vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Horus - "Black Pariah": Within Imperial history, only one "Black Pariah" has ever existed. He was a former Imperial Assassin by the code-name of "Spear." Born as a human Untouchable, he was captured by the Silent Sisterhood and brought to Terra, where the Clade Culexus experimented upon and augmented him in an attempt to create a more powerful and deadly form of Culexus Assassin. It is not known whether these augmentations or his unnatural abilities made him a "Black Pariah." Spear was eventually deemed too unstable and dangerous by his Clade's masters to be left alive. He was placed in the care of the Sisters of Silence and was sent aboard one of their lone vessels, bound for the heart of a nearby sun. Unfortunately, this vessel was intercepted by a Traitor vessel carrying the Dark Apostle Erebus of the Word Bearers Legion. Boarding the Sisters' vessel, the Word Bearers killed all aboard, with the exception of Spear.Sensing the usefulness of such a unique specimen, Erebus found a new purpose for his captive. He forced Spear to undergo a painful and vile Chaotic ritual, in which a minor daemon from the Immaterium was bonded with the former Imperial Assassin. This bonding created a highly dangerous apex predator -- a "counter-psyker" -- capable of redirecting a psyker's attack directly back upon him. In order to utilise this ability, the "Black Pariah" first had to obtain a sample of his target's blood. This was a necessary component that helped him synchronise with his target's psionic abilities in order to reflect their attacks. Two standard years later, following the events of the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, Erebus tasked his deadly minion to assassinate the Emperor. Spear spent an inordinate amount of time in order to painstakingly reach his ultimate goal -- a document that possessed a minute drop of the Emperor of Mankind's precious blood. Spear eventually obtained this document upon the world of Dagonet, which would bring him into direct conflict with the Imperial Execution Force.
Horus - Landing on Terra: The Battle of Terra began with an orbital bombardment by the Warmaster Horus' fleet as the prelude to invasion. Although the Loyalist fleets and defenders fought back and the massive orbital defences on Luna reaped more than a quarter of the starships in the Traitor fleet they, like the Loyalist soldiers on the surface, were too few to face the combined forces of so many Traitor Legions, and were mowed down without mercy. After days of bombardment, the Chaos Space Marines landed on the surface of Terra in Drop Pods and advanced on the two spaceports nearest the location of the Imperial Palace to secure them in preparation for the main landings of the Traitor forces. Elements from five of the Traitor Legions participated in the battle, aided by the Traitor forces already on the surface. Despite the brave efforts of the Loyalists, the Eternity Wall and the Lion's Gate Spaceports fell within hours to the Forces of Chaos. Dark Chaos Cultists made their invocations, calling down the Greater Daemons of Chaos from the Warp directly onto Terran soil. With the spaceports secured, Horus' remaining troops of the Traitor Legions and their Traitor Imperial Army and Dark Mechanicus support forces landed en masse, and the hulking transports carried thousands of troops each. They also landed the terrible Traitor Titans that served the Warmaster's cause and had been infected with the daemonic power of Chaos. The transports' immense size made them prime targets for Terra's defence lasers. Although many of the Traitor landing craft were destroyed in-atmosphere, many more made it to the surface, disgorging yet more soldiers, main battle tanks and Traitor Titans to add to the besiegers' strength. They met stiff resistance from the Loyalists as the Imperial defenders knew that the survival of the Mankind's homeworld, their Emperor, and the future of the entire human race rested on their shoulders.
Horus - Inquisition: The Warp Gate the Emperor had constructed deep beneath the Imperial Palace and the short section of Webway passage beyond required constant maintenance lest they fall into ruin. At first this demanded only a small portion of the Emperor's psychic might and so He was able to command His armies and do all that was expected of Him as Emperor. But the hideous monstrosities that ruled the Warp -- the self-proclaimed Gods of Chaos -- had ever been his foes, and now conspired to subvert the Emperor's goals as they had since the day He had launched the Great Crusade. To this end they had tempted the naive Magnus the Red to warn Him of the very plot they had initiated, the betrayal of the Imperium by Horus. Magnus sent his warning by means of powerful psychic sorcery and this broadcast had wreaked havoc upon the protective psychic shielding surrounding the Emperor's fragile Webway construct. The spell of Magnus not only allowed the foul denizens of the Warp entry to the section of the Webway the Emperor's secret army of Adepts and Tech-priests had by then conquered, it destroyed the delicate controls the Emperor had set in place. Now the Warp Gate he had constructed required virtually all of His psychic power and mental concentration lest it rip open a permanent doorway between Terra and the Warp, flooding the homeworld of Mankind with the daemonic legions of the Ruinous Powers.The Emperor told Malcador that he had to take the Emperor's place on the psychic amplifier known as the Golden Throne, which provided the psychic sheath needed to protect the new, human-built sections of the Webway intended to be the Emperor's final gift to humanity before the Horus Heresy had begun. The Emperor's original choice of His replacement on the artefact had been the Primarch Magnus the Red, but since Magnus and his Thousand Sons Space Marine Legion had sided with Horus and the Chaos God Tzeentch, Malcador was now His chosen successor and the only remaining human psyker with enough strength to carry out the duty.In the days before the final confrontation between the Emperor and Horus aboard his Battle-Barge the Vengeful Spirit during the Battle of Terra, the Emperor ordered Malcador to summon twelve "..men of character, skill and determination" who would be tested and trained to become the elite group of investigators intended to root out treachery across the Imperium in the centuries to come to prevent any event like the Horus Heresy from occurring again. The Emperor also told Malcador to prepare himself for the dreadful sacrifice that he would be called upon to make.
