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Horus Heresy - Cull of the Word Bearers: Unknown to Erebus and Kor Phaeron, their Primarch had also had a secret objective in mind when he had sent his two most zealous sons to Calth. After their humiliation at Khur, thousands of World Bearers within the Legion detested the Ultramarines. The Urizen ordered a great gathering of his Legion while their fleet was already en route to Calth. The Primarch called for Argel Tal, the leader of the Gal Vorbak, and one other Word Bearers officer who would eventually become commanders and apostles amongst the elite Vakrah Jal. The Primarch wanted their counsel on what to do with those amongst their Legion he no longer trusted. The Word Bearers had culled their ranks down through the decades, removing such unrepentantly Loyalist elements such as the Terran-born warriors of their Legion, but had carried out no purge like the Isstvan III Atrocity that Angron was so proud of. Lorgar knew that the loyalty of his own Legion to both him and his vision of Mankind transformed through an embrace of Chaos was never in doubt, but competence was another matter entirely. Lorgar asked what should be done with those warriors of the XVII Legion he felt were no longer reliable. Those whose hatred burned brighter than their sense. For tens of thousands of them -- whole companies, whole Chapters -- their rage was no longer pure. It was decided that these suspect elements of the Legion would be gathered into a single host and ordered to undertake the "sacred" mission to Calth to assault the Ultramarines that they had so craved. They would be led by such zealots as First Chaplain Erebus, the Dark Apostle Kor Phaeron and Fleet-Captain Zadkiel and were expected to martyr themselves in glory. The other Traitor Legions such as the Emperor's Children, Sons of Horus and the World Eaters might have purged their own ranks at Isstvan III, but the Word Bearers had proceeded to purge their own at Calth.
Horus Heresy - Furious Abyss: At the same time that Lorgar had concentrated his Legion's offensive on Calth, a separate assault by the XVII Legion on the Ultramarines' homeworld of Macragge had been prepared, using a massive prototype Battleship specially constructed by Horus' allies in the Mechanicum before the start of the Heresy known as the Furious Abyss. The Furious Abyss was manned by one thousand Astartes, a full Chapter split into ten companies, each a hundred strong. All heeded the Word of Lorgar. These Legionaries were led by Fleet-Captain Zadkiel, a devout and zealous follower of the Word. He was charged by the Dark Apostle Kor Phaeron to lead the assault upon the world of Macragge, where they would strike the first blow against the hated Imperium of Man. Had it succeeded in reaching Macragge, the Furious Abyss would likely have annihilated the planet, the remaining two Chapters of the Ultramarines Legion garrisoned there, and the stores of precious gene-seed in the XIII Legion's fortress-monastery, the Fortress of Hera. Fortunately, the Furious Abyss was intercepted in the void before it reached Macragge by an ad hoc force led by the Ultramarines Captain Lysimachus Cestus and was destroyed, though at the cost of every Loyalist Space Marine's life.
Horus Heresy - Signus Campaign: When the Imperial Warmaster Horus, the greatest of the Emperor's genetic sons, fell to the temptations of the Chaos Gods and became swayed by their promises of power, he sought to sway his brother Primarchs to his cause. Horus and Sanguinius, the Primarch of the Blood Angels Legion, had fought many campaigns by each other's side. Their relationship was so close it had even incited jealousy amongst their brother Primarchs on occasion. But in his black heart Horus knew that Sanguinius would never willingly betray their father, and so he had formulated an audacious plan to either convert the Blood Angels Legion to his cause or utterly destroy them. To this end, Horus had discovered decades earlier a carefully guarded secret of the Blood Angels when he fought alongside Sanguinius' IX Legion in a xenocidal campaign on the world of Melchior. Horus had come upon his brother Primarch in a sunken ruin of an alien chapel and had witnessed the unthinkable -- Sanguinius murdering one of his own Astartes. Sanguinius explained his actions to his bewildered brother. He had discovered that within his own genome there was a trait that lay buried and waiting to be awakened. This genetic flaw would later be known as the Red Thirst.Sanguinius had been aware of the flaw in his genome for several years, keeping the truth from the Emperor and his fellow Primarchs. Some of the Angel’s sons had learned a measure of the truth, but only Azkaellon, First Captain Raldoron, the IX Legion’s Master Apothecary on the Legion homeworld of Baal and a few others were fully aware of the extent of this affliction. They were united with Sanguinius in finding a way to repair this Flaw. Horus swore to his brother that he would never speak of this matter to anyone, even their father. He would keep this promise for as long as Sanguinius wished him to. The Angel was touched by his brother's gesture and expressed his gratitude. Horus solemnly vowed to help Sanguinius deal with this matter, however long it took. Little did they know at the time, that one day a corrupted Horus would take full advantage of this knowledge and attempt to turn the Blood Angels' Flaw against them.
