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' .,,,
11
THE HORUS HERESY®
BOOK EIGHT
-
MALEVOLENCE
A SUPPLEMENT FOR THE HoRUs HERESY: AcE OF DARKNESS
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wPRODUCED BY THE GAMES ORKSHOP SPECIALIST DESIGN STUDIO
The Horus Heresy Book Eight- Malevolence© Copyright Games Workshop Limited 2019. The Horus Heresy Book Eight- Malevolence,The Horus Heresy, CW, Games Workshop,
Forge World, The Horus Heresy, The Horus Heresy Eye logo, Space Marine, 40K, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, the 'Aquila' Double-headed Eagle logo,
and all associated logos, illustrations, images, names, creatures, races, vehicles, locations, weapons, characters, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are either
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
British Cataloguing-in-Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Pictures used for illustrative purposes only.
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CONTENTS
OF BETRAYALS AND TRIUMPHS
The Hidden War.................................................................................................... 9 At the Gates of Hell: The Battle of Signus ................................................. 35
Piercing the Veil ..................................................................................................23 The Betrayal at Chondax ................................................................................. 75
A Gate Unsealed .............................................................................................. 109
FORCES OF IBE LEGIONES WRIES
The Blood Angels ............................................................................................115 The White Scars .............................................................................................. 137
THE S!GNUS PRIME CAMPAIGN
How the Signus Prime Campaign Works ................................................160 Campaign Optional Rules ............................................................................ l 70
The Armies ........................................................................................................161 Special Mission - Gilded Wreck ................................................................ 172
Campaign Duration ........................................................................................ 162 Special Mission- Warp Conduit................................................................174
Campaign Special Rules ................................................................................ 166 Special Mission - Where Angels Would Die ......................................... l 76
THE CHONDAX CAMPAIGN
Campaign Rules............................................................................................... 182 Deception Phase Mission l -The Lure ....................................................190
Phase One - Deception ................................................................................. 184 Deception Phase Mission 2-The Snare.................................................. 192
Phase Two - Destruction .............................................................................. 185 Deception Phase Mission 3-The Break.................................................. 194
Campaign Optional Rules ............................................................................ l 86 Destruction Phase Mission l - Tendrils of Doubt ................................ l 96
Destruction Phase Mission 2 - Serpent Hunt........................................ 198
LEGIONES AsrARTES APPENDIX: THE BLOOD ANGELS
Blood Angels Legion Special Rules ...........................................................202 The Angel's Tears ............................................................................................. 208
Blood Angels Legion Specific Wargear .................................................... 203 Contemptor-Incaendius Class Dreadnought .............................. ........... 209
Dawnbreaker Cohort ........................................•............................................206 Chapter Master Raldoron ............................................................................. 210
Crimson Paladins ............................................................................................ 207 Judiciar Aster Crohne .................................................................................... 211
Sanguinius..................... .................................................................................... 212
LEGIONES AsrARTES APPENDIX: THE WHITE SCARS
White Scars Legion Special Rules .............................................................216 The Falcon's Claws.......................................................................................... 221
White Scars Legion Specific Wargear.......................................................21 7 White Scars Kyzagan Assault Speeder......................................................222
The Golden Keshig......................................................................................... 219 Qin Xa.................................................................................................................223
The Ebon Keshig ............................................................................................. 220 Tsolmon Khan.................................................................................................. 224
Jaghatai Khan ................................................................................................... 226
DAEMONS OF THE RUINSIORM
A Daemon Army List for Battles in the Age of Darkness ................... 231 Elites.................................................................................................................... 247
Daemons and Bases ........................................................................................ 231 Troops ................................................................................................................. 248
Daemons of the Ruinstorm Special Rules ............................................... 232 Fast Attack ......................................................................................................... 250
Emanations of Horror....................................................................................234 Heavy Support .... ............................................................................................. 25l
Aetheric Dominions....................................................................................... 236 Lords of War ........... .......................................................................................... 252
HQ......................... .............................................................................................. 242 Daemonology .......................................... .. ....................................................... 254
Daemonology- Malefic Powers ................................................................. 255
TALONS OF THE EMPEROR
Legio Custodes Special Rules ...................................................................... 259 Elites....................................................................................................................268
Legio Custodes Wargear .............................................. .................................259 Troops ................................................................................................................. 271
Legio Custodes Assault Weapons ............................................................... 262 Dedicated Transport ....................................................................................... 273
Legio Custodes Ranged Weapons ............................................................. 264 Fast Attack ......................................................................................................... 274
HQ........... ............................................................................................................ 266 Heavy Support .................................................................................................278
Lords of War .. ................................................................................................... 284
SPACE MARINE LEGION ARMY Lm ADDmoNs
Consuls ............................................................................................................... 290 Elites.................................................................................................................... 293
Heavy Support ................................................................................................. 294
PsYARKANA i
Relics of the Great Crusade.......................................................................... 300 Using Psyarkana in Games of the Age ofDarkness .............................. 300
qi.
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In every human civilisation, in every lost and power and nature expressed itself in ways The White Scars Legion Primarch, Jaghatai
found comer of the galaxy, there are demons. that had echoes of the spiritual. In practises Khan, mused upon returning to Terra that,
Some of these are the demons that Mankind such as the taking of Oaths of Moment, the "It was the knowledge that the Emperor had
has manufactured for itself, others still the names of the divisions of Imperial power concealed His true purpose from His favoured son
perfidious and misunderstood influence of and the symbols of that power, the Imperium that led to Horus' downfall. In Horus' mind, the
the xenos, the Outsider, and yet some still, wrapped itself in the clothes of authority suspicion took root that he may not have been his
though the Emperor felt it right to deny woven from dreams that were as old as the father's favourite; after all, my brother Magnus
our knowledge of such, are truly Other. gods it denied. And Mankind continued knew more of the Warp and Corax more of the
Daemons are real and unreal. This is what we to have faith, faith in the omniscience and darkness within Mankind.This must be what
have learned from the tragic events of the benevolence of the Emperor and His designs, broke Horus' will". Captain Loken, a survivor
Age of Darkness, if no other lessons are to faith through reason, in the Imperial Truth. oflsstvan III, is heard to have countered
be remembered. It is vital that we share this Perhaps this was an intended spiritual bitterly, "It was simply the realisation that the
knowledge, preserve it and learn from it, that crutch; that the Emperor in His wisdom saw Emperor was not infallible, as all sons learn of
we may gird ourselves against the threats the failings in the primitive hindbrain of their fathers, which set Horus' heart to fester". It is
of the galaxy and attempt to dispel the evils every man and woman in His service, and impossible to say now, for Horus too is dead
of the future. To dwell in ignorance now, recognised that He could only cast down the and his ashes reveal nought.
when the golden light of the Emperor which demagogue and the pontifex in this way -
shielded us from the outer darkness is so that He could only destroy the spiritual by There have been other costs incurred by
diminished,would doom not only the body using the language of religion, by preaching the Great Lie which have undermined the
of Mankind, but its very soul. the faith of the empirical and the rational. Emperor's dream oflmperium. Many billions
oflives were lost in the purges required to
THE IMPERIAL TRUTH The Great Lie maintain it. Ancient civilisations, directly
The Imperial Truth was the rational, atheist From the seemingly endless cycle of tragedy descended from Old Earth, who carried with
philosophy that guided the Emperor's and death Horus unleashed, it has become them across the cosmos the torch of religions
conquest of Old Earth, and the formation of clear to all that at the heart of the Imperial deemed anathema in this enlightened age
the Imperium through the Great Crusade. Truth was a lie. This Great Lie, promulgated were simply murdered for their beliefs.
At its heart, the Imperial Truth held that by the Emperor who now sits eternal upon Tens of thousands of cities were burned,
the universe was rational, that knowledge His throne, is that of a calculated and cultures were put to the sword and worlds
defeated fear and brought freedom from hidden ignorance within the doctrine of were annihilated in the name of the Truth.
the terrors of the Age of Strife. With this enlightenment. Those amongst us who had Ignorance was promoted hand-in-hand with
assertion went the denial of the irrational and truly seen behind the stars knew that the enlightenment across the stars. The stability
the superstitious, as well as the abandoning Lie resided there all along, clearest in the and safery of ignorance was used as a tool, an
of faith in powers and principles beyond darkness, though we feared to think of it and opiate to the blissful masses, through which
the knowable. In the unified Terra and dared not speak of it: the Warp is alive with they would remain unquestioning. With
Imperium of Mankind, there could be no malignant sentience, the very essence of ignorance and death as the tools used to
mysteries of the soul, no sorcery, no gods. which is supernatural. These unquiet spirits, promote wisdom we have made vulnerable
Those who clung to their ignorance were which reside in the Warp, sate themselves the very foundations of our Imperium. Who
cast down, their lies silenced in the pyre's upon the souls of mortals. Those of us that can say now which among the inheritors
roar. The terrors of the past had grown in remain must examine the consequences of His kingdom will be the first to use the
of our silence and the toll the Great Lie ignorance of blind faith as a weapon?
the shadow of superstition and false belief. If has taken.
Mankind was to survive its rebirth, it could There is a final and more dire consequence,
not tolerate the delusions of the past. That The first of these consequences may appear one which will reveal itself in the due
there were other dimensions, alien races and to us now to be the most terrible; that of course of time. While we have ostensibly
mutants who wielded psychic powers was Horus' rebellion. By turning his face from suffered the treachery of civil war, a greater
not denied, only that they were supernatural. the light of his Father, Horus not only war has begun which will yet blight the
That some might call these phenomena brought ruin to the Imperium but also future of Mankind. Now that son has turned
'sorcery', or attribute them to gods, were empowered the beings of the Warp to cross upon father, brother upon brother, and the
simply the symptoms of incomplete from their empyreal realm into ours. It is Imperium's greatest defenders have been
understanding. With a foundation built upon claimed that Horus was closest to his father brought to their knees, we may never attain
the tenets of the Imperial Truth, Mankind among the Primarchs, and that the Emperor the greatness of galactic dominance that the
achieved greatness, and though it was not shared with him all of His accumulated Emperor intended for us. Therein lies the
destined to last, for two centuries the Great wisdom. This can only be a falsehood,for problem, for in his reckless ambition, Horus
Crusade was beyond reproach in its methods Horus must have learned of the power of has mortally wounded the Imperium. The
and in its glorious elevation of Mankind to the immaterial from some other source - Outsider, the alien threat which we spent
the dominant species of the galaxy. the Emperor would otherwise surely have two glorious centuries casting from our
warned off His son from the dangers of the borders has been given reprieve. Moreover,
Of course, there was a degree to which forces he came to enter into a compact with.
the Imperium and the Emperor touched
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Imperium had grown from the past, and
secular though it might be, much of its
the very fabric of reality has been altered and others have quietly suspected that He wished Knowledge could have been Mankind's
terrors previously unknown have turned nothing less than dominion over all of reality greatest weapon. The sword of knowledge
their eyes upon us. The xenos and the and unreality, and hid the supernatural racing across the stars with the Great
Daemon can never allow us to recover our nature of unreality such that no being would Crusade could have empowered Mankind
might; they will always seek to harm us, for dare challenge His claim upon it. Darker to know the Daemon and to combat its
in our vulnerability they find strength. In our rumours, those which were whispered insidious presence. The shield of ignorance
weakened state, these antagonists approach during the days of the Emperor's seclusion with which the Emperor hoped to protect
now, encircling their bleeding prey like the on Terra, surmise that He sought to reach the us could only ever stymie the flood of
ichthyan predators of Old Earth. apotheosis of godhood for Himself, leaving darkness, never halt its onslaught. It frayed
Mankind behind with the cold revelation and buckled as any shield is wont to with
The Necessity of the Lie that the Imperial Truth was a lie and the the hammering of the enemy upon it. His
Though the learned now question the gods real. gamble with the fate of humanity was a
complex and delicate balance of philosophies failure, and His denial of the true nature
the Imperial Truth put into motion, for Whatever the case, it was clear to the of the Warp a mistake. The Emperor could
all that came to pass the Emperor was no Imperium from His retreat to Terra at have stopped all of this, Horus' rebellion, the
fool. He was without doubt aware of the the pinnacle of the Great Crusade, the ascendance of the Warp and the ruination of
hypocrisies fundamental to the tenets of the disappearance of his golden legions, as well the Imperium, if only He had told His sons
Imperial Truth. That the beings within the as the endless parade of men and machines and His subjects the truth.
