Treachery at Port Maw - Aftermath: The conquest of Port Maw opened the way for the progress of the Warmaster's hosts, beginning what would later be called the March on Terra, a succession of campaigns and conquests that would see the Traitors creep ever closer to the Segmentum Solar and the Imperial Palace on Terra itself. Horus and his Legion would not stay long on Port Maw or indeed the Manachean Commonwealth as the frontline still needed to move further, soon reaching shunned Gyrién, storied Dwell and even the vaunted Fortress World of Molech whose defences stood even greater than those of Manachea. All would be conquered and fall before the Traitors' implacable advance.The outcomes and repercussions of the Treachery at Port Maw were many. First and foremost, the fall of the Manachean Commonwealth and Port Maw marked the foundation of a true secessionist empire, an almost functional Traitor-held domain that had been carved out from the flesh of the Imperium. It would be on Port Maw and not on Manachea that Horus would establish this new domain, given the stricken and blood-bedecked Triumph of Reason over to Taloc Thorne, a former line Captain of the Sons of Horus and the newly proclaimed Tyrant of Port Maw who was given power and authority over this new realm, to rule it and defend it in the name of Horus. Renaming the mighty vessel The Lash, the former flagship became a sombre, blood-bedecked throne room for its new ruler. Given troops drawn from those Solar Auxilia Cohorts recruited on the Sons of Horus' own homeworld of Cthonia -- six full cohorts of Chtonian Jackals -- and an entire battle company of Astartes, this new ruler would impose a Dark Compliance on both Port Maw and the worlds of the former Manachean Commonwealth. With the conquest of Port Maw, the Traitors gained a strong naval stronghold and perhaps most importantly, the necessary facilities to rearm, reequip and repair their war-weary or stricken warships for the long and undoubtedly punishing push to Terra. Within a few short solar days, envoys of the Dark Mechanicum -- to whom the anchorage points and ship-fanes had been given over -- had reconstituted the Maw's operational capabilities; with the damaged Sons of Horus Strike Cruiser Oblivion -- which had been damaged during the final assault on Hive Illum -- believed to be one of the very first vessels to be repaired there.Secondly, the corruption of much of the troops and vessels of the Port Maw Excertus had considerably added to the Traitors' ranks, most notoriously in naval might where it was estimated that more than a hundred vessels had rallied or been forced into the service of the Warmaster. Of these mighty vessels and troops Port Maw was quickly stripped -- deemed secured -- to fight in other campaigns or foreign star systems as the civil war spread through the Imperium. Yet, for all the advantages it had brought -- including the ultimate death of Grand Admiral Labray and the capture of his flagship -- the Treachery was not a total victory for the Traitors.On many occasions, the turncoat elements of the Imperium's military branches had been kept in check despite benefitting from an overwhelming element of surprise. Even though having suffered few casualties and even added to its ranks, the Traitors were now far more fractious than they had been before. With many of the turncoat vessels and troops despatched to fight on other fronts -- perhaps as a result of Horus' lack of trust regarding their true allegiance -- Port Maw was now left far more vulnerable than it had ever been before, Horus leaving but a skeleton fleet of perhaps seventy vessels of the line behind him to impose order and the bloody quotas he demanded from the worlds he had conquered. Whilst this fleet was more than enough to keep the Dark Compliance within the Port Maw and Manachea Systems, they proved desperately too few to truly control the vast expanses of the Coronid Deeps. With so few vessels and troops at his disposal, Taloc Thorn could also exert little authority over those independent factions that had allied themselves with the Warmaster and that began pursuing their own agendas almost as soon as Horus had left rather than to follow his orders. Most notoriously amongst these was the Cyclothrathine Mechanicum which shunned the duty to protect and man Port Maw as much as it dared in regard to pursue its own war of conquest in the Coronid Reach with the conquest of the Agri-world of Numinal or the colonies of the Cerada Trinity, whilst the reaver-Knights of House Ærthegn led their own raids in the Grail Abyss.The successful escape of a single Loyalist Cruiser -- the Telemachus -- and its return to the Agathean Domain would also have dire consequences for the Traitors, spurring the retired hero of the 60th Expeditionary Fleet, Ireton MaSade, into action. Seizing power from the weakening grip of its planetary rulers, Ireton MaSade would put the entire star-system on a war footing, pursuing a war of vengeance against the Cyclothrathine Mechanicum he considered solely responsible for the death of his beloved grandaughter -- the Telemachus’s captain, Jocasta MaSade. This course of action, which would ultimately lead to the famed Liberation of Numinal and open a secondary front behind the main lines of the Traitor's advance, funneling important resources and troops and further destabilising the entire region.