Horus Heresy - Sanguinius Betrayed: Decades later, Horus exploited this knowledge of the Blood Angels' genetic Flaw. The Warmaster had found a way to sway his "beloved" brother's Legion to his cause and the service of the Chaos Gods. In his capacity as Imperial Warmaster, Horus ordered Sanguinus to gather his entire Legion and make for the Signus Cluster, a triple star system located in the Ultima Segmentum near the Eastern Fringe. His IX Legion was to cleanse the 7 worlds and 15 moons that comprised the Signus Cluster of xenos invaders and release the humans settled there from their xenos-overlords in what would later be known to history as the Signus Campaign. To further entice Sanguinius, the Warmaster informed him that he had found the means by which the Blood Angels would be able to excise the darkness from within their souls, and rid themselves of the Flaw. If Sanguinius obeyed the Warmaster's command in this matter, then Horus promised him that the Blood Angels would find a new freedom. Sanguinius had no reason to doubt Horus, for they were as close as two brothers could be. Many of their fellow Primarchs were even jealous of the closeness between the pair. Sanguinius relished the opportunity to once again prove the value of their bond, and so the Blood Angels Legion gathered in its entirety and duly set course for the Signus Cluster, unaware that they were heading into a terrible trap.Unaware of the Warmaster's perfidy, Sanguinius willingly obeyed his brother Primarch and immediately set out for this volatile region of space. Unbeknownst to the Blood Angels, they were blindly walking into a deadly trap, for the Signus Cluster had fallen prey to agents of the Ruinous Powers and become a veritable Realm of Chaos -- a system of hellish Daemon Worlds under the rule of a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh known as Kyriss the Perverse. When the Blood Angels arrived in-system, their fleet was ambushed by the malevolent forces of the Warp, crippling or killing many of their Navigators and Astropaths in the initial onslaught. The Blood Angels now faced the fury of Chaos for the first time. Kyriss sent an image of himself to Sanguinius, declaring his lordship over the system in the name of Slaanesh and taunting the Primarch into taking it back from him. Though they had never faced such a foe, the Blood Angels prepared their counterattack, sure that they would prevail. Rising to the challenge of the vile Greater Daemon, the Blood Angels Legion attacked the daemon host of Kyriss, launching a series of attacks across the seat of the daemon's power, the world of Signus Prime.
Horus Heresy - The Black Rage: During the epic battle, Sanguinius came face-to-face with a new nightmare known as Ka'bandha, a Greater Daemon of Khorne. During the battle that ensued, Sanguinius was sorely wounded and temporarily incapacitated. He witnessed Ka'bandha slaughter 500 of his sons with huge swathes of his mighty axe. The psychic backlash of the deaths of so many of his sons blasted Sanguinius into unconsciousness. With the fall of their Primarch and the slaughtering of their brethren, the Blood Angels Legion was consumed by a black rage that drove them into a berserker's fury as they charged into the daemonic horde and in their madness they smashed the horde of daemons asunder. Yet the brutal violence of the daemon Ka'Bahnda had unleashed something dark within the psyche of the Space Marines, a thirst for blood that would not be slaked until every taint of Chaos had been erased from the planet. Even the mighty Kyriss was banished back to the Immaterium. Only when the planet was cleansed did the rage of the Blood Angels finally subside. Though Signus had been freed from its thrall to the Forces of Chaos, the cost of victory was far higher than any could have wished. The berserker rage the Blood Angels had experienced had left a brooding shadow on their souls that would manifest in the centuries to come as the great curse (later known as the Black Rage) that would afflict the Blood Angels and their later Successors.
Horus Heresy - Hydra Cordatus: As Horus’ rebellion ground on, the Iron Warriors took the time to humble their great enemies, the Imperial Fists, upon the isolated world of Hydra Cordatus that the Sons of Dorn had recently brought into Imperial Compliance. The Iron Warriors made planetfall in the wake of a saturation bombardment that reduced the valley where the planet's lone formidable fortress, known as the Cadmean Citadel, was situated and the agri-settlements filling its fertile deltas to ash. Magma bombs and mass drivers boiled away the rivers and reduced fecund earth to arid dust. The Cadmean Citadel was left untouched, and the small garrison of Imperial Fists Legionaries that Rogal Dorn had left behind still found it difficult to believe that such a precise bombardment was possible. But the Iron Warriors had purposely done this in order to show the Imperial Fists that they were superior to them in every way. The technological cunning of the ancient fortress builders, married to the artfully wrought geography and the courage of the defenders, proceeded to keep the Iron Warriors at bay for almost three months. Every day the Loyalist warriors stayed alive, it kept the enemy from redeploying and bringing their strength to bear elsewhere against the forces of the Imperium. Yet, when the Iron Warriors finally overcame the citadel’s ancient defences and broke open its walls they ran amok. They slaughtered the remaining Imperial Fists Legionaries, the heroic men and women of Hyrdra Cordatus that had chosen to stand with them, and the refugees from the devastated fields below the fortress. Fifty-two Imperial Fists and thirteen thousand men, women and children were crammed within the citadel’s walls. When the final assault came, the Lord of Iron himself spearheaded the audacious attack upon the citadel's defenders, and slaughtered over thirty Imperial Fists Astartes in a span of only a few minutes. The rest of the Cadmean Citadel's defenders were slaughtered to a man and the surviving mortal refugees were enslaved by the Iron Warriors before they moved on to their next objective. Hydra Cordatus was reduced to a barren desert world by the Traitor Legion's assault.
