Clerval's Crusade

The prolonged military campaign commonly known as “Clerval's Crusade” was the result of Imperial efforts to recover the False Primarchs scattered across the stars. The crusade would last for around a thousand years, involve countless battles on the fringes of the Imperium, and culminate in the tragic events that occurred at the Siege of Nar’Whin.

## Military Forces

**Conventional Imperial Forces**

* Elements of the 1st Regiment.
* Elements of the 7th Regiment.
* Forces from the Ring of Magellan (a former pirate warband).
* Forces from Unit 359 (formerly PDF from Benbow)
* Abominations from the Black Cartel
* A fleet of Warships and support craft

**Adeptus Mechanicus Forces**

* The 367th Legion of Skitarii
* An Ark Mechanicus

**Astartes Forces**

* ~1,000 Secundus Astartes. Some of the units comprised of them include:
	+ The Red Sons
	+ The Black Cartel
	+ The Oprichnik
	+ The Doomtroopers
	+ The Starseeds
	+ The Twenty
	+ The Ring of Magellan

## Key Figures

*Overall Commanders*

* **Magos Dominus Sergius Clerval:** The “Mad Magos” who executed the Primarch Secundus Project and had delusions that he was the Emperor reborn.
* **Inquisitor Lord Krakauer:** The original leader of the crusade who was killed under mysterious circumstances during battle just 5 years into the campaign. When he and the other senior members of the crusade were killed, Clerval was given ultimate authority over it.

**Senior Commanders**

* **Bora:** The general of all of the crusade’s military forces. Directly commanded the Doomtroopers, an elite cadre of Secundus Astartes special operations forces used for assassination missions.
* **Dracon Silver:** The general of all non-astartes forces in the crusade. Served under Bora’s command. Had direct command of Unit 359- a mixed unit of Secundus Astartes and conventional Imperial military assets.
* **Pandu Hagar:** The second in command of the administrative side of the campaign. In battle he lead the Ring of Magellan but served under Dracon.
* **Bathory Sims:** Later in the crusade he served as the Chief Tactician.

**Unit Commanders**

* **Renault Vork:** Commanded the Red Sons shock infantry comprised of Secundus Astartes.
* **Zade Hugo:** Commanded the Black Cartel line infantry. Also acted as Clerval’s lab assistant.
* **Hamish Morder:** A (decreasingly) seasoned commander who commanded a veteran squad known as “The Twenty”.
* **Col. Horatio Shrike:** Commanded affiliated Imperial Guard forces in several battles before joining the crusade. He then helped Dracon manage the non-astartes forces of the Crusade.
* **Lumen Vox:** Later in the campaign Lumen would command the The Starseeds, an extremely adaptable force of Secundus Astartes that employed xenos weaponry and unconventional tactics.

## Key Events

* It is thought that Hamish Morder, appearing as an old man, spoke to Clerval early in the crusade to recover them. Many speculate that he revealed a great deal about what the crusade would entail and the locations of his gene-brothers. Others say Hamish warned Clerval of the madness growing within the Magos. He only appeared briefly and, as such, is not thought to have been “recovered” until much later.
* At the **Battle of Obascuran** the crusade was forced into a skirmish with the forces of chaos en route to tracking down a lead. Grand The 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. The senior leadership, other than Clerval, was killed during this battle.
* Bora was the first of the Primarch Secundus that was recovered on an unknown Death World soon after Hamish visited Clerval. He actually missed Bora due to his status as a Null but was able to recover him after several attempts to hunt the feral false primarch down.
* Dracon Silver was recovered second from the world of Benbow. His force, Unit 359, joined with the forces already on the crusade and augmented them grealy.
* Bathory Sims was located but the crusade was denied access to the system by Bathory’s forces. The iron grip that the paranoid primarch had on the system kept the crusade at bay and Clerval ultimately decided to leave him be for the time being. The primarch and Clerval began a long history of correspondence that lead to improvements in the Secundus Astartes.
* The false primarch **[Redacted]** was recovered.
* The priestly Pandu Hagar was recovered from Magellan- 44312, an asteroid near the Eye of Terror. Pandu cleansed Clerval, freeing him from Tzeentch’s influence for many years. During this time Clerval was keenly aware of his prior madness and recognized the error of his ways. Pandu’s forces, the Ring of Magellan, joined the crusade a auxiliary regiments. Still, he had shame in his heart and did not reveal the truth of his schemining to others for fear of judgement.
* The crusade got caught up in the **War for Hyperion** in the Ghoul Stars for a time and played a vital role in the Battle of the Bad Patch, the Crumdor Incident, the Battle of the Rise, and the Third Sacking of Helmtor XI. During this battle the failed primarch Horatio Shrike was discovered leading an Imperial Guard regiment, though he did not join the Crusade.
* The false primarch **[Redacted]** was recovered.
* Renault Vork and Zade Hugo were recovered simultaneously after a the crusade defeated their forces in the **Battle of Naraku**. The two cannibals and their warhost became a core component of the crusade’s military force and replaced the losses the crusade had suffered up until that point.
* The false primarch **[Redacted]** was recovered.
* Several skirmishes with Eldar occurred when harlequins attempted to sabotage the fleet. One battle known as the **Skip-Hub Incident** involved a large part of the fleet entering the Webways for a time and being seperated after returning to realspace. It took 20 years from the two halves of the crusade to rendezvous again.
* The false primarch **[Redacted]** was recovered by half of the crusade on their way to link up.
* Half of the crusade encountered a large force of tyranids from Hive Fleet Tarrasque on the frost moon of Z’Quell. The Red Sons are said to have fought off the worst of the offending tyranids with such savagery their very souls were stained with blood.
* At **The Queen’s Rendezvous** the crusade reunited during a battle with Orkish freebooterz who saw the smaller part of the fleet as easy pickings. Only by the timely intervention of the other half were they able to secure victory.
* The betrayal of an unknown false primarch was recorded to have occurred and resulted in a falling out between several of them when he was finally put down. The event is known as **The Lost Insurrection**.
* The false primarch **[Redacted]** was recovered.
* The false primarch **[Redacted]** was recovered.
* The **Blackstar Incident** was fought to free an Imperial world from the grips of a Genestealer uprising. Clerval and Zade are rumored to have taken genetic samples that they used for their own twisted experimentation. Horatio Shrike formally joined the crusade after this (though he was working for the Inquisition).
* The false primarch **[Redacted]** was recovered.
* Bathory Sims eventually joined the crusade out of self-interest, foreseeing disaster if he did not intervene. He became the chief tactician of the crusade and aided in the remainder of it, though he always kept himself segregated from the rest and maintained his own private security forces.
* The false primarch **[Redacted]** was recovered.
* Late in the crusade the shape-shifting false primarch Lumen Vox was recovered after their xenos trade coalition collapsed.
* At the **Battle of Runciter** the forces of Clerval’s Crusade battled Heretic Astartes warbands dedicated to the Chaos Gods Khorne and Nurgle. They had unlikely allies in the form of Eldar corsairs who had been hunting down the warbands after the had attacked pillaged a craftworld. It is believed that the Eldar maneuvered the Crusade’s forces into conflict with them so that they could recover their stolen goods. During the battle Renault Vork and Zade Hugo turned traitor and fired on Clerval’s forces. Zade killed Horatio during this fight.
* The false primarch **[Redacted]** was recovered.
* The last primarch to be truly recovered was the reluctant primarch Cathal Morganach who only joined after much convincing. He brought with him no troops and was despised by the forces assigned to him for his cowardly ways and lack of enthusiasm for war.
* Primarch Lumen lost a long battle with self-identity and lost their sense of self in the warp, dissolving into thousands of ever-changing fragments that are said to still inhabit the immaterium.
* **The Battle of Three Ridges** was fought against the forces of Khorne, including some of Renault Vork’s former Red Sons.
* **Siege of Nar’Whin** is fought over the sentinel world of Nar’Whin. The forces of Chaos held the world and threatened vital resources of the Imperium.