Horus - After Death: The tragic tale of Horus does not end with his death aboard the Vengeful Spirit. His body was enshrined on the Daemon World of Maeleum that the Sons of Horus claimed for their own within the Eye of Terror after they fled Terra at the end of the Heresy. Horus' corpse resided there for several hundred Terran years in the early 31st Millennium, before the body was stolen by the corrupted Apothecary Fabius Bile and the Emperor's Children Traitor Legion during the Slave Wars in the Eye of Terror. This was part of an attempt to clone the body of the Warmaster to bring Horus back to life so that he might lead the Traitor Legions once more in an attempt to conquer the Imperium.But Ezekyle Abaddon, the former First Captain of the XVIth Legion, reasserted his control over the entire Legion at this time, proclaiming himself Horus' successor. Abaddon led an assault by the Sons of Horus upon the Emperor's Children's fortress, and believing that the continued worship of his Legion's dead Primarch had trapped the Traitor Legions and led them to the brink of destruction, Abaddon utterly destroyed Horus' corpse and claimed the Warmaster's Power Claw, the Talon of Horus, as his own, as well as the title of Warmaster of Chaos.Abaddon also underwent an epiphany in which he believed that Horus, whom he had once worshipped, had failed to defeat the Emperor because he was weak, and so the Forces of Chaos needed a new leader who would not hesitate to do what had to be done in the Long War to at last throw down the Corpse-Emperor. Abaddon ordered the Sons of Horus to paint their Power Armour black as a symbol of both mourning for Horus and their desire for vengeance against the Imperium. He gave the XVIth Legion a new name, the moniker that now breeds fear into the heart of every true servant of the Emperor who hears it spoken aloud: the Black Legion.Abaddon ordered the Legion to abandon Maeleum and instead transformed his forces into a Fleet-based Legion that maintained assets across the expanse of the Eye of Terror. Abaddon turned the Black Legion's eyes towards the future and away from the past represented by their lost Primarch. He swore that the Black Legion would one day fulfill Horus' dream of throwing down the Corpse-Emperor from his throne and establishing the dominion of Chaos across the galaxy.And so Ezekyle Abaddon became something more than he had been, something more than even Horus Lupercal's successor -- he became the greatest Champion of Chaos the galaxy had ever known, the feared tyrant and genocidal killer known to generations of Imperial defenders as Abaddon the Despoiler.
Horus - Wargear: Serpent's Scales - Horus' unique suit of Terminator Armour, known as the Serpent's Scales, was one of the first prototypes of its kind, fashioned by Master Adept Urtzi Malevolus and continuously improved by the hand of the traitorous Fabricator-General of Mars, Kelbor-Hal, and some of the greatest Artificers of the Imperium. It was proof against attacks of both brute and esoteric origin. Sent from Mars to cement the alliance between Horus and the faction of the Mechanicum that would back his rebellion against the Emperor, the armour echoed the colours of the Sons of Horus' elite Justaerin, but it far surpassed them in ornamentation and power. An amber Eye of Horus upon the breastplate stared from the armour's torso and shoulder plates.Worldbreaker - Worldbreaker was a Power Maul the size of a mortal man marked out with the Imperial Aquila at the base of its grip. As well as being a weapon capable of shattering armoured ceramite, it was also a signifier of Horus' rank as the Warmaster of the Imperium. It is said to have been created by the hand of the Emperor Himself and presented as a gift to his favoured son on the day Horus was raised to become the Warmaster and the Emperor announced that he was returning to Terra.Warmaster's Talon - The Warmaster's Talon is a unique Lightning Claw which incorporated a baroquely styled twin-Bolter that was a precursor of a modern Storm Bolter. The Talon had long been Horus' favoured weapon. Some apocryphal sources claim it was an antediluvian relic that was found deep within the planet Cthonia, and was a product of Mankind's Dark Age of Technology.