Horus Heresy - Into the Eye of Terror: For as long as he remembered, no matter how many thousands of light years separated him from this particular Warp Storm, Perturabo was always aware of the Eye of Terror's presence and could perceive an echo of it on every world where he had looked to the heavens. He did not know whether this Warp sight had been engineered into his perceptive apparatus deliberately, like Sanguinius’s wings or Corax’s eyes, or was simply a quirk of his genetic code, but it had been a blessing and a curse since his earliest memories. The anomaly haunted his dreams, threaded his nightmares and coloured his every thought since he had learned something of its nature. He had once asked the Iron Hands Primarch Ferrus Manus whether his silver eyes allowed similar insight, but his brother had just shaken his head and given him a look of faint scorn, as though he had just admitted to some secret weakness or vice. He had never mentioned it again.When the joint fleet of the III and IV Legions arrived at the outskirts of the stellar maelstrom, for once in his life, Perturabo looked upon it and knew that others could see it too. They did not see it quite as he saw it, but they could at least acknowledge its existence. He saw beyond its dark light to the engulfed worlds within: phantom images that ghosted in and out of perception and fleeting moments of solidity in a realm where such things were anathema. He saw planets where all reason and Euclidian certainty had been abandoned, where the physical laws that underpinned the galaxy were playthings of lunatic forces beyond mortal comprehension. And now he was to venture into its depths, following the guidance of an alien seer.Before entering the Warp Rift, Perturabo called up the astrogation charts of this region of space, reading the flickering labels of the charts' keys for those few stellar objects in this region worthy of a name. At the heart of the hologram, a vertical black label bisected the fiery orange heart of the Warp Storm. Imposed upon the bar was the name Cygnus X-1. Perturabo knew the Warp Storm was not the first spatial anomaly to bear that name, and whichever lowly scribe had scribed it again was a fool. Something this powerful and terrible deserved a name to strike fear into the hearts of all who saw it, a name that would resonate down the millennia until the end of time, when the stars went out and the only light in the universe was the nightmare glow of the maelstrom’s ever-devouring borders. Perturabo’s fingers danced over the slate from which the charts had been brought forth, and the name in the vertical black bar changed. It would change throughout the Traitor Legions' fleets, spreading to any data engine that called up maps of the galactic northwest. It was a name to lodge in the hearts of all who heard it and would eventually be adopted by the forces of the Imperium as well -- The Eye of Terror.
Horus Heresy - Sisypheum: Unknown to both the Iron Warriors and the Emperor's Children, they were being pursued by a ragtag group of Loyalist Astartes who were survivors of the Drop Site Massacre of Isstvan V and were determined to stop the Traitors at all costs. These Loyalist Space Marines were gathered from survivors that had fought their way out of the killing ground of the Urgall Depression on Isstvan V. They had managed to escape the Isstvan System aboard an Iron Hands Strike Cruiser known as the Sisypheum. Iron Hands Astartes and their mortal serfs formed the bulk of the warship's crew, but surviving warriors of the Salamanders and a single Raven Guard Astartes were also counted among their number. In the wake of the slaughter, escape from the Isstvan System had been a nerve shredding series of mad dashes under fire and silent runs through the Traitors' orbital blockade, culminating in a final sprint to the gravipause, the minimum safe distance between a star’s mass and a vessel’s ability to survive a Warp Jump. The Sisypheum had escaped the trap, but not without great cost.The months that followed saw the Sisypheum embark on a series of hit-and-run attacks on Traitor forces on the northern frontiers of the galaxy, wreaking harm like a lone predator swimming in a dark ocean. Traitor forces seeking flanking routes through the Segmentum Obscurus were their prey; scout craft, cartographae ships, slow-moving supply hulks heavily laden with mortal troops, ammunition and weapons. Disruption and harassment were the Sisypheum's main objective until contact had been established with disparate groups of Loyalist forces that had also escaped the massacre, and a stratagem of sorts agreed upon. With the X Legion too scattered to function in a traditional battlefield role, its surviving commanders found their own way to fight back: as the thorns in the flanks of the leviathan that distract it from the swordthrust to the vitals.At Cavor Sarta, an Iron Hand known as Sabak Wayland and the lone Raven Guard survivor Nykona Sharrowkyn had captured an Unlingual Cipher Host -- one of the so-called "Kryptos" -- a hybrid abomination creature of the  Dark Mechanicum that had previously made the Traitors' code network a cryptographic impossibility to break. With the Kryptos, Loyalist commanders were able to finally access the Traitors’ coded communications. And with this knowledge, the Sisypheum's Captain, the Iron Hand Ulrach Branthan, had ordered the Sisypheum to make the circuitous journey to Hydra Cordatus and the meeting of the Traitor Primarchs that had been indicated by the cracked communications. After learning of Fulgrim's intentions to enter the Eye of Terror and recover the Angel Exterminatus, the crew of the Sisypheum made their way towards the Warp Rift, aided by a mysterious Eldar guide with the intention of thwarting the Traitors' plan to acquire the unknown xenos weapon.
