Horus Heresy Chronology - Immediate Post-Heresy Chronology: Included below are events that took place following the immediate end of the Horus Heresy, many of which directly (or indirectly) were affected by the final campaigns of the galaxy-wide civil conflict that ravaged thousands of worlds and cost hundreds of billions of lives.ca. 014.M31 Fall of Caliban - In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, the surviving Loyalists rallied to the reeling Imperium. The Dark Angels took a significant part in these battles, which later came to be called the Great Scouring. As they pursued the rebels, the Ist Legion diverted to its nearby homeworld of Caliban, which had been enshrouded by Warp Storms and inaccessible since Horus' betrayal. For Lion El'Jonson, one final act of treachery remained to be discovered. Upon the Dark Angels' arrival in orbit, the fleet was fired upon from the surface. Pulling back the Legion fleet, El'Jonson tried to find out what had happened, and discovered that his second-in-command Luther -- who had become embittered by what he perceived as El'Jonson always taking all the glory in the Legion -- had poisoned the minds of the Dark Angels garrison and the new recruits that had been left on the planet against their primarch. In the ensuing conflagration, the Dark Angels unleashed a vicious orbital bombardment on the planet's surface while the Lion confronted Luther in personal combat. The Lion was mortally wounded, while Caliban was torn apart by the unleashed Empyreal forces of the Ruinous Powers. Only the Dark Angels' fortress-monastery, the Angelicasta, survived the destruction of Caliban. Luther is taken into custody and imprisoned, while the Lion's body is nowhere to be found.ca. 014-Unknown Date.M31 Great Scouring - The forces of the Imperium launch a great counteroffensive against the Traitor Legions of the slain Warmaster Horus, following the end of his lamentable civil war during the Siege of Terra. Before actually being confined within the life support mechanisms of the Golden Throne, the Emperor had pronounced judgment on the Traitors: declared Excommunicate Traitoris, they were to be driven into the hellish region of the Warp rift called the Eye of Terror, which would hold them for all eternity. All records and memory of the Traitor Legions were to be expunged from the Imperial archives. Worlds such as Isstvan V and Davin were scoured clean of all life because of their corruption by Chaos. The Traitor Legions' associated troops from the Dark Mechanicum or the regiments and starships of the Imperial Army and Armada Imperialis that had turned to Chaos were to be destroyed or driven into the Eye. It would be as if the Traitor Legions had never existed to sully the Imperium with their betrayal. The fighting of this campaign would continue for solar decades after the end of the Heresy. The Loyalist Space Marine Legions destroyed at the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V were slowly reestablished using what little gene-seed the survivors had managed to escape with, though the Legions were refashioned as 1,000-Astartes Space Marine Chapters rather than full Legions as Primarch Roboute Guilliman's Codex Astartes now required after the Second Founding at the dawn of the 32nd Millennium. In the wake of the Emperor's death, Guilliman is declared the lord commander of the Imperium and the Imperial Regent with the support of his remaining Loyalist primarch brothers. He begins to reform the Imperium's government and military to deal with the consequences of the Horus Heresy and build a stronger foundation for the future in what becomes known as the Time of Rebirth.Unknown Date.M31 Battle of Eskrador - During the Great Scouring, the Alpha Legion and the Ultramarines Legion met in battle on the world of Eskrador, where Roboute Guilliman faced his hated brother Primarch Alpharius (unaware that it was actually Alpharius' twin brother Omegon, who had assumed his brother's identity following Alpharius' death at the hands of Rogal Dorn during the Battle of Pluto) in bitterly contested close combat. Both struck one another in an instant, each power sword making a single stroke. For a solar second the two primarchs stood facing one another, than Alpharius slumped to the ground dead. Exalted by their primarch's victory, the Ultramarines renewed their attack and cut down every last Alpha Legionary. But their exaltation was short-lived, as over the next few solar days the Ultramarines were harried from all sides by the Eskrador natives as well as remnants of Alpha Legionaries hiding throughout the world's mountains. After another solar week of futile combat against their shadowy opponents, Guilliman ordered his Ultramarines to evacuate the planet's surface. He then used his Legion's voidships to bombard the Traitors from orbit. Despite Guilliman's protests that he had no wish to fight such dishonourable foes, it seems hard to dispute the fact that the Ultramarines were soundly beaten by the Alpha Legion at every turn, despite the supposed loss of Alpharius.Unknown Date.M31 The Iron Cage - The Iron Cage is the name given to the greatest battle fought between the Imperial Fists Legion and their hated rivals, the Chaos Space Marines of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion, on the world of Sebastus IV. The