Empyrean pose a danger to the Imperium descending into the Imperial Dungeon,
is without question, but to suppress their that some vast and intensive artifice was Though the Emperor's plan may have failed,
nature rather than to educate His subjects, underway, which served only to fuel further surely no one, alive or dead, could have
to deny enlightenment in the Age of speculation. It may even have been that known more ofthe consequences of His
Enlightenment, cannot have been a path the entirety of the Great Crusade served decisions? Had we but known what the
lightly trod. It can only be concluded that only to acquire the mysteries and materiel Emperor did, could any of us have made
the Emperor was aware of the risks and required to meet another objective, and a wiser choice in His place? Regardless,
enacted a calculated strategy to protect His that the Imperial Truth was simply a means none can be sure of the ultimate solution
greater purpose. to an end - never intended to withstand a He foresaw, only that the threat must be
test such as that which the Traitors brought countered. The duty now falls to those few of
The need for the Great Lie is a matter of against it. The truth to these rumours and us who remain with the knowledge required
some speculation. Some have argued that the Emperor's Great Work are matters too to protect the Imperium; we must illuminate
the Emperor's goal was to defeat death itself weighty to discuss at this juncture and must Mankind as to the nature and threat of the
by excising the soul and that knowledge instead be revealed at a later time. Daemon and the Outsider.
of the existence of a soul would be our
downfall. Others that He sought to enter the
mind of every human being in the galaxy
and alternatively impart His phenomenal
knowledge or His psychic gifts, creating
an ultimate, ascended race of Mankind. Yet
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SELECTED ENCOUNTERS OF ESOTERIC PHENOMENA
92.M29 866.M30 943.M30
he Ninth Battle ofXozer: In the Nordafrik The Grael Library: The crowning The Melkeji Salvation: The Imperium
onclaves of Old Earth inexplicable achievement of Riohbia, the self-proclaimed encounters a civilisation subjugated by a
phemeral phenomenon are encountered warlocks guarding the proscribed works parasitic alien race which feasts on human
uring the battle where Kalagann, the of the Grae! Library refuse to yield its sentience. Breaking the strongholds of the
echno-barbarian warlord ofUrsh is slain. The contents to the Imperium. The XIX'hLegion, parasite hosts, recorded as the Ascended,
ingdom ofUrsh is brought to heel by the prosecuting the campaign of Compliance the Word Bearers Legion bring Melkeji
mperor's forces. in the system, are tasked with quashing the to Compliance.
psychic threat and destroying the library. En-
98.M30 route, however, they receive a communique 954.M30
he First Action ofthe Great Crusade: stating that a passing fleet of the Thousand The Screaming World: The Ultramarines
uring the First Pacification of Luna, Sons Legion has intervened and dealt with are drawn to the world ofVolturn, thought
he XVI'h Legion encounters evidence of the threat already. to be Compliant, by the petitioning of their
ccultism amongst the Selenar gene-wrights. Librarians, who claim to hear inhuman
he Selenar methodology is sequestered into 88r.M30 screaming emanating from its location.
he Imperial Dungeon. The Majind Tore Transgression: During Upon investigation, the world is found to
the devastation of the second Rangdan be infested by ill-definable xenos creatures.
99.M30 Xenocide, a Basemekanic Barq breaks the Volturn is quarantined and abandoned after
he Vhnori Resurgence: The Crimson cordon of the galactic north-east to make all members of the landing party suffer
alkers emerge to challenge the Unity of the impact at Majind. The Death Guard Legion spontaneous and fatal cerebral aneurysms
anpacific Enclaves. They make use of their in pursuit are decimated as the Macrobeest within minutes of setting foot upon the
nrestrained psychic might to dominate the within is activated by unknown means. Only damned, screaming world.
inds of the populace and animate golems the quick thinking intervention of the Vl'h
titched of dead flesh , but are brutally wiped Legion prevents disaster. 962.M30
ut by the Vlll'hLegion in a campaign which The Defence ofHelioret: The insane Witch-
itches terror against the terrors. 903.M30 Idol of the Eldar Craftworld of Magc'Sithraal
The Defence of Tranquillity: The Emperor's leads a brutal campaign of raids against
03.M30 Children Legion defend a series of ancient Helioret, perpetrating etheric outrages across
he Liberation of Sol: During the Sedna crystalline gates claimed by the Imperium the sector. The combined forces of the Blood
ampaign, eight full Legions are deployed in the Dalinite Nebula-against an unknown Angels and the Ordo Sinister bring down the
o undertake the destruction of the xenos xenos fleet, which emerges from these gates, Witch-Idol and cast the Craftworld into the
emesis world, whereupon they expunge making rapid Warp translations between local star.
n alien faction bound to war by unknown them .The lll'dLegion eventually overpowers
sychic means. In the aftermath, the false the xenos and drives them back whence 963.M30
orld of Sedna falls into silence and is lost to they came. The Razing of Monarchia: The perfect city
mperial auspices. of Monarchia on Khur, nurtured by the Word
921.M30 Bearers Legion, openly promotes the worship
4 8 .M 3 0 The Emergence of Koorqosan: The lost of the Emperor as a god. The Ultramarines
he Suppression of Sarosh: After an world of Koorqosan, brought to Compliance a are dispatched to de.stroy the city and humble
ssassination attempt on the newly found hundred years previously and then enveloped the Word Bearers for promulgating doctrines
ark Angels Primarch Lion El'Jonson, it by the Warp, reappears upon the immaterial contrary to the Imperial Truth.
s discovered that the Saroshi bureaucracy waves of the Messier r6 Nebula. The world
ys tem is a cover for a cult supposedly appears to have experienced the accelerated 977.M30
ommuning with xenos entities from an passage of time in reverse, providing a The Compliance of Dwell: Brought into
lternate dimension. The Dark Angels and glimpse at the secrets of Mankind's earliest Compliance peacefully by the Ultramarines,
orces from the 4•h Expeditionary Fleet exploration of the stars. the world of Dwell is found to harbour
liminate all traces of the cult. an esoteric network of technologies of
939.M30 potentially xenos origin which predate
58.M30 The Mystery of Novo Andruss: A force the Age of Strife. This network is found to
he Purging of Arachiana: The Word identifying as the 'Ghost Legion' appears preserve and combine the memories and
earers, newly reunited with their Primarch, unheralded on the rebellious world of Novo knowledge ofDwell's people upon death
re tasked with the destruction of the Cult Andruss. Uncharted psychic phenomenon through ill-understood means.
f the Iconoclast on Arachiana; a religion are unleashed and then quelled in a brief
orshipping the 'OneTnie God', a being but bloody conflict which brings the world
escribed in the same terms as, but darkly back into Compliance, though superstition is
istinct from the Emperor. The tenets of this heightened amongst the populace as a result.
eligion would be incorporated into an early
ersion of the Book of Lorga r.
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A Denial of the Supernatural
The following is an excerpt of the essay 'Truth in all His Works', the Magnum Opus of the rationalist Terran philosophist, Alasteir Gundi. As
one of the first scholars of the Imperial Truth, Gundi was an early contributor to its ideals.
'As an aside from this work on the merits of a single creed ofTruth, I wish to discredit a popular theory as the foolishness it is. You see, I scoff at the primitive
notion of demons! I attribute the stories of beings of darkness and purest, blackest evil to little more than the overblown fear mongering creations of the tyrants
of Old Earth, dreamed up to keep the basest chattel of Mankind suppressed in servitude. The preaching offalse prophets, the soothsaying ofviziers and the
curses of old hags are but the comical and dramatic methods for the feeble to appear strong and for the worthless to garner undeserved respect. The trinkets and
charmspeddled to keep such spirits at bay are little more than the mercantile exploitations of salesmen of serpents' oils. All of this, an economy of nonsense, is
an exercise in obtaining and maintaining control over the weak-minded.
What of the tales of the gods, and their miracles and retributions? At best, these are simply coincidence attributed to divinity, unexpected hope or despair laid
at the feet of certain menacing yet unextraordinary events. At worst, they are the herd behaviours of group hysteria and mass hallucination, or the spreading
symptoms of mental infirmities caused by the radiological legacy ofTerra. The words and deeds of such so-called gods as 'Magrese', 'Abundance', 'Dagriel',
'Khurnatan' and the 'Contagious King' are patent works offiction, imagined from the minds of madmen. Nor can they be made to appear from thin air with
babbling incantation, or the scribbled daubing of childlike symbols. Their names hold no power over us, for we are to be a galactic empire of Mankind unified
by our enlightenmentr
Claims that these illogical beings mean us grave harm and reside in the turmoil of the Warp too are falsehoods .The Empyrean is a necessary conduit for space
travel and is simply another dimension yet to be fully charted, as like any other area of space.This galaxy is Mankind'sbirthright. The Warp falls within our
domain and we shall master it also. Just as the seafarers of Old Earth once baulked at the depths and the gas divers of Jupiter avoided the hot jets of the Jovian
zones, Mankind has, and will again, overcome its irrational, Immaterial fears.
We learn more of the xenos forms of the Empyrean with every voyage. They may appear to be drawn towards us, but are simply like shoals of harmless oceanic
creatures, attracted by the blinking lights along the keels of our vessels. As in any ecosystem, there too are predators to be wary of, but these are simple star-
spawn hunting the shoals, and harbour no malicious intent towards us.
I understand that sailors can be a superstitious lot, and so I must re-iterate:there are no demons in the Warp! This is one of the many reasons why the
Imperial Truth is so critical to breaking the fear human minds experience when faced with the vastness of the Cosmos. Without it, we could never leave the
light of Sol.'
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DAEMONOLOGY hungering powers within the Warp, those are shifting and in constant struggle and
Stories which explore the supernatural sometimes called the gods of Chaos, are built competition with one another over the souls .
nature of the Warp cannot be interpreted upon the ethereal strength of the souls they of Mankind . ~
literally, for no rational mind could contain hold sway over. In the Empyrean, the soul
ii
the true and eternally-changing knowledge is the only unit of value, constituting both Her writings go on to expound that the so- I'
of unreality. When discussing such tales, we power and sustenance. For this reason, the called gods, or ruinous powers, are actually
must consider them to be allegorical, filled Warp can also be known as the Sea of Souls. amoral in their truest form; they are acts of '
with the metaphors ofsimpler understanding nature, likened as to the storms of inclement
which reveal the greater truth. Such was Through our ancestors' successful sacrifices weather which gather in Terra's troposphere. ~
explained by the poet Dominicus the Mad, and the prayers of early religions, some These sentient storms harbour no malignant
whose work was considered to be entirely creatures of the Warp, those with the most intent, but travel freely upon invisible
a fantasy of the insane until recent events predatory intelligence, aligned themselves to currents of psychic force. Occasionally,
revealed it to hold a kernel of truth. Herein the fates of Mankind and the other sentient these pressure waves collide, manifesting '.1~1.
follows an exploration of the adapted ideas species of the galaxy. The sacrifices of the a Daemon as iffrom a bolt of lightning,
of Dominicus and other scholars, poets and religious, be it through ritual, warfare or and although such a creature is highly :1
preachers who have been ridiculed and murder came to nourish these entities and dangerous, its actions are random and are not
persecuted over the long millennia, whose transfer a measure of sentience to them, in themselves motivated by malice. Sellius f1
unreal works on the ethereal have been teaching them to draw ever closer to the claims that Daemons do not harbour ill-
vindicated by reality. bright flicker of the souls of Mankind. So intent, but can be directed to do harm in the n
attuned, the ripples of our every strong same manner as lightning can be caged and
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Within every man, woman and child resides emotion in the Warp, be it fear, fury, lust then called forth from a weapon to destroy.
a soul. Such a statement is a heresy against or grief, became a morsel for these entities.
the Imperial Truth, but is known to be true. So too have our emotions and desires - be Her radical theology argues that, because
The nature of the soul has been the debate they light or dark - that we as a species have these similarities are shared throughout
of scholars for millennia. It is believed that projected into the aether for millennia, so many cults and religions which were
from this soul our thoughts, feelings and shaped the aspect and demeanour of these encountered during the Great Crusade, it
inspirations come; that the soul is the very . entities. And as they drew close, we came to lends them credence. The concept of an 1
root of sentience. The souls of Mankind know them, and we attributed them a name afterlife too is a galactic constant, though,
•,'
are flickering beacons in the Immaterium, common to the fears of many of Mankind's as per Sellius' notes, a soul simply drifts
and like moths to a flame they draw the ancient faiths: Daemon. in the Warp after death until a passing
attentions of the aethertropic organisms Daemon takes a liking to its essence and
which exist in the Warp. These harmless The Theology ofthe Damned devours it. It would appear that all of
shades are pulled to us by the echoes of Those amongst the learned know that there these practices of worship point to the .~·
human emotions in the void. The brightest is little clear distinction between the real evocation of the same deities, and of a i
souls, those of psykers, accumulate around and unreal - they are a continuum with but unified spiritual understanding common
them swarms of these flitting creatures a thin veil drawn between them. Those keen to all of humanity. With religion, we may
and, drawn by those fluttering swarms of enough to realise this truth have, throughout have been able to reconcile the horrific
shadows, the bat-winged predators of darkest Mankind's history, been labelled deranged occurrences experienced in Warp travel
night come to feast. and been cloistered in asylums. One such because of the soothing teachings offaith.
person was Empyreal scholar Alana Sellius. Therefore, she argues, religion itself may
The oldest bargains of Mankind involved Found among her papers is conjecture have played a pivotal role in the development
the trading of souls. The exchange, often gathered from her research into the tales of ofMankind as a species capable ofbraving
in the form of a sacrifice, was intended to voyagers of the Warp. These papers, which the cosmos, providing us with a common
earn the favourable intervention of the are assumed responsible for Sellius' insanity, goal: to unite and collaborate in a journey
gods. Tribal peoples of Old Earth sacrificed attribute every emotion a certain flavour, (or even a 'pilgrimage', the apocryphal term
animals to deities, believing that their lives, and state that Daemons come to prefer some favoured by Sellius), to meet the gods in
too, imparted some measure of the essence tastes over others. The more extreme the their domain among the stars. She further
which their deities desired. This may be emotion, the more pressing the hunger of the posits that religion may have had the benefit
true, though it is now believed that it is the Daemon: rage more piquant than mere anger, of simplifying matters, of giving humanity
act ofworship inherent to such a gesture and unbridled lust a more tender morsel a balm with which to soothe the madness
that aligns a soul to the sentience within than simple desire. Though at the time of her of the knowledge that Daemons exist. If
the Warp. Those in more dire need, or who writing these were dismissed as the delusions such holds true then the conclusion to be
greedily desired greater power, sacrificed of a broken mind, she goes on to explain that drawn from such theology is that we are as a
their fellow men, hoping to attain richer as Daemons align around these common species more vulnerable to the predations of
boons from the gods, and though they knew emotions, they take on the characteristics Daemons due to the atheism of our Truth.
