the fortress. Fifty-two
Imperial Fists and thirteen thousand men, women and children were crammed within the citadel's walls.
When the final assault came, the Primarch Perturabo himself spearheaded an audacious attack upon the
citadel's defenders, and slaughtered over thirty Imperial Fists Astartes himself in a span of only a few
minutes. The rest of the Cadmean Citadel's defenders were slaughtered to a man and the surviving refugees
were enslaved by the Iron Warriors before they moved on to their next objective. Hydra Cordatus was
reduced to a barren desert world by the Traitor Legion's assault, and after the end of the Heresy was
repopulated as an Adeptus Mechanicus research station and as a depository for the Imperial Fists Chapter's
gene-seed.
 Battle of Phall (007.M31) - During the Horus Heresy, at the command of Horus, a large Iron Warriors
contingent was sent to halt the encroaching Imperial Fists fleet that had originally been sent to Istvaan III to
reinforce the beleaguered Loyalists. The Traitors could not allow such a strong complement of Astartes to
infiltrate their controlled area of space, for they could seriously disrupt preparations for the Traitors' attack
on Terra. Commanding over twenty large warships, Perturabo led his fleet in a sudden and devastating
attack upon the Imperial Fists fleet in what became known as the Battle of Phall. Over a dozen vessels were
ripped apart by the brutal hail of fire from the Traitor vessels. The Imperial Fists fought back, devastating
the lead ships of the Iron Warriors' fleet, tearing them apart in a vicious firestorm. The Loyalists gained the
initiative in the battle and managed to repel the Traitors' surprise attack, despite severe losses at the start of
the engagement. Launching a counterattack, the Imperial Fists drove off the embattled Traitor fleet and
managed to break orbit and manoeuvre to their jump points, to enter the Warp and make for Terra.
 Assault on Iydris (ca. 007.M31) - In the wake of the terrible slaughter of Loyalists at the Drop Site
Massacre on Istvaan V, a small fleet of Astartes from the ravaged Iron Hands and Raven Guard Legions
managed to flee off-world. Among these vessels was the Sisypheum, a Strike Cruiser commanded by the
mortally wounded Iron Hands Captain Ulrach Branthan. Determined to continue to strike against the
Traitor Legions wherever and whenever they could, the crew of the Sisypheum eventually managed to
intercept the encoded communications of the Traitors and learned that the Traitor Primarchs Fulgrim and
Perturabo were leading their Emperor's Children and Iron Warriors Traitor Legions, respectively, into the
Warp Rift later named the Eye of Terror by Perturabo in search of an unknown Eldar weapon known as the
Angel Exterminatus which could decisively tip the balance of the Horus Heresy in favour of the Traitors.
The Iron Hands eventually assembled a small fleet of similar Loyalist survivors of the Drop Site Massacre
and made their way into the Eye to stop the Traitors from acquiring this weapon. Once within the Eye,
 Fulgrim led the combined Traitor Legion forces to the ancient Eldar Crone World of Iydris, into the citadel
known as Amon ny-shak Kaelis where the Angel Exterminatus was supposedly located. The Traitors were
forced to repel countless attacks by the ancient Eldar defense systems and by attacks from Eldar constructs
animated by the countless dead Eldar souls of the Crone World. In truth, the entire quest for the Angel
Exterminatus had been a ruse perpetrated upon Perturabo and the Iron Warriors by Fulgrim and the
Emperor's Children. Fulgrim, now a Champion of the Chaos God of Pleasure, Slaanesh, sought apotheosis
to become a Daemon Prince of the Prince of Chaos. But he needed the power provided by the life force of a
Primarch and the sacred energies of a place like an Eldar Crone World that was sacred to Slaanesh to
complete his ascension to daemonhood. Fulgrim had given to Perturabo a cloak, to which was affixed a
skull-shaped pin carrying a relic known as a maugetar stone. As long as Perturabo was within the confines
of the Eldar citadel the stone slowly absorbed his life force and fed these energies to Fulgrim. Once
Perturabo discovered his brother's perfidy, the Iron Warriors launched an assault upon the Emperor's
Children, and a three-way battle soon developed as the Iron Hands from the Sisypheum and its small
flotilla of Loyalists entered the fray against both Traitor forces, unaware of what was truly happening. In
the course of the combat that followed, Perturabo slew Fulgrim's mortal body with the great warhammer
Forgebreaker, which ironically had originally been forged for Fulgrim by Ferrus Manus. But this action
was only the final component in Fulgrim's ritual of apotheosis, and his body remade itself into the twisted,
serpentine form of a Slaaneshi Daemon Prince. Fulgrim became the first of the Traitor Primarchs to ascend
to daemonhood, but he would not be the last. His goal achieved, Fulgrim had teleported his Emperor's
Children away from Iydris and the Crone World began to collapse as the potent life forces of the dead that
had long sustained it were drained away by Fulgrim's ascension. The Iron Hands and Perturabo's Iron
Warriors successfully fled the crumbling planet, though Perturabo escaped by taking his fleet deeper into
the black hole that lay at the centre of the Eye of Terror. For the first time, one of the Traitor Legions had
turned on another, a situation that was to become all too common as the Dark Gods of Chaos tightened
their grip on Horus' followers.
 The Vannaheim Space Drop (008-009.M31) - The Iron Warriors launch a daring void assault against the
orbital hives of Vannaheim, capturing vital facilities after ten days of brutal fighting. A Loyalist force in the
Segmentum Tempestus, including isolated elements of the Space Wolves Legion, is drawn into the conflict,
launching three successive counter-assaults in order to recapture the orbital hive stations' vital altitudinal
control grid, but each fails to achieve its goal and countless thousands of Loyalist lives are lost. The famed
Space Wolves grand cruiser, Helicon Spear, is captured and becomes a prize of the Iron Warriors Legion
during the last, disastrous attempt.
 Battle of Tallarn (010-011.M31) - Tallarn, an Imperial muster world of almost unparalleled size and
importance, comes under direct attack by the Iron Warriors Legion. Here the Traitors unleash a virus
bombardment that renders the surface of the verdant world of Tallarn to poisoned slime and the air
unbreathable. The invasion that follows develops into the largest armoured battle of the Imperium's history,
a war fought under the most hellish conditions imaginable. As the war grinds on, it draws in Loyalist and
Traitor forces from hundreds of worlds across the entire Segmentum Tempestus before its cataclysmic
conclusion.
 Battle of Terra (014.M31) - As the events of the Horus Heresy neared their tragic conclusion seven years
after the fateful betrayal at Istvaan III, those Loyalist Legions not committed to the defence of Terra raced
through the Warp, converging on the homeworld of Mankind. The Traitor Legions also massed above Terra
to assault the Imperial Palace. The Battle of Terra was the final confrontation of the Horus Heresy that
raged on Terra itself between the Forces of Chaos led by the Warmaster Horus and the Loyalist armies of
the Imperium of Man led by the Emperor of Mankind himself. The Sons of Perturabo would at long last be
able to test themselves against those of Rogal Dorn. The Loyalist forces ultimately proved victorious in
their defence of the Imperial Palace, though only just barely, and Horus was ultimately slain by the full
psychic powers unleashed by the Emperor on the deck of his massive Battle Barge the Vengeful Spirit,
though the Master of Mankind was mortally wounded and had to be interred within the cybernetic life
support mechanisms of the advanced psychic augmentation technology known as the Golden Throne. It
cannot be known whether Dorn's masterfully constructed defences would have proved the undoing of the
Iron Warriors, for the Warmaster was slain before the matter could be fully determined. The outcome of the
Battle of Terra shaped the destiny of humanity for the next 10,000 standard years. The Traitor hosts began
their fighting withdrawal, and in the anarchy and confusion Horus' body was recovered by his Legion from
his flagship. Having fought their way clear of the Sol System the IVth Legion fled for the Eye of Terror
where they eventually established the daemonic Fortress World of Medrengard. Those Iron Warriors that
 had established their own empire around Olympia prepared themselves for the inevitable assault by the
Loyalist Legions. In a reversal of fortune typical of the grim epoch that ushered in the Age of the
Imperium, the Imperial Fists were amongst those who laid siege to these Iron Warriors, and while the
Traitors were eventually dislodged, it was only after a decade-long campaign that culminated in them
detonating their nucleonic stockpiles and reducing Olympia to a blasted waste.
 Battle of the Iron Cage (ca. 014-021.M31) - Upon the world of Sebastus IV the traitorous Iron Warriors,
bitter archenemies of the Imperial Fists, laid an ingenious trap to ensnare Rogal Dorn and his Legion.
Heedless of the inherent danger, the Primarch ordered the Imperial Fists to attack the Iron Warriors' Eternal
Fortress -- later referred to as the "Iron Cage" by the surviving Astartes of the VIIth Legion. The battle
should have favoured the treacherous trench-fighters of the Iron Warriors, but the Imperial Fists endured.
For all their skill and ferocity, as devotees of Chaos, the Iron Warriors lacked the faith required to make the
ultimate sacrifice that victory -- and the Ruinous Powers -- demanded. While they paused, the Ultramarines
Legion intervened; Roboute Guilliman had decided that Perturabo's destruction was not worth the loss of
Rogal Dorn and had brought his Astartes to drive off the Iron Warriors.
 The Dispute of Iron (ca.600-730.M34) - Its cause hidden to the eyes of the Imperium, a vast civil war
erupts on the Daemon World of Medrengard and rapidly spreads to the other domains of the Iron Warriors.
Ancient pacts of fealty and alliance are called upon and scores of Chaos Space Marine warbands, daemons
and Traitor Titan Legions are drawn into the maelstrom of relentless battle. This bitter feud is accredited at
creating several sub-factions of Iron Warriors still active to the present day, such as the Steel Brethren,
while utterly destroying others such as the Shattered Tower. As abruptly as it was begun the war suddenly
ended, leading some to believe that the official conflict had been carried out according to the Daemon
Primarch Perturabo's design in order to weed out the weak and the unworthy from his scions.
 A Rebellion Crushed (Unknown Date) - A mountainous edifice encrusted with gargoyle-mouthed
cannons, the Imperial Hive World of Cornucopeon's capital hive of Steelstone Keep supplies tithes of war
materiel to the Iron Warriors. When the industrialist Korothrodd Vessh doubles his tithes after a costly
campaign, Steelstone Keep's defenders rise up against the iron-collared Chaos Cultists that keep them
beneath the lash. The cult leader that oversees the hive's infernal industry is battered to death by smithy
hammers, but not before he swears a mighty oath of vengeance with his last breath. Perturabo hears its echo
in the Warp. Within a solar week, Cornucopeon is infested by locomotive-sized Daemon Engines that
burrow through the planet like maggots gnawing through an apple. They rise up under Steelstone Keep
itself, erupting in geysers of magma to disgorge Iron Warriors from their fleshmetal bellies. The rebellious
defenders fight level by level as Perturabo's Kill-teams gut the hive from the inside out. Beneath them a
rising tide of magma burns away all evidence of Steelstone's rebellion. When the Iron Warriors leave from
the hive spires, the only evidence of the uprising is a metallic mountain filled with cooling igneous rock.
 The Humbling (Unknown Date) - Endt Thrinn, the genius Planetary Governor of Inviolus, completes his
dynasty's planet-girdling fortress network. In his cups, he is much given to boast that his home planet is
unassailable. Agents of the Alpha Legion relay this claim to their Iron Warriors brothers, and before long
the Chaos Lord Mandrakk has made Warp translation in-system at the head of a large fleet. Instead of
attacking Inviolus directly, he invades the nearby Agri-World of Dalathro's Rest. The bread basket of the
Inviolus System, Dalathro's Rest is well defended by the Astra Militarum. Mandrakk bombards it from
orbit whilst launching boarding actions against every voidcraft bound for Inviolus. Within the solar year the
people of Inviolus are crippled by starvation. Though reinforcement arrives in the form of a company of
Mentor Legion Space Marines, Mandrakk has ensured that Inviolus' half-starved defence forces are easy
prey for his teleporting Annihilation Squads. The planet is seized and repurposed as a Chaos base.
 The Wars of Flesh (Unknown Date) - The transmogrifying daemonic plague known as the Technovirus
spreads from Medrengard's deepest dungeons across the worlds of the Eye of Terror. It infects metal
construct and mortal body alike, turning one to the other and blending warriors with their weapons and
wargear until only sentient-metal machine-things remain. After the resultant conflicts, known as the Wars
of Flesh, the nihilistic Cult of Destruction proliferates massively. Obliterators and Mutilators join the ranks
of the Iron Warriors in ever greater numbers.
 The Machine Eyrie (Unknown Date.M41) - The Iron Warriors flagship Merciless Spite is forced to crash
land in the salt-rich Glowing Ocean of the Feudal World of Prime Gala. Colonised by House Terryn several
Terran years earlier, the planet's Imperial Knight defenders stride out into the shallow waters to attack the
crashed voidship. The first wave, led by King Dontros, scales one flank of the Spite, only to find its upper
reaches infested by Heldrakes. The Knights fight bravely, but the Daemon Engines attack in such numbers
 they are toppled into the sea or ripped apart. The second wave, attacking some solar weeks later, is
confronted by the corrupted remnants of their former comrades -- the Merciless Spite’s master, Lord
Admiral Vaen, has replaced each Throne Mechanicum's incumbent with one of his own Chosen lieutenants.
Over the next three solar months, the terrifying combination of Renegade Knights and Heldrakes allows the
Iron Warriors to enslave the Feudal World's population from one pole to the other.
 Scouring of Makenna VII (Unknown Date.M41) - This campaign was conducted by various factions of
the Forces of Chaos under the command of the Chaos Lord Davroth of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion.
The Forces of Chaos sought to conquer and enslave the Imperial Mining World of Makenna VII. An
outcast from the Iron Warriors since his defeat at the Fortress of Ventemar on the Iron Warriors' Daemon
World of Medrengard, Warsmith Baldarun sought the means to rebuild his standing, and to do so he sought
to take part in the Chaos campaign on Makenna VII. He became the leader of a Renegade Space Marines
warband known as Abrial's Claw after swearing an oath of brotherhood to its former Lord, Abrial Shard. In
return, Baldarun relinquished the secrets of his beloved technovirus to Shard's men.
 Temporia Emerges from the Warp (Unknown Date.M41) - In a feat of engineering only the truly insane
could devise, the Dark Mechanicum stronghold world of Temporia is dragged out of the Eye of Terror by
an armada of gravitic tugs and daemon-possessed haulers. The mutant machines churned out by the planet's
sprawling daemon-foundries assail the Cadian System by the thousand.
 Siege of Vraks (813-830.M41) - The Iron Warriors warband known as the Steel Brethren took part in the
Siege of Vraks upon the Imperial world of Vraks Prime, in which the Forces of Chaos, led by the Heretic
Cardinal-Astra Xaphan, sought to defend the planet from an assault by the Imperial 88th Siege Army. After
17 standard years of brutal attrition, Vraks Prime's entire original population of 8 million souls had been
consumed in the violence or exterminated by the Imperium after they fell to Chaos corruption. The world
was then declared Perdita (a Dead World) by the Imperium and placed under an interdiction to cordon it
off from the rest of human space as ordered by the Ordo Malleus' Inquisitor Lord Hector Rex.
 The Folly of Pride (997.M41) - Hive Fleet Leviathan invades Forgefane, an Iron Warriors' world boasting
some of the most redoubtable fortifications ever conceived. The Iron Warriors welcome the xenos
challenge, arrogant in the belief that nothing can overcome their fortresses. Indeed, the Hive Mind's initial
attacks are costly, and alien bodies litter every stretch of no man's land as strongholds and gun-
emplacements vent their wrath. In response, the hive fleet unleashes subterranean swarms to tunnel beneath
the Chaos defences. One by one, Forgefane's bastions are overrun by hordes of Raveners, and soon only the
foreboding Ironblood Citadel remains, its foundations proof against the subterranean xenos. Undeterred, the
Tyranids throw themselves at the walls; nine tenths are slaughtered beneath the fortification's fury but the
aliens are seemingly without number and, within a week, even the Ironblood Citadel falls.
 Invasion of Ultramar (999.M41) - The Invasion of Ultramar occurred when a large Chaos warband
known as the Bloodborn invaded the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar, headed by the Iron Warriors
Warsmith Honsou and the Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn, both servants of the Ruinous Powers who had
sworn revenge against the Ultramarines for the past wrongs they believed had been done to them. The
Chaos invasion occurred roughly concurrently with Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade in
999.M41, though the Bloodborn's invasion was not officially a part of the Black Crusade's forces.
Ultimately this quest for vengeance was foiled as Honsou escaped and M'kar was banished back to the
Warp by the Ultramarines.
 13th Black Crusade (999.M41) - The Iron Warriors Traitor Legion deployed in its entirety to take part in
Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade against the Imperial Fortress World of Cadia. This resulted in
the largest mobilisation of both Imperial and Chaotic forces seen in the Milky Way Galaxy since the Horus
Heresy. The Forces of Chaos conquered large portions of Cadia for the first time, but remain trapped on the
world by overwhelming Imperial naval superiority in the Cadian Gate.
o Second Siege of Hydra Cordatus (999.M41) - During the 13th Black Crusade a large Iron
Warriors warband under the command of Warsmith Barban Falk and supported by a battlegroup of
Chaos Titans from the Legio Mortis, including the infamous Imperator-class Titan Dies Irae,
attacked the Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World of Hydra Cordatus which supplied weapons and
other war materiel to the Imperium of Man at large. Hydra Cordatus was one of the few locations
in the galaxy where the Mechanicus secretly stored its tithes of Space Marine gene-seed.
Alongside his chief rivals Forrix and Kroeger, of the 1 st and 2nd Grand Companies, respectively,
Honsou was one of three champions of the Warsmith that laid siege to the large citadel and
manufactorum complex known as the Tor Christo. Deep within this formidable Imperial citadel
 lay the stasis vaults which contained the genetic material drawn from the Iron Warriors' most
hated and ancient rivals, the Imperial Fists. The Iron Warriors desperately needed this pure gene-
seed to reconstitute their numbers as the corrupting power of Chaos tended to mutate their own
gene-seed to the point that it was unusable to replenish their ranks with new Chaos Space Marines.
Honsou was often belittled by his fellow Iron Warriors for having mixed gene-seed which
consisted of spliced Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists genetic material. He was referred to by his
fellows as a "half-breed", due to his gene-seed's mixed heritage. Despite the Imperial forces
arrayed against them, including a large garrison of Imperial Guard troops and even a small
detachment of Titans of the Legio Ignatum protecting its precious contents, in the end the Iron
Warriors emerged triumphant. They defeated the Imperial forces defending Tor Christo as well as
an entire company of Imperial Fists whom had arrived as reinforcements to try and prevent the
theft of their genetic legacy. Having greatly pleased the Chaos Gods through his monumental
victory over the Imperium, the commanding Warsmith of the attack on Hydra Cordatus was
allowed to ascend to become a Daemon Prince. Before his final ascension to daemonhood, the
Warsmith appointed Honsou as his successor, handing him command over his Grand Company.
He then commanded Honsou to take the stolen Imperial Fists gene-seed back to the Iron Warriors'
Daemon World of Medrengard within the Eye of Terror. After the Iron Warriors withdrew from
Hydra Cordatus they bombarded the remains of the citadel to dust, leaving behind a lone Imperial
survivor to tell the tale of what had occurred to his masters.
 The Grand Siege Begins (Unknown Date.M42) - In the wake of the birth of the Great Rift, the Daemon
primarch perturabo unleashes great sieges on heavily fortified Imperial worlds across the galaxy. A vast
stream of troops, materiel, vehicles and Daemon Engines flows from Medrengard out into the wider galaxy
as the Iron Warriors once more make war upon the hated Imperium.
 Battle of Dysactis (Unknown Date.M42) - During the fyredust season on Dysactis, a vast Death Guard
force advances through the pyroclastic storm fronts in search of the Temple of Ascension. They are met
amidst the crackling maelstrom by an enormous force of Iron Warriors, supported by corrupt God-
machines from the Legio Abhorrax. Continent-shattering battle ensues. Hordes of daemons are summoned
from the Beyond to join the fight. Beneath the gaze of the Cyclonead Statues, Mortarion and his fellow
Daemon Primarch Perturabo themselves engage in a spectacular duel that lasts for seven solar hours. It is a
battle reminiscent of the incredible conflicts of the Horus Heresy, and Perturabo's sons cause terrible
damage to the Death Guard force. Yet the longer the fighting rages, the more the contagions and
metaliphage poxes of the Death Guard spread through the Iron Warrior ranks. Ancient Heretics sicken and
collapse. Malevolent war engines seize with rust and shudder, sparking, to a halt. Machine Spirits go mad
with revulsion and pain, and as the powers of entropy and decay run rampant, the battle swings in
Mortarion's favour. With his forces in tatters and many of his precious war engines crippled beyond repair,
even bitter Perturabo is finally forced to concede defeat. Falling back to pre-prepared defence lines, he
detonates a series of explosive trenches amidst the raging storms and disengages in the ensuing mayhem.
Badly mauled but triumphant, Mortarion and his Death Guard lay claim to the heathen temple they fought
so hard for, and the ancient secrets that lay at its heart.

Legion Organisation

Pre-Heresy

Within the Iron Warriors Legion Perturabo's word was law. To him there was never any differences between Terran
and Olympian Astartes; all were his Iron Warriors, grist for the bloody mill of war. Although for many solar decades
the IVth Legion had been rigidly dogmatic in its adherence to the patterns set out for the nascent Legion at the start
of the Great Crusade, Perturabo's intervention was to write significant and far-ranging changes upon his Legion, but
not one that by any means changed it beyond all recognition from what had gone before.

This was a process that was swift and thorough as well as entirely done to the Primarch's exacting planning. While
informed by the sophisticated martial culture of Olympia of which Perturabo had been a part, it also had its origins
in Perturabo's rapacious learning in the time he spent at the Emperor's side and on Terra itself. Here he is known to
have devoured much of humanity's known martial traditions and histories, transforming that learning with his own
inherent genius and predilections into what would become the template for the Iron Warriors.
The resulting principal strategic building block of the Iron Warriors Legion was the Grand Battalion. This
formation, although roughly analogous in organisation role to the Chapters as envisioned in the Principa Belicosa
with 1,000 Space Marine Legionaries as its notional strength, also incorporated a very substantial portion of
standing armour, artillery and logistical support elements, far beyond that found in other Legions at the same level.

Furthermore, allowing for the higher than standard state of attrition in the Iron Warriors Legion, particularly among
Initiates in the first standard years of their service, recruitment and reinforcement into a Grand Battalion in a war
zone was continuous, which caused the strength of any given Grand Battalion to fluctuate widely.

This was particularly the case in more extreme circumstances where severely depleted Grand Battalions were simply
folded into other active units. Documentary evidence exists of particular Grand Battalions operating with as little as
500 Legionaries and as many as 5,000 in extreme cases.

Organisation below the strategic level was highly stratified, but just as equally and pragmatically varied by the
demands of the particular operations and deployments, with common divisions rated as Cohorts or Grand
Companies (heavily mechanised and reinforced units comprising three to five line companies of Legionaries and
their attendant human auxiliary troops, Mechanicum detachments and integrated support structures).

Below this were the Line Companies and Armour Centuries, comprising roughly 100 Legionaries or 20-50 armour
units, down through sections and individual squads. Whilst across the Legion's Grand Battalions were seeded
elements of the Tyranthikos -- the "Dominators" -- a Veteran core of line breakers and assaulters who had each
survived a score of desperate and bloody sieges to receive the name, and were the foremost proponents of
Terminator Armour within the Legion.

At every level the Iron Warriors Legion was formidably provisioned in arms and wargear, from several thousand
operational suits of Tactical Dreadnought Armour of every pattern to munitions reserves estimated to exceed that of
several other Legions combined. The technical aptitude of each Iron Warrior was also formidable, furthering the
functionality and customisation of their personal panoply of war.

In a customarily practical approach, the IVth Legion made extensive use of both specialised systems, such as
dedicated sections equipped with portable Lascannons for anti-armour warfare and Mark III Power Armour for siege
assault units, and patterns selected foremost for reliability and ease of repair for mass deployment and reserve
supply on protracted campaigns.

Merely aesthetic damage to wargear was deemed irrelevant, and while a Grand Battalion's muster might see rank
upon rank of glittering steel presented for their commanding Warsmith's inspection, a war zone's privations would
see the Iron Warrior's armour increasingly bloodied, burned and battered over its duration, attended to only to
restore functionality until victory was achieved.

Of singular note within the IVth Legion was the range, number and diversity of the armoured vehicle and artillery
support assets fielded by the Iron Warriors. These were known to include the full breadth of general patterns and
designs operated across the Imperium by the Legiones Astartes, with tactical emphasis placed on heavy units such as
the Land Raider and super-heavy war machines such as the Typhon, Stormblade and Mastodon.

Additionally, the employment of very large numbers of "lesser" classes such as the Rhino, Basilisk and Predator was
also common. These the IVth Legion largely considered disposable in practice, owing to their capacity to replace
these patterns with ease thanks to the Mechanicum manufactoria permanently geared to their production in the
Legion's service.

In addition, the Iron Warriors were known to operate large numbers of more unusual variant tanks and specialised
war machines such as the Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer, Deimos Whirlwind Scorpius and Thunderstrike tanks.
This bias and capacity of construction, alongside the integration of armoured and artillery formations at every level
of the IVth Legion meant that the Iron Warriors had the largest armoured reserve and ordnance capacity of any of the
Legions of the Great Crusade.
A particular example of this was a specialised formation within the IVth Legion known as the Stor-Bezashk. In a
Legion renowned for the power of its ordnance and its consummate skills in siege warfare, the Stor-Bezashk were
the masters of destruction, tasked with the maintenance, construction and use of the deadly siege weapons and
singular relics of destruction in the Legion's armoury.

The siegemasters of the Stor-Bezashk had command of weapons and war engines unseen outside of the ranks of the
Mechanicum's Ordo Reductor and direct battlefield command of the Legion's extensive stockpiles of atomic shells,
phosphex reserves and core gravitic munitions, and power of life and death over those Legionaries assigned (often
as punishment) to the Destroyer cadre under the siegemasters' control. The Stor-Bezashk served both as a
specialised siege breaking force in its own right and, broken into its component parts, as specialised reinforcements
for the Legion's Grand Battalions in the field.

Perturabo's ideal for the Iron Warriors can therefore be seen as that of an integrated, disciplined and unstoppable
aggressive force. It was one that mastered warfare both in attack as well as defence, but if any single factor could be
said to typify the Iron Warriors, it was their calculated savagery.

Their bombardments were murderous works of art, precisely configured to overwhelm and to shatter. Their assaults
were faultlessly choreographed exercises in armoured tactics and manoeuvre, supported by remorseless infantry
advances that did not falter, regardless of the fire and fury with which they were met.

When at last, after the storm of firepower and the crushing assault of the tanks, matters came to the bloody press of
hand-to-hand were the darkest tempers of the Iron Warriors shown in a hateful ferocity the match of the burning
rage of Angron's near-berserk World Eaters or the dolorous blade-work of Lion El'Jonson's Dark Angels. But even
this last extreme of violence could be checked as abruptly as the throwing of a switch, such was the inhuman
discipline that Perturabo both installed and enforced on pain of death from his Legion.

It is clear that Perturabo saw his Legion not as a collective of individual members but as a cohesive and unified
whole. An army whose task was to overwhelm their foes by the most efficient and direct methods of possible,
destroy that enemy's ability to resist and, where needed, to exterminate them utterly.

Glory and honour belonged to the IVth Legion as a whole, not to its rank and file or its individual warriors. More
perhaps than any Primarch save Angron, it has been said that no Primarch saw his own Legionaries with so little
regard as Perturabo, to him they were a resource to be spent to achieve victory, a resource which did have
undeniable value, but a resource to be expended never-the-less.

This thinking was reflected in the structure of the Iron Warriors Legion itself, which was stratified and operated in
such a way as to absorb loss and create identity at a strategic, rather than tactical level. The IV th Legion itself was
both a pioneer and proponent of the accelerated recruitment and creation of the Legiones Astartes, and an Iron
Warriors Space Marine Legionary could expect to serve in a myriad of different units and roles, and under a number
of differences to the more ritualised formation of many other Legions.

Promotion and advancement in the Legion's ranks were a matter in the first part of survival, and in the second of
specialisation should a Legionary display particular talents and aptitudes. Mere martial ability was not enough to
measure a Legionary's fitness to serve, and each Iron Warrior was required to be an artisan of metal, machine and
stone just as they were a line fighter, close-quarter killer and artillerist.

In this their Primarch's gene-seed was evidenced and as well as technological aptitude, many Iron Warriors
displayed extraordinary skill at rapid data-analysis, comprehension and abstract reasoning, and were likewise
psychologically marked by a tendency towards suspicion, distrust and viciousness of temper, even among their own.

While honourific and commendations in general meant little to the Iron Warriors at an individual level,
technological skill and the ability to wage warfare in the manner which Perturabo favoured was recognised and
rewarded. This was most evident in the rank of "Warsmith" within the Legion. In Perturabo's Legion, the title of
Warsmith grew to largely replace that of Praetor and Lord Commander, and it carried with it much of the role of a
traditional Olympian warlord as well as an embodiment of the Iron Warriors' strategic doctrines.

A Warsmith was -- as perhaps the title implies -- required to fashion and mould a battlefield to their will, not simply
to excel at fighting or indeed leading those who fought. They were expected to have a complete mastery of logistics,
siegecraft, ordnance and the cerebral comprehension of war; from planning campaigns of planetary conquest to the
rapid calculation of tactical fire zones in a shattered urban ruin.

Unlike those of the lower ranks who fought at their command, a Warsmith was an individual in whose hands a battle
rested, and the success or failure of the forces under their command was theirs to carry, to the good or ill of their
own fate -- Perturabo being renowned as unforgiving of failure.

This system made the Warsmiths a grim, self-possessed, often paranoid and highly independent class of savant-
warlords within the IVth Legion. It winnowed the weak and the ill-fortuned from their number and left those who
remained as the most adept, ruthless and intelligent the Iron Warriors Legion had to offer. The ranks of the
Warsmiths, which fluctuated in number and seniority between them, was not clearly defined, leading to rivalries and
feuds between them.

The majority of Warsmiths commanded Grand Battalions of their own, making up the core of the Legion's strategic
command structure, while others had command of specific strategic formations such as the Stor-Bezashk, important
garrison posts and splinter Expeditionary Fleets, or held satrapies of Armoury Worlds and other detached
commands.

Three Warsmiths, granted particular favour by Perturabo, were exalted to a further rank, that of "Triarch." These
three senior Warsmiths formed the Trident, who nominally served as their Primarch's council of advisors, but more
commonly served to convey his will and direct orders to those below them. Such proximity to the IV th Legion's
increasingly dark-hearted master, in particularly in later years, is reputed to have held dangers of its own.

At the time of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the Iron Warriors Legion is estimated to have had an active
strength of between 150,000 and 180,000 Astartes, along with a very substantial war fleet of over a hundred capital
class vessels. More accurate assessment than this is, however, impossible given the considerable portion of sub-
deployments and garrisons that were maintained by the IVth Legion scattered across the Imperium and its
increasingly isolationist tendencies in the years before the civil war.

It is believed that the Legion had further accelerated its indoctrination and recruiting program, as well as local
shipbuilding at Olympia in the lead-up to the rebellion, and so the lower division of these estimates may indeed be
erroneous.

Further to this the Legion, according to evidence uncovered later, appears to have increased in ties to certain factions
of the Mechanicum and the Legio Cybernetica in particular during this period, and is believed to have begun to
shelter some Renegade or outcast elements of the Machine Cult under Perturabo's protection.

It is also known to have raised up from the ashes of Olympia a fanatically loyal and highly-trained human auxiliary
force, the Thorakara, as a tool of oppression and client army in its own right to serve the IV th Legion. These
measures can now be seen as the beginning of the bloody "Empire of Iron," centred on damned Olympia, that was to
take root in the years that followed of rebellion and civil war.

So it was that rotting from within with loathing and bitter spite, the iron facade the IV th Legion presented to the
Imperium and the extent of how rapidly and how deeply it had descended into homicidal madness was kept hidden.
Only at last, when it was called on to help in the punishment of the rebellious Warmaster Horus at Istvaan V was the
dark truth of its true allegiance revealed.

Specialist Ranks and Formations

  The Trident - The Trident was composed of three exalted Warsmiths of the IVth Legion known as the
Triarchs who attended Perturabo as his personal advisors. The Trident existed outside the rest of the IV th
Legion's regular command structure. Together the Trident functioned as the soul of the Iron Warriors,
supporting their Primarch and steering the IVth Legion's temperament and decisions. Only those Warsmiths
who possessed the necessary qualities of strength and charisma were ever allowed to serve at their
Primarch's side. The Lord of Iron expected nothing less than the most extreme discipline and loyalty from
his Triarchs, but most of all he expected an unbending obedience to the orders he gave. Each blade of the
Trident was as solid and unbending as the hand that wielded it.
 Triarch - An honourary rank reserved only for each of the three exalted Warsmiths who composed the IVth
Legion's advisory Trident.
 Warsmith - The title of Warsmith was an honourary rank held by the senior Astartes Captains who
commanded the IVth Legion's Grand Battalions. It was granted for exceptional skill and valour in carrying
out the Legion's assaults and gave its bearer command over several of the IVth Legion's companies, which
were combined into the larger unit known as a Grand Battalion. After the end of the Horus Heresy, the title
would later be the name given to the Chaos Lord who commanded each of the Iron Warriors' myriad
warbands of Chaos Space Marines.
 Honourable - An honourary rank held by the esteemed member of the Iron Warriors that conducted the
meetings of the Dodekatheon.
 Tyrant Siege Terminator Squad - The vanguard of any Iron Warriors siege breakers formation, these
warriors were clad in thick Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour and deadly carapace-mounted Cyclone
Missile Launchers. These implacable warriors were fortress-breakers of unparalleled skill. Recruited from
amongst the most battle-hardened Iron Warriors, Tyrant Siege Terminators were expected to brave the most
ferocious enemy fire without regard for their own survival. Most often these veteran warriors were found
among the ranks of the Stor-Bezashk, the elite siege masters of the IVth Legion, and deployed to other
Grand Battalions as need to support siege and assault actions.
 Iron Havoc Support Squad - The Iron Havoc Support Squads of the IVth Legion were an elite formation
who had elevated the tactics of saturating an area or targetting enemy armour with heavy ordinance through
sheer weight of fire almost to an art. These warriors were amongst the finest marksman of the Iron
Warriors, placing both shell and explosive blast with exacting precision as they advanced alongside the
Legion's assault cadres.
 Iron Circle - Formed in the wake of the attack aboard Perturabo's flagship, the Iron Blood, during the
Battle of Phall, the Iron Circle was a self-sustaining unit of implacable killers, devoted servants and
incorruptible praetorians all in one. The Iron Circle was composed of six Colossus-class battle robots who
served as the Primarch Perturabo's Shield Breakers and personal Honour Guard during the Horus Heresy.
Each automaton bore the heraldry of a IVth Legion warrior, and their cold machine hearts were loyal in the
way it was only a possible for an unthinking machine to be.
 Stor-Bezashk - The Stor-Bezashk were the siege masters of the Iron Warriors Legion, a host of ordnance
and heavy artillery specialists who commanded firepower like no other. The Stor-Bezashk were also high
explosive ordnance experts and were responsible for crafting the necessary earth-breaching charges used by
the Iron Warriors' massive siege-works once the most functional and desirable location for the breach in the
enemy's defences had been identified.

Notable Bonded Formations

The Iron Warriors notoriously field large amount of expendable human troops to satisfy their needs, this has
seemingly always been the case, even well before the events of the Horus Heresy. Some of these allied forces served
for considerable time alongside the IVth Legion and would gain much glory at the sides of the sons of Pertuarbo. The
following are some of the more notable bonded formations:

 17th Company, 81st Galibed Oathsworn - The 17th Company was a tank formation of the Imperial Army
drawn from the 81st Galibed Oathsworn which had served at the side of the Iron Warriors for two decades
before following them on the path to damnation. While still engaged in the Great Crusade the company had
distinguished itself by storming the dreaded Laccomil Gap on Tarnic IV. Impressed by their heroism and
willingness to sacrifice all, it was Pertuarbo himself who ordered the company reconstitution after its
destruction on the world of Necibis. Easily identifiable for the coal-black livery of their engines of war --
 Malcador Heavy Battle Tanks, Leman Russ Demolishers and Thunderer Siege Tanks -- the 17th company
was destroyed again on the sandfields of Tallarn when leading the assaut on the Sapphire City bunker
complex.
 Selucid Thorakite - The Selucid Thorakite was composed of Imperial Army regiments raised from
natural-born, mortal Olympian soldiers who had joined with the Iron Warriors in the genocide of their
homeworld in the days just before the IVth Legion went over to the cause of Horus. The Thorakitai were
grim-faced men and women who wore faded khaki, scaled breastplates and combat helms fashioned in the
image of the helms used as part of the Astartes' suits of Mark IV Power Armour.
 Pneumachina - The Tech-priests of the Mechanicum that attended the Iron Warriors Legion were known
as the Pneumachina and crafted hybrid machines fashioned from the wreckage of damaged vehicles and
strange machinery torn from the citadels of conquered foes. The Pneumachina constantly worked with
feverish intensity in their sealed forges, crafting ever-more lethal machines, some blatant in their purpose,
but others less obvious. They also performed most of the laborious functions required for the construction
of citadels on newly conquered worlds as well as general repair and maintenance functions for the IV th
Legion as a whole.

The Brethren of the Iron Warriors

There existed in the ranks of the Iron Warriors a series of long-standing warrior societies that existed outside of the
Legion's military order and command structure, and which seldom became known to outsiders. By some accounts
these were so firmly entrenched that they resisted the outside and corrosive influence of Horus' Warrior Lodges, and
by other accounts became the vector of the IVth Legion's corruption. These warrior societies included the following:

 Dodekatheon - The Dodekatheon, also known as the Brethren of Stone, was the oldest, most numerous and
influential of the warrior societies of the IVth Legion. The Brethren of Stone was an order of masons and
strategists whose origins predated the Legion's connection to Perturabo and Olympia. Originating first as a
tactical symposium in the style of the Warcaste Metistraad culture of Terra, it focused on siege craft as well
as the field of military architecture. Upon Perturabo's re-joining with the IVth Legion, the Primarch
massively expanded the organisation, renaming it as the Dodekatheon after the cultural and political
traditions of Olympia. The Olympian Dodekatheon was a cyclical gathering of the twelve greatest Tyrant
households of Olympia for the purposes of resolving disputes and forging allegiances. It also featured
extensive wargames and tournaments between the households present, and the matter of artisans and
warriors, who would show off their skills either to the glory of their patrons or in the hopes of employment.
The Legion's Dodekatheon took on these trappings, becoming over time a venue of contest and exchange
for its foremost warriors, officers, builders and strategists -- met without rank and on equal footing -- to test
their mettle and further their learning. It was where its members fought and re-fought bloodless wars in
simulation, unveiled new designs, poured over battle reports and military intelligence, and vied for position
and the respect of their peers and their Primarch. Although Perturabo enforced rigid discipline in his Legion
and would countenance no disruption due to vendetta, the Dodekatheon served as a well-spring of value for
the Legion's internal rivalries as much as an academy of war. In theory the Dodekatheon was open to all
Iron Warriors, but in practice only those who had distinguished themselves in war attended, others did not,
rather than risk offending their Primarch.
 Apolakron - The Apolakron, known as the Brethren of Steel, was a smaller shadow organisation which
operated in many ways as a division of the larger Dodekatheon; the Apolakron's particular focus was on
machine-craft; Battle-automata, both in their construction and maintenance, and their employment in war.
It existed in an uneasy alliance with the Mechanicum, save those Tech-priests who had long-served the Iron
Warriors directly and was viewed with particular suspicion by elements of the Legio Cybernetica, who saw
it not as a kindred group, but rather a rival to their monopoly on the arcane knowledge they held.
 Kheledakos - The Kheledakos, known as the Brethren of Cold, owed its origins to the aftermath of the IV th
Legion's early campaigns under Perturabo, the Kheledakos, although led and commanded by Astartes, also
encompassed the senior officers and Mechanicum magi, engineers and shipwrights who maintained and
crewed the Legion's warships. Its base of operations was the Black Citadel, Olympia's principal and most
heavily fortified orbital shipyard, and void warfare and the construction and design of warships and assault
craft were its obsession.
  Lyssatra - The Lyssatra, known as the Brethren of Thunder, were the most obscure and cult-like of the
Legion's warrior societies, and were disparagingly known within the IVth Legion as the "burned men". It
was something of a pariah group whose members contained some of the Legion's more unhinged and war-
brutalised gun-crafters, weaponsmiths and ordnancers. Their obsession was creating destruction and
devastation, far beyond what even the rest of the Legion generally considered sane or practical, and were
darkly rumoured to have had truck with strange occult ideology and xeno-technology in secret long before
the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.
 Tyranthikos - The Tyranthikos or "Dominators" were a Veteran core of line breakers and assaulters who
had each survived a score of desperate and bloody sieges to receive the name, and were the foremost
proponents of Terminator Armour within the Legion. They were seeded throughout the ranks of the Grand
Battalions.

Post-Heresy

A Chaos-corrupted Iron Warriors Traitor Marine

The Iron Warriors Legion of the 41st Millennium is organised into a number of large warbands known as Grand
Companies, each commanded by a Chaos Lord who bears the title of Warsmith.

Originally each Grand Company would have been similar in size and organisation, totaling approximately a
thousand Space Marines, but now they vary in size enormously after ten millennia of battle and losses. The
Warsmiths themselves are all extremely gifted in combat engineering, many maintaining a large contingent of slave-
mechanicians to perform the more menial work.

It is uncertain how many Grand Companies there are at any given time. At the time of the Horus Heresy, the IV th
Legion had an added layer of organisation known as a Grand Battalion, which contained several Grand Companies
and was commanded by a senior Astartes Captain who bore the honourary rank of Warsmith. At the time of the
Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V there were at least twelve Grand Battalions in the IVth Legion, although with the
widespread deployment of many garrison forces in that era, it is impossible to be sure.

Like many of the Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines, the Iron Warriors' current organisation is completely
non-standard. A Grand Company will often be divided into component detachments led by lesser Chaos Champions.
There is a tendency to operate in multiples of three. Suitable recruits are taken (willingly and unwillingly) to
Medrengard where they are selected periodically by various Warsmiths for their Grand Company and subjected to
ordeals until they prove themselves worthy of being implanted with the Legion's Chaos-corrupted gene-seed.

Legion Homeworld

Pre-Heresy

Olympia was, before the time of the Great Crusade, a rugged and mountainous world, its population concentrated
within a multitude of city-states. The ready availability of quarried stone and the terrain made the control of strategic
passes and high ground the key to military security, which in turn helped develop Perturabo's -- and his Legion's --
later focus on siege warfare.

Post-Heresy

Olympia was destroyed shortly after the end of the Horus Heresy by its Iron Warriors garrison, and like the other
Traitor Legions, the Iron Warriors seized a planet within the Eye of Terror to make into their new homeworld.
Knowledge of the worlds within the Eye of Terror is scant at best and the realm of Chaos rarely stays the same for
long.
The Iron Warriors' homeworld, Medrengard, is frequently depicted as a world with a black sun and a white sky, its
surface turned into a vast fortress, all trace of its original form lost under mountains of impossibly high towers, its
core penetrated by plunging dungeons. Medrengard has been described as a bleak jail world where slaves toil
endlessly for the glory of Perturabo. Great Chaos warships are tethered to the tallest fortress towers, wherein reside
the Iron Warriors themselves.

Freed from the shackles of physical laws, the battlements and turrets of the Iron Warriors' fortress Daemon World of
Medrengard rise spiralling upwards for kilometres. Spiked oubliettes and labyrinthine dungeons pierce the world to
its core, and bastions cover it like fungi.

Medrengard is a dizzying tangle of insane structure, a mad architect's vision of iron and stone where twisted stairs
run at right angles to one another and pinnacles plunge eternally downwards. This planet-sized stronghold is the
domain of the Primarch Perturabo -- now reincarnated as a mighty Daemon Prince by the Ruinous Powers that guide
him, he has become a being of inconceivable destructive power whose Warp-infused hammer, Forgebreaker, can
shatter the rockcrete walls of a fortress with a single blow.

Countless warbands of the Iron Warriors have used Medrengard as their base of operations for centuries, plotting
how to crush and imprison their enemies, the Imperial Fists foremost amongst them. Now is the time for those plans
to come to fruition. As Abaddon the Despoiler flings open the gates of the Eye of Terror and leads the hosts of
Chaos past Cadia's burning husk, Perturabo and his Legion of embittered Traitors march to war once more, their sole
intent to wreak such devastation upon the Imperium that no stone stands upon another.

Legion Combat Doctrine

An Iron Warriors Tactical Squad disembarks a Rhino

The Iron Warriors follow a simple method. They commence battle with a sustained artillery bombardment, utilizing
every weapon at their disposal. The basis of this is a complex fire plan in which every weapon is directed with
utmost care at the optimum target, for maximum effect. Where possible, the Iron Warriors will coordinate with
Traitor Titan Legions to add to their own considerable firepower. This emphasis on artillery and mechanized warfare
means that Iron Warrior forces often fare best in siege warfare and armored advances on enemy territory.

An Iron Warriors Tactical Squad

Where possible, field fortifications will be used. Iron Warrior doctrine includes extensive use of fortifications to
occupy the maximum number of opponents while using the absolute minimum number of troops. This in turn keeps
the bulk of the Iron Warriors Marines fresh and available for assaults, and allows them to achieve superiority
elsewhere.

When an Iron Warriors force launches a planetary assault, they begin with an intense orbital bombardment (be it
nuclear, plasma, viral or chemical) which could pressure the enemy into surrender without a single Iron Warrior
having to land on the surface.

Warsmith Honsou of the Iron Warriors Legion at the Battle of Hydra Cordatus during the 13th Black Crusade

However, stronger, well-defended worlds are unlikely to surrender so readily. If the planetary bombardment is
indecisive, a landing force will be launched from the Iron Warriors' fleet. The first wave of atmospheric fighters,
gunships, and bomber craft will saturate landing zones and launch raids on enemy bases and supply lines.

All efforts are made to demoralize and weaken the enemy to the point of destruction before any troops are landed.
Sometimes, however, this hammer-blow approach is unsuitable and instead the Iron Warriors will resort to covert
insertion of select Iron Warriors on-world to scout and secure a landing zone in a surprise assault, preferably while
also eliminating as much of the enemy's defensive capability as possible.
Once the first wave has caused sufficient damage to enemy defenses (or secured a suitable landing area), a second
wave is launched. This consists of construction craft, heavy transports and bulk freighters, carrying supplies,
prefabricated fortifications, heavy machinery and construction personnel to the surface. The heavy craft used in this
wave are large, well-armored and equipped with formidable defensive weaponry, but still require support in the
form of escort flyers from the first wave.

An Iron Warriors Obliterator in combat

Upon landing, the second wave will compound the damage caused by the orbital bombardment and bomber attacks
with a secondary artillery barrage, scattering any enemy forces trying to mount a defensive effort in the area. The
larger transport and freighter ships land first, their crews immediately disembarking and beginning the construction
of walled trenches, bunkers, living quarters and artillery positions, the latter of which are then filled by the massive
weapons brought in by the artillery ships. Selected Iron Warriors with incredible logistic skills will direct this
complex and dangerous operation. By the time the third wave is launched, the landing zones will be a dense midden
of fully-stocked fortifications.

The third wave is made up entirely of troop transports and orbit-to-ground drop pods. The troops deployed will
consist of several hundred Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines backed up by a vastly greater number of lesser
troops. Iron Warriors armour will also be deployed at this time. Having occupied the newly-built ground
fortifications, the commanders will proceed to plan out the destruction of the remaining enemy forces. Over a period
of time ranging from months to mere hours, this formidable Iron Warriors incursion will then engage in a series of
lightning-fast strikes, armored advances and carefully-laid sieges, until no enemy resistance remains.

Siege warfare follows a very simple but effective set of general tactics. When a breach has been forced in the enemy
defences it will initially be probed by veterans and infiltrated, then the gap will be pried open with firepower until a
storming force can be unleashed. These storming forces are based around fast-moving heavy armor which can move
instantly from relentless barrage to lightning-fast advance. Breaches are then widened until the defenses are
shattered. For the key moments in battle when a position absolutely must be taken, the Iron Warriors adopt an ice-
cold ferocity that is comparable to that displayed by the Blood Angels or the World Eaters, but only when the
moment is right and never for longer than necessary.

In combat, Iron Warriors are terrifyingly adept at both ballistic warfare and close-range melee bloodshed, and use a
mixture of the two to slaughter opponents in vast numbers. The typical Iron Warrior is armed with a powerful
Bolter, Plasma Gun or other such ranged weapon, as well as a close-combat Power Sword or Chainsword.

The Iron Warriors place a great deal of importance on heavy weaponry of all kinds, for they value the tools of
destruction far more than flesh and blood. Their Havocs are famously clinical killers, blasting apart keystones and
buttresses to bring down fortifications, or sniping enemy officers from afar as they try to restore order.

The Iron Warriors have a special association with the Obliterator cult. They have extensive access to the hulking
combination of armor, weapons, and Marines, more so than any other Traitor Legion, and the first observance of
Obliterators was among the Iron Warriors.

The Iron Warriors are expert sappers, engineers and miners and have acquired a formidable siege train of specialist
equipment over the centuries. This includes Termite tunnelers, a Leviathan transport, Dreadclaw assault boats
adapted for planetary landings and a large assortment of Imperial-built artillery. These are used very sparingly and
are maintained and guarded by the Iron Warriors' 1 st Company. Additionally they have a number of Corvus assault
pods which allow them to make use of any supporting Traitor Titans as siege towers. The Iron Warriors are so
frequently supported by Traitor Titans that some Imperial experts have asserted that they are part of the same
formation.

Iron Warriors Names

Iron Warriors names are generally derived from those used by the people of ancient Olympia, though they also
sometimes include a name derived from a physical feature, personality quirk, past deed, place of birth or other
defining feature.

Examples of Iron Warriors names include: Tarrax of Praxas, Ferrox the Unmaker, Ossus Dronn, Khyr Falkos,
Paradus Shon-tar, Endion Steelspine, Sulphus of the Foundry, Illux Kron-tu, Orim Vorpasian, Porrax Shon-tu, and
Crol Rustclaw.

Legion Beliefs

The Iron Warriors are resolute in their beliefs that the Emperor thoroughly used their Legion to fight the bloodiest
and most brutal battles of the "Great Crusade", then he let the other, more favoured Primarchs take all the glory,
whilst they remained behind to garrison the newly conquered worlds and fade into obscurity. They also believe that
the Imperial Fists Primarch Rogal Dorn incited the people of their homeworld Olympia against them, disgracing
them further and having them discarded after they had served their purpose. They have sworn to enact their
vengeance upon both.

They see themselves as titans of ancient Terran legends; running amok in the universe, reaving and pillaging,
knowing that no natural or man-made law can stop them. Though they honour the Ruinous Powers as a pantheon
they are not truly devout themselves. Their greatest loyalty remains to Perturabo whom they believe saved them
from being sacrificed upon the altar of lies of the false emperor.

Legion Gene-Seed

Since turning to Chaos, the Iron Warriors have been subject to varying degrees of mutation and have been known to
replace mutated limbs with cybernetic ones. The Iron Warriors' gene-seed produced a marked tendency towards
suspicion and paranoia within the Astartes of the IVth Legion but also was known to create Space Marines who were
extremely intelligent and possessed naturally well-developed problem-solving abilities.

Like many of the other Traitor Legions, the Iron Warriors steal the gene-seed of Loyalist Astartes whenever possible
since their own gene-seed is now too corrupted by exposure to the Warp to successfully produce new Astartes from
human stock. However, they do this only begrudgingly. Within the Legion, any new Iron Warriors created through
the use of non-Iron Warriors gene-seed is regarded as a "half-breed."

Reviled and hated by their supposed Battle-Brothers, half-breeds are seen as a necessity for the Legion's continued
existence, but are not considered true Iron Warriors by the IV th Legion's ancient veterans who fought beside
Perturabo during the Horus Heresy.

While it is not impossible for a half-breed to rise in rank or prestige, it is extremely difficult, as all but a few of his
surrounding brothers will hold some measure of resentment against him. One exception to this general rule was the
Warsmith Honsou, who rose from half-breed stock tainted by the gene-seed of the Iron Warriors' ancient foes, the
Imperial Fists, to become one of the greatest Chaos Lords of the Legion.

Legion Battle Cry

A monotone chant of "Iron Within, Iron Without!" is repeated during the beginning of combat operations by the Iron
Warriors. Saying "Iron Within" to elicit the response "Iron Without" is sometimes used by the Iron Warriors to
identify each other, especially in confused combat, such as that in tunnels or during combined operations with other
Chaos forces.

The chant is also used as a demoralizing chant for the enemy and a rallying chant for the Legion's troops, whether
they are Chaos Space Marines, Traitor Guardsmen, Chaos Cultists or Traitor Titan crews.
Notable Iron Warriors

 Perturabo - Perturabo is the Primarch of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion. He and his IV th Legion of
Astartes sided with Chaos during the Horus Heresy and he has since ascended to become a Daemon Prince
of Chaos Undivided. He, like his Iron Warriors, has a natural affinity towards the intensive use of
technology in combat and a cold, emotionless logic when dealing with others, but he lacked the strength of
faith in either the Emperor of Mankind or the Chaos Gods to whom he later swore his soul which was
common amongst most of the other Primarchs, Traitor and Loyalist alike. Perturabo's greatest foe was
Rogal Dorn, the Primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion, and it was this simmering rivalry that helped lead
Perturabo and his Legion to the service of the Dark Gods.
 Warsmith Forrix, "The Breaker" (Deceased) - Forrix was an Iron Warriors Warsmith, First Captain of
the 1st Grand Battalion and a member of Perturabo's inner circle of advisors known as the Trident. He was a
formidable warrior and Imperial hero during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. It was Warsmith
Forrix's primary responsibility for planning the Iron Warriors' attack on the marooned Imperial Fists'
Retribution Fleet during the Battle of Phall. At the conclusion of the Horus Heresy, it would be Forrix who
led the retreat of the Iron Warriors Legion following their disastrous defeat at the Battle of Terra. Ten
millennia later, Forrix had become disillusioned and jaded from the constant fighting of the Long War and
was deemed an unworthy successor to the Iron Warrior Chaos Lord Barban Falk, "The Warsmith". Forrix
met his ultimate fate while fighting in the 13th Black Crusade during the siege of Hydra Cordatus, where he
was killed by an Imperial Warhound-class Titan.
 Warsmith Berrosus (Deceased) - Berrosus was an Iron Warriors Warsmith of the 2 nd Grand Battalion.
During the Battle of Phall he had the misfortune of bringing ill-favoured news to Perturabo, whose volatile
moods had steadily worsened since the slaughters of Istvaan V. He had hoped his position as a Warsmith
would keep him from harm, but it was to be a fool's hope, for Perturabo's rages fell on high kings and holy
fools alike. On the orders of his Primarch, Berossus was eventually encased within the shell of a Chaos
Dreadnought to be tormented across the centuries. In the late 41 st Millennium, on the Daemon World of
Medrengard, Berrosus and his fellow Warsmith Toramino were angered over Warsmith Honsou's refusal to
share the Imperial Fists gene-seed that was stolen from Hydra Cordatus during the 13th Black Crusade, and
so declared war against him. The aggressive Berrosus had his Grand Company lay siege to Honsou's
citadel, and though losses proved high (one thousand Astartes) he succeeded in breaching the citadel's
walls. Facing Honsou in close-combat, Berrosus nearly killed Honsou with a siege drill. Unfortunately,
victory was torn from his grasp when Honsou's life was saved by his daemonic life-ward Onyx, who
managed to breech Berrosus' Dreadnought carapace. Honsou then reached inside the Dreadnought shell and
ripped out its Mind Impulse Unit and pulped Berrosus' head before all to see. Berrosus' warband then
defected to the service of Honsou shortly thereafter.
 Warsmith Barabas Dantioch (Deceased) - Warsmith Barabas Dantioch once commanded the 51st
Expeditionary Fleet of the Iron Warriors Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. He was
the favoured son of Perturabo due to his tactical acumen and skill at building formidable fortifications. He
had been laid low during a massive Hrud infestation on the world of Gholghis. Dantioch was left
prematurely aged and crippled by the attack of the xenos. After the incident, he chose to wear no helmet,
for his face and skull were enclosed within an iron mask he had crafted. The faceplate was a work of brutal
beauty, an interpretation of the Legion's badge, the very same iron mask symbol that adorned his shoulder.
It was whispered that Dantioch had worn the mask immediately after he pulled it glowing from the forge,
the better to hammer it into shape around his shaven skull. He then plunged head and iron mask alike into
ice water, fixing the beaten metal in place forever around his equally grim features. Dantioch left the 51 st
Expedition to garrison the world of Lesser Damantyne, becoming the planner and architect of the superbly
fortified Schadenhold fortress. After the triple disasters of Gholghis, Stratopolae and Krak Fiorina, the
name of Dantioch and his legacy was utterly expunged; his name a byword for failure on an epic scale.
During the many solar months the small Iron Warriors detachment had garrisoned the planet, they heard
disturbing rumours of the galaxy being conquered by the forces of the Warmaster Horus. Dantioch
suspected that the bulk of the IVth Legion had willingly joined the Warmaster's cause. When Warsmith
Krendl arrived at Lesser Damantyne with the 51st Expeditionary Fleet, he came to the Schadenhold with
new orders for the Iron Warriors garrison. They were ordered by their Primarch to prepare for the Traitors'
offensive against Terra. Lesser Damantyne would be used as a resupply point for Horus' forces. Dantioch
refused to acquiesce to his Primarch's orders for the Iron Warriors on Lesser Damantyne remained
 Loyalists and would not share in their traitorous brethren's damnation. Krendl vowed to destroy Dantioch's
beloved fortress in the name of Horus. Dantioch commanded his meagre forces against the entire might of
the 51st Expeditionary Fleet and the 14th Grand Company of the Iron Warriors for 366 standard days, until
the Traitors deployed an Imperator-class Titan to destroy the Schadenhold. Just before the fortress fell,
Dantioch and the surviving Loyalist Iron Warriors teleported aboard the Traitor's flagship and
commandeered it. The Warsmith then set course towards Terra with the aim of helping to fortify and
defend the Emperor's Imperial Palace against the forces of the Traitor Legions. Eventually, he somehow
made his way to the Realm of Ultramar. For his excellence in siegecraft, and his staunch loyalty to the
Emperor, Barabas Dantioch was recruited by the Lords of Ultramar to help them construct and defend the
greatest contingency plan, and perhaps the second greatest heresy, the Imperium had ever known -- the
Imperium Secundus. Then Roboute Guilliman revealed to him the long-sequestered mysteries of Sotha, and
the strange alien device known as the Pharos. Utilising the Pharos' strange abilities, Dantioch was able to
illuminate Macragge, lighting it up as a bright spot that was visible throughout realspace and the Warp,
despite the effects of the Ruinstorm, providing a directional beacon for navigation in the absence of the
Astronomican. Following their defeat at the hands of the Dark Angels at Tsagualsa, remnants of the Night
Lords Legion followed the strange beacon they detected in the Warp, which guided them safely to the
world of Sotha. Over many solar months, the Night Lords secretly gathered intelligence on the suspicious
activities of the Ultramarines, and soon discovered the nature of the arcane device, named the Pharos, upon
the restricted planet. The Night Lords launched a surprise assault upon the lightly-garrisoned world, intent
on seizing the Pharos in order to use it to determine the location of their flagship, the Nightfall, as well as
the whereabouts of their missing Primarch Konrad Curze. In the ensuing battle, Warsmith Dantioch
sacrificed himself by overloading the Pharos, so that the Night Lords would be unable to utilise the device's
powerful empathic abilities. What far-reaching consequences this had for the galaxy would not come to
pass for another ten millennia.
 Warsmith Kroeger (Deceased) - Kroeger was an Iron Warriors Warsmith of the 23 rd Grand Battalion and
a member of Perturabo's inner circle of advisors known as the Trident during the Great Crusade and the
Horus Heresy. Originally, he served as a simple line warrior; a plain-speaking, bloody-handed brawler who
excelled at assault actions. During the campaign against the Cadmean Citadel upon the Imperial Fists-
controlled world of Hydra Cordatus, by the direct command of his Warsmith, he spearheaded an ill-advised
assault against the formidable fortress. He was the lone survivor of the disastrous assault and was
grievously wounded by the superior numbers of Imperial Fists Legionaries, and was only saved by the
timely intervention of Perturabo and his Iron Circle of robotic praetorians. Recognising the warrior's raw
talent and lack of ambition for glory's sake, Perturabo made Kroeger the new Warsmith of the 23 rd Grand
Battalion and a member of his inner circle of advisors known as the Trident. Ten millennia later, Kroeger
would meet his ultimate fate, once again, upon the world of Hydra Crodatus during the 13th Black Crusade.
By this time, Kroeger had given into his violent tendencies and had become a borderline berserker, though
he was unlike the blood-crazed fiends of the World Eaters, as he seemed able to control his fury. He was
killed during this campaign; his own Power Armour (possessed by a Lesser Daemon) decided to "bond"
with a new owner, a former Imperial Guard Captain named Larana Utorian, who was Kroeger's personal
slave. She donned her former master's armour and became fully possessed by the daemonic entity and
subsequently killed Kroeger.
 Warsmith Harkor - Harkor was a former Iron Warriors Warsmith of the 23 rd Grand Battalion and a
member of Perturabo's inner circle of advisors known as the Trident during the Great Crusade and the
opening days of the Horus Heresy. Warsmith Harkor was an Olympian of the old ways, a warrior who
knew the value of occasionally strengthening the mettle of his subordinates by plunging them into the fire
and beating them upon the anvil of war. During the campaign against the Iron Warriors' hated rivals upon
the Imperial Fists-controlled world of Hydra Cordatus during the Horus Heresy, Harkor overstepped his
authority and ordered an escalade against his Primarch's orders. Though the Iron Warriors were victorious,
Perturabo was furious with Harkor. Since Istvaan V, Perturabo had become a giant of terrible rages and
spontaneous violence, and Harkor had gambled that his humbling of Dorn's sons would quench that molten
anger. He was wrong, as the Primarch formally rebuked him for countermanding his direct orders and
devising stratagems of his own. Perturabo disapproved of having his warriors' lives wasted while Harkor
watched from the relative safety of a gun battery. The Lord of Iron stripped the former Triarch of his
armour and all rank. He was made a simple line warrior of the fighting ranks within the 23 rd Grand
Battalion. A lone surviving warrior of Harkor's ill-advised assault named Kroeger, was chosen by the
Primarch to become the new Warsmith of the 23 rd Grand Battalion and the third blade of his Trident.
 Warsmith Soltarn Vull Bronn, "The Stonewrought" - Vull Bronn was a warrior of the 45th Grand
Battalion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, whose understanding of stone was such that some
whispered it spoke to him, confiding its secrets and opening up its geological wonders to the touch of his
entrenching tool. Perturabo, ever quick to recognise raw talent, favoured Vull Bronn as an adviser, despite
the inferiority of his rank next to the three exalted Warsmiths of the Trident who normally attended upon
him.
 Warmsith Barban Falk, "The Warsmith" - Barban Falk was a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors 235th
Grand Battalion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy and later became a member of Perturabo's
inner circle of advisors known as the Trident. During the Horus Heresy, Falk and his fellow Iron Warriors
undertook a mutual quest with their brother Legion, the Emperor's Children, into the Eye of Terror to
discover the lost Chaos artefact known as the Angel Exterminatus. Upon the Eldar Crone World of Amon
ny-shak Kaelis, Falk was contacted by a mysterious daemonic entity which enabled him to utilise the Warp
entity's formidable power to command the Iron Warriors under his command. After escaping from the
Eldar world, he no longer referred to himself as Barban Falk, and forever after was known simply as "The
Warsmith". Millennia later in 999.M41, The Warsmith, now a formidable Chaos Lord, led a large Iron
Warriors warband during the 13th Black Crusade to the Imperial world of Hydra Cordatus. The lone
Imperial citadel they assaulted secretly housed a large cryo-storage unit containing samples of the Imperial
Fists Chapter's gene-seed. The Warsmith, having greatly pleased the Chaos Gods through his victory, was
granted his final apotheosis into a daemon and departed for the Eye of Terror. Before his final ascension as
a new Daemon Prince, he gave command of his warband to his chosen champion Honsou, who would take
the stolen Imperial Fists gene-seed back to the Iron Warriors' Daemon World of Medrengard within the
Eye. After the Forces of Chaos withdrew from Hydra Cordatus, they bombarded the remains of the citadel
to dust, leaving only a single survivor to bring word of the disaster to the Imperium.
 Warsmith Honsou, "The Half-Breed"- Honsou was the leading Iron Warriors Warsmith at the end of the
41st Millennium. He first came to prominence during the iron Warriors' assault on the Adeptus Mechanicus
fortress on the world of Hydra Cordatus that housed a large cryo-storage unit containing samples of the
Imperial Fists Chapter's gene-seed. At this point, Honsou was the captain of one-third of Barban Falk's
Grand Company. Honsou had managed to claw his way to that position despite heavy prejudice from other
Iron Warriors for being a 'half-breed'; when he had been transformed into a Chaos Space Marine, Honsou's
gene-seed had been "tainted" through the use of captured genetic material from the hated Imperial Fists, the
Iron Warriors' most hated and ancient foe. Despite his fellows' prejudice, his abilities and tenaciousness
helped him succeed in capturing the gene-seed held in stasis on Hydra Cordatus. With this victory,
Honsou's Warsmith successfully ascended to daemonhood and appointed Honsou (the only surviving
captain) as his successor. The newly appointed Warsmith Honsou returned to the Iron Warriors' Daemon
World of Medrengard in triumph but snubbed two of his fellow Warsmiths when he decided to renege on
their agreed upon promise of sharing the gene-seed captured at Hydra Cordatus so that all the Iron Warriors
Grand Companies could create new Astartes. This decision lead to a civil war within the Iron Warriors'
ranks. The two rival Warsmiths and their Grand Companies laid siege to Honsou's citadel of Khalan-Ghol
and eventually breached it. Honsou was nearly killed by the Warsmith Berrosus but was saved by his life-
ward and killed the Dreadnought Warsmith. Yet, the war continued and eventually most of Honsou's forces
had been smashed by other Warsmiths seeking to claim the unspoiled gene-seed and their armies in their
internecine warring that spread across Medrengard. Honsou eventually found himself within the Maelstrom
on the world of New Badab during the Skull Harvest, an annual event hosted by the despicable Chaos Lord
Huron Blackheart. Rival Chaos Lords brought their warbands to New Badab and fought one another during
the Skull Harvest. When a Chaos Lord is slain, the victor acquires their opponent's warband. Honsou took
the opportunity to take part in the harvest. Eventually he emerges on top as the victor, and his army swells
into the tens of thousands. With his army assembled, Honsou was finally ready to unleash his audacious
plan for revenge against Captain Uriel Ventris and the hated Ultramarines by completely destroying the
Realm of Ultramar. He would enact this plan with the help of the Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn, who
had once been Maloq Kartho, a Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion during the Horus Heresy.
But ultimately, Honsou's plans to invade Ultramar were thwarted and the Iron Warriors were routed back to
Medrengard while M'kar was banished to the Warp.
 Warsmith Andraaz (Deceased) - Warsmith Andraaz was an Iron Warriors Warsmith of the 3 rd Grand
Company. Following the Traitor Legions flight to the Eye of Terror at the end of the Horus Heresy, he
eventually rose in favour to command the Fortress World of Castellax, a former Imperial Mining World,
whose population was enslaved in order to provide manual labour to produce materials for the Daemon
 World of Medrengard. Generations of slaves were born and died in the hellish conditions during their
enforced enslavement to produce the necessary supplies that were sent as tithes to the Iron Warriors' home
world within the Eye. The centuries-long rule of the planet was maintained by only a small garrison
commanded by Warsmith Andraaz who oversaw the Janissaries and Mamelukes -- slave soldiers that were
utilised to enforce Medrengard's will upon the slave labourers. However, the Iron Warriors' iron grip upon
the planet was lost sometime in the 41st Millennium when it was invaded by Ork Warboss Biglug and his
WAAAGH!. This invasion came to be known as the Siege of Castellax. When defeat seemed imminent,
Warmsith Andraaz instructed his chief Dark Mechanicus Tech-priest Oriax to prepare to use a device
known as the Daemonculum to teleport him directly into the path of Biglug, in order to grant him an
honourable and memorable death in combat. However, unknown to the Warsmith, the Tech-priest
harboured bitter feelings towards Andraaz, and conspiring to free both himself and his dark inventions from
the iron grip of the Traitor Marines, he sabotaged the teleportion process. This resulted in the Warsmith's
entire retinue of personal Chaos Terminator bodyguards being lost in transit while the Warmsith's own
Terminator Armour mysteriously malfunctioned, shutting itself down during his showdown with Biglug.
This occurred when a binary pulse was emitted from a piece of equipment that the Warboss used against
Andraaz. Ironically, a piece of equipment given to him by Oriax. Rendered helpless, Andraaz suffered an
inglorious and undignified death at the hands of the Ork Warboss.
 Warsmith Kolvax (Deceased) - Kolvax was the commander of a Grand Company based in the mighty
fortress known as the Ironblood Citadel on Medrengard, a superb fortification that was the epitome of the
Iron Warriors' ingenuity and engineering genius. The Ironblood Citadel was said to rival Perturabo's own
citadel on Medrengard. Kolvax and his warband were based on the ancient Fortress World of Forgefane
during the invasion of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan. Kolvax was slain by a Trygon that he had
arrogantly boasted that he would defeat in single combat. Instead, he was swallowed whole by the beast.
 Warsmith Annovuldi - Like Kyr Vhalen, Annovuldi was a Loyalist Warsmith during the times of the
Horus Heresy who turned his back upon his Legion to fight in the name of the Emperor, his one and true
master. Little is known about Warsmith Annovuldi except for the fact that he was one of the few living
line-officers that answered the call to arms of the Raven Guard in the Scarato-system. Annovuldi and his
men participated in the events of the Day of Vengeance on Carandiru before presumably leaving the Raven
Guard to wage their own guerilla war on the Traitors' supply lines.
 Warsmith Baldarun - Baldurun is a Warsmith of a Grand Battery of the Iron Warriors. An outcast from
the Iron Warriors since his defeat at the Fortress of Ventemar, Baldarun has been seeking the means to
rebuild his standing. When the Forces of Chaos overran Makenna VII, he used the share of the spoils to
build up the strength of his Grand Battery. With so many machines under his command, he would
eventually return to Medregard to crush those that mocked him. Abrial Shard, an infamous Chaos renegade
across a dozen sectors, swore an oath of brotherhood with Warmsith Baldarun long ago on a Daemon
World at the heart of the Eye of Terror. Baldarun called upon his old ally to bolster his forces upon
Makenna VII, and Abrial sent a detachment of his own personal elite, known as Abrial's Claw, on the
condition that Baldarun relinquished the secrets of his beloved technovirus to Shard's men. Whether they
survived to return the secret to their master was another matter.
 Warsmith Ferrous Ironclaw - Ferrous Ironclaw is a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion. He is
known to be a dedicated believer in the Traitor Legions' cause known as the Long War and utterly loyal to
his Daemon Primarch Perturabo. Sometime during the 41st Millennium, Ironclaw and his Grand Company
besieged the Imperial world of Bellum Colonia. However, just as victory was within his grasp, a large force
of Imperial Fists Space Marines descended upon the beleaguered planet to fight against the Forces of
Chaos. Rather than worrying about this turn of events, and the fact that these Imperial reinforcements were
both formidable and proved problematic, Ironclaw rejoiced at the prospect of once again meting out his
righteous anger against his most hated enemies in glorious battle.
 Warsmith Koparnos - Koparnos was a Warsmith of the IV Legion who willingly followed his Primarch
into treachery. Koparnos lost much of his command in the early stage of the great Battle of Tallarn, his
troops either destroyed in the fierce tank battles that opposed the Iron Warriors to the Loyalist Titan
Legions of the Legio Astorum and the Legio Gryphonicus, or succumbing to the lethal toxins the Iron
Warriors had unleashed upon this world. As the sole survivor of his squad, Koparnos held out for six solar
days in the immobilised shell of his Rhino APC before venturing outside. By then the airborne toxins were
slowly killing him despite the protection offered by his Power Armour. Yet, with the typical stubbornness
of the IV Legion, Warsmith Koparnos held on to life, marching across the battlefield until he reached the
towering form of an immobilised Warlord-class Titan. The Titan's name was the Ostensor Contritio and it
 belonged to the Loyalists, but this did not stop Koparnos from entering the great warmachine and using its
plasma reactor to purge the poison from his body. Trading the slow death of poisoning for the even slower
death of irradiation, Warsmith Koparnos then corrupted Ostensor Contritio and bound it to his service,
lobotomising the Titan's unconscious crew to use them as a living interface between him and the machine.
Thus harnessing the Titan's Machine Spirit, Koparnos took control of the mighty walker and returned
Ostensor Contritio to the battlefield.
 Warsmith Koros - Koros is a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion and is said to be a veteran of
one thousand and one sieges. As such he is a master of attacking and defending every manner of citadel. He
is also a veteran of the terrible ancient campaign known as the Iron Cage, and one of the Daemon Primarch
Perturabo's lieutenants, having proved himself worthy of command of one of the Iron Bastions on
Medrengard, the Daemon World which is home to his Legion. Koros was dispatched to the Jericho Reach
in order to oversee the fortification of numerous worlds near the Hadex Anomaly, and to lend his assistance
to the Forces of Chaos in the planning of a grand counter-strike against the forces of the Imperium. What
price the various factions opposing the Imperium have agreed to pay in return for the Iron Warriors' aid is
not known, but it must certainly be high. Warsmith Koros is known to be in league with the corrupted Dark
Mechanicus of the heretic Forge World of Samech, who have equipped him and his forces with numerous
items of tech-heresy, some of which was undoubtedly constructed according to his own specifications. It is
now suspected by several within the Watch Fortress Erioch's Chamber of Vigilance that Warsmith Koros
and the Dark Mechanicus of Samech have entered into an unholy alliance, the only result of which can be
the creation of a new generation of previously unseen and abominably powerful weaponry. Armed with the
twisted fruits of such a dark union, the servants of the Ruinous Powers might finally be able to break the
deadlock that has befallen the Acheros Salient of the Achilus Crusade, and begin to push the lapdogs of the
Corpse Emperor back to the Well of Night, finally expelling them from the Jericho Reach.
 Warsmith Shon'tu - Shon'tu was an infamous Warsmith of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion and later
Chaos Lord of the Iron Warriors warband the Sons of the Forge. He continually plagued the veteran First
Captain Darnath Lysander of the Imperial Fists Chapter over many centuries. Shon'tu was present during
the Siege of Terra and like most within the Iron Warriors, has sworn an eternal hatred for their bitter rivals,
the Imperial Fists. It was in 585.M40, that the Imperial Fists 2nd Company, under the command of the
newly promoted Captain Lysander, deployed to break the Siege of Haddrake Tor, a planet in the merciless
grasp of Warsmith Shon'tu. Having secured the high ground, Lysander's strike force set up teleport homers
to summon the Terminators of the 1st Company into the thick of the fighting. However things went awry
and many of the Terminators materialised over deep chasms, or else in solid rock, including Kleitus,
Captain of the 1st Company. Before dying of his grievous wounds, he thrust his Thunder Hammer, the Fist
of Dorn, into Lysander's hands, and bade him seek vengeance through victory. This Lysander did, leading
the survivors of the 1st Company alongside his own to shatter the Iron Warriors stronghold. Shon'tu fled
from the planet in defeat, but he had left a mystery in his wake. Survivors spoke of how the Warsmith had
concerned himself little with the despoliation of their world, and had instead buried himself in a search
through its millennia-old archives. Unfortunately, there was no way to know what Shon'tu had been
searching for, as he had destroyed the archives before making his escape. As the 40 th Millennium drew to a
close, the Strike Cruiser Shield of Valour was lost the to the Warp. All hands, Lysander amongst them,
were lost alongside, with slender hope for their return. Cast far off course by the whimsy of the Warp, they
were flung forward through the centuries and far across the galaxy. When the Shield of Valour finally
emerged into realspace, it did so in the fading years of the 41st Millennium and in the orbit of Malodrax --
an Iron Warriors fortress on the Eye of Terror's fringe. Swiftly disabled by the world's formidable defences,
the Strike Cruiser was boarded, and a handful of survivors -- Lysander amongst them -- taken as prisoners.
Lysandor's captor was none other than Warmsith Shon'tu, who brutally tortured the stalwart Imperial Fist
over many weeks. Though burdened by grievous harms, the captain tore free of his bondage scant weeks
after his capture. Bereft of arms and armour, he wrought a storm of destruction on Malodrax's capital,
seized control of a shuttle, and escaped with two of his battle-brothers. Lysander swore eternal vengeance
upon the hated Warsmith. Reinstated as Captain of the 1 st Company, Lysander's first act of command was
to lead the Imperial Fists to Maldorax in 966.M41, to scour the Iron Warriors from the planet. But once
again, Shon'tu eluded Lysander's grasp and made good his escape. Next, in 969.M41, Lysander led three
companies to liberate the planet of Taladorn from the Sons of the Forge and his old nemesis, Warsmith
Shon'tu. The captain is too proud to accept aid from the Ultramarines and Blood Angels, and his actions
lead to unnecessary casualties for the Imperial Fists. Captain Vogen is killed, and his 3rd Company badly
ravaged before Captain Cato Sicarius' Ultramarines override Lysander's objections and intervene. Taladorn
 is freed, but Warsmith Shon'tu escapes. In 971.M41, learning that Shon'tu had been responsible for an
earlier Tyranid incursion and the Ork predations on the Magor Rift, Chapter Master Hagan orders Phalanx
to Malodrax to end the Warsmith's threat once and for all. While most of the Chapter assail Shon'tu's
planetside strongholds, Captain Tor Garadon of the Imperial Fists 3 rd Company, alongside Cato Sicarius'
Ultramarines and Erasmus Tycho's Blood Angels, conducts a boarding action of the recently reclaimed
leviathan war barque Tamunash. Together, the boarding parties manage to destroy enough critical systems
for Phalanx to gain the upper hand. As Tamunash begins to break apart, Garadon is defeated by Shon'tu,
but Lysander teleports aboard Tamunash's command deck and gravely wounds the Warsmith. The Space
Marines escape by Thunderhawk Gunship, and the dying Tamunash vanishes into the Warp, taking Shon'tu
with it.
 Warsmith Toramino - Toramino was a Warsmith of the Iron Warriors and the leader of the Stor-bezashk,
the IVth Legion's masters of ordnance and siege breaking during the era of the Great Crusade and the Horus
Heresy. By the 41st Millennium, he had become one of the Iron Warriors' most powerful surviving
Warsmiths. He was the ruler of an ancient and mighty fortress on the Iron Warriors' daemonic homeworld
of Medrengard. When the Warsmith Honsou was successful in obtaining a large stock of gene-seed from
the hated Imperial Fists on the world of Hydra Cordatus, Toramino and his Grand Company wanted their
promised share of the precious genetic material required to swell their numbers. When Honsou reneged on
the deal and kept all of the gene-seed for his own Grand Company, Toramino declared war against his
wayward comrade. Toramino and his fellow Warsmith Berrosus brought their armies to lay siege to
Honsous's fortress of Khalan-Ghol. Toramino allowed the more aggressive Berrosus and his Grand
Company take the brunt of the fighting. Berrosus' army breached the walls of Khalan-Ghol and the Chaos
Dreadnought Warsmith nearly succeeded in killing Honsou. But Honsou's daemonic life-ward breeched
Berrosus' Dreadnought carapace and Honsou proceeded to kill Berrosus' vulnerable organic components.
Toramino then decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and fled for his life. But civil war
continued to engulf Medrengard.
 Warsmith Khr Vhalen - Warsmith of the Iron Warriors 77th Grand Battalion during the Great Crusade and
Horus Heresy, Khr Vhalen was a name of relative obscurity before the events of the Great Betrayal was to
thrust upon him the mantle of greatness. He was neither Terran nor Olympian by birth, having been
recruited as an adolescent from the formerly xenos-enslaved world of Meru at the edge of the Yetzirah
Abyss. Initiated into the 77th Grand Battalion, he fought his way up through its rank by dint of excellence
and sheer bloody will to survive, gaining the epithet of "Shatterblade" after fighting through a nine hour
battle with the broken remains of a Xenarch sabre impaled through his chest. The 77 th, like a number of
Iron Warriors detachments dispersed across the Imperium and all but forgotten, had become almost
completely self-sustaining by the end of the Great Crusade, and when the Horus Heresy came, he and his
forces were utterly ignorant of their Legion's betrayal. At the Battle of Paramar, he and his Legionaries
would take bitter pride in their stubborn loyalty to the Great Crusade as brother turned against brother.
 Warsmith Zhorisch - Zhorisch is an ancient master of scientific and technical pursuits as well as a
cunning practitioner of the art and science of siege warfare. Warsmith Zhorisch was a member of the
original Iron Warriors Legion raised up by Perturabo, and he was initially a pre-cursor of the modern
Techmarine, a highly trained fighting engineer. Born and raised on the Iron Warriors' homeworld of
Olympia, young Zhorisch was chosen for Iron Warriors Legion service and sent for training on Mars.
While never outstanding as either a warrior or enginseer, during the Great Crusade he proved himself
competent enough and showed a dogged perseverance and real gift for leadership. He served with
distinction, rose through the ranks, and was wholly dedicated to his beloved Primarch. As the IV th Legion
slowly fell into bitterness and treason, he gleefully followed his leaders into rebellion against the Emperor.
Zhorisch saw action at many of the bloodiest battles during the Horus Heresy. He patched up IVth Legion
heavy armour after the Drop Site Massacre, and smashed Loyalist fortifications on Yarant and Vanaheim.
He fought the Imperial Fists in the killing trenches of the Iron Cage with distinction, proving to be a
persistent and implacable foe. Over the millennia following the Horus Heresy, he rose in power with guile
and cunning, eventually reaching the rank of Warsmith and leading his own warband. As a Warsmith, he
developed his well-known lust for hidden knowledge, leading many a campaign of terror against
unsuspecting Imperial worlds in pursuit of secrets both academic and technological. When he was given the
chance to take the Obsidian Forge at Imbru, located in the Jericho Reach, and loot what he believed to be a
treasure trove of Imperial secrets, he immediately accepted the task. In the aftermath of his invasion, he
found all that he was looking for and more. Not only did he have the entirety of an Imperial forge to sift
through, but it was a forge with a curious secret, one of the ancient Chaotic xenos artefacts known as the
 Javar Gates. Now, after centuries of study and experimentation, the Javar Gate has come to life, much to
the delight of the Warsmith.
 Commander Sollos Hrendor - Sollos Hrendor was the master of the 701st Armoured Cohort and present
on the soil of Istvaan V during the DropSite Massacre. The 701 st Armoured Cohort was part of the
encircling ring of Traitor units that closed the ring around the Salamanders and Raven Guard Legion. The
701st Armoured Cohort was however utterly destroyed when surviving Loyalist units broke through the
encircling ring to find shelter in the Urgall Hills. Sollos Hrendor was severely burned and wounded during
this break-out, but stubbornly refused to die. Interred inside the sarcophagus of a Contemptor-class
Dreadnought, Hrendor became Hrend "the Ironclad", a reverred Dreadnought that would however not be
counted amongst the ranks of the Ancients. Hrend became the leader of the Cyllados armoured assault
group at the head of which he was deployed to the surface of Tallarn during the Battle of Tallarn. Recalled
from the frontlines of this mighty battle, Hrend was brought before Pertuarbo and tasked with a special
mission: to discover the ancient artifact known as the "Black Sun", the true reason for the Iron Warriors'
presence on Tallarn.
 Commander Zhigo Trador - Zhigo Trador was the cold-hearted commander of the 23rd Armoured
Company during the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V. One of the very first Iron Warriors armoured units to
surge forth when their treachery was revealed to begin the slaughter was none other than the 23 rd Armoured
Company. So fiercely did Commander Trador press the assault on the Loyalists at the Drop Site Massacre,
the 23rd Armoured Company suffered overwhelming losses, effectively ceasing to exist as a Chapter-level
formation by the close of the operations. It is said that the Primarch's displeasure at Trador's self-imposed
losses was so great, the commander was fortunate indeed to come away with his life. Instead of execution,
Commander Trador, along with several hundred other officers and Legionaries who had earned Perturabo's
censure, were ordered to gather what remained of their units and to take them out into the Urgall Wastes in
pursuit of Loyalist survivors. It is doubtful if any arrangements to reunite these forces with the parent
Legion were ever made and many historator-savants hold the belief that Perturabo had no expectation or
desire to see them return. This ad hoc formation, known as "Armoured Purgation Group Trador", led the
pursuit and extermination phases of the Drop Site Massacre aftermath and is thought to have accounted for
several thousand Loyalist deaths. Trador's campaign of bitter slaughter came to an abrupt end when the
force was ambushed by Raven Guard survivors in the depths of the Illium Rifts. The ultimate fate of
Commander Trador himself is unknown, but it is certain that the last tank of the 23 rd Armoured Company
burned at the hands of the vengeful warriors of Corvus Corax.
 Captain Erasmus Golg - Captain of the Iron Warriors 11th Grand Company and commander of the
starship Contrador during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, following his Primarch's Edict of
Decimation, Erasmus Golg stove to epitomise the ruthless efficiency Perturabo sought in his warriors.
Embracing the heartless drive for victory at any cost in a manner that even fellow Iron Warriors found
extreme, Golg was a brutal commander, whose only punishment for failure was death. Despite his
dedication, Golg never ascended to the inner circle of the Iron Warriors leadership. Deemed flawed, but
useful by his Primarch, Golg was summoned when the Lord of Iron wished to make an example of an
enemy through direct and unsubtle assault. Golg was ever at the forefront of any battle that his Grand
Company was involved in, leading his massed Terminator forces in the heat of battle.
 Strategos-Minor Nârik Dreygur - "The Gravewalker" - Nârik Dreygur led his company into the fires of
war for ninety years, fearing failure of his Primarch far more than death at the hands of his foes. As Istvaan
V he fell, a blank-eyed Raven Guard Moritat incinerating his flesh. His defeat in battle cost him the fleeting
favour of Perturabo, who discarded the broken commander as he would a broken blade. However, this was
not the end of his usefulness to his Legion, for in the commander's fall the Apolakron, an oft-ignored
warrior society within the Legion, saw an opportunity. They rebuilt Dreygur's shattered body, grafting a
cortex controller directly into his nervous system and inducting the veteran warrior into the ranks of their
Order. Dreygur, now a Strategos-Minor of the Apolakron and known by his brethren as "The
Gravewalker", took to the field once again as a Consul-Praeviam. Where once his changes had been
Legiones Astartes of flesh and blood, they were now automata of iron and ceramite; walking engines of
death forged by the Legio Cybernetica and bonded in service to the Iron Warriors. Shunned by his brethren,
Dreygur quickly came to favour the company of his unliving charges. During the fighting on Epsilon-
Stranivar IX, this loyalty was put to the test as his Grand Company clashed with the remnants of the
Shattered Legions.
 Legionary Dionor - Legionary Dionor was a Terran and a veteran of the IVth Legion's numerous
campaigns, attaining the rank of Captain. Dionor was assigned to the command of the 5 th Grand Company
 of the 3rd Grand Battalion, a formation that had been judged wanting and suffered greatly during the
Primarch's Decimation of the Legion, and Dionor was punished by demotion to the ranks. Dionor's Grand
Company was held in reserve during the Drop Site Massacre, only being committed to action in the
aftermath. When the bulk of the IVth Legion was withdrawn, much of the 3rd was left behind in continued
punishment for their Primarch's ill-favour. Legionary Dionor is known to have taken command of his squad
at some point in the early stages of the scouring of the Urgall Depression. It is likely that Dionor forcibly
took command of his squad from its previous squad sergeant, exerting his formidable will upon his fellows
before focusing on the hunt for the Raven Guard. Dionor's ultimate fate remains unknown, but there has
been some evidence he rejoined his Legion and was once more elevated to command rank.
 Legionary Khorius Rex - A veteran of the Tyranthikos -- informally known as the "Dominators" --
Legionary Khorius Rex trod a hundred worlds and more in the service of the Great Crusade. Assigned to
the 3rd Grand Company, 7th Grand Battalion, Rex was no ideologue, for him the Imperial Truth was long
rendered down to but a kernel of cold, hard fact; the galaxy is no place for the weak and only those
prepared to endure any hardship have any right to prevail. This moment of utmost clarity came when the 7th
Grand Battalion was recalled to Olympia and bore witness to the rebellion that had gripped the IV th
Legion's homeworld. In the bloodshed that followed, the man Khorius Rex had once been died forever, to
be reborn and recast into a warrior whose heart was as cold and as hard as the Ceramite skin of his
Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour. Legionary Rex took part in the Iron Warriors Legion's
extermination operations in the aftermath of the Drop Site Massacre. Like many his master considered
lacking or unstable, he was abandoned on Istvaan V when the bulk of the IV th Legion was pulled out to
pursue the Warmaster Horus' war against the Imperium. As far as existing records indicate, he chose to
remain, and his final fate is unrecorded.
 Legionary Zhinnon - Legionary Zhinnon was recruited into the IVth Legion in 849.M30, the very same
year that Lord Perturabo took control. Though untested in battle at that time, Zhinnon's native martial
bearing saved him from being swept up in Perturabo's purge of the IV th Legion. Zhinnon saw extensive
service throughout the five decades of the Great Crusade preceding the Triumph of Ullanor, and at the time
of the Warmaster's great betrayal was serving under Warsmith Vhalen in in the 77 th Grand Battalion, 5th
Counter-Armour Wing, 30th Squad, and is known to be one of the few Loyalist survivors of the First Battle
of Paramar.
 Ancient Vhakis - Ancient Vhakis was born heir to one of the many warlords of Olympia, his father forced
to bend knee to the Primarch Perturabo. When the Imperium came to Olympia and Perturabo took his place
amongst his true-father's Primarch sons, Vhakis was judged worthy of joining the IV th Legion and
underwent the arduous transformation into a Space Marine of the Legiones Astartes. He served for seven
standard decades before falling whilst leading the final assault on the Aetheral Bastion, his stoic devotion to
duty and his unquestioning loyalty to Perturabo earning him internment within the armoured sarcophagus
of a mighty Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought. Assigned to the 7th Assault Cohort, 23rd Grand Battalion,
Vhakis was known to utilise his favoured weapon -- a rare and highly valued heavy Conversion Beamer --
to deadly effect upon the black sands of the Urgall Depression during the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V.
He is believed to have slain scores of Loyalist Astartes during the three solar hours of intense fighting,
primarily the Astartes scions of The Gorgon (Iron Hands). Much later, he committed himself with cruel
single-mindedness to the hunt for the elusive Raven Guard survivors before he fell in battle alongside a
dozen other Iron Warriors Dreadnoughts deep in the Illium Rifts.
 Jharek Kelmaur - Jharek Kelmaur was a Chaos Sorcerer of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion who served
the Chaos Lord Barban Falk, "The Warsmith" during the siege of the Imperial Fortress World of Hydra
Cordatus. Kelmaur aided the Warsmith in obtaining the hidden stores of Imperial Fists gene-seed kept
there. The Imperial Fists had always been the most hated foes of the Iron Warriors since the days of the
Horus Heresy but the Iron Warriors needed fresh Astartes gene-seed to grow their numbers since the power
of Chaos tended to mutate their own gene-seed to the point that it was unsuitable to create new Chaos
Space Marines. The Iron Warriors Sorcerer served as an advisor on all matters psychic and would often
receive and interpret visions by communing with the Ruinous Powers. During the siege of the large
Imperial citadel and manufactorum complex on Hydra Cordatus known as the Tor Christo, Kelmaur
neglected to inform the Warsmith of a faint psychic beacon that had managed to be sent from the surface of
the planet. Keeping this information to himself, the sorcerer thought it best if he handled the manner
personally. Kelmaur attempted to send the Iron Warriors flagship Stonebreaker to the system's warp
translation point in order to intercept any Imperial reinforcements. This action would prove dire to the
scheming Kelmaur, who in his arrogance, allowed an Imperial Fists company to slip past the Stonebreaker
 and infiltrate to the planet's surface and reinforce the besieged garrison. For his duplicity and arrogance, the
Warsmith transformed Kelmaur into a Chaos Spawn after he had served his purpose.

Legion Fleet

Schematic of an Iron Warriors Battle Barge of unknown class

The Iron Warriors are known to have possessed the following vessels within their Legion fleet:

 Iron Blood (Gloriana-class Battleship) - A formidable vessel built within Olympia's orbital fleet yards, it
served as Perturabo's flagship during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
 Deathwind (Battle Barge)
 Contrador (Legate-class Battle Barge) - The Contrador served during the Great Crusade and Horus
Heresy eras as the flagship of the IVth Legion. The vessel was present at the Battle of Phall during the
opening days of the Horus Heresy.
 Benthos (Grand Cruiser) - Served as the flagship for the Iron Warriors 14th Grand Company during the
Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.
 Calibos (Grand Cruiser) - Destroyed at the Battle of Phall during the opening days of the Horus Heresy.
 Dominator (Grand Cruiser) - Served during the Great Crusade; instrumental in breaking the xenos lines
above the world of Calyx. Destroyed at the Battle of Phall during the opening days of the Horus Heresy.
 Grim Paragon (Grand Cruiser) - The Grim Paragon was left behind to watch over the Iron Warriors'
home world of Olympia, where it is has sustained heavy damage following an encounter with a previously
unknown type of vessel bearing the colours of the Salamanders Legion.
 Merciless Spite (Unknown Class) - The Merciless Spite was an Iron Warriors flagship that was forced to
crash into the the salt-rich Glowing Ocean of the Feudal World of Prime Gala and was commanded by
Lord Admiral Vaen. The Iron Warriors aboard the Spite were eventually able to overthrow the Imperial
Knights of House Terryn who had colonised the planet and enslaved its population from one pole to the
other.
 Stheno (Grand Cruiser) - Destroyed at the Battle of Phall during the opening days of the Horus Heresy.
 Ferrous Malice (Grand Cruiser)
 Tyche's Lament (Unknown Class) - Flagship of Warsmith Kyr Vhalen and his 77th Grand Battalion during
the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
 Indomitable (Ramilies-class Star Fort)

Legion Artefacts

 Axe of the Forgemaster - That which this cog-toothed axe creates, it can also destroy, for the masters of
the Daemon Forges have long had to ensure dominance over their creations with acts of might as well as
cunning. An inherent authority over machines bleeds from the metallic skin of this massive greataxe. Such
are the energies of unmaking that are bound into this axe's haft that a single blow can turn an adamantium-
hulled tank into a pile of rusted scrap. Even xenos war engines simply come apart when struck hard
enough, disintegrating with screams of tortured materials.
 Cranium Malevolus - This iron-clad death's head was once a Servo-skull taken from the Sainted Halls of
Terra. Though intended as little more than a trophy, under the ownership of the Iron Warriors it has
mutated into a mouthpiece for the mind-shattering language of the soul forges. The coded blurts of Dark
Tongue it emits are potent enough to undo the Machine Spirits of enemy technology. Its scrapcode chant is
so maddening that opposing war engines will spontaneously immolate themselves in order to avoid
spending another solar second near the floating, anarchic device.
 Fleshmetal Exoskeleton - This warrior embodies the maxim "Iron within, Iron without" in a quite literal
sense. His body, long ago clad in the fleshmetal so prized by the Eye of Terror's Warpsmiths, has bonded
with his protective wargear so that his anatomy is metallic on the inside as well as the outside. A blade that
manages to penetrate his armour will blunt itself on the hardened flesh beneath, and the return blow will not
be long in coming. Even those enemies that somehow deal the warrior significant damage will see their
adversary's cabled muscles reknit in a frenzy of silvered fibres until they are rebuilt as strong as ever.
  Nest of Mechaserpents - The morass of mechanical tentacles that graces the wearer's back are possessed of
an insidious and cruel consciousness. Not in fact a single relic of the Long War, but rather a collection of
several small and deadly Daemon Engines, the coil is as spiteful and fierce as any mortal worshipper of
Chaos, loyal only to its master. When a worthy foe comes close, the mechatendrils will snake from their
master's back to slither quickly across the battleground, whipping around legs, arms and necks to throttle
the enemy so that their master might deliver the killing blow.
 Siegebreaker Mace - Though most of the Iron Warriors' siegemasters batter the enemy's defences to rubble
with mercilessly accurate bombardments, there are those who prefer to turn the tide first hand, striding the
crater-riddled field without fear. The Siegebreaker Mace is a weapon that has become legendary amongst
these bombastic warriors. A vast sphere of dense starmetal bound with sigils of shattering and mounted on
the wrist-thick pole of a captured Adeptus Astartes standard, the Siegebreaker Mace was created with acts
of destructive symbolism in mind. When swung with sufficient force, it can blast rockcrete walls to
scattering shards, allowing the wielder to stomp imperiously through the dusty remnants of a barrier that
once seemed insurmountable.
 Warpbreacher - This complex net of mechatendrils incorporates a large, ivory-toothed claw. Every long
incisor has been inscribed with a dozen runes in the Dark Tongue, each symbol no larger than a quill-tip,
but potent nonetheless. The wearer of Warpbreacher can use the claw to reach into the Empyrean, plucking
a daemon attracted to the carnage of the battlefield from its voyeuristic fugue and thrusting its soul into the
corporeal form of a nearby vehicle. Such a favoured mechanism will growl like a living thing as the
Chaotic animus within rails against its imprisonment -- to the detriment of all mortal creatures nearby.

Legion Appearance

A bionically-augmented Iron Warriors Heretic Astartes armed with a Power Hammer

The Iron Warriors do not accept mutation among their ranks as willingly as some of the other Traitor Legions,
instead choosing to remove the corrupted limbs and replace them with powerful, infallible cybernetics, as do the
Loyalist Iron Hands.

The Iron Warriors are more likely to have extensive cybernetics than they are to have fleshy mutations, more likely
to become one with their weapons than with the daemons of the Ruinous Powers like other Heretic Astartes.

This is consistent with their beliefs, as they are not devout worshipers of the Chaos Gods like some of the other
Traitor Legions, instead honouring their power and using the benefits offered by allegiance to Chaos to empower
themselves rather than worshiping it.

The Iron Warriors retain their Primarch's cold intelligence, paranoia, dark skin and dark eyes, and are noted for a
preference for technological methods of warfare.

Mark III Iron and Mark IV Maximus Pattern Power Armour is a common sight amongst the ranks of Perturabo's
Traitors, as are the weapon patterns and configurations dating back to the zenith of Perturabo's contribution to the
Great Crusade. Their pre-Heresy armour was brighter and more carefully burnished, for the Iron Warriors once took
some pride in their martial aspect.

These patterns of personal armour sacrifice a modicum of manoeuvrability inorder to incorporate larger inflexible
casings, making it perfectly suited to the Iron Warriors' highly-attritional style of war.

Beneath their armour, as noted above, many Iron Warriors have cybernetic limbs and organs, and are often wired
directly into their battle gear so as to more closely commune with its twisted Machine Spirits. Some join body and
soul with their wargear, either because the twisting power of the Empyrean shapes them into reflections of their
obsessions, or because they have contracted the dreaded Technovirus of the Cults of Destruction.
The Iron Warriors value the psychological impact that their grotesque wargear and monstrous size has upon their
enemies. Many go out of their way to festoon their armour with spiked chains, gory fetishes and jutting horns, the
better to present a truly terrifying aspect when forcing their way through the breach into some luckless enemy's
fortress.

Many are the foes whose nerve has broken at the sight of such a daemonic gathering of armoured monstrosities
massing around their beleaguered stronghold and baying to get in.

Legion Colours

Prior to the Horus Heresy, the Iron Warriors wore silver Power Armour, trimmed with gold. This has changed very
little in the millennia since save to display iconography with Chaos symbolism, such as the Chaos Star, the most
infamous of the Marks of Chaos.

The Iron Warriors now wear largely plain Power Armour of a deep metallic hue marked with yellow and black
industrial symbols. They care little for trophies and embellishments, instead preferring to prove their strength and
prowess through acts of large-scale destruction. Though each warband wears markings of allegiance to their Chaos
Champion, these are scoured off and repainted whenever circumstance dictates that a change of loyalty would be
advantageous.

In the age of the Dark Imperium, the colours of the Iron Warriors tend to be muted and dark metallics, weathered by
the aeons and heavily scarred by the rigours of battle. Much could be said of the souls of those who wear such
wargear, for the Iron Warriors never forget the inequities that befall them, using them as fuel for the fires of their
hatred.

Pre-Heresy Iron Warriors Legion Tactical Markings

Pre-Heresy Iron Warriors Legion Tactical Markings

Like most of the Legiones Astartes, the Iron Warriors employed a wide range of symbols, icons and heraldry, much
of it derived from the earliest precepts of the Dictorum Armourial, some from the cultural idioms of the world on
which their Primarch was discovered and still some more evolved as the Legion developed its own unique identity.

The Iron Warriors were notable for their characteristic focus on brutally functional icons devoid of superfluous
embellishment and a relative lack of individualism or personal ornamentation, traits very much in line with the
personality of their Primarch.

Legion Badge

The Legion's badge is that of an iron mask formed into a shape of a skull. Upon seeing this symbol, few could doubt
the intent and grim determination of this stalwart Legion.

When the Iron Warriors turned to Chaos, this symbol was slightly redesigned, and is now superimposed over the
symbol of the eight-pointed Chaos Star.

Both before and after the Horus Heresy, Iron Warriors often painted and continue to paint their weapons and other
heavy equipment with black and yellow construction chevrons to emphasize their tendency to construct their own
fortifications while demolishing their enemies'.
"My sons, the galaxy is burning. We all bear witness to a final truth -- our way is not the way of the Imperium. You
have never stood in the Emperor's light. Never worn the Imperial eagle. And you never will. You shall stand in
midnight clad, your claws forever red with the lifeblood of my father's failed empire, warring through the centuries
as the talons of a murdered god. Rise, my sons, and take your wrath across the stars, in my name. In my memory.
Rise, my Night Lords."
— The Primarch Konrad Curze, at the final gathering of the VIIIth Legion

Night Lords

Warcry

"We have come for you!" or "Ave Dominus Nox!"

Founding

First Founding (30th Millennium)

Successors of

N/A

Known Warbands

Bleeding Eye
Brotherhood of Darkness (Suspected)
Nightwing

Legion Number

VIII

Primarch

Konrad Curze (Night Haunter)

Chaos Lord(s)

Krieg Acerbus (Daemon Prince)

Original Homeworld

Nostramo
Tsagualsa (Abandoned in the 32nd Millennium)

Current Homeworld

Unknown, many warbands scattered across the Eye of Terror

Allegiance
Chaos; Chaos Undivided

Legion Colours

Dark Blue and Brass

The Night Lords were originally the VIIIth Legion of Space Marines created during the First Founding and became
one of the 9 Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines that betrayed the Emperor of Mankind during the Horus
Heresy of the 31st Millennium.

They do not worship any of the four Chaos Gods individually, but acknowledge them equally in the form of Chaos
Undivided as they ruthlessly spread terror and fear amongst the galaxy's inhabitants. The Night Lords are experts in
the use of terror tactics to win battles and demoralise their foes before the main combat even begins.

The Night Lords are synonymous with terror and murder, for their favoured mode of warfare is the unfettered
application of brutal, overwhelming force. They show no mercy whatsoever, eschewing all subtlety and guile for
wanton bloodshed and destruction. While such an approach might appear mindless, at one time it was different.

Ten millennia ago, the Night Lords' Primarch Konrad Curze was driven to acts of extreme violence by a deep-rooted
desire to punish the guilty and impose order upon the anarchy in which he grew up. Only later, when the doomed
Primarch surrendered his soul to the Ruinous Powers was his relentless drive for justice perverted into the form it
now takes. While many of the Primarchs were raised by those peoples they found themselves amongst after the
Ruinous Powers scattered them to the corners of the galaxy, Konrad Curze grew to maturity in very different
circumstances.

The world of Nostramo was a lightless industrial waste, its cities teeming and anarchic and its main export the raw
adamantium found beneath the surface. Curze survived as a wild thing, living in the lowest depths of the hive cities
and competing for food with the vermin and scum of the sewers. Like all of the Primarchs, he matured quickly,
bearing witness as he did so to the most horrific excesses of Nostromo's corrupt society. Murder was rife and the
people lived in constant fear. No natural light lit the alleys and the depths, and all manner of fell criminals lurked
within them.

Soon, Curze began to prey upon these criminals, mounting their mutilated corpses where all could see and take heed.
The terror that stalked the streets exacting vengeance upon the lawless soon became known as the Night Haunter,
and so fearful were the people of his judgement that soon all, not just the criminals, locked themselves inside their
dwellings, and a peace of sorts was imposed.

As with most of the Primarchs, by the time the Emperor found Konrad Curze he had risen to a position of
dominance over his world. Curze's rule was not one of beneficence, however, but one of fear and repression. The
people of Nostromo had been entirely delivered from the predations of criminals, but not by way of enlightenment
or order.

Rather, the people knew that even the slightest malfeasance would result in Curze himself visiting death upon the
criminal. When the Emperor presented Himself to the Primarch, the people believed that a new age had arrived. Yet,
when the Emperor took Curze back to Terra, Nostromo was plunged back into anarchy, for no one was left to
enforce order.

Despite the brutality of his methods, Konrad Curze's actions appear to have been motivated by a deep, if twisted,
sense of justice. In the brutal underworld in which he had matured, the Primarch had learned that only total
dominance would suffice and that to show any sign of weakness was to invite treachery.
Even when Curze joined his brothers in the glorious campaigns of the Great Crusade, he appeared to hold to such
views, eschewing such notions of hope and optimism which drove others to instead believe in the dark realities of
the natural order.

He remained sullen and introspective, and shunned the companionship of his brothers. He preferred the company of
the warriors of his own Legion, the Night Lords whom he indoctrinated into his favoured methods.

Even before the outset of the Horus Heresy, the Night Lords were using methods most others would have denounced
as brutally unnecessary and cruel. The Night Lords conquered utterly those who did not welcome the coming of the
Great Crusade, crushing all opposition in such an overwhelming and brutal fashion that no others would dare resist.

A Night Lords Chaos Space Marine.

As with so many of the Primarchs who rebelled against the Emperor and all they had been created to stand for,
Konrad Curze crossed a line from which there was no return. Having clashed with Rogal Dorn, he was censured by
his brothers, who convened a council to consider the matter of their darkling brother. Curze however slew his guards
and fled, outrunning his pursuers and returning to Nostromo.

There, he enacted his final revenge upon a society that had descended back into the corruption from which he had
strived so hard to deliver it. The Night Lords fleet targetted a weak point in the planet's crust and unleashed every
weapon in their arsenal, destroying Nostromo and, some would say, damning Konrad Curze for all eternity.

When the Warmaster Horus revealed his treachery and plunged the galaxy into the fires of civil war, Konrad Curze
threw himself into a bitter campaign of death and destruction, giving full vent to his most violent urges.

It was never sufficient to simply defeat an enemy army. Curze taught his Legion to make an example of those who
stood against them, to destroy their enemies' cities, slay their kin and display their broken corpses as a message to all
others. His Legion wreaked bloody murder across the galaxy, which continued even after Horus' defeat at the height
of the Siege of Terra.

Curze did not fall during the Horus Heresy, and neither did he receive the dark blessing of the Ruinous Powers in
the form of apotheosis to daemonhood. Instead, he met his end at the hand of an assassin of the Callidus Temple.

It is known that throughout his life Curze was struck with powerful visions of the worst of all possible futures, and
that his last had been a foretelling that he would die at the hand of one such as she.

Alone of all the Primarchs, Curze welcomed his death, apparently allowing the assassin to take his life. It is said that
in so doing he attained that which he had always craved -- vindication.

The Primarch's acceptance of his own fate confirmed his bleak worldview, granting him a victory he could never
attain under the rule of his father. It is a view still held by the gene-sons who survived him to wreak an eternal
campaign of blood and shadowed terror against the Imperium of the Corpse Emperor.

Contents

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Legion History

Night Lords Legion Badge

Since the dark days of the Horus Heresy Imperial scholars have pondered how the truest loyalty of many of the
Legiones Astartes could have been turned to base treachery, purest devotion to hate, nobility to wickedness, but for
the Night Lords perhaps their hearts always belonged to darkness. Created with a higher purpose, perhaps their end
could have been different, but their history is one of poisoned ideology and atrocity.

Even when they were counted amongst the loyal Space Marine Legions, their nature and actions were ever
questioned. Some argued that they were simply a function of necessity, the monsters needed to drag a barbaric age
into the light. Some say that they were a mistake, a misjudgment compounded by circumstance.

A few wonder if they were damned from the moment they were born, that they were destined never to be part of the
future they would help create. All such speculation is ultimately pointless; no matter the cause, the Night Lords are
creatures of horror and always were.

Night Lords Pre-Heresy Legion Badge

Children of Misrule

The VIIIth Legion was soaked in blood from its birth. The Legion's first recruits came from the linked prison sinks of
ancient Terra. In vast caverns filled with the half-crushed ruins of millennia there lived men and women who had
transgressed against the laws of their masters. Condemned never to see the light again or breathe free air, they lived
out their lives in fear and blind darkness.

There was no law in these lightless lands, and survival existed only by a blade's edge. Only the strongest and the
most ruthless survived in the subterranean warrens, and those who did grew in cruelty and cunning. Fed by a
constant influx from the hive cities above, the prison sinks were an ever hungering gate to madness and murder.

Night Lords Legion Colour Scheme as displayed by Thraktar Hexx, whose malevolence is so great that it darkens
the air around him.

But of the millions who lived and died in the sinks, not all had been punished by the world above. Amongst the
bloodshed and fear, children were born. Cradled in the dark, and raised amongst death, those who lived over a
standard decade were pale, silent creatures who moved without a sound. "The night's children" the prisoners called
them, and even the most savage killers would not seek them out by choice.

It was from these pale children that the Emperor of Mankind would create the first warriors of the VIIIth Legion.
Dour, with skin so pale it resembled ash or powdered bone, they were far from their brother Legionaries in manner
and appearance. The gene-seed of the VIIIth Legion had been well-paired with the human stock of its first recruits,
and if anything it seemed as if one had been made with the other in mind.

Besides accentuating their paleness of skin, the gene-seed gave the sons of the underworld the ability to see through
darkness to a degree that far exceeded that of the Astartes of other Legions. This gift was also a curse, forcing them
to see the light of suns and stars through filters and flare buffers; even though they now walked in the light of the
world above, the warriors of the VIIIth Legion always walked in the night.

The Unification Wars

"Send the Eighth!"

— Attributed to the Emperor of Mankind when He heard of the rise of the reborn threat of the Crimson
Walkers

The first use that the Emperor found for His VIII th Legion was to bring to heel those who believed that the sins of
the past could live on in the newborn Imperium of Man. Several of those who had bent their knee to the Emperor
had done so because they believed that it was the only choice. Others, having seen the empires of techno-barbarian
warlords rise and fall, believed that they were simply part of a temporary arrangement.

Night Lords Pre-Heresy Legion Colour Scheme

Crimes against the new order took many faces: from the Saragorn Enclave whose gene atrocities continued in secret,
to the psy-breeding of the Court of Antius, and the March of Ten Million, all showed that even in the face of all of
the Emperor's might, some would fall back into the ways of Old Night. When such crimes required not simply
crushing but retribution, the Emperor deployed the VIII th Legion.

Such actions seemed well suited to the VIIIth Legion. Whether as a consequence of their genetic inheritance, or the
combination of their origins and indoctrination, the warriors of the VIII th Legion seem to have tended towards moral
absolution and a drive to enact retribution. There were no shades of grey in the VIIIth Legion's moral universe, no
degrees of guilt or innocence.

Truth and falsehood was as day is to night, indivisible and unqualified. The dark was the realm of guilt, lies and
monsters, and those who dwelt in the dark knew only the language of blood, the message of swift and merciless
retribution for their actions. Justice brought the light to darkness, and justice was neither warm nor caring, but as
indifferent and cold as the edge of a knife.

The warriors of the VIIIth Legion were creatures made to live in the dark, and to fight a war for a future of light. In
their core, they were warriors for a future that would have no place for creatures of their kind. At least that is what
those who knew the VIIIth Legion now said. Perhaps memory was too kind, perhaps many wished to believe that
there was a nobility in such monsters, where in fact there was only horror. Perhaps many wished there to be a
purpose behind atrocity, otherwise how could such creatures be suffered to live?

Nostramo: Realm of Eternal Night

It would be easy to say that the coming of Konrad Curze to the VIII th Legion changed everything, that the fall of the
Night Lords began at the moment the Emperor reunited His eighth son with the Legion created from his genome.
But it would be truer to say that it was Nostramo that set both Curze and the Night Lords on the path to treachery.

Curze was the gene-sire of the VIIIth Legion, but he had two fathers, two hands that shaped his nature and through
him the fate of his Legion: the Emperor who spun the substance of Curze's life, and the planet Nostramo which had
raised and taught him. What the Emperor intended for His sons can never be known, but the nature of Nostramo can
be.

Nostramo was a bleak, sunless Hive World of suffering, pain and corruption. At the heart of a string of planets
which had kept the ability to cross the stars through the Age of Strife, it was a world of sprawling cities, of smoke,
industry, and the sweat of millions. Nostramo's wealth, for wealth there was, lay in the seams of adamantine ore
beneath its surface. Worlds far from Nostramo fed on its output, and the mines had long wormed deep into its flesh.

Nostramo was perpetually dark due to its pollution-clogged atmosphere and the fact that it circled a slowly dying
star whose light was unable to penetrate this haze to reach the surface. The world was barely better lit at noon than at
midnight. A shroud of perpetual darkness produced by the massive amounts of toxic smog kept the planet swathed
in dull greys and deep blacks. Only the rich could afford the Nostraman idea of illumination, which was little more
than dim blue illumination-strips that were placed in the ceilings of the ruling hierarchy's luxurious dwellings in the
spires of the dark world's hive cities.

The world had five major hive cities that straddled the habitable hub of the planet, named in sequence from
Nostramo Prime to Nostramo Quintus. Each hive city functioned as a self-contained industrial system. Due to the
synchronicity in the orbit of Nostramo and Tenebor, the moon interposed between Nostramo and its dying sun, these
cities experienced the equivalent of a Terran night even during the middle of a Nostraman summer.
Its cities were warrens of stone and iron. Kilometre-tall smoke stacks pointed up at the perpetual night. Bridges of
black metal criss-crossed the narrow ravines of alleys and streets. Manses, cathedrals and factories grew from the
forest of slums, their faces and roofs crawling with gargoyles. Smog lay over everything like a cloak drawn around a
dying man, turning what little light shone from windows or lamps into sickly haloes. Dust, smoke and the reek of
chemicals filled the air, and worked into the flesh of every man, woman and child, trimming away their years so that
the best that life could offer was a slow decline in grinding servitude, never glimpsing the brightness of hope or the
warmth of true happiness.

The physiology and genomes of the people that lived within the Nostraman hive cities remained mostly identical to
that of the baseline humans from the Segmentum Solar, with the exception that none of the planet's people possessed
irises; the visible part of their eyes consisted entirely of their pupils. The people of Nostramo were pale, and most
were thin and gaunt, given by turns to distrust, dark humour and callousness. This acute form of albinism, though a
recessive mutation, had become common in the Nostraman populace.

The vast majority of the planet's people lived in abject poverty as foundry labourers, whilst the rich grew in
affluence, trampling down or simply killing outright any who dared oppose the status quo. Depression was an
inescapable way of life for most Nostramans, and overpopulation was prevented not by war, disease or legislation,
but by the suicide rate. Most of these unfortunate souls would die coughing up blood and black dust on a mouldering
pallet, but death from lung blight, or having chemicals eat out their bones from the inside was not the worst end that
could be found on Nostramo.

The dark owned Nostramo, body and soul, and its existence was a horror to equal any xenos enslavement or
nightmare of the Dark Age of Technology. If there ever had been true laws, they had vanished long ago, eaten by the
greed of a few and the desperation of many. Murder was the currency of life, and strength came from violence.
Every sin great and small had its home in Nostramo's endless night. It has been said by those Remembrancers who
recorded its history after its reclamation that during this time weeping and pleading were the sounds carried eternally
on the wind, and every child grew to know that the only law was that of the knife, and the only right belonged to the
strong to do with as they willed.

Corrupt and murderous gangs, whether or not they were named as such, ruled every part of Nostramo. From the
heights of nobility to the lowest alley, every inch of Nostramo was someone's domain, someone's territory or
hunting ground. In the slum habitation stacks, the gangs ruled by raw fear, killing and torturing as they pleased,
fighting wars with the feral packs of outcasts who were closer to animals than men. It was said that many of these
gangs ate the dead, treating their territories as a predator might a hunting ground.

In the mines and factories which still turned the planet's wheels of industry, the gangs went by names that echoes
with a false authority: the Iron Overseers, the Hands of Coregado, the Sons of Toil. Slab muscled and furnace-
scarred, they walked the streets clanking with weaponry and reeking of murder, enforcing order that was little more
than slavery. In the wealthier areas, the rakeheel sons and daughters of the corrupt nobility gathered in packs, clad in
costumes like strutting peacocks, as quick to kill with blade or gun as they were to cast an insult.

No matter what their station, almost all gangs owed fealty to one of the numberless barons, counts and lords, who in
turn served still more powerful men and women, many of whom styled themselves with courtly titles that echoes a
long forgotten nobility. Though wrapped in the trappings of birth, blood and feudal right, there was no division
between the rulers of Nostramo and its criminal overlords; they were one and the same, cruel monarchs of kingdoms
built on sin.

Night Haunter

"It is better by far to be an object of fear than of respect, for one is a truth of the soul and the other an illusion of the
mind."
— The Codex Hydra
Ancient Remembrancer sketch of Konrad Curze, Primarch of the Night Lords, the Night Haunter, from Carpinius'
Speculum Historiale.

According to the heretical handwritten chronicle of his life, entitled simply The Dark, the Primarch Konrad Curze's
earliest memory was of descending from the heavens in a crackling ball of light to the night-shrouded planet of
Nostramo. His embryonic form's gestation capsule, cruelly ripped through the Warp from distant Terra by the
machinations of the Chaos Gods, impacted on the dense cityscape of the planet's largest hive city of Nostramo
Quintus, smashing though countless levels of urban debris and mouldering architecture, through the planet's crust
and into its geosphere before finally coming to a halt near the highly unstable liquid core of the planet. His descent
left a scar in the virtually inviolable adamantium strata of Nostramo, the result of the supernaturally resilient
Primarch's violent birth into a world that knew no light. The cratered pit his descent had carved into the planet was
closed over and later regarded with fear and suspicion. Theoretically, the only way the Primarch could have reached
the surface was to have swum through molten metal or had his gestation capsule borne upwards through volcanic
vents to the surface.

Unlike the other Primarchs, Curze was never adopted by a human family, and was forced to fend for himself in the
terrible underhive of Nostramo Quintus. He spent his early life surviving off his wits and determination, feeding
himself by hunting the feral animals that roamed through the vast hive city. He was continually plagued by visions
of the darkest possible future, horrifyingly potent waking dreams that would curse him throughout his life. Uniquely
among all the Primarchs, Curze grew up completely alone, surviving only thanks to his wits, ruthlessness, and
courage as a child in the underhives of Nostramo Quintus. With his genetically-enhanced body and mind, Curze
quickly established himself as a major power in the cities of Nostramo and thanks to countless atrocities committed
by him against the world's criminal gangs and corrupt nobles, a semblance of law was eventually imposed upon first
Nostramao Quintus and then the other hive cities.

Within a year of his arrival in the hive city, the crime rate of Nostramo had fallen away to nothing. Nostraman
society was transformed, and the ripples were felt all over the planet. Nostramo Quintus developed a self-imposed
curfew; none dared to stray out later than the early evening. The midnight streets, previously buzzing with activity,
were as silent as the grave. Mothers threatened disobedient children with the depraved attentions of the Night
Haunter. Soon the name became more commonplace, used by the populace as a whole. Rumours of a hideous, dark
creature that stalked the alleyways and tunnels, its filthy claws ever ready to disembowel those who strayed,
abounded within the city. The citizens of Quintus lived a half-life of fear, silent lest their words should be taken as
heresy. Nostramo was ripe for the rule of the Night Haunter.

The Primarch Konrad Curze, the "Night Haunter".

Through the use of sheer brutality, Curze was eventually recognized as the planet's benevolent dictator. It is during
this period that Konrad Curze earned the name "Night Haunter" for the vicious murders of literally hundreds, if not
thousands, of Nostraman criminals and corrupt aristocrats. Curze later re-adopted the title after he turned to Chaos
during the Horus Heresy.

Night Haunter became the first monarch of Nostramo Quintus, absorbing accumulated knowledge with a diligence
almost akin to greed. He ruled with temperance and reason unheard of until word came to him that some injustice
had been done, whereupon he alone would hunt the offender through the hive cities' empty streets until exhaustion
forced his quarry to collapse. He would then proceed to mutilate his prey, although not beyond recognition. This
unpredictable pattern of benevolent wisdom and hideous vengeance ushered the shocked Nostraman populace into
new realms of efficiency and honesty. Exports of adamantium to their neighbouring worlds soon tripled. Nostraman
society came to exist in a terrible balance maintained by shared wealth and shared fear. None dared to have more
than his neighbour and under the shadow of Night Haunter's rule, the city grew well-lit and prosperous. And as
Nostramo Quintus led the way, the rest of the planet's population followed, anxious to keep the Night Haunter from
their own doors.

He almost single-handedly rid Nostramo of its culture of crime and predation, using terror as a weapon to crush the
planet's ruling criminal syndicates and their corrupt overseers. He then re-established the rule of law under his own
draconian leadership, and was revered by the Nostraman people as a benevolent and just dictator. Curze's hunter
instincts, instinctive use of stealth, dependence upon the element of surprise, and extensive reliance upon a form of
psychological warfare that devastated his opponents by using their own fear against them were also traits of the VIII
Space Marine Legion that had been created from his genome. Even before the Horus Heresy, the Night Lords
decorated their Power Armour with symbols of death, realizing that fear was a weapon as effective as any Bolter or
Chainsword.

Coming of the Emperor

Almost a standard century after the Great Crusade began, the Emperor came to Nostramo. The coming of the
Emperor of Mankind was an event that had been prophesied in Nostramo's history: an event that would lead to the
planet's downfall. His arrival brought the light of the sun to the night-shrouded world for the first time. The Emperor
landed on Nostramo, and led an Imperial delegation to the centre of Nostramo Quintus on foot. The citizens of
Nostramo, adapted to the near-constant darkness, could not bear to look upon the radiance of the Emperor. Most
wept as the healing light He projected reflected off the rain slicked streets into their faces. Those brave enough to
look upon Him directly were blinded. At the end of the broad road leading to the Night Haunter's royal palace, the
Primarch stood, waiting for the delegation to approach. As they did, he succumbed to a psychic vision of the future
so potent and horrifying that he tried to claw his own eyes out, but was stopped by the Emperor. Night Haunter then
looked at the Emperor, and the Master of Mankind said to his newfound son:

"Be at peace, Konrad Curze. I have arrived, and I intend to take you home."

"That is not my name, father. My people gave me a name, and I will bear it until my dying day. And I know full
well what you intend for me."

Curze submitted to the Emperor's will as if he had already seen it, as if he was playing out a part he had long feared
would fall to him. From that moment on, the fate of the VIII th Legion was set on dark path to damnation.

Great Crusade

"We have received your offer of surrender and reject it; we did not come to receive your supplication but to enact
judgement. The time to surrender has long passed. The verdict is writ by your own hands. Now is the time to die."
— Night Lords multi-channel vox-broadcast, The Pacification of Listrantia IV

Culon Veterans of an unidentified Night Lords company and Claw bring another world into Imperial Compliance
during the Great Crusade.

Night Haunter quickly adapted to the teachings of the Imperium, studying the complex doctrines of the Adeptus
Astartes under the Primarch Fulgrim's tutelage. Night Haunter was soon accepted as the leader of the VIII Space
Marine Legion that had been created from his genome, which he named the Night Lords.

Although he and his Legion excelled in many theatres of war, a tendency soon became apparent. It never occurred to
the Night Lords to use anything other than total, brutal and decisive force to achieve their goals. Over the first few
years, the Night Lords were molded by their Primarch into an efficient, humourless force, possessing the fanatical
thoroughness of Witch Hunters.

Night Haunter encouraged his Legion to decorate their Power Armour with images designed to inspire fear in the
enemy, a tactic that proved incredibly effective. Soon, rumours of the impending presence of the Night Lords would
cause a rebel star system to pay all outstanding Imperial tithes, cease all illegal activities and put to death any
mutants and suspected Traitors.

The reuniting of Primarch and Legion was the beginning of a spiral that would see the Night Lords descend further
into horror and nihilism. After Curze's departure Nostramo shook off his enforced peace, returning to lawlessness.
From this point Nostramo fed the VIIIth Legion not with the finest of its youth, but with gutter scum soaked in blood
and cruelty.

Some claim that this began to poison the Legion, twisting its purpose and making many Night Lords simple
murderers gifted with the strength of demi-gods. This thesis, though, willfully ignores a number of factors, no least
of which was Curze's leadership of his Legion. That he came to despise his own sons is likely, but he was still their
lord.

Night Lords Battle-Brothers of the Kon-Drayur Tactical Squad rush into the fray.

Far from restraining the VIIIth Legion he drove it on, bringing peace through atrocity to planet after planet.
Sometimes there seems to have been cause for such methods, but often the only explanations for the decimation of
populations, for the skinning pits and crucified cities, seems to be that the Night Lords enjoyed it. They had become
not necessary monsters, but simply monsters.

Curze quickly began to lose some of the control he held over his Legion's innate savagery, and the visions of a dark
future that plagued him increased in both their lucidity and quantity.

During the time of the Great Crusade, the Night Lords were used by the Emperor as a tool of terror to pacify planets
that had been recently conquered by the other Space Marine Legions. Their fearsome reputation caused any rogue
Planetary Governor or uprising of rebels against Imperial Compliance to quickly pay any outstanding tithes or quell
their uprisings, as the Night Lords had been known to issue an Exterminatus order on several worlds for the most
petty of crimes against the Imperium.

That the Emperor had concerns about the actions of the VIII Legion, and the apparent instability of their Primarch is
clear, but what is not clear is what was done to restrain Curze or his sons. There were words, demands, perhaps even
threats, but no action; no hand of judgement to throttle the Night Lord's crimes. Why this was so is a question that
can never now be answered, and the Imperium was left only with the consequences.

The chain of atrocities grew ever longer in the decades before Curze finally turned against the Emperor, like a path
spiralling ever downwards into inevitable darkness. Indeed, of all the Legions and their Primarchs, the Night Lords
were the most sinister and the most suspect, having been censured for the enormities and massacres carried out in
the Emperor's service.

They were creatures of the dark, harnessed to the will of a father wracked by righteousness and foreboding; what
else could have been their fate but to fall back into the night from whence they came?

The Death of Nostramo

Nostramo tears itself apart following the orbital bombardment of the Night Lords' fleet.

Nostramo's death came at the end of a long chain of events which saw the Night Lords relinquishing the last of their
honour. The lack of moderation in the Night Lords' methods had attracted scorn and hostility from other Legions.
Even as the tally of disgust grew, Curze became increasingly plagued by visions and portents of ruin, calamity and
betrayal. He saw everything he had striven for to be broken, the order and justice of the galaxy shattered and his
sons become monsters without cause or higher purpose. Curze became ever more withdrawn, what little shone in his
being guttering to nothing, and leaving him with nothing but darkness and the screams of a lost future. Learning that
his homeworld had slipped back into corruption, Night Haunter tried to confide in his brother Primarchs, but he had
never been close to them, and their reaction was less than favourable to his claims. The scars left by his former life
on Nostramo ran deep. Despite the fact that he spent much time with his less-dour peers, the Night Lords Primarch
kept himself at a distance, never able to join in their camaraderie or share their joy. He still fell into convulsions,
plagued by prophetic visions of his own death, of his Night Lords fighting war after war with the other Legions. But
despite the concern of his companions, he would not reveal any more than dark hints of the cause of his tormented
spirit.

This feeling of isolation gradually grew into true paranoia, and the gulf between Night Haunter and the brotherhood
of the other Primarchs only widened. Events reached a head following the pacification of the Cheraut System, a
joint-Imperial Compliance action conducted by the Night Lords, Emperor's Children and Imperial Fists Legions.
After confiding in his mentor Fulgrim of the terrible things he had foreseen, the shocked Primarch of the Emperor's
Children repeated these grim tidings to his brother Rogal Dorn. Dorn took exception to the Night Haunter's slight of
the Emperor's good name with such terrible deeds and confronted him. The exact events of what occurred between
the two Primarchs is not recorded in detail, but Dorn was found severely wounded and the Night Haunter's personal
cadre of bodyguards slaughtered to a man. Curze then returned to Nostramo with his Legion and fulfilled one of his
visions. Curze's judgement was simple and swift; the Night Lords destroyed Nostramo. A few Imperial pursuit craft
arrived just in time to see the Night Lords' starships open their laser batteries into the hole in the planet's surface that
had been left by Night Haunter's arrival through the Warp decades earlier. Nostramo's core destabilised and the
world tore itself apart. As a Primarch and a Lord of Crusades, it was his right to liberate or destroy the world as he
saw fit, but in the moment that Nostramo died, the Night Lords lost their last tether to restraint, though it would take
the treachery of others to bring this change to light.

This ruthless behaviour did not sit well with some of the other Primarchs and Astartes Legions. Finally, Curze and
the Night Lords Legion were recalled to Terra to explain their behaviour, where they were then reprimanded by the
Emperor and the Council of Terra. The last straw for the Emperor was when the Night Lords had unleashed an
Exterminatus upon their own homeworld. Curze explained his actions to the Emperor by pointing out that Nostramo,
in the Legion's absence, had slid back into its old ways of cruel violence and crime. He and the Night Lords were
embittered by what they saw as the Emperor's and the Council of Terra's hypocrisy when they were censured for
their brutality even as the Emperor had unleashed a Great Crusade that used military power to forcibly reunite the
scattered worlds of humanity. The Night Lords thought that the Emperor would acknowledge that their actions had
been in the right. They also felt that these actions were the direct consequence of the mission that the Imperium had
always tasked them with, which was essentially that of "sanctioned" terrorism against all who opposed the
expansion of the Imperium and its mission to reunite all the worlds of Mankind across the galaxy. To Curze, it
seemed that the Emperor had castigated him for carrying out the same actions that had once been deemed so vital to
the Imperium's formation. Curze believed the Emperor to be a hypocrite who was unwilling to face the reality of the
means that His dream of human reunification actually required to be brought into being.

Horus Heresy

"Hatred is never so sweet, and vengeance never so pleasurable, than when it is applied to one once loved."
— Nostraman Proverb

Rad-Urzon Veterans of the Night Lords Legion bring fear and death to another world.

Angered by the Emperor's rejection of their methods of protecting and extending His realm, the Night Lords and
their Primarch willingly joined the Warmaster Horus in his rebellion against the Emperor of Mankind. When the
Warmaster revealed his treachery during the Istvaan III Atrocity and plunged the galaxy into the fires of civil war,
Konrad Curze would eventually throw himself into a bitter campaign of death and destruction, giving full vent to his
most violent urges. When Imperial forces were assembled to strike against Horus and the four turncoat Legions,
there were many who were surprised to learn that the Night Lords had answered the call. For years the VIII th Legion
had existed on the border between sanction and censure, fighting its own wars of terror like shadows within the
forces of the Great Crusade. Such was the desperate spirit of those times that few questioned Curze's aid, and those
who did perhaps remembered the Night Lords' need to punish those who strayed from the light. As the treachery of
the Drop Site Massacre would show, however, the Night Lords had not forsaken contact with all elements of the
Great Crusade, and their need for retribution had led them to become the Traitors and criminals they had once
loathed.
Once unfettered by Horus' need to drive on Terra and their tenuous allegiance with the powers of Chaos, the Night
Lords went on to conduct a campaign of terror that continued to echo down the millennia to this day, wreaking
bloody murder across the galaxy. The Night Lords would participate in the epic Siege of Terra and the Siege of the
Imperial Palace by the forces of Chaos. Immediately after the death of Horus, the Night Lords went on a killing
spree in the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy that caused havoc for long years after the Horus Heresy had ended. The
Night Haunter did not fall during the Horus Heresy, and neither did he receive the dark blessing of the Ruinous
Powers in the form of apotheosis to daemonhood. Instead, he met his end at the hand of an assassin of the Callidus
Temple named M'Shen on the planet Tsagualsa, where the VIIIth Legion had built its fortress after the destruction of
Nostramo. It is known that throughout his life Curze had possessed the gift (many would say curse) of foresight; he
was constantly struck with powerful visions of the worst of all possible futures, and that his last had been a
foretelling that he would die at the hand of one such as M'Shen. This prophetic psychic ability was passed on to
other Night Lords who share their gene-sire's genetic heritage. This was a unique trait, as it is said to be unrelated to
Warp taints or other known psychic properties. It is believed that Curze let his assassination happen, in order to
show his father, the Emperor of Mankind, that he stood by his beliefs as surely as the Emperor stood by His. While
acknowledging his own crimes against humanity, Curze also stated that his martyrdom would ultimately vindicate
him and his methods. Curze ordered his Legion not to pursue his assassin, a last wish that was eventually disobeyed.
The Primarch's acceptance of his own fate confirmed his bleak worldview, granting him a victory he could never
attain under the rule of his father. His death did not slow the Night Lords down, as they continued to apply
themselves to his mantra and are specialists in the application of terror and the tactics of fear to this day. Though
they paid lip service to the Ruinous Powers of Chaos and certainly felt its insidious pull, in the end the Night Lords,
like their Primarch, served only their own twisted conception of justice.

Post-Heresy

After the Horus Heresy, the Night Lords did not flee into the Eye of Terror like the other Traitor Legions, instead
they retained their Pre-Heresy numbers and sought to conquer their own terrible dominion from the worlds of the
Imperium's Eastern Fringe. However, after the assassination of Konrad Curze, the Legion splintered into multiple
feuding warbands, as is the nature of those who serve Chaos, and eventually relocated to the Eye of Terror. By the
late 41st Millennium, the Legion has deteriorated in both its numbers and its capabilities. There was also continued
infighting within the Legion as there was no clear leadership, with several ranking Night Lords contending for the
right to lead the entire Legion. Currently, the Night Lords hire themselves out as mercenaries and elite shock troops
for the other Forces of Chaos or even for pirates who raid Imperial worlds, such as Huron Blackheart. They have
been known to assist Chaos Warmaster Abaddon the Despoiler in his Black Crusade campaigns when asked to do
so, as the quest for their own vengeance against the Imperium continues. Their most infamous post-Heresy raid in
the Imperium was on the world of Scound's Fall, just a few hundred light years from holy Terra. Nearly all of the
Raptors in the service of Chaos originate from the Night Lords Legion.

Notable Campaigns

Across the aeons, the Night Lords have done more to traumatise the psyche of the Imperium than any other Traitor
Legion. As the Time of Ending intensifies, the terror raids and cruel hunts of the Night Lords increase in frequency.
Long scattered, they are uniting, warband by warband, in the name of some dire cause. It can spell only doom for the
worlds of Mankind.

 Castigation of Vhnori (Unknown Date.M30) - During the early years of the Great Crusade, alliances and
oaths were still fresh, untested or half-formed. Even as the Imperium extended beyond the Sol System, the
domains left in its wake were often of questionable stability and loyalty. Attempted rebellions and
conspiracies were common. The Imperium usually put most of these insurrections down swiftly and
without fanfare. However, occasionally a few rebellions required a different response; not simply
subjugation but retribution. Vhnori was a naturally fortified Terran city enclave built into the walls of a
series of chasms that had once been a part of the Pan-Pacific Empire. Vhnori had been one of the last of the
tyrant Narthan Dume's domains to fall during the Wars of Unification. The people of Vhnori did not take
easily to the Imperial yoke, as they submitted to the Emperor's rule in sullen silence. This changed,
however, with the coming of the Crimson Walkers, a cabal of psykers, gene-splicers and warlords who had
once served the last great Terran tyrants of the Age of Strife. Bit by bit they had gathered followers and
 resources, spreading a secret web across Terra. The centre of their resurgence was Vhnori. It seemed the
Crimson Walkers were determined to pull a part of Terra back into the nightmare of the recent past. When
the Emperor heard of the rise of this reborn threat, He is said to have spoken three words: "Send the
Eighth!" The VIIIth Legion did not respond right away, as its force within the Sol System at that time only
numbered a little over 500 warriors: a large force of Astartes but not one that could overwhelm a city of
millions. When the VIIIth Legion began their campaign of fear, it started with an orbital bombardment
falling from the night sky which lasted for six solar hours. Following the bombardment, the artificial
darkness remained. Soon a heavy downpour thick with chemicals rained upon the millions of fearful
inhabitants from the seeded clouds above. The VIIIth Legion arose from the abyss on jets of flame,
butchering any who crossed their paths. The screams of terror and battle echoed through their drug-
weakened minds. The Crimson Walkers responded by unleashing an army of mutant monstrosities, but still
the VIIIth Legion came on, slicing abominations apart with lightning-sheathed claws. They screamed with
the voices of the dead as they fought, their speaker grills shouting out the recorded sounds of suffering,
pain and loss. When the chasms were blazing like the mouth of a mythical hell, the Drop Pods fell. The
reinforcements converged on the chasms, cutting their way through the city sprawl, killing any they found.
Soon, the remaining Crimson Walkers faced their doom fragmented, harrowed and cut-off from one
another, until they were cornered by the figures in midnight-clad blue Power Armour. Those who reached
the blasted border surrounding the city found themselves hunted by the VIIIth Legion's Seeker Squads. It is
said that the VIIIth Legion allowed many to run, before hunting them down through the long hours of the
artificial night, maiming but never killing, until dragging their broken quarry back to the chasm. With
Vhnori screaming and burning, the VIIIth Legion performed their last duty. Alive, and healed so that they
were conscious, they threw the Crimson Walkers into the chasm. Then they detonated charges along the
cliff edge, severing the hanging city from the cliff face, the screams of the ten millions who had sheltered
from the fighting in the cliff-bound buildings reaching up to the sky as they followed the Crimson Walkers
into the black depths of the Earth. The VIIIth Legion left the decimated city before dawn came again,
cementing their reputation for the use of fear and terror as effective weapons of Imperial retribution and
control.
 Early Great Crusade Campaigns (Unknown Date.M30) - Early in his career as a military commander
during the Great Crusade, Night Haunter led his finest Astartes against a temple devoted to the worship of
an unknown agricultural deity, burning the entire settlement to the ground. In another infamous incident,
the Night Lords virus-bombed a continent because an emergent Chaos Cult devoted to the Pleasure God
Slaanesh had been uncovered on a remote island. This particular incident was cited at the time by other
Space Marine Legions as damning proof of the Night Lords' dangerous use of excessive force.
 The Hunting of the Ak'Hareth (Unknown.M30) - An alien menace known variously as the Ak'Haireth,
or "Bone Drinkers" in the vernacular, were fungoid, predatory and parasitic life forms which acquired their
sentience from operating as physically interwoven gestalt "blooms". Their existence was fuelled by the
slow and agonisingly painful siphoning of nutrition from living animals, primarily human bone marrow.
Given to no technological creativity of their own, the Ak'Haireth operated at the edge of the western
Segmentum Solar, inhabiting the scavenged void ships of other species and raiding isolated colonies and
Feral Worlds unable to resist their predations. Initially encountered in the early years of the Great Crusade,
the Ak'Haireth had been subjected to extermination pogroms carried out by both the Luna Wolves and the
VIIIth Legion (not then yet formally known as the Night Lords) which had been thought to have been
successful. However, a cowardly species, the Ak'Haireth had been wont to flee if not cornered in battle, and
over time it became apparent that some marrow-blooms of the foul xenos had hidden themselves and
survived. By 986.M30, reports of attacks against isolated outposts and shipping in the region of the stellar
wastes near Olmec indicated that the Ak'Haireth were again dangerously growing in strength and number.
The Alpha Legion, only a handful of years previously united with their Primarch, were assigned the order
for the xenocide of the species before it could spread further, and in a successful campaign that lasted three
years, the Bone Drinkers were all but wiped out.
 Compliance of Darrowmar (Unknown Date.M30) - The Night Lords fought alongside the Luna Wolves
Legion in bringing the world of Darrowmar into Imperial Compliance.
 Shi'Hu'Gal Purge (Unknown Date.M30) - The Night Lords, supported by the Titan Legions Legio
Vulcanum I (Dark Fire) and Legio Vulcanum II, carried out the infamous xenocidal purge of the Shi'Hu'Gal
Dominion during the Great Crusade; this was a campaign of such fury and viciousness it remains a legend
of this bygone era, even after the far greater death and destruction caused by Horus' betrayal of the
Emperor.
 Castigation of Terentius (Unknown Date.M30) - When the forces of the Great Crusade first entered the
Ordoni Cluster, they encountered the formidable warlord Vatale Gerron Terentius. Observing the forces
arrayed against him, Terentius was forced to take the path of survival and surrendered to the Imperium. For
the next five decades he rose in power and reputation, conquering worlds around the Halo Stars in the name
of the Emperor. At the height of his powers, he had the ear of Malcador the Sigillite and the countenance of
several Primarchs. When he finally turned against the Imperium, many were shocked. He began a contra-
Crusade to conquer already-Compliant worlds to add to his pocket empire. The Imperium responded by
sending Horus and his Luna Wolves Legion to not only break the Renegade but to demonstrate to any
others who harboured similar ideas within the Imperial forces the inevitability of a betrayer's defeat. Large
support from the Night Lords, Iron Hands and the Alpha Legion, joined the might of the Luna Wolves. At
the height of the campaign, Horus himself, with a cadre of 50 elite Justaerin Terminators, teleported aboard
the bridge of Terentius' flagship, where the Commander slew the unrepentant traitor with his Talon. Soon
the rebel forces were fragmented, driven by tales of culled worlds. The Night Lords decimated every world
within Terentius' rebel empire. The power of the Iron Hands and elements of the Ordo Reductor were
brought to bear on every structure on Terentius' bastion worlds. Soon the rebels of his realm were
slaughtered, their cities smashed to dust, and his homeworld's very air laced with toxins. Once the
castigation was complete, Horus sent the gold-dipped skull of Terentius to Terra with the ironic warning
carried on the lips of the messenger who bore it, "So perish all traitors".
 Compliance of Kharaatan, 154-6 (Unknown Date.M30) - During this campaign, the Night Lords
participated in a joint Imperial Compliance action on the world known as Kharaatan. Designated 154-6, the
Night Lords fought alongside the Primarch Vulkan and his Salamanders Legion as well as Mechanicum
forces, the Legio Ignis Titan Legion and several Imperial Army regiments. During this campaign Vulkan
became infuriated with his brother Konrad Curze and how his Legion conducted themselves so brutally. In
one notable incident, the Night Lords slaughtered the inhabitants of an entire city in order to seed fear
amongst the general population. When Vulkan confronted Curze about his Legion's actions, a brief fight
ensued between the two demi-gods. After the successful conclusion of the campaign, Vulkan reported
Curze's conduct to both the Warmaster Horus and his brother Primarch Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists
Legion. The incident would later sow the seeds of animosity between Vulkan and Curze, causing a rift that
would further widen as the Great Crusade wore on. The events on Kharaatan would have far-reaching
effects that would mark Vulkan's fate after the tragedy of the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V.
 The Farinatus Extermination (972.M30) - This was a joint Imperial Compliance action carried out by
both the Night Lords and Raven Guard Legions. ++RECORDS NOT AVAILABLE++
 Pacification of the Cheraut System (984.M30) - This was an Imperial Compliance action during the
Great Crusade jointly conducted by Astartes from the Night Lords, Emperor's Children and Imperial Fists
Legions. Suffering from one of his violent fits, Fulgrim rushed to Curze's aid. The Night Lords Primarch
then confided in his brother of the dire visions that he had seen; his death at the hands of their father, that
many of the Primarchs would die fighting amongst themselves, and that the light the Emperor brought to
his homeworld of Nostromo would destroy it forever. Troubled by these dire portents, Fulgrim confided in
his brother Rogal Dorn. Dorn took exception to this slight on the Emperor's name and confronted Curze.
Shortly thereafter, Dorn was found unconscious and bleeding with great gouges of flesh ripped away from
his torso. Crouching above his fallen brother was the pallid form of the Night Haunter, weeping. Wracked
with self-loathing and guilt, Curze was taken into custody and exiled to his chambers, while his brother
Primarchs discussed what actions to take against their deeply disturbed brother. Hours later, when the
council of Primarchs finally disbanded, they found Night Haunter missing and the Imperial Fists' honour
guard watching over him butchered. By the time the Primarchs gave chase, Night Haunter had already
disappeared with his Legion into the Warp.
 Destruction of Nostramo (984.M30) - The destruction of Nostramo was an Exterminatus action conducted
by the now-rogue Night Lords Legion after the Night Haunter's attack on Rogal Dorn towards the end of
the Great Crusade, after the pacification of Cheraut. The VIII th Legion willingly destroyed their own
homeworld of Nostramo on the order of their Primarch, concentrating deadly lance-strikes on the planet's
unstable core which resulted in tumultuous seismic activity that eventually shattered the dark planet apart in
a wave of destruction. This event fulfilled the Night Haunter's vision of seeing his planet being destroyed
by beams of white light that erupted from the heavens. For this crime, Curze was recalled to Terra by the
Emperor to be reprimanded for his brutal tactics, but instead he joined the Warmaster Horus in open
rebellion during the Horus Heresy before he could stand before his father.
  Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V (566.006.M31) - After several months of hesitation, the Emperor
ordered seven Legions of Astartes to assault the known Traitor Legions' base on the world of Istvaan V,
where their objective was to defeat Horus and return him to Terra for judgment. They would attack in two
waves and fall under the supreme command of the Iron Hands' Primarch Ferrus Manus. The Legions
comprising the first wave were the Raven Guard, Iron Hands and Salamanders. The Legions comprising the
second wave were the Night Lords, Alpha Legion, Iron Warriors, and a large contingent of Word Bearers
that their Primarch Lorgar had stationed in the star system. Unknown to Dorn and Ferrus Manus, the Night
Lords, Alpha Legion, Iron Warriors and Word Bearers had all turned from their service to the Emperor and
secretly pledged their loyalty to Horus, and been instructed to keep their new allegiance to Chaos a secret.
The Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard were deployed in the first wave of the assault on the planet.
After they secured the drop site, they were to have been followed by the arrival of the other four Legions.
The first wave secured the drop site, known as the Urgall Depression, though at a heavy cost. Horus
ordered his front line troops to fall back in a feint, tempting Ferrus Manus to overstretch his already thin
lines. Against the advice of Corax and Vulkan, Manus led his Veterans against the fleeing Traitor Marines
unsupported. Manus then brought his brother Fulgrim to combat. As the two Primarchs drew their
weapons, the Raven Guard and Salamanders fell back to regroup and allow the second wave's Legions to
advance and earn glory. However, as they returned they were mowed down by the four Traitor Legions that
had landed to supposedly support them, thus revealing their new allegiance to Chaos. At the same time the
apparent rout of the Sons of Horus, the World Eaters, Death Guard and Emperor's Children suddenly halted
and the Traitors pressed their attack. As Horus pressed the counterattack he managed to sandwich the
Loyalists between the two Traitor forces, killing most of them. As the black armoured Astartes of the
Raven Guard Legion were cut down by the Traitors' sustained volley, the traitorous Primarch Lorgar
ordered his Word Bearers Legion to attack the Raven Guards' unprotected flank. Lord Corax charged into
the ranks of the Traitorous Word Bearers, a blur of charcoal armour and black blades, butchering with an
ease that belied his ferocity. Despite the protestations of both Kor Phaeron and Erebus, Lorgar disregarded
their counsel and sprinted forwards across the churned earth and dead bodies of his brother's Legion to
engage in a battle he had no hope of winning. The two Primarchs fought in furious combat -- Corax
fighting to kill, while Lorgar fought to stay alive. The two primarchs traded vicious blows, but the Raven
Lord had the advantage of not only speed and finesse, but of also being a penultimate warrior with decades
of fighting experience. Lorgar did not, for he had always been more of a scholar than a warrior, and his lack
of experience cost him dearly as Corax impaled Lorgar through his stomach and out of his back. As Corax
stepped closer, he raised his one functioning Lightning Claw to execute his brother, but was thwarted by
the timely intervention of the Night Lords' Primarch Konrad Curze. Weakened by his battle with Lorgar,
Corax took advantage when the Night Haunter was momentarily distracted and fired his flight pack,
burning his fuel reserves to escape Curze's grip, soaring skyward away from Curze's rising laughter.
Meanwhile, the Iron Hands were cut off and slaughtered to a man -- the Veteran Morlocks Terminators cut
down and their Primarch Ferrus Manus beheaded by Fulgrim. The Salamanders and Raven Guard could do
nothing to help the Iron Hands, and were forced to make a costly break-out with precious few of their
forces. Those Thunderhawk and Stormbird gunships that lifted off and escaped Istvaan V were far fewer
than those that had landed. Corax, the Primarch of the Raven Guard, was badly wounded and Vulkan's fate
was unknown for some time. The remainder of the Iron Hands Legion arrived to find their Veterans and
Primarch dead while the Salamanders and Raven Guard had been reduced to a fraction of their full
strength, with both Legions nearly wiped out.

