Great Crusade Chronology - Late M29-800s.M30: 992.M29 Ninth Battle of Xozer - In the Nordafrik Conclaves of Old Earth inexplicable ephemeral phenomenon are encountered during the battle where Kalagann, the techno-barbarian warlord of Ursh, is slain. The kingdom of Ursh is brought to heel by the Emperor's forces as the Unification Wars of Terra proceed.Unknown Date.M29 The Primarch Project - The Primarch Project, which was initially begun at some point in the late 29th Millennium by the scientists of the Imperial Biotechnical Division, far beneath the surface of Terra in the Emperor of Mankind's gene-labs, marked the Emperor's attempt to begin the creation of the next generation of Imperial super-soldiers to replace the Thunder Warriors. These were the primarchs, twenty extraordinary superhuman males who would be His generals -- great warriors, intellectuals and political leaders who would conquer thousands of worlds in His name.ca. 550.M30 The Primordial Strain - The Emperor begins His Space Marine project beneath the Himalazian (Himalaya) Mountains, creating the Primordial Strain of prototype Legionaries using the genetic material already created for the ongoing Primarch Project. These warriors are unstable and imperfect, but form the foundation for His future work building the Space Marine Legions.669.M30 Battle of Mount Arrarat - The Emperor accepted the deaths of the many innocents that resulted from the conquest of Terra with great remorse in order to achieve the greater good of unifying Humanity and protecting it from the manifest predations of the Warp and xenos of the galaxy. Unimaginably large, full-scale battles during the Unity campaign would last for solar weeks on end, with body counts in the millions that sundered mountains and split entire continents. Future Imperial scholars would later dismiss these victories as lurid hyperbole, refusing to believe that such clashes of arms could possibly have been fought, but indeed they were. The Imperial historical chronicles tell of the last battle of the Unification Wars, known as the Battle of Mount Ararat, which was fought in the Kingdom of Urartu. During this final battle the remaining Thunder Warriors -- powerful but short-lived precursors to the Space Marines -- were slain to a man. The chronicles recorded that the famed Thunder Warrior Arik Taranis, known as the "Lightning Bearer," raised the Banner of Lightning at the final declaration of Unity which established the rule of the Emperor of Mankind over the entirety of Terra before dying of his wounds. It was a measure of the Thunder Warriors' heroic sacrifice that they had all died to win the last and greatest victory for the Emperor. While reports say they fell in valiant battle, rumours abound that the Emperor ordered them purged to make way for his nascent Legiones Astartes. One source claims that it is the nascent Ist Legion that is tasked with the elimination of the remaining Thunder Warriors alongside the Legio Custodes when the Thunder Warriors rebel against the Emperor soon after the first introduction of the Astartes. According to this tale, the Thunder Warriors realised after learning of the Space Marines' functional immortality that their inevitable decline into insanity and death was the result of the Emperor's imperfect augmentations of their bodies, and they felt betrayed by their creator.ca. 700.M30 The First Founding - Utilising the genetic material derived from the still-unborn primarchs, the Emperor, with the aid of the scientists of the Biotechnical Division and its director Amar Astarte, created the first gene-seed and implants it into His already elite Terran soldiers. These warriors provide the genesis of His Legiones Astartes. The 20 original Space Marine Legions are created during this so-called "First Founding." Grabiya's Theorem provides the solution to solve the diminishing stability of the Space Marines' gene-seed stores through over-use, due to the rapid expansion of the nascent Imperium of Man by the Legiones Astartes in this era. This theorem demonstrated that a primarch's genetic code could be used to stabilise and expand existing Astartes gene-seed stocks with what was hoped to be "minimal deviation" and mutation from the baseline genetic code. Sorian's Inductus Excelsus demonstrated that the need of the rapidly growing Imperium for more warriors was vast. Accelerated gene-culturing techniques were implemented, reducing the processing time to create a Space Marine from a mortal man to a single solar year. However, the gene-seed produced by these accelerated processes possessed unseen fundamental flaws.703.M30 First Pacification of Luna - This early Imperial campaign was the first operation mounted by elements of the early Space Marine Legions beyond the skies of Terra while the Terran Unification Wars were still raging across the surface of Mankind's birth world. The Imperium's first off-world target was Terra's own moon Luna -- domain of the Selenar gene-cults, whose technology is vital to expanding the numbers of the Legiones Astartes. The Selenar reject the diplomatic overtures of the burgeoning Imperium, and three nascent Space Marine Legions are unleashed to force Imperial Compliance. The combined force of the VII, XIII and XVI Legions (later named the Imperial Fists, Ultramarines and Luna Wolves, respectively) lifted from the surface of Terra in a scattering of rocket flame. The as yet unnamed XVI Legion had been chosen to serve as the Space Marine force's vanguard, and had brought its full strength to bear. In a daring surprise assault, the XVI Legion launched a planetary strike while their brother Legions drew fire from Luna's defensive weapons. Within six solar hours of the first shot being fired, Luna had been pacified and brought into Compliance, the first off-world conquest of the Imperium of Man. Faced with annihilation, the surviving Selenar cultists bent the knee to the Emperor instead, their surrender communique transmitted to Terra calling for the Emperor to "call off his wolves." The XVI Legion thus earned their name -- the Luna Wolves. During the conflict, the XVI Legion encountered evidence of occultism amongst the Selenar gene-wrights. The Selenar methodology is sequestered into the Imperial Dungeon beneath the Imperial Palace.712.M30 End of the Unification Wars - The Emperor consolidates His control over Terra and formally declares victory in the Unification Wars, bringing centuries of conflict to a close. Work intensifies on enforcing the rationalist state ideology of the Imperial Truth across the planet.739.M30 Treaty of Mars (Treaty of Olympus Mons) - Realising that war with the techno-cults of the ancient Mechanicum of Mars would be a long and costly affair, the Emperor instead brokers an alliance. In return for constructing a mighty war fleet and supplying weapons and machinery for his Legions, the Mechanicum are granted unparalleled autonomy as a client state of the Imperium, and continue to practice their faith in the Omnissiah as the Cult Mechanicus in violation of the Imperial Truth. When the Emperor of Mankind came to Mars He first landed atop the great volcano of Olympus Mons. At their first sight of the Master of Mankind, many Tech-priests were overcome with the feeling that they had met the living embodiment of the Omnissiah, their Machine God clad in Human form. In return for peace between Terra and Mars, the Emperor granted recognition of the Tech-priests' right to practice their faith and their right to maintain autonomous control over both Mars and the other Forge Worlds they had settled across the galaxy. In return, the Mechanicum agreed to build and maintain the Imperium's starships and provide all of the war materiel necessary for the armies of the Emperor's Great Crusade. The Mechanicum also agreed to be bound by the Emperor's commandment to never develop certain forbidden technologies such as "Abominable Intelligence" (artificial general intelligence). With the signing of this agreement, known as the Treaty of Mars or the Treaty of Olympus Mons within the Mechanicum, the Cult Mechanicus became the corps of scientists and engineers of the newly-forged