Reclamation of Nuceria

Pictured, Primarch Khnum, Equerry Petamn "Iyp", Captain Imothes "The Anubite"

In the midst of the Great Crusade, Khnum and his sons would find the planet of Nuceria. Nuceria was a brutal, unforgiving world run by cruel slave masters from the city of Desh'ea that forced their subjects to battle in gladiatorial arenas. The aggression-enhancing technology known as the Butchers Nails was a key part of this process.

When Khnum made contact with the planet’s heads, they eagerly greeted his arrival as they announced their intentions to bend the knee to the Primarch and the Imperium. Upon descending to the surface, the Sunstone King was greeted by a magnificent greeting party from clan Thal'kr.

As the heads of the clan introduced themselves and showed Khnum around the surface of Nuceria he began to notice odd things coming from the representatives. First, they acted nervous as if they had some grand secret to hide from him. Second, the areas they took him to were glided in an attempt to look like a functional utopia that Khnum saw through very quickly. However, the Primarch imbibed them while also secretly sending his sons out to explore and give him an accurate report of life on the planet.

Khnum for the first week was drug from event to event in a not subtle attempt to keep him busy. They showed him great plays, threw great feasts, and every aspect of what culture they could gather at a moments notice. Eventually, they led him to their great gladiator areas to watch a match. As Khnum observed the fighters he noticed they fought more brutally and aggressively than even some of his brothers’ sons would have been proud of. At this point, Khnum asked what training the gladiators were given and what the tubes coming out of their heads were.

The head of the Thal'kr began to explain the Butcher’s Nails in a very sugarcoated way that left Khnum skeptical. At the end of the match, Primarch asked if he could go to thank the gladiators for their entertainment personally. Upon approval, Khnum, Iyp, Aesculapius, and Imothes descended into the pits.

The Watchers found the pits a desperate place. Poor living conditions strung out warriors on the brink of a fight constantly, but at the heart of it, they noticed the gladiators had a bond with each other that could have rivaled the bond between the brothers of the Watchers. Aesculapius analyzed the state of the Butcher Nails on the gladiators and reported that they were unable to be removed while also turning their brains to mush as they stripped away any positive feeling not related the act of fighting and slaughter.

Around this time the scouts that Khnum sent out returned to tell their father of the corruption of the planet. The ruling slavemasters kept the citizens in line by forcing them to be subject to the nails and used them as a source of cheap entertainment. At this news, Khnum rallied his sons and marched into the throne room of the Thal’kr where he told them how he found everything that they had been keeping from him. Calling the slave masters craven filth before ordering his sons to execute them. After the deed had been done, Khnum broadcasted to Nuceria that he had come to help and that he would save the soul of the planet and its inhabitants.

Slowly Khnum conquered the planet where the people regarded him and the Watchers as saviors. They shouted that help has finally come to Nuceria and flew makeshift flags with the Watcher’s symbol on it. Children coming out and crawling over the Astartes who welcomed them with glee.

With the planet under his control, Khnum started to reforge the planet. No longer would it be ruled by those seeking to serve themselves but it now would become a place for scholars, artists, and everyone to better themselves.

Before the process of rebuilding Nuceria could begin; a heavy task fell upon Khnum. He had to deal with the gladiators suffering from the Butcher Nails, and so far even his greatest apothecaries couldn’t find a way to save them. Knowing he had to call upon a higher set of powers, his brothers.

Khnum called for Shaaa for his mechanical genius, Galvarian for his knowledge of technology, and Lu Yueh for his achievements in biology. All three accepted his call and made haste to help their brother. Though Galvarian and Shaaa were kept far away and in separate laboratories. While they made their way through various experiments, Khnum scribed and analyzed the Butcher Nails as much as he could. Compiling every shred of knowledge he had and gathering every remnant of knowledge with extra unused Nails to turn over to them when they arrived.

The first to arrive was Shaaa, followed by Galvarian, and finally Lu Yueh. Khnum showed them the horrific effect of the Nails and told them everything he knew on what he had compiled so far. Khnum knee that if anyone could help him crack the abominable Nails it would be them. All four set to work quickly, Lu Yueh approached it from a biological angle and opened the minds of a handful of willing volunteers to probe the damage done. Shaaa broke the machine down and did mock tests of how they were inserted and how they could potentially remove them. While Galvarian took the data gathered by the other two to see if he could make headway in areas they couldn’t. Khnum wandered from area to area helping where he could while offering suggestions based off what his mind broke down.