it not, their prayers were directed to the of their favoured palate. As they gather
supernatural entities of the Warp. These and amalgamate, their shared essence and Manifestations and Incursions
creatures are capricious, however, and only combined power is what we might consider Daemons take many forms, as we know
serve the purposes of Mankind for their the realms and gods within the Warp. This from the accounts of travellers of the Warp,
own gain, the worshipping of believers often analogy is useful when considering, through and the survivors of the Age of Darkness. In
going unrewarded, to the amusement of dark the lens ofvarious cultures, why the notion the immaterial realm they are amorphous
powers. The vile kingdoms of the foulest that the power of gods and their realms and ever-changing. When they manifest
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in corporeal reality, Daemons absorb greater the pull on the other side. Daemons Whether by accident or design, they also
material around them to display shapes are drawn towards the flaring brightness of eroded the border of reality until it was
which invariably cause revulsion and fear a soul in the Empyrean, and in their hunger gossamer thin. Able to push through this
in those who behold them. These forms are they clamour to push through into our world thinned veil of their own accord, Daemons
categorised as their 'Daemonic Emanations', and devour that soul and all others. in all of their unadulterated horror were
and are not limited to what the human mind able to manifest en-masse. These 'Ruinstorm'
can imagine. Indeed, the human eye may Daemons can also be manifested by Daemons were not constrained by the
be an inadequately crude instrument with those desirous of their power through an bindings of sorcery, ritual or sacrificial
which to behold such abominable creatures, arcane rite of summoning. Mankind has, power. They were not at all safe, controllable
and survivors of minor Daemonic incursions through morbid curiosity, been drawn to or predictable. These were the untamed
have spoken less of the visual appearance of the substance of the Warp and the allure malice of the Warp unleashed on an
the Daemon than of their pervasive, putrid, of its power since time immemorial. Over unprepared galaxy.
rotting-meat stench and the feeling of cold the ages, Mankind's sorcerers learned and
dread they inspire. Much like their aspect, refined their knowledge until, in hubris, Appearing from tears in realspace, drawn
their motion too is unnatural and does not they thought to control the powers of the
scan by the laws of physical movement we Warp, unleashing the horrors of Old Night. oftheir own volition by the promise of
would naturally expect a living creature to The stories from this time, preserved by
uphold; jerking between flickering bursts of the Sigillite's historical arcanists, speak souls on which to feast, the Daemons of
speed and glacial sloth. of the many methods of summoning and
subjugating Daemons as slaves of darkness the Ruinstorm brought untold ruin upon
For indeterminate reasons, the Emanations to undertake the bidding of their arcane
commonly take the form ofbestial limbs masters. Invariably, these tales end in the worlds of the Imperium. These mass
and crude ancient human weaponry, or disaster. What we can glean from them
else mimic the immediate horrors of the however is that summoned Daemons are manifestations, or incursions as they became
environment into which they are born, inherently weaker than their kin in the
fusing their nascent corposant with both Warp, for their power is derived from the known, appeared with little warning, .
inanimate matter and flesh in hideous quality and quantity of sacrifices made
ways. It seems also that Daemons appear in trade for their manifestation. These although sometimes were heralded by a
to swell in size with the glut of energy summoned Daemons are then subdued,
they contain as they leave the Warp, able either through etheric rites or a focussing surge in the tides of the Warp, sensed only
to appear as vast, hab-sized behemoths of relic such as an arcane cornerstone.They
twisted flesh or brutish hulks of writhing may also be implanted into a person, pushing by psykers, who are a mistrusted breed at the
ectoplasm that can smash aside a Predator out the soul (or offering it to be consumed)
tank, though it is impossible to ascertain if to be replaced by the Daemon, in a form best of times. No two recorded incursions
their size implies any form of hierarchy or of summoning known as possession. This
is simply a coincidence of the conditions of is considered to be relatively safer, as the are alike, though many share common
their manifestation. It is believed also by the destruction of the vessel would banish the
insane that Daemons take on altering aspects Daemon within. Additional sacrifices and expressions of esoteric phenomenon; such as
depending on their place in some vast rituals of binding are required to stop the
pantheon or some tiered dominion within Daemon from rebelling and escaping back the darkening of midday skies, the barking of
the Warp, though this is beyond the knowing into the Warp, and these too weaken it.
of any sane human mind. Those practiced in hounds, and fires burning more fiercely and
the arcane, however, do suggest that it may be It was once believed that a Daemon must be
possible to influence or manipulate the form summoned through ritual and incantation, in flames of unnatural colours. Incursions
in which a Daemon may manifest, through even accidental incursions being caused by
rituals of an entirely esoteric nature. an untrained psyker stumbling upon some could be accompanied by howling winds
spell, and that the Daemon has no agency of
There have been psykers since humanity's its own; the very act of summoning causing carrying screaming voices, anguished faces
earliest days, and as the incidence of the its creation, allowing it to exist only for a
psychic mutation has grown over the short time before withering into the ether. appearing in clouds of dust, raging floods
millennia, so too has grown the incidences of In Ultramar, the Word Bearers performed
Daemonic incursions. There are many ways the ritual of the Ruinstorm which dispelled and sudden, catastrophic tectonic activity.
in which Daemons can breach the borders of that belief This ritual gathered exceptional
reality to become tangible, manifest horrors. power through the sacrifice of millions of Daemons could appear as if from thin air, fall
Indeed, Mankind's first material contact with souls and the promise ofbillions more over
Daemons may have been entirely accidental. the course of the Horus Heresy, and indeed from space in their hundreds or march out
The use of psychic power pulls energy from in some symbolic fashion the sacrifice of
the Warp and can draw a Daemon with it the unrealised potential of the ambitions from the maddening glow of portals to the
unintentionally. The more unrestrained of Ultramar. With it, the Diabolists of the
the psyker, as we often see in the untrained XVII'hLegion sought, by creating a great unfiltered Warp.
psykers hunted by the Sisters of Silence, the warp storm, to confound Loyalist reprisals.
The Daemons of the Ruinstorm are beings
of unrestrained predacity, which recall our
ancestral memories of the caves on Old Earth
where we helplessly cowered in fear from
antediluvian megafauna. It is believed that
for every moment they are removed from
the Warp, these Daemons weaken, though
they may sustain themselves by absorbing
into their matter the souls of those whom
they kill. Daemons appearing from the
Ruinstorm were witnessed to fall upon the
citizens of the Imperium with wild ferocity,
tearing open their bodies and feasting on
their essence, causing terror and inflicting
destruction until such a time as they could
no longer remain cohesive in our reality;
fading back into the Warp. The Daemons
of the Ruinstorm are the very horrors of
unplumbed space, they are the avatars of the
Primordial Annihilator, and to speak openly
and frequently of them courts madness.
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found in the facu al1111,prtlf in lintnf crnmpltlf ortr achair, the man halfreen at the wlndOIV an4·1h~· . ·
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THE GALACTIC OCCULT the Expeditionary fleets encountered and stood for millennia left populations devoid
eradicated many cults. As enlightenment of purpose rather than empowered by the
Occultism was rife in the galaxy at the onset was brought to the reunited worlds of the Truth, and vulnerable to the charisma of
of the Great Crusade. Caused by the long Imperium, the Imperial Truth was employed demagogues or to the insinuations of xenos
darkness of the Age of Strife and millennia to wrest the far flung cultures of Mankind - breeds. On many others, long-held beliefs
of isolation, human progress stagnated, some more cryptic and steeped in the arcane were simply suppressed, relegated to hidden
leading to the regression of its peoples to than others - from the control of the occult. corners where they would become more
ancient practices. Many cults lurked just extreme, re-emerging a generation later.
under the civilised veneer offunctioning However, with thousands of worlds Moreover, even as the Great Crusade excised
societies, while others, particularly those brought into the light of the Imperial the beliefs of spirits and gods, it brought
religions driven by charismatic figures, Truth in a matter of rwo short centuries, with it its own traditions and those of the
rose to prominence; their dogma filling it was impossible to utterly eradicate the hundreds of cultures whose peoples it had
the minds of their subjects and drawing activities of the spiritual and the occult from subsumed into its armed forces, sometimes
closer the warp storms of that Age. The every world. On many worlds, the sudden resulting in replacing one faith with another,
Great Crusade bought illumination to removal of paradigms ofbelief which had and the unintended mixing ofoccult
the darkest corners of the galaxy, where practices that were contrary in nature to the
Imperial Truth.
Many thousands of such religions and cults
were met, combatted and extinguished by
the tide of the Great Crusade. Though their
practices of worship and the beliefs of their
faiths took myriad forms, they ultimately
served the purpose of either the Daemon or
the Outsider. Contained herein is a selection
of examples of cult activity as encountered
by the forces of the Imperial Army, to better
demonstrate the diversity and peculiarity of
the occult.
SEEKERS OF THE foRBIDDEN
During the Great Crusade, it was primarily
the warriors of the Thousand Sons and the
Word Bearers Legions who were chosen to
quell the threats of the occult and the arcane.
Looking at the pattern dictated by history,
it appears they were frequently found to be
adjacent to areas of such need. Knowing what
we now know, it is suspiciously fortuitous
that they should have made themselves
available for so many similarly aligned
actions of Compliance, a trend which was
only exacerbated by their reuniting with
their Primarchs, although of course this was
part of the Emperor's template for these
rwo Legions. Certainly, there were inherent
dangers in prolonged exposure to the darkest
aspects of humanity among the stars and in
allowing these two Legions to accumulate
occult knowledge, the taint of which may
have contributed to their eventual downfall.
The Thousand Sons in particular seem
to have experienced combat against a
disproportionate number of suspected
'sorcerous' threats and almost without
exception made haste to undertake conquests
of worlds known to contain libraries, crypts
and other repositories of arcane tomes.
Though part of their role was, nominally,
to safely dispose of such grimoires, it was
an open secret that they cloistered these
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relics of humanity's forgotten knowledge "''~
within their own libraries in Tizca. Some
among the Primarchs are also said to have iJ,~.
grown resentful ofMagnus' pursuits in the
realms of proscribed knowledge, and of his mh~·
Legion's propensity to disrupt the course
of conquests in their desire to attain it. This ~
became a recurring source offriction, notably
so when Magnus reportedly almost came to ~.
blows with his brother Russ in the Ark Reach ~
Cluster and again when Corax chastised the ::>.
Thousand Sons Legion for interfering in the ~
Riohbia Campaign. ~
History shows us that the lore and esoterica I~
which Magnus the Red and Lorgar Aurelian
claimed during the Great Crusade would 'i
grow to be their most potent weapon. In ~
retrospect it seems obvious that to these
two Primarchs the Great Crusade came to ~
be more a wondrous expedition into the
accumulated religions, occultism and arcana e-
of Mankind than a war for conquest.
.~-
Given what we know now, it appears unwise
that our primary response to threatening 1}·
phenomena which we scarcely understood
was to employ the Word Bearers and ~·
Thousand Sons Legions to contain it,for
though they may have destroyed the cultures ~
responsible for arcane evils, they also took
the knowledge of those people by looting n'"'
the ruins of their cities, ransacking their
libraries, picking clean their sacred shrines ~i
and exhuming the secrets of their burial
sites. The Crimson King and the Aurelian w' '~~·
were seeking forbidden knowledge from ~
the very beginning. Though it is assumed
that at least originally their intentwas not Ii>
malicious, the blame lies at our own door
for not intervening; for not expounding to '!S~.
them the supernatural nature of that which
they would come to consort with, and for I~
not warning them of the damnation which ?f
would surely follow.
•~
Had we but seen the signs that these noble
Legions were acting with ulterior agendas at l
the end, we may have been able to influence
the directions they took And when He had ''
the chance, could not the Emperor have
acted more compassionately to correct the §-
transgressions of His wayward sons than to i"
incite the bitter humiliations ofMonarchia ~
and Nikaea? Perhaps had it been so, these ~
Legions, which were so learned in the arcane
and charged with the passion for a greater ~
calling, could have raised the Imperium up
with the power of their wisdom. Tragically, f
the seeds laid by the Primarchs of the X.Vh
and XVII'h Legions would instead come to F
terrible fruition.
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ADDENDUM: EMPEROR WORSHIP ravings of thrice-damned Lorgar Aurelian. These foolish souls
It has been many years since this account was first conceived in worship the Emperor as a god and it can only be imagined what
secret. I know now that I will not live to see what becomes of bitter amusement the Golden Primarch, should he yet live, derives
our Imperium, and so may therefore write without regret or the to see that the very matter over which the Emperor chastised him is
apprehension felt by those who, like me, remember walking by the become the foundation of His kingdom.
Emperor's side during the Great Crusade. I refer to the new Imperial
cult which openly worships Him, the existence of which is contrary Such worship of the Emperor is a step towards the use of faith as a
to His will. tool with which to pervert His designs. The new lords ofTerra do
not act to halt its spread, but rather use it as a means to meet their
In the long decades since Ullanor, when the Emperor ceased to own mortal ends. It is now more imperative than ever to remember
command His armies across the stars, His frightened subjects the ascendance of the empirical, secular Imperium He created.
have clutched ever more desperately for solace in what they have Knowledge of the Great Lie does not diminish the value of the
perceived to be His words and works. Their desire for His presence Truth; the threat of the Daemon can be understood and countered
in their lives has led to the creation of a new belief, variously called rationally using the artifices of technology. His sons are marvels
the Imperial Faith or the Faith of the Emperor Our Saviour; which of science, not the demi-gods of myth and, could He speak, the
is rooted in the text of the Lectitio Divinatatus, spawned from the Emperor would be the first to deny His own divinity.
