Archive of Our Own ^beta

The timing of Erebus’ thieving of the Anathame from the Interex is different.  Instead, Erebus takes it while Horus and co are off-world, and while no pict-footage is taken, some of the guards witnessed him do it.  The Interex then send an angry communique to Horus demanding to know why it was stolen; in resultant negotiations, the Interex say the thief’s armour was dark red – the colours of the Word Bearers.  This instantly makes Erebus extremely suspect to everyone else despite the lack of conclusive evidence.  The revelation to the Interex that the Imperials don’t even know what Chaos is happens in the following diplomatic meeting at Xenobia (the Interex explain what the Anathame is and realise Horus isn’t playing dumb), leading to the start of good relations with the Interex. 

In the meeting with the Interex, they explain their limited and basic knowledge of the Ruinous Powers as an insidious, malevolent and deceptive force; that the Warp’s inhabitants are all really, really evil.  This builds on Horus’ existing knowledge of Warp entities to make him much more Chaos-aware.  Erebus’ request to go to Davin does not happen as Horus tells him to fuck off for what everyone all but knows he’s done.  He then has a session with the Mournival where they have a discussion to figure out why the hell Erebus stole the Anathame.

Note: Erebus is a bit sloppy here (doesn’t wear a disguise) because he wrongly assumes that the Interex, as the Imperium would, would simply start shooting the moment they witnessed such a transgression.  However, they gave a second chance that Horus eagerly took.

The result: Horus remains noble and uncorrupted, more aware of Chaos and now a bit suspicious of the Word Bearers, busily working as Warmaster to build relations with the Interex.  Their plans foiled, the Word Bearers are unable to trigger the scale of rebellion that they wished to do so and must try other means.  Garviel Loken, now viewing Erebus with deep suspicion due to his treacherous action seemingly coming out of nowhere, continues his investigations of the warrior-lodges and now targets the Word Bearers.

He confides in Horus about this, and they both reminisce about oddities they have observed in the Word Bearers in recent decades, which they had dismissed at first but now are greatly concerning.  Horus approves of Garviel’s investigation and lends him the resources to do it, but asks to keep it quiet so as not to tip the Word Bearers off.  He also refrains from direct contact with Lorgar on the matter to again, avoid tipping them off.

As for Angron, the Night of The Wolf still happens but the part where Horus convinces him to turn traitor doesn’t happen since Horus is loyal.  Horus eventually receives the intel on what happened and that Angron needs attention, but doesn’t pursue it due to the pressure of his job and conflicting priorities.

Since the events on Davin don’t happen, Eldrad’s meeting with Fulgrim doesn’t happen either.  Instead, Fulgrim continues to feel the influence of the Laer blade which slowly corrupts him as before.  While vulnerable to being turned traitor, it doesn’t happen right away and needs more effort.

Upon realising the failure to corrupt Horus, Lorgar is outraged; especially at Erebus for being too bold and ruining his chance.  Now that the Interex have told Horus of the threat of Chaos, he no longer has ignorance that can be used against him.  Instead, the Word Bearers redouble their efforts to corrupt and turn as many as they possibly can, spreading the word of Lorgar and ruthlessly exploiting every grievance and proverbial chink in the armour to incite broad rebellion.  Lorgar has doubts of their success, but presses on with a grim determination.  While Kor Phaeron and Erebus get to work busily spreading Chaos cults amongst the Warrior-Lodges and other areas, Lorgar is forced to take it upon himself to try and convince his brothers to betray their father.

Lorgar meets with Angron, and just as Horus did in canon, he easily convinces the mad butcher that betrayal of the Emperor is the only way to gain freedom.  He urges Angron not to openly make a move, instead spreading Chaos corruption and readying to go to war.  Lorgar also goes to convince Mortarion, using similar arguments to canon Horus and appealing to Mortarion’s hatred of “witchery” and desire for freedom from oppression, but knows these arguments are limited; he is aware of Calas Typhon and knows that his scheme will ensure he can count on the 14^th.

During the meanwhile, the Word Bearers are building up their forces and trying their best to spread Chaotic taint in every Legion they can via Warrior-Lodges; even the canon Loyalist legions gain significant elements that have learned of the Emperor’s “treachery” and are ready to turn on their brothers.

