Horus Heresy
From Free net encyclopedia
In the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe the Horus Heresy was a galaxy-spanning civil war that marked the end of the 'Great Crusade'. It is also the title of a collectible card game produced by Sabertooth Games and an out of print Games Workshop game, with both games being based on the events which occurred in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. {{Infobox Military Conflict |conflict=Horus Heresy |partof=the Great Crusade |date=~30,000 A.D. (000.M31) |place=Galaxy-wide |casus=Defection of the Chaos Legions |result=Imperial victory |combatant1=Imperium of Man, Space Marine Loyalist Legions |combatant2=Space Marine Traitor Legions |commander1=The Emperor, others |commander2=Warmaster Horus, others |strength1=9 Space Marine Legions, associated allies |strength2=9 Space Marine Legions, associated allies |casualties1=The Emperor, Primarch Sanguinus, others |casualties2=Warmaster Horus, others }}
Contents |
The Great Crusade
When the warp storms that had cut off Terra subsided, and the Age of Strife came to an end, the Emperor deemed it time to begin his Great Crusade, a massive galactic campaign by which he and his armies would free human worlds from oppression, and unite the human race under one banner once again. Much of this can be read elsewhere, but suffice to say that to execute this grand plan he conceived of the Primarchs, but at their infancy, they were snatched away from the Imperial Palace. Debate still rages about the cause of this; some argue that the Emperor sent the Primarchs away so that they could learn on their own way, others argue that Chaos outwitted the Emperor, and by snatching the Primarchs away, Chaos was able to corrupt some of them, thus leading to the Horus Heresy.
During the Great Crusade, the Emperor encountered each of the Primarchs in turn. A Space Marine legion had been made from each of the Primarchs' genetic material, and so the Emperor deemed it fitting that each Primarch should lead their Legion. However, this would prove a critical mistake, for after time many in the Legions who had been recruited after the Primarch's arrival began to follow their Primarch more than the Emperor.
After 200 years of hard conflict, over 2 million worlds had been reclaimed in the name of humanity. Beside him stood Horus, who had fought beside the Emperor for most of the Great Crusade as his only rediscovered son. The long times of conflict had forged a strong bond between them, and they were truly like father and son. But now the Emperor had an Imperium to manage, and the next phase of his Grand Plan to undertake. This required that he be on Terra, and so after a magnificent victory for Horus and his Legion, the Emperor chose to rename Horus' Legion from the Lunar Wolves to the Sons of Horus. Never before had such an honour been bestowed. But the Emperor also declared Horus Warmaster over all the Imperium's armies, and declared that he would lead the other Primarchs and their Legions through the remainder of the Great Crusade while the Emperor returned to Terra. At this announcement there was much shock and outrage. Many didn't understand why the Emperor was leaving them, and worse still why Horus should have command over them. Horus was grateful for the honour bestowed upon him, but he was secretly disappointed that the Emperor was leaving him.
The Corruption of the Legions
During the Great Crusade, it became apparent that the Primarchs were far from the perfect beings they were designed to be. Although each Primarch was physically and mentally a God, they were spiritually weak. The Primarchs turned out to have all too human a soul. During their upbringing on their respective homeworlds, the Primarchs had to learn humanity from others, for they didn't have the Emperor to teach them. This would prove fatal for half of the Primarchs.
Horus took over command of the Great Crusade, and began the preperations with earnest. However there was much dissention in the ranks of the Primarchs. Only the Primarchs Angron, Fulgrim, and Mortarion seemed to be steadfast beside him during this period of dissention. More and more Horus began to resent the Emperor for leaving him with this mess.
Meanwhile, the Emperor was on Terra organising the infrastructure for his Imperium to function. He created the Council of Terra, a body of beauracrats that would create and administer to the Imperial Tithe and matters of law. The Emperor then took a force of Adeptus Custodes, Sisters of Silence, engineers, scientists, tech-adepts, and workers into the dungeons of the Imperial Palace so that the Emperor could begin the next phase of his plan. Unknown to perhaps all save the Emperor, his mission was to save humanity from itself. The incidence of psyker mutation among the human populace was increasing, and if these emerging psykers were left unguarded and untrained, they would be a monumental danger to the human race, allowing uncounted armies of daemons and other warp creatures to enter Imperial worlds, enslaving humanity, and thus bringing humanity to the eternal service and slavery of Chaos. The Emperor was the first and most powerful of this new race of psykers, the New Man, but it would take many thousands or millions of years before the human race evolved into the New Man, a more capable, intelligent race, resistant to the attentions of Chaos. But this new race was still weak, fragile, and so the Emperor began the construction of huge engines capable of searching out latent psyker genes within the populace so that these latent psykers could be trained and purified. The Emperor seemed unwilling to disclose what he was doing to others.
