Kor Phaeron - A Legion Rebuked: On the ashen plains of the destroyed city the entirety of the XVIIth Legion, 100,000 Astartes in all, was gathered for a formal reprimand by the Master of Mankind following the destruction of Monarchia. The Emperor's representatives, Malcador the Sigillite and the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman, presented themselves before the bewildered Word Bearers and their Primarch to give an explanation for Monarchia's destruction. Though Malcador attempted to reason with the Aurelian, the Word Bearers' Primarch refused to listen to him, striking the elderly representative of the Master of Mankind to the ground. Guilliman interposed himself between Malcador and his brother Primarch.The Emperor Himself intervened, teleporting to the planet's surface, surrounded by a contingent of Legio Custodes. The Emperor psychically forced the entirety of the Aurelian's Legion of 100,000 Astartes to kneel in obeisance, in the dust of their once perfect city, rendered prone by the Emperor's very will. He then ordered Lorgar to kneel before him. Adding insult to his wounded pride, Lorgar watched as the Ultramarines rose to their feet at Guilliman's command. One Legion's warriors stood in the Emperor's presence with a Primarch's blessing, while another was on his knees in the bones of his dead city.This action was not lost on Lorgar, for it had been mimicked by his Legion on numerous worlds where they had achieved Compliance when the entire conquered population had knelt in prayer to the God-Emperor and his "angels" from the sky. It was also a parody of the Legion's own Rite of Remembrance, a time to recall the sacrifices of lost Battle-Brothers and to reflect upon one's place in the Word.The Emperor reminded His wayward son that he had been created to act as a general for the armies of Mankind, not as a high priest. He had been created for war and conquest, to reunite the human race under the aegis of reason and truth, not worship and religious superstition. To do otherwise was to make a mockery of the Imperial Truth. But Lorgar railed against his father, insisting that it was the Emperor who was being untrue to Himself, denying His own divinity and true nature. He argued that only the truly divine would deny their own divinity.With His immense power and wisdom, the Emperor was already a god in all but name. All that remained was for Him to confess it as the truth for His trillions of waiting believer across the galaxy. The Emperor calmly denied Lorgar's misguided beliefs about His "divinity," for the Emperor was forging not a theocracy but a galaxy-spanning empire of reason and truth. There was no place for faith or priests within this new order, though Lorgar stubbornly insisted that Mankind needed more than reason to thrive -- it needed faith in something larger than itself.After rebuking His son, the Emperor looked upon the Word Bearers and chastised them, accusing them of failure to live up to the Imperium's ideals and to carry out their mission. Though the Word Bearers numbered amongst their ranks more Astartes than any other Legion save for the Ultramarines, their conquests were the slowest, and their victories rang hollow.They lingered too long on Compliant worlds, driving the populace into the worship of a false god and erecting monuments to the lies of religious superstition. All they had done in the Great Crusade had been for naught. While other Legions continued to succeed and bring prosperity and truth to the Imperium's expanding population, the Word Bearers alone had failed in the purpose for which they had been created. The Emperor exhorted them to do better.