Horus Aximand - Wargear: Mourn-It-All - A potent relic power sword of the Sons of Horus Legion, Mourn-It-All was wielded by Aximand during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. The large Cthonic blue steel, double-edged sword was badly notched by Hibou Khan of the White Scars Legion during the Battle of Dwell, but was reforged on the order of Horus. Following Aximand's death at the Siege of Terra, Garviel Loken took up the weapon as his own.Combat Shield - Aximand typically used a standard Astartes combat shield in combination with his power sword. His preferred method of melee combat was the mass assault form, with his shield held at eye level, used as a ram, with his sword tip held forward at chest level, punching and stabbing like a piston from under the shield rim. The shield was once split in half by Bion Henricos of the Iron Hands Legion at the Battle of Dwell.Bolter
Horus Heresy - Horus Heresy: For a complete chronology of the events of the Horus Heresy please see Horus Heresy ChronologyThe Horus Heresy, sometimes referred to poetically as the "Age of Darkness" and originally known in its immediate aftermath as the Great Heresy War, was a galaxy-spanning civil war that consumed the worlds of Mankind for 9 Terran years. Its outbreak marked the end of the Emperor of Mankind's Great Crusade to reunite the scattered colony worlds of Humanity in the Milky Way Galaxy under a single government and the beginning of the current Age of the Imperium. The Horus Heresy is in many ways the founding event of the Imperium of Man as it now exists.The civil war began following the corruption by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos of the Imperial Warmaster Horus Lupercal, the primarch of the Sons of Horus Legion and the most beloved genetic son of the Emperor. The Chaos Gods fed Horus' innate ambition and sense of betrayal by the Emperor until he turned upon his father and sought to claim the Imperium for his own.Horus convinced half of the other primarchs and Space Marine Legions, as well as large swathes of the Imperial Army and the forces of the ancient Mechanicum, to turn Traitor alongside him and unleash a cataclysmic attempt to conquer the galaxy in his name.Over 9 Terran years the war raged, 7 of them consumed by Horus' drive on the Throneworld, until coming to a final cataclysm on Terra itself where Horus was slain and the Emperor mortally wounded, His dreams of creating a brighter future for Mankind forever broken.The conflict was fought across the Milky Way Galaxy early in the first century of the 31st Millennium and resulted in more than 2.3 trillion dead, 4.6 trillion if one includes the planetary populations purged by the Imperium after the Heresy due to the taint of Chaos corruption.The Heresy concluded with the death of the traitorous Warmaster Horus, the internment of the Emperor in the Golden Throne and the exile into the Eye of Terror of the Heretic Astartes Traitor Legions.The Heresy was directly responsible for the birth of the present-day structure of the Space Marine Chapters following the Second Founding and the reorganisation of the Imperium by the Ultramarines' Primarch Roboute Guilliman as lord commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent during the Time of Rebirth in the 31st Millennium.While the below account is highly detailed, it should be noted that much of this information would be completely unknown to the average inhabitant of the Imperium of Man in the 41st Millennium.The Horus Heresy occurred over ten thousand Terran years ago, a nearly unimaginable span of time; as a result, it has become nothing more than a collection of often distorted or misunderstood legends and mythology to the average Imperial citizen.When the effects of the deification of the Emperor, the theological needs of the Adeptus Ministorum and the outright deletions and fabrications of Imperial history carried out by the Inquisition are added into the equation, the truth of the events surrounding the Horus Heresy could prove very shocking indeed to the people of the Imperium.
Horus Heresy - Old Earth: Over twenty-eight thousand standard years before the start of the Horus Heresy, during the Age of Terra, Mankind first left the polluted, used-up carcass of Old Earth for the unknown bounties and perils beyond the skies of our birth world. In those forgotten early years, it is unknown what enemies and trials Humanity overcame in our uncaring universe to not only survive, but thrive and forge a domain amongst the stars. Colonies spread across our galaxy so that Humanity was scattered across a million worlds and found treasures and horrors uncounted. Mankind's technological mastery ascended to an almost unimaginable zenith, and at its heart lay a resurgent Earth.The promised wonders of our species' earliest ambitions were made manifest, and our application and control of the sciences was unparalleled. Humanity reached its pinnacle, raised up by the miracles of technology which it wrought, re-shaping uncounted new colony worlds in the vision of distant Old Earth. The legends which remain of that lost realm of ancient Human empires speak of a galaxy of plenty, filled with opportunity, culture, technological progress and wonder.
Horus Heresy - Dark Age of Technology: In the heights of those times, lost to all but supposition and myth, Humanity made itself as unto gods; able to harness the power of the stars, and fashion servants from clay and iron and give them counterfeit-life to do their bidding. Unfortunately, this era of advancement was not to last, for Mankind fell prey to its own sciences.Mankind's Golden Age failed; wherein the promised wisdom of science and technology did not elevate Mankind to the divine, but rather smote it for the consequences of its reckless excesses and ambitions untempered by reason. Martian-Terran wars of terrible destruction ensued, and the beautiful, animate, thinking tools which Mankind had created and so coveted were corrupted and turned upon all Humanity in what was called the Cybernetic Revolt.Horrors were perpetrated to possess meagre resources all but depleted from the earlier age of prosperity, and greed and hubris saw fearsome, ancient weapons unleashed that risked our species' very annihilation. Such were the terrors of this time that death could cross vast distances of space, coming unexpected and uninvited to consume entire worlds. This was what is now remembered as the Dark Age of Technology, and for many Terran millennia it reigned.