First Captain Sevatar leads the Atrementar assault on the Dark Angels' flagship, Invincible Reason

 Thramas Crusade (ca. 007-009.M31) - During the Horus Heresy the Warmaster Horus sent Night
Haunter and his VIIIth Legion on a campaign of genocide against the Imperial strongholds of Heroldar and
Thramas in the Aegis Sub-sector of the Eastern Fringes, thus protecting Horus' flank and delaying the Dark
Angels Legion from reinforcing the Loyalists. This bitterly contested campaign dragged on for nearly three
standard years. In an attempt to sway his brother Lion El'Jonson to Horus' cause, the Night Haunter left a
deep-void beacon in the patrol path of one of the Dark Angels' outrider vessels. The beacon was set to
transmit coordinates in advance, so that the two Primarchs could meet and parley on the planet of
Tsagualsa. Night Haunter wanted to break his former brother either mentally, physically or both to obtain
his objectives. The Primarchs were accompanied by two warriors from their personal Honour Guards to the
 parley. The meeting began amicably enough between the two as they conversed with relative civility. This
amity lasted only until the Night Haunter slandered El'Jonson, and in return the Lion struck his former
brother. This melee further degenerated into an all-out brawl between the two sides. As the Night Haunter
strangled the life out of El'Jonson, one of the Dark Angels Honour Guardsmen ran his sword through the
Night Haunter's back, saving his Primarch's life. Eventually both Legions sent reinforcements in response
to this incident. Each side dragged away their respective Primarchs from the scene of the combat. Both
Primarchs survived this brutal confrontation and went on to continue the contest between their Legions for
control of the Aegis Sub-sector.
 Hunting the Night Haunter (009.M31) - When next they fought, the Dark Angels executed a
meticulously planned ambush on the Night Lords' fleet while it was in transit across the sub-sector that saw
the back of the Night Lords Legion broken and their Primarch mortally wounded after having faced his
brother El'Jonson once again in mortal combat. Thanks to the skilled coordination and superb execution by
the Lion, the Night Lords fleet was devastated, losing dozens of capital ships and approximately one-
quarter of their Legion fleet to the Dark Angels' assault. Unfortunately, the remainder of the Night Lords
fleet fled the Dark Angels' wrath. The recently recovered Night Haunter, First Captain Sevatarion and the
elite Night Lords Atramentar Terminators led a desperate boarding assault action upon the Dark Angels'
flagship. This resulted in the death of all but a dozen of the Atramentar and the capture of Sevatarion and
the remaining survivors. Konrad Curze fled El'Jonson's wrath, evading the Dark Angels for months,
stalking the shadows within the bowels of the mighty capital ship, wreaking terror and chaos amongst the
mortal crew. He also killed every hunter-killer team sent by the Lion to hunt him down. After losing
several squads of Dark Angels, the Lion himself took up the hunt for Curze, stalking him throughout the
Invincible Reason for the next sixteen weeks. However, he could never find his elusive brother Primarch.
Also, at some point, the remaining Night Lords managed to affect their escape and fled into the void.
 Arrival to Ultramar and Imperium Secundus (009.M31) - With the torrential Ruinstorm raging,
blocking out the light of the Astronomican and causing warp travel to be all but impossible, the Imperium
was effectively cut in half. The Dark Angels came to the realisation that they were unable to return to Terra
to assist in its defence, even with the advent of the Tuchulcha Engine. Miraculously, they locked onto the
beacon of the strange alien device known as the Pharos, on the world of Sotha, which guided the Ist Legion
fleet safely through the Warp and to Ultramar's capital world of Macragge. There, they were greeting by
Roboute Guilliman and Sanguinius, whose Blood Angels Legion was also guided to the Realms of
Ultramar by the Pharos. The three Primarchs were instrumental in the foundation of the "Imperium
Secundus" as a means of continuing the fight against the Traitors and securing the Emperor's great work.
Guilliman proclaimed Sanguinius as the rightful heir to the Emperor and declared him the new ruler of
Imperium Secundus. Lion El'Jonson was made Lord Protector of this new empire of humanity and
commander over all its military forces, a title that was similar to that of Warmaster. Unfortunately, the
foundation of Imperium Secundus was marred when Curze escaped from the Invincible Reason and
rampaged across Macragge, intent on spreading as much terror and chaos as he could. Eventually, both
Guilliman and the Lion confronted the cornered Curze. Their attempts to kill him were unsuccessful as the
Night Lords Primarch had laid a cunning trap. He brought down an entire chapel upon the two Primarchs
through the use of planted explosives and fled the scene. Guilliman and the Lion were only saved through
the direct intervention of the Loyalist Iron Warriors Warsmith Barabas Dantioch, who was communicating
with Guilliman at the time of the attack, through a portal that was opened by the Pharos. On instinct, the
Warsmith reached through the portal and pulled the two Primarchs to safety on Sotha.
 Battle of Sotha (009.M31) - The far-flung world of Sotha lay close to the edge of the galaxy's Eastern
Fringe, almost at the limits of both the fiefdom of the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar and the span of all
Imperial territory. Upon this world the Ultramarines had discovered beneath its tallest peak, named Mount
Pharos, a massive aperture constructed by an unknown xenos species. This device functioned both as a
beacon and route-finder, and it also permitted instantaneous communication across unimaginable distances,
even penetrating the raging tumult of the Ruinstorm. Following their defeat at the hands of the Dark Angels
at Tsagualsa, remnants of the Night Lords Legion followed this beacon in the warp, which guided them
safely to the world of Sotha. Over many months, the Night Lords secretly gathered intelligence on the
suspicious activities of the Ultramarines, and soon discovered the nature of the arcane device, named the
Pharos, upon the restricted planet. The Night Lords launched a surprise assault upon the lightly garrisoned
world, intent on seizing the Pharos in order to use it to determine the location of their flagship, the
Nightfall, as well as the whereabouts of their missing Primarch Konrad Curze. In the ensuing battle, the
loyalist Iron Warriors Warsmith Barabas Dantioch, sacrificed himself by overloading the Pharos, so that
 the Night Lords would be unable to utilise the device's powerful empathic abilities. What far reaching
consequences this would have for the galaxy, would not come to pass for another ten millennia.
 Capture & Trial of the Night Haunter (ca. 011.M31) - Continuing his obsessive hunt for the elusive
Night Haunter, the Lion and Guilliman continuously clashed over policies, especially in regards to the
security of Imperium Secundus, and how best to deal with rebels on Macragge, that the Lion was certain
Curze had something to do with. Followng a suicide bombing of an Astartes convoy, the Lion used the
I<sup<st</sup> Legion to establish martial law on Macragge. Certain that Curze was hiding within the
rebellious Illyrium region, the Lion advocated the use of a massive orbital saturation bombardment of the
region to ensure Curze's death. Facing resistance from both Emperor Sanguinius and Guilliman, the Lion
instead, opted to deploy his Legion's Dreadwing in order to flush out Curze and the rebels. During an attack
on the city of Alma Mons, the Lion finally cornered the elusive Night Lords Primarch and the two came to
blows. After a brutal confrontation, the Lion eventually emerged victorious, and questioned his brother why
he had turned away from the Emperor, to which Curze simply replied, "Why not?" Curze went on to
explain that there was a monster in his head that he could not stop. Though he finally had Curze at his
mercy, the Lion couldn't bring himself to kill his brother, and instead pummeled him again. He then ripped
off Curze's backpack from his battle-plate and lifted him over his head, and then brutally brought him down
across his knee, breaking Curze's spine and paralysing him. The Lion brought the grievously wounded
Curze before Sanguiniun and Guilliman to stand trial. A Triumvirate was later held, where Curze defended
his actions, but refused to admit his guilt. Since each of the Primarchs had been created to perform a
specific function, Curze was merely acting according to his own nature, and therefore had committed no
crimes. The Night Lords Primarch then further divided Guilliman and the Lion by accusing the latter of
secretly ordering orbital bombardment in direct violation of Guilliman's orders. Enraged, the Lion sought to
kill Curze, but was halted by the words of Sanguinius and Guilliman snatched El'Jonson's Lion Sword and
broke the blade across his armoured thigh. El'Jonson was furious, but Sanguinius dismissed the Lord
Protector, ending the Triumvirate. The Lion was then banished from Imperium Secundus. Taking his leave,
the Dark Angels withdrew from Macragge only hours later. Standing in the chamber of the Tuchulcha
Engine, the Lion brooded over recent events, he questioned his actions over the course of the last few
decades -- the banishment of Luther, the death of Nemiel as well as other decisions he had come to regret.
As the Dark Angels made their final preparations to depart back to Caliban, the Lion went back to the
Tuchulcha Engine's chamber. He then ordered the device to teleport himself and Holguin, "Deathbringer",
the voted-lieutenant of the Deathwing, back to Macragge. As Sanguinius prepared to execute Curze for his
crimes, both the Lion and his lieutenant teleported directly into the chamber and told Sanguinius to stop. As
troops entered the room, demanding the Lion to surrender, El'Jonson explained his reasons for the
intrusion. He reasoned that Curze had the ability to see precognitive visions of potential futures, and
repeated the Night Haunter's claim that his death would one day come at the hands of an assassin sent by
the Emperor. If this was true, the Lion reasoned, than it was proof that the Emperor was still alive.
Sanguinius knew the Lion's explanation rang true, as he recognised that his own precognitive visions of his
inevitable death would also eventually come to pass. When Guilliman demanded to know what would
become of Curze, the Lion knelt before his two brothers and promised that he would be Curze's gaoler.

Night Lords assault during the Eastern Fringe Genocide

 Eastern Fringe Genocide (Unknown Date.M31) - Following the death of Horus during the Siege of
Terra, the Traitor Legions were driven into the Eye of Terror. Unlike the other Traitor Legions, after their
defeat in the Thramas Crusade, the Night Lords did not splinter into separate warbands and flee like the rest
of their fellow Traitors. Instead, the Night Lords conducted a massive campaign of genocide and terror
against the Imperium across the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy, the likes of which has never been seen
before, or since. The Legion betrays the growth of the increasing sense of self-destruction which drives its
Astartes, much as it drives their Primarch. The Night Lords' rampage is only stopped by the assassination of
Konrad Curze at the hands of the Callidus Assassin M'Shen.
 Castile V Massacre (832.M33) - Periclitor, a Chaos Lord formerly of the Night Lords Legion seals a pact
with the Ruinous Powers of the Warp to ascend to become a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. A
thousand Imperial souls are sacrificed to the Dark Gods, among which are Imperial Ministorum
Missionaries and members of the Adeptus Sororitas. The sacrifice proves pleasing, and Periclitor achieves
his dark apoetheosis.
 Culling of Grendel's World (843.M34) - The Night Lords conducted a systematic extermination of the
entire planetary populace of Grendel's World, a small isolated planet in the Ysobael Cloud near the Eastern
Fringe.
 Death of Howling Griffons Chapter Master Furioso (220.M38) - A Night Lords warband carries out an
ambush of Chapter Master Orlando Furioso of the Howling Griffons at Arios Point. Periclitor and his
Chosen board the Chapter Master's starship using Dreadclaw assault boats. The defenders are forced to
abandon ship using their Thunderhawks and Drop Pods. The battle continues on the surface of the world of
Arios Quintus, where the Howling Griffons' 1st Company and Chapter Master Furioso are slain in combat.
The Night Lords mount the body of Furioso upon the prow of his Thunderhawk, and its transponders set to
transmit the location system-wide. The remains are found one month later by other Howling Griffons
Astartes.
 False Saviours of Garagos (Unknown Date.M41) - Together with the Alpha Legion, the Night Lords
save the algae-mining Garagos Entrenchment from being completely overrun by WAAAGH! Krushbakk.
The members of this seemingly benevolent strike force are largely clad in the colours and insignia of
Loyalist Space Marines, giving the populace of Garagos a few blissful days of hope. Only when the Orks
are driven off-world do they realise they have merely exchanged one set of persecutors for another -- and
that the second doom to befall them is far more malevolent.
 The Sons of Grendel (Unknown Date.M41) - In the 34th Millennium, the Imperial frigate Hand of Mercy
answered a residual distress call from Grendel's World, only to find every single inhabitant had been hunted
down and killed, the symbols cut into their corpses identified as those of the Night Lords. Though
Grendel's World is resettled a Terran century later and the massacre of its people rendered into a folk tale,
that exact same scene occurs seven millennia later in the 41st Millennium. This second incidence triggers a
full-scale Crusade by the Mortifactors, who take the fastest ships in their fleet and set off in search of the
perpetrators.
 Twisted Justice (Unknown Date.M41) - After millennia of slaughter, the Night Lords warmonger Anvrex
Rarth becomes disenchanted with indiscriminate violence. He vows to embody his Primarch's early days,
punishing only those whom he believes deserve it -- but doing so with such grievous acts of retribution that
none who hear of them dare stray from the path of righteousness. For a time, he finds a kind of peace, but
his notions of morality are broken beyond repair. Within the standard year he is wreaking the most terrible
of atrocities as a response to everything from the breaching of shipping contracts to the incorrect
pronunciation of High Gothic.
 The Claws Descend on Chokehold (Unknown Date.M41) - The Night Lords warband of Ghilus Venst
mounts a series of crippling hit-and-run attacks, focusing on the orbital waystations and macrofibre space
lifts that surround the infamously criminalised cargo world of Chokehold. They escape with not only
copious amounts of ammunition and fully-charged power units, but also dozens of new recruits.
 Search for Shadeblight (750.M41) - Whilst searching for the possessed Chaos Cruiser Shadeblight, Night
Lords Chaos Space Marines wreak havoc throughout the Ango Sub-sector. The Night Lords are initially
opposed only by Space Marines from the Red Wolves Chapter. Ultimately the Red Wolves succeed in
denying the Night Lords their prize.
 Khai-zan Uprisings (968.M41) - Led by Night Lords Chaos Space Marines, Traitor Planetary Defence
Forces and numerous uprisings by Chaos Cultists, an attack is launched during a public holiday on the
Imperial Agri-world of Khai-Zan, unleashing the Khai-Zan Uprisings. With over half of the Planetary
Defence Force on leave, the beleagured planet soon finds itself beset on all sides by the Forces of Chaos.
The cultists utilize summoned daemons but, due to the distance of Khai-Zan from the Eye of Terror and a
lack of devotion from the Night Lords, the actual number of summoned daemons is very small. The Night
Lords' Chaos Champion Gorsameth leads his troops in a clash against the men of the 122 nd Cadian Shock
Troopers, under Captain Fane. The Night Lords Chaos Sorcerer Asuramandos uses Warp magicks to
redirect and mis-deploy the defenders, causing them to be overrun in the ensuing battle. Captain Fane as
well as his entire company die in defence of an Adeptus Arbites Precinct House. The stranglehold of Chaos
over Khai-zan is finally broken by the arrival of the Astartes of the Imperial Fists. Every Traitor is slain to a
man.
 Scound's Fall (Unknown Date.M41) - A small flotilla of Night Lords ships slip through the Cadian Gate
and spend months in the Warp avoiding detection. Scound's Fall, a small planet located one-hundred light
years from Terra is chosen as a target because of its large Schola Progenium Abbey -- a training ground for
future Imperial military officers, Inquisitors, Commissars, Storm Troopers and Sisters of Battle. After
 seven days of fighting there were no survivors left from the Night Lords' attack and the butchered remains
from both sides are laid out in talismanic patterns, to help with the summoning of a daemonic horde.
Daemons rampage across half the world while the Night Lords head for the Eye of Terror, eluding Imperial
warships intent on their capture. The daring of the attack sends shock waves through the military
organisation of the Segmentum Solar and results in the court martial and penitent exile of Lord Commander
Solar Jaxon.
 Fall of Vilamus (999.M41) - The infamous Red Corsairs, striking a deal with the Chaos Champion known
as the The Exalted's large Night Lords warband to lead the spearhead of their attack, sacked the lightly
defended fortress-monastery of the Marines Errant Chapter in order to steal its large cache of gene-seed. In
the aftermath of the battle, the Night Lords and the Red Corsairs soon fell upon each other as the Night
Lords tried to reclaim one of their Strike Cruisers, the Echo of Damnation, and lay claim to all of the
recovered gene-seed.
 The 13th Black Crusade (999.M41) - The Warmaster Abaddon launches his 13th Black Crusade in
999.M41 which is intended to finally open the way for the Forces of Chaos for a second invasion of Terra.
As part of the united effort of the Forces of Chaos to overwhelm the Imperial defences of the Cadian Gate,
shock troops drawn from the warbands of the Night Lords sow terror across the Scarus Sector, cutting
communications and hanging the corpses of their victims from every building within reach. The Night
Lords perform innumerable acts of terror, carry out lightning raids and cunning feints intended to slowly
batter down the Imperial forces present in the Scarus Sector. Even those Imperial defenders who are
strongest in their faith in the God-Emperor find their confidence shattered when they are forced into an
existence of solitude, darkness and confusion by the Night Lords' operations. Amongst the psychological
warfare operations carried out by the Night Lords during the 13 th Black Crusade are the transmissions of
heretical communications claiming that the Dark Angels Chapter of Space Marines is in league with the
Forces of Chaos. An Ordo Malleus Kill-team is despatched to destroy the source of the transmissions, but
find only broken Night Lords bodies -- evidence of the Dark Angels' own wrath. During the 13 th Black
Crusade, however, the current Chapter Master of the Howling Griffons, Alvaro, diverted his Battle Barge
Sword of Destiny from the war effort to pursue the Night Lords Daemon Prince Periclitor and earn
vengeance for the death of Orlando Furioso millennia before. The Howling Griffons finally restored their
honour when Periclitor was banished to the Warp at the height of a titanic space battle between the
Howling Griffons' 1st Company and the Chosen warband of the Daemon Prince. Also during the 13 th Black
Crusade, the Night Lords' warleader, the Chaos Lord Tarraq Darkblood, has his Styx-class Heavy Cruiser
crippled by the Imperial Navy in the Faberius Straits. A large force of Chaos warships eventually rescue the
drifting starship and its enraged occupant.
 Empire of Fiends (Unknown Date.M42) - Following the fall of Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade, the
Great Rift spreads panic and madness across the Imperium. The Night Lords are in their element, with
many establishing small stellar empires amongst those star systems cut off from the Emperor's light during
the Noctis Aeterna.
 An Ill-Fated Crossing (Unknown Date.M42) - The Navigator Guilds identify a temporary channel of
realspace near the Corinthe System that leads through the Cicatrix Maledictum to the Imperium Nihilus.
With the need to travel between Segmentums so desperate, it is not long before several Imperial fleets are
inbound, intending to make the crossing with all haste. They plunge deep into the Great Rift. Only then do
the Night Lords, whose daemonic pacts engineered the "safe" region of space, launch their attack. In a
series of boarding actions, they capture dozens of Imperial vessels.
 The Long Night (Unknown Date.M42) - With the light of the Astronomican cut off in the early days of
the Noctis Aeterna after the birth of the Great Rift, thousands of star systems are plunged into blindness
across the Imperium. The warbands of the Night Lords, seeing a gory harvest to be reaped, raid and pillage
more than ever before.

Legion Organisation

Pre-Heresy

The inheritance of Nostramo coiled throughout the structure of the Night Lords. Outwardly they followed a pattern
close to many other Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade era, but behind this basic skeleton lay the
courts of Nostramo, the gang traditions and the aesthetics of terror that infused every aspect of the VIII th Legion. At
the squad level, the Night Lords fielded a broad range of units, though taken as a whole the number of configured
Breacher Siege Squads were proportionally rarer than in other Legions. The Night Lords also had a number of
unique units: the infamous Terror Squads, whose sole purpose was to create and embody a state of horror in their
enemies, and the Night Raptor Squads, who would soar above their enemies trailing the bloody remains of their kills
while shrieking from modified Vox casters. Almost all squads within the VIIIth Legion had a name that they used in
place of the simple designation. So it was that squads within a company might be referred to as "Claws", "Talons" or
a number of other epithets often coupled with an indication of hierarchy or honorific: the Stygian Talon, the 10 th
Claw, the 5th Oathed, to name but a few amongst thousands.

The company was the basic strategic deployment unit within the Night Lords Legion and each squad belonged to a
company which might number anywhere between 100 and 1,000 warriors. Most companies had a title in addition to
their numeric designation. The 27th Company were (their names in translation from the Nostraman) "The Shattered
Skull", the 104th Company "The Sable Brothers", the 71st Company "The Crimson Judges" and so on. Unlike many
others, the Night Lords used battalions and Chapters as semi-permanent groupings of companies, rather than a
universal structure favouring their own divisions. This seemingly byzantine complexity masked a surprisingly
efficient and flexible approach to warfare which allowed the VIII th Legion to operate with a high degree of fluidity
and to be readily fractured into autonomous units or combined into ad hoc formations as their master dictated.

A notable example of one of these unique formations is the "Crimson Sons". This formation was formed from the
remnants of the VIIIth Legion's 9th Company midway through the Terran Unification Wars, as their formation had
suffered near total destruction during the pacification of the wasteland domain of Oxitania. The Emperor, in His
beneficence, offered the King of Oxitania the rank of Rogue Trader in remission of his execution. The "Crimson
Sons" would retain a degree of the VIIIth Legion's early heraldry before the return of Konrad Curze and fought as a
coherent unit, serving alongside the Rogue Trader Gotha before returning to the VIIIth Legion's fold. The later status
and whereabouts of the Crimson Sons is unknown, and it is possible they were slain during the many battles of the
Horus Heresy which followed the Drop Site Massacre.

Legion Command Hierarchy

Konrad Curze was the Dark King of his Legion, a figure of fear for his sons as much as on object of loyalty. That
many were genuinely loyal to him cannot be doubted, but as many seem to have been bound to him by fear rather
than adoration, and some hated their gene-sire. Curze appeared not to have cared so long as when he commanded,
all obeyed. Around him the Dark King maintained a court of his most useful sons. The members of this group, the
Kyroptera, were drawn from senior officers across the VIII th Legion and transcended rank. All had a quality that
Curze found valuable, though in some cases that quality seems to have been little more than distilled bitterness and
cruelty. Membership in the Kryoptera gave no absolute rank, but the fact remained that they were the ruling elite of
the Night Lords, and so few others would openly disobey a command from one of them. Alongside these served the
Atramaentar. A company-strength formation equipped with Terminator Armour and armed with the finest weapons,
they were the personal command of the First Captain of the Night Lords and enforcers of order. Renowned for their
cold brutality in battle and their unswerving loyalty to their commander and their Primarch, they seem to have acted
as a check on the many fractious elements within the VIIIth Legion, and though this cannot now be confirmed, it is
widely thought that they served as Curze's executioners when the need arose.

Beneath the Kyroptera were the many Captains of the companies. The few of these that had been graced with
leading several companies under the banner of a battalion or Chapter went by a variety of inconsistent ranks
including Commander, Master and Regent, amongst others. While these exalted leaders had clear command over the
units placed under them, their authority in the VIII th Legion as a whole seems to have been more malleable. A
Regent might have a handful of Captains under his command, but be subject to the commands of a different Captain
if that Captain were of the Kryoptera, or exalted in some other way. Just as squads and companies bore names to set
them apart from each other, so too did the commanders of the Legion adorn their names with secondary monikers
and titles. Many of these titles had echoes in the cursed nobility and gangs of Nostramo: "Talonmaster", the"
Bloodless" or the "Sightless Revenant". A few were no doubt calculated insults that either stuck or were adopted by
their bearers out of perversity.
At the time of the Drop Site Massacre in 005.M31, the Night Lords had been teetering on the edge of Renegade
status for several years. Apparently fighting their own wars with little or no regard or contact with the rest of the
Great Crusade's chain of command, it had been some time since an accurate survey of their strength had been made.
Estimates of the strength of the Legion therefore vary wildly. Some put their numbers at a little over 90,000
Astartes, others at 120,000. The Legion was known to have been recruiting from subjugated worlds throughout the
latter part of the Great Crusade, in some cases stealing away the youth of entire star systems as the base from which
to winnow suitable Aspirants. The use of rapid psycho-conditioning and accelerated gene-seed implantation was
also known to be widely practiced by the Night Lords, further supporting suggestions that their numbers were at
least on par with many of the more numerous Space Marine Legions. It is also likely that a number of Night Lords
elements were not at the Istvaan System, but were engaged in other self-selected actions in the unconquered corners
of the galaxy at that time.

Specialist Ranks and Formations

A Night Lords Terror Squad Legionary.

 Terror Squad - Terror Squads were specialist squads of Space Marines utilised exclusively by the Night
Lords during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. When the Legion desired to unleash maximum
punishment and retribution against the enemy in the most visceral and personal way possible, the Terror
Squads of the VIIIth Legion were unleashed. Head hunters and torturers, flayers and mutilators; within their
ranks were found both the most coldly dispassionate and darkly imaginative of the Night Lords brethren,
and where once the terrifying arts of murder and mayhem they perpetrated were a coldly calculated means
to an end, as the decades of the Great Crusade progressed, the Terror Squads became a sink-hole for the
most unstable and unsubtle elements within their Legion, many within them standing under their own
sentences of death -- commuted so long as they proved useful to their macabre master.
 Night Raptors - Night Raptor squads were a caste apart from the Night Lords Legion -- not so much a
martial elite as a bloody coterie of murderers wedded together by similar proclivities and chosen styles of
warfare. The Night Raptors were equipped with Jump Packs and an array of close combat weapons, all of
which they utilised to bring unfettered savagery down upon the heads of their foes in a single,
overwhelming onslaught. The Night Raptors were the ancient precursors in many ways of the later Chaos
Space Marine Raptor assault troops found in all of the Traitor Legions after the end of the Horus Heresy.

Vehicles

A Night Lords Spartan Assault Tank; the Night Lords' larger war engines often made extended use of terrifying
symbols of death and woe, drawn from the bloody culture of Nostramo.

The Night Lords had access to the full range of war machines utilised by the Emperor's armies during the Great
Crusade, and even though the VIIIth Legion favoured terror tactics and infiltration over set piece battles, it still made
use of such mighty vehicles.

Because each of the Legion's companies tended to operate independently, most of the Night Lords' vehicles were
held at the company level, squadrons operating in direct support of the company's squads.

A small number of companies within the Legion choose to operate exclusively as armoured formations, often acting
on the direct orders of the Primarch or the VIII th Legion's command cadre when several companies were fielded
together as a battalion or Chapter and more substantial armoured support was required.

The Caradara Armour Claw is one such company-sized armoured unit whose reputation had spread beyond its
Legion before their treachery. The formation's masters had perfected a form of armoured combat which mirrored
that utilised by the VIIIth Legion as a whole. Striking when possible from the darkness of dusk or dawn, the
Caradara assaulted the enemy where they were weakest, rampaging through rear zones in order to sever lines of
communication, and resupply and isolate individual concentrations of enemy troops.
Having done so, the Caradara destroyed its targets at its leisure according to the proclivities of individual squadron
or vehicle commanders. The Caradara were often noted to favour using prow-mounted dozer blades to bury enemy
troops in their own trenches, while other gained unholy satisfaction from overrunning helpless defenders and
grinding their bodies beneath the tracks of their armoured vehicles.

Needless to say, few defences stood long against such brutal assaults.

Legion Armoury

A Night Lords Legion Storm Eagle.

The Night Lords utilised a wide range of assets throughout the Great Crusade, finding that even the most
standardised of weapons and armour could be adapted and utilised in their favoured manner of warfare.

Armoured troop transports of all classes were used by the VIII th Legion to smash deep into the heart of the enemy's
positions, with flanks clad in grotesque trophies to sow horror and dread in all who looked upon them. Aircraft were
used to deliver death from the night sky, descending without warning to strike the enemy where he least expected it
and ensuring that no foe could afford even a moment's rest or respite.

They also made more use of automated systems such as the Tarantula than many other Legions, preferring to assign
mundane duties like static defence to such robotic weapons, as well as employing them as part of their offensive
strategies cunningly concealed and programmed to funnel enemy refugees into killing grounds pre-registered by the
Legion's artillery masters.

Post-Heresy

A Night Lords Chaos Dreadnought.

The Night Lords Chaos Space Marines have several unique genetic traits inherited from the gene-seed of the Night
Haunter: they all possess very pale, white skin and haunting black-within-black eyes like their Primarch. They can
see in absolute darkness, with a clarity that is above and beyond even the ability of normal Space Marine occular
implants.

They also possess an innate "preysight"; the ability to see in the infrared spectrum to detect heat signatures. Finally,
a Night Lords Astartes can emit abnormally loud shrieks and cries that cause immediate deafness and disorientation
in those who hear them.

The Night Lords rarely use daemons in their armies largely due to their lack of faith in Chaos, with the exception of
Furies, daemons of Chaos Undivided who share the Night Lords' fondness for brutal murder and psychological
warfare. The Night Lords do not worship any individual power of Chaos as a Legion, instead venerating the concept
of Chaos Undivided when they choose to pay any attention to Chaos at all.

Indeed, the Night Lords maintain a certain contempt for all of the Ruinous Powers, as well as for what they perceive
as weakness of any sort, a mistrust they inherited from the Night Haunter, who was no more fond of the major
Chaos Gods than he was of his father the Emperor. The Night Lords also mistrust psykers of all kinds, including
Astropaths, although they may utilise them, as well as Navigators, when the situation demands it.

However, as of the late 41st Millennium, some Night Lords may be tainted by the touch of Chaos and have
developed mutations, a fact that those so affected try to hide from their brethren, as the Night Lords are traditionally
as disgusted by mutation as their Loyalist counterparts, seeing it as a form of physical and spiritual weakness.
Some of the original Traitor Legions have retained a degree of their old fraternal loyalty, in however twisted a
fashion it may manifest. The Night Lords had little enough to begin with, however, and have only becomemore self-
centred and cruel as the millennia have slipped past.

Each warrior amongst them vies with his comrades to claim the most glorious kills, to spread the most terror and
adorn his wargear with the most baroque warrior trophies.

Specialist Ranks and Formations

Night Lords veterans of the Atramentar attack a doomed Imperial outpost.

The Night Lords Legion is organised into companies, each of which is led by a Captain, with each company
composed of squads of ten Astartes called "Claws" led by a Sergeant. There is also an elite Terminator unit known
throughout the Legion as the "Atramentar", and at least one Dreadnought. When ready for combat, the Night Lords
refer to themselves as "in midnight clad", reflecting both their heritage and their penchant for operations conducted
under the cover of darkness.

 Kyroptera - The Kyroptera were the Night Haunter's most trusted advisors and confidants within the Night
Lords Legion. Consisting of seven chosen Captains of the Legion, the Kyroptera existed outside the rest of
the VIIIth Legion's regular command structure. Together the Kyroptera functioned as the soul of the Night
Lords, supporting their Primarch and steering the Legion's temperament and decisions.
 Atramentar - The Atramentar are the elite Terminator-armoured unit of Battle-Brothers from the VIIIth
Legion's formidable 1st Company led by the infamous First Captain Sevetar. This elite cadre's numbers
were chosen from amongst the standard ranks of the Night Lords Legion from Astartes who had been
singled out and personally selected by their Primarch for their ferocity and cruelty. Each member was
known by name and reputation within and without the Night Lords Legion. Following the death of the
Night Haunter at the hands of the Imperial Assassin M'Shen, the Atramentar scattered with the rest of the
Legion and, by the time of the late 41st Millennium, often served as bodyguards to the powerful Chaos
Lords who commanded the various Night Lords warbands.

A Raptor of the Night Lords Legion attacks

 Raptors - Amongst the ranks of the Night Lords are the dreaded Chaos Space Marine assault troops known
as Raptors. This elite group of egotistical and arrogant warriors believe themselves to be the betters
amongst their allies and fellow renegades. Many other Chaos Space Marines consider them to be preening,
self-indulgent egotists. The origins of this particular specialty group can be traced to the bygone days of the
Horus Heresy when they served in the important shock attack role of jump troops. At that time, Jump Packs
were a comparatively rare technology amongst the Space Marine Legions, but such was the effectiveness of
these assault troops that their commitment to battle often proved to be the turning point. Often times they
were kept in reserve and then sent into action against the weakest points of the enemy line. This concept of
preying on the vulnerable has led the Raptors to become vicious hunters who can strike anywhere, at any
time. The Raptors have a tendency to modify their armour to give themselves a more terrifying appearance,
mimicking the appearance of a vicious bird of prey or a swooping daemon. They often fit amplifiers and
Voxcasters that emit piercing wails and screams to their helms, falling upon the enemy like a shrieking,
furious gale, tearing their foes apart with Bolt Pistols and vicious Chainswords. In combat, the Night Lords
always tend to deploy large numbers of Raptors.
 Unguis Raptus - A gift from his master, the Legion's First Captain Zso Sahaal, the "Talonmaster",
incorporated the use of archaic Lightning Claws which he had named the Unguis Raptus -- the "Raptor's
Claws" -- into his Power Armour and in so doing also coined the name of the command company for his 1 st
Company. Before the Horus Heresy (known to the Night Lords only as the "Great War") Zho Sahaal's
Unguis Raptus company of Night Lords Raptors became justly feared by the VIII th Legion's enemies. First
in the name of the Emperor, and then for the Night Haunter alone, they brought swift death from above to
their foes.
Legion Combat Doctrine

"Surprise is an insubstantial blade, a sword worthless in war. It breaks when troops rally. It snaps when
commanders hold the line. But fear never fades. Fear is a blade that sharpens with use. So let the enemy know we
come. Let their fears defeat them as everything falls dark. As the world's sun sets... As the city is wreathed in its final
night...Let ten-thousand howls promise ten-thousand claws. The Night Lords are coming, and no soul that stands
against us shall see another dawn."
— The War-sage Malcharion, excerpted from The Tenebrous Path

An elite Chaos Terminator and Chaos Sorcerer of the Night Lords Legion.

The Night Lords adopted the modus operandi of their Primarch without exception, and thrive in sowing fear and
confusion among their enemies. It is common practice for Night Lords Chaos Space Marines to ensure that the
communications of a target planet are shut down, broadcasting hideous messages and screams across the airwaves as
they begin slaughtering the occupants at their leisure.

It is very rare that the Night Lords voluntarily fight a force able to withstand them; they much prefer to attack the
weak and frightened. Repeated instances have shown that the Night Lords will not give quarter, and are entirely
bereft of mercy. Any poor soul offering to surrender will have his pleas answered by mutilation and painful death.

Night Haunter's Legion has no holy crusade, no belief that causes them to spread murder and misery to the worlds
they visit. Similarly, they have no martial creed, as all concept of martial honour has been eroded by their
transformation into warbands of vicious killers.

The Night Lords are masters of stealth, able to infiltrate a position quickly and silently. These arts appear to be
innate to the Legion, and are used most often during the sick games the Night Lords use to drive their prey into
paroxysms of terror.

Once they have prepared themselves and found places to launch an assault that meets their standards, the Night
Lords are capable of sudden, shockingly brutal ambushes or unconventional attacks intended to thin the enemy's
ranks or simply sow chaos amongst the foe.

One such tactic designed to enhance fear that has been observed to be used by the Night Lords is when they unleash
a fifteen-second-long Vox-augmented scream that ruptures any unprotected eardrums in the vicinity. Once their
victims are hunched over in agony, stunned and deaf, the Night Lords unleash their wrath.

Even before they turned to Chaos, the Night Lords adorned their armour with the imagery of death; this is because
they know that fear can be used as a weapon just as effectively as a Chainsword or Bolter. Given the Night Lords'
predilection for assaulting weaker foes, a fully-armoured Night Lords Chaos Champion armed with a devastating
array of weaponry is always more than a match for the foes he chooses to fight.

Since the Heresy, Night Lords warbands have tended to attract a greater proportion of Raptors than those of any
other Traitor Legion. The swooping attacks once favoured by Konrad Curze are echoed by the diving, tearing
assaults of the Night Lords Raptors, predators that strike from the sky amidst an ear-splitting chorus of shrieks that
can force even the most stoic of veterans to cower at the critical moment.

Night Lords Names

Night Lords names are generally derived from those used by the people of ancient Nostramo, though they also
sometimes include a name derived from a physical feature, personality quirk, past deed or other defining feature.
Examples of Night Lord names include Kharros Reeve, Drachos Nightblade, Myros Balicor, Jago Khade, Ravkos
Souleater, Otho Nosferrus, Cel Terask, Garras Kavatar, Tovac the Agoniser, Naravesh Mercygiver and Malithos of
the Midnight Claw.

Legion Beliefs

"Do you hear their cries? Can you taste their fear, their agony? Know this mortal: we are coming for you!"
— Salvaged Vox transmission from the dead colony of Nux Haven, Travonth VI

Pre-Heresy

Space Marine Legions often changed after the rediscovery of their Primarch and their surrogate homeworld. In the
case of the VIIIth Legion, Nostramo and Curze doomed them, but at first they seemed the least changed of all of the
Legions upon the return of their gene-sire. There were changes of course, but many of these were relatively small.
Nostraman became the language of the VIIIth Legion, its curling runes and sibilant words spreading as Nostraman
recruits began to include a dark and cruel sense of humour, and a snide fatalism.

New traditions, twisted reflections of Nostraman gang-rites and customs, were adopted within the Legion, such as
marking condemned Legionaries' gauntlets red to show that a death sentence hung over them. The honorific titles
sported by many of the VIII Legion's officers started to take on the form of those of the Nostraman noble courts.
These changes, though noticeable, did not touch the heart of the VIII th Legion's nature, for if anything, Curze's return
saw the Legion's righteous drive to punish intensify.

Their ways and methods of war changed not at all, and the integration of Terran and Nostraman warriors was
amongst the swiftest of any Legion. The old Legion and the new fitted together like two sides of a coin; both raised
from darkness to create order and strife, both made of flesh born in shunned and lightless places.

Callous and brutal though they were, the Night Lords were not without pride, and the trappings and titles of
aristocracy and dominion formed a key part of their identity, and rivalry, often violent, was endemic among the
Astartes of the VIIIth Legion.

The gang traditions of their lightless homeworld were carried over to every aspect of their Legion. There were few
amongst their ranks who did not bear some form of title, and the craftsmanship with which they embellished their
weapons and armour was remarkable, if grotesque.

Furthermore, far more so than even the most barbarous members of the World Eaters or White Scars Legions, they
habitually adorned their armour and vehicles with the brutalised and mutilated remains of those who had resisted
them, and made an art of flaying and presenting the dead in order to sow fear in their foes. There was method in this
madness, at least at first; such grisly displays were a clear signal saying, "This fate will be yours to share."

Post-Heresy

Night Lords assaulting an Imperial world.

There are many dread creatures that dwell in the swirling eddies of the Eye of Terror. Terrible daemons and horrific
monsters vie with cruel pirates and vile xenos to spread death and destruction throughout the realm and nearby
Imperial holdings. Yet few among these are as feared as the Chaos Space Marines of the Night Lords Traitor
Legion. Since before the Horus Heresy, this Legion has perfected the craft of sowing terror, discord, and confusion
among its victims and its corrupted Astartes have become even more sadistic and depraved as the long Terran
centuries have passed.
The Night Lords are sadistic killers who delight in terrorising their foes before slaughtering them without mercy or
restraint. They are cruel, ruthless, and opportunistic, frequently striking at vulnerable targets and toying with their
unfortunate victims. When the Night Lords kill, they kill violently and slowly, savouring the pain and horror on their
victim's faces as the last moments of life leave them. Such acts are not undertaken in honour of the Chaos Gods;
rather, a Night Lord kills simply because he can. Certainly there may be other motives behind his actions, but more
often than not that motive is only to wet his gauntlets in the blood of his victims.

The Night Lords are veterans of countless campaigns of terror and conquest. Each member of the Legion is highly
trained and proficient in the use of terror tactics, psychological warfare, and lightning raids and ambushes intended
to leave their opponents completely demoralised and easy targets for the depraved Heretic Astartes of this Legion.
The Night Lords frequently operate as mercenaries for Renegade warbands and other pirate raiders, selling their
skills to the highest bidder in return for plunder and the chance to pick and choose targets that most appeal to their
sadistic tendencies.

However, the Night Lords harbour no true allegiance to any of the Ruinous Powers nor to the mightiest Chaos Lord.
Their path is their own, and woe to any who assume otherwise. Above all, they desire to kill, taking great pleasure in
slaying their victims and gunning down the defenceless and helpless. The thrill of battle does not concern them as
they often bypass able foes, instead attacking prey too weak to resist and ruthlessly hunting down all before them.
Afterwards, the Night Lords mutilate and butcher their victims, thereby providing grisly examples of what fate
awaits those who fall prey to the Legion.

The Night Lords committing atrocities against the weak and defenceless.

A few will even undertake raids on their own if it suits their needs, their abilities and tactics more than making up
for any discrepancy in fighting strength. Indeed, there are tales of lone Night Lords terrorising entire hives and
bringing these mighty cities to their knees in sprees of bloodshed and fear. However, the Night Lords have no
concept of honour and may change sides during a battle, or treacherously attack their erstwhile allies in order to suit
their own needs.

The Legion holds no true allegiance to any one of the four Ruinous Powers and views all religious devotion as a
form of weakness. Instead of faith, it is their love of killing, especially of terrified, defenceless prey, that unites the
Legion and has led them to serve the cause of Chaos. Though they do not serve a single Chaos God, the Night Lords
regularly ally with other, far more devoted followers of Chaos.

Night Lords are exceptionally versatile in their use of the Forces of Chaos, employing the hell-spawned powers of
each of the major Chaos deities with equal favour. It is just as likely that the Night Lords will be seen fighting
alongside a group of foul Plague Marines as at the side of the undead warriors of the Thousand Sons. However, it
has been ascertained that the Night Lords have nothing but scorn for faith in all its forms, whether it be the fanatical
bloodlust of the Khornate Berserker or the devotion of the Imperial Creed. The only authority the Astartes of this
Traitor Legion truly recognise is that of temporal power and material wealth.

Observational evidence would suggest that the only reason the Night Lords fight is for the love of killing and the
material rewards this can bring. They take great pleasure in gunning down defenceless prey, especially those too
young or sick to stand up to them. It is certainly not for the thrill of battle that they fight, as an army of Night Lords
can be expected to try every underhand trick in the book before resorting to honest combat. This is possibly a vestige
of their ancestry in the criminal classes of Nostramo where it was commonplace to ruthlessly force the will of the
strong upon the weak.

Legion Gene-Seed

The Night Lords in combat.

The gene-seed of the Night Lords seems surprisingly pure, bearing the least evidence of mutation. Before their fall
to Chaos, the only notable physical abnormality was their jet black eyes and pale skin, which became even more
prevalent with the introduction of the genetic material of the dour people of Nostramo.

Surprisingly, of all the Traitor Legions, the Night Lords seem to bear the least evidence of mutation. This is perhaps
due to an unusually stable gene-seed stock, or perhaps due to the fact that they rarely associate themselves with a
particular Chaos power for any length of time.

However, the real legacy of their mad Primarch may have been psychological, as there was a tendency for paranoia
and self-destructive behaviour displayed by many within the Night Lords. They thrive in the use of psychological
warfare and fear tactics, merely for the sheer, sick joy of it.

It is also said that their Chaos Sorcerers have a pronounced vulnerability that causes them to be wracked with
painful seizures in which they experience visions, oblique or not, of the future. The Night Haunter was believed to
have only been able to see the darkest path of all possible futures, a terrible curse, and the visions tended to be self-
fulfilling.

It is hoped that the Night Lords' sorcerers suffer the same fate. This is as yet speculation. However, given their
Primarch's susceptibility to such prophesies, it seems more than likely.

Notable Night Lords

 Konrad Curze - Konrad Curze, better known as the Night Haunter was the savage and authoritarian
Primarch of the VIIIth Legion. Kurze, disgusted with life and his Legion, allowed himself to be killed by the
Imperial Callidus Assassin M'Shen on the world of Tsagualsa in the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy
immediately following the end of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium. His Legion, without his
leadership, then broke up into competing warbands and fled into the Eye of Terror with the rest of the
Traitor Legions.
 Jago "Sevatar" Sevatarion - Jago Sevatarion, known also as "the Condemned" and the "Prince of
Crows", was the First Captain of the Night Lords Legion. He was also the Commander of the Atramentar,
the elite Terminator-armoured unit of the VIIIth Legion's formidable 1st Company and officer of the
Kyroptera, the Night Haunter's most trusted advisors and confidants within the Night Lords Legion, during
the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy in the 30th and early 31st Millennia. A native of Nostramo, Sevatar
served as Equerry to the Primarch Konrad Curze and was known as one of the most lethal warriors of the
entire Legiones Astartes, his name and skill as well known as those of Ezykyle Abaddon of the Sons of
Horus, Corswain of the Dark Angels, Chapter Master Raldoron of the Blood Angels or Lord Commander
Eidolon of the Emperor's Children. Sevatar was killed during the Siege of Terra.
 Zso Sahaal, "The Talonmaster" - Zso Sahaal was the "Talonmaster", the First Captain of the VIIIth
Legion's elite 1st Company after his predecessor, Jago Sevatarion, was slain during the Siege of Terra. He
was known as the Unguis Raptus, the "Raptor's Claws", for his incorporation of Lightning Claws into his
Power Armour, and this name was also applied to the troops of the 1 st Company's elite command squad.
 Shang - Equerry to Konrad Curze and a member of Curze's personal Honour Guard. He held the rank of
Captain within the VIIIth Legion. His current status is unknown.
 Krieg Acerbus, "The Axemaster" - Acerbus was a former Captain of the Legion and is now the leader of
the largest Night Lords warband of Chaos Space Marines in the galaxy. Later, he became a Daemon Prince
of Chaos Undivided.
 Koor Mass - A Night Lords Captain and Champion who was encased in the sleek shell of a Chaos
Dreadnought, its every surface decorated with flayed skin.
 Malcharion, "The War-Sage" - Malcharion was the Captain of the 10th Company. He is currently a
Chaos Dreadnought.
 Malithos Kuln - Former Captain of the 9th Company and a member of the Kyroptera during the Great
Crusade and the early days of the Horus Heresy. Kuln was one of only three surviving Kyroptera Captains
after the disastrous ambush carried out against the Night Lords Legion by the Dark Angels during the
closing days of the Thramas Crusade. As the Night Haunter lay mortally wounded following a duel with his
 fellow Primarch Lion El'Jonson, Kuln and his fellow Captain Herec advocated the reorganisation of their
scattered Legion to strike back at the upstart Loyalists, for blood demanded blood. First Captain Sevatar
was disinclined to agree with this audacious plan, and instead enacted a plan of his own, having Captains
Kuln and Herec murdered in cold blood by the First Captain's own Atramentar Terminators.
 Vandred Anrathi, "The Exalted" - Vandred Anrathi, Captain of the 10th Company and Chaos Lord of the
Night Lords warband of The Exalted. Vandred, is a Chaos Champion of Tzeentch. Allying himself with
Abaddon the Despoiler, he allowed himself to be possessed by a Daemon. Before accepting the daemon
which would come to dominate him, Vandred was an honored warrior, but his true forte was void combat.
After his change into the Exalted, he became even more focused on void combat. He was a true master of
it, understanding all the nuances of his ship's speed, mass, maneuverability and weaponry, and therefore
willing to throw his vessel, the Covenant of Blood, into seemingly suicidal maneuvers. A shadow of his
former self, it soon became apparent that the Exalted was the title of the daemon which possessed him, and
it used his memories and knowledge to further its gains of power. Eventually First Claw was betrayed upon
the Industrial World of Crythe by Abaddon's Black Legion. Talos decided that The Exalted was no longer
fit to command. Vandred became disgusted with the behavior of the Black Legion and its attempts to use
First Claw as expendable cannon fodder in the Warmaster's wars. Vandred's disgust helped him to
temporarily overcome the Daemon within him and reassert his personality. Refusing to allow his warriors
to fall to the whims of Abaddon, Vandred rescued his forces on Crythe and escaped the vengeful Blood
Angels Chapter. When Vandred had his ship dock at Hell's Iris in order to repair and refit the battle-
damaged vessel, First Claw sent ambassadors from their warband to meet with the station's lord, Huron
Blackheart. He agreed to have the Night Lords' vessel repaired on the condition that The Exalted's warband
would owe him a debt; to accompany the Lord of the Red Corsairs on a military campaign on the Imperial
world of Vilamus, serving as its vanguard force. Vandred agreed, but for motives of his own, as the Night
Lords recognised that one of the Red Corsairs' vessels was the ancient vessel Echo of Damnation, sister-
ship to his own vessel, the Covenant. The Exalted plotted to steal the ex-Night Lords vessel back from the
Red Corsairs immediately after the Fall of Vilamus. The Red Corsairs immediately pursued the theft, their
fleet striking in overwhelming numbers. Vandred, in his prison of a body, immediately recognized that the
fight was unwinnable for the Covenant, but the Echo of Damnation could escape. With a surge of
willpower, he took control of his body again, and destroyed a half-dozen or so vessels of the Red Corsair
fleet in a daring series of suicide maneuvers. Right before the Red Corsairs were able to make the kill,
Vandred completely relinquished control, letting the Exalted's furious struggles burn Vandred away for
good -- intentionally so, because it meant the Exalted, shortly thereafter, experienced the death-pain of its
body alone and was banished back to the Warp.
 Naraka, "The Bloodless" - Naraka was the Captain of the 13th Company during the Great Crusade and
Horus Heresy and a member of the Kyroptera. Known as "The Bloodless" by his Battle-Brothers, he earned
his sobriquet during the Imperial Compliance of the world designated Eight-Hundred-and-Nine Five, the
fifth conquest of the 809th Expeditionary Fleet. The 13th Company took an entire world without shedding a
single drop of blood, through means few of the Legion's other commanders were allowed to know. When
questioned on it, Naraka always refused to comment. His company swore an oath of secrecy about this
campaign, which has remained inviolate and unbroken in the many years since.
 Var Jahan - Var Jahan was the Captain of the 27th Company and a member of the Kyroptera during the
Horus Heresy. Jahan was Terran-born, like most of the original Legionaries of the Night Lords. He was an
older warrior, famously cautious, more of a tactician than a murderer. He had served the VIII th Legion since
the earliest days of the Great Crusade, when the Night Lords first took to the stars. Var Jahan was one of
only three surviving Kyroptera Captains after the disastrous ambush carried out against the Night Lords
Legion by the Dark Angels during the closing days of the Thramas Crusade. As the Night Haunter lay
mortally wounded following a duel with his fellow Primarch Lion El'Jonson, Var Jahan's fellow Captains
Herec and Kuln advocated the reorganisation of their scattered Legion to launch a counter-strike at the
upstart Loyalists, for blood demanded blood. First Captain Sevatar was disinclined to agree with the pair's
audacious plan, and instead enacted a plan of his own, having Captains Herec and Kuln murdered in cold
blood by the First Captain's own Atramentar Terminators. Var Jahan was spared, for he was smart enough
to detect that something was wrong before the Atramentar teleported into the council chamber to carry out
their bloody deed. For showing intuitive foresight, Sevatar let Jahan live and remain as a member of the
Kyroptera.
 Ophion - Captain of the 39th Company and a member of the Kyroptera during the Horus Heresy, Ophion
had failed to distinguish himself beyond the base level of honour inherent in a century of solid, trustworthy
 service. All of his records -- not that the VIIIth Legion was particularly meticulous in keeping them -- spoke
of a veteran Nostraman officer best-served by front-line duty, leading his men from the vanguard, and
given only moderate responsibility in a wider campaign. And yet, during the VIII th Legion's disastrous
encounter with the Dark Angels fleet during the closing days of the Thramas Crusade, Ophion had ordered
his warship Shroud of Eventide to remain on-station, fighting the Dark Angels back from their ambush,
aiding Sevatar and the Night Lords' flagship Nightfall as he fought to buy time for the weaker ships to flee.
In a Legion that considered tactical cowardice one of the finer and most amusing virtues, a rare sign of
bravery was always worth investigating -- and rewarding.
 Cel Herec - Former Captain of the 43rd Company and a member of the Kyroptera during the Great Crusade
and the early days of the Horus Heresy. Herec was one of only three surviving Kyroptera Captains after the
disastrous ambush carried out against the Night Lords Legion by the Dark Angels during the closing days
of the Thramas Crusade. As the Night Haunter lay mortally wounded following a duel with his fellow
Primarch Lion El'Jonson, Herec and his fellow Captain Kuln advocating the reorganisation of their
scattered Legion to strike back at the upstart Loyalists, for blood demanded blood. First Captain Sevatar
was disinclined to agree with this audacious plan, and instead enacted a plan of his own, having Captains
Herec and Kuln murdered in cold blood by the First Captain's own Atramentar Terminators.
 Kasati Nuon - In a legion of thieves and murderers, few of the VIIIth Legion however dared to turn against
the will of their Primarch, but some of them did and a few even survived. Kasati Nuon was one of them.
One of the rare Night Lords who did not join their father and Horus in treachery but chose to remain loyal.
Kasati Nuon led but a handful of warriors, fleeing the wrath of his Legion and those that had sided with the
Warmaster, Kasati Nuon joined forces with the Raven Guard and participated in the great victory on
Carandiru, the Day of Vengeance.
 Krukesh - Captain of the 103rd Company and a member of the Kyroptera during the Horus Heresy,
Krukesh was considered to be a member of the VIII th Legion from blood to bone. Taken as a youth from
Terra, he rose to his captaincy by a murder duel, taking his former commander's head. This barbarous
custom had been adopted by the Night Lords from the hive-gangs of the Nostraman hive-city of Nostramo
Quintus. Like his fellow Battle-Brothers whose skin had whitened and whose eyes had blackened after
being implanted with their Primarch's gene-seed, Krukesh was gaunt to the point of emaciation. Known as
"The Pale" by his brethren, his skin was pale past anything resembling ill-health, edging on the
preternatural. He appeared as a starved cadaver in midnight ceramite, black-on-black eyes burning from
sunken eye sockets. Krukesh and First Captain Sevatar shared a long history, as Sevatar owed the pale
Astartes debts that made the First Captain uneasy.
 Tovac Tor, "Lackhand" - Tor was Captain of the 114th Company. Known as "Lackhand", he had entered
the VIIIth Legion at the same time as Sevatar; as children they had run together in the same Nostraman
gang. Tor earned his epithet from a malformed birth, as he had been born with only one hand. Despite the
deformity, he had passed the physical trials required to be accepted into the VIII th Legion, and immediately
been fitted with an augmetic graft. The cybernetic enhancement never behaved as reliably as a natural limb
-- the Apothecaries had told Tovac that his malformed arm lacked a fully developed musculature, so his
augmetic hand would always be a touch erratic.
 Alastor Rushal, "The Raven" - Rushal was a Captain without a company to command and a member of
the Kyroptera. Terran-born, but not born of VIIIth Legion gene-stock, Rushal still wore the Power Armour
of the XIXth Legion, cast in cold black, edged in dented white trimming. The noble emblem of his former
Legion, the Raven Guard, had been ritually broken by blows from a hammer, wielded by his own hand. A
former Captain of the Raven Guard's 89th Company, he was known by the Night Lords as "The Raven". It
is not clear whether Rushal joined the Night Lords of his own volition or was captured. But what is
abundantly clear is that he became a part of the VIIIth Legion following the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan
V. Apparently he also suffered torture at the hands of First Captain Sevatarion, who brutally marked the
warrior with vicious scars across most of his body as well as removing his tongue. All trappings of rank
were gone from his ebon coloured armour, scratched away during the massacre unleashed on Istvaan V's
Urgall Depression. Like the Night Lords, his face was pale and his eyes were dark. Unlike the warriors he
stood amongst, his helm lacked the bat-winged crest sported by the VIIIth Legion's inner circle of Captains.
 Halasker - Halasker was a Captain of the VIIIth Legion, his company and fate unknown.
 Morgaris - Morgaris was a Chaos Terminator Champion of the VIIIth Legion.
 Quissax Kergai - Captain Kergai was the Night Lords Master of the Armoury, whose scouring of the
Launeus Forge World during the Horus Heresy crippled the loyalists of the Trigonym sector.
 Vyridium Silvadi - Captain Silvadi was the VIIIth Legion's Lord of the Fleet. He was responsible for
routing the flotilla of Imperial Navy Admiral Ko'uch and for bombarding the Astartes of the Raven Guard
at Istvaan V for five days before they could retreat, unsupported.
 Fel Zharost - Fel Zharost was the former Chief Librarian of the VIIIth Legion. Within a few years after his
legion's reunification with their Primarch on Nostramo, Zharost was one of the few ill-favoured and
withering remnants of Terran Legionaries that still served in the VIII th Legion. He was disgusted by the
those who had come after him, the Nostraman criminals who now supplanted the original Terran-borne
Legionaries, and now made up the majority of the Night Lords. A few centuries earlier, he had been born in
the prison sinks beneath Albia, which was the realm of the banished and the condemned. He was raised
from this night when the Great Crusade had already left the light of Sol, though only by a few decades.
That made him old compared to most of the Legionaries of the VIII th, but young compared to some.
Zharost understood, better than anyone, that his Legion had become willing servants to terror, merely for
the sheer joy of it. When the Emperor passed his Decree Absolute following the Council of Nikaea, he
sought a private audience with First Captain Sevatarion, who had been left in temporary command in their
Primarch's absence. He demanded that Sevatar render judgment against their Legion's Librarius -- and
against him. Enraged by his demands, Sevatar leapt upon Zharost, and struck him in the chest with his
deactivated chain-glaive, knocking the Chief Librarian to the chamber floor. He then rendered his
judgement -- Zharost was cast out. He would no longer be of the Eighth -- his hands were to be stained red.
The First Captain condemned Zharost to death, should they ever meet again. Somewhat satisfied, as he
made to leave, he tried to argue the point with Sevatar, that their Legion had been about something once.
The First Captain rolled his eyes, and dismissively waved the disgraced former Chief Librarian away.
Before he could stop himself, Zharost's rage got the better of him, and he summoned forth his innate
psychic abilities. Before he was even aware that he had lost control, he had used his powers to slam the
First Captain with a wave of power into the Primarch's command throne. As he slammed Sevatar's head
into the throne, he angrily accused the First Captain and his benighted Nostraman brethren of having
murdered their Legion with their cruel and sadistic ways. But before he could continue his diatribe, Sevatar
utilised his own innate, and hidden, psychic abilities to strike back at Zharost. Shocked at the unexpected
attack, the Chief Librarian staggered back, blood pouring from his mouth. Sevatar did not rise from the
throne to follow him, and with an effort, he warned Zharost to get out of his sight. The Chief Librarian
returned to Terra, to the place of his birth, amongst the prison sinks beneath Albia. Eventually he was
hunted by an unknown assailant, a Legionary clad in plain grey and unburnished armour, and captured.
Zharost believed that his executioner should at least know the truth about whom he was punishing, and if
he was going to die, he would do it on his terms. Facing his imminent execution, he utilised his psychic
powers to show his would-be executioner his past. Zharost shared his past for an eye-blink of time,
showing the Legionary every moment of his life. When he had finished, he requested that he be allowed to
see the light of the sun one last time before his death. And so, Zharost used his powers to look into the
Legionary's mind, but was stunned by what he saw -- betrayal, broken oaths, and the deaths of sons at the
hands of their fathers. He saw what the vision of Imperial Truth and light had now become. Zharost finally
knew why the Legionary had come for him. Once he recovered, the Knight-Errant of Malcador informed
the former Chief Librarian, that he had not come to judge him. For that right belonged to another. Zharost's
ultimate fate following this encounter, is currently unknown.
 Flaymaster Mawdrym Llansahai, Fallen Medicae Primaris; "The Smiling One"; "Bloody Bones" -
Among the Night Lords there were those who overstepped the bounds of even what that infamous Legion
considered sane. One such was the Apothecary Mawdrym Llansahai, or "Bloody Bones" to give him the
nickname granted him without irony by his Legion. A Nostraman by birth and a child of that benighted
world's ruling class, Llansahai registered as both highly intelligent and psychologically stable, and showed
great aptitude and ability for the VIIIth Legion's Apothecarion in which he was placed. The Night Lords
Apothecaries were charged with other arts than mere healing; they were needed to oversee interrogations,
contrive inventively malignant punishments and keep their "subjects" alive and lucid far longer than they
wished to be. Having risen to become a Primus Medicae, Llansahai was master of these twisted surgical
arts and those who wielded them, and slowly and surely they began to corrode his sanity. Soon it was
discovered that he was performing numerous unsanctioned vivisections and surgical experiments. Dragged
in chains to his Primarch for judgement, Llansahai was released under suspended sentence of death and was
forced to bear the mark of his shame by having his gauntlets painted arterial red. A warrior's gauntlets were
marked this way when he had failed the Primarch gravely enough to warrant death. He would wear the
stain of failure on his hands until his execution, which would only come at the hour of the Primarch's
 choosing. Although afterwards a shunned and dreaded pariah amongst his Legion, Llansahai survived, a
monster among monsters, and on Istvaan V he worked unspeakable horrors upon the Loyalist Legions'
wounded and dying. Feared and mistrusted, even amongst his own Legion, Llansahai survived both enemy
action and attempts on his life by his comrades, seemingly often by sheer chance alone. This only served to
enhance the Primus Medicae 's dark renown. His ultimate fate following the Horus Heresy is not currently
recorded.
 Veteran Legionary Uros Kastax - At the time of the Night Lords' deployment to Istvaan V, Uros Kastax
was the longest serving member of the 8th Company's Terminator Claw, the "Scions of the Bloody Ward".
Kastax is known to have participated in the Scouring of Morenna, the Yoggoth Genocides, the Fall of the
Lords of Ephrath and countless other campaigns of terror conducted by the Night Lords. He was the sole
survivor of the Succoth Perfidy, a battle which cost the 8th Company a fearful toll, including the last of its
Terran-born Legionaries. The exact circumstances of that battle remain unknown, though numerous dark
rumours circulated in its aftermath. Kastax is thought to have fallen in battle soon after the Night Lords
revealed their allegiance to the Warmaster Horus. The exact circumstances of his death remain a mystery,
for so few of the 8th Company's Terminator Claws survived the Istvaan V battles. But some report his
corpse lying amidst those of his erstwhile brothers, and that few of his wounds were to the fore.
 Talon-master Vibius - Talon-master Vibius was a Terra-born Legionary who served in the Night Lords'
22nd Company (The "Night-Scythes") as an Assault Sergeant of the 12th Forlorn (12th Squad). He had only
served scant months in the VIII Legion when they were united with their Primarch. His records indicate
that Vibius found his dark nature compatible with that of the Night Haunter, and adapted well when the
Primarch took command of the Legion. Vibius was quick to ascend to squad command, but here found his
rise stymied as other, Nostramo-born, Legionaries were promoted above him. He is known to have engaged
in a number of honour duels against other Talon-masters, hinting at a bloody and bitter feud simmering
beneath the surface amongst the ranks of the 22nd Company. It is believed Talon-master Vibius suvived the
Istvaan V battles, engaging in the pursuit of surviving Raven Guard in the aftermath of the Drop Site
Massacre. He is known to have engaged in a number of honour duels against other Talon-masters
throughout the pursuit operations and to have slain a number of them in a series of clashes which saw him
wrest control of the entire 22nd Company.
 Squad Sergeant Uritzon Tynok - Uritzen Tynok was a Squad Sergeant that served in the Night Lords' 77 th
Company ("Harbingers of Nocnitsa"). His Terror Squad, the "10th Blooded", is known to have been
amongst the first of the Night Lords to have fired upon their erstwhile brother Legions at Istvaan V. Indeed,
some have even suggested that the squad took great pains to insinuate itself into a deployment position
from which they might be first to reveal their treachery, a perfidy compounded by accusations that the
squad actually fired before they were ordered to do so by the 77 th Company's Captain. As a Terror Squad,
the members of the "10th Blooded" displayed a range of grisly adornments that would later become
common throughout the entire VIII Legion. The hanging of bones and the application of death mask
symbols to helmets lent these Legionaries a fearsome aspect, and one intended to deepen still further the
utter terror they delighted in sowing in the hearts of their enemies.
 Ancient Carrow, "The Reaper of Noval V" - Ancient Carrow was a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought
who served in the 17th Company ("Lords of Tempest"). He was known to have favoured a brutal form of
ritualised close combat inherited from the shredder-cults of Nostramo. He took part in the Drop Site
Masscre on Istvaan V, gleefully reaping a heavy toll upon the Loyalist forces.
 Ancient Reeve, "The Heedless" - Ancient Reeve was once a Talon-master of the 8th Company, which at
the time of the Drop Site Masscre on Istvaan V was known as the "Circle of Inclemency". Known
originally as Klemen, he fell in battle against Eldar raiders, but through sheer bloody-mindedness survived
even though his entire central nervous system had been disassembled before his very eyes. Having been
interred within the armoured sarcophagus of a Contemptor Dreadnought, Reeve disavowed his command
rank and devoted himself solely to the glory of battle.
 Dhar'Leth - Dhar'Leth was a Night Lord Astartes who ascended to become a Daemon Prince after the end
of the Horus Heresy. He pledged allegiance to Abaddon the Despoiler and the Black Legion. Dhar'Leth led
the BlacK Legion's assault on Antecanis IV during the 9th Black Crusade.

1st Claw, 10th Company

Talos the "Soul Hunter" leads a Night Lords retinue against the Red Corsairs
  Talos Valcoran - Known as the "Soul Hunter", Talos is a former Night Lords Apothecary and now the de
facto Sergeant of the 1st Claw of 10th Company. Talos was the first Night Lord who sought vengeance
against the Imperial Callidus Assassin M'Shen following the death of the Legion's Primarch. This quest
proved to be successful and Talos eventually slew the Assassin and earned his Legion's revenge. Upon his
return to Tsagualsa, Talos died sacrificing himself to kill the Eldar Void Stalker. His gene-seed was later
harvested by Variel and used to give birth to the new prophet of the Night Lords Legion.
 Cyrion - Talos' unofficial second-in-command of the 1st Claw. Cyrion is a devotee of the Chaos God
Slaanesh. Cyrion died after taking horrible wounds from the Void Stalker, and he was slain on Tsagualsa
by the Eldar Phoenix Lord Jain Zar.
 Mercution - Relatively new recruit of the 1st Claw, due to his old squad having been annihilated.
Mercution died after he forced First Claw to leave him behind after he sustained horrendous wounds. He
fought the Void Stalker in single combat, severing the Eldar's right leg. His last words were: "How are you
going to run now?"
 Uzas - The fifth member of 1st Claw who is a devoted follower of the Blood God Khorne and a Khornate
Berserker, though this made him undisciplined and hard to control in combat. Uzas was slain on Tsagualsa
by Talos Valcoran.
 Xarl - A highly-disciplined Astartes of the 1st Claw. Unlike the rest of 1st Claw, Xarl died before their
return to Tsagualsa, Xarl died aboard the Strike Cruiser Echo of Damnation after he slew Telemion, the 3rd
Company Champion of the Genesis Chapter of Space Marines. Xarl died from the loss of blood after he
killed Telemion.
 Variel - The newest member of 1st Claw, Variel once served under the lordship of Huron Blackheart of the
Red Corsairs as the star pupil of Garreon the Corpsemaster. Talos and the rest of The Exalted's warband
asked Variel to aid them in taking back the Echo of Damnation, a Night Lords Strike Cruiser that had been
taken by the Red Corsairs years before. Variel, who had made a pact with Talos years before, aided Talos
in recovering the Echo, and soon afterwards joined the 1st Claw. Unlike the rest of 1st Claw, Variel survived
the return to Tsagualsa. He harvested Talos Valcoran's gene-seed which was used to create the new prophet
of the Night Lords Legion.

3rd Claw, 10th Company

 Dal Karus - Former Sergeant of the 3rd Claw, 10th Company

9th Claw, 10th Company

 Lucoryphus - Sergeant of the Bleeding Eyes Raptor Squad, later designated the 9 th Claw of 10th Company.
Lucoryphus leads 19 Night Lords Astartes. Lucoryphus' and his fellow Raptors' skeletal structures have
mutated into a hunched, bestial form that makes it easy for them to walk (and climb) like quadrupeds. Most
of the Bleeding Eyes degraded mentally as a result of this mutation and have become nearly feral, some
only barely remembering how to speak. Lucoryphus alone retains his Astartes intelligence, patience, and
forethought. With his new streak of animalistic instincts, Lucoryphus is both the wildest fighter and most
cunning tactician of the Bleeding Eyes.
 Vorasha (Deceased) - Vorasha was Lucoryphus' second-in-command of the 9th Claw. He was killed in a
failed ambush against the Salamanders Chapter of Loyalist Space Marines.
 Shar Gan (Deceased) - Shar Gan was a former squad member of the 9th Claw that was killed in a failed
ambush against the Salamanders Chapter.
 Zon La - Zon La was a squad member of the 9th Claw. His fate remains unknown.

Legion Fleet

The Night Lords are known to have possessed the following vessels within their Legion fleet:

 Nightfall (Gloriana-class Battleship) - Flagship of the Night Lords Legion during the Great Crusade and
Horus Heresy eras.
 Hunter's Premonition (Battle Barge) - Captain Halasker's Battle Barge.
  Praxis Mundi (Battle Barge) - A Battle Barge of the Night Lords Legion active during the Great Crusade
and the early days of the Horus Heresy. Destroyed fighting against the Dark Angels Legion during the
Thramas Crusade.
 Umbrea Insidior (Battle Barge) - Zso Sahaal's Battle Barge, assigned to the 1st Company of the Night
Lords Legion.
 Terrorclaw (Battle Barge) - Assaulted by the Blood Angels and The Sanguinor.
 Aeternum Dread (Strike Cruiser) - Strike Cruiser of the Night Lords Legion active during the Great
Crusade and the early days of the Horus Heresy. Destroyed fighting against the Dark Angels Legion during
the Thramas Crusade.
 Avenging Shadow (Strike Cruiser)
 Covenant of Blood (Strike Cruiser) - The Covenant of Blood served as The Exalted's Strike Cruiser and
the flagship of the Night Lords' 10th Company, and was active during the Great Crusade and the Horus
Heresy. The Covenant was destroyed in battle against the Red Corsairs, though it took approximately half-
a-dozen Red Corsairs vessels with it.
 Dusk's Daughter (Strike Cruiser) - Strike Cruiser of the Night Lords Legion active during the Great
Crusade and the Horus Heresy.
 Echo of Damnation (Strike Cruiser) - Strike Cruiser of Talos Valcoran's warband which was retaken
from the Red Corsairs warband and restored to the Night Lords after decades under the Red Corsairs'
control. The Echo of Damnation was the sister ship of the Covenant of Blood.
 Excoriator (Strike Cruiser) - Strike Cruiser and sister ship to the Covenant of Blood
 Nycton (Strike Cruiser) - The Nycton was the Strike Cruiser alloted to the Night Lords' 45 th Company
under Claw Master Gendor Skraivok during the early days of the Horus Heresy. Alledgedly crippled by the
Ist Legion, the Dark Angels, during the Thramas Crusade, the Nycton did in fact escape destruction and
given its desolate state, was sacrificed to allow the infiltration of the Sotha-system.
 Obfuscate (Strike Cruiser) - Strike Cruiser of the Night Lords Legion active during the Great Crusade and
the early days of the Horus Heresy. Destroyed fighting against the Dark Angels Legion during the Thramas
Crusade.
 Quintus (Strike Cruiser) - Strike Cruiser of the Night Lords Legion active during the Great Crusade and
the Horus Heresy.
 Throneless King (Strike Cruiser) - Strike Cruiser of the Night Lords Legion active during the Great
Crusade and the early days of the Horus Heresy. Destroyed fighting against the Dark Angels Legion during
the Thramas Crusade.
 Tenebraxis (Cruiser, Unknown Class) - The Tenebraxis was a vessel that belonged to the VIIIth Legion. It
was destroyed in the first years of the Horus Heresy when it failed to ambush the famous Sisypheum.
 Warlock (Cruiser, Unknown Class) - The Warlock was boarded and captured by Loyalist Istvaan V
survivors in the aftermath of the Dropsite Massacre. Survivors aboard the Salamanders Thunderhawk
Gunship Ohidoran succesfully captured the Warlock and escaped pursuit to rejoin the Imperium at the Hive
World of Agathon in the Agathean Domain within the Coronid Reach sub-sector of the Coronid Deeps
after an odyssey of nine months. The Warlock would continue to function amongst the ad-hoc battle-group
Revenant and would participate in such battles as the Liberation of Numinal. The Warlock’s ultimate fate
remains unknown.
 Faithless Song (Endeavour-class Light Cruiser) - A former Light Cruiser that belonged to the Imperial
Navy that was captured by the Night Lords near Uriah III.
 Serpent of the Black Sea (Capital Ship, Unknown Class) - Vessel of the Night Lords Legion of an
unknown class.

Legion Artefacts

 Claws of the Black Hunt - These vicious hooked talons have spilt the blood of thousands of victims since
their creation in the Soul Forges of the Realm of Chaos. Worn by the master of the Black Hunt, a vicious
ritual that precedes the greatest of Night Lords invasions, they are so encrusted with gore they are almost
black. This congealed fluid is so thick it cannot even be seared away by the vicious energy field that runs
about each claw. This is seen by some as a clear sign of a gory blessing from destructive gods, and the
crackling field is so powerful it burns cloth at a yard's distance. Even when the wielder swipes the air near a
 foe, not quite making contact, the victim's armour and flesh part as if slashed open by a fierce and invisible
beast.
 Curze's Orb - Said to have sat upon the arm of Konrad Curze's throne, this orb was a gift from Magnus,
Primarch of the Thousand Sons. It was given to help Curze focus his precognitive visions, though in truth,
the primogenitor of the Night Lords never felt the need to use it. Now it is his sons that make use of the
strange device, scrying possible futures in its depths even as they take battle to their enemies.
 Scourging Chains - The Scourging Chains once jangled from the rafters of the Primarch Konrad Curze's
throne room. Many a soul judged guilty by the Night Haunter has been hanged from their jagged spikes
until death. Appearing taut as corded tendons as the wearer flies towards his chosen victims, these spiked
chains loosen and loop at the last moment before impact. By lashing out to catch the wearer's prey and then
contracting sharply, they bring the enemy close -- often onto an outstretched blade or crackling set of
Lightning Claws.
 Stormbolt Plate - This Artificer Armour was fashioned from a strange metal smelted in the darkest pits of
long-dead Nostramo. It is not the war-plate's incredible durability, however, that has made it so prized
amongst the Night Lords, for it is wreathed in a cloying darkness, an unnatural skein of midnight that
perpetually shrouds the wearer. So it is that a warrior with the Stormbolt Plate pounces on their prey from
the shadows.
 Talons of the Night Terror - Worn over a pair of boots, these talons give the wielder the appearance of
some eldritch raptor-beast that has evolved to better disembowel its prey. Should one sporting these bladed
accoutrements descend feet-first into the ranks of his prey, the talons will clutch and rip, slicing and
eviscerating all those too slow to evade. A heartbeat later, the crushing weight of the Chaos Space Marine
wearer will be brought to bear with sickening, spine-breaking impact.
 Vox Daemonicus - Emanating from the ornate winged helm in which it makes its home, a living susurrus
haunts the airwaves, spreading lies and falsehoods across the Vox networks of the Night Lords' enemies.
The chill whispers of the Vox Daemonicus have unmanned brave commanders and undermined masterful
strategies; many a well-laid plan has been torn to shreds by its baleful curse.

Legion Appearance

The gene-seed of the Night Lords seems to be surprisingly pure despite their allegiance to Chaos Undivided. Of all
the Chaos Space Marine Traitor Legions, the Night Lords seem to be the least mutated.

Night Lords Chaos Space Marines have jet-black eyes and pale skin. Those Night Lords who date from the time of
the Horus Heresy do not have irises, with the visible part of their eyes consisting entirely of jet-black pupils. Their
skin, eyes, and even their senses of smell and hearing are all adapted for living in complete darkness.

Even before they turned to Chaos, the Night Lords adorned their armour with the imagery of death. They know fear
can be used as a weapon just as effectively as a Chainsword or Bolter, and revel in the twisted anatomies that the
powers of Chaos sometimes lavish upon them. It is common to see the Night Lords adorned with malefic symbols --
fanged skulls, bat-like wings and glowing red eyes all feature heavily upon the battle-plate of these murderous
Traitors.

In the days before the Heresy, the Night Lords' midnight blue, lightning-streaked Power Armour lent them a sinister
appearance at odds with the bold livery of Legions such as the Imperial Fists and Emperor's Children. There are still
those amongst their ranks that wear the Mark IV Maximus Power Armour that was so common amongst the Legion
during the Horus Heresy.

Many Night Lords incorporate human bones into their wargear. Skull faceplates are laid over -- or even sorcerously
melded into -- helms, femurs are inlaid along greaves, splayed ribcages adorn breastplates, and even compacted
ground bonemeal is used to trim shoulder guards.

The bones themselves come from the most terrified of the Night Lords' victims, the Chaos Space Marines believing
that their last moments radiate from them as an aura of pure fear.
The Night Lords tend to be nomadic, and are hence sometimes forced to scavenge equipment from their fallen, or
even from the fallen of Loyalist Space Marines. Mismatching armour elements are a common sight, although before
long they are remade in the colours of the VIII Legion and bathed in so much blood and agony that any Machine
Spirit they might possess is corrupted beyond recovery.

Since the Horus Heresy, the battle plate of the Night Lords has grown ever more baroque, in some cases growing to
resemble the icons and motifs daubed upon it. For this reason, skull-like visages, jutting horns and winged helms are
prevalent amongst the Night Lords' ranks -- often, the sinister silhouette of the wearer is the last thing their victims
see.

Legion Colours

The Night Lords' Power Armour is not only commonly adorned in images of their Legion, and symbols of death
such as trophy racks, spikes, spiked armor, and numerous skulls of all sizes, but also a peculiar form of imagery that
occurs on each and every Night Lord Chaos Space Marine's armour.

The Night Lords' night blue armor is alive with a mysterious network of lightning bolts that constantly play across
their armour when in combat.

Whether artificial, a curse, or something else, this lightning is a signature of the imagery of the lords of night and
terrorises their foes in the ink blackness of the night.

Legion Badge

The Night Lords' Legion badge is a bleached skull with red coloured Chiropteran wings superimposed over a black
Star of Chaos.

"Make war upon the Imperium of Man? What is it you think the Legions have been doing for the last ten thousand
years? War does not end with a single victory or a single planet. It is an eternal creature that outlives men and their
tiny triumphs."
— Arzyn the Silencebringer, warrior of the World Eaters

World Eaters

Warcry

"Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! Death to the False Emperor!"

Founding

First Founding (30th Millennium)

Successors of

War Hounds
Known Warbands

Angron's Chosen
Angron's Fury
Berserkers of Skallathrax
Black Feast
Blood Legion of Khorne
Bloody Path
Butcherhorde
Endless Murder
Foresworn (World Eaters)
Gladiator Group 138
Harvest Macabre
Lifeslayers
Lord Skchalick's Elite
Oblivion Butchers
Ravagers
Skull Takers of Hans Kho'ren
Sons of Slaughter
Wrathful Dead

Legion Number

XII

Primarch

Angron

Chaos Lord(s)

Khârn the Betrayer

Original Homeworld

Terra / Nuceria (Angron's homeworld) / Bodt (Legion training world)

Current Homeworld

None; scattered across the Eye of Terror since the Battle of Skallathrax

Allegiance

Chaos; Khorne

Legion Colours

Red and Brass (Current) / Blue and White (Pre-Heresy)

The World Eaters are one of the Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines who now inhabit the Warp rift known as
the Eye of Terror in the Imperium of Man's Segmentum Obscurus.
The World Eaters, originally known as the War Hounds, were also once the XIIth Legion of the twenty First
Founding Space Marine Legions, and one of the first to betray the Emperor of Mankind for the service of Chaos and
the Warmaster Horus.

This Legion was a collection of nearly inhuman monsters long before Horus became corrupted and monsters they
would remain, only with what little remained of their restraint and their humanity stripped away after their fall to
Chaos.

The World Eaters are now the dedicated servants of the Blood God Khorne, the Chaos God of war and murder, and
live for nothing more than to spill blood in his name. The World Eaters' Primarch Angron was one of the first of the
Space Marine Primarchs to join with Horus when he turned against the Emperor and began the Horus Heresy.

The Legion is no longer united, having long ago surrendered to the pure bloodlust inspired by their patron Khorne.
Instead they now operate as separate warbands of Chaos Space Marines who seek to spread death and terror in the
name of the Blood God across the galaxy.

The World Eaters were known from their very inception as the most brutal and direct of assault troops. Their
fearsome doctrine was very much the result of the early life of their Primarch.

Angron was raised on the world of Nuceria as a slave-warrior, driven by a cybernetic cranial implant called the
Butcher's Nails into savage bouts of uncontrollable violence for the entertainment of the masses.

But Angron did not remain a slave for long, for he was possessed of the indomitable will of a Primarch, and he
rallied his fellow gladiators to break the chains of their bondage, slay their oppressors and escape to freedom.

Having led his army of escaped slave-warriors into the mountains, Angron found himself hunted relentlessly, until
only a thousand or so of his companions survived, cornered by five entire armies of Nucerian overseers. Determined
to sell their lives dearly, Angron and his warriors dug their own graves, a signal to the enemy that no quarter would
be asked and the fight would be to the death.

But Angron was not to fall the following morning, for it transpired that the Emperor had been observing his deeds
from orbit. The Emperor came before His long lost gene-son and told him, as He had the other Primarchs, of the
purpose for which he was created. Yet Angron rejected the Emperor's words, determined instead to fight and to die
at the side of his fellow slave-warriors.

As the sun rose and the encircling armies closed on Angron's band of warriors, the Emperor saw that not even a
mighty Primarch could prevail against such odds. As battle was joined, the Primarch was teleported to the Emperor's
vessel, and though he was saved from certain death as all his comrades died in his absence, he never forgave his
gene-father for what he would forever view as a gross betrayal of a warrior's vows to his battle-kin.

Taking his position as Primarch of the XIIth Legion, which he renamed the "World Eaters," Angron instigated a
program of replicating the cranial implants he himself had been fitted with as a slave-warrior, knowing that the
devices granted such advantages in speed, aggression and strength that no enemy in the galaxy could stand before
his Legion once all had received them.

Yet, it was soon found that the implants were based on lost technology of which the ancient Mechanicum was
ignorant, and while they used Angron's own implant as a template, they were never able to fully recreate it.

Nevertheless, the Mechanicum did succeed in creating devices that greatly boosted the abilities of the bearer,
making him stronger and even more aggressive than he already was. The World Eaters became the most effective
shock troops in the Imperium's armies, proving time and again that none could stand before them.
Yet, the glories came at a price, for the aggression unlocked by the implants proved all but impossible to temper
once given full reign, and at the world of Ghenna, an entire planetary population was butchered in a single solar
night by World Eaters unable or unwilling to deny the bloodlust unleashed by the implants. Angron was censured,
and ordered by the Emperor to cease the practise of implanting his warriors in such a way, yet he continued
regardless.

When the Horus Heresy erupted, Angron's Legion was at the very forefront of the bloodshed. Most notably, the
World Eaters led the assault upon the walls of the Imperial Palace, taking the breach with no regards to their own
losses. By this point, the World Eaters had given full vent to their most destructive urges.

While Angron had once been a great man possessed of a fearsome sense of martial pride and honour, now he was a
frothing, blood-soaked berserker Daemon Prince, as were his warriors. Any reason that had survived the implant
process was driven from their minds, replaced with the will of Khorne, the Blood God.

It is said that when the Emperor defeated Horus and the hordes of Chaos assaulting Terra were finally routed, the
World Eaters were the last of their number to quit the field of battle.

None can say how close the World Eaters came to destroying the palace, or whether they would have come face to
face with the Emperor Himself had not Horus lowered the shields of his Battle Barge, precipitating the final
confrontation in orbit.

In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, the World Eaters descended to new depths of bloodlust and destruction,
reaving across the already shattered Imperium before plunging into the twisted depths of the Eye of Terror. None
can say exactly what happened within the Eye, but it is apparent that the Legion all but consumed itself in a bitter
internecine conflict that saw it fractured into countless smaller warbands.

Perhaps the Blood God was pleased with the slaughter, for Angron had already been raised up to become a Daemon
Prince, even as his Legion ceased to exist as a coherent whole.

Though its Daemon Primarch would periodically gather the disparate warbands into something resembling the glory
of the old Legion, the World Eaters were condemned to roam the battlefields of the galaxy in search of war,
individual squads and warbands joining other Chaos forces and fighting for nothing more than the opportunity to
spill blood and take skulls.

Contents

[show]

Legion History

"Because we couldn't be trusted. The Emperor needed a weapon that would never obey its own desires before those
of the Imperium. He needed a weapon that would never bite the hand that feeds. The World Eaters were not that
weapon. We've all drawn blades purely for the sake of shedding blood, and we've all felt the exultation of winning a
war that never even needed to happen. We are not the tame, reliable pets that the Emperor wanted. The Wolves
obey, when we would not. The Wolves can be trusted, when we never could. They have a discipline we lack, because
their passions are not aflame with the Butcher's Nails buzzing in the back of their skulls. The Wolves will always
come to heel when called. In that regard, it is a mystery why they name themselves wolves. They are tame, collared
by the Emperor, obeying His every whim. But a wolf doesn't behave that way. Only a dog does. That is why we are
the Eaters of Worlds, and the War Hounds no longer."
—Captain Khârn of the World Eaters Legion's 8th Assault Company, from his unpublished treatise The
Eighteen Legions
Post-Heresy World Eaters Traitor Legion Badge

Of all the Space Marine Legions created by the Emperor of Mankind during the First Founding, none were so
savage and dreaded as were the World Eaters. For while others such as the Night Lords could justly claim to have
brought worlds into Imperial Compliance through fear alone, and others such as the White Scars and the Space
Wolves could descend without warning and leave a world burning in their wake, for the World Eaters to be assigned
to a campaign meant only one thing for the enemy -- extermination. Extermination not by Virus Bomb or atomic
firestorm, but by Chainaxe and Bolter, worlds drowned one-by-one in the blood of their inhabitants.

The Emperor of Mankind sought to unite all of humanity under one banner following the Long Night of the Age of
Strife, and end inter-human conflict. Once united, the Emperor intended to begin the next stage of His great plan to
ensure human domination of the Milky Way Galaxy, which He judged to be necessary if humanity was to survive
the never-ceasing threats to its existence embodied by Chaos, myriad xenos races and its own fragile human nature.

In time, when the Emperor's eye first began to fall beyond Terra, He began to raise new armies to fight his Great
Crusade. He drew these new troops in part from the forces that had already unified Terra during the Unification
Wars of the late 30th Millennium. To carry out the Great Crusade and reunite all the scattered colony worlds of
Mankind beneath the single banner of the Imperium of Man, the Emperor created the genetically-enhanced
superhuman warriors known as the Legiones Astartes, the Space Marine Legions.

Pre-Heresy World Eaters Legion Badge

These elite forces would serve as the speartip of His Great Crusade, bringing the light of the secular Imperial Truth
and enforcing Imperial Compliance with the new regime on every human-settled world encountered.

Such sources that survived the later Siege of Terra at the height of the Horus Heresy regarding the origins and
formation of the XIIth Legion of the Legiones Astartes are fragmentary at best, and in compiling their record
Imperial scholars were forced to rely on second-hand accounts from those who fought alongside them, and the
apocryphal accounts handed down by those many who had cause to fear and resent this most feared of Space Marine
Legions.

It appears that the Terran origins of the XIIth Legion showed no particular bias as to the techno-barbarian tribe or
city-state from which the initial influx of recruits were taken as there was in the case of the other Legions.

There has been some circumstantial evidence that there may have been psychological screening used to single out
the most inherently aggressive and competitive recruits in an experimental pre-selection program. Whether this
came to pass is merely supposition, for it is apparent from such records that survived that the XII th Legion were from
the outset deemed a highly aggressive force, its warriors hot-blooded and savage.

Pre-Heresy War Hounds Badge

One of its most ferocious and promising candidates, Ibram Ghreer, rose quickly within the ranks of the nascent
Legion, and eventually assumed command of the XII th as its first Legion Master.

During the Unification Wars the XIIth Legion's first recorded engagement was during the Sa'afrik Liberation where
they served as a spearhead of shock troops, mounting direct annihilation assaults on enemy forces, both in open
battle and fortified positions, and able to carry the attack despite their then relatively small numbers by sheer
courage and the fury of the violence they could unleash.

After its initial battles, however, the nascent Legion seems to have been largely held in reserve by the Emperor
during the latter Unification Wars and right through the subsequent re-conquest of the Sol System. This may have
been done in case of a sudden reversal of the fortunes of war, or as certain veiled evidence implies, as a weapon to
be unleashed in case of disloyalty amongst the Emperor's own.
During this time the XIIth Legion was kept in a state of constant readiness, relentlessly training and steadily growing
in numbers. On the occasions when it was unleashed into battle, the Legion's Astartes performed with almost gleeful
savagery, tearing apart whatever enemy they were given to fight without mercy or falter, heedless of the risk and
uncaring of the Legion's own losses.

World Eaters Legion Colour Scheme as displayed by Vastyx Khade, the infamous Gore-hound of Yhellos Alpha,
armed with Bolt Pistol and Chainaxe.

It is believed that during this period the Emperor Himself dubbed the XIIth Legion His "War Hounds" as a tribute to
the savage and tenacious way they fought to pacify the narco-sprawls of the Cephic Hives.

The Emperor chose this name because the XIIth Legion reminded Him of the white war hounds the Yeshk warriors
of the north of Terra once used in battle. In remembrance of this campaign and the Emperor's praise, a red hound
became the XIIth Legion's new badge of war.

Great Crusade

As the early solar decades of the Great Crusade progressed after ca. 800.M30, and the first of the Primarchs were
discovered across the galaxy where they had been dispersed by the Ruinous Powers, the XIIth Legion was broken up
temporarily into a number of independent sub-commands, each several thousand Space Marines strong.

The largest of these, at some 8,000 War Hounds, along with dedicated assault and fleet support elements, was
designated the 13th Expeditionary Fleet, or the "Bloody 13th" as it became quickly known. These detachments were
sent as a mobile reserve where the fighting was fiercest on the Great Crusade's frontlines.

Pre-Heresy World Eaters Legion Colour Scheme as displayed by Brother Olvarr in Mark IV Maximus Power
Armour. Olvarr fought in Angron's wake in the Choral City during the Istvaan III Atrocity at the very start of the
Horus Heresy.

There they served as frontline assault troops in glorious campaigns alongside the Space Wolves, Iron Warriors and
Dark Angels Legions. Elsewhere they would often provide the killing-strike for larger Imperial Army formations in
war zones where an impasse had been reached, breaking a strategic deadlock in a single furious attack which sent an
enemy reeling.

The War Hounds developed a reputation for victory, although at a cost, and it was said every assault they conducted
ended in only one of two ways: victorious slaughter or simple slaughter, either of which left the foe in no condition
to resist further. However effective the Legion was, there were many who fought alongside them who found them
also to be unpredictable, intemperate and dangerous to anything that stood in their path, combatant, civilian or
otherwise.

Rumours soon began to circulate that the War Hounds would put to the sword human auxiliary regiments of the
Imperial Army they saw as failing them in battle, and they kept a guarded distance from other Legions. It was noted
by outsiders that the War Hounds' officers enforced an unusually harsh code of discipline in their ranks which was
indeed needed, as the Astartes of this Legion often proved fractious, and bloodshed between Battle-Brothers was far
from uncommon.

Pre-Heresy War Hounds Legion Colour Scheme

The XIIth Legion was increasingly deemed by the Imperial War Council as being more suitable for use against
targets where annihilation was the goal rather than Imperial Compliance or liberation, a task to which they seemed
eminently suited. The War Hounds were brought together again under the banner of the "Bloody 13th" alongside a
variety of units who, like the War Hounds, had gained a dark reputation for unrestrained violence rather than
military discipline, or who were otherwise deemed as unusable for actions where collateral damage was to be kept to
a minimum and liberation rather than destruction was the goal.

They mustered on the harsh, volcanic world of Bodt which had been taken by the War Hounds as a training ground
some years before, included regiments of Feral World head-hunters inducted into the Imperial Army and brute
Abhumans on the edge of the Imperium's tolerated genetic deviance. To these were added units such as the Titans of
the Legio Audax around whom a pall of suspicion had fallen ever since the Lorin Alpha Massacres, and the
distrusted Numen Gun Clans -- nomadic techno-barbarians who had bitterly fought against Compliance for many
standard years before their recent and grudging induction into the Imperium.

Primarch of Wrath

Angron, the Red Angel, Primarch of the World Eaters Legion

A very great deal about the finding of the Primarch Angron remains unknown to wider Imperial record. There is in
fact evidence that this information, including the true name of the world he was found upon was known but was kept
deliberately secret by command of the Emperor and those close to Him.

That which is now known is a dark tale of the Primarch's brutal upbringing, murderous violence, and Angron's revolt
against his cruel masters. After Angron came to be separated from the Emperor and Terra by the mysterious
machinations of the Ruinous Powers he was deposited through the Warp on the world of Nuceria.

Where this planet is located in the galaxy or if it even still exists is uncertain. Carpinus' Speculum Historiate tells of
Nuceria that it was technologically advanced and ruled over by a wealthy noble caste who lived in decadent
opulence while the populations of their cities lived in abject poverty in the huge slums surrounding their palaces and
villas.

To distract the populace from their poverty, the oligarchic rulers of Nuceria held regular gladiatorial deathmatches in
massive arenas, using cybernetically-enhanced gladiators who battled to satisfy the endless bloodlust of the
oppressed people. It was on this world that the Primarch Angron was eventually discovered, though little else about
the circumstances of how he came to be there remains known.

What is known is that Angron was discovered by a slave trader who chanced upon the battered and bleeding figure
of the young Primarch, surrounded by scores of alien corpses, high in the northern mountains of the world.

History does not record what species these aliens belonged to, but many Imperial scholars believe them to have been
Aeldari who attempted to kill the Primarch, due to some psychic foreknowledge of the plague upon the galaxy he
would one day become. Angron had been badly wounded in the combat, but remained alive.

Taken as a slave, the young boy was brought to the Palace Praxica, the seat of the Reksium Throne of the powerful
Nucerian city-state of Desh'ea, where he was sold to the ruling clan, the Thal'kr. The youth's obvious potential as a
gladiator was soon made apparent and he was bought by the largest and most popular arena in the capital.

The young Primarch was given a name, Angron Thal'kyr, and nursed back to health. He then received the bio-neural
cybernetic implants known to the savants of Nuceria as the Butcher's Nails. These were hammered into the
Primarch's skull and surgically grafted to his cerebral cortex.

Relic devices from the Dark Age of Technology, these cortical implants would boost a warrior's adrenaline,
resulting in greater strength and aggression in battle. They bleached a warrior's mind of all reason, all caution, all the
instincts of mortality. The cells below the arena were home to several thousand gladiators, all implanted with the
Butcher's Nails, and Angron took his place amongst them.
After only a few solar months, Angron had become a proud warrior of fearsome skill and an even stronger sense of
honour. He killed hundreds of other gladiators, but those who fought well he always spared. Although Angron
seemed to enjoy the life of a gladiator and the adulation of the Desh'ean crowds, he secretly resented his slavery, and
was always plotting to escape.

He proved to be a troublesome champion, prone to attempt escaping whenever he saw an occasion, but such efforts
always failed. Within a few standard years Angron's fame had spread to every corner of his homeworld. Under his
training, the gladiators of his arena soon became the greatest their world had ever seen and none could stand against
them. Yet Angron also learned, following a final failed escape attempt, that he would never succeed alone.

His unbending warrior's code and sheer combat skill had made him a well-respected leader among the other
Desh'ean gladiators and when the largest death games ever held on Nuceria were announced, Angron planned his
most daring escape attempt.

For these new games, Angron was allowed to stage a vast combat that would involve every gladiator of his arena.
As the Desh'ean crowd drowned out the sounds of battle, Angron's gladiators turned on their armed guards,
butchering them and fighting their way to freedom. Against the guards armed with firearms, the gladiators'
casualties were grievous, but nearly 2,000 survived to escape into the streets of Desh'ea, stealing what weapons and
supplies they could before fleeing into the northern mountains where Angron had first been discovered.

Over the next few Terran years, the rulers of the world dispatched many armed forces to kill or recapture the rebel
slaves, who soon named themselves the "Eaters of Cities," but all were destroyed in turn by Angron's leadership,
martial skill and the cybernetically-enhanced fury of the gladiators.

But attrition and hunger slowly took their toll on the slaves and eventually only 1,000 men and women remained,
half the size of the original force of escapees. On a mountain named Fedan Mhor, on a bleak spit of land called
Desh'elika Ridge, Angron and his forces were finally surrounded by no less than five large Nucerian armies. Not
even the Primarch could stand against such sheer numbers, yet it was at this time that the Emperor of Mankind came
to this world, drawn by the psychic emanations of His gene-son the Primarch.

The Emperor had observed Angron secretly from orbit for many solar months and had watched with pride as he had
led his freed slaves in battle against the forces of tyranny. The Emperor descended to the world's surface and after
the shock of the august meeting had worn off on the Primarch, the Emperor offered Angron the leadership of the
XIIth Space Marine Legion, which had been created from Angron's own genetic material, and a place at His side in
the Great Crusade.

To the Emperor's disbelief, Angron refused, claiming that his place remained with his fellow slaves amongst the
Eaters of Cities and he would die before deserting them. The Emperor retreated to His flagship, shocked at His son's
refusal.

Appraising the situation, the Emperor saw that for all of Angron's might as a Primarch and a leader, he would die in
the coming battle. Losing one of His irreplaceable sons to the assault of rabble on a backwater planet soon to be
brought into Imperial Compliance was simply unacceptable.

Bringing His flagship into low orbit over the world, the Emperor teleported Angron away from the mountain of
Fedan Mhor and the Battle of Desh'elika Ridge. Without their leader, the morale of the gladiators was destroyed and
the next day they were slaughtered to the last warrior by the armies of the world's rulers.

This was a deed for which Angron would never forgive the Emperor, and a stain upon the Primarch's honour that
would never fade but fester into a soul-deep wound.
The exact records of the Emperor's intervention and Angron's acceptance of his new situation is a matter of
shadowed rumour and conjecture, but what can be said with certainty is that Angron's first reaction to his new
situation and what he perceived as a vicious betrayal was rage.

It was said with certainty that for some time any War Hound who came before him was met with a grisly death for
their efforts. It is certain that at this time the Legion Master of the War Hounds, Ibram Ghreer, a respected general
who had commanded the XIIth Legion for nearly three solar decades, disappeared without explanation from any
record of the time and no explanation was given by his taciturn Legion for his absence.

Apparently some sort of accommodation was eventually reached whereby Angron came to realise the value and
valour of his gene-sons. Most tales credit this with having been achieved through the intervention of Centurion
Khârn, captain of the elite 8th Assault Company, who became the Primarch's Equerry.

Angron swiftly took charge of his Legion. Angron renamed his Legion the "World Eaters" after he assumed
command. Angron did this in part to honour the gladiator force he had led in rebellion on his homeworld whose
warriors had been known as the "Eaters of Cities" for their wrath and violence.

He chose the new name for his Legion when Dreagher, a Terran-born War Hound Astartes who served as captain of
the Legion's 9th Company, promised Angron after meeting his Primarch for the first time that under his leadership
the War Hounds would become "...the eaters of worlds."

Blood and Sand

Wronde Veteran Squad of the World Eaters bring a planet into Imperial Compliance during the Great Crusade.

Angron took charge of his Legion at the mustering grounds on their training world of Bodt and swiftly worked many
changes on his forces. He was given a surprisingly free hand for a newly invested Primarch, for he was not required
a period of shadowing one of his Primarch brothers while he grew into command, or even time spent in his new-
found father's company. Instead he was given license to simply take charge of his host and with bellicose energy he
prepared it for war.

The regime of discipline and training the XIIth Legion had abided by in the past would prove to be but a shadow of
what came to pass under Angron's direction and reform. Conflict became the only measure and the only judge, and
training beyond its most basic elements was as real as any war or battle a World Eaters Astartes would find
themselves in.

Blood, live rounds and bared blades, fighting pits and gladiatorial combat; these were the methods now used to test
the mettle of the Primarch's sons, to make them more brutal and efficient killers, in the image of their genetic father.
Each warrior soon bore scars by which to count the lessons learned amid heat and the bitter volcanic sands, and
those that failed did not live long enough to try again.

Butcher's Nails

World Eaters Jetbike squadron performing reconnaissance.

Knowing how successful the cybernetic bio-neural implants could be at boosting a warrior's prowess in battle,
Angron ordered his Apothecarion to insert the psycho-surgical Butcher's Nails implants within every Astartes of the
World Eaters Legion to enhance aggression and pain tolerance far beyond that which even the gene-engineered flesh
of a member of the Space Marine Legions was capable. But the drawbacks were that such surgical procedures left
the individual devoid of joy or peace save for that found in battle.

In this dark endeavour, Angron ordered the study of the implants he had been given by his slave masters, the
infamous Butcher's Nails, to serve as a template. The Techmarines of the World Eaters attempted to duplicate the
process using the Primarch's own implants as templates to reverse-engineer the devices. However, this proved
difficult, for Angron's implants were a relic of a long-lost human technology, little understood by its makers, while
removing them from Angron for close study would have proved fatal to the Primarch.

Early attempts to duplicate these implants by the combined efforts of the Legion's Techmarines and Apothecaries
were far from successful, and resulted in high rates of mortality and irrecoverable homicidal frenzy on test recruits.
However as time progressed, a viable form of the cortical implant technology was replicated and steadily improved,
although it was never fully stable or constant between subjects, and entire newly-formed companies of recruits were
implanted, as well as large numbers of existing World Eaters who volunteered for the dangerous operation.

The majority of these Astartes were absorbed back into the Legion's line units, while those deemed perhaps too
unstable for such tasks joined a growing number of near-berserker assault units known as Rampager Squads, and
within these those too far gone to be anything but restrained as savages between battles became known as the
Caedere or the "Butchers", a frightening portent of what was to come for the entirety of the XII th Legion.

The Liber Malus speaks of whole star systems surrendering wholesale when the World Eaters' fleet was detected
entering the system rather than face the wrath of Angron's Space Marines, so potent had their bloody legend grown.
With this legend came dark tales of atrocity and wanton destruction that froze the blood of even hardened Imperial
Commanders and caused concern even at the level of the War Council and the other Primarchs.

Not least of the XIIth Legion's detractors was Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, who fought beside
Angron and his Legion during the Cleansing of Arigatta and saw first hand the bloodbath they had left in the wake
of their attack on the Basalt Citadel, where the last defenders of this non-Compliant human world had made their
stand. Guilliman had seen the ramp of World Eaters corpses that had been used to finally mount a breach in the
mighty fortress and the vengeful horror the Space Marines had wrought within and been sickened.

A World Eaters Battle-Brother of the Lhorke Assault Squad rushes into battle during the Great Crusade.

Yet it was not long before the Legion's use of cybernetic implants in its Neophytes became known in the wider
Imperium. Following the infamous Ghenna Scouring, where an entire planet's population was butchered in a single
night, the World Eaters were publicly censured by the Emperor and commanded to stop using the cybernetic cortical
implants. Angron paid no heed to the Emperor's command and ordered his Techmarines to continue to use the
technology until nearly every World Eater Space Marine had undergone the surgery.

Blood rites like blood-drinking and vicious gladiatorial combats became an increasingly important part of the World
Eaters' Legionary rituals and customs as they continued to slaughter their way across a broad swathe of the galaxy. It
soon became common practice for World Eaters to compete in the number of skulls that they could take in battle.

For some World Eaters Space Marines, the result was an uncontrollable thirst for slaughter even away from the
battlefield. However, the results produced by the World Eaters on the frontlines were so effective that the Imperium
was willing to turn a blind eye to the World Eaters' savage practices for quite some time during the Great Crusade.

Eventually, as the World Eaters' vicious savagery only worsened, many of Angron's brother Primarchs voiced their
concerns to the Emperor, yet the Master of Mankind proceeded to make a terrible error. He dispatched the
Warmaster Horus, the Primarch He trusted over all others, to confront Angron and bring him back into the Imperial
fold. Yet Horus was a master manipulator, and unknown to the Emperor, had already himself been corrupted by the
Ruinous Powers of Chaos after the events on Davin.

In Angron, Horus saw a warrior consumed by bitterness and resentment towards the Emperor and it was simple for
Horus to feed that bitterness and emphasize the Emperor's betrayal, fuelling Angron's perception that the Emperor
was a weakling in need of replacement by a stronger ruler -- a ruler like Horus. Horus had told Angron exactly what
he wanted to hear and when the Horus Heresy began, plunging the galaxy into civil war, Angron's World Eaters
joyfully marched beside the Sons of Horus.
In an event that sealed the fate of the World Eaters, Scyrak the Slaughterer, a World Eater champion, slew the
Loyalist Chief Librarian of the World Eaters -- the last ward against the influences of Chaos. Thus, the World Eaters
became one of Horus' original four Traitor Legions, along with the Death Guard, the Emperor's Children and Horus'
own Sons of Horus.

Horus Heresy

A traitorous World Eaters Astartes at the Battle of Istvaan III.

The ferocity once visited upon the Emperor's enemies now fell upon the Imperium of Man. The World Eaters fought
in the vanguard of every battle, fighting in the bloodiest assaults, preferring to tear the enemy to pieces in melee
combat rather than use long-range firepower.

Angron's warriors cut a bloody swathe across the galaxy towards Terra, drinking the blood of their victims and
taking their skulls to honour their new master, the Blood God Khorne. During the Horus Heresy, the World Eaters
fought many bloody battles, their allegiance to Khorne growing ever stronger.

Istvaan III Atrocity

During the first battle of the Horus Heresy, also known as the Istvaan III Atrocity, the Warmaster Horus at last
declared his traitorous hand and openly defied the Emperor. Angron led the World Eaters personally in the first
surface assault on Istvaan III to destroy the remaining Loyalist Astartes of the four original Traitor Legions,
including their own Loyalist World Eaters, who had survived the traitorous virus-bombing of Istvaan III's capital of
Choral City by Horus' orbiting fleet.

Horus had deceitfully launched this treacherous saturation bombardment of the planet after the four Traitor Legions'
known Loyalists were already engaged against the Slaaneshi rebels who held the world. The deadly cargo which
contained the hideous Life-eater virus killed billions of innocents, whose psychic death scream was said to be louder
than the holy beacon of the Astronomican. Much to the Traitors' surprise, nearly two-thirds of the Loyalists from the
first wave survived the orbital bombardment, thanks in no small part to the timely warning of the Loyalist Emperor's
Children Captain Saul Tarvitz.

Angron unleashes his savage berserker wrath on the Loyalists of Istvaan III.

Taking matters into his own hands, Angron defied Horus' plans and spearheaded a second Drop Pod wave after the
bombardment failed to eliminate all of the Loyalists. The Warmaster and his allies could only look on in outrage as
the Red Angel made planetfall at the head of a full 50 companies of his bloodthirsty Astartes, landing in the plaza
areas to the west of the Precentor's Palace, hunting for their own kin with fratricide in their hearts.

The World Eaters bloodily massacred most of their Loyalist Battle-Brothers, plunging into their former comrades'
ranks like a white hot dagger. Incensed at his brother's disobedience, the Warmaster saw no choice but to support his
ill-tempered and impulsive ally since the after effects of the global conflagration unleashed by the virus bombs made
it impossible to carry out an immediate, accurate orbital bombardment.

Horus ordered all of the Traitor forces to commence a ground attack to salvage victory from disorder. Nearly two
full solar months passed on the Dead World of Istvaan III as the Loyalist survivors stalled the Warmaster's plans by
tenaciously holding out against the Traitor forces. But their numbers quickly waned against the Traitors
reinforcements and steady supply of munitions.

Eventually, once the world's atmosphere had cleared enough to make accurate orbital fire once again possible, the
Traitors leveraged their superiority of arms at last, and soon the slaughter swung decisively in the Warmaster's
favour following another orbital bombardment of the Loyalist positions. The gauntlet had been thrown down and the
Horus Heresy had begun.
Shadow Crusade and the Return to Nuceria

"Let history mark my words well, for I care nothing about who sits proud on the Throne of Terra when the last day
dawns. Horus is a fine commander, but that’s the limit of my admiration for that arrogant, preening bastard. I
joined his rebellion because I can tolerate him easier than I can endure the abomination that names himself Master
of Mankind. You want the truth of my life and death? I am Angron, the Eater of Worlds, and I am already dead. I
died over a hundred years ago, in the mountains north of the city that enslaved me. I died after Desh'elika."
— Primarch Angron talking to his brother Lorgar

Lorgar and his brother Angron stand together against the Ultramarines during the Purge of Nuceria.

During the opening days of the Horus Heresy, Lorgar had ordered his two most trusted advisors, First Chaplain
Erebus and the Dark Apostle Kor Phaeron, to unleash their wrath against the Realm of Ultramar. This was done in
retaliation for the humilation the XVIIth Legion had been forced to endure by being forced to kneel in disgrace
before the Emperor and Roboute Guilliman and his Ultramarines on the world of Khur by the XIIIth Legion at the
Emperor's orders during the Great Crusade.

The Word Bearers proceeded to achieve a monumental strategic victory at the Battle of Calth which ensued. The
Ultramarines Legion was badly crippled and no longer presented a viable threat to Horus' plan to drive on Terra.
Erebus had managed to complete his blasphemous ritual on Calth's surface, which summoned the beginnings of the
sorcerous Ruinstorm to the galaxy's Eastern Fringe -- a monstrous Warp Storm larger and more destructive than
anything space-faring humanity had witnessed since the days of the Age of Strife.

Simultaneous with the Word Bearers' assault on Calth, Lorgar and the more reliable Word Bearers under his
command launched a second offensive, a joint Shadow Crusade with his brother Angron's World Eaters Legion into
the rest of the Realm of Ultramar, laying waste to the Five Hundred Worlds with reckless abandon, slaughtering
twenty-six worlds in rapid succession.

This was to ensure the success of the Ruinstorm, which would ultimately split the void asunder, dividing the galaxy
in two and rendering vast tracts of the Imperium impassable for centuries, effectively cutting Ultramar off from the
rest of the Imperium. This prodigious Warp Storm would deny needed reinforcements to the Loyalists as Horus
drove on Terra in an attempt to overthrow the Emperor of Mankind. Nothing from Terra would get in and nothing
would get out. Not even an astropathic whisper would be able to pierce this storm of Warp energy bleeding into
realspace.

Angron leading his Legion against the Loyalists during the Horus Heresy.

At some point during the Horus Heresy while taking part in the Traitor Legions' Shadow Crusade against the Realm
of Ultramar, fighting alongside the Word Bearers Legion, the World Eaters fought in a direct confrontation against
the Ultramarines Legion upon the War World of Armatura. During the brutal assault, the Ultramarines managed to
lure the enraged World Eaters into a trap as they assaulted the main quarter of the ruined capital city, collapsing
buildings and burying many of the World Eaters and their Primarch Angron under tons of rubble.

The Primarch's twin Chainaxes were ruined, as they had lost their teeth during the brutal fighting. After Angron
managed to crawl from the strewn rubble, he threw his axe Gorechild away, for it would never function again. In the
aftermath of the battle, Angron's Equerry Kharn found the discarded weapon and picked it up. He knew he risked his
Primarch's wrath by violating Angron's superstition of inherited weapons bringing ill luck, a gladiatorial conceit
taken from Nuceria, but still had Gorechild repaired, and used the mighty weapon ever since that day.

During this campaign of destruction, Lorgar had come to realise that over the course of their Shadow Crusade,
Angron's temperament and mental stability had steadily grown worse. His cybernetic neural-implants known as the
Butcher's Nails were killing him faster than Lorgar had originally imagined, faster than anyone realised. The rate of
degeneration had accelerated very quickly in the months after the Battle of Calth. The implants had never been
designed for the peculiar genetics of a Primarch's brain. Angron's physiology was trying to heal the damage
produced by the implants as the Nails bit deeper.

To save his life, Lorgar convinced the Lord of the World Eaters to go back to his homeworld of Nuceria. The
overlords of the gladiatorial games on that world who had first hammered the foul device into Angron's skull would
know more of the implant's function than the Traitor Legion's savants and the Dark Mechanicum. The two
Primarchs would learn all that was known about the Nucerians' insidious cortical implant technology, and then they
would burn that loathsome world until its surface was nothing but glass. Angron would finally take the vengeance he
pretended to no longer desire. Whether Angron fought him, hated him or trusted him, mattered little to Lorgar, who
intended to drag Angron into the immortality that he deserved before the Dark Gods whether he wanted it or not.

Coming home to Nuceria after a century, Angron visits the site of the Battle of Desh'elika Ridge to mourn his lost
gladiator brothers and sisters.

Once on Nuceria, Angron paid his respects to his fallen brothers and sisters amongst the Nucerian gladiators he had
once fought beside, whose bones now lay exposed to the elements on the Desh'elika Ridge where they had died. The
painful memories of that day, long ago, were too much for the Primarch to bear.

After paying a visit to the city-state of Desh'ea to see who ruled the Nucerian city-state that had once claimed to own
him, he became enraged when he was told the tale of how he had fled at the Battle of Desh'elika Ridge, and the
subsequent massacre of the rebel army in the mountains. The rebels had died to a man in his absence. Enraged by
the lies that had been told about him over the last century, Angron ordered his Legion to kill everyone in the city.
Then they were to kill everyone on the planet.

Guilliman's retribution fleet, which had been tracking the rest of the Word Bearers Legion in the wake of the Battle
of Calth, finally caught up to the Traitors upon Angron's homeworld of Nuceria, which the World Eaters Legion
were preoccupied with wiping clean of all life in vengeance for the treatment the Nucerians had merited out a
century before to Angron. The XIIIth Legion warship Courage Above All, Guilliman's temporary flagship, broke
Warp at the system's edge, at the head of a large void armada consisting of 41 vessels.

The Ultramarines armada looked wounded, cobbled together from separate fleets. It was not a dedicated interdiction
war-fleet, but clearly a ragtag strike force, a lance thrust to the enemy's heart. Guilliman himself had done the best
he could with limited resources. The XIIIth Legion's Cruisers and Battleships ran abeam of the enemy fleet for
repeated exchange of broadsides, offering targets too big and powerful to ignore, while the rest of the Ultramarines
fleet used calculated Lance strikes from safer range. The armada then divided its assault potential, doing its utmost
to destroy Lorgar's flagship Fidelitas Lex, and attempted to take the World Eaters' flagship Conqueror in a boarding
action.

But the Ultramarines' warships not only fought a void war, they also attempted to take the fight to the surface of
Nuceria, for this attack was personal. The Ultramarines had come for revenge against Lorgar and the Word Bearers,
just as they had pursued Kor Phaeron all the way to the Maelstrom on the other side of Ultramar. Several
Ultramarines warships attempted to make a run on Nuceria, haemorrhaging Drop Pods, landers and gunships,
forcing planetfall by any means necessary.

The Ultramarines fleet swept over and against the Traitors like an insect horde. But the tenacious commander of the
Conqueror, Lotara Sarrin, put up a difficult fight and destroyed a number of Ultramarines vessels that attempted to
make a run for the surface. Though the World Eaters' flagship transformed a number of the smaller vessels into
flaming wreckage, the Ultramarines eventually punched through her tenacious defence and managed to land troops
on the surface of Nuceria.

As was their way, the Ultramarines established footholds at defensible positions, clearing room for their
reinforcements to land. For every position they held, another was overrun by the World Eaters in a storm of roaring
axes, or lost to the Word Bearers' chanting, implacable advance. The XII th Legion crashed against the XIIIth in rabid
packs, showing why Imperial forces had feared to fight alongside them for solar decades.

Uncontrolled, unbound, unrestrained, they butchered their way through Ultramarines strongpoints, enslaved to the
joy of battle because of the Butcher's Nails cortical implants sandwiched within the meat of their minds. The XVII th
Legion also met their Loyalist cousins, replacing ferocity with spite and hate. The Ultramarines returned it in kind,
hungry for vengeance against the vile Traitors who had defiled Calth and damaged its star. Word Bearers units
marched, droning black hymns and chanting sermons from the Book of Lorgar, bearing corpse-strewn icons of
befouled metal and bleached bones above their regiments.

Meanwhile, the Fidelitas Lex was already a ruin, its armour pitted and cracked, its shields a memory. The cathedrals
and spinal fortresses barnacling along its back were gone, laid waste by the Ultramarines' incendiary rage. The XIIIth
Legion's armada attacked in strafing runs and protracted exchanges of broadsides, trading fire with the superior
warship and accepting their own casualties as the cost of bleeding the bigger vessel dry. Each assault left the Lex
weaker, firing fewer turrets and cannons, taking punishment on its increasingly fragile armour. But she fought on.

Crawling with smaller ships, the Lex lashed back with its remaining Macro-cannons, rolling in the light of its own
burning hull. Guilliman guided the battle from the command deck of Courage Above All, and had decided that the
Lex would die first, killed in the death of a thousand cuts and swept from the game board, while the Conqueror
would be boarded and killed from within. In the course of the battle in Nucerian orbit, the Conqueror could not rise
to its sister-ship's defence.

Both Traitor Legion flagships fought alone, starved of support and suffering the endless attacks of the XIII th
Legion's ragged armada. Salvation Pods streamed from the Lex's sides and underbelly, along with heavier
Mechanicum craft and bulk landers. With the Legionaries of the Word Bearers already on the surface, the ship's
human population fled in the vessel's final minutes. And still the great vessel fought -- rolling, turning, raging. The
Ultramarines Cruisers that drifted past burned as badly as the warship they were killing. This void battle was a form
of dirty fighting between warships, too close for the neat calculations of ranged battery fire. Instead, it was an up
close and personal slugfest.

The Ultramarines Battle Barge Armsman intercepted the Conqueror and came abeam, launching Assault Carriers
and Boarding Torpedoes. While the World Eaters flagship was busy repelling boarders, a number of smaller XIII th
Legion vessels slipped past her defences and launched Drop Pods, gunships and troop carriers. The first Drop Pods
hammered home on the planet's surface. Sealed doors unlocked and the first Ultramarines poured forth, Bolters
raised, moving in perfect and well-trained unity.

But the World Eaters were waiting for them. Those not lost to the Butcher's Nails at once had the presence of mind
to note that these Ultramarines were not the pristine cobalt-blue warriors they had previously faced on the War
World of Armatura. These Legionaries of the XIIIth wore cracked Power Armour, still scarred and burnwashed from
some horrendous battle weeks or months before. These were hardened veterans of the Calth Atrocity. They burned
with a cold intensity to carry out the vengeance in their hearts, and were intent on getting to grips with the Word
Bearers.

As the fighting raged, the burning shell of the Fidelitas Lex cut through the clouds into the planet's atmosphere,
shuddering on its way east, rolling ever downwards, achingly slow for something of such scale. The weight of the
Lex's massive plasma engines dragged the stern down first, colliding with the Nucerian ocean's surface far from
shore.

In the meantime, the demigod in gold and blue had finally found the object of his obsession amidst the clamour of
war. Guilliman confronted Lorgar, possessing the advantage of two weapons, but Lorgar's Crozius gave him a reach
his brother lacked. When they first met, there was no furious trading of frantic blows, nor were there any
melodramatic speeches of vengeance avowed. The two Primarchs came together once, Power Fists against War
Maul, and backed away from the resulting flare of repelling energy fields. Their warriors killed each other around
them both, and neither Primarch spared their sons a glance. Lorgar flicked the clinging lightning from the head of
his Crozius, shaking his head in slow denial.

Angron, during the bloody slaughter of the Purge of Nuceria

At the height of the final battle against the last city on Nuceria, Lorgar was confronted by his wrathful brother
Roboute Guilliman, who had been chasing him and the XII th Legion since the destruction of Calth. Both Primarchs
fought without heeding their warriors, their godlike movements an inconceivable blur to the Space Marines fighting
around them.

None had ever imagined the heroes of this new age would take the field against each other, nor could they have
predicted the wellsprings of spite between them. Guilliman confronted Lorgar for what his Legion had done across
the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar. In his righteous anger the Ultramarines Primarch struck Lorgar with one of
his fists, battering the Word Bearers Primarch's sternum. Lorgar repulsed him with a projected burst of telekinesis,
weak and wavering, but enough to send his brother staggering.

The Crozius followed, its power field trailing lightning as Lorgar hammered it into the side of Guilliman's head with
the force of a cannonball. Both Primarchs faced each other beneath the grey sky, one bleeding internally, the other
with half of his face lost to blood sheeting from a fractured skull. As the two Primarchs were locked in their furious
life-and-death struggle, they were oblivious to the destruction being wrought around them.

Suddenly, Angron burst forth from the Ultramarines' ranks, his armour a shattered wreck, and both of his
Chainswords spat gobbets of ceramite armour plating and scarlet gore. Angron was plastered with the blood of the
slain after hours in the crush of the front lines of intense combat. On his chest hung a bandolier of skulls taken from
the mass grave at Desh'elika Ridge.

Blood painted them as surely as it marked Angron. Even through the constant pain generated by the Butcher's Nails,
that pleased him. He wanted his deceased brothers and sisters to taste blood once more. He had carried them with
him across Nuceria, letting their empty eyes witness the razing of his former, hated homeworld.

The World Eater launched himself at Guilliman with murderous hatred. The two Primarchs fell into a seamless,
roaring duel where Lorgar and Guilliman had abandoned theirs. Guilliman found himself forced back by the storm
of Angron's blows.

On Angron's chest hung a bandolier of skulls taken from the mass grave at Desh'elika Ridge. Blood painted them as
surely as it marked Angron. Even through the haze of pain created by the Butcher's Nails, that pleased him. He
wanted his former brothers and sisters, the Eaters of Cities, to taste blood once more.

He had carried them with him across Nuceria, letting their empty eyes witness the razing of the high-rider cities. As
the two Primarchs fought, Guilliman landed a glancing blow, his fist pounding across Angron's breastplate.

One of the skulls of Angron's fallen kinsman that hung from the chain worn across his breastplate was partially
shattered and scattered across the ground. Guilliman stepped back, his boot crushing a skull's remnants to powder.
Angron saw it, and threw himself at his brother, his howl of wrath defying mortal origins, impossibly ripe in its
anguish.

Lorgar saw it, too. The moment Guilliman's boot broke the skull, he felt the Warp boil behind the veil. The Bearer
of the Word started chanting in a language never before spoken by any living being, his words in faultless harmony
with Angron's cry of torment. Lorgar enacted his dark plan to save his brother's life, summoning the Ruinstorm to
the world of Nuceria, tearing the sky open and unleashing a crimson torrent, formed from the ghosts of a hundred
murdered worlds, raining blood.
Lorgar focused his concentration on the triumphant form of his mutilated brother, calling for the Neverborn, the
entities men called daemons, to answer in kind. He locked Angron's muscles, setting fire to the synapses in his brain.
The first spasms wracked their way through Angron's sinews, turning his blood to quicksilver, then to lava and at
last to holy fire. His cries of thwarted rage were tainted by an agony beyond comprehension. His body started
tearing itself apart, growing, rising. Perfecting, after a lifetime of broken torture. This was the moment of Angron's
apotheosis into daemonhood.

Angron fighting the vengeful Roboute Guilliman during the Purge of Nuceria.

The World Eaters Librarians, those few who had never received the deadly Butcher's Nails implants which were
inimicable to psykers, sensed the fey powers summoned by Lorgar from the Warp. In an attempt to halt the Urizen's
dark plans, the 19 remaining World Eater Librarians harnessed their collective psychic powers to manifest a psychic
entity known as the "Communion," the gestalt consciousness of 19 psychic minds.

In the midst of Lorgar's incantations, the Communion pulled the soul of the Primarch from his body. The two
psychic entities confronted one another within the Warp, locked in a deadly contest of wills, each convinced that
they were the one responsible for saving Angron. But ultimately, the Communion failed, for Lorgar was just as
powerful in the Warp as he was in the material universe.

After Angron's completed metamorphosis into a new Daemon Prince of the Blood God, the Daemon Primarch
turned his attention to the Librarians. The creatures that had pained him for solar decades. The warriors that had
made the Butcher's Nails sing and his brain bleed just for the sin of standing near them. Now they moved against his
brother, hurling their foulness at Lorgar, who crouched one-handed and wounded, down on his knees.

The Daemon Primarch's rage killed the remaining Librarians, each of them tasting a different doom. Angron killed
the last of the Librarian, expunging his Legion of the weakness that had plagued his gene-sons since his
reunification with them a century earlier.

The Librarius of the World Eaters, the last fragment of the original War Hounds within the XII th Legion, was no
more, a fact which greatly pleased the Blood God Khorne, who would not brook the existence of any psykers
amongst his chosen servants.

Lorgar had offered up the XIIth Legion to the whims of the Blood God as his loyal servants. Now there would only
be blood, an ocean of blood carried on a tide of eternal slaughter.

The gravely wounded Guilliman escaped from Nuceria, unable to face or even fully comprehend what both of his
brothers had become through their corruption by the Ruinous Powers. The World Eaters completed their purge of
Nuceria until not one human life remained on the benighted world. Angron, now the very embodiment of the Blood
God's Eight-Fold Path, shook the dust of the world from his feet and did not think of it again. Lorgar believed that
he had "saved" his brother.

In his mind it was the only way, for he alone had sought to save Angron from the implants that were killing him by
degrees. Only Lorgar had found a way to free Angron from an existence of unrivalled agony, and he alone had acted
to save his tormented brother. Now the Shadow Crusade could move on from Ultramar and rejoin Horus. The next
target for the Traitors would be Terra itself.

Siege of Terra

Traitorous World Eaters Astartes in the throes of the Blood God, bringing wrath and ruin to all that the Emperor had
built

The climax of the World Eaters' glory came during the onslaught of the very heart of humanity: Terra. Newly
blessed with daemonic gifts, Angron and his World Eaters first overtook the Loyalist defenders of the Eternity Wall
Spaceport. Later, the World Eaters had the duty and privilege of leading the frontal assault on the Emperor's
Imperial Palace. The surviving video logs from the Siege of the Imperial Palace show the World Eaters breaching
the walls of the Palace, the twisted, red form of Angron wielding his glowing runesword at their head.

Among those first in was the World Eaters champion Khârn who helped to assault the Imperial Palace. Despite
contrary claims by the Sons of Horus, World Eater records indicate that it was Angron's daemonic runesword that
was responsible for the downfall of the great gate of the Imperial Palace. The World Eaters reaped a true harvest of
blood on Terra, but they were denied ultimate victory. With the Dark Angels and Space Wolves Legions on their
way to Terra to reinforce the Loyalist defenders, Horus gambled everything in order to win the siege, lowering the
void shields on his Battle Barge and daring the Emperor to come to him.

The Master of Mankind rose to the challenge and faced his betrayer in the combat that decided the fate of the
galaxy. The two fought a titanic battle that was both physical and psychic, until at last the Emperor had slain Horus
and utterly obliterated even his soul from existence, but only at the cost of His own humanity and eternal internment
in the Golden Throne. The mighty Chaos army then disintegrated and fled Terra.

Angron was the last to leave, looking back from his dop ship longlingly at the Imperial Palace, which had stood
against even his fury. He led his surviving World Eaters deep into the refuge of the great Warp Storm that was the
Eye of Terror in the northwestern reaches of the galaxy. He and his Heretic Astartes would now have all of eternity
to seek revenge and more blood for the Blood God as part of the Long War to come.

With the Horus Heresy ended, the World Eaters fled into the Eye of Terror to a Daemon World specially prepared
for Angron by Khorne, though the Legion swiftly degenerated into roving warbands of Chaos Space Marines as the
incessant and bloodthirsty demands of Khorne drove the World Eaters to turn in upon themselves. As such, even to
the present time they have no particular homebase, with each band generally operating from whatever starship they
could lay their bloodstained hands upon.

Battle of Skalathrax

Following the end of the Horus Heresy, the World Eaters Legion was finally sundered as a coherent military force
during the Legion Wars at the Battle of Skalathrax on the Daemon World of the same name.

There the World Eaters faced off against the Emperor's Children Chaos Marines, the devoted servants of the Chaos
God Slaanesh, the chief rival among the Ruinous Powers of the World Eaters' patron Khorne.

The two armies of Traitor Marines clashed through the planet's storm lashed cities of black rock and ice. City after
city fell to the berserker assaults of the World Eaters, as the chosen of Khorne hurled themselves at the Emperor's
Children, slaughtering the hated Slaaneshi devotees until forced to halt their attack as the Daemon World's freezing
night fell.

The potent Champion of Khorne and former Equerry Khârn screamed his frustration as the Legion paused in its
attack, demanding that he be allowed to continue killing. Furious with his comrades for taking shelter while there
were still enemies left to slay, Khârn took up a Flamer and turned its heat upon his fellow World Eaters Berserkers
and those who tried to stop he cut down with great sweeps of his chainaxe.

As the flames spread to the rest of the city, the World Eaters Legion tore itself apart, berserkers fighting both each
other and the Emperor's Children for what little shelter remained. Khârn burned and hacked his way through the
flaming ruinis of Skalathrax, having become the living incarnation of the Blood God himself.

From that day forth, the World Eaters were broken as a Legion, becoming instead scattered warbands of berserk
Heretic Astartes, forever in search of more blood to spill. Khârn now stalks the Eye of Terror and only the most
insane of Khornate warriors dare to fight alongside him, since few who do so ever survive.
The 41st Millennium

After Horus' death at the hands of the Emperor, the tide of the battle for Terra turned and the remaining forces of
Chaos were scattered. Angron and his World Eaters fought their way across the galaxy to reach the Eye of Terror.

Once inside the Warp rift, the bloody Chaos Space Marines chose a Daemon World to settle, which Khorne blessed
and perverted into a realm of constant battle, bloodshed and pain where Angron, now a Daemon Prince of Khorne,
ruled over all.

However, following the Battle of Skalathrax with the Emperor's Children, the raving blood thirst of the World
Eaters broke down any form of organisation and control.

Units of World Eaters of varying sizes broke off from the main force to seek out glory and skulls for Khorne.
Squads of ancient World Eater berzerkers can now be found as parts of larger Chaos armies, in Khorne-sworn
forces, or even in small teams called warbands -- always seeking combat, blood and skulls.

Notable Campaigns

The World Eaters have kept true to Khorne's battle-hungry creed ever since their Primarch allowed himself to be
completely consumed by his rage during the Horus Heresy. Across the millennia, this shattered Traitor Legion has
spilled enough blood to drown worlds, stacking high the skulls of their foes until their mountainous offerings to
Khorne reach the clouds above.

 Sa'afrik Liberation (Unknown Date.M30) - The XIIth Legion's first recorded engagement was during the
Sa'afrik Liberation of the Unification Wars where they served as a spearhead of shock troops, mounting
direct annihilation assaults on enemy forces, both in open battle and fortified positions. They proved able to
carry the attack despite their then-relatively small numbers by sheer courage and the fury of the violence
they could unleash. After its initial battles in the conflict the nascent XII th Legion seems to have been
largely held in reserve by the Emperor during the later Unification Wars.
 Pacification of the Cephic Hives (Unknown Date.M30) - The Pacification of the Cephic Hives was
another early campaign of the XIIth Legion during the latter days of the Unification Wars. The Emperor
Himself dubbed the XIIth Legion His "War Hounds" at this time as a tribute to the savage and tenacious
way they fought to pacify the narco-sprawls of the Cephic Hives.
 Cerberus Insurrection (Unknown Date.M30) - The newly dubbed War Hounds were tasked alongside
the Terran XXIInd Dracos Regiment of the Imperial Army to subdue the asteroid prison colony of Cerberus
which had risen up in anarchic revolt in a state of near continuous rioting and mob violence. Initial attempts
to impose order by Terran troops had been thrown back in disarray as it became apparent that among the
insurrectionists was a renegade cadre of outlawed Thunder Warriors, long believed dead, calling
themselves the Dait'Tar. With many of the Space Marine Legions already assigned to the first
Expeditionary Fleets of the Great Crusade and en route to the stars, the Emperor Himself dispatched His
War Hounds to Cerberus with explicit instructions to reclaim Cerberus colony and carry the Emperor's
wrath to those that had defied Him. Within five hours, a signal was received from Praetor-Commander
Calyb Hax of the XIIth Legion that Cerberus-Primary had been returned to Imperial Compliance. When
asked by the leader of the waiting second wave how many prisoners to expect to transfer into custody, Hax
replied that he had not been ordered to take any. The second wave of Imperial Army troops were tasked
with the bleak task of clean-up operations in the wake of the War Hounds' assault, hunting down any
survivors hiding in the warren of tunnels and passageways, of which there proved to be precious few. There
were multiple reports of more than once coming across the hulking carcass of an armoured Thunder
Warrior, often with three or four of his number in Astartes dead around him, of choke-points and defence
posts turned into blood-soaked charnel houses and of scores upon scores of insurgents cut down from
behind while fleeing in blind panic, their weapons abandoned.
 Nove Shendak Campaign (Eight-Two-Seventeen) (ca. Mid-800s.M30) - Nove Shendak was a world
inhabited by worms; giant xenos creatures who were both intelligent as well as hateful. Their weapons were
filaments, metal feathers that they embedded in themselves to conduct potent bioelectrical energies out of
 their bodies. The surface of the world would roil with these filaments before the worms broke out of it
almost at the Imperial attackers' feet. The filaments were as thick as a man, and longer than a person was
tall. The worms of Nove Shendak had three mouths in their faces, and a dozen crystalline teeth in their
mouths. They spoke through the mud in sonic screams and psychic witch-whispers. Early in the Great
Crusade, the War Hounds Legion had found three star systems under their thrall, and had proceeded to burn
them out of their colony nests and chase them back towards their homeworld. But on their cradle-world of
Nove Shendak the XIIth Legion had, to their immense surprise, discovered humans. Humans lost to the
knowledge of Mankind for who knew how many millennia, crawling on the land while the worms slithered
in the world's marsh seas, hunting the humans, and farming them for food. The War Hounds, alongside
their fellow Astartes Legion the Iron Warriors, and a large contingent of Imperial Army soldiers were
charged with exterminating the worms and liberating the humans of Nove Shendak. Fighting the worms
was next to impossible as the lunar tides dragged the mud oceans to and fro across the jagged stone
continents, making the ground very unstable. The Imperial forces had to use sentries with high-powered
lasguns to read the movements of the mud and to hear the worms moving through it towards them.
Explosives were seeded around newly-constructed earthworks and allowed to sink to where the worms
burrowed. Perturabo had his Iron Warriors build the needed earthworks. They constructed trenches and
dykes, penned in the mud seas and drained them. This allowed the Imperial forces to drive the worms back,
and reclaim the land the wretched humans of Nove Shendak could build upon. And when the worms finally
emerged to assault their attackers, they met the Emperor and His War Hounds. Though the casualties were
horrendous, the War Hounds eventually emerged triumphant and the worms of Nove Shendak found only
extinction. The people of that world inherited the planet and became fervent supporters of the Imperium.
 Xenocide of the Osiran Psybrids (899.M30) - A sub-fleet of the XIIth Legion, under the command of
Praetor Erad Krüg, was fighting on the south-western extreme of the Great Crusade's frontier near the
Eurydice Terminal, against Ork raiders of the self-styled Glortian Empire from the untracked abysses
beyond. As both sides fought one another, they were suddenly best upon by a mysterious third party -- the
deadly xenoforms known as the Osiran Psybrids. As nightmarishly powerful xenos teleported aboard the
War Hounds' vessels, only their savage tenacity allowed them to survive, as they lost dozens of their own
ships and hundreds of Ork vessels were shattered. Primarch Roboute Guilliman received word, and in reply
ordered the War Hounds to hold at all costs, and if possible, to track the Psybrids' vessels to their source.
The Ultramarines despatched a powerful Retribution fleet to the Eurydice Terminal, and soon joined their
fellow Legion. With their combined might, the Ultramarines systematically wiped out the Psybrids, and
when they died, so too did their slave armies. They soon made short work of the remaining Glortian Orks
as well, driving them into the outer darkness. The blood price of the battle had been high, but it was a price
the Ultramarines were willing to pay for the defeat they suffered nearly six decades earlier.
 Golgothan Slaughter, Siege of Sarum (Early 900s.M30) - The first known target to suffer the wrath of
the World Eaters Legion after their Primarch Angron took command of the XII th Legion sometime in the
last two centuries of the 30th Millennium was the stellar wasteland of the Golgotha Sector. The Golgotha
Sector was sited near the galactic core in the Segmentum Ultima close to the realspace Warp rift known
simply as the Maelstrom. The breaking of the Siege of Sarum would soon become a cornerstone of the
World Eaters' legend and serve as a portent of the dark path yet to come. Driving his Navigators perilously
close to destruction in the Warp, Angron ordered his warships to form a single strike force aimed at the
Sarum System. They came upon the besieged Adeptus Mechanicus station world of Sarum on the edge of
the Maelstrom, founded during the Age of Strife and long cut off from aid. Sarum was being besieged by
the Abhuman empire known as the Brotherhood of Ruin who wished to take the Mechanicum's
technological secrets for themselves. The Tech-priests of the Mechanicus' Redjak Cult had endured alone
for ages, subjected to the privations of raiders and enemies all around them, with only intermittent contact
with distant Mars and the Forge World Anvilus, requesting aid that had never yet managed to reach them.
The World Eaters arrived as their saviours, smashing into the heart of the besiegers. Though dramatically
outnumbered and outgunned, the World Eaters drew into close formation and smashed through the enemy
armada. Once the enemy line of defence was breached, the World Eaters' fleet unleashed swarms of
gunships and Drop Pods upon the planet's surface. In the meantime, baying for blood, Angron and his
World Eaters ravaged the enemy armada, plunging in close so that the wild fire of their foes struck their
own ships as often as those of the Imperials. Boarding torpedoes and assault rams screamed out from the
World Eaters' vessels and slammed into the hulls of terror ships and Abhuman vessels, disgorging the
World Eaters in their unstoppable, inhuman rage, turning the enemy ships into charnel houses. Meanwhile,
on the surface below, Abhuman cyborg troops and their Ork mercenary lackeys died by the thousands,
 unable to coordinate a defence against this unforeseen direction of attack. The battle raged on for hours,
and the World Eaters took horrific casualties but fought on nevertheless. The Abhuman warlords sensed at
last that the battle was turning in their favour and called upon reinforcements from across the planetoid's
surface to aid them. It was then that a false dawn flared blood-red in the skies above. Seconds later, a
Cyclonic Torpedo barrage smashed into the surface all around the World Eaters, who fought on. In their
wake came hundreds of gunships and assault rams that represented the World Eaters' second wave, led by
Angron himself. These warriors descended upon the Brotherhood of Ruin like a god of wrath. Behind them
came 17 great black metallic cylinders which disgorged the towering Titans of the Legio Audax, which
strode forth, weapons blazing. Seeing the shadow of the Omnissiah's wrath descending, the Redjak
Mechanicum emerged from their fortifications and speared the fleeing enemy with barbed harpoons and
dragged them back for their masters to rend. The Siege of Sarum had been broken and the Redjak
Mechanicus swore to Angron and his Legion directly many oaths of fealty and entered pacts of mutual
protection and support. This provided the World Eaters and their Techmarines with a ready source of
resupply and armament far outside the Imperium's inner sphere. The campaign that was to follow would
last eleven standard years and see no fewer than 48 worlds and outposts ravaged and destroyed by the
World Eaters, and 7 separate dangerous xenos species, including a branch of the Lacrymole, rendered
extinct as the XIIth Legion's fleet cut a swathe of destruction through the wastes of Golgotha, and even
ventured into the perilous fringes of the Maelstrom itself. Of course, this campaign also destroyed the
miniature stellar empire that the Crimson Priesthood of Sarum had established in the sector, but they were
no longer in any position to gainsay the Imperium that had saved them from destruction. The hated
Lacrymole had arrived in force in the sector sometime during the 30th Millennium, enslaving the highly
regressed human population which was easily subdued and herded into camps to serve as livestock for the
xenos.
o Liberation of Alpha Shalish (900s Date.M30) - It was during the XIIth Legion's campaign in the
Golgotha Sector that the World Eaters' 203rd Expeditionary Fleet encountered the Lacrymole-
infested world of Alpha Shalish. Remembrancers and Imperial artist-scribes of the 203rd
Expeditionary Fleet recorded the auspicious events surrounding the liberation of the xenos-
controlled world of Alpha Shalish. The Imperial forces, spearheaded by World Eaters Space
Marines, burst into the mounded Lacrymole cities with righteous fury, cleansing the planet of their
foul, man-eating kind with extreme prejudice.Thus was the shackle of alien rule thrown off and
the Emperor's Imperial Truth brought to Alpha Shalish. Repopulation proved quick, aided by a
restarting of the agri-machines and STC devices present on the world from the time of the Dark
Age of Technology, many of which were found to still be in working order. Within four
generations, hive cities were raised over the old ruins and the growing world of Alpha Shalish
eventually became a part of the hub of what was later declared the Imperium's Segmentum Solar.
 Ghenna Scouring (900s.M30) - This was an infamous campaign conducted by the World Eaters against
the world of Ghenna, where the entire planet's population was butchered in a single night of bloodshed. The
World Eaters were censured by the Emperor and commanded to cease the implantation of the Butcher's
Nails cortical implants. Angron paid little heed to the Emperor's dictates and ordered the work of his
Legion's Techmarines to continue until all of his Astartes had been implanted.
o The Night of the Wolf (900s.M30) - Imperial records state that two Primarchs came to Angron,
both claiming to have been sent by the Emperor. The first arrived soon after Angron joined his
Legion after being unwillingly rescued from Nuceria. The second would not come until almost a
century later. By then, it would be too late. The Night of the Wolf is a little known incident that
occurred shortly after the massacre of the entire planetary population of Ghenna. The Primarch
Leman Russ had been charged by the Emperor to take his Space Wolves Legion to Ghenna to
bring the World Eaters to heel. The two Legions met at Malkoya, on the fields beyond the dead
Ghennan city of that same name. The World Eaters, battered and bleeding from Ghenna's Imperial
Compliance campaign, formed ragged lines before the assembled Space Wolves Legion. The
Primarchs stood before their hosts, armed and armoured -- Angron awash with blood and carved
up by fresh wounds; Leman Russ in resplendent battle-plate the colour of the storms on his
tempestuous homeworld of Fenris. In these early years of the Great Crusade, Angron still carried
his first axe, the precursor to all others. He called it Widowmaker. It would break this very day,
never to be used again. Russ carried Krakenmaw, his immense Chainblade, toothed by some
Fenrisian sea-devil from that blighted world's many myths. Angron refused to recognise his
brother's authority, and warned the Wolf King to depart before the situation became something
 that he would regret. But Russ refused to be cowed by the warlike Primarch. He informed Angron
that the implantation surgeries must end, for the Emperor Himself had deemed it so. The
massacres of newly discovered human worlds were to end with the fall of Ghenna. The World
Eaters were to submit to the Space Wolves as their escorts for their Legion's return to Terra. Once
they reached the Imperial Palace, everything would be done to remove the parasitic Butcher's
Nails implants from the World Eaters' minds. Angron was not amused by Russ' implied threats.
No one ever saw who fired the first shot. In the decades after, the World Eaters claimed it came
from the Space Wolves' lines, and the Space Wolves claimed the same of the XII th Legion.
Without either Primarch giving an order, the two Space Marine Legions fought. The Night of the
Wolf, it was later called. Imperial archives referred to it as the Ghenna Scouring, omitting the
moment the World Eaters and Space Wolves drew blood. A source of pride for both Legions, and
a source of secret shame. Both claimed victory. But both feared they had actually lost, and in truth,
the battle proved bloody but inconclusive. But the World Eaters did not return to Terra, and
Angron refused to stop the implantation of his Astartes.
 Destruction of the Auretian Technocracy (004.M31) - Shortly after Horus' miraculous recovery on the
Feral World of Davin, the newly renamed Sons of Horus encountered the human civilisation of the
Auretian Technocracy on the world of Aureus during the Great Crusade. This human society had been
founded during Mankind's early exploration of the stars in the Dark Age of Technology and had evolved
along lines very similar to that of the Imperium, and more particularly to that of the Mechanicus of Mars.
Horus and a contingent of Sons of Horus Astartes met with the Technocracy's leader, the Fabricator
Consul, who represented the human government in its diplomatic talks with the Imperium. During their
initial discussion aboard the landing bay of the Vengeful Spirit, Horus learned that the Auretian
Technocracy made use of highly-coveted, lost Standard Template Construct (STC) technology. Upon
learning this, the Warmaster turned his Bolt Pistol upon the Fabricator Consul and summarily executed
him. He then ordered his men to annihilate the Fabricator Consul's personal guard who were known as the
Brotherhood and who made use of Power Armour and weapons very similar to those of the Space Marines.
Unknown to most of the Astartes within the Legion, the rot of corruption had begun to spread throughout
the XVIth Legion shortly after Horus made his dark bargain with the Ruinous Powers. The official
explanation for the Sons of Horus Legion's grievous actions against the Technocracy stated that the staff
brought by the Fabricator Consul aboard the XVI th Legion's flagship possessed a weapon which he planned
to use to assassinate the Warmaster. This prompted the resulting conflict with the Auretian Technocracy
which lasted for over six bloody months. The World Eaters were finally called in and fought alongside the
Sons of Horus on the Technocracy's homeworld of Aureus, and their Primarch Angron personally lead the
final Imperial assault on the Iron Citadel held by the Brotherhood of the Auretian Technocracy. When the
blood-maddened warriors of the World Eaters' Assault Companies stormed a breach in the walls, the
Brotherhood detonated explosive charges that buried the warriors under thousands of tonnes of rubble.
Angron tore his way free and butchered the remaining warriors of the Brotherhood with his monstrous
Chainaxe Gorefather. Ephraim Guardia, the Senior Preceptor of the Brotherhood Chapter Command and
Castellan of the Iron Citadel, died in the first seconds of Angron's attack. The campaign had been a brutal
one, as the Brotherhood made use of highly advanced power armoured suits similar to those employed by
the Legiones Astartes, but they were eventually defeated and their technology was requisitioned by the
XVIth Legion. Horus would later use the seized Auretian STC databases to entice a faction of the Adeptus
Mechanicus led by the Fabricator-General of Mars, Kelbor-Hal, to turn against the Emperor and join his
rebellion. These Traitors would eventually form the core of what became the Dark Mechanicus and their
treachery would unleash the terrible civil war within the Mechanicus that became known as the Schism of
Mars.
 Cleansing of Arrigata (ca. 004.M31) - Towards the end of the Great Crusade in the early 31st Millennium,
Horus assembled three Space Marine Legions to take back the technologically advanced planet Arrigata
from the Imperial separatists who controlled it: the Sons of Horus, the World Eaters, and the Ultramarines.
Most of the planet was quickly conquered, except for the massive fortress within which most of the leaders
of the planet cowered. Eager to be on his way, Horus commanded Angron to take back the citadel and kill
only the leaders. Eagerly, Angron led the assault. However, the fortress was heavily defended and the
casualties were horrendous, a dozen World Eaters falling for a meter of land. Eventually, a ramp of corpses
led up to a single breach in the wall, and the Astartes of the World Eaters Legion plunged in. Filled with
rage over their fallen brothers, they were merciless. By the time the Ultramarines arrived, the battle was all
but over. The inside of the fortress was filled with the dismembered and mangled corpses of the defenders,
 for not one soul had been spared the vengeful fury of the World Eaters. It was an absolute slaughter, the
fortress having been transformed into an abattoir of human blood. The Ultramarines were disgusted by this
savage behaviour and reported the World Eaters' growing barbarism to the Emperor. But Horus, already
corrupted by the tempations of Chaos, knew that the World Eaters' savagery would make the service of
Chaos a good fit for the Legion -- and particularly for its rage-fueled Primarch.