The four toiled for days until the answer was clear, the Nails couldn’t be fixed. With a heavy heart, all three of his brothers told him there was nothing they could do. There was only one answer they would have to be put down.

Khnum understood and gathered every Nail wearer where he told them that he could not fix them. He would give them two options, he could put them to sleep and let them pass on peacefully or he would let them have a warrior’s death against members of his first company. Some chose peace, while others chose to face death head-on against the elite warriors of those who saved them. The gladiators, snarling and raving at the prospect chose to face down the warriors of the First.

When the time came, it was not his elite veterans that were in the midst of the arena, but Khnum himself. Announcing that he would be their opponent in the ring as he stood there unarmored, wielding only his khopeshes. Wave after wave launched themselves at the Primarch and he quickly cut through them like a scythe through wheat. They fought for hours as thousands of gladiators released a handful at a time landed an occasional blow on the Sunstone King. Despite the grinding and forced rabidity of the Nails when the gladiators lie dying their eyes spoke more to Khnum then they ever could. In those moments he saw relief and gratitude as they finally passed on.

After the event, Khnum walked out of the Arena covered in blood. He bid farewell to his brothers who had witnessed what Khnum had done. Right before they left Khnum gave Shaaa all remaining notes over the Butcher Nails and told him to dispose of them or find a use the mechanical technology, but never to have it touch the shores of Nuceria again. Forcing Shaaa to promise to find some good out of this horrendous piece of technology.

After his brother had left he headed straight for his quarters and stayed in there for three days. Strange and wild noises came from within, but no one would face the Primarch. When he emerged, the room was a broken and shattered wreck compared to what it had been. It was then that Khnum ordered the great arenas of Nuceria to be brought down and erased from history as the Watchers began to rebuild the planet from the ground up.

From the deeps of space a great fleet emerged wearing the colors and heraldry of the XIIIth Legion. Hundreds of stormhawks carrying raw materials and supplies came streaking down in unison as they landed right in front of the Watchers and people of Nuceria. From within, Gaius emerged and greeted his brother. Telling him he had heard of the cruelty of the planet’s history and he was here to reforge it alongside his brother. Gaius brought forth every bit of material needed to bring Nuceria from a backwater hellhole to a shining Imperial world. The two quickly set off to complete their great task.

As he and Gaius began to remake Nuceria his brothers Vinicius & Euphrano heard of the great arenas and his brothers plans to remake the world. Curious about how he would approach their culture they visited the recently conquered world. They arrived to Khnum tearing down the arenas. Outraged at this they called him naive despite Khnum’s reasoning. He told them they were not seeing the reason he had to purge the arenas and they were fools for not recognizing the suffering the games had brought. Gaius attempted to settle the debate between the three, but it led nowhere as tempers exploded hotter and hotter. This conflict eventually led to Vinicius & Euphrano leaving the planet behind while holding a small amount of resent in their hearts towards the Sunstone King.

The two Primarchs remade Nuceria like gods of old making a world out of clay. Inspiration from Nephtis and Dux spread from everywhere but aligned in perfect synchronized harmony. If the First and the Thirteenth had any distance remaining between the two it was closed as the two legions continued to pave roads, build grant world of art, establish places of learning and trade as they uprooted old Nuceria to plant the seeds of a new golden age for the planet.

After Nuceria was reformed under Khnum, Gaius, and the First Company's guidance he invited his brothers to join in welcoming the planet and its inhabitants into the Imperium proper. Most of his brothers could not make it, but Surmah, Lu Yueh, Charon, and Necalli came to see their brothers’ shining new jewel. For a week Khnum and Gaius showed their brothers around as the people of Nuceria greeted the Primarchs like Demi-Gods of old.

The celebrations drew to a close and eventually the Primarchs boarded up in their flagships to head back to the Great Crusade. Khnum took one last look upon his and Gaius’ great work as the Wisdom of Techu ripped into the warp to the next conflict.