Horus Heresy - Council of War: Following the successful conclusion of the Unification Wars, the Emperor convened the ruling body known as the War Council to manage the execution of the Great Crusade intended to reunite the entire human-settled galaxy under a single government. The War Council effectively became the true ruling body of the Imperium during the early and middle years of the Great Crusade.The Emperor Himself sat at the head of the council; at his left hand was Malcador the Sigillite, perhaps the Emperor's greatest ally during the Wars of Unity and a human psyker whose powers were matched only by those of the Emperor.The rest of the Council was composed of talented administrators drawn from the great ruling aristocratic dynasties of Terra and the Segmentum Solar, and when the Emperor forged His alliance with the Mechanicum of Mars, the Fabricator-General of the Mechanicum also claimed his seat. The War Council was also attended by the Paternova of the Navigator Houses.As the Emperor departed the homeworld of Mankind to lead the Great Crusade into the stars starting around ca. 798.M30, he left the legendary Malcador to act as the Regent of Terra and the head of the War Council in his stead.At the same time, Malcador took the lead in creating the clades of Imperial Assassins that would eventually evolve into the Officio Assassinorum, making Malcador the first Grand Master of Assassins.
Horus Heresy - Corruption of the Space Marine Legions: Long before the tragic events that would unfold on Isstvan III and initiate the conflict of the Horus Heresy, the Primarch Lorgar of the Word Bearers Legion had already committed himself and his Astartes to the service of the Ruinous Powers.Lorgar was a puritanical religious zealot who was said to have experienced visions that foresaw the coming of the Emperor, who he believed to be a living god. This belief resulted in a series of bitter religious wars as Lorgar fought to impose his new religious doctrine worshipping the Emperor on his homeworld of Colchis.When the Emperor finally arrived to reclaim his lost son, the entire world was already enthralled to Lorgar and his cult of the Emperor. The people of Colchis united behind their new God-Emperor. The elaborate celebrations and displays of piety lasted for solar months, although it was said that the Emperor did not approve of this, wishing to rejoin the Great Crusade as soon as possible and being greatly dismissive of organised religion in general as a vioilation of the Imperial Truth.The Emperor had not begun the Great Crusade to reshackle Humanity within the chains of superstition and ignorance but to spread the light of reason and science. At the conclusion of the celebrations, Lorgar was made master of the XVIIth Space Marine Legion, the Imperial Heralds, who were renamed the Word Bearers after they embraced their primarch and his religious beliefs.Kor Phaeron, Lorgar's adoptive father and religious advisor, survived the augmentation process to join the Word Bearers as a rare adult Space Marine, though he would never be a true Astartes. Kor Phaeron became Lorgar's chief adviser, lieutenant and the commander of the Word Bearers' elite 1st Company as the XVIIth Legion's first captain.Lorgar led his Legion throughout the Great Crusade, as the Word Bearers sought to eliminate all blasphemy and heresy within the new Imperium of Man. Ancient texts and icons of other faiths were burned. The construction of vast monuments and cathedrals venerating the Emperor as the God of Mankind were supervised by Lorgar and the Word Bearers on many of the worlds they brought into Imperial Compliance.The greatest Chaplains of the Word Bearers produced enormous works on the divinity and righteousness of the Emperor, and gave grand speeches and sermons to the masses of conquered worlds. The progress of the Word Bearers was slow in bringing new worlds into Imperial Compliance, but the Imperial domination of those who were defeated by the XVIISuperscript text Legion was always complete, as religion proved to be a potent tool in securing Imperial loyalty.At some point during this period, Lorgar penned the work known as the Lectitio Divinitatus, which laid out the case that the Emperor of Mankind was a divine being and was worthy of worship as the rightful God of humanity. This book would later, ironically considering the identity of its author, become instrumental in the founding of the Imperial Cult and the Ecclesiarchy.
Horus Heresy - Pilgrimage of Lorgar: Prompted by First Captain Kor Phaeron and the XVII Legion's First Chaplain Erebus, both secret devotees of the Chaos Gods through Colchis' Old Faith, Lorgar journeyed with his Word Bearers Legion's Chapter of the Serrated Sun to what was then the fringes of known Imperial space as part of the 1301st Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade. At this time, Lorgar had not yet fallen to the corruption of Chaos, though he had turned against the Emperor of Mankind as a deity no longer worthy of his worship. Lorgar believed that the Emperor was wrong to condemn Mankind's natural instinct to seek out the divine as an unworthy superstition and he intended to discover if there were truly deities worthy of humanity's respect. To this end, though Lorgar no longer had any love or loyalty for the Emperor, he and his XVII Legion rejoined the Great Crusade but did so only so their efforts could serve as a front for their pursuit of the Pilgrimage of Lorgar.The Word Bearers were also accompanied on this Pilgrimage by 5 members of the Legio Custodes who had been set by the Emperor to watch over everything the Word Bearers did to prevent them from falling back into error once more. The Word Bearers' pursuit of any scrap of information that could be found on the Primordial Truth or the nature of the place where Gods and mortals could mingle ultimately led the 1301st Expeditionary Fleet to the Cadia System near the largest permanent Warp Storm in the galaxy, later known to the Imperium as the Eye of Terror. The Expeditionary Fleet's Master of Astropaths advised Lorgar that unusual "voices" in the Warp were heard in the vicinity of the great Warp rift, voices that spoke directly to the Primarch as well, which were the voices of the Chaos entities within the Immaterium. It would be in the Cadia System that Lorgar would learn that his suspicions had been correct and that the shape of all of the religions across the galaxy that possessed so many similarities to the Colchisian Old Faith were not artefacts of Mankind's collective unconsciousness, but expressions of worship in the universal truth that was Chaos.