Horus Heresy - Crone World: The destination of the joint fleet of Iron Warriors and Emperor's Children vessels was the lost Eldar world of Iydris, a world said to have been favoured by the goddess Lileath. Iydris was one of the legendary Crone Worlds, which once formed the heart of the lost Eldar empire before they were consumed by the creation of the vast Warp Rift that was the Eye of Terror following the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh. The lost world was located at the heart of the Eye of Terror, somehow remaining in a fixed position keeping it from destruction in the gravitational hellstorm of a supermassive black hole that lay at the centre of the eternal Warp Storm. It was from this epicentre that the galaxy vomited unnatural matter into the void, a dark doorway to an unknowable destination and an unimaginably powerful singularity whose gravity was so strong that it consumed light, matter, space and time in its destructive core.Their ultimate goal was within the Primarchs' grasp; the Sepulchre of Isha's Doom, which sat at the centre of the citadel of Amon ny-shak Kaelis. The citadel stood astride the entrance to the prison tomb of the Angel Exterminatus. Before launching a full planetary assault, the Iron Warriors launched a preliminary orbital bombardment around the citadel, a standard practise when preparing to assault a potentially hostile environment. A cone of fire gouged the surface of Iydris, burning, pounding and flattening in the blink of an eye structures that had stood inviolate for tens of thousands of Terran years. A barren ring of pulverised earth encircled the citadel of Amon ny-shak Kaelis, leaving its walls, towers and temples an isolated island cut off from the rest of the planet’s structures by a billowing firestorm of planet-cracking force. In the wake of this orbital bombardment flocks of Thunderhawks, Stormbirds, Warhawks and heavy planetary landers launched from crammed embarkation decks. Bulk tenders descended to low orbit and disgorged thousands of troop carriers, armour lifters and supply barques. Titanic, gravity-cushioned mass-landers moved with majestic slowness as two Titans of the Legio Mortis took to the field, and this was but the first wave of the invasion. Another eight would follow before the martial power of two entire Space Marine Legions and their auxiliary Imperial Army forces had made planetfall.
Horus Heresy - Route to Terra: After the Drop Site Massacre, it became clear that 9 of the 18 Space Marine Legions had turned to Chaos and against the Emperor of Mankind. Horus openly and publicly declared that he would no longer follow the Emperor, believing Him to be undeserving of the battles fought in His name, and the Warmaster took over the formal leadership of the so-called Traitor Legions as their new overlord. Horus' Traitor Legion forces were supported and supplemented by elements of the Imperial Army willing or forced to follow Horus and his Legions, a portion of the Mechanicum and the Titan Legions corrupted by Chaos that were known as the Dark Mechanicus, strong Imperial naval forces then still part of the Space Marine Legions' Great Crusade Expeditionary Fleets, and the daemon-spawn of Chaos.Over the next nine Terran years, the combined Traitor fleets spread across the galaxy, unleashing a brutal civil war upon many of the planets that they had once helped to bring into the Imperium. Secretly guided by the Ruinous Powers, the Traitor Legions and their related support forces no longer worried about the rules of war, civilian casualties or proportionality; it was a common tactic of the Traitor fleets to simply unleash a total orbital thermonuclear bombardment upon a single inhabited world in a heavily defended Imperial star system to induce all of the other worlds and orbital installations to surrender. Casual brutality and even genocide became the norm for the Traitors as they fell ever more deeply under the control of Chaos. Slowly but methodically, Horus and the Traitor Legions forged a path across the galaxy lit by the burning nuclear pyres of countless worlds. Those planets spared the destruction faced an even worse fate: occupation and control by the Chaos-corrupted Traitor forces, who took great pleasure in unleashing the perversions of the Dark Powers upon the captive populaces. Many prayed to the Emperor for release from their torments, and the strength of the Lectitio Divinitatus cult that believed in the Emperor's divinity only began to grow as the nightmare of civil war scourged the Imperium of Man.