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While the very nature of the Warp is unreal, On such worlds, the human body became It would not be beyond reason to posit that
the threat posed by the Daemon and the inconstant, rife mutation twisting the shape one of the secret motivations of the Emperor
Outsider extends beyond the metaphysical to of men and women beyond recognition into in promulgating the Imperial Truth was to
tear at the very foundations of realiry. Many something entirely alien. Cruelry, brutaliry weaken the threads which bind humaniry
would choose to deny that this threat was and suffering were the only constants of to the foul sentiences in the Empyrean,
real, and for them the armour of ignorance this age - this is the galactic anarchy which and break the grasp of the Ruinous Powers.
would be shattered alongside their fragile the Emperor opposed and the horror of Given the vital importance that the Imperial
sanities during the Horus Heresy. For those the darkness which the Imperial Truth was Truth became a universal galactic doctrine,
who sought to hold the darkness at bay - rhe employed to hold at bay. the means taken by the Emperor and His
organisations established through the years Sigillite to ensure that it was enforced were
of the Great Crusade - the threat which they If upholding the Imperial Truth was a many, and in some cases, extreme. However,
girded themselves against was a very practical necessary evil of the galactic dominion their consistent purpose points to some
concern. These dauntless protectors would the Emperor sought to achieve, it also justified ends being served which may be
struggle to endure in the tumult of unrealiry served many purposes in the growth of unfathomable to lesser, human intellects.
unleashed by Horus and his allies, though the Imperium, from the breaking up of This purpose was to suppress at all cost wider
they would clad themselves in the armour communities which shared common beliefs knowledge of the supernatural nature of the
of knowledge, and wield powerful weapons that might oppose Him, to creating an Warp. To this end, specific and covert bodies
in the forms of archaeotech and psyarkana. equaliry of opportuniry such that any citizen were created, and for the duration of the
These weapons of esoteric provenance were of merit might rise to prominence of their Great Crusade they largely succeeded.
both as real and as unreal as the sinister own accord. Furthermore, by breaking the
denizens of the Warp, and were used to turn tribalism and in-fighting different cultural THE AeroRS OF ILLUMINATION
the arcane against the Empyreal. However, groups had held for millennia through
such potent weapons hold edges which cut the creation of a single Imperial cultural Foremost and most well-known of these
both ways, and the Imperium would suffer doctrine, and by freeing the Imperial bodies acting in support of the Imperial
under the attentions of its own protectors. populace of the cosmic dread which mortals Truth were the tools of the vast Imperium
feel when contemplating the vastness of propaganda machine. The iterators, an Order
KEEPING THE DARKNESS AT BAY the galaxy, He enabled all of Mankind to of rhetoricians, philosophers and educators,
During the terrible period of history known set their focus towards the single goal of were primed with the express purpose of
as Old Night, evil rose to its zenith in the the Imperial dream. These are all noble and propagating the message of the Imperial
galaxy. For thousands ofyears, unabated rational causes, though they are shadowed Truth throughout the Great Crusade. They
horrors assailed the isolated worlds of in significance by what appears to have been would ply their trade on every Compliant
humaniry, bringing our species to the very the greater advantage, as observed by those world newly entering the Imperium, as well
brink ofannihilation and reducing Mankind who were aware of the Great Lie. Every as reinforce the seculariry and rationaliry of
to a pitiable race, a shadow of the glories of religion, ancient and esoteric, encountered the tenets of the Imperial Truth on worlds
its past. This era of horrors, perpetuated by by the Great Crusade in two centuries shared decades or centuries part of the Imperium.
vivisector-warlords and rechno-barbarian one common factor: that worship draws The iterators were recruited from the most
ryrants, was marked by plagues of insaniry, the attention of Ruinous Powers within erudite, sharp-witted and silver-tongued
the scourge of famine and the tragedy of the Warp. Organised religions, cults of teachers of Terra, men and women trained at
unending war. Worst of all of the terrors personaliry, the worship of god-kings and of the direction of Malcador the Sigillite to have
faced by our species was the incursion of xenos, all of these, through some ethereal such a firm belief in the Imperial Truth and
the Warp, brought about by the emergence means, empower beings madmen describe as keen grasp of rhetoric, debate and diplomacy
of ever more psykers and the machinations the 'True Gods'. that when making their orations they could
of sorcerer-kings. Human worlds were smother any arguments, however sensible, to
swallowed whole by the Warp or else the contrary of their specific dogma.
subjugated to become the slaves of Daemons.
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arcane sciences and access to forbidden
archaeotech, learning all they could and
capturing any relics of significance worthy of
future study or use to the Emperor and His
technicians. While most such individuals
were summarily executed after their secrets
were extracted, some few were of value and
thusly offered a choice to serve the Master of
Mankind rather than be put to death.
While considered an overwhelming success conquests, the Great Crusade left behind a The Sisters of Silence were known to be
from the perspective of the ~eat and good string of worlds ready to reject the iterators' witchseekers, and though they served
of the Great Crusade, on many worlds the platitudes, ripe for the influence of the their quiet purpose to hunt out valuable
speech of iterators was seen as bombast and Outsider and the Demagogue to fester and human psykers for the choirs of the Astra
mag~iloquent, for deep-seated strictures and ferment rebellion. Telepathica, it was also at their discretion to
beliefs cannot be easily changed with the further investigate the activities of a rogue
introduction of new and often inflammatory His Talons psyker. Such investigations were wont to
concepts. The master ofJungmagr is The primary armed enforcers of the Imperial reveal the usage of a developing psyker with
recorded to have said of the army of iterators Truth were thought to be the Emperor's ill intent by a cult or through the abuse
which spread among his populace after Talons, and at the Sigillite's behest, the oflocal dominie of ancient and forbidden
that bloody Compliance,"Better fangs chew'd callous, grey-clad secret police force known practices. Whether such occurrences were
us through, than left these serpents' honeyed as the Elucidators. Being at the Emperor's accidental or intentional, to have touched the
tongues to turn us,for snake is root of our evils side throughout the wars of Unification other side taints a psyker and any persons
and woes befall us now forth''. Though many and the Great Crusade, it was only natural with which they were in contact, resulting
Compliances may have seemed peaceful that His Legio Custodes were His weapon in the wrath of the Sisters of Silence being
thanks to the work of the iterators, mon! of choice when He intervened personally unleashed upon a locality in the form of
often than not it was the threat of the bolters in esoteric matters, no command given Pursuer cadres, Erinyes jetbike squadrons
of the Legiones Astartes standing at the by the Master ofMankind being beyond and the dreaded Divider stealth-craft.
iterators' sides which cowed worlds into the ability of the Custodians to carry out. When death was the only solution available,
Compliance, rather than eloquence and logic. Beyond reproach, the Legio Custodes were the Officio Assassinorum could also be
As the pre-Imperium adage goes, 'a mind given a lighter hand than any other Imperial employed, but in those rare instances of
changed against its will is of the same opinion still' force when it came to the handling of the extremis where such death was required
and as such should have been more closely forbidden and dangerous artefacts of the as to end an entire world for the perfidy of
heeded, for in the haste to move on to greater occult. It was their duty to apprehend and making foul compacts with the entities of the
interrogate persons with knowledge of Warp, the Titans of the Ordo Sinister could
be unshackled, bringing ruination wherever
they trod.
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The Zealous Legions Independent Preparations agitation; on many worlds the fever pitch 1
The Imperial Fists Legion is thought to have Other powers also directly or of terror ground to a halt any hope of
also been subtly employed by the Emperor inadvertently upheld the Imperial Truth. resistance as the Traitor Legions arrived, the I
to combat Daemonology. The nature of the The technophages of the Malagra, the gatekeepers of these worlds paralysed with
Imperial Fists is one of stoic adherence to Mechanicum's internal function of terror or already fleeing. The Warmaster
duty, a zealous loyalty engineered into the cleansing, for a time acted to maliciously understood the power offear and used it
core of their genetic code, steeling them hinder the works of any magos tinkering widely as part of his strategy of conquest.
against corruption. Though they are known with the dangerously cryptic. Within the Sending his emissaries ahead of his fleets,
to be His consummate defenders, their Mechanicum, the adherents of the Malagra Horus spread word of the Emperor's Great
purpose may have been to defend more than doctrines sought to maintain the purity Lie and threatened to unleash the powers
His walls, but also the soul of the Imperium. of the inner workings of the cults of the he now commanded to cow populations
For much of the Great Crusade, the Emperor Omnissiah. They were the hunters of into submission.
kept the VII'h Legion and their Primarch, Heretek magi, and were known to declare
Rogal Dorn, close to His side. Unlike his dormant whole forges if any spoor of the Worlds lost to the Warmaster were said
brother Magnus, Dorn could not be easily highest forbidden heretechnical orders of to have become 'dark'. This sentiment was
swayed to seek knowledge for its own sake, damnation were found within, such as the both figurative and literal. These worlds
inste;d he was trusted to exercise restraint curse of artificial sentience, the melding would immediately cease all trade and
and caution in his studies. For this reason, it ofxenos technology with the blessed communication with their neighbours,
is rumoured that the Emperor, over a period machine, or the drawing ofenergy from the their space ports would be blockaded and
of decades, shared secrets with Rogal Dorn Warp direct. their astropathic choirs silenced. The flood
which but a few individuals were privy to; of refugees escaping the onrush of the
allowing the Praetorian to better understand Among the Chartist Captains and Rogue Warmaster's armies would dry up, with only
the need for the Imperial Truth and the Traders too, certain precautions were taken a rare few ships allowed to escape, carrying
urgency with which the true enemy must against the threat of the Other. Operating fear as a weapon to break other worlds.
be combatted. at the distant borders of the galaxy and Among the refugees were the Warmaster's
frequently traversing the Immaterium, these agents, insinuating themselves into positions
During the Great Crusade, the Imperial captains encountered arcane phenomenon to destabilise neighbouring star systems.
. Fists came to uphold the Imperial Truth' beyond description; sights and sensations To many observers, it appeared as if the
which drove men mad with but a fleeting darkness of space drew close to these lost
with a passionate zeal. As they encountered glance. Often, they would operate worlds; isolated they would regress to a
sorcerers and preachers of the profane, independently, away from Imperial scrutiny, state pre-dating Imperial enlightenment.
they understood and were able to identify where they could take their own measures to Fortress worlds of the Imperium slipped into
their enemy's weaknesses, pioneering ensure the safety and security of their vessels. darkness and simply disappeared, never to
the use of an arsenal of psyarkana devices When threatened by the Outsider or the be seen again. Many worlds were stripped
capable of combatting the influence of the Daemon, such captains, many scarcely more barren by the Warmaster's engineers of war,
Warp. Throughout the course of the Great than buccaneers, would have had the means their people and resources pressed into
Crusade, Rogal Dorn accumulated one of prepared with which to respond with force service in the Warmaster's fleets and armies.
the Imperium's greatest repositories of the and resourcefulness in kind, though they Industrial and Forge Worlds were captured
arcane within the vast vaults of Phalanx, might never dare to declare such within the and their denizens enslaved to continue
a valuable resource kept hidden from his bounds ofthe Imperium. production in Dark Compliances. Other
brothers which, though he was reticent to worlds found less useful or more resistant
employ it, was of great use during the Siege THE WINDS OF FEAR were scoured oflife by dread atomic fire
o f Terra. During the dark days of the Horus Heresy or the life-eater virus. Still others were
the power of the Warp reached ascendance, sacrificed wholesale to maintain the power of
The Death Guard too played a role in the ruinous entities within drawn closer to the Ruinstorm, perhaps the darkest fate of all.
enforcing the Imperial Truth. Mortarion, in the narrow divide between the Empyrean
his hatred of the Outsider and its sorcery, and realspace than had been experienced at As worlds cascaded into darkness, conditions
actively sought out worlds tainted by what any time since the Age of Strife. Knowledge became ideal for all of the evils of space
he perceived to be the foul influence of of the existence and madness of that to emerge. Freighters full of refugees
the Warp. On these worlds he acted not as which lay beyond the veil reached its would carry within them a melting pot of
the Liberator of Barbarus, but as a Reaper, height among the worlds of the Imperium. worshippers of ancient religions, and for
the Death Lord come at the head of a host Whether through first-hand experience, surely the first time, many different such
of the XIV'h Legion's Destroyers to harvest reliable eyewitness accounts, dark rumour cults would mix, each carrying a piece of a
the souls of those he saw as diseased. or the frantic babbled hearsay carried by larger and more complex black ritual. The
Mortarion's warriors were among the first uncounted refugees in flight, the citizens of sequence of worlds becoming dark would
to make widespread use of the bale flamer the Imperium at a stroke learned that the lead to tidal waves of fearful emotions,
and so called psyk-out or psi-reactive Daemons which they had so long denied which would in turn be reflected in the
munitions. The taint of warp magick was to were in fact real. With this realisation, Warp, leading to indiscriminate, large
Mortarion the most terminal and incurable panic and dread spread to become a galactic scale Daemonic incursions on dozens of
of contagions, and was a sickening blight, hysteria. The threat of the approach of worlds. Rebels and cultists across the galaxy
relentlessly in need of eradication. the Warmaster only fanned the flames of threw offthe pretence of Compliance to
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challenge their Imperial Governors, and Ancient Weapons
such distractions to loyal defenders only Combat reports of early encounters between the Legiones Astartes and the entities of the
paved Horus' advance. Other forces took Warp reveal a peculiar facet of the nature of the Daemon. It has been noted that for some
advantage of the Imperium's weakness. The ill-known reason, Daemons appear to be all but immune to advanced projectile and energy
Unspeakable King would re-emerge, as based weaponry in their freshly manifested state. Attacks of a more primitive nature on the
would the psychopathy ofDu'Maash. Xenos other hand, such as the hacking of a blade or the setting of flame to such a creature, have
threats banished to the fringes of the galaxy been reported to have an exaggerated effect.