Horus Heresy - Primordial Truth: The so-called "Primordial Truth" of the existence of Chaos changed Lorgar and the Word Bearers forever as they were exposed to the Ruinous Powers and slowly corrupted, the first of the Space Marine Legions to worship the Chaos Gods and become Traitors to the Emperor in their hearts. Lorgar and the Word Bearers spent the remaining years of the Great Crusade attempting to enlighten humanity about the true spiritual nature of Creation, ultimately resorting to manipulation and deception to sway nine of the Primarchs to the cause of Chaos as their Gods demanded, the most notable being the Warmaster Horus. When it became clear that Mankind could not be enlightened by Chaos without first being forcibly weaned at a great price in blood from the Emperor's false Imperial Truth, Lorgar would go on to willingly help orchestrate the terrible Battle of Isstvan III and the Drop Site Massacre at Isstvan V as well as the larger Horus Heresy itself. When Horus openly declared his rebellion against the Emperor, the Word Bearers were one of the first Legions to support him and his cause. The worlds they had conquered since their conversion to Chaos also joined the side of the Traitors, having been secretly corrupted to the worship of the Ruinous Powers in the final days of the Great Crusade.
Horus Heresy - Isstvan Massacres: Note: Published materials are inconsistent on their spelling of "Isstvan"; the more recently published material uses "Isstvan", while other (generally older) materials use "Isstvan". No explanation for this difference has been provided. For the sake of expediency, this article will use the spelling Isstvan.
Horus Heresy - Flight of the Eisenstein: Seventy Loyalists of the Death Guard Legion and the Imperial Saint Euphrati Keeler led by Battle-Captain Garro had commandeered the Imperial frigate Eisenstein and, evading the Traitor forces of Horus, were able to escape from the Isstvan System into the Immaterium, after being told what was happening on the planet. The Eisenstein was badly damaged by the Death Guard battleship Terminus Est during its escape from Isstvan III and it was assaulted by undead minions, including the first known Plague Marines of Nurgle while it was within the Immaterium. This assault by Warp entities forced the ship to make a crash emergence from the Warp. The repeated traumas left all of the frigate's astropaths dead, and its lone Navigator was mortally wounded. However, Garro managed to attract the attention of passing Loyalist starships by setting the vessel's Warp-Drives to self-destruct and ejecting them from the starship. Rogal Dorn's Imperial Fists Legion's massive mobile fortress-monastery Phalanx and the Legion's fleet had been becalmed in the Warp for some time due to the waxing power of the Ruinous Powers as the Heresy began, and his Navigators sensed the detonation of the Eisenstein's Warp-Drives. Charting an immediate course for the location of the detonation, Dorn met with Garro, who explained to him all that had happened with the Traitor Legions. Dorn was reluctant to believe Garro's tale, but overwhelming proof from a Remembrancer (journalist) named Mersadie Oliton who had escaped from Horus' flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, and Garro's dogged insistence finally convinced the Primarch. The Phalanx fortress set a course for Terra.The fate of the Eisenstein's survivors is unknown. Sequestered on Luna in a tower belonging to the Sisters of Silence after their arrival in-system, Garro, the rest of his Loyalist Death Guard, Captain Iacton Qruze of the Luna Wolves, and the warriors of the Silent Sisterhood faced one of the Death Guard Marines named Solun Decius who had succumbed to the temptations of the Chaos God Nurgle after being infected with one of the Lord of Plague's more virulent illnesses now known as Nurgle's Rot by the undead minions Nurgle had unleashed on the Eisenstein. Seeking to end his pain, Decius allowed himself to become possessed by a Lesser Daemon of Nurgle, a variant Plaguebearer called the Lord of the Flies. Afterwards, Garro and Captain Qruze were met by Malcador the Sigillite, leader of the Council of Terra and the Emperor's Regent, who informed them that the Emperor had need of people who were strong of will and as "inquisitive" as they. Malcador ordered Garro to begin to comb the galaxy for 7 other Astartes from both the Traitor and Loyalist Legions who with him would become the founding members of the Imperial Inquisition and the militant arm of its daemon-hunting Ordo Malleus -- the Grey Knights.
Horus Heresy - The Traitor Auxilia: By far the largest numbers of human troops under the Warmaster's command were drawn from the Imperial Auxilia, and ranged from the massive Imperial Army Regiments of the Line to the elite ranks of the Solar Auxilia. In addition to these experienced and well-equipped forces, the Warmaster also exercised command over native militias, planetary tithe-hosts and Rogue Trader Conquestor companies. The latter were able to range far and wide, often serving as emissaries of the Warmaster and delivering in person demands for Planetary Governors to swear loyalty to his cause, or suffer the ruin of their worlds. Some accounts even suggest Traitor Rogue Trader Conquestor forces continued their exploration of the outer darkness even as the Heresy consumed the Imperium, claiming untold worlds not in the name of the Emperor, but of the Warmaster. Some even established pocket empires far beyond the Imperium, crowning themselves as the Warmaster's suzerains over realms that lingered beyond the Heresy and well into the age of the Great Scouring.
