Prospero - History: Chosen by its settlers for the planet's isolated position although it still remained far closer to Terra than many other human colonies settled during the Dark Age of Technology, the Civilised World of Prospero had only a few redeeming qualities. It possessed no independent resources, little contact with any outsiders and only a few sources of nourishment. The only reason for planting a colony there was because it was a very good place to hide, and thus became a large community of psychically talented and often physically mutated humans who could find no refuge elsewhere in the galaxy.During the Great Crusade, Prospero had developed into a paradise world. Many of the vast buildings on the planet were massive gold and marble pyramids. Prospero was a planet with blue skies and gleaming Egyptianesque architecture. One of the world's many cities was the capital city of Tizca, often referred to as the City of Light, where the Thousand Sons later held out against the Space Wolves when they were mistakenly declared traitors against the Imperium.Prospero's "cleansing" at the hands of the Space Wolves was hastened by the dilapidated state of the planetary defenses. As the homeworld of a Space Marine Legion, it was standard for the surface of such a planet to be protected by immense planetary Defence Lasers sunk into reinforced silos many miles beneath its settlements. Orbital fire platforms, automated tracking stations, minefields, as well as a number of the Legion's own starships -- all were manned continuously and diligently.Even if no overt attempts were made to reinforce the garrison of Prospero, save for the recalling of much of the XV Legion to its homeworld, it remained a mighty fortress. The majority of that then-verdant globe was covered in broken hills and dense forests, its ancient cities little but time-scoured ruins with only heavily fortified Legion outposts, small migratory settlements and the largely subterranean enclave belonging to the Zhao-Arkhad Forge World of the Mechanicum to be found outside of the capital city of Tizca.Yet this was no weakness in the world's defences, for the wilderness that was Prospero, though lush in appearance, was known to be infested with a sickening variety of xeno-fauna, the most infamous being the deadly pseudo-insectile Psychneuein parasites, beings whose life-cycle extended into the fabric of the Empyrean, making them all but impossible to bar or exterminate. The hidden predatory swarms of these strange creatures would have made any attempt to achieve landfall in the wilds impractical, even for such a host as that gathered by Leman Russ and Constantin Valdor, leaving them no secure foundation from which to make a more conventional siege of Tizca from without.In addition to to the harsh terrain and deadly fauna of Prospero, Tizca itself, the renowned "City of Light," presented yet another formidable obstacle to any attacker, geographically bounded as it was on all sides. To the north rose the sheer peaks of the White Mountains, studded with enclosed Defence Laser emplacements and fortified bunkers manned by the soldiers of the Prosperine Guard, and to the west lay the Valperine Sea, whose deep turquoise waters served to ward off conventional landings by sea.The focus of the Thousand Sons had always been set on other goals besides the traditional Space Marine role of combat, particularly the acquisition of knowledge concerning sorcery and psychic abilities. This distraction had led to a dangerous weakening of the Prosperine defence grid. The cavernous subterranean Defence Lasers had been neglected, left unmanned and poorly maintained, while the orbital defences were virtually non-existent. As a result, the arrival of the Imperial Censure Host armada during the Battle of Prospero went uncontested, their orbit-to-surface ordnance barrages unanswered and their Drop Pods unchallenged.Ironically, whilst the attack was underway, the Thousand Sons' focus remained on their lore -- rushing to save what incalculably precious works of sorcery and psychic research they could whilst the righteous, if possibly misplaced retribution of Leman Russ' Space Wolves Legion went unchallenged. Indeed, had a proper defence of Prospero been attempted, more time might have been bought to evacuate the libraries and studies of the Thousand Sons' ultimately costly work.Russ and his Censure Host attacked the planet with extreme viciousness and devastating results, slaughtering all he could find. In the end, after a grueling duel between the two primarchs, Magnus cast spells that took all of the great city, his marines, and his precious libraries to a new homeworld in the Eye of Terror, the Planet of the Sorcerers.Later in the Horus Heresy, the White Scars Legion under the command of the Primarch Jaghatai Khan arrived to investigate what had transpired. They found no survivors from either side and the vengeful ghosts of slain Thousand Sons wandering the ruins of Tizca.The Khan was confronted by one of the psychic shards of Magnus the Red created when he had been defeated by Leman Russ. The two discussed both of their successes and failures and may have been tempting his brother to join the forces of Chaos. After refusing Magnus' entreaties, Jaghatai also refused the offer to join the Traitors extended by the newly arrived Mortarion, who had arrived in orbit of Prospero with his Death Guard fleet.The two primarchs battled on Prospero's ruined surface as their fleets clashed in space. After a brief but intense battle between the Legiones Astartes warships, the Death Guard disengaged.