battle was fought during the years immediately following the end of the Horus Heresy as part of the campaigns of the Great Scouring. The Imperial Fists assaulted the planet after its defences had already been prepared by the Iron Warriors, who had nicknamed their network of fortresses and defensive positions "the Eternal Fortress." The Imperial Fists Primarch Rogal Dorn vowed he would "dig Perturabo out of his hole and bring him back to Terra in an iron cage." The Imperial Fists fell into the trap and suffered heavy casualties before the Iron Warriors were driven off-planet only due to the intervention of the Ultramarines Legion. The battle should have favoured the Traitors, but the Imperial Fists refused to die. When their ammunition ran out, they fought hand-to-hand, and the trenches of the Eternal Fortress ran with blood. Had Roboute Guilliman and his Ultramarines not intervened, the two Legions would likely have annihilated each other, and to this day, their intense mutual hatred persists. The experience of the Iron Cage proved painful for the Imperial Fists but was also important in forging the modern character of the Imperial Fists and their Successor Chapters. In the wake of the Iron Cage, Rogal Dorn's resistance to Guilliman's intention to divide the Space Marine Legions into seprate Chapters evaporated and he agreed to the division of the VIIth LegionUnknown Date.M31 Eastern Fringe Genocide and the Assassination of Konrad Curze - Following the death of Horus during the Siege of Terra, the Traitor Legions were driven into the Eye of Terror during the Great Scouring. Unlike the other Traitor Legions, after their defeat in the Thramas Crusade, the Night Lords did not splinter into separate warbands and flee like the rest of their fellow Heretics. Instead, the Night Lords conducted a massive campaign of genocide and terror against the Imperium across the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy, the likes of which had never been seen before, or since. Through these actions the Night Lords Legion betrayed the growth of the increasing sense of self-destruction which drove its Astartes, much as it drove their primarch. The Night Lords' rampage is only stopped by the assassination of Konrad Curze at the hands of the Callidus Assassin M'Shen on the Night Lords' chosen headquarters world of Tsagualsa. It is now believed that Curze knew of his imminent death and accepted it, even welcomed it, no longer willing to live with his own despair, rage and inner darkness.Unknown Date.M31 Battle of Skalathrax - On the Daemon World of Skalathrax, deep in the Eye of Terror, shortly after the Horus Heresy, the World Eaters and the Emperor's Children fought during what were known as the Legion Wars. Amid the World Eaters was the Champion of Khorne named Khârn, the former first captain of the XIIth Legion. After a full solar day of vicious fighting in what would become known as the infamous Battle of Skalathrax, the terribly frigid Skalathrax night began. Horrified, Emperor's Children and World Eaters Traitor Marines alike ran to their shelters, for the freezing night would kill even a Chaos Space Marine in a matter of moments. Khârn raged over being delayed from slaughter for even a single night. Filled with anger when he saw that his brother Traitor Marines were creeping back to the shelters, he took up a Flamer and burned them down, slaying with his Chainaxe Gorechild any who tried to stop him. The night was filled with the screams of the dying and the freezing as Khârn strode through the streets of the dead city of black stone, killing Emperor's Children and World Eaters alike, burning any shelters he found. The night was lit by flames as the Emperor's Children and the World Eaters fought each other and themselves for the few remaining shelters. By morning, most of the World Eaters were dead, the survivors split into small warbands, the shattered remnants of the once great companies of the XIIth Legion. The World Eaters Legion would never reunite and would remain scattered in multiple Chaos Space Marine warbands for the next ten millennia.Unknown Date.M31 First Battle of Garm - In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, the Thousand Sons attacked the Space Wolves' Shrine World of Garm, which was named for a famous Wolf Lord from the earliest days of the Space Wolves Legion who had given his life defending their Primarch Leman Russ from an attack by Magnus the Red. Leman Russ raised a cairn to Garm upon the place of his death and placed the Spear of Russ, the mighty weapon gifted to him by the Emperor Himself which had wounded the Traitor Magnus, atop Garm's tomb. The Space Wolves were able to fight off the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion and drive them from the world.675.017.M31 Shadows of the Past - A Blood Angels Retribution Fleet of the 33rd Company, 9th Chapter, entered the Nostramo System and began an investigation of the moon of Tenebor, which formerly orbited the destroyed Night Lords homeworld of Nostramo. Amidst their investigation, the Space Marines discovered that the expected reinforced void station was a lifeless and gutted corpse, indicating it had fallen to some unknown misfortune. It was later determined from the garrison's damaged data cores that it had been attacked by an unknown Blackshield force. They