Word Bearers - The Heralds of Truth: If there is a hierarchy of treachery, then the Word Bearers sit in its highest circle. Once the most devoted and rigorous of warriors, it was not enough that they fell, but they pulled their brother Space Marine Legions into the abyss with them. While the treachery of others came like a storm, or the final flowering of a long buried seed, the Word Bearers' betrayal was poison distilled over long years.From their founding their devotion to the Imperium and the Great Crusade was beyond question, they were the bearers of the ideals of the Imperium, of its vision for the future of humanity. Their loyalty was never questioned, only the form of their devotion. But now their loyalty can never be seen as anything other than a mask and their fanaticism as a flaw which would undermine all they once sought to build.Even before the Emperor's conquests spilled into the heavens, it was clear that He was not fighting a simple war of conquest, but a war of ideals. The Unification Wars, and later the Great Crusade, were intended to bring humanity's disparate and divided children together under a single enlightened rule. While the Emperor would break the forces and strongholds of those who opposed Him, He was always prepared to accept fealty and service from those He defeated.If it was to be a true empire of Mankind then it would have to embrace even those who at first resisted its claim. As one battle leader in the Unification Wars remarked, "If we kill everyone who resists us then we will reign over a kingdom of ashes." But with some there could never be reconciliation; unity had its limits.Rationality and illumination of knowledge could only lead Mankind so far; the darkness of barbarity had to be beaten back, broken and burned to light the path to the future. The adoration of gods and the proliferation of ideas and beliefs that could lead to superstition and ignorance were weeds that had to be cut away with the sword of the Imperial Truth. In this way the armies of the nascent Imperium were fighting a war in the minds of the conquered as much as they were fighting a war of flesh and blood. It was this first war, the war to preserve the ideals of the Imperium, that the XVIIth Legion was created to fight.From its earliest days, the XVIIth stood apart from its brother Legions in its Astartes' duty and outlook. While all the Legiones Astartes fought with utter devotion, the warriors of the XVIIth Legion carried with them an air of zealotry. Recruited from the sons of exterminated foes of the Emperor, they were trained and raised to know the crimes of their forebears and the price of forgiveness. While others went to war with righteousness, the XVIIth Legion fought with the cold fury that only the condemned and redeemed can know.Dour and mirthless, few of them formed the bonds with other Legions that were common during those early days. For them there was no joy in battle, nor glory in conquest. All that mattered was that their duty be done. While others might acknowledge and even respect their foes, the XVIIth saw no virtue in defiance. Only once a foe was broken and bowed in repentance, could they be accepted as deserving anything but ruin.While the other Space Marine Legions acquired names later in their history to accompany their initial numerical designations, the XVIIth Legion were named as the Imperial Heralds at their Founding. That one Legion amongst twenty should be so singled out might imply some special favour, but in truth it was a title that spoke not to special honour, but to the Legion's place in the Emperor's purpose.Where enemies stood against the Emperor because of their belief in gods or the superstitions bred by Old Night, it would fall to the XVIIth Legion to deliver the Emperor's ultimatum: recant or be destroyed. To the fortresses of demagogues, and the enclaves of cults, a lone warrior of the XVIIth Legion would come. Clad in black armour, his face hidden by a skull helm and bearing the eagle-winged mace, the herald would speak of the truth offered by the Emperor and the futility of resistance.These bearers of the word and death were chosen from those who had shown supreme devotion to the Imperial Truth. Such a mantle once bestowed was never removed. Some, on seeing such a warrior, would surrender, and renounce their false beliefs. Others would refuse. Many heralds would die at the hands of defiant enemies, pulled down by human hands after slaying hundreds.But always after the black clad herald, the grey warriors would come with fire and the thunder of change. The wars waged by the Imperial Heralds were direct and functional. While other Legions fought in a manner that mirrored their nature, for the XVIIth Legion warfare was simply a tool to be applied. For them the true war existed long before a bullet was fired, and would last long after the last drop of blood had fallen. They were warriors in a war fought in the realm of belief, a war in which the truth was the only real weapon.Once they had conquered, the Imperial Heralds would seek out works which spoke of the power of sorcery, false gods and the irrational. They emptied libraries, dividing the contents into truth and falsity. Idols and the trappings of worship would be cast down and pulled from temples and shrines. Those who had preserved the poison of false belief would be dragged to pyres made of heaped books and carved statues. All would burn together. Those who had been freed from the shackles of ignorance would be given a choice, embrace the Imperial Truth or join the pyre.Finally, the great buildings which had sheltered the lies of the past would be pulled down and reduced to dust. Only then would most of the superhuman warriors depart, leaving the saved population to their newly illuminated lives.It was a pattern they repeated across Ancient Terra in the last days of the Unification Wars, earning themselves a second name. Few spoke of the XVIIth Legion as the Imperial Heralds. To their brother Legions and the people of the newborn Imperium, they were the Iconoclasts.