would rear their heads to eke out a corner
of the lmperium as their own, and those It has been posited by radical rhetoricians that those weapons wielded by ancient men are
within cordons of quarantine would look held most in dread by the Daemon itself, for as beings of scavenged sentience and emotion,
to their skies to see the battleships of their they are not wounded on the physical plane but on an ideological level,by the primordial
Imperial gaolers no longer hanging above expectation of pain. Furthermore, the Daemons' vulnerability in this regard might have
them . In many instances, the fearful tales of informed the very weapons with which we continue to wage war, for why else would the
the Daemon abroad within the lmperium Emperor have commanded His Legions to wield swords as readily as their bolters in our
ravaging loyal systems may even have been current age?
misattributed to the influx of rampaging
xenos breeds taking advantage of the He could turn His gaze to the stars. With Multiple Rogue Traders are thought also
Imperium's tumult, but given the paucity of Him, His Talons retreated to Terra, playing to have contributed on both sides to the
surviving records, it is impossible to say what little significant part in the wars of the Sea of Fire, the devastating void warfare
fates befell such worlds. Horus Heresy, instead seeing to the body engagement across the Beta-Garmon region.
of the Emperor and enacting His secret On the whole, their forces were too far from
An Imperium Abandoned will. So too did the Imperial Fists Legion the core worlds in need of their aid, too
Many questioned at this time if more could and their Primarch return to Terra, tasked scattered to make any concerted impact on
have been done to stem the rising panic. The with the fortification of the Throneworld. the wider war and too few to turn the tide.
Legiones Astartes, the symbol of Imperial Beyond the light of Sol, the Imperial
strength and unity, were sundered after Fists were instrumental in the defence of As to the Order Elucidatum, Horus knew
the bitter blows ofisstvan, Calth, Signus the heartlands of the Imperium within of their presence within the Great Crusade.
and many more. Shattered Legion forces the Segmentum Solar, here at least they Being a skilled general, he had observed early
scattered across the vastness of the galaxy monitored the flow of rumour and brought on certain regiments of the Imperial Army
waged their guerrilla campaigns to harry reassurance to isolated planetary governors peeling off from their ordered advances to
the onrush of the darkness, but could do that they were not forgotten. These efforts pursue hitherto unknown objectives and
little to significantly slow it. The vast martial were often undermined in the early stages had traced these back to the offices of the
might of the Imperial Army was split in of what would become known as the Solar Sigillite. When he came to purge his ships
twain, responding to a million cries for aid or War, a campaign of calculated misdirection of iterators, Remembrancers and Imperial
consuming itself with in-fighting. Planetary and manipulation whose objective was to bureaucrats he did not underestimate the
garrison forces could scarcely keep up with weaken the seat of power ofTerra prior to the Elucidators, tasking his equerry Maloghurst
the deluge of refugees and quickly became Warmaster's arrival. with their extermination.
wary of their neighbours, mistrust winning
over compassion thanks to the artifices of The Forge Worlds of the Mechanicum, ever Outside of the Traitors' fleets, the Elucidators
the Warmaster. With Imperial defenders in jealous of their domains, became isolationist found their work outstripping them as
disarray, voices were raised to ask questions and reclusive, beyond the reach of Mars the birth of the Ruinstorm gave rise to
of the whereabouts of the Emperor and His and Terra both. The fate of the fanatical innumerable new targets, far beyond
agents of illumination, those most trusted Malagra Order is tied to the revelation of the ability of their Order to cope with
and most required to keep the darkness at the Dark Mechanicum, and as with many alone, particularly when those among the
bay in the Imperium's time of need. masters of the Forge Worlds, they had little Imperial Army whom they had come to
interest in the plight of the wider Imperium, rely on were entrenched in warfare on
The Emperor had returned to His seat on being as they were otherwise occupied with multiple fronts. The individual Elucidators
Terra after the Triumph at Ullanor, trusting the division of the Mechanicum and the became fragmented as the Age of Darkness
to His chosen son, Horus, to complete the secession of Mars. Of the Chartist Captains proceeded, their fates unknown and
Great Crusade, while unbeknownst to His and Rogue Traders in the galaxy, they made unsought after. From the Unbalanced
Imperium He was embroiled in His Great themselves known in many small ways, Scales, we can deduce that perhaps dozens
Work. It may have appeared to the masses arriving unheralded to aid the Imperium or, ofElucidators spread throughout the
that, throughout the years of the Horus in their disbelief and shock, let loose their Expeditionary fleets were in fact covert
Heresy, He was either unaware or uncaring anger at the idea of civil war; punishing double agents of the Alpha Legion and, at
of the plight of the trillions of souls looking both the Emperor's and Warmaster's forces the onset of the Horus Heresy, these were
to Hirn for deliverance, and with the weight in equal measure. Such was observed when recalled to other, unknowable posts. In 012.
of that perception came despair. The truth the Golden Fleet appeared to burn the skies M3I, the Order Elucidatum was formally
though is far more frightening, as the secrets above Tallarn, and when the Admiralty dissolved by the Sigillite without fanfare,
behind the Eternity Gate were of the utmost of Joss crippled the moon ofDrussen IV. and records pointing towards its existence
importance, holding the full attention of
the indomitable mind of the Master of
Mankind, allowing Him no respite in which
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expunged. Those few Tallymen who survived unbound entities of the Warp to spill into and Angron spurned them with spiteful i
to return to their master on Terra were not the facility drawn by the prisoners' anguish. disdain. Fulgrim, it is thought, came to
lauded as either heroes or villains but quietly Only the intervention of a contingent of embrace the powers of the Warp, finding in '>
inducted into different secretive agencies, Space Wolves - a force known to react with them something beatific, rapturous and
for Malcador was still in need ofproven men overwhelming brutality to the incursions of all-consuming. It is Lorgar Aurelian's l
and women with their particular skills. Daemons - and a Librarian of the Knights relationship with the Warp and the force I
Errant, both apparently hunting Ahriman which he describes as the Primordial Truth
ARCANA OF THE LEGIONES ASTARTES himself could contain the threat. Regardless however, which is most pertinent to any ''
of these efforts, with their revelation to account of the role of the Daemon within
At the height of the Horus Heresy, the the galaxy, the fates of Kamiti Sona and its Horus' rebellion.
Legiones Astartes were exposed almost inmates were sealed.
without exception to the esoteric, whether Inferred from letters exchanged with his
they chose to pursue it or not. Dozens of Whatever the outcome of such battles, it has mentor Kor Phaeron and his seminal written
battles turned on the ability of the Legions become clear that each and every encounter work, the Book of Lorgar, some decades prior
to draw upon or combat the ethereal. Many of the arcane during the Age of Darkness to the events on Isstvan, Lorgar Aurelian
battles revolved around the acquisition or served to lend strength to the Warmaster's undertook a pilgrimage which led him to the
destruction of artefacts and relics which campaign. Repeated Daemonic incursions distant and dark corners ofthe galaxy. His
would°previously have been rejected as too and the use of technoarcana which activated Father the Emperor, whom Lorgar venerated,
dangerous or too costly to use by any Legion. simultaneously in both realspace and the had denied His own godhood, and in doing
Other battles were incited or decided by the Warp weakened the gates at the threshold of so humbled Lorgar and his Legion. From that
walls of realspace being torn asunder to admit hell. Increasingly as these ancient borders day on Monarchia, it became the Primarch of
Daemons into a war zone. creaked, new portals appeared; gratuitously the XVII'hLegion's singular, bitter ambition
dispersed amongst the width and breadth to redeem his beliefthat the deities he
Conflicts such as the Battle of Perditus in 009. of the galaxy. This served to allow the learned of during his upbringing on Colchis
M3I began when the 98'h Clan Company of Ruinstorm Daemon to manifest of its own truly existed, and in doing so to demonstrate
the Iron Hands intercepted a taskforce of volition, strengthening its hold over our the Emperor as being a hypocrite. To prove
the Death Guard's 1" Company pillaging an material realm. the Emperor's Imperial Truth as a falsehood,
interdicted Mechanicum research facility. Lorgar sought to discover beings which
As recorded by the Iron Father leading the Aetheric Ambitions exhibited true divinity. Lorgar was indeed
·xrh Legion force , the Death Guard sought Among the Primarchs of the Traitor Legions, proven right in this journey, and though he
an object held by the Mechanicum of attitudes to their allies within the Ruinstorm may not have been the first of the Primarchs
Perditus, which was supposed to have been appear to have been conflicting and wide- to learn of the Great Lie of his own volition
able to becalm the tides of the Ruinstorm ranging. Perturabo looked upon the beings of during this decades-long quest, his discovery
that had burst into the skies of the Ultima the Warp with indifference, while Mortarion can be considered the most formative.
Segmentum fewer than two years previously.
The Iron Hands and Death Guard fought
each other to a standstill, denying one
another the prize of Perditus' technoarcana,
until after over a month of conflict, the battle
was eventually broken by the intervention
of the Lion. Ordered to leave or be destroyed
by the Primarch of the I" Legion, the Iron
Hands and Death Guard both retreated.
It is believed by the 98'hClan Company's
leadership that the Lion took possession
of the artefact on Perditus, an item of great
value to the Dark Angels in navigating the
tumult of the Warp for the waxing duration
ofthe Ruinstorm.
First Captain Ahriman ofthe Thousand
Sons Legion breached the defences of the
psykana gaol ofKamiti Sona in 010.M31,
intent on finding within the deep space void
station an inmate of worth known only to
his Corvidae Occult. The ensuing deaths of
several prominent Sisters of Silence gaolers
broke the null-aura which enshrouded
the void station. The substance of reality,
already punctured by the machinations of
the Thousand Sons,burst under the pressure
wave of hundreds of deafened psykers
regaining their etheric senses, allowing
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'iven what we now know ofLorgar's Warrior Lodges
orruption and insanity, it can be assumed Uncovered during the tumult of the Horus Heresy, many of the Legions, both Traitor and
hat the day he discovered the Truth he Loyalist, contained within them secret Orders. These Orders, or lodges, are believed to
o fervently sought, as the result of some have been propagated by the Word Bearers during the Great Crusade, and shared many
1sychically induced trauma, his mind of the characteristics and rituals associated with the activities of the occult. Though they
racked. After this fateful encounter, revisions claimed to have been simple warrior fraternities to engender the bonds of brotherhood
o the Book of Lorgar - often identified by between Legionaries regardless of rank, the lodges were used by the Warmaster to target
Space Marines across the Legions whom he could manipulate into pledging fealty to him
,change from the use of ink to blood in above all others, be it their gene-sire or ultimately the Emperor. As the Horus Heresy
progressed, the warriors within these lodges were the first among the Traitor Legions
!Xamples recovered from xvuth Legion inducted into the mysteries of the Warp by the Word Bearers, and the first among their
brethren to know of and commune with Horus' allies within the Ruinstorm.
:asualties - are openly written in insane
imalistic verse. The tone of Kor Phaeron's domination, he would command the right given the designation of prisoner 'LXX', was
etters also was much changed after this to renegotiate the terms of any obligation. executed for the crime of treason; a testament
:ime, referring openly to the spiritual in the Obtaining immediate power to ensure victory to this new vengeful and unforgiving era.
.anguage ofworship. From them we learn was Warmaster Horus' only concern. There is no way to substantiate this warrior's
:hat Lorgar, far from resting on the laurels of tales. It is suspected that everything he spoke
.rindication of his discovery of gods within In the bargain, Horus relinquished his very of was a lie.