Imperium of Man, and the Palatine Aquila was refashioned to bear two heads, one for Terra and one for Mars, the twin foundations of Mankind's interstellar dominion.ca. 790.M30 Incaladion Conflict - Approximately fifty standard years before the Great Crusade would finally reach the Forge World of Incaladion, after a particularly brutal series of incursions and raids, the Taghmata Omnissium -- the feudal order upon which the defence and military hierarchy of a Forge World of the Mechanicum is based -- finally broke down. In the ensuing strife, the Preceptor-General of Incaladion was assassinated and the Forge World split into warring or isolationist factions, bereft of central control or co-ordination, laying it open to invasion and the devastation which followed. By the time the Great Crusade's advance elements reached Incaladion, it was a global battleground, disputed by a dozen different armies; Mechanicum, Renegade and xenos alike all unleashed atomic fire and yet more savage weapons upon each other. During this time, overwhelmed and vastly outnumbered, the Legio Fureans refused to retreat or retrench, and shattered its blade on foes uncounted until it became only a shadow of its former might, reduced to defending the last forge-fane of its dead regent.ca.792.M30 The Scattered Primarchs - The Emperor's greatest work of gene-craft nears completion, combining advanced science with otherworldly secrets to create 20 superhuman children -- the perfect generals, pro-consuls and diplomats to lead his Legiones Astartes. These so-called primarchs are second only in power and skill to the Emperor Himself, but shortly before the Primarch Project's completion an unforeseen catastrosphe engineered through the machinations of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos scatters their containment tanks through the Warp to many different Human-settled worlds across the galaxy. But all was not lost, as the Emperor and his scientists still possessed their gene-sequences, which He had utilised as the genetic templates for the creation of His Legiones Astartes.798.M30 Departure of the Great Crusade - Following the successful conclusion of the Terran Unification Wars on Old Earth, the Emperor launched His interstellar quest to reunite the disparate worlds of Mankind and reforge them into one vast, galaxy-spanning empire known as the Imperium of Man. He intended this unity to usher in a new golden age for all Humanity.ca. 798.M30 Pacification of the Boetian Lowlands - When the XV Legion was created it was used to quell the few pockets of isolated resistance to the Emperor's rule that remained on Terra during the waning years of the Unification Wars. Boetia was a nation that had existed since the Age of Strife and was chiefly known for holding out against the Unification for a considerable period of time until it was finally forcibly incorporated in the newborn Imperium. When Imperial Army forces were forced to invade the Boetian province to bring them back into Compliance, the Astartes of the XV Legion were sent in to finally crush any further resistance in a brilliant campaign that lasted only six solar weeks. Shortly after achieving this objective, the XV Legion was formally named the Thousand Sons by the Emperor Himself and was sent out into the galaxy as part of His Great Crusade.ca. 798.M30 The Unheard War - This terrible conflict was fought among the Azurite Stations of Uranus in the days before the Great Crusade broke the bounds of the Sol System. Named for the corroded blue of the inner surfaces of their hulls, the Azurite Stations were a linked crescent of void citadels, home to a collection of artisans and near-space scavengers. The newly Compliant Azurites turned to fueling the Great Crusade as conscripts for the starships of the Armada Imperialis. But soon they faced a threat in the form of the Solar Pirates -- remnants of a confederation of Renegades and mutants. Soon war raged, as the moons of Neptune were embroiled in conflict. The VII Legion heard the cries of the Azurites and assaulted the void stations. 50 Astartes made their way inside where the Solar Pirates had fortified themselves. Sensing defeat, the pirates released a psy-plague -- an ancient weapon thought eradicated during the Unification Wars. In a heroic display of bravery, the Imperial Fists sacrificed themselves so as not to allow the psy-plague to escape the confines of the void station. The Astartes overloaded the station's reactors, causing the installation to explode. The "Screaming" was never visited on Mankind again, and it is said that when the Emperor heard of the sacrifice of the fifty Imperial Fists, He ordered the newly-raised Bell of Lost Souls in the Imperial Palace tolled for the first time.798.M30 The Great Crusade Begins - With the furthest reaches of the Sol System firmly under Imperial control, the Emperor and his Space Marine Legions begin the Great Crusade. The first Mechanicum Explorator fleets leave the system to reclaim surrounding sectors of what will become the Segmentum Sol, carrying the hopes of Humanity with them.799.M30 The Vhnori Resurgence - The Crimson Walkers emerge to challenge the Unity of the Panpacific Enclaves. They make use of their unrestrained psychic might to dominate the minds of the populace and animate golems stitched of dead flesh, but are brutally wiped out by the VIII Legion in a campaign which pitches terror against the terrors.801.M30 Discovery of Horus Lupercal - The first of the lost primarchs is reunited with the Emperor, having spent his formative years engaged in vicious gang warfare on Cthonia, a nearby Mining World. Calling himself Horus, he pledges fealty to the Emperor and is given command of the XVI Legion, the Luna Wolves, spending many years as the Emperor's only returned son and one of His closest confidantes. Highly creditable claims state that the Emperor found Horus personally, the first of His lost sons, but no source specifies the location on Cthonia where the two met. Surrounded in millennia of myths and allegory, the truth of Horus' origins will more than likely never be known.Unknown Date.M30 Cerberus Insurrection - The XII Legion, the newly-dubbed War Hounds, was tasked alongside the Terran XXIInd Dracos Regiment of the Imperial Army to subdue the asteroid prison colony of Cerberus in the Sol System which had risen up in anarchic revolt in a state of near-continuous rioting and mob violence. Initial attempts to impose order by Terran troops had been thrown back in disarray as it became apparent that among the insurrectionists was a Renegade cadre of outlawed Thunder Warriors, the first genetically-engineered warriors of the Emperor who were long believed dead, calling themselves the Dait'Tar. With many of the Space Marine Legions already assigned to the first Expeditionary Fleets of the Great Crusade and en route to the stars, the Emperor Himself despatched His War Hounds to Cerberus with explicit instructions to reclaim Cerberus colony and carry the Emperor's wrath to those that had defied Him. Within five solar hours, a signal was received from Praetor-Commander Calyb Hax of the XII Legion that Cerberus-Primary had been returned to Imperial Compliance.ca. 800s.M30 Consus Drift Compliance - The Consus Drift was a belt of stellar debris connected by tunnels made from the metal entrails of shipwrecks. Billions of humans who had been stranded for millennia had made these asteroids their home. The Imperium discovered the Consus Drift by accident, when the 3rd Expeditionary Fleet, under the command of the VII Legion, was caught in the stellar phenomenon known as the Mirror Race and thrown into that region. The Astartes were soon set upon by the Drift Clans -- humans schooled and blooded in the brutal arts of void warfare. Thought the Driftborn fought well, they were no match for the transhuman Legionaries. The commander of the VII Legion gave the people of the Consus Drift an ultimatum: accept Imperial Compliance or face extermination. The Clan Warriors immediately surrendered. The 3rd Expeditionary Fleet left after repairs were made, but not before the Imperial Fists had taken the youngest