Loyalist World Eaters Astartes prepare to defend themselves against their traitorous former brethren on the surface
of Istvaan III

 Istvaan III Atrocity (005.M31) - During the first battle of the Horus Heresy, also known as the Istvaan III
Atrocity, the Warmaster Horus at last declared his traitorous hand and openly defied the Emperor. But in
breaking Angron's bonds of loyalty to the Emperor, such as they had been, Horus let slip a beast that, once
unchained, was minded to heed no master's will, including that of the Warmaster. Even at this early stage, it
became apparent that Angron, and his Legion with him, would prove a law unto themselves rather than
loyal soldiers, prey to their own homicidal urges as much, if not more, than any tactical or strategic needs
of the rebellion. Angron led the World Eaters personally in the first surface assault on Istvaan III to destroy
the remaining Loyalist Astartes of the four original Traitor Legions, including their own Loyalist World
Eaters, who had survived the traitorous virus-bombing of Istvaan III's capital of Choral City by Horus'
orbiting fleet. Horus had deceitfully launched this treacherous saturation bombardment of the planet after
the four Traitor Legions' known Loyalists were already engaged against the Slaaneshi rebels who held the
world. The deadly cargo which contained the deadly life-eater virus killed millions of innocents, whose
psychic death scream was said to be louder than the holy beacon of the Astronomican. Much to the Traitors'
surprise, nearly two-thirds of the Loyalists from the first wave survived the orbital bombardment, thanks in
no small part to the timely warning of the Loyalist Emperor's Children Captain Saul Tarvitz. Taking
matters into his own hands, Angron spearheaded a second Drop Pod wave after the bombardment failed to
eliminate all of the Loyalists. The Warmaster and his allies could only look on in outrage as the Red Angel
made planetfall at the head of a full 50 companies of his bloodthirsty Astartes, landing in the plaza areas to
the west of the Precentor's Palace, hunting for their own kin with fratricide in their hearts. The World
Eaters bloodily massacred most of their Loyalist Battle-Brothers, plunging into their former comrades'
ranks like a white hot dagger. Incensed at his brother's disobedience, the Warmaster saw no choice but to
support his ill-tempered and impulsive ally, and so Horus ordered all of the Traitor forces to commence a
ground attack to salvage victory from disorder. Nearly two full solar months passed on the Dead World of
Istvaan III as the Loyalist survivors stalled the Warmaster's plans by tenaciously holding out against the
Traitor forces. But their numbers quickly waned against the Traitors reinforcements and steady supply of
munitions. Eventually the Traitors leveraged their superiority of arms at last, and soon the slaughter swung
decisively in the Warmaster's favour following another orbital bombardment of the Loyalist positions. The
gauntlet had been thrown down and the Horus Heresy had begun.
 Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V (566006.M31) - In response to Horus' betrayal of the Loyalist Astartes
in the Sons of Horus, Emperor's Children, Death Guard and World Eaters Legions at Istvaan III, the
Primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion, Rogal Dorn, on the direction of the Emperor who had learned of
Horus' actions from the Loyalist survivors aboard the Eisenstein, ordered 7 Loyalist Space Marine Legions
to Horus' base on the world of Istvaan V to challenge the rebellious Warmaster. They would attack in two
waves and fall under the supreme command of the Iron Hands' Primarch Ferrus Manus. The Drop Site
Massacre of Istvaan V became one of the major turning points that occurred during the great galactic civil
war that engulfed the Imperium of Man in the early 31st Millennium. During the massacre three Loyalist
Space Marine Legions that comprised the first assault wave -- the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and the
Salamanders -- were betrayed by 4 other Legions they believed were loyal to the Emperor of Mankind. The
second assault wave was composed of the traitorous Alpha Legion, Iron Warriors, Night Lords, and a large
contingent of Word Bearers that their Primarch Lorgar had stationed in the star system. Unknown to Dorn
and Ferrus Manus, the Alpha Legion, Iron Warriors, Night Lords and Word Bearers had all repudiated their
oaths to the Emperor and pledged their loyalty to Horus, and had been instructed to keep their new
allegiance to Chaos a secret. The Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders deployed in the first wave of
the assault and quickly secured the drop site. They were to have been followed by the arrival of the other
four Legions in support. The first wave secured the drop site at heavy cost. Horus ordered his frontline
troops to fall back, tempting Ferrus Manus to overstretch his already thin lines. Against the advice of
 Primarchs Corax and Vulkan, Manus led his veteran Terminators, the Morlocks, against the fleeing Traitor
Marines unsupported. Manus then brought his brother Fulgrim to combat. As the two Primarchs drew their
weapons, the Raven Guard and Salamanders fell back to regroup and allow the second wave's Legions to
advance and earn glory. However, as they returned, they were mowed down by the four Traitor Legions
that had landed to supposedly support them, thus revealing their new allegiance to Horus and to Chaos. The
outnumbered Loyalists were then surrounded and brutally butchered. Refusing to surrender, the remaining
Raven Guard and Salamanders Astartes stubbornly defended themselves, trying to hold off the inevitable
slaughter for as long as possible. Though they suffered an atrocious number of casualties, the Loyalists
managed to hold their own, until the Primarchs Mortarion of the Death Guard and Angron of the World
Eaters joined the fray. The World Eaters fought a series of brutal counter-attacks against the Loyalists'
landings, sallying out repeatedly from within the Traitors' fortress-line defences, each time halting only
through sheer losses inflicted upon them or stymied by curtains of heavy ordnance fire, slashing deeply into
the Raven Guard main assault force and the Avernii Clan forces of the Iron Hands, before erupting in a
murderous tide as the Traitors' trap was sprung, caring not who they killed. Bolstered by the support of the
infamous Imperator-class Titan Dies Irae, the Traitors killed tens of thousands of Loyalist Astartes. At the
height of the massacre the Warmaster Horus entered the fray, at the head of the elite Sons of Horus
Terminators known as the Justaerin, slaughtering the Loyalists in wrathful anger. Horus pressed the
advantage, his attack sandwiching the Loyalists between the two Traitor forces, killing most of them.
Barely a handful of Loyalist Space Marines escaped with their lives from Istvaan V to bring word of the
further betrayal of 4 more Astartes Legions to the Emperor. The Salamanders, along with the Iron Hands
and the Raven Guard, would spend the remainder of the Horus Heresy rebuilding their decimated Legions
and were too weakened to play any further role in the great conflict.

Angron and his brother Lorgar are confronted by the Ultramarines Legion during the Purge of Nuceria

 Shadow Crusade and the Purge of Nuceria (007-009.M31) - In the wake of the Battle of Calth, the Word
Bearers Legion, led by the Primarch Lorgar, linked up with the World Eaters to launch a Shadow Crusade
against the Realm of Ultramar's Five Hundred Worlds in an attempt to spread the massive Warp Storm
known as the Ruinstorm that had been conjured by the Word Bearers at Calth across the Eastern Fringe.
This would split the galaxy in half and deny needed reinforcements to the Loyalists as Horus drove on
Terra in an attempt to overthrow the Emperor of Mankind. But Lorgar noticed that the mental stability of
Angon, the Primarch of the World Eaters, was rapidly deteriorating because of the damage caused by the
Butcher's Nails, the cortical implant that had been forced upon Angron by the slavemasters of his
homeworld of Nuceria. With the savants of the Traitor Legions and the Dark Mechanicum unable to divine
a way to either remove the implant without killing the Primarch or to prevent the escalating deterioration of
Angron's mind, Lorgar suggested that the Word Bearers and the World Eaters return to Nuceria to gather
knowledge about the implants and then raze the world to the ground. When Angron returned to his
homeworld, he learned that in the Terran century since the Emperor had rescued him unwillingly from
certain death beside the rebel band of gladiators he had led, the Nucerian slavemasters had concoted a story
that he had cowardly run away from the rebels' last stand and left them to be slaughtered alone. Enraged by
the lies that had been told about him over the last century, Angron ordered his Legion to kill everyone in
the city of Desh'ea, the masters of which had once claimed to own him. Then they were to kill everyone on
the planet. At the height of the final battle against the last city on Nuceria, Lorgar was confronted by his
wrathful brother Roboute Guilliman, who had been chasing him and the XIIth Legion since the destruction
of Calth. As the two Primarchs fought, Guilliman gravely wounded Lorgar and was about to deliver a
killing stroke to his wretched brother. But Angron intervened, facing the Lord of Ultramar in single
combat. As the two fought, Guilliman landed a glancing blow, his fist pounding across Angron's
breastplate. One of the skulls of Angron's fallen kinsman that hung from the chain worn across his
breastplate was partially shattered and scattered across the ground. Guilliman stepped back, his boot
crushing a skull's remnants to powder. Angron saw it, and threw himself at his brother, his howl of wrath
defying mortal origins, impossibly ripe in its anguish. Lorgar saw it, too. The moment Guilliman's boot
broke the skull, he felt the Warp boil behind the veil. The Bearer of the Word started chanting in a language
never before spoken by any living being, his words in faultless harmony with Angron's cry of torment.
Lorgar enacted his dark plan to save his brother's life, summoning the Ruinstorm to the world of Nuceria,
tearing the sky open and unleashing a crimson torrent, formed from the ghosts of a hundred murdered
 worlds, raining blood. Lorgar focused his concentration on the triumphant form of his mutilated brother,
calling for the Neverborn, the entities men called daemons, to answer in kind. He locked Angron's muscles,
setting fire to the synapses in his brain. The first spasms wracked their way through Angron's sinews,
turning his blood to quicksilver, then to lava and at last to holy fire. His cries of thwarted rage were tainted
by an agony beyond comprehension. His body started tearing itself apart, growing, rising. Perfecting, after
a lifetime of broken torture. This was the moment of Angron's apotheosis into daemonhood. The remaining
World Eaters Librarians sensed the fey powers summoned by Lorgar. In an attempt to halt the Urizen's dark
plans, the 19 remaining Librarians harnessed their collective psychic powers to manifest a psychic entity
known as the Communion, the gestalt consciousness of 19 psychic minds. In the midst of Lorgar's
incantations, the Communion pulled the soul of the Primarch from his body. The two psychic entities
confronted one another within the Warp, locked in a deadly contest of wills, each convinced that they were
the one responsible for saving Angron. But ultimately, the Communion failed, for Lorgar was just as
powerful in the Warp as he was in the material universe. After Angron's completed metamorphosis into a
new Daemon Prince, the Daemon Primarch turned his attention to the Librarians. The Daemon Primarch's
rage killed the remaining Libarians, each of them tasting a different doom. Angron killed the last of the
Librarians, expunging his Legion of the mutant weakness that had plagued his gene-sons since his
reunification with them a century earlier. The Librarius of the World Eaters, the last fragment of the War
Hounds within the XIIth Legion, was no more. Now there would only be blood, an ocean of blood carried
on a tide of eternal slaughter.
 Battle of Terra (014.M31) - The World Eaters took a leading role during the climactic battle of the Horus
Heresy, the Battle of Terra. The walls of the Imperial Palace seemed to touch the very sky, so tall were
they. Before the walls milled the combined forces of the Traitors, an army so vast and terrible that its like
has never been seen before. Nor will its like be seen again until the end of times, and the final battle. All
manner of corrupted mutants, all the Greater and Lesser Daemons of Chaos, and the Traitor Legions in
their fell might surrounded this last bastion of the Loyalists on Terra. The walls of the Palace were
ultimately breached by the Titans of the Death's Heads Legion. Into those breaches, at the forefront of each
assault, went the World Eaters. They charged recklessly through the maelstrom, leaving heaps of their
dead, consumed by madness and their lust for slaughter. It was here, in the desperate and close fighting in
the breaches that a World Eater named Khârn became a bloody legend, butchering and carving his way
toward the Emperor's inner sanctums. They moved into the corridors running through the mile thick walls,
and the tunnels and chambers swam with blood. Even as the Emperor fought Horus above the ruins of
Terra, Khârn fell at last before the Eternity Gate, atop a great pile of corpses. As the World Eaters withdrew
with the other Legions after Horus' fall, some dark impulse or whispering from Khorne bade them take the
bloodied carcass of Khârn with them, alone out of the millions of corpses left around the Imperial Palace.
Khârn would be revived to life by the Blood God Khorne as his new Champion following the arrival of the
World Eaters in the Eye of Terror.
 Legion Wars (Unknown Date.M31) - The first major conflict between the most powerful servants of the
Dark Gods following the Horus Heresy was started by the Emperor's Children Legion, that Traitor Legion
dedicated to the service of Slaanesh, whose excesses grew more wanton and uncontrollable in the days after
the Heresy. As the supply of slaves the IIIrd Legion had acquired on Terra and other Imperial worlds as they
fled to the Eye was exhausted, the Emperor's Children began to assault the positions of the other Traitor
Legions within the Eye of Terror, plundering their own slave stocks for use in satisfying their perverse,
hedonistic whims. It is for this reason that these campaigns are collectively called the Slave Wars. One of
the actions known to the Imperium that occurred during these conflicts was the Battle of Skalathrax
between the Emperor's Children and the World Eaters that saw the World Eaters finally shattered as a
unified Space Marine Legion. The Emperor's Children also destroyed the fortress of the Sons of Horus
Legion on the Daemon World of Maeleum, leading to a failed attempt by the corrupt Emperor's Children
Apothecary Fabius Bile to clone Horus and provide a new leader for the Forces of Chaos. Abaddon the
Despoiler led the Sons of Horus to reclaim Horus' corpse, and destroy the primary fortress of the Emperor's
Children. Abaddon returned it to Maeleum where he had it destroyed so that no further attempts to clone
Horus could ever be attempted. Following this triumph, Abaddon declared himself Horus' successor as the
Warmaster of Chaos and the master of the XVIth Legion. At the same time, he came to the epiphany that
Horus was dead because Horus had been a weak fool, unable to complete his task of slaying the Emperor
and taking control of the galaxy in the name of the Dark Gods. Abaddon swore that he would succeed
where Horus had failed in overthrowing the "Corpse-Emperor" and proclaimed himself the new Warmaster
of Chaos. He had the Sons of Horus repaint their viridian Power Armour black, the colour of mourning and
 of vengeance, and cast-off the XVIth Legion's former moniker of the Sons of Horus. From then on, they
became known as the Black Legion. The Black Legion then abandoned the ruins of the Sons of Horus'
fortress and left Maeleum behind, choosing to become a fleet-based Legion with scattered holdings all
across the Eye of Terror. Though long, terrible, and bloody, in the end the dwindling Emperor's Children
Legion faced their inevitable defeat at the hands of their fellow Traitor Legions. The Emperor's Children,
like the World Eaters before them, were finally shattered as an organised Space Marine Legion and broke
up into hundreds of disparate and often opposed Chaos Space Marine warbands. It is said by the
adversaries of those who serve Slaanesh that during the Slave Wars the Daemon Primarch Fulgrim was
himself killed by Abaddon and the Black Legion, but the Emperor's Children counter that he was given
lordship by Slaanesh over an unknown Daemon World of unending pleasure, its location unknown even to
many of their own ranks.

Khârn the Betrayer, greatest of the Champions of Khorne

o Battle of Skalathrax (Unknown Date.M31) - On the Daemon World of Skalathrax in the Eye of
Terror during the Slave Wars that erupted shortly after the Horus Heresy, the World Eaters and the
Emperor's Children fought. Amid the World Eaters was the Champion of Khorne named Khârn.
After a full day of vicious fighting in what would become known as the infamous Battle of
Skalathrax, the terriblly frigid Skalathrax night began. Horrified, Emperor's Children and World
Eaters alike ran to their shelters, for the freezing night would kill even a Chaos Space Marine in a
matter of moments. Khârn raged over being delayed from slaughter for even a single night. Filled
with anger when he saw that his brother Chaos Marines were creeping back to the shelters, he took
up a flamer and burned them down, slaying with his chainaxe Gorechild any who tried to stop
him. The night was filled with the screams of the dying and the freezing as Khârn strode the
streets of the dead city of black stone, killing Emperor's Children and World Eaters alike, burning
any shelters he found. The night was lit by flames as the Emperor's Children and the World Eaters
fought each other and themselves for the few remaining shelters. By morning, most of the World
Eaters were dead, the survivors split into small warbands, the shattered remnants of the once great
Companies of the Legion. The Legion would never reunite and would remain scattered in
warbands for the next ten millennia.
 Feast of a Hundred Duels (Unknown Date.M41) - The centennial Feast of Blades, where the descendants
of the Imperial Fists Legion compete against one another in ritual duels, is the target of a massive World
Eaters invasion. The sons of Rogal Dorn quickly unite against the Khornate maniacs smashing their way
through the chosen world's defences. The finest Space Marine bladesmen of the age match their Power
Swords against the Chainaxes and flails of the World Eaters. Though the Chaos Space Marines finally fall
to superior numbers, the skies rumble with Khorne's approval, for the feast halls are awash with the hot
blood of champions.
 Gladius Anathema (Unknown Date.M41) - Upon the quarantined world of Gladius, the Drukhari Wych
Cult of the Seventh Woe fight their way into the great fang-lined fighting pits of the World Eaters in search
of a challenge. The violent duels that result are amongst the fastest and most vicious that Gladius' Daemon
Prince masters have ever seen. Though dozens of Wyches and World Eaters die upon one another's blades,
Khorne is pleased by the intensity of the carnage, and blesses the occasion with a rain of blood that brings
the dead back to life. A bond of wary respect is forged between the two factions, ultimately leading to the
invasion known as the Great Blood Wager of Anathema Quartus.
 Red Tide (Unknown Date.M41) - The peaceful commune world of Exotia falls into the worship of a
charismatic but sinister figure known as the Red Messiah. After a planet-wide chanson held on the solstice
of a blood moon, the planet is harried by midnight attacks from roving bands of Bloodletters. The Red
Messiah reveals himself as a devotee of Khorne, and forces his astropathic choir to call out to the raiders of
the Maelstrom. Soon after, a force of Red Corsairs bolstered by no fewer than three hundred Khorne
Berzerkers descends to push the planet over the edge of madness.
 The Skull Hunt of Octarius (Unknown Date.M41) - The Skullhunt of Vodha Bloodprice invades the
Octarius System. After hearing about the Tyranids and Orks that clash there in an ever-escalating spiral of
violence known as the Octarius War, they reason that the fighting there will be intense indeed, and that
Khorne's eye will be drawn to the furore. The World Eaters are not disappointed -- within the space of a
single Terran year, over eight thousand skulls are offered to the Blood God, the smallest of which is the
 size of a boulder. Vodha ascends to daemonhood after slaying a Hierophant Bio-Titan with the greataxe of
the fallen Ork Warlord Magza da Kollossus.
 The Fall of Ebon Vale (Unknown Date.M41) - The Watch Fortress of Ebon Vale is assailed by the gore-
slicked World Eaters of the Chaos Lord Invocatus. Together with Daemon Engine allies from the Brazen
Beasts, Invocatus raids the arsenals of the Deathwatch to claim state-of-the-art wargear and powerful
artefacts of battle from Ebon Vale's reliquaries. When the attack is quarantined and whittled down by the
Deathwatch air cover, the World Eaters make their departure, leaving empty weapons vaults and hundreds
of black-armoured corpses in their wake. With the Deathwatch greatly reduced in strength in the region, a
Hrud infestation spreads throughout the Ebon Vale soon after, reducing several Civilised Worlds to useless
mulch.
 Blood Runs Hot (Unknown Date.M41) - The famously ferocious T'au Fire Warriors of Vior'la face an
incursion of World Eaters. The Chaos Space Marines are so thoroughly lost to the worship of Khorne that
their ranks contain as many Chaos Spawn as they do Khorne Berzerkers. The T'au's impeccable fire
discipline sees the World Eaters warbands kept at arm's length -- that is, until the infectious rage of the
Khorne devotees begins to catch in the souls of Vior'la's foremost cadres. The T'au, voices raised in
primitive Fio'taun war cries that have not been heard for many Terran centuries since their homeworld of
T'au was first unified, begin to engage the Chaos Spawn at close range and even charge in to face them in
close combat. It does not end well for the T'au. Millions die before a council of six Ethereals are scrambled
to the site to lend their calming influence to the Fire Caste cadres, restoring order and allowing the T'au to
withdraw into low orbit before the World Eaters can complete the slaughter.

The World Eaters bring hell to the world of Armageddon

 First War for Armageddon (474.M41) - The arrival of a massive and ancient Space Hulk at the outer
edge of the Imperial Armageddon System in the Segmentum Solar in 474.M41 heralded the first of the
terrible conflicts to plague this strategically vital Hive World. In this costly First War for Armageddon, the
Daemon Primarch Angron led his World Eaters in a massive invasion of the planet. Imperial resistance on
the continent of Armageddon Prime was swiftly crushed, and the defenders withdrew beyond the vast
equatorial jungles dividing Armageddon Prime from the continent of Armageddon Secundus. Here, under
the guidance of the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar of the Space Wolves Chapter of Space Marines, the
Imperial forces established a new line of defence and awaited the renewed onslaught of the Forces of
Chaos. Complacent, and believing the campaign to be all but won, Angron wasted weeks erecting great
temples and monoliths to his patron Chaos God Khorne -- or so it seemed. In reality, the local Warp Storm
which had allowed a large portion of his army to be summoned to the world by the minions of a Chaos Cult
native to Armageddon was dissipating, and without its influence, much of his army, which was composed
of Khornate daemons, was likely to be pulled back into the Warp. So Angron's hand was forced into
erecting the monuments and temples in order to strengthen his daemonic forces' hold on realspace. This
proved to be a strategic mistake. When Angron renewed his offensive, pushing through the sweltering
jungles to reach Armageddon Secundus his host was met by a solid wall of defence. Nonetheless the World
Eaters crashed recklessly into the Imperial line, and they were aided by the daemons of the Warp. The
Imperial defences were almost overwhelmed by the sheer fury of the World Eaters assault. Angron himself
led his bodyguard of Khornate Daemon Princes and the Khornate Greater Daemons known as
Bloodthirsters against the centre of the line, held by the Space Wolves, hoping to come before the Great
Wolf and slay him. It was at this point that Grimnar played his trump card; an entire company of Grey
Knights teleported into the midst of Angron's daemonic Honour Guard. The titanic struggle that ensued saw
earth rending energies unleashed, as the burning white light of the Emperor's most elite psychically-
empowered Astartes came against the darkness of Khorne's dread daemonic servants. Angron's retinue was
destroyed by the Grey Knights at a terrible cost, and the survivors now faced the corrupted Daemon
Primarch. It was this combat that would decide the fate of the world of Armageddon. The Grey Knights,
through a supreme sacrifice, summoned the energy for a massive psychic blast that completely annihilated
Angron's corporeal form and banished his spirit to the Empryean, from whence it could not return for a
hundred years. A great part of the Grey Knights Company, including a Grey Knights Grand Master, were
destroyed in this action, for Angron was a Chaotic foe of nearly unparalleled strength not seen since the
days of the Horus Heresy. With the destruction of the Primarch, the World Eaters fell into disarray and
were routed. The Warp-summoned Daemons of Khorne vanished as swiftly as they had appeared, losing
 their fragile grip on the material plane. The survivors of the World Eaters Chaos Space Marine warbands
gradually fell back into the Eye of Terror. It is said that the now-recovered Angron hungers for revenge
against the Imperium and the Space Wolves in particular.
 Battle for Grand Al'gul (666.M41) - The warband of the World Eaters known as The Sanctified were
intercepted by the Loyalist Fire Angels Space Marine Chapter amongst the Cemetery Worlds of the Grand
Al'gul System in a series of brutal assaults and counter-assaults. The Fire Angels Chapter paid a heavy
price before victory was achieved, including the martyrdom of its Chapter Master when he battled a
powerful Lord of Change, a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, and the self-immolation of their Chief Librarian
in order to avoid daemonic Warp-possession.
 Siege of Vraks (813-830.M41) - The warband of the World Eaters called The Sanctified was one of the
units of Chaos Space Marines that took part in the Siege of Vraks, a 17-year long, bloody campaign to take
the strategically important Imperial Armoury World of Vraks Prime before the onset of the 13th Black
Crusade. The mighty Chaos Lord Zhufor, of the Khornate warband the Skulltakers, was charged by his
master Abaddon the Despoiler, to manage the war on Vraks to his satisfaction. Driven by his own ambition
and desire to prolong the war, Lord Zhufor, commanding the largest Khornate warband, moved to
subjugate the various Khornate warbands and unify them under his leadership. Death was his only
motivation -- to continue the killing until the last drop of blood had been squeezed from Vraks. To acquire
the services of the Sanctified, Zhufor made them a tantalising offer he knew they would not refuse. The
Sanctified were accomplished daemonmancers, and they worked tirelessly to bring Khorne's daemons into
realspace. They had the expertise, and Zhufor provided them with the tens of thousands of sacrificial
victims needed in order to create a Warp portal through which daemon legions could pour out onto the
surface of Vraks. The promise was that Zhufor would facilitate the summoning of the greatest daemon
legion in Khorne's endless armies. At the head of this fiendish army would be the Guardian of the Throne
of Skulls himself, the Lord of Bloodthirsters, An'ggrath the Unbound. The pact was too alluring to refuse.
The Sanctified joined forces with Zhufor and performed their daemonic ritual, summoning forth the Greater
Daemon to bring fresh slaughter. Though An'ggrath was eventually summoned at the height of the Vraks
campaign, he was defeated by a force of Grey Knights led by Inquisitor Lord Hector Rex who banished
him in personal combat with the artefact-sword Arias.

A Khornate Berzerker in combat

 Winter Assault on Lorn V (Unknown Date.M41) - The Ice World of Lorn V had been governed by the
Imperium of Man for millennia until the sudden arrival of a warband of World Eaters and a WAAAGH! of
Orks on its frigid surface. For many years a vicious struggle raged on the snowy fields of Lorn V between
these Orks and the warband of the World Eaters called the Blood Legion of Khorne that was commanded
by the Chaos Champion Lord Crull. It was a one-sided fight for much of that time, as the Orks were often
too divided amongst themselves, as is the wont of that species, to pose any threat to the World Eaters. But
after the arrival of the fierce Ork Warlord Gorgutz and his reinforcing WAAAGH!, the Orks of Lorn V
suddenly became a real menace for the World Eaters and managed to successfully assault one of their
primary bases on that world. As a result of Gorgutz's arrival the conflict between the two sides became
even more savage. General Sturnn of the Imperial Guard, having learned that the salvageable remains of an
Imperator-class Titan called the Dominatus that had been knocked out of action during the Horus Heresy
were still on Lorn V, launched an Imperial invasion of the icy world with his 412 th Cadian Shock Troopers
Regiment to reclaim both the planet and the ancient Titan for the Imperium. The Eldar of Craftworld Biel-
tan under Farseer Taldeer also secretly invaded the planet, which had long been a secret Necron Tomb
World. The undying Necrons had slumbered away the millennia in their stasis tombs while the younger
races had fought for control of the freezing world far above them. The Eldar of Biel-tan had foreseen that
the conflict between the Orks and the human Traitors would stir the Necrons from their uneasy sleep and
they were determined to stop the awakening of another Tomb World of their ancient foes at any cost. When
the 412th Cadian Shock Troopers Regiment of the Imperial Guard arrived, Lord Crull and Gorgutz struck a
brief and uneasy alliance that they named the Forces of Disorder against their common Imperial and Eldar
foes and worked together to obtain the power of the ancient Titan. Imperial records are not entirely clear
about the course of events during the campain but it is known that Farseer Taldeer and her Eldar was able
to stop the Necrons from rising by destroying their Necron Lord, but lost one of her own Farseers to the
Orks and many of her warriors to the allied Forces of Disorder. General Sturnn was killed by Gorgutz and
 his head was put on his "pointy stikk" along with that of the World Eaters' champion, Lord Crull, after the
Orks broke their short alliance with the Traitor Marines, who were also driven from the planet and scattered
after the loss of their leader. It is unknown what happened to the Titan Dominatus or the 412th Cadian
Shock Troopers Regiment. Following these events, it seems that the Imperial Ultima Segmentum
Command despatched Governor-Militant Lukas Alexander to the Civilised World of Kronus to track down
and capture Farseer Taldeer after her actions on Lorn V. This began the campaign remembered in Imperial
records as the Dark Crusade.
 13th Black Crusade - The Diamor Campaign (999.M41) - Khârn the Betrayer and his Berzerkers are
sent by Abaddon the Despoiler, the Warmaster of Chaos, during his 13th Black Crusade to wreak havoc
upon the Forge World of Amethal, a planet that houses a relic from the Dark Age of Technology that keeps
innumerable daemons caged beneath its crust. Alongside the Renegade Astartes of the Crimson Slaughter,
Khârn and his warriors kill so many Cult Mechanicus Servitors and cyborg Skitarii that blood rains from
the skies as a sign of Khorne's favour. When a force of Blood Angels descend to bolster the Adeptus
Mechanicus' troops, the World Eaters find themselves matched against a worthy foe, but Khârn still proves
unstoppable. Once Abaddon's objective -- the cracking of the daemon cage -- is achieved, his forces
withdraw. Shortly afterwards, Khârn and his Berzerkers disappear in a tempest of gore.
 Hounds at the Gate of Terra (Unknown Date.M42) - After the birth of the Great Rift, a sudden invasion
of Khornate daemons assails Mankind's sacred homeworld during what becomes known as the Battle of
Lion's Gate; led by eight Bloodthirsters, it causes utter havoc before being hurled back by the defending
echelons of the Imperial Palace, led by the newly resurrected Lord Commander of the Imperium, Roboute
Guilliman. Word travels far of their defeat. Inspired by the prospect of victory erasing the defeat of ten
millennia hence, the World Eaters gather in great strength to make their own attack upon Terra.

Legion Homeworld

The name of the world on which Angron was raised has long since been lost to history, though records indicate it
was once called Nuceria. The pre-Heresy Legion made use of the world called Bodt for many solar decades as a
training site for new recruits during the Great Crusade.

However, in the early days of the Horus Heresy, long before the Siege of Terra, the World Eaters Legion was
diverted to crush a single world utterly by Angron during the so-called Shadow Crusade. It is not known if this
world was their Primarch's homeworld or not, but popular belief was that it was indeed the world on which Angron
had been a slave.

Angron also ordered the destruction of several other worlds, seemingly at random, during the Heresy.

Unlike the other Traitor Legions, the World Eaters at present are not known to hold any world as their own in the
daemonic realm of the Eye of Terror that the Traitors now call home.

This is speculated to be due to the fact the Legion is essentially no longer a coherent entity since the World Eaters
are actually comprised of multiple warbands of Khornate Berserkers who traverse the galaxy looking for slaughter
and maintain no overall organisation or coordination between them.

Legion Organisation

Pre-Heresy

A World Eaters Land Speeder Squad performs reconnaissance duties during the Great Crusade.

At its creation, the XIIth Legion, like almost all the Space Marine Legions of the time, followed the so-called "Terran
Pattern" of organisation as formulated by the Imperial Officio Militaris at the outset of the Great Crusade.
But even in this earliest period the Legion's procurement and outfitting showed a considerable bias towards direct
assault and operations within the close and deadly confines of the kinds of battlefields designated as "Zone Mortalis"
in Imperial strategic doctrine. During Angron's transition of command, this would continue, and the Legion's
organisational structures were kept largely intact but often further streamlined, with its echelons being biased in
make-up towards line infantry formations.

These formations were a hybrid of tactical/close assault troops for the main part, supported by dedicated heavy
assault units such as Terminators and specialised units such as Land Speeder squadrons. This organisation lent itself
well to a highly aggressive strategic posture and belligerent tactics, which while extremely costly in terms of
casualties, were also highly effective.

The rank structure of the World Eaters under Angron remained simple and direct, the Primarch having little but
scorn for the trappings of elites and pointless accolades and titles. It is said that Angron refused even to be addressed
as "Lord" by his Astartes, but he did see the virtue of a reliable and transparent chain-of-command in war.

The original War Hounds Legion was also known for its harsh enforcement of internal discipline and the hot-
blooded temper of its Legionaries. Command within the Legion was gained through a mixture of martial prowess on
the battlefield and displays of leadership on the front line, with specialists singled out by aptitude early on.

No rank or role within the Legion was exempt from the expectation that they would fight as hard as the rest,
however, nor was the desire to grapple with the foe and cut them down by blade-stroke discouraged if the
opportunity arose, be the Space Marine in question an Apothecary or Artillerist rather than a frontline fighter.

Compared to many of the other Astartes Legions, order and discipline did not come as naturally to those of this
gene-seed heritage as might be expected. Tempers often seethed, slights perceived or real were met with anger and
more often than not violence would result should a World Eater's sense of honour be impugned.

Any officer of the Legion knew they were expected to back up their authority by force if needed, and the
punishment of infractors by an officer's own hands was the Legion's way. To disobey an officer's order in battle was
a death sentence to be carried out without delay.

Trial by combat soon became the Legion's preferred route for settling disagreements within its ranks, and
bloodletting by warriors in open discord was an honourable thing both in Angron's eyes and that of his Legion. Here
also could one of higher rank be challenged for the right of command, although such rare contests were always to
the death.

In the aftermath of the betrayal at Istvaan III, the World Eaters Legion, under their savage Primarch Angron, became
ever more insular as a Legion and uncontrollable on the battlefield, proving a double-edged sword even to their
allies. The psycho-surgery rife within the Legion became even more widespread and extreme in its use, and the
Neophytes inducted with ever-increasing pace into the World Eaters' ranks to replace the fallen were cerebrally
mutilated with the Butcher's Nails implants as a matter of course.

All-out infantry assaults supported by fast moving armour, with the aim of immediately closing into bloody melee
with the foe, had always been a hallmark of the Legion, and now became often their goal; carnage for its own sake
beyond any strategic objective to the contrary.

At the time of the Istvaan III Atrocity, a precise estimate of the World Eaters' fighting strength and disposition was
impossible to make. Best estimates of their observed strength were around 150,000 Space Marines, placing the
World Eaters in the middle to high levels of comparative strength amongst its contemporary fellow Space Marine
Legions.

The World Eaters were also well-supplied and supported by the Legio Audax (Ember Wolves) Titan Legion and a
fleet of at least sixty capital class vessels. It is commonly estimated that of all the Traitor Legions that had fought at
Istvaan III in the purge of the Loyalist faction within their ranks, it had been the World Eaters who had suffered the
greatest casualties, with well over 35,000 World Eaters Legionaries believed to have met their deaths on both sides.

Aside from the many wounded, it is recorded that a number had succumbed entirely during the protracted fighting to
an insane bloodlust and had to be forcibly restrained and removed back to the World Eaters fleet for containment.

Specialised Ranks and Formations

A World Eaters Devourer in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour before the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V

 Devourers - The Devourers were the premier cadre within the World Eaters Legion that served as a
dedicated bodyguard unit for their Primarch Angron (whether he needed one is another matter). In battle
they fought encased in Terminator Armour and carried the most savage weapons the XIIth Legion
possessed. This warrior band had only twelve members, and access to its ranks was only attained by
defeating a Devourer in single combat to the death or, should one of its number fall in battle against an
enemy, a successor was selected by a contest open to all Astartes in the XII th Legion, only one of which
would survive.
 Rampager Squads - Rampager Squads were near-berserker assault units composed of the most savage and
bloodthirsty World Eaters Legionaries who had undergone the dangerous psycho-surgical procedure of
having a cortical implant inserted within their brains and who were deemed too unstable to serve in a
regular line unit. Within these units, a small minority of those Legionaries that were too far gone to be
anything but restrained by force between battles became known as the Caedere or the "Butchers". Others
focused their desire for berzerk slaughter through martial discipline, mastering a variety of macabre and
savage weapons patterned from those used by Angron's fellow arena gladiators and found on the Feral
Worlds from which the XIIth Legion primarily drew its recruits during the Great Crusade.
 Red Butchers - On the killing ground of Istvaan III, there were World Eaters on either side of the conflict
who succumbed utterly, devolving into mindless frenzied savages that could not be controlled. Rather than
euthanising such individuals as had happened in the past, the Apothecaries had the mad subdued and
chained for a far darker fate. The Techmarines made customised Terminator suits from recovered wargear
for them, fashioning them as both armour and as confinement; mechanised prison cells that could be
immobilised with a remote signal. Hung in chains in the holds of the World Eaters' warships, foaming and
screaming in impotent rage, the Red Butchers were born.
 Destroyer Squads - Considered dishonourable by some Legions who made little use of them or eschewed
them altogether, the Destroyers were equipped with and expert in the use of otherwise proscribed and
forbidden weaponry. Alongside certain factions of the Mechanicus, only Destroyer cadres had the license
to use these weapons in the forces of the Imperium by the Emperor's command. Rad-weapons, bio-alchem
munitions and the crawl-burning horror of Phospex were among the Destroyer Squads' dark arsenal,
weapons which irrevocably tainted the ground upon which they were used. Marked by their fire-blackened
and chem-scalded armour, Destroyers were often shunned and deemed somehow tainted by their Battle-
Brothers in many Legions and were considered at best a necessary evil, although the effectiveness of their
relic-weapons in cracking especially difficult enemy defences could not be denied.
 Triarii - The Triarii were 5 full companies of the XIIth Legion's finest shipboard warriors who excelled in
void warfare and boarding actions, commanded by Centurion Delvarus, the undisputed pit fighting
Champion of the World Eaters. These warriors were honour-bound to protect the World Eaters Legion's
flagship, the Conqueror.

Recruitment and Training

World Eaters Scout Marines

Attrition rates within the World Eaters were high, and fatality levels on recruits during training are believed to have
been the worst of any Space Marine Legion in the period, so unrelenting were the World Eaters' methods.
Past a certain point in training, gladiatorial contests and battle-exercises became real life-and-death combat with live
rounds and wetted blades, with the goal to raise the skill and strength of the warrior to the greatest extent before they
would be deemed worthy of joining the World Eaters' ranks.

In order to cope with the rigours of their training and the ceaseless campaigning, under Angron's direction
recruitment processes were streamlined and accelerated, and recruits were drawn from a number of Feral and Feudal
Worlds scattered across the Segmenta of the Imperium in order to meet the Legion's demands.

Under the World Eaters' regime, not only was individual combat skill their main focus, but the wider arts of warfare
as well. Entire companies and even battalions fought one another in great matches and competitions to enforce unit
tactics and coherent operations under their Primarch's eye and judgement, but it was always the battlefield that the
World Eaters hungered for, and where its champions and officers were chosen.

World Eaters Librarius

A World Eaters Librarian

Before they were known as the World Eaters, like many of their fellow Legions, the War Hounds once maintained a
dedicated Librarius Division made up of potent psykers who were highly talented, and trained to master the power
of the Warp. But this changed with the rediscovery of their Primarch upon the world of Nuceria.

The use of psychic abilities within the Space Marine Legions had become a heated topic of debate within the
Imperium as some Primarchs had accepted the idea that the use of psychic abilities was beneficial to the Great
Crusade's war effort in their own Legions, while others like Leman Russ and Mortarion refused to deal with what
they saw as dishonourable deception and unnatural witchery and outlawed the use of all psychic powers as simply
sorcery by another name.

In His wisdom, the Emperor of Mankind invited advocates of both sides of the debate to a great Imperial conclave
on the world of Nikaea in 001.M31. This was known as the Council of Nikaea, which would determine whether or
not the use of psychic abilities represented a boon or a grave danger to Mankind and the newborn Imperium of Man.

Ultimately the existence of psykers in the Imperium such as Astropaths and Navigators was allowed but tightly
restricted under centralised Imperial control, while the potent and unrestricted use of psychic abilities that was
defined as sorcery was officially banned.

Additionally, the Emperor ordered the Librariums of all the Space Marine Legions to disband and the Librarians to
be restored to the general ranks of the Astartes, making them swear an oath to never again use their psychic abilities.
In the wake of the Horus Heresy, even this ban would ultimately be overturned when the Loyalist Legions realised
that the use of psykers was an essential weapon in the fight against Chaos.

The newly renamed World Eaters utterly refused to heed, or even to acknowledge, the Edict of Nikaea. This was
because by the time of the Council of Nikaea, their psychic kindred had already become an afterthought, scarcely
worthy of consideration. Soon after the coming of their Primarch Angron, the World Eaters' psychic brethren were
avoided and ostracised by all of their fellow Battle-Brothers.

Non-psychic World Eaters would depart instinctively from their presence and spit on the floor before them, to ward
off ill-fortune, a superstitious habit taken from Angron's homeworld, and one that had resonated throughout the XII th
Legion. Angron himself barely tolerated the psykers' presence.

He instinctively mistrusted anything that was "unnatural," and hated psykers, feeling that his Legion would be clean
only when the last of them finally died. This may have had something to do with the reality that when a psyker was
in the Primarch's presence, Angron's neural implants would react badly, causing the Primarch extreme pain.
Knowing how successful his own cybernetic neural implants had been at boosting his prowess and the prowess of
his fellow Nucerian gladiators in battle, Angron had ordered his Legion's savants to study the neural implants known
as the Butcher's Nails that he had been implanted with by his Nucerian slave masters. He instructed the Techmarines
of the World Eaters to attempt to duplicate the process using the Primarch's own implants as templates to reverse-
engineer the devices.

However, this proved difficult, for Angron's implants were a relic of a long-lost human technology and little
understood. Early attempts to duplicate these implants by the combined efforts of the Legion's Techmarines and
Apothecaries proved far from successful, and resulted in high rates of mortality and homicidal frenzies erupting
from test recruits. The World Eaters' first experiments with implantation of the Butcher's Nails in other Astartes
proved less than pleasant.

However, as time progressed, a viable form of the cortical implant technology was replicated and steadily improved,
and soon the Butcher's Nails were implanted within the majority of the Battle-Brothers of the XIIth Legion. The
Nails were not actually implants as Remembrancers and archeotechnicians understood the idea.

The implants added nothing to a World Eater's brain. Instead, they stole from it. They bleached a warrior's mind of
all reason, all caution, all of the instincts for survival that defined mortality.

The Butcher's Nails rewarded rage with spurts of electrochemical pleasure, tingling synapses and deadening
enjoyment of everything else. No better method for the pursuit of slaughter and murder had ever been contrived by
the minds of men.

But it soon became readily apparent that there was another problem with the Butcher's Nails implants. The first
signs of unease came when implanted Librarians started causing their closest Battle-Brothers to suffer blinding
migraines and debilitating facial bleeds. No Librarian could stand in Angron's presence without enduring the same
thing themselves; a reflection of the torment they inflicted on their implanted brothers.

But the depths of the flaws became truly obvious in battle. Librarians gifted with the Butcher's Nails lost the ability
to control their psychic talents. One of them, a warrior attached to the 100 th Company, had been lost to the madness
created by the devices in his very first battle after implantation, and immolated three squads of the 100 th Company
when he could not cease projecting witch-lightning from his eyes.

Several other implanted World Eaters Librarians had just...burst. They had combusted in pyres of flaming gore.
More and more died -- none right away, but they never survived for long. In a single solar month, almost every
Wold Eaters Librarian had been fitted with the Butcher's Nails. Mere weeks later, they all started dying.

Optimism, albeit cautious, had reigned for a while. After the first deaths, the psychically trained Legionaries had
sought to master the implants, to balance their sixth sense with the bionics now altering their brains' biochemistry. It
was all just a matter of willpower they had said, and their Battle-Brothers had pretended not to notice the
desperation in their eyes. It was all a matter of willpower -- yet the Librarians kept dying.

The Librarians died in battle, in storms of fire or lightning, or -- in several incidents -- by pulsing hateful pain
directed through the implants of nearby World Eaters warriors that forced their non-psychic kindred to suffer
cerebrovascular blockages. Entire squads died of brain haemorrhages and strokes at their Codiciers' boots.

Angron gave his psychic sons a choice between execution and the removal of their Butcher's Nails implants. The
XIIth Legion learned, in those early years after their Primarch's rediscovery, that they had mutilated themselves in
the image of a man without mercy. The Butcher's Nails could not be safely removed; every World Eater knew it, for
the Emperor's own techno-mages had failed to remove the Primarch's implants after his recovery from Nuceria.

Even so, most Librarians submitted themselves for the attempt. Every one of them died, without exception. With
their rewired brains misfiring and enslaved to altered impulses, none of them died easily, and none of them died
well. Soon enough, the last Librarians of the XIIth Legion were those who had not yet received the Butcher's Nails in
a Legion now defined by the implants. The Librarians of the XII th Legion came to eke out an isolated existence in
the near-empty halls of their Librarius aboard the World Eaters flagship Conqueror.

One by one these Librarians, too, began to die. Not from malfunction or misuse, but because they were World
Eaters, and all World Eaters lived brief, violent lives. A hundred remained. Then fifty. Then twenty. No one
mourned them. In a Legion that prized the bonds of front-line brotherhood above all else, the silent, psychic Battle-
Brothers died alone -- never forgotten, but always ignored. Their gene-seed rotted with their bodies, unharvested in
case their genetic legacy resulted in the same psychic curse infecting a second generation.

Vorias, the eldest of the remaining Librarian coven and Lectio Primus of the XIIth Legion's Librarius Division had
worked with the World Eaters Apothecarion and their senior attached Mechanicum Magi in trying to determine just
why the Butcher's Nails reacted so poorly in the presence of psychic minds, but the line of research was abandoned
when they had come to realise the context of their work: no one cared. No one but those cursed with a sixth sense.
Besides, their efforts had always ended in vain, and killed too many "loyal" World Eaters who were unfortunate
enough to be near the unstable Librarians.

What followed was the gradual deterioration of any sense of brotherhood. With the death of kinship often came the
death of loyalty, but the remaining Librarians were gene-born into the XIIth Legion and they would be World Eaters
until the day they died. For the most part, the Librarians of the World Eaters did not hate their non-psychic Battle-
Brothers for the way they were scorned, nor did they resent them for the way they spurned their talents as something
dangerously worthless.

They understood, only too perfectly, that their very presence caused their Battle-Brothers pain, and the XIIth Legion
had no need of their psychic gifts. Even before the Edicts of Nikaea, such powers had never been factored into
Angron's battle plans, as blunt and uncomplicated as those plans were. The Librarians had come to accept the truth
beneath it all: they were not truly World Eaters. Their brothers were World Eaters, but they were still War Hounds.
The XIIth Legion had moved on and left their psychic brothers behind to rot away within their ever-diminishing
coven.

By the beginning of the Horus Heresy in the early 31 st Millennium, there were only 19 Librarians left within the
entirety of the XIIth Legion. The few Librarians still living among the World Eaters by this time made valuable
Battle-Brothers. They had come together as a coterie-squad, sharing power and silent words between their linked
minds, forming among themselves the very brotherhood they were denied by the rest of the Legion. They considered
themselves War Hounds rather than World Eaters on account of their lack of the Butcher's Nails. But their fate
would soon be sealed upon the homeworld of Angron's youth.

Death of the World Eaters' Librarius

During the Shadow Crusade, Roboute Guilliman faced off against Angron in single combat on the world of Nuceria.
As the two fought, Guilliman landed a glancing blow, his fist pounding across Angron's breastplate. One of the
skulls of Angron's fallen kinsmen that hung from the chain worn across his breastplate was partially shattered and
scattered across the ground. Guilliman stepped back, his boot crushing the skull's remnants to powder. Angron saw
it, and threw himself at his brother, his howl of wrath defying mortal origins, impossibly ripe in its anguish.

The Primarch Lorgar of the Word Bearers saw it, too. The moment Guilliman's boot broke the skull, he felt the
Warp boil behind the veil. The Bearer of the Word started chanting in a language never before spoken by any living
being, his words in faultless harmony with Angron's cry of torment. Lorgar had decided to use the moment to enact
his dark plan to save his brother's life from being taken by the Butcher's Nails, summoning the Ruinstorm to the
world of Nuceria, tearing the sky open and unleashing a crimson torrent, formed from the ghosts of a hundred
murdered worlds, raining blood.

Lorgar focused his concentration on the triumphant form of his mutilated brother, calling for the Neverborn, the
entities men called daemons, to answer in kind. He locked Angron's muscles, setting fire to the synapses in his brain.
The first spasms wracked their way through Angron's sinews, turning his blood to quicksilver, then to lava and at
last to holy fire. His cries of thwarted rage were tainted by an agony beyond comprehension. His body started
tearing itself apart, growing, rising. Perfecting, after a lifetime of broken torture. This was the moment of Angron's
apotheosis into daemonhood.

The remaining World Eaters Librarians sensed the fey powers summoned by Lorgar. In an attempt to halt the
Urizen's dark plans, the 19 remaining Librarians harnessed their collective psychic powers to manifest a psychic
entity known as the Communion, the gestalt consciousness of 19 psychic minds. In the midst of Lorgar's
incantations, the Communion pulled the soul of the Primarch from his body.

The two psychic entities confronted one another within the Warp, locked in a deadly contest of wills, each
convinced that they were the one responsible for saving Angron. But ultimately, the Communion failed, for Lorgar
was just as powerful in the Warp as he was in the material universe.

After Angron's completed metamorphosis into a new Daemon Prince, the newborn Daemon Primarch turned his
attention to the Librarians. Angron killed the last of his Librarians, expunging his Legion of the weakness that had
plagued his gene-sons since his reunification with them a century earlier.

The Librarius of the World Eaters, the last fragment of the War Hounds within the XII th Legion, was no more, a fact
which greatly pleased the Blood God Khorne, who would not brook the existence of any psykers amongst his chosen
servants. Now there would only be blood, an ocean of blood carried on a tide of eternal slaughter.

Post-Heresy

"Commander. They beg for mercy–"

"Mercy! Oh Lord Khorne, truly have you led us to a land overflowing with blood and skulls! Give them the mercy of
death."
"Affirm. Blood! Blood! Blood for my Lord!"
"Chosen of Khorne, lead us in the final assault."
"Blood for the Blood God! Suppressing fire. Forward and centre. Heavy Bolters range two hundred and fifty.
Move, scum..."
—Ordo Malleus Secret Report: Portrein Raid 8106.960.M41

A Chaos Champion of Khorne

Banished to the Eye of Terror and tied forever to the worship of Khorne, the blood rituals of the Legion became an
even more important part of the World Eaters' daily lives, mighty oceans of blood filled in his praise. The legendary
tactical organisation of the Space Marines broke down, washed away by the years of slaughter that followed. As
more and more of the Legion's officers and champions were possessed by daemons or became mighty Chaos
Champions, the last vestiges of discipline and organisation fell away, the once proud Space Marine Legion reduced
to howling, berserk killers thirsting for death and bloodshed.

After the Night of Madness on the Daemon World of Skalathrax, when the champion named Khârn turned on his
fellow World Eaters, the Legion tore itself apart in a day-long slaughter, becoming nothing more than roving bands
of Renegades, endlessly questing for battle and death.

Such bands vary enormously in size from single champions, small squads to company sized forces capable of untold
destruction. The champions who lead these marauders will fight alongside almost any other Chaos Lord who is
gathering his forces, asking for nothing more than the chance to spill blood in the name of Khorne. But even a Chaos
Lord must be wary lest his head be added to the tally of skulls.
In keeping with the doctrine of the Blood God Khorne which holds the use of psychic abilities to be a dishonour in
battle, the World Eaters maintain no Chaos Sorcerers amongst their ranks. During the Horus Heresy, Librarians in
the other Space Marine Legions that dedicated themselves to the Ruinous Powers were granted new psychic abilities
and malefic powers. The only exception were the Librarians of the World Eaters. As part of a bloody sacrifice to
their new master, the Librarians of the World Eaters were hunted down and slaughtered by their brother Astartes, as
Khorne despises all practitioners of the sorcerous arts. The killing came to a head when the World Eaters hero
Scyrak the Slaughterer slew the Legion's Chief Librarian, thus removing the last obstacle to the Legion's bloody fall
to the Eightfold-Path and their service to the Skull Throne.

Notable Warbands

Since the infamous Battle of Skalathrax, the once mighty World Eaters Traitor Legion has splintered into countless
murderous hosts. Those warriors who worship Khorne are anarchic individuals, their armies little more than ragged
coalitions of rival warbands ready to turn upon one another at the slightest provocation.

Only the leadership of a truly mighty individual can hold such a force together for long as its Chaos Lord. Listed
below are several such notable warbands that originally were members of the unified World Eaters Legion:

 Angron's Chosen
 Angron's Fury
 Berserkers of Skallathrax
 Black Feast
 Blood Legion of Khorne
 Bloody Path
 Butcherhorde
 Endless Murder
 Foresworn (World Eaters)
 Gladiator Group 138
 Harvest Macabre
 Lifeslayers
 Lord Skchalick's Elite
 Oblivion Butchers
 Ravagers
 Skull Takers of Hans Kho'ren
 Sons of Slaughter
 Wrathful Dead

Legion Combat Doctrine

Pre-Heresy

World Eaters Assault Squad

Hand-to-hand combat was the XIIth Legion's preferred form of warfare, even before it took the Emperor-given name
of the War Hounds for itself. This did not mean that the World Eaters lacked ability and competency in ranged
engagements or armoured warfare and supporting artillery attack.

Indeed, no lesser luminary in the arts of mechanised warfare than the Iron Hands' Primarch Ferrus Manus praised
the War Hounds' armoured assault at Aldabaran Septus as the "epitome of iron-clad rage given form," but for the
War Hounds such things were a tactical means to an end.
That end being successfully delivering the killing force of the Legion, its Space Marines, where they could inflict
the most harm and come to grapple with their foe at close quarters. The War Hounds had a preponderance of close
combat weaponry habitually carried by its rank-and-file.

In addition to the use of the ubiquitous Combat Knives or Gladius, even Legionaries attached to reconnaissance
squads and vehicle crews commonly carried chainblades, flay-cutters and mono-serrated bayonets, back-up knives,
hatchets and cleavers. In dedicated assault units this profusion of bloody killing tools was added to by a weapon that
dated back to the techno-barbarian tribes of Terra, the broad-bladed Chainaxe.

With the coming of Angron as their commander, the XII th Legion's predilections for hand-to-hand bloodletting
reached even greater heights, as the master-gladiator taught his warriors new weapons and new ways to kill, and
what can only be described as a cult of personal combat took hold of the Legion at a fundamental level.

The Chainaxe was further refined under Angron's direction, and such was the reputation it gained, that its use spread
to several other Legions. But in the abstract the weapon could be seen as a symbol of the World Eaters themselves --
brutal and savage, remorseless and unsubtle, a machine with but one purpose -- to kill.

Post-Heresy

Khornate Berzerkers of a World Eaters warband.

The World Eaters now possess but a single desire in life -- to slay their enemies in savage melee combat and take
their skulls for Khorne. To this end, the Legion has cast away their long-ranged weapons completely and have taken
up the Chainaxe favoured by Khorne and the Bolt Pistol. Their thirst for blood and slaughter has become such an
overpowering addiction that when battle is joined the World Eaters, now all transformed into Khornate Berserkers,
rampage across the battlefield, roaring the name of Khorne, all strategy and tactics forgotten in their overpowering
thirst for bloodshed.

In combat, these frothing, psychotic berserkers are ferocious and will fight to the death, knowing that their own
blood is as welcome to the Blood God as that of their enemies. The World Eaters are a force entirely dedicated to
and specialised in close combat.

Reflecting the breakdown of overall organisation and strategy in the Legion after the Horus Heresy, most World
Eater combat consists of rushing a force of World Eater Berserkers towards the enemy line as quickly as possible so
they can engage in melee combat.

Once locked into close combat, few enemy units can persevere against the World Eaters' Khornate Berserkers.
World Eater armies feature little to no long-range weapons, but they balance this lack with their exceptional close
combat and melee prowess. The World Eaters do, however, possess various artillery weapons gifted to them by
Khorne.

World Eaters who seek to grow even closer to their bloodthirsty patron may partake in horrific rituals inviting
possession by daemons of the Warp. A warrior claimed by a Lesser Daemon of the Blood God like a Bloodletter has
their body twisted into a living weapon known as a Possessed, the better to harvest blood and skulls for Khorne,
while the daemon itself benefits from a mortal host that provides a permanent anchor to realspace.

World Eaters Names

World Eater names are generally one or two-syllable words with hard consonants derived from those used by the
Astartes recruited into the ancient Legion from across the galaxy. World Eaters Heretic Astartes also sometimes
possess a by-name derived from a physical feature, personality quirk, past deed, favourite way to kill, or other
defining feature.
Examples of World Eater names include: Barask Draxxigor, Khargos Bloodgrin, Gharrax Axefist, Khoran Khrul,
Varrak Korgath, Zagrek the Headsman, Trosk Bloodhair, Tarvakh the Reaper, Drakh Khorr, Nharax the Maimer,
Macer Kharos, Sarvak the Butcher, Berek the Reaper, Garrek the Hound and Azkor Hakkan.

Legion Beliefs

World Eaters Captain Argus Brond during a brutal training exercise.

Though the War Hounds had a reputation for ferocity in battle, they were also known to fight honourably and prided
themselves on their fury and courage above all else. To the XII th Legion, life itself was war, a conflict that never
ended from cradle to grave and the Legiones Astartes was this concept in its purest form.

Failure in battle was not tolerated, surrender was never countenanced and mercy was a quick death delivered to a foe
that had fought with bravery. Cowards themselves deserved no more than savage butchery in reward for their fear.
This simple but resolutely brutal code of war was the War Hounds' article of faith and they extended it to both their
own number and their enemy.

When they were reunited with their Primarch, the War Hounds were soon influenced by Angron's Nucerian cultural
beliefs and blood rites that would become an important part of the World Eaters' core beliefs as the culture within
the XIIth Legion shifted to ever more violent and bloodthirsty mores and values.

These became quickly echoed in the shifting skein of the Legion's own rites and ceremonies, and the martial
traditions of Old Terra, never strong in the War Hounds who had prided themselves on their fury and courage above
all else, disappeared altogether and were replaced by Angron's own red code of butchery and savage competition.

When the newly-dubbed World Eaters departed their training world of Bodt under their new master for the first
time, it was under the new badge of a great fanged maw poised to crush a life-bearing world, an image that was to
prove entirely fitting to describe what was to come.

The arrival of the Primarch Angron brought a primitive, almost tribal unity to the newly renamed World Eaters, and
Angron quickly became the example of warriorhood to be aspired to by his Legion. His first and most dubious
honour was to be the one Primarch to refuse the Emperor's benevolence and to turn his back on the Imperium's
claims of conquest.

Angron, master of his doomed slave army, cared nothing for a galaxy's worth of dreams and triumphs. He had
wished only to die with those rebels who'd escaped the gladiator pits of Desh'ea with him. This ragged army of his
brothers and sisters had been holed up in the mountains with carrion birds and snow bears for company, waiting to
starve or fall in battle -- whichever death had come first.

The XIIth Legion were told of Angron's refusal of the Emperor's offer when they had first met upon Nuceria. Their
Primarch had defied the Emperor, and the War Hounds did not hate Angron for his choice. They worshipped him for
it. No Primarch better understood the bonds of brotherhood than one who had turned his back on the Emperor, on
the Imperium, on life itself -- so that he could die side by side with his brothers and sisters.

To the Legionaries of the World Eaters, the mutilated, bloody, reeking, wrathful figure that stalked amongst them as
their master swiftly became a kind of savage messiah; a greater warrior than any they had known, an exemplar of a
brutal ideal of honour and combat that sang to their souls. Angron became to them their first master, displacing for
many the loyalty they had once only given to their Emperor, as Angron became their judge, their general and a
conqueror whose banner they would follow into the depths of hell.

Under his influence, the competitive, hot-blooded tension that had always roiled under the surface of the XII th
Legion's psyche was channelled and given form. Gladiatorial combat, never without blood spilled, and when taken
to its extremes, fatal, became both the crux of the World Eaters' training, honing their individual battle skills to a
razor's edge, and a vital outlet for the pent-up aggression and frustrated bloodlust of the Legion between war zones.

The World Eaters' thirst for battle was artificially amplified by the use of the surgically implanted Butcher's Nails
devices that were similar to the technology that had been implanted within Angron's own skull during his Nucerian
gladiator training.

Bloodletting was a very common practice carried out by the Astartes of the World Eaters Legion. Angron and his
World Eaters were known to cut their left hands and smear the blood on the visors of their helmets before going into
a fight.

As time went on, blood rites became more and more an important part of the XIIth Legion's rituals. This would
eventually culminate in the corrupted Warmaster Horus turning the Legion's savage rituals towards the bloody-
handed worship of Chaos, in particular the Blood God Khorne.

Triumph Rope

Primarch Angron proudly displays his "Triumph Rope"

Like their fellow Astartes Legions, the XIIth Legion would often take an oath of moment, a final last act before
embarking for combat. Each Legionary prepared their vows to their fellow brothers in the Legion. What they will do
for their Emperor, their Legion and themselves.

They witnessed one another's oaths. Some Legions wrote them and then decorated themselves with the written oaths
on fluttering paper on their Power Armour. But with the coming of Angron, the Primarch introduced to his gene-
sons the tradition of the "Triumph Rope."

This was something that was shown to Captain Kharn by his Primarch. Angron explained that before a battle one
would carve a line in one's body, and after said battle you would either let it heal normally, to show that you were
victorious, or you would rub some of the dirt from the battlefield into the wound, to show you were defeated. This
would cause the scar to appear to be a "red twist" if victorious, or a "black twist" if defeated. Warriors could then
keep track of their battle honours and gauge each others' prowess.

Angron had the longest "Triumph Rope" within the Legion. A ridge of scar tissue began at the base of Angron's
spine. It traveled up his backbone, then veered to the left and around his body, riding over his hip and curving
around to his front.

The length of his continuous scar seemed to expand and thin again, ploughing and gouging the skin, in some places
vanishing entirely where the Primarch's healing powers had overcome it.

The scar looped around and around Angron's body, spiraling up over his belly, around his ribs, towards his chest. A
little past the right of his sternum, it abruptly stopped.

Angron, it was said, had no black twists. When the Emperor spirited Angron away from his world on the eve of
battle where he was ready to give his life fighting side-by-side with his fellow slaves, he was denied the right to
return to his world. He couldn't pick up the soil to make a black twist. Unable to wear his failure, he was bitter with
the Emperor that he couldn't fight alongside them and even more so that he couldn't even commemorate them
properly.

World Eaters Devastator, carrying the "Red Hand" across his faceplate, denoting an award for bloody victory by his
commanding officer in a previous battle

Warrior-Marks
Such few honours that the XIIth Legion believed in were warrior-marks of brotherhood and the scars of battle, for
these things transcended rank and spoke to the worth of the Space Marine beneath the armour.

The sundered chains of one who had fought overwhelming odds and lived, an allusion that spoke to Angron's own
bleak history, and the bloody handprint over the face or heart bestowed by a battle leader for a warrior whose fury
had transcended that of his brothers, to the World Eaters these meant more than any mere bauble, title or trinket.
Examples of such warrior-marks included:

 The use of several versions of the Legion badge of the fanged maw adorning an individual Space Marine's
armour, which denoted long service.
 Red striations on a helm could be a personal decoration that echoed the psycho-surgical cortex
implantation.
 Red "tears" (more likely blood drops) painted beneath the eye lenses on a helm were thought to denote an
Astartes' ritual scarification.
 Kill tally marks were often incised into a vambrace or a warrior's individual weapon. A "crossed-chain"
decoration on a vambrace accorded an individual warrior status as having killed a fellow World Eater of
higher rank in a sanctioned arena duel.

Caedere Weapons

Based upon the ritual weapons of the cyber-augmetic gladiators of the savage world on which their bloody-handed
Primarch was once cast, it was Angron himself who revived the use of the Caedere among his Legion's ranks.

Brutal and difficult to master, the weapons of the Caedere remain largely the preserve of the Rampagers -- World
Eaters who have responded the best to the addition of the cranial berserker implants which are a hallmark of the
Legion, and its champions.

These weapons include:

 Meteor Hammer
 Excoriator Chainaxe
 Twin Falx Blades
 Barb-hook Lash

Caedere Remissum

A Sarum Pattern Helmet with the twin-mantles of the Caedere Remissum.

Before the Horus Heresy, many of the World Eaters had adopted the snarling Sarum Pattern Helmet, though by the
time of the Heresy, many of the XIIth Legion's warriors had begun modifying these distinctive helms with the twin
mantles of the caedere remissum -- a dubious honour dating back to the gladiatorial traditions of the Primarch
Angron's homeworld.

When a warrior was judged too unstable or damaged to fight anything other than death matches, they would wear
the bladed horns of the remissum as a warning to their foes.

While Angron himself forbade them amongst his Veteran companies, many World Eaters still risked his wrath and
eventually the more stylised mantles became synonymous with the warriors of the Khornate Berserker cults after the
Primarch's ascension to daemonhood.

Wearing Chains
Before the Horus Heresy, the World Eaters' originally wore white Power Armour that was unadorned, save for the
chains binding their weapon to their arms. The chains were a personal tradition of the XII th Legion that had spread
even amongst the other Legions from the fighting pits of the World Eaters where the practice had originated. World
Eaters would chain themselves together in the fighting pits and duel to the cheers of their brothers. They entered
without armour, naked but for loincloths to show they feared no wound, and to prove every warrior would fight on
equal ground. For especially deserving legionaries, the XII th even opened its pits to those born of other bloodlines.

Sigismund, the First Captain of the Imperial Fists Legion, had taken to the custom with his usual zeal, binding his
weapons to his wrists on dense black chains. He made an impressive name for himself when he served with the
World Eaters within the bowels of the Conqueror, dueling with the XIIth Legion's finest warriors late in the Great
Crusade. The "Black Knight" they had called him, in honour of his prowess, his nobility and his personal heraldry.
Often he would be paired with Delvarus of the Triarii, and the two of them won every fight they entered -- always to
first blood, never lasting more than half a minute. No one could keep up with them. No one even came close.

Nassir Amit, a Captain of the Blood Angels Legion, known as the "Flesh Tearer", was another Astartes who earned
great glory in the World Eaters' pits in the days before the Horus Heresy, for he fought with the same savagery and
brutality as his hosts, a trait that would later be passed on to the Flesh Tearers Chapter he led after the Heresy. Amit
would often be paired with the Apothecary Kargos, and few ever wished to come up against the "Flesh Tearer" and
the "Bloodspitter". They were known for always fighting past first blood, third blood and into sanguis extremis (to
the death). No dirty trick seemed beyond them, and every one of their matches was a death bout.

World Eaters Astartes collect grim trophies

Head Taking

One of the more bloody traditions of the World Eaters were gruesome contests of head-taking between members of
individual squad members, various squads, and the Chapter's Companies and Captains. This may just have been an
easy way to confirm kills, but it has been surmised by Imperial scholars that the World Eaters saw the head of a foe
to be important. It is unknown if the totals of collected heads were kept for just single battles, wars, or the warrior's
career.

Mortuus

Another ancient Legion tradition is known as a mortuus -- an official report made to the commanding officer of a
Legion vessel, listing those Battle-Brothers who had fallen in battle, much as Apothecaries in the other Legions
traditionally relayed them to their commanding officers.

A mortuus was more than simply a casualty list, it was a remembrance -- a roll of honour, a relic for the Legion to
treasure. This often took the form of names and ranks inked upon scrolls or names engraved in brass plaques, or
chiseled into stone. These names would then be entered into the ship's Archive of the Fallen; other Legions used
different names, such as the Thousand Sons' Dirge, or in the case of the Sons of Horus, the Lamentation.

As the World Eaters fully fell into a permanent red haze of rage and blood-soaked madness, they came to care little
for recording the names of the dead and the practice of composing a mortuus after every engagement was abandoned
like so much else of the Legion's culture.

Current Practices

Now, there is only one thing the World Eaters believe in; the spilling of blood. The sole purpose of their existence is
to kill and to shed blood in their god's name. Whether that blood comes from a foe, an ally or even their own veins,
it matters not. All that matters is that the pile of bloody skulls laid at the brass throne of Khorne grows ever larger.

Legion Gene-Seed
Many suspect that Angron's gene-seed was corrupt from the start and the World Eaters were damned the moment
they were created. Others point to the known history of Angron and insist that his Legion could have been saved had
the signs been noticed earlier.

Whichever is correct, the Space Marines of the World Eaters have a physical need to shed blood and kill, a driving
imperative that sends them into a berserk fury of unrestrained bloodthirsty psychosis. So strong is the desire to kill
that the World Eaters will turn on one another to satisfy their bloodlust should no other foe present itself.

Notable World Eaters

Pre-Heresy Personnel

 Angron - Sometimes called the Red Angel, Angron is the Primarch of the World Eaters Traitor Legion of
Chaos Space Marines. He was the most bloody-handed and savage of the Primarchs. When Horus began
his rebellion, Angron was quick to join in his treachery, but his only true master was the rage and bloodlust
within him. He fell to Chaos during the Horus Heresy and was transformed into a Daemon Prince of the
Blood God Khorne, through the machinations of his brother Primarch Lorgar, when the World Eaters
moved to cleanse Angron's homeworld of Nuceria of all life in vengeance for the atrocities inflicted upon
him in his youth.
 Ibram Ghreer (Deceased) - Ibram Ghreer, a Terran-borne Astartes, was a respected general and the
Legion Master of the War Hounds who commanded the XII th Legion for nearly three standard decades until
he disappeared without explanation from his taciturn Legion. In truth, he was killed by Angron within the
bowels of the flagship Conqueror so that the Primarch could assert his rightful command over the XII th
Legion whose Astartes had been created from his own genetic material. Ghreer was considered to be an
axeman to stand with the best of the XIIth Legion's warriors. He had proved to be a poor strategic planner,
yet had managed to transform bluntness into a virtue for the XII th Legion alongside brutality.
 Kunnar (Deceased) - Kunnar was a War Hound and Champion of the 1st Company, killed by Angron after
he assumed control of the XIIth Legion.
 Shinnargen (Deceased) - Shinnargen was a War Hound and Captain of the 2nd Company, killed by Angron
after he assumed control of the XIIth Legion.
 Khârn the Betrayer - Khârn was once the Captain of the XIIth Legion's elite 8th Assault Company. When
Angron was reunited with the XIIth Legion aboard their flagship, then known as the Adamant Resolve, he
still raged at being taken by the Emperor and denied the opportunity to fight and die alongside his rebel
gladiator comrades' sides during the Battle of Desh'elika. In his blind rage Angron brutally slaughtered,
rended and dismembered any who dared come into his presence. Khârn ultimately took it upon himself to
convince Angron to take his ordained place at the head of the XII th Legion, though he took a severe beating
in the process. Khârn's fortitude proved to Angron that the War Hounds were worthy successors of his
genetic heritage. Angron promoted the man who had shaken him out of his despair to the position of his
Equerry, a rank combining the roles of squire, councilor and personal confidante. Yet there were many,
both amongst the World Eaters and outside it, who respected Angron's choice but doubted its wisdom: the
Equerry's primary role was to serve as a counterpoint to the Primarch's personality and a foil for his
decisions. For all his qualities as a warrior, Khârn was neither patient nor particularly subtle, nor a great
orator, and instead of guiding and tempering Angron's words and decisions with wisdom, he often was
second into the thickest of the fray right behind him. Khârn eventually became a Chaos Champion of
Khorne soon after the World Eaters turned to the service of the Chaos Gods. Khârn stood in the forefront of
the World Eaters' assault of the Imperial Palace at the Battle of Terra during the closing days of the Horus
Heresy and was killed during the vicious, hand-to-hand fighting before the Palace's Eternity Gate. His
battered body was discovered laying atop a large mound of Loyalist corpses. When the assault was broken
by the defeat of Horus at the hands of the Emperor, his fellow World Eaters found Khârn's body and carried
it away. Soon after, they found that Khârn had apparently been resurrected by his patron God, Khorne.
After the World Eaters had been driven into the Eye of Terror the entire Legion was ultimately consumed
by the bloodlust of Khorne and became his most potent mortal servants, often fighting his eternal battles
against his hated rival Slaanesh and the Prince of Pleasure's favoured mortal servants, the Emperor's
Children Legion. The Daemon World of Skalathrax in the Eye of Terror was one of the places contested by
both Traitor Legions shortly after the end of the Horus Heresy in the 31st Millennium. After a full day of
 vicious fighting, the terribly frigid Skalathrax night began. Horrified, Emperor's Children and World Eaters
alike ran to their shelters, for the freezing night would kill even a Chaos Space Marine in a matter of
moments. Khârn raged over being delayed from slaughter for even a single night. Filled with anger when
he saw that his brother Chaos Marines were creeping back to the shelters, he took up a flamer and burned
them down, slaying with his Chain Axe Gorechild any who tried to stop him. The night was filled with the
screams of the dying and the freezing as Khârn strode the streets of the dead city of black stone, killing
Emperor's Children and World Eaters alike, burning any shelters he found. The night was lit by flames as
the Emperor's Children and the World Eaters fought each other and themselves for the few remaining
shelters. By morning, most of the World Eaters were dead, the survivors split into small warbands, the
shattered remnants of the once great Companies of the XII th Legion. The Legion would never reunite and
would remain scattered in warbands for the next ten millennia.
 Dreagher - Dreagher was the Terran-born World Eaters Astartes who served as Captain of the XII th
Legion's 9th Company during the early days of the Great Crusade. After meeting his Primarch for the first
time, he promised Angron that under his leadership the War Hounds Legion would become "...the eater of
worlds." In this way, Dreagher inadvertently inspired Angron to rename the XIIth Legion the World Eaters.
 Gruner - Centurion Gruner was Terran-born veteran of the War Hounds Legion of Jermanic descent who
had served in the Unification Wars. He was the XIIth Legion's grizzled Master of Neophytes and a
formidable warrior within the XIIth Legion who prepared newly selected Neophytes for battle upon the
training grounds of the War Hounds' vassal world of Bodt. Gruner's bare torso rippled with superhuman
strength, sporting an elaborate tattoo of a canine predator tearing into its prey. He was responsible for
training the future champion Khârn, and introduced him to "The Contest", the XIIth Legion's well-
established tradition of taking 1,000 skulls in battle.
 Shabran Darr - Centurion Shabran Darr, known as "White Eyes", hailed from the Death World of
Cuth'vasti. He was marked out as different from his fellow Astartes, possessing sallow stone-grey skin and
the white-on-white eyes of its near-Abhuman natives. He was a relatively young World Eaters officer who
had risen quickly in his Legions' ranks and distinguished himself in battle many times, earning himself a
place in the 11th Assault Company and willingly accepted the Legion's Apothecaries' psycho-surgery to
enhance his aggression. It is not known why such a loyal officer was selected for death on Istvaan III, but
whatever the reason, Darr took part in the initial assault upon the planet's surface. When it became evident
that he had been betrayed by his brothers he became almost insane with hatred, but managed to focus this
into a cold, killing rage that allowed him to keep his wits. He was determined to live to kill his enemies
rather than die in a blaze of violence as so many other of his Legion had. Darr soon became a leader of a
Loyalist World Eaters guerrilla force that made the warren north of the Precentor's Palace in the Choral
City their killing ground and there they fought to the bitterest end.
 Ehrlen (Deceased) - Ehrlen was a Loyalist Captain of the World Eaters who took part in the attack on
Istvaan III. He led a division of World Eaters Loyalists towards the Precentor's Palace in the Choral City,
meeting thousands of civilians who tried to stop them, and with his fellow World Eaters, slaughtered all of
them. Ehrlen was encountered by the Emperor's Children Captain Saul Tarvitz, who warned the World
Eaters to take cover as the Warmaster Horus was about to virus-bomb the planet. However, Tarvitz's
warning came too late, as many World Eaters were too far away from bunkers or other air-tight shelters and
were unable to survive the massive bombardment by biological weapons. Captain Ehrlen led the World
Eaters' counter-attack on the forces of their Primarch Angron and their traitorous fellow Battle-Brothers,
where he is believed to have died at the hands of his Traitor brethren. However, at the end of the fight, a
few World Eaters managed to survive and link up with the remaining Loyalist forces on the planet, where
they helped drag out the battle against the Traitor forces for a further three months before Horus finally
unleashed an orbital bombardment that ended all Loyalist resistance.
 Jeddek - Jeddek was the Standard Bearer of the elite 8th Assault Company under the command of Captain
Khârn. At the time of the Horus Heresy, Jeddek was one of the oldest living World Eaters. He'd crusaded
across the stars from the Legion's founding, long before they rediscovered the Primarch's homeworld, or
started recruiting from worlds beyond Terra. He was one of the first successful volunteers to undergo the
implantation of the Butcher's Nails neural implants. Having worn the Nails longer than anyone, Jeddek felt
nothing outside of slaughter -- no smiles, no tears, nothing. He possessed a dead-eyed glare, murmuring to
himself in a low monotone between battles, until he was once again turned loose upon an enemy. Only then
could he feel, experiencing a palette of emotions beyond staring at everything and nothing with his face
twitching in pained distraction. Jeddek was eventually killed upon Angron's homeworld of Nuceria during
 the Shadow Crusade by the avenging Ultramarines Legion, who had been tracking Lorgar's whereabouts
for the atrocity committed against the Imperial world of Calth.
 Delvarus - Delvarus was a Centurion of the World Eaters, commanding the 44th Company. Specifically he
commanded the elite Triarii -- five full companies of the World Eaters' finest shipboard warriors that
excelled in void warfare and boarding actions far beyond traditional Legion training. Five hundred of
Angron's best warriors, led by the Legion's undisputed pit champion, all of whom were vowed and honour-
bound to defend the flagship Conqueror. Delvarus had a bad reputation for taking part in planetary assaults
with the rest of the XIIth Legion, often "neglecting" to inform command of his intentions. Delvarus was one
of the few World Eaters not to shave his head. The discomfort of hair in his helm was irrelevant; he'd never
cut his long black locks. This may have been a habit derived from his former culture. In the fighting pits, he
always wore it loose. His dark skin marked his genesis in the jungles of whatever world he once called
home. Like many World Eaters, Delvarus was inducted from a planet conquered in the Legion's earliest
solar decades rather than from a specific homeworld. No Legion except the Ultramarines was as diverse as
the World Eaters, coloured by so many shades of skin from so many different worlds, reflecting a diversity
of flesh overruled by the bonds of brotherhood. After the Great Scouring sent the World Eaters fleeing into
the Eye of Terror after their defeat in the Horus Heresy, Delvarus exercised his independent nature once
again and chose to join the Black Legion with elements of his warband after it came under the control of
Abaddon the Despoiler.
 Skane - Skane was a Sergeant of the World Eaters, commanding the Destroyer Squad in the elite 8 th
Company under the command of Captain Khârn. Skaen's pale skin showed an unhealthy lightning-storm of
veins and blood-bruises staining his flesh, from proximity to his own toxically lethal weaponry. He often
spent many hours watching medical diagnostic hololiths picturing the exact radiation degeneration of his
body from his long years of service. Offered the chance to leave the Destroyeres, he flatly refused. His neck
was collared in dark metal, forming armour around his augmetic throat. An aggressive cancer had stolen his
vocal chords, but the Apothecary Kargos had given him new ones.
 Kharad Huygan - Huygan was an Assault Legionary and a Terran Veteran of long-standing, deployed
with the first wave sent to reconquer Istvaan III. He is recorded as being part of the assault force sent to
take possession of a northern sector communications relay. His fate following the firestorm after the initial
bombardment by the Life-eater virus remains unknown.
 Juljak Nul (Deceased) - Juljak Nul, known as "The Storm Walker", was a Contemptor Pattern
Dreadnought of the World Eaters Legion. Nul had the dual distinctions of being the first Master of
Ordnance of the XIIth Legion -- later known as the War Hounds -- and being one of the first of the Legion's
officers interned within a Dreadnought frame after being horribly mutilated by Slaugth murder-minds at
Rangda. An Imperial Loyalist, he was betrayed to his death at Istvaan III and was finally destroyed during
the great battle between his Legion's two factions following Angron's landing, carrying many of his former
brothers with him into death's embrace.
 Lhorke, "The First" - Lhorke was a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the War Hounds Legion who
was the former Legion Master of the XIIth Legion until he "died" on the world of Jeracau. But he was
resurrected, honoured for his service and became the XII th Legion's first Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought.
He served as the leader of the first War Hounds to be interred within Dreadnoughts before the techniques
for the creation of those cybernetic veterans had been perfected. Though they were unstable and volatile,
his thirteen Dreadnought Battle-Brothers, interred within prototype Lucifer and Deredo Pattern
Dreadnought chassis, variously abandoned or intentionally forgotten by the rest of the Legion, still listened
to Lhorke as they had in life. Lhorke lived and died as a War Hound in the decades before the arrival of
Angron, before the XIIth Legion took the name Eaters of Worlds to honour the Primarch's slain army of
rebel gladiators, the Eaters of Cites. Lhorke's chassis still displayed the old Legion scratch kill-markings
and on his breastplate he bore the armoured wolf's head, collared by a chain around its throat. He never
received the kiss of the cortical implants known as the Butcher's Nails in his brain pan, though it would
have been easy enough. Given his circumstances, beating the Butcher's Nails into his skull came with
significant risk, and he was a relic by any virtue of the word. The World Eaters feared to risk him in the
surgery, so he remained one of the few War Hounds among the rising ranks of the World Eaters. He was
disgusted by the changes wrought upon his Legion by Angron, especially the forced mutilation of his
Battle-Brothers' minds, which had turned his once noble warrior-brethren into half-lobotomised madmen
who abandoned all notions of honour when they lost themselves to the berserker rage. Even so, Lhorke did
not hate his brothers, but he did blame them. Every time he awoke from stasis, he was shocked by the
continued degradation of his former Legion, particularly after Angron chose to betray the Emperor of
 Mankind. What tore at Lhorke most was the purge of the XIIth Legion conducted at the Istvaan III
Atrocity, when the Traitor World Eaters had slaughtered their own brothers with impunity. During the
culmination of the Shadow Crusade upon Angron's homeworld of Nuceria, the remaining Librarians of the
XIIth Legion attempted to save their Primarch, who they perceived was falling prey to some type of
unnatural sorcery at the hands of Lorgar, the Primarch of the Word Bearers Legion. Lhorke fought
alongside Vorias' cabal of Librarians, killing the Ultramarines who battled like lions in the doomed hope of
helping their Primarch Roboute Guilliman as he sought to slay Angron. Angered by Lorgar's attempts to
corrupt his Primarch and his Battle-Brothers, Lhorke could no longer countenance what was happening to
his Legion. The World Eaters had suffered enough. The madness wrought by the Butcher's Nails implants
was already enough of a curse, and Lhorke was determined that his Legion would not endure corruption as
well. Lhorke attacked Lorgar, his huge claw crashing against the Primarch's breastplate, throwing him from
his feet. Seeing his brother in distress, the metamorphosing Angron roared with rage and came to his
brother's aid. The metamorphosis of Angron into a Daemon Prince had not yet completed, and the
Primarch's flesh blazed with eldritch fire. Beneath the fire, Lhorke saw a sliver of what was coming to be.
Lhorke never saw the transformation complete. The Daemon Primarch's own claws crashed against his
chassis, tearing the Contemptor Dreadnought's shell apart, and sending its wreckage tumbling across the
ground. The biological revenant that was Lhorke himself -- a crippled and withered near-corpse -- broke
against the rough earth, still trailing its life support cables and milky with amniotic fluid. It gave one breath,
a sudden, sharp inhalation, and then Lhorke moved no more, a terrible monument to his failure to prevent
the World Eaters from being consumed by Chaos.
 Hellesek - Hellesek was one of the first War Hounds to be interred as a Dreadnought before the techniques
had been perfected. Though they were unstable and volatile, his thirteen early Dreadnought Battle-
Brothers, interred within prototype Lucifer and Deredo Pattern Dreadnought chassis, variously abandoned
or intentionally forgotten by the rest of the XII th Legion, still listened to Lhorke as they had in life.
Hellesek possessed two crushing Dreadnought-sized Power Fists as his primary weapons.
 Krydal - Krydal was one of the first War Hounds to be interred as a Dreadnought before the techniques
had been perfected. Though they were unstable and volatile, his thirteen early Dreadnought Battle-
Brothers, interred within prototype Lucifer and Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought chassis, variously abandoned
or intentionally forgotten by the rest of the XII th Legion, still listened to Lhorke as they had in life. Krydal's
sarcophagus was bolted into his chassis, still damaged from battle, blessed and consecrated by holy oils but
installed without his delicate vocabulator circuitry in place.
 Neras - Neras was one of the first War Hounds to be interred as a Dreadnought before the techniques had
been perfected. Though they were unstable and volatile, his thirteen early Dreadnought Battle-Brothers,
interred within prototype Lucifer and Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought chassis, variously abandoned or
intentionally forgotten by the rest of the XIIth Legion, still listened to Lhorke as they had in life. Neras was
the worst of his brothers, and often awoke from stasis enraged, forever lost to the madness of the Butcher's
Nails implants, even while he slumbered in stasis. Between battles he had to have his chassis chained up,
securing him in case he went on a bloody rampage with his massive Dreadnought-sized Chainswords when
he was awoken. Once awoken, Neras was often still frantic and fierce, but always managed to come back
from the mental precipice and function as a powerful addition to any assault by the XII th Legion.
 Styvath the Berzerker - Styvath was a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought of the World Eaters Legion who
was barely controllable and subject to indiscriminate and savage bouts of rage thanks to the unpredictable
interaction between his psycho-surgical implants and the Dreadnought's cybernetic control systems.
Styvath was kept in a deep coma between battles. At Istvaan III he was unleashed by Drop Pod and
rampaged across the battlefield, caring not who he killed.
 Mica Vulkov (Deceased) - Vulkov was a section leader for a World Eaters Tactical Squad attached to the
first wave on Istvaan III, and he managed to survive the virus bombardment by virtue of being engaged
against Istvaanian rebels in the depths of a manufactory unit during the initial attack. Incensed to the point
of madness by his Legion's betrayal, he fought relentlessly against them, finally falling alongside Loyalist
Death Guard forces in the northern zone of the Choral City.
 Dharkalon - Dharkalon, the self-proclaimed "Bone-King" of Cylena, is an ancient relic Contemptor
Dreadnought who leads his own warband of World Eaters Chaos Space Marines. By 505.M40, the ancient
warrior interred within this Dreadnought had ruled the Feral World of Cylena for over a millennium after
his warband was stranded there at the outset of the Storm of Woe. Long dedicated to the Blood God
Khorne, whose skull rune is repeated across his armour, Dharkalon eschews ranged weaponry in favour of
 a pair of mighty Power Claws, their serrated blades encrusted with the blood of countless defeated rivals
and foes. It is said that Dharkalon delights in employing the claws' in-build Combi-Bolters to shred foes
caught within his lethal grasp.
 Skraal - Skraal was a Loyalist Captain of the World Eaters who was most notable for his participation in
the hunt for the traitorous Word Bearers' unique Battleship, the Furious Abyss. When the Ultramarines
vessel Fist of Macragge was destroyed under mysterious circumstances, the Ultramarines Fleet
Commander Lysimachus Cestus assembled an ad hoc strike force to investigate the warship's destruction.
Skraal and his World Eaters worked alongside Battle-Brothers from the Space Wolves, Thousand Sons and
the Ultramarines. Skraal led his World Eaters in a bold raid on the starport of Bakka Triumveron in an
attempt to board the Word Bearers' vessel called the Wrathful. On that vessel the World Eaters valiantly
fought against daemonic boarders. Those few World Eaters that survived were then led by Captain Skraal
and an Ultramarines officer named Antiges during a daring sabotage mission aboard the Furious Abyss.
Once on-board, the mission nearly ended in disaster when the Loyalist strike force was all but annihilated
with the exception of Skraal. The World Eaters Captain managed to successfully avoid capture or being
killed for several weeks, until he was finally able to link up with another Loyalist strike force under the
command of Captain Cestus. Skraal willingly sacrificed himself to buy both Cestus and the Wolf Lord
Brynngar Sturmdreng time to sabotage and destroy the Furious Abyss. The volatile World Eater savagely
cleaved his way through the bodyguard of the Dark Apostle Zadkiel, suffering a score of mortal wounds
until he was finally halted by a point-blank Bolt Pistol shot. Before collapsing from his wounds, Skraal
managed one final fateful swing, cleaving Zadkiel's Bolt Pistol and hand. Enraged, the Dark Apostle
impaled the World Eater Captain through the head with his Dark Crozius, killing him.

The Loyalist World Eater, Macer Varren

 Macer Varren - A Captain of the World Eaters Legion, Varren remained steadfastly loyal to the Emperor
of Mankind when his Legion became corrupted by Chaos and threw in its lot with the Warmaster Horus
during the Horus Heresy. He would later be recruited for Malcador the Sigillite's Knight-Errants, in the
early 31st Millennium by Nathaniel Garro, a former Death Guard Battle-Captain, to become one of the
seven Astartes who would form the core of what eventually evolved into the Grey Knights Space Marine
Chapter. According to some legends, Varren was originally thought to have played a part in the seizing of
the Death Guard Frigate Eisenstein during the virus bombing of Istvaan III, which was used by Garro to
carry warning to the Emperor of the Warmaster Horus' betrayal.

An ancient Remembrancer's sketch depicting the Blackshield Praetor, Endryd Haar

 Endryd Haar - Known as the "Riven Hound", Endryd Haar was once a World Eater. Both he and his
command were believed long lost on-Crusade when his brethren cast in their lot with the Traitors. Endryd
was driven to cold madness by the revelation of his Legion's betrayal when he returned to find the
Imperium riven by civil war, and he cast off all traces of his Legion's insignia and honours and swore a
Death Oath to atone for the XIIth Legion's crimes. Leading a Blackshield unit known as "The Fangs of the
Emperor", Endryd Haar fought alongside the Loyalists as a field commander in the dark days before the
Siege of Terra, accepting any mission -- whatever the odds of survival -- so long as in doing so he could
spill the blood of the enemy. Haar's ultimate fate is unknown.
 Secutor-Sergeant Zkorroth - Secutor-Sergeant Zkorroth was a senior squad leader within the Terminator
Company of the World Eaters Legion's 3rd Chapter during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. He
was known as something of a tyrant within the ranks of the 3 rd Chapter, having clawed his way to senior
squad command rank as much by the domination of his peers as by the blood he shed in the wars of the
Great Crusade. He is known to have slain at least three of his own brother Legionaries as punishment for
what he regarded as lack of respect or commitment to the Great Crusade. It is said that Zkorroth finally
found his true calling upon the cratered killing grounds of Istvaan III during the Istvaan Atrocity, revelling
in the opportunity to test his strength and courage against so mighty an enemy as his own fellow Astartes.
Witnesses claim that later, as the Loyalist Drop Pods streaked through the clouded skies of Istvaan V
during the Drop Site Massacre, Zkorroth strained and bayed as a beast on the leash, so eager was he to spill
the blood of his foe. His status after the conclusion of the Horus Heresy is currently unknown.
 Vorias (Deceased) - Vorias was the Lectio Primus of the World Eaters' waning Librarius Division in the
opening days of the Horus Heresy. Following the discovery of their Primarch Angron, it was not long
before he introduced his own traditions upon his Legion, especially in regards to the use of the infamous
neural implants known as the Butcher's Nails. Unfortunately, the Nails didn't take too well to those with
psychic abilities, causing many within the Librarius to die horribly due to adverse reactions. Vorias worked
in tandem with the World Eaters Apothecarion and the senior Magos of the XIIth Legion in trying to
determine the reasons the Nails reacted so poorly in the presence of psychic minds. But this research was
soon abandoned when the remaining Librarians realised that no one outside of their coterie cared about
their well-being. Despite being ostracised and shunned by his non-psychic brethren, Vorias accepted his lot
within the Legion, for he knew that his very presence caused them pain. Vorias was sanguine, accepting the
truth beneath it all: he wasn't one of them. They were World Eaters. He was a War Hound. During the
culmination of the Shadow Crusade upon Angron's homeworld of Nuceria, the remaining Librarians
attempted to save their Primarch, who they perceived was falling prey to some type of unnatural sorcery at
the hands of Lorgar, the Primarch of the Word Bearers Legion. Seeing his brother in distress, the newly
ascended Daemon Primarch turned upon the creatures which had caused him so much pain over many
decades. Vorias died an agonising death due to Angron's overpowering rage.
 Esca (Deceased) - Esca was a Codicier of the World Eaters' waning Librarius Division in the opening days
of the Horus Heresy. Like the few remaining Librarians within the Legion, Esca was not implanted with the
neural implants known as the Butcher's Nails due to their adverse affects upon those with psychic abilities.
He served in the elite 8th Assault Company as a part of Captain Khârn's command squad. Esca was the only
man in the 8th Company to lack the Butcher's Nails, and therefore the only man who was shunned by his
fellow warriors. Esca was brutally scarred, even by Legiones Astartes standards. His face was a smeared
mess of pebbled scar tissue -- all part of the legacy of the Loyalist Death Guard Chainsword that had torn
his features away during the brutal fighting that occurred during the Istvaan III Atrocity. Though a
formidable warrior and powerful psyker, his innate abilities were looked upon as being useless. During the
culmination of the Shadow Crusade upon Angron's homeworld of Nuceria, the remaining Librarians
attempted to save their Primarch, who they perceived was falling prey to some type of unnatural sorcery at
the hands of Lorgar, the Primarch of the Word Bearers Legion. Seeing his brother in distress, the newly
ascended Daemon Primarch turned upon the creatures which had caused him so much pain over many
decades. Esca was the last Librarian to be killed at the hands of Angron, a bloody offering which sealed the
pact between the Blood God Khorne and the doomed World Eaters Legion.
 Damarkien (Deceased) - Damarkien was a Codicier of the World Eaters' waning Librarius Division in the
opening days of the Horus Heresy. Like the few remaining Librarians within the Legion, Damarkien was
not implanted with the neural implants known as the Butcher's Nails due to their adverse affects upon those
with psychic abilities. Like his fellow Librarians, he was ostracised and shunned from the company of his
fellow non-psychic battle-brothers. During the culmination of the Shadow Crusade upon Angron's
homeworld of Nuceria, the remaining Librarians attempted to save their Primarch, who they perceived was
falling prey to some type of unnatural sorcery at the hands of Lorgar, the Primarch of the Word Bearers
Legion. Seeing his brother in distress, the newly ascended Daemon Primarch turned upon the creatures
which had caused him so much pain over many decades and killed the remaining Librarians himself.
 Haskal (Deceased) - Haskal was a Codicier of the World Eaters' waning Librarius Division in the opening
days of the Horus Heresy. Like the few remaining Librarians within the Legion, Haskal was not implanted
with the neural implants known as the Butcher's Nails due to their adverse affects upon those with psychic
abilities. Like his fellow Librarians, he was ostracised and shunned from the company of his fellow non-
psychic battle-brothers. During the culmination of the Shadow Crusade upon Angron's homeworld of
Nuceria, the remaining Librarians attempted to save their Primarch, who they perceived was falling prey to
some type of unnatural sorcery at the hands of Lorgar, the Primarch of the Word Bearers Legion. Seeing
his brother in distress, the newly ascended Daemon Primarch turned upon the creatures which had caused
him so much pain over many decades. The Primarch's psychic rage caused the Codicier to die from a
massive brain haemorrhage.
 Kheyan - Kheyan was a Codicier of the World Eaters' waning Librarius Division in the opening days of the
Horus Heresy. Like the few remaining Librarians within the Legion, Kheyan was not implanted with the
neural implants known as the Butcher's Nails due to their adverse affects upon those with psychic abilities.
Like his fellow Librarians, he was ostracised and shunned from the company of his fellow non-psychic
battle-brothers. During the culmination of the Shadow Crusade upon Angron's homeworld of Nuceria, the
remaining Librarians attempted to save their Primarch, who they perceived was falling prey to some type of
 unnatural sorcery at the hands of Lorgar, the Primarch of the Word Bearers Legion. Seeing his brother in
distress, the newly ascended Daemon Primarch turned upon the creatures which had caused him so much
pain over many decades. When Kheyan attempted to flee, he ran into Angron's Equerry, Khârn. His former
fellow-Legionaries gripped the fleeing Librarian and threw him to the ground before their Primarch's
mercy. Angron brutally killed the Librarian with his own hands and devoured Kheyan's corpse whole down
his now monstrous gullet.
 Ralakas (Deceased) - Ralakas was a Codicier of the World Eaters' waning Librarius Division in the
opening days of the Horus Heresy. Like the few remaining Librarians within the Legion, Ralakas was not
implanted with the neural implants known as the Butcher's Nails due to their adverse affects upon those
with psychic abilities. Like his fellow Librarians, he was ostracised and shunned from the company of his
fellow non-psychic battle-brothers. During the culmination of the Shadow Crusade upon Angron's
homeworld of Nuceria, the remaining Librarians attempted to save their Primarch, who they perceived was
falling prey to some type of unnatural sorcery at the hands of Lorgar, the Primarch of the Word Bearers
Legion. Seeing his brother in distress, the newly ascended Daemon Primarch turned upon the creatures
which had caused him so much pain over many decades. The Primarch's psychic rage caused the Codicier
to die horribly, his skull detonating as though struck by a bolt shell, showering bone fragments and bloody-
grey ooze across his last living brothers.
 Legionary Zhukel Dror (Deceased) - Once a member of the 8th Assault Company of the World Eaters,
Legionary Dror was one of many of his Legion betrayed at Istvaan III. His mortally wounded body was
recovered during the aftermath, when it was discovered that he lived yet, albeit so grievously broken in
mind he no longer knew friend from foe. Whether as cruel jest, experiment or retrieval of usable biological
matter, Dror was shipped to Bodt along with hundreds of similarly wounded Legionaries, where ultimately
he was inducted into the ranks of the Red Butchers. Legionary Dror was later unleashed upon the Loyalists
invading Tredicimmia. Accounts of the bloodshed that followed are fragmentary at best, but Dror alone
stood accused of slaying at least a dozen Loyalist Legiones Astartes and twice that number of Solar Auxilia
before he was crushed beneath the armoured tread of a Mastodon armoured assault transport of the Iron
Hands Legion.

Post-Heresy Personnel

 Lord Crull - Crull was a Chaos Lord of Khorne who led a warband of World Eaters named the Blood
Legion of Khorne during the battle for Lorn V.
 The Headsman - "The Headsman" is one of the most brutal of all of the World Eaters Chaos Space
Marines known to be active in the Jericho Reach. This individual, whose true name is unknown, has earned
the dire moniker "The Headsman" by the countless bloody deeds he has perpetrated across a hundred
battlefields and more. First witnessed on the world of Khazant, The Headsman has been encountered
leading a warband of his fellow Khornate Berserkers. Of all the bloodthirsty murderers fuelled by the
savage essence of Khorne, The Headsman is feared as the most savage and unrelenting. He wields a mighty
two-handed Chainaxe with which he beheads his foes, often a dozen with a single sweep. His features are
obscured by an executioner's hood, with little more than his baleful eyes visible. However, it is not just his
appearance that has earned The Headsman his title, and it has been noted that his deeds are neither mindless
nor random. Rather, The Headsman announces to his followers and all who will listen who his next target
will be, and then sets out to slay them at any cost. Such targets are often the leaders or champions of the
Imperium's armies in the Reach, though on occasion they have been spiritual leaders or even high
administrators or nobles. None can discern any pattern in The Headsman's choice of target, but once the
name is announced the victim's doom is all but sealed. To date, The Headsman has announced the name of,
and subsequently slain, three Space Marine Company Champions, a Chaplain, seven Imperial Guard
Colonels, two Adeptus Titanicus Princeps, a Cardinal-Aquilus, and a Commissar-General.
 Kossolax the Foresworn - Kossolax was a Chaos Lord who supported the 13th Black Crusade and lead a
large Khornate warband known as the Foresworn. One particular Chaos Rhino, belonging to the World
Eaters Legion, was reportedly present at the Battle of Terra during the Siege of the Imperial Palace, and has
been identified on numerous occasions over the millennia since as being the vehicle of Kossolax the
Foresworn. The vehicle, identified as Barbarus by its nameplate, is covered in iron spikes, each adorned
with the severed head of an Imperial warrior. The records of the Ordo Malleus state that Barbarus belonged
to the squad of Sergeant Solax of the World Eaters' 3 rd Assault Company before the Horus Heresy, and this
 individual is thought to be the beast now known as Kossolax the Foresworn. If this is indeed the case,
Sergeant Solax has risen to the command of an entire company of Khornate Berserkers in the form of the
Foresworn, and Barbarus has served with him and his warband across 10,000 standard years.
 Lord Zhufor - Zhufor, also called Zhufor the Impaler and the Butcher of Vraks, is an infamous Chaos
Lord of Khorne who led a mighty warband of the World Eaters known as the Skulltakers during the Siege
of Vraks. Millennia ago, he was known as Balzach, a former Sergeant of the Storm Lords Chapter. During
the sacking of the hive cities of Paramar, Sergeant Balzach was severely wounded and taken captive by the
Traitor Marines of the World Eaters Legion. Balzach was then drugged and subjected to torture and
psycho-corrective surgery to alter his brainwave patterns in order to break his Imperial indoctrination. He
was turned into a raging psychopathic killer, tall and muscular beyond even his normal Space Marine
physique, and reborn as Zhufor.
 Fabrikus - Fabrikus is an infamous Apothecary of the World Eaters Traitor Legion. Fabrikus' name is a
dark legend in the Apothecarion of every Space Marine Chapter. A brilliant man, he served with the elite 1st
Company of the World Eaters, gaining distinction as a warrior and as a surgeon, before following his
Primarch Angron into the service of the Ruinous Powers. In the centuries since the Horus Heresy, his name
has become a byword for perverse experimentation. Some said he was even behind many of the mutations
undergone by the Chaos Space Marines: the fusion of flesh to armour of the World Eaters, the hellish
combination of near-dead warrior and implacable war machine that was a Chaos Dreadnought. His masters
required more Space Marines, more than could be provided by the harvest of the gene-seed from those
already serving their unholy purpose. Fabrikus had spent the centuries experimenting with the other
intelligent races available to him, but the gene-seed refused to take, or else it produced mutations that were
unhelpful. Therefore, he had decided to return to take up his earlier role as an Apothecary and harvest the
Progenoid Glands from a more pure source, unaffected by the energies of the Warp -- that of captured
Space Marines loyal to the Emperor. In this way, these new measures would help ensure his success in the
creation of new types of Astartes loyal to the Ruinous Powers of the Warp and unstoppable in battle.
 Kargos, "Bloodspitter" - Kargos was an Apothecary of the elite 8th Assault Company as a part of Captain
Khârn's command squad during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. He was known throughout the XII th
Legion by his pit-fighting name "Bloodspitter", earning the epithet for his habit of spitting blood into the
eyes of his opponents, the oldest of tricks, when fighting in the World Eaters' fighting pits in the belly of
their flagship Conqueror. When the World Eaters deemed those of other bloodlines worthy to fight within
their fighting pits, Kargos was often paired with Ammit, a fierce Captain of the Blood Angels Legion,
known as the "Flesh Tearer", for he fought with the same savagery and brutality as his hosts, a trait that
would later be passed on to the Flesh Tearers Chapter he led after the Heresy. Few ever wished to come up
against the "Bloodspitter" and the "Flesh Tearer". They were known for always fighting past first blood,
third blood and into sanguis extremis (to the death). No dirty trick seemed beyond them, and every one of
their matches was a death bout. Kargos was stalwart and ferocious warrior on the battlefields as well. He
possessed a caustic wit and was never afraid to make light of a desperate situation through the use of dark
humour, making his brothers laugh with great mirth.
 Akraghar, Berzerker Champion - It was Akraghar, Berzerker Champion of the World Eaters, who first
harnessed a Defiler and bound it to his savage will. During the war for Eclipsion Prime, Akraghar leapt
from the flames of a burning hivespire onto the legendary Defiler known as "Slaughterfiend" and forced the
daemon within the hell engine to submit to his will. He rode the daemon-machine through the shattered
hive city like a dark knight upon a hellish stallion, descending upon his foes in a vengeful maelstrom of fire
and blade. To the present day, the most reckless Chaos Space Marine Berserkers will attempt to emulate
Akraghar's deed and capture a Defiler and ride their own Slaughterfiend to war.
 Roghrax Bloodhand - This formidable Khornate Berserker has amassed more human skulls than he knows
what to do with. He has sworn to collect a skull from every warrior species in the galaxy and offer them up
to the Skull Throne of his master, Khorne. Bloodhand's masterwork took a dramatic turn when he was
presented with a new opportunity to test his martial skills in 992.M41, with the coming of the Tyranid
fleets. Hastening to the Eastern Fringe, the maniacal trophy collector led his Chaos warfleet directly into
the path of Hive Fleet Kraken. Bloodhand was delighted at the prospect of collecting such large and
impressive xenos skulls, and soon reaped a grisly bounty from the foul aliens.
 Scyrak the Slaughterer - During the Horus Heresy, Librarians in the other Space Marine Legions that
dedicated themselves to the Ruinous Powers were granted new psychic abilities and malefic powers. The
only exception were the Librarians of the World Eaters. As part of a bloody sacrifice to their new master,
 the Librarians of the World Eaters were hunted down and slaughtered by their brother Astartes, as Khorne
despises all practitioners of the sorcerous arts. The killing came to a head when the World Eaters hero
Scyrak the Slaughterer slew the Legion's Chief Librarian, thus removing the last obstacle to the Legion's
bloody fall to the Eightfold-Path and their service to the Skull Throne. There is some dispute to Scyrak's
odious claim that he slew the last Librarian, but since the truth of these events surrounding the eradication
of the Legion's Librarians occurred ten millennia ago, only those who were there would be able to confirm
the veracity of his claims.
 Praetor-Apothecary Kalibos - Kalibos was the commander of the Legion mustering point on the Ocean
World of Duat. Seeking to rejoin the Legion on the front lines of the Horus Heresy, he tried to prove his
worth by experimenting on the World Eaters' gene-seed. he managed to develop a method to speed up the
implantation process to produce Neophytes significantly, albeit at the cost of a horrendous loss of life as the
new process was survivable by substantially few candidates. Kalibos was slain by Endryd Haar during the
raid of his Loyalist Blackshield force on Duat, putting an end to his grisly experiments.

Legion Fleet

The Conqueror, flagship of the World Eaters' Legion and of the Primarch Angron

During the Horus Heresy the World Eaters Legion fleet is known to have possessed the following vessels:

 Conqueror (Gloriana-class Battleship) - The Conqueror was the flagship of the Primarch Angron and the
XIIth Legion during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy.
 Blood Shrike (Strike Cruiser)
 Dedicated Wrath (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)
 Gladiator (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)
 Gatts' Charge (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)
 Industrious (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)
 Justified Aggressor (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)
 Merciless (Battleship)
 Silent Fury (Strike Cruiser)
 Cardoc (Transport Ship)

Legion Artefacts

 Berserker Glaive - The bearer of this inordinately heavy, daemon-infested killing tool is driven to a state of
apoplectic frenzy by the proximity of its red-hot steel. His fellow World Eaters treat him with great caution,
shunning him as a dangerous maniac even amongst his own bloodthirsty kind whilst venerating him -- from
a distance -- as a living totem of rage. A host of Bloodletters are bound into the weapon's fabric, and by
channelling the life essence of those it slays, the vampiric Daemon Weapon ensures its isolated host can
fight like a man possessed for solar weeks on end, healing his wounds so it can continue the slaughter.
 Bloodfeeder - Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows, and this Daemon Weapon is testament to
that immortal truth. One struck by this ever-thirsting blade is immediately exsanguinated, reduced to a
desiccated husk as his lifeblood is channelled into the lakes of gore that swill around Khorne's brass
stockade as sustenance for his Juggernaut Daemon Beasts. Woe betide he who does not answer its call -- if
the blade goes without this grisly harvest for long enough, it will gladly siphon away its wielder's blood
instead.
 Brass Collar of Bhorghaster - This spiked collar of heavy brass is the bane of Sorcerers, for it has bound
within it a Greater Daemon of Khorne named Bhorghaster that despises magic with a fiery passion. A
psyker with the temerity to unleash eldritch power near this relic finds his mind screaming with intense
pain. Moments later, the empyric energies he has conjured into being are turned back upon him in a raging
inferno of white-hot flame. Those who succumb are immediately sucked into Khorne's realm, there to die
by Bhorghaster's blades a thousand times over.
 Crimson Killer - This ornate Plasma Pistol fires blasts of crimson plasma that crackle with murderous
power, fierce energies that ignite body and soul alike.
  Gorefather - This immense Chainaxe is said to have once been wielded by Angron himself. Though it was
ultimately cast aside, just as with its partner weapon Gorechild, it has since been returned to its former pre-
eminence on a diet of sacred oil and spiced blood. This relic is of such immense importance to the Legion
that wars have been fought between rival warbands seeking to claim it for themselves. One strong enough
to heft Gorefather can scythe his enemies into scattering explosions of blood and ruined flesh.
 Talisman of Burning Blood - This bizarre relic constantly drips with thick, bubbling gore. The air around
it is so heavy with the charnel stench of the slaughterhouse that it has a stark effect on those nearby, the
stink of carnage so potent they find themselves charging forwards with a supernatural eagerness to slake
their need for slaughter.

Legion Appearance

A World Eaters Astartes in their original white and blue colour scheme.

The World Eaters care for one thing above all else -- the thrill of slaughter. Even if they cleaned and sanctified their
wargear after each engagement in the manner of Loyalist Space Marines, it would be caked in the sticky, clotted
lifeblood of their victims within solar minutes.

Wherever they go, whatever enemy they face, the deep crimson battle-plate of the World Eaters is covered in
another layer of arterial red, and then another. Each new jet of gore or splash of vital fluids is a sacrament offered
unto Khorne himself.

Before Angron's Legion turned upon their brothers at the Istvaan V Drop Site Massacre, his warriors were clad in
stark white and deep blue -- in theory, at least. Such was the violence with which these warriors brought worlds into
Imperial Compliance during the Great Crusade that more often than not they were spattered with copious amounts of
blood -- a fact that did not go unnoticed amongst their brother Legions, as noted above.

The present warrior elite of the World Eaters have long histories of slaughter. Many fought at the side of Angron
himself, the waves of unnatural energy that radiate from the Daemon Primarch leaving their mark on body and soul.
It is considered a blessing second only to that of Khorne himself to kill within Angron's sight -- those who truly earn
his favour are granted a nod of respect or a growl of recognition in the midst of battle.

A World Eaters Khornate Berserker in current colour scheme.

The Berserkers of the World Eaters use a variety of weapons optimised for close-range slaughter, but the most
favoured amongst them is the Chainaxe. This massive weapon has rows of grinding teeth that whir around the axe's
edge with speed enough to gnaw through armour and hack through rockcrete -- should they make it through to the
flesh beneath, the destruction they cause is catastrophic.

Legion Colours

First as the War Hounds and then in their new incarnation as the World Eaters, the XII th Legion wore white Power
Armour with blue on the shoulder plates and parts of the power pack. The Astartes of this Legion often modified
their armour by adding large spikes on the shoulder plates to not only evoke fear but also to turn the armour's
surface into a weapon in its own right.

A brazen helm would denote Veteran status. When the World Eaters gave into their bloodlust and fell to the
corrupting influence of the Blood God, their white and blue heraldry gave way to blood red and brass, the favored
colours of Khorne, although one can often find some pieces of the World Eaters' original heraldry in individual
pieces of their armour.

While most World Eaters retain their original Legion badge, the Mark of Khorne, as well as other Chaos icons and
symbols like the Star of Chaos, often supplement it. In battle, the World Eaters almost exclusively employ
Chainaxes and Chainswords to maximise blood spillage, although some of the most powerful warriors of the Legion
use arcane power or daemonic Khornate weapons infused with the power of a daemon of the Blood God.

Other Renegade Space Marines that have given in to the pull of Khorne since the end of the Horus Heresy have
adopted the look of the World Eaters, but few can compare to the experience that thousands upon thousands of
battles across some 10,000 standard years has brought to the original World Eaters Heretic Astartes.

What was once the most effective shock assault force in the galaxy is now a terrifying collection of savage
berserkers and insane, psychotic killing machines that live only to spill blood and take skulls for their master
Khorne.

Legion Badge

As the War Hounds Legion, the original XIIth Legion badge was that of a large red hound, rampant, centred on a
field of white. This symbol was reminiscent of the epithet given to them by the Emperor Himself, for the XIIth
Legion reminded Him of the white war hounds the Yeshk warriors in the north of Terra once used. After their
reunion with their Primarch Angron when they were redubbed the World Eaters, their Legion badge changed to that
of a great red fanged maw poised to crush a life-bearing world, centred on a field of dark blue.

This iconic image was to prove entirely fitting to describe what was to come for the World Eaters. The maw was a
literal representation of their Legion's name, the World Eaters, as well as the brutal violence wrought on those
enemies whom failed to comply with the tenets of the Imperial Truth and allow themselves to be brought into the
folds of the burgeoning Imperium. After their corruption, many World Eaters Legionaries began incorporating
Khorne's stylized skull-rune which is either painted or carved onto their Power Armour. The World Eaters' Khornate
Berserkers are also sometimes seen wearing a variant of their original Legion iconography of the fanged maw
engulfing a planet superimposed over the eight-pointed star of Chaos.

"And thus, driven from Holy Terra and resigning forevermore in the underworld, the Sons of Horus, the treacherous
Sixteenth, became the Black Legion. From shame and shadow recast. In black and gold reborn."
— Scripture of Scryer Dianthon

Black Legion

Warcry

"Lupercal!" and "For Horus and the Emperor!" (Pre-Heresy) /

"We are returned!" and "Death to the False Emperor!" (Post-Heresy)

Founding

First Founding (30th Millennium)

Successors of

Luna Wolves / Sons of Horus

Known Warbands

Aphotic Blade
Athkor's Destroyers
Hounds of Abaddon
Sons of the Cyclops
Bringers of Decay
Children of Torment
Black Brethren of Ayreas
The Chosen of Heiros
Corpsemakers
Sons of the Eye
True Sons
Wolves of Horus

Legion Number

XVI

Primarch

Horus

Chaos Lord(s)

Abaddon the Despoiler

Original Homeworld

Cthonia

Current Homeworld

Unknown (The Legion fleet stays within the Eye of Terror)

Allegiance

Chaos; Chaos Undivided

Legion Colours

Black and Gold

The Black Legion is a Traitor Legion of Chaos Space Marines that is the first in infamy, if not in treachery, whose
name resounds as a curse throughout the scattered and war-torn realms of humanity. The Black Legion was once one
of the 9 First Founding Legions of Space Marines who turned Traitor to the Imperium during the Horus Heresy in
the early 31st Millennium.

The Black Legion, at that time still known as the Sons of Horus, became the primary instrument of its Primarch, the
Warmaster Horus, to overthrow the Emperor of Mankind and seize control of the Imperium in the name of Chaos.
Such are the crimes of the Black Legion that it is easy to forget that the past was very different, and that there was a
time when its Astartes and their perfidious master Horus were lauded above all of the other warriors of the Legiones
Astartes, and were considered the most favoured servants of the Emperor of Mankind.

Born as the XVIth Space Marine Legion on Terra, the Black Legion would first rise to greatness under the name of
the Luna Wolves. Before the dark days of the Horus Heresy they fought at the Emperor's side on Terra and through
the early years of the Great Crusade. They were as stalwart and indefatigable as any of the servants of the Emperor
and their actions exemplified what it meant to be a warrior of the Space Marine Legions. Brutal, ruthless and
unwavering but also honourable, and once loyal beyond question, the history of the Black Legion is the history of
the ambition of the Imperium itself, and the flaws that broke its founder's dreams of unification and glory for all
Mankind asunder.

The Black Legion is now one of the Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines who are united in the pursuit of the
single purpose of overthrowing the Imperium. They oppose the infighting that consumes so many of their brethren
amongst the other Traitor Legions, for the Astartes of the Black Legion are the greatest servants of Chaos
Undivided. They are always brought together in great numbers to work the will of their Warmaster of Chaos,
Abaddon the Despoiler, the heir of Horus. Whenever the entirety of the Black Legion is called to battle, it marks the
beginning of another one of Abaddon's Black Crusades against the Imperium of Man.

The Black Legion is the only one of the Traitor Legions to have changed its name following the Horus Heresy. The
XVIth Legion was originally known as the Luna Wolves during the Great Crusade. In honour of Horus' great
achievements during the latter years of that era after the Imperial victory over the Orks during the Ullanor Crusade,
the Emperor suggested that the Legion be renamed the Sons of Horus.

Horus eventually instituted this change following his conversion to the service of the Dark Gods of Chaos on the
world of Davin. After Horus' treachery and final defeat at the Battle of Terra during the Horus Heresy, however, the
Legion was renamed the "Black Legion" by its new Warmaster, Abaddon the Despoiler. The new name was chosen
after the Astartes of the Sons of Horus painted their Power Armour black in grief at the death of their Primarch
Horus and shame at their failure to overthrow the False Emperor and seize control of the galaxy in the name of the
Ruinous Powers.

The Black Legion are at once the inheritors of the most glorious legacies of the Great Crusade, and the vilest
treacheries of the Horus Heresy. Their Primarch was the Warmaster Horus himself, once celebrated as the greatest
of the sons of the Emperor, and later despised as the basest of Traitors. Of all the infant Primarchs scattered to the
corners of the galaxy before the process of their creation was completed, Horus grew up closest to Terra.

The world of Cthonia had been settled in the very earliest days of Mankind’s exploration of the stars, its hugely rich
natural resources ruthlessly exploited until they were all but played out. Thus, Horus grew to maturity amongst the
anarchic gangers that populated the post-industrial nightmare of a world honeycombed with long-extinct mines and
dominated by decaying hive city spires. It was from the hyper violent gang-scum of Cthonia that many of the
earliest inductees into the Space Marine Legions were taken, and it was there that the Emperor found the first and
most beloved of His lost sons.

For thirty standard years, the Emperor and Horus fought the opening campaigns of the Great Crusade side by side,
the Primarch learning at the foot of his sire. When at length the Emperor detected that another of the Primarchs was
close at hand and departed to locate him, Horus was left at the head of his master's hosts, entrusted with the
command of the conquering Imperial armies. Horus was well-suited to the task, and the lessons he had learned in the
previous three Terran decades served him well. As one by one the Primarchs were united with their sire and their
brothers, Horus came increasingly to be regarded as the greatest of their number, the first among equals.

While many of his brothers and the Legions created in their image were gifted in particular fields of military
endeavour, Horus was a natural leader, his greatest genius his ability to meld seemingly divergent allies into a
coherent whole. This skill was not only of use on the battlefeld, for it carried over into contacts with the peoples the
Great Crusade met. It was Horus' way to treat with the populations of newly-contacted worlds according to the
traditions of each, and this highly successful doctrine was repeated in each of the Expeditionary Fleets. Tragically, it
might also have been the cause of the Primarch's fall, and with him fully half of the Space Marine Legions.

In the aftermath of the greatest of the nascent Imperium's victories to date, the defeat of the largest Ork empire ever
encountered, Horus was granted the title "Warmaster," commander-in-chief of all the Emperor's armies. So great
was the victory that his Legion, originally called the Luna Wolves, was renamed the Sons of Horus.

The Emperor returned to Terra to oversee the next phase of the creation of his interstellar empire, but on the Feral
World of Davin, Horus was struck down by some malady sufficiently virulent to affect even a superhumanly
resilient Primarch. At some point during his treatment or recovery, Horus was inducted into one of Davin's Warrior
Lodges, the Temple of the Serpent Lodge, and it is likely that during that process, he was corrupted in some manner
that would lead to his eventual downfall. Horus emerged from his illness changed, and the practise of establishing
Warrior Lodges spread throughout the Legions. With it, apparently, spread whatever Chaos taint had corrupted the
Warmaster, and the fate of the galaxy was sealed.

As the pre-eminent Primarch, Horus had always enjoyed the confidence of his brothers, even when internecine
rivalries had caused disputes. It appears that through a masterful series of manipulations and deceptions, Horus
subverted the loyalties of those Primarchs personally closest to him, whilst simultaneously diverting or undermining
those others, such as Rogal Dorn, Roboute Guilliman and Sanguinius, who would oppose his treachery. The
Warmaster's plans were impossibly well-coordinated, each of the Primarchs experiencing a turn of fate or a
precipitating incident that determined which side they would take in the ensuing galactic civil war.

Imperial scholars have long debated how many and which of these events were directly brought about by Horus'
machinations and which were sheer coincidence. Others still must surely have been the work of the Ruinous Powers
themselves, turning their unknowable attentions upon the domains beyond the Empyrean and exerting their will
upon them. Whatever the case, events reached a head according to the Warmaster's strategy when he virus-bombed
the remaining Loyalists in the nascent Traitor Legions on the world of Istvaan III, an act so dire that five entire
Astartes Legions were despatched to call him to account for his apparent rejection of all the Great Crusade stood for.

It was at Istvaan V that the Warmaster finally revealed his true colours. The first wave of the Legions sent to
confront Horus made planetfall, only to discover themselves in the midst of treachery. Faced with overwhelming
odds, the Salamanders, Raven Guard and Iron Hands -- later known as the Shattered Legions -- attempted to link up
with the second wave, only for the true extent of the Warmaster's treachery to be fully realised. The second wave,
consisting of the Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, Alpha Legion, and World Eaters turned upon their embattled
brothers, and the result was the infamous Drop Site Massacre, one of the darkest moments not only of the Horus
Heresy, but of the entire history of Mankind.

The ensuing civil war pitched the whole Imperium into anarchy and chaos. It was not only the Legions aligned to
Horus that rebelled, for the Warrior Lodges and the Chaotic taint in general had spread far and wide by the time of
the Drop Site Massacre. The Imperial Army was split almost in half, regiment fighting regiment and fleet fighting
fleet. The Titan Legions of the Mechanicum, the ancestors of the Adeptus Mechanicus, were equally affected, and
soon fully half of the Emperor's hosts were engaged in bitter conflict with the other. Barely a single world was
untouched by a war that accounted for countless billions of lives and that culminated in the Warmaster's assault on
Terra itself.

As events neared their tragic conclusion, those Legions not committed to the defence of Terra raced through the
Warp, converging on the homeworld of Mankind in such numbers that the Traitors, massed to assault the Imperial
Palace, would be defeated. At the last, Horus lowered the shields of his Battle Barge, effectively inviting the
Emperor to teleport aboard and confront His treacherous gene-son. In the battle that followed, Horus was slain at the
hand of his sire, his soul psychically annihilated so that not a shred of its essence remained. But in defeating the
Primarch, the Emperor had suffered such wounds that only His ascension to the life-sustaining Golden Throne could
keep death at bay.
Even as Rogal Dorn carried the Emperor's body from the Warmaster's Battle Barge, the Traitor hosts began their
fighting withdrawal, and in the anarchy and confusion Horus' body was recovered by his Legion. Having fought
their way clear of the Sol System and fled for the Eye of Terror, the Sons of Horus established a world that was at
once the tomb of their lost Primarch and a fortress, from which they would launch further attacks both upon their
fellow Traitor Legions and against the smouldering Imperium. Bereft of their glorious Primarch, the Legion
floundered, and in desperation turned to each of the Chaos Gods in turn in their search for renewed power, inviting
daemonic possession and the ever more costly blessings of the Warp.

All the while, the Legion suffered the jealous attacks of their former allies during the so-called Legion War. At
length one such rival, the remnants of the Emperor's Children, stole the body of the slain Primarch from the heart of
its tomb and spirited it away, some say with the purpose of cloning it in order to create a new and still greater
Warmaster. The salvation of the Sons of Horus came when one of its greatest captains, Ezekyle Abaddon, led an
attack on the Emperor's Children that destroyed the body of the Primarch and in so doing ushered in a new age for
the Legion.

The Traitors changed their name once more, this time in reference to the fact that their armour was now adorned
black, calling themselves the Black Legion. Through his actions, Abaddon re-invigorated the Legion, reviving the
old notion that none could stand in their way and that they would one day inherit the galaxy itself. When the
warbands of the Black Legion gather under the wrathful banner of Abaddon the Despoiler, the words of Horus are
ever heard upon their lips -- let the galaxy burn.

Contents

Legion History

"You will try. But today you face the Emperor's sons and His warriors.
We are the Luna Wolves, and this Legion is the anvil upon which you will be broken.
We are the anvil..now behold the hammer."
—Commander Horus Lupercal during the Compliance of Melchior

The Wolves of Terra

Badge of the Black Legion

In the time when the Emperor's eye first began to fall beyond Terra, He raised new armies to fight His Great
Crusade. He drew these new troops in part from the forces that had already unified Terra during the Unification
Wars of the late 30th Millennium, from willing Terran volunteers like those who comprised the XVI th Space Marine
Legion who were implanted with the gene-seed of their missing Primarch Horus like all the Astartes of the First
Founding.

Badge of the Pre-Heresy Sons of Horus Legion

These recruits were also drawn in part from the Emperor's subjugated enemies, and together they represented the
first generation of Space Marines. Like most of the embryonic Space Marine Legions, the XVI th Legion drew all of
its first recruits from the Terran population. Though it is difficult to be certain based on the existing Imperial records
from this lost time, there are indications that many of the XVI th Legion's early intake came from the hunter clans of
the Jutigran Bowl and the Samsatian sub-plate slums. Perpetual conflict and the harshness of life on the desolate
margins of Terran society had given these people the hard edge of ruthlessness and independence that would serve a
Space Marine well.
Badge of the Pre-Heresy Luna Wolves Legion

The XVIth Legion made war with abrasive aggression. Perhaps through the influence of their genetic heritage or the
use the Emperor put them to, the Space Marines of the XVI th Legion became synonymous with sudden and
overwhelming shock assaults. To the XVIth Legion fell the swift prosecution of battle and the bloody termination of
campaigns.

Their attacks were preemptive as often as they were part of an existing conflict, their forces either the first deadly
threat unleashed by the Imperium or preserved to enact a final, killing blow. The First Pacification of Luna was
perhaps the most famous of these early victories for the XVI th Legion, but the breaking of the Coriolis Enclaves and
the Five Winter left scars in the collective consciousness of Terran society that persist even now. In the Capridian
Sinks, it is still common for traders and gamblers to refer to the Legion's ancient number of sixteen as "the counting
of the wolf."

Black Legion Colour Scheme as displayed by Brother Narghast, who has wielded his Bolter Hateslaker for
millennia, and has put it to gruesome use on countless planets throughout the galaxy.

It is said that the Astartes of the XVIth Legion were unleashed to begin and end wars their enemies did not even
know they were fighting. They would come out of the night or in the dawn, carried in the holds of Stormbirds and
Storm Eagles, flanked by squadrons of escorting Lightning Crows. Those who witnessed such attacks say that the
XVIth Legion were fighting eye-to-eye with the enemy before the thunder of their first volley of missiles and shell-
strikes had faded.

The warriors who fought these battles were of a character wholly in keeping with their reputation. Proud, little given
to humour or empathy, nor to mysticism or even the ritual of the military elite, they were a breed apart from the true
human forces that had fought at their side. Their aggression was clear in their every action, but so was the strength
of the control that held it in check, and the needs of that ancient age easily accommodated such a belligerent and
cantankerous attitude.

Pre-Heresy Sons of Horus Legion Colour Scheme

At some time the notion of the Emperor sending His "wolves" to break intractable or potential enemies took root in
the consciousness of the new-born Imperium of Man, with the Pacification of Luna in the late 30 th Millennium --
considered by many the first battle of the Great Crusade -- its apocryphal source.

The XVIth Legion embraced the epithet "Luna Wolves" they earned after this first campaign with relish. The wolf's
head became a common icon for the Astartes of the XVI th Legion, the link being somewhat abstract, as the Terran
animals once called wolves had been almost extinct for millennia, largely relegated to existence as gene-stock for
engineered bio-weapon beasts on Terra itself, though the name remained synonymous in most Terran dialects with
controlled savagery.

Pre-Heresy Luna Wolves Legion Colour Scheme

The wearing of pelts of such augmented canid predators increasingly marked out the field commanders and officers
of the Luna Wolves. The XVIth would not be the only Space Marine Legion to bear such a title and embrace this
imagery as their own, but they were the first.

Cthonia

The Luna Wolves were the first Space Marine Legion to begin recruiting from another world beyond Terra. In this
case, the new pool of Aspirants was found amongst the adolescent human males drawn from the violent hive city
gangs inhabiting an ancient former Mining World that had devolved into a Feral World called Cthonia.
Cthonia was located in one of Terra's closest neighbouring star systems in the Segmentum Solar and was within
reach of spacecraft that could travel at only sublight velocities before the invention of the Warp-Drive. As a result,
Cthonia had been colonised, built upon, tunnelled and mined since the dawn of human interstellar space travel
millennia before the beginning of the Dark Age of Technology.

Due to this unusually long period of exploitation by Mankind, all of the world's natural resources had been stripped
away and used up centuries before, and the ancient mining technology had long since been rediscovered and
removed by the Tech-adepts of Mars. The planet that remained was largely useless and abandoned, completely
riddled with catacombs, crumbling industrial plant and exhausted mine-workings.

Horus Lupercal

Horus, the true Primarch of the Luna Wolves, was the first of the Primarchs to be recovered by the Emperor, having
been cast in his gestation capsule through the Warp much closer to Terra on Cthonia than the others by the Ruinous
Powers, and he was found at a much younger age. Whereas the early history of many Primarchs is extensively if
unevenly documented, the same cannot be said of Horus.

Contradiction and omission tarnishes all accounts of Horus' formative years. It is clear that the Emperor did find
Horus and also that he took command of the XVIth Legion early in the Great Crusade. Beyond these manifest facts,
agreement between the early Imperial sources is decidedly lacking, some even placing Horus on Cthonia as a
foundling. Like many of his superhuman brethren, these sources say that the young Primarch thrived in Cthonia's
harsh environment, learning his first lessons in war and killing from Cthonia's tech-barbarian kill-gangs.

Another source claims that Horus returned to Terra itself. It is said that Horus grew at the Emperor's side, learning
from his father even as they took back the Sol System and forged the alliances between the techno-barbarian nations
of Terra and with the Mechanicum of Mars that created the Imperium of Man.

Other highly creditable claims state that the Emperor found Horus, the first of His lost sons, but neither source
specifies where, or the location of this finding. Surrounded in millennia of myths and allegory, the truth of Horus'
origins will more than likely never be known.

As a result, however it came to pass, Horus was for many standard years the Emperor's only son, and there was a
great affinity between them. The Emperor spent much time with His protege, teaching and encouraging him. Horus
was soon placed in command of the XVIth Legion, which had already come to be known as the Luna Wolves --
10,000 Astartes created from his own genetic code.

With these superhuman warriors to lead, Horus accompanied the Emperor for the first thirty standard years of the
Great Crusade that had begun in ca. 800.M30, and together they forged the initial interstellar expansion of the young
Imperium of Man.

A Human Harvest

By the time the Great Crusade began in 798.M30, Cthonia's mines were long spent, but it had a resource that the
new Imperium needed more than metals and jewels: hardened fighters and born survivors in their millions; a lean
and hungry race of killers with no illusions about the horrors of the universe. Cthonia, relatively close to Terra in the
void, and with whom some minor intermittent contact had been maintained even through the Age of Strife, had its
murderous and strife-torn population marked by one of the first Expeditionary Fleets to leave the Sol System.

To fuel the growth of the early Space Marine Legions, the Imperium took full advantage of the bounty that Cthonia
provided. At the time of the First Founding, Cthonia already helped provide the necessary flesh for the Selenar gene-
wrights of Luna to fuel the growth of the early Legiones Astartes. One report talks of so-called Imperial "recruitment
squads" harvesting tens of thousands of Cthonian gangers and shipping them away, chained together in the holds of
prison-shuttles, to the geno-laboratories of Luna's Selenar gene-wrights.
The majority were impressed as troopers for the Great Crusade's Imperial Army regiments, but the finest specimens
were taken for induction into Space Marine Legions. On Luna these chosen sons of Cthonia were reborn as the
superhuman Astartes of the XVIth Legion.

It was more common for the first Space Marine Aspirants to be adolescent volunteers from Terra, and later in the
Crusade, after the rediscovery of the Primarchs, from Feral or Feudal Worlds discovered along the way. Yet, after
the usual psycho-hypnotic indoctrination and mental conditioning process, the Luna Wolves created from the men of
Cthonia emerged as excellent and ferociously powerful Space Marines.

A Legion Reborn

A Luna Wolves Astartes carrying out an Imperial Compliance action during the Great Crusade

With the induction of the genestock from Cthonia, the XVI th Legion was remade. For the Terran Space Marines who
already constituted the core of the Legion, their new brothers brought with them their own customs, attitudes and
modes of thought, the ingrained inheritances of a thousand generations of callous violence and the ruthless pursuit of
survival that the indoctrination practices of that time could modify and perhaps suppress but not entirely erase. In
truth, this was perhaps the point for the Cthonians' inclusion within the Legion.

As the Terran Legionaries fell in battle, their voices and the more ordered military traditions they had been trained in
became fewer and fainter within the XVIth Legion. The marks of change were many and subtle, not overwriting the
Legion's culture entirely but bringing a unique character to what had gone before. Examples of this change came
slowly.

The topknots and mohawks commonly sported by Cthonian ganger head-hunters became common throughout the
ranks of the Luna Wolves as both additions to their armour and as personal decoration. After being wounded in
battle by a worthy foe it was common for a Luna Wolf Astartes to honour the valour of his fallen enemy by making
a deep scratch in the ceramite across his helm's eye socket. Perhaps most tellingly, the Cthonian word for cutting the
throat of an enemy gang-killer in single combat -- "aebathan" -- became a common term in the ranks to describe the
completion of a campaign.

The personal charisma and reputation of a commander within the Legion came to apply to the Astartes under his
command, as if the ways of the Cthonian gang lords now informed the Luna Wolves' own understanding of
leadership. This applied particularly to the Luna Wolves' Primarch Horus after his rediscovery by the Emperor, as
his cult of personality was universal within the Legion and all Luna Wolves came to revere the Lupercal to an extent
that would ultimately prove their undoing.

The strength of the Luna Wolves in battle did not change or weaken after the inclusion of the Cthonians; if anything
the Legion seemed to become even more potent over time. The Legion strove to maintain the required flexibility
needed to allow them to fight any war or enemy they might encounter on their own terms, but where possible the
application of sudden and overwhelming force was usually their favoured form of attack, and that of their Primarch.

As a doctrine this became bound up with the Legion's savage ferocity that was born of Cthonian blood, and wielded
with ferocious intelligence and the matchless tactical instinct of Horus. A star system targeted for Imperial
Compliance would often fall to the Legion in a single engagement: Luna Wolves warships would cut in from the
system's edge, forming a spear formation that would break into many smaller blade tips to strike at the target
system's planets, moons and space stations.

Orbital bombardment and simultaneous mass orbital drops would break the enemy's strength and will to resist.
Tactical threats were systematically identified, isolated, outflanked, encircled and destroyed with merciless precision
and close-quarter savagery which spoke of apex pack predators splitting a herd and gutting its members with
lightning fury. The Imperial Army troops that followed in the Luna Wolves' wake often had little to do but scrape
suddenly Compliant worlds clean of the leavings of battle.
Sons of Victory

The Luna Wolves Legion carrying out a brutal assault during the Great Crusade

The Luna Wolves' approach to the Great Crusade was direct and brutal, and their results were often inelegant if
unmistakably effective. Though it proved bloody, the XVI th Legion's progress was undoubtedly swift and laurels of
victory were heaped upon the Luna Wolves and above all upon their Primarch Horus, the most beloved son of the
Emperor.

Time and again, the Luna Wolves would break resistance on a world and move on to the next campaign with barely
a backward glance. The character of the Luna Wolves' tenacity and ruthlessness was displayed during the initial
Imperial conquest of the Sol System. They prosecuted battles with the same savage mentality and ferocity displayed
during the gang-wars of Cthonia where prisoners were simply unwanted mouths to feed.

War was a matter of identifying the strength and leadership of the enemy, isolating it and then obliterating it. In the
same way that a gang leader's eyes would find a rival and their knife would quickly follow, so the Luna Wolves
conquered entire star systems. Brutal it might have been, but to the Space Marines of the Luna Wolves it was a
matter of necessity; wars were either brutal and short or they became long and wasteful. Driven by the energy of the
Great Crusade, the XVIth Legion's methods fitted the needs of the early Imperium's rapid expansion.

The Luna Wolves waged war during the Great Crusade for over 200 standard years until the dawn of the 31 st
Millennium, pushing back the darkness which had swallowed Mankind during the Age of Strife with fire and blood.
Their victories were manifold and Horus' generalship was legend, and so it was that the respect of their brother
Legions rose to almost unrivalled heights.

Across tens of thousands of battles the Luna Wolves were rarely defeated. In every mode of deployment they
excelled, whether as the spearhead of a star cluster-sized assault or as an individual squad supporting a grand
formation of the Imperial Army. Other Legions, sometimes hostile to the interference of their fellow Space Marines,
would request campaign placement amongst the Luna Wolves and welcome it in return.

Much of the Luna Wolves' reputation was the reflection of the qualities of their Primarch. Horus' charisma and
unequalled record of victories, as well as his known closeness to the Emperor, lent him a measure of respect
unrivalled among his brother Primarchs.

Horus demonstrated an almost preternatural talent for wielding the relative strengths of the other Legions to their
best advantage on a strategic level. Horus was said by some to be without peer as a commander and a ruler within
the Imperium, surpassed only by the Emperor Himself. Certainly he was rare amongst the Primarchs in that Horus
commanded the respect and the loyalty of all, and backed it up with strategic and tactical genius.

Others commanded larger Legions, saw more deeply, excelled beyond Horus in certain crafts of warfare and lore, or
perhaps drew greater fraternal affection from his Astartes, but only Horus could hold every view and ideal of
Mankind in his mind simultaneously. Even the most personally difficult and aggressive of Primarchs like Angron
and Konrad Curze are known to have deferred to Horus on many matters.

Triumph of Ullanor

"You are like a son and together we have all but conquered the galaxy. Now the time has come for me to retire to
Terra. My work as a soldier is done and now passes to you for I have great tasks to perform in my earthly sanctum. I
name you Warmaster and from this day forth all of my armies and generals shall take orders from you as if the
words came from mine own mouth. But words of caution I have for you, for your brother Primarchs are strong of
will, of thought and of action. Do not seek to change them, but use their particular strengths well. You have much
work to do, for there are still many words to liberate, many peoples to rescue. My trust is with you. Hail Horus! Hail
the Warmaster!"
 —The Emperor of Mankind, during the Triumph of Ullanor

The Triumph at Ullanor, an ancient mural portraying the gathering of the Brother-Primarchs; from left-to-right:
Sanguinius, Mortarion, Magnus, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Lorgar, Rogal Dorn, Horus and Fulgrim

Though the Luna Wolves had won many victories in their years of ceaseless conflict, one would eclipse all others
and see them reborn once again. The greatest of the nascent Imperium's victories during the high point of the Great
Crusade came in the form of the defeat of the largest Ork empire ever encountered.

The Ullanor Crusade was a vast Imperial assault on the Ork Empire of the Overlord Urrlak Urruk. The capital world
of this Greenskin stellar empire, and the site of the final assault by the Space Marine Legions, lay in the central
Ullanor System of the galaxy's Ullanor Sector. The Crusade included the deployment of 100,000 Space Marines,
8,000,000 Imperial Army troops, and thousands of Imperial starships and their support personnel.

The Ullanor Crusade marked the high point of the Great Crusade's vast effort to reunite the scattered colony worlds
of humanity. The Orks of Ullanor represented the largest concentration of Greenskins ever defeated by the military
forces of the Imperium of Man before the Third War for Armageddon began during the late 41st Millennium.
Following the defeat of the Orks of Ullanor due to the strategic brilliance of Horus, the Emperor of Mankind
returned to Terra to begin work on His vast project to open up the Aeldari Webway for Mankind's use.

In His place to command the vast forces of the Great Crusade He left Horus. In the aftermath of this Ullanor
Crusade, Horus was granted the newly-created title of "Warmaster," the commander-in-chief of all the Emperor's
armies who possessed command authority over all of the other Primarchs and every Expeditionary Fleet of the Great
Crusade. Before returning to Terra to oversee the next phase of the creation of His stellar empire, the Emperor
suggested to Horus that he rename the XVIth Legion the "Sons of Horus", in honour of their Primarch and to show
his preeminent place amongst the other Primarchs.