:he Warp, turned from the Emperor and humanity and more. Lorgar is known from
oecame a vile prophet of the new, dark powers letters to Kor Phaeron to have admonished LXX said of his Legion that even at the
he found. His ambitions grew with his Legion Horus for drawing too quickly and too very moment the Judgement ofNikaea
from the humble to the grandiose and, in the greedily from the well ofpower he had was spoken they had contradicted it, and
final years of the Great Crusade,from the introduced his brother to within the Warp, continued to do so without remorse, their
merely instructive to the paradigm altering. for it risked the ruin of the Aurelian's own intention never having been to acquiesce to
Lorgar, by the time of the Horus Heresy, designs. Horus' hubris was accelerating it. The Alpha Legion saw themselves as being
desired nothing less than to achieve harmony to the brink of peril Lorgar's grand vision, above such directives, believing that they
between Mankind and the Primordial what the Book of Lorgar describes as 'the possessed the commensurate knowledge
Annihilator, creating a symbiotic ascendance melodic cadence of a song of worship writ large and mastery to preclude themselves from
for both resulting in a galactic consonance. across the stars'. For Horus' part, he ignored any restriction placed upon them. They
He saw to this calling with serious-minded the mewling pleas from his brother to slow had used psykers throughout the Great
thoughtfulness, seeking to build a grand down, eventually casting off his counsel Crusade and would continue to do so, both
vision of dimensional unity with considered entire, seeing in him not wisdom but only of their Librarius, and in the form oftheir
and prudent steps, first by spreading the the weaknesses of zealotry and demagoguery. agents, among which were self-proclaimed
religion of Colchis, that of the True Gods, and Uncaring of the Warp's prevailing role wizards, warlocks and sorcerers. By sharing
then through selective compacts with those in Mankind's future, The Warmaster's to a limited degree the Legion's knowledge
powers within the Warp most amiable to divergence ofphilosophy would foster and resources with such individuals, the
his purpose. rivalry between the two, straining one of the Legion had co-opted them into divulging
few lasting bonds of respect and friendship their secrets of the arcane. Thus, the relevant
Horus learned ofthese deeper mysteries Horus held with his brother Primarchs. cells ofthe Alpha Legion were well enough
of the Warp from his conferences with his informed that they could usually mitigate
brother Lorgar. To Horus, the blandishments The Confessions of the Hydra the risk ofbeing overwhelmed through
ofworship and the spreading ofthe The Unbalanced Scales tells us of the compact accidental contact with the beings in
Primordial Truth were at best irrelevances made between the Alpha Legion and the the Warp.
and at worst a repetition of the failings of Outsider, in the form of a cabal of psychic
the Great Crusade and the spreading ofthe alien races supposedly serving the best That paradigm held true even when Lorgar
Imperial Truth. Horus had no desire to re- interests of the galaxy, and by extension, Aurelian made his Pilgrimage into the Warp.
tread this bellicose past, but looked instead to Mankind. However, less was known of the Interspersed among the Word Bearers
a glorious future in which he would crown Alpha Legion's relationship with the Other through undisclosed means were a number
himself master of the galaxy. To Horus, the until, unbidden, an Alpha Legionnaire turned ofAlpha Legionnaires within the Chapter
Warp and the benighted sentiences within himself over to the VIl'h Legion weeks of the Serrated Sun, close to the Golden
were little more than additional pawns he after the Siege ofTerra. He would offer no Primarch's side. When these Space Marines
could add to his regicide board; an additional information when interrogated, other than entered the Warp unshielded, they died,
resource with which to confound and disrupt his name, which he gave as Alpharius, and his but beyond the explanations of Imperial
the Emperor's plans. Horus saw only the purpose; to relate a number of anecdotes to science, two Alpha Legionnaires lived on
cold and logical calculations involved in the Imperium, some ofwhich alluded to the beyond their own deaths by attaining a
drawing forth aid from beyond: men were Alpha Legion's relationship with the occult. form of Daemonic symbiosis. According to
exchanged for Daemons; worlds and words Offering no further value, the Space Marine, LXX, through unknown augury they were
were exchanged for power and all balances
ultimately fell in his favour. He was blind
to the true risks and sacrifices undertaken
in the name ofattaining conquest, and the
toll such would take on his soul. Any means
to victory were justifiable in his eyes, for
he believed that when he obtained galactic
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detected and hunted by unnatural entities the risks as part of the grim equation of ofNikaea perforce on Calth, was coldly ready
which were only loosely to be considered sacrifice and enervation. Many Legionaries to adapt any practical method of defence
Word Bearers Legionaries. Only one Alpha were volunteered to become possessed against the esoteric threats he faced .
Legionnaire escaped, returning to his as part of experiments to improve the
Legion to share the knowledge ofhis new Legion's knowledge and, indeed, for combat In secret, Guilliman gathered thirteen
power, submitting himself to interrogation deployment, but vitally LXX impressed upon senior Librarians of his Legion to his side
and vivisection. his interrogators that these Legionaries were in the secure Asteria Wing of the Fortress
never given the status of Other, rather simply of Macragge and with them formed the
Another anecdote shared by the prisoner becoming a new functional link of the Ultima Taskforce, a group of warriors
recounts the tale of a number of warriors Legion's unbroken chain. capable of going to war with weapons of
of the XX'h Legion who had independently an arcane nature to counter the potential
witnessed and recorded early forms of The Ultima Taskforce use of the same by the enemy. There he
summoning, binding and possession rituals In distant Ultramar, Roboute Guilliman first set them to researching the creatures
of a Daemonic nature within the warrior looked to his own borders, blinded as he was unleashed by the Word Bearers on Calth.
lodges of the Legiones Astartes. Though behind the veil of the Ruinstorm. He was With their combined understanding of the
the Alpha Legion had no need for lodges of shocked by the rapidity with which Calth Warp and arcana derived from the forced
their own, they infiltrated several of those was lost, a phenomenal achievement for confessions of:XVII'h Legion prisoners,
amongst other Traitor Legions. Under the the Word Bearers in military terms. Had it this new taskforce set about their task with
tutelage of the so-called Diabolists of the purely been a war of Legion against Legion, determination, developing a methodology of
Word Bearers Legion and the lodge masters the battle could have dragged on for many empyrical experimentation.
of the Sons of Horus, they learned the uses of more months, even given the total surprise
human sacrifice, the necessity of summoning with which Lorgar's forces had struck. The After a spate of esoteric phenomenon caused
circles, the carving of runes, blood magicks factor which tipped the scales in the battle widespread disorder within the Magna
and the drawing out of a soul from the body was not of the Principia Bellicosa, whose Macragge Civitas, the Ultima Taskforce was
of a Legionary to allow a new spirit to fill strategies Guilliman was privately adapting moved to a hidden laboratory on the world
its vessel. These infiltrators would continue and refining with his Legion, but of a nature of Prandium and given greater resources
to gather knowledge and practice the rites previously unknown to him. to pursue their logical goal of weaponising
they had learned until, with the completion summoned warp entities. The ultimate fate of
of their mission or upon some other signal With Calth lost for all time, and the threat the taskforce would later be suppressed, and
of command, they would return to reunite of ruin hanging over his legacy in Ultramar is held in another account.
with the larger Alpha Legion and share their thanks to the ravages of the Shadow Crusade,
findings with their Primarch. the master of Macragge long dwelt upon the
theoretical merits of the methods used by the
For the Alpha Legion, the use of psykers XVII'h Legion. The weaponised use of Warp-
remained but a means to an end, the Warp based entities became of particular interest to
looked upon in rational terms as a source of Guilliman who, having overturned the Edict
energy for which the toll for its use was equal
and opposite. The practices of witchcraft and
Daemonology were simply tools within their
arsenal of the Empyrean. Even after learning
of the deeper enigmas of the Warp, and of
the malignant gods, the majority of the Alpha
Legion continued to wield its arcane secrets
with rationality and not reverence, accepting
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THE DEATH OF HOPE In the immediate aftermath of the great Left to cower for years in the ruins of the ,ii
With all that came to pass, the very Siege, Terra was bereft of its post-human Imperial Palace, the survivors condemn
foundations of the Imperium were shaken. guardians, most of whom left the hght of the Emperor for His lies and for trying to 1
Uncertainty was the only truth left in the Sol perhaps never to return, chasing the stem the inevitability of the future. With
crippled Imperium, even after the Traitors Traitors to the very ends of the galaxy. Of the wisdom of hindsight, we see that the I
had fled into the far reaches of the galaxy those that remained, Rogal Dorn brooded, Emperor created that which He sought to
and the Emperor's loyal sons had looked to contemplating the fate of Mankind, the only destroy; the conditions perfect for perfidious t•l
one another with eyes devoid of hght and one left to beheve in the dream of Imperium. and ruinous powers to stand triumphant
parted ways. So many questions must go He dwelt in a fragile sorrow, quick to turn to over His galaxy. We condemn Horus for the ~
unanswered. The Traitor, the Daemon and rage in his attempts to rebuild the Imperium, hubris and ambition which opened a door to
the Outsider have all left their indehble though he struggled to find one stone large our enemies that cannot ever be closed. His
imprint on the soul of the Imperium, their enough to place upon another in the rubble. death will be inconsequential, for an eternity
malevolent intent abundant.Though these In the banquet halls of the great, Roboute of war and mistrust awaits. We fear now that
cankers may have been excised from Terra Guilliman displayed his strength, his Legion the future lords ofTerra will seek to silence
during the Great Siege, their influence has unbloodied on Terran soil. He yet courts the the bitter truth, and deny the Imperium the
metastasised throughout the Imperium and nobility and future leaders of the Imperium, wisdom which could save it. We despair too,
will forever spread and grow. shaping the propaganda of the next age. Each that even given the knowledge we possess , it
of them showed the weakness of their nature cannot free us from damnation.
We can only ruminate on what could and they were rightly distrusted. Terra is a
have been. At the very onset of the Age of world which echoes with the weeping of a We lament the future to come.
Darkness, the fate of Mankind hinged on populace left forever in fear of its protectors.
turning points which we were too bhnd to It rues the day the Emperor put His trust in
see and if we had seen them, were too inured His sons, although in desperation it looks to
to disbehef to take appropriate action. Had them even now, rather than in the men and
Mankind not failed to take advantage of women who saw much and sacrificed more,
these momentous events, things may have and could yet save them.
been very different indeed. If only Guilliman
had learned ofisstvan before the muster
ori Calth. If only the Angel and his Legion
had flown from Signus before becoming
embroiled in the cataclysm of that world.
Ifonly Magnus had not warred with such
concupiscence as to break the Edict of
Nikaea. If only the Khan had been granted a
greater place in his Father's kingdom. If only
Alpharius and his inscrutable Legion had
forged their own path, independent of the
orders of the Warmaster and the Outsider, to
save the Imperium with the knowledge they
possessed. If only Horus had won his war,
and Mankind's perpetuated suffering been
avoided. These are the speculations of the
bereaved and the guilt of survivors.
..J
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Nowhere is the malignancy of the Horus was among the wounds that saw him turn THE LoNGRoAD TO RuIN
Heresy and of the vile allies to which Horus his face from the Imperium, one more chink As one of the largest and most successful
willingly enslaved himself more clearly in his loyal soul that allowed betrayal to find Legions in the final years of the Great
shown than in the enduring mystery of the a home, it is likely that we will never know. Crusade, the Blood Angels stood at the
Signus conflict. It is a conflict that many Yet, in the planning and execution of the pinnacle of its martial strength, at once
have likened to the tragedy that would take Signus conflict, this bitterness is made clear, both an ally Horus could ill do without
place at Calrh, a ritual undertaken with reshaped into a hatred that transcended logic and a rival he envied. The crimson-clad
callous disregard for the suffering it would or strategic necessity. warriors were committed to several
cause in an attempt to garner a short-lived different war zones, most notably at
strategic advantage over the scattered Nowhere is this made clearer than in the Kayvas, Nartaba, Inconnu and Balhaut,
Loyalist forces. Yet Signus was far more than Warmaster's choice of weapons. Horus for as the Great Crusade spread across the
a move in the great game Horus had begun sought to turn the Angel's own sons away hinterlands of the galaxy, few Legions
against his father, no mere feint by which from him, to claim the souls of the Blood were afforded the luxury of operating
he sought only military gain. Instead, it was Angels for his own. To this end, he loosed as a cohesive block. Sanguinius himself
the culmination of a secret grudge nurtured the creatures of the aetheric domains, those commanded the largest of these Hosts,
over centuries and set to fester by those who entities called Daemons by some, upon his assigned to assist the Alpha Legion
called themselves his allies. Unlike at Isstvan, brother's sons. There are those who have in cleansing the wide asteroid fields
where he allowed the fortunes of war to tried to place the blame for such conjurations of Kayvas of Orkoid reavers that had
bring death to Ferrus Manus, at Signus he solely upon the shoulders ofLorgar and fled from the ruins of Ullanor. This
purposefully orchestrated events to humble his Word Bearers, claiming that Horus was assignment, although not one of the
and then annihilate the only one of his manipulated as much as any of the Loyalist Warmaster's choosing, served his purposes
brothers he had ever considered his better. Primarchs, but at Signus such claims ring well, keeping the winged Primarch
false. Here Lorgar's errant acolytes were isolated from his other machinations
Horus was often lauded both for his skills at merely tools for Horus' hate, fodder for and starving his Legion of the glory they
war and as a statesman, a reputation he had his anger and that of the entities he bound eagerly sought.
built over centuries of effort ever since the himself to as the battle unfolded. Horus
Emperor had snatched him from the pits of knew full well what he unleashed when he The Blood Angels had found little glory
Cthonia. He had toiled in war zones without set loose the hunting dogs of the Empyrean. in the desolate Kayvas sector, for while
number to catch his father's attention The Warmaster gave Signus and its people the Alpha Legion prosecuted the bulk of
and endured long years of conclaves and over to the whims of the Warp in exchange the fighting in the depths of the asteroid
triumphs to earn the respect and loyalty of for the slaughter of his brother and the fields that formed the central cluster of
his brothers. Yet Sanguinius took to these enslavement of his warriors. Such a blood- the system, Sanguinius' craft were ordered
skills with a self-effacing ease that must have soaked sacrifice, given in the name of hatred to hold position and intercept stragglers
made the Warmaster's memories of struggle and jealousy, has etched a great scar upon fleeing the main offensive. The Blood
bitter, and worse yet was the adulation that the very fabric of the Imperium, one which Angels had always excelled as shock assault
the Angel received from both his brothers cannot be healed and festers even now after troops, ever willing to cast themselves into
and the people of the Imperium. Where Horus' death. the teeth of enemy fire to seize victory and
Horus walked, voices hushed in fear and preserve the lives of their allies, but in the
respect, where Sanguinius alighted, they Here, at Signus, Horus first laid hands Kayvas system they were forced into a war
were raised in celebration. To Horus, it upon a doorway that should never have that ill-suited them. Waiting and watching
must have seemed a repudiation of his been opened. Here he shattered the at the edge of the system, they were forced
efforts to achieve just such a position, a hurt Imperial Truth and the Emperor's careful to react to the assaults of their Orkish foe,
long suppressed and yet raw for others to plans forever. engaging it in protracted void battles and
manipulate and twist. Perhaps this grudge bloody boarding actions. Despite this, the
Here was the Daemon set free from
its prison.