had engaged and destroyed the defending Night Lords garrison, leaving behind well over 1,000 mortal auxiliary troops and some 300 Night Lords, before disappearing. Upon the Hive World of Cairn, Rogue Trader Erasmus Skathe, who had arrived in the sector seeking salvage, found evidence of an unknown force of Legiones Astartes warriors bearing many similarities to those who struck Tenebor. This now Dead World had been inhabited by degenerate Humans, and further evidence showed that this same unknown Blackshield force had trapped its inhabitants in the darkened sub-levels of its hive cities, sealed them in, and left them to die.017.M31 Capture of the Chronicle of Ashes - A task force of the Ultramarines Legion, composed of the survivors of the 19th, 48th and 207th Destroyer Cadres, encountered several Renegade Word Bearers cruisers defending a lone Gloriana-class Battleship identified as the Chronicle of Ashes in the wild and uncharted space of the Dominion of Storms. Overwhelming the Traitor escort craft, the Ultramarines captured the Chronicle of Ashes in a furious boarding action involving nearly three hundred Astartes and two full solar days of bloody, close-quarters fighting as they swept the ship's innumerable decks clear of Traitor Marines. In the aftermath of their victory, the Ultramarines discovered something unexpected in the vaulted halls of the Chronicle of Ashes' upper decks -- an account written in the twisted and fey language of now-dead Colchis, the Word Bearers' homeworld, which revealed a wealth of information regarding events previously hidden to Imperial scholars, including an account of the Primarch Lorgar's fall to Chaos solar decades before the start of the Heresy. This vessel was later cleansed and re-dedicated as the Lex Talonis, before being presented to the Ultramarines in 022.M31 and incorporated into the newly-founded Nemesis Chapter.ca. 019.M31 Third Battle of Paramar - Following the conquest of the vitally-important Forge World of Paramar V during the Heresy, the Warmaster Horus was forced to divert additional forces to Paramar to hold the system, forces which he had desired to use elsewhere, as having gained this great prize he could not afford for his enemies to regain it. This fear would be proved accurate as the system would see an attempted Loyalist counterinvasion two standard years later in 008.M31, and further catastrophic warfare during the dark years of the Great Scouring in 019.M31 as the Loyalists sought to reclaim the system once and for all.033.020.M31 Reclamation of the Shroud of Eventide - A Blood Angels Reclamation Task Force, consisting of the 9th Chapter, the Angels Vermillion, travelled to the Nostramo System in order to salvage a space hulk designated the Crimson Intent, which was formerly known as the Night Lords' vessel Shroud of Eventide. The Blood Angels successfully salvaged the mighty vessel and cleansed and re-dedicated it, so that it might serve the sons of Sanguinius that yet remained with honour. They also retrieved information from the hulk's damaged data cores in regards to the vessel's last battle, which was fought with a mysterious Legiones Astartes Blackshield force that engaged them.ca. 021.M31 Completion of the Codex Astartes - The Ultramarines Primarch and Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman finally completed his magnum opus, the Codex Astartes, a volume which laid down the new organizational and tactical doctrines for existing and future Loyalist Space Marine Chapters. The Loyalist Legiones Astartes destroyed at the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V were slowly reestablished using what little gene-seed the survivors had managed to escape with at this time, though the Legions were refashioned as 1,000-Astartes Chapters rather than as full Legions. Guilliman's Codex Astartes now required this after the Second Founding at the dawning of the 31st Millennium, so that no single individual could ever again corrupt or wield the awesome power of a full Astartes Legion of old.021.M31 Second Founding - The remaining Loyalist Legiones Astartes are broken down into a smaller existing formation, known as a Chapter, comprised of only 1,000 transhuman warriors. This ensures that no one person would ever again command the full might of an entire Space Marine Legion. Twenty-three new Space Marine Chapters are created in this manner, whilst the 9 existing Loyalist Legions are reshaped into the smaller Chapters that continue to bear the original names of their Legions. The Grey Knights, a special Space Marine Chapter comprised entirely of psykers that will eventually evolve into the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Malleus of the Inquisition, had been secretly created by Malcador the Sigillite, the Regent of Terra and chief aide of the Emperor before his death, on the moon of Saturn called Titan during the final days of the Heresy. The moon was sent into a pocket dimension of the Immaterium to keep it hidden from Horus and to provide time for the new Chapter to grow to its full strength bny taking advantage of the odd flow of time within the Empyrean. This newly formed Chapter served as the eventual headquarters for the Ordo Malleus, the branch of the Inquisition dedicated to protecting the people of the Imperium from the daemonic forces and