The news of the creation of the Council of Terra and its latest edicts angered some of the Primarchs still further. They did not understand why they, the Emperor's greatest champions, did not have seats on this ruling body. The brotherhood of the Primarchs was being shattered bit by bit. Old arguments and differences came to the fore. Horus became ever more distant from the Emperor, seeking only glory for him and his Legion.
It was on the world of Davin that fate was sealed for Horus. On this world, Horus was injured by a poisonous blade, and the health of Horus seemed to deteriorate every day. The Sons of Horus feared for their Primarch. Horus encouraged the practice of taking part in local ritual customs and traditions to forge bonds of comradeship with the populace, and on this occasion Horus was no different. Davin was a feral world, and there existed many cults, called Warrior Lodges, and one such Warrior Lodge offered Horus the cure. He spent many days in their care, all the while his mind was in turmoil. Why was the Emperor not with him? Why did the Emperor turn his back from him? Why was the Emperor not rushing to his side as he had done so many times before? Horus' faith in the Emperor was shaken to the core, and it was at this time that the Chaos Gods made their presence known. They convinced Horus that the Emperor was the root of all strife, that the Chaos Gods were only fighting for their survival. They claimed that if the Emperor was gone, they would leave the galaxy to humanity and allow Horus to guide the Imperium in peace. The Chaos Gods showed Horus visions of the future under the Emperor's rule; the space marines disbanded, humans living in fear, mere prey for terrible creatures, and the Emperor ascended to Godhood. Horus wondered why he should fight for the Emperor when the Emperor only sought power for himself. The Chaos Gods made a deal with Horus: Give us the Emperor and we will give you the galaxy. Little did Horus know that his actions would actually cause to be born the nightmare realm he was trying to avoid.
Renouncing his oath to the Emperor, Horus led his Legion into worship of the myriad Chaos Gods. He then sought to turn many of his fellow Primarchs to Chaos, Angron of the World Eaters and Mortarion of the Death Guard were first of many to follow, along with many regiments of the Imperial Army and several Titan Legions.
Magnus the Red, Primarch of the Thousand Sons Legion, foresaw Horus’ actions through the use of forbidden sorcery, and had attempted to forewarn the Emperor of the impending betrayal. However, Magnus knew that he would have to find a means of quickly warning the Emperor, and so as both an act of desperation and vindication, he used sorcery to send his message to the Emperor. The message penetrated the psychic defences of the Imperial Palace, shattering all the psychic wards upon the Emperor's Golden Throne. Unknown to Magnus, the Golden Throne was a hidden webportal to the galaxy spanning webway, and destroying its defences allowed daemons to attack the Imperial Palace. Upon learning that the actions of Magnus had allowed daemons to attack the Imperial Palace, and refusing to believe that Horus, his most loved and trusted son would betray him, he saw the viper in Magnus, the Emperor believed that it was Magnus who had turned to Chaos, sending the Space Wolves to destroy the Thousand Sons.
The Istvaan Incidents
Istvaan III
The first sign that Horus and his Legion had turned to Chaos was made evident when Horus used biological weapons to destroy the inhabitants of Istvaan III. Sixteen billion people were killed to destroy a single man trying to free his people from the Imperium. What few records survived the Horus Heresy claimed that no offer of parley or surrender was made, and that the shock of sixteen billion simultaneous deaths was felt across the galaxy by the Emperor himself, who instantly knew something had gone wrong.
Different sources tell*, that Horus and his allies, the World Eaters, the Death Guard and already parts of Fulgrim’s Emperor's Children led by Eidolon, used the opportunity to send the loyal parts of their Legions to suppress the insurgence. Along with the insurgent, the former Imperial Commander Vardus Praal, those loyal troops were bombed without mercy. Only few loyal Space Marines could offer some resistance or warn the Emperor (see “Flight of the Eisenstein”).
Flight of the Eisenstein
From those Traitor Legions came a group of seventy Space Marines who remained steadfast in their loyalty to the Emperor in the face of Horus' treachery. These seventy, led by Captain Garro of the Death Guard, commandeered the Imperial frigate Eisenstein, and evading attack by the forces of Horus, were able to escape from the Istvaan system into the Immaterium.
The Eisenstein was able to reach Terra, allowing the loyal Marines to report the extent of the atrocities that occurred in the Istvaan system. It was said that without this warning, the Imperium would have been in even worse shape to respond to Horus' next moves.
The fate of these seventy Marines is unknown. Some believe they continued to fight for the Emperor until death claimed them, while others maintain that they were treated as if they were their traitorous brethren, either imprisoned and left to rot, or executed.