Horus initially declined this honour, not wishing to be set above his brothers, and so his Legion continued as the
Luna Wolves for a little while longer. But Horus and the other Primarchs never came to terms with the Emperor's
absence. Their hurt feelings over His seeming abandonment of the Great Crusade to pursue a secret project whose
purpose He chose not to reveal to His sons laid the seeds of jealousy and resentment that would ultimately blossom
into the corruption that began the Horus Heresy.

Warmaster

"Sanguinius. It should have been him. He has the vision and strength to carry us to victory, and the wisdom to rule
once victory is won. For all his aloof coolness, he alone has the Emperor's soul in his blood. Each of us carries part
of our father within us, whether it is His hunger for battle, His psychic talent or His determination to succeed.
Sanguinius holds it all. It should have been his..."
— Warmaster Horus Lupercal's private thoughts on who should've been granted the title 'Warmaster'

Warmaster Horus in his Pre-Heresy Luna Wolves Legion colours during the Triumph of Ullanor

During the Great Crusade, it became apparent that the Primarchs were far from the perfect specimens of Humanity
they were intended to be. Although each Primarch was physically and mentally god-like compared to a baseline
mortal human being, they harboured the flaws of vanity, egotism, hunger for power, jealousy, arrogance, insecurity
and all the other sins of the human character. As the Imperial Warmaster, Horus took over command of the Great
Crusade, and accepted his new duties with earnest dedication.

However, there was much dissension in the ranks of the Primarchs and other parties in the Imperium over the
Emperor's decision to withdraw from the campaign and return to Terra as well as to reorganise the political
administration of the Imperium under the control of a Council of Terra headed by His regent, Malcador the Sigillite.
Only a handful of the Primarchs, amongst them a scheming Lorgar, remained steadfast beside the Warmaster during
this period of conflict.

Horus also disagreed with many of the decrees passed by the newly established Council of Terra, a ruling body of
Imperial nobles and bureaucrats, which were intended to shift the burden of taxation and administration onto the
newly-conquered Imperial Compliant worlds.

Even worse, Horus came to believe in his heart that he was failing his father, and was deeply wounded that the
Emperor had revealed to none of the Primarchs, not even His most favoured son, why He had secluded Himself
upon Terra and the truth behind His secret Imperial Webway Project. These seeds of bitterness, resentment and
frustration grew, and would soon bear deadly fruit.

Fall to Chaos

It was on the moon of the world of Davin that Horus' fate was sealed. This was the second time his Legion had been
posted to this world; after the previous visit sixty standard years earlier the Luna Wolves had adopted the native
Davinite institution of Warrior Lodges. Though these lodges had begun as simple fraternities of warriors, their
secretive nature handed Lorgar, the Primarch of the Word Bearers Legion and his First Chaplain Erebus, the tool
they needed to manipulate Horus towards the service of the Chaos Gods.

Erebus, Word Bearers First Chaplain and architect of the Horus Heresy

Lorgar and his Word Bearers originally came from Colchis, a world defined by religious fanaticism. They had long
worshiped the Emperor as a god. The Word Bearers had sought to spread their Cult of the Emperor to every world
they added to the Imperium. But the Emperor deeply disliked and mistrusted organised human religion, blaming it
for much of the darkness that had plagued humanity's history.

The Emperor openly and publicly refuted His alleged divinity and banned religious worship in His empire, and
demanded that His subjects accept the "Imperial Truth" -- that science, reason and logic alone presented the tools
required to create a better human future. Lorgar did not suffer the Emperor's reprimand or views on religion well
after his XVIIth Legion had been humilated by the Ultramarines Legion on the direct orders of the Emperor at the
world of Khur.

Angered and wounded that the Emperor would not accept his devotion and worship, Lorgar began what became
known as the Pilgrimage of Lorgar to discover the truth of divinity in the universe. This quest ultimately culminated
in Lorgar turning to the service of the Ruinous Powers of the Warp -- Dark Gods who were all too willing to accept
the devotion of one of humanity's Primarchs. Before long, the Word Bearers Legion had been almost entirely
corrupted by the Chaos Gods, and Lorgar and the XVIIth Legion's First Chaplain Erebus were tasked by the Ruinous
Powers with corrupting all of their fellow Space Marines -- starting with the greatest of them all, the Warmaster
Horus.

During a battle against Chaos-spawned undead on Davin's moon, whose Planetary Governor, Eugen Temba, a
former Imperial Army commander, had been corrupted by the forces of the Chaos God Nurgle, Horus was poisoned
by a xenos blade dedicated to Nurgle known as a Kinebrach Anathame that had been stolen from the human
civilisation of the Interex by Erebus after Horus and the Luna Wolves of the 63 rd Expeditionary Fleet had made a
disastrous first contact with them.

Erebus gifted the weapon to the Chaos-corrupted form of Temba who the Warmaster had left behind on the Feral
World of Davin sixty Terran years before. Temba had turned to the worship of Nurgle in the interim, being
transformed into a bloated mutant and killing off most of his Imperial Army garrison in the process, transforming
them into undead Plague Zombies that the Luna Wolves were forced to mow down in waves.
Horus personally faced off with the Nurglite mutant that had been Temba aboard the grounded ruins of his Imperial
Cruiser. In the course of that battle, the potent living metal of the Chaos blade wielded by that plague-infused
monstrosity left Horus with a bleeding, toxic wound in his shoulder that his Legion's Apothecaries could not heal
despite all the advanced technology available to them.

A Davinite Priest

Sixty standard years earlier, when the Luna Wolves had brought about the successful Imperial Compliance of Davin,
they had entrusted a detachment of the Word Bearers, under the command of its First Captain Kor Phaeron, to
shepherd the people of Davin into the light of the Imperial Truth. At the suggestion of First Chaplain Erebus, the
XVIth Legion had adopted the native Davinite institution of "Warrior Lodges".

Though these lodges had begun as simple fraternities of warriors, their secretive nature handed Lorgar and Erebus
the tool they needed to manipulate Horus. Once formally introduced, these Warrior Lodges would infiltrate and
eventually corrupt the various Space Marine Legions into turning against the Emperor.

After the Warmaster was struck down on Davin's moon, Erebus saw his chance to further the designs of Chaos. The
First Chaplain persuaded the Sons of Horus' Warrior Lodge to allow a group of Davinite shamans to heal Horus. In
truth, these shamans were secretly a coven of Chaos Cultists known as the Serpent Lodge that had long been active
on Davin at the temple dedicated to the Chaos Gods they called the Delphos. Desperate to save their beloved
Primarch, the Warrior Lodge brothers acquiesced to Erebus's suggestions.

During the dark rituals that followed within the temple, Horus' spirit was transferred from his body into the
Immaterium. There, he bore witness to a nightmare vision of the future. He saw the Imperium of Man as a
repressive, violent theocracy, where the Emperor and several of His Primarchs (but not Horus) were worshipped as
Gods by the masses. While this vision of the Imperial future granted by the Chaos Gods was a true one, it was
ironically an outcome largely created by the Warmaster's own actions. The Dark Gods portrayed themselves as
victims of the Emperor's psychic might, and claimed that they had no real interest in the happenings of the material
world.

Magnus the Red, the sorcerous Primarch of the Thousand Sons Legion, had also travelled into the Warp via sorcery
to try and stop Horus from turning to Chaos. Magnus explained that the Warmaster's vision was only one among
many possible futures, but one that Horus alone could prevent. Horus, already jealous and resentful of the Emperor,
proved all too receptive to the Ruinous Powers' false vision.

The Chaos Gods' pact with Horus was simple: "Give us the Emperor and we will give you the galaxy." Driven by
his jealousy, desire for status and power and anger at what he saw as his father's abandonment of him, Horus
accepted the Ruinous Powers' offer. They healed his grievous wound and filled him with the powers of the Warp.

Renouncing his oath to the Emperor, Horus led his Legion, renamed the Sons of Horus, into worship of the Chaos
Gods in the form of Chaos Undivided. He then sought to turn many of his fellow Primarchs to the service of Chaos,
and succeeded with Angron of the World Eaters, Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children and Mortarion of the Death
Guard, who were the first of many to follow, along with many regiments of the Imperial Army and several Titan
Legions of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Magnus the Red, the Primarch of the Thousand Sons Legion, foresaw Horus' actions through his Legion's own use
of forbidden psychic sorcery. Magnus then attempted to forewarn the Emperor of the impending betrayal of His
favourite son. However, knowing that he would have to find a means of quickly warning the Emperor, Magnus used
sorcery to send his message to the Emperor. The message penetrated the potent psychic defences of the Imperial
Palace on Terra, shattering all the psychic wards the Emperor had placed on the Palace -- including those within His
secret project in the Imperial Dungeons, where He was proceeding with the creation of a human extension into the
Webway.
Refusing to believe that Horus, His most beloved and trusted son, would actually betray Him, the Emperor instead
mistakenly perceived the traitor to the Imperium to be Magnus and his Thousand Sons, who had long suffered from
a near-debilitating run of mutations because of the instability of Magnus' own genome and were known to have
practiced the sorcery that had been expressly outlawed in the Imperium by the Council of Nikaea.

The Emperor ordered the Primarch Leman Russ, Magnus' greatest rival, to mobilise his Space Wolves Legion and
the witch hunters known as the Sisters of Silence and take Magnus into custody to be returned to Terra to stand trial
for violating the Council of Nikaea's prohibitions against the use of psychic powers within the Imperium. While en
route to the Thousand Sons Legion's homeworld of Prospero, Horus convinced Russ, who had always been repelled
by Magnus' reliance on psychic powers, to launch a full assault on Prospero instead, even though Magnus had been
entirely willing to face the Emperor's judgment once he realised he was being manipulated by the entities that called
the Immaterium home.

Betrayal at Istvaan III

"Let the galaxy burn!"

— The Warmaster Horus

A Sons of Horus force assaults the Loyalists' position on Istvaan III

In the days that followed his miraculous recovery, Horus' officers detected a change in his character. The Warmaster
proceeded to use the Warrior Lodge present in the XVI th Legion to begin to subvert his officers and their Astartes to
the service of the Dark Gods and to build support for his plan of rebellion against the Emperor.

He had already taken up the Emperor's old offer made at the Ullanor Triumph on the advice of Sanguinius and
renamed the XVIth Legion the Sons of Horus to subtly hint at his position as the first-among-equals among the
Primarchs. He now moved to further consolidate his authority.

Horus was now allied body and soul to the Ruinous Powers of Chaos, and he had a new vision for the Imperium
with himself rather than the Emperor at its head. Renouncing his oath to the Emperor, Horus led his Legion into
worship of the Chaos Gods. He then sought to turn many of his fellow Primarchs to Chaos.

Horus was master diplomat and manipulator, and he knew exactly which psychological buttons to push in some of
his brothers to get them to agree to his idea of rebellion against the Emperor. His first efforts succeeded masterfully
with Angron, Fulgrim and Mortarion, who were the first of the 8 other Primarchs and Space Marine Legions that
would follow Horus and his Astartes into betrayal.

The majority of the Sons of Horus, already fiercely loyal and proud of Horus, had no hesitation in following their
Primarch's lead wherever he chose to go. They secretly renounced their oaths to the Emperor and supported Horus'
ambitions and his new gods of the Warp. The Chaos corruption spread to every Imperial Adepta with which Horus
had dealings, including a portion of the Mechanicum, and from there to the Adeptus Titanica and the Legio
Cybernetica, eventually creating the splinter-faction of the ancient Mechanicum called the Dark Mechanicum and
unleashing the terrible civil war between Loyalist and Traitor Mechanicum factions known as the Schism of Mars.

The other Primarchs Horus knew as well as any men since they were his gene-brothers, and he was already well
practiced at motivating them. Appealing to their pride, martial prowess, and courage, whilst playing upon past
grudges and favours against the Emperor and the other Primarchs, the Warmaster ultimately gained the loyalty of
fully half the Primarchs and their Space Marine Legions.

He convinced them to first rid their Legions of any remaining Loyalists during the Battle of Istvaan III and next
nearly destroyed three full Loyalist Legions during the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V.

The Horus Heresy

Sons of Horus Legionaries attack another Imperial world during the Horus Heresy

The terrible galactic civil war that followed and lasted for nine Terran years of genocidal death and destruction on a
scale never before witnessed by Mankind, called the Horus Heresy by later generations, was the most terrible
conflict in the history of the Imperium, and came close to shattering it forever. This conflict quickly became a
terrible war of escalation and retaliation. The Legions struck desperate blows against each other across the length
and breadth of the nascent Imperium.

By the time Horus had carved a bloody path to Terra, the Sons of Horus stood at the head of a vast army of Traitor
Space Marines. In a battle the likes which the Imperium has never seen since, Horus' armies fell upon the Emperor's
Imperial Palace and Abaddon was granted the honour of leading them into battle. This was to be the zenith of the
Sons of Horus' power. Never again would the Legion gather in such strength or grandeur on the field of battle.

Warmaster Horus aboard his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, directing the Traitor Legions during the Battle of Terra

In the cauldron of war, Abaddon led the 1st Company and the hulking, black-armoured Terminators of the Justaerin
into the Emperor's Palace, smashing through the loyalist defenders. Their Chainfists and Power Swords dripped with
gore, any who dared stand against them were torn apart. Everywhere, the fires of the Heresy burned out of control;
Titans traded blows over the ruined walls of the palace and great warships filled the sky with dazzling lance fire,
raining bombardments upon friend and foe alike.

Horus watched the battle unfolding below from the shrouded bridge of his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit. On
flickering holo-charts, the Warmaster saw his armies trapped against the inner walls of the Emperor's palace,
Loyalist reinforcements arriving with every passing solar hour. Through the vista panes of his bridge, he could see
that the battle in Terra's orbit was also turning against his fleet. Horus knew time was running out.

In his arrogance and anger, the Warmaster made one last gambit, lowering his ship's Void Shields so that Emperor
could teleport aboard and face him personally. He was not to be disappointed. In an incandescent blast of light, the
Emperor teleported onto the Vengeful Spirit seeking out His traitorous son. The battle between the two great
warriors exchanging titanic ringing blows even as their psychic selves struggled in the Warp. For all his rage and
anger, Horus could not win -- though before the Emperor obliterated His son's soul, Horus delivered a mortal blow
to his gene-father.

Warmaster Horus and the Emperor of Mankind confront one another, for the last time

Abaddon was climbing over the heaped corpses of broken Imperial soldiers when he felt the psychic howl heralding
the death of his Primarch. Every Son of Horus knew at once that their Warmaster had fallen, thousands of warriors
pausing in battle to look up into the burning sky. The news spread like a contagion through the Traitor Legions, and
the assault that had come so close to success began to collapse.

Abaddon immediately teleported back onto the flagship and arrived at his master's side in time to rescue Horus'
body. With a cry of deepest pain and anguish, Abaddon vowed vengeance against his father's killer. Tearing free the
Lightning Claw from Horus' arm, he fixed it to his own, symbolically taking up his Primarch's debt of blood against
the Emperor.

Realising the battle for Terra was lost, Abaddon moved to save the XVI th Legion from annihilation. He fought his
way through the remaining loyalists aboard the Vengeful Spirit and cleared the ancient vessel of resistance, the
mortally wounded Emperor already borne back to Terra by the Imperial Fists' Primarch Rogal Dorn. Laying claim to
the Vengeful Spirit, Abaddon and the Sons of Horus broke orbit and fought their way free of the battle and escaped
into the void.

Rise of the Black Legion

"Horus was weak. Horus was a fool. He had the whole galaxy within his grasp and he let it slip away."
— Abaddon the Despoiler, Warmaster of Chaos Undivided

Following the dire events of the Horus Heresy during the final epic Battle of Terra and the death of the Warmaster
Horus aboard his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, First Captain Abaddon and the surviving Sons of Horus broke orbit
over Terra and fought their way free of the battle and escaped into the void.

A time of Imperial reprisal and retribution known as the Great Scouring followed, and countless worlds were put to
death by the Loyalists for siding with Horus, their corpses left as a warning to others. Those Traitor Legions that
remained in the Imperium were hunted mercilessly and hounded across the stars by pitiless Loyalists. Abaddon and
the remaining Sons of Horus took refuge in the Eye of Terror, choosing to plunge into that maelstrom of madness
rather than face extinction at the hands of the Emperor's vengeful warriors.

The Sons of Horus managed to reach the Eye of Terror with the bloodied survivors of the Scouring, but the once
mighty XVIth Legion was reduced to a fraction of its former size. Led by only a few remaining captains, the Legion
struggled with its loyalty to their fallen Primarch and the cold reality of their defeat at the hands of the Emperor and
His lackeys.

Bereft of their glorious Primarch, the Legion floundered, and in desperation turned to each of the Chaos Gods in turn
in their search for renewed power, inviting daemonic possession and the ever more costly blessings of the Warp. All
the while, the Legion suffered the jealous attacks of their former allies. As the Traitor Legions turned upon one
another, the Dark Gods subverted and manipulated their new playthings, reshaping the Legions for their own ends
and the never-ending war between the gods.

Ezekyle Abaddon abandoned the Legion; broken by the death of Horus and sick of war, he wandered alone into the
Eye of Terror. Meanwhile the Sons of Horus carried the body of their Primarch, preserved in stasis, further into the
Eye, ignoring the wars that raged around them. On the Daemon World of Maeleum, a graveyard world of steel and
rust, the Sons of Horus raised a fortress, Lupercalios, fashioning a mighty citadel from the wrecks of decaying
vessels lost to the Warp with the aid of the thousands of slaves they had taken from the worlds of the Imperium.
Surrounded by living darkness and the bones of dead Warp-dragons, it was fashioned from the wrecks of decaying
vessels long lost to the Warp, with each spire and tower made from the jagged prow of an ancient voidship. The
Legion interred Horus' body within a great tomb, where many fell into worship of their fallen demigod.

Horus' body hung suspended in a spiralling chamber of bone-white stone, bathed in flickering golden light, his
perfect form looking down upon his sons. Reaching up as far as the eye could see, the deeds of Horus were carved
into the arching crypt walls, each one depicting a great battle or glorious victory. Each day, the worshippers would
gather in the shadow of their Primarch and offer up their oaths anew, unable and unwilling to find a new leader.
With their Primarch dead and their Legion on the verge of extinction, the Sons of Horus stagnated. Like many of the
other Traitor Legions, the Sons of Horus suffered from incessant daemonic attacks during the early years within the
Eye of Terror. There was a never-ending supply of daemons to fight off, and many fell to the uncontrollable
influence of Chaos, losing their mind and bodies to possession by these insidious Warp entities.

Some within the Legion argued that the Sons of Horus should offer their allegiance to a single power rather than
deal with the daemons of many gods. Most, however, warned that the XVI th Legion should never bow to an outside
power again; they remembered too well the yoke that the Emperor had placed around the neck of their Legion, and
were wary of letting another master hold such power over them again. The martial pride of the XVI th Legion also
meant that they would never completely accept a master who did not come from their own ranks, be it the Emperor
of Mankind or even a God of Chaos.

Lupercalios, the Monument, was a mausoleum to the XVI th Legion as much as a stronghold. It was where the body
of their Primarch had been interred after the Terran Breaking. Few of the other Legions were permitted anywhere
near the Sons' last bastion. It also served as a fortress from which they would launch further attacks upon both the
Imperium and their fellow Traitor Legions. All the while, the XVIth Legion suffered the jealous attacks of their
former allies amongst the Forces of Chaos as the brief unity between the Dark Gods and their servants during the
Heresy once more broke down into the normal state of internecine rivalry, unleashing the Legion Wars.

Some captains suspected that it would be but a matter of time before they and their Battle-Brothers were drawn into
the wars between the Traitor Legions, and so they pushed for the Sons of Horus to replace its losses by increasing
the Legion's gene-seed stocks. These same captains knew that any fortress, no matter how grand, could not hope to
hold back a determined Space Marine assault, and called for more warriors to be found. Unfortunately, the majority
of surviving captains were convinced that the Warp would provide all the power they needed, if only they could
master the methods of merging daemon and Space Marine.

The wars between the other Legions who had sided with Horus during the Horus Heresy raged across the Eye of
Terror even as the Sons of Horus ignored the events happening around them, and continued to raise their fortress
ever higher, worshipping the corpse of their Primarch. The Sons of Horus had remained largely apart from these
conflicts; however, jealous eyes now turned their way. Traitorous forces gathered against them and conspired to rob
them of the remains of Horus to further vile and selfish ambitions.

The Primarch Horus' body, with its potent genetic information and biological secrets, was a great prize indeed. In a
sudden assault, the remnants of the debased Emperor's Children, having grown vastly in power after firmly
cementing their terrible pacts with Slaanesh, easily smashed their way through the defences of Maeleum and into the
central chambers of the Sons of Horus' stronghold. They stole the body of the slain Primarch from the heart of its
tomb and spirited it away, some say with the purpose of handing it over to the dark Apothecary Fabius Bile who
intended to clone it in order to create a new and still greater Warmaster of Chaos to restore the Traitor Legions' unity
and fortunes.

Warriors of the newly renamed Black Legion

Their fortress in ruins and their Legion decimated, the Sons of Horus stood on the brink of vanishing forever from
the galaxy and fading into cursed memory. The XVIth Legion devolved into in-fighting amongst themselves, giving
in to dark despair or uncontrolled rage. The divisions between the Legion's captains turned into bitter bloodshed and
murder, as order completely collapsed.

The salvation of the Sons of Horus came when one of its greatest captains, Ezekyle Abaddon, returned from his
Dark Pilgrimage in time to watch the battle from afar. It was in that moment that he saw, with cold clarity, that it
was Horus' failure that had led the Legion here, to them tearing each other apart in the blood-soaked ruins of
Maeleum.

Abaddon swore that he would succeed where Horus had failed in overthrowing the "Corpse-Emperor" and
proclaimed himself the new Warmaster of Chaos. Finally, sickened by how far the Legion had fallen, he stalked
through the ruins hunting down his fellow captains, cooling his rage with their final screams. In the end, Abaddon
alone remained of the Legion's leaders, demanding obedience from his brothers.

Some saw Abaddon as Horus' rightful and legitimate successor and fell at his feet willingly, while others simply
recognised his raw strength and bowed their heads to his might. A few turned their back on Abaddon, and were
either cut down by their brothers or managed to escape into the Warp. With his Legion brought to heel, Abaddon
turned his attention to the clones of Horus; he commanded his warriors to extinguish all trace of their former
Primarch and free themselves from his shadow.

He then personally led an attack on the Emperor's Children that destroyed the body of the Primarch Horus and all his
clones, and in so doing, ushered in a new age for the XVI th Legion. He had the Sons of Horus repainted their viridian
Power Armour black, the colour of mourning and of vengeance, and cast-off the XVIth Legion's former moniker of
the Sons of Horus.
From then on, they became known as the "Black Legion." Through his actions, the Despoiler had reinvigorated the
Legion, reviving the old notion that none could stand in their way and that they stood first amongst the Traitor
Legions, destined by the will of the Dark Gods to one day inherit the galaxy itself.

When the warbands of the Black Legion and the other Forces of Chaos gather under the wrathful banner of Abaddon
the Despoiler to unleash yet another of their Black Crusades to overthrow the False Emperor, the words of Horus are
heard upon their lips -- let the galaxy burn. The Long War for control of the galaxy by Chaos and the Black Legion
had begun.

A New Champion

"Who pledged his loyalty?

The Warmaster.
Whom did we serve in faith?
The Warmaster.
From whom did we take our name?
The Warmaster.
Who was denied to us?
The Warmaster.
But whom shall we remake?
The Warmaster.
And who shall lead us to victory?
The Warmaster."
— Black Legion Catechism

Abaddon the Despoiler, the chosen Champion of Chaos.

His control of the Legion secured, Abaddon started expanding the ranks of the Black Legion, consumed by the
desire to launch an assault against the Imperium. Word spread across the Eye of Terror that any Space Marine who
bowed before the Despoiler would be granted a place in his Black Legion and a part in his grand plan for revenge
against the False Emperor.

Many of the other Traitors mocked and derided Abaddon for his arrogance. However, the endless wars and
corruption of the Warp had sown disillusion in the hearts of others and the promise of a place in a Legion led by a
warlord determined to continue the war against the Imperium with its greater purpose appealed to a great number.
The insulting defeat at the hands of the Loyalist Space Marine Legions was still fresh in the minds of many of the
Chaos Space Marines, and they hungered for a chance to spill the blood of their former brothers.

Other Traitor Legionaries cared not whose blood they spilled, only that Abaddon could lead them to worlds where
they could tear piteous screams from the dying and crush the corpses of their foes underfoot. The legend of Abaddon
was also spreading, and those Traitor Marines who respected only strength, cruelty and dark majesty already marked
him out as a Chaos warlord to rule all others.

Abaddon soon earned an enduring reputation among the Traitor Legions for the terrifying vengeance he visited upon
those who betrayed him. Some Traitor Legionaries and daemonic warlords attempted to use the Black Legion for
their own ends, infiltrating its ranks with false promises of loyalty. Others attempted to whisper promises in the ears
of those that had sworn fealty to the Black Legion and tried to turn them against the Despoiler. In the end, the heads
of all those Chaos Champions and Chaos Lords adorned Abaddon's trophy rack, their warbands destroyed and their
fortresses torn down stone by stone. Eventually, only the very foolish or terminally insane would break their oath to
Abaddon the Despoiler.
The new Warmaster was a master of manipulation and knew just what combination of fear, greed and vanity would
sway the minds of both men and daemons. Warlords would come before Abaddon merely to verify this Champion of
Chaos and his Black Legion for themselves, but found themselves scorching their armour black and joining his
cause. As the numbers of the Black Legion swelled, Abaddon ravaged the worlds of the Eye of Terror with his fleet,
claiming more warriors and slaves for his cause. This time, the Despoiler was careful not to create such an easy
target for his foes, and the Black Legion remained a fleet-based formation, slipping like shadows across the Warp.
Aboard the Vengeful Spirit Abaddon led his war against the other Traitor Legions, their allies and their enemies,
creating an army to rival any force in the galaxy.

Such is the nature of the Traitor Legions that no individual warlord could ever rule over all of them, but Abaddon
hoped to one day unite them toward a single goal as Horus had done before him. The Black Legion could only hope
to destroy the Emperor and His Imperium with the help of the other Traitor Legions, combining to brush aside the
armies ranged against them and launch a single massive assault on Terra. This was Abaddon's dark dream and the
path that would shape his destiny for centuries to come.

The Black Crusades

The Black Legion fighting against the Deathwing, the elite 1st Company of the Dark Angels Chapter during the 13th
Black Crusade

In 781.M31, five standard centuries after his retreat from Terra, Abaddon returned to Imperial space at the head of a
host of Traitors and daemons. It was the Imperium's first encounter with the newly founded Black Legion and the
return of a brutal and bitter enemy many had thought lost to the graveyard of history.

Since the Great Scouring, Abaddon had remained within the Eye of Terror, rebuilding the Black Legion as a
vengeful reflection of its former glory. At last, the Black Legion and the other Traitors returned to realspace, the first
chapter in their Long War against the Emperor ready to be written in the blood of Imperial worlds.

Through alliance, threats and promises, Abaddon was able to muster the largest force of Traitor Legions seen since
the Horus Heresy and took the Imperium by surprise. Worlds close to the Eye of Terror fell into mayhem and chaos
as Legions descended from the sky and daemons tore their way into reality. Only Cadia, with its formidable
defences, stood firm, its brave regiments fighting from the towering gates and bastions of their cities.

To counter the invasion, the Imperium was forced to divert many of the newly-formed Space Marine Chapters of the
Second Founding from war zones across the Segmentum Obscurus. The Traitor Legions basked in their return from
the Eye of Terror, bathing in the blood of innocent worlds and filling the holds of their voidships with slaves. On a
dozen planets, the Black Legion proved worthy of their fallen Primarch and the martial prowess of the ancient Luna
Wolves.

Abaddon had chosen his generals well, and each competed for glory as the Legion tore a bloody gouge across the
stars. Zagthean the Broken led his Black Legion warband in an orgy of violence and excess on the Agri-World of
Valesia. For his own dark pleasure, the warlord constructed a vast maze of thorns from the world's blood-rose
orchards, blinding his prisoners and loosing them within its twisting tunnels, before hunting them down at his
leisure. Countless inhabitants spent their final terrifying hours listening desperately for the sounds of pursuit, their
flesh bleeding from dozens of thorn cuts and their lungs filled with the sickly sweet scent of the blood-rose.

Not to be outdone, Eralak and his company of Raptors brought a bloody nightmare to the floating hive cities of
Melphia. Killing millions in their rampage, Eralak's warband sent dozen of cities falling from the sky as he tore out
their complex suspensor arrays and vented their plasma reactors onto the farms and fields below. Fashioning giant
floating gallows from the remaining, ruined cities, the warlord hanged millions of Imperial citizens, their swaying
corpses forever doomed to drift across the skies of Melphia, a terrible reminder of the power of the Black Legion.

The Black Legion's greatest achievement was not only its brutal victories, but also the unity it had managed to forge
among the Traitors and their daemonic allies. Even though the Traitor Space Marines, daemons and Heretics turned
on each other once Imperial resistance had been crushed, in the presence of the Black Legion, they gave grudging
respect. This was the Legion of fear and domination Abaddon had wrought, and it was to be an ominous sign of
things to come for the Imperium.

In what would become a festering thorn in the side of the Imperium, the Traitor Legions, often led by the Black
Legion or even Abaddon himself, would repeatedly spill out of the Eye of Terror to burn and pillage entire sectors.
In the light of dying stars and flaming cities, the Black Legion would indulge their hatred of the Imperium,
indiscriminately killing the servants of the False Emperor and tearing down anything they saw as a symbol of the
Corpse-God.

During these so-called "Black Crusades", whole star systems would be destroyed in conflicts that would drag on for
standard decades or centuries until, as suddenly as they had appeared, the Black Legion would retreat into the Eye of
Terror, their holds filled with slaves and plunder. The Segmentum Obscurus suffered terribly in these endless wars
against the fallen Space Marine Legions, but in truth nowhere was safe from their treacherous reach. This was
something the Black Legion proved time and again as it cemented its infamous reputation among the armies of the
Imperium as a pitiless foe.

The Folly of Drecarth

When Abaddon ascended to command of the Sons of Horus, not every warrior of the XVI th Legion swore allegiance
to him. Many of the Traitors clung to their worship of Horus as a god, believing that he would one day return to lead
them and punish those who had forsaken their oaths.

Others considered the Horus Heresy to be the end of their subservience to gods and masters; the Emperor and their
Primarch were the last overlords they would ever bow down to and they saw no reason to make an exception for
Abaddon. Most of these Renegades were gradually lost to the Warp, disappearing into the Eye and vanishing from
record, though some prospered and would return to be a thorn in the side of Abaddon.

One of these splinter warbands was the Sons of the Eye, led by Drecarth the Sightless. A former Battle-Brother of
Abaddon's, Drecarth had been one of Horus' captains, escaping in the chaos after Maeleum fell. Abaddon had heard
whispers of Drecarth's escape and treachery from his cabal of Chaos Sorcerers, who also claimed that an old ally
would one day rise to subvert the Black Legion, twisting its loyalty with the memory of the dead Primarch. So,
under the guise of truce, Abaddon made a pact with the Sons of the Eye and allied with them during the 6th Black
Crusade in 901.M36. Abaddon wanted to make an example of the Sons of the Eye, a dire warning to anyone who
would consider challenging his power, but he needed to set the stage for his vengeance just right so that none would
ever doubt his resolve.

During the 6th Black Crusade, Abaddon besieged the Imperial Forge World of Arkreach, offering Drecarth and his
Sons of the Eye an equal share of the plunder. For solar months, the two forces of Chaos Space Marines fought side-
by-side against the defences of the Adeptus Mechanicus, bombarding their great forge cities from space.

Finally, the Traitors stood triumphant in the smouldering ruins of the great manufactoria, dead littering the ground.
As Drecarth extended his hand in greeting, Abaddon grasped it with his own, only to thrust the claws of the Talon of
Horus into his fellow Chaos Space Marine's gut. Drecarth lived long enough to see the Sons of the Eye bow to
Abaddon and be reabsorbed into the Black Legion before the Warmaster of Chaos tore out his skull and spine. Thus
did Abaddon deliver a dire warning to any who dared challenge his power.

The Tower of Silence

The malefic Daemonsword Drach'nyen

As the bloodshed of the 1st Black Crusade reached its frenzied heights, cities burned and worlds were stripped of
people to feed the dark desires of the Traitor Legions. Leaving his Black Legion to continue their brutal reprisals
and raids against Imperial worlds, Abaddon pursued his own plans. Using the howling souls unleashed into the
Warp by so much death and destruction, he made a secret daemonic bargain. In payment for the feast of despair,
pain and anguish Abaddon had created with his Black Crusade, the Dark Gods gifted him with knowledge of the
secret location of the Tower of Silence on the world of Uralan.

Cloaked in the shadow of the Eye of Terror, Uralan was whispered of in daemonic lore as a place where the gods
themselves locked away their secrets. Following strands of fate unravelled by his cabal of Chaos Sorcerers,
Abaddon had discovered a concealed path through the Warp and across the shifting sea of worlds beyond to reach
Uralan without needing to breach the Cadian Gate. With a cadre of the Black Legion's elite warriors, each one a
brutal veteran of a thousand battles, Abaddon set foot on Uralan and entered the Tower of Silence. Almost at once,
the tower's guardians set upon them, ancient constructs of dark energy that shifted and flickered, their claws tearing
at the ragged edges of his warriors' souls.

After the bitter battle, Abaddon climbed down into the mirrored heart of Uralan. There, Abaddon wandered the
massive haunted labyrinth for what seemed an age, fighting off the spirits of the dead that threatened to add him to
their ranks. Eventually, Abaddon made his way towards the centre of the labyrinth where a shard of shifting
darkness hung suspended in the air.

Reaching out into the void, Abaddon felt the cold hilt of a blade meet his palm and he pulled it into reality; the
Daemonsword Drach'nyen took terrible shape before his eyes. After the recovery of the malefic sword, Abaddon's
power swelled to inhuman proportions and the new Warmaster of Chaos become nigh unstoppable. Whole cities
were burned in sacrifice to the every-hungry daemons of Chaos, and entire armies were torn apart by gibbering
Warp entities. Abaddon's power swelled to inhuman proportions as the Gods of Chaos rewarded him lavishly and he
undertook acts of fiendish bravery which horrified those who stood against him.

Black Legion Ascendant

Infused with the might of Chaos, the Black Legion grew in power and glory during the 1st Black Crusade. Under the
command of Abaddon, they seized ever more victories and triumphs. It was a glorious time for the XVI th Legion, as
the bloodshed and death of the Crusade washed away some of the memories of the Horus Heresy and their great
defeat before the gates of the Emperor's Palace. However, despite the reckless carnage and terrible destruction it
caused, eventually, the 1st Black Crusade ended.

Responding to the deadly peril, the Imperium had gathered its newly founded Space Marine Chapters and Titan
Legions and sent them against the Traitors. Even so, scores of worlds had been silenced forever and millions of
slaves were dragged screaming back into the Eye of Terror. Abaddon had tested the defences of his enemies and
vastly increased his power with his newly acquired Daemonsword Drach'nyen. He also took to using the title of
Warmaster of Chaos, rising to claim all that Horus had once possessed. None within the Black Legion argued
Abaddon's right to the title, the 1st Black Crusade proof of his right to lead.

For the Black Legion, their first foray out of the Eye of Terror had done much to restore their position among the
Traitor Legions, fostering a new grudging respect for the black armoured warriors and their self-proclaimed
Warmaster. If nothing else, Abaddon had proven that the Dark Gods favoured him, something not even the Daemon
Primarchs could ignore. Conflict still sputtered and flared between the Traitor Legions, but they now had a new
purpose, something they had almost forgotten in the half millennia since the fall of Horus.

In the wake of the 1st Black Crusade, a time of constant raiding of Imperial space began. Abaddon was content to
give a Black Legion warlord and his warband of Chaos Space Marines the chance to make a name for themselves,
allowing them the freedom to strike where and when they would. He fostered this independence on one condition:
the atrocities they committed must be done in the name of the Black Legion and at cost to the Emperor.

Notable Campaigns
Starting with the 1st Black Crusade, thirteen times has Abaddon the Despoiler led the Black Legion in a grand
assault against the Imperium. Every time, the Despoiler and his hordes have achieved a great victory, slain millions
of Loyalists or completed some obscure objective before vanishing back into the Eye of Terror. At the close of the
41st Millennium, Abaddon led his 13th Black Crusade in the final conquest of Cadia, emerging stronger than ever
before at the head of a vast army of Traitors, Heretics and daemons.

Age of Betrayal, M30-M31

 First Pacification of Luna (ca. 798.M30) - This early Imperial campaign was the first operation mounted
by elements of the early Space Marine Legions beyond the skies of Terra. The Unification Wars were still
raging across the surface of Mankind's birth world. Luna was the bastion of a conglomeration of
resurrectionist gene-cults whose members believed that human nature was both fractal, fractured and
transcendent. Each of these Selenar gene-cults clung to a different set of archetypes. Every cult member
was a product of creation by the Selenar gene-wrights according to formulae crafted in the Dark Age of
Technology. Resurrected in body time and time again they sought to distill the true personification of a
single human archetype. In their subterranean complexes the cults were powerful, insular and resistant to
the Imperial Truth. The Imperials would have normally dealt with these insular cults in the usual matter
they handled all of the other Terran factions and techno-barbarian states that refused to accept the rule of
the Emperor of Mankind -- by obliteration. The fact that the Selenar gene-cults had something that the
growing Imperium needed complicated that position. The Selenar returned the Imperial entreaties for
alliance with silence. As the threats of the Imperium soon began to outnumber its offers, the Selenar cults
began to gird themselves for war. So it was that the Emperor finally ordered Luna to be pacified by the
sword, their superstitious beliefs cast down before the Imperial Truth and their gene-craft yoked to the
needs of the Imperium. To this task the Emperor set the three of His newborn Space Marine Legions most
suited to this purpose on what some Imperial chroniclers name as the first true battle of the Great Crusade.
The combined force of the VIIth, XIIIth and XVIth Legions (later named the Imperial Fists, Ultramarines and
Luna Wolves) lifted from the surface of Terra in a scattering of rocket flame. The as yet unnamed XVI th
Legion had been chosen to serve as the Space Marine force's vanguard, and had brought its full strength to
bear. Cutting power to their assault craft, the Astartes of the XVI th Legion drifted silently towards Luna
through the void like arrows fired into the night. As the smaller wave of assault craft belonging to the VII th
and XIIIth Legions approached the airless world, the Selenar defensive weapon systems embedded in Luna's
surface lashed the oncoming Imperial force. The XVIth Legion's assault craft, unlooked for and unseen,
struck their targets like a dagger in the night. Within six hours of the first shot being fired, Luna had been
pacified and brought into Imperial Compliance, the first off-world conquest of the Imperium of Man. Faced
with annihilation, the surviving Selenar cultists bent the knee instead, their surrender communique
transmitted to Terra calling for the Emperor to "call off his wolves". Broken and humbled, the enslaved
gene-wrights of Luna would help forge the next generation of Space Marine who would carry out
Mankind's conquest of the stars. As for the XVIth Legion, they had earned their name -- the Luna Wolves.
 The Hunting of the Ak'Haireth (Unknown Date.M30) - An alien menace known variously as the
Ak'Haireth, or "Bone Drinkers" in the vernacular, were fungoid, predatory and parasitic life forms which
acquired their sentience from operating as physically interwoven gestalt "blooms". Their existence was
fuelled by the slow and agonisingly painful siphoning of nutrition from living animals, primarily human
bone marrow. Given to no technological creativity of their own, the Ak'Haireth operated at the edge of the
western Segmentum Solar, inhabiting the scavenged void ships of other species and raiding isolated
colonies and Feral Worlds unable to resist their predations. Initially encountered in the early years of the
Great Crusade, the Ak'Haireth had been subjected to extermination pogroms carried out both the Luna
Wolves and the VIIIth Legion (not then yet formally known as the Night Lords) which had been thought to
have been successful. However, a cowardly species, the Ak'Haireth had been wont to flee if not cornered in
battle, and over time it became apparent that some marrow-blooms of the foul xenos had hidden themselves
and survived. By 986.M30, reports of attacks against isolated outposts and shipping in the region of the
stellar wastes near Olmec indicated that the Ak'Haireth were again dangerously growing in strength and
number. The Alpha Legion, only a handful of years previously united with their Primarch, was assigned the
order for the xenocide of the species before it could spread further, and in a successful campaign that lasted
three years, the Bone Drinkers were all but wiped out.
  Fall of Reillis (Unknown Date.M30) - For the first thirty years after his discovery, Horus Lupercal and the
Emperor had many occasions to fight alongside one another. At the fortified city of Reillis, a human
settlement unwilling to accept the Imperial Truth, the defenders used secret tunnels to infiltrate behind the
besieging Imperial army and hundreds of enemy shock troops swamped the Imperial command
encampment. Unprepared and unarmoured, the Emperor and Horus fought back-to-back until a plasma
blast stunned the young Primarch and sent him staggering to the ground. The Emperor stood over His fallen
son and refused to give ground until reinforcements arrived to drive their attackers back.

The Emperor of Mankind, fighting alongside Horus during the Gorro Hollowing campaign.

 The Gorro Hollowing (Unknown Date.M30) - Within the Telon Reach was an Ork empire that rivalled
that centred on Ullanor, and at its heart was the scrap world of Gorro. The Ork tech-caste, the Mekboyz,
dominated the Orks of Gorro and had made the world their own. The dominant tech-caste on Gorro seemed
to be fascinated by a form of plasma technology never encountered before or since. Capable of generating
destructive yields of terrifying potency, these plasma weapons had done much to blunt the Great Crusade's
advance across the Telon Reach. The Emperor decreed that Gorro must be destroyed. When a thousand-
strong fleet of warships dropped out of the Warp above Gorro it was the Emperor Himself who gave the
order to begin the assault. Horus, ever the dutiful and favoured son, stood at the Emperor's side and
watched as tens of thousands of assault craft spread out from the fleet. The Luna Wolves teleported into the
scrap layers beneath the planet's surface, forced to hollow out Gorro from within due to the planet's high
resistance to orbital bombardment. In the vanguard was the Emperor and by His side was Horus and a
guard of black-armoured Justaerin Terminators from the Luna Wolves' 1st Company as well as the golden-
clad warriors of the Legiones Custodes. As the Space Marines attacked, the Ork resistance they faced was
nearly overwhelming. The Orks of Gorro were huge and augmented with scavenged bionics. Some stood
taller than Dreadnoughts and their weaponry burned through Power Armour easily. At the height of the
battle, the fury of the Orks split the Emperor from His guards. Alone He slew hundreds of them until a blast
from an Ork plasma weapon weakened His defences and one of the Ork leaders seized Him. The creature's
strength was so great that it took hold of the Emperor and buckled His armour. As the creature's grasp
closed to throttle the Master of Mankind, Horus stormed through the press of battle and cut the Ork's arms
from its body with a single blow. Together father and son led their forces deeper into the vast sphere of
scrap until they reached the centre of Gorro. The Emperor worked to collapse the self-sustaining plasma
sphere that powered much of the world's scavenged Ork technology and that contained a Warp-fold
envelope, so that Gorro would implode into the Warp. The Emperor proved successful, and without its
power source, the scrap world collapsed in on itself. A hollow skin of rusted metal around an empty void
was all that remained to mark the death of the great Ork empire of Gorro. Horus had returned the favour of
the Emperor saving his life on Reillis. This incident helped to forge an unusually close bond between the
Emperor and His gene-son, closer than that between any of the other Primarchs and their father.
 War in the Shedim Drifts (Unknown Date.M30) - During the war in the Shedim Drifts against the
marauding Eldar of Craftworld Mór-ríoh'i, a vast Imperial force comprised of no less than four Titan
Legions which consisted of the Legio Atarus, Legio Mortis, Legio Fureans & Legio Osedax, was
assembled and placed under the overall command of Commander Horus Lupercal and his Luna Wolves
Legion. The apocalyptic battle which raged upon the planet's surface saw a full demi-Legio of the Legio
Atarus encircled and all but destroyed. The Lupercal had cruelly used them, without their foreknowledge or
consent, as a ruse to divert the strength of the enemy away from the direct defence of their craftworld while
his Legion undertook a surprise assault against it. The war of the Shedirn Drifts was a great victory for
Horus and all those of the Imperium who fought in the campaign gained glory because of it, but at the
expense of the Legio Atarus, an injury that the Firebrands would not forget.
 Castigation of Terentius (Unknown Date.M30) - When the forces of the Great Crusade first entered the
Ordoni Cluster, they encountered the formidable warlord Vatale Gerron Terentius. Observing the forces
arrayed against him, Terentius was forced to take the path of survival and surrendered to the Imperium. The
Imperium had need of men like Terentius, and the Great Crusade gave him opportunities and riches such as
he had never dreamed. Given a small fleet of warships and a handful of Imperial Army regiments,
Terentius grew his forces by conquest. For five decades he rose in power and reputation, conquering worlds
around the Halo Stars in the name of the Emperor. At the height of his powers, he had the ear of Malcador
the Sigillite and the countenance of several Primarchs. When he finally turned against the Imperium, many
 were shocked. Terentius began to conquer already Compliant planets, his contra-Crusade conquering
system after system in his own name, rather than for the sake of all Mankind. Soon he had entire fleets of
warships, tens of millions of soldiers and the loyalty of a hundred human-settled worlds. Ringed by fortress
worlds, this rebel human empire began to eat up Imperial worlds around the Halo Stars. The Imperium
responded by sending Horus and his Luna Wolves Legion to not only break the Renegade but to
demonstrate to any others who harboured similar ideas within the Imperial forces the inevitability of a
betrayer's defeat. Horus elected to not only use his Legion to complete the task at hand but sent personal
requests to his brother Primarchs for support which saw substantial strength from the Night Lords, Iron
Hands, and the Alpha Legion joined to the might of the Luna Wolves. Soon the rebel forces were
fragmented, driven by tales of culled worlds. It is said that it was at the very moment that Terentius realised
he could not win that the Luna Wolves came for him. As they dropped from the Warp within weapons'
range of Terentius' warships they annihilated half of his command fleet in one fell swoop. Horus himself
teleported onto the bridge of Terentius' flagship along with 50 of the Luna Wolves 1 st Company's elite
Justaerin Terminators and slaughtered all they found there. Terentius died unrepentant, ending his life
impaled upon Horus' Talon. With Terentius dead, his rebellion crumbled as the castigation continued with
renewed fury. Horus, his pride slighted by Terentius' decision to betray the trust the Primarchs and the
Emperor had once put in him, is said to have ordered the Night Lords to decimate every world within
Terentius' rebel empire. The power of the Iron Hands and elements of the Ordo Reductor were brought to
bear on every structure on Terentius' bastion worlds. Soon the rebels of his realm were slaughtered, their
cities smashed to dust, and his homeworld's very air laced with toxins. Once the castigation was complete,
Horus sent the gold-dipped skull of Terentius to Terra with the ironic warning carried on the lips of the
messenger who bore it, "So perish all traitors".
 Compliance of Molech (869.M30) - The Luna Wolves took part in the massive Imperial Compliance
campaign on the newly discovered Knight World of Molech, which was led by the Emperor Himself, and
included multiple Legiones Astartes, including the Dark Angels, Emperor's Children and the White Scars,
as well as thousands of troops of the Imperialis Auxilia and assets from the Mechanicum and Legio
Titanicus. After achieving victory, Cyprian Devine of House Devine was named Planetary Governor of
Molech. In the presence of several of His Primarch sons, the Emperor led them to a Warp portal hidden
underground, where He proceeded to enter into the Realm of Chaos to parley with the Ruinous Powers.
When He finally returned, the Emperor appeared aged, but much more powerful. He then suppressed His
sons' memories of Molech and stationed a large garrison force comprised of nearly 100 Imperialis Auxilia
regiments, three Legio Titanicus cohorts, and detachments from two Space Marine Legions to protect the
secrets of the Warp portal on Molech.
 The Keylek Genocide (921.M30) - Early in the Great Crusade the Luna Wolves encountered the hostile
alien reptilian race known as the Keylekid on the world of Keylek. The grotesque Keylekid were greatly
skilled in the arts of combat, and rose against the XVI th Legion angrily the moment the 63rd Expeditionary
Fleet made contact. This genocidal campaign proved to be a long, bloody, and miserable affair for the Luna
Wolves. At this time Horus was referred to simply as "The Commander" by the Astartes of his Legion.
 Compliance of 63-8 (Davin) (941.M30) - The Feral World of Davin, codified as Sixty-Three Eight (63-8),
was the eighth world brought into Imperial Compliance by the XVI th Legion's 63rd Expeditionary Fleet
some 60 standard years before the start of the Horus Heresy. The indigenous feral warriors of this world
briefly attempted to resist being conquered by the Imperium, but were forced to surrender as they were
overwhelmingly outmatched militarily by the Astartes. The warrior tribes were allowed to remain mostly
intact as they had impressed Horus with their courage on the battlefield and their willingness to learn to
adapt to Imperial culture. The military campaign was brief, and the Luna Wolves departed after the
surrender of the Davinites, taking with them their concept of the Warrior Lodge, which was quickly
adopted throughout the Luna Wolves fleet. A detachment of the XVIIth Legion, the Word Bearers (then
known as the Imperial Heralds), under the command of First Captain Kor Phaeron was left to shepherd the
people of Davin into the light of the Imperial Truth. The Imperial governorship of the planet was given to
Commander Eugen Temba of the Imperial Army, a close friend and confidante of Horus. Long after the
63rd Expeditionary Fleet departed the star system, the new Planetary Governor soon found that the
inhabitants of Davin's moon refused to comply with Imperial rule. This would eventually result in
Governor Temba and his Imperial garrison force being struck down by a sorcerous attack unleashed by
Davinite shamans of Chaos on Davin's moon, an attack that would twist their perceptions away from their
oaths of fealty to the Imperium, succumbing to the corrupting influence of the Plague God, Nurgle.
Unknown to the Imperials, the entire population of Davin had long been servants of the Dark Gods of the
 Warp. The corruption of Temba and his Imperial Army garrison forces would ultimately necessitate the
return of the Luna Wolves Legion 60 years later, and lead to the eventual corruption of Horus.
 Compliance of Darrowmar (Unknown Date.M30) - The Luna Wolves fought alongside the Night Lords
Legion in bringing the world of Darrowmar into Imperial Compliance.
 Compliance of Tethonus (Unknown Date.M30) - The Luna Wolves fought against a xenos-adversary
whose identity is not recorded in existing Imperial records while bringing the world of Tethonus into
Imperial Compliance. This Compliance action was a long siege of the xenos fortress-states on Tethonus.
Horus had tasked the masters of the Forge World of Diamat to create continental siege machines; vast
artillery pieces that could devastate the most powerful fortifications. But the war machines took much
longer for the forge masters to complete than planned. By the time they were finished, the campaign on
Tehonus had been over for more than a standard year and a half, and Horus had moved on to other
conquests. So the weapons were put into a depot on Diamat for the day when he would come to claim
them. Fifty standard years later, Horus would reveal his perfidy at Istvaan III, and would send raiding
forces to claim these siege engines for later use in his attempt to overthrow the Emperor of Mankind.
 Assault on Dahinta (Unknown Date.M30) - On the world of Dahinta, the Luna Wolves fought against a
race of self-aware machines called the Overseers, who were led by the artificial intelligence known as the
Archdroid. One of the Emperor's longest-standing commands was that no sentient machines could be
allowed to exist, for they had nearly caused the extinction of Mankind when they had rebelled against their
human overseers during the Dark Age of Technology. Despite heavy casualties amongst themselves, the
thinking machines were wiped from the face of Dahinta by the savagery of the Astartes. Only after the
campaign had ended was the full truth learned: the Overseers had been created by a vanished offshoot of
humanity that had settled Dahinta, perhaps during the Age of Technology. The Overseers had cared for
their lost masters' crumbling cities long after they had become extinct or left their homeworld behind.
 Battle of Gyros-Thravian (Unknown Date.M30) - The Battle of Gyros-Thravian was a massive joint
Imperial Compliance action carried out by three Space Marine Legions, composed of the Luna Wolves,
Death Guard and Imperial Fists against the extremely powerful Ork Warboss Gharkul Blackfang, one of
the most powerful Ork warlords ever encountered up until that time. Despite the strength arrayed against
the vile Greenskin, it were the Imperial forces who were soon on the verge of defeat. It was then that the
Emperor Himself, aboard His flagship Bucephelus, came to the aid of His sons. He personally led a force
composed of 1,000 Legio Custodes into the heart of the mighty Ork horde. Blackfang was confronted by
the Emperor and killed atop his Gargant while the Custodians proceeded to lay waste to the rest of the
Greenskin horde. The Custodians accounted for the slaughter of the Orks, slaying over 100,000 of the
savage xenos, with the loss of only three Custodians. Following their momentous victory, the Emperor
commemorated the Custodians' sacrifice by engraving the names of the three fallen Custodians into His
own personal Power Armour.
 Pacification of Schravaan (Unknown Date.M30) - This was a joint Imperial Compliance conducted by
the Luna Wolves, Iron Warriors, Imperial Fists, and the Emperor's Children Legions against the xenos
Badoon on the world of Schravaan. The Iron Warriors won a great victory when they stormed the final
refuge of the Badoon. They breached the defences and held while the other Legions carried the city beyond.
During the following victory feast, Horus proclaimed Perturabo the greatest master of siege warfare in the
Great Crusade. Fulgrim, the Primarch of the Emperor's Children then inquired to his brother Dorn whether
he thought even the defences of the Imperial Palace could resist the Iron Warriors, in which Dorn replied
that he regarded the defences as being proof against any assault if well-planned. Perturabo flew into a rage
and unleashed unfounded accusations against his brother. After this the two rarely spoke, and neither
Legion would serve again in the same campaign for the remainder of the Great Crusade.
 Compliance of Krypt (Unknown Date.M30) - The Compliance of Krypt was a relatively short campaign
conducted during the Great Crusade by both the Luna Wolves and the Death Guard Legions against the
Orks upon the frozen plains of the world of Krypt. Fighting together for more than a week across the frozen
surface of the planet, the Space Marine Legions turned the blue ice dark with xenos blood. The Luna
Wolves' Captain Garviel Loken and his 10th Company are known to have fought alongside Death Guard
Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro and his 7th Great Company at this time.
 Pacification of Zaramund (970.M30) - A joint-Compliance campaign that was conducted by the Luna
Wolves and a contingent of Death Guard led by First Captain Calas Typhon and a contingent of Dark
Angels led by Luther, the acting Regent of Caliban. Following their victory, a celebration was held, but
 soon the festivities were marred when an enraged Lion El'Jonson arrived to rebuke Luther for disobeying
his orders to remain on Caliban.
 Disovery of Primarch Alpharius Omegon (ca. Late-970s.M30) - Extant accounts state that Alpha Legion
Primarch Alpharius was discovered accidentally by the Luna Wolves when they were lured into a trap after
receiving a distress beacon from one of their own battleships. When they went to assist, Horus' own
flagship came under attack by an unknown enemy, and a single assassin broke into the flagship and fought
his way clear to Horus' command chamber. Horus himself was forced to confront him, but thankfully, did
not slay his attacker but recognised him instead as his lost brother; Alpharius. Unfortunately, the validity of
this account is considered highly suspect.
 Tyrade System Compliance (ca. 998.M30) - The Luna Wolves served alongside a detachment of the Vth
Legion, the White Scars, during the Imperial Compliance of the Tyrade System. This action occurred seven
years before the Battle of Istvaan III and the start of the Horus Heresy.
 Compliance of Melchior (ca. 999.M31) - The Imperial Compliance of Melchior was a joint campaign that
was carried out by both the XVIth Legion and the Blood Angels Legion. The world was the last bastion of
the xenos known as the Nephilim -- hulking entities of roughly humanoid shape who were smooth like
carvings of soapstone, with abstract shapes approximating arms and legs. Their dome heads emerged from
their shoulders without a neck, and an array of olfactory slits and eye-spots ringed the surface of their
skulls. In the light, the Nephilim looked like objects crafted of blown glass, their semi-transparent flesh
glowing in the bright day. The Nephilim possessed an unhurried, careful agility like that of sea-going
creatures seen through the walls of a glass tank. They moved deceptively slowly through air as if they were
swimming in water, but they could move fast if they wished, darting and spinning, becoming difficult to
hit. The alien giants, mocking humanity's great dream of peace and unity, had left a trail of destruction
behind them that had claimed a hundred worlds before they had come to rest upon Melchior. Sagan, the
DeCora Spine, Orpheo Minoris, Beta Rigel II; each of these planets had been denuded of all human life,
populations herded into empath-chapels as big as mountains and then slowly consumed. Even their name,
Nephilim, the name of the fallen seraphs, was a name taken from ancient human mythology -- that of Terra,
Caliban and Barac. The true horror of it was that the Nephilim used those they preyed upon to do their
soldiering for them, snaring the pliant, the lonely, the sorrowful with their ideal of an attainable godhood.
They plied their victims with stories of eternal existence for the faithful, of endless sorrow for the agnostic;
and they were very good at it. Perhaps the xenos really believed that what they were doing was somehow
taking their victims closer to a form beyond flesh, to an afterlife in an eternal heaven-state; it did not
matter. With their advanced technology they implanted bits of themselves into their thralls to further their
communion. They cut their own flesh and made living masks to mark their devotees. The Nephilim
controlled minds, either through the transmitted power of their will or through the weak character of those
they chose. They were an affront to the Emperor's hope for the creation of the rationalist, secular galaxy
outlined by the Imperial Truth. They represented not only an offence to the purity of a precious human
ideal but in their insidious cuckoo-nest displacement of those who foolishly gave them fealty. For what the
aliens fed upon, what the Scout Marines of the Blood Angels and Luna Wolves had seen and reported back,
were the very lives of those who cherished them. The empty chapels were piled high with stacks of
desiccated corpses, bodies that had been aged years in only hours as all living essence was siphoned from
them. The Primarchs of the Legions were disgusted as the true understanding of the enemy they faced was
revealed. The Nephilim fed on adulation. In the strategium of his flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, Horus
showed his brother Sanguinius, the Primarch of the Blood Angels, the plan that he had conceived to break
the will of the Nephilim. Horus wanted the Blood Angels to march shoulder-to-shoulder with their cousins,
cowing the aliens with the sight of an army of thousands of powerful Astartes rolling without pause to the
gates of their last bastion. And then through those gates, over the battlements, not stopping, not pausing to
parley or hesitate. "Like the ocean these things sprang from", Horus had said, "we will roll over the aliens,
drag them down and drown them." The sheer bombast of the plan was its greatest strength, but Sanguinius
had not been easily swayed to it. This blunt, brute-force approach was better suited to their more
intemperate brother Primarchs, to Leman Russ or to Angron. Sanguinius felt that neither he nor Horus were
so artless, so focused upon the target to the detriment of all else, but in the end he agreed. When the time
came to enact their audacious plan, Horus and his Luna Wolves met the xenos army on the sparkling white
plains of the Silver Desert. Before open hostilities began, Horus attempted to parlay with the Nephilim one
final time, but the overconfident xenos refused to capitulate, casually informing the humans that they could
not win. Horus informed the xenos commander that it had made a grave error, for it would be the Nephilim
who would fall. The Luna Wolves would be the anvil upon which the xenos would break, and the Blood
 Angels would be the hammer. With lightning speed, the heavens screamed as a rain of ceramite Drop Pods
tore through the outer atmosphere of Melchior and fell like flaming meteors towards the Silver Desert.
Falling with them were Stormbird and Thunderhawk assault gunships that turned and wheeled through the
air towards the gargantuan Nephilim encampment, carrying company upon company of the IXth Legion.
The speed of their assault was the key to victory; the alien invaders and their zealots had successfully been
drawn out to confront the massed forces of the Luna Wolves, leaving the defences on their flanks thinned
and permeable. But the xenos giants were not slow in their thinking, and the moment they understood that
they had been duped, they would attempt to regroup and fortify. The Blood Angels did not allow that to
happen. The Nephilim were broken and cut down, their cohesion shattered by the brutal deep strike. Caught
between the brutal fury of two Space Marine Legions on Melchior's shining sands, the Nephilim were
finally put to the sword.
 Ullanor Crusade (ca. 999.M30-000.M31) - The Ullanor Crusade was a vast Imperial assault on the Ork
empire of the Overlord Urrlak Urruk during the Great Crusade of the early 31st Millennium. The capital
world of this empire, and the site of the final assault, lay in the Ullanor System of the Ullanor Sector, which
had long been under the dominion of Urrlak Urruk's Greenskin pocket empire. The Crusade included the
deployment of 100,000 Space Marines, 8,000,000 Imperial Army troops, and thousands of Imperial
starships and their support personnel. The Luna Wolves spearheaded the assault into the heart of Urlakk's
fortress-palace. During the height of the assault, Horus and a retinue of Luna Wolves Terminators from the
elite 1st Company came face to face with the massive Ork Warlord and a retinue of 40 Ork Nobs. Horus
charged into the Nobs, hacking them apart with his Lightning Claws until he finally faced the Ork Overlord
himself. Urlakk was simply no match for the Primarch's skill and unnatural power. First crippling his
enemy, Horus hefted Urlakk's broken body out onto the roof of the Greenskin's palace and threw it
screaming from the battlements to fall far below amongst the horde of Orks still assaulting the lower levels.
Seeing their leader defeated sent a panic through the Greenskin forces, which started to fall back from the
Terminators. But the fleeing mobs found they had nowhere to run, as the outer walls had been breached by
the attacking Luna Wolves, and the day turned into a slaughter. In the Overlord's chamber, Horus found
every Ork and Terminator dead, apart from the gore-drenched First Captain of the 1st Company, Ezekyle
Abaddon, who was surrounded by crushed Ork bodies. The Ullanor Crusade marked the high point of the
Great Crusade's vast effort to reunite the scattered colony worlds of humanity. The Orks of Ullanor
represented the largest concentration of Orks ever defeated by the military forces of the Imperium of Man
before the Third War for Armageddon began during the late 41st Millennium. Following the defeat of the
Orks of Ullanor, the Emperor of Mankind returned to Terra to begin work on His vast project to open up
the Eldar Webway for Mankind's use. In His place to command the vast forces of the Great Crusade He left
Horus. Horus was raised to the rank of Imperial Warmaster and given command authority over all of his
fellow Primarchs and every Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade. But the Primarchs never came to
terms with the Emperor's absence. Their hurt feelings over His seeming abandonment of the Great Crusade
to pursue a secret project whose purpose He chose not to reveal to His sons laid the seeds of corruption that
would ultimately blossom into the Horus Heresy. Yet the Emperor sent word from Terra that in honour of
the great victory at Ullanor, the Luna Wolves should henceforth be known as the Sons of Horus, in honour
of their Primarch's singular deeds, though Horus, with typical humility, chose not to rename his Legion at
this time.
 Subjugation of the Akum-Sothos Cluster (ca. 000.M31) - The Aukum-Sothos Cluster, which had been
brought into Compliance by the Luna Wolves early in the Great Crusade, mysteriously rebelled against
Imperial rule due to the actions of controlling xenos. Horus had formulated a plan to cast down these so-
called Unsighted Kings, the xenos-possessed leaders of the insurrection, in a lightning war that would purge
the afflicted population while retaining the cluster's highly developed infrastructure for future re-
population. The Warmaster's plan called for the bulk of four Legions -- the Luna Wolves, Space Wolves,
Iron Warriors and Raven Guard -- to converge on the heavily fortified lair of the Unsighted Kings before a
final, overwhelming assault was launched. Despite his misgivings, Corax complied, and assigned the
majority of his Terran-borne veterans of the old XIXth Legion, especially those who readily agreed to the
Warmaster's plans, as the assault's vanguard element. At the height of the battle, with the assault companies
decimated and the attack faltering in the face of overwhelming fire, Corax himself led the forlorn hope, his
battle cry firing the Legion to such efforts that the breach was carried and Gate Forty-Two taken. The
honour of slaying the Unsighted Kings was claimed by Horus as Warmaster and at the moment of their
execution, the xenos' hold over the population was dispelled. The Akum-Sothos Cluster was delivered and
 Horus' prize was reclaimed. The cost was terrible however, thousands of Raven Guard, the bulk of them
Terran-born, had given their lives before the shattered walls of Gate Forty-Two.
 Compliance of 63-19 (001.M31) - The Imperial Compliance action of the world codified as Sixty-Three
Nineteen (63-19) took place in the 203rd year of the Great Crusade. Forced off course by a Warp Storm, the
Luna Wolves' 63rd Expeditionary Fleet discovered a system of 9 planets orbiting a yellow sun quite by
accident. After entering the system they were contacted by a technologically-advanced human society
based on the third planet. This world was ruled by a self-appointed "Emperor of Mankind" who claimed to
be the predestined ruler of all the scattered remnants of humanity across the galaxy. He invited a delegation
from the Imperial fleet to treat and pay fealty to him. The Warmaster sent his most favoured commander,
Captain Hastur Sejanus and his Glory Squad to meet with this supposed "Emperor". Though initial
negotiations appeared to proceed smoothly, they irrevocably broke down when the Astartes Captain dared
to suggest that there was another, true Emperor of Mankind. Perceived as an insult, Captain Sejanus and his
men were taken by surprise during a diplomatic parley and cut down. The death of Horus' favourite son and
Mournival member would open an emotional chink in the Primarch's psyche that would later be exploited
by First Chaplain Erebus of the Word Bearers Legion upon the Feral World of Davin during Horus'
corruption by Chaos in the Temple of the Serpent Lodge. Though intensely grieved by Sejanus' death,
Horus miraculously did not order an immediate retaliatory strike. Instead, he mobilised an Astartes
"speartip" unit to stand by and prepare for a planetary assault. Horus then attempted to negotiate a second
time by despatching Maloghurst and another contingent of Luna Wolves, but this mission also ended in
disaster when Maloghurst's Stormbird was shot down and presumed lost. A great fleet of over 600 warships
rose up from the planet's atmosphere to meet the 63 rd Expeditionary Fleet, throwing down a challenge. The
Warmaster responded in kind. The great naval battle that ensued is not recorded in detail in the existing
Imperial records of this time, but eventually the Imperial fleet ultimately prevailed. The massive ground
assault spearheaded by the Luna Wolves was led by First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon, as well as a half-
dozen Titans which provided ground support while Assault Craft provided close-air support. The Luna
Wolves were eventually able to close and penetrate the capital city's defences. The Luna Wolves fought
their way inside the Imperial Palace until they came face-to-face with the supposed "Emperor". The false
Emperor offered to surrender to the Imperial forces, but only to their overall acting commander, not his
subordinate captains. The request was transmitted to the fleet, but Captain Garviel Loken of the 10th
Company quickly realised that this was merely a ruse to draw Horus down to the Throne Room to be
assassinated. 1st Company Captain Kalus Ekaddon, commander of the Catulan Reaver Squad, swiftly killed
the man he believed to be the false Emperor. Then the true false Emperor revealed himself, striking with
deadly force against those Luna Wolves that were present, and nearly succeeded in neutralising both
Loken, Ekaddon and the other members of the Catulan Squad. He was only stopped by the timely
intervention of the Luna Wolves' Primarch, as Horus teleported directly into the Throne Room and slew the
false Emperor with a single, well-aimed Combi-Bolter shot to the head. The main part of the campaign was
concluded with the death of the false Emperor. With the death of their leader, the main resistance on 63-19
collapsed, although there were some elements of the world's military forces that continued to wage a
guerrilla war around the planet as well as three other worlds within the system. These resistance elements
were eventually expunged through the efforts of the 63 rd Expedition's attached Byzant Janizars Imperial
Army regiment over the next few months. The last pocket of serious resistance to Imperial Compliance
occurred in the Whisperhead Mountains located in the southern hemisphere. This last pocket of resistance
would eventually be excised by Captain Garviel Loken's 10 th Company over a period of three months.
These hold-outs made their final stand within a formidable fortress carved out of the rock of one of the
range's highest peaks. When the 10th Company fought their way inside the mountain fortress they
discovered what appeared to be several primitive religious fanes or shrines. The Luna Wolves presumed
that they were somehow connected to this region's superstitious worship of a being referred to as Samus.
This being turned out to be a minor daemonic Warp-entity who had dwelled on and interacted with the
inhabitants of 63-19 for many millennia. During the ensuing battle Samus possessed the body of one of the
10th Company's sergeants and was able to eliminate over a dozen Astartes and a number of Remembrancers
that had accompanied the Luna Wolves before being cut down by the combined Bolter fire of Captain
Loken and Sergeant Nero Vipus. The two Luna Wolves fired over 90 Bolter rounds into the possessed
sergeant's body and then incinerated the remains with a Flamer. This was the first recorded incident in
Imperial history of its military forces encountering the malefic powers of Chaos. The entire course of
events was classified on the orders of the Warmaster, in order to hide the fact that an Astartes had turned on
his fellow Battle-Brothers and that it was possible for the supposedly invincible Astartes to be corrupted by
 the malignant powers of Warp-entities, who were themselves a well-kept secret of the Imperium. Overall
governorship of the world after it was brought into Imperial Compliance was given to General Rakris of the
Byzant Janizars, while the adaptation of the cities and infrastructure of the world to Imperial standards was
given over to Peeter Egon Momus. 63-19 was the first world that the newly-arrived Remembrancers of the
63rd Expedition added to their own records of the Luna Wolves' exploits.
 Compliance of 140-20 (Urisarach/"Murder") (ca. 001.M31) - The Death World of Urisarach (officially
codified as One-Forty-Twenty but unofficially dubbed "Murder" by the Astartes who fought there) was the
twentieth world encountered by the 140th Expeditionary Fleet, a contingent of the IXth Legiones Astartes,
the Blood Angels, commanded by Captain Khitas Frome. Unable to translate the warnings from the
orbiting satellite beacons placed in orbit of the world by the advanced human civilisation known as the
Interex that warned approaching starships to stay away from Urisarach as a dangerous xenos species had
been quarantined there, Captain Frome ordered his fleet's entire contingent of three companies of Space
Marines to begin landing operations to investigate and bring the planet into Imperial Compliance. Due to
the extreme atmospheric turbulence present on the world, all of the Blood Angels' assault craft attempting
to land on the planet became scattered and were thrown far off-course, leaving the Imperial landing parties
isolated from one another. The turbulent atmosphere also affected Vox (radio) communications and made it
difficult for the Imperial forces to coordinate their movements. Ground teams soon started sending garbled
transmissions to the fleet's vessels in orbit, reporting that the planet was inhabited by an extremely hostile
intelligent arachnoid species, later dubbed the Megarachnids. The Megarachnids were an old enemy of the
Interex civilisation, who had exiled the surviving members of the species to the world they called Urisarach
as an act of mercy rather than committing xenocide as was standard policy for the Imperium. The Interex
stripped the Megarachnids of their interstellar travel capabilities. To keep the aliens isolated on their new
homeworld, the Interex constructed weather control devices that created powerful atmospheric disturbances
and interfered with radio communications in the shape of large "trees" across the planet to deter vessels
from landing on the Death World. As reports of horrific combat from the surface continued, the xenos were
described as too numerous and formidable to defeat without reinforcements. Not long afterwards, the Blood
Angels made urgent distress calls requesting immediate reinforcements and extraction. The last
transmission received by the fleet of the 140th Expedition came from Captain Khitas Frome himself, who
noted through clenched teeth, "This. World. Is. Murder." This name stuck, becoming the Imperium's
informal appellation for Urisarach. A company of Astartes from the III rd Legion, the Emperor's Children,
arrived in response to the Blood Angels' distress calls. They made the same mistakes during the initial
assault as the Blood Angels, and their landing parties were scattered by the planet's powerful atmospheric
disturbances. The company took heavy casualties but just as the Emperor's Children were about to be
overwhelmed, a relief force of newly-arrived Luna Wolves Astartes from the Warmaster Horus' own 63rd
Expeditionary Fleet began to land through the breach in the atmosphere. The Megarachnids assaulting the
Emperor's Children were scattered and a full-scale Space Marine assault on the hostile xenos of Murder
began in earnest. Ten companies of Luna Wolves, the remnants of the Emperor's Children's company, tens
of thousands of Imperial soldiers drawn from the Imperial Army's Byzant Janizars, and several Legio
Mortis Titans proceeded to level entire swathes of the grass stalk forests and destroy every one of the
atmosphere-altering "trees" they encountered, which steadily eroded Murder's atmospheric barrier. The
Warmaster Horus, who commanded the Imperial assault from his flagship Vengeful Spirit in orbit, was very
pleased with the progress being made. Some consideration had been paid to initiating a withdrawal from
Murder now that a proper landing zone was available to allow an easy extraction of the troops, when an
unexpected visitor suddenly arrived. The Primarch Sanguinius had come to Murder to inspect the dead of
his original Blood Angels landing force that had been wiped out early in the campaign. With tears in his
eyes Sanguinius asked his brother Horus if he would join him in a campaign of vengeance against the foul
xenos. The Warmaster replied: "Yes, let us murder Murder." Adding 5 companies of Blood Angels to the
Imperial invasion force, Sanguinius fought alongside the Warmaster against the aliens. Thousands of
Megarachnids poured out of the forests and canyons of Murder in an endless wave. Despite never retreating
from the Imperial assault, the Megarachnids only continued to lose ground. By the sixth month of the
campaign it seemed the Megarachnids would soon face extinction, when a fleet deployed by the Interex
arrived in-system to determine who had assaulted the Megarachnids' reservation world. Finding contact
with the highly-advanced humans of the Interex to be a more pressing issue that needed to be dealt with,
the Warmaster ended the campaign against the xenos of Murder. The Megarachnids had been saved from
extinction for a second time by their old enemy. Imperial records do not indicate the final fate of this
savage species once the Horus Heresy began.
  Interex Compliance (ca. 002.M31) - The Interex were a highly advanced civilisation of humans that
maintained a close alliance with various xenos races, including the ape-like Kinebrach. In many ways their
technology was even more highly advanced than the technology employed by the Imperium at its height.
Their world of Xenobia was first encountered by the 63 rd Expeditionary Fleet during the Great Crusade.
The Interex were devoted to fighting the menace of Chaos (referred to by them as "Kaos") and were
therefore highly suspicious of the Imperium's intentions, as they believed that the interlopers from Terra
might be servants of the Ruinous Powers. While Horus and his Mournival were treating with the leaders of
the Interex, First Chaplain Erebus of the Word Bearers, who had been accompanying the Warmaster as part
of his entourage and who was already a secret follower of the Chaos Gods like most members of his XVIIth
Legion, infiltrated the Hall of Devices on Xenobia, a museum that contained various artefacts and weapons
drawn from the history of the Interex and their allied alien species. His objective was to steal a highly
valuable and deadly Kinebrach blade known as an Anathame, a Chaotic artefact sacred to the Plague God
Nurgle. After claiming the blade, Erebus rigged the building to explode to make good his escape. Feeling
betrayed by the Imperials, who they took for agents of Chaos for stealing a known Chaotic artefact, the
Interex's troops immediately attacked the bewildered forces of Horus, sparking a deadly confrontation. The
Warmaster was evacuated off-planet by his Astartes as the Luna Wolves unleashed their full might upon
the Interex. The Anathame would later play a pivotal role in the corruption of Horus by the Dark Gods
upon Davin's moon. The Interex were later destroyed by an Imperial campaign and all of their worlds were
brought into Imperial Compliance.

Sons of Horus Legionaries fighting against Plague Zombies on Davin's Moon

 Battle of Davin's Moon (004.M31) - Sixty Terran years after the world of Davin was brought into
Imperial Compliance, Horus was influenced by the Word Bearers' First Chaplain Erebus to return to the
feral planet. He informed the Primarch that the Imperial Governor of the world, Eugen Temba, had turned
from the light of the Emperor, and foresworn his oaths of fealty to the Imperium. According to Erebus,
Temba had found the inhabitants of Davin's moon unwilling to comply with Imperial rule, and so the
Planetary Governor had led an occupying force to the moon in an attempt to bring the wild tribes of the
moon into the light of the Imperial Truth. But during the parley with the tribesmen, Temba and his men
were struck down by a sorcerous attack that twisted their perceptions away from their loyalty to the
Imperium, and they succumbed to the temptations of power and immortality offered by Chaos and more
specifically by the Plague God Nurgle, who claimed Davin's moon -- and Temba -- for his own. Horus
personally led a combined assault force of Luna Wolves, an Imperial Army regiment of Byzant Janizars,
and a detachment of Titans of the Legio Mortis onto the moon's surface. They soon discovered the wreck of
Temba's flagship, the Glory of Terra, which was now a ruined derelict. The mass grave of rotting bodies of
the Imperial Army garrison left on Davin were found in the nearby swamp, wearing the remnants of the
uniforms of the 63rd Expeditionary Force. They seemed to confirm that Temba and all his men had
perished, but this was not the case. The corpses of the Imperial Army troops were reanimated through the
power of Nurgle as Plague Zombies that emerged from the swamps and attacked the Imperial forces en
masse. The Luna Wolves and Byzant Janizars cut down the reanimated corpses. After this confrontation,
the Warmaster led a speartip assault of Astartes into the derelict flagship. The bloated, mutant form of the
Nurgle-corrupted Imperial Governor was discovered deep within the rotting vessel by Captain Verulam
Moy of the 19th Company. Temba attempted to convert the Luna Wolves captain to Chaos, but Moy
refused, and so the corrupted Planetary Governor cut him down. Horus arrived shortly thereafter to
confront the Chaos-corrupted Temba, whose long-deceased body was now grossly enlarged, swollen with
the corpulent putrescence of Nurgle. During their confrontation, the Warmaster discovered that Temba's
corrupted form was immune to most forms of conventional injury. Horus also noted that Temba seemed to
posses preternatural swiftness for a being so bloated and bulky, as well as formidable skill in
swordsmanship. Horus fought like never before, his every move needed to parry and defend. Eugan Temba
had never been a swordsman, so where his sudden, horrifying skill came from Horus had no idea. This was
most likely due to Temba being armed with the stolen Kinebrach Anathame, the xenos chaotic weapon that
had been secretly stolen only scant weeks earlier from the Interex's Hall of Devices on Xenobia by the
scheming Word Bearers First Chaplain Erebus. The Anathame was a tailored weapon, a blade of sentient
metal dedicated to Nurgle that had been crafted by the Kinebrach metallurgists, using a technique now
utterly forbidden by the Kinebrach's Interex allies. When such a blade was selected for use against a
 specific target, it became that target's nemesis, utterly inimical to the very molecular being of the chosen
target. During the vicious battle, Temba stabbed the fell blade into the Warmaster's shoulder where his
Power Armour had been torn away. Though in agony, Horus managed to finally subdue his foe and
mortally wound him. As the corrupting power of Nurgle fled his ravaged and decaying body, Temba was
wracked with guilt over what he had done. Before dying, he attempted to warn Horus against the power of
the entities that lived in the Warp. Temba prophesised that only Horus could avert a grim future of never-
ending war, where the Emperor was trapped in living death and Mankind was held in bondage to a
nightmarish hell of bureaucracy and superstition. The spark of life finally fled Eugen Temba and he died,
his soul consumed by the Warp. The wounded Horus was found by his Astartes and taken back to his
flagship in orbit of Davin. Soon the Warmaster fell ill from the effects of the Anathame and was struck
down by a mysterious malady sufficiently virulent to affect even his superhumanly resilient immune
system. His mysterious illness was even beyond the skills of the Legion's Apothecaries to cure, and so, in
desperation, Horus was brought to the surface of Davin to be "healed" in the Temple of the Serpent Lodge.
First Chaplain Erebus had convinced the Sons of Horus to bring their Primarch to the Davinite priests, in
direct violation of the Imperial Truth. The secret sect on Davin was really a Chaos Cult, and using sorcery
(which had been outlawed by the Emperor at Nikaea) the cultists managed to warp the mind of the
Warmaster against the Emperor by playing on the seed of jealousy and resentment that he felt for his father
after the Emperor had left the Great Crusade behind to return to Terra. Magnus the Red, the Primarch of the
Thousand Sons Legion, used his own potent command of sorcery to intervene and unmask Erebus,
revealing his manipulations, but Horus' corruption by the power of Chaos Undivided could not be stopped
as he gave in to his feelings of jealousy, egotism and bitterness. The Warmaster emerged from the Temple
of the Serpent Lodge fully healed, but subtly changed in both mind and body, as he was now infused with
the power of Chaos. Once Horus fully recovered, he finally took up the Emperor's offer to rename the Luna
Wolves after himself as the Sons of Horus. He then schemed with the Astartes of his Legion's Warrior
Lodge, aided and abetted by Erebus, to overthrow the Emperor and purge the XVI th Legion of its remaining
Loyalist elements. Horus intended to unleash the greatest betrayal in human history in pursuit of his own
mad ambition.

The Sons of Horus unleash their wrath upon the Auretian Technocracy

 Destruction of the Auretian Technocracy (004.M31) - Shortly after Horus' miraculous recovery on the
Feral World of Davin, the newly renamed Sons of Horus encountered the human civilisation of the
Auretian Technocracy on the world of Aureus during the Great Crusade. This human society had been
founded during Mankind's early exploration of the stars during the Dark Age of Technology and had
evolved along lines very similar to that of the Imperium, and more particularly to that of the Mechanicus of
Mars. Horus and a contingent of Sons of Horus Astartes met with the Technocracy's leader, the Fabricator
Consul, who represented the human government in its diplomatic talks with the Imperium. During their
initial discussion aboard the landing bay of the Vengeful Spirit, Horus learned that the Auretian
Technocracy made use of highly-coveted, lost Standard Template Construct (STC) technology. Upon
learning this, the Warmaster turned his Combi-Bolter upon the Fabricator Consul and summarily executed
him. He then ordered his men to annihilate the Fabricator Consul's personal guard who were known as the
Brotherhood and who made use of Power Armour and weapons very similar to those of the Space Marines.
Unknown to most of the Astartes within the Legion, the rot of corruption had begun to spread throughout
the Legion shortly after Horus made his dark bargain with the Ruinous Powers. The official explanation for
the Sons of Horus Legion's grievous actions against the Technocracy stated that the staff brought by the
Fabricator Consul aboard the XVIth Legion's flagship possessed a weapon which he planned to use to
assassinate the Warmaster. This prompted the resulting conflict with the Auretian Technocracy which
lasted for over six bloody months. The World Eaters fought alongside the Sons of Horus on the
Technocracy's homeworld of Aureus, and their Primarch Angron personally lead the final Imperial assault
on the Iron Citadel held by the Brotherhood of the Auretian Technocracy. When the blood-maddened
warriors of the World Eaters' Assault Companies stormed a breach in the walls, the Brotherhood detonated
explosive charges that buried the warriors under thousands of tonnes of rubble. Angron tore his way free
and butchered the remaining warriors of the Brotherhood with his monstrous chain-glaive. Ephraim
Guardia, the Senior Preceptor of the Brotherhood Chapter Command and Castellan of the Iron Citadel, died
in the first seconds of Angron's attack. The campaign had been a brutal one, as the Brotherhood made use
 of highly advanced power armoured suits similar to those employed by Legiones Astartes, but they were
eventually defeated and their technology was requisitioned by the XVI th Legion. Horus would use the
seized Auretian STC databases to entice a faction of the Adeptus Mechanicus to turn against the Emperor
and join his rebellion. These Traitors would eventually form the core of what became the Dark Mechanicus
and their treachery would unleash the terrible civil war within the Mechanicus that became known as the
Schism of Mars.
 Cleansing of Ariggata (004.M31) - This was an Imperial Compliance action that was carried out jointly by
the Luna Wolves, the Ultramarines and the World Eaters Legions against the world of Ariggata. A
technologically advanced world, Ariggata had been isolated from the rest of humanity for many centuries,
and when Imperial envoys arrived bearing word of the Emperor and the Imperial Truth, they were executed
in a bloody gesture of independence. The military might of Ariggata was formidable, and thus the honour
of its pacification fell to the Warmaster Horus and two other Space Marine Legions under his command.
Most of the planet was quickly conquered, except for the massive fortress within which most of the leaders
of the planet cowered. Eager to be on his way, Horus commanded Angron, the Primarch of the World
Eaters, to take back the citadel and kill only the leaders. Eagerly, Angron led the assault. However, the
fortress was heavily defended and the casualties were horrendous, a dozen World Eaters falling for a meter
of land. Eventually, a ramp of corpses led up to a single breach in the wall, and the Astartes of the World
Eaters Legion plunged in. Filled with rage over their fallen brothers, they were merciless. By the time the
Ultramarines arrived, the battle was all but over. The inside of the fortress was filled with the dismembered
and mangled corpses of the defenders, for not one soul had been spared the vengeful fury of the World
Eaters. It was an absolute slaughter, the fortress having been transformed into an abattoir of human blood.
The Ultramarines were disgusted by this savage behaviour and reported the World Eaters' growing
barbarism to the Emperor. But Horus, already corrupted by the tempations of Chaos, knew that the World
Eaters' savagery would make service to Khorne a good fit for the Legion -- and particularly for its rage-
fueled Primarch.

Captain Garviel Loken confronts the First-Captain Ezekyle Abaddon during the Istvaan III Atrocity

 Istvaan III Atrocity (005.M31) - The Imperial Planetary Governor of Istvaan III, Vardus Praal, had been
corrupted by the Chaos God Slaanesh whose cultists had long been active on the world even before it had
been conquered by the Imperium. Praal had declared his independence from the Imperium, and had begun
to practice forbidden Slaaneshi sorcery, so the Council of Terra charged Horus with the retaking of that
world, primarily its capital, the Choral City. This order merely furthered Horus' plan to overthrow the
Emperor. Although the four Legions under his direct command -- the Sons of Horus, the World Eaters, the
Death Guard and the Emperor's Children -- had already turned Traitor and pledged themselves to Chaos,
there were still some Loyalist elements within each of these Legions that approximated one-third of each
force; many of these warriors were Terran-born Space Marines who had been directly recruited into the
Astartes Legions by the Emperor Himself before being reunited with their Primarchs during the Great
Crusade. Horus, under the guise of putting down the rebellion against Imperial Compliance on the world of
Istvaan III, amassed his troops in the Istvaan System. Horus had a plan by which he would destroy all of
the remaining Loyalist elements of the Legions under his command. After a lengthy bombardment of
Istvaan III, Horus dispatched all of the known Loyalist Astartes down to the planet, under the pretence of
bringing it back into the Imperium. At the moment of victory and the capture of the Choral City, the
planetary capital of Istvaan III, these Astartes were betrayed when a cascade of terrible Life-Eater virus-
bombs fell onto the world, launched by the Warmaster's orbiting fleet, unleasing the event known later as
the Istvaan III Atrocity. Captain Saul Tarvitz of the Emperor's Children, however, was aboard his Legion's
flagship Andronius and discovered the plot to wipe out the Loyalist Astartes of the Traitor Legions. He was
able, with help from Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro of the Death Guard who was in command of the Death
Guard frigate Eisenstein, to reach the surface of Istvaan III despite pursuit and warn the Loyalist Space
Marines of all four Legions he could find of their impending doom. Those that heard or passed on Tarvitz'
warning took shelter before the virus-bombs struck. The civilian population of Istvaan III received no such
protection: 12 billion people died almost at once as the lethal flesh-dissolving virus called the Life-Eater
carried by the bombs infected every living thing on the planet. The psychic shock of so many deaths at one
time shrieked through the Warp, briefly obscuring even the glowing beacon of the Astronomican. The
Primarch of the World Eaters, Angron, realising that the virus-bombs had not been fully effective at
 eliminating all the Loyalists, flew into a rage and hurled himself at the planet at the head of 50 companies
of World Eaters Traitor Marines. Discarding tactics and strategy, the World Eaters Traitors worked
themselves into a frenzy of mindless butchery fed by their growing allegiance to the Blood God Khorne.
Horus was furious with Angron for delaying his plans, but Horus sought to turn the delay into a victory and
was obliged to reinforce Angron with troops from the Sons of Horus, the Death Guard, and the Emperor's
Children. Fortunately, a contingent of Loyalists led by Battle-Captain Garro escaped Istvaan III aboard the
damaged Imperial frigate Eisenstein and fled to Terra to warn the Emperor that Horus had turned Traitor.
On Istvaan III, the remaining Loyalists, under the command of Captains Tarvitz, Garviel Loken and Tarik
Torgaddon, another Loyalist member of the Sons of Horus, fought bravely against their own traitorous
brethren. Yet, despite some early successes that delayed Horus' plans for three full months while the battle
on Istvaan III played out, their cause was ultimately doomed by their lack of air support and Titan
firepower. During the battle the Sons of Horus Captains Ezekyle Abaddon and Horus Aximand were sent to
confront their former Mournival brothers, Loken and Torgaddon. Horus Aximand beheaded Torgaddon, but
Abaddon failed to kill Loken when the building they were in collapsed. Loken survived and witnessed the
final orbital bombardment of Istvaan III that ended the Loyalists' desperate defence. To prove his worth and
loyalty to Lord Commander Eidolon of the Emperor's Children -- and thus to his Primarch, Fulgrim --
Captain Lucius of the 13th Company of the Emperor's Children, the future Champion of Slaanesh known as
Lucius the Eternal, turned against the Loyalists that he had fought beside because of his prior friendship
with Saul Tarvitz. Lucius slew many of them personally, an act for which he was then accepted back into
the Emperor's Children Legion on the side of the Traitors. In the end, the Loyalists retreated to their last
bastion of defence, only a few hundred of their number remaining. Finally, tired of the conflict, Horus
ordered his men to withdraw, and then had the remains of the Choral City bombarded into dust for a final
time from orbit.
 Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V (566.006.M31) - The world of Istvaan V was the location of the
infamous Drop Site Massacre where the Traitor Legions of the Warmaster Horus redeployed following the
virus-bombing of the Traitor Legions' own Loyalist members at Istvaan III at the start of the Horus Heresy.
Upon learning of the terrible atrocity Horus had committed, the Emperor deployed seven Loyalist Legions
of Space Marines to bring Horus to account for his actions. The Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard
made up the first wave of the attack, but were pushed back by the superior tactics of Horus' maddened
Chaos Space Marines. During the course of the first wave of the attack, the Sons of Horus contingent
fought on the defensive, limiting themselves to the core and most heavily defended bastions, and driving
the Imperial Army before them into the Loyalists' guns. There was, however, one notable exception to this;
their Reaver and Assault companies who deployed to counter the strike units of the Raven Guard in the
maze of ravines and rock falls that flanked the walls of the Urgall Depression. The Loyalist reserves were
called in during the second attack wave, but the four Space Marine Legions comprising them -- the Iron
Warriors, the Alpha Legion, the Word Bearers and the Night Lords -- had also secretly betrayed the
Emperor and were prepared to follow Horus and swear themselves to Chaos. Once the tide of the battle
turned, the Sons of Horus attacked in force against the reeling and wounded Loyalists, with Horus himself
taking to the field to lead them. The three Loyalist Legions were almost annihilated in the resulting
crossfire but several thousand survivors from each Legion managed to escape off-world, though they were
too decimated to play much of a further role in the defence of the Imperium from Horus' betrayal. The
ensuing civil war pitched the whole Imperium into anarchy and chaos. It was not only the Legions aligned
to Horus that rebelled, for the Warrior Lodges and the taint in general had spread far and wide by the time
of the Drop Site Massacre. The Imperial Army was split almost in half, regiment fighting regiment and
fleet fighting fleet. The Titan Legions of the Mechanicus, were equally affected, and soon fully half of the
Emperor's hosts were engaged in bitter conflict with the other. Barely a single world in the Imperium was
untouched by a war that lasted for seven standard years and cost countless billions of lives before finally
culminating in Horus' assault on Terra itself.
 The Manachean War and the Dark Compliances (007-009.M31) - His treachery revealed at last, the
Warmaster began his relentless advance on Terra, forcing his Dark Compliance of countless regions across
the northern Imperium to provide his forces with a resource base to fight what would now become a
protracted and relentless war. Foremost among his targets were the Manachean Commonwealth, the
Coronid Deeps and their surrounding regions, where a particularly savage campaign was conducted by the
Sons of Horus and Death Guard which brought the economically vital worlds of the Manachean
Commonwealth to fuel the Traitors' cause. This wider campaign also placed the fleet anchorage of Port
Maw under the Warmaster's talon and saw the stubbornly Loyalist Forge Worlds of Lucius and Mezoa
 isolated and besieged, while the Traitor-aligned Forge World of Cyclothrathe began to carve out its own
pocket empire in the region.
 The Burning of Ohmn-Mat (008.M31) - The Forge World of Ohmn-Mat in the Ultima Segmentum fell
into a state of civil war as its Synod Magos were split in their support for Loyalist and Traitor causes,
drawing in contingents of Sons of Horus Dark Compliance forces and Iron Hands Istvaan survivors as the
conflict escalated. Ohmn-Mat was destroyed in the conflagration and its fires still rage till the present.
 The Dagonet Incident (008.M31) - The hidden clade-masters of Terra, with the direct approval of
Malcador the Sigillite, despatched their most potent assassins as the first Execution Force to the recently
fallen world of Dagonet in an attempt to strike down the Warmaster. They were unsuccessful, but from
their failure Terra learned much of the new and dreadful powers wielded by its foe.
 Second Battle of Paramar (008 or 011.M31) - The Sons of Horus provided a large garrison force
alongside the Word Bearers and elements of the Dark Mechanicum's Traitor Titan Legions that defended
the strategic world of Paramar V from a Loyalist attempt to retake the planet from Traitor forces during the
Second Battle of Paramar.
 The Battle of Arissak (009.M31) - Having pursued the numerous attack cells made up of Iron Hands,
Salamanders and Raven Guard survivors of Istvaan V, Captain Tybalt Marr of the Sons of Horus finally
brought them to battle, destroying the massed fleet of Shadrak Meduson's so-called "Shattered Legions"
force at Arissak.
 Destruction of Dwell (009.M31) - Horus arrived upon the world of Dwell, a world settled during the Dark
Age of Technology by settlers from the nearby Knight World of Molech. The Warmaster was intent upon
utilising the ancient repository on Dwell that contained information that would lead him in search of the
Emperor's power back to Molech, where he had unknowingly taken part in that planet's Imperial
Compliance campaign decades earlier, and had his memories suppressed by the Emperor. Shortly after the
infamous campaign on Istvaan V, the Sons of Horus were also forced to recoup their losses. Another
change, forced on the XVIth Legion, was the loss of the Mournival. With the deaths of two of their former
brothers, the Loyalists Garviel Loken and Tarik Torgaddon on Istvaan III, there were openings available to
those that might be deemed worthy. Captain Horus Aximand approached First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon
with the proposition to select two new members to fill the vacancies. They argued over who they thought
would be worthy to join a newly reconstituted Mournival. After much debate, they both finally came to an
accord, agreeing on suitable replacements. These would be Falkus Kibre, the commander of the Catulan
Reaver Squad and Sergeant Grael Noctua. With rumours of the infamy of Horus' actions in the Istvaan
System spreading across the nearby systems, a series of ferocious repercussive combats had flared through
the Momed, Instar and Oqueth Sectors. The instigator was a leader of the Iron Hands Legion's "Iron
Tenth", a warleader of the Sorrgol Clan named Shadrak Meduson. He had marshalled the Loyalists against
the approaching Traitors of the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet. The Iron Hands warleader and his formations had
come too late to stand with his Primarch Ferrus Manus at Istvaan V. He had gathered 58 full battalions of
the Imperial Army about him -- warhosts from the Momed Voidhives, along with a flotilla of siege hulks
from Nahan Instar, a half-broken cadre of Salamanders Astartes, some Mechanicus claves, and a White
Scars raid-force rerouted from a return voyage to the Chondax war front. The world of Dwell, with its
fortified cities, orbital batteries, ship schools, and eight million pinnacle-grade fighting men, would be the
cornerstone of Meduson's defensive line. The Iron Hands warleader positioned himself at the Mausolytic
Precinct which was situated on a high plateau overlooking Tyjun and the Sea of Enna. The Sons of Horus
launched a planetary assault against Dwell, butchering the regular human Loyalist defenders, but were
caught by surprise when they encountered the ad hoc Loyalist Astartes force that had secretly fortified the
system. When the Sons of Horus assault units breached the fortifications, Horus Aximand slew Meduson's
second-in-command, the Iron Hands Lieutenant Bion Henricos, but "Little Horus" was then attacked by a
White Scars kill-formation disguised as statues. Meduson's co-commander, Captain Hibou Khan of the
White Scars, led the Loyalist counterattack against the Traitors, but they were quickly driven off with the
arrival of Sons of Horus reinforcements. One of the White Scars managed to gravely wound Aximand by
slicing off his face. The XVIth Legion's Apothecaries managed to reattach Aximand's severed face, but the
muscle grafting left a wicked scar which made him look more brutal. It set the character of the face
differently, altered the seating of the muscles so that his appearance now matched the growing corruption
within his heart. Somehow, the wrongness, the imperfection, made him seem even more like Horus, not
less. Having escaped death at Arissak, one of Shadrak Meduson's surviving Shattered Legion attack cells
launched a daring assassination attempt on Warmaster Horus at Dwell. With his brother-Primarchs Fulgrim
 and Mortarion at his side, Horus prevailed, but having had the true threat revealed to him, he granted Tybalt
Marr permission to take any action he deemed appropriate to eradicate the so-called "Shattered Legions".
 Battle of Molech (009.M31) - Horus led both the Sons of Horus and the Death Guard Legions in the
invasion of the Fortress World of Molech. Having recovered some of his memories in regards to the earlier
campaign that took place decades earlier, Horus uncovered the truth about the hidden subterranean Warp
portal that led into the Realm of Chaos. Wanting this power for himself, he launched a massive strike on
the unsuspecting world. During the height of the conflict, the Knight House Devine turned against the
Imperium and joined the invading forces, betraying the defenders to their deaths. A force of the elite
Knights-Errant, a secretly founded Order of Loyalist agents, was dispatched to Molech by Malcador the
Sigillite to prepare the way for a direct assault by the Space Wolves against the Warmaster's flagship. After
his sojourn through the portal into the Realm of Chaos, and winning the full blessings of the Ruinous
Powers, Horus was nigh unstoppable, and only a handful of Knights-Errant managed to effect their escape
to bring news of his redoubled strength back to Terra.
 Battle of Terra (014.M31) - As the events of the Horus Heresy neared their tragic conclusion seven years
after the fateful betrayal at Istvaan III, those Loyalist Legions not committed to the defence of Terra raced
through the Warp, converging on the homeworld of Mankind. The Traitor Legions also massed above Terra
to assault the Imperial Palace. The Battle of Terra was the final confrontation of the Horus Heresy that
raged on Terra itself between the Forces of Chaos led by the Warmaster Horus and the Loyalist armies of
the Imperium of Man led by the Emperor of Mankind Himself. The Loyalist forces ultimately proved
victorious in their defence of the Imperial Palace, though only just barely, and Horus was ultimately slain
by the full psychic powers unleashed by the Emperor on the deck of his massive Battle Barge the Vengeful
Spirit, though the Master of Mankind was mortally wounded and had to be interred within the cybernetic
life support mechanisms of the advanced psychic augmentation technology known as the Golden Throne.
The outcome of the Battle of Terra shaped the destiny of humanity for the next 10,000 standard years. The
Traitor hosts began their fighting withdrawal, and in the anarchy and confusion Horus' body was recovered
by his Legion from his flagship. Having fought their way clear of the Sol System the XVIth Legion fled for
the Eye of Terror where the Sons of Horus established a world that was at once the tomb of their lost
Primarch and a fortress from which they would launch further attacks both upon their fellow Traitor
Legions and against the smouldering Imperium. Thus began the Long War of the Forces of Chaos to
overthrow the Corpse Emperor. With Horus slain, First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon emerged as the
Warmaster's heir, commanding both the Sons of Horus and what remained of the splintering Forces of
Chaos. Soon known as Abaddon the Despoiler, he renamed the Sons of Horus the "Black Legion" and
declares himself the new Warmaster of Chaos Undivided. Highly favoured by the Chaos Gods, Abaddon
intends to complete the task begun by Horus and see the Emperor slain and the Imperium ground beneath
the boots of the XVIth Legion.
 Slave Wars/The Legion War (Unknown Date.M31) - Using slaves captured from their campaigns
against the Imperium during the Heresy, the XVIth Legion was able to build a massive fortress on the
Daemon World of Maeleum and entombed the corpse of their slain Warmaster Horus within it. However,
not long after, the Eye of Terror Slave Wars erupted and the Emperor's Children Legion launched a
devastating surprise assault on Maeleum, devastating the Sons of Horus' fortress and stealing Horus' corpse
in an attempt by the corrupted Apothecary Fabius Bile to clone the dead Warmaster of Chaos and restore
the fortunes of the Forces of Chaos in the wake of the Imperium's victory. It was at this time that Abaddon
the Despoiler returned to lead his forces to recover Horus' corpse. Following the successful defeat of the
Emperor's Children and the shattering of that once-proud Space Marine Legion into gibbering, hedonistic
warbands, the Sons of Horus recovered the corpse of their former leader. Abaddon returned it to Maeleum
where he had it destroyed so that no further attempts to clone Horus could ever be attempted. At the same
time, he came to the epiphany that Horus was dead because Horus had been a weak fool, unable to
complete his task of slaying the Emperor and taking control of the galaxy in the name of the Dark Gods.
Abaddon swore that he would succeed where Horus had failed in overthrowing the "Corpse-Emperor" and
proclaimed himself the new Warmaster of Chaos. He had the Sons of Horus repaint their viridian Power
Armour black, the colour of mourning and of vengeance, and cast-off the XVIth Legion's former moniker of
the Sons of Horus. From then on, they became known as the Black Legion. The Black Legion then
abandoned the ruins of the Sons of Horus' fortress and left Maeleum behind, choosing to become a fleet-
based Legion with scattered holdings all across the Eye of Terror.
 The Black Legion Rises (Unknown Date.M31) - Ascending to dominion of the Sons of Horus, Abaddon
embarks on a quest to slay the clones Fabius Bile has crafted from Horus' remains. Destroying the
 Primogenitor's hidden laboratories and the abominations he created, Abaddon leaves behind no trace of his
gene-father. With the final and utter destruction of Horus, Abaddon renames his Legion the Black Legion.

Age of Retribution, M32-M39

 The Long War Begins (ca. early M31) - Swearing to succeed where his forefather Horus failed, Abaddon
takes up the mantle of the Warmaster of Chaos and begins the Long War anew. Thirsty for revenge, the
Chaos Space Marines strike out against the Imperium from the depths of the Eye of Terror. The Adepts of
the Administratum are horrified to find that the number of their invasions consistently increases with every
passing solar decade.

The Black Crusades of Abaddon the Despoiler

 1st Black Crusade (ca.781.M31) - Abaddon the Despoiler, the self-appointed heir of Horus and the new
Warmaster of Chaos Undivided after Horus' death, makes his first attempt to launch a new offensive
against the Imperium of Man following the Horus Heresy when his forces initiate 1st Black Crusade and the
First Battle of Cadia. This attempt fails and the Forces of Chaos are unable to penetrate the Cadian Gate
that will allow them to take control of the only truly navigable pathway out of the Eye of Terror and into
Imperial space. For the next 10,000 standard years, Abaddon will bend all of his efforts to finding a way to
complete what Horus began and launch a Chaotic war that will conquer Terra and eliminate the Corpse
Emperor. These massive assaults become known as "Black Crusades" to the people of the Imperium.
However, on Uralan, Abaddon recovers the Daemon Sword Drach'nyen after battling his way through the
haunted labyrinth to the great inner chamber where the blade has languished in stasis for many Terran
centuries. The howling blade contains the bound essence of a dangerous Warp entity who has the power to
rend reality apart wherever the weapon strikes. After the recovery of the malefic sword, Abaddon's power
swells to inhuman proportions.
 The Tormented Mine (027.M32) - Faenroc the Forgotten of the Black Legion discovers a world formed
from Warp-infused iron ore. He constructs a vast mine to harvest its wealth for Abaddon, the Warmaster of
Chaos. Slaves prove too fragile to work the mine as the ore mutates them uncontrollably, while some mine
shafts secrete fluids that dissolve the workers within. Faenroc remedies this problem by binding daemonic
entities to his mining machines in a ritual that involves the mass sacrifice of the entire mortal workforce.
 2nd Black Crusade (597.M32) - During the 2nd Black Crusade, Abaddon places a terrible curse upon the
worlds of the Belis Corona Sector, infusing them with the touch of the Warp. Meanwhile, his fleet attacks
the sector's Imperial shipyards, destroying dozens of Imperial Cruisers being constructed or repaired.
Before the Imperium can muster its strength to fight back, the Despoiler retreats into the Eye of Terror, his
works complete. The Imperium, focusing on the war in space, musters a naval force to fight back.
Entrusting his flagship to his Sorcerers, the Despoiler then teleports to the Inquisitorial stronghold of
Nemesis Tessera. He topples its hexagrammic "Eldritch Needles," ravaging the black stone with sustained
Melta fire before withdrawing. The Inquisition later find that a critical vault cell has been opened and its
daemonic prisoner -- the legendary nemesis for which the planet is named -- is missing.
 The Traitorous Eye (Unknown Date.M32) - Drecarth the Sightless forms the Sons of the Eye out of those
Sons of Horus who refused to join Abaddon after the Heresy. In the Battle of the Keening Deep, the Sons
defeat Voslok and his World Eaters, claiming their fortress and hurling their skulls into the soulfires that
rage beneath the planet's crust. Drecarth personally wrests Voslok's daemonic axe from his grip during the
battle, turning the weapon upon its former owner.
 3rd Black Crusade (909.M32) - The Despoiler sends the Daemon Prince Tallomin against the Cadian Gate
in a reckless and bloody frontal assault during the 3rd Black Crusade. The daemonic horde that follows in
Tallomin's wake accounts for the destruction of millions of lives and draws in Imperial Guard regiments
and Space Marine Chapters from across the Segmentum Obscurus. Eventually, warriors of the Space
Wolves manage to send Tallomin howling back into the Warp. Under the cover provided by the attack,
Abaddon leads a strike force to desecrate the Shrine World of Gerstahl, breaking the ancient seals on the
eponymous Imperial Saint's tomb and destroying his remains while the Imperium's attention is directed
elsewhere. This act of supreme violation banishes the saint's spirit, thwarting the prophecy that he would
one day rise again as a Living Saint whilst weakening the planet's psychic defences.
 Zaraphiston's Penance (Unknown Date.M32) - The Thousand Sons Sorcerer Zaraphiston travels deep
into the heart of the Eye of Terror at the behest of Tzeentch, where he is granted the power of prophecy.
Gifted with a profound understanding of the millennia to come, Zaraphiston pledges his loyalty to Abaddon
the Despoiler.
 4th Black Crusade (001.M34) - Also known as the El'Phanor War, during the 4th Black Crusade the Black
Legion besieges the great Citadel of Kromarch. Abaddon leads the charge against the adamantium gates of
the famously unbreachable citadel upon the world of El'Phanor. Only one in ten of Abaddon's spearhead
reach the gates before they are trapped by Heavy Bolter fire. Utilising his Daemon Sword Drach'nyen, the
gates of the citadel prove harder than diamond, but they split apart like cordwood before Abaddon's
dolorous blow. In an orgy of violence, the Traitor Legions and their daemonic allies fall upon Kromarch
and his kin, extinguishing their ancient line forever.
 The Nightmare Well (Unknown Date) - Zagthean the Broken pillages Helosian in the Agripinaa Sector.
Taking the Convent of Alabaster Maidens prisoner, he exposes them to the energies of the Warp, triggering
their latent psychic gifts. Zagthean then uses Warp-tech to fuse the maidens into a single entity, before
using the resultant abomination as a living Warp portal to unleash a daemonic invasion.
 The Ragged King (Unknown Date) - Imperial Cruisers orbiting the Feral World of Skyrro destroy the
Traitor vessel Talon of Rage. A single Black Legionary escapes the ship's destruction and makes his way
down to the surface of the world. Skyrro's indigenous populace come to worship the Chaos Space Marine
as a god whom they hail as the "Ragged King," and are gradually turned to the service of the Ruinous
Powers through his influence. It takes the Imperial Guard more than a solar decade to destroy the
Legionary's Chaos Cultist armies and reclaim the world for the Emperor.
 5th Black Crusade (723.M36) - During the 5th Black Crusade Abaddon scours the Elysia Sector, ordering
the destruction of specific cities, shrines and temples across dozens its worlds. Each act of violation shatters
the Warp-seals that had held psychic mutation stable in that region of space. On Tarinth, the Despoiler lures
the Warhawks and Venerators Chapters into the ruins of Kasyr Lutien where he traps them between the
daemonic hordes of Khorne and the Black Legion. In a bitter last stand, both Loyalist Chapters are
completely destroyed, their skulls taken by the Daemon Prince Doombreed to be mounted upon Khorne's
throne.
 6th Black Crusade (901.M36) - The Sons of the Eye were a splinter warband of the Black Legion, founded
and commanded by the infamous Chaos Lord Drecarth the Sightless, the Blind Butcher of Irridous VII.
Drecarth was a former Battle-Brother of the Sons of Horus who had fought alongside Abaddon during the
Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy that followed. Always jealous of the Primarch Horus' favour for the
Despoiler, the Sons of the Eye considered Abaddon a usurper. During the 6th Black Crusade, launched in
901.M36, Abaddon visited his wrath upon Drecarth the Sightless and his treacherous warband. Abaddon
aided the Sons of the Eye in an assault on the Forge World of Arkreach, fighting side-by-side with them
until the Adeptus Mechanicus defenders were finally crushed. The triumphant Abaddon then slowly killed
Drecarth, impaling him with the Talon of Horus, even as the Despoiler made him watch every member of
the Sons of the Eye bow before their new master.
 Antecanis Massacre (165.M37) - The Black Legion is known to have participated in the Antecanis
Massacre alongside other Chaos Space Marine warbands, most notably The Purge.
 The Tournament of Blood (Unknown Date.M37) - Displeased with his Chosen, Abaddon pits them
against each other. For eight solar days, the Chosen fight in the gore-spattered holds of the Vengeful Spirit
until only one of them remains. Impaling the victor on the Talon of Horus, Abaddon seals a pact with
Khorne, gaining a powerful daemonic ally in the form of the Bloodthirster Hakk'an'graah.
 The Prison of Madness (Unknown Date.M37) - Abaddon conducts experiments on captured Loyalist
Space Marines, torturing them with repeated visions of a future in which the Imperium falls to Chaos.
Despite the psycho-indoctrinated mental resilience of the Adeptus Astartes, such is the ring of truth in these
prophecies that those who do not take their own lives are left as soul-blasted husks that eventually swear
allegiance to the Despoiler.
 7th Black Crusade (811.M37) - The 7th Black Crusade was a Black Crusade launched against the forces of
the Imperium of Man, led by the infamous Chaos Champion Abaddon the Despoiler and his Black Legion,
which emerged out of the Eye of Terror in 811.M37. At this time, the Forces of Chaos spewed forth from
the Eye of Terror past Cadia and then disappeared. This event is what earned this conflict its informal name
of the Ghost War. The following years saw a game of hide-and-seek played between the Forces of Chaos
and the Imperium of Man which spread confusion, paranoia, disinformation and deceit across the galaxy.
 Raids became commonplace in far-flung areas but eventually the servants of the Dark Gods returned to the
Eye of Terror, having caused great difficulty for the Emperor's Loyalists but having been proven unable to
significantly degrade Imperial defensive capabilities at that time. During this conflict, when the Blood
Angels Space Marine Chapter battled against the Forces of Chaos at Midian, Abaddon singled them out
with implacable fury. He led a band of Khornate Berserkers into the teeth of the Blood Angels' Devastator
positions. Even the Blood Angels' own Assault troops could not dislodge the frenzied warband and
recapture the bodies of their comrades. But there is an obscure reference to the Blood Angels being saved
by an unidentified Space Marine Chapter of mysterious origin. Written within the The Canticle of
Cassandria Lev - Vol. CVI, the eponymous Sainted Sisters' highly mythologised and oblique account of the
wars of the 7th Black Crusade, is found mention of a "grey-clad" Space Marines Chapter who came from
"The outer night" to aid the Imperium, and whose "Jagged maw did swallow the stars ... and whose ...
black gaze did mirror the void of oblivion." In the course of the canticle this Chapter's ships set upon
Abaddon's forces following the disastrous defeat and routing of the Blood Angels at Midian and attacked
the pursuing forces as Saint Lev writes: "...fell upon the servants of the skulled-one with great fury from the
darkness, unseen as the beast that lurks beneath the black waters, death for death, blood for blood...thus
were the Sons of Sanguinius bought respite, and did turn back upon their pursuers and so were the damned
traitors of the false gods driven unto their ruin." Images of these events can be found upon the walls of the
Cemetery World of Hypasitis created to house the honoured dead of that war, depicted in repeated fresco
and bar relief. Curiously, the faces of the intervening Space Marines depicted there are obscured with
featureless disks of black obsidian. Given the largely unknown history of the star-faring Carcharodons
Chapter, accounts of their activities can only be constructed from recorded historical incidents and
fragmentary records that are believed to have involved the Carcharodons on balance of evidence. This
notable engagement is listed by Imperial savants as a "[Special] Probable Encounter/Recorded Sighting" of
this notorious and mysterious Space Marine Chapter. After their rescue at Midian, the full might of the
Blood Angels Chapter fell upon a vast Black Legion warband on the world of Mackan. Although the
conflict ultimately ends in the near-extinction of the Blood Angels at the hands of Abaddon the Despoiler
and his primary lieutenants -- the Sorcerer-Lord Iskandar Khayon and the swordmaster Telemachon Lyras -
- the Blood Angels Reclusiarch Thalastian Jorus becomes one of the few Imperial heroes to ever land a
blow against the Warmaster of Chaos. With his Chapter devastated, the Chaplain endures solar weeks of
hardship in the wilderness and the constant trials of keeping his crazed warriors undetected on Mackan.
When the time is right, Jorus leads his Death Company in a lightning raid behind enemy lines, butchering
the unprepared sworn warriors of the Despoiler's honour guard, and allowing the Reclusiarch to lock blades
with Abaddon himself. It is said the Chaos Warmaster still bears the scars of that battle, even three standard
millennia later. Whatever the truth of the matter, it is known that the Despoiler honoured Jorus once the
war was over -- perhaps in mockery, or perhaps with nothing but sincerity. After Mackan, thousands of
Blood Angels corpses were desecrated, their gene-seed ruined beyond recovery. Of all the Chapter, only a
handful of bodies were left undefiled: Reclusiarch Jorus and his Death Company, clad in their battered and
broken black ceramite, seated in makeshift thrones made from the armour of those Black Legion warriors
they had killed on that fateful night.
 8th Black Crusade (999.M37) - Abaddon the Despoiler completes a complex ritual of death in the name of
Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways. On worlds throughout the Segmentum Obscurus, Imperial citizens are
slaughtered in precise numbers and esoteric rituals. Only when the Inquisition finally breaks the code of
damnation is the Imperium able to bring an end to the Black Legion's rampage across the Segmentum in
time with these mysterious attacks, but not before countless worlds have been saturated in death.
 The Ark of Damnation (Unknown Date.M38) - Flesh Tearers Terminators board the Space Hulk Soul of
Damnation as it drifts dangerously close to the core worlds of the Scelus Sub-sector. In the depths of the
hulk, they uncover a stasis chamber containing a single casket. Inside is an ancient warrior of the Luna
Wolves dating from the time of the Great Crusade. When told of his Legion's fate, the ancient Space
Marine is filled with rage and takes one of the Flesh Tearers' craft before disappearing into the void.
 The Feast of Daemons (Unknown Date.M38) - The Black Legion ravages the Desert World of Sanisor,
staining its dune oceans red with blood. In the Warpwind Canyons, the Chaos Space Marines erect a
towering steel-framed device with a sail-like membrane of flayed skin. The creatures of the Immaterium
are drawn to the world to feed on the soul-stuff caught in the nightmarish construction. When the Cadian
232nd Expeditionary Force land on Sanisor, they find it crawling with daemons like flies on a corpse.
 9th Black Crusade (537.M38) - As part of a wider strategy to disable the naval fortress of Cancephalus,
Abaddon leads his 9th Black Crusade against the heaving population of nearby Antecanis. The seat of the
 world's Imperial Commander, Monarchive, is besieged by Abaddon's vanguard. Black Legionaries butcher
their way through the lower levels of the hive, whilst the Despoiler himself storms its inner sanctums. By
the time Astra Militarum from Cancephalus arrive to reinforce the surviving defenders, Abaddon and his
forces have already left the planet's surface. As a gesture of contempt, the Black Legion drop a dozen
Cyclonic warheads onto the ruins of Monarchive. The seventeen-year-long war that ensues eventually robs
both Antecanis and Cancephalus of their most precious resource -- manpower. Without the fleets of the
naval fortress to stop him, Abaddon is able to ravage the sector at will, and his Sorcerers are free to conduct
the rituals required to weaken the walls of reality in that region of space with impunity.
 The Forgotten Company (Unknown Date.M38) - Almost eight standard millennia after it was sent, an
astropathic distress signal reaches the Black Legion's Sorcerers from a lost company of Luna Wolves.
Abaddon travels to the planet located at the coordinates in the message to find his ancient brothers have
become a twisted parody of his original Legion, perverting their own gene-seed with primitive rituals and
dwelling among the native inhabitants. Expecting no mercy from Abaddon's forces for their transgressions,
the debased Luna Wolves are surprised when he welcomes them into the Black Legion as long-lost
brothers.
 10th Black Crusade (001.M39) - The 10th Black Crusade is also known as the Conflict of Helica, and was
a joint campaign carried out by Abaddon and the Daemon Primarch Perturabo. Both the Black Legion and
the Iron Warriors struck against the Helica Sector. While the Black Legion attacked the capital, Thracian
Primaris, the Iron Warriors focused their own assault against the Iron Hands Chapter to fulfil an old blood
debt. In a series of bitter sieges, the Iron Warriors burn the Medusa System's worlds and push the Iron
Hands to the brink of destruction. Only when the Loyalist Chapter receives heavy reinforcements do
Abaddon and the Iron Warriors retreat, taking with them valuable information about Medusa's defences.
 The Daemonic Shipyard (Unknown Date.M39) - Deep within the Eye of Terror, Abaddon discovers an
ancient shipyard drifting through the Warp. Amongst its rusting gantries and crumbling manufactorum
towers, the Warmaster of Chaos finds a half-constructed vessel, vast in scale and terrible in its design. His
Warpsmiths examine the ship, marvelling at its dark majesty, and promise that, when complete, it will be
the doom of worlds, a true Planet Killer, the Krukal'Righ in the ancient tongue of the Black Legion's lost
homeworld of Cthonia.
 11th Black Crusade (301.M39) - The Despoiler's fleet becomes lost in the Warp while seeking to use a
daemonic guide to pass through the Warp Storms blocking access to Imperial space, finally returning to
realspace in the path of WAAAGH! Murgor. In the ruins of the Cardinal World of Relorria, the Black
Legion brings the Orks to battle, Bolter rounds and Chainswords tearing into the green-skinned xenos.
After solar months of bloody warfare, Abaddon decides to leave Relorria to its fate and the Black Legion
returns to the Eye of Terror -- but not before the Warmaster of Chaos fills the holds of his fleet with
captured Ork Weirdboyz. In conjunction with a coven of his most powerful Sorcerers, he uses the volatile
psychic energies of the Greenskin abductees in a daemonic hybridisation ritual that weakens the fabric of
reality across the Relorrian System.
 Fall of the Savage Swords (Unknown Date.M39) - The Chapter Master of the Savage Swords mistakenly
believes the Imperial Planetary Governor of Hyboras has stolen an ancient relic blade belonging to his
Chapter. Caught up in their wrath and righteous retribution, his Space Marines commit a series of atrocities
on the world. Only when their Chapter Master sits on the governor's gore-stained throne does he realise the
extent of his folly, but by then it is too late. When the Black Legion arrive to push the world over the brink
of disaster, the Savage Swords have already fallen to the worship of Khorne. It does not take much for
Abaddon to persuade them to join him.

Age of Apotheosis, M40-M42

 The Hungering Prince (Unknown Date.M40) - Glutgora, a Daemon Prince of Nurgle, invades the Agri-
world of Pilentos with a massive force of Black Legionaries. While the Chaos Space Marines crush every
vestige of Imperial resistance, Glutgora gorges itself on the weave-worms of the planet's sprawling silk
farms. Insatiable in its hunger, the Daemon Prince consumes everything and everyone in its path, swelling
to immense proportions with the meat of worm and man. Eventually, Glutgora bursts in a tide of festering
organs and rancid effluvia, and a million Nurglings crawl out from its corpse. The planet is declared
Perditas by the Inquisition and quarantined indefinitely.
  The Penumbra Prophecy (Unknown Date.M40) - Abaddon is guided by the visions of Zaraphiston to an
Eldar Crone World. In the ruins of an ancient Wraithbone city littered with skeletons, the Sorcerer leads the
Warmaster of Chaos to a room where a tapestry of flayed skin covers the walls from floor to ceiling. Upon
its surface Abaddon reads a prophecy that reveals the secrets of six weapons of immense power.
 12th Black Crusade (139.M41) - Better known as the Gothic War in Imperial space, the 12th Black
Crusade was fought for control of the Gothic Sector in the Segmentum Obscurus between the Chaotic
forces of Abaddon the Despoiler and the defenders of the Imperium. Abaddon lead his great fleet into the
Gothic Sector, capturing two of the prehistoric xenos-built star forts known as the Blackstone Fortresses.
Under Abaddon's control, the might of the Blackstone Fortresses is used to destroy the star Tarantis,
consuming several of the system's closest worlds in the process and ravaging the Imperial fleets sent
against the Black Legion. The Despoiler's fleet is driven back at great cost, though Abaddon escapes with
the Blackstone Fortresses into the Eye of Terror. The vast engines of destruction emerge once more into the
material universe during Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade over eight hundred standard years later, one of
which is responsible for the destruction of the Fortress World of Cadia.

Black Legionaries tear through the ranks of the Cadian Shock Troops

 The Iron Labyrinth (777.M41) - A Chaos fleet spearheaded by the Black Legion cuts a path into the
worlds of the Cadian System. With the aid of the Imperial Fists, the Astra Militarum manage to break the
Chaos forces at the Battle of the Iron Labyrinth, driving them back to the Eye of Terror. However, what
their enemy's seemingly reckless thrust so far in-system achieved remains a mystery to the Imperial
commanders.
 The Skull of Ker'ngar (Unknown Date.M41) - Abaddon travels to the Maiden World of Ildanira, seeking
the artefact known as the Skull of Ker'ngar. Though initially confounded on the planet's surface by Eldar
snipers from Craftworld Alaitoc, he orders all cover around his position to be levelled by orbital
bombardment. Eldar reinforcements react swiftly to drive the Despoiler back, but not before he secures his
prize.
 The Pilgrimage of Dark Lament (Unknown Date.M41) - Struck by a vision of Abaddon, millions of
Imperial pilgrims abandon their worship of the God-Emperor and turn their voidships toward the Eye of
Terror. After a long and perilous journey in which thousands perish, the pilgrims finally reach worlds held
by the Black Legion, where they are immediately enslaved. Even as they fall beneath the lash of their new
masters, the pilgrims give thanks to the Warmaster of Chaos.
 Pandorax Campaign (959-961.M41) - In the Demeter Sector, Abaddon led an alliance of Traitor Legions,
including his own Black Legion and the Death Guard, in an invasion of the Imperial Death World of Pythos
in the Pandorax System, the location of an ancient hidden gateway to the Warp. Another piece in his dark
design to bring an end to the Long War, the Warmaster of Chaos fell upon the world with a small force of
Daemon Engines and infernal war machines. In the space of a few bloody solar days the major hive cities
were overrun and the local Planetary Defence Forces crushed beneath the might of the combined Traitor
Legions. Only a small contingent of Catachan Jungle Fighters, the CLXXXIIIth Catachan Regiment of the
Imperial Guard, managed to escape the destruction, trekking through the world's inhospitable jungle to the
relative safety of the nearest mountain range. Abaddon commenced the complex rituals and sacrifices that
would open the Damnation Cache, a portal between realspace and the Warp, breaking open seals that had
remained untouched since the time of the Horus Heresy. Heeding the impassioned cries for salvation from
Pythos, the entire Dark Angels Chapter, led by Supreme Grand Master Azrael himself, came to the
defenders' aid. Supporting these Space Marines were Grey Knights dispatched from Titan to deal with the
escalating daemonic incursion and the dire peril that the Damnation Cache posed. Both Imperial forces
smashed through the Traitor Legion blockade around Pythos, in an epic void battle that pitted the finest
warships of the Imperium supported by The Rock, the Dark Angels' mobile Fortress-Monastery, against the
ancient vessels of the Traitor Legions. After the Chaos warfleet was finally driven from orbit and back into
the void, the Space Marines were able to send their troops down through the atmosphere, bringing war to
its ruined hives and hostile jungles. Failing to allow this distraction to draw him away from the awakening
of the Damnation Cache, Abaddon sent an alliance of Legions to hold the Loyalists at bay. Before either
the Dark Angels or the Grey Knights could stop him, Abaddon finally opened the portal to the Warp,
daemons spilling out across Pythos. The ensuing conflict devastated the world as reality itself bent and
buckled under the raw power of the Empyrean. The unleashed energies created rampant psychic
 phenomena, and Space Marines fought under boiling skies of blood and in rolling clouds of keening spirits.
All across the Demeter Sector, latent psykers were awakened to full and terrible awareness and rebellions
sprung up like cancerous boils on dozens of Imperial worlds in the region. After a long and bitter struggle,
a squad of Grey Knights managed to reach the Damnation Cache and close the Warp portal. Starved of
their daemonic allies, the Traitor Legions were forced onto the defensive and finally into retreat. Abaddon's
forces left Pythos, escaping the vengeance of the Imperium once again, but the world had been irrevocably
tainted by the touch of the Warp, its once proud cities and vast wilds twisted into a nightmarish hellscape.
Before the portal was closed, however, Abaddon took with him a rogue psyker, rumoured to be of
prodigious strength and the bearer of a unique gift that would aid the Warmaster of Chaos in his
forthcoming 13th Black Crusade. This conflict is remembered in Imperial records as the Pandorax
Campaign.
 Second Aurelian Crusade (Unknown Date. M41) - Just when all seemed to be returning to normal in the
Sub-sector Aurelia of the Korianis Sector, the Warp opened up and spat out the former capital world of the
Sub-sector and ancient homeworld of the Blood Ravens Chapter of Space Marines, the Ice World of
Aurelia. Home to the Blood Ravens' ancient Fortress-Monastery of Selenon and many loyal citizens of the
Imperium, the planet was corrupted by a Great Unclean One, a Greater Daemon of Nurgle, known as
Ulkair. Former Chapter Master Moriah had attempted to destroy the daemon but failed, and the weakened
daemon was imprisoned in the depths of Keep Selenon by Azariah Kyras, at that time a Librarian of the
Blood Ravens. Yet the daemon's influence proved too strong and eventually the shaken Kyras fell to the
taint of Chaos. Aurelia itself was swallowed by the Warp and its existence in the sub-sector that had been
named after it was all but forgotten. Yet the ice-encased world returned to realspace in the late 41st
Millennium bearing the foul hordes of Chaos, a warband of Chaos Space Marines from the Black Legion
led by the Chaos Lord Araghast the Pillager and the former Word Bearers Dark Apostle Eliphas the
Inheritor, who had been resurrected by the will of the Dark Gods so that he might seek the destruction of
the Blood Ravens, now as a member of the Black Legion. Captain Gabriel Angelos and Force Commander
Aramus rallied the Blood Ravens Astartes of the 3rd and 4th Company to face this threat, but no sooner did
they join combat than the Eldar and the ever present Orks rose up to cause trouble along with the heretical
soldiery of the Hive World of Meridian's noble House Vandis. Before long the entire Sub-sector was
embroiled in fresh combat against multiple foes with the Forces of Chaos causing havoc at will. As the
Blood Ravens scrambled to respond to these threats even more dire circumstances came to light as the
Space Hulk Judgment of Carrion returned to the Sub-sector. Determined to recover valuable intelligence
and ancient advanced technology from the Space Hulk to aid them against the foul servants of Chaos, the
Blood Ravens under the command of Sergeant Aramus assaulted the Judgment of Carrion only to discover
the bodies of fallen Blood Ravens from the 4th Company, formerly members of an expedition led aboard
the Space Hulk by Apothecary Galan. As the forces of Sergeant Aramus investigated the Hulk they were
shocked to find evidence of Galan's corruption by the powers of Chaos, but the truth of the matter was far
more insidious. As Sergeant Aramus and Captain Angelos desperately fought to keep control of the Sub-
sector and unlock the secrets of both the Judgment of Carrion and the lost planet Aurelia, they were
interrupted by the arrival of Apollo Diomedes, the Captain of the Blood Ravens Honour Guard and the
right hand of the Blood Ravens' Chapter Master and Chief Librarian Azariah Kyras. Diomedes ordered all
Blood Ravens forces to stand down, an order both Angelos and Aramus promptly ignored. As Diomedes
got increasingly sterner in his orders Aramus and Angelos continued to resist the forces of the Black
Legion, with whom the Chapter had recently avoided open conflict for an unknown reason. Eventually
Sergeant Aramus discovered the Chaotic corruption of Sergeant Avitus. As the Devastator Sergeant
became a lackey of the tainted Apothecary Galan and his patrons within the Chapter. As his investigations
continued, Sergeant Aramus discovered to his horror that the source of corruption was none other than
Chapter Master Kyras himself, who had fallen under the sway of the Greater Daemon Ulkair on Aurelia
and spread his taint to Galan aboard the Space Hulk Judgment of Carrion. Kyras escaped the doomed
planet Aurelia aboard the Space Hulk and had returned to the Chapter with his dark seed of corruption
when he met with Galan's expedition. Daring open conflict with Captain Diomedes' forces in their base-
camp on Calderis, Sergeant Aramus attacked Apothecary Galan, slaying the Traitor and his tainted
bodyguard of Terminators, a battle which ended in a confrontation with Captain Diomedes himself.
Reluctant to accept the corruption of his political patron within the Chapter, Diomedes found himself torn
but let Sergeant Aramus and his comrades leave Calderis and continue their operations against the Black
Legion warband of Araghast the Pillager. The Battle of Aurelia culminated in the death of Eliphas the
Inheritor, who seized control of the warband by betraying Araghast and leaving him to the mercies of the
 Blood Ravens earlier in the fighting. Despite Eliphas' machinations, Sergeant Aramus was able to re-seal
the Daemon Ulkair in its icy tomb within Keep Selenon on Aurelia. Even with this victory, Chapter Master
Kyras declared Captain Gabriel Angelos a Renegade and Traitor to the Chapter and Sergeant Aramus found
himself faced with the knowledge that the Chapter Master was a corrupt agent of the Chaos Gods.
Diomedes and Aramus returned to the Chapter to bide their time while Angelos fled Kyras' wrath. When
the time was right the 3rd Company was determined to return and join with Aramus and Diomedes to
cleanse the Chapter of the insidious taint that lay like a malignant cancer at its core.
 The Promethean War (980.M41) - The Salamanders fight an urban war against the Black Legion on
Heletine. The Order of the Ebon Chalice arrives to reinforce the Space Marines, and together they push
forward, but their advance is halted by the Daemon Prince Gralastyx. Saint Celestine appears suddenly,
storming through the Chaos hordes and slaying Gralastyx, before vanishing once more.
 Raid on the Moons of Drathorian (998.M41) - Chaos Space Marines belonging to the Black Legion
attack and pillage a space refinery used to extract Promethium from ore mined on the moons of Drathorian
in the Acteron Sector. The refinery is completely destroyed in the attack. How the Black Legion came to be
so far from the Eye of Terror and the purpose of the Chaos Space Marines' raid continues to be the subject
of Inquisitorial investigation.
 Diamor Campaign (999.M41) - The Chaos Lord Xorphas of the Black Legion invades the planet Amethal
alongside the World Eaters of Khârn the Betrayer and the Crimson Slaughter. An alliance of Blood Angels
and Adeptus Mechanicus forces repels the invaders, but as the planet is consumed in a rising tide of
carnage, the ancient "daemon cage" that forms the planet's interior has its structural integrity breached. The
Chaos invaders are driven off, but the damage has been done. Within the solar year, a nearby Warp Storm
breaks the daemon cage entirely, plunging the system into Warp-haunted mayhem and adding to the
empyric tempest raging across the galaxy.
 Siege of the Fenris System (999.M41) - With the aid of the Tzeentchian trickster known as the
Changeling, the Daemon Primarch of the Thousand Sons, Magnus the Red, gathers his Sorcerers and, at the
head of several war sects of Rubricae, visits his revenge upon the beleaguered world of Fenris, homeworld
of the Space Wolves. At the same time, through the use of a sorcerous ritual, Magnus succeeds in
transporting his Daemon World of Sortiarius out of the Eye of Terror and into orbit above the husk of his
ancient homeworld of Prospero.

Abaddon the Despoiler's Black Crusades and other Chaos incursions

A Black Legion Chaos Champion and his forces annihilating all in their path during the 13th Black Crusade

 The 13th Black Crusade (995.999.M41) - The armies of Chaos invade Cadia and its many surrounding
worlds of the Cadian Gate. The forces of the Dark Gods read like a roll call from epic battles of the ages.
Always in the vanguard are the Black Legion, followed by the Death Guard, World Eaters, Alpha Legion,
Thousand Sons, Night Lords and other Legions from the annals of the blackest days. Renegade Space
Marine Chapters long thought extinct renew their assaults on the Imperium of Man. Before them run
scabrous Chaos Cultists, deranged mutants and traitorous scum in numbers too great to count. Behind them
march daemons of all the Ruinous Powers, the nightmares of mortals made real, led by their infernal
overlords. After a gruelling campaign with a death toll that spirals into the trillions across the Segmentum
Obscurus, Abaddon the Despoiler succeeds in tearing down the strange xenos-built pylons that for
thousands of Terran years had held the Cadian Gate as a stable region of space. Cadia falls soon thereafter,
and a wave of Warp Storms roars into being across the length of the galaxy. Astropaths everywhere fear to
open their minds to receive or broadcast messages, for the Immaterium rings with mind-splitting peals,
possibly the sound of the myriad tears ripping open in the barrier between the material universe and the
Warp, or perhaps the laughter of the Dark Gods...
 Guilliman Awakes (ca. 999.M41) - Strange events, the appearance of the ancient Archmagos Belisarius
Cawl and a cryptic alliance with a mysterious Aeldari faction known as the Ynnari conspire to awaken the
Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman from his millennia-long slumber in a stasis chamber during the
Ultramar Campaign of the 13th Black Crusade. The Primarch is immediately embroiled in battle as a Chaos
assault by the Black Legion attacks Macragge as Abaddon attempts to prevent his return.
 The Great Rift Opens (ca. 999.M41) - Reality tears itself apart from the Hadex Anomaly at the core of the
Jericho Reach in the Eastern Fringe, to the furthest star system of the Segmentum Obscurus. From that hole
 come Warp Storms not seen since the Age of Strife, cutting off the galactic north from Terra. The initial
period, known as the Noctis Aeterna -- or the Blackness -- is terrible indeed. For a time, all Warp travel is
impossible and the far-spread planets of the Imperium are isolated, with no travel or astropathic
communication between them. A chain reaction of Warp cataclysms rips across the Imperium, plunging its
worlds into disaster and awakening the dormant powers of latent psykers across the galaxy. Worlds in their
hundreds fall before the ensuing Chaos onslaught. The pulsing Cicatrix Maledictum -- the Great Rift --
spreads like an impenetrable curtain, robbing entire systems of the holy light of Terra. Countless
civilisations are lost to daemonic incursions as the galaxy burns.
 Crippling Terror (Unknown Date.M42) - Thousands of Imperial planets lying along the edge of the
Great Rift are evacuated as the tapestry of Warp Storms threatens to consume them. On the Forge World of
Raeddon, the Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priests gather their most sacred manufacturing relics in
preparation of shipping them off-world. But before the frigates are loaded and launched, an armada of
Black Legion warships emerges from the Warp, forming an impenetrable blockade around the planet.
Before long, hordes of Chaos Space Marine shock troops descend upon the Forge World. The bulk of its
Skitarii defenders are deployed to guard the basilica logisticum where the Mechanicus have stored their
invaluable archeotech. However, the Chaos forces do not even attempt to lay siege to this complex. Instead,
they conduct a series of devastating orbital bombardments on the planet's spaceports, obliterating their
static Lascannon arrays before sending in waves of ground troops to mop up the remaining Skitarii. With
Raeddon stripped of its transport capabilities, the Black Legion armada recedes, leaving the Tech-priests
and their precious relics untouched as the Warp Storms envelop them.
 Blacker Pastures (Unknown Date.M42) - The rampant advance of the Hounds of Abaddon through the
Bellicose Stars comes to a grinding halt when they are met by the Imperial Fists on Gandor's Providence.
The sons of Rogal Dorn deploy numerous squads of Primaris Space Marine Intercessors, creating a series
of heavily defended redoubts across the surface of the Agri-world. Rather than allowing themselves to
become bogged down in a prolonged siege, the Hounds of Abaddon withdraw to wreak destruction
elsewhere.
 Gods from the Warp (Unknown Date.M42) - After a solar months-long battle in the Aralest System, the
forces of the Imperial Navy are all but wiped out by a massive war fleet comprising several Black Legion
warbands. The few remaining Imperial forces retreat to Everwatch Stanchion, the heavily-fortified orbital
docking platform above Aralest VII, to consolidate their strength. Meanwhile, on the planet's surface,
Imperial Governor Melachron Indis marshals his Planetary Defence Forces and prepares for invasion. As
the Black Legion ships approach, dozens of Chaos Cults emerge from amongst the indentured populace of
Aralest VII. These deluded fanatics do not see the Chaos Space Marines as invaders, but rather as saviours
who have emerged from the Great Rift that burns across the sky day and night. Indis is forced to expend his
troops in bloody fights deep inside the hive cities to prevent the planet from falling to the savage cultists
before the Black Legion even arrive. These battles do not go in the governor's favour, for with each passing
solar hour, more and more members of the citizenry join in the anarchic uprising. Indis and the remaining
fragments of his armies barricade themselves inside the spire of Aralest VII's capital hive and pray to the
Emperor that the naval garrison on Everwatch will soon be able to send them aid. Their prayers are not
answered. The Black Legion, having captured Everwatch Stanchion several solar days earlier, dislodge the
platform from its orbit and send it plummeting down to the planet's surface, directly towards the capital
city. The explosion created by the colossal impact leaves only a crater where the hive city once stood, and
the ensuing quake is felt across the planet. This display of raw power is the final proof the Chaos Cults
need. No one on Aralest VII now doubts that the warriors of the Black Legion are indeed gods.

Legion Organisation

Pre-Heresy

A Sons of Horus squad attacks the foe.

First as the Luna Wolves and later as the Sons of Horus, the XVIth Legion maintained much of their Legion structure
as it had existed since the wars for Terra and Solar Unity, which had adhered closely to the Terran pattern laid down
by the Imperial Officio Militaris before the Space Marine Legions' unification with their Primarchs.
The smallest formation within the Logos Terra Militia, and therefore within the Luna Wolves, was the squad. This
consisted of a group of Luna Wolves under the command of a Sergeant. Squads varied widely in both size and
specialisation, with the majority of the units ranging between 10 to 20 Space Marines within the XVI th Legion.
Conversely, very specialised squads such as reconnaissance units or those that might have suffered heavy casualties,
might only consist of a handful of Space Marines in active service.

The specialties and wargear of squads in the Luna Wolves included all of those generally found in other Legions,
including those designated Destroyer and Seeker units, who were shunned by some and existed in lesser quantities.
The Luna Wolves also maintained considerable resources in terms of armour and vehicles, with tithed industrial
worlds they had brought into Imperial Compliance and good relations with the Mechanicum ensuring a steady
supply of munitions and materials for the XVIth Legion, which spent such political coin readily.

Even Horus, a generalist and a pragmatist, upon being given command of his Legion is thought to have adopted new
squad formations after having seen their effectiveness in other Legions. For example, it is noticeable that until the
Lactrical Onslaught the number of Storm Shield-equipped Breacher Squads was relatively low in the XVIth Legion.
The contributions of such units amongst the forces of the Imperial Fists cannot have escaped his notice.

After the annihilation of the Lactrical, the number of such squads in the ranks of the Luna Wolves rose noticeably.
Other anecdotal evidence of this adaptability and willingness to embrace new weapons of warfare can be found in
Horus' vocal backing of the Tactical Dreadnought Armour project, with the result that his Legion was one of the first
and most widely equipped with Terminator Armour and at the forefront of the development of tactics for its use in
assaults.

The XVIth Legion showed a preference for the use of Tactical Squads. Squads configured in this form within the
Luna Wolves and later the Sons of Horus outnumbered all other squad types combined throughout the Great
Crusade. Horus remarked on several occasions that there were few challenges of war that could not be met by, or did
not require, the use of such units.

The presence of Tactical Squads designed to be held in reserve and unleashed once a weakness in an enemy line had
been identified, trained in fire saturation and carrying additional close combat weaponry for use in overrunning
enemy positions -- the so-called Despoiler Squads -- shows again the dominance of the place of the Tactical Squad
in Horus' tactical thinking. Such was the effectiveness of this tactic that its use was copied by several different
Legions, such as the White Scars and Iron Warriors, who field Despoiler Squads of their own.

The heart of the Sons of Horus Legion was the company, which served as the Legion's principal military division.
Made up of a grouping of squads under the leadership of an officer with the rank of Captain, the company was the
base currency of campaigns and battles. There was no fixed strength for a company within the Luna Wolves and the
Sons of Horus.

While other Legions codified and enforced strict limits on the size of similar formations, this was not the case
amongst the Sons of Horus, which had begun in more regimented form, but had become increasingly ad hoc in
structure and disposition over time. Company strengths as small as 36 and as large 972 Astartes were recorded by
datafactors during the XVIth Legion's action against the Dasim Patrimony, for example.

The configuration of squad types within a company varied as widely as its strength. Some were comprised almost
exclusively of Tactical Squads with a few Support Squads. Others were an eclectic mix based on the varied
requirements of different campaigns and the will of Horus. By way of example, the 17 th Company, known as the
Hesperus Guard, had a standard strength of 205 Space Marines at the time of the virus-bombing of Istvaan III.
Tactical Squads made up half this strength numerically, with the Legion placing in general great importance on the
use of Tactical Squads in every deployment.

The rest consisted of two veteran units, three reconnaissance units, a heavy support squad and multiple batteries of
support weaponry. The elite 1st Company showed even greater variation. Small in number, it contained two distinct
sub-formations: the Justaerin Terminator Squads and the Catulan Reaver Assault Squads. Both sported the black
armour worn only by this elite company and each was led by a Captain under the overall command of the Legion's
First Captain, Ezekyle Abaddon. Used in combination, the 1st Company exemplified Horus' predilection for precise
and overwhelming attacks against strategic targets.

In other Space Marine Legions a company would form part of further layers of hierarchical military organisation,
variously referred to as battalions, cohorts, chapters, regiments or by any number of other titles. Horus seems to
have preferred to avoid this extra layer of fixed organisation, which eroded over time in the Legion and was largely
academic by the time of their transition to become the Sons of Horus.

Instead of a formal structure, Horus would group companies and individual units together as required for the
execution of a particular campaign. The commander of such a formation would usually be a senior Captain. If the
formation was especially large, then other Captains would take on the role of lieutenants to the overall force
commander until the completion of the campaign. These formations rarely had formal titles, but the Sons of Horus
commonly referred to formations intended to prosecute a rapid assault as "Speartips."

In eschewing formality and fixed structure above the basic level of the company, Horus demonstrated his
pragmatism and his preference for waging war with careful precision. Within the Luna Wolves and the Sons of
Horus, squads also commonly had their own honorific or epithetic titles rather than simple numerations: the
Illuminators Prime, Death Makers, Jerrok's Reavers, the First Sons, and similar appelations, while some were named
for the Sergeant or Chieftain that led them if their leader's own reputation was strong enough alone.

Many of these titles betrayed the culture of Cthonian gang honours and the tradition of reputation and internecine
warfare from which they had sprung. This culture had grown steadily stronger over the years within the rank and file
of the XVIth Legion's intake of Neophytes.

The exact disposition of the Sons of Horus at the time of the Istvaan III Atrocity is uncertain. Given the accounts of
the battle on Istvaan III following Horus' treacherous bombardment from those that survived it, it would seem likely
that the culled Loyalist elements of the XVIth Legion represented something approaching a third of the Sons of
Horus' entire force.

Records, tainted as they may be, place the Sons of Horus at a fighting strength of approximately 130,000-170,000
Space Marines in the period leading up to the Istvaan III Atrocity. Although the figure may have been higher, this
estimate would also tally with more general assessments of the Sons of Horus Legion being in the upper quarter of
the Legions in terms of the Space Marine manpower available to them.

The XVIth Legion's Great Crusade fleet was likewise accorded to be among the greatest under any single
commander's flag, with in excess of one hundred capital ships and perhaps three times that figure in smaller Cruisers
and Escorts under Horus' direct command. Taking into account likely losses from the ground war that followed the
virus-bombing of Istvaan III, and elements of the Sons of Horus Legion not in the Istvaan System at the time, it
would follow that Horus began his war of betrayal with around 70,000-110,000 Space Marines of his own Legion at
his disposal, with considerable evidence present in Imperial records that the latter figure is the more accurate.

Heavily engaged on the surface of Istvaan III during the Istvaan Atrocity, it is estimated that some 30,000 of the
Sons of Horus' Legionaries were dead or unaccounted for in the aftermath of that battle. It has been theorised by
some analysts that as a consequence of the initial difficulties encountered with the purging of the Terrans from the
Legion's ranks, and the unexpected cost in lives and materiel the battle had entailed, Horus was deliberately cautious
with the use of his Legion during the later Drop Site Massacre.