temptations of Chaos. The newborn Inquisition took as its eventual symbol Malcador's own original personal sigil in his memory.ca. 022.M31 Departure of the Raven Lord - After the Heresy, Corvus Corax personally gave the Emperor's Peace to every surviving aberrant Astartes that had resulted from the Raven Guard's accelerated program of Space Marine development, an act that led him to lock himself in his personal chambers in the Ravenspire on Deliverance and beg the recently-ascended Emperor for forgiveness. Unable to alleviate his guilt, the primarch left the Ravenspire exactly a standard year after he first went into seclusion in a transport that was headed for the Eye of Terror. Corax's fate remains unknown to the Imperium to this day. His last recorded words as he departed Deliverance were, 'Nevermore'.ca. 022-Unknown Date.M31 Scourge of Dynat Crowbane - Driven outwards by the resurgent armies of the Emperor of Mankind after the Siege of Terra in what was later called the Great Scouring, Dynat Mal of the Alpha Legion, the main architect behind the Raven Guard's shaming defeat at the Battle of Lyx, took his forces to the Dark Marches region of the Segmentum Tempestus. There he raided and destroyed the major outpost on Amarah Prime and gathered a coterie of Renegades, mutants and Heretics that took the name of the "Shadowed Ones." Hiding out with his fleet in the debris fields and nebulae of what would one day become the Orpheus Sector, Dynat Mal successfully ambushed and destroyed several Imperial punitive expeditions and established a reign of terror that lasted for several solar decades. Although the fate of the Shadowed Ones remains a mysterious one, it is generally believed that Dynat Mal was defeated and subsequently killed by an awakened force of Necrons belonging to the Maynarkh Dynasty.ca. 032.M31 Castigation of Colchis - Following the end of the Horus Heresy, the Imperium of Man launched a retribution crusade, known as the Great Scouring, to drive out the remaining Traitor Legions and those forces still loyal to them. In the midst of this period of bloody vengeance and violence, around 032.M31, the Ultramarines were finally able to take the fight to Colchis in retribution for what the Word Bearers had done to Calth during the early years of the Horus Heresy. When they arrived, they found a devastated world, its industry in ruins and its people clinging desperately to civilisation. Given Lorgar's treachery and the Imperium's fear that his Chaos taint had spread throughout the population who had converted to the Word Bearers' heretical faith in the Ruinous Powers, the newly-formed Inquisition ordered the planet to undergo Exterminatus. The Ultramarines' battle barge Octavius bombarded Colchis with Cyclonic Torpedoes. The geological structure of Colchis was highly unstable and the resultant seismic activity caused by the torpedoes' detonations split the planet apart. Nothing now remains of Colchis and its location is still a closely-guarded secret of the Inquisition.ca. 084.M31 Disappearance of the Khagan - While travelling into a region of space known as the Maelstrom, a large Warp rift in the Ultima Segmentum that is a somewhat smaller counterpart of the Eye of Terror, the primarch of the White Scars, Jaghatai Khan, disappeared. It is believed that the Khagan was in pursuit of the Drukhari who had savaged Mundus Planus following the Battle of Corusil V with his 1st Brotherhood when he went through a Warp Gate into the Drukhari portion of the Webway, ultimately vanishing forever. None can say what befell the primarch -- if he was lost in the Warp or if he was slain or captured at the hands of an alien warlord -- but the White Scars believe he still hunts across the galaxy, and beyond, in pursuit of his greatest foes. They also believe the Khagan is still alive somewhere within the Webway and will one day return to the Chapter and its successors in a time of great need.ca. 109.M31 Rise of the Raven Guard - For the first time since the disaster of the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V, the Raven Guard Chapter finally reaches a significant combat strength not seen in over a standard century.ca. 121.M31 Battle of Thessala - Roboute Guilliman continued to serve with the Ultramarines Chapter after the Heresy, leading them for another standard century after the Second Founding. It was Lord Commander Guilliman's actions subsequent to the Horus Heresy that made him the figure of adoration that he would become. With the Traitors scattered and the Emperor to all intents and purposes lost to Humanity, the Imperium stood at the precipice. It was the genius and leadership of Roboute Guilliman that saw the Imperium through its first full standard century following the Heresy after he took up the position of lord commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent with the support of his remaining primarch brothers, keeping new invaders at bay and saving the scattered worlds from collapsing into anarchy. While fighting on the Emperor's Children's flagship Pride of the Emperor during a void battle above the world of Thessala, Roboute Guilliman fell at the hands of his erstwhile brother, the Daemon Primarch Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children Traitor Legion. Poisoned unto death by the stroke of his brother's