Horus Heresy - The Traitor Fleets: In addition to these ground forces, Horus' mighty host was bolstered still further by entire fleets of warships turned to his service, whether willingly or otherwise. The need for such a vast armada only became apparent after the events of Isstvan when the shortest route to attack Terra was no longer available, and the wars of the so-called Age of Darkness had begun. Without an aggressive expansion in the number of Warp-capable voidcraft in the Traitors' hands, Horus' war would simply not have been possible, for while the Legiones Astartes controlled their own ships, and thousands more besides as part of the great Expeditionary Fleets, in scale alone they were insufficient to move and supply the vast hosts of all kinds that Horus had now gathered under his banner and to fight the battles flaring up across a war zone that encompassed the galaxy entire. To ensure the continued service of these vessels and their crews when seperated from his Legions' direct control, the Warmaster emplaced within them numerous hidden agents, cults, spies and assassins. Many a Traitor shipmaster who attempted to renege on his oaths to Horus whilst thinking himself beyond the Warmaster's gaze, found himself cut down by a deck officer who was in fact a sworn agent of Horus, while those who displayed ruthless ambition in the Warmaster's service or who embraced the strange and sinister teachings promulgated by the dark forces that walked in Horus' shadow were rewarded.
Horus Heresy - The Dark Mechanicum: Aside from the human component in the Traitors' ranks, the powers of the Mechanicum and their kin were also of great importance to the war. Within the ranks of this "Dark Mechanicum," as they became known, could be found powerful elements of the Martian Priesthood, the Ordo Reductor and the Legio Cybernetica, along with many of the feared Myrmidon Destructor Cults and a number of sub-cults which had operated for long years on the edge of tech-heresy, all drawn together by Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal. With them had come the support of more than half of the legions of the Titanicus as well as dozens of allied Knight Houses, and now Mars itself was lost to the Loyalists, while the output and military power of Forge Worlds such as Sarum, Voss, Cyclothrathe and Stygies had declared for the Traitors, with others such as Anvilus, Incaladion and Ryza paralysed by civil war.
Horus Heresy - Hidden Forces: As the fires of the Heresy consumed ever greater swathes of the Imperium, other, less conventional forces fought alongside the Traitors. Aside from the legions of long-implanted spites, agents, terrorist cells and mercenaries, many were cultic in origin. These were drawn from the vast numbers of fanatics steeped in the insanity of the Immaterium that were rising up on world after world where the disciples of the Dark Apostle Erebus and the Davinites that had followed in the Warmaster's wake -- among others -- had seeded unspeakable blasphemy before the war. Most were frenzied zealots who threw themselves upon their erstwhile lords screaming the praises of entities then unnamed, but which became all too familiar as the Heresy ground on. Few worlds were untouched by the presence of these deluded cults, but it is notable that many of the Traitor Space Marines avoided direct contact with them. The Word Bearers in particular factored the cult forces into their battle plans, and it is notable that many appeared to venerate the warriors of Lorgar as demi-gods or angels, prostrating themselves upon the ground in their pesence or laying down their own lives in battle without question.There was one further ally Horus could call upon, one most often encountered where the Warp cults had previously risen up or where the greatest amounts of blood had been shed, though as the war ground on, incursions grew ever more widespread and unpredictable. These were the entities of the Warp, known by some by the ancient and arcane term "Daemons," though many of the Imperium's savants thought of them instead as aliens that simply existed within the Immaterium much as the dreaded parasite Psychneuein did, or as psychic phenomena -- mortal insanity given physical, albeit temporary form with the rise in Warp Storm activity across the galaxy. Few perceived the true danger or power of such creatures, nor would they for some time yet. Eventually, many of the Traitor Legions would fight side by side with the legions of the abyss, sharing their sins and chanting the names of the same dark powers. But at the time of the Warmaster's conquest of the northern Imperium, most of the Legiones Astartes, with the notable exception of the Word Bearers, still considered them anathema to their principles or disregarded them as mere dangerous Warp phenomena, although particularly within the ranks of the Emperor's Children that was rapidly changing, even in the early years of the Age of Darkness. The truth -- often now overlooked -- is that for many years after the battles of Isstvan, most of the Traitor Legions were concerned more with a political rebellion and with imposing a new order on the Imperium than with surrendering it to the anarchy and Warp-rent Chaos that would descend in the latter years of the Heresy.
Horus Heresy - Disposition of the Loyalist Legions: In the aftermath of the Drop Site Massacre, the Imperium was plunged into a period of anarchy that future historians would know as the "Age of Darkness." To those still loyal to Terra, all had at a stroke been cast into confusion, for none could tell who was ally and who Traitor, and so grievous a blow had been dealt, it called into question the Imperium's survival itself. Increasingly, the Warp was in turmoil, making voyages across the void hazardous and protracted, while communication by astrotelepathy over any extended distance was all but impossible. This left the defenders of the Imperium sundered from each other, shorn of direct contact and separated not simply by distance, but by insurmountable hazards and vulnerable to attack. For Rogal Dorn, on whose shoulders the fate of Terra and possibly the entire Imperium rested, this was a period of intense frustration as he attempted to assay his forces and coordinate their stand. Though the remnants of the Imperial Fists at Terra benefitted from the vast military assets located there, including such elite forces as the Legio Custodes and the powerful Armada Imperialis Battlefleet Solar Saturnyne shipyards. Mars, however, having risen in civil war in support of the Warmaster, was now forbidden to the Loyalists, and worse yet had become a deadly thorn in the Emperor's side, needing constant watchful blockade, and so further diverted Dorn's attention. The decision was taken for him to concentrate on building Terra's defences for the inevitable Traitor onslaught to come.