Horus Heresy - Landing on Terra: The Siege 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 Heresy - 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 battleship the Vengeful Spirit during the Siege of Terra, the Emperor ordered Malcador to summon twelve individuals "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 Heresy - Canon Conflict: Beginning in 2005, the story of the Horus Heresy was expanded with a collection of art books and novels created by various authors from the Black Library, set in the time period of the early 31st Millennium as opposed to the circa 40,000 A.D. era of normal Warhammer 40,000 literature.An initial scene-setting trilogy featuring the Luna Wolves and portraying the fall of their primarch, the Warmaster Horus, and the beginning of the Heresy through the eyes of Garviel Loken, the 10th Company captain of the Sons of Horus Legion , was released.Since the completion of said trilogy, another series of novels followed Battle-Captain Nathaniel Garro of the Death Guard Legion as he created the Knights-Errant of Malcador the Sigillite, the organisation of Astartes that would become the core of the Grey Knights and the Inquisition over the course of the Heresy.The novel range has expanded to include the actions of all the other Space Marine Legions during the terrible conflict and the roles of the various Imperial adepta and non-Space Marine military forces.In some cases the new material introduced in the card game, art books and novels has led to continuity conflicts with the older material, although the information provided in the novel series is generally assumed to be canonical and superseding the older material when a conflict arises, and is the basis for the outline of the Horus Heresy given here.
Horus Heresy Chapbook (Anthology) - Horus Heresy Chapbook (Anthology): The Horus Heresy Chapbook is an anthology book in the Horus Heresy Series. The Horus Heresy Chapbook was first released exclusively at Games Day UK in 2007. The book contains only two short stories, The Dark King by Graham McNeill and The Lightning Tower by Dan Abnett. The stories were later republished separately.
Horus Heresy Chapbook (Anthology) - Synopsis: No official synopsis has been released.
Horus Heresy Chapbook (Anthology) - Contents: The Horus Heresy Chapbook contains the following short stories:The Dark King by Graham McNeillThe Lightning Tower by Dan Abnett
Horus Heresy Chronology - Horus Heresy Chronology: For events prior to these please see Great Crusade ChronologyPresented below is the Horus Heresy Chronology, an exhaustive listing of all notable campaigns and battles that occurred during the nine-year-long, galaxy-wide conflict known as the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium.By no means is this list complete, as much of the information presented in various canon sources is often ambiguous and even at times contradictory, as would be expected from events that occurred so long ago and involved such destruction and strife across thousands of light years and tens of thousands of worlds.While the below chronology 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 of the Era Indomitus.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.Therefore, this is merely a rough guide to the chronological order of the events during this conflict and no date should be taken as absolutely final should new evidence come to light.
Horus Rising - Horus Rising: Horus Rising is the first volume of the Horus Heresy series of novels.
Horus Rising - Synopsis: Horus Rising details the rise to power of the Warmaster Horus, Primarch of the Luna Wolves Legion, after the Emperor of Mankind appoints him commander of the Imperial military and places him in charge of the Great Crusade. Much of the focus is on the Captain of the Luna Wolves' 10th Company, Garviel Loken, as he becomes a member of the Mournival (an advisory body to Horus), and his involvement in campaigns against Traitors and aliens at the close of the Great Crusade.
Horusian - Horusian: A Horusian is a member of one of the most extreme of the Radical factions of the Inquisition -- a sub-faction of the Xanthite creed -- that holds that the Arch-traitor Horus might have succeeded in bending the Warp to his will had he not been opposed by his brother Primarchs.In this way, they hope to use the power of Chaos to resurrect the Emperor of Mankind into a new body so that He might once more walk among His mortal children.Most Horusian Inquisitors carefully hide their true beliefs behind the mask of the more acceptable Xanthite faction and are especially cautious of contact with Thorians.
Horusian - The Horusians At Present: Despite the pogroms of the 35th Millennium, Horusian ideals have waxed and waned in popularity ever since the founding of the Inquisition. The Horusian ideal is quite simple, and yet also unpalatable for many Inquisitors, even those with a fundamentally Resurrectionist outlook.Their assumption is that somehow the powers of Chaos that manifested themselves in Horus might be harnessed for the creation of a Divine Avatar, or perhaps in the process of transferring the Emperor's soul from its current form into the body of a living god.Considered Radicals except by themselves, the Horusians are few in number but fanatical in their cause. They tend to be older Inquisitors, frustrated by the lack of answers provided by other Resurrectionist theories and therein lies the danger. Chaos and its power can never be viewed as a quick route to success, for in that direction lies damnation.Quite apart from the normal anti-resurrection arguments, many Inquisitors view Horusians with suspicion, out of fear that their dabbling with daemonic possession and Warp intrusions endangers those around them and the Imperium in general. However, the most experienced Horusians are well-versed in the perils of the Warp and Chaos and so are numbered amongst the most proficient and dedicated daemon hunters in the entire Inquisition.Like all such Radical philosophies, the Horusians must tread a path along a precipice of dedicated service to the Imperium and the fulfillment of their researches. It is a path that most have trodden wisely, but not all Horusians have remained faithful and, perhaps like Moriana ten thousand standard years ago, succumbed to the lure of the Ruinous Powers.