## Siege of Nar’Whin

A beleaguered defense garrison on the world of Nar’Whin was destroyed by an overwhelming enemy force sometime in the later days of the Indomitus Crusade. The forces of Chaos had struck hard at a this point that was far from Imperial aid. It was likely a gambit to distract elements of the Indomitus Crusade from their true efforts. Clerval decided that it was the perfect opportunity not only to reveal his recovered sons to the Imperium at large but also to save an important Imperial outpost. Clerval’s forces joined with what few defenders of the Imperium could be gathered. Feelings were initially mixed, they had proven effective but their very nature was off putting. In his warped mind it would be the epoc of his transformation in the Emperor and he would be allowed to simply assume command of the Imperium after his great victory. Chaos forces had dug in deep on the planet and the fighting was desperate, even with Clerval’s large force.

Imperial forces fought to stem the tide of Chaos’s incursion into realspace but they continued to pour in through an unstable hole in the fabric of reality. The rate of attrition was absurdly high and much the crusaders forces were spent simply maintaining a blockade. Few forces could be diverted from the Indomitus Crusade and they would not have arrived in time to be useful. However, if Nar’Whin fell the forces of Chaos would have had an unchecked path to valuable and undefended Imperial targets that were important to the war efforts. Nar’Whin could not fall and the defenders knew they’d have to pay a high price to hold it.

### The Slayings

Pandu, who realized that Clerval had fallen to Tzeentch’s influence again, attempted to purge him of his taint. Clerval, in his madness, though he was trying to purge the God Emperor’s soul from his body and killed his son with a golden dagger. The Mad Magos then went on to euthanize Dracon Silver who had grown almost comatose in his dreadnought. The slaying of Dracon and Pandu by Clerval are said by some to have been the inciting incident for Clerval’s own assasination at the hands of one of the other False Primarchs though it is easily likely to have been his declaration to all that he thought himself to be the Emperor reborn.

### Battle of the Eight

In the famous Battle of The Eight the remaining forces of the crusade, seeking atonement for following a heretic like Clerval, launched a suicidal attack against the forces of Chaos on the planet. History forgets the names of those who died there but honors their sacrifice for they bought total victory at the cost of their lives. The Ark Mechanicus itself being rammed into the planet as part of the final attack. It is said eight of the remaining false primarchs survived up until this point and bravely lead their troops into battle knowing what it would cost them. It is said that a Daemon Prince known only as the “Omnidaemon” who had 72 draconic head was slain by the forces in the final assault and, with its death, the rip in reality was closed.

## Aftermath

After the Battle of the Eight the remaining Imperial forces were able to mop up the lingering forces of Chaos and reclaim the stronghold world for the Imperium. None of False Primarchs are known to have survived the Siege of Nar’Whin, though contradictory claims and rumors abound.