and strongest male warriors of each of the Drift Clans. Of those who survived initiation into the VII Legion, all were inducted into a single unit; the 356th Company, whose reputation for excellence in out-hull void warfare and starship assaults was without peer.803.M30 Liberation of Sol (Sedna Campaign) - During the Sedna Campaign, eight full Space Marine Legions are deployed to undertake the destruction of the artificial xenos nemesis world of Sedna on the outer edge of the Sol System, whereupon they expunge an alien faction bound to war by unknown psychic means. In the aftermath, the false world of Sedna falls into silence and is lost to Imperial auspices.ca. 803.M30 "The Flesh Change" - The Astartes of the XV Legion began to display powerful psychic abilities, which was a welcome development for its Astartes as they sought to further emulate the power of the Emperor. Throughout their long campaigns, the Thousand Sons made extensive use of Sorcerers, and their Warp-derived powers were used to leave whole populations in thrall to their will rather than the Legion being forced to carry out a planetary conquest through a costly full frontal assault like the other Space Marine Legions. But soon, the Legion's joy at their psychic gifts turned to revulsion and horror as a wave of ghastly, degenerative mutations began to affect large numbers of the battle-brothers of the XV Legion. These mutagenic changes were called the "Flesh Change" by the Legionaries, and were much feared, as the spiral of degenerative mutation ultimately reduced a proud XV Legion warriors into a mindless mutant abomination that would later be recognised by the savants of the Imperium as a gibbering Chaos Spawn. The number of active Astartes within the XV Legion soon began to dwindle to dangerously low levels as a result of the ravages of the Flesh Change.803.M30 Discovery of Paramar System - This unusual trinary star system, which possesses vast mineral wealth amid its thirty-seven recorded main satellites, was identified and entered into the Carta Imperialis by the Rogue Trader Hel DeAniasie in 803.M30. Being located in an unusually stable Warp-synchronous location in realspace, the Paramar System quickly became a way point for the Imperium's initial expansion into the Segmentum Obscurus.Unknown Date.M30 The Hunting of the Ak'Haireth - An alien menace known as the Ak'Haireth or "Bone Drinkers" were initially encountered in the early years of the Great Crusade in the western reaches of the Segmentum Solar. These fungoid, predatory and parasitic life forms were fuelled by the slow and agonisingly painful siphoning of nutrition from living animals, primarily human bone marrow. They inhabited the scavenged void ships of other starfaring species and raided isolated colonies and Feral Worlds unable to resist their predations. They were subjected to extermination pogroms carried out both by the Luna Wolves and the VIII Legion (not then yet formally known as the Night Lords) which were thought to have been successful.ca. 805.M30 Siege of Reillis - The Emperor and Horus Lupercal fought together on many occasion during the early years of the Great Crusade. At the fortified city of Reillis, a human settlement unwilling to accept the Emperor's Imperial Truth, the defending army used secret tunnels to infiltrate behind the besieging Imperial Army and hundreds of shock troops swamped the Imperial's command encampment. Unprepared and unarmoured, the Emperor and Horus fought back to back until a plasma blast stunned the young Primarch and sent him staggering to the ground. The Emperor stood over His son and refused to give ground until reinforcements arrived to drive their attackers back.ca. 806.M30 - The Gorro Hollowing - Within the Telon Reach was an Ork empire that rivalled that later centred on Ullanor, and at its heart was the scrap world of Gorro. Capable of generating destructive yields of terrifying potency, the Emperor decreed that Gorro must be destroyed. Leading the assault Himself, the Emperor and his dutiful and favoured son Horus, at his side, teleported into the subterranean tunnel network deep within the strata of the scrap planet. As the Space Marines attacked, the Ork resistance they faced was nearly overwhelming. At the height of the battle, the Emperor was split from the rest of His forces, and came face-to-face with an Ork of monstrous size, larger than any encountered by Mankind in its long history, who snatched the Emperor from the ground in its massive bionic claw. As the creature's grasp closed to throttle the Master of Mankind, Horus stormed through the press of battle and cut the Ork's arms from its body with a single blow. Together, father and son led their forces deeper into the vast sphere of scrap until they reached the centre of Gorro, and caused the scrap world to implode upon itself after they sabotaged its self-sustaining Warp-fold envelope.806.M30 Compliance of the Osiris Cluster - In the eighth standard year of the Great Crusade, the Expeditionary Fleet of the XIII Legion discovered the Osiris Cluster, a grouping of eleven star systems that made up the inner portion of the Segmentum Solar's second quadrant. The inhabited worlds of this region, many technologically advanced at contact, were brought into Imperial Compliance in relatively bloodless order. It was viewed as a highly successful campaign in which the XIII Legion themselves had a major hand.807.M30 Compliance of 02-34 (Rust) - The third large-scale engagement of the X Legion -- the invasion of the planet designated 02-34 (or the "Battle of Rust" as it would be commonly known to Imperial military historians) -- showed the X Legion's particular martial gifts for what they were, and would do so with empathic force. Planet 02-34, or "Rust" to give its colloquial name, was an arid-waste world, rich in pyro-chemical deposits, oxide deserts and the corroded remnants of vast, long-dead cities. The Orks of the powerful and expanding "Krooked-Klaw" empire of Wardog Kulo spanned more than sixty inhabited star systems to the galactic northeast of Seraphina, making Rust a slave-mining colony comprising millions of Orks and a vast, shifting population of short-lived human slaves harvested in interstellar raids. Scouted out by Rogue Trader Hedrik Zuckerman and identified as a primary target of the early Great Crusade, it was into this alien domain that the combined forces of the Space Marine Legions, with the Emperor at their head as part of the primary Principia Imperialis Expeditionary Fleet pf the early Crusade, slammed with devastating force in 807.M30 into what was, at that early stage, the most widespread mass offensive of the Imperium. Under the generalship of their then-Legion commander, Lord Commander Amadeus DuCaine, the X Legion formulated a plan of attack which owed much to the feared and pitiless battle-craft of Old Albia; a tactic known as "the Hammer and the Storm." After many solar days of continuous fighting, though they had not lost the will to fight, the Orks of Rust simply ran out of blood and machinery to spend. At the end of the battle, the X Legion had suffered less than a fifth of its number in fatalities; a far lower figure than might have been expected. Rust was hailed as a great Imperial triumph on account of how little had been sacrificed to attain it.ca. 800s.M30 War in the Shedim Drifts - During the war in the Shedim Drifts against the marauding Aeldari of Craftworld Mór-ríoh'i, a vast Imperial force comprised of no less than four Titan Legions was assembled and placed under the overall command of Commander Horus Lupercal and his Luna Wolves Legion. The apocalyptic battle which raged upon the planet's surface saw a full demi-Legio of the Legio Atarus encircled and all but destroyed. The Lupercal had cruelly used them, without their foreknowledge or consent, as a ruse to divert the strength of the enemy away from the direct defence of their Craftworld while his Legion undertook a surprise assault against it. The war of the Shedim Drifts was a great victory for Horus and all those of the Imperium who fought in the campaign gained glory because of it, but at the expense