Lorgar also contacts Fulgrim, aware as he is of the Laer Blade and the daemon within.  Lorgar focuses his argument heavily on Fulgrim’s craving for perfection and how the Laer Blade has helped him so much already in achieving it.  He explains that many of the changes his sons are going through is because they have uncovered the beauty of the Primordial Truth; the key to power and perfection far beyond what he can attain serving the Emperor, who abhors the Truth and has kept it hidden.  The argument does not work right away, but between it and the Blade’s influence, Fulgrim’s fall completes.

Lorgar, on the search for allies, has been made aware by his Legion’s spy network (operating through numerous Chaos-corrupted agents) of targets for recruitment, such as Perturabo, the Night Haunter, and Kelbor-Hal.  The Night Haunter is all too eager to take the opportunity to go Renegade, while Perturabo needs more convincing, even though Word Bearer agents have successfully orchestrated Olympia’s rebellion. While Perturabo doesn’t end up joining Chaos (just like how the Night Lords avoid it), he does become extremely disillusioned with himself and the Imperium, wishing to use Lorgar’s huge rebellion as an opportunity to effectively secede and just carve out his own personal empire somewhere else where no-one can give him horrible orders.

In line with the theory that the Alpha Legion is a sort of “vaccine” device that fights the Imperium in a controlled manner as a means of strengthening it, Alpharius/Omegon quietly messages Lorgar saying that he’s joining in, and the Legion puts in loads of effort later on into helping the traitors in their efforts and compensating for weaknesses.  Indeed, it is Alpha Legionaries who steal the coveted STC from the Auretian Technocracy in a delicate and complex operation, with Alpharius personally handing it to Lorgar so he has the bargaining chip to use to get Kelbor-Hal’s aid and give the traitors more of a shot at rebelling. 

The reason Alpharius does this despite the immense harm the resulting war on Mars causes for the Imperium is because the lack of Horus’ betrayal means there’s no risk whatsoever of the rebellion truly succeeding.  Not just because the massively influential Warmaster is loyal and not splitting Imperial forces, but also because it means that Magnus’ foolish attempt to warn the Emperor does not occur.  That means that the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons legions are both available and loyal, and most of all that Magnus The Red can use the Golden Throne as he was destined to do so.  Such an alteration makes traitor victory impossible, though that fact is unknown to the traitors.

In the ensuing final two years of preparation, the conspiring traitors ready and rally their forces while seeding and spreading Chaos cults as much as possible.  The general plan, as stated by Lorgar, is to sow discord and rebellions amongst the nascent Imperium as much as possible, triggering them in a wave spreading outwards from a key decisive battle where the traitors declare themselves.  After that battle, they then try to carve out as much territory as possible around the Eye of Terror to create a seceded Chaos-affiliated Empire to maximise the number of people that receive the “Primordial Truth”.  Angron and Curze have no intention of following this plan.

When Horus is eventually called away from his efforts with the Interex and duties as Warmaster to suppress the rebellion on Isstvan III, the legions under his command include the Emperor’s Children, Death Guard, and World Eaters, with their respective Primarchs.  Lorgar realises that this is a perfect opportunity to take one of the biggest threats out of the game as their opening move, and to purge loyalist elements within those Legions. 

As the Luna Wolves descend to the planet, Loken’s investigation leads him to Nero Vipus, a member of a Warrior-Lodge, who is suspiciously absent from his room when he shouldn’t be.  Indeed, the Lodge has been left with the Anathame and some Word Bearers from Erebus and instructed on daemonancy, having summoned a daemon into Vipus in the hopes that he can be used to deliver the blade to the Warmaster when Erebus’ original plot could not.  Loken descends to the surface with worry on his mind and suspicion towards Vipus, just as Tarvitz notices how odd the selection of who goes to the surface is.

With most of the Luna Wolves and the loyalists from the other three Legions on the surface (Alpha Legion agents having helped determine which from which), the tragic virus-bombing and orbital bombardment begins as the traitor factions within the Luna Wolves attempt to seize control of the Legion’s ships.  Those not taken successfully are immediately fired upon and crippled, the Vengeful Spirit left a near-derelict in the planet’s orbit.