In this it is thought that he hoped perhaps to preserve as much of the Sons of Horus' strength as possible for the
intended push on Terra that was planned to follow, or perhaps he simply meant to have others blood themselves in
his cause while destroying the Loyalists.

Sons of Horus Armoured Formations

Sons of Horus Falchion Super-Heavy Destroyer, Zarathutrax, 28th Armoured Assault Company ("The Back
Breakers").

At the time of the Warmaster's advance on the Coronid Deeps, his Legion's armoured forces had been replenished
substantially, having been severely depleted during the conflicts at Istvaan III and Istvaan V. In part this was
because the Sons of Horus, and to some degree all of the Traitor Legions, had been able to salvage a treasure trove
of war machines and materiel from the wreckage laid out upon the sands of the Urgall Depression in the wake of the
Istvaan V Dropsite Massacre.

It was also because the Warmaster's lieutenants ensured that, as the Traitor armies progressed, the efforts of the Dark
Mechanicum and the brutal tithe extracted from the worlds they subjugated were first set to the supply of Horus'
own above all others. This ensured that the latest and most powerful Legiones Astartes war machines, such as the
Falchion and Sicaran, quickly replaced lost or damaged war machines of older patterns still in the Legion's service.

Legion Command Hierarchy

A Sons of Horus Command Squad in combat during the Great Crusade.

As with all of the Space Marine Legions, Horus' command as Primarch over his own Legion was absolute. Beneath
Horus were his Captains, beneath them were the squad Sergeants, and where a formation of squads came together
for a purpose, the informal rank of "Chieftain" was given to the Sergeant granted field command authority, a matter
not always of seniority, but rather selection of the best or most suited Astartes for the task at hand; an approach
which fitted well within the Legion's pragmatic and sometimes impulsive approach to warfare.

Beneath these non-commissioned officers were the rank-and-file Battle-Brothers of the Luna Wolves and the Sons
of Horus. This simple hierarchy belied the truth of matters when applied in practice within the XVI th Legion. Within
each rank, prestige and personal reputation counted for much within the brotherhood of Space Marines.

There were distinctions between those who fought with the Legion for longer, between those who had fought in
different campaigns, between those who had received certain honours, and between ordinary squads and those who
formed a Captain's Honour Guard. Beneath the surface of this simmered other divisions, not easily visible to the
outsider, divisions of blood and origin, divisions that the mere act of becoming a Space Marine should have washed
away, but for the Sons of Horus did not in many cases. These hidden divisions would eventually bear bitter fruit.

The rank of Captain within the Legion also held subtle variations of authority. Generally those in command of a
lower numbered company outranked those in a higher numbered company, while those who had once had overall
command of a campaign were considered superior to those officers he had commanded during that action. At the top
of this informal but very real hierarchy of Legion officers were those Captains who served as Horus' closest advisors
and in particular the First Captain of the Legion who commanded the elite 1st Company and also served as his
Primarch's principal field officer and second-in-command.

The senior-most Captains comprised the Legion's Mournival, the quartet of Astartes who served as Horus' closest
advisors and companions within the XVIth Legion and who existed outside the regular command structure. Before
the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the final Mournival of the Sons of Horus included Captains Garviel Loken, Horus
Aximand, Tarik Torgaddon and Ezekyle Abaddon. The Mournival served as an advisory body to Horus in both
military and political matters, but in truth its members held no formal power above that of the other company
Captains.

Held together by Horus' personal charisma and brilliance as a leader, the command structure of the Luna Wolves
and then the Sons of Horus proved highly effective, adaptable and resilient. Combined with the XVI th Legion's skill
in rapidly concluding campaigns, it allowed the Legion to flow from one victory to another, forming and reforming
to meet each new challenge.
Each Son of Horus knew his capabilities and the capabilities of those around him, both by given rank and personal
repute, capabilities that were enshrined in a hierarchy determined by deeds rather than the demands of military or
ceremonial formality. Effective as it was, one cannot help but notice the importance of personal prestige and the
pack-like sorting of authority as a hallmark of the XVI th Legion, and upon occasion the source of some conflict and
vendetta within the ranks, a seed of the terrible division to come.

As the character of the Legion was an echo of its Primarch, so one can perhaps see the flaw of the father in the pride
of his sons. So it was that when Horus fell from grace, so too did his gene-sons, and their faults, long-sleeping,
multiplied and grew to consume them: pride, ambition, the desire to be greater than any other and the savagery and
merciless will to make such dark dreams manifest.

Specialist Ranks and Formations

 The Mournival - The Mournival were Horus' most trusted advisors and confidants. Consisting of four
chosen Captains of the Legion, the Mournival existed outside the rest of the XVI th Legion's regular
command structure. Together the Mournival functioned as the soul of the Luna Wolves, and later the Sons
of Horus, supporting their Primarch and steering the Legion's temperament and decisions. The Mournival
had many important responsibilities, which included making sure that the Legion and its Primarch lived up
to their standards of moral excellence and the Emperor's vision of the Imperial Truth in prosecuting its
duties and helping the Primarch devise strategies for more effectively carrying forth the Great Crusade. The
Mournival on occasion even provided Horus the means to posture politically as a means to save face or
present a certain united front when in the presence of the XVIth Legion's Imperial allies and enemies alike.
Horus relied on the Mournival to balance his decisions with questions and different perspectives. In this
way the four Captains served as a combination of counsellors, confidants and naysmiths. It is known that
there was an element of ritual to the bond between the Mournival brothers: meetings of the Mournival took
place in moonlight, a different phase of the moon was graven on the helm of each brother, and its oaths of
brotherhood were made over the reflected image of a moon. The origins of the Mournival are unclear,
although there are parallels with the rites of brotherhood amongst the Jutigran clans of Terra and the ritual
practice of the Selenar gene-cults of Luna, who were integral to the early integration of many Cthonian
Neophytes into the XVIth Legion. Whatever the Mournival's origins, its existence within the Legion
certainly lies in in the early decades of the Luna Wolves' history, and it is known to have persisted for a
time even after the Istvaan III Atrocity, though by then it had lost any meaningful check upon the actions of
Horus and continued to exist solely due to tradition. The last members of the Mournival before the XVIth
Legion fell to Chaos included Captain Horus "Little Horus" Aximand (Half Moon), First Captain Ezekyle
Abaddon (Full Moon), Captain Garviel Loken (New Moon) and Captain Tarik Torgaddon (Gibbous
Moon).
 Justaerin Terminator Squads - The Justaerin Terminator Squads were one of two distinct sub-formations
found within the XVIth Legion's elite 1st Company. Led by the Legion's First Captain, the black-armoured
Justaerin were the pride of the XVIth Legion. Tasked with forming the "point of the spear" of the Legion,
they went where the fighting was thickest, their attack directed usually at destroying the heart of an
opposing target or conducting the decapitation strike of an enemy force. Early proponents of the use of
Tactical Dreadnought Armour, many of the Justaerin entered combat as Terminators, relying on the
resilience this gave them to smash aside any resistance and close in for the kill.
 Catulan Reaver Assault Squads - The Catulan Reaver Assault Squads were the other sub-formation
present in the XVIth Legion's elite 1st Company. They too, sported the signature black armour which
denoted their specialisation in harrowing actions and hit-and-run tactics. They were led by a Captain under
the overall command of the Legion and the 1st Company's commanding First Captain. They also made
extensive use of Terminator Armour, taking advantage of its additional protection and ability to smash
aside any opposition. Used in combination, these two elite sub-formations of the 1st Company exemplified
Horus' predilection for precise and overwhelming attacks against strategic targets.
 Reaver Attack Squads - Reaver Attack Squads were an evolution of the Despoiler and Assault Squads
found in the order of battle of the Luna Wolves, epitomising in many ways the Sons of Horus' way of
warfare. Heavily influenced by the tactics of the seething and incessant tribal warfare of Cthonia, Reaver
units specialised in lightning-swift assaults which maimed and disabled a foe, striking down leaders,
 mercilessly cutting down any who were weak or isolated, and sowing panic and disorder in any who
remained.
 Despoiler Squads - The Tactical Squads known as Despoiler Squads were designed to be held in reserve
and unleashed once a weakness in an enemy line had been identified. Trained in fire saturation techniques
and carrying additional close combat weaponry for use in overrunning enemy positions, the so-called
Despoiler Squads showed the dominance of the Tactical Squad in Horus' tactical thinking. Such was the
effectiveness of this tactic that its use was copied in several different Legions.
 Destroyer Squads - Considered dishonourable by some Legions who made little use of them or eschewed
them altogether, Destroyers were equipped with and expert in the use of otherwise proscribed and
forbidden weaponry. Alongside certain factions of the Adeptus Mechanicus, only Destroyer cadres had the
license to use these weapons in the forces of the Imperium by the Emperor's command. Rad-weapons, bio-
alchem munitions and the burning horror of Phosphex were amongst the forbidden weapons in a Destroyer
Squad's dark arsenal, weapons which irrevocably tainted the ground upon which they were used. Marked
by their fire-blackened and chem-scalded armour, Destroyers were often shunned and deemed somehow
tainted by their fellow Battle-Brothers in many Legions and were considered at best a necessary evil,
although the effectiveness of their relic-weapons in cracking especially difficult enemy defences could not
be denied.
 Seeker Squads - Seeker Squads were comprised of a specialised force of Space Marines whose principal
task on the battlefield was to identify an enemy's command structure, its warlords, officers, priests,
demagogues, whatever form they took, and slay them with a well-placed bolt round while the battle raged
round them. The Alpha Legion is said to have first crystallised the use of this tactic and squad
configuration, which had with the Emperor's approval spread to the other Legions, although its use sat
poorly within the combat doctrine and martial culture of some like the Space Wolves. Equipped with
special issue ammunition to assist their efforts, Seeker Squads were primarily composed of the finest shots
within the Legion, as a Seeker strike force often only had a small window of opportunity to take down its
targets at close range, rather than enjoying the luxury of distance.
 28th Armoured Assault Company ("The Back Breakers") - During the Warmaster's invasion of the
Coronid Deeps, the armoured formations of the Sons of Horus were deployed across multiple war zones. In
particular, the 28th Armoured Assault Company (known by the informal cognomen of the "Back Breakers"
for their use as a heavy assault attrition unit) claimed battle honours at Lascal and Tara canis, broken up
into smaller, ship-based battlegroups, before taking part en masse in the final destruction of Hive Ilium on
Manachea. In this conflict, the Sons of Horus deployed an enormous range and variety of armoured
formations, maintaining a fluid command structure that allowed them to operate as a highly mobile reserve
capable of reinforcing successful breakthroughs and delivering the final, crushing blow to a collapsing
enemy defence. In particular, as the bulk of the Legion committed to the assault on Hive Ilium penetrated
the hive city's dense environs, it split fluidly into multiple smaller strike groups. Each of these was assigned
a squadron of tanks or an individual super-heavy tank to force a way through the heavier choke points and
city nexuses, crushing defended positions and engaging enemy armour even as the Sons of Horus infantry
counter-attacked any enemy that attempted to outflank the war engines and bring melta weaponry to bear.
At some point during the Great Scouring, the 28th Armoured Assault Company ceased to exist in its
established form, but from its remnants the Sarissan Iron Pact arose. This Renegade Warband is still
heavily mechanised and consists of Spartan Assault Tanks, Land Raiders and a small number of Land
Raider Achilles. Much of their infantry consists of Chaos Terminators.
 Luperci - The Luperci (or "Brothers of the Wolf" in Cthonian) was a special formation of Sons of Horus
that consisted of Possessed Chaos Space Marines. Formed with the assistance of the Word Bearers, the
Luperci were essentially a mirror formation of the Word Bearers' formation of the Gal Vorbak possessed
Chaos Space Marines. The Luperci were created following the events of the Dropsite Massacre on Istvaan
V, and were first deployed during the Battle of Molech.

Post-Heresy

"From shame and shadow recast. In black and gold reborn."

— Iskandar Khayon, Black Legion Sorcerer (former Thousand Sons Librarian, ca. 999.M41)
A Chaos Space Marine of the Black Legion holding a grim trophy

After the death of Horus at the Battle of Terra, proper hierarchical structure within the XVIth Legion's squads and
companies disintegrated, as was common in most of the Traitor Legions as the more deleterious effects of Chaos
manifested themselves with the end of the unity between the Forces of Chaos. Those Sons of Horus who survived
the Heresy formed into warbands of Chaos Space Marines of varying size and composition, led by individuals
known as Chaos Champions.

These Champions were either ranking officers of the Sons of Horus during the time of the Heresy, or newly emerged
leaders who had won great favour with the Ruinous Powers through their violent and blasphemous deeds. When
circumstances dictated, several warbands would rally together under the banner of a greater Chaos Champion, or
even Abaddon himself as the Warmaster of Chaos Undivided, usually in preparation for a major raid or incursion
into the Imperium. The entirety of what remains of the Black Legion only gathers when Abaddon has managed to
successfully unleash a new Black Crusade.

The overriding belief of the XVIth Legion's Astartes prior to the Warmaster's demise was in the ultimate superiority
of Horus over all other beings in the Imperium and, by association, themselves as his genetic progeny. In continually
seeking to prove themselves as the greatest of the Space Marine Legions, they did indeed achieve the most in terms
of the sheer numbers of worlds brought into the Imperial fold during the Great Crusade, although much effort had to
be expended by other Imperial forces to completely pacify these new worlds after the XVI th Legion had moved on to
the next target.

The Sons of Horus' defeat and exile dealt a crushing blow to the collective ego of the Legion. This has fuelled the
current Black Legion's almost fanatical intensity to restore unity amongst the Forces of Chaos in the Long War and
drive on Terra to eliminate the Corpse Emperor and regain their place of primacy -- no matter the cost.

The Black Legion has recruited countless warbands of every stripe to their cause over the past 10,000 standard years
-- though some of these still claim autonomy, they have all bent the knee to Abaddon the Despoiler as the
Warmaster of Chaos, and all wear some variant of gold and black in honour of their adopted faction.

Many Black Legion warbands worship one of the Chaos Gods above the others, adorning their black battle-plate
with icons, trophies and the favoured colours of their patron in the hope of attracting more divine favour -- and
perhaps ascending beyond the Black Legion to claim mastery of their own fate as Daemon Princes. Many Traitor
Legionaries are counted amongst these hosts, for Abaddon's strength as a leader is impossible to deny.

Specialist Formations

 Aphotic Blade - After he assumed control of the XVIth Legion, Abaddon formed from the Black Legion's
ranks a personal bodyguard called the Aphotic Blade and known as the "Bringers of Despair" by their
enemies, among other dark titles. Selected from the strongest and most vicious of his Terminator elite,
these fearsome warriors are a terrifying sight, their arrival announcing the presence of the Despoiler
himself.
 Hounds of Abaddon - The Hounds of Abaddon are a special formation of Chaos Space Marines found
within the Black Legion who are wholly dedicated to the service of Khorne. Within the ranks of the Black
Legion, the greatest of the Traitor Legions which serves Chaos Undivided, there still exist thousands of
devotees of the Blood God Khorne. These Khornate Berserkers are always at the forefront of the Legion's
assaults, charging and howling into the fray. These formations are known as the Hounds of Abaddon, who
revel in close combat, where they can spill the greatest volume of blood for their god, using razor-toothed
Chainaxes, wicked Lightning Claws or even their own mutant fangs. Though the Hounds are not a single
unified warband within the Black Legion, they are led by Urkrathos, the current Lord Purgator of the
Chosen of Abaddon and commander of the Legion's Black Fleet. Urkrathos claims all followers of Khorne
 within the Legion as his own and directs them according to the will of Abaddon the Despoiler, the Legion's
Warmaster.
 Bringers of Decay - The Bringers of Decay are a special formation of Chaos Space Marines found within
the Black Legion who are wholly dedicated to Nurgle. The Plague God has a strong following within the
Black Legion; his putrid touch is evident throughout the ranks of its warriors. Under the dominance of the
Chosen of Abaddon lieutenant Skyrak Slaughterborn, the current Lord Corruptor, the Nurglites have
converted many to their cause. In battle, the Bringers of Decay are Abaddon's plague carriers and heralds of
contagion, often appearing before other warbands of the Legion to sow infection and sickness amongst the
foe. This could also be why many other warbands of the Black Legion will have little to do with the
Bringers of Decay, repelled by the blessings of the Plague God they bear, and the pervasive stench that
follows them.
 Children of Torment - The Children of Torment are a special formation of Chaos Space Marines found
within the Black Legion who are wholly dedicated to the service of Slaanesh. Hundreds of followers of the
Pleasure God have sworn their allegiance to Abaddon the Despoiler and joined the ranks of the Black
Legion. Under the guidance of warlords such as Devram Korda, they are comprised of multiple powerful
warbands which comprise this hedonistic collective. These devotees of the Prince of Pleasure bow to
Abaddon, for he grants them unending opportunities to wallow in the pleasure provided by the anguish of
his mortal victims, and feed upon their gushing lifeblood. Even though they are devotees of Slaanesh, the
Children of Torment are despised by members of the Emperor's Children, who see them as traitors to the
Daemon Primarch Fulgrim and lapdogs of a lesser Warmaster.
 Sons of the Cyclops - The Sons of the Cyclops are a special formation of Chaos Space Marines found
within the Black Legion who are wholly dedicated to the service of Tzeentch. The Sons of the Cyclops are
the smallest of the formations dedicated to a single Chaos God within the Black Legion. Consisting of the
followers of the Lord of Change, including Chaos Sorcerers and their attending Rubricae, the Sons of the
Cyclops hold an amount of power completely disproportionate to their diminutive numbers within the
Black Legion. This is because of the many favours Abaddon the Despoiler lavishes upon the Sons of the
Cyclops' leaders; powerful psykers and sorcerers like Zaraphiston and Ygethmor the Deceiver. Gifted seers
and diviners, they make up the core of Abaddon's closest and most trusted advisors, peering into the future
and guiding the multiple components of a Black Crusade toward Abaddon's ultimate goals.
 The Tormented - The warband known as The Tormented regroups all the Possessed Chaos Space Marines
counted amongst the Black Legion's ranks into one formation. Those members of the Black Legion who
take further steps on the road to power and merge their soul with a daemon, inviting a Warp-entity into
their flesh and drinking deep of the Neverborn's corrupted power, forsake their allegiance to their former
warband and join the ranks of The Tormented. Since their cataclysmal inception during the defence of the
corpse of Horus on the Daemon World of Maeleum, the ranks of the Tormented have swollen and their
influence grown. Each Battle-Brother of The Tormented has a dark reflection in the Warp, the twinned
sentience of the daemon sharing the corrupted Astartes' mind. These daemons, unsurprisingly, have their
own agendas and will act upon those when the opportunity arises, making the warband as a whole a rather
unstable and unpredictable tool of war, yet none can deny their horrific visciousness in battle. The most
powerful of the Possessed Legionaries are granted the honour of serving as Navigators on the Black
Legion's warships, as the blasphemous mingling of Materium- and Immaterium-born minds grants a
Possessed the perspective to guide a ship through the Warp with a speed and precision no other can hope to
match.
 The Oath-Broken - Those that dare betray the Warmaster seldom live long enough to regret their mistake,
and those who do quickly come to regret their folly bitterly as their bodies and souls are subjected to the
most abject of agonies. The Oath-Broken are no true traitors to Abaddon, but merely those who failed in
their assigned tasks, or got badly mauled on the battlefield and crippled by horrendous wounds. Failures
and cripples invariably lose the fickle attention of their mortal and immortal masters alike, and without the
blessings of the Powers of the Warp to mend their limbs or knit their broken bodies together with
mutations, the Oath-Broken are forced to fashion their own crude replacements: blades sutured to stumps,
xenos appendages crudely grafted into empty sockets and ragged armour patched with whatever material
the Eye of Terror deems to provide. And yet, woe to the fool who underestimates these dregs of the Black
Legion, for an Oath-Broken's desire to again bask in the glories that only Chaos can provide is only equal
to his hatred of any who still do.
  Sarissan Iron Pact - The Sarissan Iron Pact is a large sub-faction within the inner circle of the Black
Legion that operates directly under the command of Abaddon the Despoiler. The Iron Pact can trace its
origins to the Sons of Horus and the Luna Wolves before them, when they served as the 28 th Armoured
Assault Company in the Legion of the Primarch Horus himself. Ordo Malleus archives state that this
company was present throughout many of the Warmaster's campaigns during the Horus Heresy, and was
particularly active in the northern war zones of the Segmentum Obscurus. The 28th Comprised a core of
squads including Terminators and Breacher Squads, all mounted in a variety of tanks, including a speartip
of Spart Heavy Assault Transports. At some point during the Scouring, the 28th Armoured Assault
Company was dissolved or ceased to exist in its established form, but from its remnants arose the Sarissan
Iron Pact. This group sided with Abaddon in the conflicts that sundered his Legion and by its end had been
rendered down to a kernel of Spartans and Land Raiders, supported by a small number of surviving Land
Raider Achilles'. The squads that were once part of the 28th fractured and split during the Scouring, leaving
the Iron Pact as a cadre of highly experienced vehicle crew in command of several dozen of the heaviest
assault transports ever constructed. The Despoiler calls upon the services of the Sarissan Iron Pact when his
inner circle of Chosen Terminator squads are tasked with launching all-out assaults upon the most heavily
defended positions. They are also highly effective in operating in the most hazardous of environments, for
the Spartan in particular was constructed to transport infantry through war zones alight with ravening
plasma. Thus, no world is immune from the wrath of Abaddon the Despoiler.

Thrice-Cursed Traitors

In the long, dark solar decades after the death of their Primarch, the Sons of Horus fragmented. When Ezekyle
Abaddon proclaimed himself the new master of the XVI th Legion in the ruins of Maeleum, there were those who
turned their back on the Despoiler.

These Legionaries either remained true to the memory of Horus or forsook all masters, before vanishing into the
depths of the Eye of Terror. Most would disappear from history forever, but some returned to challenge the Black
Legion, or in time rejoin its ranks. They are known to the Black Legion as the Thrice-Cursed Traitors:

 Sons of the Eye - The Sons of the Eye were a splinter warband of the Black Legion. They were led by the
infamous Chaos Lord Drecarth the Sightless, the Blind Butcher of Irridous VII. Drecarth was a former
Battle-Brother of the Sons of Horus who had fought alongside Abaddon during the Great Crusade and the
Horus Heresy that followed. Always jealous of his Primarch Horus' favour for the Despoiler, the Sons of
the Eye considered Abaddon a usurper. When Drecarth broke from Abaddon he had his warriors make a
cut across the Eye of Horus sigils they wore on their armour, a symbol of the blindness of Horus that had
led his Legion to destruction. During the 6th Black Crusade launched in 901.M36, Abaddon visited his
wrath upon Drecarth the Sightless and his treacherous warband. Abaddon aided the Sons of the Eye in an
assault on the Forge World of Arkreach, fighting side-by-side until the defenders were finally crushed. The
triumphant Abaddon then slowly killed Drecarth, impaling him with the Talon of Horus. As Drecarth died
painfully, the Despoiler made him watch every member of the Sons of the Eye bow before their new
master.
 Wolves of Horus - The death of Horus left many veteran Legionaries of the Sons of Horus craving a return
to the halcyon days when the XVIth Legion was known as the Luna Wolves. The Wolves of Horus chose to
relive those early times, and venerate their dead Primarch by bearing his name.
 True Sons - Even after Horus' death, his Legion worshipped him as a god, bowing down to his tomb on
Maeleum and making daily oaths of loyalty. The warband known as the True Sons never broke with these
traditions, even after the destruction of the Primarch's body in the wake of the Slave Wars. Covering their
armour in the symbol of the Eye of Horus, the True Sons build effigies of Horus wherever they go, bowing
down to them before symbolically burning them.

The Chosen of Abaddon

"Each of Abaddon's chosen have might enough to crush armies, conquer worlds and shake the very foundations of
the stars. And yet every time we slay one of their number another warlord of equal strength takes his place. What
hope is there in opposing such foes?"
— The Betrayer of Kaldonia

The Chosen of Abaddon - Top: Devram Korda, "The Tyrant of Sarora"; Middle Left: Ygethmor the Deceiver,
Sorcerer Lord of the Black Legion; Middle Right: Urkrathos; Bottom: Skyrak Slaughterborn

Rather than a single force with a single leader, the Black Legion would become a mighty host of many warbands
and warlords. Within this host, all would swear complete allegiance to Abaddon, and through an inner circle, he
would lead them with absolute dominion. These favoured lieutenants became known as the Chosen of Abaddon. The
Chosen were his favoured generals, standing above all others and enacting his dark will; a warped shadow of the
Luna Wolves' Mournival in which he had once served.

Nowhere in the galaxy can a more feared and merciless collection of tyrants be found, always eager to put entire
worlds to the sword in the name of Chaos. The last recorded deployment of a full Officio Assassinorum Execution
Force was against the so-called Chosen of Abaddon. These four individuals were so hated by the Imperium of Man
that an entire team of Assassins infiltrated Abaddon's flagship.

This was an extraordinary event, for it is rare for even one Assassin to be sent to deal with a threat. Abaddon learned
of the impending attack and laid a trap for the Assassins, slaying all four and protecting his Chosen. The Chosen
bear an assortment of titles, reflecting their role in a past Black Crusade or honouring particular acts of cruelty for
which they are infamous. Their numbers are ever-changing, for Abaddon has little tolerance for failure amongst
those who serve him. These four titles include:

Lord Ravager

The Lord Ravager leads the invasion fleets of the Black Crusade. It is he who first makes landfall on the surface of
an Imperial world about to be ravaged by the Black Legion. The Lord Ravager leads Abaddon's ground forces and is
always found in the vanguard of the assault.

 Devram Korda - Devram Korda, also known as "The Tyrant of Sarora", is a servant of the Chaos God
Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure. A former Veteran Sergeant of the Sons of Horus Legion, after the events
of the Horus Heresy, he rose to prominence and became a Chaos Lord. He became infamous for his
blasphemous actions on the doomed world of Sarora, where he distilled the life essence of the citizens of
the planet's largest hive city for a single vial of a sorcerous elixir which made him virtually invincible. He
eventually became the current Lord Ravager, the individual who leads the invasion fleets of the Black
Crusade in the name of Abaddon the Despoiler. It is Korda who first makes landfall on the surface of a
world about to be assaulted by the Forces of Chaos. Korda also commands the personal retinue of the
Despoiler, known as the Chosen of Abaddon. In the closing days of the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41,
Devram Korda returned to his master's side, bringing with him two individuals (later identified as Skyrak
Slaughterborn and Urkrathos) who had journeyed to the centre of the Eye of Terror. Together with the
Chaos Sorcerer Ygethmor the Deceiver, they presented Abaddon with the Heart of Chaos, a powerful
artefact that Zaraphiston, a Chaos Sorcerer and rival Chaos Lord of the Despoiler, had long claimed could
not exist.

Lord Deceiver

The Lord Deceiver is a powerful Chaos Sorcerer whose esoteric visions of the Warp guide the Black Crusade from
star system to star system, so that they might always find their prey, no matter where they hide.
  Ygethmor the Deceiver - Ygethmor the Deceiver, known also as the "Twice Damned" and the "Purgator
of Corrialis", is a formidable Sorcerer Lord of the Black Legion. He currently serves as one of Abaddon the
Despoiler's lieutenants and a member of his personal retinue, the Chosen of Abaddon. Ygethmor is the
current Lord Deceiver, whose visions of the Warp lead the Black Crusade from star system to star system.
During the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, the Officio Assassinorum sanctioned the deployment of an
assassin team to eliminate Ygethmor, amongst other notable targets in service to the Archenemy. Whilst
scrutiny of their field records is impossible, at least seven Assassinorum agents are known to have failed in
the attempt to take the life of the Deceiver. Ygethmor led the assault of the Forces of Chaos during the
campaign known as the Fall of Medusa V in an attempt to become a Daemon Prince. This effort failed and
Ygethmor was slain by the blade of the Eldar Autarch Elarique Swiftblade of Craftworld Alaitoc, and those
Champions of the Dark Gods who had followed him were left to their fates on the dying world as Medusa
V was consumed by an onrushing Warp Storm. However, death rarely represents an end to the service of a
Chaos Lord, if the Dark Gods still have use for him. The galaxy may yet suffer the tread of Ygethmor the
Deceiver once more.

Lord Corruptor

The Lord Corruptor is tasked with instilling fear and hatred amongst the Chaos Space Marines of the Black Legion.
It is he who spreads fear and corruption before the Black Fleet, and also keeps the lesser warlords of the Legion in
line through brutality and terror. His trophy rack is adorned with the skulls of failed servants.

 Skyrak Slaughterborn - The Chosen of Abaddon lieutenant named Skyrak Slaughterborn, the current
Lord Corruptor, leads the warbands of Nurgle within the Black Legion into battle. Collectively known as
the Bringers of Decay, they spread their disease and corruption throughout the Realms of Man. Skyrak is
known to have led the large warband of Chaos Space Marines known as the Slaughterkin in the assault on
Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade.

Lord Purgator

It falls to the Lord Purgator to ensure that every man, woman and child left alive on a world conquered by the Black
Legion is dragged in chains into the hold of the Legion's starships, and that no edifice remains undedicated to the
Dark Gods.

 Urkrathos - Within the ranks of the Black Legion are those who are bloody-handed servants of Khorne.
Though not a single unified warband within the Black Legion, they are collectively known as the Hounds
of Abaddon. Urkrathos, the current Lord Purgator of the Chosen of Abaddon and commander of the
Legion's Black Fleet, claims all followers of Khorne within the Legion as his own and directs them
according to the will of Abaddon.

Legion Combat Doctrine

The Sons of Horus Legion during the Battle of Molech

The Space Marines of the Emperor's Legiones Astartes, like their modern counterparts, were genetically-engineered,
psycho-indoctrinated warriors with superhuman abilities and minds and souls tempered for war. In addition, each
individual Legion had its own idiosyncrasies and character -- the product of their gene-seed and unique warrior
culture.

In the case of the Sons of Horus, the combat doctrines of this most aggressive Legion were those of the application
of overwhelming force directed to where the foe was weakest. These shattering blows were used to utterly destroy
enemy command cadres, vital strategic support structures and wreak terrible slaughter on the pride of an enemy's
forces, often turning the tide of an entire conflict with a single, well-placed and savage attack.
Even on a personal level, the Sons of Horus took this merciless doctrine to heart and like the wolves they were once
named for, were swift to exploit a foe's weakness, surrounding, and brutally tearing apart an outnumbered or
exposed enemy before they could recover from the shock of an assault.

The XVIth Legion was a truly flexible fighting force, able to adapt to almost any combat situation. With the
treachery of Horus, their gene-father, the Sons of Horus Legion grew ever more savage and proud. Freed of the last
remaining shackles imposed on them by the distant rule of the Emperor and the dim remembrance of Terra's martial
traditions, they fought with callous, calculated fury, born both of the darkness in their hearts and shadowed powers
which Horus had found communion with. Their battle tactics became ever more predatory, while the Warmaster
himself saw to it that as the rebellion burned on, his own Legion lacked neither for recruits nor the finest weapons
and wargear his enthralled Dark Mechanicum allies could supply.

Chaos Space Marines of the Black Legion attack

The Legion possessed an efficient chain of command, which fell into disarray after its Primarch, Horus, was killed
during the Battle of Terra. In the years immediately following the end of the Horus Heresy, the Sons of Horus'
discipline broke down completely, as the Legion dissolved into a number of competing warbands of Chaos Space
Marines, each led by a different Chaos Champion who maintained his rule through the favour of the Dark Gods and
often lethal discipline.

First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon ultimately managed to restore a measure of discipline to the XVI th Legion and to
bring its disparate warbands under his control after he assumed Horus' place as the Warmaster of Chaos, mainly
through exercising a level of fear and violence that could cow even the greatest of the Legion's Chaos Champions.
At present, the Black Legion shows more unity of purpose and structural integrity than many of the other Traitor
Legions, and only the Word Bearers Legion has managed to maintain its complete Imperial military hierarchy intact
amongst the forces of Chaos.

The Black Legion generally favours close combat over ranged firefights, and Horus' tactic of "ripping the throat out
of the enemy," the annihilation of the enemy's command apparatus through the use of a small force referred to as the
"speartip," is still a favoured method of attack.

Black Legion commanders seek to apply constant pressure on the enemy in a number of lightning fast strikes. These
sharp but limited assaults are meant to disrupt the enemy and secure positions that can be used for fire support. This
in turn keeps the pressure on while new attacks are being prepared.

The time-lapse between each assault decreases with each advance, and the Black Legion commander will usually
wait until the pressure reaches its highest point. When this occurs, the commander will lead the best Astartes
amongst his warband, usually Aspiring Champions, in a final, devastating assault; an attack in which teleport-
capable Terminators often feature. Hordes of daemons summoned from the Empyrean by the Black Legion's Chaos
Sorcerers are also used for frontal assaults, and to pin the enemy in place while the Legion whittles them down.

Legion Homeworld

Ancient Departmento Cartographicae map showing the location of Cthonia in relation to Terra

The XVIth Legion's homeworld, the ancient Mining World of Cthonia, no longer exists, having apparently lost geo-
structural integrity and broken apart into asteroids and debris during the centuries following the Horus Heresy.
Certainly the once ore-rich planet was riddled with mine workings right through to its dead core as the numerous
gangers that formed the majority of the world's population may originally have been imported as work teams to
maintain the crumbling tunnels.
However there is some conjecture amongst Imperial savants that Cthonia was destroyed deliberately by the
Imperium following the end of the Horus Heresy, when the Loyalist Astartes Legions moved to purge the
homeworlds of each of the Traitor Legions during the Great Scouring to remove their Chaos corruption.

Since the destruction of their fortress on the Daemon World of Maeleum in the Eye of Terror by an alliance of
Chaos Space Marines seeking to capture the body of the Warmaster Horus at the insistence of the former Emperor's
Children Apothecary Fabius Bile, the Black Legion is no longer based on any particular planet, and is instead
stationed permanently on various spacecraft within their large Legion fleet within the Eye of Terror.

The Black Legion possesses a single ancient Battle Barge from their original fleet, Horus' own flagship the Vengeful
Spirit, as well as other vessels commandeered or captured from the Imperium over the millennia. In particular, many
of the oldest Imperial Army starships that rebelled against the Imperium during the Horus Heresy now seem to be
under Abaddon's command, along with newer vessels, such as the Planet Killer, he has ordered constructed within
the Eye of Terror over the last 10 millennia.

Legion Beliefs

"This is our galaxy. Ours to corrupt. Ours to enslave. The gods will not be denied."
— Xereth of the Black Legion

The overriding belief that animated the Astartes of the XVIth Legion prior to Horus' demise was in the ultimate
superiority of Horus and themselves over all other beings in the galaxy. In continually seeking to prove themselves
as the greatest of the Space Marine Legions, they did indeed achieve more than their fellow Astartes in terms of the
sheer numbers of worlds brought into the Imperial fold prior to the Heresy.

The Sons of Horus' defeat at the Battle of Terra and exile to the Eye of Terror was a crushing blow to the collective
ego of the Legion. It took all the strength of character of their new commander, Abaddon the Despoiler, to restore
the Legion's sense of pride and refocus its Astartes on their ultimate goal -- to destroy everything that the Emperor
of Mankind created and raise themselves up as the new rulers of the galaxy in the names of the Ruinous Powers of
Chaos.

Legion Gene-Seed

Dhar'leth, Daemon Prince of the Black Legion

The Black Legion's gene-seed, prior to the incident on the Feral World of Davin where Horus was brought back
from the brink of death through the power of the the Serpent Temple's Chaos Sorcerers and the corruptive touch of
the Ruinous Powers, was perfectly pure and unusually potent, since it was derived from Horus' genome, who was
generally considered the greatest of the Primarchs.

However, following their corruption by Chaos, the Black Legion's Space Marines started to exhibit random genetic
mutations, and it is likely that this taint now affects their gene-seed as it has almost all of the Traitor Legions. The
regular practice among the Legion's Astartes of seeking daemonic possession may also have accelerated the effect.
However, such mutations are seen as a mark of favour from the Chaos Gods and are generally displayed with pride
by Black Legion Astartes.

However, it also means that the Legion can no longer produce new Astartes from its own gene-seed to replenish its
ranks since the Astartes organs will not properly cultivate or will be so genetically warped as to kill any human male
they are implanted within. This inability to replace losses is a problem that afflicts all of the Traitor Legions and
drives them to seek out uncorrupted Imperial Space Marine gene-seed stores whenever possible.

Notable Legion Members

 Horus - Horus, also known as Horus Lupercal, was the Primarch of the XVIth Legion and served as the first
Imperial Warmaster during the Great Crusade. Once the most favoured son of the Emperor of Mankind, he
ultimately became the greatest Arch-Traitor in the history of Mankind when he turned from the Emperor's
light and led half the Legiones Astartes in a galaxy-wide rebellion known as the Horus Heresy. Ultimately,
this rebellion failed when the Emperor confronted Horus at the climactic Battle of Terra aboard his flagship
Vengeful Spirit in mortal combat and killed him, which left the Emperor gravely wounded. This would
result in His ten millennia internment within the life-sustaining prosthetic device known as the Golden
Throne.
 Ezekyle Abaddon - Abaddon was the First Captain of the XVIth Legion's elite 1st Company, known as the
Justaerin, and was recognised as the greatest warrior of that Legion after its Primarch Horus himself. He
was also the leader of the Legion's unofficial advisory council composed of four senior Captains, called the
Mournival. Rumours indicate that Abaddon may have been the result of early experiments to clone Horus.
Abaddon eventually became the heir of Horus as the leader of the Black Legion after Horus' death at the
end of the Horus Heresy and rose to become the new Warmaster of Chaos Undivided. Abaddon, often
called Abaddon the Despoiler in the Imperium, is now one of the most powerful Chaos Lords, if not the
most powerful, in the galaxy. He alone possesses the power to unite all the warbands of the Black Legion
as well as the other Traitor Legions into a powerful army of Chaos in preparation for one last Black
Crusade against the Imperium, to finally end the Long War that began ten millennia ago.
 Maloghurst, "The Twisted" - Maloghurst served as Horus' Equerry, public voice and political enforcer,
and during the Horus Heresy he became the Warmaster's unofficial secret police chief. Maloghurst was
known as 'The Twisted' for being a shrewd manipulator and the way in which his brilliant mind schemed up
complex machinations. Known as a formidable warrior within the Legion there was some speculation that
Maloghurst was a serious contender for the First Captaincy of the Luna Wolves which was held by Ezekyle
Abaddon before the Warmaster made him his Equerry. During the campaign to bring the world designated
as 63-19 into Imperial Compliance in the last days of the Great Crusade, Maloghurst was despatched by the
Warmaster to the planet's surface to parlay with the false leader of this world who ironically called himself
the "Emperor of Mankind". Unfortunately, Maloghurst met his fate when his Stormbird was shot down and
he was horribly wounded after crash-landing on the planet's surface. His body was mangled and his spine
horribly twisted. His body was now as physically twisted as his mind, which had long been given to
deception and manipulation in a way that was unusual for the usually straight-forward Astartes. Though
physically unable to remain on active combat duty as an Astartes, when selected by his Primarch to serve as
his closest aide, Maloghurst proved more than willing. After Horus' corruption by Chaos on Davin, he
conspired to overthrow the Emperor and install himself as the new ruler of the Imperium. It became
Maloghurst's duty to ensure that the Warmaster's orders were carried out, in his new capacity as the chief
enforcer of Horus' will. During the initial phases of Horus' plan to conquer the Imperium, he first needed to
rid the various Traitor Legions of their remaining Loyalist Astartes on Istvaan III. Once he learned of the
plan to exterminate the Loyalists while they were fighting in the Choral City on the planet below, the
Loyalist Death Guard Captain Nathaniel Garro seized the Frigate Eisenstein in orbit of Istvaan III in order
to flee to Terra and warn the Emperor of the Warmaster's treachery. It was Maloghurst who directed the
Death Guard's First Captain Calas Typhon aboard his warship, the Terminus Est, to intercept and prevent
the Eisenstein from escaping. Typhon failed at this task, and the Eisenstein escaped, badly damaged, into
the Warp. Over the seven years of the Horus Heresy that followed, Maloghurst would become a dark,
feared figure amongst his fellow Astartes and mortals alike, and would be responsible for ordering some of
the most heinous crimes carried out by the Traitor Legions against civilian populations during the course of
the great galactic civil war.
 Argonis, "The Unscarred" - Argonis was a member of the Sons of Horus Legion during the Horus
Heresy who received his byname because his body was covered in scars and tatoos, but his face remained
smooth and unmarked. Agonis was an emissary of the Warmaster Horus who served under Maloghurst
during the Horus Heresy. He also served as a Chieftain of the Isidis Flight which was oathbonded to his
Legion's elite 1st Company. He was sent by the Warmaster to investigate the progress of the Iron Warriors
during the Battle of Tallarn.
 Falkus Kibre, "Widowmaker" - Falkus Kibre was a Captain of the elite 1st Company who led the black-
armoured Terminator Squad known as the "Widowmakers" of the elite Justaerin, Horus' personal honour
guard. Following the Warmaster's fall to Chaos and turn from the light of the Emperor, Kibre willingly
followed his Primarch into damnation during the Horus Heresy. He led the Justaerin during some of the
most infamous campaigns during this period of upheaval and rebellion, including the Drop Site Massacre
 on Istvaan V and the Battle of Terra. Following the dissolution of the Mournival with the losses of Captains
Loken and Torgaddon on Istvaan III during the conflict between the Traitors and Loyalists within the Sons
of Horus, Horus Aximand suggested the reformation of the Mournival, proposing to First Captain Abaddon
that Kibre be one of its members. Kibre was eventually recommended to become a member of the
Mournival by First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon following the Battle of the Mausolytic Precinct on the planet
Dwell to replace the Mournival members who had been lost. Ten millennia later, Kibre still serves
Abaddon, the new Warmaster of Chaos, as part of the Black Legion's Terminator elite.
 Kalus Ekaddon - Captain of the Catulan Reaver Assault Squads of the elite 1st Company.
 Raxhal Koraddon - Raxhal Koraddon was a Chieftain of the Catulan Reavers raised to captaincy for his
bloody endeavours during scouring of the Sons of Horus Legion of its Loyalists on the ash-strewn ruins of
Istvaan III. Koraddon had gained a fierce reputation in the years of war that followed Istvaan III, first
during the Dropsite Massacre and later in leading a score of Dark Compliance actions for his Primarch
across the northern reaches of the Segmentum Obscurus. In 009.M31, he was entrusted as Horus' proxy, to
treat with the Mechanicum of the Forge World of Xana II in order to secure a trio of deadly Ordinatii, a
class of the most powerful and acrane mobile weapons platforms in the Mechanicum's arsenal. However,
his plans were foiled when a large Blackshield irregular force and a small force of Dark Angels attacked
during the Xana Incursion, and seized two Ordinatii and evacuated from the surface of Xana-Tisiphone.
Enraged, Koraddon executed his host, Archmagos Gilim Raijan, before taking his leave. His ultimate fate
following this incident, is unknown.
 Tarik Torgaddon (Deceased) - Tarik Torgaddon was the Captain of the 2nd Company and a member of the
Mournival who remained loyal to the Emperor when the Sons of Horus turned to Chaos. Torgaddon was
killed during the Battle of Istvaan III when he was beheaded by his fellow Mournival member Horus
Aximand. His headless body was often used as an imaginary interlocutor in the mad ravings of Garviel
Loken, the only survivor of the battle on Istvaan III who would later be recovered by the former Death
Guard Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro to serve in the secret organisation that would become the Imperial
Inquisition.
 Iacton Qruze, "The Half-Heard" - Qruze was the Captain of the 3rd Company, a very old Space Marine
who was a native of Cthonia. By the time of the Horus Heresy he was one of the only Cthonian Astartes
still serving in the XVIth Legion who remembered what it was like when the Luna Wolves had served only
the Emperor before Horus had been rediscovered by his father. Qruze had been a captain of the Luna
Wolves since the Legion's inception and was even a veteran of the Unification Wars on Terra. Considered
ancient by dint of his length of service to the Legion as well as his continued die-hard loyalty to habits of
the Legion from the time of its Terran past that he could not seem to break. Qruze, like most Terran
Astartes in the Traitor Legions, remained loyal to the Emperor when Horus turned to the service of Chaos
in pursuit of his own ambitions. Recognising that the Sons of Horus no longer represented the Astartes he
had once known, Qruze rescued the civilian Remembrancers Mersadie Oliton and Euphrati Keeler as well
as the Senior Iterator Kyril Sindermann from Horus' massacre of civilians on his flagship the Vengeful
Spirit and fled with them to the Frigate Eisenstein during the virus-bombing of Istvaan III. During the flight
of the Eisenstein to Terra, Qruze formed a firm bond with the former Death Guard Battle-Captain Nathaniel
Garro, the pair were told by Malcador the Sigillite, the Regent of Terra, that they, along with the Sister of
Silence Amendera Kendel, were to form the beginnings of an organisation that would utilise "men and
women of an inquisitive nature, hunters who might seek the witch, the traitor, the mutant, the xenos" --
later known as the Imperial Inquisition.
 Hastur Sejanus (Deceased) - Sejanus had been the Captain of the 4th Company and a member of the
Mournival during the Great Crusade. Sejanus was sent as an ambassador of the Luna Wolves to greet the
leader of the world of 63-19 who styled himself the "Emperor of Mankind" and whose planet had not yet
been brought into Imperial Compliance, and was brutally murdered. Horus had loved Sejanus like a son
and felt towards him the way he believed that his own father, the Emperor, loved him. Garviel Loken
replaced Sejanus on the Mournival following the Imperial Compliance of the world designated 63-19.
 Horus "Little Horus" Aximand - Horus Aximand, known as "Little Horus" because of his uncanny
resemblance to his Primarch, was the Captain of the 5 th Company and also a member of the Mournival.
Aximand was originally very loyal to the Emperor and the Imperium's ideals, but reluctantly turned to the
service of the Ruinous Powers when the Warmaster took ill on the Feral World of Davin and his Astartes
desperately agreed to let him be cured by the Chaos Cult known as the Temple of the Serpent Lodge in
direct violation of the Imperial Truth. Aximand's loyalty to Horus ran so deep that, in the end, it overrode
 his own better judgment and fealty to the Emperor. Aximand beheaded Tarik Torgaddon during the
fighting against the Traitor Legions' Loyalists on Istvaan III, but was later overcome with regret for his
actions. Both Horus and First Captain Abaddon took notice of this unexpected weakness in their comrade,
but took no actions against Aximand as long as he presented no hindrance to their plans.
 Yade Durso - Yade Durso served as the second Captain to command the 5th Company during the Great
Crusade and the Horus Heresy.
 Zeb Zenonius - Sergeant of the Bale Tactical Squad of the 5th Company during the Great Crusade and the
Horus Heresy.
 Serghar Targost - Captain of the 7th Company and the Lodge Master of the Sons of Horus' Warrior Lodge,
the heart of the Legion's growing allegiance to the Chaos Gods.
 Kergath the Flame - Kergath was originally the Captain of the 9th Company during the Great Crusade and
Horus Heresy eras. He would survive the galaxy-wide civil war and go on to serve Abaddon the Despoiler
and his Black Legion as a powerful war leader of the remnants of his original company, which was now a
Renegade warband. During the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, while attacking the vital Astropath
listening post on the Mining World of Ormantep, located on the outskirts of the Cadian Gate, the Black
Legionaries were soon set upon by an unexpected foe -- the returned Wulfen warriors of the Space Wolves'
lost 13th Great Company. Within minutes, all of the Black Legionaries were savagely killed by the lupine
creatures, who mysteriously vanished, as quickly as they had arrived.
 Garviel Loken - Loken was the Captain of the 10th Company and was made a member of the Mournival
after the death of Hastur Sejanus. Loken possessed one of the most analytical and perceptive minds
amongst the Astartes of the XVIth Legion. Loken remained firmly loyal to the Emperor and His vision of a
new Golden Age for Mankind and was one of the first amongst the Sons of Horus to realize that the
Warmaster had changed after his miraculous healing in the Temple of the Serpent Lodge on Davin and that
he was subsequently leading the XVIth Legion down a dark and dangerous path. Loken, along with his
friends Captain Tarik Torgaddon and Sergeant Nero Vipus, were selected by Horus to lead the Sons of
Horus' participation in the campaign on the world of Istvaan III, which had recently rebelled against the
Emperor and declared itself an independent principality. However, shortly after the liberation of the planet's
capital, Choral City, from the Slaaneshi rebels, Horus betrayed the Loyalist Astartes he had deliberately
sent to the planet below, and bombarded its surface from orbit with Life-Eater virus bombs. However,
because of the heroic actions of Captain Saul Tarvitz of the Emperor's Children, many of the Loyalists
manage to survive the initial bombardment. Captains Loken, Torgaddon, and Tarvitz took command of the
Loyalist elements that remained and fought a three-month-long holding campaign against the Traitors that
delayed their plans to move on Terra. Finally, when Horus had had enough, he sent Loken and Torgaddon's
traitorous former Mournival brothers, Ezekyle Abaddon and Horus Aximand, to the planet's surface to kill
Loken and Torgaddon while he prepared to wipe out the remaining Loyalists with an orbital bombardment.
In the ensuing fight, Torgaddon was beheaded by Aximand, but before Loken could be similarly slain by
Abaddon, the ruins they had been fighting in were crushed by the Imperator-class Titan Dies Irae. Loken
somehow managed to survive the collapse of the ruins upon him but was left badly wounded in both body
and spirit, having been driven partially insane by his Legion's betrayal. He was presumed killed by the
XVIth Legion following the final bombardment of the Choral City, but survived and took to wandering the
ruins of the Choral City, slaying the groups of wandering Plague Zombies who were raised from the
corpses scattered across the dead world by the taint of Nurgle whose influence had grown on the world as a
result of the use of the Life-Eater virus to kill its population. Several years later, Loken was found alive and
partially insane in the ruins of the Choral City on Istvaan III by the former Death Guard Battle-Captain
Nathaniel Garro, who had been sent to find Loken so that he could become one of the first Astartes to join
what would become the Imperial Inquisition. Garro engaged Loken in a duel and managed to restore his
sanity by reminding him of who he was and that he possessed a duty to fight the Emperor's enemies for so
long as he still drew breath.
 Luc Sedirae - Sedirae was the Captain of the 13th Company following the events of the Istvaan III
Atrocity. An exceptional warrior, Sedirae's martial exploits were considered not far behind those of First
Captain Ezekyle Abaddon. Sedirae was even considered at one point worthy of elevation into the esteemed
ranks of the XVIth Legion's elite Mournival, but was passed over in favour of Garviel Loken. The rumoured
reason for this was that he was considered too ruthless in battle and too eager an advocate of unleashing
warfare to bring worlds into Imperial Compliance when diplomacy would prove to be just as effective.
Sedirae was later present on the planet Dagonet in the Segmentum Ultima during the early days of the
 Horus Heresy after the Sons of Horus had turned to the service of Chaos. Dagonet had been the site of one
of Horus' first conquests of the Great Crusade, in which he claimed the planet for the Imperium with only a
single Bolter shot. A lengthy civil war ensued between the Loyalist and Traitor factions on the world, with
the pro-Horus aristocracy emerging as the dominant rulers of the planet. At the beginning of the Horus
Heresy, Dagonet declared their allegiance to the Warmaster and invited him to attend a ceremony in his
honour. But by this time, there had been a number of assassination attempts on the Warmaster's life by
Loyalist Assassins. Therefore, Sedirae, acting as a body-double, wore Horus' Power Armour and descended
to the planet's surface in the Warmaster's place. Upon removing his helm, a team of Imperial Assassins
killed the false "Horus". The Sons of Horus were roused to a murderous rage and killed Dagonet's entire
aristocracy, and then proceeded to vent their anger by exterminating the rest of the world's remaining
population.
 Jerrod - Replacement Captain of the 13th Company after Luc Sedirae was killed on the world of Dagonet
while he was fulfilling his role as a body double for the real Horus and was assassinated by a special
Officio Assassinorum strike team.
 Tybalt Marr, "The Either" & Verulam Moy, "The Or" - Captains of the 18th and 19th Companies,
respectively. Marr and Moy had an unusually close friendship with one another. They were amongst those
Luna Wolves Battle-Brothers who looked very similar in physical appearance to their Primarch Horus, and
were colloquially known as "Sons of Horus". Though notable for their striking resemblance to their
Primarch, the similarities between the two were such (both physical and in the way in which they interacted
with one another, and the similar styles in which they led their respective companies) that most within the
Legion considered them almost as identical twins. Therefore, they were respectively referred to as the "The
Either" and "The Or". Their companies often fought together in concert when circumstances permitted. It is
interesting to note that Captain Moy was often placed in the speartip, the term used by the original Luna
Wolves Legion as the initial assault element in any attack, while Captain Marr was not. It would be on
Davin's moon that Captain Moy would meet his fate. Already a member of the Warrior Lodge and a
capable line officer, Moy still hungered for the opportunity to distinguish himself as one of the elite
Astartes of his Legion. When he was selected by the Warmaster to lead a speartip into the crashed flagship
of the renegade Planetary Governor Eugen Temba, it appeared his opportunity for glory had finally arrived.
Unfortunately, he was killed when he encountered the now Chaos-corrupted Temba after refusing his offer
to submit to the corrupting influence of the Plague Lord Nurgle. The death of Moy affected Marr greatly, as
he became sullen and withdrawn after visiting the scene of his friend's death. With Moy's death, Marr
changed his mind about joining the XVIth Legion's Warrior Lodge and so, on the eve of the Horus Heresy,
he was inducted by Horus himself and followed his Legion to its eventual damnation.
 Grael Noctua "The Warlocked" - Successor of the fallen Lev Goshen, Grael Noctua was originally a
Sergeant in the 25th Company. Not long after the events of the Dropsite Massacre at Istvaan V, Sergeant
Noctua was recommended by Horus Aximand to fill one of the missing positions within the elite Mournival
following the Battle of Dwell, where he had performed admirably. He would later take part in the Battle of
Molech, both on the planet's surface fighting Imperial forces, as well as above in orbit, against a Knights-
Errant strike team that had infiltrated the Sons of Horus' flagship, Vengeful Spirit, in a failed attempt to
assassinate the Warmaster and pave the way for a Space Wolves strike force. While fighting against the
Knights-Errant, Noctua was stabbed by the former Luna Wolve named Severian. Following the Knights-
Errants' escape, the Daemon known as Tormageddon possessed the body of Noctua, as it's former host, had
been destroyed during the fighting. Noctua's ultimate fate is unknown.
 Lev Goshen - Lev Goshen was the Captain of the 25th Company.
 Ekron Fal - Veteran-Justaerin Ekron Fal was a warrior of enormous renown within the ranks of the 1 st
Company, 12th Chapter of the Sons of Horus. He gained prominence in the later battles of the Ullanor
Crusade and was admitted to the ranks of the Justaerin at its conclusion. According to later cult-material
captured in the Sack of Hybarix, he also covertly held high rank in several tiers of the Warrior Lodges
operating within the XVIth Legion. Veteran-Justaerin Fal led his Justaerin Terminator Squad, known as the
Seventh Occluded, as a part of the Umbra Sons Terminator Cohort throughout the opening defensive phase
of the Drop Site Massacre, repelling attacks on the fortress-line by the Loyalist Astartes of the
Salamanders, Iron Hands and Raven Guard, before leading a decisive counter-charge in the battle's final
act. Shortly thereafter, Ekron Fal was promoted to the rank of Centurion by Horus himself.
 Chieftain K'lathall - According to a stele, recovered on Goth after the war, dedicated to the war leader
Chieftain K'lathall, he served in a Despoiler squad at Istvaan III, proving by the exceptional savagery of his
 deeds that he was deserving of a more honoured appointment. Being placed in command of a Reaver
Attack Squad of the 7th Assault Company, he participated in the final assault on the gates of the Palace of
Light at Hive Ilium on Manachea. To Chieftain K'lathall fell the honour of being the first to breach the
palace's inner bounds. This was merely the beginning of this Sons of Horus Legionary's rise within his
Legion, as the Stele of Goth attest. K'lathall's ultimate fate following the Heresy is unknown.
 Guljuk Ygethddon - Sergeant Ygethddon commanded a Despoiler Squad of the 9 th Battle Company, 2nd
Battalion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.
 Nero Vipus - Locasta Tactical Squad Sergeant assigned to the 10th Company who fought on Istvaan III and
remained loyal to the Emperor.
 Xavyer Jubal - Xayver Jubal was the sergeant of the Hellbore Tactical Squad of the 10th Company. He was
angered when Captain Garviel Loken chose to promote Nero Vipus to the position of senior sergeant of the
10th Company, after Garviel had been accepted into the Mournival. Jubal felt that the promotion should
have gone to him, since he was of a higher rank and had served longer as a sergeant than Vipus. It was his
resentment for Loken and his jealousy of Vipus that allowed a daemonic Warp-entity known as "Samus" to
corrupt and possess him deep beneath the Whisperhead Mountains on the world of 63-19. Jubal killed his
entire squad before attacking Loken and the accompanying members of Brakespur Squad. Loken restrained
Jubal, but only after several members of Brakespur Squad were killed by their former Battle-Brother. The
insipid powers of the Warp then mutated Jubal into the visage of a slobbering, raging Daemonhost. Jubal
killed two Remembrancers who had arrived beneath the Whisperhead Mountains to document the Luna
Wolves' latest victory before being torn apart by the Bolters of Loken and Vipus. Jubal was a member of
the XVIth Legion's Warrior Lodge, but had not attended any meetings in years at the time of his death,
though Loken learned of the lodge's existence within his Legion when he went through Jubal's effects and
found a Lodge Medal.
 Talonus - Talonus was the Sergeant of the Pithraes Tactical Squad of the 10 th Company.
 Rassek - Rassek was a Terminator Squad Sergeant attached to the 10 th Company. He was possibly a
member of the elite Justaerin Terminator Squad of the 1 st Company.
 Kairus - Sergeant of the Walkure Tactical Squad of the 10 th Company.
 Ghrastak (Deceased) - Ghrastak was a Cthonian by origin and a former Captain of the 13 th Battle
Company until he fell in battle during the purgation campaign against the Khrave of Morduna. Though
interred within the admantium sarcophagus of a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, he remained a staunch
devotee of the Emperor and of the ideals of Unification. As a result of his Loyalist sympathies, he became a
victim of Horus' conspiracy. Deployed via Drop Pod with the Loyalist Sons of Horus' first wave on Istvaan
III, he was ultimately betrayed unto death fighting against the follow-on Traitor forces that ultimately
culled the few remaining Loyalists after a two-month-long siege during the Istvaan III Atrocity.
 Amurael - Amurael, known also as "Amurael the Corrupted", was a Chaos Dreadnought of the Black
Legion. He was once a warleader of a Black Legion warband until he was cleft in two by a Khornate
Daemon. His shattered remains were entombed witin a Dreadnought chassis, allowing him to continue to
fight the Long War. He would later take part in multiple battles against the Crimson Fists Chapter.
 Master-Driver Ummaos Ludarch - Ummaos Ludarch served for over a decade as a squad leader in 13 th
Company under Luc Sedirae, and he took part in the conquest of several dozen worlds, culminating in the
Dark Compliance of the world of Dagonet. It was during that operation that Ludarch's commander was
slain, it is believed by a clade of assassins dispatched from Terra, and in the aftermath the Sons of Horus
launched a vengeance campaign during which many thousands were punished, regardless of their
complicity in the assassination. It was during this period of brutality and punishment that Ummaos Ludarch
excelled himself in the eyes of his superiors, leading to him being detached from the 13 th Company and
assigned command over a Traitor muster of several thousand slave-troops in future campaigns. Ludarch's
ultimate fate is unknown.
 Grael Noctua - Noctua was a Tactical Squad Sergeant assigned to the 25th Company during the Horus
Heresy. Noctua was recommended to become a member of the Mournival by Captain Horus Aximand
following the Battle of the Mausolytic Precinct on the planet Dwell to replace the Mournival members who
had been lost on Istvaan III during the conflict between the Traitors and Loyalists within the Sons of Horus.
 Kloros Endall - Lieutenant Endall was a Terran-born veteran of the XVIth Legion. He was a part of the
first wave of Loyalists during the assault on Istvaan III's Choral City, and was presumably slain during the
subsequent betrayal.
 Dastruak Judd - Section-Leader Judd was a part of the Traitor attack forces unleashed against the Siren-
Hold defences in the latter stages of the Istvaan III Atrocity, where he was slain by the Loyalist Sons of
Horus Contemptor Dreadnought Ghrastak.
 Avakhol Hurr - Hurr was a part of the XVIth Legion's Rukal Breacher Battalion, which was primarily
employed as a support assault contingent during boarding actions and siege operations. The Rukal
customarily practised the macabre preservation of any blood spray from their previous engagements on
their armour as a visible sign of their destructive intent.
 Severian - Severian was an Astartes of the 28th Company who was incarcerated in the prison of Khangba
Marwu on Terra after the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. Severian escaped from the prison along with
several other Astartes of the Crusader Host. Severian was last sighted in the Petitioner's City on Terra and
his ultimate fate remains unknown.
 Devram Korda - Also known as "The Tyrant of Sarora", Devram Korda is a servant of the Chaos God
Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure. During the Great Crusade and the opening days of the Horus Heresy,
Korda served within the vaunted Sons of Horus Legion under the command of the Warmaster Horus. When
the Warmaster fell to the corrupting influence of the Chaos Gods and began the terrible galactic civil war
known as the Horus Heresy, Devram Korda willingly followed his Primarch into damnation. By the
opening days of the conflict, Korda served as a Veteran Sergeant of the 13th Company, of the XVIth Legion
and as one of the seconds of Captain Luc Sedirae. Korda was present on the Legion's flagship Vengeful
Spirit when Captain Sedirae and First Chaplain Erebus of the Word Bearers Legion were able to unmask
the Clade Venenum Assassin known as Tobeld. Korda slew the assassin himself. Following the events of
the Horus Heresy, he rose to prominence and became a Chaos Lord. He became infamous for his
blasphemous actions on the doomed world of Sarora, where he distilled the life essence of the citizens of
the planet's largest hive city for a single vial of a sorcerous elixir which made him virtually invincible. He
eventually became the current Lord Ravager, the individual who leads the invasion fleets of the Black
Crusade in the name of Abaddon the Despoiler. It is Korda who first makes landfall on the surface of a
world about to be assaulted by the Forces of Chaos. Korda also commands the personal retinue of the
Despoiler, known as the Chosen of Abaddon. In the closing days of the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41,
Devram Korda returned to his master's side, bringing with him two individuals (later identified as Skyrak
Slaughterborn and Urkrathos) who had journeyed to the centre of the Eye of Terror. Together with the
Chaos Sorcerer Ygethmor the Deceiver, they presented Abaddon with the Heart of Chaos, a powerful
artefact that Zaraphiston, a Tzeentchian Chaos Sorcerer and rival Chaos Lord of the Despoiler, had long
claimed could not exist.
 Zaraphiston - Zaraphiston is a Chaos Sorcerer of the Black Legion and the most senior advisor to
Abaddon. Originally, he was a Legionary of the Thousand Sons, and following the Scouring of Prospero
and their extrication to the Planet of the Sorcerers, at the behest of his patron god Tzeentch, he traveled
deep into the Eye of Terror. On a Daemon World made of brass cogs and ticking chronometres,
Zaraphiston was gifted with a terrible understanding of precognition. Thereafter, he joined the Black
Legion and pledged his service to the Warmaster. He would later play a pivotal role in the construction of
the massive Planet Killer, and often utilises divination to predict the plans of Abaddon's enemies.
 Ygethmor the Deceiver - Ygethmor the Deceiver, known also as the "Twice Damned" and the "Purgator
of Corrialis", is a formidable Sorcerer Lord of the Black Legion. He currently serves as one of Abaddon the
Despoiler's lieutenants and a member of his personal retinue, the Chosen of Abaddon. Ygethmor is the
current Lord Deceiver, whose visions of the Warp lead the Black Crusade from star system to star system.
During the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, the Officio Assassinorum sanctioned the deployment of an
assassin team to eliminate Ygethmor, amongst other notable targets in service to the Archenemy. Whilst
scrutiny of their field records is impossible, at least seven Assassinorum agents are known to have failed in
the attempt to take the life of the Deceiver.
 Iskandar Khayon - Iskandar Khayon, also known as the "Kingbreaker" and "Khayon the Black", is a
Chaos Sorcerer and Lord Vigilator of the Black Legion. He is one of Warmaster Abaddon's most trusted
and valued lieutenants and a member of the Ezekarion, the elite brotherhood within the legion. As of now,
Khayon remains a prisoner of the Imperial Inquisition, to which he had surrendered willingly, as a part of
Abbadon's plans.
 Telemachon Lyras - Telemachon Lyras, known originally as Telemachon Lyral, was a Terran-born
Legionary of the Emperor's Children. In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy and his Legion's fall to the
corrupting influence of the Pleasure God, Slaanesh, Lyras became the second-in-command of a warband
 led by Kadalus Orlantir, which consisted of the Emperor's Children's 16th, 40th and 51st Companies.
Commanding his own warship, the Threat of Rapture, Lyras took part in an assault by Kadalus on the
forces of Falkus Kibre, Lheorvine Ukris, and Iskandar Khayon. During the battle, Lyras was badly
wounded by Khayon and captured as the trio attempted to escape. Afterwards, aboard the Thousand Sons'
vessel Tlaloc, Lyras was healed by Khayon's Dark Eldar bloodward, Nefertari, whom he quickly fell in
love with, despite the fact that Khayon intended to use the Dark Eldar maiden to viciously torture him.
Instead, the torture only furthered the love of the smitten Lyras for his torturer. Ultimately, Lyras defected
to Abaddon's side and aided his forces during the Battle of Harmony. Though Nefertari was killed during
the battle by a clone of the dead Horus, Lyras would continue to serve as one of Abaddon's lieutenants.
Much later, during the 7th Black Crusade, Lyras served as a key commander alongside both Khayon and
Abaddon himself, and took part in the near destruction of the Blood Angels Chapter on the planet Mackan.
 Ashur-Kai Qezremah, "White Seer" - Ashur-Kai was a potent Psyker of the Thousand Sons Legion who
commanded the warship Tlaloc. This potent warship possessed a partly-daemonic Machine Spirit known as
Anamnesis. He had eventually found himself in service to the Thousand Sons' Sorcerer Iskandar Khayon,
and became a part of his Kha'Sherhan warband. Along with his Chaos Lord and his fellow Chaos Space
Marines, Ashur-Kai also swore his service to Abaddon the Despoiler and his Black Legion, and later took
part in their first engagement, known as the Battle of Harmony. Though his vessel was destroyed during the
vicious battle, Ashur-Kai had been aboard the Vengeful Spirit and would continue to serve the Warmaster.
 Skyrak Slaughterborn - Skyrak Slaughterborn is a Chaos Lord of the Black Legion of Chaos Space
Marines and the current Lord Corruptor of the Chosen of Abaddon. Skyrak Slaughterborn leads the
warbands of Nurgle within the Black Legion into battle. Collectively known as the Bringers of Decay, they
spread their disease and corruption throughout the Realms of Man. Skyrak is known to have led the large
warband of Chaos Space Marines known as the Slaughterkin in the assault on Cadia during the 13 th Black
Crusade. The Lord Corruptor is tasked with instilling fear and hatred amongst the Chaos Space Marines of
the Black Legion. His trophy rack is adorned with the skulls of failed servants.
 Urkrathos - Urkrathos is a Chaos Lord of the Black Legion of Chaos Space Marines and the current Lord
Purgator of the Chosen of Abaddon. Within the ranks of the Black Legion are those who are bloody-handed
servants of Khorne. Though not a single unified warband within the Black Legion, they are collectively
known as the Hounds of Abaddon. Urkrathos, the current Lord Purgator and commander of the Legion's
Black Fleet, claims all followers of Khorne within the Legion as his own and directs them according to the
will of Abaddon the Despoiler, the Warmaster of Chaos and master of the Black Legion. It falls to the Lord
Purgator to ensure that every man, woman and child left alive on a world conquered by the Black Legion is
dragged in chains into the hold of the Legion's starships, and that no edifice remains undedicated to the
Dark Gods.
 Araghast the Pillager - Araghast the Pillager was a powerful Chaos Lord who commanded the Chaos
Space Marine warband of the Black Legion that assaulted the Sub-sector Aurelia during the Second
Aurelian Crusade. Araghast was betrayed by his second-in-command, the former Dark Apostle Eliphas the
Inheritor, and subsequently killed by a Blood Ravens Chapter strike force led by Force Commander
Aramus.
 Zagthean the Broken - Zagthean is a Chaos Lord of the Black Legion who led his Black Legion warband
in a fury of violence and excess on the Agri-world of Valesia. For his own satisfaction, the Chaos warlord
constructed a vast maze of thorns from the world's rose orchards, blinding his prisoners and loosing them
within its tunnels, before hunting them down at his leisure. Countless inhabitants spent their final terrifying
hours listening desperately for the sounds of pursuit, their flesh bleeding from dozens of thorn cuts.
Sometime after the 4th Black Crusade, Zagthean pillaged the world of Helosian in the Agripinaa Sector.
Taking the Convent of Alabaster Maidens prisoner, he exposed them to the energies of the Warp, triggering
their latent psychic gifts. Zagthean then uses Warp-tech to fuse the maidens into a single entity, before
using the resultant abomination as a living Warp portal to unleash a daemonic invasion. Zagthean also
served as one of the Black Legion's commanders during the 13th Black Crusade to destroy Cadia.
 Corpulax - Corpulax was originally a member of the Consecrators Chapter, who was infected with the
Zombie Plague while battling the plague-ridden forces of Typhus. Left for dead, Corpulax awoke as a
reanimated corpse. However, unlike other plague victims, Corpulax retained his intelligence and cognitive
abilities. He eventually became a willing servant of the Plague God Nurgle and for the last three centuries,
has orchestrated an inexorable rise to power, until finally, he became one of Abaddon's most trusted
warlords. Fighting in dozens of battles besides his lord's side, or carrying out the Warmaster's bidding,
 Corpulax continues to spread the terrible plague that he was infected with. He is single-handedly
responsible for disseminating the virulent plague that wiped out every inhabitant of the city of Atika during
the Pandorax Campaign.
 Drecarth the Sightless - The Sons of the Eye were a splinter warband of the Black Legion that was
founded and commanded by the infamous Chaos Lord Drecarth the Sightless, the Blind Butcher of Irridous
VII, a former Battle-Brother of the Sons of Horus who had fought alongside Abaddon during the Great
Crusade and the Horus Heresy that followed. Always jealous of the Primarch Horus' favour for the
Despoiler, the Sons of the Eye considered Abaddon a usurper. During the 6th Black Crusade, launched in
901.M36, Abaddon visited his wrath upon Drecarth the Sightless and his treacherous warband. Abaddon
aided the Sons of the Eye in an assault on the Forge World of Arkreach, fighting side-by-side until the
defenders were finally crushed. The triumphant Abaddon then slowly killed Drecarth, even as he made him
watch every member of the Sons of the Eye bow before their new master.
 Eliphas the Inheritor - Eliphas was a former Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion and leader
of the XVIIth Legion's forces deployed for the Dark Crusade on the world of Kronus in the late 41st
Millennium. On Kronus, Eliphas and his forces were defeated and slain by three companies of the Blood
Ravens Space Marine Chapter under the command of Captain Davian Thule. After his soul suffered much
torment in the Empyrean for his failure, he was resurrected by the will of the Chaos Gods to gain his
revenge upon the Blood Ravens and left the Word Bearers behind to ally himself with the Black Legion
and Abaddon the Despoiler following his return to life. He pledged to Abaddon that the destruction or
corruption to Chaos of the Blood Ravens would be his only goal in life following his resurrection.
 Eralak - Eralak was a Chaos Space Marine Raptor commander within the Black Legion, whose forces
brought about bloody terror to the floating hives of Melphia. During their rampage, his Raptor warband
killed millions, and sent dozens of cities falling out of the sky after he tore out their complex suspensor
arrays and vented their plasma reactors onto the farms and fields below. He then had giant floating
makeshift gallows fashioned from the remaining ruined cities and had millions of Imperial citizens hanged.
Their corpses would forever more sway in the breeze as the gallows drifted across the skies of Melphia.
 Faenroc the Forgotten - A powerful Black Legion Chaos Lord, in 027.M32, he discovered a Daemon
World formed from Warp-infused iron ore. To harvest this valuable ore, he drilled to the planet's core, and
built a vast mine to harvest its wealth for his forces using slave labour. When the ore proved poisonous to
his slave labour force, causing them to mutate or killing them, Faenroc remedied the problem by having
Daemons bound to his mining machines, to continue the harvesting of the ore.
 Malagar Irongrasp - A former notable Master of the Fleet of the White Consuls Chapter known as Malgar
Eringrasp, he saw many engagements over four centuries of service to the Chapter. Eventually, he was
overcome in battle around Cadia by the Black Legion and swore fealty to Abaddon the Despoiler, and after
slaying the leader of the Traitor fleet, became it's ruling admiral. Now known as Malagar Irongrasp, he
served the Despoiler without fail for centuries, that is, until the Fourth Battle of the Sunward Gap in
959.M41. His ship, the Merciless Death was crippled by allied Red Corsairs and abandoned by his fleet to
the opposing Dark Angels Chapter and Grey Knights forces. Irongrasp went down with his ship as the
loyalist forces destroyed it in a hail of gunfire.
 Ragged King - The Ragged King was the name given to a Legionary of the Black Legion who was the sole
surviving member of a space battle against the Imperium in 117.M35. In the battle's aftermath, he sought
shelter on the nearby Feral World of Skyrro, and soon became worshipped as a god by the local population.
It took the Imperial Guard more than a decade to destroy the Ragged King's savage armies to reclaim
Skyrro.
 Voidheart - Voidheart was a powerful Chaos Lord of the Black Legion and one of Abaddon's favorite
lieutenants. During the so-called War of the Wolf, which took place in 612.M41 upon the frozen world of
Lumerius against the feral Space Wolves Chapter, he was wounded by Ranulf Ironfang, one of Great Wolf
Logan Grimnar's Kingsguard, but managed to escape.
 Dhar'leth - Dhar'leth was a former Black Legion member who was elevated to a Daemon Prince, as a sign
of the Chaos Gods' favour. He later pledged his loyalty to Abaddon the Despoiler. In 165.M37, he formed
the vanguard of Abaddon's attack, leading his Black Legionaries against Monarchive, which was the seat of
the Imperial Commander on Antecanis IV. Within Imperial annals this infamous slaughter came to be
known as the Antecanis Massacre.
 Xyn'Goran - Xyn'Goran is a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, whom Abaddon sought out upon his Daemon
World within the Warp. This mind-altering world was a place where time flowed backwards and in the
 world's center, the Daemon Prince sat around its core, counting back from the end of days. Wanting this
power for his own, Abaddon clawed his way towards the Daemon Prince, and finally arrived at the
creature's feet, demanding servitude. Amused, Xyn'Goran asked why he shouldn't just slay him outright for
his temerity? In reply, Abaddon challenged the Daemon Prince -- to guess his true name. Should he guess
correctly, the Daemon Prince would pledge his allegiance to him; but should he fail, then Abaddon would
surrender the artefacts he carried with him, but the daemon had to tell him his true name to prove that he
wasn't cheating. Unable to resist, the Great Daemon acquiesced and agreed to the game's conditions.
Unknown to the Great Daemon, this was actually the second time that Abaddon stood before him. For he
had already lost this game the first time, but had learned the Greater Daemon's true name as proof.
Surrendering his artefacts, Abaddon had then stepped back into the tides of time and returned to the Warp
years earlier, before he had come to this world, and left his future self a message with the daemon's true
name. Thus, it came to pass, that Abaddon enslaved Xyn'Goran, the fractured Daemon of Time, and
acquired the daemon's future memories, which allowed the Warmaster the abilities to perceive the fates and
shape his own destiny.

Legion Fleet

The Warmaster Horus' flagship, the Battle Barge Vengeful Spirit

The XVIth Legion's Great Crusade fleet was accorded to be among the greatest under any single commander's flag,
with in excess of one hundred capital ships and perhaps three times that figure in smaller Cruisers and Escorts under
Horus' direct command. Abaddon's grand fleet after the Heresy has comprised many thousands of cursed and Chaos-
mutated vessels.

Amongst them are gigantic Space Hulks, grand Battle Barges, rebel strike fleets, weaponised asteroid chains,
Repulsive-class Grand Cruisers, Desolator-class Battleships, Despoiler-class Battleships named in his honour,
Hades, Styx and Lethe-class Heavy Cruisers and a thousand other warships besides.

One of his most powerful warships, the Planet Killer, boasts a weapon of such extreme power it can depopulate a
world in a single night. Yet the true jewels in the crown of this insane armada are the Blackstone Fortresses, ancient
and alien starbases so large they once anchored entire sub-sectors of the galaxy. Each possessed power beyond
mortal imagination, being both an immovable object and irresistible force combined.

Yet when Abaddon combined the might of three Blackstone Fortresses at Tarantis, during the climactic events of the
Gothic War, the resultant bow wave of raw energy inflamed the system's star to such an extent it consumed the two
worlds in closest orbit before going supernova. The cataclysm wiped out everything for many trillions of miles in
every direction in a storm of gas and plasma.

With the power to destroy entire star systems at his fingertips, Abaddon inadvertently forced the Imperium and the
Eldar to ally against him, and he was driven into retreat at the Battle of Schindlegeist. It is whispered that two of the
Blackstone Fortresses exist yet at the heart of the Despoiler's fleet, and that Abaddon has other such weapons of
annihilation waiting to be deployed when the time is right.

During the 13th Black Crusade, Abaddon deployed one of these Blackstone Fortresses, the Will of Eternity, to
Cadia. The fortress was damaged in battle with the Imperial Fists' star fortress Phalanx, but ultimately served its
purpose when it was used as a giant projectile and slammed into the surface of that Imperial Fortress World to
finally claim victory for Chaos. The second Blackstone Fortress was handed over to the service of the Red Corasirs
warband of Heretic Astartes in the Maelstorm, who had become important allies of the Black Legion. It would serve
an important role in trying to stop the resurrected Primarch Roboute Guilliman from reaching Terra during the
Terran Crusade.

The following starships are known to have been a part of the Black Legion's large armada in the Eye of Terror,
which has been known as the "Black Fleet" since Abaddon gained control over the Legion:
  Vengeful Spirit (Gloriana-class Battleship) - The Vengeful Spirit was the infamous flagship of the XVIth
Legion and the Warmaster Horus during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. It was upon this vessel
that the final battle of the Heresy between the Emperor of Mankind and Horus played out and where the
Warmaster's life and soul were finally extinguished by the unmatched psychic power of the Emperor. The
Sons of Horus were able to recover their fallen Primarch's body before they fled the Sol System for the Eye
of Terror and the Vengeful Spirit was taken by Horus' successor, Abaddon the Despoiler, as his own
flagship. It still often serves in that function at present.
 Planet Killer (Unique Battleship) - The Planet Killer is a massive Chaos starship that served as flagship of
Abaddon the Despoiler during the Gothic War and the 13th Black Crusade. The vessel owes its power to its
main weapon, the Armageddon Gun, which can destroy an entire planet.
 Merciless Death (Despoiler-class Battleship) - One of the three original ships of her class that defected to
Chaos, it plagued the Imperium for nigh on six millennia until it was destroyed in the course of the
Pandorax Campaign in 959.M41 during the Fourth Battle of the Sunward Gap by a combined task force of
Dark Angels, Grey Knights and the Imperial Navy.
 Harbinger of Doom (Battle Barge) - Formerly known as the Magna Tyrannis, this ancient Battle Barge
has served the XVIth Legion since the start of the Great Crusade until the end of the 41 st Millenium. It has
on multiple occasions served as the flagship of Abaddon the Despoiler.
 Chariot of the Gods (Battleship, Unknown Class)
 Forinox (Avenger-class Grand Cruiser)
 Leonis (Avenger-class Grand Cruiser)
 Blade of Damnation (Repulsive-class Grand Cruiser)
 Castigator (Vengeance-class Grand Cruiser)
 Promise of Absolution (Unknown Class) - The Promise of Absolution carried a complement of almost
2000 Heretic Astartes, as well as several tens of thousands of mortals, Beastmen and other servants of the
Dark Gods. It was lost with all hands during the 1st Black Crusade.
 Scarred Crown (Troop Transport) - This troop transport was destroyed with all hands by the fleet of
Thagus Daravek the Death Guard Sorcerer Lord who opposed the Sons of Horus during the Legion Wars.
 Oath of Knives (Cruiser) - The Oath of Knives was a cruiser that was destroyed by the attack of the Death
Guard Sorcerer Thagus Daravek during the Legion Wars.
 Skies of Wroth (Frigate) - Black Legion frigate that participated in the 1st Black Crusade.

Legion Artefacts

 Crucible of Lies - It is impossible to describe the Crucible of Lies, for its image is unique to the beholder.
One gifted with the witch-sight may perceive it as a rippling cloak saturated with Warp energy; a warrior
may see it as an archaic amulet wreathed in baleful psychic flame. Regardless of its appearance, the
Crucible of Lies defies natural law to distort the blows of the wearer's enemies, but such power does not
come without a price.
 Eye of Night - One of the artefacts used by Abaddon to take command of the dreaded Blackstone
Fortresses, the Eye of Night is a multifaceted obsidian crystal of unknown origin. The slightest caress of the
ebon beam it can unleash causes machines to suffer massive power failure or catastrophic internal damage.
Not even the thickest armour can resist its malignant touch.
 Hand of Darkness - An ancient device infused with the atrophying power of the Warp, the Hand of
Darkness decays all and everything that its wielder touches. Flesh sloughs from bones and armour is
reduced to little more than pools of liquid slag. It was with this fabled artefact that Abaddon finally gained
access to the inner workings of the Blackstone Fortresses, before later surrendering it to the Daemon
Primarch Mortarion to secure the allegiance of the Death Guard for his Thirteenth Black Crusade.
 Last Memory of Yuranthos - Mk'ell was a psyker who was responsible for the annihilation of his species,
the Yuranthos. The psyker's power was so great that he was torn apart by the Warp energies he wielded,
even as his planet's populace was immolated by the resultant firestorm. Unwilling to waste the power of
such a talented student, Tzeentch bound the essence of the dying race into a small crystal. One who carries
this azure gem can access a fragment of Mk'ell's power and unleash it upon his foes, though not without
risk.
  Skull of Ker'ngar - Ker'ngar was a mighty champion of the Dark Gods long before the Horus Heresy and
the rise of the Chaos Space Marines. So masterful was this ancient warrior that he once boasted he could
not be killed in battle. Sadly for Ker'ngar, his claim was proven false when Khorne sent forth Skulltaker to
challenge the haughty warrior and take his skull. It adorned Skulltaker's cloak for centuries before being
replaced. It is said that, despite his defeat, Ker'ngar's indomitable spirit is still bound within the skull and it
protects the one who carries it from harm, be it physical or arcane.
 Spineshard Blade - Believed to have been forged from the spinal column of a mighty Keeper of Secrets,
K'alith the Prurient, the Spineshard Blade reverberates with the quivering essence of the daemon's final,
lascivious death throes.

Legion Appearance

Legion Colours

Pre-Heresy

Luna Wolves and Sons of Horus Badges

As if to mark a break from the wars of the past, the armour that the first warriors of the Space Marine Legions went
to war in was cast in storm cloud grey, and bore only the thunderbolt and lightning marks of Imperial Unity. Over
time the different Legions gained their own marks of distinction and character, as well as iconic names. When the
XVIth Legion was given the epithet of the "Luna Wolves" following the successful First Pacification of Luna
campaign, they began to wear pale, off-white ivory coloured Power Armour with black trim.

The two renowned squads of the elite 1st Company, the Justaerin and Catulan Reavers, wore black Power Armour, in
sharp contrast to the white and later pale green of the rest of the Legion. During this time, the then-Luna Wolves
Legion utilised more standardised tactical markings than the later Legion iteration of the Sons of Horus. By the time
of the conquest of the Coronid Deeps during the early years of the Horus Heresy, the wolf and moon icons were a
rare sight.

One avatar of the increasing influence of the Legion's Cthonian brothers was the late reemergence of Cthonian gang-
sigils graven into a given Space Marine's armour that recorded his notable kills and deeds, as well as to which
company of the Legion they belonged. This was a practice which accelerated rapidly after the XVIth Legion had
transitioned into its new identity as the Sons of Horus following the elevation of Horus to the rank of Warmaster.

This transition marked not so much a new open brutality in the Legion, but a factor that had always been there and
had become more visible as the Legion's panoply finally began to shrug off the influence of Mother Terra. The white
of the Luna Wolves turned sea-green, then darkened further to a murky verdigris green-black as the Sons of Horus
further cast off the discipline of the Terran traditions of warfare and erred in pride and growling malice towards the
dark heart of Cthonia, and its traditions of gang-fiefdom, blood-pride and merciless, incessant conflict.

Tactical Markings and Heraldry

 Shoulder Plate Heraldry - The earlier, white-armoured iteration of the XVIth Legion used more
standardised tactical markings than the later Sons of Horus. By the time of the conquest of the Coronid
Deeps, its wolf and moon icons were a rare sight.
 Helm Markings - Helm markings were often applied by the bearer and followed formal tactical schemes
far less often than amongst other Legions. Cthonian glyphs applied by hand indicated the Legionary had
been "blooded" in combat according to the kill-rites of the Cthonian head-hunter gangs.
 Honourium Armouria - A wide variation of idiosyncratic battle plate was used. Many Legionaries of the
Luna Wolves and then the Sons of Horus practiced the Cthonian gang-derived tradition of decapitating
defeated enemy champions and dipping the flensed skull in liquid gold as a personal trophy.
  Battle Plate Armourial Icons - Officers in the Sons of Horus used relatively few markings of rank and
when they were required, they tended to be derived from the personal glyphs of senior leaders or an
individual company's Captain or Chieftain in line with the traditions of the Cthonian gangs.
 Dreadnought Armourial Icons - As veterans of numerous campaigns, Dreadnoughts often displayed
mementos of their greatest deeds.

Post-Heresy

Alternate Black Legion Chapter Badges

The changing icon of the Legion, from the Great Crusade to the 41st Millennium.

This colour scheme was retained until Abaddon the Despoiler took command of the Legion's remnants after the end
of the Heresy and the Great Scouring. When Abaddon took control of the Sons of Horus he set about making a break
with their previous history.

Firstly, he cast off the name of their Primarch, rechristening the Sons of Horus as the "Black Legion," so that they
could move beyond the failures of the Horus Heresy and repair their tarnished reputation. While he kept the image
of the Eye of Horus as the sole reminder of their origins, he ordered his warriors to paint their armour black and
strike all other symbols of their past allegiances.

This was to serve as both a mark of their shame and their devotion. An ancient symbol of mourning, the black colour
honoured their dead Primarch without speaking his name. Equally, it ensured that the former Sons of Horus would
never forget their Primarch had failed, and his failure must be drowned in the blood of his foes.

More important than a mark of shame, the black of the Legion's armour was part of Abaddon's plan to unify the
Traitor Legions for his great war against the Imperium. So potent a symbol has it become that few other warbands of
Chaos Space Marines ever wear black armour. It was a clear message that told of a Heretic Astartes' devotion to
Abaddon and that he had forsaken all other oaths.

Legion Badge

The XVIth Legion's badge was a wolf's head imposed over an inverted crescent moon when they were known as the
Luna Wolves.

The Legion badge changed to become a stylised eye over a cross -- the so-called "Eye of Terra," which would later
be known as the infamous "Eye of Horus" in the Imperium after the XVI th Legion was renamed the Sons of Horus
by the corrupted Warmaster.

After the Sons of Horus were reconstituted following the Horus Heresy as the Black Legion, the symbol of the Eye
of Horus was retained, however it was now superimposed over the eight-pointed Star of Chaos.

"Speak the words of Lorgar and you shall live forever in the glory of Chaos. Speak them not and every one of you
shall die today."
—Ultimatum made at the gates of the capital city of Moegh IV before a Word Bearers' assault

Word Bearers
Warcry

The Word Bearers march into battle chanting passages from the Book of Lorgar over and over.

Founding

First Founding (30th Millennium)

Successors of

Imperial Heralds; Iconoclasts (informal nickname)

Known Warbands

Foresworn (Word Bearers)

Iconoclastic Brotherhood
Prophets of the Blighted Path
Sons of Damnation
The Sanctified
Weeping Veil

Legion Number

XVII

Primarch

Lorgar

Chaos Lord(s)

Erebus, Kor Phaeron, other Dark Apostles who comprise the ruling Dark Council

Original Homeworld

Colchis

Current Homeworld

Sicarus (Daemon World in the Eye of Terror), Ghalmek (Dark Forge World in the Maelstrom)

Allegiance

Chaos; Chaos Undivided

Legion Colours

Crimson ("Traitor's Red") and Silver / Gunmetal Grey (Pre-Heresy)

The Word Bearers are one of the nine First Founding Space Marine Legions that betrayed the Emperor of Mankind
during the Horus Heresy. They became Chaos Space Marines, their allegiance pledged to their Daemon Primarch
Lorgar and to Chaos Undivided. The Word Bearers were also the first Space Marine Legion to be corrupted by the
Ruinous Powers of Chaos many Terran decades before their counterparts turned to the Dark Gods.

Through their actions they corrupted the Warmaster Horus and brought on the terrible galactic civil war of the Horus
Heresy in all its savagery. Today they bend all their considerable efforts towards the overthrow of the "Corpse
Emperor" in the Long War and spreading the "truth" of Chaos to all Mankind.

In the years before the return of Lorgar and the discovery of his homeworld of Colchis by the expanding fleets of the
Imperium in 857.M30, the XVIIth Legion was known amongst the vast hosts of the Great Crusade by designations
other than the "Word Bearers." The Emperor named them the "Imperial Heralds" at their inception, an elegant title
that spoke of the grand purpose for which they had been created, whilst their fellow Astartes warriors named them
the "Iconoclasts," a more brutal appellation coined in appreciation of the zeal with which they cast down the
idolatrous temples and cultic strongholds of Old Night.

After the Legion was reunited with its lost Primarch, he renamed the XVIIth Legion the Word Bearers, which was in
line with his belief that the Emperor of Mankind was the divine saviour of humanity. At present, the Word Bearers'
greatest foes amongst the servants of the Emperor are the Ultramarines and their Successor Chapters, who the Word
Bearers have hated and seen as rivals since the time of the Great Crusade.

The Word Bearers are the scions of the Primarch Lorgar, the Dark Apostle of Chaos and first of the Primarchs to be
corrupted by the Ruinous Powers. The Word Bearers sought a being worthy of their veneration, but when the
Emperor denounced such practises during the Great Crusade, they turned to the Warp and the Powers of Chaos
within.

Lorgar grew to maturity upon the planet Colchis, a Feudal World under the sway of a single, all-powerful religious
caste known as the Covenant. The priests of this primitive faith preached that one day, a supreme being would come
to lead them into a new age. Lorgar was raised within the Covenant's greatest temple, learning all its secret rites and
texts and compiling a vast body of his own wisdom that came to be known as "the Word."

When the Emperor finally came to Colchis, the Primarch saw in the Master of Humanity the divine being spoken of
in the ancient Colchisian prophecy. Taking his place in the Great Crusade, Lorgar led his Legion across the stars,
fuelled by a fiery religious zeal. Wherever the Legion encountered the idols of any god that might rival the Emperor
in the devotion of the people, they cast them down and ground them to dust, and in their place erected towering
monuments to the glory of the Emperor, forcing the conquered to kneel before them and offer up praises to the new
God of Mankind.

Yet, such sentiment ran contrary to the Imperial Truth, as the Emperor had long denounced the worship of gods and
daemons alike. For the Emperor Himself to be held as a god was anathema to all that the Imperium stood for, and
the Master of Mankind chided Lorgar and his kin for their idolatry. Stunned, the Primarch withdrew for a time, and
some have proposed that what followed was the roots of all of the woe that would subsequently befell the Imperium.

Exactly what happened can never be known, but it appears that Lorgar underwent first a spiritual crisis, and then an
awakening. The Emperor, who the Primarch had counted a god, had denounced his own divinity, denying the tenets
of the faith in which Lorgar had been raised.

Confronted by the possibility that the Word was false, Lorgar may have sought other meanings within it, and other
beings that might serve in the place of the god he had believed in. In the Ruinous Powers, Lorgar found such beings,
and the truth was revealed to him. The Emperor had been truthful when He had stated that He was no god, but
Lorgar saw that the Master of Mankind had told the very worst of lies when He claimed that no such beings existed.

The opposite was true, Lorgar discovered, the Warp filled with beings whose power was incalculably greater. Such
eternal truths as only a Primarch could bear were revealed to Lorgar, including, some say, the awful reality of the
Fall of the Aeldari. Thus were sown the seeds of the Heresy, and Lorgar determined that in order to avoid the fate
that the weakling Aeldari had brought upon themselves at the moment of the creation of the Eye of Terror and the
birth of Slaanesh, Humanity must embrace Chaos in all its glory. Only then, Lorgar knew, would Humanity ascend
to the pinnacle of existence in a universe reshaped and unified with the unbounded and unconstrained dimension of
the Warp.

Possessed of this new knowledge, Lorgar returned to the Great Crusade. Where previously the Word Bearers had
been criticised for their slow progress, enforced by their drive to cast down primitive idols and replace them with
those of the Emperor, now their rate of conquest was prodigious. How many cultures brought into Imperial
Compliance in this closing phase of the Great Crusade were in fact turned to the worship of Chaos may never be
known, nor the extent to which the pernicious influence of Lorgar's Word was responsible for the corruption of the
other Traitor Legions. Whatever the truth, the Word Bearers stood by the Warmaster Horus' side when he renounced
his loyalty to the Emperor, and they fought at the very forefront of many of the battles of the Horus Heresy.

When battle was truly joined, it was towards the Ultramarines Legion that the Word Bearers turned the greatest
extent of their ire. Jealous of the favour they believed the Emperor to have unjustly shown Roboute Guilliman's
Legion, the Word Bearers set in motion plans laid down many Terran years before. At Calth, a world in the
Ultramarines' domain of Ultramar, the full fury of the Word Bearers was unleashed, and it was only after much
death and destruction that the Legion was repulsed.

Though it can never be conclusively proven, it appears that Lorgar's intentions in committing so completely to
attacking the Ultramarines was not entirely based on jealousy. In so doing, the Word Bearers tied up the single
biggest Legion at a time when it was most needed. When the Warmaster's armies closed upon Terra, the
Ultramarines were thousands of light years away and unable to intervene until events were all but decided.

In the aftermath of the Warmaster's defeat, the Word Bearers retreated to the Eye of Terror, where Lorgar was
eventually granted apotheosis and ascension to daemonhood. A large portion of the Legion took refuge from the
vengeful Imperium within the Maelstrom, another region of Warp / realspace interface where only those beyond the
pale of Humanity dare tread. From these two fastnesses, the Word Bearers plot the corruption of the entire
Imperium.

The Legion does not venerate any single Chaos God, but instead draws strength from multiple sources, enacting vile
pacts and inviting possession by any power they feel will serve the Word. The Legion remains to this day a
relatively coherent grouping unlike many of the other Traitor Legions, structured after the fashion of a vast,
hierarchical religion.

Alone of all of the Traitor Legions, the Word Bearers field Chaplains, called Dark Apostles, though these Arch-
heretics preach not the glory of the Emperor but of the Ruinous Powers. One of the greatest perils the Word Bearers
present to the Imperium is the taint they so actively seek to spread. While most other Traitor Legions fight for their
own ends or simply to spill blood, the Word Bearers continue the crusade to unite the Materium and the Warp their
Primarch began in the aftermath of the Emperor's censure so long ago.

They cultivate heresy wherever they travel, subverting the Imperial Creed and utilising Chaos Cultists as cannon
fodder and congregation, often at the same time. Worse still, wherever the Word Bearers tread they order the
construction of vast edifces and fanes dedicated to the glory of Chaos, often enslaving their defeated enemies and
forcing them to bow down in worship to new, damned gods. By such blasphemies, entire planetary populations are
lost to Mankind, in body as well as spirit.

Contents

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Legion History
Post-Heresy Word Bearers Legion Iconography.

The Heralds of Truth

If there is a hierarchy of treachery, then the Word Bearers sit in its highest circle. Once the most devoted and
rigorous of warriors, it was not enough that they fell, but they pulled their brother Space Marine Legions into the
abyss with them. While the treachery of others came like a storm, or the final flowering of a long buried seed, the
Word Bearers' betrayal was poison distilled over long years.

From their founding their devotion to the Imperium and the Great Crusade was beyond question, they were the
bearers of the ideals of the Imperium, of its vision for the future of humanity. Their loyalty was never questioned,
only the form of their devotion. But now their loyalty can never be seen as anything other than a mask and their
fanaticism as a flaw which would undermine all they once sought to build.

Even before the Emperor's conquests spilled into the heavens, it was clear that He was not fighting a simple war of
conquest, but a war of ideals. The Unification Wars, and later the Great Crusade, were intended to bring humanity's
disparate and divided children together under a single enlightened rule. While the Emperor would break the forces
and strongholds of those who opposed Him, He was always prepared to accept fealty and service from those He
defeated.

Pre-Heresy Word Bearers Legion Iconography.

If it was to be a true empire of Mankind then it would have to embrace even those who at first resisted its claim. As
one battle leader in the Unification Wars remarked, "If we kill everyone who resists us then we will reign over a
kingdom of ashes." But with some there could never be reconciliation; unity had its limits.

Rationality and illumination of knowledge could only lead Mankind so far; the darkness of barbarity had to be
beaten back, broken and burned to light the path to the future. The adoration of gods and the proliferation of ideas
and beliefs that could lead to superstition and ignorance were weeds that had to be cut away with the sword of the
Imperial Truth. In this way the armies of the nascent Imperium were fighting a war in the minds of the conquered as
much as they were fighting a war of flesh and blood. It was this first war, the war to preserve the ideals of the
Imperium, that the XVIIth Legion was created to fight.

From its earliest days, the XVIIth stood apart from its brother Legions in its Astartes' duty and outlook. While all the
Legiones Astartes fought with utter devotion, the warriors of the XVII th Legion carried with them an air of zealotry.
Recruited from the sons of exterminated foes of the Emperor, they were trained and raised to know the crimes of
their forebears and the price of forgiveness. While others went to war with righteousness, the XVII th Legion fought
with the cold fury that only the condemned and redeemed can know.

Word Bearers Legion Colour Scheme as displayed by Brother Kar'Gorax, the Arch-Tormentor of Hadravar VII.

Dour and mirthless, few of them formed the bonds with other Legions that were common during those early days.
For them there was no joy in battle, nor glory in conquest. All that mattered was that their duty be done. While
others might acknowledge and even respect their foes, the XVIIth saw no virtue in defiance. Only once a foe was
broken and bowed in repentance, could they be accepted as deserving anything but ruin.

While the other Space Marine Legions acquired names later in their history to accompany their initial numerical
designations, the XVIIth Legion were named as the Imperial Heralds at their Founding. That one Legion amongst
twenty should be so singled out might imply some special favour, but in truth it was a title that spoke not to special
honour, but to the Legion's place in the Emperor's purpose.

Where enemies stood against the Emperor because of their belief in gods or the superstitions bred by Old Night, it
would fall to the XVIIth Legion to deliver the Emperor's ultimatum: recant or be destroyed. To the fortresses of
demagogues, and the enclaves of cults, a lone warrior of the XVII th Legion would come. Clad in black armour, his
face hidden by a skull helm and bearing the eagle-winged mace, the herald would speak of the truth offered by the
Emperor and the futility of resistance.

Horus Heresy-era Word Bearers Colour Scheme.

These bearers of the word and death were chosen from those who had shown supreme devotion to the Imperial
Truth. Such a mantle once bestowed was never removed. Some, on seeing such a warrior, would surrender, and
renounce their false beliefs. Others would refuse. Many heralds would die at the hands of defiant enemies, pulled
down by human hands after slaying hundreds.

But always after the black clad herald, the grey warriors would come with fire and the thunder of change. The wars
waged by the Imperial Heralds were direct and functional. While other Legions fought in a manner that mirrored
their nature, for the XVIIth Legion warfare was simply a tool to be applied. For them the true war existed long before
a bullet was fired, and would last long after the last drop of blood had fallen. They were warriors in a war fought in
the realm of belief, a war in which the truth was the only real weapon.

Once they had conquered, the Imperial Heralds would seek out works which spoke of the power of sorcery, false
gods and the irrational. They emptied libraries, dividing the contents into truth and falsity. Idols and the trappings of
worship would be cast down and pulled from temples and shrines. Those who had preserved the poison of false
belief would be dragged to pyres made of heaped books and carved statues. All would burn together. Those who had
been freed from the shackles of ignorance would be given a choice, embrace the Imperial Truth or join the pyre.

Pre-Heresy Imperial Heralds / Word Bearers Legion Colour Scheme.

Finally, the great buildings which had sheltered the lies of the past would be pulled down and reduced to dust. Only
then would most of the superhuman warriors depart, leaving the saved population to their newly illuminated lives.

It was a pattern they repeated across Ancient Terra in the last days of the Unification Wars, earning themselves a
second name. Few spoke of the XVIIth Legion as the Imperial Heralds. To their brother Legions and the people of
the newborn Imperium, they were the Iconoclasts.

The Coming of Lorgar

"Faith is the soul of any army; be it vested in primitive religion or enlightened truth. It makes even the least soldier
mighty, the craven is remade worthy and through its balm any hardship may be endured. Faith ennobles all of the
worlds the soldier undertakes be they so base or vile, and imports to them the golden spark of transcendent
purpose."
— Lorgar Aurelian, Primarch of the Word Bearers

Ancient Remembrancer sketch from Carpinius' Speculum Historiale depicting Lorgar Aurelian, Primarch of the
Word Bearers Legion.

Colchis was a world of old gods. It was said that religion was in the air, in the touch of the sun and the taste of the
dust. To its people, worship of higher powers was as much a part of them as the beating of their hearts and the
crying of their children. Bound in feudal traditions, Colchis had once been a world of high technology, but those
days lay forgotten in Old Night. Life was easy for some and hard for others, and all the people knew the same truths
that their fathers had known and their mothers had taught. That disease came and culled generations, but that these
times would pass for nothing could remain unchanged. That war would come like rain and stain the land with blood,
but there were always the promises of joy even when all seemed lost. All men died, and kings fell and new kings
rose, but the gods remained.
The infant Primarch Lorgar vanished from the Emperor's gene-laboratory beneath the Himalazian (Himalayan)
Mountains on Terra while still an infant in his gestation capsule, along with the 19 other Primarchs, who were all
transported through the Warp and scattered to random human-inhabited worlds across the galaxy. His gestation-
capsule came to rest on the theocratic Feudal World of Colchis. When the infant Lorgar fell from the sky, his Legion
had yet to be born on Terra, and the faith of Colchis was held in the hands of a ruling priesthood called the
Covenant. Discovered by the followers of this predominant religion on Colchis, the Covenant, later known as the
Old Faith or the Old Ways, was a polytheistic religion dedicated to the worship of entities that were in fact the
Chaos Gods in more benevolent guises, and Lorgar was raised amongst this priesthood. Studying within a temple of
the Covenant, Lorgar quickly became a devout preacher, his skill in oratory and the power of his charisma winning
him many followers. Perhaps Lorgar's staunchest ally and friend was the High Priest of the Covenant, a cleric named
Kor Phaeron. However, as Lorgar grew in standing amongst the people, the other members of the Covenant's
ecclesiastical hierarchy began to grow jealous of his popularity.

Lorgar's youth was plagued by visions of a mighty warrior in gleaming bronze armour coming to Colchis, a
cyclopean giant in blue robes standing beside him. At one point, the visions reached such an intensity that Lorgar
claimed that the prophesied return of Colchis' one, true God was soon to occur. He began to preach this news to the
people of Colchis, causing disruptions to the theocratic rule of the Covenant as people converted to his dissident
beliefs in the One God, creating a new faction within the Covenant who called themselves the Godsworn. Lorgar's
enemies in the Covenant saw this as the opportunity they had been waiting for to remove the threat that Lorgar
presented to the status quo, declaring him a heretic to the Old Ways.

Those of the Covenant who came forward to arrest Lorgar were killed by his followers. The Covenant split into two
factions, and a holy war of immense proportions erupted, eventually forcing the entire population of the world to
choose a side. This war lasted six standard years, ending when Lorgar and his Godsworn supporters stormed the
temple of the Covenant known as the Cathedral of Illumination in the heart of the City of Grey Flowers, the world's
capital of Vharadesh, at which the Primarch had trained, killing the monks within and eliminating the heart of the
conservative religious resistance to his ideas concerning the One God. Lorgar, now the Archpriest of the reformed
Covenant, promised the masses that their new God would arrive on Colchis no more than a year after their victory
and that they would know him only as "The Emperor." Kor Phaeron expressly explained to his adopted son that he
remained a believer in the other gods of the Old Faith, but that he also believed that the One God was the most
powerful of their number. This continued belief in the Old Ways, also maintained by many other Colchisians after
the Godsworn's victory, would lay the foundation for the Word Bearers' eventual turn to Chaos. When the Emperor
and the Great Crusade's Expeditionary Fleet reached Colchis, and He descended with Magnus the Red at His side,
there could be no doubt in Lorgar's mind that he knelt before his god. Beside him a planet knelt and believed the
same. Lorgar saw this preordained meeting as the confirmation of his many visions and prophecies, and so, the
Primarch and his people wholeheartedly embraced the ruler of the Imperium as their promised messiah and God-
Emperor.

When the Emperor finally met His long lost son face-to-face, as Lorgar had foreseen, the Primarch immediately
dropped to one knee in obeisance, leading the population of his world in rejoicing and worshipping the Emperor as
the one, true God of Mankind. At the conclusion of these festivities, the Emperor bade Lorgar to take his best
warriors and induct them into the XVII Space Marine Legion, the Imperial Heralds, who had been derived from his
own genome. Lorgar gratefully took up the Emperor's purpose, expressing his deeply-held desire to spread his faith
in the God-Emperor to every world in the Imperium, despite the Emperor's continuing admonishments that His
Imperium was to be built on the foundation of the Imperial Truth, an atheistic, rationalist doctrine that forbade the
practice of religious faith as mere superstition. Lorgar then joined his father and his Legion on the Great Crusade to
reunify the human worlds of the galaxy under the new Imperium. Lorgar appointed trustworthy regents to rule over
Colchis in his absence and devoutly complied with what he believed were his father's divine commandments. That
the Emperor claimed He was not divine paradoxically only further strengthened Lorgar's faith in Him, as who else
but a true God would claim that He was not divine?

The Emperor as God

The belief that the Emperor was a god was not a new one. From the days of His first conquest, there were some who
whispered that He was not of the mortal realm. Many of His conquered enemies were amongst the first to call Him
divine. Faced with His power and the destruction of everything they had known, they called Him by ancient names,
that being their only way to rationalise what had happened. Some called Him an angel, others a spirit, some a
daemon, others placed His nature higher still. God they called Him, and spoke prayers to Him in the watches of the
night and under the light of lost suns. That Lorgar believed the Emperor a god is beyond doubt, and it is likely that
he held this belief before he met the object of his devotion, and maintained it even after becoming the lord of a
Space Marine Legion charged with purging idolatry, religion and superstition in the name of the atheistic Imperial
Truth. In those first years of the Great Crusade, Lorgar hid his true conviction, never stating it openly but also never
disavowing it. In all the records of his words in that time, of which there are many, there is endless praise for the
Emperor's vision and for the course He charted for Mankind, but not one word denouncing the specific belief that
the Emperor was divine. The worship of idols, the practices of mystics, and the falseness of countless gods; all were
condemned without measure, but on the nature of his lord and father, Lorgar remained silent. Perhaps the most
manifest display of this belief was the now infamous Lectitio Divinitatus, a document written by Lorgar expressing
his belief and the rational basis for this belief in the divine nature of the Emperor of Mankind. Ironically, this
document created the foundation for what would later become the Imperial Cult during the Emperor’s own lifetime,
for the new religion would eventually emerge during the 32 nd Millennium on the myriad worlds of the Imperium
following the Emperor's interment in the Golden Throne to become His Imperium's state religion.

It seems likely that Lorgar shared his belief with others, discussing and nursing their faith alongside his own. It
might be easy given later events to say that figures such as Erebus and Kor Phaeron were his chief confidants, and
perhaps they were. Others though seem equally likely to have played their part. Halik-gar, High Herald of the XVIIth
Legion and its commander before Lorgar's return, seems to have been converted by his gene-sire, and with him such
devoted Iconoclasts as Maedro Vessar, and Ustun Cho. Through these and others, Lorgar began to change his
Legion's soul. Lorgar's return to the XVIIth Legion did not change the Legion's nature on the surface, the manner in
which they waged war was the same, but, underneath the surface, the return of their gene-father changed the
Imperial Heralds in far more profound ways. The old ways of devoted service were no longer enough, devotion to an
ideal was not enough, victory was not enough. The reason one fought, the fire that drove one on step-by-step on the
path of truth, that was everything. If victory was certain, and who could doubt it as stars and systems fell to the
Emperor's Great Crusade in their hundreds, then the measure of true victory was not in death and blood, but in what
a warrior carried within him. What one believed and the mark one left on Mankind were of the utmost importance.
This sense of heightened fervour spread through the XVIIth Legion like fire, as if Lorgar's mere presence had raised
his sons up into a brighter light.

One of the tangible changes that came with the return of the Primarch Lorgar was an increase in the importance of
ceremony amongst the warriors of the XVIIth. The black clad and skull helmed heralds of the old Legion were given
new authority to ensure the moral strength of their brother Legionaries. These new Legion officers, called Chaplains,
would be the core of the XVIIth Legion's strength, showing the way of truth through word and deed, not just to the
conquered but those who held the sword. When a city burned or a people were put to death, the deed was done with
the solemnity of a rite. The death notice of enemies were spoken in ritual phrases by a Chaplain, as he scattered the
ashes of dead and defiant worlds over the bowed heads of warriors. New words and phrases began to enter the
vocabulary of the XVIIth Legion, words which tasted of the dust and incense of Colchis: apostle, athame, creed.
Some even began to refer to the dangerous and deviant modes of thought within the Legion by a name which itself
came from the shadows of lost religious creeds: heresy.

The Fires of Colchis

The change of the XVIIth Legion's soul took decades to complete. A large Legion even before it was reunited with
its Primarch, Lorgar was not fool enough to attempt such a project in one stage. The golden Primarch had a genius
for speaking to men's hearts, and his campaigns to win those hearts were as subtle and thorough as those fought by
the likes of Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children and Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines on the battlefield. Bit by
bit, the faith in the Emperor's divinity was spread from brother to brother. The Chaplains, Lorgar's new vanguard of
faith later copied by all of the other Legions following the Council of Nikaea, subtly altered the counsel they gave
their brothers. New structures of organisation sprang up beside the old military hierarchy; fraternities that seemed to
have much in common with those of other Space Marine Legions but, in truth, were devices for the propagation of
the faith through the ranks of the XVIIth Legion. The echo of this grand, yet slow, conversion can be seen in the
steps by which Lorgar would later corrupt half of the other Legions, and pull the Imperium into the darkness from
which he had once sought to raise it. It might seem strange that warriors who had fought to cast down gods would
embrace those same beliefs, but this ignores the basic nature of the fanatic. At their core they need a cause around
which to build their world. What that cause is can be always be easily changed, so long as the heart of its fire fills
them. In their hearts the Astartes of the XVIIth Legion fell into the grasps of religion because part of them had
always wanted to, part of them wanted there to be more to belief than mere rationality.

The second factor which allowed Lorgar to convert his Legion to the belief in the Emperor's divinity was the nature
of the Great Crusade itself. Across countless fronts the Legions fought, suffered casualties and recruited anew. As
this attrition mixed the old with the new, so the blood of the mostly Terran-born Iconoclast Imperial Heralds was
diluted with that of Colchis and then with dozens of worlds on the bloody edge of conquest. These were sons who
had never seen the light of Sol, nor known the Legion as it had been. They accepted what was taught to them
because it was the only truth offered. In the case of those of Colchis, the belief in the divine was already ingrained
into every thought from birth. When all was done, when the final Imperial Herald had embraced the faith, when the
last of the old Iconoclasts had died, then Lorgar added the final flourish of ritual to seal his victory. The Imperial
Heralds would become known instead as the Word Bearers. To the rest of the Imperium, still ignorant of the change
wrought in the XVII Legion, the name reflected their part in bringing the Imperial Truth to all humanity. To Lorgar
it was an affirmation of his purpose: to give humanity faith in the god at its pinnacle.

The Arithmetic of Faith

Word Bearers Bargotal Heavy Support Squad during the Great Crusade.

Lorgar was an unusual Primarch because he was less martial in nature than his brothers, and possessed an abiding
faith that religion represented the pinnacle of human expression and a deeply-held belief that the Emperor of
Mankind was actually a divine being made manifest in the mortal realm.

As a result, Lorgar was determined to spread his own faith in the Emperor to every world that his Legion
encountered in the course of the Great Crusade, a policy that would be in direct contradiction to the principles of the
Imperial Truth. Yet Lorgar also was never respected by his brothers, largely because he was never comfortable with
his own gifts and less prone to violence than they.

This caused the other Primarchs to believe their soulful, intellectual brother to be a weakling, the runt of the
Emperor's litter. While other Legions left conquests like bloody footprints on the stars, the Word Bearers lingered.

Word Bearers Legion Dagotal Bike Squad doing reconnaissance on a newly discovered world during the Great
Crusade.

Faith in secrecy might be sincere but, ultimately, it cannot satisfy a driven soul. With the Great Crusade reaching its
zenith, Lorgar was faced with worlds brought to Compliance by his Legion: broken worlds, worlds that had lived
under the yoke of aliens, witches and belief in false gods, worlds that now had nothing but the cold comfort of being
united with a universe that seemed to hold nothing greater than the truth they saw blowing on ash-laden winds. How
could he know the truth and deny it to these worlds? At least that seems the likely path that led him to make his
crusade not one of rationality but of faith.

As worlds and star systems fell to the Word Bearers, they were brought to believe in the Emperor as a god. Amidst
the devastation they raised temples. Chaplains and mortal vassal preachers would go amongst the conquered to
speak of the god who now reigned over them, producing enormous devotional works on the divinity and
righteousness of the Emperor, and Lorgar himself delivered countless speeches and sermons, converting millions to
the worship of the Emperor with his words alone.

The foundations of new cities were sunk in the embers of the old, vast monuments and cathedrals dedicated to the
worship of the Emperor were erected upon the mounds of corpses belonging to those who had resisted conversion.
The worlds they re-founded grew and prospered. Their people utterly loyal to the Imperium and the Emperor; they
were Compliant, but they were alone in an unholy land. Though they did not see it, their piety was doomed from the
moment the Word Bearers brought them to it.

Word Bearers Rongar Assault Squad during the Great Crusade.

The rumours came first: whispers passed between Imperial forces who had fought alongside the Word Bearers. Talk
began to circulate of the ritualistic practices of the XVIIth Legion, of the fervour of their zeal and devotion to the
Great Crusade. Some even went so far as to wonder if the Iconoclasts of old had not succumbed to the superstitious
practices they had once persecuted. The rumours multiplied, but if they reached the highest circles of the Imperium,
they triggered no action.

The Great Crusade was a war of expansion spread across the galaxy. Numberless fleets and hundreds of thousands
of armies came into operation, separated by vast distances and joined only by the tenuous links of Warp travel and
astrotelepathy. The sheer scale and dynamism of such an endeavour made absolute knowledge a rare commodity.

The Emperor and the War Council did not have the time or means to do anything but trust that those who led the
Crusade acted as the Emperor would wish. Rumour, hearsay and unkind suspicion were not enough to call the
motivations of one of the Legions into question.

At the last, it was not talk of belief that brought the Word Bearers' wrongs to light, but the arithmetic of conquest.
Conquering worlds took time and resources, but rebuilding them and bringing them to believe in the Emperor as a
god took far longer again. Over the years, the Word Bearers' rate of conquest had slowed to a crawl.

Where the other Legions brought dozens of worlds to Imperial Compliance, the Word Bearers would claim a
handful by comparison. The disparity eventually became too much to be ignored. The military bureaucracy that had
grown up around the War Council sent expeditions to a cluster of worlds conquered by the Word Bearers. Was there
some factor that had caused the Word Bearers greater difficulties than other Legions?

Word Bearers Heavy Support Squad with Missile Launchers.

The emissaries and expeditions found their answer. The XVII th Legion had not been slowed by resistance, but
because they lingered after their conquests. The rebuilding of a planet's faith and social structures took time, as did
the rebuilding of cities and the raising of temples from which the faith could be maintained. And the faith gifted to
the worlds they conquered was the belief that the Emperor was a god, the one, true God of all Mankind.

A Legion Rebuked

During this period, the absolute loyalty of Lorgar and the Word Bearers Legion to the Emperor and His Imperium
was unquestionable. Their Compliant worlds regularly delivered tithes in the Emperor's name, and the orders of
Terra were accepted without question throughout the worlds liberated by the Word Bearers. Lorgar and his Legion
had successfully prosecuted the Emperor's Great Crusade for almost a standard century, and in that time the
Emperor had never once admonished His zealous son or the Word Bearers Legion for their fervent worship of Him
even though such doctrine clashed with the Emperor's policy of spreading the Imperial Truth.

But the Emperor, for all His love of his son, was deeply disturbed. He had initially tolerated the beliefs of His deeply
religious son, but as the Great Crusade reached its height, the Emperor found Himself increasingly frustrated with
the slow pace with which Lorgar conquered and then brought worlds into Compliance for the Imperium. The
Emperor finally ordered the Word Bearers to cease their religious activities, as their mission was to reunify the
galaxy under the banner of the secular Imperial Truth, not preach the word of the Emperor's personal divinity. The
Emperor had long opposed the spread of organised religion and was determined to use the creation of the new
Imperium of Man to enshrine reason and science, not religion, as the true guiding light of a new interstellar human
civilisation. The Emperor was particularly troubled by any notion that He should be worshiped as a god and the
actions of the Word Bearers Legion in slaughtering those who refused to accept the Emperor's divinity stank of the
religious excesses that had so often poisoned human history.

Once the truth was revealed, it was only a matter of time before the Emperor would be moved to censure the Word
Bearers. The links of cause and effect are poorly recorded, but it seems that the Emperor waited for some time after
the initial reports reached his court. That He sent missions to assay many more worlds conquered by the Word
Bearers is known. We can only speculate as to why: perhaps He did not want to believe it of His son, perhaps He
wanted to be sure, perhaps He was simply gathering information before acting. Some sources indicate that the
Emperor confronted Lorgar during this time, that He even told him that if he persisted he would have to suffer the
consequences. Imperial scholars cannot know now if this is true, too much has been forgotten, and too much more
must never be remembered. What is known, at least, is that the Emperor acted.

The Emperor rose from his endeavours and called another of His sons to his side. Roboute Guilliman, the Primarch
of the XIIIth Legion (Ultramarines), had a reputation for careful leadership and unbending honesty. No one else
witnessed what passed between the two, and Lord Guilliman refused to speak of it, but it can be speculated why the
Emperor chose the Ultramarines to be His tool of censure. It seemed clear that the Emperor did not wish Lorgar or
his sons broken, merely set back on the correct path. The Ultramarines Legion were a Legion with an exemplary
record of victories and Compliant worlds. Ultramar was even then a growing realm of hundreds of obedient and
prosperous star systems. Across the galaxy the Ultramarines had pushed back the boundaries of the Imperium with
energy and a mind for what should follow in the wake of war. They were the Word Bearers' mirror and shadow,
alike in so many ways and different in so many others: a living example of what the Word Bearers could be. Perhaps
that was the message carried by the choice of the Ultramarines; that there was hope for glory beyond the shame that
must come. Whatever the subtleties of the message of censure, it would, however, be delivered in a manner that
could leave no doubt to its meaning.

The Emperor ordered a task force composed of the entire Ultramarines Legion and accompanied by a force of his
elite personal bodyguards, the Legio Custodes and the Imperial Regent, Malcador the Sigillite, to raze the capital
city of the planet Khur, a world dear to the Word Bearers, whom considered its capital, Monarchia, the "perfect city"
because of the intense religious devotion of its citizens and the sheer number of cathedrals and monuments dedicated
to the worship of the Emperor as the God of humanity. Following the city's destruction by the Ultramarines, the
entire Word Bearers Legion, 100,000 Space Marines strong, were ordered to assemble on the planet's surface, within
sight of the smoldering ruins of Monarchia, where its Astartes were humiliated and rebuked by the Emperor
Himself, who psychically forced everyone, including Lorgar, to kneel before Him in the ashes of a city which stood
for all they had believed and done, and explained to them that they had failed both Him and humanity. He was no
god, and would suffer no such belief in His realm. The Emperor departed, leaving a Primarch chastised and a Legion
humbled. Lorgar was stunned by his father's reproach and refusal to accept his worship, and fell into a deep
melancholy. Some may say that future generations could see all that would come to pass was born in that moment.

Rebirth

After the razing of Monarchia, the history of the XVII th Legion divides. One is the history of the Legion that the
Imperium believed existed for decades after, the history of a Legion pulling itself from the pit of the past and
embracing its true calling, a false history. The second is a shadow history, the true history that hid behind the mask
of seeming loyalty. This true history can never be known, and what Imperial scholars do know of it are only
distorted glimpses. On the surface, Lorgar's response to the Emperor's censure was to withdraw. For a time his
Legion seems to have played little part in the Great Crusade. When they returned, it was clear that they were a
changed force. Whereas before they lingered after conquests, now they drove forward with relentless momentum.
Worlds burned, civilisations were made to kneel, and a trail of swift conquest and Imperial Compliance actions
stretched behind them like a bloody cloak. It is said that the Emperor was pleased that His son had understood his
error and would, in time, become what he was destined to be. To every other eye, the Word Bearers seemed
possessed by a penitent fury and grim resolve to burn the past. All were deceived.

That Lorgar was shaken by the shattering of his universe seems likely, but what action did it prompt? At the time
some thought that the XVIIth Legion had withdrawn in shame, and that its return to the Great Crusade was fuelled by
a wish to atone. Such a kind reading of events no longer rings true. Instead it seems likely that Lorgar's fall began
after Monarchia, that the dark powers of the Warp reached out to him in his moment of doubt and offered him that
which the Emperor had denied him: a higher power to believe in. It is not known whom these voices were that
counselled him, and the hands that guided him to damnation. Again much remains hidden, but a number of
candidates seem likely. Kor Phaeron, Lorgar's surrogate father on Colchis and close advisor, seems a likely source
of poison, as does the Legion's First Chaplain Erebus. Both were steeped in the Old Faith of Colchis, a faith that was
likely tainted by the powers of the Warp long before Lorgar fell from the sky. The word "Pilgrimmage" is also one
of the few fragments that has emerged as linked with that time, thought its precise significance can now only be
guessed at. What cannot now be doubted is that the Word Bearers who re-joined the Great Crusade after the razing
of Monarchia no longer served the Emperor.

For over four standard decades the XVIIth Legion wore a false face of loyalty and planted the seeds that would
eventually bloom into a galaxy-spanning civil war. The precise nature of their preparations is only open to
supposition, but much can be deduced from Lorgar's character and the atrocities that would come later. First, it
seems likely that the Word Bearers' renewed energy in the Great Crusade was a cover for its rapid growth in size, as
well as the seeding of its new corrupting creed and belief in Chaos onto new worlds. It must also have been during
this time that the Legion was cleansed of dissent. The last of the old Iconoclasts, the few Terrans, and those who
would not embrace the new faith must have been put quietly to the sword. The corruption of much of the apparatus
of the Imperium also must have occurred in this time. So it was that when Horus finally fell to the temptations of the
Ruinous Powers, Lorgar had already long prepared the ground for war.

Pilgrimage of Lorgar

"All I ever wanted was the truth. Remember those words as you read the ones that follow. I never set out to topple
my father's kingdom of lies from a sense of misplaced pride. I never wanted to bleed the species to its marrow,
reaving half the galaxy clean of human life in this bitter crusade. I never desired any of this, though I know the
reasons for which it must be done. But all I ever wanted was the truth."
— Opening Lines of the "Book of Lorgar", First Canticle of Chaos

The Primarch Lorgar during his Pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror.

The truth of the events that followed the razing of Monarchia can be pieced together by those scholars willing to
seek out potentially heretical sources of knowledge. Feeling betrayed by the Emperor, Lorgar withdrew to his
private chambers aboard his flagship, the Fidelitas Lex, refusing audience to all but Kor Phaeron, the Word Bearers'
First Captain and Cardinal. Kor Phaeron was Lorgar's adoptive father and had raised him from infancy on Colchis as
a member of the Covenant. Kor Phaeron had served as Lorgar's chief lieutenant and primary advisor since his time
as the ruling theocrat of Colchis. Lorgar also called the Legion's First Chaplain Erebus to his side, who had long
been another trusted advisor. Kor Phaeron and Erebus sympathised with Lorgar's unrequited religious longings, and
felt that the Word Bearers Legion should serve gods truly worthy of their worship. Kor Phaeron and Erebus
explained that they knew of such gods, the divine beings once worshipped by the Old Faith of Colchis and thus,
Lorgar learned of the existence of the Chaos Gods, who not only accepted the zealous worship he offered, but
demanded it. Thus the seeds of the Horus Heresy were first sown amongst the Word Bearers. Intrigued, Lorgar
demanded that the Legion find these gods, and Kor Phaeron and Erebus, both of whom had been secret devotees of
Chaos for decades, proposed a pilgrimage.

The idea of "the Pilgrimage," a journey to the legendary place where mortals could directly interact with the Gods,
was an ancient mythological trope on many human-settled worlds of the Milky Way Galaxy, including Lorgar and
the Word Bearers' homeworld of Colchis. Of course, such a place, the Warp, did exist, and one could discover the
Primordial Truth of the universe there, i.e. that the Immaterium was dominated by the powerful spiritual entities
known as the Chaos Gods. Prompted by Kor Paheron and Erebus, Lorgar journeyed with his Word Bearers Legion's
Chapter of the Serrated Sun to what was then the fringes of known Imperial space as part of the 1301 st
Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade. At this time, Lorgar had not yet fallen to the corruption of Chaos, though
he had turned against the Emperor of Mankind as a deity no longer worthy of his worship. Lorgar believed that the
Emperor was wrong to condemn Mankind's natural instinct to seek out the divine as an unworthy superstition and he
intended to discover if there were truly deities worthy of humanity's respect. To this end, though Lorgar no longer
had any love or loyalty for the Emperor, he and his XVII th Legion rejoined the Great Crusade but did so only as a
front to mask their pursuit of the Pilgrimage.

The Word Bearers were also accompanied on this Pilgrimage by five members of the Legio Custodes who had been
set by the Emperor to watch over everything the Word Bearers did to prevent them from falling back into error once
more. The Word Bearers' pursuit of any scrap of information that could be found on the Primordial Truth or the
nature of the place where Gods and mortals could mingle ultimately led the 1301 st Expeditionary Fleet to the Cadia
System near the largest Warp Storm in the universe, later known to the Imperium as the Eye of Terror. The
Expeditionary Fleet's Master of Astropaths advised Lorgar that unusual "voices" in the Warp were heard in the
vicinity of the great Warp rift, voices that spoke directly to the Primarch as well. These were the voices of the Chaos
entities within the Immaterium. It would be in the Cadia System that Lorgar would learn that his suspicions had
been correct and that all of the religions across the galaxy that possessed so many similarities to the Colchisian Old
Faith were not coincidences, but expressions of worship in the universal truth that was the existence of Chaos.

The decision was made to hold orbit over Cadia and for the 1301st Fleet's elements to make planetfall on the
unknown world, designated as 1301-12. The landing force was comprised of Imperial Army, Word Bearers, Legio
Custodes and Legio Cybernetica elements. The landing party, led by Lorgar, was greeted by a large number of
barbaric human tribes, tribes described as "dressed in rags and wielding spears tipped by flint blades...yet they
showed little fear." Most notable were the barbarians' purple eyes, which reflected the colour of the Eye of Terror
itself in the spectrum of visible light. Despite the Custodian Vendatha's protests and request to execute the heathens,
the Word Bearers approached the natives. A strange woman emerged from the crowd and addressed the Primarch
directly, calling him Lorgar Aurelian and welcoming him to Cadia. This woman, the Chaos priestess Ingethel, would
ultimately lead the Primarch down a path of spiritual enlightenment that actually marked the beginning of Lorgar's
fall to heresy and Chaos. Later, the Priestess Ingethel of Cadia would initiate a ritual that would see her transformed
into the Daemon Prince known as Ingethel the Ascended, Viator of the Primordial Truth, and then lead the 1,301 st
Fleet's scout vessel Orfeo's Lament into the Eye of Terror.

Within the Eye of Terror, the Serrated Sun Chapter of the Word Bearers Legion witnessed the failure of the ancient
Eldar empire first hand in the form of the Crone Worlds that had been scoured of all life that littered the Eye's region
of space. Ingethel, of course, lied to the Word Bearers about how the Chaos God Slaanesh had truly been born and
warned that the Eldar had failed as a species and suffered the Fall because at the moment of their ascension they
were unable to accept the Primordial Truth, i.e. serve Chaos. They gave birth to a God of Pleasure, yet they had felt
no joy at her coming. Their new God, Slaanesh, had awoken to consciousness in the 30th Millennium to find its
worshippers abandoning it out of ignorance and fear, and from the Prince of Pleasure's grief was born the endless
storm of the Great Eye (the Eye of Terror), an echo of the birth-screams of the Eldar's new and rejected God. The
nature of the Primordial Truth was revealed to the Word Bearers in the ashes of the Eldar empire, and Ingethel
warned them that in order for humanity as a species to survive they must not commit the same sins the Eldar did,
and must instead accept the worship of Chaos.

The surviving Space Marines of the Word Bearers' Serrated Sun Chapter eventually returned to Cadia and related to
Lorgar all that had happened and all that they had learned within the Eye, the place where mortals and Gods could
meet. Following the visits into the Eye of Terror, Lorgar ordered a cyclonic bombardment of the planet, wiping out
the Cadians and leaving the planet abandoned so that no others could stumble upon the secret of the Primordial
Truth that had been entrusted to him alone by the Chaos Gods. However, the planet's extremely strategic location
meant that it would prove useful to the Imperium and in the 32 nd Millennium Imperial colonists were dispatched to
resettle the world, becoming the ancestors of the present-day population of Cadians. Perhaps as a result of the Eye of
Terror's proximity this later population of Cadians also soon developed the unusual violet-coloured eyes that had
marked the first human inhabitants of the planet.

This "truth" changed Lorgar and the Word Bearers forever as they were exposed to the Ruinous Powers of Chaos
and slowly corrupted, the first of the Legiones Astartes to worship the Chaos Gods and become Traitors to the
Emperor in their hearts. Lorgar and the Word Bearers spent the remaining years of the Great Crusade attempting to
enlighten humanity about the true spiritual nature of Creation, ultimately resorting to manipulation and deception to
sway nine of the Primarchs to the cause of Chaos as their Gods demanded, the most notable being the Warmaster
Horus. When it became clear that Mankind could not be enlightened by Chaos without first being forcibly weaned at
a great price in blood from the Emperor's false Imperial Truth, Lorgar willingly helped orchestrate the terrible Battle
of Istvaan III and the Drop Site Massacre at Istvaan V as well as the larger Horus Heresy itself. When Horus openly
declared his rebellion against the Emperor, the Word Bearers were once of the first Legions to support him and his
cause. The worlds they had conquered since their conversion to Chaos also joined the side of the Traitors, having
been secretly corrupted to the worship of the Ruinous Powers in the final days of the Great Crusade.

Horus Heresy

Furious Abyss and the Battle of Calth

Kor Phaeron, First Captain and Master of the Faith.

As the Horus Heresy unfolded, the Word Bearers' unique and monstrous Battleship Furious Abyss, set off for the
Realm of Ultramar in the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy after its secret construction by the Dark Mechanicus was
completed on the Jovian moon of Thule. The Word Bearers intended to gain vengeance upon their old rivals the
Ultramarines and pin their forces down in Ultramar while the main forces of the Traitor Legions advanced on Terra
under the command of Horus.

The Furious Abyss ' first kill was the Ultramarines starship Fist of Macragge as it was heading for repairs to the
Vangelis spaceport. The Astropaths of the Fist of Macragge managed to send out a telepathic warning through the
Warp, ultimately received as a very powerful psychic scream at the Vangelis spaceport.

Seeing visions of Macragge and the impending terror brought by the Traitor Marines of the Word Bearers Legion,
Captain Cestus, the Fleet Commander of the Ultramarines Legion, quickly gathered a force of starships at the main
Vangelis hub of Coralis. He managed to find seven Loyalist starships: the Wrathful (which Cestus commandeered as
his flagship) and her Escorts, the Fearless, the Ferox, the Ferocious, the Fireblade, and the Thousand Sons Legion's
starship Waning Moon.

Captain Vorlov of the starship Boundless also requested to join Captain Cestus, and was accepted. The Loyalist fleet
pursued the Furious Abyss and assaulted it, suffering heavy casualties as all of the Loyalist starships but the
Wrathful and Fireblade were destroyed. The battle ended only when the Furious Abyss entered the Warp to continue
its journey to Ultramar.

The Wrathful and Fireblade made the transition as well, but the Furious Abyss deployed a psionic mine which
disturbed the Warp, causing the Fireblade's Gellar Field to fail, and the ship was torn apart by the daemonic forces
of the Empyrean.

When the Word Bearers of the Furious Abyss finally launched their attack against the Ultramarines' dominion of
Ultramar, the strike against the world of Calth was led by Lorgar's greatest champion, the former Master of the
Faith, First Captain Kor Phaeron. He swore to utterly destroy the Ultramarines' homeworld of Macragge in
vengeance for what the Ultramarines had done to Khur, and was very nearly successful. From his personal Battle
Barge, now renamed Infidus Imperator ("False Emperor"), Kor Phaeron directed a full-scale invasion of the Calth
System.

Calth's three sister planets were all destroyed, massive geo-nuclear strikes ripping them apart at the core. The
system's once gentle sun was laced with deadly heavy metals and other unstable substances that increased the star's
radiation output tenfold; within a century after the Heresy's end, the final elements of Calth's atmosphere were
burned off and the world was left an airless void, its populace forced to live in gigantic underground caverns which
were transformed into massive subterranean hive cities.

The Battle of Calth itself was devastating and horrific. The Ultramarines were shocked by the millions of Chaos
Cultists the Word Bearers used as human shields and disgusted by the hordes of daemons they unleashed from the
Warp. The Word Bearers, in turn, had underestimated the tenacity and resolve of their Loyalist foes. The Loyalist
Marines on Calth, Ultramarines all, had been forced into a fighting retreat, but soon occupied fortified positions.

Many Ultramarines had been born on Calth, and proved more resolute than the Word Bearers anticipated. In space,
Guilliman's vessels began hit-and-run attacks on their over-confident enemy. Guilliman assessed his ground troops'
positions and broadcast clear, concise orders to each pocket of defence, coordinating them into a cohesive force.
One Ultramarine force led by Captain Ventanus led a breakout and retook Calth's Defence Laser silos, aiding the
sorely-pressed Ultramarines fleet from the surface of Calth.

Guilliman's depleted forces slowed the Word Bearers down long enough for the remainder of the Ultramarines
Legion to arrive and rout the Traitor Marines from the system, though at a heavy cost. The Word Bearers turned
Calth's own orbital defence platforms on the Veridian star, stripping away the outer layers of its photosphere and
destabilising it, ultimately rendering the surface of Calth uninhabitable.

At the same time, the Word Bearers had used the battle taking place on Calth to summon a massive Warp Storm
called the Ruinstorm, that was intended to cut off Ultramar from the rest of the galaxy and prevent the Ultramarines
from providing any reinforcements to Terra as Horus made his assault upon humanity's homeworld.

Dark Apostle Erebus, architect of the Horus Heresy.

The eruption of the Ruinstorm cut off Calth from the main body of the Ultramarines Legion and left the Astartes of
the XIIIth Legion trapped on Calth locked in a brutal subterranean war with those Word Bearers units that had also
been left behind when their Legion retreated from the Viridian System.

In the end, Kor Phaeron had been defeated when Ultramarines reinforcements from Macragge translated from the
Warp above Calth and drove the Word Bearers Astartes from the surface of Calth. Kor Phaeron retreated all the way
to the Maelstrom, a turbulent Warp rift much like the far larger Eye of Terror where the Immaterium of Chaos
seeped through into the material realm of the universe.

Yet Roboute Guilliman and a large portion of his Legion had remained off-world as a result of the Word Bearers'
devious assault upon the Ultramarines fleet. Guilliman immediately gathered reinforcements in the wake of the
Calth Atrocity and swore to hunt down his brother Lorgar and make the Word Bearers pay for what the treachery
they had unleashed upon Ultramar and its people.

Cull of the Word Bearers

Unknown to Erebus and Kor Phaeron, their Primarch had also had a secret objective in mind when he had sent his
two most zealous sons to Calth. After their humiliation at Khur, thousands of World Bearers within the Legion
detested the Ultramarines. The Urizen ordered a great gathering of his Legion while their fleet was already en route
to Calth. The Primarch called for Argel Tal, the leader of the Gal Vorbak, and one other Word Bearer officer who
would eventually become commanders and apostles amongst the elite Vakrah Jal. The Primarch wanted their
counsel on what to do with those amongst their Legion he no longer trusted. The Word Bearers had culled their
ranks down through the decades, removing unrepentantly Loyalist elements such as the Terran-born warriors of their
Legion, but had carried out no purge like the Istvaan III Atrocity that Angron was so proud of. Lorgar knew that the
loyalty of his own Legion to both him and his vision of Mankind transformed through the embrace of Chaos was
never in doubt, but competence was another matter entirely. Lorgar asked what should be done with those warriors
of the XVIIth Legion he felt were no longer reliable. Those whose hatred burned brighter than their sense. For tens of
thousands of them -- whole companies, whole Chapters -- their rage was no longer pure. It was decided that these
suspect elements of the Legion would be gathered into a single host and ordered to undertake the "sacred" mission to
Calth to assault the Ultramarines that they had so craved. They were led by Erebus and Kor Phaeron and were
expected to martyr themselves in glory. The other Traitor Legions such as the Emperor's Children, Sons of Horus
and the World Eaters might have purged their own ranks at Istvaan III, but the Word Bearers had proceeded to purge
their own at Calth.
Though the XVIIth Legion had achieved a monumental victory of sorts, it was all a matter of perspective. Piercing
the veil of the Warp, Lorgar had heard the whisperings of the Chaos Gods and had witnessed the truth for himself.
Yes, Erebus had successfully conjured the Ruinstorm at Calth. But ultimately, Erebus and Kor Phaeron had failed to
achieve their overall objectives: Roboute Guilliman was still alive, the Word Bearers had lost half the fleet at Calth
to an Ultramarines counter-attack, and tens of thousands of Word Beaers, including the Gal Vorbak and mortal
servants, had been abandoned to a useless subterranean war beneath Calth's irradiated surface while the two Word
Bearers commanders had fled. This meant that the Word Bearers left behind were left to die, never to be reinforced.
Never to be recovered. All those Gal Vorbak who had spent months of their lives fasting, praying, scarring their
flesh in preparation for a chance to taste the Divine Blood, they had simply been lost for no real gain. Though
Lorgar was somewhat displeased, Erebus had more or less achieved the base level of success required of him; the
Ruinstorm had been conjured and the rogue elements of the Word Bearers had been culled. Now it was time for
Lorgar to further his own plans and complete the campaign against the Ultramarines he had come to call his Shadow
Crusade.

Shadow Crusade and the Purge of Nuceria

During the opening days of the Horus Heresy, Lorgar had ordered his two most trusted advisors, First Chaplain
Erebus and the Dark Apostle Kor Phaeron, to unleash their wrath against the Realm of Ultramar. This was done in
retaliation for the humilation the XVIIth Legion had been forced to endure by being forced to kneel in disgrace
before the Emperor and Roboute Guilliman and his Ultramarines on the world of Khur by the XIIIth Legion at the
Emperor's orders during the Great Crusade. The Word Bearers proceeded to achieve a monumental victory at the
Battle of Calth which ensued. The Ultramarines Legion was badly crippled and no longer presented a viable threat to
Horus' plan to drive on Terra. Erebus had managed to complete his blasphemous ritual on Calth's surface, which
summoned the beginnings of the sorcerous Ruinstorm to the galaxy's Eastern Fringe -- a monstrous Warp Storm
larger and more destructive than anything space-faring humanity had witnessed since the days of the Age of Strife.

Lorgar and his brother Angron stand together against the Ultramarines during the Purge of Nuceria.

Simultaneously with the Word Bearers' assault on Calth, Lorgar and the more reliable Word Bearers under his
command launched a second offensive, a joint Shadow Crusade with his brother Angron's World Eaters Legion into
the rest of the Realm of Ultramar, laying waste to the Five Hundred Worlds with reckless abandon, slaughtering
twenty-six worlds in rapid succession. This was to ensure the success of the sorcerous Ruinstorm, which would
ultimately split the void asunder, dividing the galaxy in two and rendering vast tracts of the Imperium impassable for
centuries, effectively cutting Ultramar off from the rest of the Imperium. This prodigious Warp Storm would deny
needed reinforcements to the Loyalists as Horus drove on Terra in an attempt to overthrow the Emperor of Mankind.
Nothing from Terra would get in and nothing would get out. Not even an astropathic whisper would be able to
pierce this storm of Warp energy bleeding into realspace.

During this campaign of destruction, Lorgar had come to realise that over the course of their Shadow Crusade,
Angron's temperament and mental stability had steadily grown worse. His cybernetic neural-implants known as the
Butcher's Nails were killing him faster than Lorgar had originally imagined, faster than anyone realised. The rate of
degeneration had accelerated very quickly in the months after the Battle of Calth. The implants had never been
designed for the peculiar genetics of a Primarch's brain. Angron's physiology was trying to heal the damage
produced by the implants as the Nails bit deeper. To save his life, Lorgar convinced the Lord of the World Eaters to
go back to his homeworld of Nuceria. The overlords of the gladiatorial games on that world who had first hammered
the foul device into Angron's skull would know more of the implant's function than the Traitor Legion's savants and
the Dark Mechanicum. The two Primarchs would learn all that was known about the Nucerians' insidious cortical
implant technology, and then they would burn that loathsome world until its surface was nothing but glass. Angron
would finally take the vengeance he pretended to no longer desire. Whether Angron fought him, hated him or trusted
him, mattered little to Lorgar, who intended to drag Angron into the immortality that he deserved before the Dark
Gods whether he wanted it or not.

Guilliman's retribution fleet, which had been tracking the rest of the Word Bearers Legion in the wake of the Battle
of Calth, finally caught up to the Traitors upon Angron's homeworld of Nuceria, which the World Eaters Legion
were preoccupied with wiping clean of all life in vengeance for the treatment the Nucerians had merited out a
century before to Angron. The XIIIth Legion warship Courage Above All, Guilliman's temporary flagship, broke
Warp at the system’s edge, at the head of a large void armada consisting of 41 vessels. The Ultramarines armada
looked wounded, cobbled together from separate fleets. It was not a dedicated interdiction war-fleet, but clearly a
ragtag strike force, a lance thrust to the enemy’s heart. Guilliman himself had done the best he could with limited
resources. The XIIIth Legion's Cruisers and Battleships ran abeam of the enemy fleet for repeated exchange of
broadsides, offering targets too big and powerful to ignore, while the rest of the Ultramarines fleet used calculated
Lance strikes from safer range. The armada then divided its assault potential, doing its utmost to destroy Lorgar's
flagship Fidelitas Lex, and attempted to take the World Eaters' flagship Conqueror in a boarding action.

But the Ultramarines' warships not only fought a void war, they also attempted to take the fight to the surface of
Nuceria, for this attack was personal. The Ultramarines had come for revenge against Lorgar and the Word Bearers,
just as they had pursued Kor Phaeron all the way to the Maelstrom on the other side of Ultramar. Several
Ultramarines warships attempted to make a run on Nuceria, haemorrhaging Drop Pods, landers and gunships,
forcing planetfall by any means necessary. The Ultramarines fleet swept over and against the Traitors like an insect
horde. But the tenacious commander of the Conqueror, Lotara Sarrin, refused to go on the defensive and destroyed a
number of Ultramarines vessels that attempted to make a run for the surface. Though the World Eaters' flagship
transformed a number of the smaller vessels into flaming wreckage, the Ultramarines eventually punched through
her tenacious defence and managed to land troops on the surface of Nuceria.

Meanwhile, the Fidelitas Lex was already a ruin, its armour pitted and cracked, its shields a memory. The cathedrals
and spinal fortresses barnacling along its back were gone, laid waste by the Ultramarines’ incendiary rage. The XIII
Legion's armada attacked in strafing runs and protracted exchanges of broadsides, trading fire with the superior
warship and accepting their own casualties as the cost of bleeding the bigger vessel dry. Each assault left the Lex
weaker, firing fewer turrets and cannons, taking punishment on its increasingly fragile armour. But she fought on.

Crawling with smaller ships, the Lex lashed back with its remaining Macro-cannons, rolling in the light of its own
burning hull. Guilliman guided the battle from the command deck of Courage Above All, and had decided that the
Lex would die first, killed in the death of a thousand cuts and swept from the game board, while the Conqueror
would be boarded and killed from within. In the course of the battle in Nucerian orbit, the Conqueror could not rise
to its sister-ship’s defence. Both Traitor Legion flagships fought alone, starved of support and suffering the endless
attacks of the XIII Legion’s ragged armada. Salvation Pods streamed from the Lex’s sides and underbelly, along
with heavier Mechanicum craft and bulk landers. With the Legionaries of the Word Bearers already on the surface,
the ship's human population fled in the vessel’s final minutes. And still the great vessel fought -- rolling, turning,
raging. The Ultramarines Cruisers that drifted past burned as badly as the warship they were killing. This void battle
was a form of dirty fighting between warships, too close for the neat calculations of ranged battery fire. Instead, it
was an up close and personal slugfest.