Hospitallers - Hospitallers: The Hospitallers is a relatively young Successor Chapter of the Imperial Fists, raised during the 24th Founding a little over two Terran millennia ago. The Hospitallers is a fleet-based Chapter that famously rejected the teachings of the Codex Astartes by which most of its brethren among the Adeptus Astartes abide.The Hospitallers is also one of the few Chapters to recognise the Imperial Cult's teachings that the Emperor of Mankind is a god. The Hospitallers are firm adherents of the Imperial Creed and maintain close ties with the Adeptus Ministorum upon whose behalf they frequently act.Since the battle for the Knight World of Fabris Callivant, the Chapter has harboured considerable ill-will towards the Iron Hands, who assaulted the Hospitallers' flagship and abducted their seneschal, the Venerable Dreadnought Augustine Galvarro, to claim his chassis to keep alive their own First Sergeant Telarrch.
Hospitallers - Chapter History: In many ways, the Hospitallers owe their existence to the inability of the Imperial Navy to protect the trade and pilgrimage routes that cross several sub-sectors of Imperial space in the Segmentum Obscurus.As illustrated by the later fate of the Trail of Saint Evisser, even worlds and star systems far from the front-lines of the Imperium's wars require careful monitoring.Like the Black Templars, the Hospitallers were intended to serve as a Chapter of itinerant crusaders, continuously plying the routes of Imperial trade and pilgrimage, thus bringing prosperity to many worlds that would not have known it if an Imperial Saint had not set foot upon their soil.In the two Terran millennia since their founding, the Hospitallers' protection has benefited many worlds, even those further away from the pilgrims' routes like Fabris Callivant.
Hospitallers - Notable Campaigns: Battle of Fabris Callivant (414.M41) - The Hospitallers took part in the defence of the Knight World of Fabris Callivant against an Ork WAAAGH!. During the battle, the Hospitallers' flagship Shield of the God-Emperor was assaulted by Clan Raukaan of the Iron Hands Chapter and their Seneschal, the Venerable Dreadnought Galvarro, was abducted. The Shield of the God-Emperor subsequently was lost under mysterious circumstances during the battle.
Hospitallers - Chapter Organisation: The Hospitallers notoriously rejected the tenets of the Codex Astartes, a choice which reflects itself in the Chapter's internal organisation. Where a Codex-compliant Chapter would be divided into ten companies, the Hospitallers divide the full complement of their Astartes up into only three.Each Hospitallers company is specialised in upholding one of the three sacred vows each Hospitallers Astartes takes when implanted with the Chapter's gene-seed: to defeat the Emperor's foes, to protect the Emperor's people, and to be ever vigilant against those who would disrupt the Emperor's peace.This means that most offensive actions will be carried out by the Chapter's 3rd Company, whereas the 2nd Company specialises in defensive engagements.Additionally, the Hospitallers do not possess an official 1st Company as part of their order of battle as other Chapters do. Instead, their Veterans form a secretive, elite company of warriors known simply as "The Vigil."
Hospitallers - Chapter Beliefs: The Hospitallers consider it their sworn honour to tend to the Emperor's fallen, defending the wounded and, as a last resort, granting them the Emperor's Peace to save them from dying agonising deaths at the hands of the enemy.There is one aspect of the Hospitallers that sets them apart from other Chapters and that is the manner in which they honour the Emperor.While the Imperial Creed preaches that the Emperor is the one, true god of Mankind, the majority of Space Marine Chapters have their own, unique Chapter Cults, most of which regard Him as a mortal man, albeit the most potent and extraordinary ever to have lived.For them, he is an individual worthy of veneration and emulation, though not worship in deference to His own wishes.Uncommonly amongst the Adeptus Astartes, the Hospitallers' Chapter Cult adheres closely to the dictates of the Imperial Creed, sharing many of its teachings and beliefs, including the divinity of the God-Emperor.