On Isstvan III’s surface, Horus is escorted to a safe bunker by his Mournival and other loyalists, Maloghurst sacrificing himself to seal the bunker doors from the Life-Eater virus while the loyalists from the other legions take cover as best they can.  Wary of Vipus and shaken badly by the betrayal, Loken gets a bit paranoid, which causes him to successfully intervene and stop the possessed battle-brother from stabbing Horus with the Anathame.  The enraged Angron descends to the surface afterwards to slaughter his loyalist sons (as he does in canon) and hopes to kill Horus, but Mortarion and Fulgrim are content to leave the now-isolated Warmaster and loyalists to rot on the world.  When Lorgar is told of this, he is forced to come to Isstvan III personally (in secret, away from his Legion) to get Angron to stop wasting time and effort.  Unfortunately, he does so by telling him that the Emperor is the one he truly wants to kill, which instead sets the 12^th on a doomed warpath towards Terra instead (after Isstvan 5).

With news of the Legions’ betrayal spreading across the galaxy thanks to the Eisenstein, all the nearest legions are dispatched to the system to confront them: the decisive battle Lorgar wanted.  The Salamanders, Raven Guard, Iron Hands, Word Bearers, Night Lords, Alpha Legion, and Iron Warriors descend to Isstvan 5 to confront the Emperor’s Children, Death Guard, and World Eaters, and the result is the full Dropsite Massacre treatment: however, the absence of Horus’ legion makes it less extreme than in canon.  Ferrus Manus is delivered a mortal wound, resulting in Fulgrim’s possession, Vulkan goes missing and Corax manages to get out (with Alpha Legion aid, like in canon) while their legions are Shattered, although all the arriving legions (save the Word Bearers) suffer infighting to various extents.  Vulkan is captured by Curze aboard his ship, but the Night Haunter is distracted by the loyalist elements of his Legion, and Vulkan is not tortured for as long before he escapes with Corax’s aid.  Despite the fullness of Fulgrim’s possession, he inters Ferrus’ body within stasis, perhaps in the vain hope that one day he can restore his brother to life and persuade him to join him.

Curze confronts the loyalists within his Legion, taking them prisoner and demanding to know why they betrayed their Primarch.  They explain that they are some of the more honourable members of the Night Lords (mostly the Terran elements) and never cared that much for Curze and his Nostraman doctrine, and because he hated his own Legion they decided to be loyal to the Emperor instead.  Despite Sevatar’s expectations and protests, Curze respects their decision and lets them leave peacefully.

Some Raven Guard and Iron Hands also turn traitor on their own Legion thanks to the Word Bearers’ Warrior-Lodge influences, while parts of the Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and Alpha Legion turn loyalist and flee with the Shattered Legions as blackshields in a gigantic chaotic mess.  All loyalist forces that manage to not get massacred (including traitor legion loyalists) manage to mount a desperate escape from the Isstvan system, lead by Corax and secretly aided by the Alpha Legion.

The result, however, is a decisive traitor victory; now four loyalist Legions have been taken out (for the most part), battle lines have been drawn, and the traitors are mustered and ready to begin their campaign proper.  With the rest of the Primarchs not being skilled or sane enough for command, Lorgar and Perturabo make most of the overarching decisions, though their alliance is uneasy.

Magnus does receive news of Isstvan III (thanks to Dorn sending messages everywhere) and senses the beginning of the Ruinstorm, but he becomes aware of the great betrayal not much sooner than the Emperor does.  Rallying his Legion to join up with the others, Magnus the Red prepares to aid the Imperium however he can despite knowing that he has violated Nikaea rulings and is likely to be reprimanded for it.  After receiving orders, Leman Russ and the Space Wolves arrive to escort Magnus and his Legion to Terra, as the Emperor senses Chaos making its move and needs his most important asset on Terra ASAP.

Magnus and Russ, with a combined fleet, immediately travel to Terra, but Tzeentch has a titanic tantrum, conjuring up huge Warp storms, slowing down Warp travel, and cranking the Flesh-Change up to 100 which causes a lot of casualties and forces the Thousand Sons to fully stop using their psychic powers.  In addition, the psychic familiars they thought they could trust turn on them, sabotaging Geller Fields and putting Magnus and his Legion in an Eisenstein-like shitty situation. With the ships in the fleet under attack by daemons, a lot of Thousand Sons needing to be put down by Space Wolves due to the Flesh-Change, and all their navigators dead, the situation seems doomed for the two brothers, and they even butt heads over the Flesh-Change and the Nikaea edict.