of the Legio Atarus, an injury that the Firebrands would not forget -- or forgive.813.M30 Mezoa joins the Imperium - Mezoa was founded first as an outpost of the Lucien Mechanicum in 540.M30 before the Great Crusade. It then rapidly gained status as an independent Forge World in its own right in 813.M30. This war-world was dedicated solely to the production of heavy arms and armour. The Mezoan forges were built under the direction not only of the Archimandrites of the Cult Mechanicus, but also the minds of both the Emperor and, it was said, the Primarch Ferrus Manus in later years after he joined the Imperium.819.M30 Discovery of Leman Russ - The Emperor travels to the frigid Death World of Fenris to meet Leman Russ, who challenges him to three contests: eating, drinking, and fighting. Although the primarch wins the first two, Leman Russ is humbled in the third and swears loyalty to the Emperor, who grants him command of the VI Legion -- soon to be known as the Space Wolves.821.M30 Discovery of [REDACTED] - Records expunged.824.M31 Discovery of Ferrus Manus - The Primarch Ferrus Manus spends his youth slaying machine-monsters and plundering the buried secrets of Medusa, his frozen homeworld. As overlord of Medusa's rival techno-clans, Ferrus joins the Great Crusade after a cataclysmic meeting with the Emperor -- taking command of the X Legion, which he renames the Iron Hands.824.M30 Contact with Lethe - Lethe was first contacted in 824.M30 by the Rogue Trader Vaspperly Elgin, ahead of the Great Crusade's advance in force into the Coronid Deeps region some standard years later. Used as an early staging point by Crusade fleets, Lethe later served its part within the Imperial fold, providing several elite pioneer light infantry cohorts for the Imperialis Auxilia.ca. 829.M30 Proximan Rebellion - The Proximan Rebellion is one of the earliest recorded engagements of the as-yet unnamed III Legion. Assigned to the Imperial Compliance ceremonies and as the Emperor's honour guard for Proxima's formal accession into the Imperium, an insurrectionist trap was sprung which resulted in the III Legion's XVIth Cohort (Chapter) fighting and dying to the last warrior alongside the Legio Custodes, never giving ground during the insurrectionist surprise attack on that world's ceremonial plaza. By their sacrifice was the wounded Emperor, who had suffered injury through the use of a Vortex Weapon by the enemy, bought time to recover and fight His way clear of the Proximan insurrectionists' trap. In recognition of this sacrifice, the standard of the Palatine Aquila so fiercely fought for that day was given to the Legionaries of the III Legion by the Emperor's own hand, to be their relic ever after, along with the right to end the Proximan revolt by Exterminatus and so repay the blood that was owed them. Until after the Horus Heresy, only the III Legion bore the right and the honour to emblazon their armour with the Aquila, a right that made their ultimate betrayal all the more painful for the Master of Mankind.ca. 830.M30 III Legion Gene-Seed Crisis - Coming within a solar year of their great moment of triumph fighting at the Emperor's side at Proxima, the III Legion suffered the catastrophic loss of nearly their entire gene-seed stock. This would prove a turning point that was to forever alter the Legion's future. When the III Legion's gene-seed reserve was despatched to Luna for establishment there, it is not quite clear what exactly happened next. Some claim that elements of the Selenite gene-cults still resistant to the Imperium hijacked a Defence Laser and destroyed the voidship carrying the gene-seed, while conflicting accounts maintain that the ship lost control and crashed as it was attempting to dock, whilst others claim that it simply vanished. The loss of the III Legion's gene-seed reserve was a severe blow, but it would not have endangered the Legion's survival if a second calamity had not occurred in quick succession. It was soon discovered that a fast-acting viral blight had suddenly infected several of the gene-seed vaults on Terra, its cause and origin unknown. Feverishly, the Magi Biologis of the Mechanicum sought to hold the pathogen, soon called simply "the Blight," in check as its progress threatened to wipe out in a matter of solar hours what had taken a standard century to build, but the doubtlessly artificial -- and many believed xenos -- infection defied treatment. It was only the intervention of the Emperor's own peerless genius that was to purge the taint. While many Legions suffered losses from this attack from an unknown quarter, the blight was found to have destroyed the gene-seed of the III Legion in its entirety.ca. 830.M30 The "Ghost Legion" - Anomalous Legiones Astartes activity is first reported. There are only a few sparse but suggestive fragments -- anomalous records of unknown Legiones Astartes units carrying out targeted strikes, abductions and assassinations, both on Terra and beyond, and reports of Space Marine units answering to no known masters or Legion allegiance passing through war zones on high-priority missions and under the writ of unassailable clearance codes which broached no question. These mysterious elements are attributed to the mysterious "Ghost Legion."830.M31 Discovery of Fulgrim - The Emperor came to the industrial Mining World of Chemos and was reunited with His lost son Fulgrim, who had rebuilt his ravaged and resource-poor homeworld. Upon their first meeting, Fulgrim recognised the Emperor for who He truly was. Fulgrim bent his knee and offered his sword in eternal servitude. Pleased, the Emperor brought Fulgrim into the Imperial fold, and not long after, gave him command of the III Legion. The first speech Fulgrim gave to the III Legion moves the Emperor to rename them the Emperor's Children -- an extraodinary honour that Fulgrim swears to uphold by striving for perfection in all things.ca. 830s.M30 Praxil Rebellion - When the worlds of the Praxil System were first discovered, the Imperium was pleased by the prospect of adding them to the Emperor's domain. Though bringing Praxil into Imperial Compliance would bring the Imperium great renown, this formidable human civilisation refused to bend the knee to the light of the Imperial Truth, and instead was prepared to fight to maintain its independence. Praxil's warfleet was formidable, and managed to push back the initial invasion of the Imperial Expeditionary Fleet sent to carry out the conquest. The Imperium wanted Praxil's wealth and resources to harness to the needs of the Great Crusade, and so the securing of Praxil fell to an army group-sized force of the Emperor's Children, supported by selected elements of the Imperial Army and the forces of the Mechanicum. But the initial campaign did not go well, as the Imperial forces sustained severe casualties and faced opposition at every turn, despite changing their tactics. Too prideful to ask for help, the War Council of Terra sent a force of Blood Angels and Imperial Fists to assist the beleaguered Imperial forces. Despite his misgivings and slight to his personal honour, the Lord Commander of the III Legion contingent accepted his cousin Legions' assistance and immediately drew up plans for prosecuting the second offensive against the Praxil. With their combined strength, the Imperial forces launched a successful second offensive against Praxil that soon saw an Imperial victory.ca. 800s.M30 Defence of Tranquility - The Defence of Tranquility was a protracted and vicious engagement fought by the Emperor's Children on the periphery of the Dalinite Nebula region during the early phase of the Great Crusade's progress into the galactic east. Of particular interest to the Imperium was the discovery of the Dalinite Gates, which were part of the mysterious series of Warp Gates scattered across the stars, which could greatly increase the ability of the Imperium's fleets to reach new targets and expand the range of the Emperor's forces. A Cohort barely numbering 500 warriors of the Emperor's Children was given the important role of securing the world of Tranquility on the trailing edge of the Imperial