Chaos-tainted blade upon his neck, Guilliman's barely-living body was placed in a stasis field, and later enthroned on the Ultramarines' homeworld of Macragge in the Temple of Correction. There he remained until 999.M41 during the Ultramar Campaign, when by the grace of the Emperor, the technological genius of Belisarius Cawl and the power of the Aeldari god of the dead Ynnead, he was resurrected to once more defend the empire he had worked so hard to build.211.M31 Disappearance of the Wolf King - On the eve of the holiday known as the "Feast of the Emperor's Ascension," which commemorates for the believers in the Imperial Creed the day the Emperor defeated Horus at the Siege of Terra and "ascended" back into the Immaterium after being entombed upon the Golden Throne, the Space Wolves Primarch Leman Russ and his Wolf Lords were gathered for a feast to celebrate. On this occasion, Leman Russ quieted the great hall of his warriors to speak, but then froze in place as his eyes glazed over as if seeing a vision. The assembled Space Wolves looked on in horror as their primarch fell to his knees and called for his Wolf Guard and closest retainers to attend him, all save the youngest, Bjorn the Fell-Handed. Giving his closest companions his instructions, Russ turned and left the Great Hall of The Fang with his bodyguard in tow, leaving only Bjorn behind. The tale of his disappearance is retold every thousand standard years by the Dreadnought Bjorn the Fell-Handed, the oldest Astartes Dreadnought still in service in the entirety of the Imperium. After seven standard years of waiting, the Space Wolves elected Bjorn the Fell-Handed as their first Great Wolf, the de facto Chapter Master of the Space Wolves, to rule in Russ' stead until the day of his return. For 10,000 standard years they have waited, and still the Wolf King has not returned.ca. 781.M31 1st Black Crusade - Abaddon the Despoiler, the new Warmaster of Chaos following Horus' death, made his first attempt to launch a new offensive against the Imperium of Man following the Horus Heresy when he unleashed the 1st Black Crusade and the First Battle of Cadia. This attempt eventually failed and the forces of Chaos proved unable to penetrate the Cadian Gate that would allow them to take control of the only truly navigable pathway out of the Eye of Terror and into Imperial space. For the next 10,000 standard years, Abaddon will bend all of his efforts to finding a way to complete what Horus began and launch a war that will conquer Terra and eliminate the "Corpse-Emperor." These massive assaults become known as "Black Crusades" to the people of the Imperium, and though each one seems to be a failure, in truth they each succeed out carrying out certain esoteric objectives designed to slowly weaken the very fabric if reality. Abaddon names this conflict the "Long War" and promises that eventually the efforts of the forces of Chaos will lead to the destruction of the Cadian Gate and the opening of a pathway to strike directly at Terra, a great Warp scar across reality that the Despoiler calls the "Crimson Path." During this first epic conflict, the Imperial Fists Primarch Rogal Dorn supposedly "died" fighting aboard a Chaos Space Marine vessel after leading an assault on a large Chaos warfleet that emerged from the Eye of Terror and vastly outnumbered the Imperial defenders. Seeing the importance of attacking the enemy fleet whilst they were still preparing to invade Imperial space, Dorn relied on hit-and-run attacks until his reinforcements could arrive. Dorn "died" aboard the Chaos Despoiler-class Battleship known as the Sword of Sacrilege after leading a desperate attack on its bridge. When Dorn and his elite honour guard stormed the bridge, they were cut down to a warrior. Later, the Imperial Fists would pick up an escape pod from one of their own starships present at the battle, which contained the weapons and power armour of their beloved primarch. The only sign of Dorn himself was a single skeletal fist that the Imperial Fists believed had belonged to their primarch. What fate ultimately befell the Praetorian of Terra, and whether he truly died or not, has yet to be determined with absolute certainty.ca. 900.M31 Temple of the Saviour Emperor Becomes Most Influential Sect of Emperor-worship - After the Siege of Terra in which he fought, a highly decorated Imperial Army officer took the name "Fatidicus," meaning "prophet," and secretly established the Temple of the Saviour Emperor on Terra in violation of the atheistic doctrines of the Imperial Truth and in accordance with earlier cults of Emperor-worship such as those of the Lectitio Divinitatus. Over centuries, this sect of those teachings eventually spread across the entire newborn Imperium of Man, first via the personnel of the Imperialis Auxilia and Armada Imperialis, and later the Astra Militarum and the Navis Imperialis, leading to the foundation of the Adeptus Ministorum as the eventual state church of the Imperium in the middle of the 32nd Millennium. The Imperial Truth soon becomes a forgotten relic of the past, as dead as the dream of a benevolent Imperium. The High Lords of Terra accept the growth of faith in the Emperor as the God of Mankind across the galaxy, seeing in the new religion a powerful potential tool for morale-building and political control.