But then, using the possessed and mutated Navigator on the command deck, Tzeentch reveals himself to Magnus, explaining how he's been deceived and outplayed this whole time and that his only option is to declare himself for the Changer of Ways. Russ watches in horror, ready to fight his brother if necessary. But, Magnus does not let his hope falter. He counters the dark god, saying that even though he's been devceived into giving up an eye for nothing, he still has one left that sees better than any Naviagtor. Destroying the Navigator as Tzeentch cries out in fury, Magnus undertakes the hardest thing he's ever done: guiding the fleet to Terra as a Navigator for every single ship, trying to right the tumbling vessels and give them Geller Field subsitutes at the same time.

Ahzek Ahriman sees Magnus struggling under the immense strain, and sends out a psychic message to everyone in the fleet to lend their might to their gene-sire if they are to have any hope of getting out of the Warp alive, while Russ and the Space Wolves fight off daemons to keep them safe. Through immense effort and a protracted, tense struggle, the fleet miraculously manages to make it to Terra, though Magnus is exhausted and wounded; Russ takes him to the Emperor, hoping he can be healed.

Because Magnus is so delayed, the Emperor refrains from making a move directly for a good while, but orders Dorn to take his Imperial Fists and do all that he can to stop the war on Mars, which isn’t much since the obscenely powerful outer planetary defences are under Kelbor-Hal’s control, effectively sealing the planet off until loyalist Mechanicum forces are able to make an opening for Dorn to land and help out.

The traitor forces carry out their rebellion, though without one guy clearly in charge, it’s disorganised and chaotic, with most simply doing their own thing in various ways.  Support from the Mechanicum has been earned and a war on Mars started, though it simply gives them a fighting chance more so than anything else.

Angron sets out on his warpath towards Terra, practically seeking death, while Lorgar joins him to try and direct him while using the immense bloodshed he causes to summon the Ruinstorm to protect the traitors’ efforts from loyalist reinforcements.  The strongest loyalist legions are ultimately cut off from stopping the traitor advance, and also from stopping the conquering group for a long time. 

Konrad Curze, because he’s crazy, does his time-wasting nonsense with torturing Vulkan and leaving his Legion, forcing Sevatar to take command of the Night Lords in his absence; with a calmer, level head in charge of the Legion, it becomes an effective fighting force to aid Perturabo’s strategy in conquering worlds from the Imperium to forge their own little empire free of the Emperor.  This entails Curze leaving the Legion he hates secretly after seeing off its loyalist elements, seeking what in his twisted mind is “vindication” with the desperate Sevatar unable to stop him.

Before he departs with Angron, Lorgar can sense (partially with his psychic abilities) that Mortarion is starting to get cold feet, so he tells Typhon to carry out his plot to convert the 14^th to Nurgle when the legion leaves the system.  Speaking of which, Mortarion is another relatively level head when it comes to command and joins with Perturabo to try and prosecute some semblance of a proper war against the Imperium.  Unlike the more Chaos-devoted Lorgar and Fulgrim using Angron as a tool, Perturabo, Mortarion, and Sevatar are more interested in carving out an empire of their own.

Fulgrim, now seeking to revel in excess and chaos and achieve daemonhood, decides to take his Legion and join in on Angron and Lorgar’s crazy murder-party in the hopes that the resultant Warp-nonsense and degeneracy he can do can get him his ascension (he also has Lorgar or Angron to use as a soul-battery as a backup plan).

As for the Alpha Legion’s role, a large portion of their forces move to aid the conquering traitors while their network of agents all across the Imperium cause absolute chaos; assassinations, espionage, inciting rebellions and even spreading Chaos cults, so that worlds the main groups encounter often join them willingly in open rebellion against the Imperium and loyalist forces are forced to be preoccupied with suppressing potentially dangerous rebellions on often-useful or important planets.  Alpha Legion agents, organised by Alpharius and Omegon, not only operate the Tenebrae station to keep the White Scars isolated and confused for as long as possible, but also secretly message Roboute Guilliman who is out at Calth, telling him of the Warmaster’s stranding at Isstvan III.  With the Ruinstorm in the Imperium’s heart cutting off Ultramar and the news getting to him quickly, Guilliman decides to take the more open path and rescue the Warmaster and all loyalist forces he can from the now mostly empty Isstvan system.