advance. The world was utterly worthless except that a Warp Gate, designated the Tranquility Gate, hung in high orbit above the planet's pole and a forward Imperial navigation and signal relay had been constructed there. Without warning, a larger xenos fleet exited the Warp Gate, which proceeded to mount a ground assault on the planet's surface. The Imperial warships executed a rapid, desperate counterattack, which caused the xenos fleet to flee back through the Warp Gate, and leaving their ground forces to be annihilated by the vengeful Emperor's Children.ca. 800s.M30 Extinction of the Katara - The xenocide of the alien Katara was a brutal campaign of extermination carried out against this insular Abhuman civilisation that had evolved in the Kenuit System. Initially offering no resistance, matters only deteriorated when the Katara were asked directly to formally surrender to the Imperium. Soon a lone Kataran warship arrived and destroyed the Light Cruiser Locrian before sustaining damage itself and withdrawing. So provoked, acting Lieutenant Commander Abdemon of the Emperor's Children ordered the invasion of the largest Kataran city-complex. The Katara's diplomatic representatives came forward again, requesting to meet in a truce. He made the proposal that the conflict should be decided by a lone champion from each faction. Lieutenant Commander Abdemon agreed and said that he would enter the field as the Imperium's champion. Both combatants fought a brilliant, long drawn-out and bloody duel. The Imperial champion got under the alien's guard and delivered the killing blow. With their champion defeated, the Kataran representatives ordered that all should know that their people had been defeated by an enemy of equal honour but superior arts. The order given, the Kataran leaders fell on their own swords before the Emperor's Children. Across all their domains every member of the Katara followed their leaders in death and the Kataran cities became massive tombs. Showing respect for their fallen foes, the Emperor's Children departed the Kenuit System, leaving the world of Katara as a Mortuary World, a monument to its people's valour and self-sacrifice.ca. 800s.M30 Castigation of Terentius - When the forces of the Great Crusade first entered the Ordoni Cluster, they encountered the formidable warlord Vatale Gerron Terentius. Observing the forces arrayed against him, Terentius was forced to take the path of survival and surrendered to the Imperium. For the next five solar decades he rose in power and reputation, conquering worlds around the Halo Stars in the name of the Emperor. At the height of his powers, he had the ear of Malcador the Sigillite, the Regent of Terra, and the countenance of several of the Primarchs. When he finally turned against the Imperium, many were shocked. He began a contra-Crusade to conquer already-Compliant worlds to add to his pocket empire. The Imperium responded by sending Horus and his Luna Wolves Legion to not only break the Renegade but to demonstrate to any others who harboured similar ideas within the Imperial forces the inevitability of a betrayer's defeat. Heavy support from the Night Lords, Iron Hands and the Alpha Legion joined the might of the Luna Wolves. Soon the rebel forces were fragmented, driven by tales of culled worlds. At the height of the campaign, Horus himself, with a cadre of 50 elite Justaerin Terminators, teleported aboard the bridge of Terentius' flagship, where the Luna Wolves' Commander slew the unrepentant traitor with his Talon. The Night Lords decimated every world within Terentius' rebel empire. The power of the Iron Hands and elements of the Ordo Reductor were brought to bear on every structure on Terentius' bastion worlds. Soon the rebels of his realm were slaughtered, their cities smashed to dust, and his homeworld's very air laced with toxins. Once the castigation was complete, Horus sent the gold-dipped skull of Terentius to Terra with the later ironic warning carried on the lips of the messenger who bore it, "So perish all traitors."832.M30 Discovery of Vulkan - The Primarch Vulkan was raised by a blacksmith on the fiery, volcanic world of Nocturne, becoming a giant hero amongst his people. The Emperor arrived upon Nocturne and reunited with His lost son, who only agreed to serve the Emperor after competing in a difficult challenge to slay the largest salamander -- a large drake-like creature native to Nocturne. During the contest, Vulkan's life ended up in jeopardy, and though the Emperor had obtained a larger prize, He sacrificed His trophy in order to save His gene-son's life. Humbled by the stranger's deed of self-sacrifice, Vulkan bent his knee to the Master of Mankind. It is believed he served with the Emperor for some time before he finally took command of the XVIII Legion -- the Salamanders.833.M30 Osiris Rebellion - For unknown reasons, the eleven star systems of the Osiris Cluster declared independence from the Imperium. The XIII Legion sent its 12th Expeditionary Fleet to put down the rebellion. But failures in intelligence turn what was intended to be a swift victory into a battle for attrition against a previously unknown xenos threat -- Osiran Psybrid xenoforms. The vile aliens drive the human population to attack the Legiones Astartes in droves. Ordering his force to withdraw after sustaining heavy losses, Legion Commander Gren Vosotho, along with the XIII Legion flagship Sethaln's Thunder, is lost. Command falls to First Captain Marius Gage. The Osiris Cluster is then blockaded. The 12th Expeditionary Fleet returns a standard year later with a force heavily augmented from the Solar Armada, elements of the XVIII Legion and specialist anti-psyker cadres from Terra. To their surprise, they discover the worlds of the Osiris Cluster have either been left as wastelands of unburied dead or are now locked in turmoil and civil strife.835.M30 Discovery of Rogal Dorn - The Great Crusade reaches the Inwit Cluster, a collection of Ice Worlds ruled by the Primarch Rogal Dorn. The lost primarch, the seventh to be rediscovered, greets the Emperor on the bridge of the Phalanx, a colossal reactivated starship dating back to the time of the Age of Technology, and submits to his authority. The Emperor quickly instructs Dorn in the ways of the Imperium and their objectives with the Great Crusade, and soon passes off command of the VII Legion, whom Dorn remakes into the Imperial Fists. The primarch transfers their headquarters to the Phalanx.837.M30 Discovery of Roboute Guilliman - Raised on the world of Macragge by a noble consul, the Primarch Roboute Guilliman grows into a prodigal leader. The Emperor's arrival is delayed for years by Warp Storms -- by the time He arrives, the primarch rules a stellar empire known as the Realm of Ultramar, the "Five Hundred Worlds." Impressed with His son's superlative organisational skills and strategic planning, the Emperor quickly passes on command of the XIII Legion to Guilliman, who reforges them into his own, as the newly renamed Ultramarines.840.M31 Discovery of Magnus the Red - A strong Warp presence is detected on the remote world of Prospero, leading the Emperor to investigate. There He finds Magnus the Red, the most psychically gifted of his sons, and embraces him as commander of the XV Legion, the Thousand Sons. Magnus learns much from the Emperor's psychic might in the following years.842-843.M30 Liberation of Incaladion - During the liberation of the war-torn Forge World of Incaladion, the IV Legion displayed its reliance on rationality and intellect set against infrequent but telling episodes of bloody-minded stubbornness in the face of overwhelming odds. In a gruelling solar-year-long campaign, victory was at last achieved, but the war saw the near-annihilation of the IV Legion's 8th Expeditionary Fleet's frontline forces in what was arguably a needlessly costly fashion.843.M30 Discovery of Xana II - A damaged galleass belonging to the Rogue Trader Casilida DeAniasie, having been flung far off-course after engaging in battle with Fra'al corsairs, intercepted a trio of hulking automata warships at the edge of the intergalactic