Sergius Clerval

Sergius Clerval was the mind behind the ill-fated “Primarch Secundus Project" and designed the children it produced to be a new generation of primarchs designed. Clerval, also known as “The Mad Magos” was one of Archmagos Cawl’s head researchers and had been placed in charge of the primarch-equivalent aspect of the project. His descent into madness and the misguided campaign against the enemies of the Imperium that he waged are legendary.

## Early Years

The earliest years of Sergius’ life are unknown, mostly as they were unremarkable. He was born on Terra and was inducted into the Cult Mechanicus at an early age. Though the exact date of his birth remains unknown, records put it sometime early in the 31st milenium. He had a talent for chemicals and eventually became a Genetor where he was given the honor of studying the gene-seed tithes Space Marines. He was taken under Belisarius Cawl’s wing after the two met at a genetic symposium. Cawl was working on the primaris space marine project and inducted the new and brilliant Genetor into his project.

## Secundus Astartes Project

One of Sergius’ earliest projects was the Secundus Astartes project; a testbed of new modifications of space marine genetics and equipment that would later be used in the primaris space marines. He did not have the finest specimens of humanity to work with so his Secundus Astartes were made with mutation-free convicts. Much of this was simply implementing Cawl’s genius work but Clerval met and exceeded his mentor’s expectations by developing better mental control and indoctrination methods for the often unruly and uncouth convicts.

## The Primarch Secundus Project

Eventually Sergius Clerval became one of Cawl’s most trusted genetic researchers and he was placed in charge of a pet project of Cawl’s known as the “Primarch Secundus Project”. It’s aim was to create leaders and heroes for the new primaris marines to follow. They would remain subservient to true primarchs and their lack of a conventional chapter would allow them to work with any number of Astartes forces.

It was around this time that Clerval began to hear the whispers of Tzeentch and he began to see parallels between his own work and that of the Emperor himself when he created the original primarchs. Clerval became increasingly secretive but he hid the growing suspicions that he had to himself. In his own mind he ‘’was’’ the Emperor reborn (perhaps via the starchild prophecy).

### Genetic Origins

Clerval makes many mentions in his journals and logs about the "Emperor's Blood". It is unlikely that he is referring to the actual genetic code of the Emperor but of his offspring. Theories abound about the genetic makeup of the various False Primarchs but the most likely ones are:

* They are based on genetic samples from an early biological child that the Emperor had. A **sensai** as the heretics call them.
* That they are the equivalent of Primarchs to "The Angel" who may or may not be a prototype for the primarchs (or something similar). As the being is still in Inquisitorial hands it is likely that its genetic samples are on file. The False Primarchs may have even been attempts by Clerval to recreate the Angel.
* They are fragments of the two Lost Primarchs.
* They are attempts to recreate the original primarchs uses modern technology.

## The Scattering

As part of his growing delusions Sergius believed that, in order to reawaken the memories of the Emperor within himself, he needed to reenact his life. He decided that one of the pivotal moments for him was when Chaos scattered his sons across the stars. Clerval made secret plans to scatter the Primarch Secundus children that he was developing across the Imperium so that he could awaken more of the Emperor within himself as he went to look for them.

He made the efforts in secret, using intermediaries who he knew would not have his own best interests at heart- possibly agents of chaos itself. His goal was to not know where his “sons” were so he’d have to search for them. Some rumors even suppose that he utilized the talents of the Officio Assassinorum.

Regardless of how they were scattered, it was staged so convincingly that the Mechanicus and the High Lords of Terra made it a top priority to recover the lost children. Failure could mean that the enemies of man could claim them and discover the work the Imperium had been doing on the primaris space marines.

## The Crusade Launches

Armed with an Ark Mechanicus, a fleet of ships, as many Secundus Astartes as could be spared as well as forces from the 1st Regiment (aka “The Big Red One”), 7th Regiment, and a legion of Skitarii they set off the track down any verified leads on the Secundus Astartes.

Sergius was originally placed in an observer and technical expert role during the crusade to recover them, Inquisitor Lord Krakauer being invested with supreme authority. In fact Clerval was 4th in command of the forces and really only commanded the Skitarii and oversaw the Ark Mechanicus. However, five year into their efforts a ‘’tragic accident’’ occured during a battle and they all perished. They died during a skirmish with the forces of chaos en route to tracking down a lead. The Grand Order of Hermetic Blades, a Heretic Astartes warband dedicated to the Chaos God Tzeentch, ambushed them along their route and were only driven off after suffering heavy losses. From then on Sergius Clerval had undisputed control over the crusade.

## Clerval’s Crusade

**Main Article:** Clerval's Crusade
Clerval was responsible for overall command of the campaign that now bears his name. He delegated much of the administrative and leadership duties for Pandu and the military ones to Bora.

## Fate

For much of the Crusade he was free from the influence of Tzeentch thanks to  Pandu Hagar’s intervention. However he lost his mind to the whispers of Tzeentch prior to the Siege of Nar’Whin. There he slayed Pandu for trying to cleanse him (believing he was purging the Emperor’s soul from him) and “euthanized” Dracon Silver before “revealing” that he was the Emperor reborn. It’s unclear who killed him but what is clear is that he was cut down by one of his own “sons”.

Sergius in his refined form. Despite being a Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus he kept all his modifications within and focused on manipulating his genes.