The Ultramarines Battle Barge Armsman intercepted the Conqueror and came abeam, launching Assault Carriers
and Boarding Torpedoes. While the World Eaters flagship was busy repelling boarders, a number of smaller XIII th
Legion vessels slipped past her defences and launched Drop Pods, gunships and troop carriers. The first Drop Pods
hammered home on the planet's surface. Sealed doors unlocked and the first Ultramarines poured forth, Bolters
raised, moving in perfect and well-trained unity. But the World Eaters were waiting for them. Those not lost to the
Butcher's Nails at once had the presence of mind to note that these Ultramarines were not the pristine cobalt-blue
warriors they had previously faced on the War World of Armatura. These Legionaries of the XIII th wore cracked
Power Armour, still scarred and burnwashed from some horrendous battle weeks or months before. These were
hardened veterans of the Calth Atrocity. They burned with a cold intensity to carry out the vengeance in their hearts,
and were intent on getting to grips with the Word Bearers.

As was their way, the Ultramarines established footholds at defensible positions, clearing room for their
reinforcements to land. For every position they held, another was overrun by the World Eaters in a storm of roaring
axes, or lost to the Word Bearers' chanting, implacable advance. The XII th Legion crashed against the XIIIth in rabid
packs, showing why Imperial forces had feared to fight alongside them for decades. Uncontrolled, unbound,
unrestrained, they butchered their way through Ultramarines strongpoints, enslaved to the joy of battle because of
the Butcher's Nails cortical implants sandwiched within the meat of their minds. The XVII th Legion also met their
Loyalist cousins, replacing ferocity with spite and hate. The Ultramarines returned it in kind, hungry for vengeance
against the vile Traitors who had defiled Calth and damaged its star. Word Bearers units marched, droning black
hymns and chanting sermons from the Book of Lorgar, bearing corpse-strewn icons of befouled metal and bleached
bones above their regiments.

As the fighting raged, the burning shell of the Fidelitas Lex cut through the clouds into the planet's atmosphere,
shuddering on its way east, rolling ever downwards, achingly slow for something of such scale. The weight of the
Lex's massive plasma engines dragged the stern down first, colliding with the Nucerian ocean's surface far from
shore. In the meantime, the demigod in gold and blue had finally found the object of his obsession amidst the
clamour of war. Guilliman confronted Lorgar, possessing the advantage of two weapons, but Lorgar's Crozius gave
him a reach his brother lacked. When they first met, there was no furious trading of frantic blows, nor were there
any melodramatic speeches of vengeance avowed. The two Primarchs came together once, Power Fist against War
Maul, and backed away from the resulting flare of repelling energy fields. Their warriors killed each other around
them both, and neither Primarch spared their sons a glance. Lorgar flicked the clinging lightning from the head of
his Crozius, shaking his head in slow denial.

Both Primarchs fought without heeding their warriors, their godlike movements an inconceivable blur to the Space
Marines fighting around them. None had ever imagined the heroes of this new age would take the field against each
other, nor could they have predicted the wellsprings of spite between them. Guilliman confronted Lorgar for what
his Legion had done across the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar. In his righteous anger the Ultramarines Primarch
struck Lorgar with one of his fists, battering the Word Bearers Primarch's sternum. Lorgar repulsed him with a
projected burst of telekinesis, weak and wavering, but enough to send his brother staggering. The Crozius followed,
its power field trailing lightning as Lorgar hammered it into the side of Guilliman’s head with the force of a
cannonball. Both Primarchs faced each other beneath the grey sky, one bleeding internally, the other with half of his
face lost to blood sheeting from a fractured skull.

Locked in their furious life-and-death struggle, the two Primarchs were oblivious to the destruction being wrought
around them. Suddenly, Angron burst forth from the Ultramarines ranks, his armour a shattered wreck, and both of
his Chainswords spat gobbets of ceramite armour plating and scarlet gore. Angron was plastered with the blood of
the slain after hours in the crush of the front lines of intense combat. On his chest hung a bandolier of skulls taken
from the mass grave at Desh’elika Ridge. Blood painted them as surely as it marked Angron. Even through the
constant pain generated by the Butcher's Nails, that pleased him. He wanted his deceased brothers and sisters to taste
blood once more. He had carried them with him across Nuceria, letting their empty eyes witness the razing of his
former, hated homeworld. The World Eater launched himself at Guilliman with murderous hatred. The two
Primarchs fell into a seamless, roaring duel where Lorgar and Guilliman had abandoned theirs. Guilliman found
himself forced back by the storm of Angron's blows.

Once on Nuceria, Angron had paid his respects to his fallen brothers and sisters amongst the Nucerian gladiators he
had once fought beside, whose bones now lay exposed to the elements on the Desh'elika Ridge where they had died.
The painful memories of that day, long ago, were too much for the Primarch to bare. After paying a visit to the city-
state of Desh'ea to see who ruled the Nucerian city-state that had once claimed to own him, he became enraged
when he was told the tale of how he had fled at the Battle of Desh'elika Ridge, and the subsequent massacre of the
rebel army in the mountains. The rebels had died to a man in his absence. Enraged by the lies that had been told
about him over the last century, Angron ordered his Legion to kill everyone in the city. Then they were to kill
everyone on the planet. At the height of the final battle against the last city on Nuceria, Lorgar was confronted by his
wrathful brother Roboute Guilliman, who had been chasing him and the XIIth Legion since the destruction of Calth.
As the two Primarchs fought, Guilliman gravely wounded Lorgar and was about to deliver a killing stroke to his
wretched brother. But Angron had seen Guilliman's assault upon Lorgar and intervened, facing the Lord of Ultramar
in single combat.

On Angron's chest hung a bandolier of skulls taken from the mass grave at Desh'elika Ridge. Blood painted them as
surely as it marked Angron. Even through the haze of pain created by the Butcher's Nails, that pleased him. He
wanted his former brothers and sisters, the Eaters of Cities, to taste blood once more. He had carried them with him
across Nuceria, letting their empty eyes witness the razing of the high-rider cities. As the two Primarchs fought,
Guilliman landed a glancing blow, his fist pounding across Angron's breastplate. One of the skulls of Angron's
fallen kinsman that hung from the chain worn across his breastplate was partially shattered and scattered across the
ground. Guilliman stepped back, his boot crushing a skull's remnants to powder. Angron saw it, and threw himself at
his brother, his howl of wrath defying mortal origins, impossibly ripe in its anguish.

Lorgar saw it, too. The moment Guilliman's boot broke the skull, he felt the Warp boil behind the veil. The Bearer
of the Word started chanting in a language never before spoken by any living being, his words in faultless harmony
with Angron's cry of torment. Lorgar enacted his dark plan to save his brother's life, summoning the Ruinstorm to
the world of Nuceria, tearing the sky open and unleashing a crimson torrent, formed from the ghosts of a hundred
murdered worlds, raining blood. Lorgar focused his concentration on the triumphant form of his mutilated brother,
calling for the Neverborn, the entities men called daemons, to answer in kind. He locked Angron's muscles, setting
fire to the synapses in his brain. The first spasms wracked their way through Angron’s sinews, turning his blood to
quicksilver, then to lava and at last to holy fire. His cries of thwarted rage were tainted by an agony beyond
comprehension. His body started tearing itself apart, growing, rising. Perfecting, after a lifetime of broken torture.
This was the moment of Angron's apotheosis into daemonhood.

The World Eaters Librarians, those few who had never received the deadly Butcher's Nails implants which were
inimicable to psykers, sensed the fey powers summoned by Lorgar from the Warp. In an attempt to halt the Urizen's
dark plans, the 19 remaining Librarians harnessed their collective psychic powers to manifest a psychic entity
known as the Communion, the gestalt consciousness of 19 psychic minds. In the midst of Lorgar's incantations, the
Communion pulled the soul of the Primarch from his body. The two psychic entities confronted one another within
the Warp, locked in a deadly contest of wills, each convinced that they were the one responsible for saving Angron.
But ultimately, the Communion failed, for Lorgar was just as powerful in the Warp as he was in the material
universe. After Angron's completed metamorphosis into a new Daemon Prince, the Daemon Primarch turned his
attention to the Librarians. The creatures that had pained him for decades. The warriors that had made the Butcher's
Nails sing and his brain bleed just for the sin of standing near them. Now they moved against his brother, hurling
their foulness at Lorgar, who crouched one-handed and wounded, down on his knees.

The Daemon Primarch's rage killed the remaining Libarians, each of them tasting a different doom. Angron killed
the last of the Librarian, expunging his Legion of the weakness that had plagued his gene-sons since his
reunification with them a century earlier. The Librarius of the World Eaters, the last fragment of the War Hounds
within the XII Legion, was no more, a fact which greatly pleased the Blood God Khorne, who would not brook the
existence of any psykers amongst his chosen servants. Lorgar had offered up the XII th Legion to the whims of the
Blood God as his loyal servants. Now there would only be blood, an ocean of blood carried on a tide of eternal
slaughter.

The gravely wounded Guilliman escaped from Nuceria, unable to face or even fully comprehend what both of his
brothers had become through their corruption by the Ruinous Powers. The World Eaters completed their purge of
Nuceria until not one human life remained on the benighted world. Angron, now the very embodiment of the Blood
God's Eight-Fold Path, shook the dust of the world from his feet and did not think of it again. Lorgar believed that
he had "saved" his brother. In his mind it was the only way, for he alone had sought to save Angron from the
implants that were killing him by degrees. Only Lorgar had found a way to free Angron from an existence of
unrivalled agony, and he alone had acted to save his tormented brother. Now the Shadow Crusade could move on
from Ultramar and rejoin Horus. The next target for the Traitors would be Terra itself.

Against Horus

The Daemon Primarch Fulgrim battles Lorgar during the Word Bearers Primarch's journey into the Warp.

Following the Shadow Crusade, Lorgar began to believe that Horus was too weak to lead the forces of Chaos to
victory over the Emperor. He was disgusted by Horus' refusal to submit to the power of the gods, and had foreseen
that Horus would ultimately lead the Traitors to defeat. Lorgar became secretly committed to killing Horus and
taking his place as the Warmaster of Chaos and the anointed champion of the Dark Gods.

Lorgar made his move following Horus' fall at Beta-Garmon, coming to Horus' flagship the Vengeful Spirit with one
of his loyal Astartres, the Dark Apostle Zardu Layak. Though Horus was comatose, he agreed that the Traitors'
needed to be assembled at Ullanor in preparation for the final drive on Terra. However, not all of the Traitor
Primarchs could be found nor were they all obeying the summons. Thus Lorgar proposed that Perturabo journey to
find Angron while he sought out Fulgrim.

Using an oracle disciple of Cyrene Valantion as a guide, Lorgar, Layak, and a small force of Word Bearers entered
the Webway in search of Fulgrim. They successfully navigated its treacherous corridors to enter the Eye of Terror,
where they found themselves before the Palace of Slaanesh itself. Within they discovered Fulgrim and N'Kari
engaged in debauchery.

Fulgrim refused to leave his delights and return to the war effort, forcing the two sides to battle. As Lorgar held off
Fulgrim, Zardu Layak uttered the True Name of the newly ascended Emperor's Children Daemon Primarch.

Layak had learned the name during a ritual Lorgar had conducted but due to the total amnesia it would eventually
curse the name's bearer with, he had given the information to the Dark Apostle instead. Fulgrim was bound to
Layak's will by the name's utterance, and Lorgar now had a powerful pawn with which to slay Horus. After
gathering the disparate Emperor's Children together, the two Legions arrived at Ullanor for Horus' muster.

Horus had by this point recovered thanks to the sacrifice of his longtime Equerry Maloghurst, and Lorgar revealed
his plan to usurp the Warmaster. After sacrificing large numbers of mortal servants, Lorgar planned to unleash a
psychic scream that would disorient Horus, then have Zayak order Fulgrim to attack. The Word Bearers and
Emperor's Children orbiting Ullanor would finish off the Sons of Horus Legion, leaving Lorgar in total command of
the Traitors' war effort.

However Lorgar's coup quickly fell apart, as the Chaos mystic Actaea who had led Lorgar to the Palace of Slaanesh
had already warned Horus of Lorgar's planned betrayal. Upon meeting Horus on Ullanor, Lorgar was immediately
attacked before he could unleash his psychic assault, and Zardu Layak betrayed Lorgar by freeing Fulgrim from his
bindings instead of ordering him to attack.

Lorgar was beaten mercilessly by Horus, who threw him his weapon and demanded he stand and fight. Lorgar
refused to fight, and instead expressed pity at the monstrosity Horus had become since his recovery from the wounds
suffered on Beta-Garmon, as Horus had gained an ever-shifting form with a maw of dark Chaos energy at its core.

Horus ordered Lorgar to leave his sight, pledging to kill him if he ever returned. The Word Bearers under Lorgar's
command who had followed Zardu Layak in his betrayal of Lorgar would continue to serve Horus. Lorgar left for
destinations unknown, proclaiming that Horus was doomed to failure due to his weakness.

Siege of Terra

As the majority of the Word Bearers Legion continued to battle across the Ultima Segmentum, those of the XVII
Legion led by Zardu Layak participated in the Siege of Terra, where Horus and his forces were repulsed and
defeated after a fifty-five-solar-day siege.

After the death of Horus aboard his own flagship, the battleship Vengeful Spirit in orbit of Terra, the XVII Legion
ultimately took refuge within the Warp rifts of the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom, vast wounds in space where the
Immaterium leaked into reality.

There they have remained, returning to the worlds of the Imperium since the end of the Heresy only to raid, pillage,
and destroy.

Post-Heresy

The Daemon Primarch Lorgar, Chosen of Chaos Undivided.

Eventually, the atrocities committed by the Word Bearers allowed Lorgar to ascend to daemonhood as a Daemon
Primarch, becoming the equal of a god in the eyes of his Legion. It is said his birth scream as a Daemon Prince of
Chaos Undivided echoed across the Immaterium with triumphant vindication, his faith and devotion to Chaos
rewarded with immortality and unbridled power.

He has since isolated himself within the Templum Inficio on the Daemon World of Sicarus where he has remained
for thousands of Terran years, forbidding anyone to interrupt his meditation, thus allowing the Word Bearers to be
taken over by a Dark Council of the Word Bearers' most powerful Dark Apostles (the Word Bearers' equivalent of
Space Marine Chaplains).

Unlike many of the other Traitor Legions, the Word Bearers have remained a unified, if loosely organised, military
force that has not split into separate warbands all vying against one another for power and control. The main ruling
body of the Word Bearers is still the Dark Council, though the council is dominated by two major factions
constantly striving against one another to dominate the Legion's future. One is led by the Dark Apostle and former
First Chaplain Erebus, the other by the Keeper of the Faith Kor Phaeron.

From the two primary bases of the Legion, Sicarus and the factory-world of Ghalmek which is located within the
Maelstrom, the Word Bearers launch twisted Wars of Faith against the Imperium in the name of the Dark Gods.

These conflicts' purpose is to "enlighten" humanity by replacing its worship of the Corpse Emperor with that of the
only true divinities of the universe. That this requires the death of billions of people is a price that the Word Bearers
are willing to pay to bring the truth first sought by Lorgar Aurelian to the rest of the galaxy.

On each world they attack, they incubate a seed of heresy that will one day contribute to their ever-expanding web
of Chaos Cults. Sometimes, however, this brings them into competition with the equally insidious efforts of the
Alpha Legion.

Though the Alpha Legion and the Word Bearers have united several times to take part in the Black Crusades of
Abaddon the Despoiler, they are more usually in states of bitter division and rivalry.

Lorgar temporarily broke his isolation to aid his Word Bearers against a monstrosity that was hunting them. The
creature was eventually revealed to be the Loyalist Primarch Corvus Corax, who had become mutated by the powers
of the Warp during his quest for vengeance against the Traitor Primarchs in the years after his disappearance from
his Chapter.

Lorgar and Corax engaged in a duel once more, with the Ravenlord dominating the engagement and forcing Lorgar
to withdraw through the Warp portal he had arrived in. As the portal between them closed, Corax stated that he now
had Lorgar's scent and would hunt him down no matter where he fled.

However, these conflicts were but distractions as the Word Bearers' war against the Imperium of Man is always a
total one, and they do not intend for it to end until every icon of the False Emperor lies shattered at their feet and the
Corpse Emperor has been toppled from the life-sustaining mechanisms of the Golden Throne to wither and die.

Only in this way can Mankind finally be freed from the shackles of a false faith to understand the truth of Chaos.

And that time is nearly upon the galaxy. After ten thousand years of seclusion in the Warp, Lorgar is finally rumored
to have returned to lead his Legion in the field at the close of the 41st Millennium in the Era Indomitus following the
birth of the Great Rift.

It is said that he has been seen walking the mortal realms in terrible splendor, preaching the word of Chaos at the
head of a massive Word Bearers army.

Notable Campaigns
The Word Bearers have woven a rich tapestry of disaster across the millennia. Only those truly steeped in arcane
lore can discern the patterns within. No idle raids are these, but the sacrificial acts of a grand ritual designed to tear
open reality and empower the Chaos Gods. Each betrayal, each act of hideous devotion, has been for the furtherance
of this bitter crusade.

 The Fall of Orioc (Unknown Date.M30) - Orioc was a city-state of Old Earth. Buried in a hallowed-out
mountain in Ancient Terra's ice-bound south, it stood throughout the darkness of Old Night, weathering the
storms of strife for thousands of standard years. The people of Orioc believed they were the chosen of
Ancient Terra's blighted children, and that they alone would outlast the anarchy that had broken so much
else. This certainty came from their faith in protection from the spirits of death and life, an ancient
pantheon of gods worshiped by the people of Orioc. During the Unification Wars, when the Emperor's eye
finally turned to the mountain city, He seemed to have known that soft words and diplomatic overtures
would be of little use. The XVIIth Space Marine Legion, the Imperial Heralds, came to the city and gave it a
choice -- kneel and accept the Imperial Truth, or be destroyed. The Priest Kings of Orioc did not even hear
the message before they gave their answer. Fire met the Imperial Heralds' transport and as it fell to the ice
plains, the XVIIth Legion began their attack. Macro bombers came out of the snow-filled sky and the
mountain cracked under a rain of seismic charges. On the mountain's flanks, siege tanks coughed shell after
shell into fractures in the rock, breaking them wide open. Behind the wind came the grey armoured
warriors advancing in a relentless drum roll of gun fire and the hiss of flame. After three solar hours of
battle, the remaining populace was a huddled flock, crammed intro the central cavern. With every other
tunnel and cavern district wiped clean of life, the XVII th Legion halted, sealing the ways in and out of the
central cavern. As the survivors waited in fretful silence, they wondered what fate awaited them. Their
answer came in a rain of shattered stone and red fire, as the Ashen Circle descended on the last idolators
like comets flung from a destroyed heaven. All burned, none were spared, and when it was done, the XVII th
Legion overloaded the geothermal power plants beneath the mountain, causing lava to fill the caverns,
swallowing the stone idols, and exploding the city-state from the wounds in the mountain's flanks. So fell
Orioc, and the message of its death carried across Ancient Terra and beyond: faith in false gods would
bring only ruin and ashes.
 Compliance of 47-10 (Khur) (ca. 903.M30) - The world of Forty-Seven Ten, also known as Khur, was
brought into Imperial Compliance by the Word Bearers Legion approximately a Terran century before the
events of Istvaan III at the outset of the Horus Heresy. The beautiful capital city of Khur known as
Monarchia, called the Perfect City by the Word Bearers, was built by the people of Khur at the direction
and exhortation of the Word Bearers to demonstrate their faith and devotion to the God-Emperor.
 The Melkeji Salvation (ca. 957.M30) - The world of Melkeji was a planet on the trailing edge of the
galactic rim which had retained many of the technological marvels of Mankind's lost Golden Age of
Technology. Star docks ringed its orbit and moons, and electric lights bathed its cities which rose in metal
and stone from plains, mountains and blue sea shores. Winged craft skimmed its atmosphere, while
genecrafts and bio-cleansing technologies allowed much of its population to live for many Terran centuries.
On the surface Melkeji was a jewel of light still burning in the night, but darkness coiled at the heart of this
perfect realm. A parasitic alien race held control over Melkeji. Accounts describe these creatures as clouds
of shattered black crystal when glimpsed without their hosts. Unable to exist outside of a biological sentient
host, these nameless creatures ruled Melkeji through a class referred to as the Ascended. Wearing the faces
of human men and women, the Ascended ran their domains with a single purpose guiding their every
action: the maintenance of a pool of future hosts. Such was the Melkeji world's ingrained devotion to their
parasitic masters, that when the Great Crusade found them, they rose up to resist the invaders who sought
to free them. Initially, the Imperium's Expeditionary Fleet encountered heavy resistance and the armada
withdrew with a small number of human captives. From these captives the nature of the Melkeji's
enslavement soon became clear. Knowing that they could not capture the planet, the Grand Marshal of the
Expeditionary Fleet sent an Astropathic message asking for aid. When that aid came, it was more than the
Grand Marshal could have dared to hope for. Lorgar himself came to Melkeji with eight full Chapters of his
XVIIth Legion. Having talked to the captives in person, the Lord Aurelian is said to have given a single
order: "Light the first fire." Perhaps out of fear that their human cattle might one day turn on them, the
Ascended dwelt in a chain of nine orbital cities far above the planet's surface. Approaching without power,
the war barge Castigator slid towards Melkeji from its system's edge. Once it was deep behind the planet's
sphere of defences, it fired its payload, a Nova Shell and a cluster of Melta and plasma-tipped torpedoes
 timed to strike at the same moment. Revealing itself after launching its payload, the Melkeji warships
turned to chase the Word Bearers vessel. Meanwhile, Lorgar's fleet met them, the void battle lasted a single
hour, and at its end the Melkeji ships were scattered fragments of debris. The Word Bearers moved past the
orbital cities to land their armoured cargoes of Astartes upon the planet's surface. Five thousand Word
Bearers and 100,000 Imperial Army auxiliaries fell on the planet in a single drop. Even in the face of such
might, the Melkeji resisted. Several million died in the first hour of engagement. Then, just as the defenders
reached into their reserves of will, Lorgar attacked the remaining cities of the Ascended. Boarding
companies in Astartes gunships punched through the turret fire and armour, and began to advance through
the cities. Throughout the assault the Ascended called on their forces to resist, their voices reaching across
the planet on signal waves. Lorgar made no move to stop the signaling voices, but his Assault Companies
reached the orbital cities' plasma reactors. Then, one after another, the Ascended's voices were silenced and
a chain of explosions ringed the besieged world. In a single moment the people of Melkeji knew that their
masters were gone and that they were facing a power greater and more terrible than they any they could
have dreamed in their wildest nightmares. Most of the Melkeji surrendered at that moment, the rest a few
days later. A decade after, Melkeji was a world faithful to the God-Emperor. Half a century later, half a
million of its sons and daughters would come to Ultramar in 007.M31 with the names of alien gods on their
lips and aid the Word Bearers in the assault upon Calth and other worlds within the Realm of the XIII th
Legion.
 Razing of Monarchia (964.M30) - During the Great Crusade, the world of Forty-Seven Ten, also known
as Khur, was brought into Imperial Compliance approximately a Terran century before the events of
Istvaan III at the outset of the Horus Heresy (approximately 005.M30). The beautiful capital city of Khur
known as Monarchia, called the Perfect City by the Word Bearers, was built by the people of Khur at the
direction and exhortation of the Word bearers to demonstrate their faith and devotion to the God-Emperor.
Nearly six decades after being brought into Compliance, some forty-three years before the outbreak of the
Horus Heresy, the XIII Legion, the Ultramarines, utterly destroyed Monarchia on the order of the Emperor
as an example to both Primarch Lorgar and his Word Bearers that violations of the Imperial Truth through
the encouragement of the continued error of religious faith and the spread of idolatrous doctrine would not
be tolerated. This action crushed Lorgar and his Space Marines and led them to seek out new gods more
worthy of their worship -- the Ruinous Powers of Chaos.
 Pilgrimage of Lorgar (ca. 964.M30) - The Pilgrimage of Lorgar was the spiritual quest undertaken by the
Primarch Lorgar of the Word Bearers Space Marine Legion during the Great Crusade. Its object was to
discover whether humanity's ancient collective beliefs in supernatural entities were true or whether his
father the Emperor of Mankind's atheistic, rationalist Imperial Truth was the correct philosophy to guide
Mankind's future. In the course of his Pilgrimage, Lorgar learned that the Emperor had lied and that
supernatural entities, the Chaos Gods, did exist. Since they were the only deities seemingly in existence,
Lorgar believed that they were worthy of humanity's worship. Lorgar would spend the next 40 standard
years seeking to turn his fellow Primarchs to the service of Chaos and this Pilgrimage was ultimately
responsible for setting in motion the events that brought on the cataclysmic Horus Heresy.

The Primarch Lorgar leads his Word Bearers during the Purge of 47-16.

 Purge of 47-16 (ca. 964.M30) - Forty-Seven Sixteen was the first world brought into Imperial Compliance
after the rebuke of the Word Bearers by the Emperor on the world of Khur. The lost human world had at
first rejoiced to be reunited with their long-lost brothers from the stars. For over four thousand Terran years
they had thought themselves alone in the universe until the arrival of the XVIIth Legion. They had greeted
the Word Bearers' envoys with open arms, gazing upon the immense, grey-armoured Astartes warriors with
awe and reverence. Upon their return to their orbiting vessels, First Captain Kor Phaeron commented that
the people of Forty-Seven Sixteen were, "Irrevocably corrupt worshipers of a heathen deity." The humans
of this world appeared to venerate a large profane titanic colossus known only as the "Storm Lord." Since
the Emperor had rebuked their Primarch and the entirety of the XVII th Legion for their slowness in bringing
worlds into Compliance and violating the Imperial Truth, the Word Bearers could not again refuse the will
of the Emperor. The XVIIth Legion did not have the time necessary to convert the population of Forty-
Seven Sixteen to the Imperial Truth, and since their profane beliefs were deemed incompatible with the
Imperium's order, the world of Forty-Seven Sixteen would have to be purged. Less than 24 hours later more
than a 190 million people were dead – over 98% of the doomed world’s population. Only one city survived
 the 12 hour orbital bombardment, in which entire continents disappeared in flame. This was the seat of the
planet's governance and centre of its blasphemous worship. The world's profane palace-temple was
protected by a bubble of coruscating energy. Five full Word Bearers companies were deployed to the
planet's surface to finish the job. Battling through the masses of artificial intelligent war machines
unleashed by the desperate defenders, Captain Sor Talgron and his 34th Company spearheaded the assault
and eventually forced their way inside, while taking more casualties than initially expected. Within the
dome of the temple were gathered hundreds of human survivors as well as the political leaders of the
people of Forty-Seven Sixteen. Sor Talgron spoke with the head priest and discovered, much to his shock,
that these people worshipped the Emperor as a God, and that they wanted to join the Imperium! Sor
Talgron felt guilty for the genocide that had been committed by his Legion because of this
misunderstanding. Informing the Primarch of what had transpired, the First Captain Kor Phaeron and a
cadre of 100 Terminators teleported to the surface, materialising inside the dome, their weapons trained on
the human worshippers. Then Lorgar and First Chaplain Erebus materialised, making their presence
known. The Primarch dismissed the fact that the people of this world worshiped the Emperor as a God and
that they had somehow obtained a copy of the Lectitio Divinitatus scribed by Lorgar himself. Lorgar
informed Talgron that he had been penning a new magnus opus, something that would make everyone
forget the now-obsolete Lectitio Divinatus. This was to be the profane Book of Lorgar. The people of
Forty-Seven Sixteen were condemned, for ignorance was no excuse for violations of the Imperial Truth.
The Primarch explained to Captain Talgron that sometimes sacrifices had to be made, and with a signal to
his First Captain the survivors of Forty-Seven Sixteen were massacred in a hail of Storm Bolter rounds.
 Discovery of Cadia (966.M30) - During the so-called "Pilgrimage of Lorgar", the spiritual quest
undertaken by the Primarch Lorgar and his XVII th Legion to commune with the Dark Gods. The Word
Bearers' pursuit of any scrap of information that could be found on the Primordial Truth or the nature of the
place where Gods and mortals could mingle ultimately led the 1301 st Expeditionary Fleet to the Cadia
System near the largest permanent Warp Storm in the galaxy, later known to the Imperium as the Eye of
Terror. The Word Bearers laid anchor over an unknown world. They later made planetfall on the newly
discovered planet, which they designated as 1301-12. There, they discovered the Chaos-worshipping
population. It was on Cadia that Lorgar first met Ingethal, a Daemon Prince of Chaos, who was appointed
by the Ruinous Powers as a guide for Lorgar and inducted the naive Primarch into worshipping Chaos. This
would lay the seeds for setting in motion the events that brought on the cataclysmic Horus Heresy nearly
four decades later.
 The Pyre of Corrinos (Unknown Date.M30) - The Corrinos Campaign is one of many that were seen at
the time as shining examples of the Word Bearers' renewal after their censure at Khur. Now, with the fires
of treachery still casting a lingering shadow ten thousand standard years later, this ancient victory can be
read in a very different light. Corrinos was a star system of inhabited worlds that lay close to the major
Warp routes linking the Sol System to the Eastern Fringe. Discovered after a previously unstable Warp
route had opened, it at first seemed Corrinos might be brought into the Imperial fold without bloodshed.
The light Imperial scout fleet who first made contact with the trio of worlds reported that the populations of
all seemed open to reunification with Terra. Given the levels of technology and industry, they became a
waypoint for greater exploitation of the eastern galactic zones, and a small force of Ultramarines was
dispatched to link up with the scout fleet and bring Corrinos into the expanding Realm of Ultramar. The
Ultramarines were becalmed in the Immaterium while en route to the Corrinos System, which delayed
them by several solar months. When the forces of the XIII th Legion finally reached their destination, they
found its three worlds covered in the ruin of war. All that remained was a lone Imperial voidship lingering
in orbit around one world. The Imperial survivors' account given to the Ultramarines, and the one that
entered the War Council's archives, was that the scout fleet had been ambushed and destroyed after being
lured into a false parley. The scout fleet's Astropaths had broadcast a garbled message that called for help
and spoke of treachery. A Word Bearers Crusade fleet, under the command of Chapter Master Hasdrubal,
had responded, racing to the system to find that the worlds of Corrinos were waiting for them. Far from
open compliance, the population was riddled with the taint of renegade psykers. These witches had clouded
the minds of the Imperial scout force, seeding them with lies that would draw more victims to Corrinos. It
had only been chance that the Astropath's message had broken through. As soon as they were in range of
the first world, the Word Bearers Crusade fleet began their bombardment, hammering the surface of the
first planet from orbit with relentless fury. A mass Astartes drop had followed to clear the remaining life
from the surface. With the warships above shaking the ground with fire, the Word Bearers made a last
advance before withdrawing to orbit again and leaving the first planet of Corrinos in flames. It was said to
 have been done in less than a single transit of the world's sun, and then repeated twice more until the
Corrinos System was cleansed of life. These were the facts the Imperium believed at the time, which
signified nothing but the strength of a loyal Space Marine Legion. That Corrinos could have provided a key
mustering ground for later Loyalist forces seeking to strike out of Ultramar towards the systems around
Terra to protect the homeworld of humanity from an attacking force never occurred to anyone. Only later,
after the terrible events of the Horus Heresy, does the account of the Pyre of Corrinos now taste of lies
when one speaks of it.
 Compliance of Fortrea Quintus (Unknown Date.M30) - The world of Fortrea Quintus had been isolated
from Imperial rule for several centuries, and when the leading edges of the Great Crusade reached the
frontier of their star system, the planet's governing monarchy proved unwilling to submit itself to Imperial
rule and had the Emperor's representatives executed. The Word Bearers were the nearest Legion to the
world, though they were already heavily engaged in fighting Orks in the Chairak Nebula. Lorgar
despatched 2,000 Astartes to Fortrea Quintus with orders that the planet be pacified within three months.
The Word Bearers quickly established fortified positions on the planet and found the populace to be living
in abject poverty, while their corrupt and ruthless rulers grew fat off their hard labours. A well-trained and
disciplined army defended the planet's rulers, equipped with advanced weaponry and artificially-intelligent
war machines. Under the command of Captain Jarulek, the Word Bearers steadily pushed their enemies
back, their captain rousing the populace against their rulers with stirring speeches and fiery oratory. In
ever-increasing numbers, the people of Fortrea Quintus joined Jarulek's march until his army numbered
more than a million people. A month after the Word Bearers had landed, Captain Jarulek, together with his
millions of new followers, launched his assault on the planetary ruler's last bastion, the Palace of Light. The
casualties amongst the populace were horrendous,with thousands dying every minute as they charged the
heavily defended walls, armoured bastions and labyrinthine trench systems of the main gates armed with
little more than pistols and spears. As the carnage continued at the main palace gates, the Word Bearers
attacked on another front, catching the defenders off-guard and striking for the heart of the palace. Nothing
could stand before them and Jarulek himself captured the planet's ruler, throwing him to the blood-
maddened survivors of the battle at the gates where he was torn to bloody shreds. Fully 90% of the people
who had joined Jarulek's march died in the battle for the main gates, whilst barely a handful of Word
Bearers had been killed. Following the victory, Jarulek began the Imperial indoctrination of the populace.
When the Adepts of the Ministorum arrived to bring the word of the Emperor to Fortrea Quintus, they were
horrified by the Word Bearers careless use of the populace, but found the people as well versed in the
culture of the Imperium as any Loyal world could be. But when the Horus Heresy began, Fortrea Quintus
would be revealed as a hotbed of Chaos worship secretly planted by the Word Bearers. After the end of the
Heresy, the Ultramarines Legion would be forced to purge the planet of its festering Chaotic corruption by
exterminating its population.
 Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V (566.066.M31) - Noted as one of the most devastating defeats in the
history of the Adeptus Astartes, the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V saw the Raven Guard and
Salamanders Legions nearly annihilated as effective fighting forces and only the quick thinking and
initiative of the Salamanders allowed a bare few Space Marines of these two Legions to escape that
dreadful day. In response to the treachery of the Warmaster Horus and his betrayal of the Loyalist Astartes
in the Sons of Horus, Emperor's Children, World Eaters and Death Guard Legions at Istvaan III, the
Primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion, Rogal Dorn, on the direction of the Emperor who had learned of
Horus' actions from the Loyalist survivors aboard the Eisenstein, ordered 7 Loyalist Space Marine Legions
to Horus' base on the world of Istvaan V to challenge the Traitors. They would attack in two waves and fall
under the supreme command of the Iron Hands' Primarch Ferrus Manus. The Legions comprising the first
wave were the Raven Guard, Iron Hands and Salamanders. The Legions comprising the second wave were
the Alpha Legion, Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and a large contingent of Word Bearers that their Primarch
Lorgar had stationed in the star system. Unknown to Dorn and Ferrus Manus, the Night Lords, Alpha
Legion, Iron Warriors and Word Bearers had all turned from their service to the Emperor and secretly
pledged their loyalty to Horus, and been instructed to keep their new allegiance to Chaos a secret. The Iron
Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard were deployed in the first wave of the assault on the planet. The first
wave secured the drop site, known as the Urgall Depression, though at a heavy cost. Horus ordered his
front line troops to fall back in a feint, tempting Ferrus Manus to overstretch his already thin lines. Against
the advice of Corax and Vulkan, Manus led his Veterans against the fleeing Traitor Marines unsupported.
Manus then brought his brother Fulgrim to combat. As the two Primarchs drew their weapons, the Raven
Guard and Salamanders fell back to regroup and allow the second wave's Legions to advance and earn
 glory. However, as they returned they were mowed down by the four Traitor Legions that had landed to
supposedly support them, thus revealing their new allegiance to Chaos. At the same time the apparent rout
of the Sons of Horus, the World Eaters, Death Guard and Emperor's Children suddenly halted and the
Traitors pressed their attack. As Horus pressed the counterattack he managed to sandwich the Loyalists
between the two Traitor forces, killing most of them. As the black-armoured Astartes of the Raven Guard
Legion were cut down by the Traitors' sustained volley, the traitorous Primarch Lorgar ordered his Word
Bearers Legion to attack the Raven Guards' unprotected flank. Corax charged into the ranks of the
Traitorous Word Bearers, a blur of charcoal armour and black blades, butchering with an ease that belied
his ferocity. Argel Tal, the Crimson Lord and leader of the daemon-possessed Astartes known as the Gal
Vorbak, Lorgar's "Blessed Sons," leapt forward to meet their end at the hands of the enraged Primarch.
Lorgar soon noticed that Corax was wading through the Gal Vorbak, ripping his daemon-possessed
crimson warriors apart. Despite the protestations of both Kor Phaeron and Erebus, Lorgar disregarded their
counsel and sprinted forwards across the churned earth and dead bodies of his brother's Legion to engage in
a battle he had no hope of winning. The two Primarchs fought in furious combat -- Corax fighting to slay
the Traitor, while Lorgar fought simply to stay alive. The Primarchs traded vicious blows, but the Raven
Lord had the advantage not only of speed and finesse, but also of being a gifted warrior with decades of
fighting experience. Lorgar did not, for he had always been more of a scholar than a warrior, and his lack of
experience cost him dearly as Corax impaled Lorgar through his stomach and out his back. As Corax
stepped closer, he raised his one functioning Lightning Claw to execute his brother, but was thwarted by
the timely intervention of the Night Lords' Primarch Konrad Curze. Weakened by his battle with Lorgar,
Corax took advantage when the Night Haunter was momentarily distracted and fired his flight pack,
burning his fuel reserves to escape Curze’s grip, soaring skyward away from Curze’s rising laughter.
Meanwhile, the Iron Hands were cut off and slaughtered to a man -- the Veteran Morlock Terminators cut
down while Ferrus Manus was beheaded by Fulgrim. The Salamanders and Raven Guard could do nothing
to help the Iron Hands, and were forced to make a costly break-out with precious few of their forces. Those
Thunderhawk and Stormbird gunships that lifted off and escaped Istvaan V were far fewer than those that
had landed. Corax was badly wounded and Vulkan's fate was unknown for some time. The remainder of the
Iron Hands Legion arrived to find their Veterans and Primarch dead and the Salamanders and Raven Guard
reduced to a fraction of their full strength, with both Legions nearly wiped out.
 The Shadow Crusade (007-009.M31) - The Word Bearers and World Eaters launch Shadow Crusade and
invade the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar with the aim of utterly destroying the domain of the
Ultramarines and drawing Loyalist forces away from the Warmaster's advance on Terra. During the
conflict, which centres around the perfidious attack of the Word Bearers at the Calth Muster, scores of
worlds are ravaged and the involvement of the Ruinous Powers in aid of the Traitor cause is first widely
manifest in open war, transfiguring both of the Traitor Legions involved.
o Purge of Nuceria (ca. 007.M31) - In the wake of the Battle of Calth, the Word Bearers Legion,
led by their Primarch Lorgar, linked up with Angron and his World Eaters to launch a Shadow
Crusade against the Realm of Ultramar's Five Hundred Worlds in an attempt to spread the massive
Warp Storm known as the Ruinstorm that had been conjured by the Word Bearers at Calth across
the Eastern Fringe. This would split the galaxy in half and deny needed reinforcements to the
Loyalists as Horus drove on Terra in an attempt to overthrow the Emperor of Mankind. But Lorgar
noticed that the mental stability of Angron, the Primarch of the World Eaters, was rapidly
deteriorating because of the damage caused by the Butcher's Nails, the cortical implant that had
been forced upon Angron by the slavemasters of his homeworld of Nuceria. With the savants of
the Traitor Legions and the Dark Mechanicum unable to divine a way to either remove the implant
without killing the Primarch or to prevent the escalating deterioration of Angron's mind, Lorgar
suggested that the Word Bearers and the World Eaters return to Nuceria to gather knowledge
about the implants and then raze the world to the ground. When Angron returned to his
homeworld, he learned that in the Terran century since the Emperor had rescued him unwillingly
from certain death beside the rebel band of gladiators he had led, the Nucerian slavemasters had
concocted a story that he had cowardly run away from the rebels' last stand and left them to be
slaughtered alone. Enraged by the lies that had been told about him over the last century, Angron
ordered his Legion to kill everyone in the city of Desh'ea, the masters of which had once claimed
to own him. Then they were to kill everyone on the planet. At the height of the final battle against
the last city on Nuceria, Lorgar was confronted by his wrathful brother Roboute Guilliman, who
had been chasing him and the XIIth Legion since the destruction of Calth. As the two Primarchs
 fought, Guilliman gravely wounded Lorgar and was about to deliver a killing stroke to his
wretched brother. But Angron intervened, facing the Lord of Ultramar in single combat. As the
two fought, Guilliman landed a glancing blow, his fist pounding across Angron's breastplate. One
of the skulls of Angron's fallen kinsman that hung from the chain worn across his breastplate was
partially shattered and scattered across the ground. Guilliman stepped back, his boot crushing a
skull's remnants to powder. Angron saw it, and threw himself at his brother, his howl of wrath
defying mortal origins, impossibly ripe in its anguish. Lorgar saw it, too. The moment Guilliman's
boot broke the skull, he felt the Warp boil behind the veil. The Bearer of the Word started chanting
in a language never before spoken by any living being, his words in faultless harmony with
Angron's cry of torment. Lorgar enacted his dark plan to save his brother's life, summoning the
Ruinstorm to the world of Nuceria, tearing the sky open and unleashing a crimson torrent, formed
from the ghosts of a hundred murdered worlds, raining blood. Lorgar focused his concentration on
the triumphant form of his mutilated brother, calling for the Neverborn, the entities men called
daemons, to answer in kind. He locked Angron’s muscles, setting fire to the synapses in his brain.
The first spasms wracked their way through Angron’s sinews, turning his blood to quicksilver,
then to lava and at last to holy fire. His cries of thwarted rage were tainted by an agony beyond
comprehension. His body started tearing itself apart, growing, rising. Perfecting, after a lifetime of
broken torture. This was the moment of Angron's apotheosis into daemonhood. The World Eaters
Librarians, those few who had never been implanted with the deadly Butcher's Nails implants
which were inimicable to psykers, sensed the fey powers summoned by Lorgar from the Warp. In
an attempt to halt Lorgar's dark plans, the 19 remaining Librarians harnessed their collective
psychic powers to manifest a psychic entity known as the Communion, the gestalt consciousness
of 19 psychic minds. In the midst of Lorgar's incantations, the Communion pulled the soul of the
Primarch from his body. The two psychic entities confronted one another within the Warp, locked
in a deadly contest of wills, each convinced that they were the one responsible for saving Angron.
But ultimately, the Communion failed, for Lorgar was just as powerful in the Warp as he was in
the material universe. After Angron's completed metamorphosis into a new Daemon Prince, the
Daemon Primarch turned his attention to the Librarians. The Daemon Primarch's rage killed the
remaining Libarians, each of them tasting a different doom. Angron killed the last of the
Librarians, expunging his Legion of the mutant weakness that had plagued his gene-sons since his
reunification with them a century earlier. The Librarius of the World Eaters, the last fragment of
the War Hounds within the XIIth Legion, was no more. Lorgar had offered up the World Eaters as
the Blood God's new servants. Now there would only be blood, an ocean of blood carried on a tide
of eternal slaughter.
 Battle of Calth (007.M31) - The Battle of Calth, also referred to as the Calth Atrocity, was the name given
by later Imperial scholars to the treacherous campaign conducted during the early stages of the Horus
Heresy in the 31st Millennium by the traitorous XVIIth Space Marine Legion, the Word Bearers, on behalf
of the Warmaster Horus against their hated rivals, the XIII th Space Marine Legion, better known as the
Ultramarines. The campaign was launched by the Word Bearers' Primarch Lorgar Aurelian with the goal of
exterminating the XIIIth Space Marine Legion outright. The purpose of the Word Bearers' invasion of the
Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar in the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy was to tie down the XIIIth Legion and
prevent them from reinforcing their fellow Loyalists as the Traitor Legions marched relentlessly on Terra
itself. The crux of the campaign came on the Agri-world of Calth in the Ultramar Sector, where the
Ultamarines successfully broke the Word Bearers' surprise assault after a viciously-fought siege action,
though at the cost of terrible casualties and the complete destruction of Calth's atmosphere and once-
verdant biosphere. As a result of the devastation wrought by the Word Bearers during the Calth Atrocity,
future generations of Calth's people were required to live deep underground in massive subterranean hive
cities to escape their world's radiation-scorched, airless surface. While both the Ultramarines and their
Primarch Roboute Guilliman survived the Word Bearers' assault, the campaign successfully prevented the
Ultramarines from participating in the Battle of Terra as Horus had planned. During the invasion, the Word
Bearers conducted a blasphemous Chaos ritual which summoned massive Warp storm disturbances known
as the 'Ruinstorm,' which would isolate and trap those Loyalist forces caught within it like the
Ultramarines, preventing them from coordinating their efforts and supporting one another as the Traitor
Legions moved towards Terra. It would even prevent them from warning each other, for a time, of the
Warmaster's betrayal and the civil war that had begun to consume the Imperium. The Ruinstorm would
leave Terra alone in the void, infinitely vulnerable to the approaching shadow of Horus.
 Destruction of the Furious Abyss (007.M31) - Following the destruction of the Auretian Techocracy and
securing of their rare STC templates, Lorgar, Primarch of the Word Bearers secured a secret alliance with
the traitorous Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal. He commissioned the Dark Mechancium to construct a trio
of mighty vessels built for the service of his Legion. The Furious Abyss was the first such vessel of its
kind. The Word Bearers had been secretly ordered by the rebellious Warmaster Horus to bring their
unfettered wrath down upon their hated rivals, the Ultramarines Legion. The Furious Abyss was to play an
instrumental role in the Battle of Calth and the Traitor Legion's destructive campaign that would see the
Ultramarines capital world of Macragge destroyed. But before the mighty ship could reach its destination,
the secret of its existence had been discovered. The Word Bearers' vessel was secretly infiltrated by a small
ad-hoc Loyalist strike force of Space Marine Legionaries, who proceeded to sabotage the ship's plasma
generatorium, which began a chain-reaction that resulted in the destruction of the massive vessel.
 The Underworld War (007-017.M31) - Following the events of the Calth Atrocity, the Word Bearers
perform one last act of spite and cause the planet's primary star to go super-nova. The surface of Calth is
ravaged by the slow death of the Veridia star. The Battle for Calth between trapped forces of those
Ultramarines and Word Bearers still locked in a death-struggle descends into the extensive arcologies. The
Underworld War grinds on for ten years before the last of the Traitors is finally hunted down and slain.
 Second Battle of Paramar (008 or 011.M31) - The Word Bearers provided a large garrison force
alongside the Sons of Horus and elements of the Dark Mechanicum's Traitor Titan Legions that defended
the strategic world of Paramar V from a Loyalist attempt to retake the planet from Traitor forces during the
Second Battle of Paramar.
 Defence of Nagathar (009.M31) - Severed from the main body of their Legion by the unleashing of the
Ruinstorm, a strike force from the Dark Angels Legion finds shelter in the Nagathar-system which had
become a safe haven for several Loyalist splinter forces, the most important being drawn from the Imperial
Fists. The many Loyalist fractions banded together to defend Nagathar from a powerful incursion led the
Word Bearers, which had hoped to prey on the system's millions inhabitants to fuel yet another of their
sorcerous rites.
 The Scouring of Gilden's Star (010.M31) - Scattered elements of the Blood Angels Legion fight a long
and bloody campaign against Word Bearers forces near the galactic core on the borders of Imperium
Secundus that culminates in the near-total destruction of both armies. During the campaign, the Blood
Angels prove merciless in scouring worlds which have embraced the daemonic teaching of the "dark
apostles" of the Word Bearers, putting all seven colonised worlds of Gilden's Star to the sword in one
particularly notable instance.
 Battle of Zepath (011.M31) - Obsessed with hunting down the Night Haunter, Dark Angels Primarch Lion
El'Jonson eventually is able to trace a slim lead on his former brother's whereabouts to the Zepath System,
which had since fallen to the Word Beaers and World Eaters forces. Farith Redloss, the lieutenant-elect of
the Ist Legion's Dreadwing was charged with leading the hunt for Konrad Curze upon the world of Zepath.
The Dark Angels quickly uncovered the horrors perpetrated by the Word Bearers for their dark rituals.
Eventually, the Dark Angels took part in multiple engagements against the forces of both Traitor Legions,
which culminated in the capital city of Numentis. The Traitor forces were utterly annihilated by the
victorious Dark Angels. The world was left in the care of its surviving population.
 A Return to Honour (013.M31) - Arcaes Odenathus, a Captain-praetor of the Ultramarines 10th Chapter,
rallies the scattered survivors of his own brethren and those other Loyalist fighting across the Dominion of
Storms in the galactic north-east and lead them to Honourum. Unexpected and unlooked for, this Loyalist
assault strikes the Word Bearers garrison like a thunderbolt. Three weeks of desperate fighting ensues, and
as all the Word Bearers' urgent requests for reinforcements are ignored by the Warmaster, focused now on
his push toward Terra, the sons of Lorgar resort to the most heinous of tactics. Daemons, warp-tainted
infiltrators and terrors of the wars of Old Night are unleashed, with both sides driven on past mortal
endurance by hatred. When the last Traitor finally fell, there was nothing left of the grand cities of
Honourum but blasted ruins; ruins whose very substance was so contaminated by the fell powers and
terrible weapons they unleashed that they would blight Honourum longer than the memory of the wars
which spawned them.
 Battle of Terra (014.M31) - The Word Bearers took part in the climactic battle of the Horus Heresy, the
Battle of Terra. The walls of the Imperial Palace seemed to touch the very sky, so tall were they. Before the
walls milled the combined forces of the Traitors, an army so vast and terrible that its like has never been
seen before. Nor will its like be seen again until the end of times, and the final battle. All manner of
 corrupted mutants, all the Greater and Lesser Daemons of Chaos, and the Traitor Legions in their fell might
surrounded this last bastion of the Loyalists on Terra. The walls of the Palace were ultimately breached by
the Titans of the Death's Heads Legion. Even as the Emperor fought Horus above the ruins of Terra, fought
like never before, intent on slaying as many of the Loyalists as they could, sacrificing their souls to the
Ruinous Powers. In the wake of the Warmaster's defeat the Word Bearers withdrew with the other Legions
after Horus' fall and fled to the sanctuary of the Eye of Terror. Here, they founded a new homeword, the
Daemon World Sicaraus, where the Word Bearers raised up blasphemous monuments and cathedrals to the
glory of Chaos Undivided and to continue to launch their holy war against the hated Imperium of Man over
the next ten millennia.
 The War of Statues (Unknown Date.M41) - The Iconoclastic Brotherhood invades the world of
Conqueror's Due. The planet was once host to a great Imperial triumph, and is covered with statues
hundreds of feet high depicting the Primarchs and the Emperor. The Word Bearers and their Chaos Cultists
disfigure many of the statues and tear down many more with ropes and melta charges, toppling them even
as the fires of a full-scale planetary war rage all around. The Cyclopeans, a Titan Legion from nearby
Vellung, counter-invade from enormous bulk landers and take a grievous toll on the Word Bearers --
though the God-machines are toppled after the Chaos Space Marines perform a grand ritual in the name of
Tzeentch that imbues the disfigured statues with a semblance of life.
 The Counter-Crusade (Unknown Date.M41) - During the Thorados Crusade, the Black Templars burn a
white-hot scar of retribution across the rebellious Invernus Sector. The Word Bearers that instigated the
insurrection mount a fleet-based crusade of their own, clashing with the Black Templars on a hundred
battlefields. The war escalates massively as other Traitor Legions and Daemonhosts join the fight. By the
time the two crusades grind to a halt, the once-populous Invernus Sector has been decimated, with six of its
worlds consumed by radioactive flame.
 The Saint's Beacon (Unknown Date.M41) - The Shrine World of Nepthys Madrigal is the last bastion of
resistance against the empyric incursion led by Lord Vileblight, a Greater Daemon of Nurgle. So holy is the
ground and so valorous its Adepta Sororitas defenders that every outbreak of Vileblight's initial gambit, the
Deathly Pox, is contained and sanctified within only solar minutes of it occurring. In frustration, the Great
Unclean One calls in an old debt with the Dark Apostle Kor Daradan. Within the solar month, the Word
Bearers attack Nepthys Madrigal. As mortals, they are not repelled by the banishment sigils of the world,
and cross the barriers that kept the daemons out. They take the fight to the Sisters of Battle there with such
vigour they force a full-scale evacuation of the populace. The conflict becomes a war of attrition in which
the Chaos Space Marines prioritise casting down the temples and altars of the Imperial Creed, disrupting
their anti-daemonic wards. The planet falls to a wave of contagion and the subsequent Plaguebearer assault.
 Invasion of Tanakreg (Unknown Date.M41) - Carrying out a dire prophecy he had received ten millennia
earlier during the Horus Heresy, the Dark Apostle Jarulek led his formidable Word Bearers Host in the
invasion of the Imperial world of Tanakreg. Though the planet possessed a formidable air defence network
protecting it from orbital attack and a large number of local Planetary Defense Forces (PDF), numbering
approximately 200,000 soldiers, they were subsequently slaughtered by the invading Word Bearers. The
Word Bearers Host only suffered minimal casualties as they had seeded the planet before their invasion
with a large number of Chaos Cults and then incited them to rise up against their Imperial overlords when
the time for their invasion had arrived. This cancerous rot had spread into the upper echelons of the
Tanakreg PDF, whose members sabotaged the world's air defence network so that the Word Bearers could
launch a deep strike planetary assault. With the successful subjugation of Tanakreg, Jarulek had the
remaining populace enslaved and forced them to build a massive obelisk known as a Gehemehnet. This
foul structure was designed to channel Warp energy directly into a planet, effectively transforming it into a
Daemon World. Jarulek used the Gehemehnet to channel enough Warp energy to shatter the crust of the
planet, exposing a dormant Necron Monolith beneath its surface. Accompanied by his First Acolyte
Marduk, the Dark Apostle managed to recover a powerful artefact from the Necrons' stasis tomb, but was
slain by the awakened Necron Lord as Marduk made his escape.
 The Cursed Moons of Thranix (Unknown Date.M41) - The Word Bearers harness industrial cults to
scorch titanic eight-pointed stars into the moons of Thranix. The capital world they orbit is blighted by a
wave of daemonic possession soon after.
 The Blood Tithe (920.M41) - T'au diplomats establish an uneasy peace upon the planet of Ur-Clemait, a
world that has long been ravaged by civil war. Though most of the population seems content with the T'au's
enforced ceasefire, the elders and priests of the old faith are distraught, insisting that the "blood tithe" must
 continue to be met. The puzzled T'au continue their assimilation, but before the Terran year is out, the
Word Bearers arrive to enforce the tithe. They attack Ur-Clemait in force, chanting prayers of appeasement
to the Dark Gods as they cut down human and xenos alike. The T'au Fire Caste meet the invasion head-on,
and the world is plunged into an ongoing war far worse than the ritual struggles of old.
 Daemon Tide (Unknown Date.M42) - The Frontier World of Gruelbowl is the site of a painstakingly
planned mass sacrifice to the Dark Gods -- not only of Humans, but also captured Ork Freebooterz, Eldar
Outcasts and T'au ambassadors. Despite the intervention of Craftworld Alaitoc, the Word Bearers complete
their ritual. The Great Rift tears open across the space lanes around Gruelbowl, stranding it and leaving it at
the mercy of the Dark Apostles who engineered its demise.
 The Blackstone Pylons of Irradium Alpha (Unknown Date.M42) - Sent by Abaddon the Despoiler to
blast apart the null-field megaliths of what seems to be a deserted world, the Word Bearers become
embroiled in a grinding land battle when a self-repairing Canoptek Scarab swarm leads a Necron assault
from under the planet's surface. Only by summoning daemons of Khorne with offerings of their own blood
do the Word Bearers break free of the counterattack and complete their mission.
 The War of False Prophets (Unknown Date.M42) - The Cult of Impurity takes root after Word Bearers
are sighted on the Macharius pilgrimage route. Its members thrive in secrecy, the only outward sign of their
true allegiance a blasphemous mockery of an Adeptus Astartes purity seal melted onto the flesh above their
hearts. Led from afar by portents sent by the Dark Apostles, the cult spreads across the Segmentum
Pacificus before uniting in a massive civil war that sees six Space Marine Chapters matched against billions
of the Lost and the Damned.
 Exile's End - The Return of Lorgar (Unknown Date.M42) - After the Horus Heresy's earth-shattering
climax at the Siege of Terra, Lorgar retreated ever further from the matters of the material realm, and went
into seclusion indefinitely, cloistered in a locked sanctum on the Daemon World of Sicarius to atone for his
deeds. As the 41st Millennium comes to a close and the Great Rift boils across the sky, rumours persist that
Lorgar has finally ended this self-imposed confinement, and has been seen walking the mortal realms in
terrible splendour, preaching the word of Chaos at the head of a Word Bearers force of shocking strength
and religious conviction.

Legion Organisation

Pre-Heresy

The Word Bearers followed much of the structure of the Legiones Astartes during their earliest incarnation. Warriors
belonged to squads, squads to companies and companies to Chapters. This functional structure remained largely
unchanged from when the Legion was the Imperial Heralds until their own treachery on Istvaan V. The rediscovery
of their Primarch and the influx of recruits from Colchis did little to change the Legion's basic structure, rather it
added layers of organisation. This second layer of organisation was concerned, not with the makeup of units on the
battlefield, but with the ideology of those units. The Word Bearers employed all the squad configurations seen
across other Space Marine Legions, with a tendency towards keeping the size of all units high. While other Legions
might be content with or even favour units of only a handful of warriors, the Word Bearers would typically keep its
line units at a much higher strength. Squads of twenty were common across all companies and Chapters, and
typically took a tactical configuration. These squads formed the core of the XVIIth Legion and the keystone of its
philosophy of war: the aggressive advance of warriors in force.

Squads in turn belonged to companies, usually a hundred Astartes strong though sometimes larger or smaller
depending on the nature of their tactical role. The Word Bearers had a tendency to dedicate companies to a
particular combat specialty, designating companies as assault companies, line breaker companies, reconnaissance
companies, and so on. These companies would often deploy in combination, again showing the Word Bearers'
favour for massed forces and sledgehammer actions. Companies were grouped together into Chapters of between
500 and 3,000 warriors. Each Chapter bore a name and sigil based on the constellations of Colchis: The Serrated
Suns, The Osseus Throne, The Crescent Moon, The Weeping Hand, The Coiled Lash, The Exalted Gate, The
Twisting Rune, The Scold's Bridle, The Night's Chalice -- each were found within the Legion's ranks. These large
formations were often the building blocks for Word Bearers campaigns. Most Word Bearers Great Crusade
Expeditionary Fleets consisted of at least one full Chapter, and the largest might comprise several.
Although their methods of war were often workmanlike in application, the Word Bearers always displayed a taste
for the symbolic act. War was not just a process, it was a message, and so the Word Bearers would often include
notes of the spectacular into their campaigns to make a point. A number of unique formations in their order of battle
echo this tendency. As an example, the Chapter of the Broken Scythe consisted of armoured artillery, siege tanks
and mounted Flamer squads. Their roles was to level cities and strongholds in a single attack and leave nothing but
scorched rubble. Also of note are the warriors of the Ashen Circle. Descending from the sky on Jump Packs, they
were the destroyers of false gods, ashen angels sent to reduce libraries and shrines to cinders with Flamer and, where
a truly lasting destruction was required, Phosphex. Attached to Chapters but standing as a circle apart, only the most
dedicated Astartes of the Legion could enter their ranks. Many Word Bearers passed through their ranks before
ascending to the role of Chaplain.

It is worth nothing that throughout their history, the XVIIth Legion made extensive use of bonded mortal auxiliaries
comprised of religious fanatics (the precursor to the present era's Frateris Militia often utilised by the Adeptus
Ministorum). In the days when the Unification Wars were blurring into the Great Crusade, the XVII th Legion would
often recruit bands of militant followers from those they had conquered. This practice continued throughout the
Great Crusade, and these formations were often as much mobs as they were military formations, but again their
presence in many campaigns added to the XVIIth Legion's ability to apply overwhelming force to an enemy.

Chapters

Shown here is a selection of icons showing some of the Word Bearers Legion's Chapters known to have been
present at the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V in 006.M31.

Before their fall from grace, it is recorded that the Word Bearers were not considered particularly different from the
organisation of the other Astartes Legions, apart from the unusual number of zealous brothers who served as
Chaplains. Outside of their Legion, the Word Bearers' current organisation is not known or understood by Imperial
savants. Before the Horus Heresy, the Word Bearers Legion, like many of their fellow Space Marine Legions, were
sub-divided into Chapters. A full Chapter consisted of 1,000 Astartes, sub-divided into 10 companies, each 100
strong and led by officers designated as Captains. It has also been noted that not all Chapters consisted of the
standard 10 companies of 100 Astartes each. The Serrated Sun Chapter, for example, seems to have consisted of
only 3 companies which each originally comprised 100 Astartes. The order of the numbered companies in these
Chapters is non-linear. For example, the Serrated Sun Chapter includes the 7 th, 15th and 37th Companies of the
Legion. Other Chapters are known to have possessed 20 or more companies. Despite being part of the greater Word
Bearers Legion, every Chapter has its own cultural traditions and its own role within Lorgar's "Word." Furthermore,
each Chapter has its own iconography, symbology, and specific tactical role within the Legion, giving each their
own distinct appearance. Four of these Chapters remain known to the Imperium today, bearing these logos:

 A quill with a drop of blood at the nib

 An open hand with an eye in the palm
 A burning book
 A sceptre crowned with a skull

Known Chapters of the XVIIth Legion

 Chapter of the Coiled Lash - Nothing is known of this Chapter's particular function or specialty.
 Chapter of the Crescent Moon - Nothing is known of this Chapter's particular function or specialty.
 Chapter of the Iron Veil - Nothing is known about this Chapter's particular function or specialty. This
Chapter was wiped out during the Underworld War that took place after the end of the formal Battle of
Calth. The Iron Veil's Chapter badge was a face, pale against a dark background, shaped as a sorrowful
masquerade mask.
 Chapter of the Opening Eye - The Chapter of the Opening Eye was commanded by Chapter Master
Faerskarel. Nothing is known about this Chapter in Imperial records.
 Chapter of the Osseous Throne - The Osseus Throne Chapter iconography is that of a makeshift throne
comprised of skulls with a golden flame burning behind it. The Chapter of the Osseous Throne specilised in
infantry wave attacks.
 Chapter of the Third Hand - Nothing is known about this Chapter's particular function or specialty. This
Chapter was wiped out during the Underworld War that took place after the end of the formal Battle of
Calth. The Chapter of the Third Hand's iconography was a burning orange star with a black stylised occult
symbol centered in the middle of it.
 Chapter of the Void - The Chapter of the Void was commanded by Chapter Master Tenaebron. The
Chapter of the Void was probably the least respected amongst the Chapters of the Word Bearers Legion for
it was by far the smallest, with less than 700 Astartes. There was little glory in its history, since it was used
as a reserve force that enacted its missions behind the front line. This dishonourable purpose fell to the
Void and Chapter Master Tenaebron. The Void's Master did not complain, for he knew that his Chapter's
true role was to create and test new weapons and tactics for the rest of the Legion. Lorgar ordered Tenebron
to also concern himself with the exploitation of the Word Bearers' psychic resources.
 Ark of Testimony Chapter - The Ark of Testimony Chapter was commanded by Chapter Master Torquill
Eliphas, the "Inheritor". The Chapter's livery was crimson red with golden trim, the Chapter's badge is
unknown however it was made out of gold and rubies. This Chapter was known to have been active during
the Horus Heresy, particularly during the Shadow Crusade that ravaged Ultramar. The Ark of Testimony
Chapter was responsible for the construction of the diabolical Templum Daemonarchia on the world of
Kronus.
 Asps of the Sacred Sands - Nothing is known about this Chapter's particular function or specialty. This
Chapter was wiped out during the Underworld War that took place after the end of the formal Battle of
Calth. The Asps of the Sacred Sands' Chapter badge was a red palm print.
 Burning Hand Chapter - The Burning Hand Chapter was commanded by Chapter Master Deinos. In
keeping with the name of his Chapter, Deinos's gauntlets were permanently wreathed in flames from gas
jets built into his vambraces. Nothing is known of this Chapter's particular function or specialty.
 Crimson Mask Chapter - The Crimson Mask Chapter was commanded by Chapter Master Rukis. The
Battle-Brothers of the Crimson Mask were known to have the faceplate of their helmets wrought to
resemble fearsome red-skinned, snarling daemons.
 Ebony Serpent Chapter - The Ebony Serpent Chapter was commanded by Chapter Master Skolinthos.
Nothing is known of this Chapter's particular function or specialty.
 Exalted Gate Chapter - The Exalted Gate Chapter was commanded by Chapter Master Ungol Shax.
Nothing is known about this Chapter's particular function or specialty. This Chapter was wiped out during
the Underworld War that took place after the end of the formal Battle of Calth. The Exalted Gate's Chapter
badge was a portcullis or gate.
 Flayed Hand Chapter - The Flayed Hand Chapter's loyalty to Lorgar's cause was undoubted, even if their
mental stability was suspect. It seems likely that their zeal was intended to act as an example for those
whose commitment the Primarch found to be questionable. Of the 6,000-8,000 of the Flayed Hand
deployed at Calth, it is believed, that nearly half of this number fought interspersed with other chapters as
well, reinforcing their numbers and in turn their resolve to the mission at hand. The Flayed Hand had
enthusiastically embraced the new path of Lorgar and showed particular interest in various occult rites and
practices, and from accounts of the surviving Raven Guard and Salamanders veterans of Istvaan V were
responsible for a number of atrocities during that conflict. Many among their number volunteered to
undergo Erebus' new process for the manufacture of Gal Vorbak warp-tainted warriors, though the process
met with mixed results. This Chapter was wiped out during the Underworld War that took place after the
end of the formal Battle of Calth.
 Graven Star Chapter - During the Battle of Calth, the Chapter of the Graven Star is recorded as operating
in strength but, as before the Horus Heresy, it was noted that this chapter had made a speciality of boarding
actions and gunship-carried assaults. It was known that the Graven Star Chapter had largely retreated from
the planet's surface during the final hours of the war, and would go on to further infamy in the Shadow
Crusade. The Graven Star Chapter's badge was the Octed or Star of Chaos.
 Perpetual Spiral Chapter - The Perpetual Spiral Chapter had a proud and illustrious history dating back to
the time of their precursors, the Imperial Heralds. Garrisoning worlds brought to compliance by the Legion
became the primary function of the Perpetual Spiral, though this was said to have displeased Silak, who
saw such a task as lacking in martial honour. Nevertheless, it was a role at which they excelled, and the
 Chapter was praised by the Primarch Lorgar Aurelian on many occasions. The Chapter was later attached
to the 47th Expeditionary Fleet, during which time it led the final assault upon the world designated Forty-
Seven Sixteen. It was later after this compliance action that the Primarch took a special interest in Captain
Sor Talgron, Lorgar decreed that the captain would lead almost half of the Perpetual Spiral back to the
Solar System, ostensibly taking his 34th Company to garrison Terra in the name of the XVIIth Legion. More
astute Imperial Remembrancers noted that the move was likely to be politically motivated -- Sor Talgron,
already noted for his disregard of the Legion's excessive reverence of the Emperor, was living proof that
the Word Bearers had taken to heart the concerns expressed so forcefully at Monarchia. Though these
Legionaries presented an officious face to Imperial commanders, in reality they were secretly committing
acts of sabotage entrusted to Talgron by Lorgar himself. The Perpetual Spiral Chapter's badge is a flaming
spiral.
 Quillborn - The Quillborn were so named because their traditions emphasized their birth, created in the
laboratories and Apothecarions of Colchis. They believed themselves to be written into existence, born as
syllables of the Word. A dedicated naval formation, the Quillborn were true marines, fighting ship-to-ship,
completely at home battling through the cramped structure of a starship. The Quillborn's Chapter badge
was a quill with a drop of blood at its base.
 Serrated Sun Chapter - The Serrated Sun Chapter's iconography is that of a golden sun, centered on a
black lozenge, on a field of maroon. The Serrated Suns Chapter accompanied Lorgar during his Pilgrimage.
The Serrated Suns was ultimately lost to the predations of the first Imperial expedition known to ever enter
the chaotic eddies of the Eye of Terror and treat with the Ruinous Powers and their daemonic servants
directly some forty standard years before the start of the Horus Heresy. The survivors of the Serrated Sun
would become the infamous Gal Vorbak, the first known Possessed Chaos Space Marines. The Serrated
Sun Chapter's specialty was tactical drop strikes.
 The Broken Scythe - The Broken Scythe Chapter's iconography is that of a broken black-coloured scythe
centered on a maroon coloured circle. This Chapter's specialty was infrastructure reduction.
 The Inscribed - Nothing is known about this Chapter's particular function or specialty. This Chapter was
wiped out during the Underworld War that took place after the end of the formal Battle of Calth. The
warriors of the Inscribed were known to decorate their armour with gold runes -- sigils representing various
concepts of Chaos on a background of arterial red.
 The Star of Judgement - The Star of Judgement Chapter's icon was a crimson-coloured gauntlet wielding
a mace, centered on a crimson-coloured gardbrace, painted with flames. This Chapter's specialty was
scorched earth assaults. The Star of Judgement bore a mantle of dark renown within the Word Bearers, and
were deployed only to those war zones where it was deemed that the populace of a world did not deserve
the honour of Imperial Compliance. At Istvaan V, the full arsenal of proscribed toxic munitions available to
the Star of Judgement was utilised against the unsuspecting Loyalists of the assault's first wave during the
Drop Site Massacre.
 The Tri-Fold Crown - The Tri-Fold Crown's symbol was a cracked bleached skull with flames wreathing
its head like a crown. The Tri-Fold Crown Chapter's specialty was attritional warfare.
 The Unspeaking - Led by the so-called "Crimson Apostle" Zardu Layak, it was said that the Word Bearers
of the Unspeaking Chapter were warrior-sages to match any others, stilling their tongues with proud oaths
of silence. To honour their masters, the Unspeaking's oath-sworn serfs would ritually mutilate and remove
their tongues. This Chapter was wiped out during the Underworld War that took place after the end of the
formal Battle of Calth. It was known that the Unspeaking had largely retreated from the planet's surface
during the final hours of the war, and would go on to further infamy in the Shadow Crusade.
 Twisting Rune Chapter - According to certain sources, the Twisting Rune Chapter had been created as a
deliberate sink for those of the Legion consumed with hatred of the Ultramarines for the perceived sins of
the past. This Chapter was wiped out during the Underworld War that took place after the end of the formal
Battle of Calth. The Twisting Rune's Chapter symbol was a twisted Chaotic sigil of eldritch power written
in a language of dark, forbidden crafts.

Legion Command Hierarchy

Lorgar was both commander and spiritual father to his Legion. The hierarchy of authority within the Legion
reflected this dual nature, divided between military and spirituality, between mind and heart. On the one hand, the
XVIIth Legion followed simple and robust lines of authority. A Chapter Master led each Chapter, a Captain each
company and a Sergeant each squad. It was common for a Chapter Master to designate one of the Captains as a "Sub
Commander" to act as his lieutenant. The second line of authority in the Chapter was spiritual. The Chaplains,
although nominally attached to companies and Chapters, in reality were a brotherhood unto themselves. While each
was a warrior, their concerns were not for the business of direct command, but for the strength of their brothers'
spirits, for the clarity of their purpose and the purity of their actions. Each Chaplain fitted into their own hierarchy,
with ascending tiers of knowledge and respect. High Chaplains were the ruling circle of their kind, and at their
centre was the First Chaplain.

The strands of authority within the Word Bearers often crossed and blurred. While theoretically separate hierarchies,
no lowly line Captain would question the authority of a senior Chaplain. Given that the reasons for fighting were as
important to the Word Bearers as victory, decisions about the course of a war or battle were often made by the
Chaplains and enacted by the commanders. This blurring and fusion of the spiritual and military command was also
present in Lorgar's inner circle. This group comprised the Legion's ruling council, and included both commanders
and Chaplains. Even within this small group there were two who held more power and authority than any others.
The names of Kor Phaeron and Erebus are now heavy with infamy, and one cannot help but wonder if the early
Imperium's fate would not have been vastly different if these two had not been Lorgar's most trusted counsellors.

Word Bearers Armoured Forces

A Word Bearers Falchion super-heavy tank, Eightfold Lance.

Never known for employing massed heavy armour formations, the XVII th Legion preferred to focus its strength on
infantry companies of various specialisations, and those armoured formations which it did employ were intended to
act in close support of infantry. Its mechanised phalanxes included a spearhead of heavy armour alongside a heavy
infantry force, often including Cataphractii units, mounted in Land Raider transports. In battle, the heavy armour
was tasked with sweeping aside screening enemy units and unleashing a bone-shattering barrage to prepare the way
for the infantry assault. Of all the chapters of the Word Bearers, the chapter of the Graven Star was known to field
the highest number of armoured units in the XVII th Legion. Aggressive use of these units had led the chapter to
many victories in the Great Crusade, for which it also acquired a reputation for ruthless efficiency on the attack and
bloody-minded stubbornness in defence.

The Graven Star was deployed to the muster zone at Khomesh, with several of its armoured squadrons operating
under the colours of other chapters which were not present at Calth. The phalanx "Invisible Truth", one of the few
squadrons to field multiple super-heavy vehicles, took up station alongside the Ultramarines super-heavy squadrons
that had yet to embark. The phalanx slowly moved to positions that offered interlocking fields of fire over the
unsuspecting Ultramarines vehicles, remaining powered-up at battle alert under the guise of battle-readiness drills.
When the Campanile struck the fatally unprepared Ultramarines orbital docks, the vehicles of Invisible Truth turned
their guns on their brethren without hesitation. The opening salvo left the unpowered and uncrewed vehicles of the
XIIIth Legion burning, while the charge of the Land Raider-mounted infantry squads slaughtered the crews and those
squads of Ultramarines charged with the security of the armoured squadrons.

War Disposition

The strength of the Word Bearers at the time of the Istvaan V Drop Site Massacre was thought to be approximately
140,000 Astartes. It is now clear that this figure was a lie. Four decades earlier, when the Legion was rebuked at
Khur, it was approximately 100,000 Space Marines strong. That the XVII th Legion had made a notable increase in
recruitment was clear, but far from swelling their numbers by 40,000, the Word Bearers had grown to a far greater
strength. Mass recruitment from every world they conquered, and the use of rapid gene-seed implantation techniques
and hypno-indoctrination meant that by some reports their numbers might even have rivalled those of the
Ultramarines. Certainly the scale of their actions during the opening phases of the civil war, and the casualties they
suffered, indicate that few other Legions could have approached them in size.

In addition to the surge in numbers of the Word Bearers, the number of mortal vassal warbands and half-feral
fanatics who accompanied them reached extraordinary numbers. In the extermination phase of the Istvaan V Drop
Site Massacre, one survivor estimated that a horde of 50,000 faced the Loyalist enclave of Nurin. That such forces
were lost and yet more were unleashed on world after world in the dark years that followed shows that behind the
Word Bearers themselves stood millions more willing to die at their command. Given the actions of the so-called
Abyss-class vessels in later campaigns, it is also clear that Lorgar had increased his Legion's naval strength, possibly
to levels which exceeded that of the Imperial Fists, who were thought at the time to control the largest fleet of any
Space Marine Legion. Such an increase in strength, and the delicacy with which it was concealed, indicates that
Lorgar went into the Horus Heresy ready to embrace the carnage that would follow.

Specialty Ranks and Units

A squad of daemon-possessed Gal Vorbak.

 Gal Vorbak (Colchisian for the "Blessed Sons") - The Gal Vorbak are the surviving Space Marines of
the Serrated Suns Chapter of the Word Bearers Legion who ventured into the Eye of Terror Warp rift and
brought back the Primordial Truth of the existence of Chaos to their Primarch Lorgar. The Gal Vorbak
were originally the 1,000 Space Marines of the Serrated Sun Chapter of the Word Bearers lead by their
Chapter Master Argel Tal. Their Power Armour was painted red as opposed to the standard pre-Heresy
Word Bearer colour scheme of grey, which differentiated them from the rest of the Legion. During the
Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V when the Traitor Legions betrayed their Loyalist brethren, the Gal Vorbak
underwent another change. When Lorgar attacked Corax, the Primarch of the Loyalist Raven Guard
Legion, all of the members of the Gal Vorbak, possessed by daemons since their journey into the Eye of
Terror, revealed their true, dual nature; their flesh and Ceramite fused as their bodies warped into new,
bestial forms. This marked the Gal Vorbak as the first of the Possessed Chaos Space Marines who would
become increasingly common amongst many of the other Traitor Legions. The Gal Vorbak resumed the
normal forms of Space Marines again at the end of the conflict, though the battle had proven costly and
only six of their number had survived taking on a Primarch in battle to continue to fight in the service of
Chaos throughout the rest of the Horus Heresy. The remaining members of the Gal Vorbak became the
most feared unit in the Word Bearers Traitor Legion after the end of the Heresy.
 Vakrah Jal - Thousands of the Gal Vorbak were left to die, alone and unsupported, on the surface of the
devastated world of Calth when First Chaplain Erebus fled the infamous conflict later known as the Battle
of Calth that the Word Bearers had fought against their hated rivals the Ultramarines on that benighted
planet. Argel Tal, the Crimson Lord, was the sole surviving original member of the Gal Vorbak, having
been seconded to the World Eaters Legion for temporary duty before the Word Bearers' assault on Calth.
Argel Tal forsook his oaths to the annihilated Serrated Suns Chapter and gained permission from his
Primarch Lorgar to form a newly constituted formation, known as the Vakrah Jal, the Chapter of
Consecrated Iron, who rose from the ashes of Word Bearers companies devastated on the killing fields of
Istvaan V.

Word Bearers Legionaries of the Ashen Circle during the Great Crusade.

 The Ashen Circle - The Ashen Circle was a unique formation created for a unique purpose; the destruction
of a world's original culture, learning and faith. Serving alongside the Word Bearers' Legion Destroyer
Squads, the Legionaries of the Ashen Circle were members of the Legion's original Iconoclast faction,
charged beyond the battlefield with hunting down works of false doctrine and those who purveyed it,
consigning both to destruction and eradicating flame. On the battlefield, they were tasked with seeking out
those things which gave the foe the heart and courage to fight: charismatic leaders, priests, battle flags and
champions. Once singled out, they were dragged down with the hook-blades of the Ashen Circle Astartes'
axe-rakes and destroyed with brutal fervour, often far in advance of their own lines in order to do so, with
no thought as to their own survival.

An Anakatis Kul Blade-Slave -- his body warped by the malign influence of Chaos -- wielding a baleful Anakatis
Blade.
  Anakatis Kul Blade-Slaves - Even amongst the Space Marine Legions there were those individuals who
hungered for power beyond their appointed measure. Following the Word Bearers Legion's sting of their
chastisement and humiliation at the hands of the Ultramarines Legion, many within the Word Bearers'
ranks felt powerless and cast adrift. Within some individuals, this ignited a hunger that could not be denied.
Zardu Layak, the Crimson Apostle of the Chapter of the Unspeaking, preyed, with baleful gifts in mind to
bestow on those whose ambition and hubris outweighed their caution. This followers became the Anakatis
Kul Blade-Slaves -- loyal servants of the Crimson Apostle -- whose bodies became unnaturally warped and
contorted and possessed of great strength. Wielding the Anakatis blades, gifts bestowed upon them by
Layak and weapons of unholy xenos influence and malevolent power, they cut a swathe through their
master's foes in a barely controlled hunger for slaughter.
 The Annunake - "Annunake" is a Colshisian term which means alternatively "Princely Sons" or "Judges of
Hell", and was used within the Word Bearers Legion to denote those Legionaries granted the honour of
continuing their service within the armoured shell of a Dreadnought.

A Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought.

 Mhara Gal - First encountered during the Battle of Ithraca amidst the catastrophe on Calth, the twisted
form of the Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought is terrifying in both its aspect and its unearthly power. The
first Mhara Gal is believed to have been created from the barely living remains of a Gal Vorbak Dark
Brethren and a battle-shattered Contemptor Dreadnought chassis, both recovered from the blood-soaked
ground of Istvaan V. Fused together by unholy practices, they were then corrupted by a warp-borne power,
giving birth to a new monstrosity -- a living engine of war and hatred. The Word Bearers Mhara Gal
Tainted Dreadnought is a fearsome opponent in battle. Wielding a warpfire plasma cannon and tainted
power claw, it is formidable both at range and in close combat, its blows slicing through armour and energy
fields alike. Its warp-twisted reactor and the daemonic powers gifted to it by dark forces make it all the
more deadly, even breaking the bonds of reality around the Mhara Gal to allow it to walk through obstacles
as if they were not there at all.

A Word Bearers Diabolist.

 Diabolist - A Diabolist was a unique officer-type class utilised exclusively by the traitorous Word Bearers
Legion during the Horus Heresy. The term, "Diabolist", was first coined by the Ultramarines Legion during
the Battle of Calth. This designation was later adopted en masse by their brethren to identify those Word
Bearers commanders whose training appeared to somehow harness the Ætheric medium as a weapon of
war. These Consul-type officers represented one of the Word Bearers who had already become engulfed in
the unholy lore of Chaos and had paid the forfeit with their soul. They were able to direct the corporeal
manifestations of the Warp -- manifesting what some observers have called "warp magic". One of many
dictates issued by the Primarch Roboute Guilliman in the campaigns following Calth was the priority
targeting of enemy officers classified as Diabolists.

Post-Heresy

After their corruption by the Ruinous Powers, the Word Bearers alone amongst the Traitor Legions maintained a
facsimile of their former discipline and faith in the wake of the Horus Heresy.

Word Bearers do not worship the Chaos Gods individually. Instead, the Word Bearers venerate and regard them as a
collective Dark Pantheon of Chaos Gods, placing their faith in the concept of Chaos Undivided.

The Sons of Lorgar view those who limit their worship to a single Chaos God with contempt and are partially at
odds with the Emperor's Children because of both their decadence and their devotion to Slaanesh alone.

A Dark Apostle of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion.

The Word Bearers often rely on summoned daemons as shock troops, "meat-shields," and to form the bulk of their
armies. Their elite Chaos Space Marines are used to accomplish vital tasks.

The Word Bearers have been known to maintain large numbers of Chaos Cultists in their forces, and have used
cultists and insurgents in their assaults since the Great Crusade. However, unlike the Alpha Legion, the primary use
of Chaos Cultists for the Word Bearers is only as cannon fodder and to serve as distractions.

The Word Bearers are notable for being the only Traitor Legion who still have a corps of Chaplains, now known
instead as Dark Apostles. The Word Bearers follow the words of their Dark Apostles with total faith in battle. The
Dark Apostles divine through many ways how a battle is to be fought and won, and the warriors of the Host of
Lorgar obey unquestioningly.

Before battle, the Word Bearers gather in ritual prayer, chanting hymns and cult doctrine to affirm their faith in the
power of Chaos Undivided. Often these chants will be answered and it is common for the Word Bearers to fight
alongside daemonic entities.

A core group of the most dedicated and powerful Dark Apostles within the Legion make up an evil priesthood
known as the Dark Council. This elite cadre is the main ruling body of the Legion at present, enforcing the will of
their Daemon Primarch Lorgar and the Chaos Gods. They rule from their immense cathedral-fortress known as the
Basilica of the Word upon the Daemon World of Sicarus, located deep within the Eye of Terror. They rule the
Legion in the absence of their Primarch, who has isolated himself for 10,000 Terran years in meditation within the
Temple Inficio to seek enlightenment and communion with the Ruinous Powers.

Specialty Ranks and Units

A Dark Apostle and his Chaos Cultists followers.

 Dark Apostle - The Dark Apostles are the corrupted Chaplains of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion, who
gleefully redirected the Legion's fanatical zeal from preaching the divinity of the God-Emperor to howling
the praises of Chaos. They serve as the spiritual and overall leaders for their own Word Bearers Host. In
battle they are skilled demagogues, able to exhort their followers to greater acts of bravery and depravity;
enemy commanders have often found out to their cost that the only way to truly blunt an attack by such
fanatics is to either remove the Apostle, or destroy each and every Word Bearer facing them. Their
strategies sometimes border on psychic prescience.
 First Acolyte - The First Acolyte serves as an apprentice to a Dark Apostle and will inherit a portion of the
Host when the Dark Apostle and the Dark Council see fit to allow it. There are only three ways for a First
Acolyte to become the Dark Apostle of his own Host: to wait for the current Dark Apostle to die in battle,
to be elected as the new Dark Apostle by the Dark Council on the Daemon World of Sicarus or for the First
Acolyte to kill the Dark Apostle himself and await the Dark Council's appointment as the new Dark
Apostle. In any case, the Acolyte will need the Dark Council's blessings to become a Dark Apostle.
 Coryphaus - The largest known Host of the Word Bearers numbered over 2000 Chaos Space Marines at its
peak. The size of this force required that the Dark Apostle be served by two chief lieutenants, his First
Acolyte and a Chaos Champion called the Coryphaus. A symbolic title, this position was only granted to
the most trusted and capable warrior leaders and strategos within a Host. The Coryphaus served as the Dark
Apostle's senior war captain and the voice of the congregation. A Coryphaus served as an intermediary
between the Dark Apostle and his Host, expressing his master's moods and opinions by leading them
through the chanted responses and antiphons in ceremonies and rituals. This allows the Dark Apostle to be
seen primarily as a spiritual rather than a martial figure. Furthermore, the Coryphaus is essentially the
Host's military commander on the ground and is responsible for making the majority of the tactical
decisions on the battlefield, freeing the Dark Apostle to commune with the dark powers, fuel the hatred of
the Host and ponder more strategic matters.

A Dark Apostle leads his Host into combat.

  War Host - Each Dark Apostle enforces a strict regime of worship of the Ruinous Powers upon their
fellow Word Bearers and are also highly likely to be found leading the elements of the Legion in battle.
Each Dark Apostle is gifted a warband of his own, known as a War Host or often, simply a Host. The
numbers vary, with the smallest typical size for a Word Bearers Host roughly analogous to that of a
standard Space Marine company of 100 Astartes, and the largest exceeding the manpower of a full Space
Marine Chapter of 1,000 Astartes. The organisational make-up of each Host differs wildly as well, and can
change depending on the whims of the Dark Apostle that leads it. Often they will suddenly alter the
hierarchy of their Host for reasons known only to themselves. These changes can result in seemingly
unwieldy or tactically inflexible formations. The Word Bearers themselves accept these changes without
question. The most commonly occurring structure for a Word Bearers Host is that roughly equating to a
Space Marine company, with the Host broken down into units or squads of about 12 Traitor Marines. Each
is commanded by a Chaos Champion of the Word Bearers who strives to become as devout a war leader as
the Dark Apostle in the hope of one day being chosen to succeed him on the occasion of his death. The
Word Bearers then march into battle beneath their standards, bellowing catechisms of hatred at their foe as
drums beat out a dolorous thunder. The relentless advance of the Word Bearers is a terrifying sight, as the
monotonous chant and beat of drums can break even the strongest will. The unshakable belief of the Word
Bearers in the truth of Chaos and their cause has seen them marching into certain death, yet unwilling to
take a single step backwards. A battle ends either in victory or the utter destruction of the Word Bearer
Host.

The Annointed.

 The Anointed - The Anointed are the most favoured warriors within the Word Bearers Traitor Legion and
are an elite cult within the broader Legion. The Anointed wear fully enclosed, ancient suits of Terminator
Armour. Each suit is a relic of holy significance, as to don this armour is considered a great religious
honour. Once a warrior-brother entered the ranks of the Anointed, he is a member for life, and with
lifespans extended indefinitely through a combination of their Astartes conditioning, bio-enhancement and
the warping power of the Chaos Gods, the Anointed were only replaced on the rare occasion that one of
their number fell in battle. Many of them had fought alongside older members of the Legion and their holy
Daemon Primarch Lorgar at the great siege of the Imperial Palace during the closing days of the Horus
Heresy in the Battle of Terra. Unsurpassed warriors with the hearts of true fanatics, the cult of the Anointed
had won countless battles for the Legion. Their glories were sung in the flesh-halls within the temples of
Sicarus, and their deeds recounted in the grimoire historicals housed in the finest scriptorums of Ghalmek.
Additionally, a Host often possesses an Icon Bearer and an elite unit of The Anointed, consisting of over
200 Chaos Terminators. It is also common for Anointed warriors to accompany important figures within
the host, such as the Coryphaus or First Acolyte.

Legion Combat Doctrine

Word Bearers oversee the desecration of another Imperial world.

The Word Bearers follow the words of their Dark Apostles with utter loyalty and faith in battle, and they in turn
interpret the will of Lorgar by many and varied means. The means to win a battle may be contained within the
entrails of a particular captive, a particular alignment of the stars or the pattern of cast bones. The Dark Apostles
decree how the battle is to be fought and the warriors of the Host obey unquestioningly. Before battle, the Word
Bearers gather in ritual prayer, chanting blasphemous hymns and forbidden doctrines to affirm their faith in the
power of Chaos. Often these chants will be answered and it is common for the Word Bearers to fight alongside
hideous daemonic entities that have made diabolical pacts with the Dark Apostles.

The Word Bearers then raise their damned standards high and march into battle beneath cursed icons, bellowing
catechisms and canticles of hatred at their foe as hideous drums beat out a dolorous thunder. The relentless advance
of the Word Bearers is a terrifying sight, as the monotonous chant and beat of drums can break even the strongest
will. The night before battle, the enemy can hear dark mutterings emanating from all around, echoed in the pounding
drums, stretching the nerve and instilling every man with fear. The unshakable belief of the Word Bearers that they
alone can save the galaxy and Mankind has seen them marching towards certain death, yet unwilling to take a single
step backwards. Any victory won over the Word Bearers is only won at a terrible cost, as their fanatical attacks will
only ever end when all are dead.

Legion Homeworld

Colchis, Legion homeworld of the Word Bearers.

Colchis was once a technologically advanced world that regressed to a feudal state during the Age of Strife. The
arrival of Lorgar brought with it both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it brought the world into the fold of
the Imperium, a curse because his arrival signed the planet's death warrant many hundreds of Terran years later.

Under Lorgar's brief rule the planet prospered, but when the Emperor came to Colchis and put Lorgar in command
of the Word Bearers, those he left behind allowed the world to fall into decline. When the Ultramarines took the
fight to Colchis after the Heresy, they found a devastated world, its industry in ruins and its people clinging
desperately to civilisation.

Given Lorgar's treachery, the Inquisition ordered the planet to be cleansed and the Ultramarines Battle Barge
Octavius bombarded Colchis with Cyclonic Torpedoes. The geological structure of Colchis was highly unstable and
the resultant seismic activity split the planet apart. Nothing now remains of Colchis and where it once existed is still
a closely guarded secret of the Inquisition.

The Word Bearers currently reside on the Daemon World of Sicarus within the Eye of Terror. Beneath churning
clouds of pendulant fire and blood the surface of Sicarus is covered by massive temples, towering cathedrals and
blasphemous monuments dedicated to the worship of the Chaos Gods.

Millions of slaves toil endlessly in the construction and raising of new structures and monuments of dark devotion.
New levels are built upon existing crumbling edifices which results in towering spires that reach kilometres into the
foreboding sky. This results in the creation of the sprawling subterranean warren of labyrinthine passages that
interconnect the various devotional structures.

From this daemon planet, the Word Bearers Dark Council, a collection of the Word Bearers Legion's most powerful
Dark Apostles, is the main ruling body that leads the XVII th Legion in the absence of their Daemon Primarch, who
has isolated himself in meditation for millennia within the Templum Inficio.

The seat of the Dark Council is located within the immense cathedral-fortress known as the Basilica of the Word.
This structure is crowned with hundreds of five kilometre high barbed spires, each studded with jagged spikes, upon
which are impaled countless living sacrifices.

The Legion also maintains control of the daemonic Forge World of Ghalmek deep within the Maelstrom Warp
Storm, which is ruled over by Kor Phaeron and serves as a base for the Legion to launch raids against Imperial
worlds in the eastern regions of the galaxy.

Word Bearers Names

The names of Word Bearers Astartes are often derived from those of the people of lost Colchis. They include names
like Baruk Talgron, Noros Drennulan, Koros Vondar, Jadath Sethilon, Kemak Kartho, Verok Bol, Halam Ennar,
Xaphen Mairon, Daroth Khoura, and Tarem Sa'quath.

Legion Beliefs

A Dark Apostle leads his warriors in supplication to the Ruinous Powers.

Rooted in the beliefs of Lorgar himself, the Word Bearers are the heralds of a terrible new age for Mankind of
religious servitude to the Chaos Gods. Only united behind the teachings of these divinities and offering the
obeisance that they require can the masses of humanity be saved from the perils of alien menace, Imperial tyranny
and internal schism.

There is only one power in the galaxy worthy of such submission, and that is the dark majesty of Chaos, which was
discovered by Lorgar on his infamous pilgrimage after the extermination of the capital city of Khur.

Each warrior of the Word Bearers is a missionary bringing the darkness of Chaos with them, preaching the one true
faith to those that will hear it and exterminating those who will not.

Their belief is simple: Humanity must tread the path of Chaos Undivided or die. The word Bearers hold the Book of
Lorgar as their most sacred text and the foundation of any faith in Chaos.

They often inscribe heretical passages from this unholy tome upon their Power Armour, and will provide copies of it
to every world they assault in order to spread the message of the Urizen and convert more of Mankind to the service
of the Dark Gods.

It is also common for passages from the Book of Lorgar to be read by Dark Apostles on the battlefield, propelling
the warriors of the Word Bearers Legion onward, no matter the odds against them.

Legion Gene-Seed

The gene-seed of the Word Bearers was originally thought to be pure, but events subsequent to the Horus Heresy
revealed the weaknesses inherent in their genetic make-up.

The Space Marines of the Imperial Heralds and then the Word Bearers displayed a marked tendency towards
dogged, unquestioning belief and fanaticism that verged on insanity during the Great Crusade.

Since the end of the Horus Heresy, their gene-seed has become corrupted and mutated beyond any hope of
redemption by constant exposure to the energies of the Warp and the Word Bearers' original negative personality
traits have been magnified to hideous proportions.

The Word Bearers do not display a particular tendency towards mutation, though those who are gifted with such
"blessings" of Chaos are much favoured amongst their Host.

Notable Word Bearers

 Lorgar - Lorgar, also once called Lorgar Aurelian and the Urizen before the Horus Heresy, is a Daemon
Prince of Chaos Undivided and the former Primarch of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion. Lorgar spent his
entire life determined to uplift humanity through a deep belief in the divine. Once the Emperor of Mankind
rejected his attempts at worship, Lorgar discovered new gods, the Ruinous Powers of Chaos, who he
beleived were more worthy of his devotion during his infamous Pilgrimage. He was the first Primarch of
the Space Marine Legions to fall to the corruption of Chaos before the Horus Heresy and it was he who
ordered the corruption of the Warmaster Horus. He and what remains of the XVIIth Legion can today be
found on the Daemon World of Sicarus within the Eye of Terror, where the Word Bearers have maintained
far more unity of purpose than any of the other Traitor Legions.
 Kor Phaeron - Kor Phaeron was the First Captain and Black Cardinal (High Priest) of the Word Bearers
Legion. He served as a spiritual counsel and foster father during the years of Lorgar's youth on the Word
Bearers' homeworld of Colchis, before Lorgar was rediscovered by the Imperium. It was Kor Phaeron's
influence and continuing devotion to the Colchisian Old Faith -- a faith dedicated to the Dark Gods -- that
corrupted his Primarch and the XVIIth Legion into repudiating their oaths to the Emperor of Mankind and
becoming willing pawns of Chaos.
 Erebus - Erebus held the prestigious position of First Chaplain of the Word Bearers Legion during the end
of the Great Crusade in the early 31st Millennium. He was a fearsome and intimidating Astartes warrior and
wore tattoos depicting sections of the Book of Lorgar across his shaven scalp to terrify his enemies. Erebus
was the first of the Space Marines to knowingly turn to Chaos and he was personally responsible for
corrupting Lorgar, Horus and the Death Guard's First Captain Calas Typhon to the worship and service of
Chaos. He is presently one of the ruling Dark Apostles of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion and has an
ongoing but subtle war with Kor Phaeron for control of the XVII th Legion's direction.
 Ekodas - Word Bearers Grand Apostle. Kor Phaeron, in his role as Black Cardinal of the Word Bearers'
Chaos faith, bestowed the title of Grand Apostle upon Ekodas, who served as the senior-most member of
the ruling Dark Council of the Legion after the end of the Heresy. However, he was also a secret member
of The Brotherhood -- a clandestine, internal sect within the Word Bearers Legion that had been formed at
three different periods during the Legion's history to maintain the Word Bearers' theological purity.
Primarch Lorgar had ordered its formation on two separate occasions during the purging of the Covenant
and the old religion on Colchis before the coming of the Emperor of Mankind to that world. The second
occasion was after the Pilgrimage of Lorgar during the Great Crusade when Lorgar had first gained
knowledge of Chaos. With the realisation that the Chaos Gods were the true divinities of the universe came
Lorgar's understanding that the Old Faith, the ancient religious beliefs of the people of Colchis that he had
swept away, were true. The Old Gods, not the flawed Emperor, were the only powers that Lorgar believed
were worthy of the Word Bearers' faith and worship. With the second reformation of The Brotherhood, the
ranks of the XVIIth Legion were purged of all Terran-born Loyalists, leaving only those Astartes native to
Colchis -- and thus loyal solely to Lorgar -- behind. In the latter part of the 41st Millennium, Kor Phaeron
ordered The Brotherhood's formation a third time in order to overthrow the Dark Apostle Erebus, whom the
First Captain felt had too much sway with the will of the Dark Council. Ekodas later led the Word Bearers'
assault against the Boros Gate System but was killed by the Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter before his
duplicity could be revealed. In battle, Ekodas was able to use incredibly powerful psychic abilities through
his unshakeable faith in Chaos Undivided. Ekodas led the 7th Host, successfully leading an unholy crusade
of retribution upon the Black Consuls, which succeeded in almost wiping that Successor Chapter of the
hated Ultramarines from the galaxy.
 Ankh-Heloth - Ankh-Heloth was the Dark Apostle who led the 11th Host. Ankh-Heloth had risen to the
esteemed position of Dark Apostle under dubious circumstances. While it was the Council of Sicarus that
had instated Ankh-Heloth as the First Acolyte of the 11th Host, this was only at Grand Apostle Ekodas'
insistence. Less than a decade later, Ankh-Heloth ascended to the position of Dark Apostle after his
predecessor was killed under circumstances engineered, many believed, by Ekodas. Ankh-Heloth did not
garner much respect from his fellow Dark Apostles of the Dark Council, many of whom regarded him as
"Edokas's whipping boy."
 Belagosa - Dark Apostle of the 30th Host, Belagosa was a tall and gaunt figure. In an act of devout faith,
Belagosa clawed out his own eyes centuries ago. Nevertheless, he was still able to turn his head towards the
direction of those that spoke to him, his empty eye sockets still far from blind, which bled red tears down
his cheeks as a gift from the Dark Gods for his devotion.
 Eliphas the Inheritor - Dark Apostle, leader of the Dark Crusade on Kronus in the late 41st Millennium
where he was defeated and slain by the Blood Ravens Space Marines. He was resurrected by the will of the
Dark Gods to gain his revenge upon the Blood Ravens and left the Word Bearers behind to ally himself
with the Black Legion following his return to life.
 Jarulek (Deceased) - Dark Apostle, served as a former First Acolyte to the Dark Apostle known as The
Warmonger during the Horus Heresy during the assault on the Emperor's Imperial Palace at the Battle of
Terra. He later served as the Coryphaus to the First Captain Kor Phaeron. Through his extreme devotion to
Chaos Undivided, furious passion and fiery oratory he brought countless millions into the truth of the
Eight-Fold Path. Millions more who had chosen to remain ignorant and resistant to the true faith had been
slain upon his orders. Jarulek was slain on the world of Tanakreg by an awakened Necron Lord after
successfully recovering a potent artefact from the Necrons' stasis tomb.
 Marduk - Marduk was a Dark Apostle and the former First Acolyte of Jarulek. He was a member of The
Brotherhood which eliminated all Word Bearers who failed to comply with the new direction of the Legion
following the conversion of Lorgar to the service of the Chaos Gods, including all Terran-born Word
Bearers. Marduk fought at Calth against the Ultramarines Legion during the Heresy and was elevated to the
 position of Dark Apostle and leader of the 34th Host following the death of his former master at the hands
of a Necron Lord on the world of Tanakreg in the late 41 st Millennium.
 Mothac - Mothac was a Dark Apostle who was encased within ensorcelled daemonic armour that was a
gift of the Daemon Primarch Lorgar. He was the keeper of the forbidden tome known as The Dark Creed, a
thick book bound in the skin of fallen Ultramarines. This book contained the holy writings of Lorgar after
the Horus Heresy and the Legion's flight to Sicarus.
 Paristur - Paristur was a Dark Apostle who was known for his shrewdness and savagery. He had killed the
Blood Angels Chaplain Aristedes in single combat on the walls of the Imperial Palace during the Battle of
Terra in the closing days of the Horus Heresy.
 Sarabdal - Dark Apostle of the 18th Host. Within the elite ranks of the cadre known as the Dark Council,
Dark Apostle Sarabdal had led his Host the longest. Sarabdal had been groomed to become the Dark
Apostle of the 18th Host by none other than Lorgar himself. Raised in the scriptorums of Colchis, Sarabdal
had been little more than a child when he had taken part in the brutal Schism Wars that fractured the
Covenant, the dominant religious order of that Feudal World before the arrival of the Emperor. Impressed
with the youngster’s religious fanaticism for his new faith and fiery demeanour, Lorgar had taken the boy
under his wing and once reunited with his Legion after the Imperial takeover of Colchis, had personally
chosen Sarabdal as one of the first Colchisian natives to join the Word Bearers. Few Dark Apostles
garnered more respect than Sarabdal. Other Dark Apostles even bowed at his venerable presence.
 Sor Talgron, The Warmonger - Dark Apostle, Sor Talgron served as the Captain of the 34 th Company
during the Great Crusade. He took part in bringing Forty-Seven Sixteen into Imperial Compliance. He was
stationed on Terra during the Horus Heresy. Known to have worn Terminator Armour with a Chaplain's
Skull Helm. Fought at the walls of the Emperor's Imperial Palace during the Battle of Terra. Eventually
rose to the esteemed rank of Dark Apostle. Was mortally wounded in battle and interred within a Chaos
Dreadnought and has managed to retain most of his sanity through the willpower instilled by his dark faith,
though at times his hold on reality slips, and he believes he is once against fighting alongside his Primarch
during the Horus Heresy.
 Garand - A Chaos Warmaster, Garand was a mighty warrior and formidable psyker. He served under
Captain Jerulek during the Great Crusade at the battle of Fortrea Quintus, revelling in the slaughter of the
planet's population. He rose through the ranks of the Word Bearers Legion and eventually became the
Witch-Prince of Helicia. He went on to earn the esteemed rank of Warmaster with command of over a
thousand Hosts.
 Chapter Master Deinos - Deinos commanded the Word Bearers Legion's Burning Hand Chapter. In
keeping with the name of his Chapter, Deinos's gauntlets were permanently wreathed in flames from gas
jets built into his vambraces.
 Chapter Master Faerskarel - Commanded the Opening Eye Chapter.
 Chapter Master Rukis - Commanded the Crimson Mask Chapter. Like all Astartes of his Chapter, Rukis
wore a helm whose faceplate was wrought to resemble a fearsome red-skinned snarling creature or daemon.
 Chapter Master Skolinthos - Commanded the Ebony Serpent Chapter. Skolinthos's oesophagus had been
crushed in the early years of the Great Crusade when it was still the Emperor whom the Word Bearers
served above all others. His voice crackled sibilantly through a vocal synthesiser that had been installed on
his chest.
 Chapter Master Tenaebron - Commanded the Chapter of the Void, the least respected Chapter amongst
the Word Bearers Legion, which primarily used as a reserve force that enacted its missions behind the front
line. His Chapter's true and hidden role was to create and test new weapons and tactics for the rest of the
Legion as well as studying ways to exploit the Word Bearers' psychic resources.
 Iarto Khoura (Deceased) - Iarto Khoura was the lead representative of the Word Bearers within the XIX th
Legion, having been allotted a position as Chaplain with the Raven Guard following the proclamation of
the Edicts of Nikaea and the installment of the order of Chaplains. After a time at the front lines during
which he fought beside notable commanders such as Commander Agapito, Iarto Khoura was deemed
trustworthy enough to be taken to the Raven Guard's Chapter Homeworld of Deliverance. There, Khoura
and his fellow Chaplains would teach the Raven Guard's novices in the way of Enlightenment and the
Imperial Truth. That was of course before the horrors of the Drop Site Massacre would cast doubt upon
Khoura's true allegiance. Imprisoned as soon as the Raven Guard returned to their homeworld of
Deliverance, Iarto Khoura was interrogated by the Primarch of the XIX th Legion himself, Corvus Corax.
Khoura was the only Word Bearer to have allowed himself to being captured, as his fellow legionaries had
 either fled or gone down fighting, a fact that did not fail to arise suspicion. With no tangible proof of his
involvement in the events that led to the Drop Site Massacre, Iarto Khoura never admitted to being a
Traitor, but always claimed his continued allegiance to the Emperor. Irritated by what he perceived as lies,
Corvus Corax seized the Chaplain one-handed and snapped his neck, claiming to be able to smell the taint
of the Warp on Khoura. Khoura's true loyalties have never been confirmed.
 Kol Harekh - Kol Harekh was the Coryphaus of Grand Apostle Ekodas.
 Kolos Undil - Sergeant Undil was the leader of First Chaplain Erebus's cadre of bodyguards. He was a
renowned warrior within the XVIIth Legion, as devout as his master and almost as devious. He was chosen
as one of the bearers of the eight Shards of Erebus by the First Chaplain himself, a high honour for one of
the faithful.

The Flayed Hand Chapter

 Cyrnair - Attached to the Flayed Hand Chapter, and present during the betrayal at Calth, Cyrnair was an
ancient of the Annunake and was at the head of the Flayed Hand Chapter as it mustered amongst the
towering manufactoria of Dainhold. Where once he had proudly worn the stone-grey of the Iconoclasts,
Cyrnair was now adorned in arterial red, and bedecked in runic symbols and engravings that hinted at the
terrible change undergone by the Word Bearers. Cyrnair was amongst the first of his brethren to break
ranks in the aftermath of the Campanile's arrival, ploughing into the ranks of the shocked Ultramarines and
slaughtering them before they were even aware of the attack. By the end of that bloody day, Cyrnair had
claimed the lives of several dozen of Guilliman's warriors, including the Centurion Jorvan Dolomel, whose
sundered corpse he later bore strapped to his sarcophagus as a macabre trophy.
 Shir Shadiru - Assigned to the 4th Company of the Flayed Hands Chapter, Legionary Shir Shadiru was
newly recruited from the teeming cities of Colchis in the years immediately prior to the Isstvan rebellion,
Legionary Shadiru was blooded in the fighting against his fellow Legiones Astartes having known no other
foes. Shadiru was one of the first of a new generation of Legionaries whose primary combat experience
was the fratricidal wars of the Horus Heresy; warriors who never knew the glorious days of the Great
Crusade and the crusading spirit it had engendered in the warriors of the Emperor. This new breed of
Legionary fostered a scathing disregard for the achievements of the Great Crusade and a brutal pragmatism
regarding the horrors of Horus' rebellion. As the war progressed, warriors like Shadiru became increasingly
common in the ranks of both sides.

The Graven Star Chapter

 Hol Beloth - One of the most prominent and certainly the most ambitious of the field commanders of the
Word Bearers Legion, Hol Beloth was a seasoned warrior and a decorated veteran of his Legion's lightning
swift Compliance campaign in the years after their censure. This was a period which saw the XVII th Legion
conquer more worlds in a confined period of time than any other, and Captain Hol Beloth, then a rising star
within the ranks, was personally responsible for a score of broken and subjugated worlds. The flames of his
ambition fanned further by the honeyed words of Erebus and his Dark Apostle Maloq Kartho, Hol Beloth
took up a position of command at the forefront of the Word Bearers attack on Calth where he would meet
his dark fate at last.

The Osseous Throne Chapter

 Ban Xisugal - Apothecary Ban Xisugal served with the Kigal Medicae Pact, detached to the 4 th Drop
Assault Company of the Word Bearers' Osseous Throne Chapter. He deployed along with almost two
thousand other Apothecaries to the battlefields of the Urgall Depression during the Drop Site Massacre, a
number far in excess of that indicated by standard Space Marine Legion doctrine. Apothecary Xisugal and
his brethren plied their bloody craft amongst the Legionaries of the 4 th Word Bearers Drop Assault
Company, striking into trapped and unsuspecting Loyalist Imperial Army forces in the rear echelons.
Despite the units they accompanied suffering few fatalities, further pict-captures from the battlefield
indicate Xisugal and his Pact all ended the engagement with their Vas "Mortuis" and other gene-seed and
casualty containment pods fully laden, most likely to add to the XVII th Legion's growing forces.
The Third Hand Chapter

 Kurtha Sedd - Kurtha Sedd was once a veteran Chaplain of the XVII th Legion, who fought at the forefront
of the Great Crusade. He possessed a boundless drive, channelling his faith into acts of selfless heroism.
There was an urgency to his every action as he took his Primarch at his word that the Emperor Himself was
watching Sedd. After the chastisement of the Word Bearers at Monarchia, the humiliation of Kurtha Sedd's
beloved Primarch drove him over the edge. Soon after, the Chaplain's despair and rage saw him turn a
prayer hall into an abattoir. When he came to his senses, Kurtha Sedd felt panic in his bones, for he had
committed the most horrendous of deeds in front of his god. Yet divine retribution never came, and the
"incident" was covered up by Sedd's fellow officers and the thunder of war. Within weeks the Chaplain
worked to further the doom of the False Emperor. His belief that Lorgar had lied to him made him
unpredictable, and as such he was chosen by Kor Phaeron to lead the ground assault on Calth. Upon
hearing he would be deployed alongside his former friend, Captain Steloc Aethon, of the Ultramarines' 19 th
Company, he felt a twinge of regret. Yet is was nothing next to the fires of hatred that burned in his soul.
His maniacal fervour was a weapon in its own right. When Calth's sun went supernova and became
poisoned radioactive hell, those who survived the initial betrayal were forced to seek shelter deep
underground in the subterranean arcologies that thread the planet's underworld. The Word Bearers were
determined to complete their heretical work by hunting down their Ultramarines rivals as well as any
survivors. At their fore was Kurtha Sedd, the fervent demagogue who burned with the fires of hatred and
disillusionment. Sedd's ultimate fate following the Calth Atrocity is unknown.
 Legionary Toc Derenoth - Toc Derenoth was a Legionary that served in the Ulughar Tactical Squad, of
the 5th Assault Company, Chapter of the Third Hand. After Monarchia, Veteran Word Bearers such as Toc
Derenoth took to wearing hermetic icons on their battle-plate, stylised after the geometric symbols devised
by Lorgar to summon and bind entities from the Empyrean. These were displayed quite openly during the
muster above Calth. This could be read as a signifier of the contempt Toc Derenoth and his kin had for the
Ultramarines and their lack of occult knowledge. Toc Derenoth's ultimate fate during the Calth Atrocity is
unknown.
 Sor Gharax, "The Bull" - Sor Gharax was once a wise war-priest and mentor to his Legion's recruits.
Wounded gravely due to the detonation of a Titan upon the volcanic world of 17-17, Sor Gharax was
interred in a special cybernetic sarcophagus to preserve his life. This in turn was installed within the shell
of a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, a personal war engine of surpassing potency. The multiple points of
articulation built into the Contemptor allowed for Sor Gharax to fight at full effect even in the winding
arcologies of Calth. Sor Gharax's Contemptor was amongst the finest of its kind, a towering construct that
possessed the strength of a dozen Space Marines. Unfotunately the trauma Sor Gharax experienced upon
17-17 took a grievous toll. He found his objectivity eroded by crashing waves of bitterness, for he saw his
incarceration within a war-shell as unbecoming of a true warrior. His chagrin grew to anger, then to
madness. By the time he reached Calth, the beloved leader of men that had once been Sor Gharax was
dead, though his body lived on. In its place was little more than a raging, hate-filled monster intent on
murder alone. Sor Gharax's ultimate fate during the Calth Atrocity is unknown.

The Unspeaking Chapter

 Zardu Layak - Known as the "Thrice-Born," "The Binder of Souls," and "The Voice of the Unspeaking,"
Zardu Layak's true name is now lost, but it is recorded in his Legion's lore that he was once an officer of
the Ashen Circle, a Terran by birth, and a devout destroyer of all that pertained to false superstition and
errant creed. He oversaw the burning of a hundred temples and countless tomes of lies in the Emperor's
service. That was until the Word Bearer's brutal censure by their ultimate master. As Lorgar led his Legion
into the wilderness after their punishment on Monarchia, Layak was contrite and ashamed, soul-sick and
lost, and quickly a fervent convert to Erebus' and Lorgar's new teachings in which he sought solace, but
even this did not fill the terrible void within him. So it was that when he began to receive visions in which
he believed his Primarch spoke to him directly, he concealed them from others for fear his shame had
driven him mad. In those visions the golden-skinned apparition of Lorgar bade him to reconsider his work,
not to burn the books and lore he encountered, but to read them, covet them, to search in them for the
hidden truths that the Emperor had not wished his sons to know. Word upon word, rune upon rune, glyph
upon glyph was a new creature born, a creature who named himself from the Book of Lorgar, using the
 ancient practice of Sortilege, as Zardu Layak, "Eater of Wisdom", but who came to be known more swiftly
by his Legion as the "Crimson Apostle" for his fiery raiment and the scalding blood in which he daily
daubed his armour.
 The Beast of Scaidava - During betrayal at Calth the entire town of Scaidava, located in northern Calth,
was slaughtered in the hours just before the Battle of Calth began, along with a dozen other nearby
settlements, all in areas untouched by the larger battles which raged across the planet. In every eye witness
account, the slaughter of these towns was no random accident, no tragic misfortune, but a deliberate act of
callous and horrific brutality perpetrated by monsters clad in the remains of blood-red Legiones Astartes
plate. The creature identified as perpetrating the slaughter in Scaidava, and clearly displays the insignia of
the Unspeaking Chapter of the Word Bearers and other iconography of the XVII th Legion. Though once a
Legiones Astartes warrior, some horrific transformation had rendered this Legionary into something almost
unrecognisable.

7th Grand Company/Host

 Argel Tal - Argel Tal was a former Captain of the Word Bearers Legion who served in the 7th Assault
Company of the Serrated Suns Chapter. After the Word Bearers chastisement by the Emperor on the world
of Khur, and the subsequent "pilgrimage" undertaken by the Word Bearers' Primarch Lorgar Aurelian into
the Eye of Terror, the Serrated Suns Chapter was reduced to only three active companies in number after
their sojourn into the Eye. Those members that that returned from their journey, returned changed. The
direct favour of Lorgar was bestowed upon the survivors, who would later become known as the Gal
Vorbak (Colchisian for "Blessed Sons"), and resulted in the elevation of their leader, Argel Tal, to the post
of Chapter Master of the Serrated Sun. These "Dark Brethren" became the first of the Daemonhosts later
known as the Possessed amongst the Forces of Chaos. Argel Tal would later be known as the "Crimson
Lord" of the elite the Gal Vorbak. He would go on to take part in many major campaigns of the Horus
Heresy, including the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, the Shadow Crusade in the Realms of Ultramar,
and the massacre on the World Eaters' Primarch Angron's homeworld of Nuceria, where Argel Tal would
meet his dark fate.
 Xaphen - Chaplain of the 7th Assault Company of the Chapter of the Serrated Suns.
 Nemur Ennat - Nemur Ennat was the Sub-Captain of the 5th Heavy Assault Company of the Serrated Suns
Chapter. Ennat was originally attached to the command of First Captain Kor Phaeron, the powerful if often
unpopular executive officer of the XVIIth Legion. Kor Phaeron transferred Ennat's company to the Serrated
Suns Chapter to act as his eyes and ears within the Chapter that bore Lorgar's favour following their
pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror. Though part of the Serrated Suns Chapter, the 5 th Company were not Gal
Vorbak, and during the fighting in the Urgall Depression atthe Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, they were
left isolated by the Gal Vorbaks' sudden departure after they transformed into their daemonic forms. The 5th
Company soon found themselves surrounded by Raven Guard warriors attempting to force a breach in the
Word Bearers' lines. Ennat himself was slain when a squadron of Iron Warriors' Typhon Heavy Siege
Tanks began to lay down a punishing bombardment against the Raven Guard at his position, heedless of the
casualties caused among their allies.
 Dagotal - Sergeant, Dagotal Outrider Squad
 Malnor - Sergeant, Malnor Assault Squad
 Torgal - Sergeant, Torgal Assault Squad
 Apis Merenkar - Apis Merenkar was a Legionary of the Nemarros Tactical Squad of the 7th Assault
Company, Serrated Suns Chapter. Legionary Merenkar was amongst the Gal Vorbak deployed into the
foothills on the Urgall Depression's right flank during the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V to oppose the
Raven Guard's attempts to reach their waiting gunships. This area saw some of the battle's bloodiest
fighting as the Primarch Corax scythed a path through the massed ranks of the Word Bearers to clear a path
for his sons. Merenkar's unit was last sighted engaging several Raven Guard companies in a headlong
charge, well ahead of the nearby Word Bearers Chapters. Evidence was later seized that his abandoned
wargear was recovered from the battlefield by an Iron Warriors provender detachment, but no identifiable
corpse was found for Merenkar or any member of his squad amongst the mounds of slain Raven Guard rent
apart and strewn across the field.
 Eduhkar of the Annunake - During the Great Crusade, Eduhkar was widely lauded in Imperial
battlegroup records for his heroism during the Sarapis Compliance against the monstrous xenos known as
 the Fra'al. As a result of irreparable wounds taken in the battles there, he was interred into a Contemptor
Pattern Dreadnought chassis. He willingly followed his Primarch in the Word Bearers' descent into heresy
and the worship of the Ruinous Powers. In the aftermath of the massacre on Istvaan V, Eduhkar's flame-
scorched sarcophagus was found amongst the foothills of the Urgall Mountains, on the edge of the fighting
where a small force of Salamanders had attempted to break through the encircling Traitors. His broken
Dreadnought body was still locked in his final struggle with the ruins of a Salamanders Dreadnought,
identified only by the legend "Dragon of Saraphis".

8th Grand Tactical Company/Host

 Grindis Vahn - Legionary Grindis Vahn served in Squad Ameshdun of the 8 th Tactical Company of the
Word Bearers' Sundered Tower Chapter, one of the largest and most prestigious of the Word Bearers
Chapters which comprised eighteen separate companies designated as frontline tactical companies for the
XVIIth Legion during the Great Crusade era. After the Legion's shaming on Khur and subsequent re-
organisation, these companies appear to have been filled with the majority of those Terran recruits who still
remained in the Chapter, placed under Colchisian officers of proven fervour and set to the hazardous
spearhead of the Legion's future attacks. A Terran veteran, Legionary Vahn was one of the longest serving
and most decorated line infantry Legionaries in the Word Bearers, having served since the Unification
Wars. He was a member of the Sundered Tower Chapter and was deployed along with his squad as part of
the Orichalan Subjugation in early 005.M31. Squad Ameshdun suffered near total casualties during the
final confrontation between the massed ranks of the Sundered Tower and the Orichalan's war-simulcra, and
while battle reports state that Legionary Vahn, though badly injured, survived the battle, there is no record
of his assignment to one of the Chapter's many Apothecaries for treatment or his whereabouts afterwards.

18th Grand Company/Host

 Sarabdal - A native of Colchis, Sarabdal handpicked by Lorgar for his position within the XVIIth Legion.

34th Grand Company/Host

 Ashkanez - First Acolyte to Dark Apostle Marduk. Icon Bearer Burias Dark'Shal grew bitter and resentful
at the elevation of First Acolyte Marduk to the position of Dark Apostle of the 34 th Host. Expecting to rise
in power with Marduk, Ashkanez was elevated instead to the position of First Acolyte. Seeing his
resentment towards his former master, Ashkanez took advantage of Burias' spite and turned the Icon Bearer
against Marduk. He then inducted him into the ranks of The Brotherhood, who were now composed of a
high number of Word Bearers who were only loyal to Kor Phaeron. In a conspiracy to overthrow the Dark
Apostle, The Brotherhood revealed their duplicity openly, following the Battle of Boros Gate, fighting
Marduk and those loyal to him in a massive internecine battle. First Acolyte Ashkanez and his fellow co-
conspirators were all annihilated.
 Burias Drak'Shal - Burias Drak'Shal was the Icon Bearer of the 34th Host. Burias had been born and raised
in the monastery-prisons of Colchis but only indoctrinated into the Legion during the first great influx, once
the old beliefs had been re-embraced wholeheartedly. He fought under the command of Dark Apostle
Jarulek and later Marduk, being the latter's blood-sworn brother and closest ally. During the Horus Heresy
he fought at Calth against the Word Bearers' most hated rivals, the Ultramarines. Known also as Burias
Drak'Shal due to his joining his soul with that of a Daemon. When Marduk was elevated to the esteemed
position of Dark Apostle of the 34th Host, Burias thought that he would be elevated as well. But Marduk
had elevated Ashkanez to the position of First Acolyte of the Host instead. Bitter at this betrayal, Burias
grew spiteful towards his former master. Seeking to prey upon this bitterness, Ashkanez fuelled Burias'
anger towards Marduk and secretly inducted him into the ranks of The Brotherhood. This newest iteration
of the secret sect of the Legion was composed of Word Bearers primarily loyal to Kor Phaeron. Eventually,
Burias revealed his betrayal to Marduk and was mortally wounded in a massive battle between the factions
by Kor Badar, the 34th Host's Coryphaus. After the annihilation of Burias's co-conspirators, the traitorous
former Icon Bearer was sent to the Basilica of Torments to suffer accordingly for his transgressions. Not
satisfied that the pain and torture Burias endured was punishment enough, Marduk came up with a most
 vile way of punishing his former follower. He had Burias entombed within The Warmonger's now empty
Chaos Dreadnought sarcophagus. He then had the Dreadnought's limbs removed, entombing the traitor for
all eternity within its Adamantium shell to slowly go insane.
 Kol Badar - Coryphaus of the 34th Host. Kol Badar was a very capable commander and formidable
warrior, rising to the rank of Captain during the Great Crusade. He was instrumental in the assault upon the
world of Forty-Seven Sixteen. He served under the Dark Apostle known as the Warmonger serving as his
Coryphaus and continued to serve in this position under the subsequent Dark Apostle successors, Jarulek
and then Marduk. Kol Badar harboured an extreme hatred for Marduk, whom through undisclosed
circumstances, was responsible for the death of his closest blood-brother towards the beginning of the
Horus Heresy. Kol Badar was known to have been a part of the Host that fought during the Battle of Terra.
Known to wear an ornate suit of Terminator Armour with a horned helmet that sported the Blessed Horns
of Colchis. His helmet's face plate is crafted in the likeness of a snarling bestial visage. He fights with a
Combi-Bolter and an ancient clawed Power Fist. Kol Badar lead the elite cadre of Chaos Terminators
known as The Annointed into battle.
 Arshaq - Sergeant
 Paeblen - Sergeant
 Bachari - Assault-Sergeant
 Aecton - Battle-Brother
 Khadmon - Battle-Brother
 Urhlon - Apothecary

13th Coterie

 Sabtec - Chaos Champion of the 13th Coterie (Assault Squad) of the 34th Host. Sabtec played a pivotal role
in the boarding action and successful capture of the White Consuls' Battle Barge Sword of Truth during the
Word Bearers' Dark Crusade into the Boros System. He fought with a serrated Power Sabre, a potent
weapon gifted to him personally by Erebus after the 13th Coterie's heroics upon the stinking Death World of
Iagata VII. His Coterie had successfully brought down the defences of a war shrine of the Adepta Sororitas,
ensuring a crushing victory against the hated Battle-Sisters holed up there. Every last Sister had been
stripped of her armour and her flesh ritually debased before being staked out around the outskirts of the
defiled shrine, the Sisters' bloodied forms affixed to crosses hammered into the earth. There they were left
to perish, vast swarms of blood-sucking insects rising from the surrounding death-marshes and descending
upon them, their screams music to the Word Bearers' ears.

17th Coterie

 Khalaxis - Exalted Champion of the 17th Coterie (Assault Squad) of the 34th Host. Khalixis presented a
savage appearance -- his cheeks were always carved with fresh cuts by his own ritual blade, and he wore
his mane of hair in thick dreadlocks which swung wildly as he hurled himself, roaring in hatred, at the
enemy. The 17th Coterie were brutal warriors, always the first into any engagement, and invariably the last
to be extracted. These savage berserkers wore the grisly trophies of those they had defeated around their
waists. Their shoulder plates were draped with skins ripped from the corpses of powerful enemies they had
overcome in personal combat; it was an old Colchisian belief that by donning the flesh of powerful
defeated enemies, you were able to harness a portion of their strength. While the Word Bearers as a Legion
worshipped Chaos in all its glory, Khalaxis and his brood had a tendency to gravitate towards the sole
worship of Khorne, the Bloodied One, the Skull Taker, the brazen god of destruction and brutality. For the
most part Marduk overlooked this failing, as had his predecessor Jarulek, merely for the fact that this
Assault Squad were such devastating shock troops, and that their pre-battle blood-rituals honouring Khorne
lent them unmatched fury and savagery.

Known Word Bearers Daemon Princes

 Kor Megron, the Reaper of Rhodax - Daemon Prince from the Word Bearers Traitor Legion. During the
Great Crusade, Kor Megron was known as a brave and formidable warrior who brought many glories to the
 Imperium. Following the defeat of Warmaster Horus and the failure of the Horus Heresy, Megron swore
eternal allegiance to the Ruinous Powers. Upon the Cathedral World of Rhodax he fought the forces of the
Imperium, and through his dark, unflinching devotion to the Chaos Gods, he was rewarded with
daemonhood.
 M'kar the Reborn - Daemon Prince of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion. He was once the Dark Apostle
Maloq Kartho. During the Horus Heresy he took part in the attack on the hated Ultramarines on the world
of Calth, where he was eventually slain by Captain Ventanus who used a small flint dagger known as the
Shard of Erebus. Rewarding his dark devotion to the Chaos Gods for the blood slaughter he wreaked on
Calth, Kartho was resurrected as a Daemon Prince named M'kar the Reborn. He has been a great bane to
the Imperium of Man for over ten millennia.
 Periclitor the Foresworn - Daemon Prince from the Word Bearers Traitor Legion. In 220.M38, Periclitor
became the root cause of long-standing enmity between himself and the Howling Griffons Space Marine
Chapter after the brutal slaying and desecration of their former Chapter Master Orlando Furioso on the eve
of the 5,000th anniversary of the Chapter's Founding.

Known Word Bearers of the Furious Abyss

 Zadkiel - Fleet Captain of the Furious Abyss.

 Baelanos - Assault-Captain of the Furious Abyss.
 Ikthalon - Brother-Chaplain of the Furious Abyss.
 Reskiel - Sergeant-Commander of the Furious Abyss.
 Malforian - Weapon Master of the Furious Abyss.

Legion Fleet

A Word Bearers Battle Barge.

During the Horus Heresy the Word Bearers Legion fleet was known to have possessed the following vessels:

 Fidelitas Lex (Gloriana-class Battleship) - Flagship of the Word Bearer's Primarch, Lorgar Aurelian and
the XVIIth Legion. The Fidelitas Lex was destroyed by the Ultramarines during the Shadow Crusade at the
Purge of Nuceria.
 Anarchus (Battleship, Unknown Class) - Commanded by Dark Apostle Ankh-Heloth.
 Dominus Violatus (Battleship, Unknown Class) - Part of the Word Bearers' Legion's 7th Host.
 Kamiel (Battleship, Unknown Class)
 Lorgar's Spite (Battleship, Unknown Class)
 Dark Chorus (Desolator-class Battleship)
 Catechism of Revelation (Armiger-class Cruiser) - The Catechism of Revelation played an imporant role
in the orbital battle above Istvaan V during the Drop Zone Massacre and was later ordered to join the fleet
despatched to prosecute the Shadow Crusade in the distant Ultima Segmentum. Yet, the Cateschism of
Revelation never arrived at its destination, being lost in the Warp some where within the Dominion of
Storms in 007.M31. When the ship reemerged from the Warp two Terran years later, it was profoundly
changed, but still deadly. The Catechism of Revelation became the terror of local convoys and freighters,
eluding its pursuers until it was brought to battle in 049.M31 and brought low. Boarding parties from the
victorious Grand Cruiser Pride of Petrabus reported the vessel to be a derelict, its crew absent and its might
broken, upon which the boarding parties scuttled the ship and returned to their own vessel. Yet, a mere four
standard years later, an apparently restored, undamaged and fully operative Catechism of Revelation was
confirmed to be operating off Espandor.
 Crucius Maledictus (Infernus-class Battleship) - Commanded by Grand Apostle Ekodas. Before the
Heresy this ship was known as the Flame of Purity. Its name was changed once the Word Bearers made
their loyalty to Chaos known openly. The Crucius Maledictus was heavily damaged after combat with the
Loyalist White Scars Legion.
 Flame of Purity (Infernus-class Battleship)
 Furious Abyss (Abyss-class Battleship) - Commanded by Fleet Captain and Dark Apostle Zadkiel. Active
during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. The Furious Abyss was ultimately destroyed by a small group
of Loyalists who sabotaged it from within before it could be brought to bear against the hated Ultramarines
at the Battle of Calth, possibly preventing that battle from becoming a complete defeat for the Loyalists.
 Blessed Lady (Abyss-class Battleship) - Sister-ship to the Furious Abyss that was secretly built under the
direction of Lorgar. Active during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.
 Trisagion (Abyss-class Battleship) - Sister-ship to the Furious Abyss that was secretly built under the
direction of Lorgar. Active during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. The Trisagion became the new
flagship of the Primarch Lorgar following the destruction of the Fidelitas Lex at the Purge of Nuceria.
 Baithamir's Sword (Battle Barge)
 Castigator (Battle Barge)
 De Profundis (Battle Barge)
 Destiny's Hand (Battle Barge) - Commanded by First Chaplain Erebus.
 Dies Mortis (Battle Barge) - Commanded by Dark Apostle Belagosa.
 Infidus Imperator (Battle Barge) - Commanded by First Captain Kor Phaeron.
 Mortisis Majesticatus (Battle Barge) (Destroyed) - Commanded by Dark Apostle Sarabdal.
 Mournsong (Battle Barge) - Flagship of the long-extinct Twisting Rune Chapter.
 Dark Page (Strike Cruiser)
 Dominatus Sanctus (Strike Cruiser) - Part of the 47th Expeditionary Fleet during the Great Crusade.
 Infidus Diabolus (Strike Cruiser) - Commanded by Dark Apostle Jarulek and later Dark Apostle Marduk.
 Maledictus Confutatis (Strike Cruiser)
 Moribundus Fatalis (Strike Cruiser) - Part of the Legion's 18th Host.
 Sanctus Diabolica (Strike Cruiser) (Destroyed)
 Monarchia (Cruiser, Unknown Class) - The Monarchia was the personal ship of Dark Apostle Quor
Gallek also known as "The Preacher" from which he organised and suveyed the hunt of the Charbydis since
its departure from Macragge. Allthough considerably smaller than the Charbydis, the Monarchia attacked
the larger vessel while still within the Warp, an attack which nearly succeeded in reaching its objectives; to
recover the fulgurite stone still embedded in Vulkan's corpse. Twarted in the last minute of their assault, the
Word Bearers - now severerly weakened by the losses suffered onboard the Charbydis found themselves at
the mercy of their "allies" from the Death Guard Legion. Still able to track the Charbydis’ progress, the
Monarchia confronted the Charbydis alongside the Death Guard Grand Cruiser Reaper’s Shroud above
Nocturne, the Salamanders’ home world.Stripped of both its commanders and entirely subjugated to the
interests of the XIVth Legion, the Monarchia was deliberately sacrificed to slow down the Charbydis before
it too was destroyed.
 Valediction (Cruiser, Unknown Class) - The Valediction was a vessel commanded by Dark Apostle
Danask, an ambitious officer who desired to fight alongside his Primarch in the Shadow Crusade or at
Calth rather than be left behind in the Istvaan System. As part of the outer line of picket-ships, the
Valediction had been tracking the elusive Raven Guard Istvaan V survivors which were still believed to
lurk somewhere in-system. This proved to be correct, as the Valediction indeed encountered the Raven
Guard Battle Barge Avenger as it was about to make its warp-jump. Unfortunately for the Valediction, by
the time it detected the cloaked Loyalist vessel, it was so close to the Avenger, that it was sucked into the
Warp as the vessel of the XIXth Legion made its jump. With no Geller Field activated to protect itself, the
Valediction was promptly ripped apart by the hungry denizens of the Warp, each soul aboard the doomed
vessel dying in a horrible and agonizing way.
 Orfeo's Lament (Light Cruiser)
 Dark Sacrament (Gladius-class Light Cruiser) - The Dark Sacrament was part of the Monarchia’s fleet
on their common hunt quest for the fulgurite stone, and if possibe, the capture or elimination of the
renegade and former Vigilator, Barthusa Narek. The Dark Sacrament began its quest on Traoris and the
light cruiser moved as part of the fleet in the outer regions of Ultramar before being intercepted, boarded
and then destroyed by the Ultramarines' vessel Defiance of Calth.
 Demagogue (Hunter-class Destroyer) - The Demagogue was one of the Dark Sacrament’s escort and
likewisely confronted by the Defiance of Calth. It was on the Demagogue that Artellus Numeon, First
Captain of the Pyre Guard of the Salamanders Legion was imprisoned and then tortured after his capture on
Traoris. His interrogator, the Unburdened Xenuth Sul had repeatedly tortured and taunted Numeon,
 believing the Salamanders knew the whereabouts of the renegade Barthusa Narek, who had betrayed his
Legion on Traoris and tried to keep the fulgurie stone for himself. The Demagogue suffered the same fate
as the Dark Sacrament, with Xenuth Sul being captured and Numeon freed. It only appeared later that the
Demagogue and her entire scout-fleet had been deliberately sacrificed to permit Xenuth Sul to infiltrate the
Ultramarines' prison amidst the Fortress of Hera in attempt to assassinate Barthusa Narek who had also
been imprisoned there.
 Crown of Colchis (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)
 Spear of Cedros (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)
 Faith's Speed (Transport Ship)

The exact make-up of the Word Bearers' Legion fleet since the end of the Horus Heresy is unknown in Imperial
records.

Legion Artefacts

 Baleful Icon - This icon bears an eight-pointed star so saturated in the blood of Loyalists that it is forever
stained with the taint of treachery. Those who wish the bearer harm find their certainty sapped away by the
mere proximity of this blasphemous standard. The Word Bearers that carry it feel its toxic aura much as a
sun worshipper feels the kiss of a summer day upon his skin. Those who do not worship the Dark Gods
instead find their skin crawling and their muscles shuddering in revulsion. Even Astartes are drained of
their righteous anger in its presence.
 Crown of the Blasphemer - Adorned with the finger bones of defiant men and anointed with the blood of
unbelievers, the Crown of the Blasphemer attracts the attention of Warp entities to the wearer. Whether
these daemonic creatures are keeping him alive for their own entertainment or because there is some
purpose he has yet to fulfil on their behalf is immaterial, for upon the battlefield, the kingly figure beneath
the crown is extremely difficult to harm. Powered blades are turned away at the last moment by invisible
hands, thunderous volleys of bullets find themselves snatched into the aether at the last moment, and enemy
warriors find their minds assailed with visions of a galaxy in flames.
 Cursed Crozius - This was once the rod of office for a founding member of Lorgar's Chaplains, one of the
first of his kind to be sent into the Legiones Astartes in order to watch for signs of sedition. In truth, it has
always been the weapon of an Arch-traitor. First used in anger to bludgeon an ex-Librarian Praetor of the
White Scars to death, it still bears the indelible stains of that first treacherous kill to this day. Those Chaos
worshippers nearby are instilled with all the knowledge they need to slay the Loyalist thralls of the Corpse
Emperor. Conversely, those who bear the mark of the Emperor find the crozius' every swing unerringly
seeking out the weak spots in their armour.
 Malefic Tome - This blasphemous tome has been stitched together from the flayed skins of a dozen mortal
psykers. These dabblers in the arcane signed their own death warrants, for though they took every
precaution in their dealings with daemons, they made their locations known to those Chaos worshippers
who walk the material world at will. Each leathery page still bears the hairs and birthmarks of the book's
unwilling donors, their horror at the mistake they made still emanating from every inch of stolen skin. The
book's leaves are inscribed with true names, hexagrammatic diagrams and daemonic hierarchies that enable
the bearer a measure of influence over his Warp-spawned allies.
 Scripts of Erebus - Copied with painstaking care by the first of the traitorous Dark Apostles from the runes
upon his own flesh, the Scripts of Erebus were inscribed in blood bearing traces of Lorgar's vitae. The
rituals and imprecations of these long parchments are potent messages in the Dark Tongue. When read
aloud, they can channel the energy of the Empyrean into realspace with a staggering degree of stability,
allowing the bearer to unleash myriad unnatural deaths upon his enemies, or else banish the powers of their
enemy's worn Warp-craft. Though the scripts are rendered invisible by each reading, a journey into the
Warp causes them to blossom into being once more, ready to unleash fresh carnage upon the worlds of
men.
 Skull of Monarchia - The destruction of the Perfect City of Monarchia at the hands of the Ultramarines
Legion was all but total. A few relics remain from that time, however. The artefact known as the Skull of
Monarchia is foremost amongst them, the only intact cranium that remained after the utter destruction
visited upon the Word Bearers' perfect city. Chased with precious metals and protected with powerful force
 fields, it is a constant reminder of the destruction that turned the Word Bearers upon the path of rebellion
and damnation. All those nearby find their hatred of the Imperium of Man swelling to new heights.

Legion Appearance

Brother Gharshor of the Chapter of the Tainted Solstice, a Word Bearer of the Horus Heresy era who changed his
armour colours and iconography to display the Legion's new service to the Chaos Gods.

Since their worship turned from the Emperor to the Chaos Gods, the Word Bearers have adorned the deep crimson
of their armour with runic script in the Dark Tongue.

Devotional parchments made from human skin are inscribed with excerpts from the Book of Lorgar, blasphemous
texts that detail the philosophies of their Primarch, and scraps of ritual that attract the eyes of daemons.

The Word Bearers have become a literal manifestation of their name -- though their creed is no longer a celebration
of the Emperor's glory, but of the Ruinous Powers that cast their shadow across reality.

At the behest of the first Dark Apostles, the armour of the Word Bearers was changed from steely grey to the scarlet
of dried blood. The script that once adorned their armour changed too; where their ceramite once bore Imperial
truths in High Gothic, after their great censure the XVII Legion replaced the text with runic sigils and arcane
symbols redolent with hidden meaning.

As a Word Bearer garners ever more favour from the Chaos Gods, his appearance changes to reflect his station. One
who excels in a battle -- or in an especially violent ritual sacrifice -- may have Colchisian runes inscribed on his
battle-plate by a Dark Apostle or Chaos Sorcerer, lending an extra measure of esoteric protection that hardens his
soul against horrors both metaphysical and corporeal.

Before the betrayal of the Horus Heresy came to light, the book icon of the Word Bearers represented the pursuit of
gnostic truths. Now it is seen as emblematic of arcane tomes and daemon summonation. The Chosen of the Legion
are walking encyclopaedias of arcane lore, the blasphemous syllables spilling from their lips weakening the veil
between realspace and the Empyrean so that daemons might force their way through.

Veteran Word Bearers often wear hermetic icons, stylised after the geometric symbols devised by Lorgar to summon
and bind entities from the Empyrean. The most extreme of these symbols invite daemonic entities to possess the
wearer entirely -- only the most devoted go to such lengths to become one with the darkness of the universe, for
though they gain tremendous power, they forfeit their soul.

Legion Colours

Pre-Heresy Word Bearers Legion Heraldry and Iconography.

The Pre-Heresy Word Bearers Legion originally wore slate grey coloured Power Armour complete with
inscribed/engraved prayers in Colchisian cuneiform script, phrases, and words of devotion, with no contrasting
colors. Word Bearers Chaplains wore the slate grey armour of the Legion, being distinguished by gold armour trim
and their Crozius.

The Chaplains repainted their armour black following the Legion's reprimanding by the Emperor in Monarchia,
"...in remembrance of the ashes coating every warrior's armour."

A Word Bearers Legion Banner.

First Chaplain Erebus was known to have a clean shaven head which was richly tattooed with religious sayings and
imagery. It is not known whether or not this was standard practice amongst the other members of the Word Bearers'
Chaplaincy.

After their fall to the Ruinous Powers, the Word Bearers adopted a new colour scheme in the days immediately after
the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V intended to symbolise the Word Bearers' willingness to shed blood to bring the
truth of Chaos to all Mankind.

Their Power Armour was repainted the colour of spilt blood, a colour often called "Traitor's Red" or "Betrayer's
Red," sometimes worn with black or silver trim. Heretical prayers are inscribed directly into the surface of their
armour.

Word Bearers Variant Heraldry. Note: The Twisting Rune Chapter illustrates the principle of drawing its heraldry
from dark sources, its title referring not to the night skies of Colchis but the language of dark, forbidden crafts.

Often times Word Bearers Traitor Marines are also seen wearing devotional prayer sheets hanging from their
armour's shoulder plates -- the blasphemous words of the Book of Lorgar inscribed upon them. By the time of the
Battle of Calth, the arterial red and abyssal black first worn by the Serrated Suns Chapter had become widespread
throughout the Legion.

Also almost entirely supplanted was the use of ancient Colchisian runic script, once employed extensively to denote
a Legionary's rank, status, role and deeds in a manner comprehensible only to other Legion inductees and to varying
degrees depending on the viewer's level of initiation into its mysteries.

Esoteric geometric lines applied to a Word Bearers Thunderhawk gunship.

The runes came to be replaced with distinctive esoteric geometry, readable only by those steeped in the mysteries
revealed to them by Lorgar in the aftermath of his journey into the Great Eye.

Word Bearers Variant Heraldry

When first the Primarch Lorgar assumed control of the XVII th Legion, he imposed his own ideals of organisation
and hierarchy upon its ranks. Informed by the mysteries of Colchis in which Lorgar had been raised by Kor Phaeron,
these structures were typically impenetrable to those not party to the complex and mystical hierarchies of that
ancient culture.

The titles and iconography of the chapters into which Lorgar first sub-divided the XVIIth Legion were derived from
the constellations seen in the night skies of Colchis.

As the Word Bearers' descent into treachery and corruption accelerated, newly founded chapters drew their titles and
symbols from other, less visible and far darker sources.

Legion Banners

The Word Bearers make extensive use of a wide range of banners, icons and vexillas at every level of the Legion's
command structure. Initially derived from the runic script of ancient Colchis, the banners have come to display ever
more disturbing and debased symbols as the full extent of the Legion's treachery and corruption has been revealed.

In particular, the burning book icon which held such significance to the Legion prior to its shaming at Monarchia
changed dramatically, a leering devil face appearing from the flames and investing it with an entirely different and
highly portentous meaning.

Vehicle Markings
The Word Bearers adorn their war machines with a complex range of symbols, icons and markings, much of it
entirely impenetrable to outsiders but which holds ritual and esoteric meaning to those privy to the teachings of the
Book of Lorgar.

Most of the Legion's vehicles mount the Word Bearers Legion icon, often placed at the convergence of an intricate
web of geometric lines. This motif is derived not from the mysteries of Colchis but from the fell wisdom obtained by
Lorgar in the aftermath of his fall to dark powers, and by the time of the Battle of Calth it was commonly applied to
vehicles of all classes.

The white text often applied to the flanks of Word Bearers Legion vehicles represents passages copied from the
Book of Lorgar. It is also common for vehicles to have paper prayer rolls applied to them before battle, a practise
derived from ancient Colchisian battle-rites but twisted into new and debased significance as the Word Bearers fell
ever further from grace.

Legion Badge

The insignia of the pre-Heresy Word Bearers Legion was an opened book surmounted by a burning flame of truth,
which was prominently displayed on the left shoulder plate.

Following their corruption by the Ruinous Powers the Word Bearers adopted new iconography: the Latros Sacrum,
the Chaos symbol that represented the Word Bearers Legion.

It was a stylised representation of a roaring, horned daemon's head wreathed in flames, which represented all that the
Legion stood for, all that they believed in so deeply and all that they were willing to kill for.

Loyalist Word Bearers Canon Controversy

Please Note: The following is informed speculation based on the sources, and is not yet recognised as canon.
Although the Word Bearers Legion had initially been thrown into disarray after their public humiliation and rebuke
by the Emperor on the world of Khur, it has been established that the Legion was divided into two camps.

Those who remained faithful to the previous religion which held the Emperor of Mankind to be the god of Humanity
taught by their Primarch (primarily the Astartes from Terra) and those who began to embrace the dark precepts of
Chaos, rediscovered by Lorgar after completing his Pilgrimage (primarily the Astartes from Colchis).

The Word Bearers kept their faith in Chaos secret for many solar decades, remaining loyal, at least in name, to the
Imperial Truth, until the events of the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, after which time they openly embraced their
new faith without any pretense and eagerly joined the Horus Heresy.