void. Although they might have taken or destroyed her already damaged starship with little effort, these vessels instead offered aid and carried with them a message of greeting and an offer of diplomatic exchange between the "Sovereign Forge Domain of Xana" and the Imperium of Man and its Emperor.843.M30 Discovery of Sanguinius - Borne by the currents of the Warp to a moon scorched by radiation from an ancient thermonuclear war, Sanguinius possesses magnificent, angelic wings and psychic foresight. He thus foresees the arrival of the Emperor, and pledges himself to the Imperium in exchange for the safety of Baal's rad-scarred and pious people. Not long after their reunion, Sanguinius is given command of the IX Legion and remakes them in his own image, renaming them the Blood Angels.846.M30 Discovery of Lion El'Jonson - Forward scouts of the Great Crussade encounter the Death World of Caliban, and the knightly orders that protect it from Warp-spawned beasts. Their leader, Lion El'Jonson, is found to be one of the lost primarchs, and assumes command of the I Legion upon meeting the Emperor -- later renaming them the Dark Angels after an alleogircal figure of Calibanite myth from his youth. A young, newly-inducted Calibanite I Legion Librarian, Zahariel El'Zurias narrowly averts an attempted assassination on the Emperor's life soon after His arrival.848.M30 Suppression of Sarosh - The Human-settled world of Sarosh, ruled by a massive planetary bureaucracy and originally discovered by the White Scars, had initially appeared eager to join the Imperium and embrace the Imperial Truth. Yet after over a standard year of Imperial rule under its Planetary Governor Harlad Furst, its native leadership had failed to meet any of the benchmarks of Compliance. Its leaders explained to Furst that the world's large bureaucracy made the movement towards Compliance slow and difficult. To speed up the effort, the Dark Angels took over Compliance duties for Sarosh from the White Scars. After an assassination attempt on the Dark Angels Primarch Lion El'Jonson by the Sarosi leader known as the Lord High Exacter aboard El'Jonson's flagship the Invincible Reason using a hidden nucleonic device, it is discovered that the Sarosi bureaucracy system is a cover for a cult supposedly communing with xenos entities from an alternate dimension, most likely the the Warp. The Dark Angels and forces from the 4th Expeditionary Fleet eliminate all traces of the cult and bring the world into Imperial Compliance after a short but savage campaign. Editor's Note: This date is likely incorrect, as later sources place the Lion's arrival on Sarosh sometime after the end of at least the Second Rangdan Xenocide, which did not begin until 863.M30. As such, this event most likely took place in the late 9th century of M30.849.M30 Discovery of Perturabo - A scientific and military genius on the world of Olympia draws the Emperor's attention, found to be his lost son, the Primarch Perturabo. The bitter and analytical primarch judges the IV Legion's war record to that point in the Great Crusade harshly, and orders their decimation -- execution of one in every ten Legionaries -- as punishment. Drawing lots, one in nine IV Legion Astartes are killed by their remaining battle-brothers with their bare hands. Following this action, Perturabo leads his Legion to the Meratara Cluster and forges them into a Legion in his own image. The IV Legion formally becomes known as the Iron Warriors.849.M30 Fall of the Black Judges - This was the Iron Warriors' first Imperial Compliance campaign under the direct command of their primarch, which was conducted against the barren, ravine-hollowed moon known as the "Rock of Judgement" and its masters, the heretical Black Judges. These self-appointed arbiters of Human purity, life and death, were twisted and withered creatures that had once been human in ages past. The IV Legion, reeling from its enforced "decimation" as punishment at its new master's hands, was shamed into a desperate desire to prove itself to its primarch, and it was the Black Judges that were to suffer its pent-up hatred and wrath. By Perturabo's design the enemy was crushed without mercy and their domains were stripped of every valuable resource and technology; wreckage and weapons flowed to Olympia and the Black Judges' long-guarded secrets fell also to the newly renamed Iron Warriors and their master, as well as to the Mechanicum in return for their aid. With the world stripped of its resources, the orbital shipyards of the Rock of Judgement were finally set in orbit afresh around Olympia and set to work fashioning a new generation of warships under Perturabo's seal.ca. 850s.M30 Pacification of Schravaan - This was a joint Imperial Compliance action conducted by four Legions of Space Marines against the xenos known as the Badoon. Upon the Badoon's homeworld of Schravaan, the Iron Warriors won a great victory when they stormed the final refuge of the species. They breached the defences and held their position while the other Legions carried the city beyond. During the following victory feast, Horus proclaimed Perturabo the greatest master of siege warfare in the Great Crusade. Fulgrim then inquired of his brother Rogal Dorn whether he thought even the defences of the Imperial Palace, which Dorn had crafted, could resist the Iron Warriors, to which Dorn replied that he regarded those defences as being proof against any assault if well-planned. Upon hearing what he took to be a slight upon his skill, Perturabo flew into a rage and unleashed unfounded accusations against his brother. After this incident, the two rarely spoke, and neither of their Legions served in the same campaign for the remainder of the Great Crusade.854.M30 Discovery of Mortarion - The Primarch Mortarion rebelled against the sorcerous xenos overlords of the toxic Death World of Barbarus, building an army from the suffering people of that poisonous planet. The Emperor comes to Barbarus in his Principia Imperialis fleet and reunites with His lost son Mortarion. Upon meeting the Emperor for the first time, Mortarion was oblivious to any obvious connection or physical resemblance. Angry, Mortarion declared that he and his Death Guard needed no help to finish their quest for justice. The Emperor quietly challenged the stormy young primarch's assertion, pointing out his soldiers' failure to reach the last high citadel of the High Overlord Necare, and then threw down a gauntlet. If Mortarion could defeat the high overlord alone, he would withdraw and leave Barbarus to its own means. But if he failed, the primarch would join His Imperium of Man and Mortarion would swear total fealty and allegiance to the Emperor. Mortarion was true to his oath, and when he failed to overwhelm the last of Barbarus' sorcerous overlords without the intervention of the Emperor, he bent his knee to the stranger and swore himself and the Death Guard to His service. Only then did the Emperor reveal Himself as the young primarch's true father, and the destiny such service would bring: command of the XIV Legion. Shortly thereafter, the Emperor gave his son command of the Dusk Raiders. Mortarion remade them in his own image, renaming them the Death Guard. However, Mortarion never forgave the Emperor for supposedly denying him his vengeance -- and his chance to prove that he was truly better than his foster father Necare.ca. Mid-800s.M30 Conquest of Galaspar - This was the first major independent campaign conducted by the newly-dubbed Death Guard after Mortarion took charge of the XIV Legion. The conquest of the non-Compliant Hive World of Galaspar remains one of the most remarkable and brutal victories of the Great Crusade's course through the near reaches of the Segmentum Pacificus. When the Imperial support fleet arrived at the world, they were horrified by the aftermath of the slaughter. The billions of humans "liberated" by the Death Guard were almost childishly eager to accept the Emperor's servants and adopt their ways. In the wake of the conquest of Galaspar, the surrounding cluster of worlds quickly capitulated with terrified speed, all willing to