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Blood Angels acquitted themselves with To Pierce the Cloak of Legend
valour, allowing none of the xenos raiders to Despite taking place before the onset of the chaos that followed Horus' first treasonous
escape the Alpha Legion's trap and suffering attacks, surprisingly little is known for certain about the conflict that took place in the
only limited losses of personnel and materiel. Signus system. Previous treatise regarding those events have provided few facts and
Yet, though their physical losses were light much conjecture, most often driven by the need of the new Council ofTerra to maintain
and easily recovered, the Legion suffered the righteousness of their cause and to vilify those who fought against them, even at the
from more significant harm of another kind expense of truth. In addition to this paucity of evidence, some effort appears to have been
over the long thirteen months in which they taken by members of the IX'h Legion to expunge certain details of the campaign, and only
stood sentinel over the outskirts of Kayvas. the sigil and warrant of the Imperial Court borne by the author has served to open certain
avenues of investigation. With the passing of Sanguinius during the defence of Terra, the
Pride was the poison that took hold of the IX'h Legion has become notably reclusive, yet some among that brotherhood have been
IXth Legion as it hung restless in space over convinced to share their recollections, as have a number of those scant few survivors
Kayvas. The sporadic fighting and endless among the citizens oflost Signus.
waiting had left the warriors of Sanguinius
overeager for a new assignment, to be Even with such measures, much of the recorded knowledge we have is contradictory
granted a war they found more fitting to or so fanciful that few consider it to be reliable. Even authentic battle-picts taken from
their ~tation and skills, where they might Legiones Astartes battle plate and vehicles have been shown to bear conflicting versions
claim the glory they felt was their due. After of events, no doubt an artefact of the Warp's influence upon Signus and those that fought
thirteen months of waiting, the war fought there. Indeed, even the exact time in which the battle occurred is in doubt, as the Blood
deep within Kayvas ended, with the Alpha Angels were known to have departed for the Signus system in early 005.M31 but did not
Legion claiming the lion's share of the reappear until 010.M3r. Due to these complications, your author has been forced to make
credit and granting Sanguinius little more some concessions in the compilation of this volume to the paucity or unreliability of the
than a terse acknowledgement of his aid. information available. However, all possible effort has been made to verify and check
It sat ill with many of his commanders to what we have committed to history here. Where accounts differ or contradict established
be treated so by what many considered the information, we have chosen to follow the chronicle of events logged by Magos Domina
least of the Primarchs. Across the galaxy, the Shurol of the Legio Cybernetica, attached to the Blood Angels Legion, whose partially
other Legions had marked more victories augmented cortex appears to have been little affected by the Warp's corruption.
.on their tallies, and word had spread that'
the Warmaster was preparing for some A Hidden Flaw brother gather as many of the fragments ;
new campaign, yet they'd sat near-idle as The emissaries chosen by Horus to bear his of his Legion as possible and make for the
the Alpha Legion had fought their hidden words were themselves an oddity, for rather distant Signus system, there to put an end uI!
war among the asteroids. As the ships of than astropathic courier or a detachment to a xenos assault on that Imperial territory.
the Alpha Legion departed, there was an of his own Sons of Horus, the Warmaster It was exactly what many within the Legion I
air of tense expectation among the warriors had sent the Word Bearers, Lorgar's fervent had hoped for, a chance for open battle and
of the IX'hLegion, an unspoken desire for crusaders, with his missive. Arriving shortly glory, and although some chafed at the need I;
the visceral glory ofbattles hard won in the after the final battles within the Kayvas to travel so far to liberate a single borderlands
Emperor's name. So it was that when the system, the warriors of the XVII'h Legion, led system, the fleet rejoiced to be sent once
emissaries of the Warmaster arrived with by one Praetor Kreed, presented Sanguinius more to a war worthy of their might.
a call to arms, there were few among the with the Warmaster's orders. Horus bid his
Blood Angels who questioned its nature
or necessity.
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Only Sanguinius hesitated,for Horus' to survive even the most crippling wounds proffered a sliver of hope to the Primarch
orders committed them to the wholesale or conditions, but also kindled within of the IX'h Legion, claiming that the xenos
slaughter of the foe, rather than the them a mindless rage and lust for blood. responsible for the loss of Signus possessed
rescue of its citizens - a task which to Sanguinius and his senior officers had long some technological secret that might serve
the Angel seemed more fitting for other concealed this flaw while they sought a to alleviate their gene-flaw and reminding
Legions. It was uncommon for the Great means to correct its effects upon the Legion, the Angel of the vow Horus had made to
Crusade's commander to dictate the terms going so far as to falsify rosters of the fallen assist him. In the light of such a possibility,
of a Primarch's war in such a fashion, as in and modify the tithe of genetic material and through his misplaced trust in the
those years when the Emperor had walked dispatched to distant Terra. Horus was Warmaster, Sanguinius banished his doubt
among His sons, the Primarchs had led their one of the few souls outside of the Blood and began to set his plans.
Legions where they saw fit, seeking out Angels Legion to know of this flaw, having
those battles that best used their skills or uncovered the secret during their Primarchs' The Fleet Assembles
best served the good of the Great Crusade. joint campaign on Melchior, and pledged his The first step in this was the gathering of
It was, however, far from unprecedented, own silence and aid in the search for a cure. his dispersed Legion. The call was sent out
as Ho rus established himself in his new to those fleets that could be easily reached,
role he had issued a number of such orders In the Warmaster, Sanguinius felt he had summoning them to assemble alongside the
- sending the White Scars to Chondax, found an ally against the darkness that flagship, the Red Tear. Such a gathering of the .
ordering the Ultramarines to muster at encroached upon his Legion, for he had Legion had not occurred for many years and
Calth and dispatching the Dark Angels out little reason to distrust him. Yet Horus, and all of the far flung fleets of the Blood Angels
past the Eastern Fringe. Just as his other those of his dark allies that he had revealed were eager to join the great undertaking
brothers had, Sanguinius bowed before this secret to, now intended to turn both the that Horus had given to the Angel, proud
the Warmaster's wishes, putting aside his Legion's pride and this hidden flaw against to once again demonstrate their skills to
concerns over the use of his Legion in them, to bring about exactly that which the Imperium and the Warmaster. In short
respect for his brother and commander. Sanguinius sought to avoid. Erebus of the order, Sanguinius had assembled some four
Word Bearers planned to make use of its fifths of his Legion, perhaps more than
There also was another factor at play influence, magnified by the Warp-magicks 100,000 warriors, along with those support
which served to bind Sanguinius to the at work in the Signus system, to force the units that had long served alongside it. This
Warmaster's wishes, one which has long Blood Angels, and most especially their left out only 20,000 Legionaries, which
been hidden and kept from official accounts Primarch, to the service of Horus and the comprised the garrisons of Baal, Saiph and
of these events. The Blood Angels had dark gods that were his patrons. However, Canopus IV, and units operating as part of
been beset by a genetic flaw, a creeping Horus, twisted by the powers he believed he fleets too far off to easily recall. In addition
degeneracy brought on by extreme trauma controlled and his own jealousy, worked to to his own warriors and those trusted allies,
or exposure to toxic conditions that subvert this plan, using his Davinite servants Sanguinius was also granted the service of
induced a state that allowed the afflicted to arrange a different end for Sanguinius. He Praetor Kreed and the company of Word
Bearers garrisoned aboard the Dark Page, as
emissaries of the Warmaster.
Though rarely assigned to campaigns
alongside each other, the Blood Angels held
the memory of the Word Bearers' censure
at Monarchia as a black mark against the
grey-clad warriors, one that might somehow
transfer itself to them simply by association.
It is noted in the logs of the Red Tear, which
operated as the combined fleet's command
vessel, that Praetor Kreed was rarely invited
to attend the Angel or his strategic planning
sessions during the voyage. No doubt this
subtle insult served the purposes of Kreed
and his warriors well, as he was fully aware
of what awaited at Signus and kept both the
changed troops under his command and
his own motives well concealed from the
scrutiny of Sanguinius. The Word Bearers
were not the only outsiders to be included
in the fleet, for a number of swift courier
ships were to intercept the Blood Angels
before the final departure to Signus.
First among these was a cruiser bearing a
Stormbird emblazoned with the totemic
insignia of the VI'h Legion, the Space
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Wolves. This unexpected delegation from such an assignment as fitting for one of THE MvmRJEs OF S1cNus
Russ' ill-omened Legion was received by the Emperor's own life-guard. However,
Sanguinius with guarded hospitality, for a Prefect Sebran and his brothers were but a The journey through the aether would last
visitation by the grim sons of Fenris was tiny drop amid the ocean of warriors that for some nin e standard Terran months,
rarely an occasion for celebration. Their comprised the great fleet being assembled, significantly less th an the initial estimates
reputation as the Emperor's executioners and with a skill mastered over centuries provided by th e fle et's Navigators. Along
was well-founded, for it was to the Wolves by the Ephoroi, they quickly vanished into its path, the Blood Angels armada emerged
of the VI'hLegion that the Court of Terra that morass. Only a few reports from among briefly from the Warp at several points,
turned when they wished to make plain the gathered Blood Angels companies both to secure supplies an d perform
their displeasure to both enemies and speak of these golden-armoured sentinels, critical main tenance, as well as to take new
allies alike. Indeed, though Sanguinius often alongside mention of the warriors of positional readings and update their stellar
and his sons had not yet received word, the Fenris, for both of these groups were treated charts. The final stop before th eir arrival
remainder of the Space Wolves were already as outsiders, respected but apart from the at Signus was the largely unimportant
en route to Prospero to enact the Emperor's Blood Angels. Where they passed, the sons system of Ankaror, where the squadrons
writ of censure upon the home world of the of Sanguinius drew tight the mask of stoic and battle groups of the armada broke free
Thousand Sons and the warriors of Magnus. propriety they wore around strangers, hid of the immaterium and began the complex
This fact was one item among many that the the small rituals of their covenant and process of reforming the fleet in full battle
Space Wolves chose to withhold from the stifled talk of trials past and yet to come. order. As they expected to find them selves
Great Angel and his sons when they arrived, in swift confrontation with a xenos fleet
their commander, then Helik Redknife, All of these disparate elements were upon arriving in Signus, it was deemed
disclosing only that they were assigned gathered at the Warp transfer point near the prudent to set their forma tion in the calm
to the fleet as observers by direct order of pulsar Krzemin, where the fleet could easily of real-space, rather then attempt such
Malcador the Sigillite, and issuing orders translate to the aetheric tides that fed traffic a manoeuvre in the depths of the Warp.
that kept his men sequestered aboard their to the far reaches of the galactic east. Within Once drawn up in the complex form ation
Stormbird, save for his honour guard and three short months of Horus' summons, the formulated by the shipmasters and strategoi
Wolf Priest advisor. fleet was fully assembled and made ready for of the armada, Sanguinius ordered them
the transition, the long journey requiring onto the final warp jump into the Sign us
Alongside the warriors of Russ were no less than eight separate treks through system itself. What they found was n ot the
other guests from the Courts ofTerra, the veil of the Warp. The planning required system they had expected to find, not the
the last of the cruisers bringing a Prefect to maintain fleet cohesion during travel thriving Signus shown on star charts, nor
of the Legio Custodes and a handful of and to avoid significant deviation from both the war-wracked battlefield that Horus had
his brethren. Kalimak Sebran bore the spatial and chronological targets was no described; instead they found a graveyard.
title Vindex-minor, marking him as an small task, and taxed the veteran Navigators
assassin and swordsman of the Ephoroi of the fleet to their limits. The records of As the Blood Angels squadrons tore fre e
of Terra, and as with all of the warriors of the Red Tear's command crew note that the of the churning sea of the aether and into
the Legio Custodes, he carried with him word was given for the commencement of the cold, empty space of Signus, they found
the Emperor's countenance. Ostensibly, the Signus campaign by Lord Sanguinius on no enemy fleet waiting for them. In stead,
he acted as the sponsor and guardian of 327005.M31, and the vast fleet slipped into there was a silent armada of the dead, a
the newest batch ofRemembrancers, the Warp, not to be seen again within the drifting cloud of freighters, cargo barques
though few among the Blood Angels saw borders of the Imperium for five long years. and short-range shuttles, all with their
engines burned out and devoid of power,
their crew lifeless and still. No damage
from any known weapons system marked
the hulls of these craft, no tell-tale marks
of some desperate flight from an invader or
valiant last stand. Instead, it seemed almost
as though many had been ripped apart from
the inside, or simply burst in the frozen
reaches of the Signus system. The vast shoal
of ship-corpses was all that remained of
those inhabitants that had plotted a course
out past the outer planet and pushed their
primitive drives past any normal tolerance
in what appeared to be a suicidal need to
flee. Yet the augur banks of the Red Tear
and its attendants could detect no sign
of the terrible threat that must have sent
them on such a flight, just corpses and th e
broken hiss of background radiation where
there should be a cacophony of vox signals.