Hospitallers - Notable Hospitallers: Chapter Master Mirkal Alfaran - Mirkal Alfaran is the current Chapter Master of the Hospitallers. By all accounts an extraordinary swordsman, Mirkal Alfaran is the Master of one of the most pious Chapters of Space Marines in existence. Covered in Purity Seals, his armour is a penitent's white as is that of all Hospitallers, but inlaid with precious gold. Hand-crafted votive Aquilas at the end of strings clatter as he moves. While his armour can be described as almost angelic, Alfaran's face is a mask of death, his bald head powdered white and his eyes ringed with kohl to resemble a skull, embodying the Space Marines' role as the Emperor's Angel of Death. Only the single, simple earring the Chapter Master wears, breaks with the severity of the Chapter Master's appearance. Mirkal Alfaran's favorite weapon is an exquisitely crafted, two-handed Power Sword which bears the Hospitaller Cross as its guard. Alfaran is rumoured to be able to determine the moment and the manner of someone's death simply by looking into their eyes.Venerable Augustine Sangreal Galvarro - Galvarro is a Venerable Dreadnought who has served as seneschal to the Chapter Masters of the Hospitallers since their founding. As befit a hero of his Chapter, Galvarro's Dreadnought frame was heavily decorated, the pearl white ceramite covered in highly valuable plates of ormolu bearing mezzotints of Imperial frescos, including Ollanius Pius and the Emperor, Rogal Dorn on top of the walls of the Imperial Palace, the Emperor and Horus Lupercal. Perhaps most striking, Galvarro carried a carillon of golden bells on top of his armoured sarcophagus, an artfully crafted assemblage of angelic wings surmounted by a skull, a panegyric for the fallen hero within the Dreadnought's chassis and every brother of the Hospitallers slain by the enemy. At the height of the Battle of Fabris Callivant, Venerable Galvarro was abducted by Iron Hands Space Marines of Clan Raukaan who boarded the Hospitallers' flagship, the Shield of the God-Emperor, and massacred their way to the bridge. They paralyzed the Venerable Dreadnought with Haywire Grenades before teleporting him back to their own flagship, the Omnipotence, originally intending to use his Dreadnought chassis to save the life of First Sergeant Telarrch of the Iron Hands. However, Telarrch was instead later resurrected using the forbidden technologies of the Keys of Hel and transformed into one of the Iron Hands' sinister Helfather cyborgs.Raphel - Raphel is a battle-brother of the Hospitallers Chapter.
Hospitallers - Chapter Fleet: Shield of the God-Emperor (Battle Barge) - From the very inception of the Hospitallers as a Space Marine Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, the mighty Battle Barge Shield of the God-Emperor was intended as a flagship for the Chapter's sizeable fleet. Several thousand Terran years old, this magnificent vessel had become as much a relic as a warship. Its outer hull was elegantly decorated with golden Aquilas and the words of the Corpus Divinatatus, each letter taller than several men. The Gothic architecture within was a curious mix of cathedral and mausoleum, a place to celebrate both the glory of the divine Emperor and the achievements of the Chapter. The entire Battle Barge was a mobile reliquary, its corridors harbouring countless alcoves where behind armourglass or Stasis Fields the bones of fallen heroes, mighty weapons, war-torn banners and ancient scriptures were preserved. Perhaps most impressive was the bridge, a gigantic strategium illuminated by a million candles where a thousand-strong choir of gene-eunuchs perpetually sang hymns to the glory of the Emperor. The bridge-crew numbered in the hundreds whilst leaving enough room for the Chapter's Seneschal -- the Venerable Dreadnought Galvarro -- to move comfortably. The Shield of the God-Emperor was lost under mysterious circumstances during the Battle of Fabris Callivant in 414.M41.Golden Soldier (Strike Cruiser) - The Golden Soldier was a Hospitallers Strike Cruiser that travelled to the Knight World of Fabris Callivant to face an Ork WAAAGH!. Harassing the enemy as they emerged at the system's Mandeville Point, the Golden Soldier was responsible for the destruction of several Ork vessels before the sheer overwhelming numbers of the Orks forced the Imperial fleets to retreat. Designated to act as the rearguard of the main battlegroup led by the Shield of the God-Emperor, the Golden Soldier was boarded and destroyed while covering the Hospitallers' withdrawal.
Hospitallers - Chapter Colours: The Hospitallers primarily wear white Power Armour. The Aquila or Imperialis on the chest guard and the trim on the shoulder guards are yellow. They wear silver helms with red eye lenses.This Chapter is known to incorporate personal heraldry with an unusual checkered-pattern iconography on the shoulder plates and lower right leg.The red squad specialty markings -- battleline, close support, fire support, Veteran or command -- are located on the left knee plate.
Hospitallers - Chapter Badge: The Hospitallers' Chapter badge is a red Maltese cross on a field of white, which is worn on both shoulder plates and also repeated on the right knee guard.