submit to Imperial Compliance under any terms as long as they were spared the reaper's scythe.ca. 800s.M30 Kajor Compliance - On the world of Kajor the Death Guard Legion encountered a warrior race of humans that had fallen to barbarism. Extensive orbital surveys detected no trace of advanced technology, yet it took the XIV Legion nearly six solar months to bring Kajor to submission. Though the Kajori were savages, armed with little more than blades and crude flintlock carbines, this feral race was able to hold the Death Guard at bay. They were able to do so because they possessed fell psychic powers and unseen allies. In his quieter moments, Mortarion often thought of the Kajor Campaign and shuddered. Mortarion would later recount the tale of this campaign during the Council of Nikaea as one example of many why he took a personal stance against sorcery and the use of psychic abilities.Mid 800s.M30 Destruction of WAAAGH! Mashogg - In one famous instance, a joint Imperial Compliance campaign was conducted by the Iron Warriors, Space Wolves and White Scars Legions against the vast Greenskin horde known as WAAAGH! Mashogg. Legends record that it was the Primarchs Leman Russ and Jaghatai Khan who routed the Orks of Overdog Mashogg's WAAAGH!, while Perturabo was featured only as the "comrade" who calculated the optimum way to bypass Mashogg's low-orbit defences. This would be considered yet another insult by the Primarch of the Iron Warriors, another reason to fuel his growing resentment of his father the Emperor and many of his brother primarchs.Mid-800s.M30 Compliance of the Araaki Spiral - This was a joint Imperial Compliance campaign conducted by the Iron Warriors, Imperial Fists, Dark Angels and White Scars Legions in a region of space known as the Araaki Spiral. The Araakites were well-versed in the art of building fortresses, and their strongholds were dug deep around narrow passes, remote hilltops and natural barriers in the landscape. Once again, the Iron Warriors were sent to a resistant star system to conduct brutal siege-warfare against formidable fortress-builders. The Araakites knew their craft well and the campaign to take their world for the Imperium proved both bitter and hostile. It would take many solar years for the IV Legion to regain its former strength from the losses sustained during the drawn-out war of attrition that its Astartes suffered in the Araaki Spiral. In the wake of the inevitable Imperial victory, great works of art and heroic verse were composed, celebrating the courage of the other Space Marine Legions, but nowhere in the reams of poetry and artwork were the grim labours of the Iron Warriors judged worthy of note. Only in a predella to a larger work painted by a notable Imperial artisan were the warriors of the IV Legion displayed; it illustrated a lone Iron Warriors Apothecary removing the gene-seed of a dying Astartes as the flag of the IV Legion's greatest rivals, the Imperial Fists, flew over a captured fortress. Perturabo sought out the artist to procure the piece for himself, only to have it put to the torch once he had done so. If his sons would not be honoured properly, he told the horrified artist, then they would not be a part of a record that glorified another. Afterwards, Rogal Dorn offered a rich commission for the artist to repaint the predella, but the artisan wisely refused.ca. Mid-800s.M30 The Two Wars of Araneus - The worlds of the Araneus Continuity were a series of planets close to the Sol System which had maintained links to one another due to the existence of a series of ancient Warp Gates of unknown origins. The Continuity was ruled by a caste of Technobility from the world of Araneus Prime at the heart of the network of Warp Gates. After an Imperial squadron accidentally jumped through one of their gates, they were boarded and overwhelmed by cybernetically-grafted warriors. An envoy fleet was sent, and was allowed to return bearing the Continuity's answer to the Emperor's demand of fealty. The Technobility flatly refused to bow to the Emperor, but instead invited Him to join their empire as a tributary. For its response, the Imperium turned to the Imperial Fists. It fell to Hashin Yonnad, Commander of the Imperial Fists' 39th Household (Chapter) of Inwit, to prosecute the war. A full-scale assault was launched, and within two solar months their empire was cut from around them, and finally reduced to just Araneus Prime. But at the moment the Imperium was to claim victory, an unknown menace emerged from one of the Continuity's Warp Gates, and soon six star systems of the Continuity burned. Overwhelmed by the vastly larger enemy force, Yonnad made the hard decision to destroy the Warp Gates, sparing the final system, but costing thousands of Imperial Fists' and billions of humans' lives. Araneus Prime survived, but barely. Now a smoking cinder, the Imperium gave the planet a new name to match the devastation found among its charred ruins -- Necromunda.ca. Mid-800s.M30 Compliance of 82-17 (Nova Shendak) - Early in the Great Crusade, the War Hounds Legion had found three star systems under the thrall of giant xenos creatures who were both intelligent as well as hateful. Their weapons were filaments, metal feathers that they embedded in themselves to conduct potent bioelectrical energies out of their bodies. The War Hounds proceeded to burn them out of their colony nests and chase them back towards their homeworld. But on their cradle-world of Nova Shendak, the XII Legion had, to their immense surprise, discovered humans. The War Hounds, alongside their fellow Legiones Astartes, the Iron Warriors, and a large contingent of Imperial Army soldiers, were charged with exterminating the worms and liberating the humans of Nova Shendak. When the worms finally emerged from the earth to assault their attackers, they met the Emperor and His War Hounds. Though the casualties were horrendous, the War Hounds eventually emerged triumphant and the worms of Nova Shendak found only extinction. The people of that world inherited the planet and became fervent supporters of the Imperium.857.M30 Discovery of Lorgar Aurelian - Lorgar Aurelian, archpriest of the theocratic Covenant of Colchis, met the arrival of the Emperor with great ceremony, believing him to be the saviour and long-awaited god of the Colchisian faith that he had spread across that world. Despite his insistence to the contrary to his father, the primarch preaches the Emperor's divinity across the galaxy at the head of the XVII Legion. He reshapes the XVII Legion, once called the Imperial Heralds, in his image, and renames them the Word Bearers. Lorgar at this time is considered one of the weaker primarchs by his brothers, largely because of his odd devotion to religion, something specifically prohibited by the atheistic Imperial Truth.858.M30 Purging of Arachiana - The Word Bearers, newly reunited with their primarch, are tasked with the destruction of the Cult of the Iconoclast on the world of Arachiana; a religion worshipping the "One True God," a being described in the same terms as, but darkly distinct from the Emperor. The tenets of this religion would be incorporated into an early version of the Book of Lorgar.865.M30 Battle of Rennimar - This was a great Imperial Compliance campaign conducted by the Imperial Fists Legion against the massive Ork WAAAGH! of the Over-Tyrant of Grel in the Rennimar System, who was himself already under siege by both the Death Guard and Space Wolves Legions. Rogal Dorn, alongside Captain Archamus, the commander of his Huscarl honour guard, led a force of 10,000 Imperial Fists against the Greenskin forces. Typical of the VI Legion, they established heavy-walled bulwarks on the planet Rennimar, which enticed the Orks to hurl themselves futilely against the Imperial Fists' stalwart defences. This enabled the Legiones Astartes to utterly crush their xenos foes.865.M30 Discovery of Jaghatai Khan - After conquering the Feral World of Chogoris with a great nomadic army of steppe horsemen, Primarch Jaghatai Khan encounters the Emperor arriving with the Great Crusade's Principia Imperialis Expeditionary