Death had already come and gone in the
Signus system, its fate decided long b efore
Sanguinius had arrived.
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The Slow Death of Signus
Signus' doom had been no sudden catastrophe, no swift end at the hands of a xenos warfleet. The Warmaster's machinations had sealed
its fate long years before Sanguinius and his sons set foot there. From the data gathered from the few existing Blood Angels reports, the
testimony of those few Signusi survivors and records captured from Traitor forces in the wake of the Battle ofTerra, we can compile a fairly
accurate assessment of the death of Signus.
Its first steps were undertaken in 933 .M30, some 70 years before the Battle ofSignus Prime and a decade after the destruction ofMonarchia,
with che initial Compliance accion in che remoce cluscer of worlds designated as Ultima-XZu4. In an action fairly typical for the later
conquests of the XVII'h Legion, the Word Bearers overran the few scattered human settlements and enforced a swift and brutal Compliance
before moving on within a few short months, renaming the system Signus. This official history omits a number of facts, including the
Word Bearers' sponsorship of the ongoing colonial effort, with a number of their client worlds providing some of the original re-population
flotillas. The Primarch Lorgar is also known to have obstructed efforts by the Divisio Militaris and other branches of the Imperial Court
in conducting census reports within the cluster, citing the danger to visiting dignitaries due to ongoing Great Crusade operations in
neighbouring systems. This was all obfuscation to allow the Word Bearers to plant the seeds of various cults within the population, to see
that the blueprints for newly laid cities and spires conformed to certain patterns of occult significance and that civilisation would grow and
spread in a path they had set out.
These plans would not come to fruition until 004.M31, shortly after Horus' encounter on Davin. Here, the machinations ofLorgar and
his acolytes found a dire new purpose in the corrupted desires of the Warmaster. It seems likely that once he was fully committed to his
treachery, the death of Sanguinius was among the Warmaster's first and most important goals, a grudge that perhaps derailed other more
strategic concerns, for much of his occult and materiel resource was swiftly turned to the preparation of Signus. Indications from the
records kept by the Word Bearers show that they began large-scale incantations aimed at activating the hidden web of cults and arcane
sigils embedded within the population and structure of the growing civilisation in the Signus cluster. This coincides with the first reports of
aberrant phenomena within the Signus system, reports that were concealed by agents of the Warmaster, leaving Signus to descend into chaos
alone and unaided. For months they suffered a series of disasters, unexplained deaths, rains of ash and blood, and the sudden appearance of
violent cults. All intended to further the descent of the system into madness.
After several months, Horus made secret preparations for a task force to be sent to Signus, selecting a contingent of Davinite priests and
warriors as well as a small cadre of his own Legion, to set the next stage of his plans into motion. These troops were to seize control of the
governing bodies that remained within the Signus cluster and use their powers to accelerate the arcane processes of the Word Bearers'
incantations. Here, records grow less accurate, and the testimony of survivors less intelligible. What is certain is that the population of
Signus was systematically driven into madness and then converted to the worship of dark powers or harvested to provide the raw materials
for the next stage of the system's transformation. The sheer scale of the terror and death unleashed is beyond easy comprehension, with
billions of lives on seven worlds slowly and purposefully eradicated. The survivors speak of savage government purges and great internment
camps from which none ever returned. Yet all the while the phenomena that plagued Signus only grew worse. Sudden epidemics claimed
thousands of lives only to disappear within days, oceans once filled with life boiled, skies turned black with ash, and dread things were seen
walking in the wild places.
Signus' final days are almost completely unrecorded. Those few who survived had already fled, but their testimony tells us that by this point
no central government existed. The few remaining militia units looked to their own survival, many turning their guns on the civilians they
had sworn to protect as they secured passage on ships, while others tried unsuccessfully to seize control of their worlds. Obscene cults ran
wild through the cities and creatures that defied logic crawled and flew through the ruins of Signus' once proud civilisation. Worlds burned
as planetary defence missiles were turned upon fallen cities, brief, bloody wars were fought to control the last spaceports, and no corner
of the system was safe from the madness. Signus tore itself apart, alone and isolated in the darkness of the void, and no action of the Blood
Angels Legion could have averted its fate.
Having emerged in the furthest regions the lead squadrons closed with the silent banks of the ships of the fleet which
of the Signus system, the Blood Angels' planetoid, detecting no indicators of any recorded the results of both probe scans and
armada was far removed from Signus Prime, surface or orbital activity, vox signals, active long range augur investigation.
the system's throneworld, with the closest power sources or signs of movement. Probes
inhabited body being the cold world of launched from the closest warships returned The events that followed were not captured
Phorus. That frozen orb was the outermost even grimmer results. The surface of the with any accuracy by the fleet's augurs,
world of the system, passing by the fleet planet had been scorched bare, all traces of and accounts taken from the various crew
in the long arc of its vast orbital track, and life eradicated by some unknown force that and passengers all differ in a number
according to the charts possessed by the had reversed decades of slow progress in of critical details. Of the few facts that
armada, it was home to 90,000 Imperial reshaping Phorus' atmosphere and terrain appear consistently in all accounts, the
citizens. Leaving nothing to chance, to be more suitable to human habitation. most disturbing is that the entire planet of
Sanguinius ordered the fleet to approach Nothing remained but a blank orb of rock, Phorus began to follow the fleet as it passed
Phorus at full combat alert. Organised a fact borne out by both the accounts of by, presenting its southern polar region to
in standard planetary assault formation, numerous ship masters and the cogitator the watching ships in full defiance of our
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understanding of the heavens and their of the phenomena. Yet it does prove that this could not account for the obvious malice .f·
workings. This was not the only aberrant was more than a sophisticated jamming field, in the targeting of these projectiles, which
phenomenon to manifest on Phorus, various some insubstantial cloak thrown over the appeared to be intended to cripple or destroy '
among those observing the planet report system. This was a barrier of more substance the squadron ofcruisers holding station in
the appearance of vast fissures and cracks and was capable of barring the passage of low orbit. Of these ships, the Paleknight was
on its surface, others speak of patterns of even the Imperium's star cruisers. struck head-on and destroyed by the impact
light or colour in the thin atmosphere that of one such projectile, and the Hermia and
remained and some of the extrusion of The Blood of Angels Victus both reported heavy damage from
great cliffs and mesa, all aligning to form a near-misses.
pattern. None present could recall the exact Sanguinius and his sons were now alone,
symbol that marked the corpse of Phorus as yet the Great Angel was loathe to abandon Casualties for this small engagement were
it hung staring at them in the void, fewer still his mission, both in order to recover the now in excess of several hundred of the
could bring that incident to mind without secrets Horus had claimed were hidden in Legiones Astartes and near a thousand
experiencing physical symptoms of pain and Signus as well as for the sake of any survivors auxiliaries and crew, and still there was no
distress, but whatever its form, the abrupt that might yet exist on its scattered worlds. real sign of the foe to be seen. Forced once
shock it caused to the ships of the fleet is Forsaking the advice of more cautious again to watch the suffering and death
well-documented. officers, the winged Primarch ordered the of those who had given him their trust,
armada deeper into the Signus system, and mute and passive in the face of such
With the reactions aboard the ships of towards the next planetoid, listed on the impossibilities, Sanguinius gave vent to the
the fleet ranging from silent disbelief to charts as Holst, a world home to numerous cold fury that was growing within him. He
violent panic, there existed a brief period densely populated hive cities. On approach, gave one order in anger, one step towards the
of unrest across the armada. Order was Holst exhibited the same silence as Phorus, boiling red inferno he could feel building in
swiftly restored, both by the reassurance but it failed to react to the fleet's arrival, his heart, one small gesture to assuage the
of the various shipmasters and IX'h Legion remaining quiescent and still even as guilt he felt for those he had ordered to their
officers present, and by the intervention dropships were launched into its atmosphere. deaths at Holst. He called the Exterminatus
of the armsmen cadres aboard each ship. However, what had been intended as a swift Extremis down upon the accursed planet, or
As such, the initial symptoms of a greater survey mission quickly became a massacre whatever it had become, and the guns of the
impossibility were missed, only recognised. as, just as on Phorus, Holst began to manifest assembled armada tore it apart.
when ship-board alarms began to sound. All an increasingly disturbing array of macabre
across the fleet, screens began to darken as anomalies. The garbled reports submitted in The planet's destruction did little to settle
the stars dimmed and went out, and all inter- the days after the encounter speak of hungry the mood of the fleet or the Primarch.
system signals trailed away and failed. A dark cities and ghosts of scrap and ash, ofveteran Indeed, with the continuing lack of any
veil settled across the Signus system, sealing Legiones Astartes warriors slaughtered, and kind of organised resistance, Sanguinius fell
it away from the rest of the galaxy, isolating vast silent metropoli where the dead lay in to a brooding silence that quickly spread
Sanguinius and his sons from the greater numbers beyond counting. to those warriors who attended him and
Imperium. More even than their impossible then across the Legion. Within the various
encounter over Phorus, this sudden Of the 26 Legiones Astartes that descended assembled ship logs and daily reports can
severance from the Imperium for which they to the surface, less than half returned, their be seen a building frustration and malaise
fought must have shaken the Legion and extraction complicated by the sudden launch that set tempers on edge and betrayed a
most especially its dependents and servants. of waves of massive trans-atmospheric sullen belligerence among the Blood Angels.
It left them stranded at Signus, to endure projectiles.These projectiles were apparently Small fights and angry outbursts erupted
its trials alone, for none among the Blood formed of matter somehow torn from Holst's over the smallest grievance, all quickly
Angels would consider abandoning the crust,in a manner similar to the ancient stifled but telling nonetheless. Among the
charge given them by the Warmaster's hand. defence systems of some Mechanicum merely human crewmen of the fleet, the
worlds, most notably Mezoa. Yet, no effect was even more pronounced, with fatal
Those studying the Signus incident in these mechanism or power source of sufficient altercations and even suicides becoming a
latter years have theorised that this unnatural complexity or sheer power existed on Holst daily occurrence on most ships.
shroud served not only to block light and vox that was capable of hefting multi-tonne
waves, but also to interfere with the normal chunks of rock and iron into orbit. Some
processes of time and space. Some theories among the fleet speculated that it was some
even go so far as to posit that this veil, as aberrant natural occurrence, triggered by
the Blood Angels came to call it, was itself a the hidden xenos forces they still believed
pocket domain of the great aether, the Warp. present within the system, or caused by
The only craft spared from the armada to another cataclysm like that which had
investigate the veil, the Helios, was reported occurred on Phorus. However, such theories
lost with all hands shortly after contacting
its boundaries some 6.3 light days past the
edge of the system, yet another weight on the
troubled mind of the Primarch Sanguinius
and a loss that put an end to any further study
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Unanswered Questions To Scoltrum, Sanguinius dispatched the they encounter any aberrant phenomena on
On the inner worlds of Scoltrum and Ta-loc, 24'h Company of his Blood Angels, under a planetary scale, as had been observed on
the Blood Angels sought answers and a Archein Nakir and supported by several Phorus and Holst, at which point the Great
chance for the building anger to find release maniples ofbattle-automata, all embarked Angel would unleash the full firepower of
granted. Having transited in good order on the light cruiser Alastor. The 24'h was at his armada. However, it seemed that such
from the sparsely populated outer system full strength, fully 500 battle brothers and measures would be unnecessary as Scoltrum
to the inner worlds, where the centres support cohorts, and well-used to acting in showed no sign of manifesting corruption
of Signusi civilisation should have been concert with the bonded automata of the on that scale, although it bore the marks
found, Sanguinius authorised expeditions Capita Aquilae, lacking only in heavy armour. ofbattle and death. Vast fires raged across
to both Scoltrum and Ta-loc. According to It was a unit well-suited to a swift, disciplined much of its surface, its cities were in ruins
the charts held by the Divisio Militaris and insertion in uncertain terrain and against and vast agri-cantonments were abandoned
stored within the cogitator vaults of the an unknown foe, commanded by a veteran and rotten. The approaching Blood Angels
fleet, Scoltrum and Ta-loc both played host captain in whom Sanguinius could place his ships could detect few signs of life, with a
to millions of Imperial settlers and boasted confidence. Keen to further investigate the solitary distress beacon the sole sign of any
advanced civil infrastructure for borderlands bizarre phenomena that they had observed Imperial survivors.
colony worlds. Given the continuing lack of elsewhere in Signus, Magos Domina
any augur contacts or vox intercept, either Shurol also accompanied the expedition, The wreck of the system defence frigate
in space or on the surface, the Great Angel along with a cadre of specially augmented Stark Dagger proved to be the source of the
surmised his foe to either be in hiding or archival servitors. distress beacon on Scoltrum. The broken
otherwise concealed, and as such set out to carcass of the void ship was scattered across
organise a reconnaissance in force. Before The initial stages of the Scoltrum operation the western continent's vast harvest plains,
they began operations upon Signus Prime, went ahead without incident, the task force mostly as small unidentifiable chunks of
two forces would investigate the other inner proceeding the main fleet to its objectives charred metal. Three sections of the ship, its
worlds, forces large enough to hold against accompanied by only a few of the fastest prow, stern and a large portion of the middle
counter-attack, but small enough to move cruisers available. The shipmasters had decks had retained some amount ofintegrity
quickly and quietly. explicit orders to retreat from combat should during the crash, enough that a small chance
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The Horus Heresy Book 8 - Malevolence
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