The Drop Site Massacre
In response, the Emperor sent seven Space Marine Legions to Horus’ base on Istvaan V, to challenge the Warmaster, and destroy him and his legions if necessary. Of the seven Legions, the Emperor's Children were the first to arrive, Primarch Fulgrim meeting with Horus and demanding an explanation. It was believed that Horus had used his brother’s respect for him to sway Fulgrim to the side of Chaos. However, the newer version* claims that Fulgrim, having already turned to Chaos, was possessed by a Daemon of Slaanesh and slew Ferrus Manus Primarch of the Iron Hands during the Battle of Istvaan V. Though the break of the canonicity is hotly debated among fans. In those newer versions* the Emperor's Children were present during the Istvaan III incident and the seventh Legion were in fact the Word Bearers.
The remaining six Legions were to deploy on Istvaan V. The Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard were deployed in the first wave, and attacked the rebel forces but were forced to retreat. To their horror, they found that the Iron Warriors, the Alpha Legion and the Night Lords who had been left to defend the drop site had declared their fealty to Horus and Chaos, trapping the Loyalist force between themselves and Horus' forces planetside. The three Legions loyal to the Emperor were almost completely wiped out in what came to be known as the Drop Site Massacre. It was said that Horus planned the massacre with Alpharius, Primarch of the Alpha Legion.
The Iron Hands, since the massacre, have never forgiven the Salamanders or Raven Guard for the loss of their Primarch in the Massacre.
The Route to Terra
After the Drop Site Massacre, it became known that nine of the eighteen known serving Legions had turned to Chaos. Horus openly declared that he would no longer follow for the Emperor, believing him to be undeserving of the battles fought in his name, and took leadership of the Traitor Legions, supported by elements of the Imperial Guard, the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Imperial Navy and the daemon-spawn of Chaos. Their aim soon became clear: the heart of the Imperium, Terra.
The Legions of Horus, Mortarion, Fulgrim, Angron and parts of Lorgar's Word Bearers prepared to rendezvous at Mars. While plans were made to tie up the Loyalist Legions, preventing them from intervening. A section of the Word Bearers Legion continued the series of attacks on worlds held by the Ultramarines. The majority of Imperial Fists fleet was trapped in an area of space becalmed by the Chaos Gods – initially making headway for the Istvaan system, but unable to enter the Immaterium again. Horus assigned the Primarch Perturabo of the Iron Warriors to engage this large force of the Imperial Fists. The Space Wolves and Dark Angels were engaged on the far side of the galaxy; upon learning of the rebellion they began to move to Terra, but were hampered by the Alpha Legion and the Night Lords.
As the Warmaster was en route to Terra he received an unexpected communication from Magnus the Red. The merciless betrayal by the Space Wolves of Leman Russ on Prospero sealed finally the fate of the Thousand Sons, which were now heading also for Terra.
Of the nine Loyalist Legions, only the White Scars and the Blood Angels were able to reach Terra in significant force. The remainder of the Imperial Fists Legion had already been stationed on the planet, along with three entire Titan legions and close to two million soldiers of the Imperial Army.
The Siege of the Emperor’s Palace
The Landing on Terra
The initial phase of the siege was an orbital bombardment by the forces of the Warmaster, designed to weaken the defences of the Emperor’s Palace and make way for a full scale invasion of the planet. Although the loyalist fleets and defences fought back, they, like the soldiers on the surface, were too few.
After several days of bombardment, the Traitor Space Marines were delivered to the surface in drop pods, ready to take the two spaceports closest to the Palace. Five Traitor Legions participated in the drop, combining with forces on the surface that had turned to Chaos only days before to capture the Eternity Wall and Lions Gate spaceports. Dark cults began to summon daemons, unleashing the Greater Daemons of the Chaos Gods.
Once the spaceports were secure, the forces of Horus began to land their troops en masse. Unlike the five-man drop pods used by the Space Marines, the hulking transports carried thousands of men each, their immense size making them fine targets for the surface-defence batteries. Although many landing ships were destroyed, many more made it through to the surface, disgorging soldiers, armour and Titans to add to the besieging forces. They were met with stiff resistance, the Imperial defenders knowing that the survival of their homeworld, their Emperor, and the entirety of Humanity hinged on the result of this battle.
The Siege
The Chaos forces drove the Imperial defenders back to the walls of the Emperor’s Palace, where the assault began to slow, although it seemed that the forces of Horus were favoured. Around the walls of the Imperial Palace, men died in their thousands, clearing the enemy away from the walls only to find twice as many charging forward to fill the gap.
The resolve of the defenders was tested as they saw the enemy, nightmare daemons, superhuman Chaos Space Marines, and traitor Guard, people who had once been considered allies. They looked upon a dark mirror, seeing the darkest, corrupted traits of humanity look back up at them from the bottom of the walls. The men on the walls knew they were surrounded, outnumbered and fighting an enemy that would either kill them or corrupt them.