Fleet. Faced with submission or subjugation, the Great Khan pledges his sword to the Imperium and claims command of the V Legion -- his White Scars.866.M30 The Grael Library - The crowning achievement of the world of Riohbia, the self-proclaimed warlocks guarding the proscribed works of the Grael Library refuse to yield its contents to the Imperium. The XIX Legion, prosecuting the campaign of Imperial Compliance in the system, are tasked with quashing the psychic threat and destroying the library. En route, however, they receive a communique stating that a passing fleet of the Thousand Sons Legion has intervened and dealt with the threat already.869.M30 Compliance of Molech - The newly discovered Knight World of Molech is brought into Imperial Compliance through a massive joint-Compliance campaign carried out by multiple Legiones Astartes. Cyprian Devine of House Devine is named Planetary Governor of Molech. In the presence of several of His Primarch sons, the Emperor leads them to a Warp Gate on the world, where He proceeds to enter the Realm of Chaos to parley with the Ruinous Powers. When He returns, the Emperor appears aged, but much more powerful. He then psychically suppresses his sons' memories of Molech and stations a large garrison force comprised of nearly 100 Imperialis Auxilia regiments, three Legio Titanicus cohorts, and detachments from two Space Marine Legions to protect the secrets of the Warp portal on Molech -- a gateway into the Realm of Chaos that the Emperor has used before, during humanity's golden era of the Age of Technology.ca. 839.M30 - ca. 890.M30 Rangdan Xenocides - The Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus as well as the Legio Vulturum, the Legio Kydianos and other Xanithe Mechanicum forces from Xana II served alongside the vaunted Dark Angels Legion during the vital campaign known as the Rangdan Xenocides. The Dark Angels hurled themselves at the enemies and broke their greater strength in countless battles against the xenos on the edge of the Halo Stars. This campaign culminated in the Third Rangdan Xenocide around 890.M30, which resulted in the loss of the lives of 50,000 Space Marines spent in preventing the destruction of perhaps the entire northern Imperium by the alien menace from the outer darkness. Due to the extensive losses suffered by the I Legion, by 899.M30, the Ultramarines Legion was on the cusp of becoming the largest of the Legiones Astartes, standing at around 166,000 Legionaries.876.M30 Compliance of Zavarich - The Feudal World of Zavarich, located within the Cyclops Cluster region, is brought bloodlessly into Imperial Compliance by the 611th Expeditionary Fleet. Shortly thereafter, Zavarich enters into operation as a fully managed Agri-World by the time of the Horus Heresy's outbreak, and is notable for being one of a relative handful of such worlds in the region.881.M30 The Majind Tore Transgression - During the devastation of the Second Rangdan Xenocide, a Basemekanic Barq breaks the cordon of the galactic northeast to make impact at Majind. The Death Guard Legion in pursuit are decimated as the Macrobeest within is activated by unknown means. Only the quick thinking intervention of the VI Legion prevents disaster.891.M30 Crisis of the Hungering Gyre - The Mechanicum forces of Gryphonne IV, along with their resident Legio Titanicus forces from the Legio Gryphonicus, fought an unknown xenos menace known as the Hungering Gyre, and arose victorious amid great personal sacrifice. In recognition of their great service during this campaign, the Emperor decreed that Paramar V and its industrial facilities would be granted as a vassal domain to the distant Forge World.Late 800s.M30 Discovery of Lascal - The terrestrial world of Lascal was discovered on the edge of the Grail Abyss by the 7th Expeditionary Fleet under Lord Commander Suleiman Grimm of the I Legion. Originally it had been a Feral Ork holding before the Dark Angels exterminated the Ork infestation. Lascal became a forward outpost of the Great Crusade, and later a naval fleet anchorage was constructed there in orbit under the auspices of the Lucien Mechanicum. Continuing to grow, by 902.M30, Lascal had become an independent and self-sustaining Imperial colony.891.M30 Discovery of Grail - The Expeditionary Fleet of Rogue Trader Corthona Van der Veld discovered an errant Dead World and named it Grail. This world's namesake is later given to the region known as the Grail Abyss, a place of hidden wealth and terrible danger which has long drawn Explorators and would-be Imperial treasure-hunters to their graves.896.M30 Discovery of Konrad Curze - Stranded on the sunless world of Nostramo and plagued by precognitive visions, Primarch Konrad Curze becomes known as the "Night Haunter" for his brutal enforcement of justice. When the Emperor finally arrives, alongside several of His primarch sons, including Magnus the Red, Rogal Dorn and Fulgrim, as well as representatives from the Ultramarines Legion, Curze experiences a vision so terrible he tries to claw his eyes out -- nevertheless, he is placed in command of the VIII Legion -- which he reshapes into the fearsome Night Lords, who specialise in the use of terror as a weapon.899.M30 Xenocide of the Osiran Psybrids - A sub-fleet of the XII Legion, under the command of Praetor Erad Krüg, was fighting on the southwestern extreme of the Great Crusade's frontier near the Eurydice Terminal, against Ork raiders of the self-styled Glortian Empire from the untracked abysses beyond. As both sides fought one another, they were suddenly set upon by a mysterious third party -- the deadly xenoforms known as the Osiran Psybrids. As nightmarishly powerful xenos teleported aboard the War Hounds' vessels, only their savage tenacity allowed them to survive, as they lost dozens of their own voidships and hundreds of Ork vessels were shattered. Primarch Roboute Guilliman ordered the War Hounds to hold at all cost, and if possible, to track the Psybrids' vessels to their source. The Ultramarines despatched a powerful Retribution Fleet to the Eurydice Terminal, and soon joined their fellow Legion. With their combined might, the Ultramarines systematically wiped out the Psybrids, and when they died, so too did their slave armies. The Astartes soon made short work of the remaining Glortian Orks as well, driving them into the outer darkness. The blood price of the battle had been high, but it was a price the Ultramarines were willing to pay to avenge the defeat they had suffered nearly six solar decades earlier during the Osiris Rebellion.899.M30 Discovery of Angron - The Emperor arrived at the world of Nuceria, where he observed his long-lost son, the Primarch Angron Thal'kyr, lead a revolt of slave-gladiators against their cruel overlords. Angron had been found after his arrival on Nuceria as a young adolescent and sold into slavery. He then underwent horrific surgery, where barbaric cybernetic cranial implants known as the Butcher's Nails were inserted into his brain to increase his aggression. Thrown into the fighting pits for his masters' pleasure, he soon rose to the top, and became the "Lord of the Red Sands." On the eve of the largest gladiator exhibition ever held by the slave masters of the city of De'shea, Angron led a successful slave revolt and escape by many of his fellow gladiators. Taking refuge within the De'shea Mountains, the night before their final confrontation with their cruel overlords, Angron dug his own grave, ready to die alongside his brothers and sisters in the name of freedom. But before the battle took place, the Emperor intervened and teleported Angron aboard His own flagship, unwilling to see one of his primarchs slain before he could be put to use in the Great Crusade. Angron's fellow gladiators were slain to the last man and woman. Angron is enraged that he was denied an honourable death alongside his beloved comrades, and swears never to forgive the Emperor. Angron was then examined on Terra and given over to his genetic sons from the XII Legion, the War Hounds. After assuming command, he reshaped his Legion in his own savage image, and they became the World Eaters.