Were there those amongst the Legion who still wished to serve the Emperor? The current literature would seem to
indicate as much. Those who refused to accept this new creed were "purged" from the Legion over the course of one
solar week. This involved the elimination of every one of the Terran-born members of the Legion by The
Brotherhood, as well as any Colchisian Astartes who refused to accept the new religious doctrine espoused by their
Primarch.

In order to accomplish these purges, Lorgar ordered an internal sect known as The Brotherhood to be formed,
composed of his most loyal sons to carry out his will. The Urizen was notably mournful, acting with great reluctance
when his hand was forced to form this clandestine sect.

The Word Bearers novel Dark Creed by Anthony Reynolds speaks of the purges within the ranks of the Word
Bearers against the Terran-born Astartes:
"Our Fraternity represents divine change. On ancient Colchis, a billion souls were released from earthly flesh in the
Brotherhood's purge of the Covenant, and great was the rejoicing; and stronger did Colchis become. The second
cleansing saw the Legion's ranks purified of Terran taint; and stronger did the Legion become, its chaff cast aside."
(pg. 111)

"The Second Purge came a century later, after our blessed lord, the Urizen, had reunited with his Legion; after our
glorified Primarch's eyes were opened to the lies of the golden-tongued so-called Emperor of Mankind." (pp. 184-
185)

"With realization came the understanding that the old beliefs of Colchis were the only truth in the universe; that the
old gods were the only powers worthy of our faith and worship. There were those amongst our blessed Legion that
would not have understood these things, brainwashed and conditioned as they had been in their formative years. Our
lord Lorgar once more reformed the Brotherhood, again with great mourning and remorse. Thus were the Legion's
ranks cleansed and unified. In one week, thus were all warrior brothers of Terran birth eradicated, leaving only those
brothers of Colchis blood behind." (pp. 184-185)

"Great was the Urizen's lamentation, for those warriors slain were his sons, his flesh and blood, children of his own
gene-code. And yet, through no fault of their own and as a direct result of being raised in isolation from him, they
had to be removed. Their will had been utterly corrupted by the lies of the False Emperor. Their souls had been
closed off to the great truth." (pp. 184-185)

There are a number of unanswered questions. Imperial records repeatedly describe units of Word Bearers stationed
on Terra even as the Horus Heresy broke out, but it does not explain what happened to them, though these Astartes
were most likely the Outcast Dead.

In addition, like every other Legion, it is quite likely that the Word Bearers had their Astartes scattered in several
different sectors, on missions that were sometimes held in common with other Loyalist formations. The fate of these
Astartes remains unknown.

The simple answer, for the moment, is that we can generally assume that, however briefly, there were Loyalists in
the service of the Word Bearers, but we cannot be certain how many, where they were located, or even for how long
they were permitted to exist.

Previous sources intimated that there were Loyalists from all of the Traitor Legions who were eventually absorbed
by other Legions or chosen for new tasks such as service with the Knights Errant -- but this contentious issue has not
yet been settled.

The Alpha Legion is the Chaos Space Marine Traitor Legion about whom the least is known. The Alpha Legion
was once the XXth Legion of Astartes created during the First Founding by the Emperor of Mankind to carry out His
Great Crusade to reunite all of humanity in a new golden age under His rule. They are experts in infiltration, covert
operations, misdirection and diversion tactics, and their armies contain many Chaos Cultists and other mortal agents
in addition to regular Heretic Astartes.

The Alpha Legion's Primarch was named Alpharius, and was actually one of the identical twin Primarchs Alpharius
Omegon, two brilliant and secretive sons of the Emperor, one of whom was reportedly later killed after the end of
the Horus Heresy by Roboute Guilliman, the Primarch of the Ultramarines. Despite its seeming allegiance to Chaos,
a closer scrutiny of the Alpha Legion's known history indicates that their seeming service to Chaos Undivided might
actually be the greatest deception they have played upon the Imperium.
With accounts of the Heresy the purview of the Ordo Malleus and only known to the bulk of Humanity as legend
and myth, records of most of the Traitor Legions are very hard to come by. This is even more the case with the
Alpha Legion, because the XXth Legion embraced misdirection and stealth as its primary means of conducting war.
The Alpha Legion was the last of the Legiones Astartes to be united with its Primarch, only serving under him for a
few solar decades before the Horus Heresy erupted.

The Legion was known as secretive in the extreme, favouring cunning ruses and clandestine deployments, and as
such very little is known of its deeds. While most accounts involving the Traitor Legions are unreliable, those that
mention the Alpha Legion are regarded by most Imperial savants with outright skepticism. The misinformation
surrounding the Alpha Legion even extends to the nature and identity of its Primarch. Known by the cipher
"Alpharius," very little is known of the Legion's Primarch besides his genius in implementing the most cunning of
stratagems and tactics.

It is said that Alpharius revelled in fighting in such a manner that his enemies only ever realised they were under
attack at the very last moment. Such tactics are said to range from conventional flank attacks timed to strike at the
precise moment when they would precipitate the enemy's complete collapse, to extended campaigns of infiltration,
exploitation of partisan groups, undermining enemy command and control assets and spreading fear and suspicion
through compromised communication networks.

As Space Marines, the Alpha Legion was entirely capable of conducting the full range of military operations
normally associated with these elite, superhuman warriors. However, it appears that Alpharius and his warriors were
disposed towards the use of the stealth and guile, preferring such tactics to more mundane approaches to war.

This is said to have caused acrimony between Alpharius and Roboute Guilliman when the Alpha Legion was tasked
with conquering the world of Tesstra Prime. The XXth Legion executed a masterful campaign in which every
possible ruse and stratagem was utilised and the enemy defeated before he even realised he was fighting for his very
existence, by which time he had suffered an estimated 90% losses.

The Primarch of the Ultramarines declared the campaign a grand waste of time and resources, claiming the target
world could have been taken far quicker by conventional means. Alpharius replied that such an approach would
have been "too easy," a view that Horus alone shared with him.

The Alpha Legion is known to have taken part in the galaxy-spanning disaster that was the Horus Heresy, though as
ever, its exact role is unclear. One thing is for certain, the XXth Legion was present at the Drop Site Massacre at
Istvaan V, fighting in the second wave as one of the three Traitor Legions that only revealed their true colours when
the savagely mauled Raven Guard, Salamanders and Iron Hands were falling back to the drop zone.

Aside from this action, the Alpha Legion is largely absent from what accounts of the Horus Heresy remain, only
cropping up in a handful of places and often in contradictory fashion. The annals of the Space Wolves and White
Scars both record battles against the Alpha Legion, and it appears that Alpharius revelled in the battles he fought
against his erstwhile brothers.

Yet, at the same time, he pursued his own strategy. Even after Horus was defeated at the Battle of Terra, the Alpha
Legion continued fighting, all the while working its way towards the galactic east. As such, the Legion was not
pursued into the Eye of Terror as so many others were, but became embroiled in a series of bitter confrontations
against the Ultramarines, who themselves had been engaged in that region when the Warmaster had attacked Terra.

Battle was joined at Eskrador, where the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman proved himself the greatest of
strategists when he predicted that the Alpha Legion would believe they could foresee the tactics he would utilise in
the coming battle. For perhaps the only time in his life, Guilliman acted contrary to his own firmly-held military
doctrines, and it was Alpharius who walked into a trap. The two Primarchs faced one another in battle and Alpharius
was defeated and seemingly slain, precipitating the collapse of the entire Alpha Legion.
Or so it at first appeared. Having burned the Traitor Primarch's body on a great pyre, Guilliman led his Legion
against the remnants of the Alpha Legion, only to discover that far from collapsing, the Legion was mounting a
series of cunning and often devastating counterstrikes. After many solar days of bitter fighting, Guilliman gave up
hope of an honourable victory and departed Eskrador, ordering a massive orbital bombardment to finish the
survivors off.

Some have claimed that the entire battle was some grand ploy, though to what end none can say. Certainly, the
Alpha Legion fought in the manner of the mythical beast that adorns their armour -- the hydra -- for each time one
head is cut off, another moves in to replace it.

Contents

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Legion History

The Ghost Legion

Badge of the Alpha Legion.

Before the vile treachery of Horus came to being, the XXth Legion, its formation, and purpose was shrouded in
mystery and bellicose concealment from the rest of the Imperium. This secrecy was colluded -- as is evident -- by
the highest circles of power. Indeed, it cannot be doubted that it was the Emperor's will.

It is believed by many Imperial scholars that the secrecy surrounding this "outsider" Legion and its designed
purposes would later serve to conceal the dark transformation at its heart which was long in its gestation. This
malediction and the increasing addiction for its own preternatural use for subterfuge and destruction, only worsened
after the ascension of Horus to the rank of Warmaster.

The Alpha Legion became a twisting serpentine force of formless shadows, as dangerous and deadly as the multi-
headed monster of ancient myth that in latter days became its modus operandi and its icon. It was a weapon neither
first the Emperor nor later the Warmaster could control.

Pre-Heresy Badge of the Alpha Legion.

The pall of mystery surrounding the XXth Legion can be traced back to their creation. The last known of the gene-
seed strains used in the creation of the Legiones Astartes at the end of the Unification Wars, factors relating to the
XXth Legion were kept beyond the usual secrecy and security that the Emperor chose to surround the Space Marine
project with.

The XXth along with the XVIIIth (Salamanders) and VIth (Space Wolves) proto-Legions, were formed and
established largely in separation from the rest of the Legiones Astartes and were generally thought created to very
specific ends and purposes. What plan of the Emperor's lay behind this action cannot now be known, and even at the
dawning of the Age of the Imperium, this was one of many secrets the Emperor kept both from the Imperial Court
and many of His own advisors, and the Primarchs themselves.

These Legions were kept veiled and distant from the beginning, breeding distrust between them that, save in the case
of the XVIIIth Legion -- who would later become the widely renowned Salamanders Legion -- would never
disappear. In the case of the Alpha Legion, it would instead worsen over time. This first mystery would breed others,
and questions would continue to go unanswered not simply about the XXth Legion's methods and nature, but about
the use to which it was put in its earliest days.

The Alpha Legion Colour Scheme as displayed by Brother Lepsys, Keeper of the Eight Stolen Truths.
Of the early solar decades of the XXth Legion on Terra and during the re-conquest of the Sol System almost nothing
can be said with any accuracy whatsoever, and even the cluster of myths and rumours that would later grow to
surround the Legion's activities is absent. What remains instead are a few sparse but suggestive fragments,
anomalous records of unknown Legiones Astartes units carrying out targeted strikes, abductions and assassinations,
both on Terra and beyond, and reports of Space Marine units answering to no known masters or Legion allegiance
passing through war zones on high priority missions and under the writ of unassailable clearance codes which
broached no question.

Rumour and supposition even surrounded the designation "Alpha", which by some records is connected with the
XXth proto-Legion from a very early period. This, aside from the numerous occult and arcane associations and
significance that certain sources choose to derive from this fact, ties into another, more prosaic, potential association
dating back to the hidden work of the Emperor's own gene-labs.

Pre-Heresy Alpha Legion Colour Scheme.

It is apparent from numerous extant sources that during their creation, each nascent proto-Legion after the Primus or
Ist Legion (later the Angelis Tenebrium or Dark Angels), was raised first to active service in a staged process of
testing and trials before the full active force was created through mass recruitment from amongst Terran populations
loyal to the Emperor's cause.

Each stage of creation would result in expansion of the gene-seed implantation on progressively larger groups of
Neophytes. The last of the these preliminary stages was, according to sources, the "Alpha" induction. This was in
essence believed to be the first non-experimental implantation, and its purpose was to create a proto-Legion of
Astartes at minimum fighting strength to be field-tested in open battle.

Tellingly, there is no recorded evidence that the XXth pattern gene-seed group, although having been approved by
the Emperor after its limited battle-tests, was ever ordered to expand to full implantation, or received an allotted
intake region of Terra for mass recruitment as the rest would do during the early years of the Great Crusade. This
then effectively limited the XXth Legion to a body of around 1,000-3,000 Astartes and effectively side-lined them
while their contemporaries underwent rapid expansion and deployment through the opening phases of the Great
Crusade. The question then remains, why?

Unification Wars-era XXth Legion Colour Scheme.

Almost certainly it was not a question of gene adaptation; the extant sample records place the gene-seed
implantation success rate for the XXth pattern as being in the highest end of the recorded spectrum. The evidence
would indicate it was certainly far superior to certain other developed types (the difficulties experienced by the
VIth (Space Wolves) and IXth (Blood Angels) genetic patterns being documented elsewhere). Likewise, their
battlefield performance was stated high, removing the other most obvious likelihood for considering the XX th proto-
Legion a failure.

There are three outstanding theories that have been posited as to why the XX th Legion was not apparently expanded
to full Legion strength during the early Great Crusade which may each have some merit. The first is entirely
mundane, and is simply the sabotage of suitable manpower. The recruitment assignments of the other Legions
during the period now covered most of the suitable genetic and cultural candidates of both Terra and the Sol System,
and some sort of disaster (which has been redacted from official Imperial records) had proven the folly of attempting
to recruit Legiones Astartes stock from potentially tainted sources.

The second is the suspicion that some hidden problems, or potential flaw had been discovered which prevented the
proto-Legion's expansion -- although this in many ways seems unlikely for it is to suggest the Emperor was either
unable or unwilling to solve such a problem and equally unwilling to ruthlessly eradicate a failed experiment as He
had done before.
The third theory is that the XXth Legion was deliberately preserved separately as an isolated unit for other specific or
military reasons possibly to act as a strategic gene-seed reserve or indeed a control group as some have suggested.
This theory also posits the possibility that the XXth proto-Legion was held back to undergo some further
development and conditioning unique to them that the rest of the Legiones Astartes was restricted from by design.
There remains evidence that this last "Alpha"-stage Legion of the Emperor led to the later development and eventual
creation of his personal cadre of transhuman protectors, the Legio Custodes.

A War in Shadow

Once the Great Crusade was fully underway after 798.M30 and the first of the great Expeditionary Fleets had set out
en masse to bring unity to the galaxy, the XXth Legion disappears from official history for many solar decades.
However, there seems to be a connection between them and certain shadowed events during the Great Crusade that
have never been adequately explained by the official record, even to what was known to the highest echelons of the
Imperium, including even the Throne of Terra itself.

Some suggest that during this time the XXth Legion, without their lost Primarch, had a secret role to play in ensuring
the Imperium's future. It has been suggested since the earliest days of the Great Crusade and the Emperor's great
vision of a united humanity free of the shackles of torment of nightmarish enemies, as well as the threat of enemies
without, there has remained the danger of the enemy within as has been proven time and again.

Evidence for this hypothesis can be seen by the fact that the nascent Imperium of Man was plagued with rampant
insurrections, petty rebellions and the dangerous plots of Renegades and Traitors. Such enemies had slunk into
shadowed obscurity following bitter defiance and crushing conquests during the bloody wars of Unification, but yet
plotted vengeance. Many were twisted by lust for power or tainted by exposure to the horrors beyond, and sought to
pervert the Imperial Truth to their own ends.

None thought that such hidden foes could strike at the heart of the Imperium until the so-called "incident" that
reached into the Astartes gene-seed reserve that was nearly to doom the IIIrd Legion (the future Emperor's Children)
occurred -- an act which many have since attributed to the actions of a secret enemy within. It was not long into this
dark event in the fourth solar decade of the Great Crusade (ca. 838.M30) when the III rd Legion's gene-seed was
tainted by a terrible viral blight that scattered and unspecified reports of anomalous Space Marine Legion activity
came to light.

These actions were uniformly tactical scale operations, which occurred far from the front lines of the Great Crusade
by small detached units, ranging between squad and company in size. The warriors who carried them out were
doubtless of the Legiones Astartes, identified by their power, abilities and wargear, but their identity remained
concealed. These mysterious Legionaries carried little or no unit markings or heraldry, or in some cases wore
unrecognised markings not in the official record.

In some stranger instances they operated under a "false flag", wearing the livery of a known Legion, often amid a
war zone where that impersonated Legion was operating but without that Legion's knowledge, license or command.
These actions were uniformly of a covert nature; surgical strikes, assassinations, espionage, sabotage, the recovery
of unknown artefacts and the abduction of important individuals or entire groups for some unknown purpose. Such
strikes, carried out both at the front lines and within the already Compliant worlds of the Imperium, were deadly
accurate and seldom left any witnesses alive to tell directly of them.

An Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marine with his Autocannon.

The predations of what came to be known in certain circles as the "Ghost Legion" were rare -- at least those that
came to light were few -- and protests by local Imperial commanders or Planetary Governors against them were
rebuffed or simply ignored. It was suggested by some within the Imperial High Command that the XXth Legion was
at work, but as other, specialised agencies of the Imperium such as the Legio Custodes, the Securitas Inconcensus
and the Officio Assassinorum rose to power and established themselves, aspects of this unknown force faded and
began to enter myth, although they never entirely disappeared.
If such a "Ghost Legion" existed as a coherent entity, then it represented the frightening prospect of a Legiones
Astartes force whose specialisation was to act in a way that was distinctly different from its peers, and to do so in
secret. If this force was indeed the XXth Legion, then it may have been operating in the shadows of the Imperium for
more than a Terran century, building a wealth of influence and experience akin to any other Space Marine Legion
and undertaking a secret war at once part of and parallel to the Great Crusade itself.

What it became, what it learned during these years remains unknown, but even if this supposition is true and not
merely a conspiracy theory fashioned after the fact in regards to what was to follow, it poses yet another question --
why was the purpose of this "Ghost Legion" in its particular role ended? Had it simply been replaced by more
specialised and newly founded Imperial powers, or had it become perhaps too unpredictable, uncontrollable or even
too dangerous in its current form?

Had the Great Crusade's need for front-line battle Legions to add to its war effort proved too great to allow the XXth
Legion to remain in the shadows, or had the long awaited discovery of their Primarch necessitated the change?
Irrespective of the truth, the twisting coils of the Alpha Legion rose from the darkness and into the light of the
Imperium.

Rangdan Xenocides

During the Rangdan Xenocides, a representative of the XXth Legion appeared before Lion El'Jonson. Though
identifying itself as "Alpharius," the representative acknowledged that their Primarch had not yet been found but
would be in time.

This Alpharius offered aid to The Lion against the Rangdan in hopes that one day the Lion could be made the
Imperial Warmaster. This "Alpharius" revealed that the XXth Legion preferred the Lion be made the Warmaster over
someone like Roboute Guilliman as they shared similar views on war and secrecy.

Though a Primarch, not even Lion El'Jonson had been explicitly aware of the XXth Legion's existence, though he
had been privy to the rumours of a "Ghost Legion."

Unity and Lies

There remains much that is contradictory in the accounts of the first open actions of the Alpha Legion as a force of
the Legiones Astartes in its own right. Official accounts found in both the datalooms of the Logistica Corpus and the
more prosaic work of the Remembrancers place the Alpha Legion's appearance as an active Legion force in its own
right to either the solar decade immediately preceding the commencement of the Farinatus Extermination or as
appearing as an unexpected reinforcing power during the darkest days of the Third Rangdan Xenocide.

This represents a discrepancy of some thirty sidereal years, but in many regards makes the Alpha Legion the last of
the Legiones Astartes to be recognised as a military entity in its own right by a considerable margin, and also the last
to be officially re-united with its Primarch (again accounts widely differ as to the exact timing and conditions of this
occurrence).

The XXth Legion's chosen name -- the Alpha Legion (in the ancient form commonly meaning the "first" or the
"beginning" in the glyph pattern) -- seems an almost deliberately perverse jest in the light of its late inception, as
does the name by which its Primarch was generally to become known -- Alpharius. Some who have studied the
history of the Traitor Legions have chosen to see the adoption of this naming convention neither as irony nor
deliberate contradiction of fact, but rather as a statement of ambition and intent.

Alpha also means "Primarcy," and "Supreme," particularly in conjunction with the ancient glyph called the Omega
and the pre-Dark Age of Technology sigil known as the "Æternus". This sigil, which was used particularly in the
earlier displays of the XXth Legion's heraldry, carries other hidden meanings not limited to themes of unity,
continuum and indestructibility.
It contains within it the pre-Imperial "sacred geometry" of the serpent of power and knowledge coiling around the
pillars of physical reality and truth. The serpent also has, since time immemorial, been seen as a symbol of
treachery, secrets, strife and lies.

The ancient Terran mythic serpent of devastation that could not be slain -- for when one head is cut off, two more
would uncoil in its place -- would provide the XXth Legion's other great icon-type, and one which would become
dominant by the time of the Horus Heresy; the symbol of the Hydra. Even then, within these symbols alone could be
divined layer upon layer of hidden meaning and the promise of baleful intent, ambition and destruction; so would it
be with the Alpha Legion.

The Hydra

An ancient Remembrancer's illustration of Alpharius, Primarch of the Alpha Legion Space Marine Legion during
the Great Crusade, taken from Carpinus' Speculum Historiale.

Of the many mysteries that surround the Alpha Legion, the most fundamental and key enigma is the question of the
Alpha Legion's Primarch, Alpharius. Of all of the Primarchs who remained to draw blood against each other in the
Horus Heresy, of Alpharius the least is known for certain. Furthering this mystery and the outright deception
perpetrated by Alpharius, many reliable accounts of his origins differ.

One such account of the finding of Alpharius circulated secretly between the houses and factions of the Imperial
Court on Terra, which states that his discovery was an accident of the Luna Wolves Legion prior to the end of the
Great Crusade and the beginning of the 31st Millennium. By this, Alpharius was the leader of a confederation of
human star systems whose fleet of warships, no match in size or scale to Imperial vessels, managed through trickery
and ambush to ingloriously lay low one of the outlying Luna Wolves Battleships as it entered an unnamed star
system.

Responding to this unforgivable defeat, Horus himself and his fleet gave chase, only to find themselves mired in
ambush after ambush, tricked into deadly traps and chasing shadows until Horus' own flagship, the mighty Vengeful
Spirit, came under attack. In the ensuing confrontation, the Luna Wolves smashed the enemy fleet's desperate attack
aside, but in the confusion a single assassin broke into the flagship, and through stealth and murder managed the
impossible task of fighting his way clear to Horus' command chamber and slaughtered his Justaerin bodyguards
before Horus himself was forced to confront him.

But Horus did not slay the attacker but recognised him instead for a brother. He had found the last Primarch! The
new arrival called himself Alpharius and claimed to have been travelling this region of space for many Terran years.
However, he remained tight-lipped as to where he had come from. Various worlds in that locale were subsequently
brought into the Imperial fold, but Alpharius always denied that any of them were his homeworld of origin. The
conglomeration of planets he had been leading was persuaded to join the Imperium with little bloodshed.

Another account torn form the mind of an Alpha Legion Centurion captured by the Legio Custodes after the Fall of
the Seraphin tells the story of the finding of Alpharius. It speaks of a nameless Dead World at the edge of the
Mandragoran Stars whose civilisation rose and was wiped out by bloody hands long before Mankind first walked on
Terra.

On this nameless orb, the nascent Primarch fell into the shattered ruins of a fallen city murdered long ages ago.
Utterly alone, voiceless and without aid, he was forced to survive against the tortuous elements of the desolate world
and the predations of the hungry ghosts of the charnel pit into which he had been consigned.

His solitude was only broken after many long years by a new star falling from the heavens; a corsair ship of
degenerate half-human Renegades and alien mercenaries intent on plundering the dead ruins for whatever worth
might remain. Instead they found only death at the young Primarch's hands, and Alpharius gained their weapons,
their knowledge and their vessel as his own, and with it he set out in search of He who had made him.
Two other accounts, found encrypted within the pages of certain volumes of the suppressed work of memetic
corrosion known as the Transit of the Human Soul through Strife, or the Codex Hydra as it is sometimes known,
offer differing contentions. The first is that the lost Primarch was deposited on a thriving tech-oligarchy world
known as Bar'Savor, but before his first solar decade of life there was done, the skies of Bar'Savor darkened as the
nightmarish xenos worm-creatures known as the Slaugth descended to feed.

Capturing the young Primarch, a being alone strong enough to resist them, the Slaugth kept Alpharius as a curiosity,
twisting his mind with their horrors and enslaving him and tutoring him as a living weapon to sow strife and discord
on their victim worlds before they fell upon them to feast.

It was the Emperor Himself who at last liberated him, His gold Battle Barge ramming into the heart of the vast stone
ship of the foul xenos to break it open, the Emperor's wrath like that of a vengeful god of legend in retribution for
what had been done to His son. For long years after, Alpharius remained at his father's side as the Emperor undid
what had been done to mar His creation.

This account also offers a contradictory version of events, saying that Alpharius alone, unfinished in some way, had
been spared or at least some part of him had remained behind though gravely injured when the rest of the Primarchs
were scattered across the stars by unknown hands. Here, in the shadow of Terra, he grew and was nurtured alone of
the Primarchs by the Emperor Himself, his existence a jealously guarded secret even from those closest to the
Emperor, lest the dark fates move against him.

Upon his maturity he became the Emperor's own secret hand and His greatest shield, until he was at last parted from
his father, his destiny to fulfill. It is unknown which one of these accounts are true and which are lies. The recorded
facts suggest none of these accounts are real and they are but a few of the phantasms that purport to be the secret
truth of Alpharius' past. Like the most potent of falsehoods, perhaps they contain a grain of truth within them, a hint
at a greater secret yet.

The Emperor and Alpharius

Whatever the truth, following his public discovery, eventually Alpharius was taken back to the epicentre of the ever-
expanding Imperium and reunited with his father, the Emperor. There was the usual rejoicing, pomp and
circumstance, but records on Terra suggest that the two spent little time together, and that their relationship was
distant and formal. Alpharius was quickly sent to take command of his Legion, while the Emperor had many
pressing affairs of state by this time.

Those outside the Legion later believed this was because the Emperor had already completed his galactic odyssey to
reclaim the Primarchs by the time the two met in person, and that his focus had shifted elsewhere. Some Legionaries
realised that their relationship was likely more complex, and others whispered that Alpharius was one of two twins
who were all but identical.

Alpharius and his twin-Primarch brother Omegon shared the same physical appearance and together served as joint-
Primarch of the Alpha Legion. The Emperor was aware of Alpharius Omegon's secret; but whether the creation of
the twin Primarchs was intentional or not remains a mystery. The two Primarchs supposedly shared one soul, with
Omegon acting as Alpharius' second-in-command of the XXth Legion. The existence of the twin Primarchs of the
Alpha Legion was known only to the members of the Legion itself, and was a well-kept secret even from the other
Legions.

The new Legionaries under their command were tall and strong, and were reminiscent of their Primarch, and
possessed their gene-sire's cunning intelligence. When Alpharius Omegon took command of the XX th Legion, it was
eager, zealous and completely committed to embracing the Primarch's command and combat philosophy.

Alpharius led his Legion, created in his image, to the outer reaches of the Imperium and was eager to join battle and
emulate the glories of the older Legions. In battle, this "youngest" Legion, driven by its mysterious and taciturn
Primarch, became renowned quickly for its discipline and strict and impenetrable organisation and regime, which
emphasised the unity of the Legion and its wider actions over the individual Astartes in every aspect.

Its hallmark was a relentless application of force and a terrifying level of co-ordination between its warriors and war
machines. This capacity for combined arms warfare, speed and surety of attack, were matched only by a mastery of
the darker arts of war -- of sabotage and ambush, stealth tactics and assassination. Also evident was its desire for
secrecy and talent for misdirection. It kept its distance from its fellow Legions, even when tasked to directly fight
alongside them, and it is certain many fostered a sinister willfulness, and beneath the facade, the shadow of
mockery.

The Harrowing

The Alpha Legion initiating a "Harrowing", a final assault during an Imperial Compliance action, from a hundred
directions at once.

Unlike the other Legiones Astartes in which could be discerned patterns of Terran culture and the ethnic origins of
their intake of recruitment, the Alpha Legion and their Primarch were to all intents and purposes, one and the same.
Their hallmarks were unity, power and the confusion that outsiders encountered in dealing with them.

Right from the very beginning, even the Imperialis Logistica could not confirm even the most basic details of the
Legion with any certainty, be it their Legion's preliminary spheres of recruitment, its livery or anything remotely
approaching a true gauge of its operating strength. It was a Legion seemingly sprung whole in its entirety, as if from
nowhere, complete with tens of thousands of fully-equipped Legionaries and a capable war fleet that operated with
veteran skill.

Even the name under which it operated seemed in doubt, for while the name of "Alpha Legion" gained common
currency, official battle reports saw it operating under self-given titles such as the "Unbroken Chain" or more
sinister appellations such as "The Harrowing", as it called itself in the xenocidal campaigns of the Perfidian Gap
Extermination.

Likewise, many accounts occur of individual members of the XX th Legion referring to themselves to outsiders by
the name of "Alpharius" or simply as "One of Many", often infuriating and confounding the forces they served
alongside. Whether this policy of anonymity was the result of the unusual focus the Legion placed on unity and
solidarity in its ranks, or mere outright addiction to secrecy or a deliberate attempt to mask its numbers is unknown.

Other contrary accounts exist which belie this practice, however. Multiple sources of evidence exist of names
originating in ancient long-thought lost dialects being used by the XXth Legion both in communication and as
personal cognomen for its members. Further, on at least one occasion, analysis of after-action reports involving a
battalion of the Alpha Legion (in this case serving alongside the Klarkash Imperialis Auxillia regiment against the
Khrave at Memlock), the names and code words used by its Legionaries were later found to exactly correlate to the
population of a recidivist human world the Alpha Legion itself had previously exterminated.

The reason for this falsehood or the function this macabre practice served remains unknown. Such attitudes of
deception -- in their broadest sense at least -- appear to have been tacitly accepted and tolerated by the Emperor and
later by Horus as the Imperial Warmaster, though to what true ends remains unclear. In battle the Alpha Legion
proved itself capable of wielding a devastating mixture of subtlety and overwhelming force, revelling in both
meticulous planning and the exercising of imaginative cruelty in war.

Quickly, the Alpha Legion developed an unmatched reputation among the Legiones Astartes -- save perhaps by the
Raven Guard -- for the use of espionage, infiltration and sabotage in its strategic planning. But where the Raven
Guard sought to use such tactics to achieve victory without unnecessary attrition, or spare a human population it
sought to liberate, the Alpha Legion had other, darker, purposes in mind.
To them, such covert tactics seemed almost a deadly game of prelude. Where it could, the Alpha Legion would
spread confusion and disorder seemingly for its own sake as well as any tactical gain it conferred, or even perhaps
for the bloody spectacle of it. They maimed and bled the foe, forced them to chase phantoms and turn on each other
in panic before they struck.

Such tactics often brought the Alpha Legion's target to an agonised fever pitch while simultaneously robbing them
of their real strength and forcing them into such vulnerable configurations as the Alpha Legion wished. Then would
come the kill. Often this final attack, or "Harrowing," would be in the form of an assault from a hundred directions
at once, a blizzard of different tactics and attack plans used against a foe either utterly unaware of the true danger or
already brought to the brink of chaos.

The result was almost inevitable catastrophe for the Alpha Legion's victims, as the full might of the XX th Legion
would then descend at the point of their enemy's greatest weakness, and what would follow would be, to the
onlooker, more akin to murder than battle. To their allies, the Alpha Legion represented a shifting, protean entity of
uncertain identity and active deceit, coupled with undeniable military strength, unknowable goals -- and to some
observers -- unproven loyalty -- a dangerous combination and one that did not breed trust.

To their enemies they were a true nightmare; a foe that could strike from any direction, a foe that seemed to thwart
any stratagem and strike at weakness no matter how well hidden. The Alpha Legion was a foe that knew neither
mercy, nor honour, nor quarter, and always seemed to delight in destruction for its own sake, and the chaos and
anarchy it could inspire before the death blow.

Although its history as an active Legion is a short one compared to many -- at least under its own name -- it proved
quickly determined to match any of its brethren in glory -- or perhaps more accurately prove itself superior to them -
- and its tally of victories mounted with surpassing speed. The Alpha Legion, ever watchful, was far from adverse
from studying the strengths of their fellow Legions, and their weaknesses, and adapting the weapons and tactics of
the other Legiones Astartes to their own ends.

In this the Legion was not so different in strategic observances as the Ultramarines Legion and their master Roboute
Guilliman, although it is doubtful that the Lord of Ultramar would have cared much for the comparison, even before
the two Legions later came to bitter bloodshed. Such zealousness to prove themselves as part of the Great Crusade at
any cost, and the often over-elaborate and needlessly complex and malign way in which the Alpha Legion chose to
wage war, saw them quickly gain infamy more than fame.

This, coupled with growing distrust due to their insular and deceptive nature, brought rivalry and acrimony between
the Alpha Legion and much of the rest of the Legiones Astartes. As time passed, the relationship between the Alpha
Legion and its peers soured further. The nature of the Alpha Legion's way of war and their lack of alliance to the
commands of other Legions placed over them in the field brought Alpharius and his brothers Guilliman of the
Ultramarines and Mortarion of the Death Guard into conflict on several separate occasions, with incidents notably
occurring both in the aftermath of the Ullanor Crusade and the later Vasalius Uprisings.

More pointedly Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists quickly grew to see the entire Alpha Legion as an "...honourless
assassin, not fit to bear the Emperor's mark," and only the direst intervention of the Emperor Himself forestalled
blood being spilt between the higher-ranking officers of the two Legions in an affair of honour after the fall of the
Fortress of Jakalla during the Avalorn Compliance.

Beyond these more famous incidents, Konrad Curze of the Night Lords is recorded in the secret transcripts of the
Legio Custodes to have openly condemned the XXth Legion as "hiding their true sins in a shroud of lies", while the
evidence also seems to suggest that the Alpha Legion were discreetly shunned and avoided by the Thousand Sons
Legion where possible, although no cause for this discord has ever come to light.

Conversely, if the Alpha Legion could be said to have had an ally or friend among the Primarchs, it was Horus
himself, and a potent ally he would prove. Horus saw the XXth Legion as a unique weapon in the Imperium's
arsenal, its ambition laudable and its tactics not so very far removed from those favoured by his own XVIth Legion.
Furthermore, the XXth Legion is also known (perhaps surprisingly) to have successfully campaigned beside both the
Dark Angels and the Iron Hands without incident on multiple occasions before the outbreak of the war of the Horus
Heresy, and also displayed a talent for successfully formulating battle plans which incorporated non-Legiones
Astartes forces in its campaigns with great effect, although spending the power and lives of those who served
alongside the Legion with coldly calculated efficiency.

Standing also in favour of the Alpha Legion was an enviable record of success in military terms, particularly in
forcing the Imperial Compliance of recalcitrant human colonies, and exposing and rooting out rebellion and
treachery on recently Compliant worlds. It had also developed a reputation for hunting down and exterminating
Warp-capable raiding forces, nomadic xenos threats and human Renegades, at which it had also proven remarkably
successful.

After his ascension to the rank of Imperial Warmaster, where he gained control over the outward campaigns of the
Great Crusade, Horus increasingly gave free reign to the Alpha Legion to operate independently of other Legiones
Astartes forces. The Alpha Legion during this time noticeably and swiftly expanded in size, creating the core of
several Expeditionary Fleets and splitting to form scores of independent deep-range raiding forces, often operating
alongside Rogue Traders and reaching into the unknown void well beyond the Great Crusade's frontlines.

In the final years before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, there is fragmentary evidence to indicate that even Horus
was beginning to doubt his grip on the Alpha Legion, and doubt also the veracity of his own knowledge about the
XXth Legion, its goals and who it truly served. Secret reports prepared for both the Warmaster and the Imperial
Court on Terra during this period show a growing unease about the Alpha Legion, some implying that it was
increasingly beyond the Imperium's ability to measure or to control.

Furthermore, that perhaps some obsession or madness was taking hold of the Legion's psyche in the way it operated
and made war. It has been suggested that the Alpha Legion had begun to seek out battles to fight for the challenge
they offered, rather than to suit the needs of the Great Crusade, orchestrating ever more apocalyptic displays of their
arcane and malevolent methods of war, even when mere conventional assault would have proved more efficient and
expedient.

The most notorious example of this took place on the world of Tesstra Prime, where the Alpha Legion, instead of
taking the opportunity to capture the planetary capital city and thus force the world's surrender, allowed the enemy
to dig in and defend it so that they could then expertly take the defending forces apart in a number of different ways.
After a solar week of suffering seemingly random mishaps and deadly sabotage as well as brutal ambushes, the
defenders were forced to capitulate, having taken 90% casualties.

When asked why the XXth Legion had not taken the simpler strategy, Alpharius is reported to have replied that they
avoided it as "...it would have been too easy." This campaign brought Alpharius censure from almost all of his
brother Primarchs; Guilliman in particular raged at Alpharius' conduct of the war, labeling the drawn-out operation
as a "...mere exercise in cruelty and the wasting of the Great Crusade's time and resources" in a formal protest to the
Warmaster. The Alpha Legion would not serve again directly alongside the Ultramarines in the Great Crusade.

In time the accusations had started to become such common currency among the Terran Court and many Imperial
commanders that the Alpha Legion had now become seemingly addicted to bringing low civilisations by anarchy,
fire and blood that might have been brought into Imperial Compliance readily through negotiation or a limited
display of force, rather than be turned into strife-torn ruins as a test of the Alpha Legion's skills.

Worse, it was alleged that this need to orchestrate the elaborate destruction of their foes was no mere affection but a
pathological flaw, and one that was only worsening as the Great Crusade progressed. Such accusations the
Warmaster pointedly dismissed. As the time of the Horus Heresy drew closer, the Alpha Legion, as if in response to
the growing cloud of suspicion and distrust of them in some quarters, drew further into the outer darkness at the
fringes of known space, or at least appeared to.
Their deceptions multiplied, as too, it appears, did the names that the XX th Legion and its agents were known under,
particularly in the dark stars beyond the Imperium's borders, where many of those it came into contact with had no
idea of their destroyer's true nature or allegiance until it was too late.

Fall to Heresy

With such examples existing in the Imperial records, it is perhaps easy to see why the Alpha Legion sided with
Horus when the Warmaster made his pact with Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor; their martial pride and
Alpharius' avoidance of all his Primarch brothers apart from Horus seemingly the catalysts for their downfall. Yet,
the Alpha Legion's turn to Chaos was, oddly, something they chose for the sake of the Imperium.

While undertaking a war of Imperial Compliance on the planet of Nurth some two standard years before the
outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the twin Primarchs were approached by a man named John Grammaticus, an agent of
an alien organisation known as the Cabal. The Cabal revealed to Alpharius Omegon, as well as two other men, Peto
Soneka and a psyker by the name of Shere, the outcome of Horus being named Imperial Warmaster of the Great
Crusade -- the onset of the terrible interstellar civil war called the Horus Heresy.

They then presented two psychically foreseen possibilities to the twin Primarchs: If the Emperor won the impending
civil war, the Imperium of Man would slowly decay over the next ten to twenty millennia until it and trillions of
souls were ultimately consumed by Chaos. If Horus won the war, however, after "two to three generations" Horus
would be wracked with guilt for slaying his father the Emperor and would ultimately obliterate all Chaos-tainted
factions in the galaxy and humanity itself in constant warfare. Humanity would be destroyed in the process, but the
Emperor's greatest foes, the Chaos Gods, would be all but eliminated because so much of their power derived from
the inherent psychic flaws of humanity itself.

At this point, both Primarchs staggered back and screamed at the vision: "The Alpha Legion has always, always,
been for the Emperor!" The Primarchs ultimately chose to follow Horus in their belief that the ultimate destruction
of Chaos was the choice the Emperor Himself would have made, yet their loyalties remained with the Emperor even
as they swore their souls to Chaos Undivided. The Cabal may have been sincere in its desire to prevent the terrible
onset of the stagnation and constant warfare for the Imperium of Man that the Horus Heresy would initiate or it may
have intentionally misled the Primarchs, as the support of a Loyalist Alpha Legion might have changed the course of
the campaign in ways that would have precluded Horus from reaching the Emperor and mortally wounding Him.

Instead, by supporting Horus, the Alpha Legion actually implemented the future for humanity they had sought to
prevent. It is unclear whether the Cabal misunderstood their psychic visions, thus acting in such a way that they
created a self-fulfilling prophecy, or whether they were actually agents of Chaos or some other faction with an
interest in attempting to subvert an otherwise loyal Legion.

The Alpha Legion's present battle cry of "For the Emperor!," when viewed in this light, is not the mocking insult of
a Traitor Legion it was once thought to be. Rather, it is a testament to the Legion's devotion that they have stayed
true to their cause for so long. It is thought that the Alpha Legion's true goal at present is to release the Emperor
from His "prison" of the Golden Throne so the revelation made to them by the Cabal is fulfilled.

The Hydra Strikes

An Alpha Legion armoured infantry squad during the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V.

When the Horus Heresy erupted and the atrocity at Istvaan III occurred, a large Alpha Legion strike force,
comprising some 50,000 Legionaries under the direct command of their Primarch were conveniently situated to
respond to Rogal Dorn's order to attack the Traitors at Istvaan V. This Alpha Legion contingent is believed to have
comprised the combined forces of two separate Expeditionary Fleets and their support vessels, having recently
returned to the Imperium to resupply and re-arm at the Forge World of Lucius after an extended series of campaigns
on the northeastern galactic fringe.
The Alpha Legion and their Primarch had then been supposedly all but out of contact with the rest of the Great
Crusade for several standard years, and by this fact was Rogal Dorn, Praetorian of Terra, likely assured of their
loyalty and lack of involvement with whatever treacherous madness had befallen Horus and his immediate coterie.
This could not however have been further from the truth as their involvement in the Drop Site Massacre was to
prove -- and there have even been unsubstantiated claims since that Alpharius had a hand in the planning of the
Drop Site Massacre.

It is certain that the Alpha Legion had spread its web of infiltration, espionage and sabotage far and wide through the
Imperium prior to the outbreak of hostilities, as was soon to be proven to bloody effect on a score of worlds as part
of the Warmaster's opening gambit. At the hands of the Alpha Legion's talent for conspiracy and that of their agents,
billions were to die and countless billions more would suffer hardship and disaster in the time to come.

Even on planets that would not feel the thunderous footfall of the Legiones Astartes throughout the entire civil war,
would the Alpha Legion's cruel plans and talent for strife wreak untold havoc. However, even as Horus unleashed
the Alpha Legion to bury its fangs deep into the body of the Imperium, he neither trusted it nor its master to obey
him, nor fight the war he wished them to fight once the Hydra had been unchained. History would prove this distrust
well-founded.

The Horus Heresy

The Alpha Legion's Camallarus Squad of Terminators in ancient Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour during the
Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V.

After the virus-bombing of Istvaan III, the presumed Loyalist Alpha Legion was one of the Space Marine Legions
sent by the Emperor to destroy Horus and the Traitor Legions at their base on Istvaan V. Assigned to the second
wave, the Legion instead turned on the Loyalist first wave during what became known as the Drop Site Massacre. It
is thought by many that much of the Traitors' strategy on Istvaan V was planned by Alpharius and the Alpha Legion.

In the ensuing slaughter, the Loyalist Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard Legions were decimated,
becoming later known as the "Shattered Legions." Ferrus Manus was killed by the traitorous Fulgrim of the
Emperor's Children, Vulkan went missing and Corax was severely wounded. For over three solar months, the
remnants of the Raven Guard were pursued by the ravenous World Eaters, who were intent on completely
annihilating the Loyalist Legion. Their Legion hard-pressed by the Traitors, Corax and the remnants of his Legion
prepared to sell their lives dearly. But their fortunes quickly changed with the arrival of a rescue force of Raven
Guard Thunderhawks and Stormbirds to retrieve the remaining survivors.

By this time, it had been well-established that the Alpha Legion was well-known for their subterfuge and ability to
blend-in with any environment, mimicking those that they infiltrated to gather intelligence, perform sabotage, or
plant disinformation. They have also been known to use more drastic measures, such as those employed during the
actions on Istvaan V during the opening days of the Horus Heresy. The Alpha Legion played a pivotal role in the
infiltration of the Raven Guard to gather vital intelligence on the Imperium's defences within the Sol Sector as well
as the Imperial Palace on Terra.

Part of the bargain agreed with the Warmaster was for the Alpha Legion to spread disinformation ahead of the
events that had occurred in the Istvaan System, whilst seeking new forces for Horus' cause. It was better that Horus'
version of events was heard first, casting doubt on the rumours and propaganda that soon followed in the wake of
these horrific events.

It was a mission Alpharius and Omegon were well-prepared to undertake. On many other worlds, Alpha Legion
operatives and legionaries sowed discord amongst the Emperor's followers, stoking thoughts of rebellion in those
who had been forced into Compliance by the Legiones Astartes.

Deliverance Uprising
Following the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, the mysterious Cabal sought to utilise the Alpha Legion in order to
ensure Horus a swift victory. Following the calamitous events of Istvaan V and the Raven Guard's flight to Terra to
bring word of the disaster, the shattered XIXth Legion returned to their homeworld of Deliverance.

Unknown to them, the insidious Alpha Legion had inserted several of their own Legionaries, surgically disguised as
Raven Guard Legionaries who had died on the black sands of Istvaan V, into the surviving Raven Guard. Gathering
intelligence on Primarch Corax's efforts to reconstitute his Legion utilising a sample of pure Primarch DNA given to
him by the Emperor Himself, the Alpha Legion operatives patiently waited until the Raven Guard had achieved a
genetic breakthrough.

In the meantime, they fomented rebellion amongst the old tech-guilds of Kiavahr, the Forge World that the moon of
Deliverance circled, while assembling Alpha Legion forces nearby for an unsuspected surgical strike. The Alpha
Legion successfully tainted the Primarch DNA, which resulted in the disastrous mutation of newly inducted Raven
Guard Aspirants into hideously transformed creatures.

At the same time, the Alpha Legion's plans reached their climax. The Kiavahr rebellion was well under way,
supported by the newly arrived Alpha Legion forces, who were camouflaged as Raven Guard. The Loyalist Raven
Guard successfully put down the rebellion and killed all the Alpha Legion operatives. In the aftermath of this
successful operation, Alpharius was forced to hand over the obtained data to the Emperor's Children's Chief
Apothecary Fabius for further research.

Unknown to Fabius though, was that the data was practically useless and was incomplete at best. The Alpha Legion
ensured they kept the integral data for themselves as well as the design of the corrupted Raven Guard genome.
Alpharius wished to utilise this valuable data to raise his Legion above all others. Following this action, Omegon
met with the Cabal representative Athithirtir aboard his ship. After a terse exchange, the Primarch departed,
informing the Cabal that the XXth Legion would fulfill its duties on its own without further external influence,
interference or control.

Blockade at Chondax

Alpharius next dispatched his forces in an attempt to blockade the White Scars from leaving the Chondax System
and joining the Loyalist forces. The White Scars only became aware of the larger galaxy-wide conflict of the Horus
Heresy, when Omegon initiated a mission to destroy Tenebrae 9-50, an asteroid facility that was being used as an
Alpha Legion garrison.

The Alpha Legion had been utilising a pylon array in order to jam any communications so that the White Scars
would remain ignorant of the Warmaster's rebellion. Omegon dispatched an Alpha Legion team led by Sheed Ranko
on a one-way suicide mission to destroy the facility.

It was later believed that the Alpha Legion possibly fabricated the claim that the facility was leaking information to
their enemies and had therefore become a liability, creating this excuse to destroy it so that the White Scars could
learn the truth of the Heresy. After the destruction of Tenebrae 9-50, the becalmed Warp became sedated, which
allowed the White Scars to receive word of Horus' rebellion from Terra and the an order of recall to the
Throneworld from the Imperial Fists Primarch Rogal Dorn, who served as the Praetorian of Terra.

As the White Scars fleet made preparations to depart the Chondax System, they encountered a massive Alpha
Legion flotilla. The Alpha Legion was an unknown quantity to the White Scars. They did not respond to
communication requests and had hung back on the edge of the system, quietly accumulating more warships across a
wide sweep of local space.

There was no response from the XXth Legion's command despite all queries. All White Scars vessels were ordered
not to escalate the situation and not to fire upon the interlopers unless fired upon. The warriors of the V th Legion
were ordered to maintain perimeter integrity and not to permit Alpha Legion spacecraft to penetrate within range of
the core White Scars fleet.
Jaghatai next ordered his fleet to prepare for immediate departure. As the White Scars' vessels began to move, the
Alpha Legion reacted. They maintained the integrity of the cordon, warding the routes to the nearest suitable
Mandeville jump-points and keeping the White Scars corralled within the vicinity of Chondax.

Utilising the superior drives of their vessels, and in an instant, the White Scars suddenly switched from an aimless
drift-pattern into an arrowhead shock assault of astonishing precision. Though both sides engaged one another, the
White Scars made good their escape and fled the Chondax System, with the Alpha Legion strangely never making
any real attempt to use their heavier Battleships to engage the White Scars and keep them pinned in the system.

Battle of the Alaxxes Nebula

Following the debacle at Chondax, Alpharius ordered the remainder of his fleet to assault the Space Wolves Legion
fleet at the Alaxxes Nebula. Leman Russ had ordered his battered VIth Legion to muster there in order to lick its
wounds after their recent campaign at Prospero, following the razing of the planet after the Thousand Sons had
willfully disobeyed the Emperor's Decree Absolute.

Horus had deployed the XXth Legion to launch a massive assault on Russ' battered and outnumbered Space Wolves.
The Alpha Legion and its twin Primarchs, Alpharius Omegon, had long harboured a deep grudge against the Space
Wolves, and Russ in particular, for his criticism of their reliance upon trickery, manipulation and subterfuge to win
battles rather than engaging in what the Space Wolves Primarch saw as honourable, open combat.

The Alpha Legion relished the chance to prove their superiority against the arrogant Wolves of Fenris by delaying
them long enough to keep them from contributing to the Imperial defence of Terra. Russ sent a distress call to the
nearby White Scars, requesting that his brother Primarch Jaghatai Khan send his forces in order to assist the VIth
Legion against the traitorous Alpha Legion.

Unsure as to which side the Space Wolves truly belonged, the Khagan sympathised with his brother Primarch's
predicament, but refused to get involved until he was able to sort out the conflicting and often contradictory
astropathic messages he had received. Until he knew, beyond a shadow of doubt, who was ally and who was an
enemy, he refused to choose sides. Wishing his brother the best of luck, Jaghatai decided to seek his answers
elsewhere.

Realising that the VIth Legion faced a hopeless situation, Russ was demoralised and isolated himself within his
personal chambers, forcing his First Captain Gunnar Gunnhilt to assume command in his Primarch's absence.
Harried at every turn, the Space Wolves' fleet faced imminent destruction by the larger Alpha Legion fleet, when
suddenly, the Primarch reemerged from his chambers to lead his forces against the Traitor forces.

During the height of the ensuing battle, a large contingent of elite Cataphractii Terminators of the Alpha Legion's
elite Laernaean teleported aboard the bridge of Russ' flagship, Hrafnkel, where the Wolf King seemingly battled
Alpharius disguised as one of his own Laernaean Terminators.

As the Alpha Legion were on the verge of ultimate victory, help arrived from an unexpected quarter, in the form of a
large Dark Angels fleet led by a mobile Ramilies-class Starfort, the Chimaera, who had heard the Space Wolves'
distress signals and determined that the VIth Legion was in fact still loyal to the Emperor. With the assistance of their
Ist Legion cousins, the Space Wolves were able to force the Alpha Legion to withdraw.

The Shattered Legions

Reliable testimonies of the Shattered Legions ship Sisypheum, most importantly the accounts of the Raven Guard
specialist Nykona Sharrowkyn, place at least one of the Primarchs -- presumably Alpharius -- on a secret and hence
unknown facility, designated as Lerna 2-12.
In the disguise of the famed Iron Hands warleader Shadrak Meduson, Alpharius used the crew of the Sisypheum to
assist in his hunt for Loyalist elements within the XXth Legion. His deception was only revealed towards the end of
this affair, after the surviving members of the Shattered Legion force escaped with the knowledge that Alpharius had
indeed been masquerading as Meduson.

The Solar War

With its network of operatives and bondsmen and bondswomen, it is believed that even in the state of civil war that
the Imperium had fallen into, the Alpha Legion had the means and opportunity to transfer materiel and personnel
between sectors, including the Segmentum Solar and the strategically vital Sol System, whose defence had been
entrusted to the Imperial Fists and their Primarch, Rogal Dorn, the newly proclaimed Praetorian of Terra.

Under the tireless efforts of the Imperial Fists, the Sol System had become a fortress, each strata of the solar system
being turned into a perfectly-organised defence zone to break the Warmaster's eventual assault. Given the Alpha
Legion's need to prove its own superiority, it would not simply suffice to break open Terra's outer defences, but to
humiliate the VIIth Legion, they would have to infiltrate the most secure location of the entire galaxy -- the Imperial
Palace.

Alpha Legion units placed into enemy territory were trained and conditioned to pursue broad mission objectives in
whatever way they thought best. The scope of these objectives were called mission parameters. An Alpha Legion
force or warrior might have been given a series of potential mission parameters before its infiltration, some of which
might be radically different in shape: killing or protecting the same individual, for example.

Each parameter would have a single activation word or phrase that would set an infiltrator off towards a set of
objectives. A word spoken down a Vox channel or scrawled on a slip of parchment was enough to change the
direction of their action from one parameter to another. And it was not uncommon for members of the same force to
be following different mission parameters.

Activating assets that had been dormant and hidden on Terra for several solar decades, the Alpha Legion would
eventually succeed where all others had failed before, infiltrating several agents into the Imperial Palace and
especially the Investiary, where great statues had been erected to commemorate the Great Crusade's greatest
generals -- the Primarchs of the twenty Legions.

Two plinths had stood empty for a long time, the statues adorning them destroyed when their respective owners
were cast to oblivion and their history erased -- the so-called Lost Primarchs, but the nine statues of those Primarchs
who had turned against the Emperor still remained, merely having been covered up. This was to be the Alpha
Legion's target.

Infiltrated Legionaries succeeded into penetrating into the Investiary and destroyed all the statues except two of
them -- those of Alpharius and Rogal Dorn. Intended as both a challenge and a message, this feat was deliberately
kept secret from the other organisations within the Imperial Palace, even the Regent of Terra, Malcador the Sigilite.

The Emperor's own bodyguards, the Legio Custodes, were forbidden to enter the Investiary and witness the shaming
of the Imperial Fists. By what means the Sigilite still discovered the presence of the Alpha Legion on Terra remains
a mystery, but Rogal Dorn was adamant that he would deal with the treacherous XX th Legion in due course.

Shortly after this act of sabotage an Alpha Legion fleet, led by Harrowmaster Kel Silonius, attacked the Sol System's
outermost defences, and managed to capture several of Pluto's moons, which constituted the heart of the outermost
Imperial defence perimeter. What truly occurred there remains a well-guarded secret, one kept by Rogal Dorn
himself and his Huscarls bodyguard.

The Battle of Pluto

In order to prepare for Horus' advance towards Terra, the Alpha Legion was charged by the Warmaster to carry out
vital acts of sabotage and preparation, which would plunge the Sol System into complete chaos. Though heavily
defended by the Imperial Fists Legion, led by the Praetorian of Terra, Rogal Dorn himself, the Primarch Alpharius,
aboard his flagship Alpha, led his fleet towards the Sol System.

He managed to successfully infiltrate the outer defences of the system by putting himself, and the entirety of the
personnel within his fleet, into stasis. Meanwhile, the Alpha Legion fleet approached at minimum speed and
powered down to bare minimum, in order to reduce their overall heat signature. Thus it took an entire standard year
for the Alpha Legion fleet to drift towards Sol and successfully reach the outskirts of Terra's defences undetected, as
Warp travel had been strictly forbidden.

Meanwhile Alpha Legion Sparatoi (augmented and highly adept human agents) as well as Alpha Legion covert
operative teams were activated throughout the Sol System. These "sleeper" cells had been planted years earlier
before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, and upon activation, performed their primary functions of sowing
destruction and undertaking diversionary terrorist acts, causing panic and anarchy on the Throneworld and
throughout the system.

Many acts of murder and sabotage were conducted on multiple planets to distract the beleaguered Imperial
defenders from the Alpha Legion's true objective -- Pluto -- the lynchpin of the Loyalists' surveillance network
within the Sol System. As Rogal Dorn was distracted by these diversionary attacks across the system, Alpharius'
fleet, comprised of over 200 vessels led by the Battlesgip Alpha, struck Pluto and its moons Charon, Kerberos, Nix,
Styx and Hydra. As the fleet arrived, further uprisings, instigated by Alpha Legion teams, erupted across the Sol
System.

The Alpha Legion's primary objective was Hydra, a fortress moon that orbited Pluto and was a major astropathic
monitoring station. Alpharius himself led a team of Alpha Legion warriors in the attack on the moon.

Meanwhile, the Loyalist defenders, led by the Imperial Fists' First Captain Sigismund, had just 30 ships to defend
against the massive Alpha Legion fleet. Due to the unexpected and brutal assault, the severely outnumbered Loyalist
fleet was badly mauled by Fire Ships hidden among the Alpha Legion fleet, to wreak havoc on the Imperial Fists
defenders.

The captured fortress moon of Kerberos rained down deadly fire upon Charon, Nix, and Styx with heavy fire.
Despite facing overwhelming odds, the Imperial Fists resolutely stood their ground in the face of the Alpha Legion's
overwhelming assault.

Death and Rebirth

Alpharius and Rogal Dorn confront one another, one last time, during the Battle of Pluto.

Meanwhile, Archamus, Rogal Dorn's Master of the Huscarls, was eventually able to deduce the Alpha Legion's true
intentions -- to sabotage the Imperial astropathic monitoring network centred on Hydra. During the fighting,
Archamus led a Huscarl contingent in a daring assault upon the Alpha Legion force led by Primarch Alpharius
himself. In the subsequent fighting, the Huscarls were killed and Archamus was left mortally wounded. All seemed
lost, as the battle seemed to swing in favour of the Traitor forces.

But miraculously, the Imperial Fists' mobile star-fortress Phalanx, led by Rogal Dorn himself, arrived with a
massive Imperial Fists fleet in tow. They were boosted by additional reinforcements from the Armada Imperialis.
Utilising the competing gravity wells throughout the Solar System, the Imperial Fists fleet managed to arrive quickly
by slingshotting itself towards Pluto. The Imperial Fists reinforcements immediately pacified the captured guns on
Kerberos, as Rogal Dorn led his Huscarls in an assault upon the astropathic chamber on Hydra.
Dorn and his remaining Huscarls teleported directly into the locked chamber, and soon joined battle against
Alpharius and his elite Lernaean Terminators. Archamus looked on helplessly, as the two Primarchs fought one
another in an epic life-or-death duel. When Alpharius was about to impale Dorn with his Pale Spear, the now-dying
Archamus attempted to intervene in the battle after spotting Alpharius was primed for a killing blow, however his
seax rebounded harmlessly off of the spear's haft.

Archamus was unaware that Dorn had anticipated the strike and stepped in to take the blow with his shoulder to pin
Alpharius in place, then grabbed the spear with one hand and using his deadly Chainsword, Storm's Teeth, Dorn
sliced through Alpharius' wrists, severing his hands from his arms, before slashing his brother across the chest and
impaling him with his own spear. Finally, Dorn finished off Alpharius with a deadly chop of his mighty Chainsword
into the top of his brother's skull.

With the death of their Primarch, the Alpha Legion fleet withdrew and retreated from Pluto. At the moment of his
twin-Primarch's death, Omegon sensed the demise of his sibling and became distant. Shortly thereafter, he was
notified that the Warmaster demanded that Alpharius speak with him so that he could know the status of the Alpha
Legion's attack on the Sol System. Like he had done many times before, Omegon immediately took upon himself his
brother's name, and permanently assumed the mantle of sole Primarch of the XX Legion.

During the remainder of the Heresy, the Alpha Legion split off from the main body of Horus' forces early and did
not attack Terra with the majority of the Traitor Legions, instead embarking upon a series of delaying actions in an
attempt to hold potential Imperial reinforcements for the defence of Terra in place.

They also engaged in smaller actions, defeating a White Scars force on Tallarn and a Space Wolves unit at Yarant.
Despite their contributions, however, Horus was ultimately defeated by the Emperor aboard his battle barge at the
end of the Siege of the Imperial Palace on Terra.

Post-Heresy

Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marines in combat.

In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, the Alpha Legion did not retreat to the Eye of Terror like the other Traitor
Legions; instead the XXth Legion moved on into the galactic east, following new objectives of their own devising.
As such, the Legion was not pursued into the Eye of Terror as so many of their fellow Traitors were, but became
embroiled in a series of bitter confrontations with the Ultramarines, who themselves had been engaged in that region
when Horus had assaulted Terra.

Alpha Legionaries subjugate another world.

On the world of Eskrador, the Alpha Legion was assaulted by Ultramarines forces. Alpharius was reportedly happy
with such a development, as it allowed him to demonstrate the superiority of his flexible, multitudinous and
unexpected military strategies over the notoriously precise, methodical and perhaps even tactically moribund
Ultramarines.

The Ultramarines' Primarch Roboute Guilliman would prove himself the better strategist when he accurately
predicted that the Alpha Legion would believe they could foresee the tactics he would utilise in the coming battle.
For perhaps the only time in his life, Guiliman acted contrary to his own firmly-held military doctrines, and it was
Alpharius who walked into a trap. Accounts vary as to why the Ultramarines and the Alpha Legion fought one
another at Eskrador.

Some say Alpharius wanted to prove the superiority of his tactics, whilst Guilliman wanted revenge on one of the
Traitor Legions for the mortal wounding of the Primarchs' beloved Emperor, and so tracked down the traitorous
Alpha Legion in the Eskrador System. Alpharius' Legion was the first to arrive and was able to choose their
battleground and set what they believed to be the perfect trap for the upstart Ultramarines.
A Traitor Marine of the Alpha Legion.

With access to all the records of the tactics used by Guilliman during the Great Crusade, Alpharius used this
information to take full advantage of the Ultramarines' standard operating procedures. At first the battle was a
stalemate between the two evenly matched Legions, but Guilliman chose nightfall to do something unexpected,
leading a large portion of his forces with no lines of support or supply deep into the mountains where they deployed
by Thunderhawk, Drop Pod, and teleporter in the midst of the Alpha Legion.

The Ultramarines quickly took advantage of the situation and soon had the Alpha Legion's command centre in
disarray. Hard-pressed by the vengeful Loyalist force, which outnumbered them five to one, the Alpha Legion was
unable to fall back up the mountain valley. They were hampered by the terrain and were forced to make a last stand
at the head of the valley.

Alpharius himself led a furious counterattack against the Ultramarines and was slain in single combat by Roboute
Guilliman. However, once again, there is now some doubt as to whether this "Alpharius" was actually Omegon, the
twin Primarch who had survived the Horus Heresy, or just another Astartes of the Alpha Legion wearing his
Primarch's armour. This final deception would present the Imperium with an unexpected and very nasty surprise
time and time again.

Having burned the supposed Traitor Primarch's body on a great pyre, Guilliman led his Legion against the remnants
of the Alpha Legion on Eskrador, only to discover that far from collapsing, the XX th Legion was mounting a series
of cunning and often devastating counterstrikes. The Alpha Legion responded not by breaking and fleeing as
Guilliman had expected after the death of their Primarch, but by turning on the pursuing Ultramarines detachment
and harrying them so mercilessly that by the time they had returned to the main body of the Ultramarines force their
casualties were almost total.

After solar days of bitter fighting, Guiliman gave up hope of an honourable victory and departed Eskrador, ordering
a massive orbital bombardment to finish the XXth Legion's survivors off. Some Imperial savants have claimed that
the entire battle was some grand ploy unleashed by the Alpha Legion, though to what end none can say. Certainly,
the Alpha Legion fought in the manner of the mythical beast that adorns their armour -- the hydra -- for each time
one head was cut off, another two grew back to replace it.

Following the Battle of Eskrador, the Alpha Legion fractured in order to hide from the Imperium. Small,
autonomous warbands were left in Imperial space where they set up secret bases in asteroid fields, on Space Hulks
and on barren, unpopulated worlds. These units launched frequent attacks against Imperial military targets that had
already been weakened by the Heresy and even today these warbands still pose a threat to Imperial starships,
settlements and garrisons.

The Unsung, an Alpha Legion warband active in the post-Heresy galaxy.

The Alpha Legion's warbands also coordinate the spread and actions of Chaos Cults throughout the galaxy in order
to instigate massive planetary revolts against Imperial rule. These insurrections are often used to lure Imperial forces
away from more strategic worlds the Alpha Legion proper wants to attack, paving the way for large-scale assaults of
Chaos Space Marines from the Eye of Terror.

Unlike the other Traitor Legions, most of the Alpha Legion does not reside in the Warp, but rather roams the galaxy
as scattered warbands of warriors, each of which is trained to act independently of the others in pursuit of their
greater cause. In this way the Alpha Legion was by and large the only Traitor Legion not to succumb to the
mutations of Chaos, an outcome that may also have been dictated by their continued secret loyalty to the Emperor of
Mankind.

The Alpha Legion's role in spreading heretical Chaos Cults across the Imperium has earned them the loathing of the
Inquisition, whose Ordo Malleus and Ordo Hereticus have devoted considerable resources to finding and destroying
their secret bases. The Alpha Legion has been declared exterminated by the High Lords of Terra no less than three
times, in the 31st Millennium, the 32nd Millennium and the 39th Millennium. These claims have always been
disproved by the next Alpha Legion-inspired plot or rebellion that breaks out somewhere in the Imperium and
proves that the hydra still has more heads to slay.

Notable Campaigns

 Third Rangdan Xenocide (ca. 890.M30) - This campaign was led by the Dark Angels under their
Primarch Lion El'Jonson. During the campaign, the Dark Angels prevented the total destruction of the
northern Imperium but suffered devastating casualties, losing 50,000 Battle-Brothers. The losses the Dark
Angels endured eventually contributed to them losing their status as the largest Legion to the Ultramarines.
During the later stages of the war a member of the XXth Legion identifying himself as "Alpharius" but
admitting that their Primarch had not yet been discovered came before the Lion. This "Alpharius" offered
aid to the Primarch against the Rangdan in hopes that the Dark Angels would maintain their prominence
and thus one day the Lion would be made the Imperial Warmaster. The Lion at this time did not even know
what the title of "Warmaster" portended, but still secretly believed that such a title would one day likely be
bestowed upon one of the Primarchs by the Emperor. Alpharius stated that the XX th Legion would prefer
the Lion be named Warmaster over someone like Roboute Guilliman, as El'Jonson was not so different
from them in their views of war and secrecy. It is not ultimately known if the Lion accepted the help of
"Alpharius" or not, though the Rangdan were destroyed shortly after. In the aftermath of the battle, the
Space Wolves assisted the Dark Angels in purging the remaining Rangdan from northern Imperial space.
 Castigation of Terentius (Unknown Date.M30) - When the forces of the Great Crusade first entered the
Ordoni Cluster, they encountered the formidable warlord Vatale Gerron Terentius. Observing the forces
arrayed against him, Terentius was forced to take the path of survival and surrendered to the Imperium. For
the next five decades he rose in power and reputation, conquering worlds around the Halo Stars in the name
of the Emperor. At the height of his powers, he had the ear of Malcador the Sigillite and the countenance of
several Primarchs. When he finally turned against the Imperium, many were shocked. He began a contra-
Crusade to conquer already-Compliant worlds to add to his pocket empire. The Imperium responded by
sending Horus and his Luna Wolves Legion to not only break the Renegade but to demonstrate to any
others who harboured similar ideas within the Imperial forces the inevitability of a betrayer's defeat. Large
support from the Night Lords, Iron Hands and the yet-unnamed Alpha Legion, joined the might of the Luna
Wolves. At the height of the campaign, Horus himself, with a cadre of 50 elite Justaerin Terminators,
teleported aboard the bridge of Terentius' flagship, where the Commander slew the unrepentant traitor with
his Talon. Soon the rebel forces were fragmented, driven by tales of culled worlds. The Night Lords
decimated every world within Terentius' rebel empire. The power of the Iron Hands and elements of the
Ordo Reductor were brought to bear on every structure on Terentius' bastion worlds. Soon the rebels of his
realm were slaughtered, their cities smashed to dust, and his homeworld's very air laced with toxins. Once
the castigation was complete, Horus sent the gold-dipped skull of Terentius to Terra with the ironic
warning carried on the lips of the messenger who bore it, "So perish all traitors".
 The Cryptosi Purgation (927.M30) - When an exotic, meta-dimensional strain of xenos thought to be the
species later referred to in some accounts as the "Cryptosi", invaded the Imperium's northern reaches, a
sub-company from the Alpha Legion was sent to investigate the atrocities that had been committed. This
campaign appears not to have been committed to record, although contact with colony worlds in that region
was lost soon after, seemingly as a result of Legiones Astartes activity.
 The Hunting of the Ak'Haireth (986-989.M30) - One of the earliest campaigns of the Alpha Legion
whose date can be well-corroborated involves the xenocide of the alien form known variously as the
Ak'Haireth, or "Bone Drinkers" in the vernacular. These fungoid, predatory and parasitic life forms
acquired their sentience from operating as physically interwoven gestalt "blooms". Their existence was
fuelled by the slow and agonisingly painful siphoning of nutrition from living animals, primarily human
bone marrow. Given to no technological creativity of their own, the Ak'Haireth operated at the edge of the
western Segmentum Solar, inhabiting the scavenged voidships of other star-faring species and raiding
isolated colonies and Feral Worlds unable to resist their predations. Initially encountered in the early years
of the Great Crusade, the Ak'Haireth had been subjected to extermination pogroms carried out by both the
Luna Wolves and the VIIIth Legion (not then yet formally known as the Night Lords) which had been
thought to have been successful. However, a cowardly species, the Ak'Haireth had been wont to flee if not
cornered in battle, and over time it became apparent that some marrow-blooms of the foul xenos had
 hidden themselves and survived. By 986.M30, reports of attacks against isolated outposts and shipping in
the region of the stellar wastes near Olmec indicated that the Ak'Haireth were again dangerously growing
in strength and number. The Alpha Legion, only a handful of years previously united with their Primarch,
were assigned the order for the xenocide of the species before it could spread further. Alpharius and his
Legion's solution to the problem was both calculated in its planning and ruthless in its execution. Firstly
they divided much of their fleet into hunter-killer squadrons to hunt down the Ak'Haireth's infested
voidships across the wastes, using their own predatory instincts for ambush and evasion to identify likely
places the xenos would be hiding in wait or fleeing to escape pursuit. Secondly, they analysed previous
patterns of infestation and attack, and quickly reasoned that, in their terror, some had given themselves over
to the alien species' dominion, providing them with a tribute of living sacrifices. While in others, in return
for being spared or perhaps for gain, the xenos had human aid in plotting their attacks, such covert
corruption having protected them from the Imperium's eye for several decades. This dark communion the
Alpha Legion used to their own advantage, infiltrating the conspiracy with their own agents, gathering
intelligence and luring the largest concentrations of the parasitic marrow-blooms to their deaths in pre-
arranged traps, slaying the rest in close boarding actions of their infested ships or by the mass-cyclonic
bombardment of their concentrated breeding nests. The punishment for those worlds that had aided the
alien was similarly brutal, as their rulers were put to the sword for their crimes, and the colonies themselves
punished by the poisoning of their water supplies or the destabilisation of their climates or seismic patterns.
Inside of three sidereal solar years, the Ak'Haireth had once again been hunted to the precipice of
extinction, but analysis indicated that some would have fled into hiding and inevitably the threat had to be
ended. In order to fully eradicate the Bone Drinkers, the Alpha Legion worked in co-operation with the
Magos Biologis of the Mechanicum to create a deadly phage to help annihilate this alien menace once and
for all. The Alpha Legion insidiously deployed this virus upon the worlds on which the Ak'Haireth had
preyed. The humans that populated those worlds and the Voidborn who plied the stars between those
planets were infected with the virus. In the human population, the malignancy rate of the virus was as little
as 7%, but to the Ak'Haireth that might feed on them or the generations born of them in the centuries to
come, it was irrevocably lethal. Alpharius had won the ultimate victory against the xenos by poisoning their
food supply -- Mankind.
 Compliance of 5-29 (Unknown Date.M30) - This was an Imperial Compliance action carried out by the
Alpha Legion against an adversary of unknown origin upon the world designated Five-Twenty-Nine.
 Compliance of the Ferinus Worlds (Unknown Date.M30) - This was an Imperial Compliance action
carried out jointly by the Alpha Legion and an Imperial Army sentry force comprised of the Geno Seven-
Sixty Spartocid. The Seven-Sixty were a well-drilled regiment and did not spook easily. They played an
instrumental role during the Compliance of the Ferinus Worlds.
 Compliance of Thorium Abominiplex (Unknown Date.M30) - This was an Imperial Compliance action
that was carried out jointly by both the Alpha Legion and Death Guard Legion against an unrecorded
adversary.
 The Tesstra Compliance (Unknown Date.M31) - The battle to force the human world of Tesstra into
Imperial Compliance has been seen by many as an exemplar of both the Alpha Legion's particular strengths
and ultimately its flaws. Tesstra was at that time part of a close alliance of totalitarian colonies resistant to
the Imperium's authority. This alliance, known as the "Conservation", had survived the Age of Strife
through a mixture of relative good fortune and rigidly imposed eugenic control. This divided its population
into highly stratified castes enslaved to their civilisation's greater needs. For the Imperium, the
Conservation's worlds represented an addition to the Great Crusade's conquests; a prize that would liberate
a human population of nearly eleven billion, but in order for this to be the case, the abhorrent civilisation
created by the Conservation would have to be systematically dismantled. Once the Imperium's emissaries
made their desires known they were fired upon and driven away, while the Conservation geared its worlds
to violent defence against the Great Crusade. The Warmaster Horus, whose own forces were at the time
engaged in battle elsewhere, diverted the forces of two Expeditionary Fleets, commanded by Roboute
Guilliman and Alpharius respectively, to bring the Conservation to heel. The Ultramarines began to
immediately conduct a campaign to engage and conquer the outer worlds of the Conservation, whilst
pinning down its mobile military assets in an ever constricting noose. Alpharius and his XXth Legion did
not immediately attack, but instead circled, launching probes and raids without seeming rhyme or reason.
Increasingly infuriated by the Alpha Legion's lack of progress and co-operation, Roboute Guilliman is
known to have openly berated Alpharius in council, demanding that the Alpha Legion learn from his own
Ultramarines' method of warfare and emulate it to achieve the victory that the Great Crusade demanded of
 them both. Further, that if Alpharius were to place his Legion under Guilliman's full command, the
Conservation could be made to fall in a matter of solar months. This demand Alpharius ignored. Through
the tactical brilliance and strategic genius of Alpharius Omegon, the Legion employed their well-known
deceptive tactics of infiltration intelligence gathering through the use of their human non-Astartes agents on
the ground. To the Tesstrans they appeared to be delaying their invasion, appearing only as threatening
spectres as more and more Tesstran forces were deployed to Tesstra Prime's defences in preparation for the
inevitable attack. When the assault finally came, it sent the Tesstrans reeling, striking from a hundred
vectors at once yet leaving whole swathes of the defensive lines untouched. Soon sabotage ran amok,
causing severe supply shortages and Alpha Legion strike forces began to appear inside the world's capital
city, making red slaughter of government facilities and security stations with impunity. Sheer anarchy
reigned as the Tesstran commanders were unable to redeploy their forces from the defences not under
attack back to the city. Supply lines collapsed or were cut, orders were redirected or simply failed to arrive,
and entire divisions were stranded trying to cross bridge networks that had been blown apart before they
could reach them. It was then that the Harrowing of Tesstra Prime truly began. Beset on all sides by Alpha
Legion forces, the Tesstran forces were subsequently torn apart by the XX th Legion's super-heavy armour
columns, and their own forces were advanced directly into the teeth of a vicious trap already laid for them.
The battle was short-lived and effectively over, but the killing continued. As the Alpha Legion withdrew
from Tesstra Prime, their task done, they left an anarchy of riot, fire and ruin in their wake. The regime and
infrastructure had collapsed, and the dead and dying were everywhere in the streets, with pestilence and
famine soon to follow. It is estimated that 90% of Tesstra Prime's population, both military and civilian,
would not survive the battle and its aftermath. The rest of the planet capitulated in a matter of solar days.
Alpharius Omegon's conduct invited censure from many quarters, especially from Primarch Guilliman,
who declared the Alpha Legion's tactics dishonourable and unworthy of Astartes in a formal protest to the
Warmaster. Horus was the only Primarch who openly praised his brother-Primarch and the way in which
his Legion had conducted a truly masterful campaign, but the Ultramarines would never again serve
directly alongside the Alpha Legion for the rest of the Great Crusade.
 World-Prince Campaign (999.M30) - This was one of the final campaigns fought by the Imperial Fists
during the waning years of the Great Crusade upon an unnamed Hive World against a non-Compliant
civilisation ruled over by a monarch known as the World-Prince. Initially, the World-Prince had refused to
surrender to the Imperium and stubbornly resisted the efforts of the Imperial Fists led by Lord Rogal Dorn
himself. The Imperial Fists systematically fought one hive at time, and were making slow by study
progress, until the Alpha Legion arrived unexpectedly. Informing their fellow Legion that they were there
as allies, the Alpha Legion immediately began operations against the intransigent world. Though no Alpha
Legion warriors were encountered by the Imperial Fists during the campaign on the ground, their signature
passing was abundantly clear, as soon, uprisings and coups began to erupt across the remaining hives,
which threw the beleaguered world into absolute anarchy. Following the death of over 400 members of the
World-Prince's nobility, he capitulated to Lord Dorn. Enraged, Rogal Dorn confronted Alpharius and
scorned him for his disreputable way of waging war. He then ordered the Alpha Legion to cease all
operations and to leave the planet. In one final act of spite, Rogal Dorn also proceeded to lay out the Alpha
Legion's entire plan, and poked holes in its overall effectiveness, before walking away in disgust.
 Compliance of 670-25 (Nurth) (ca. 999.M30) - The Desert World of Nurth was discovered during the
Great Crusade by the 670th Expeditionary Fleet under the command of Lord Commander Teng Namitjira.
Nurth was a lost human colony world. The population refused to accept the light of the Imperial Truth and
opted not to join the Imperium of Man, resulting in a drawn-out, protracted compliance campaign that
would eventually result in the death of the entire world. The Primarch Alpharius and a force from his XX th
Legion, the Alpha Legion, fought alongside the 670 th Expedition during the tragic campaign to bring the
world of Nurth to Imperial Compliance, but never became an official part of the 670 th Expedition's order of
battle. Lord Commander Namitjira remained in formal command during the operation, though of course he
deferred to the Primarch's orders. When first contacted by the Imperium, Nurth was a primitive, pre-
industrial Desert World with geographic features fairly typical for such an arid environment. An exception
to this was the harbour of Mon Lo, in the city of the same name. The harbour, while appearing perfectly
natural to the ordinary onlooker, was actually an entirely artificial construction, having been created by the
xenos organisation known as the Cabal some 11,826 Terran years before the arrival of Imperial forces on
the world. Before natural environmental changes had filled the harbour of Mon Lo with water, the bay had
served as a giant landing pad or "waystation" for the Cabal's massive primary starship. As such, a detailed
orbital scan of Mon Lo revealed features similar to that found on other worlds where Cabal waystations
 were built and the Cabal's mobile headquarters had come to rest for a time. Another location that featured
unusual terrain was the town of Tel Khat, also known as Visages. The plain surrounding the town was
littered with old, weathered sculptures of human heads, made from diorite and ranging in size from a
pebble to a boulder. For unknown reasons, the ground of Nurth was coloured a striking combination of red
and orange and the sky an unusually vibrant blue. This, combined with the brightness of the desert
environment, meant that glare-protection was essential equipment for all military forces operating on the
planet, so as to avoid disorientation and eventual eye damage. Nurth was eventually destroyed by the
Nurthene themselves, as, on the verge of losing the war against the Imperial forces, the Echvehnurth, the
Chaos-corrupted Nurthene military forces, activated a Chaotic weapon known as a Black Cube, an ancient
weapon of planetary destruction created eons before by the first intelligent races of the galaxy. This
weapon, through unknown means, transformed the climate of the planet, turning the air into noxious
vapours utterly inimical to any form of life, and generating winds so strong that they scoured soil from the
bedrock and raised the temperature to the point where the ocean boiled. In a matter of days, the process was
complete, leaving Nurth a lifeless Dead World.
 The Kayvas Persecution (002.M31) - Many tribes of Orks, scattered and leaderless after the hammerblow
they had suffered at Ullanor during the Ullanor Crusade, had fled to the points of the etheric compass -- and
many had come to rest in the Kayvas Belt, where they carved new outposts out of the drifting, mineral-rich
rocks, licked their wounds while they re-armed. The Greenskin xenos soon began to strike out at nearby
Imperial star systems and newly Compliant daughter colonies, and it was the duty of the Space Marine
Legions to reinforce the lesson of Ullanor again. The Alpha Legion had tracked them to their lair and
petitioned the Warmaster Horus for the reinforcements required to prosecute their plan of annihilation, but
after the war at the world called Murder and the disastrous engagement with the civilisation known as the
Interex, the Luna Wolves had been reluctant to commit ships to Alpharius' new campaign. In the end, it was
the Blood Angels who agreed to assist their cousins in the XX th Legion, with Sanguinius himself
marshalling a sizable intervention to support the efforts of the 88 th Expeditionary Fleet. The mission,
Alpharius said, would be five standard years in execution. The Angel rejected that premise and promised it
would be over in one, and he committed vessels from every active Blood Angels expeditionary fleet to the
cause. Sanguinius was proved right -- more or less. Just over thirteen months after the commencement of
the Kayvas initiative, the Orks were almost totally annihilated, but like animals backed into a corner they
fought harder than they ever had before. The 88 th Expeditionary Fleet took their warships into the Kayvas
Belt and vanished from the sensors of the IXth Legion's fleet, leaving the Blood Angels flotilla at the edge
of the system to wait. Soon it became clear that the mission Alpharius had been so eager to secure support
for was little more than picket duty. First one at a time, then in squadrons and finally in fleets, the Orks
began to flee from the Kayvas System. Each time they bolted for open space beyond the mass shadow of
the supergiant sun and its asteroid belt, the Blood Angels were waiting for them. Imperial starships and Ork
cruisers engaged in deadly games of cat-and-mouse that lasted for weeks on end, threading in and out of the
dense dust clouds at the periphery of the star system, mercilessly hunting each other. Mighty vessels
clashed again and again, but months of protracted ship-to-ship engagements and naval warfare made the
Sons of Baal restless. They had been bred for battles where they could face their foes, not ranged conflicts
conducted over huge spans of empty vacuum. However, the chance to fight blade-to-blade did come. The
behaviour patterns of the Ork crews began to change. They eschewed what little animal cunning they had
and made mistakes. Instead of showing the brutish slyness they were known for, the xenos exhibited
conduct that more closely resembled panic. They would take chances, running the gauntlet of the Blood
Angels' blockade when the odds were stacked against them. It was almost as if there was something at their
backs that they feared far more than the guns of Sanguinius' Legion. No one within the IXth Legion knew
what the Alpha Legion had done to make the Orks run. All that was certain was that the Alpha Legion had
gone dark, only rising to send regular communiqués out to the Blood Angels' blockade fleet that contained
little more than a message to "maintain the line". Finally, Sanguinius tired of Alpharius' evasive manner
and sent a frigate in past the outer marker, in defiance of the rules of engagement the two Legions had
agreed upon. When the frigate returned weeks later, the crew reported that they had come across no signs
of their allies, only the wrecks of Ork vessels and the bodies of dead aliens. The Alpha Legion's 88 th
Expeditionary Fleet comprised hundreds of warships, and yet no trace of them was sighted. The tempo of
the Kayvas campaign had finally reached a terminal pitch. The final remnants of the Ork forces took flight
from the belt in a disordered exodus, and perished in the flashes of Lance cannons and torpedo barrages as
they crossed the sentry line. At last, the Alpha Legion's starships appeared at the very edge of scanning
range, apparently moving in a wall, herding the enemy towards the fringes of the system. The Alpha
 Legion stated they had fully exterminated the alien infestation in the Kayvas Belt, and were grateful to the
Blood Angels for their co-operation. The blockade was finally over, and with the death of the final
monolithic Ork wreck at the hands of the Blood Angels fleet, the campaign came to a successful
conclusion, though relations between the IXth and XXth Legions remained somewhat strained.
 Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V (566.006.M31) - Noted as one of the most devastating defeats in the
history of the Adeptus Astartes, the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V saw the Iron Hands crippled and the
Raven Guard and Salamanders Legions nearly annihilated as effective fighting forces and only the quick
thinking and initiative of the Salamanders allowed a bare few Space Marines of these two Legions to
escape that dreadful day. In response to the treachery of the Warmaster Horus and his betrayal of the
Loyalist Astartes in the Sons of Horus, Emperor's Children, World Eaters and Death Guard Legions at
Istvaan III, the Primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion, Rogal Dorn, on the direction of the Emperor who had
learned of Horus' actions from the Loyalist survivors aboard the Eisenstein, ordered 7 Loyalist Space
Marine Legions to Horus' base on the world of Istvaan V to challenge the Traitors. They would attack in
two waves and fall under the supreme command of the Iron Hands' Primarch Ferrus Manus. The Legions
comprising the first wave were the Raven Guard, Iron Hands and Salamanders. The Legions comprising the
second wave were the Alpha Legion, Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and a large contingent of Word Bearers
that their Primarch Lorgar had stationed in the star system. Unknown to the Loyalists, the Night Lords,
Alpha Legion, Iron Warriors and Word Bearers had all turned from their service to the Emperor and
secretly pledged their loyalty to Horus, and been instructed to keep their new allegiance to Chaos a secret.
The Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard were deployed in the first wave of the assault. After they
secured the drop site, they were to have been followed by the arrival of the other four Legions. The first
wave secured the drop site, known as the Urgall Depression, though at a heavy cost. Horus ordered his
front line troops to fall back in a feint, tempting Ferrus Manus to overstretch his already thin lines. Against
the advice of Corax and Vulkan, Manus led his Veterans against the fleeing Traitor Marines unsupported.
Manus then brought his brother Fulgrim to combat. As the two Primarchs drew their weapons, the Raven
Guard and Salamanders fell back to regroup and allow the second wave's Legions to advance and earn
glory. However, as they returned they were mowed down by the four Traitor Legions that had landed to
supposedly support them, thus revealing their new allegiance to Chaos. At the same time the apparent rout
of the Sons of Horus, the World Eaters, Death Guard and Emperor's Children suddenly halted and the
Traitors pressed their attack. As Horus pressed the counterattack he managed to sandwich the Loyalists
between the two Traitor forces, killing most of them. Meanwhile, the Iron Hands were cut off and
slaughtered to a man -- the Veteran Morlock Terminators cut down and the Primarch Ferrus Manus
beheaded by Fulgrim. The Salamanders and Raven Guard could do nothing to help the Iron Hands, and
were forced to make a costly break-out with precious few of their forces. Those Thunderhawk and
Stormbird gunships that lifted off and escaped Istvaan V were far fewer than those that had landed. Corax,
the Primarch of the Raven Guard, was badly wounded and Vulkan's fate was unknown for some time. The
remainder of the Iron Hands Legion arrived to find their Veterans and Primarch dead while the
Salamanders and Raven Guard had been reduced to a fraction of their full strength, with both Legions
nearly wiped out.
 Battle of Ravendelve (006.M31) - Shortly after the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V early in the Horus
Heresy, and unbeknownst to Loyalists and Traitors alike, the Alpha Legion managed to infiltrate the
remnants of the Raven Guard Legion, surgically altering Alpha Legion operatives to resemble dead Raven
Guard Space Marines and then inserting them into the ranks of the XIX th Legion during the chaos of the
Drop Site Massacre. Acting on information received from the alien organisation known as the Cabal,
Alpharius Omegon believed that the XIXth Legion was going to eventually receive an extremely valuable,
top-secret asset from the Emperor that would prove to be of immense value to the Traitors' cause if it could
be secured. In an operation personally overseen by Omegon, the Alpha Legion managed to appropriate the
asset, which turned out to be a sample of pure Primarch gene-stock and related information on its genetic
manipulation that the Primarch Corax had recovered from the Emperor's gene-laboratories beneath the
Himalazian Mountains in the bowels of the Imperial Palace. Playing their typical game of deception and
intrigue against all sides, Alpharius Omegon misled Horus by surrendering tainted information about the
pure Primarch gene-stock to the Traitors' chief geneticist, the Emperor's Children's Chief Apothecary
Fabius Bile. However, Horus knew that the Alpha Legion might have infiltrated any Legion, and had
ordered the Alpha Legion to be put under surveillance by other Traitor forces to prevent any double-
dealing. Alpharius Omegon also misled the Cabal, by not destroying the pure Primarch gene-stock as they
had promised to damage the Loyalists' war effort, keeping it for their own benefit. However, the pure gene-
 stock had been infected by a daemonic virus that had been intended to make it worthless to the Raven
Guard. The Alpha Legion had been assured by the Tech-adepts of the Dark Mechanicus that this daemonic
taint could be removed once the Primarch gene-stock was in the hands of the Traitors, but whether this
assertion proved to be correct remains unknown. A second, major objective of the Raven Guard infiltration
by the Alpha Legion was the destruction of the Raven Guard's remaining stocks of gene-seed, thereby
eliminating any chance that the XIXth Legion could be rebuilt after the massacre on Istvaan V. However the
Alpha Legion failed in this objective due to the heroism of the Astartes of the Raven Guard, and the XIX th
Legion was eventually able to reconstitute itself and play a crucial role in the future history of the
Imperium.
 First Battle of Paramar (006.M31) - The world of Paramar V was the scene of an invasion and overthrow
of the Paramar System by the Traitor Alpha Legion and the forces of the Warmaster Horus during the
opening days of the Horus Heresy. Lying at the outer northern edge of the Segmentum Solar, Paramar was
a vital staging post and supply terminus for Imperial Expeditionary Fleets, vital to the outward expansion of
the Great Crusade. Paramar lies in almost direct conjunction between the Istvaan System and Terra. Before
even the blood spilled in such great effusion in the Dropsite Massacre of Istvaan V had cooled, Horus'
generals viewed Paramar V and the vast stockpiles of military supplies cached there with covetous eyes,
and drew their plans against it. With typical guile and subterfuge, the Alpha Legion launched a massive
assault, following in their wake came a second armada of Dark Mechanicum barques and mass-arks drawn
from forces loyal to Horus, including the Titans of the Legio Fureans. The world of Paramar was the scene
of several fierce battles during the Horus Heresy, amongst which the Traitor assault on Landing Zone
Secundus of the Paramar Nexus was perhaps the most bloody. The Forces of Chaos, supported by a Sub-
Legio of 8-10 maniples of Tiger Eyes Traitor Titans of various classes, strode into the deserted spaceport
expecting little resistance. They were surprised to meet Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus, along with
support troops and armour from the Mechanicum and Loyalist forces from the Iron Warriors' 77th Grand
Company. The speed and overwhelming force of the Alpha Legion's attack took its toll and the battle
quickly swung full force in the Traitors' favour. Against the massed firepower of the Tiger Eyes Titans, the
final Loyalist base known as Terminus could not stand. The Paramar Nexus fell and with it Paramar V
belonged to Horus, its stockpiles and industry intact.
 The Culling of the Wolves (ca. 007.M31) - Following the Fall of Prospero, the depleted fleet of the VIth
Legion, the Space Wolves, is attacked by the Alpha Legion in a great naval battle. Largely superior in
numbers and fresher troops, the Alpha Legion forces the Space Wolves to seek shelter in the dangerous and
highly corrosive fogs of the Alaxxes Nebula. With cold efficiency and pragmatism, the Alpha Legion
harasses the Space Wolves, forcing them ever deeper in the maze of stable corridors within the Nebula,
cornering their prey, humiliating the Emperor's henchmens and staying their killing blow until the Space
Wolves have nowhere else to run. Every counter-attack from the VIth Legion has been anticipated, the XXth
Legion even sacrificing scores of lighter vessels to get the opportunity to destroy one of the Space Wolves
capital ships. However, with the Space Wolves finally cornered and the killing blow ready to strike, the
Alpha Legion's fleet is forced to retreat as the Space Wolves are unexpectedly rescued by fresh forces from
the Dark Angels Legion, the firepower of the Ramilies-class Starfort Chimaera gravely wounding the
Primarch's flagship, the Alpha. While Leman Russ and his Legion still survived, they had been humbled in
a way they never had been. The myth of the Space Wolves' invincibility had been truly shattered in the
coils of the Hydra.
 Battle of the Chondax System (007.M31) - Shortly after the Triumph of Ullanor, Jhagatai Khan and his
Vth Legion were next sent to the worlds of the Chondax System. The system was comprised of the planets
Epihelikon, Teras, Honderal, Laerteax and Phemus IV, the furthest of the outlying worlds. The culmination
of this campaign took place upon the world of Chondax, labeled Chondax Primus EX5, 776 NC-X-S by
Imperial cartographers, but named "The White World" by the White Scars due to its salt-like earth. The
White World was the crucible of the whole campaign, the heart of those Greenskin forces that had chosen
to go to ground in the system. The Khan was ordered by the newly-promoted Warmaster Horus to hunt the
remnants of the Ork empire destroyed on Ullanor, the last slivers of the Warlord Urlakk Urruk's
Greenskins. The brutal campaign lasted six long standard years as the White Scars hunted the remaining
Greenskin forces to extinction. It was at Chondax that the White Scars would first learn of the outbreak of
the Horus Heresy and the betrayal of Horus Lupercal. Delayed by the arrival of the fleet of the Alpha
Legion, the White Scars would break-out from the Traitors' cordon and begin the long journey back to
Terra in search of answers -- leaving multiple Alpha Legion warships as flaming wreckage in the bargain.
 The Capture of the Omnissiax (Unknown Date.M31) - The Omnissiax was a super-heavy ark-freighter
registered out of the Heliodyne shipyards which had been charged with the transporting of Battle Group
Astramax of the Legio Perennia to Terra. This precious cargo had drawn the attention of the Alpha Legion,
which set about to infiltrate the Omnissiax, helped in their task by a number of their sparatoi-agents.
Masquerading as empty suits of newly-forged Power Armour, a small force of fifty legionaries under Strike
Commander Dartarion Varix, would take the immense vessel. These Legionaries were awakened from their
self-induced coma by one of their sparatoi-agents shortly after the Omnissiax had been rerouted to the
world of Callistra Mundi to crush the rebellion forming in this important planet of the Gnostica System.
With their primary objectives unattainable, Varix settled for the capture of the Titans, a task he had
obviously considered a possibility as a full Titan-crew had also been smuggled on board the Omnissiax and
was kept in cryostasis somewhere else in the ship. The opening moves for the capture of the Omnissiax
were all carried out by sparatoi-agents, an infiltrated Astropath killing the other members of his small
choir, while a simple worker destroyed the ark-freighters comm arrays. With almost immediate access to
the Mechanicum inner-ship communication, the Alpha Legion lured the Mechanicum troops into
ambushes. Through the use of armour-penetrating Banestrike-ammunition, even the most heavily armoured
battle-automata such as the Castellax were no match against the Alpha Legion. To further confuse the
Mechanicum forces, the Legionaries purposefully set fire to crew-quarters as to better scramble enemy
auspexes, killing those units with advanced detection- or sensor-systems first before despatching the
remaining Skitarii while still occluded by the surrounding heat-waves. On several occasions the Alpha
Legion managed to sneak through security cordons and assassinate high-ranking Magi, including the
Magos Dominus in charge of the ship's security. The Mechanicum reacted by using its numerical
superiority to swarm the Alpha Legion and hold them of until reinforcements could be brought in from
Callistra Mundi or its own escort. Holding the Alpha Legion at bay in selected choke-points, the fight soon
reached a stalemate. However Varix had already considered this possibility and enacted a contingency-plan
accordingly: to use the Titan's devastating firepower to annihilate the Mechanicum forces within the ship.
As the Warmonger-class Abyssus Edax opened fire from the cargo-hold, the last resistance of the
Mechanicum was swept away, clearing the way to the bridge and complete victory.
 The Tallarn and Yarant Campaigns (Unknown Date.M31) - During the Horus Heresy the Alpha Legion
went out of its way to prove itself as capable as its Loyalist Space Marines counterparts. The XXth Legion
inflicted stinging defeats on the Loyalist White Scars at Tallarn, a company of the Space Wolves at Yarant,
and units of the other Loyalist Legions at dozens of smaller outposts.
 Battle of the Alaxxes Nebula (007.M31) - As the Space Wolves were still licking their wounds following
their heavy losses during the Razing of Prospero, they were ambushed by a sizable Alpha Legion strike
force and subsequently routed at Yarant. Primarch Leman Russ organised a tactical retreat and fled towards
the Alaxxes Nebula. The Alpha Legion gave chase and soon the VI Legion found itself in a precarious
predicament -- it was effectively cut-off and surrounded. Though Russ reluctantly sent a distress call for
assistance to his brother-Primarch Jaghatai Khan, of the White Scars Legion, the Khan declined to assist
the Space Wolves and instead set course for Prospero to determine the truth for himself in regards to the
Warmaster's heresy. The Space Wolves were eventually forced to flee in order to survive. A final
confrontation eventually erupted between the Loyalist and Traitor forces as the Space Wolves vowed to
take as many of their foes with them before they are annihilated. The Sons of Russ received relief from an
unexpected quarter, in the form of the Dark Angels Legion, and their mighty Ramilies-class Starfort, the
Chimaera. Answering Russ' distress signal, the combined force of Loyalists were able to turn the tide, and
inflict serious losses on the Alpha Legion, and forced them to withdraw.
 Blood Among the Pale Stars (008.M31) - A previously unidentified Blackshield group of unknown
provenance, calling itself the Dark Brotherhood, carved out its own corsair empire on the edge of the Pale
Stars and began a long war against an Alpha Legion hunter-killer force tasked with crushing resistance to
the Warmaster's Dark Compliance.
 The Blight of Isessos (008.M31) - A series of void raids on the outskirts of the Isessos System in the
Segmentum Pacificus by an Alpha Legion strike group led to severe casualties, which were returned to the
colony habitats of the system's three Agri-Worlds for treatment. Several of the casualties were later found
to have been infected with an unknown algal strain. Within a year this virus wiped out the system's vast
macro-output saturation fields, reducing them to poisonous slime. This resulted in a sector-wide famine that
killed an estimated ninety billion Imperial citizens and the complete political destabilisation of the region.
 The Battle of Pluto (010.M31) - The Alpha Legion carried out multiple diversionary attacks of sabotage
and preparation, which plunged the Sol System into complete chaos. Their true target however, was the
fortress moon of Hydra, which orbits Pluto. First Captain Sigismund and a small fleet of Imperial Fists
stubbornly defended Pluto against the larger Alpha Legion fleet until help arrived, in the form of the
Phalanx and a large fleet of Imperial Fists and Armada Imperialis warships. At the height of the battle,
Rogal Dorn led an assault on the fortress moon and confronted his brother Primarch Alpharius and engaged
him in melee combat. Alpharius was killed by Dorn, and the Alpha Legion forces were forced to withdraw.
Secretly, Omegon assumed his brother's identity permanently, unknown to the Warmaster Horus and the
Imperium at large.
 Battle of Eskrador (Unknown Date.M32) - During the Great Scouring, the Alpha Legion and the
Ultramarines Legion met in battle on the world of Eskrador, where Roboute Guilliman faced his hated
brother Primarch Alpharius (unaware that it was actually his twin brother Omegon, who had assumed his
brother's identity following Alpharius' death at the hands of Rogal Dorn during the Battle of Pluto) in
bitterly contested close combat. Both struck one another in an instant, each Power Sword making a single
stroke. For a second the two Primarchs stood facing one another, then Alpharius slumped to the ground.
Exalted by their Primarch's victory the Ultramarines renewed their attack and cut down every last Alpha
Legionary. But their exaltation was short-lived, as over the next few days the Ultramarines were harried
from all sides by the Eskrador natives as well as remnants of Alpha Legionaries hiding throughout the
mountains. After another solar week of futile combat against their shadowy opponents, Guilliman ordered
his Ultramarines to evacuate the planet's surface. He then used his Legion's ships to bombard the Traitors
from orbit. Despite Guilliman's protests that he had no wish to fight such dishonourable foes, it seems hard
to dispute the fact that the Ultramarines were soundly beaten by the Alpha Legion at every turn, despite the
loss of Alpharius.
 The Scourge of Dynat Crowbane (pre-100.M31) - Driven outwards by the resurgent armies of the
Emperor of Mankind after the Siege of Terra in what was later called the Great Scouring, Dynat Mal, the
main architect behind the Raven Guard’s shaming defeat at the Battle of Lyx, took his forces to the Dark
Marches region of the Segmentum Tempestus. There he raided and destroyed the major outpost on Amarah
Prime and gathered a coterie of renegades, mutants and heretics that took the name of "The Shadowed
Ones". Hiding out with his fleet in the debris fields and nebulas of what would one day become the
Orpheus Sector, Dynat Mal successfully ambushed and destroyed several Imperial punitive expeditions and
established a reign of terror that lasted for several decades. Although the fate of the Shadowed Ones
remains a mysterious one, it is generally believed that Dynat Mal was defeated and subsequently killed by
an awakened portion of Necrons belonging to the Maynark Dynasty.
 I Am Alpharius (Unknown Date) - Word reaches the High Lords of Terra of a Chaos Lord claiming to be
Alpharius ravaging the adamantium-laced moons of the Danevra Sub-sector. Debate rages about whether
this could potentially be the case, for the Primarch's death has been recorded more than once across the
span of Imperial history. The Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum despatches a force of six
Vindicare Assassin marksmen. Over a number of standard years they identify and slay a dozen Alpha
Legion Chaos Champions bearing the name of Alpharius upon the scrolls of their battle plate, but the
reports of raids upon the sub-sector's mining operations only intensify. Five standard years later, the
decapitated heads of all six Vindicare Assassins are found frozen in the food storage halls of the High
Lords.
 War of Hidden Lairs (Unknown Date) - The brotherhood of Alpha Legion Chosen known as the
Shrouded Hand infiltrates the way station world of Zharastia Jensen, a principal link in the supply chain of
the Golgotha System. In their delvings amongst the lower strata of society to recruit more agents to their
cause, the Shrouded Hand uncover a hive of Genestealer Cultists. In doing so they trigger an uprising that
sees the industrialised populace rise up to seize rulership of the planet. The sleeper cells placed by the
Alpha Legion are awakened by the coded messages of the Shrouded Hand, and the streets run with blood as
the hidden Chaos Cults fight a savage guerrilla war against those who bear the mark of the Great Devourer.
Content that Zharastia Jensen is now a broken cog in the Golgotha war machine, the Shrouded Hand
disappear without trace.
 Dreams of the Serpent (Unknown Date) - A plague of nightmares engulfs the psyker-rich world of Seer's
Rest. Each of the planet's oracles, hedge wizards and soothsayers reports having the same recurring dream -
- that of a rain of serpents that covers the land. Such is the intensity of these dreams that the subconscious
gestalt of the planet's psykers manifests them in reality, and the planet's populace is halved in a day.
 Millions die to venomous snake bites before the psykers fall into a fugue state and the rain stops. The
Adeptus Arbites investigation finds, too late, that the atmosphere processors of the world's terraforming
engines have been spiked with psychotropic gas. When the Alpha Legion descend to destroy what remains
of the planet's guardian provosts and Astra Militarum regiments, the storm of psychic energy intensifies to
such a degree that Seer's Rest is reclassified as a Daemon World. The Alpha Legion abduct thousands of
comatose psykers.
 The Planetary Heist of Avernia (Unknown Date) - A coven of Alpha Legion Sorcerers, using a
combination of psychic hypnosis and double agents seeded within the Administratum, convinces the
Imperial authorities that their maps have the system of Avernia in the wrong place. When the Alpha Legion
invade the Industrial Worlds of Avernia III and Primavernia, psychic distress calls are sent out into the
void. The Adeptus Terra, spurred into action by reports of a Heretic Astartes attack, divert a formidable
battle group from the war for the jewel world of Negligence towards Avernia's coordinates in the
Segmentum Pacificus. They make their Warp translation in good time, but in entirely the wrong
Segmentum! Both Avernia and Negligence fall to the Alpha Legion within the solar year.
 Zambeque Rebellion (883.M37) - The Zambeque Rebellion was an anti-Imperial uprising on the world of
Zambeque. Beginning after the Planetary Governor was approached by the Dark Angels 5th Company for
questioning, upon their arrival the planet declared open rebellion against the Emperor. The Dark Angels
task force was soon surrounded in an ambush by Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marines. Only the timely
intervention of half the Deathwing prevented the annihilation of the 5th Company. After the battle it was
revealed that the Governor was a Fallen Angel known as Solas, who escaped with the remnants of his
Chaos Space Marine allies before the planet fell back into the Imperial fold.
 Relief of Rael's World (814.M39) - In 814.M39 the Imperial penal facility on Rael's World was the target
of a concentrated assault by a coalition of Alpha Legion warbands. Many amongst the segmentum's High
Command were unwilling to expend their overstretched resources in its relief. Then, with no warning or
explanation, a Dark Angels strike force intervened and the Alpha Legion warbands were routed, their
leader captured by the Dark Angels. Unknown to the planet's population, the deliverance of Rael's World
was a by-product of the Dark Angels' ongoing Hunt for the Fallen.
 Gothic War (12th Black Crusade) (139-160.M41) - This was a vast military campaign against the
Imperium of Man launched by Abaddon the Despoiler. This conflict consisted of hundreds of planetary
invasions and naval battles and only ended when Abaddon was forced to retreat to the Immaterium with the
arrival of Imperial reinforcements. The only known battle the Alpha Legion took part in was the Lethe
Ambush, though undoubtedly the Legion were working behind the scenes manipulating the outcomes of
battles, using secret spy networks and fomenting rebellion to assail their enemies from as many different
directions as possible in carefully orchestrated attacks.
 Daethryu Plague (255.M41) - The Agri-world of Daethryu Prime was suddenly plagued by a species of
locusts not usually found anywhere in the sector. Thriving in the planet's warm climate the locusts
multiplied exponentially, decimating food crops and causing a planetwide famine. The population had a
surge of anger and unrest which they directed at the planet's ruling authorities. Within a week's time, riots
broke out in every major population center and much of the local military mutinied. A Mordian Iron Guard
regiment was dispatched to quell the riots but was ambushed and summarily destroyed as they disembarked
from their transports by a force of hidden Chaos Space Marines. The complete loss of food exports caused
major supply problems in the subsector for years, resulting in further unrest on other worlds. This hindered
Imperial forces during subsequent Chaos incursions into the Segmentum Pacificus. It seems certain the
Alpha Legion orchestrated much of the events that occurred in the sector, more than likely being involved
at some level.
 Macharian Heresy (400-470.M41) - The Alpha Legion's allied Chaos Cults carried out a number of
infiltration and subversion actions during the conflicts of the Macharaian Heresy.
 Destruction of the Crimson Consuls (742.M41) - The Alpha Legion's deceptions played a key role in the
destruction of the Crimson Consuls Chapter of Loyalist Space Marines.
 Achilus Crusade (777.M41) - Warbands of the Alpha Legion are among the forces of Chaos that have
been opposed by the Achilus Crusade seeking to restore Imperial control over the Jericho Reach.
 Legacy of the Luxor Uprisings (812.M41) - A coalition of Alpha Legion warbands foments an uprising
on the Munitorum provender world of Luxor, threatening the supply of war material to war zones across
the northern marches of the Ultima Segmentum. The rebellion is put down by the Ultramarines, but the
population is so embittered by the Chapter's actions that insurrection and rebellion flare on numerous
 occasions over the next century. Some strategio-savants even ascribe the fall of the entire Aradme Cluster
some eight decades later to chronic under-supply in the aftermath of the 812.M41 uprising.
 Hunt for Voldorius (865.M41) - Kernax Voldorius of the Alpha Legion is elevated to daemonhood by the
Dark Gods. Kor'sarro Khan of the White Scars is tasked to hunt down the Daemon Prince and to return
with the monster's head, or not at all. After driving Voldorius from his foremost stronghold, Kor'sarro Khan
tracks him to the planet of Quintus. There, the White Scars find no mere warband but a whole planet of
Traitors and Renegades. Upon making planetfall, Kor'sarro Khan finds unexpected allies in the form of
Kayvaan Shrike and the Raven Guard's 3rd Company. Such is the grievous threat posed by Voldorius that
the two rival Loyalist Chapters put aside their differences and join forces, eventually slaying the Daemon
Prince in the streets of the planetary capital of Mankarra.
 Tartarus Campaign (Unknown Date.M41) - The 3rd Company of the Blood Ravens Chapter of Space
Marines and its task force under the command of Captain Gabriel Angelos were sent to the aid of the
Imperial forces on the besieged Civilised World of Tartarus, which had been invaded by an Ork
WAAAGH!. Over the course of the campaign the Blood Ravens uncovered the planet's dark history,
locating numerous sites of Chaos power and relics of the Eldar, left behind to aid future generations in
continuing to battle the forces of Chaos trapped on the planet. Over the course of the fighting most of the
population that was not evacuated either fell to Chaos or was slain by the Orks and very few civilians
escaped from Tartarus. In truth, the Ork invasion had been only a diversion. A warband of Chaos Space
Marines from the Alpha Legion, led by the Chaos Lord Baal and the Chaos Sorcerer Sindri Myr had used
the cover of the Ork WAAAGH! to make planetfall undetected on the world and begin their own operations
in pursuit of an ancient and very powerful Chaotic artefact present on the world known as the Maledictum.
Gabriel Angelos, whose own intuition indicated that there was more to the situation on Tartarus than met
the eye, disregarded the warnings of the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Mordecai Toth and continued to hunt
down the hidden forces on the planet. Finally Gabriel discovered that a force of Eldar from the Biel-Tan
Craftworld had come to reseal a powerful Daemon in the Chaotic artefact known as the Maledictum that
had been hidden on the planet, underneath its capital city. However the Blood Ravens broke the back of the
Eldar forces, slaying the Avatar of Khaine and killing many of the Eldar warriors. Despite their
intervention Sindri managed to get the Maledictum and its key from underneath the Imperial and Xenos
forces. Perhaps the most regrettable event of the fighting on Tartarus was not the many Battle-Brothers lost,
but the treachery of Librarian Isador Akios, who had been an initiate with Gabriel. He became corrupted by
the power of the Maledictum, and it was he who handed it over to Sindri, despite believing himself to be in
control, he had been manipulated by the Chaos Sorcerer from the beginning. His treachery could not be
forgiven and Isador proved the weaker when he was faced in personal combat by Gabriel Angelos. Sindri
used the power of the Maledictum to start his transformation into a Daemon Prince but was slain by
Angelos nevertheless. At the conclusion of the Campaign, Gabriel shattered the Maledictum with a
Daemonhammer forged from a shard of the Wailing Doom, the blade of the Biel Tan Avatar of Khaine.
This only released the Daemon, however, due to the sheer amounts of bloodshed on the planet which
served as a sacrifice that empowered the daemon's awakening. When the Daemon was released it hinted at
a connection between itself and Inquisitor Toth. It would appear that the Inquisitor was not as pure as he
seemed to be. However Gabriel was unable to pursue the matter further, having to escape the planet.
 Ambush at Kruger Ridge (Unknown Date.M41) - Chapter Master Quesiah Ichabod of the Excoriators
Space Marine Chapter had come to the world of Ignis Prime to inspect the Excoriators' mountaintop
garrison of Kruger Ridge. He found a slaughterhouse rather than a Chapterhouse, and a waiting ambush in
the form of an attack by the Chaos Space Marines of the Alpha Legion. It was there, barricaded in the
oratorium, that Chapter Scourge Zachariah Kersh had fallen to Dorn's Darkness, failing both his Master and
his Chapter, and allowing the Alpha Legion's victory to become complete. Kersh failed to stop the Alpha
Legion's nearly-successful assassination attempt and crippling of Ichabod, and their theft of the Stigmartyr,
the ancient and revered Chapter standard of the Excoriators dating back to the days of the Second
Founding. This was a devastating blow to the Excoriators' morale, and the cause of many problems for the
Chapter. Ichabod was severely injured during the failed assassination attempt. Though strong, the Chapter
Master's wounds were grievous, leaving him writhing in envenomed agony. The Alpha Legion's
assassination had ultimately failed, but they had employed a virulent toxin for which the Excoriators'
Chapter Apothecarion had no record, nor antidote. Chapter Master Ichabod eventually succumbed to his
ultimate fate.
 Kaurava Campaign (Unknown Date.M41) - The campaign for the Kaurava System saw the Blood
Ravens pitted against the Astra Militarum stationed in the system and a holy crusade of the Order of the
 Sacred Rose of the Adepta Sororitas. Despite the presence of more than enough enemies in the form of the
Orks of WAAAGH! Gorgutz, Eldar of the Craftworld Ulthwe, the Dark Eldar of the Kabal of the Black
Heart, Chaos Space Marines of the Alpha Legion under the command of the Khornate Chaos Champion
Firaeveus Carron, and the Tau, the Imperial forces present in the system wound up engaged in brutal
infighting. To make matters worse, the Necrons had been slumbering under the sands of Kaurava III, a
Necron Tomb World, for millions of years and were now led by the newly awakened Necron Lord of
Kaurava. The campaign proved to be a disaster for the Blood Ravens, Captain Indrick Boreale was lost
along with all 5 of the Blood Raven companies under his command, though how events unfolded otherwise
remains uncertain in Imperial records.
 War of Beasts (001-025.M42) - Soon after the birth of the Great Rift, Alpha Legion Heretic Astartes and
other forces allied to them are among the forces of Chaos who seek to claim the strategically located world
of Vigilus in the Imperium Nihilus for Abaddon the Despoiler.
 The Nest of Serpents (Unknown Date.M42) - The long-seeded plans of the Alpha Legion come to
fruition after the Great Rift ripples into being across the heavens. Billions of mortal eyes look to the night
sky, and in a thousand locations and more, networks of sleeper and hypno-indoctrinated agents blink in
confusion as the mental imperatives of the Alpha Legion are triggered. A wave of anarchy blossoms across
every seeded world as newly revealed demagogues decry the Imperium that has failed to protect them,
stirring up swathes of Imperial citizenry that have been forbidden from looking at the night sky by heavy-
handed and reactionary new laws in the wake of the Great Rift's birth. Dozens of worlds fall when the
Alpha Legion arrive to turn rioting into outright war.

Legion Organisation

Pre-Heresy

Alpha Legionaries during the Horus Heresy

When faced with the task of elucidating the inner workings and structure of the Alpha Legion, one is once again
forced to deal head-on with paradox and contradiction, both by reports and the evidence left in the dust of
slaughtered worlds where the XXth Legion wrecked its arts of war.

Where one authoritative report might present the Legion's inner workings as highly stratified and cloaked in
labyrinthine secrecy beyond any other, a different report, also by reputable sources, might describe the Legion's
inner workings as surprisingly open and egalitarian in nature, with each voice bound in conflict regardless of rank or
station. Certain commonalities do however exist, particularly in accounts of how the XX th Legion fought, and to
some extent trained its Aspirants for war.

The first of these is the emphasis the Alpha Legion placed on unity of action and interaction within its ranks. Such
co-ordination and faultless discipline was paramount to the rapidly shifting, responsive tactics Alpharius inculcated
in his Legion, and the fluidity which characterised the Legion's deployments on the battlefield.

It was repeatedly reported that from their first hours as Aspirants, the would-be warriors of the Alpha Legion would
train and fight together as units, rather than individual soldiers; the success of each one, and even their survival,
depending on the success of the unit as a whole. The exercises and trials the XX th Legion's Aspirants were put
through were said to be in their way as deadly as any of the Legiones Astartes, but required both intelligence and
cooperation to overcome, so that no single Aspirant might alone survive them.

A second commonality in observation of the Alpha Legion was its superlative expertise in the arts of espionage,
sabotage, infiltration and assassination. The goal of which was to leave an enemy leaderless and fractured, a helpless
puppet before the Legion's onslaught when it came. In counterpoint, tactics of attrition and the forlorn hope, a
bloody slog of trench warfare and static defence, were things shunned by the Alpha Legion unless entirely
unavoidable, and even then only ever engaged in on the XXth Legion's own terms.
When the time for an attack came however, it would be a tactical mistake to underestimate the Alpha Legion's
abilities in open warfare, abilities which had drawn grudging praise from both the Warmaster Horus and Sanguinius
in action. The members' tactical coherence and fluid mastery of complex stratagems deployed by the Alpha Legion
in the realms of infiltration and covert assault also made them masters of eloquent manoeuvres, feints and ambush in
open battle. To fight the Alpha Legion's warriors and war machines in open battle was akin to fighting a single, vast
and crushing entity with mystical limbs and striking fangs, but operating under a single malevolent will.

It is unclear whether the Alpha Legion ever conformed fully to the original operating strictures and organisational
pattern laid out for the Space Marine Legions in the Principia Belicosa at the start of the Great Crusade, particularly
as the Alpha Legion was formed long after the initial Founding of the other Legions. Outwardly though, there was
extensive resemblance to the basic Legion patterns, although the command structure and the organisation of the
Alpha Legion can be discerned as being radically more fluid and specialised.

It seems entirely probable, given the evidence available, that an individual Legionary's role and position within the
division he was attached to was adapted and changed as frequently as tactical need demanded, and perhaps to some
higher system of purpose whose ultimate goal remains unknown.

The Alpha Legion's companies, battalions and Chapters (sometimes referred to as "Harrows," "Cohorts," "Hosts,"
and "Instruments" in shifting meaning) were formalised and broken down seemingly at the whim of Alpharius and
the Legion's commanders. To this end, unit numerations were swapped and heraldry changed and adapted, personnel
and resources were reassigned or removed entirely from an order of battle, only to be later again replaced.

Such organisational transits were noted not only between active deployments but also even during the coarse of a
particular campaign. This made the Legion's strength, intentions and deployments almost impossible to gauge or
track to foe and friend alike.

This shifting and deliberate formlessness may, by some reports, have extended even to a particular Legionary's
identity and rank, and is echoed in reports of uncommon similarity in both the physical features and aspect
sometimes displayed by the Astartes of the XXth Legion. Needless to say, this latter phenomenon is confusingly, not
constantly, observed in the record either, and while some reports speak of the Legion's members displaying a strange
physical uniformity, others infer them as originating from a mixture of genotypes, while others indicate a stranger,
waxy and unnatural appearance with grey flesh blank of pigment, and sees them adorned with shimmering
serpentine electoos.

It is entirely possible that all of these reports are equally valid. Whether surgical or memetic implantation
techniques, proscribed cognitive manipulation or esoteric technologies were employed to these ends remains
unknown, as does just to what extent the individual Legionaries undertook such measures voluntarily -- or perhaps
were even aware of being subjected to them at all.

At a strategic level the Alpha Legion was clearly at pains to maintain a wide spectrum of military assets and
capacities, its dedication to flexibility ensuring it was as capable in armoured warfare as it was in surgical drop
strikes, artillery fire support or close-quarter Zone Mortalis operations. It was supported in maintaining these
abilities by voracious demand for matèriel, particularly supplied by Forge Worlds such as Lucius, Incaladion and
Phaeton -- with some of these treaties of provender brokered directly by the Warmaster Horus, no doubt in the hope
of further securing the Alpha Legion's loyalty.

These arrangements do not, however, account for the full scope of the Alpha Legion's extensive panoply of war,
particularly their known acquisition of rare and specialised wargear notionally only manufactured by the armouries
of certain Legions and never released to others, or not yet issued outside of close prototype deployments.

A case in point is the evidence of the Alpha Legion's access to a version of Mark VI Corvus Pattern Power Armour,
not then in general circulation among the Legiones Astartes, as early as the Drop Site Massacre and the First Battle
of Paramar. Later battlefield recovery and analysis of this so-called "Corvus-Alpha" armour shows it in fact to be a
unique variant of the Mark VI suit likely developed separately from an early prototype of unknown manufacture.
This suggests that the Alpha Legion may have acquired incomplete schematics by covert means early in the project's
life and chosen to develop it on their own without recourse to the Mechanicum. It has been surmised that long before
the Horus Heresy was to tear the Imperium asunder, the Alpha Legion had sought to secure its own extensive
facilities of manufacture and positioned numerous hidden supply outposts and arms caches, both within Imperial
space and beyond it, the full extent of which will never be known.

Another mysterious development encountered by Loyalist Space Marines forces at Istvaan V were Banestrike Bolter
rounds. These mysterious variant bolt shells, believed to have been designed in secret within the armouries of the
Alpha Legion long before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, had it seems a sole purpose; to breach the ceramite
Power Armour of Space Marines.

Used openly for the first time at the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, their dense explosive cores and firing stresses
reduced their range and swiftly degraded the firing weapon, but their effect against the betrayed Loyalist Astartes
was devastating. Fortunately for the Loyalists, supplies of these difficult to manufacture munition rounds were
limited, and only the Alpha Legion and the Sons of Horus were able to field them in substantial numbers beyond
that incident of brutal treachery.

Exact figures for the martial strength of the Alpha Legion at the outset of the wars of the Horus Heresy are
impossible to obtain. Sources and estimates vary wildly, some making extravagant claims which may both
overestimate or undervalue the Alpha Legion's manpower. Most contemporaneous accounts around the time of the
Drop Site Massacre put the Alpha Legion at between 120,000 and 130,000 Legionaries strong, placing it within the
middle tier of Space Marine Legion strengths.

Some theorists have pointed the figure as far lower, somewhere in the 90,000 range based upon the largest
concentration of Alpha Legion forces ever seen in operation in a single theatre. With hindsight and diligent
corroboration however, evidence of multiple simultaneous battle-groups operating in far distant locales suggests a
far higher figure than either of these estimates, well into the range of 180,000 Legionnaires which, if accurate,
would make it one of the most formidable Legions in sheer size alone, a factor unguessed by both sides of the civil
war that was to follow.

In terms of access to wargear and star-faring vessels, the Alpha Legion were formidably equipped. Again, true
estimates are difficult to arrive at, but most pictorial and second party reports show the Alpha Legion as possessing
extensive access to the most modern forms of Legiones Astartes equipment, not limited to Maximus and Tartaros
Pattern Terminator Armour, the Sicaran Battle Tank and their sub-types as well as extensive stocks of plasma and
Conversion Beam weaponry and specialised munitions unknown outside the Legion.

In terms of warships, the Alpha Legion was known to possess a very extensive and diverse fleet, although lacking in
large numbers of heavy capital ships and planetary siegecraft in comparison to most other Legions. The main
strength of the Alpha Legion's fleets then was found in a plethora of different intermediate-class and Escort vessels,
with range and speed being their primary focus.

The Alpha Legion was also suspected of utilising a number of captured xenos vessels and indeed incorporating
xenos technology into their warship designs -- a practise strictly forbidden under Imperial law without the sanction
of the Mechanicum -- but given the Legion's frequent activities far beyond the Imperium's borders and its hidden
strengths and bases of operation, such a suspicion was impossible to prove.

As the war of the Horus Heresy raged on, the XXth Legion demonstrated an enviable ability to replace its battlefield
losses. While the war continued and many Legions saw their strength shorn away, the Alpha Legion appeared to
grow stronger throughout the conflict, despite several seemingly serious defeats. Much like the hydra of myth,
where one head was cut from the Legion's body, two more appeared to grow in its place.

Specialist Formations
  Effrit Stealth Squad - The Effrit Stealth Squad was a specialised infiltration unit within the ranks of the
Alpha Legion that operated during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras during the late 30th and early
31st Millennia. The Legion Seeker Squads employed by many Space Marine Legions were, according to
some reports, pioneered first by the Alpha Legion to this end, and certainly such squads, along with
specialised Legion Reconnaissance Squads, were common to all of the Legions' battle formations, although
their use sat poorly within the more honourable combat doctrine of some of the Legions like the Space
Wolves. These tactics were taken a stage further by the Alpha Legion in the creation of an elite unit geared
specifically to rapidly inflicting targeted casualties behind enemy lines, known variably as the Headhunters
or "Effrit" -- although this latter term may also have referred to the act of assassination, and the sowing of
destruction and chaos behind the lines in mid-battle, as well as a particular unit type. This preference for
high-impact strikes carried out by small, elite infantry units is evidenced by the fact that both Legion
Destroyer Squads (who suffered none of the opposition found in some Legions to those so assigned) as well
as speculated Alpha Legion sabotage operatives are also classified as "Effrit" in some accounts and treated
as a respected Veteran cadre within the Legion. These operatives were chosen for their adaptive thinking as
well as their ability to improvise. The Effrit Stealth Squad was personally led by Omegon, one of the twin-
Primarchs of the Alpha Legion. Little else is known of this elite formation, as the Alpha Legion was
notorious for the obfuscation and secrecy that surrounded the internal workings of their mysterious Legion.
 Headhunter Kill-teams - The histories of the Great Crusade record that it was the Alpha Legion that
conceived of the deployment of Legion Seeker Squads, a unit configuration that spread to the other Legions
as the Great Crusade expanded outwards. The Legion did not halt at Seeker Squads however, and had since
fielded a further refinement of the concept in the form of Headhunter Kill-teams. These supremely skilled
infiltrators specialised in creating conditions of all-consuming chaos among the enemy's ranks, sowing
confusion by eliminating key officers, positions and assets. In doing so, the Headhunters brought about a
tipping point in a battle or an entire campaign, the fulcrum upon which the fate of worlds was balanced.
Headhunter Kill-teams were made up of the most skilled infiltrators and assassins in the Alpha Legion, and
fielded at the direct command of a senior commander. They had access to some of the most prized wargear
their Legion could provide, including special ammunition conceived specifically to penetrate armour up to
and including Legiones Astartes battle plate.

A Lernaean Terminator Strike Leader in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour

 Lernaean Terminator Squad - Another designation, again driven from ancient Terran myth by the Alpha
Legion, was the "Lernaean". This cognomen appears to have been given to the XX th Legion's most expert
shock assault troops, particularly to dedicated Terminator companies and in some instances Legion
Breacher Siege Squads and Dreadnoughts. Few knew of the Lernaean Terminator Squads, though not
because the Alpha Legion sought to obscure their existence, but rather because they rarely left behind any
witnesses of their deeds. Clad in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour chased with baroque finery and
armed with Volkite Chargers, this made them fearsome close assault and vanguard spearhead units against
which few enemies could stand. In particular, battle recordings of certain Lernaean Terminator units mark
them as being equipped with advanced teleportation assault capacity and specialised heavy weaponry such
as compact Conversion Beam weapons and phase-field generator gear. The foremost task of the Lernaean
was to swiftly isolate and destroy the most powerful frontline troops and potent battlefield assets a foe
possessed, and to do so in such an emphatic and bloody manner that not only was a potential threat to the
Alpha Legion's attack eroded, but the psychological shock of their attack would further damage enemy
morale. Such was the calculated cruelty and cold brutality employed by the Lernaean Terminators that their
reputation quickly spread beyond the Alpha Legion itself.

Legion Infiltrators

A lone Alpha Legion operative.

The Alpha Legion was well known for their use of subterfuge and the innate ability of its Astartes and other
operatives to blend-in with any environment. The Legion's agents mimicked those that they infiltrated to gather
intelligence, perform sabotage, or plant disinformation. They also used more drastic measures, such as those
employed during the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V during the opening days of the Horus Heresy.
Reveling in their anonymity, the Astartes of the Alpha Legion always strove to look alike, modeling themselves on
their Primarchs Alpharius and Omegon who sought to keep their separate identities secret. The Alpha Legion's
Primarchs had also devised an audacious plan to infiltrate another Space Marine Legion by using specially selected
infiltrators.

Prospective candidates for infiltration were selected for their possession of a variety of skills required for the
successful completion of a mission, such as linguistic ability, a quick mind or an instinct for adaptation. These
candidates would then take even more drastic steps to ensure their ability to infiltrate their targets, having their
minds reprogrammed psychically by the Legion's Librarians so that they would forget their own true identities. The
precautions taken by the psykers of the Alpha Legion shielded the infiltrator's mind from casual inspection by
psychic or technological means.

During the Battle of Istvaan V, the Alpha Legion appropriated the bodies of many slain Raven Guard Astartes.
Alpha Legion Apothecaries removed the faces from the slain Astartes and had them surgically grafted in place of an
Alpha Legion infiltrator's face; remolding the bone, tendons and muscles in order for the misappropriated face to be
successfully implanted.

To complete the façade, the infiltrator then ingested the flesh of the fallen Astartes, allowing their Omophagea organ
to dissect and absorb the memories of the fallen Astartes. Bolstered by the abilities of the Librarians -- abilities
forbidden by the Imperial anti-psyker edicts of the Council of Nikaea, but still widely practised by the Alpha Legion
-- the infiltrators were able to gather what fragments they could of the dead Astartes' life.

An infiltrator often did not know how many others were involved in a particular mission or whether or not they were
successful in taking their assigned places; there could be a single operator or possibly dozens of operatives. It did
not matter, for a lone Alpha Legion infiltrator was trained to act alone and act accordingly -- remaining alive and
undetected until such time as it was prudent to communicate with someone from their Legion. Infiltrators were
always prepared to give their lives for their Primarch and their Legion in order to successfully achieve the mission
objectives assigned to them.

Once an Alpha Legion agent successfully infiltrated his assigned target, the operative had to take special care to stay
constantly alert to maintain the façade that they had adopted. With the assistance of the Legion's Apothecaries and
the genetic material absorbed by their Omophagea, the operative's vocal chords and mouth would be reshaped to
better resemble that of the target whose identity he had assumed, as the genetically-enhanced hearing of a Space
Marine could detect any small difference that might give rise to suspicion.

Living amongst those they were assigned to infiltrate, each day an operative learned a little more about their foe --
small mannerisms, turns of phrase, and protocols -- that enabled him to blend in better with his fellows, but it was
not an entirely perfect process.

As an infiltrator the operative understood what it meant to be a member of the Alpha Legion, and so did not expect
to be lauded or singled out for his actions -- such glory-mongering was not in the Legion's traditions. Each operative
would fulfill their purpose, take contentment from the knowledge of a mission accomplished and the praise of their
twin Primarchs, and become one of the anonymous many of the Legion once again.

The Alpha Legion was also known to operate behind enemy lines and even mingle with enemy civilian populations.
In such situations they were apparently able to pass unnoticed with a combination of appropriate dress and psyker
mind-clouding.

Other Formations

Certain records also indicate other named and specialised formations of the XX th Legion, such as the "Rhatoshaen",
"Shayatan", "Quaryn" and "Echidna" whose nature, if they truly existed at all, remain mysterious.
In addition, certain references are made to the "Chrythsaor" which may have referred to the Legion's Librarians
(possibly encompassing a wider intelligence gathering apparatus as well), which was suspected to have been
extensive before the Council of Nikaea.

Though not believed to have been present at the Council, Alpharius, at least outwardly, appears to have had his
Legion abide by its ruling and disband their Librarius corps, a stance quickly ended during the war of the Heresy.

Non-Astartes Agents

Of importance also when considering the particular structure and capabilities of the Alpha Legion was its use of
human and augmented-human agents and paramilitaries. Whereas many Space Marine Legion forces utilised the
manifold elements of the Imperial forces to support their efforts in the Great Crusade, and many Expeditionary
Fleets utilised regiments of the Imperialis Auxilia subservient to the Legiones Astartes in their order of battle, the
Alpha Legion made particular use of detached mortal elements specifically trained for tasks of espionage,
infiltration and terrorism, and these were beholden to none save the XX th Legion itself in fealty.

When encountering human worlds to be brought into Imperial Compliance, these augmented and highly adept
agents (referred to as Sparatoi, possibly from an ancient Terran term meaning the "sown men", in some sources),
would go ahead of the Legion and infiltrate the population, acting as spies, agitators and saboteurs. Operating
individually or as part of a cell network, these agents and operatives often had little knowledge of each other or in
many cases of who their true masters were, but were uniformly highly trained, psycho-conditioned for ruthlessness
and fanatical loyalty, and were often subjected to surgical, cybernetic or biochemical augmentation to further their
abilities.

They would encourage treachery, spread disinformation and corrosive mimetic patterns, and find or take over
underground rebel or terrorist groups. Their role primarily was to promote dissent and cause widespread panic and
infrastructural damage, and so seek to critically weaken an enemy before the Legion itself emerged in battle.

When the Alpha Legion finally showed its hand, these elite agents and their web of prepper-agents would provide a
wave of sabotage and destruction attacks, further destabilising the enemy, often at the cost of their own lives. It is
apparent that prior to the Horus Heresy, these mortal agent networks was expanded into the Imperium itself and its
armed forces, becoming a cancerous presence that was only revealed as the great interstellar civil war erupted.

The XXth Legion recruited many of these non-Astartes specialists in every theatre and campaign they entered,
commonly members of the other Imperial armed forces, though almost any human could be approached by the
Legion for his knowledge or skills. These operatives often remained in their original position, ready to respond to
Alpha Legion commands.

Compromised operatives were not discarded if it could be avoided, and Alpha Legionaries would go to great lengths
to retain them or hide their existence, lengths that included the fatal silencing of other Imperials. Alpha Legion
operatives were tattooed with a small hydra symbol similar to the XX th Legion's badge.

Legion Command Hierarchy

As with so much concerning the Alpha Legion, precise definition of their command structure cannot be determined
with certainty, but certain patterns can be deduced as -- if not constant -- then repeated enough to have been deemed
important. The first of these is specialisation. In any given deployment, a chain of command was obeyed
unquestioningly, but this chain of command was a fluid one, both conditioned and highly decentralised in its
manner.

While a force would be notionally under the command of an officer such as a Captain, the authority held by
specialists in particular, such as Siege Masters or Vigilators, was deferred to as a matter of course and was regarded
as absolute and not to be questioned in their area of expertise. Likewise, each unit within the XXth Legion was
expected to operate as a self-motivated and self-governing "cell" without need of exterior command, and expected to
display initiative and pursue its part in the wider battle plan under its own cognisance and in any way it judged to be
expedient.

Such was the emphasis on unity of action and initiative the Alpha Legion placed on its warriors that the battlefield
co-ordination and responsiveness to changing circumstances that the Alpha Legion displayed was arguably superior
to that of any other of the Legiones Astartes. The Alpha Legion's commanders seldom were observed to operate as
champions or warlords in the conventional sense as might be expected of the Legiones Astartes, craving it seemed
neither personal glory nor the experience of sublime clash of arms.

Instead they were wont to observe the battle unfold impassively, matching the patterns of force and bloodshed it
revealed, intervening only when needed by issuing orders that would tip the outcome in the Alpha Legion's favour
or by direct participation, striking personally at the point of vulnerability where they would inflict the greatest
damage.

In terms of honourifics and titles, the Alpha Legion seemed to have used a shifting set of terminology to convey
authority and role. At times the Alpha Legion appears to have deliberately aped the systems used by other Legions
(such as the Sons of Horus and the Blood Angels) although whether this was done to incorporate a proven pattern of
organisation as part of a particular strategy or as some form of mockery remains unknown.

Aside from these patterns, close scrutiny of the records reveals several distinctive additional divisions of command
not shown by other Legions. One such unique title known to have been used by the Alpha Legion was that of
"Harrowmaster" or Jhariuk as the leading commander given overall control of all Alpha Legion forces in a given
war zone was known.

Although their normal rank might vary, it was the task of the Harrowmaster to keep track of encompassing the
shifting events of a conflict in minute detail and shape the actions of the Legion's forces accordingly, creating and
aborting battle plans and stratagems with bewildering speed.

The position of Harrowmaster was known to be held as a supreme accolade by the Alpha Legion, and their infamous
skill at battlefield control was highly regarded (even as the Legion itself was often mistrusted) by the commanders
and strategists of the other Space Marine Legions.

It is noteworthy that the Harrowmasters were among the few of the Legion, save its Equerries, whose personal
names are left to the open record, although whether they have any basis in reality or are merely guises worn by a
single warrior or perhaps a series of individuals remains unknowable.

Post-Heresy

Post-Heresy appearance of Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marines

Even less is known about the internal organisation of the Alpha Legion since the Horus Heresy than was known
before. On occasions there have been successful assassinations of members of the Legion thought to be high-ranking
officers, but their removal has had little visible effect on Alpha Legion operations.

The Legion's badge, the hydra, is a multi-headed mythical beast which could keep fighting even if one of its heads
was cut off. This legend seems to reflect the Alpha Legion's command structure, as well as echoing its doctrine of
multiple simultaneous attacks.

Alpharius Omegon believed in planning and co-ordination, and the twins always sought alternatives and multiple
solutions to any given problem, with different elements working together for the end result. These doctrines,
thoroughly embraced by the Legion as a whole, have apparently been continued by the Traitor Legion warbands and
have proven effective, especially in the disparate and secretive way they now operate.
Extensive preparations are made before actually attacking an Imperial target, including using spies and corruption to
weaken an enemy's resolve. Not only is an enemy attacked from every angle, but every attack is often coordinated to
achieve the most destructive results. Many actions are planned to utilise and support local Chaos Cultist activity.
These cults go to considerable effort to spread propaganda, perform sabotage, and carry out acts of unrest and
rebellion, providing a distraction and weakening the enemy before the Alpha Legion strikes.

Furthermore, the Legion has been known to ally themselves with anti-Imperial forces including other Traitor
Legions and even xenos like the Drukhari. On worlds far away from the Eye of Terror, daemons are less relied upon
since they cannot remain stable for long enough in the physical universe to be useful. If the Alpha Legion succeeds
in securing the belief of a local Chaos Cult the cultists are summoned to add to the variety of their attacks.

Legion Combat Doctrine

Hydra Dominatus

The Primarch Alpharius was the last to be found by the Emperor, their relationship distant and formal even before
Horus revealed his true colours. Those outside the XX Legion believed this was because the Emperor had already
completed His galactic odyssey to reclaim the Primarchs by the time the two met in person, and that His focus had
shifted elsewhere.

Some Legionaries realised that their relationship was likely more complex, and others whispered that Alpharius was
one of two twins who were all but identical. Many of the Alpha Legion were uncannily similar in appearance and
temperament, and their Primarch used this fact to his advantage -- the claims that Alpharius was so efficient he
could appear in two places at once had their basis in reality.

Unusually for a Primarch, Alpharius was not a giant by comparison to the Battle-Brothers that followed him. He was
able to assume the identities of his minions -- and vice versa -- whenever it would serve him to wrong-foot his
enemies. Many was the warrior who claimed to be Alpharius to throw his foes off the scent; indeed, in some ways,
every member of the Legion is an echo of his primogenitor in some manner.

This grand misdirection is reflected across the XX Legion to this day. Alpha Legion warlords are rarely where they
appear to be; inside the armour of a famed leader may be a new recruit, whereas a Bolter-wielding line warrior may
in truth be the mastermind behind a sector-wide conquest. In this way do the Alpha Legion echo their totem and
embody their war cry "Hydra Dominatus," for their foes find it impossible to land a decapitating blow.

Pre-Heresy

A Pre-Heresy Alpha Legion Legionary during an Imperial Compliance action

At a tactical level, the Alpha Legion favoured freedom of manoeuvre and portability of firepower, and its battle
tactics showed particular tendencies towards specialised reconnaissance and infiltration units in opening combat
operations, to be quickly followed by the rapid deployment of fast armour, close air support and mechanised infantry
units as a main strike force.

Attacking from many vectors at once, as well as skillfully employing feints and ambushes, would commonly reveal
a foe's weaknesses to the watching Alpha Legion commanders. They would then bring about maximum pressure
against the exposed vulnerability, deploying reserves of shock troops, heavy armour and artillery as expedient to
deal a shattering death blow.

In order to employ these tactics, the Alpha Legion was known to have developed a number of specialised formations
and units, often equipped with otherwise unknown and esoteric weapons and wargear. They were also known to
form sub-divisions, referred to as "Splinters," which operated completely in isolation to achieve a particular mission
or strategic goal, without regard to the safety or survival of either themselves or other members of their own force. It
was often the case that other allied forces, and even the rest of the Alpha Legion deployments in the conflicts in
which they operated would be entirely unaware of a Splinter's existence or mission.

Post-Heresy

A Post-Heresy Alpha Legion Chaos Terminator in battle

The Alpha Legion's Primarch Alpharius' axiom was to attack one's enemy in as many diverse ways as possible, at
the same time. The most experienced of the Alpha Legion are always specialists in the arts of the infiltrator and the
thoughtsmith. The chosen agents of their warband's leader, these master operatives are able to bind their victims in
spiralling webs of suspicion, confusion and doubt before springing their lethal traps.

In practice, this doctrine manifests in a variety of ways depending on the size of the operation and locale of the
battle zone. Obfuscation and skullduggery are the Legion's mantra.

The Alpha Legion has been known to employ devious tactics such as flanking maneuvers, tunneling to bypass
enemy defences, diversionary tactics, disguising troops and vehicles in enemy colours, air drops and teleportation
behind enemy lines, infiltration, disabling enemy transport vehicles and routes, sabotage of essential supplies,
ammunition, food, and fuel depots, as well as atmospheric and ecological tampering, triggering seismic and tectonic
activity, coercion, bribery of enemy troops and officers and Imperial officials, disguising as and impersonating
Imperial officers, enlisting enemy forces, distributing propaganda to incite civil unrest and outright rebellion,
organizing anti-Imperial activity and supplying heretical groups and cultists, and allying themselves with corsairs,
aliens and other Traitor Legions.

Many of these unscrupulous tactics are employed by the Legion after careful coordination, often resulting in an
elaborate and enigmatic strategy that leaves their enemies confounded and confused. Through the use of these
completely unorthodox tactics the Alpha Legion is able to deploy smaller and more mobile forces than is normally
necessitated, for the Legion employs actual combat as only one part of their overall strategy.

Alpha Legion Names

It is unknown from where Alpha Legion names derive, though they often include a name taken from a physical
feature, personality quirk, past deed, another defining feature of the Heretic Astartes in question or even a simple
numerical designator.

However, these names may or may not represent the real designations of Alpha Legion Astartes, whose penchant for
disguise and deception are well known. An Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marine is as likely to simply refer to himself
as "Alpharius" as he is to use any other name.

Examples of Alpha Legion names include: Orron Dureel, Tallir Lightfall, Sylas Nul, Cronyx X632, Helon of the
Ghost Code, Hammar the Whisper, Parassus Nul, Dynan Valdorius, Alpharius 23-7, Trago Sygnus, and Xanias
Korsa.

Legion Beliefs

"I am Alpharius."
—Common greeting of all Alpha Legion Astartes when confronting outsiders

The Alpha Legion lives by the tenets of its Primarch who believed that only thorough planning and decisive
coordination could one's ultimate objective be achieved. By having different elements working together in a
cohesive and decisive force, the Legion is able to find alternative and multiple solutions to any given problem that
may present itself.
This nefarious doctrine has been wholeheartedly embraced by the entirety of the Legion, having proved to be
brutally effective for millennia. During the early days when the Space Marine Legions came into existence, they had
set grueling tasks and trials for potential recruits.

Prior to the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the Alpha Legion was known to set these initiation trials for entire
squads, not individual candidates. They had to succeed as a group or not at all. If one failed, they all failed.
Foolhardy or individual heroics were frowned upon, for the overall strategic plan is paramount and more valuable
than any one Space Marine. It is not known if this practice is still carried out by the Legion.

The first batch of Alpha Legionaries was notably tall and strong even for members of the Astartes, physical
attributes which suited Alpharius' focus on misdirection. For the Primarch put into place a directive that, as far as
possible, all Alpha Legion Space Marines had to attempt to look alike; and the visage they patterned themselves on
was that of Alpharius and Omegon.

As a result, all Alpha Legionaries were at the very least shaven-headed, with many going so far as to have cosmetic
surgical alteration. Their height also made it easier for them to be confused with the Primarch, although the twins
were still the tallest in the Legion. When asked by non-Legion members, all Legionaries gave their names as
"Alpharius," even when more than one was present.

This was an extension of the Legion's philosophy that they were a body of one that could strike in many places at
once. This complete solidarity with each other expressed itself in other ways. Decisions within the Legion were
made in a fairly open and reasonably democratic way, with all ranks -- including the Alpha Legions' non-Astartes
operatives -- allowed to interject and comment freely during planning sessions.

This freedom was allowed not just on military matters -- the Alpha Legion internally discussed matters of
philosophy and galactic policy that would have been forbidden or frowned upon in other Imperial institutions. Later
recruits for the XXth Legion were selected by the Primarch primarily based on high intelligence and personal
initiative.

Legion Gene-Seed

Unlike the other Traitor Legions that reside in the Eye of Terror, the Alpha Legion's gene-seed is not plagued by the
warping influence of Chaos, though there is still evidence of mutation in their gene-seed. It is unknown if there was
such a problem with their gene-seed prior to the Horus Heresy; if so, it was kept concealed.

It would not be surprising if the Legion did such a thing, due to their predilection for secrecy. During one well-
documented battle during the Gothic War known as the Lethe Ambush, Alpha Legionaries that were mutated were
observed hiding their warped body parts, not out of any sense of shame, but as a form of subterfuge. They would
only reveal their mutations once they were upon their enemies, adding shock and revulsion to their horrified
enemies.