The siege abated once, the Daemon Primarch Angron striding forth and demanding that the Loyalists surrender. They were cut off, he said, outnumbered and defending a ruler too weak to be worthy of their loyalty. It was the beginning of the darkest days for the defenders, and many would have given up there, if it was not for the presence of the Primarch Sanguinius, winged leader of the Blood Angels Legion. The two brothers stared at each other, possibly communicating by telepathy. Eventually, Angron withdrew, telling his forces that there would be no surrender.
The siege began again in earnest, each Imperial defender knowing that he was already dead, it was only a matter of how many they would take to their graves with them. Three times the walls were scaled by the oncoming horde, each time fought back by Sanguinius and the Blood Angels. Outside the walls, the Imperial forces tried to punch their way through to the Emperor’s Palace, but could not penetrate the Chaos army surrounding the Palace on all sides.
It was not enough. Slowly, the Imperial defenders were pushed back, taking the fight to the maze of corridors and bulwarks within the walls themselves, before Horus ordered the Titan Legions under his command to breach entire sections of the wall, allowing his forces into the grounds of the Imperial Palace.
As this happened, Jaghatai Khan ceased his attempts to assault the near impenetrable bulk of the main Chaos army, instead redirecting his Legion and Terran Tank Divisions against the Lion’s Gate spaceport, capturing it and cutting the flow of Chaos reinforcements in half. This action gave hope to the defenders of the Emperor’s Palace, but they were still forced back, eventually into the Palace itself.
The retreating forces had only one way back into the Palace: the Ultimate Gate. Here the Primarch Sanguinius and his Blood Angels held off the hordes of Chaos while the remaining Imperial Guard retreated into the Palace through the gates. It was here that the hordes of Chaos halted and a mighty Bloodthirster came forth to challenge Sanguinius. Sanguinius accepted and fought the Greater Daemon; both of the mighty armies silent, observing the titanic conflict. However, fatigued and already wounded from fighting off the invaders, Sanguinius was smitten down by the daemon. The Bloodthirster and the chaos forces roared with triumph while a collective groan passed through the loyalist forces. Not wishing to let his children see him like this, the Primarch Sanguinius rose up and grabbed the daemon while its back was turned. A halo of light playing about his head, Sanguinius hefted the Greater Daemon of Khorne and in one swift motion broke its spine against his knee. Then, before the screaming frustration of the chaos forces, the Ultimate Gate swung closed, but not fast enough to stop the corpse of the daemon from being hurled back into the Chaos horde.
The Endgame
Image:Horus vs emperor.jpg The siege lasted for fifty five days, by the end of which it was believed by both sides that the defeat of the Imperium was near. Sensing this, Horus prepared to teleport to the surface, to lead his forces in person. Before he could do this, he was alerted to the impending arrival of the Space Wolves and Dark Angels Legions. Knowing that the balance of the siege would shift away from his favour if the two Legions reached Terra, Horus made the gamble that would decide the result of the entire Horus Heresy.
By lowering the shields on his battle-barge, Horus hoped to draw the Emperor from the surface, and force him into a duel. The Emperor rose to the challenge, leading Sanguinius, Rogal Dorn and several Terminators in an assault on the starship. Horus used his powers to scatter the Emperor’s force throughout his ship, slaying Sanguinius before the Emperor found him. Both knew the result of their titanic duel would decide the course of history.
Although the Emperor killed Horus by a psychic attack unparallelled by anything seen before, he was mortally wounded during the duel. He was found by Rogal Dorn and transported back to Terra to be interred in the Golden Throne. The death of Horus sent a psychic shockwave across the Solar System, sending daemons back to the Warp and making it clear to the forces of Chaos that it was their leader who had been defeated.
For more information on the Endgame see Horus's perspective article and the Emperor's perspective article.
The Aftermath
As the flames of civil war subsided, Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman was quick to rally the surviving Loyalist forces, stretching his relatively undamaged legion thin across the galaxy in a bid to buy precious time for the others to regroup. The scouring of the Imperium was to last for many years, during which time the forces of Chaos were driven from world after world.
As the last of the traitor legions fled into the Eye of Terror, Guilliman at last turned his attention to restructuring the Imperium so that it could never again succumb to the betrayal Horus had wrought. Although his Codex Astartes contained treatises and doctrine on a wide range of subjects both organisational and tactical, the most contentious was that the existing Space Marine Legions be broken up into the thousand-man Chapters of the Second Founding.
References
- 2nd Edition Warhammer 40,000 Codex Imperialis book (Came with 2nd Ed. boxed game).
- Template:Cite journal}}
- Template:Cite journal}}
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book