Horus Heresy - Shattered Legions: The fate of Corax and his Raven Guard is well-documented, but of the other Legions betrayed during the Drop Site Massacre, still less was known for certain. Corax had confirmed the bitter news of the death of his brother Ferrus Manus of the Xth Legion at the hands of their brother Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children, news that had shaken Malcador and the members of the Council of Terra to the core. Of the Iron Hands Legion itself, it was known that many had been driven to stark madness by witnessing their father's end and thrown themselves wholesale into the crucible of war as if to absolve their loss in their own deaths. Yet, a substantial number of Iron Hands Legionaries had extricated themselves from the massacre, and while few had made it off the surface, many more had survived the calamitous void ambush of the Legion's fleet, breaking away and scattering across the stars. Some would form isolationist bands, fighting their own private wars against the Traitors, such as the infamous "Red Talons" of Autek Mor, or refuse any master save their own will as did the company known to some records as the "Heart of Stone." Others, such as those who came to follow Shadrak Meduson, would form a series of ad-hoc, cell-structured forces slowly cohering into a single loosely knit organisation; a shattered Legion army shot through with elements of other forces that had been wrecked by the base treachery at Isstvan.Of the fate of the Legiones Astartes Salamanders, still less was known. Witnesses had watched in horror as the entire sector in which the last of the XVIIIth had fought was consumed in atomic fire. Of all three Legions betrayed at the Drop Site Massacre, the Salamanders suffered the worst, scant few of their number escaping. Of these, most would join the bitter shadow-war against the Traitors either as part of shattered Legion warbands, or more rarely as coherent forces of their own entirely, such as those who followed the so-called "Prophet of Fire," at the Siege of Mezoa and the liberation of Goth, while the small guard force of Nocturne acted in the aggressive defence of their native region in accordance to their oaths, continuing to raise recruits in their Primarch's name and their Legion's traditions unchecked. Of the Primarch Vulkan, it was assumed through much of the Age of Darkness, incorrectly, that he had perished.
Horus Heresy - Hunter-Killers: As Loyalist survivor forces scattered across the northern Imperium and beyond, the Warmaster tasked certain elements to hunt them down and slaughter them to a man. Such orders were invariably accompanied by an implicit or explicit threat -- return in victory or do not return at all. Thus, these hunter-killer forces were as isolated from their own chains-of-command as the Loyalists they tracked, and soon a bitter and bloody war developed between hunter and hunted. While most of the Traitor Legions contributed forces to this effort, the Legion that embraced the task with the most relish was undoubtedly the Emperor's Children, those elements not accompanying their Primarch commanding hunts which scoured the void and inflicted unspeakable atrocities upon those Loyalists they were able to corner.
Horus Heresy - Loyalists Scattered: War now spread the length and breadth of a chaotic and now largely unseen Imperium, and as far as Rogal Dorn and Malcador the Sigillite were concerned, the Imperial Fists alone of all the Legiones Astartes would have to shoulder the burden of the defence of the Throneworld of Terra. Until such time as the Warp Storms relented or those Legions still unknowingly enacting the Warmaster's duplicitous orders could fight their way through to them, the defenders of Terra would stand alone while around them the galaxy burned.
Horus Heresy - Uncertainty and Allegiance: The treachery of the Legions that prosecuted the Drop Site Massacre was a stark crime against all the Great Crusade had striven so hard to achieve, and the names of these Traitor Legions spread far and wide. From the very beginning, however, the division between Loyalist and Traitor was never as clearly defined as later generations might believe. The nature of the Emperor's immense Great Crusade was such that, while each of the Legions often fought as a whole army under the direct leadership of its own Primarch, smaller contingents were detached across the entire Imperium and into the deep void beyond. Space Marine detachments of all sizes, from individual squads to entire battalions operated beyond even the reach of the Warmaster's agents whilst the poison was spreading through their parent Legions. In most cases, these contingents were simply too far distant to be infected with the malady of treachery. By the time they eventually returned to communication range with the Imperium at large, such as it was with astrotelepathy made all but impossible by the tortured Warp, the die was cast and events had moved on. Confronted with outright betrayal, these contingents saw the Warmaster for what he truly was and their brothers for base traitors, and could do nothing but renounce their erstwhile kin.Despite the paucity of records, accounts of small warbands that were once part of the known Traitor Legions fighting independently persisted throughout the war. A handful of extant accounts, now sealed beyond all retrieval, make reference to a loosely-termed and non-formal class of warrior known as the "Blackshields." The majority of Blackshields appear to have been of the Legiones Astartes, though some may once have belonged to other factions. In some cases the term was literal description, the warriors having obscured the livery of their armour's panels black to hide all former associations. In other cases, outcast forces proudly bore their original colours and may have regarded themselves as the true inheritors of their Legions. Thus, for example, the 34th Millennial of the Emperor's Children (the "Death Eagles") bore the original purple and gold of their parent Legion with pride, refusing to abandon their heraldry. It is thought that the Death Eagles Millennial clashed with their Traitor kin at Lethe and at Revorthe Keep in the Coronid Deeps, but their ultimate fate, like that of so many others, remains unknown.