Notable Alpha Legionaries

 Alpharius - Alpharius was one of the twenty Primarchs created by the Emperor of Mankind in the earliest
days of the Imperium of Man, just after the end of the Age of Strife in the 30th Millennium. In truth,
Alpharius and his brother Omegon were actually a pair of identical twin brothers. This greatest of secret of
the Alpha Legion's Primarch was apparently told to no one outside the XX th Legion, and it has always been
thus. Alpharius was without a doubt the most steeped in mystery, legend, contradiction and deliberate
falsification of all the Primarchs. The Primarch of the Alpha Legion shrouded himself in mystery, often
moving unseen even amongst the ranks of his own Legion, appearing as just another line Astartes.
However, when the time came to cast off the cloak of misdirection, Alpharius was as awe-inspiring a being
as any of his other brother Primarchs. Due to the Alpha Legion's trademark secrecy extends to the records
of their Primarch. There is little recorded information on his biographical background or where his
homeworld originates. Following the tragic events of the Horus Heresy, the Alpha Legion did not retreat to
 the Eye of Terror like the other Traitor Legions; instead they moved on into the galactic East, following
new objectives of their own devising. Upon the world of Eskrador, Alpharius would meet his fate.
Alpharius wanted to demonstrate the superiority of the flexible, multitudinous and unexpected military
strategies of his Legion over the notoriously precise, methodical and perhaps even tactically moribund
Ultramarines. Both Primarchs met in combat and Alpharius was supposedly killed. Even though they had
lost their Primarch, the Alpha Legion managed to soundly beat the Ultramarines, who proceeded to
bombard their foes' position from orbit. It should be noted, however, that Alpharius' death is still
considered suspect even by the Ultramarines, and he may still be alive. On the other hand, it is possible that
"Alpharius" did indeed die and his twin "Omegon" took sole command of the Alpha Legion as the new
Alpharius.
 Omegon - Primarch of the Alpha Legion and also commander of the Effrit Stealth Squad. Large portions of
Omegon's Power Armour and wargear were painted black and darkened. Omegon often operated under
various disguises to keep secret the existence of the Alpha Legion's twin Primarchs. Following the death of
"Alpharius" upon the world of Eskrador at the hands of Roboute Guilliman, Omegon may have assumed
the reigns of the Alpha Legion. His current fate is unknown.
 Ingo Pech - First Captain of the Alpha Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy era, Ingo Pech,
like the majority of the Legionaries within the Alpha Legion, possessed strong physical similarities to his
Primarch Alpharius, with a shaved head but gold-flecked brown eyes. Though he was physically smaller
than some of the other Legionaries, he was quite strong.
 (Ma)Thias Herzog - Second Captain of the Alpha Legion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy
eras, Thias Herzog also possessed physical characteristics nearly identical to his Primarch Alpharius. He
was older than his peer First Captain Pech by twenty standard years. His bald scalp suggested that his hair
was of a darker natural color, and that he shaved his head to resemble his Primarch and fellow captain.
Herzog possessed blue eyes like his Primarch's.
 Armillus Dynat - Harrowmaster Armillus Dynat, known as the "Griefbringer" and "Instar-Nine", was a
formidable strategist with a penchant for unorthodox and highly intricate attack plans often designed to pull
apart and maim enemy fortifications before a killing blow was delivered, Armillus was also a master of
integrated fast-armour and close air-support tactics. Armillus Dynat is thought to have been a theatre
commander during the notorious Tesstra Campaign and the mastermind behind the Oanessi Genocide and
the Harrowing of Callista Mundus.
 Autilon Skorr - Known as the "King-Killer" and the "Hydra's Headsman", Autilon Skorr was a Consul-
Delegatus of the Alpha Legion, and was listed on the roll of honour of the Great Crusade's Council of War
no less than seven times before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, for he was frequently dispatched by his
Legion's high command to demand Compliance of newly discovered worlds in the name of the Imperium.
After the outbreak of the Heresy, he furthered the Warmaster's campaign of "Dark Compliance" by many
bloody handed deeds. At Epsilon-Stranivar IX, the Shattered Legions would be all that stood between Skorr
and greater victories.
 Sheed Ranko - Sheed Ranko was the master of the Alpha Legion's Lernaean Terminator Squads during the
Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras, and was an especially large Astartes, who doubled well for both
Omegon and Lord Alpharius in diplomatic circumstances. He was a loyal Legionary who was known to
accept any mission with the utmost secrecy. During the Horus Heresy, Sheed was assigned by Primarch
Omegon to destroy a secret Alpha Legion watch station, called the Tenebrae, as he believed that it was
leaking intelligence to the Alpha Legion's enemies. Before the operation began, Sheed drank some of the
Primarch's own blood, and took on the physical appearance of Omegan, and even gained some of his
memories. In a one-way suicide mission, Sheed successfully infiltrated the hidden base posing as Primarch
Omegon, and managed to successfully destroy the facility.
 Chaitin - Chaitin was a Legate within the XXth Legion for the later part of the Great Crusade and early
years of the Horus Heresy. Legate Chaitin is known for having refused to follow his twin-Primarchs into
treachery, upholding his vows to the Imperium and having successfully dodged any pursuit for several
years until the point one of the twin Primarchs themselves had to hunt him down. Chaitin was assassinated
by an infiltrated Alpha Legionary, posing as the Iron Hands Septus Thoic, aboard the Sisypheum, who was
loyal to Alpharius. He died on the Death World of Eirene Septimus.
 Exodus - None can say whether Exodus is a single individual or one of several supremely skilled assassins
operating at the behest of the uppermost echelons of the Alpha Legion. Whatever the truth, the Legionary
known as Exodus ranked amongst the most skilled killers outside of the Assassin Clades of the Officio
 Assassinorum during the Great Crusade. His skill-at-arms was born of the convergence of the will,
physiology and conditioning of a Space Marine with the fieldcraft and panoply of arms and wargear of an
assassin. So adept was Exodus that he was said to rival even the marksmen of Clade Vindicare in his ability
to insinuate himself into position and deliver the killing shot at the pivotal moment in a campaign. Some
histories claim that as many as a dozen worlds were brought into Imperial Compliance with only a single
shot having been fired by Exodus, who could achieve with one round what the expenditure of billions of
rounds, charges and shells might never bring about.
 Dartarion Varix - As Strike Commander of the Alpha Legion, Dartarion Varix was one of the XX th
Legion most trusted officers. As leader of the Legion's elite Third Harrow of the First Host, Varix was a
master of infiltration and an extremely efficient tactician. During the Horus Heresy, Varix was tasked with
a top-secret mission: to infiltrate Terra in preparation for the Warmaster's final offensive. However the ship
upon which Varix intended to clandestinely enter the Segmentum Solar -- the Mechanicum ark-freighter
Omnissiax -- was diverted to another world, the Battle Group of Legio Perennia Titans it was carrying
being called upon to crush the open rebellion on the world of Callista Mundi. Unable to attain his primary
objective, Strike Commander Varix then proceeded to take control of the Omnissiax and its precious cargo
which would prove decisive in the following Harrowing of Callista Mundi.
 Ursinius Echion - Ursinius was a Librarian of the Alpha Legion during the Great Crusade and early years
of the Horus Heresy, who still retained his position within the Legion's Librarius, despite the Emperor's
Decree Absolute laid down during the Council of Nikaea, which forbid the Legiones Astartes the use of
such psykers within their ranks. Sometime during the early years of the Heresy he was interviewed by
Primarch Omegon in regards to the status of the secret Alpha Legion asteroid bases of Tenebrae Station.
The Alpha Legion made use of this facility to help manipulate the Warp through the use of a pylon array,
which they utilised to keep the White Scars Legion both contained and ignorant of Chondax. During the
conversation, Sheed Ranko was hidden from Echion's sight in the shadows, secretly observing the
conversation. Following the Librarian's dismissal, Sheed Ranko helped formulate a plan to neutralise a
suspected security leak by destroying the facility. Afterwards, Ursinius was executed by Omegon for his
failure in prevent the leak from occurring in the first place.
 Ancient Archontas Origo - Very little is known of the warrior referred to in the archives of the Logistica
Corpus as the "Archontas" of an unknown chapter of the Alpha Legion, and it is considered unlikely that
"Origo" is even a personal name. According to some extant early Great Crusade archives, at least a dozen
different warriors of the old XXth Legion bore that name, every one of them falling in combat during the
early or mid Crusade eras to be interred within the armoured sarcophagus of a number of different marks of
Dreadnought armour, from early Furibundus to later mark Castra Ferrum. The last known individual to bear
this name, was interred within a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought. Archontas Origo's Dreadnought armour
was equipped with a pair of power claws with inset flamers, making him a fearsome prospect for any but
the most accomplished of melee fighters. He also mounted a Cyclone Missile Launcher, a weapon often
utilised to break down the coherency of enemy formations prior to an attack, a broad category of tactic the
Alpha Legion were noted as being especially adept at implementing. This ancient's ultimate fate is
unknown.
 Ancient Nehalen, "The Interitus" (Deceased) - Renowned among the Alpha Legion for his exploits as a
member of the Legion's Destroyer cadre in days long since passed, Nehalen earned for himself the title
"Interitus" for his brutal methods -- the fear of his deployment to a war zone a more potent deterrent than a
full company of lesser warriors. Following a cataclysmic encounter with the Fra'al, Nehalen was confined
to the metal shell of a Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, a transition that barred him from the infiltration
missions that had once been his specialty and kindled in him a cold fury and appetite for open slaughter that
exceeded his fellows. On Mezoa he served in Autillion Skorr's bodyguard of enforcers, delivering many of
the suicidal edicts of the Alpha Legion commander to the Iron Warriors under his command. He was to
meet his final end in combat with Cassian Dracos, the Dragon Revenant, who finally ended his cruel
existence in a brawl that levelled an entire sub-section of the Mezoan forge-fane.
 Arkos the Faithless, the Scion of Alpharius - Arkos the Faithless was a Captain of the Alpha Legion who
turned Traitor along with the rest of his Legion during the Horus Heresy. Arkos is a Chaos Lord of the
Alpha Legion and leader of the Alpha Legion warband known as The Faithless that intervened to support
the Forces of Chaos during the Siege of Vraks. Following the defeat of the Chaotic forces on Vraks, the
Faithless were destroyed and Arkos was taken prisoner by the Dark Angels Chapter of Loyalist Space
Marines.
 Bale (Deceased) - Bale was the Chaos Lord who led an Alpha Legion warband to the Imperial Civilised
World of Tartarus to find the ancient Chaotic artefact known as the Maledictum that met resistance from
Captain Gabriel Angelos and the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company. Bale was slain by his own lieutenant, the
Chaos Sorcerer Sindri Myr, who harboured his own ambition to use the Maledictum to become a Daemon
Prince.
 Arkturion - Arkturion, a notable Warpsmith of the Alpha Legion, has grown particularly notorious for his
campaigns of deception and terror against both the Imperium and the Severan Dominate within the
Spinward Front of the Calixis Sector, raising nightmarish Daemon Engines to obliterate his foes.
 Firaeveus Carron (Deceased) - Firaeveus Carron was a Chaos Lord who led an Alpha Legion warband.
Though its members were dedicated to Chaos Undivided, Carron himself was a Chaos Champion of
Khorne. Firaeveus Carron led the Forces of Chaos' invasion of the Imperial Kaurava System during the 41st
Millennium after a Warp Rift opened in the system through the will of the Chaos Gods. Carron and his
warband were ultimately defeated by the Imperial forces defending Kaurava, although it is unknown in the
Imperial records which of the three Imperial factions present in the system defeated him -- the 252nd
Conservator Regiment of the Imperial Guard, the Blood Ravens Chapter or the Adepta Sororitas of the
Order of the Sacred Rose.
 Dynat Crowbane - Following the tragic events of the Horus Heresy, during the unending bloodshed of the
Great Scouring, the Traitor Chaos Warlord Dynat Mal, known as "Crowbane" for his ambush and slaughter
of Raven Guard forces during the Battle of Lyx, fled to the Mandragoran Stars and gathered to him a
coterie of Renegades, diabolists and Traitors thousands strong. Imperial forces sent in pursuit were
repeatedly out-manoeuvred and cut apart piecemeal as Dynat's forces, now known as "The Shadowed
Ones", employ guerrilla tactics and dark forces to extend their mastery over the region. After the vital
Imperial outpost station at the world of Amarah in what is now the Orpheus Sector of the Segmentum
Tempestus had been attacked and destroyed, its entire population slaughtered and stockpiles plundered, any
Imperial claim to the region was effectively severed. This sundered realm, caught beyond the light of the
Imperium at the edges of the Veiled Region, became known as the Dark Marches and is benighted by
ignorance and discord, and is shrouded from human sight.
 Roek Ghulclaw - Roek Ghulclaw was a Chaos Lord who led the Chaos Cult known as The Guns of
Freedom. He had unknowingly infiltrated the Word Bearers Warmaster Davroth's chosen council so subtly
that none suspected his true allegiance, which ultimately was the Alpha Legion. General Andol of the Guns
of Freedom was but one of Roek's pawns and informants seeded throughout the sector. He took part in the
invasion of Makenna VII. With the arrival of Davroth's fleet, The Guns of Freedom led those loyal to the
cause in rebellion. Though they believed they were overthrowing an unjust dictator, in reality they were
merely pawns, for their commander General Andol was one of the Alpha Legion's many agents upon this
world.
 Phocron - Phocron was the name of supposed Chaos Lord of the Alpha Legion, who was held responsible
for the death of entire worlds through callous acts of sabotage, terrorism and inciting war, undertaken by
his vast network of Chaos Cultists and human operatives. He was pursued for over a century by an Ordo
Hereticus Inquisitor who was obsessed with capturing the elusive Chaos Lord. When he finally tracked the
traitor down to the derelict Space Hulk Hyrdra's Eye the true perfidy of the Alpha Legion was revealed --
the name "Phocron" was an alias assumed by multiple Alpha Legion Chaos Space Marines, for there never
was a true Phocron that existed. It was merely a cover used to help organise cultists and agents across the
Imperium as a symbol to rally behind. Since the identity of Phocron had been compromised, the Alpha
Legion was going to discard it anyways. Even worse, the Inquisitor noticed that one of the Alpha
Legionaries face had been surgically altered to match his own, indicating that the Inquisitor would be the
new identity that had been chosen to replace "Phocron".
 Jaghathra Vrax (Deceased) - An Alpha Legion warlord, who for decades, operated out of a fortress in the
Black Mountains upon the world of Ghorvenfal. A noted bladesman, he plagued surrounding systems with
piratical raids, evading the Imperium's clumsy reprisals with ease. However Vrax eventually overreached
himself. Having discovered that the Kabal of the Black Heart planned to raid the Imperial factory world of
Melidrantis, he elected to use the Dark Eldar as pawns in his own schemes. At the battle's height they
struck, catching both the Kabalites and their beleaguered Cadian foes by surprise and exacting a heavy toll
upon them both. Vrax' forces escaped with a huge stockpile of weaponry and left the Black Heart to retreat
empty-handed. Such an insult could not be allowed to stand, and so, Asdrubael Vect spared no effort in
tracking down Vrax and his warband. Lelith Hesperax herself, joined the Dark Eldar forces arrayed for the
 attack against Vrax' forces. In a surprise attack, the Alpha Legionaries were caught within their own
mountain fortress, and quickly overwhelmed. The surviving Chaos Space Marines watched on, helplessly,
as Vrax faced Hesperax in single combat. He was quickly overwhelmed by the Wych's speed and
superlative skills with a blade, and had both hands, then both arms truncated. Only one Alpha Legionary
left the fortress alive that day, and his limbless form still howls its endless agony above the Onyx Gate of
Vect's palace to this day.
 Varus Hos (Deceased) - Varus Hos was a Chaos Lord of the warband known as the Perfidious Host who
fought in an unnamed campaign against the White Scars Brotherhood led by Hamiclar Vort, a past Master
of the Hunt. Though the open stages of the battle went initially well for the Chaos warband, the implacable
White Scars recovered quickly from their losses and launched a lightning counter-attack. As the battle
neared its end and the White Scars were on the verge of claiming victory, Varus launched an unexpected
assault on the White Scars Captain, intent on depriving his enemies of their leadership. As the two
commanders fought with their forces fighting and dying around them, Hamiclar was able to overcome
Valur and slew the Chaos Lord. With their leadership deprived, the White Scars quickly destroyed the
Perfidious Host wholesale.
 Sindri Myr (Deceased)- Sindri Myr was a Chaos Sorcerer who accompanied an Alpha Legion warband to
the Imperial Civilised World of Tartarus to find the ancient Chaotic artefact known as the Maledictum that
met resistance from Captain Gabriel Angelos and the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company. Sindri slew his own
commander, the Chaos Lord Bale, and eventually used the power of the Maledictum to ascend to become a
Daemon Prince. However, he enjoyed this loft status for only a few moments before he was slain by the
Blood Ravens' hero, Captain Gabriel Angelos.
 Hekastis Nul (Deceased) - Hekastis Nul was a Dark Apostle and member of the Alpha Legion. A fervent
worshiper of the Chaos Gods, Nul served under Chaos Lord Vykus Skayle and helped summon Daemons
across the world of Valdrmani during the Siege of the Fenris System. However, Nul was eventually slain
by Wolf Lord Sven Bloodhowl.
 Nullus (Deceased) - Chaos Champion and lieutenant to the Daemon Prince Kernax Voldorius who was
slain by the White Scars during the Hunt for Voldorius upon the world of Quintus.
 Vykus Skayle (Deceased) - A Chaos Lord of the Alpha Legion who commanded a warband known as the
Daggerfangs. He was a master of intrigue and manipulation, but differs amongst many of his Alpha Legion
brethren, as he was a fervent worshipper of the Ruinous Powers. Because of his devotion and fervent faith,
Skayle had been granted superior strength and speed by the Chaos Gods. In battle, he made use of his
enhanced abilities, fighting with a pair of daemonic blades. Alongside the Daemon Prince Tzen'char,
Skayle was one of the chief architects of the daemonic incursions that culminated in the Siege of the Fenris
System. While fighting across the Fenris System he was eventually slain by Wolf Lord Harald Deathwolf.
 Kernax Voldorius (Deceased) - Kernax Voldorius was an infamous Daemon Prince of the Alpha Legion
who was hunted for decades by the White Scars Space Marine Chapter and its Captain of the 3 rd
Brotherhood, Kor'sarro Khan. After more than a decade on the hunt, in 865.M41 Kor'sarro Khan drove
Voldorius from his foremost stronghold on the Hive World of Modanna to the world of Quintus, where
Kor'sarro and the 3rd Brotherhood of the White Scars formed an alliance with Captain Kayvaan Shrike of
the Raven Guard Chapter's 3rd Company, who also sought to dislodge the Alpha Legion's grip on that
benighted planet. Together, the two Astartes officers and their companies ultimately ran the Daemon Prince
to ground and slew him once and for all. Kor'sarro Khan took Voldorius' head back to the White Scars
homeworld of Chogoris (officially known to the Administratum as Mundus Planus) where it was set on a
pike on the road to the White Scars' Fortress-Monastery, so that all who saw it might know that no foe of
the Chapter ever truly escapes the Emperor's justice.

Notable Alpha Legion Operatives

 55/Phi-silon - 55/Phi-silon was a sparatoi-type Alpha Legion operative that had been placed within the
Mechanicum of the newly implemented Forge World of Bronta-Median. In order for 55/Phi-silon's cover to
be up to task, he freely underwent surgical mutilation and instalment as a Mechanicum Tech-thrall
following which he was appointed as part of the security detachment of the ark-freighter Omnissiax. With
55/Phi-silon in place, the operative succesfully smuggled a full demi-cohort of Legionaries onboard the
Omnissiax which would seize the ship and its precious cargo of Battle Titans. Charged with the awakening
 of both the infiltrated Legionaries and the traitor Titan crews, 55/Phi-silon was instrumental in the
Omissiax' capture by the Alpha Legion and the overall success of the Harrowing of Callistra Mundi.
 Haln - Haln was the codename of an Alpha Legion operative that had succeeded in infiltrating the Sol-
system during the years of the Horus Heresy and that was able to operate for an extended period of time on
Terra itself. As would later be discovered, Haln had infiltrated the system disguised as one of the refugees
aboard the frigate Daggerline, the vessel commandeered by Macer Varren who would eventually become
one of Malcador's Knight Errants. Haln's main role was espionnage, but also insurrection as he actively
attempted to sabotage Rogal Dorn's efforts to fortify the Imperial Palace. Haln was reassigned following
the growing influence of the followers of the Lectitio Divinitatus and charged to act as liaison for a chaos
assassin which he helped smuggle onto the Throneworld and locate its target: the Living Saint Euphrati
Keeler and her acolyte Kyril Sindermann. Haln was slain in a failed assassination attempt on the Saint, cut
in two by Nathaniel Garro.
 Jalen - "Jalen" was the designation of a new kind of Alpha Legion operatives tentatively named "Hydra"-
Operative believed to have been active on the soil of Tallarn for several years. Most distinctively "Hydra"-
Operatives are no standard humans, but bio-engineered clones and established as twins or triplets operating
within the same cell. Jalen had infiltrated the world several months prior to the famous Battle of Tallarn
and after having found influential local supporters, tried to peacefully realign the world's allegiance in favor
of the Warmaster. These efforts were however thwarted by the unforeseeable invasion of the Iron Warriors
Legion. At the head of an entire cell of Alpha Legion operatives, Jalen had established a network of spies
and agents both amongst the Loyalists and the Iron Warriors enabling him to venture into the loyalist
shelters and even the decks of the Iron Blood. This extensive network included specialised kill-teams,
armoured troops and even elite assassin-squads of Legiones Astartes. All the Jalens distinctively featured
piercing green eyes and a set of intricate ever-changing tattoos which could readily disappear at will. At
least one of the Jalens also seemed to have been a psyker. Jalen's activities had however drawn the attention
of an Imperial Agent of the Officio Assassinorum in the form of Iaeo, an Unbound Infocyte of the Vanus
Clade, which succesfully put an end to his operations.
 Hurtado Bronzi - Hurtado Bronzi was a Hetman of the Geno Five-Two Chiliad and Company Commander
of the Joker company during the Compliance of Nurth. Hetman Bronzi was recruited on Nurth itself for his
involvement in the Alpha Legion's track for John Grammaticus and would be paramount in his capture. In
order to bring Grammaticus to his new masters Hetman Bronzi had to abandon his unit in the field, making
him effectively a deserter in the eyes of Imperial justice. Bronzi and Saiid would later prove paramount in
fooling John Grammaticus to lead the Alpha Legion to his alien masters of the Cabal. Hurtado Bronzi
would later be apprehended by the Imperium and tortured in hope of gleaning valuable information on the
Alpha Legion's goals and organisation.
 Quorvon Krish - Sparatoi-operative, tertiary Astropath of the Omnissiax. Quorvon Krish held the honour
of firing the first shot in the taking of the Omnissiax, riddling his immediate superiors with bullets of his
silenced autopistol and thus cutting the Omnissiax' means of communication with Imperial forces.
 Nedico Orx - Sparatoi-operative. As a Transmechanic onboard the Omnissiax, Nedico Orx destroyed the
ship's vox-relay in the opening moves of the Alpha Legion's ploy to take over the ship.
 Rukhsana Saiid - Rukhsana Saiid was one of the senior Uxor, one of psychically-gifted female command
cadre exclusive to the Imperial Army regiments of the Geno Chiliad. Rukhsana was recruited on the world
of Nurth for the close emotional ties she possessed with the Perpetual identified as John Grammaticus.
Saiid would prove instrumental in manipulating Grammaticus and leading the Alpha Legion to the xenos-
organisation known as the Cabal. Her fate remains unknown.

Legion Fleet

With a Legion dealing in secrets and deception, no account of the Alpha Legion's fleet can truly be verified as it was
customary for instance to change the ships' ident-tags after a given operation and indeed use the same name for
different vessels.

As the last Legion to effectively join the Great Crusade, the Alpha Legion fleet consisted of newly forged battleships
and is believed to have numbered amongst the largest of all the fleets within the Legiones Astartes.

The Alpha Legion is known to have possessed the following vessels:

 Alpha (Gloriana-class Battleship) - Personal flagship of Alpharius during the Great Crusade and Horus
Heresy eras. The Alpha was severely damaged in the fighting within the Alaxxes Nebula, while
simultaneaously fighting the VIth Legion flagship, the Hrafnkel, and a Ramilies-class Starfort of the Ist
Legion identified as the Chimaera.
 Beta (Battle Barge) - The Beta served as the primary flagship of Alpharius and/or Omegon himself and
made a journey with the Imperial expedition for a meeting with the Cabal. Once the meeting was
concluded, the Beta turned its weapons against the Imperial forces and was supported in this action by its
sister ship Alpha. The Beta was later seen under the command of Omegon, who felt the death of his twin
Alpharius in the Battle of Pluto while aboard this vessel.
 Delta (Battleship, Unknown Class) - The Delta was one of several Alpha Legion warships bearing that
name, but it was also the largest to carry it. Placed at the vanguard of the Alpha Legion's core of warships
in pursuit of the elusive VIth Legion fleet, the Delta came face to face with the Space Wolves' Battleship
Ragnarok, whose captain, the Wolf Lord Gunnar Gunnhilt, had chosen to sacrifice his life and that of his
ship to buy the VIth Legion more time to flee. Emerging from the twisting corridors of safe space within the
Alaxxes Nebula, the Delta delivered a punishing weight of fire at the Ragnarok, intent on making a clean
kill. The Ragnarok however made use of unorthodox tactics, and fired its last volley of torpedoes in order
to force the Delta to a full-stop before ramming the other ship. The burning Raganarok's mass proved
enough to drive the Delta into the highly corrosive clouds of the nebula, where both leviathans were
consumed.
 Gamma Lycurgus (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)
 Zeta Telios (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)
 Gamma Mu (Dominus-class Battleship) - The Gamma Mu was one of the well-reputed and massive
Dominus-class Battleships that formed much of the core of the XX th Legion's line-ships. The Gamma Mu
was destroyed in the Alaxxes Nebula under the concentrated fire of the Space Wolves Battleship Ragnarok.
 Omicron (Battle Barge) - The Omicron was observed acting in support of Armillus Dynat during the
Harrowing of Callista Mundi.
 Theta (Cruiser, Unknown Class) - The Theta was an Alpha Legion warship that took part in the space
battle above Istvaan V during the Drop Site Massacre. It was later destroyed during that battle by the Iron
Hands' Strike Cruiser Veritas Ferrum.
 Sigma-Pythonus (Basileus-class Battle Barge) - The lead vessel of the Alpha Leigon fleet that attacked
Paramar V during the First Battle of Paramar in the opening days of the Horus Heresy.
 Anarchy's Heart (Despoiler-class Battleship) - The Anarchy's Heart was the personal battleship of the
Chaos Lord Arkos the Faithless and his Renegade Chaos Space Marine warband, The Faithless. Arkos
utilised the Anarchy's Heart to launch raids from the Eye of Terror across the millennia following the end
of the Horus Heresy. This vessel was destroyed near the conclusion of the infamous Siege of Vraks by the
Angels of Absolution Chapter's Battle Barge Liberatorii Delictum and the Strike Cruiser Repentant.
 Anax-Rho (Heavy Assault Cruiser) - Took part in the First Battle of Paramar during the opening days of
the Horus Heresy.
 Lambda (Strike Cruiser)
 Occam's Razor (Strike Cruiser) - The Occam’s Razor was part of Dynat Mal’s small fleet which had
eeked out a living in the regions of the Orpheus Sector. The ship was supposedly destroyed by the Necrons
of the Maynark Dynasty which left its broken hull in a valley filled with the bones of the dead on the
jungle-world of Apollyon.
 Phi (Strike Cruiser)
 Theta Malquiant (Strike Cruiser) - The Theta Maquiant was an isolated cruiser that operated alone and
far away from the rest of the Alpha Legion during the opening years of the Horus Heresy. It was the sister-
ship, of the Zeta Morgeld. The Theta Maquiant was sacrificed on purpose to allow an Alpha Legion cell led
by Alpharius himself to infiltrate the Iron Hands of the Sysipheum.
 Upsilon (Strike Cruiser)
 Zeta (Strike Cruiser)
 Zeta Morgeld (Strike Cruiser) - The Zeta Morgeld was an Alpha Legion Strike Cruiser that operated as a
lone hunter during the Horus Heresy and was alledgedly bound to rendezvous with Alpharius himself
before it was confronted and vanquished by the Iron Hands-vessel Sisypheum. Stripped of precious parts,
crew and ammunition the Zeta Morgeld was bound to be destroyed in a nearby sun but was ultimately used
to save the Sysipheum from another attacking Alpha Legion vessel, the Theta Malquiant.
  Iota Malephelos (Escort, Unknown Class) - The Iota Malephelos was one of the many undermanned
Escorts deployed to protect and blunt the Space Wolves' counterattack on the Alpha Legion's capital ships
during the fierce fighting in the Alaxxes Nebula. The Iota Malephelos was the designated target of Bjorn
the Fell-Handed's squad, which succeeded in capturing the vessel, slaying its captain and turning the
warship's guns against its former allies. The Iota Malephelos later the Space Wolves Legion fleet was
integrated into it.
 Keta Rho (Frigate, Unknown Class) - The Keta Rho was destroyed by weapons fire from the Iota
Malepheos after its seizure by the Space Wolves during the battle in the Alaxxes Nebula.

Legion Artefacts

 Blade of the Hydra - Long ago, this oversized Chainsword was for purely ceremonial use. Since the
Daemon Prince Gharual of the Nine Sundered Souls was bound inside it, however, the blade has been a
fiendish tool of destruction. Those with a will strong enough to control its multiple thirsting mindsets can
cause the sawtoothed blade to shimmer into not one, but several swords that gnaw and gnash with an
immortal hunger. These extra blades are insubstantial when the wielder wills it, and razor-sharp when the
flesh of his enemies is near.
 Drakescale Plate - A suit of Corvus Alpha Pattern Power Armour forged by an ancient tech-savant of the
Dark Mechanicum, this battleplate incorporates the living titanium scales of the mica skydrake. Its
pauldrons, vambraces and greaves are so well protected by that elder beast's innate resistance to fire that
even a Flamestorm Cannon's channelled inferno splashes harmlessly aside like water from smooth pillars of
obsidian.
 Hydra's Teeth - The Hydra's Teeth are bolt rounds with an ammunition casing that must be kept slick with
blood-laced oil lest they detonate prematurely and cause irrevocable damage to the wielder. The legend
goes that they are sentient in the manner of Daemon Weapons, and that sorcerous powers have somehow
given them a terrible hunger for destruction. Once fired, they seek out fresh victims -- regardless of how
well hidden they may be -- before exploding in a blast of eye-searing, lung-scorching gas that can turn
exposed flesh to black sludge.
 Icon of Insurrection - This eight-pointed standard top is no mere symbol, but an ensorcelled, semi-diabolic
magnet for Chaotic energies that broadcasts thoughts of anarchy and rebellion into the minds of all who
behold it. Honed and perfected by generations of Alpha Legion demagogues and metamentalists, it has
become a potent artefact famed throughout the brotherhood of Alpharius, for where the icon is raised,
mayhem soon follows. When held aloft amongst a crowd, it can turn malcontents into death squads and
dabblers in heresy into seething, frenzied maniacs bent on burning the realms of men to ash.
 Mindveil - Shimmering with illusion, the Mindveil is a long cloak stitched with the interlocking teeth of
Dostoy Prime's chameleonic hydrasharks. So potent are the spells of confusion and dislocation cast upon it
that the bearer and his kin are accompanied by incorporeal mirages that mirror their appearance perfectly.
Stranger still, at a chanted command in the Dark Tongue, the wearer's true location and that of his
doppelganger can switch places, an instant translocation that leaves his enemies gaping in confusion. The
death of those fooled is never far away.
 Viper's Bite - This ornate Bolter has a wide, serpent-head muzzle and a magazine that never seems to run
dry. When it fires, it makes no noise louder than a dry hiss, but a cacophony of screams is never far behind.
The projectiles it fires glow with acrid green flame, the energy swathing each bolt so virulent they can
sizzle through even the ancient war-plate of Terminator-armoured Veterans.

Legion Appearance

The Alpha Legion wear many skins and don many guises in the prosecution of their covert agendas, but when the
time to land the killing blow is nigh, they go to war in the colours of their Primarch Alpharius.

It is not unusual for the Legion's warriors to incorporate designs based on the scales of serpents into their battle
plate, or even to have similar icons tattooed under their skin, visible only when the wearer wishes them to be.
Ostentation is rare, giving more of a sense of unity to their armies than is common in other Chaos Space Marine
forces.
Legion Colours

The Alpha Legion, unlike many of the Traitor Legions, maintained the same basic colour scheme for their Power
Armour -- azure blue, silver and green -- even after their fall to Chaos. This was an outward testament to the fact the
Alpha Legion has -- in spirit if not in body -- remained much the same since its creation. Alpha Legion Sergeants
often had green helmets with a blue stripe down the centre.

The typical livery of an Alpha Legionary is some combination of sea blue and emerald green. This is sometimes
worn in subtle contrast, half obscured by the dust of conquest; at other times it is polished to a violently clashing
high sheen, the better to draw the eye of the enemy so that the greater work might pass unseen.

The scaly cloaks worn by the operatives of the Alpha Legion are highly sought after -- should a Legionary fall, one
of his brothers will take up the mantle in his place, donning it on behalf of the Legion itself. Often, these are worn
not by Champions, but by the least favoured or experienced of a warband -- such obvious signs of status attract the
sniper's bullet, and the Alpha Legion regard such linear thinking with contempt.

The Colours of Deceit

Pre-Heresy Alpha Legion Tactical Markings and Heraldry

The question of the Alpha Legion's livery and heraldry of arms is also a matter of some contention in the study of
this Traitor Legion's history. It is the case that over the centuries-long conflict of the Great Crusade, all of the grey-
clad Legions that first departed Terra changed their appearance to some degree -- some very dramatically so -- as the
consequences of the long war and campaigning took their toll, and most tellingly when they were reunited with their
Primarchs.

It is also the case that most uniformity or conformity of livery and appearance proved impossible, even for a Legion
not as stratified and fractured as perhaps the Ultramarines or the Iron Warriors, given that an armed force such as a
Space Marine Legion numbered in the tens of thousands and was very scattered across the vast distances of the
interstellar void.

These facts, however, do not account for the wide variance displayed by the Alpha Legion, and instead it is likely
that a more deliberate policy of misdirection and secrecy played its part. Variously and across multiple time periods,
the Alpha Legion has been witnessed in liveries of pale grey, gleaming steel, veridian, dull bronze, sable, indigo,
amaranth and azure blue -- both in main and combination.

It has been variously recorded as displaying Principia Belicosa standardised rank and unit signifiers, elaborate
stylised reptilian iconography of unknown meaning, and the complex logos-teknika forms favoured by the Emperor-
shattered Panpacific Empire on Ancient Terra before Unification. It has also gone into battle without emblems or
markings of any kind; a faceless, anonymous army of killers without distinction or division in its ranks.

If any deeper meaning is held by these changes and masquerades beyond their use to confuse the enemy and
confound those who would study the XXth Legion and know its ways, one of the most outlandish and disturbing
explanations is that not even the Alpha Legion itself knew its true shape and forms.

This theory, postulated since the Horus Heresy, contends that only Alpharius knew the main extant of his Legion
and its domain, its strength and its reach, and perhaps then even he knew it only imperfectly. By this token the
Alpha Legion had become unknowable, a self-sustaining, self-replicating force, a weapon that had transcended the
flesh of the Legionaries that made it up and the hand that wielded it.

It would be a force whose limits and extent would forever be unknown, even unto itself, and therefore ultimately
unstoppable as no enemy or influence could ever hope to fully infiltrate or overcome it from within.
It was and is indeed the case, that even before the Horus Heresy, entire generations of Alpha Legion warriors could
have been trained, fought and died in ignorance of their own Legion's wider operations, purposes and goals. Entire
Expeditionary Fleets could have operated never knowing the existence of mirror images of themselves, each
believing that they were the only Alpha Legion bearing the name. The implications of such a colossal deceit are
staggering if true.

Legion Badge

The Alpha Legion's original symbol was derived from the ancient Terran "Helac" script -- the Alpha-Omega
symbol. This iconography was used by the XXth Legion throughout the early Great Crusade era. Many icons utilised
by the Alpha Legion at this time, appeared to be drawn from the same ancient script.

It is thought that the Helac gamma, omega and delta symbols were commonly used as the Legion's Chapter
identifiers, though rarely consistently. By the start of the Horus Heresy, the Traitor Legion's icon had been replaced
with that of the three-headed Laernean Hydra, a Terran mythological multi-headed serpent that would grow back
two heads for every one that was cut off.

Often this icon could be seen surmounting the older, chained alpha-omega icon. Both were common symbols within
the Alpha Legion, with numerous combinations and variants adorning armour, banners and the flanks of armoured
vehicles.

Trivia

The name Alpharius Omegon is drawn from "Alpha" and "Omega", the first and last letters of the Ancient Greek
alphabet, which also represents the "Beginning" and the "End" in Greek mythology and Christian iconography. The
Alpha Legion was also the "Legion Omega", the last of the 20 Space Marine Legions to be raised during the First
Founding.

The Fallen Angels, also called simply the Fallen, are those Renegade Space Marines who followed the Ist Legion's
second-in-command, Luther, into damnation when they split off from the Dark Angels Space Marine Legion ten-
thousand Terran years ago in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy. The final climatic battle between Primarch Lion
El'Jonson and the Arch-Betrayer Luther resulted in the destruction of the Dark Angels' homeworld of Caliban when
it was engulfed by a Warp Storm of titanic proportions. Those "Fallen" Dark Angels who had served under Luther
were sucked from the broken surface into the Warp and cast throughout time and space. The Grand Masters of the
Legion's nascent Inner Circle swore that so long as even one of the Fallen remained alive and unrepentant, the Dark
Angels would be "Unforgiven," cursed by their brothers to atone for all eternity. So began the secret mission that
would prove the driving force behind the Dark Angels' actions for millennia to come. The Fallen are the secret
enemy of the Unforgiven -- the present-day Dark Angels and their Successor Chapters who relentlessly pursue their
ancient foes in a desperate search for forgiveness for their ancient betrayal of the Emperor.

The Fallen's treachery and betrayal is the Dark Angels' secret shame. None know of it other than the Dark Angels
themselves, their Successor Chapters and, maybe, the Emperor on His Golden Throne. Even within the Chapter
itself, very few Space Marines know exactly what happened during those fateful days. It is only when a Dark Angel
reaches the ranks of the Deathwing that they learn the story of Luther's betrayal. More terrible still, they learn that
many of the Dark Angels that followed Luther are still alive.

Yet, not all of the Fallen have succumbed to the power of Chaos to the same degree. A large number of the Fallen
have embraced the ways of the Dark Gods completely, becoming true Chaos Space Marines. However, many others
realise that their actions during the fall of Caliban were very wrong. Disgusted by the corrupting influence of the
Chaos Gods and unable to reconcile themselves with the Dark Angels, they lead a solitary existence. Many become
mercenaries or pirates, roaming the galaxy as masterless men. Others are willing to atone for their sins and in an
attempt to do so have integrated themselves back into human societies, taking on the roles of mortal men.

However, whatever their subsequent actions, in the eyes of the Dark Angels the Fallen are the worst kind of sinners.
The only way that they can rid themselves totally of their shame, and restore their honour and trust in the Emperor's
eyes, is if all the Fallen are found and either made to repent or are slain. This is by no means an easy task. The
Fallen are dispersed throughout space and time as either isolated individuals or in small warbands, and the Dark
Angels can go for many Terran years without hearing any rumours that might lead them to one or more of the
Fallen. When they do, however, and their mission is a success, those Fallen that are captured are taken back to The
Rock. Deep inside its dungeons, Interrogator-Chaplains attempt to make the Fallen repent. Occasionally these
captives do, and for their pains, die quickly. More frequently, the captured Fallen refuses and suffers a drawn-out
and agonising death at the hands of those who would save their soul.

Contents

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History

Icon of the Fallen Angels

Luther and his fellow Dark Angels during the Great Crusade

The dark secret behind the Dark Angels' millennia-old shame is difficult to penetrate. To outsiders, this is an
insurmountable quest, for the Dark Angels Chapter hides its secrets well, masking all activities in a shroud of ritual
and clandestine operations. Indeed, even amongst their own Chapter, only the Company Masters and most
distinguished Veterans -- the self-styled Inner Circle -- are privy to the truth. The origins of the Fallen began in the
dying days of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium. Sar Luther was once an acclaimed knight of a monastic
brotherhood of techno-medieval knights known simply as The Order, who discovered the young and wild Primarch
Lion El'Jonson living in the forests upon the Death World of Caliban. Luther was a remarkable man, perhaps more
so even than most people gave him credit for. He possessed phenomenal talent in a number of fields, not least as a
leader, a warrior and a huntsman. With the exception of Lion El'Jonson, Luther had completed more quests against
the Great Beasts than any other man in Caliban's history.

In any other era, Luther would probably have been acclaimed as the greatest hero of his age. He was a tireless
champion of the people of Caliban, marked out as much by his inner qualities of humour and cool thoughtfulness in
times of crisis as he was by the valour of his deeds. It had been Luther’s tragedy to be born in the same era as a man
against whom all his endeavours would be judged and forever found wanting in comparison. From the day he had
encountered Jonson in the deep forest of his world and decided to bring him to civilisation, Luther had sounded the
death-knell of his own legend. From that point on, he had been condemned to live in the Lion’s shadow. To some of
his brother knights, this spoke even more highly of Luther that his affection for the Lion seemed genuine and
unforced. Many a man in his situation might have been tempted to succumb to jealousy and begun to resent Jonson's
achievements. Not Luther, for he was not of that ilk.

When Lion El'Jonson rose to become the Grand Master of The Order, he vowed to rid his world of the Great Beasts
that roamed his world terrorising the populace. In the tenth and final year of Jonson’s genocidal campaign against
the Great Beasts, nearly all the beasts had been killed. Only a few stragglers remained in the less hospitable and
more thinly populated regions of the planet. As word of The Order's victories spread throughout the planet, their
ranks swelled with willing recruits. Soon other knightly orders aligned themselves with The Order, until they had
become the single-most powerful monastic order on all of Caliban. There was only one exception -- the Knights of
Lupus. After evidence came to light that the Knights of Lupus had actually been protecting the Great Beasts in their
portion of Caliban, The Order had little choice and moved to destroy that wayward order.
Luther's achievements during the ensuing battle were overshadowed by the Lion's feat of arms. Amidst the
celebrations and honours bestowed, a shadow fell upon the heart of Luther as he watched the Lion revel in the
honours heaped upon him for this latest victory. Although Luther did not openly begrudge Jonson these great
honours, he still felt a twinge of jealousy. The first crack had appeared in Luther's psyche, a crack that would one
day become a great schism that would tear the Dark Angels Legion asunder.

Sarosh

A squad of Fallen Angels defending themselves from their erstwhile kin

Not long after the Lion's reunification with the Emperor of Mankind he was given command of the I Legion of the
Legiones Astartes. Shortly after their entry into the Great Crusade, the 4th Expeditionary Fleet of the newly renamed
Dark Angels Legion reached the orbit of the planet Sarosh, which had formerly been commanded by an officer of
the White Scars Legion. The Saroshi -- ruled by a massive bureaucracy -- had expressed their interest in peacefully
becoming part of the Imperium after they made first contact with the servants of the Emperor, and the Imperials
were eager to allow them in, believing that these people seemed to possess the same secular beliefs as expressed in
the Imperial Truth. But in truth the Saroshi secretly worshipped daemonic Chaos entities they called the Melachim,
and saw the anti-religious stance of the Imperial Truth as a malevolent evil that threatened their way of life and
deepest beliefs.

The Lord High Exacter, the leader of the Saroshi bureaucracy, denounced Lion El'Jonson and the Emperor to the
Primarch's face aboard the Dark Angels' flagship, the Battle Barge Invincible Reason, and the Lion responded by
ramming his Power Sword through the fanatical Saroshi leader's body. Unknown to the Dark Angels, the Saroshi
had secreted a nuclear device aboard the primitive shuttle they had used to reach orbit, intending to assassinate the
fleet's entire command structure, including Jonson; however, Luther and a junior Librarian named Zahariel managed
to eject the shuttle into space, causing only minor damage to the flagship from its ignited engines. After this
incident, Luther, Zahariel and five hundred other Dark Angels were sent back to Caliban in disgrace as punishment
for allowing an enemy to get a nuclear device aboard the Primarch's flagship. In truth, Luther had been aware of the
device's existence and had been tempted to allow it to explode so that the Lion might be killed and he could take the
Primarch's place as the greatest of Caliban's warriors, a destiny that had been denied him by the Lion's arrival on that
world decades before. Only at the last moment had Luther, ashamed of his temptation, recanted and aided Zahariel
in getting the shuttle off of the flagship. But the incident would break the trust that had once existed between Luther
and the Lion. Luther and his new garrison command were ordered to oversee the recruitment of new Space Marines
into the I Legion from the Calibanite population.

Exile

A Fallen Angel wearing a grisly mantle of one of the slain Great Beasts of Caliban

Officially, Luther and his 500 Astartes had been ordered back to Caliban because the Great Crusade was about to
enter a new operational phase, and the I Legion was in dire need of new recruits to meet the tasks the Emperor had
planned for them. The Lion declared that experienced warriors were needed at home to speed up the training
process, and a list of names was drawn up and circulated throughout the fleet. Though supposedly accorded a great
honour, Luther felt he and his Astartes had been exiled by the man he had raised as his own son. The departure of
Luther and the rest had been sudden, almost businesslike, and at the time it had been assumed that they would be
back with the fleet before long. But five decades had passed, and Jonson had never spoken of them again – he no
longer even read the regular despatches from Caliban, relegating that task to members of his staff. Luther and the
rest seemed to have been entirely banished from the Primarch's mind, and as the years lengthened into decades,
rumour and speculation had begun to circulate through the ranks.

Luther involved himself in every aspect of planetary administration, from tithe structures to industrial and arcology
construction, and Brother-Librarian Zahariel was drawn along in his wake. Caliban's once extensive forests
dwindled, replaced by mines, refineries and industrial sprawls. Huge arcologies rose like man-made mountains
across the landscape as the planet’s population swelled. Civilisation spread across the globe, and the ranks of the I
Legion increased as Luther found ways to reduce the training cycle for new Dark Angels Astartes from eight Terran
years to only two. Meanwhile, reports of Jonson's exploits made their way back to Caliban, swelling Calibanite
hearts with pride as the Dark Angels marched from one victory to the next. The members of the training cadre
admired each and every token sent back by their Battle-Brothers of the Expeditionary Fleets and made comradely
boasts of how they would exceed them all when Jonson summoned them back to the fighting.

Yet as the decades passed, no summons came. Jonson had never returned to Caliban; two planned visits had been
cancelled at the last moment, citing new orders from the Emperor or unexpected developments in the current
campaign. With each passing year, Luther's promise to the cadre in the castle courtyard sounded increasingly
hollow, but not a warrior among them faulted him for it. If anything, their loyalty to Luther had increased during
their exile. He shared their burdens and praised their successes, inspiring them by virtue of hard work, humility and
personal charisma. Though they would deny it if asked, some amongst the cadre believed that many of their Battle-
Brothers owed more loyalty to Luther than they did to their distant Primarch.

None could not say why it was so important for Luther to return to Jonson's side. They had all borne their exile with
stoicism and dedication to duty, as any Astartes would, and Luther more than most. Of course, Brother Zahariel
knew why; the Legion’s second-in-command was seeking redemption for what he'd nearly done aboard the
Invincible Reason. Luther had discovered the bomb that the Saroshi delegation had smuggled onboard the Dark
Angels' flagship and had done nothing about it. For a brief time he'd let his jealousy of Lion El'Jonson's
achievements overcome his better nature, but at the last moment he’d come to his senses and tried to make things
right.

If Luther left Caliban and sought out the Primarch to demand a fair accounting and a return to the frontlines, he
would be in direct violation of Jonson's orders, and that would be construed as an outright rebellion against his
commanding officer. Luther could never countenance such a thing. But if Jonson did nothing – if he let these loyal
warriors sit unblooded on Caliban while the Great Crusade came to a close, it would leave a scar within their
brotherhood that would never truly heal. Such wounds tended to fester over time, until the entire body was imperiled
by a cancerous rot.

Betrayal

Another Fallen Angel defends himself from the wrath of his former kin

In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, the surviving loyalists rallied the reeling Imperium. The Dark Angels took a
significant part in these battles, which later came to be called the Scouring. As they pursued the rebels, the Legion
diverted to nearby Caliban, which had been enshrouded by Warp storms since Horus' betrayal. For Lion El'Jonson,
one final act of treachery remained to be discovered. The Dark Angels arrived too late to take part in the epic Battle
of Terra, where Horus was defeated and the Emperor grievously wounded, his shattered body placed within the life-
support mechanisms of the arcane device known as the Golden Throne. Grief-stricken, Jonson returned to Caliban.

As the Dark Angels fleet moved into orbit, they were met by a devastating barrage of planetary defence laser fire.
Stunned by the ferocious attack, Jonson withdrew his vessels from orbit and attempted to find out what had
happened on his homeworld. A nearby merchant starship soon provided the answer: Luther had apparently ordered
the approaching fleet fired upon. His reasoning for this action was unknown to the Primarch, though it was
suspected that Luther, like many of the Lion's brothers in the defeated Traitor Legions, had been corrupted by
Chaos. The fury of the Lion and his Dark Angels at what they perceived as a terrible betrayal knew no bounds;
Jonson himself immediately ordered a sustained orbital bombardment of the Traitors' positions and led an attack
against Luther's bulwark at the Dark Angels' fortress-monastery personally. In the resulting battle, the two
adversaries struck blow upon blow against each other, tearing down the Dark Angels' fortress-monastery around
them until nearly the whole massive edifice had been levelled by their battle. Meanwhile, the massed guns of the
Dark Angels' fleet pounded the planet, until the very surface of Caliban began to crack under the strain of the
bombardment.
As the planet itself started to break apart, the battle between the Lion and Luther reached its climax. Luther,
apparently aided by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos, unleashed a furious psychic attack that knocked Jonson to his
knees and left him mortally wounded. But as the dying Primarch struggled to stand, his noble features wracked with
pain, it was as if a curtain had been lifted from Luther's eyes and he realised the full extent of what he had done and
the duplicity of the Chaos Gods. Devastated, the realisation shattered Luther's sanity and he slumped down beside
Jonson, no longer willing to fight. Soon after Luther's breakdown, a Warp Storm of unprecedented fury engulfed
Caliban as the Ruinous Powers sought their revenge for Luther's failure to slay the Lion. In an uncontrollable flood
of psychic energy, the Warp rushed into the physical universe. The immense strain these forces placed upon the
planet, in combination with the tectonic shifting and cracking caused by the Dark Angels' orbital bombardment,
caused the horrific destruction of the entire planet; Caliban itself shattered, breaking into countless chunks of dead
and dying rock.

The Fallen Dark Angels who had served under Luther were sucked from the face of Caliban into the Empyrean by
the Warp Storm and effectively scattered throughout space and time. To the great frustration of the Dark Angels,
there is no full list or account of who or how many had heeded the dark whispers of the Ruinous Powers and turned
against their brothers. Caliban itself broke up under the strain, until all that remained was a small portion of the
world that hosted the ruins of the Dark Angels' primary fortress-monastery. The Dark Angels would reclaim this
fortress and transform it into a mobile fortress-monastery and a sophisticated work of Imperial engineering known
as The Rock. These events remain a secret to all in the Imperium save for the Inner Circle of the current Dark
Angels, the leaders of their Unforgiven Successor Chapters and the Emperor of Mankind encased within his Golden
Throne. Even within the Chapters themselves very few Battle-Brothers know the full story. It is only when Dark
Angels and Astartes of the Unforgiven Chapters gain entry into their Chapter's Deathwing Company that they learn
that many of the Fallen Angels who followed Luther are still alive.

Dark Secret

The days following the Horus Heresy were the most turbulent of times, for the galaxy-wide empire of Mankind had
teetered on the very brink of total collapse. Although Horus was defeated and his remaining followers were on the
run, the armies of the Imperium were full of bitterness and recrimination. The unforeseen betrayal of Horus had
profound after-effects that are still in existence today. Shorn of the Emperor's guidance, the condemnation of the
guilty was totalitarian and egregious, and the Imperium grew ever more repressive. The grim realisation that the
Space Marines –- the ultimate warriors of human kind –- had proven vulnerable to corruption was a severe shock.
Fully half of the Space Marine Legions had betrayed the Emperor. If the Dark Angels had admitted that some of
their members had turned, their entire legion would have been condemned. In this paranoid atmosphere, the
surviving Dark Angels debated their options even as they paid tribute to their lost Primarch. In the end, they felt
there was no choice but to hide the truth of their brothers’ betrayal. It was decreed by the most senior members of
the Legion that no outsider must learn the dreadful truth – none must know that members of the Dark Angels had
proven corruptible and turned to the Ruinous Powers.

In the wake of the Fall of Caliban, there was much to do, and many secrets to keep. The Dark Angels found that it
was easier to avoid the barrage of questions by fully immersing themselves in rigorous duty. However, they were
eventually forced to explain the loss of their Primarch and their home world of Caliban over and over again, telling
their fabricated tale to the High Lords of Terra, and eventually the newly established Inquisition. As no fighting
formation carried the war against the rebels forward with more furious resolve than the Dark Angels, no one pressed
the grieving warriors too closely. The Sons of the Lion continued the fight, chasing the remnants of Horus' armies
into the Eye of Terror and enacting many savage acts of revenge.

It was at first believed that all their traitorous brethren had been destroyed at the Fall of Caliban, yet it was not so.
Eventually, the Dark Angels Librarians picked up the telltale traces of their lost brethren. Thus it was revealed that
those defeated Dark Angels traitors -– known as the Fallen Angels, or just the Fallen –- were not all destroyed when
they were sucked into the Warp. Instead, the Fallen had been cast across time and space, for the Librarians picked up
evidence that many of the traitors had returned, their psychic signatures shining out briefly from many scattered
places across the galaxy. That the traitors escaped their loyal brethren's vengeance was a torment for the surviving
Dark Angels. As long as the Fallen lived, the Legion’s great shame would live on as well. They might spread
knowledge of the Dark Angels' treachery. Any who encountered the Fallen would bear witness not only to the
original betrayal, but also the Legion's ensuing cover-up.

The Fallen

In an instant, when Caliban was breaking apart from cataclysmic battle, the Fallen were cast into the Warp.
Anywhere from mere moments later to thousands of years in the future, many of the Fallen awoke to find
themselves on some far distant and unknown planet. The eddies of the Warp are fickle. As time in the Realm of
Chaos does not flow according to any rules, the time in transit for the Fallen might have felt like it was mere
seconds, although millennia would have passed. Conversely the individual may have spent ages in the Immaterium
experiencing untold torments and long journeys through nightmarish landscapes, only to awake back in realspace
within seconds of Caliban's destruction. To this day, there are even some of the Fallen that have not yet been
released back into the galaxy. Truly, the Ruinous Powers are cruel; their capricious plans beyond the ken of mortal
understanding.

Not all of the Dark Angels' Fallen brethren succumbed to the Gods of Chaos to the same degree. Some individuals
were driven completely mad by their exposure to the Warp, others broke only upon their return. After all, to some
Fallen, they had only just been plucked from the disintegrating surface of Caliban –- although that deed now lay
many millennia in the past. Some of the Fallen, those who most fervently followed Luther, were now nothing less
than Chaos Space Marines. These rebels did not gather together as did the Legions that rebelled during the Horus
Heresy, such as Angron's World Eaters. Instead, the Fallen were scattered as individuals or small groups across the
Imperium. In a flash, they riddled the vast realm of Mankind –- thousands of new canker cells ready to sow further
betrayal. From out of these seeds of malignancy spread new tendrils of corruption, for many of the Fallen began to
form their own warbands, cults and even armies.

Although some of the Fallen had been mere novices-in-training at the destruction of Caliban, most were seasoned
Space Marines. Indeed, some were first generation troops created in the First Founding, as overseen by the Emperor
himself. These were veteran warriors, many of whom survived multiple actions during the Great Crusade. With their
wealth of combat experience and superhuman attributes, these individuals found it easy to carve their own paths to
greatness out in the wider galaxy. Some rose to rule over planetary empires while others sought immediate revenge
against the Imperium. Across the galaxy the Fallen set planets, systems or even whole sectors ablaze with war. Yet
more ominously to the Dark Angels, they raved aloud of those very secrets that the Sons of Lion El'Jonson had
sworn to keep silent. Those Fallen carried on from the teachings of Luther -– believing the Emperor to be false and
thinking that their own superhuman abilities gave them the right to seize what they wanted, and to rule over the
weak. The Fallen saw no reason not to fight for themselves. It offered a better fate than acting as enforcers for a
thankless and repressive regime.

Not all the Fallen were so corrupt. Some, freed from Luther's compelling oratory, became cognisant for the first time
of just how far they had been led down paths of betrayal. Once cast back into the galaxy, disgusted by their own
corruption, these individuals attempted to blend in amongst human society. Some did nothing more than hide while
others sought out some form of redemption. No few became mercenaries –- masterless men who roamed the galaxy
as soldiers of fortune rather than as crusaders fighting for a cause. In the many frontiers of the Imperium, it was easy
to disappear. Across the stars were uncounted colonies -– lost communes, deep space mining facilities, lawless
spaceports –- all outlying communities that had slipped through the cracks of the monolithic Imperium of Man. But
the subsequent actions of the Fallen are irrelevant in the eyes of the Dark Angels, who believe that the only way they
can rid themselves totally of their shame, and restore their honour and trust within the Emperor's eyes, is if all the
Fallen are found and either made to repent or are slain. This is by no means an easy task. The Fallen are dispersed
throughout space and time as either isolated individuals or in small bands, and the Dark Angels can go for years
without hearing any rumours that might lead them to one or more of the betrayers.

Those Fallen that are captured are taken back to the Dark Angels' mobile fortress-monastery, The Rock, where the
Dark Angels' Interrogator-Chaplains attempt to make them repent their crimes. Occasionally they do and so die
quickly. More often than not, though, the captured Fallen refuse and suffer long, agonising deaths at the hands of
those who destroy their bodies in order to save their souls.
The Dark Oracle

Near the heart of the Rock resides a single cell. It is deep in the bowels of the asteroid, where only the Watchers in
the Dark and the Supreme Grand Master are allowed to venture. There, past locked gates that are shielded with
dozens of feet of adamantine plating, is an oubliette. Its walls are inscribed with the most potent runes of warding
known to men, and they have been inscribed to keep creatures out, but also to keep something within. There,
sustained in life for ten thousand years by a powerful stasis field, languishes the broken man who was once known
as Luther. Down the ages, the Supreme Grand Masters have had some success in using Luther as an oracle.
Although his Warp-contaminated and deranged mind often wanders or attempts to deceive, during moments of
lucidity the Luther-thing speaks of events that will be, or might be, or drop hints at what is hidden and where.

Since the Fall of Caliban, each Supreme Grand Master has, in turn, taken the long dark walk down to the heavily
psi-warded cell. Each has tried to extract a confession form the arch-heretic, each has tried to penetrate the madness
that clouds him; none have succeeded. The thing that was, and may still be, Luther has divulged many secrets --
from the names and locations of members of the Fallen, to the whereabouts of relics from the Legion secreted in the
underworks beneath the old fortress-monastery. Mostly, however, all that can be gotten out of Luther are mad
ravings -- over and over again he repeats that he has no need of repentance or confession, for one day Lion El'Jonson
will return and absolve him of his sins. He claims that day is near and that he can feel the Lion is already close at
hand.

Descent Into Darkness

During their millennia-long quest to hunt down the Fallen, the Chapters of the Unforgiven have tracked down and
captured hundreds of their damnable brethren. To aid them in this task, they have modified their Chapter
organisation. Although the Deathwing and Ravenwing are unique to the Dark Angels, most of the Unforgiven
Chapters have their own equivalents. The Unforgiven will capture any Fallen, any suspected of being a Fallen, or
even any who have are believed to have had contact with a Fallen. They are placed in the stasis-crypt of a Dark
Talon and ferried to the Rock. Once there, they are led in solemn procession into the highly secluded dungeons.
Deep in the underbelly of the fortress-monastery of the Dark Angels, in the catacombs where only the highest of the
Inner Circle may tread, all these prisoners meet their doom.

Interrogator-Chaplains, aided by the psychic powers of the Grand Master of the Librarians, seek two things from the
Fallen. First, they want to hear a full account of the betrayer -– his history, his purpose and his actions before and
during the Fall of Caliban. Secondly, and most importantly, they seek contrition from the guilty party –- for only
upon full repentance will the Fallen be granted his final release. The torments are long, the methods are brutal. With
each passing year, the Dark Angels have strayed further, although some individuals are far worse than others. Cruel
acts once considered despicable are now a standard part of any Interrogator-Chaplain's method. To elicit a
confession, there is no torment to which Asmodai, the current Master Interrogator-Chaplain, will not subject a
prisoner. It is this fate that waits in store for Cypher, the most hated of all Fallen, should he ever be caught.

A Fallen Perspective

Supreme Grand Master Azrael prepares to administer extreme unction to a repentant Fallen Angel

A record of the apparent motivation for the actions of those Dark Angels who would become the Fallen exists: the
confession of Astelan, once a Dark Angels Chapter Master. This testimony, extracted by Interrogator-Chaplain
Boreas, contains the following claims: Astelan himself is supposed to have ordered the attack on the Lion's
approaching fleet, with the approval of Luther, because the Dark Angels on Caliban believed that El'Jonson had
fallen sway to the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. Astelan claimed that while the Lion had been lost in the woods of
Caliban as a child, he had had a brush with Chaos and had never quite lost the taint of darkness from the incident.
He pointed out that while El'Jonson had moved through the Warp towards Terra to join the defence of the Imperial
Palace from Horus' Traitor forces, he had moved at what was believed to have been a deliberately slow pace; a pace
slow enough to determine who the true winner of the conflict would be before committing his forces. In other words,
Astelan believed that El'Jonson would not have hesitated to join Horus if it had seemed that he would have been the
ultimate victor in the Horus Heresy. Why else would the Lion, a man renowned for his strategic brilliance and speed
of attack, have waited so long before leading his troops to Terra? Astelan believed that by attacking his fleet, the
Dark Angels stationed on Caliban were doing the work of the Emperor.

Astelan further claimed that Luther never fell under the sway of Chaos but was driven by his duty to the Emperor,
fearing the traitorous nature of El'Jonson. Also, he revealed that, apparently, the majority of the men who had been
garrisoned on Caliban were the original members of the Dark Angels Legion, Terrans who had been inducted into
the Legion by the Emperor himself before the discovery of El'Jonson on Caliban as the Legion's Primarch. This
existing cultural divide within the Legion may have also contributed to the conflict on Caliban. Finally, Astelan
claimed that, in the ensuing battle between the seemingly Loyalist Lutheran Angels and the possibly suspect Lionite
Angels, Luther attempted to negotiate with the Lion before any more were slain. Refusing to talk, the Lion hastily
ordered the bombardment of Caliban and descended to crush the Fallen in combat. Luther then apparently fought the
Lion only as a last resort and mortally wounded him only when he had no other choice. The only thing that Astelan
could not explain was the Warp Storm that then flung the Fallen far across the galaxy.

This entire point of view, as told by a member of the Fallen, should be considered suspect at best and complete
fabrication at worst; it could simply be a series of malicious lies or just a warped, inaccurate view of the entire
incident. Often, those who fall under the sway of Chaos do not even realize that they are serving its ends, except that
at the end of the novel Angels of Darkness, Boreas asks for a transmission to be sent to a solitary cell in the Rock
saying simply: "You were right." This cell is currently believed, by readers, to be that of either Astelan or Luther
himself. This, from a Loyalist Dark Angel, throws into question the true loyalties of the Dark Angels, The Fallen
and the Primarch Lion El'Jonson himself.

Another Fallen Perspective

In another record, Interrogator-Chaplain Uzziel was attempting to draw a confession from a Fallen in the bowels of
the Rock. The Fallen decried Uzziel's attempts, saying that the Dark Angels sent to Caliban with Luther were
abandoned by Lion El'Jonson and the Emperor and robbed of the glory of the Great Crusade. Eventually the Fallen
made a false repentance that led Uzziel on a Crusade to recover the Lion Sword. Uzziel realized the repentance was
false when he recovered the weapon only to discover it was in fact the Sword of Luther.

This perspective is backed up by another record of a Fallen known as Cephesus. When finally tracked down by
Interrogator-Chaplain Bareus he claimed the same reasoning, that the Dark Angels on Caliban had been abandoned
with Luther while the Lion claimed the glories of the Great Crusade. Bareus was mortally wounded by Cephesus,
but eventually the Fallen was slain by Brother Kaelan of the Dark Angels who received a field promotion to the rank
of Interrogator-Chaplain by the dying Bareus.

This also ties in with the perspective given in the novel "Fallen Angels" where Luther declares that the Lion has
forgotten about the Dark Angels on Caliban. He then secedes from the Imperium and is joined by many of the Dark
Angels stationed with him, including the Chapter Master Astelan and the Librarian Zahariel.

Notable Fallen Angels

Luther, Arch-Betrayer and leader of the Fallen Angels

 Luther - Luther was the knight of The Order who discovered the Primarch Lion El'Jonson on the Death
World of Caliban. Luther was El'Jonson's mentor, saviour, comrade-in-arms and best friend. Luther raised
the Lion as if he were his own child. Before the discovery of the Lion, Luther was the foremost hero of his
times. Luther presented the Lion to The Order, the force of feudal knights on Caliban who helped raise the
Primarch to fight the terrible mutant beasts of Chaos which plagued the myriad deep forests of the planet.
Sadly, Luther ultimately betrayed the Lion out of a sense of jealousy towards his friend's accomplishments
which overshadowed his own, and he rallied many of the Dark Angels on Caliban to his cause and killed
any dissidents amongst their number who remained loyal to their Primarch. When the Lion returned to
Caliban following the end of the Horus Heresy, Luther attacked his fleet. The Lion and Luther engaged in
 single combat on Caliban after this betrayal. In this battle, Lion El'Jonson wounded Luther but could not
bring himself to kill his oldest and dearest friend. Luther, however, proved merciless and sent a sorcerous
blast straight towards El'Jonson, which mortally wounded the Primarch. At that moment, finally realising
how far he had fallen, Luther began to weep for what he had done to his friend, and the Dark Angels
captured him and held him prisoner within the Dark Angels' Fortress-Monastery, which would become
known as The Rock. At this point, the Chaos Gods scattered Luther's forces, the Fallen, through the Warp.
The intense battle, however, had made the planet unstable, and Caliban was destroyed by the force of the
Warp Storm that rescued the Fallen from their fate. At present, Luther remains chained within the most
secure cell of The Rock, his existence known only to the Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels
Chapter, Azrael, and those who held the rank before him. He is often used as an oracle to find the other
Fallen. Azrael, like his predecessors, has attempted to make Luther repent for his crimes ten millennia
earlier -- but, like his predecessors, he has failed to do so. Luther only continues to rant and rave, claiming
that Lion El'Jonson would come and absolve the Fallen, and that the day of the Lion's return was close at
hand.

The mysterious Fallen, known as Cypher

 Cypher - Cypher is the most feared member of the Fallen whose true name is unknown. He has been on the
run ever since the end of the Heresy and has been pursued by the Dark Angels for more than ten thousand
standard years. Cypher is a being wrapped in shadow, an entity whose every move is cloaked in mystery.
His motives and methods are themselves an enigma; even the name or title by which he is known seems to
conceal something, although whether it is a metaphor or yet another conundrum is unknown. In ancient
times, Lord Cypher was a title utilised by the ancient Calibanite feudal knights known as The Order.
Traditionally, this individual would forsake his past life and identity, becoming the personification of the
lofty ideals and traditions of The Order. To the Imperium at large, Cypher is either wholly unknown, or a
being of shadowy rumour that seems to be somehow connected to or sought by the Dark Angels and their
successor Chapters. To the Unforgiven, Cypher is a being of legend and untold speculation. Cypher is the
one whom the Masters of the Dark Angels seek above all others, for he is their most hated foe. Cypher
recently allied himself with the Shadowseer Sylandri Veilwalker. During the Terran Crusade of 999.M41,
after the resurrected Primarch Roboute Guilliman had been captured by the Lord of Change Kairos
Fateweaver and imprisoned aboard a Blackstone Fortress gifted by Abaddon the Despoiler to the Red
Corsairs in the Maelstrom, Cypher entered the Fortress alongside Veilwalker and her Harlequin allies. He
offered to free Guilliman and the other Imperials in return for the Primarch's promise to allow him to have
an audience with the Emperor of Mankind once they reached Terra. Guilliman gave his assent, and Cypher
proved to be an invaluable ally for the Primarch for the rest of the Terran Crusade. When the Imperials
eventually reached Terra and were taken into the Imperial Palace, Guilliman reneged on his promise,
having no intention of allowing a man as untrustworthy as the Fallen Angel to go before his father, who
was trapped on the Golden Throne. Though Cypher was taken into custody on the Primarch's orders by the
Adeptus Custodes, within only solar hours of his imprisonment, he had disappeared once more from his
cell through unknown means.

The Fallen, Merir Astelan

 Merir Astelan - Merir Astelan was a Chapter Master of the Dark Angels Legion of Space Marines and is
considered one of the Fallen Angels who betrayed the Emperor during the Horus Heresy. He has been
recaptured by the Dark Angels in recent years and is secretly imprisoned on their mobile fortress-
monastery, The Rock. He achieved his position as an officer of the Dark Angels after the I Legion was
formed on Terra in the 30th Millennium and before it was reunited with its Primarch, Lion El'Jonson, on
the Death World of Caliban. When some of the Dark Angels were left behind on Caliban, Astelan and the
other Terran-born Dark Angels stood up beside the Arch-Heretic Sars Luther and offered him their support.
Astelan stood by as Luther declared Caliban's independence from the oppressive Imperium of Man and its
demands for Imperial Compliance and the acceptance of the Imperial Truth. Astelan only provided his
support so that he and his brothers could get back to doing what they had always done -- fight the
Emperor's enemies and force back the darkness that had consumed Mankind for so long. When the galaxy-
spanning Horus Heresy erupted, Astelan and his Battle-Brothers did not know what their Primarch wanted
 them to do -- communication with the rest of the Legion had been cut off in the chaos of the ongoing
conflict. Astelan and his fellow Dark Angels wanted to leave Caliban, to go and fight the Traitor forces of
Horus, but they could be sure of nothing except of that which was in their own hearts. But there were some
amongst the number of Dark Angels on Caliban, newly raised Battle-Brothers who perhaps slightly lacked
the faith and zeal of the Old Legion, who opposed their leaving. Soon an inter-Legionary civil war
presumed on Caliban between the two opposing factions. In the ensuing conflict, the dissenters destroyed
most of the Dark Angels fleet and self-destructed a stolen flagship in orbit over Caliban. Untold destruction
rained down upon the surface of the planet. The dissenters had not only marooned Astelan and his men
upon Caliban, they had wrought untold destruction upon the planet that had now become their prison.
When the Dark Angels' Primarch finally returned, the Dark Angels left on Caliban were afraid of their
Primarch's wrath. Luther contacted Astelan directly, seeking his advice. He was troubled because he had
intercepted a communication that claimed Lion El’Jonson himself led the approaching ships. Luther did not
know what to do, fearing the wrath of the Lion for what had befallen Caliban. Astelan told Luther nothing,
and on his own initiative, gave the grim order for the batteries to open fire on the approaching starships.
The Primarch immediately ordered a sustained orbital bombardment of what he saw as the Traitor positions
and led an attack against Luther's position personally. Meanwhile, the massed guns of the Dark Angel fleet
pounded the planet, until the very surface of Caliban began to crack under the strain of the bombardment.
The immense strain these powerful psychic forces placed upon the planet, in combination with the tectonic
shifting and cracking caused by the orbital bombardment, caused the entire planet to explode. After his
interrogation, Astelan was taken from his interrogation chamber by Sapphon, the Grand Master of
Chaplains, and placed in a cell adjacent to the still-living Luther, the greatest of the Fallen Angels, within
the deepest catacombs of The Rock. He still waits there today, desperate for an absolution that may never
come.
 Zhebdek Abaddas - Zhebek Abaddas was a former Dark Angels Captain who became a willing servant
and slave of the Dark Gods. Captain Abaddas wore heavily corrupted Mark III Power Armour and utilised
a Bolter, Chainsword, and some sort of exotic weapon resembling a Kai Gun.

 Attias - Attias, known also as Attias the Untamed, is a notorious Fallen Angel said to have been at Luther's
side during the final confrontation between Luther's Fallen Angels and Lion El'Jonson and his Loyalist
Dark Angels. Over the course of ten millennia, Attias managed to elude capture by the Dark Angels. At
some point in the late 41st Millennium, he was captured by the Renegade Chapter of Chaos Space Marines
known as the Crimson Slaughter. Discovering the Dark Angels' secret shame, the Renegades attempted to
use Attias as bait to lure the Dark Angels to the world of Stern's Rememberance. The Dark Angels' 5th
Company, led by Master Zadakiel, arrived on the planet and discovered Attias, who then attempted to warn
his erstwhile brothers that it was all an elaborate trap, and that they should take their leave. The Dark
Angels took Attias into custody and attempted to take their leave, but as they made their way back to their
Thunderhawks the trap was sprung, as a massive Drop Pod assault was launched by the Crimson Slaughter
while their allied Chaos Cultists surrounded the outnumbered Dark Angels. In the ensuing battle, the Dark
Angels reluctantly freed Attias, allowing him to fight by their side in order to survive the Heretics'
onslaught. The Dark Angels narrowly escaped, taking their infamous prisoner back to The Rock to be
interrogated by the Chapter's Interrogator-Chaplains.
 Baalakai - Baalakai was a particularly notorious Fallen Angel, a former Dark Angels Company Master.
During the Defence of Gatlinghive, the Dark Angels Successor Chapter known as the Angels of
Redemption abandoned their post just before the Orks' final assault to capture the Fallen Angel Baalakai.
This resulted in the fall of Gatling hive and the massacre of all its remaining people by the Greenskins. The
Chapter was never called to account for their actions, as there were no survivors to press any form of
formal inquiry.
 Baelor the Imposter - An infamous Fallen Angel that was hunted down by the Dark Angels when he was
tracked to the Nephilim Sector in late 40th Millennium. This led to the discovery of a Standard Template
Construct for an improved engine that is now utilised by the Ravenwing's Nephilim Jetfighters.
 Cadmus - Cadmus was a commanding officer of the Hyades Planetary Defence Force when Ragnar
Blackmane of the Space Wolves Chapter arrived to tour the planet's impressive facilities. The Space Wolf
was thoroughly impressed with the commander's discipline and military proficiency as a soldier. But
Cadmus was not what he appeared to be, for he was in actuality one of the Fallen. He had secretly
concealed himself amongst the citizens of Hyades and changed his identity, hiding in plain sight,
 masquerading as a professional soldier. To make matters worse, Cadmus harboured a darker secret still, for
he was in league with the infamous Thousand Sons Traitor Legion Chaos Sorcerer Madox. Unbeknownst to
both Cadmus and Ragnar Blackmane, the Fallen Angel's whereabouts had already been tracked to Hyades
by the Dark Angels. Captain Jeremiah Gieyus led an elite Deathwing Kill-team that had long pursued and
now prepared to capture the Traitor Cadmus. Stirring up old animosities that burned within both Chapters,
Captain Gieyus's Kill-team and Blackmane's Battle-Brothers of the Wolfblade soon fell into a confrontation
with one another. Eventually the two Chapters set aside their differences and went after the errant Cadmus.
They tracked down the Traitor before he could make good his escape and succeeded in capturing the
Heretic. With a newfound mutual respect for one another, Ragnar withdrew his forces and let the Dark
Angels conclude their Chapter business in privacy. Captain Gieyus then executed Cadmus.
 Obidiah Hrakon - Obidiah Hrakon was once a Standard Bearer for the Dark Angels Legion in the years
before the Horus Heresy. In 495.M35, he had gained control over an upstart planet as a despotic ruler and
key supporter of the Nova Terra Interregnum. In the Veiled Region, the Dark Angels finally cornered
Hrakon, who took refuge on a piratical port world. Seeking to ensure that none escaped, the Dark Angels
blockaded the planet and unleashed the entire Deathwing. Hrakon was eventually subdued after a titanic
duel with the Grand Master of the Deathwing and was transported back to The Rock, where his death was
not an easy one.
 Kaligar - During the Fourth Quadrant Rebellion, Sammael, the Grand Master of the Ravenwing, led the
Dark Angels' 2nd Company in an assault upon the fortress of the pretender Kaligar, one of the Fallen,
whose presence Sammael personally ferreted out. He ran the Traitor to ground after a mighty duel that is
said to have lasted nearly a day and a night.
 Machius - Brother Machius, a notorious Fallen Angel, was a former lieutenant of the Apostate-Cardinal
Bucharis. From 314-334.M36, the Dark Angels led a two-decade-long campaign beset with many battles to
hunt down Machius. Despite several ambushes set by the Night Lords Traitor Legion, the Dark Angels
eventually prevailed. The Ravenwing located Machius on the plague-ridden world of Gronmoth, capturing
him at the Battle of Black Death.
 Abdaziel Magron - Abdaziel Magron was a former Sergeant of the Dark Angels Legion who disappeared
sometime during the Horus Heresy whilst engaged with the Traitor Astartes of the World Eaters Legion
near a small planetoid. The Imperial task force had managed to sustain the laser barrage on the doomed
planet, but they were too successful, for the beams scythed through the world's crust and deep into the
liquid core. The unstable planet exploded during the height of the battle which resulted in a large mass of
debris impacting with the Dark Angels' capital ship Imperial Vengeance. The shock wave of the exploding
starship hurled Sergeant Magron along with a large amount of wreckage into the void of space. As far as he
could tell, he was the only survivor of the engagement, and he was cast adrift into space. With no chance of
rescue, Magron used his Sus-an Membrane to shut down his vital functions and induce a state of suspended
animation. The unlucky Space Marine floated through the void of space for over ten millennia, and
eventually was pulled into the strong gravitational pull of the Eye of Terror. His comatose body drifted far
into the Eye itself and he ultimately came to rest on one of the many Daemon Worlds of that benighted
realm. Sergeant Magron was found by another Astartes, a Fallen Angel by the name of Zhebdek Abaddas.
Abaddas was a former Captain of the Dark Angels Legion, until he threw in his lot with Luther and became
one of the Fallen and a servant of the Dark Gods. He helped revive his erstwhile kin, and apprised him of
the situation -- he was no longer in the 31st Millennium, but had in fact awoken far in the future, in the 41st
Millennium. Abaddas than proceeded to feed Magron a stream of lies in regards to the outcome of the
Horus Heresy; that Horus had won, killed the Emperor and that the Imperium of Man was no more. Instead,
Horus now ruled a new Imperium of Chaos. He tried to corrupt his fellow Dark Angel, who slowly
succumbed to the Abaddas' lies and the corrupting influence of Chaos and the Blood God Khorne. But in
the end, Abaddas' deception did not avail him as Magron refused to acquiesce to his fate and fought
Abaddas and killed him. Magron somehow found his way out of the Eye of Terror and was turned over to
his former Battle-Brothers in the Dark Angels Chapter. Stripped of his Power Armour and placed in a
holding cell, Magron contemplated his fate, and prepared himself to face any trials put before him. Taken
to the great fortress-monastery of The Rock, the only remaining fragment of the Dark Angels' original
homeworld of Caliban, Abdaziel Magron spent many months in a cold dungeon, interrogated by the
Chapter's Interrogator-Chaplains and Librarians. The interrogation was exhaustive. Magron made a
complete confession and repented his loss of faith in the Emperor. The harsher methods used on him
dragged no complaint from his lips. He said nothing in mitigation of his sin. But finally he was allowed
extreme unction, and offered the last blessings of a quick death and the respite of the Emperor's Peace.
 Marbas - Marbas is a loathed and reviled Fallen Angel, who alone of his kind has been raised to a Daemon
Prince by the Chaos Gods.
 Solas - Solas was a Fallen Angel masquerading as the Imperial Planetary Governor of the world of
Zambeque, a key Imperial planet sometimes called the gateway to the Golchis Sector. In 883.M37, the
Ravenwing followed a trail that lead to the Imperial Governor of this world, but before they could
apprehend the Governor for questioning, the planet declared open rebellion against the Imperium. The Dark
Angels task force was surrounded upon Zambeque by the Chaos Space Marines of the Alpha Legion, and
only a timely counter strike by half of the Deathwing prevented the annihilation of the 5th Company.
Brother Solas escaped with the remnants of his Alpha Legion allies.
 Sytrx, "the Mauler" - During an unspoken period of their history, referred to as the Forgotten Wars,
conducted from the mid-31st through the latter-32nd Millennia, the Dark Angels, along with successor
Chapters the Angels of Vengeance, the Angels of Redemption and the Lions Sable, embarked upon the trail
of multiple Fallen. The Angels of Vengeance came across an encrypted signal beamed from the mining
world of Lemnos, which was embroiled in a bitter war over mining rights -- a battle of greed, rather than
ideology. The mysterious message was sent in one of the older battle codes used by the Dark Angels and
provided just the kind of clues that fit the modus operandi of one of the Fallen. According to the message,
the leader of one of the mercenary warbands fighting on Lemnos was turning the tide of battle almost
single-handedly. He also fought in what seemed to be an old mark of power armour. Their Chapter
Librarians detected multiple readings of Fallen. The original target –- a towering man known as "the
Mauler" -– had raised alarms with his superhuman feats of strength in battle. When subjected to a remote
psychic probe by an Angels of Vengeance Librarian, the telltale signs of someone bearing Dark Angels
Legion gene-seed appeared. Terminators from the Angels of Vengeance 1st Company were sent in to
apprehend him. There were, however, other readings picked up from the vicinity as well. One of these
signals flickered – a phenomenon associated with Warp storms, although none were reported at that time.
This was the first recorded encounter with the unique signals that would later be associated with Cypher.
Whether he had been there first and brought in another Fallen or was working with the Mauler from the
beginning is not known. The strike team was successful in capturing the Mauler, although in doing so, they
sustained high casualties. As the Rock was in an adjoining sector, it was not long before the Mauler was
secured in its deep dungeons. Persuaded by the harsh methods of the Interrogator-Chaplains and the
relentless mind-probes of the Librarians, the Mauler eventually revealed that he had been known by
another, older name. Here was Brother Sytrx, a Dark Angel returned to the fold. Before finally recanting
and being relieved of the burden of living, Sytrx revealed more. He named a dozen of the Fallen that he had
seen in the sector. Elements from the Angels of Vengeance, the Dark Angels and the Lions Sable followed
these trails. Each stop along this new journey –- from planetfalls to the boarding of a derelict hulk floating
in the midst of deep space, led the Unforgiven towards still further clues. At each point, some new
revelation was ascertained. As each new scrap of information was reported back to the Rock, a larger and
more sinister plot was slowly revealed.
 Tylius - During an unspoken period of their history, referred to as the Forgotten Wars, conducted from the
mid-31st through the latter-32nd Millennia, the Dark Angels, along with successor Chapters the Angels of
Vengeance, the Angels of Redemption and the Lions Sable, embarked upon the trail of multiple Fallen.
Acting upon the information extracted from the recently captured Fallen known as Brother Sytrx, the Dark
Angels and Angels of Vengeance accomplished much deploying strike teams ranging in size from a few
squads to a full company or more. This allowed them to continue their secret missions while still fulfilling
all obligations assigned by the High Lords of Terra. However, the chase for Cypher stretched from years
into decades, until it came to a grinding halt when the trail led to the densely populated world of Brigia. It
had been determined that the commander of the Planetary Defence Force -– Grand Captain Tylius –- was
most probably one of their Fallen brethren. He had certainly been in recent contact with Cypher. As if he
had been forewarned that he was being hunted, the Grand Captain was wary. He remained within Brigia's
most formidable fortress system, an entire army acting as his personal bodyguard. With his forces spread
thin across the Gothic Sector, Purson, the Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels, gathered all the
Unforgiven within range. The Angels of Redemption and the Lions Sable answered the summons. Well-
timed Drop Pod assaults swiftly deployed troops and bunker-busting Dreadnoughts. Lance strikes from
Land Speeder formations kept the foes on the ramparts down and eliminated key bunker-mounted gun
turrets. With precision timing and deadly accuracy, the Unforgiven made headway through the outermost
defences, working their way inwards. They were poised for the second phase of the operation –- a final
attack on the central keep where Grand Captain Tylius was hidden –- when the unexpected happened. A
 new target of opportunity appeared on the battlefield -- Cypher. His appearance in the trench line
immediately drew in Purson’s Terminator reserves, as they teleported in an attempt to surround their
quarry. Grand Captain Tylius was a cunning tactician, however, and he chose this moment to release his
hitherto unsuspected reserve force. A large formation of Chaos Space Marine Terminators from the Alpha
Legion teleported to aid his fortress defence, while mobs of Cultists were called up from the nearby
population centres. The war that erupted over the fortified bunkers was intense, prolonged and destructive.
The clash of Terminators was at first evenly matched, but the Unforgiven were driven by righteous fury,
and in the end that proved decisive. Eventually, the last squad of debased enemies was taken out by a
single, well-placed burst of energy from a Land Speeder Vengeance’s Plasma Storm Battery. Only then
could the Unforgiven return to the pursuit of Cypher and the final stronghold assault to prise out Tylius.
Both ventures proved too late –- for Cypher and Tylius had made good their escape.
 Vortigern - A Chaos Lord and native of Caliban who became Lord of the Lost Lions during the Legion
Wars in the Eye of Terror after the end of the Great Scouring. He commanded the ancient Battleship With
Blade Drawn. When Ezekyle Abaddon, Sargon Eregesh, Iskandor Khayon and their companions founded
what would become the Black Legion, Vortigern and his solemn fellow Fallen soon joined it. He became
warlord of the renamed "Black Lions" and Ninth of the Ezekarion, the council of the senior-most advisers
to Abaddon. Alongside the core of the Black Legion, Vortigern fought in the First Battle of Cadia, and was
responsible for leading the Legion fleet from the battle.
 Zeriah - Zeriah, known also as Elucidax the Keeper, was an infamous Fallen Angel. A former Captain of
the 14th Assault Company of the Dark Angels Legion, Zeriah willingly followed the Arch-Betrayer Luther
into heresy, and managed to escape during the ensuing conflagration that destroyed Caliban. Eluding
capture for seven standard millennia, he was eventually tracked down to the colony world of Altid 156
during the Altid Crusade, a decade long Imperial campaign fought from 299-309.M38. This world was
populated by ragged pilgrim-colonists who had long since rejected the rule of Terra. Acting upon
information that they never disclosed to the Crusade's command council, the Dark Angels launched an
assault by themselves. The Deathwing and the Ravenwing launched a joint operation to capture the
notorious Fallen Angel. Surrounded by a bodyguard of Renegade Space Marines, Zeriah proved a
formidable opponent, killing a dozen Dark Angels. The Fallen almost made good his escape before an
Assault Cannon took him down, removing half of his chest in the process. An Apothecary rushed to ensure
the Traitor did not die before he could be forced to repent his crimes. Too unstable to teleport, Zeriah was
picked up by a Dark Talon and held within its stasis-crypt until the Dark Angels could make it back to The
Rock. There, in one of the lowermost dungeons, the Interrogator-Chaplains awaited Zeriah's arrival. A
confession was inevitably extracted from the Fallen Angel, although Zeriah refused to admit that joining
Luther was wrong. For this, he was subjected to century-long torments; yet even to the bitter end, Zeriah
remained unrepentant, a rare failure for the Interrogator-Chaplains.

Notable Fallen Starships

 Fury of the First Legion - An ancient Destroyer that was docked at the Dark Mechanicum orbital at the
world of Gallium during the Legion Wars. According to Iskandor Khayon, it was rare for I Legion ships to
sail in fleet formations within the Eye of Terror, so he presumed it was alone.
 With Blade Drawn - An ancient Battleship commanded by the Black Legion warlord and Calibanite known
as Vortigern. It participated in the First Battle of Cadia during the 1st Black Crusade.

Fallen Formations

A group of Fallen Champions led by Cypher in battle

 Fallen Champion - Bolt shells and plasma blasts rain down from all sides as the Fallen Champions spring
their ambush. Enemies reel in shock, struggling to fight back against deadly attackers who already have
them surrounded and trapped within their gunsights. As the cacophony of battle fills the air, Cypher ghosts
through the crossfire, eliminating one enemy target after another with salvoes of pistol fire. United and
coordinated by their totemic Champion, the Fallen fight as a single elite force, maximizing their firepower
and inherent martial discipline to the detriment of their victims. Even the Fallen do not know Cypher's
 darkest secrets, but they understand enough that they will not risk defeat or apparent weakness beneath his
gaze, lest they be the next to die.

A band of Fallen Angels march to war

 Fallen - Secretive and spiteful warriors, the Fallen fight with furious determination as they seek to avoid
defeat or capture. Ever on the run from the inexorable vengeance of the Dark Angels and their Unforgiven
Successor Chapters, the Fallen have become as relentlessly merciless as those who pursue them. Whether
seized during piratical raids, or prised from the hands of Adeptus Astartes they have slain, the Fallen
typically maintain substantial caches of weapons and armour. Some bands of Fallen prefer to take the fight
to their enemies at close quarters, while others eliminate their enemies from afar -- in either case, the Fallen
make lethal foes, who do not flinch from any dark act or terrible hardship if it ensures they can continue to
breathe the free air for another day.

The Lost and the Damned is the name collectively given to the multitude of beings that have turned to Chaos over
the millennia, the vast majority of whom are the ordinary mortals who fight for the Chaos Gods. They are not a
single coherent force, but rather a diverse and infinite collection of warbands and hosts under the leadership of
Chaos Champions, also known in official Imperial parlance as "Renegades" and "Heretics."

In order to fulfil their own agendas, Champions of Chaos draw lesser Chaos followers to them. They form personal
armies that can vary tremendously in size and strength. Often the Champion is a powerful demagogue, Apostate
Confessor or Cardinal of the Ecclesiarchy, Traitor or Arch-Heretic. In some cases it is even a mighty Chaos Space
Marine who has left his Traitor Legion or Renegade Chapter with his retinue of corrupted Heretic Astartes so that he
may start his own warband and carve out his own dominion across the galaxy.

Occasionally a group of the Lost and the Damned may be the dedicated mortal support of a Heretic Astartes
warband, such as those that support the Black Legion and the Alpha Legion. During a Black Crusade, however,
individual Chaos Champions will put aside their petty wars and rivalries for the common cause of Chaos Undivided.
At these times, the Lost and the Damned form a nigh unstoppable tide that attacks with seemingly inexhaustible
numbers.

Contents

[show]

History

"The so called purity of the Imperium is a notion worthy of a capering fool. Lurking under every stone there is some
glorious eyeless thing, some dark secret of corruption, something branded with darkness."
— Attributed to Tobias Belasco

The Star of Chaos

The Lost and the Damned consist of the scum of the galaxy -- Traitors to the Imperium, Heretics, Chaos Cultists,
mutants, the mortal denizens of Chaos-controlled voidships, worlds and the Warp, and other horrors too numerous to
comprehend, such as the insane Chaos Spawn.
In order to fulfill their own agendas, the Champions of Chaos draw lesser Chaos followers to them, or simply fool
loyal citizens into fighting for them. They form personal armies that can vary tremendously in size and strength.
Often the Champion is a powerful demagogue, perhaps born in the Eye of Terror or an Imperial Traitor or Arch-
Heretic to the God-Emperor or Machine God.

In some cases it is even an Aspiring Chaos Champion -- a mighty Chaos Space Marine who has left his Legion or
Chapter with his retinue so that he may start his own warband and begin his own ascent to greatness in the eyes of
the Ruinous Powers. However, during a Black Crusade or in the face of an Imperial push into Chaos-controlled
territory, like the Ophidian Campaign or the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, individual Chaos Champions will put aside
their petty wars and rivalries for a common cause. At those times, the Lost and the Damned form a nigh unstoppable
tide that attacks with seemingly inexhaustible numbers.

The Lost and the Damned often form militant cults and sometimes are formed as military armies ranging from
small-scale forces to hordes comprised of millions of fanatical soldiers. Whilst sometimes Chaos Space Marines,
daemons or deified Heretek members of the Dark Mechanicus command the Lost and the Damned, in most
instances, Renegade warbands are composed only of mortal soldiers, militias and mutants.

Sometimes it is individual regiments or portions of regiments of the Astra Militarum, Planetary Defence Forces or
elements of Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-Guard that turn from the God-Emperor's or Machine God's divine light to the
darkness of the Forces of Chaos, providing the needed firepower.

Others are the military forces of Chaos-controlled planets, the armsmen and assault forces of Chaos vessels, even the
slaves flung into battle by their uncaring overlords. Others may be the citizenry of Imperial planets armed and
fervent in rebellion. Often mutants or unskilled cultists may make up the bulk of Chaos armies.

Whilst mutants are found and relatively accepted within the Imperium, once converted to Chaos, their bodies are
changed with many more disturbing and disgusting mutations -- "gifts" from the Chaos Gods -- adorning their once-
human bodies. Whatever their component and origin, the Renegade and Heretic warbands of the Lost and the
Damned can be a deadly foe to face.

Champions of Chaos

In the Immaterium, similar thoughts and emotions of the sentient beings of the galaxy join together like rivulets of
water running down a cliffside. They form streams and flows of anguish and desire, pools of hatred and oceans of
pride. For billions of Terran years these tides and waves of psychic energy have flowed unceasingly through the
Warp and such is their power that they eventually formed creatures hewed from the energy of the Empyrean.

These instinctual, formless entities slowly gained rudimentary consciousness and the Chaos Gods were born -- great
psychic presences composed of the best dreams and worst nightmares of the galaxy's mortals. As the sentient races
of the galaxy prospered and grew, their hopes and dreams, their rage and conflicts and their loves and hatreds, all fed
the growth of the Chaos Gods and nurtured their power. Eventually, the gods reached into the dreams of mortals to
demand both their praise and their service.

A Chaos God can only increase its power through the collective actions and thoughts of the galaxy's mortals,
regardless of their species of origin. Those who worship a Chaos God and behave in a way that feeds its psychic
nature are rewarded with strange gifts, mutations, extraordinary psychic powers and potentially the greatest reward -
- ascension as an immortal Daemon Prince.

As the Chaos Gods battle one another within the Warp and the Realm of Chaos, so to do their followers wage war
upon one another in the material universe. The victors of these battles earn more power for their masters, although
the machinations and natures of the Chaos Gods are such that often a victory is unnecessary, merely the acts of
sacrifice and battle in and of themselves.
When the devotees of Chaos die, their psychic energy, their souls in the Warp, do not fade away to an unknown
destination, are not destroyed and are not devoured by daemons as the worshippers of Chaos believe happen to the
souls of others. Instead their souls are swallowed by the collective gestalt power of their gods, sustaining them and
increasing the eternal power of Chaos.

Although untold billions of sentients worship the Chaos Gods under a myriad of different guises, names and aspects,
for the majority of those who serve Chaos, the Dark Gods offer simply the chance for more power and wealth in a
universe where such things are rarely easily attained. But there are those few men and women who dedicate their
lives to becoming true warriors of the Chaos Gods. For these devotees, the allure of Chaos is even stronger. The
Champions of Chaos have a deep, fervent belief in the Ruinous Powers and their commitment is total: they swear
themselves body and soul, in this life and beyond, to Chaos.

Those who dedicate themselves to the service of Chaos are doomed to an all-or-nothing existence as Chaos
Champions in the service of one of the Dark Gods, or even of Chaos Undivided. The reward for those who please
their god is ultimate power; for those who fail it is only eternal oblivion. To achieve greatness in the eyes of their
god, Chaos Champions will perform any act, no matter how immoral, insane or vile. A Champion of Chaos does not
simply praise and venerate the Chaos Gods, he swears his life and soul to their service, bargaining away his own
essence in exchange for power and the rewards of their patronage.

Granted the forbidden knowledge and strength of Chaos, a Champion can lead armies, conquer whole worlds and
achieve greatness and ultimately, immortality. At the same time, the gods who choose to favour this Champion can
bring their influence to bear upon him, so that even as he furthers his own ambitions, he also furthers the dominance
and plots of his patrons.

Chaos Champions are the leaders of the Forces of Chaos and the majority of them are Chaos Space Marines, though
some have far more mundane origins. It is a great irony that the same abilities that make Space Marines the greatest
defenders of the Imperium are also extraordinary assets for those who would become the most potent warriors of the
Chaos Gods.

The genetic alterations that create a Space Marine also make Astartes more resistant to the mutational effects of
exposure to the energies of Chaos, which allows a Chaos Space Marine to better survive the attentions of his often-
capricious new patrons. Just as their bodies benefit from the changes wrought upon them by the ancient technologies
pioneered by the Emperor, so too are the minds of Space Marines honed to an incredible focus and possessed of a
potent force of will.

These are qualities that stand a man in great stead if he wishes to become a Chaos Champion. Those who lack a
certain clarity of thought, the mental steel required to be successful, will soon be engulfed and lost in the constant
anarchy of service to Chaos or will be swiftly overthrown and slain by more ambitious and ruthless subordinates and
comrades. Chaos cares little for loyalty -- power is given to those strong enough to claim its rewards.

Chaos Warbands

Save for a few Champions dedicated to the most pure service of Khorne, Chaos Champions do not live and fight
alone. Other followers of Chaos are drawn to them, either through the will of the gods or through the draw of a
Champion's own glory and reputation. These groups form the warbands of Chaos and they can vary in size from a
handful of individuals to massive hosts that rival an Astra Militarum regiment in size and power.

The most successful Chaos Champions command vast armies of devoted warriors. For Chaos Space Marines these
warbands are mostly composed of comrades they fought alongside in their Traitor Legions or their Renegade
Chapter. Yet it is not uncommon for Renegades with very different histories to find a common cause in their service
to the Ruinous Powers, as Chaos recognises neither hierarchy nor structure, only results.

These warbands compete with each other as much as they fight against xenos and the forces of the Imperium.
Resources are precious and hard-won in the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom and control of cities, continents and
worlds is vital to the maintenance of power. Most valued over all other things is the favour of the Chaos Gods.
Champions and their warbands must constantly prove their continued dedication to their patrons. The Chaos Gods
are embodiments of the question: what have you done for me lately?

Champions earn rewards from their gods by destroying their patron's enemies and succeeding on obscure missions
and quests. On the Daemon Worlds in the Eye of Terror, hundreds of warbands struggle in battle to best each other
for possession of daemonic artefacts, ancient knowledge, weapons and war machines left over from the days of the
Horus Heresy and from before the Fall of the Eldar. They are pitched into eternal conflict as sacrifices to their gods
and to earn the power to summon daemons to their cause.

When not battling one another, the warbands of Chaos Space Marines are a roving threat, for they are wandering
bands of nomadic warriors intent only on slaughter and loot. From bases hidden in asteroid fields and upon the
surfaces of deserted moons, aboard painstakingly maintained starships that date back to the Great Crusade, they
watch and wait for their prey to appear, gathering strength wherever a new blow can be struck against the despised
Imperium of Man and its hated Corpse Emperor.

Ascension

In the end, every Chaos Champion faces one of three fates. A life of constant warfare is a dangerous one and most
will die upon the field of battle, forgotten by their god as just another failure but immortalised in legend by their
remaining followers and comrades. These Champions are nothing more than blood-soaked sacrifices to Chaos, their
goals and ambitions forever unfulfilled.

A Chaos Champion who survives the constant battles will slowly gain more and more favour from their chosen god.
These rewards come in different forms. Some Champions may be "sent" more followers. Those with a taste for such
things might learn potent spells of psychic sorcery, while all Champions will eventually exhibit strange, inhuman
powers. Most of the "gifts" offered by the Chaos Gods take the form of physical and genetic changes -- mutations.
Some mutations are beneficial, some are harmless -- and others are downright debilitating.

Though such changes can make a Chaos Champion a fearsome warrior, he risks receiving so many such "gifts" and
become so mutated that he loses all control of himself and degenerates into the hideous creature known as a Chaos
Spawn. Even the superhuman, genetically-engineered body of an Astartes can only withstand so much genetic
corruption and can contain only so much unnatural power.

When this limit is finally breached, the Heretic Astartes or other Champion will be lost forever, transformed into a
gibbering and mindless Chaos Spawn. Driven insane, Chaos Spawn are nothing more than mindless, howling
monsters of tortured, mutated flesh. Most die quickly and painfully, their bodies ripped apart by cascading and
uncontrollable mutations as the power of Chaos is made wholly manifest within them.

Of those who do not die instantly upon surpassing the limit of the Chaos power that their bodies can withstand, some
are abandoned by their warbands to wander the Daemon Worlds until they are slain, while others are kept as pets
and war beasts by those who were once their followers.

But the third fate of a Chaos Champion is the reward to which all devotees of Chaos dedicate themselves: ascension
to daemonhood. The Champion's ultimate reward is ascension to become a Daemon Prince of his patron god. His
flesh is transformed into the immaterial substance of the Warp and his mortal life is entirely cast aside.

A follower of Chaos who ascends to become a Daemon Prince is an immortal and all-powerful warrior who will
serve his god for all eternity and never know death or fear again. Some Daemon Princes leave their mortal followers
behind and join the nightmare hosts of the daemons of Chaos to plague worlds across the gulfs of space and time as
embodiments of the power of their gods. Others choose to remain the leaders of their warband, now granted an
eternity to bask in the adoration of their minions and earn perhaps even greater and unimaginable power from the
Dark Gods that they have served so well.
Troops

"The rewards of tolerance are treachery and betrayal."

—Imperial maxim

A Champion of Chaos leading a platoon of Traitor Guardsmen.

Various Renegade Guardsmen

The vast bulk of the Lost and the Damned are found amongst the twisted and zealous denizens of the Daemon
Worlds lost to the Eye of Terror. Gross mutants, fierce abhumans and beastmen and primitive human tribesmen
alike seek to fight on faraway worlds for the glory and benevolence of their dark masters. Among the better armed
and slightly saner troops are Imperial outlaws: pirates, mercenaries, Chaos Cultists and military deserters who have
turned from the Emperor and fled from Imperial justice. Occasionally entire companies, or even regiments of the
Imperial Guard turn to Chaos, and take with them their vehicles and armoury.

These Traitor Guard have not yet lost their skills due to madness, and form a hardened and reliable core amongst the
slavering hordes of the Lost and Damned. Often these mortals will call upon the daemons of the Warp by
summoning them in blasphemous rituals that require the copious spilling of sacrificial blood. Their ranks are further
bolstered by terrible monstrosities of all kinds, such as Chaos Spawn, packs of Chaos Hounds or shambling zombies
raised by the malignant sorcery of the Zombie Plague to name just a few of the horrors of Chaos.

Ranks of the Lost and the Damned

 Apostate Cardinal - Apostate Cardinals, a general term for any one of many thousands of the demagogues
active in the Jericho Reach, preach resistance to the Achilus Crusade and the enforced conversion to the
Imperial Creed that follows close behind it. They whip their followers into a frenzy of hate, sometimes
literally, sometimes with words of bile and sometimes with promises of a blessed afterlife for those that die
in defence of their faith. Apostate Cardinals rule over a staggering range of cults and sects. Some are
Warrior-Brotherhoods preaching martial virtues, while others are mendicant or penitent. Many are a bizarre
hybrid of pre-Imperial religions, merged in the 31st Millennium with the Imperial Creed, and then
diverging throughout the Jericho Reach's Age of Shadow.
 Chaos Champion - A Chaos Champion is an individual who has dedicated himself to further the cause of
his or her particular patron Chaos God, or Chaos as a whole in the form of Chaos Undivided. He or she is
either an extremely powerful warrior, including a Chaos Space Marine, or a psychic Chaos Sorcerer. Chaos
is attractive for the simple reason that it offers enormous power to those willing to turn away from the light
of the Emperor and dedicate themselves in body and soul to the Ruinous Powers. For many who walk its
dark path, it offers the only hope of betterment in a galaxy ruled by an often oppressive human Imperium.
Opportunities for true happiness and advancement are the prerogatives of only a tiny, privileged minority,
and the only escape from literal starvation or persecution by a tyrannical and uncaring bureaucracy often
lies in the egalitarian favours of Chaos. For unlike the Imperium of Man and so many of the other servants
of Order in the galaxy, Chaos judges its servants on merit and skill alone and rewards them for their
successes or failures harshly, but fairly. In fact, many of those who serve the Dark Gods would claim that
only Chaos offers true justice to the peoples bound into the corrupt and dying realm ruled over by the
Corpse Emperor.
 Chaos Cultists - Chaos Cults are the most dangerous of all those organisations that plot to overthrow the
rule of the Imperium of Man from within. All planets and civilisations belonging to the Imperium can
harbour Chaos organisations, which themselves are as diverse in practice and membership as is imaginable.
From the blood-soaked sacrificial cults of Feral Worlds to the philosophical secret societies of more
advanced planets, the temptations of Chaos can capture all. The objective of the Chaos Cult is to survive
and eventually dominate the society in which it dwells. Mere survival is particularly important on Imperial
worlds, where Chaos worship is the greatest of heresies and Inquisitors are always vigilant and ready to
wipe out any taint of Chaos. Generally clandestine in nature, as discovery could bring with it attention from
 the local Adeptus Arbites contingent all the way up to the Inquisition, cults often hide behind the front of
some form of legitimate Imperial organisation in their attempt to accumulate local or planetary power, such
as trade unions, charitable organisations, accepted religious groups and even local variants of the Imperial
Cult. Extreme political parties make good fronts for cults, as they naturally attract power-hungry and
mentally unbalanced individuals, who make particularly good material for potential cult members. A very
successful organisation can achieve real political power, even gaining enough power to make it possible for
the cult to become the governing body of the planet without having to resort to outright rebellion.
 Hive Mutant - Hive mutants are the result of a hive city's population's exposure to radiation, pollutants,
carcinogens, and diseases that are circulated though a hive's food, air and water supplies. Mutation is
common in the largest hives, and relatively minor mutations are tolerated by the main population in most
hives within some sectors, though the more refined circles of hive nobility are not so forgiving. A degree of
mutation within a hive population is tolerated for the most part out of necessity. A hive city exists on the
toil of its population, and the labour of a mutant is as good as that of any other. Indeed, in many hives
where slight mutations would not be tolerated, the industry and wealth of the hive could not be sustained.
This tolerance is, of course, not universal or without bounds; mutation, after all, is commonly regarded as a
sign of sin and corruption. In many hives gross mutation is not only shunned but rooted out and purged by
law. Many hive mutants flee down into the deeper parts of a hive city where they can exist out of the reach
of persecution.
 Forsaken Priest - A Forsaken Priest is a faithful priest of the Adeptus Ministorum who has been drawn
into the service of an Inquisitor of a Radical creed and has sacrificed himself to the learning of dark
knowledge and the forbidden arts of sorcery. The knowledge and use of sorcery are blasphemous acts that
eat away at those who acquire and wield such dark arts. Nevertheless, the power of sorcery and daemon
lore is a potent weapon against the manifold threats faced by the Imperium, and so it may be wielded by
those who know that they are damning themselves but are willing to sacrifice their souls in the defence of
humanity. Forsaken Priests are rare, even in the ranks of the Radical factions of the Inquisition, and though
exceptions exist, they are almost exclusively found among those who follow either the Xanthite or
Oblationist doctrine, often for very different reasons.
 Heretek Savant - The strictures and dictates of the Adeptus Mechanicus are many and harsh; they form a
labyrinthine and iron-clad code that defines every aspect of the lives of the Omnissiah's priesthood, their
outlook and practices. Their purpose is as simple as it is unwavering: to control and regulate knowledge
and its use, stifle innovation, and above all maintain the Machine Cult's stranglehold on the Imperium's
technology. To become a Heretek Savant by that phrase's purest definition is to abandon this code, at least
in the Tech-priest's private thoughts. It is to embrace individual innovation, experimentation, and free will
and stray from the path ordained by the teachings of the Archmagos Doctrinal. For a Tech-priest to do so is
every bit as rare, as radical and heretical as a Confessor of the Ministorum straying away from the Imperial
Creed, and the consequences for those that do stray, should their deviation be discovered, is every bit as
harsh. Although rather than a pyre, Heretek Savants can look forward to having their augmetic implants
ripped bodily from them while alive and whatever meat that remains useful recycled into Servitor
components to pay for their sins.
 Malefic Scholar - A Malefic Scholar studies and acquires proscribed knowledge concerning the nature of
the Warp, the power and nature of daemons, and the manipulation of the Warp by the arts of ritual and
sorcery. These are the wizened masters of Warp craft who can summon daemons, open portals into the
ether, see things far off and days remote, and create artefacts of occult and unclean power. Such dedication
is motivated by an obsession with knowing what should not be known, or by the desire to wield unnatural
power that is beyond that open to most humans. The power of a Malefic Scholar has potential that is only
bound by the weakness of the human mind when confronted with truths greater than it can cope with. Most
Malefic Scholars are an obvious threat to the fabric and security of the Imperium; their pursuit of forbidden
knowledge can unleash Warp entities, provide a point of incursion for daemons and may corrupt all they
touch. For Inquisitors of Radical factions which embrace the use of Warp craft, a Malefic Scholar is a
valuable servant and weapon to be used to fight the enemies of Mankind.
 Warp Touched - There are places where the barrier between reality and the Warp is thin. Across such
thinned barriers the influence of the power of the Warp can touch those who are near. This is not the touch
of the intelligences that form in the tides of that other realm's psychic energy and are called daemons. It is a
caressing, violating, warping tendril of the boiling psychic energy that leaks across into reality like an
invisible fog or a howling gale; marking and changing all that it touches. Those who are touched by the
Warp may possess strange powers that they carry in their blood, bone, and mind; making them almost
 inhuman. So subtle and dangerous are the seeds planted by the Warp that almost any servant of the
Inquisition would burn one so touched -- but for a few within the Holy Ordos, such touched individuals are
to be embraced and bound to service, if for no other reason than to see what they may become.
 Tainted Psyker - Tainted Psykers are psykers who have given themselves over to the raw power of the
Warp. These psykers are teetering on the brink of complete damnation and being drawn into the thrall of
dark and thirsting gods. Though it is fraught with risk and peril, the power that can be achieved by opening
oneself further to the possibility of the Warp is immense. Like opening a crack in the casing of a blast
furnace to realise the roaring inferno contained inside, the power of the Tainted Psyker is as awful as it is
terrifying. Storms of psychic force, uncanny control of flesh, and terrible ways of using the power of the
Warp are the weapons the Tainted Psyker has bought at the cost of his mind, body, and soul.
 Warp Dabbler - Warp Dabblers, sometimes referred to as "warplocks" and petty sorcerers, are individuals
tampering often blindly with the malignant arts of the Warp sorcery. Whether cultists, noncompliants,
recidivists or even servants of the Inquisition, these individuals have had contact with forbidden knowledge
and have decided to succumb to the possibilities it can offer. These are not true sorcerers or savants of the
forbidden, but instead are dark-hearted warriors, soiled enforcers, spiteful adepts, and twisted killers who
have acquired a degree of Warp lore and have made the perilous decision to put it into use. Although they
may never achieve the terrible heights of occult power and knowledge that the true masters of sorcery can,
a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. This knowledge, in particular, makes most Warp Dabblers very
dangerous indeed. Warp Dabblers may have walked almost any path before they begin their dalliance with
warp craft. In the case of recidivist heretics, they may be cultists, criminals, smugglers or even gang bosses.
The intelligence and strength of will to study the forbidden is not something that all can do, but should one
with the potential be presented with forbidden power, he will often seize it and put it to imaginative and
horrible use.
 Beastmen - Beastmen are Abhumans descended from human stock who combine the physical appearances
of humans and Terran animals, usually goats or rams. Beastmen do not necessarily look alike, and different
animal traits can manifest themselves in each individual, but apart from this form of phenotypical variation
they are a genetically stable human subspecies, and are considered to be a form of Abhuman rather than an
actual mutant. The origin of Beastmen is unknown, though it is likely that they they are the result of
experiments in genetic engineering stretching back to the Dark Age of Technology before the birth of the
Imperium of Man who proceeded to breed true. Other Imperial savants claim that Beastmen are Abhumans
whose unusual forms were the result of exposure to the influence of the Warp but that the subspecies
somehow managed to maintain an unusual degree of genetic stability across generations.

War Machines

The mortal armies that march for the Ruinous Powers employ a wide variety of war machines -- ranging from the
ubiquitous Chimera to now-rare tanks like the Minotaur. At the heart of many bands are Traitors who once served
the Imperium, maintaining the vehicles and machines they had at the time of their turning.

Others have looted storage facilities and depots across the Imperium, finding obsolete patterns of vehicles and
combat walkers. And some Renegades, such as those following the Heritor Asphodel in the then-fallen Sabbat
Worlds, have been reported using new patterns of vehicles, influenced by or divorced from the influence of the
Warp.

The most common war machines are those found on Imperial and traitorous Forge Worlds -- using and abusing the
frames and variants of Leman Russ, Chimera and Basilisk tanks (or poorer equivalents such as the Urdeshi pattern
STeG4 and AT70 Reaver light tanks fielded by the Infardi and Blood Pact).

The most common super-heavy vehicles used by the forces of the Lost and the Damned are those of the Malcador
frame, or tanks whose size and shape are similar enough. More rarely a Renegade band might deploy a Baneblade or
one of its variants. Those stolen from Imperial sources have had their Aquilas removed and the blasphemous runes
and icons of Chaos scored into the vehicles, whilst those created on Renegade Forge Worlds may have more
demented designs from the core of their conception.
Some Renegade forces have access to specialised machines like the Valkyrie or the Sentinel walker. Some even
more rare and complex vehicles -- such as debased examples of the Macharius Omega or the Valdor Tank Hunter --
may mark a group's affiliation to the Dark Mechanicus.

In many cases, Cogitator-assisted targeting devices and auspexes have been replaced or failed to have been installed.
As such, these machines often feature poorer systems or, worse, even hideously pulsing, machine metal that are
daemonically-possessed by the creatures of the Warp.

Heretic and Renegade Warbands

The following is a list of notable warbands of the Lost and the Damned -- the mortal followers of the Ruinous
Powers considered Renegades and Heretics by the Imperium of Man:

Dates
Name Chaos Lord Summary
Active

A warrior cult dedicated to the service of the Chaos God Khorne,

Active
said to have been founded ca. 600.M41 and most famous as a
Blood Pact Urlock Gaur 750s-
military answer to the skill and organisation of the Astra Militarum
770s.M41
during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade of 755.M41 and 778.M41.

A collective term for a longstanding blood cult dedicated to

Multiple Khorne, Charnel Cultist warbands have been active on Anshur in
Charnel Cult Unknown
Dates 892.M38 and on Kerrack supporting the rebellion of the Harvest
Clans in 926.M41 during the Scourging of Kerrack.

The population of Hive Ferrozoica on Verghast was indoctrinated

into worship of Chaos by one of the warlords of the Sabbat
Worlds, the Heritor Asphodel. Accompanied by Asphodel's typical
Heritor
Ferrozoicans 769.M41 array of outrageous and sublime war machines, the Zoicans went
Asphodel
to war on the neighbouring still-Imperial city-states, such as
Vervunhive. The Heritor and the Zoican host were ultimately
defeated at Vervunhive, and Ferrozoica itself destroyed.

A rebellion of the agricultural workers native to Kerrack situated

in the planet's dense Cholam tree forests, the world's Harvest Clans
eventually were transformed into Charnel Cultists. The rebellion
Harvest Clans Unknown 926.M41
was ultimately crushed by an intervention by the Star Phantoms
Chapter's 5th Company during what became known as the
Scourging of Kerrack.

The "Infardi" (pilgrims) was a Chaos warband active on Saint

Active Sabbat's homeworld of Hagia during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade.
Infardi Pater Sin until Their prime purpose was to defile her home and her relics,
770.M41 debasing the local dialects and pilgrim customs as part of their
blasphemous agenda.

A Chaos Cult force dedicated to Khorne, active in and near the

Sholen Active Sabbat Worlds. Although militarily defeated on Sapiencia, Sholen
The Kith Skara's cult survived and reappeared on Plethorapolis. The cult
Skara 760s.M41
freed the Magister Anakwanar Sek from his Commissariat escort
and commenced mass bloodletting on that Hive World. This
 second uprising was ultimately defeated by a team of Iron Snakes
Astartes sent to determine Skara's location.

The Forge World of Rangda IX saw its mutant forge-clans rise in

Rangda IX
rebellion against the Omnissiah in 919.M41, driven by an outbreak
Traitor mutant Unknown 919.M41
of heresy. The insurrection was suppressed by the Celebrants
forge-clans
Chapter's counterattack.

A warrior cult dedicated to Khorne, founded by the Sabbat Worlds

Magister Anakwanar Sek as a way to supplant the ailing power of
Active
Anakwanar his overlord, Urlock Gaur, and his famed Blood Pact. The Sons
Sons of Sek 760s-
Sek were in part started on Gereon, trained by a captured Astra
770s.M41
Militarum general, Noches Sturm, and a Blood Pact traitor,
Mabbon Etogaur.

A group of nation-states on Aexe Cardinal in the Sabbat Worlds,

corrupted by Chaos. For 40 standard years the Shadik nations
Shadik Active waged war on the Throne-loyal nations of the Aexe Alliance. In
Unknown
Republic 700s.M41 the early 770s.M41, the Imperial Warmaster Macaroth deployed
several Astra Militarum battalions to Aexe to support the war
against the Shadik.

A Renegade army active on the contested Forge World of Fortis

Unknown Binary during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. The Renegade host was
Active
Shriven Iron led by Heretic Astartes of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion. It was
768.M41
Warriors defeated in 768.M41 in part due to the actions of elements of the
Tanith First-and-Only and the Vitrian Dragoons.

The Traitor militia of the Traitor Cardinal-Astra Xaphan,

Active consisting of most of the 8,000,000 member population of the
Vraksian Armoury World of Vraks. The core of the Traitor forces were the
Xaphan 809-
Traitor Militia Disciples of Xaphan. Ultimately the force was entirely destroyed
830.M41
by the forces of the Imperium during the seventeen-year-long
Siege of Vraks.

The Red Corsairs are a Renegade Chapter and warband of Heretic Astartes who lead a vast fleet of pirates
composed of mortals and other Traitor Marines that threaten Imperial shipping and Imperial worlds near the
Maelstrom Warp rift in the Ultima Segmentum, a region known as the Maelstrom Zone to Imperial
astrocartographers.

The Red Corsairs were once a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter called the Astral Claws who were based on the world
of Badab Primaris in the Badab Sector of the Ultima Segmentum. The Astral Claws were, ironically, raised during
the 10th Founding in the 35th Millennium to guard against the numerous daemonic and alien threats emerging from
the Maelstrom.

Under the leadership of their Chapter Master, Lufgt Huron, the "Tyrant of Badab," in the late 41st Millennium, the
Astral Claws sought to have the Badab Sector secede from the Imperium of Man. This was in protest against the
Imperium's continued attempts to use the resources of the Badab Sector outside the region to fill the pockets of
greedy Imperial merchants and manufactoria rather than dedicating them fully to the defeat of the Chaos and xenos
threats that menaced the Maelstrom Zone.
The Astral Claws and the Tyrant of Badab were able to convince several other Astartes Chapters also dedicated to
the protection of the Maelstrom Zone, including the Executioners, Lamenters, and the Mantis Warriors, to stand
with them against the Imperium in what they believed to be a just cause. This alliance of Astartes also attempted to
maintain the traditional autonomy of the Adeptus Astartes in the face of unwarranted interference from the Imperial
nobility, economic interests and the often hated Inquisition.

Unfortunately, Lufgt Huron had slowly been corrupted by his desire for power into the service of Chaos, and
eventually the Imperium was forced to respond to the so-called "Secessionists" in the Maelstrom Zone by
unleashing its full might in the terrible civil war that became known in Imperial records as the Badab War. This
conflict was fought between 901.M41 and 912.M41 and ended in the complete destruction of the Astral Claws'
defences and the devastation of their Chapter homeworld of Badab Primaris.

Only 200 Astral Claws survived the final Imperial assault, and these Astartes, all corrupted by Chaos, fled with the
maimed body of their leader into the Maelstrom, where they founded a new Chaos empire. The other Astartes
Chapters who had served the Secessionist cause were eventually forgiven by the Imperium since they had only been
misguided and not corrupted, in return for launching themselves upon a series of Penitent Crusades.

But Lufgt Huron swore his soul and the souls of his remaining Astral Claws to the eternal service of the Ruinous
Powers in return for the restoration of his health and the power needed to make war upon the Imperium that he
believed had betrayed him and his fellow Astral Claws.

Replacing the ravaged portions of his body with bionic augmetics, Lufgt Huron, now calling himself Huron
Blackheart, led his corrupt Astartes, now the Red Corsairs, back into the Maelstrom Zone to become the piratical
raiders that he had so long fought against. In time, the Red Corsairs became the leaders of a vast Chaos pirate force
of Renegades and Traitors that represents a major continuing threat to the Imperium in the Ultima Segmentum.

The Red Corsairs have grown in the intervening years since their fall and retreat into the Maelstrom to encompass a
force the size of a pre-Horus Heresy Space Marine Legion. They are also now in control of a Blackstone Fortress
gifted to them before the 13th Black Crusade by Abaddon the Despoiler for unknown reasons.

Contents

[show]

Chapter History

Red Corsairs Warband Badge

After rebelling against the Imperium of Man's authority in an attempt to have the Badab Sector secede from Imperial
control, and being defeated in the ensuing Badab War in 912.M41, the Astral Claws Chapter's 200 survivors fled the
world, becoming the core of the Chaos pirate warband called the Red Corsairs.

The Astral Claws Chapter Master and former Planetary Governor of Badab Primaris, Lufgt Huron, is now a Chaos
Lord known as Huron Blackheart. In response to the Badab Sector's huge debt in tithes and to the Chapter's tardiness
in submitting its usual 5% tithe of gene-seed, an Imperial Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator vessel, the Righteous
Quest, had entered Badab's orbit in 901.M41. Huron's first overt act of rebellion was to order his world's planetary
defences to fire upon the intruders, starting the civil conflict later named the Badab War. The Mechanicus vessel
was destroyed.

The Astral Claws found themselves outnumbered by the Loyalist Imperial forces raised against them by the
Inquisition after this incident and so called for aid from other Space Marine Chapters. They were foolishly joined by
the Executioners, the Lamenters and the Mantis Warriors who were unaware of the Astral Claws' corruption by
Chaos.
Red Corsairs Warband Colour Scheme as displayed by Brother Skarvjelsson, formerly an over-proud Space Wolf of
Ragnar Blackmane's Great Company.

Eventually, the weight of the Imperium crushed the so-called "Secessionist" rebels and Badab fell. The
Executioners, Lamenters, and the Mantis Warriors were granted the Emperor's forgiveness, however the Astral
Claws were declared Excommunicate Traitoris and became one of the Renegade Space Marine Chapters.

The surviving 200 Astral Claws broke through the Imperial blockade and fled to the Maelstrom where they became
the Red Corsairs. They had taken the broken and battered body of Lufgt Huron with them, and he is said to lead
them in raids against the Imperium, although he is now more machine than man.

The intent of the Red Corsairs' raids are to build Huron's army with captives who turn Traitor and swear themselves
to Chaos. The Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart is feared and despised by the Imperium as well as honoured by the
other Traitor Legions for the thumb he poked so successfully into the eye of the False Emperor.

Huron Blackheart's empire within the Maelstrom has become a great threat and a Chaos power that rivals the Traitor
Legions within the Eye of Terror. One of the planets under their control is New Badab, where the tournament
dedicated to the Blood God Khorne called the Skull Harvest is regularly held.

Notable Campaigns

 The Gildar Rift (998.M41) - The Chapter fleet of the Loyalist Silver Skulls Astartes encounters and
destroys a Red Corsairs strike force comprising several Executor-class Grand Cruisers. The surviving
Renegades made planetfall on several planets in the Gildar System including the primary world in the
system, Gildar Secundus, but the Silver Skulls were not to be thwarted so easily. In a matter of weeks, the
Gildar System was declared free of the Red Corsairs' influence.
 The Fall of Vilamus (999.M41) - In 999.M41, Huron Blackheart of the Red Corsairs hatched a plan to
steal large amounts of Astartes gene-seed alongside the Night Lords warband led by the Chaos Champion
called The Exalted to create new Chaos Space Marines to refill the Renegades' ranks, which had been
depleted by the Badab War. The Marines Errant's fortress-monastery of Vilamus, created by the fleet-based
Chapter to serve as a secure base for its gene-seed repository, was targetted due to its relatively small
garrison size. Luring the bulk of the Chapter away from the world, the Red Corsairs managed to disable the
fortress' Void Shields and launched a determined assault that neutralised the fortress-monastery's power
network and its automated defences. This attack led to the loss of nearly all of the Marines Errant's
stockpile of precious genetic material, dooming them to a long, slow demise as a Chapter, unless the gene-
seed could be recovered. However, the Night Lords and the Red Corsairs soon fell upon each other as the
Night Lords tried to reclaim one of their Strike Cruisers, the Echo of Damnation, and lay claim to all of the
recovered gene-seed.
 The Maelstrom Threat (980.999.M41) - A vast Chaos Space Marine fleet under the command of Huron
Blackheart emerges from the Maelstrom and besieges the Chogoris, Kaelas and Sessec Systems. Rumours
report Huron's force is as large as the Space Marine Legions of old, and several Loyalist Adeptus Astartes
Chapters are tasked with its destruction. Splitting into reaving fleets, borne swiftly upon unnatural Warp
currents that aid the Red Corsairs even as they confound the Loyalist ships hastening to intercept, the
invasion fleets fall upon the worlds of the Yasan Sector with gleeful ferocity. Recognising the scale of the
peril, and with his Stormseers reading dire prophecies in every omen, the White Scars Chapter Master Jubal
Khan orders the recall of all White Scars forces to Chogoris. On Armageddon and across a dozen other war
fronts, Astropaths vomit forth the distress cries of the White Scars' Chapter planet of Chogoris, and the
Great Khan's sons among their successors answer. Yet with new Warp Storms boiling into being across the
galaxy, their arrival becomes ever-more doubtful. The White Scars withdraw from their operations on
Armageddon to meet this dire threat to their homeworld. They summon brotherhoods from as far away as
the Damocles Gulf in order to meet this dire threat.
 The Terran Crusade (ca. 999.M41) - Magnus the Red and the Greater Daemon of Tzeentch Kairos
Fateweaver are able to recruit a large force of Red Corsairs to combat Roboute Guilliman as he makes his
way to Terra from Ultramar to meet with his father the Emperor following the Primarch's resurrection on
 Macragge. The Red Corsairs ambush Guilliman's fleet and take both it and the Primarch captive aboard a
Blackstone Fortress hidden in the Maelstrom that was gifted to them by Abaddon the Despoiler before the
start of the 13th Black Crusade. Skarbrand and Khornate Daemons attack the Fortress seeking Guilliman's
head, fighting the Red Corsairs as well. Eventually Guilliman and his warriors are freed by Cypher and
Harlequins.
 The Battle of Chogoris (Unknown Date.M42) - The opening of the Great Rift and the coming of the
Noctis Aeterna occurs while the White Scars defend Chogoris from attack. The entire Yasan Sector falls to
Huron Blackheart's attack, and when daemons manifest from the growing darkness, it seems the sons of
Jaghatai Khan will be making their last stand. But one more fleet arrives before the stars go black. Arriving
late from their war against the T'au in the Eastern Fringe, Kor'sarro Khan leads his 3rd Brotherhood and
reinforcements from the White Scars' successors in an unexpected charge that breaks the Red Corsairs'
blockade of the Khum Karta mountain range that surrounds Quan Zhou, the fortress-monastery of the
White Scars, even as its ramparts are burning. With the return of the Master of the Hunt, the planet's
defenders fight back with renewed hope, and the combined efforts of the Chapter's Stormseers drives back
the malefic energies surrounding Chogoris, causing Huron Blackheart's daemonic allies to lose their
physical form. The Heretics withdraw, falling back to strongholds elsewhere in the Yasan Sector and
leaving Chogoris broken but unbowed.
 The Fall of the Great Khan (Unknown Date.M42) - Seeking revenge for the severe damage inflicted on
Chogoris, the Great Khan of the White Scars Chapter, Jubal, leads a daring attack upon Seethnar -- the vast
space station seized by Huron Blackheart as a main dockyard for his piratical war fleets. In a swift naval
attack, Seethnar is boarded from multiple locations, each war party racing into the void station and planting
Melta Bomb charges. After brutal fighting, Jubal Khan and his Honour Guard reach Seethnar 's heart and
cause catastrophic damage to its Plasma Reactors, but become trapped by collapsing corridors. The Great
Khan is captured alive by the Red Corsairs and horrifically tortured for many solar weeks before finally
being rescued by a White Scars ambush from the Red Corsairs starship where he has been held prisoner.
Despite his rescure, Jubal Khan's physical health is broken and he is no longer capable of taking part in
White Scars combat operations.

Chapter Organisation

A Red Corsairs Chaos Space Marine

The Red Corsairs are organised into a large pirate fleet, able to deploy small, elite warbands of Chaos Space Marines
supported by larger groups of human reavers who are essentially spaceborne Chaos Cultists.

The Space Marines among the force are supremely proficient at the boarding actions favoured by the Chapter whose
ship-to-ship fighting prowess was long infamous when they were the Astral Claws.

Huron Blackheart maintains a substantial fleet consisting of vessels captured over numerous engagements, ranging
from a single Adeptus Astartes Battle Barge, a number of Strike Cruisers, many and varied Escorts and a huge
number of interceptors and bombers. Rumours suggest that Huron's command ship, salvaged when it was drifting on
the edge of the Maelstrom, was originally a Word Bearers Traitor Legion Battle Barge.

Hounds of Huron

Hounds of Huron Chaos Bikers

The "Hounds of Huron" are Blackheart's harbingers of dark fury. The Hounds are composed of Chaos Space Marine
Bike Squads ideally suited for hit-and-run raids and they use their speed to hunt down their prey. They lash out at
their intended targets with roaring Chainswords and slash with these scythed blades.

The Hounds of Huron are often used to destroy isolated targets as well as tracking down and executing fleeing
enemies. Imposing and powerful Chaos Lords within the ranks of the Red Corsairs known as "Huntmasters" are able
to temporarily gain the allegiance of large warbands of Chaos Space Marine Bikers from across the Maelstrom with
the promise of delivering to these Renegades a great bounty. These imposing figures answer only to the Tyrant of
Badab himself.

The Huntmasters are able to rally a sizeable pack of followers shortly before a major engagement is to occur. There
are no more than 4 Huntmasters within the Red Corsairs at any given time, for all of them are bitter rivals vying for
glory in the eyes of their dark master.

The rewards for obedience to the Tyrant are great but the punishment for treachery is fatal. Amongst the Hounds'
tasks is to hunt down those Renegade Space Marines who were once members of the Red Corsairs and have since
put their own agenda above that of the Tyrant's -- a common flaw amongst the servants of Chaos.

Chapter Combat Doctrine

Huron Blackheart, Chaos Lord of the Red Corsairs in combat with his Heretic Astartes.

The Red Corsairs fight primarily as an expression of their twisted faith in Chaos Undivided. In order to save what
was left of his Chapter and his hideously wounded body, Lufgt Huron made a terrible pact with the Ruinous Powers,
pledging eternal service in return for the blessings and patronage of Chaos. With limited numbers at their disposal,
the Red Corsairs spend much of their time as space pirates, but also launch brutal raids on Imperial shipping and
outposts.

These raids are not for plundering, but for the sheer pleasure of raiding the areas that they once swore to protect.
Though piratical in the extreme, the renegade master leads the Red Corsairs on savage attacks on Imperial shipping
and outposts not because they have any overriding need for plunder, but because the very act of looting the regions
he was previously sworn to protect pleases Huron as much as it does his diabolic patrons.

Notable Red Corsairs

Huron Blackheart, the former Tyrant of Badab, the ruling Chaos Lord of the Red Corsairs

 Huron Blackheart (Chaos Lord) - Huron Blackheart was originally Lufgt Huron, the Chapter Master of
the Astral Claws Space Marine Chapter and the Imperial Governor of the world of Badab Primaris in the
Ultima Segmentum. Huron Blackheart, as he became known, ultimately turned to Chaos in his ambitious
pursuit of power and corrupted most of his Chapter as well, leading them in a rebellion against the
Imperium that was known as the Badab War (901-912.M41). He is today the Chaos Lord who leads the
surviving Astral Claws, who are now the piratical Red Corsairs. Huron Blackheart has great ambitions to
unite all the Chaos Renegades of the Maelstrom under his leadership and create a Chaotic empire that will
rival that of the Traitor Legions within the Eye of Terror. Blackheart was badly wounded during the
surviving Astral Claws' retreat from Badab Primaris at the end of the Badab War, and large parts of his
body have been replaced with cybernetic enhancements.
 Garreon "The Corpsemaster" (Chief Apothecary) – Garreon was one of the Veteran Battle-Brothers of
the former Astral Claws Chapter that survived the final assault on Badab Primaris during the closing days
of the Badab War. The Red Corsairs call Garreon "The Corpsemaster", not because he harboured any desire
to see the dead walk, but because he took a pathological interest in the biology of the dying and the dead,
both of whom provided him with a harvest of precious gene-seed. He believed, as had many Apothecaries
throughout the history of the Adeptus Astartes, that the future of their brotherhood lay in a better
understanding of human genetics and xenobiology. He performed regular dissections on enemies and Red
Corsairs both – in some cases whilst his subjects were still living. He could keep his victims alive for a
phenomenal length of time, reducing them to skeletal, still-living things that begged for a release that was
an eternity in coming. All Apothecaries of the Emperor's Space Marines have heard of Garreon of the
Astral Claws. His research scrolls and early documentation were once lauded for their extraordinary insight
and understanding of Space Marine physiology, and many Apothecaries have studied Garreon’s earlier
works. The idea of meeting such a legendary figure might once have filled an Apothecary with interest and
reverence, but now it fills them with nothing but revulsion because of Garreon's corruption and betrayal of
 the Emperor. Garreon was taller than most of his comrades but possessed a leanness that would have made
him seem thin had he not been a Space Marine. Sharp, angular cheekbones stood out prominently in a
scarred face whose most striking feature was the eyes. An impassive, unreadable dark brown, the colour of
Garreon’s irises were so dark that his pupils were barely visible. His hair was a tawny brown mane that fell
to his shoulders, streaked through with grey that hinted at his advancing years. It was a face that was filled
with great intelligence but also underlined with the terrible cruelty born of a hunger for forbidden
knowledge.
 Variel "The Flayer" (Former Apothecary Secundus) - Variel served as an Apothecary Secundus of the
Astral Claws and later the Red Corsairs after the events of the Badab War ran their course. It was Variel,
his mentor Chief Apothecary Garreon and Armenneus Valthex who treated their mortally wounded Chapter
Master Lufgt Huron. It was they who oversaw the reconstruction of Huron's severely damaged body,
helping him to be reborn as the mighty Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart. After the Astral Claws had been cast
out of the bosom of the Imperium, and forced to flee into the hellish realm of the Maelstrom, Variel also
undertook additional duties as an infamous torturer who oversaw interrogations, contriving inventively
malignant punishments and keeping his "subjects" alive and lucid far longer than they wished to be. This
earned him the sobriquet "The Flayer." Late in the 41st Millennium the infamous Talos Valcoran, called the
"Soul Hunter", Sergeant of the 1st Claw (squad), 10th Company of the Night Lords, and his warband came
to the Maelstrom seeking to repair his damaged vessel. At this time, the conflicting loyalties of Variel's past
and present persona began to emerge. Ultimately, he went on to betray Huron Blackheart and assisted Talos
in reacquiring the Red Corsairs' warship Echo of Damnation, a former vessel of the Night Lords Legion
that had been captured by the Red Corsairs. Variel would go on to faithfully serve under Talos' command,
and would be one of only a handful of survivors of his warband when the Night Lords' former adoptive
homeworld of Tsagualsa came under attack from the Ulthwé Aeldari, who sought to eliminate Talos, who
had become a dire threat to them. Talos instructed Variel to escort his valued mortal servant Septimus and
the pregnant Navigator Octavia off-world aboard one of their Thunderhawk gunships. Once in orbit, both
of Talos' servants eventually escaped back to the planet's surface. This forced Variel to pursue them. The
Apothecary was badly wounded when he encountered the Aeldari Phoenix Lord Jain Zar, losing both his
legs in the process. Afterwards, he would later rejoin the Night Lords under Decimus' command, becoming
one of his most trusted followers.
 Armenneus Valthex, "The Alchemancer", Honoured Patriarch of the Forges - Valthex was the Astral
Claws' Master of the Forge, the chief Techmarine, and so an individual of great importance to the Chapter
during the Badab War as Lufgt Huron's chief Armourer and most loyal servant. Valthex's skills as a crafter
of poisons and chemical weaponry were as infamous as his abilities as a forge-wright and tech-smith were
famed. During the Badab War, Valthex fought as a field commander and as the Astral Claws' chief siege
engineer, and it was believed that it was he that carried away his fallen lord's body into the Maelstrom after
the apocalyptic final battle for the Palace of Thorns during the Loyalists' final assault on Badab Primaris.
 Garlon Souleater (Chaos Sorcerer) - The cadaverous and cruel Garlon is Lord Blackheart’s most
powerful Chaos Sorcerer within the Red Corsairs.
 Oneius Prayd (Captain) – Oneius Prayd was once a Captain of the Red Scorpions, but he threw aside his
vows of fealty after his peers refused to choose him as Chapter Master. A greater part of his Company
joined him when he seceded from his former Chapter and joining the bloody reavers known as the Red
Corsairs. Oneius has led his renegade Company on a rampage across the various alien worlds near the
Veldin Sector, attracting all manner of outcasts and Renegades, including being bolstered by a squad of
Chaos Space Marines from the Disciples of Ruin and another squad from the ill-fated Wolf Brothers. The
Dark Gods eventually appeared to him in a vision and commanded him to fight on Makenna VII as a true
test of his new loyalty.
 Crassus (Khornate Champion) - Crassus was a Renegade from the Ultramarines who was Khorne's
chosen Chaos Champion amongst the Red Corsairs. Crassus was a bloody-handed psychopath a full head
taller than the average Astartes, with few equals in hand-to-hand combat.
 Taemar (Chaos Sorcerer/Warband Champion) – Taemar's roots did not lie with the Astral Claws. Once,
a lifetime ago, he had belonged to another Chapter. Like many of the Renegade Space Marines from other
Chapters that joined the Tyrant of Badab’s warband in the Maelstrom after the Badab War, Taemar had
attempted to disguise his original allegiance by obliterating the sigil of his former Chapter, but the core
colours of his Power Armour proclaimed that Taemar had once belonged to the Executioners. But the less
he thought about his betrayal of his former Chapter, the less it bothered him. He had fought and murdered
 his way through the ranks of the Red Corsairs until he served as one of Blackheart’s champions within the
warband. History suggested that this was no coveted position -- death would be his only reward, whether it
came at the hands of another ambitious Traitor Marine or in battle against Huron Blackheart's enemies and
he knew it. Taemar was also an accomplished Chaos Sorcerer who possessed powerful psychic abilities. He
ultimately was slain at the hands of Prognosticator Brand of the Silver Skulls Chapter on the bridge of the
Loyalist Strike Cruiser Dread Argent during the Red Corsairs' failed campaign to take control of the Gildar
Rift.
 Huntmaster Galvaron – There are no more than four Huntmasters at any one time; all are bitter rivals
vying for glory in the eyes of their master. The rewards for obedience are great, the punishment for
treachery fatal. It is amongst the Hounds' tasks to hunt down renegades that once flocked to the Red
Corsairs' banner and have since put their own agenda above that of Huron's. Large squadrons of Chaos
Bikers provide a violent thunderbolt of destructive force, although they tend to group together under the
command of a particularly powerful Chaos Lord. It takes an individual who can promise to deliver the
renegades an even greater bounty to temporarily gain their allegiance. Huron's Huntmasters are men such
as this, imposing figures in the Red Corsairs who answer only to Lord Blackheart himself. Huntsmaster
Galvaron is one such ruthless individual, for he is truly one of Huron's chosen agents, one of his favoured
heralds of terror.
 Vollsanger (Battle-Brother) – A former Space Wolves battle-brother, he served aboard the Strike Cruiser
Wolf of Fenris which was captured by the vile Red Corsairs during fierce fighting near Parenxes. In the
final assault, the remaining Space Wolves faced annihilation. In an act of desperate betrayal, he turned
upon his own battle-brothers and slew them. He recanted his oaths to his former Chapter, his Primarch and
the Emperor of Mankind, and swore new pledges of loyalty to Huron Blackheart. In return, Blackheart
granted the traitorous Wolf the command of the Wolf of Fenris.
 Sartak (Chaos Sorcerer) – Sartak was once a former Librarian of the Astral Claws but later became a
Chaos Sorcerer of the infamous Red Corsairs. Sartak felt that he had followed the easy path for far too
many years. Sartak remembered those dark days on Badab, when Huron had poisoned the Astral Claws
against the Emperor. Sartak, loyal to his Chapter Master, as a Space Marine should be, followed him into
heresy. Along with 200 other battle-brother he escaped his destruction when he fled Badab Primaris at the
end of the Badab War. But the years of reaving had taken their toll on the once idealistic warrior. Like a
sleeping man jarred to consciousness, Sartak had opened his eyes to the depravity and corruption of the
man once known as the Tyrant of Badab. With this shocking awakening Sartak had realised that there was
only one way to make good his betrayal of the Emperor. He had been found unconscious on the bridge of a
White Scars’ cruiser following a Red Corsair raid by the White Scars battle-brother, Arghun. Sartak
claimed that he was allegedly through with being a blood-handed reaver and had betrayed his oath of fealty
to the Tyrant. If was allowed to infiltrate and find his friend Lothar on Blackheart’s flagship, he would be
able to tell the White Scars where the next attack would fall. Brother Arghun and Sartak make their way
into the Maelstrom and are eventually captured by the Red Corsairs and brought before their Chaos Lord.
The Tyrant queries Arghun for the reasons he has betrayed his oaths of fealty to the Emperor. Unconvinced
of the supposed traitor’s intentions, he orders Sartak to slay the White Scar in order to prove his loyalty.
Reluctantly, Sartak does as he is told. After the execution, he seeks out his contact aboard Blackheart’s ship
– his friend Lothar. Unfortunately, he finds Lothar in a deadly gladiatorial contest against the reigning
Khornate Champion, Crassus. Hopelessly outmatch, Lothar is summarily beaten. As he lay dying, Lothar
informs his friend of the Red Corsairs’ next target – the planet Razzia. Retreating to his quarters, Sartak
reaches out to the aether of the Warp and finds the mind of a White Scars Storm Seer waiting for him.
Sartak then informs him of the Tyrant’s next target. After sending his astrotelepathic message, Sartak is
confronted by Garlon Souleater, the Tyrant’s chief psyker, as well as Blackheart himself. They inform
Sartak that they were aware of his betrayal and that they had used him to misdirect the White Scars for their
next intended target which was the Imperial world of Santiago, not Razzia. Facing his doom, Sartak
attempts to attack Blackheart but loses both his hands to the deadly Tyrant's Claw for his trouble. Garlon
then psychically attacks Sartak and knocks him unconscious. When Sartak finally reawakens he finds
himself confined in some kind of container and in utter darkness. His limbs are restrained and tubes have
been shoved down his throat. He tried to cast his mind into the Warp, but found that his powers had been
suppressed. Sartak comes to the bleak realisation that he might be sealed into some sort of escape pod and
jettisoned into space. But much to his horror, he comes to the sickening realisation that a worse fate has
befallen him. Horrified, he realises that he is sealed within a sarcophagus of a Chaos Dreadnought, never to
be installed into the nigh-indestructible adamantium shell of a Dreadnought body. Kept barely alive, he is
 doomed to slowly rot for all eternity. With this shocking revelation Sartak’s sanity flees his once rational
mind in a silent scream.
 Lothar (Battle-Brother) - Lothar was a formidable warrior within the ranks of the Red Corsairs for he had
won a place amongst Huron’s inner circle. A friend of Sartak, Lothar wanted to give up the ways of being a
bloody-handed raider. But by the time Sartak returned to the Tyrant’s ship, he found Lothar in gladiatorial
combat against the Khornate Champion, Crassus. Lothar is mortally wounded in the duel and as he lay
dying, whispers to Sartak the location of the next planet the Tyrant planned to raid. But unfortunately for
both of them, they had been duped. For the Tyrant's true target was the Agri-World of Santiago.
 Remulus (Battle Brother) - Remulus was a formidable warrior in his own right. He wears the Terminator
armour of a 1st company veteran with the Corsair's red obscuring the yellow and black of his former
Chapter, the Scythes of the Emperor. He is the Captain of the No Redemption.

Warband Fleet

 Might of Huron (Slaughter-class Cruiser) - Former flagship of the Tyrant of Badab, destroyed in the
Fourth Battle of the Sunward Gap in 959.M41.
 Spectre of Ruin (Unknown Class) - One of the chosen transports of the Tyrant of Badab.
 Hope’s Sunset (Executor-class Grand Cruiser)
 Midnight Solitude (Executor-class Grand Cruiser)
 Nightmare’s Dawn (Executor-class Grand Cruiser)
 Wolf of Fenris (Strike Cruiser) - Astartes Strike Cruiser seized from the Space Wolves by Blackheart
himself.
 Deathblade (Murder-Class Cruiser)
 No Redemption (Murder-Class Cruiser)

Warband Appearance

A Red Corsairs Heretic Astartes.

Warband Colours

Huron Blackheart's dreaded Red Corsairs were named after the blood-red colour they used to obliterate their old
Imperial heraldry and symbols. The artifice pleased Huron greatly, and all of the Renegade Space Marines who have
joined him since have taken these colours as their own to show their new allegiance.

They are also known to incorporate the colour black as well as brass trim on their Power Armour. Otherwise, most
Renegade Astartes that join the Red Corsairs usually obliterate or deface all of their former Imperial iconography by
hastily painting over them with red saltires (a diagonal 'X').

Warband Badge

The Red Corsairs icon is that of a clenched, ebon-clawed gauntlet, reminiscent of Huron Blackheart's Tyrant Claw,
on a crimson background.

While the sigil of the blackened, closed fist is often taken to refer to the "Tyrant's Claw," it is also an oblique
reference to the corrupted inheritance of the Red Corsairs as the remains of the former Loyalist Astral Claws
Chapter.