Hospitallers - Trivia: The Hospitallers Chapter is pictured on the inside back cover of How to Paint Space Marines.The Chapter's iconography are symbols taken from the real-world Knights Hospitaller of Malta.
Hospitallers - Sources: How To Paint Space Marines, "Hospitallers Space Marines", pg. 97White Dwarf 299 (UK), "Creating a Chapter," pg. 77The Voice of Mars (Novel) by David GuymerAngels of Death: Final Duty (Short Story) by David Guymer
Hosts of the Ist Legion - Hosts of the Ist Legion: The Hosts of the Ist Legion were the specialised formations or "hosts" within the Dark Angels Legion that were utilised during the Terran Wars of Unification and the early years of the Great Crusade before their reunification with their Primarch Lion El'Jonson. The members of each host maintained a particular tactical specialty and could come together to offer their skill and expertise when required. They existed within and parallel to the Legion's standard hierarchy, organisation and order of battle.Upon his assumption of command of the Legion as its new Grandmaster, the Lion would utilise these hosts as the foundation from which to form the Six Wings of the Dark Angels' infamous Hexagrammaton.
Hosts of the Ist Legion - Origins: Before the formal creation of the Ist Legion, each of the Legiones Astartes were organised instead into a formation known as the "Six Hosts of the Angels of Death", with each of these hosts having its own specialisation and purpose. During the Unification Wars on Terra, the Six Hosts had each been created by the Emperor for a specific task, or from a particular type of warrior. Their names, if they had ever had any, were unknown by the second century of the Great Crusade.These hosts did not fight alone, being too specialised for general warfare on Terra and during the initial stages of the Great Crusade. Instead, elements of each host were combined into battle groups of different sizes and designations. As and when required, the hosts provided their troops to these armies depending upon the military need.The warriors of each host could be called upon when a particular threat or situation presented itself. The leader of a host, elected by his sect-brothers rather than appointed by the Emperor in those times, would assume temporary command of a battle or campaign so that their expertise could be deployed fully.It is not fully understood what happened to the Six Hosts organisation in the other Legions and why its structure persisted only within the Ist Legion. For reasons only He knows, the Emperor chose not to continue with the Six Hosts and instead created the Principia Belicosa to structure the Legiones Astartes along the tactical lines which are now most familiar. The old ties of the brotherhoods continued in the  Ist Legion, though, and so the concept of hosts persisted in name and function. Being created from scratch, the later Legions were never built upon this foundation.
Hosts of the Ist Legion - Unification Wars and Great Crusade: The hosts of the Ist Legion were not bound by company or commander or other preexisting organisation and existed throughout the Legion. At any given battle or engagement at least some small number of a given host would be present to advise and lead should their expertise be required. In the early years of the Ist Legion's existence there were many more hosts than would later exist under the Hexagrammaton organisation, with as many as 18 such formations noted by their distinct heraldry in the earliest records of the Unification Wars where the Astartes appear.The Third Siege of Antioch in 603.M30 saw the participation of nine distinct "hosts" across four separate companies of the Legion, though at this point they numbered less than 30 warriors each and displayed significant tactical overlap in the methods they employed to breach the walls of that ancient enclave.Time would see the many hosts of those chaotic years quickly resolved into a smaller number of more focused hosts, but in those early years, with their brother Legions still but handfuls of warriors newly-cast from a rough mould, the Ist Legion became the testbed for the various tactics and doctrines that would later become the Principia Bellicosa. As the other Legions grew to a size large enough to engage in small-scale combat actions, some of the more specialised hosts became obsolete, unnecessary in the face of warriors more adept at that style of warfare, while others were made extinct by the inadequacies of their methods and the brutal nature of war in the 30th Millennium.Far from harming the Ist Legion, this process of bloody evolution left it strong; a weapon well-honed by the fighting on Terra. It also forged a bond between the disparate warriors who made up that early Legion; a bond based upon the sense of superiority and distinction instilled in them by the servants of the Emperor that trained them and the awe they inspired in those they fought beside.Following the  Ist Legion's reunification with their Primarch Lion El'Jonson on Caliban, the Lion incorporated the traditions of the hosts of the Ist Legion with those of his own native Calibanite knightly brotherhood known as The Order. Thus, the Six Wings of the Hexagrammaton were created.However, in the days before the coming of their primarch, the hosts of the Ist Legion were named and organised differently to the wings that were the later creation of Lion El'Jonson. The foundation of the doctrine that would lead to the formation of the hosts is often credited to the Emperor Himself in the histories of the Legion, a strand of the great plan that He had formed for the first of His Legions.The list that follows is reconstructed from the records of the Ist Legion in 753.M30, a median point in the early history of the Legion before the start of the Great Crusade, and shows the main hosts still known to history, which would later be reconfigured into the six "wings" of the Hexagrammaton.