Horus Heresy - The Dark Compliance: On many worlds, the seeds of corruption had been sown long before the hand of betrayal struck at Isstvan. When the Warmaster led his forces in civil war, hundreds of worlds not directly connected to his power base declared for his cause. On these planets and dominions, many scattered around the dangerous periphery of the Imperium's frontiers, it was because his agents and those of his allies within the Mechanicum, the Alpha Legion and the Word Bearers had already poisoned their hearts against the Emperor. There would be many hundreds more, from isolated and otherwise unimportant colonies to keystones of the Imperium's economy and military strength, that would fall under his sway as the war progressed in a process that became known as the "Dark Compliance." To each world over which the Warmaster's shadow fell, a simple choice was given; total submission and surrender or total destruction and brutal subjugation -- slavery or death, there were no other options and no second chances. It was a perverse parody of the progress and glorious goals of the Great Crusade, but served as more than mere scorn for the Emperor's dream or even the vainglory of a tyrant, for there was underlying method and intelligence beneath the apparently wanton savagery. When one militant world or stubbornly Loyalist star system was punished by apocalyptic destruction for their brave defiance, such fear was created in others nearby that their surrender came as a rapid and forgone conclusion, often without a shot fired in their defence. Each world added not simply territory but manpower, production capacity and supply, feeding a Traitor war machine that was growing exponentially in power. Further, those worlds marked for death -- where possible -- can be seen with hindsight to have been more measured if no less brutal decapitation strikes for which Horus' own Legion had long been famed. It can also be observed that the devastation visited during the Dark Compliances was never so thorough that survivors were not left to spread the word of what terrors they had beheld, and of the price this new shadow emperor executed for defiance.
Horus Heresy - "Black Pariah": Within Imperial history, only one "Black Pariah" has ever existed. He was a former Imperial Assassin by the code-name of "Spear." Born as a human Untouchable, he was captured by the Silent Sisterhood and brought to Terra, where the Clade Culexus experimented upon and augmented him in an attempt to create a more powerful and deadly form of Culexus Assassin. It is not known whether these augmentations or his unnatural abilities made him a "Black Pariah." Spear was eventually deemed too unstable and dangerous by his Clade's masters to be left alive. He was placed in the care of the Sisters of Silence and was sent aboard one of their lone vessels, bound for the heart of a nearby sun. Unfortunately, this vessel was intercepted by a Traitor vessel carrying the Dark Apostle Erebus of the Word Bearers Legion. Boarding the Sisters' vessel, the Word Bearers killed all aboard, with the exception of Spear.Sensing the usefulness of such a unique specimen, Erebus found a new purpose for his captive. He forced Spear to undergo a painful and vile Chaotic ritual, in which a minor daemon from the Immaterium was bonded with the former Imperial Assassin. This bonding created a highly dangerous apex predator -- a "counter-psyker" -- capable of redirecting a psyker's attack directly back upon him. In order to utilise this ability, the "Black Pariah" first had to obtain a sample of his target's blood. This was a necessary component that helped him synchronise with his target's psionic abilities in order to reflect their attacks. Two standard years later, following the events of the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V, Erebus tasked his deadly minion to assassinate the Emperor. Spear spent an inordinate amount of time in order to painstakingly reach his ultimate goal -- a document that possessed a minute drop of the Emperor of Mankind's precious blood. Spear eventually obtained this document upon the world of Dagonet, which would bring him into direct conflict with the Imperial Execution Force.
Horus Heresy - The Talon Closes Around Manachea: What came to be known as the Conquest of Manachea was a campaign carried out by those under the direct command of the Warmaster Horus during the latter part of 007.M31. It was both an early example of the Warmaster turning his forces to seize entire sectors of the Imperium he deemed valuable, and a demonstration of the speed and brutality with which such campaigns were accomplished. It could be seen in retrospect to have provided a template for scores of such campaigns which came after it, both in terms of strategy and the savage consequences involved for those worlds which fell into the Traitors' grasp throughout the time of the Age of Darkness. The Conquest of Manachea, led personally by Horus and his inner cadre of commanders, was itself the centerpiece of an interlinked series of campaigns, fleet actions and local wars which swept like storms through the celestial region sometimes referred to as the Coronid Thule, or the Coronid Deeps, between 006.M31 and 008.M31. This region, which encompasses the frontier border areas of the Segmentum Obscurus and Ultima Segmentum, and constituted some of the most industrialised regions of the northern Imperium at the time, had been effectively cut away from regular direct contact with the Segmentum Solar owing to the rising tide of Warp turbulence which would culminate in the so-called "Ruinstorm," which followed on from the dark events at Calth in 007.M31.