The Lorgarian Heresy looks like this after the start where everyone sorts out what they’re doing:

• Horus, the Luna Wolves, and loyalists from the Emperor’s Children, Death Guard, and World Eaters all trapped on the now-dead world of Isstvan III, waiting for aid
• The Raven Guard, Iron Hands, and Salamanders being Shattered
• Corvus Corax taking the wounded, maddened Vulkan to Terra so the Emperor can heal him and to get further orders on how to counter the traitors
  • Corax brings all of the loyalist Isstvan 5 survivors with him; a mix of Iron Hands, Salamanders, Raven Guard, and Blackshields (Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Alpha Legionaries) that join as a unified force (albeit a relatively small one) under Corvus Corax
• The Death Guard (now Nurgle-corrupted), Iron Warriors, and Night Lords (without Curze) calmly waging war more on the outskirts of the Imperium, conquering worlds as effectively and swiftly as possible (combining their respective tactics) to try and carve out a proper secessionist empire
  • Mortarion’s in an absolute grump about serving Nurgle, spending his time mostly sulking and letting Perturabo order his Legion around
  • Perturabo is pretty much the one in charge and has high hopes for what he can do with this little empire of his, but looks at what happened to his brother and is worried a similar fate might await him
  • Sevatar is simply waiting for his Primarch to come back and calmly doing his best to aid in the war and not piss off Perturabo too much, but the entire time is sending out sizable Night Lords forces to look for Curze
  • Curze is being Curze (not caring at all about his legion, going on a personal quest to prove himself, cause mayhem and seek vindication for his ways)
• The Emperor’s Children (now Slaanesh-corrupted), World Eaters and Word Bearers on a murder-party warpath through the core of the Imperium, summoning the Ruinstorm and causing absolute chaos
  • Lorgar knows it’s all meant to be a diversion from the conquering group and hopes to get the others to eventually stop and flee to the Eye of Terror before they get smashed at the Sol System
  • Fulgrim wants to use the chaos to ascend to daemonhood and otherwise doesn’t care
  • Angron doesn’t give two shits about overarching plans in his degenerating mental state, and simply wants to kill the Emperor or get the death he wants while trying
• The Alpha Legion causing widespread rebellions and chaos (capitalising on the spread of chaos cults in non-Astartes elements of Imperial society) while lending large portions of their military forces to aid the conquering group under Perturabo’s command. Another large portion of the Alpha Legion forces work to make tactical strikes, assassinations and various black ops to do things like kill Planetary Governors, facilitate traitor coups, or cause mass uprisings to achieve political chaos with maximum efficiency
• The Dark Angels are largely scattered by the time news of Isstvan reaches them, and the Lion is still embroiled in the campaign against the Gordian League (they’re at war not because of Horus’ orders, but because the Lion is too autistic for diplomacy). He hurriedly pulls out and tries to organise his Legion, but is too far from the remote Isstvan to succeed and finds it easier to rendezvous with Roboute Guilliman and the Ultramarines. 
• The Imperial Fists going on the defensive and focusing entirely on ending the Mechanicum’s civil war to restore the security of the Sol System and deny a very important advantage to the Imperium
• Mars embroiled in canon-similar civil war as the Mechanicum all across the Imperium is divided, causing such chaos that the Emperor needs Dorn nearby to stop the fighting (although even that does not end it quickly). Kelbor-Hal has been sold a false hope of sorts that the traitor forces will eventually make their way to the Sol System, and ultimately the Mechanicum’s civil war is short-lived as the Fabricator-General eventually breaks.
• The Thousand Sons with Magnus trying their damndest to make their way to Terra to get Magnus on the Golden Throne and unite with the Imperial Fists, but they are greatly delayed and until then the Emperor can’t set out to stop the war
• The Space Wolves ordered to intercept the distraction group, but they are blocked off by the Ruinstorm (they were busy pacifying rebellions sown by Word Bearers and Alpha Legion) and thus they turn to simply rallying at the Sol System (as per the Emperor’s orders)
• The Ultramarines and Dark Angels then moving to gather up stray loyalists from across the traitors’ warpath and rescue all loyalists from the Isstvan system before intercepting the conquering traitors, meeting Curze along the way
  • They are beset by rebellious planets and lower-level traitor efforts while on the way.
• Konrad Curze eventually makes his way to Ultramar doing typical Konrad Curze things, though at this point feels bereft of purpose and is continuing to lose his mind due to visions of not just the events of the Horus Heresy, but numerous possible scenarios that are all terrible.
• Corvus Corax freeing Vulkan from Curze’s ship when the Night Haunter is distracted, taking his wounded and maddened brother alongside all loyalist Isstvan 5 survivors on a difficult journey to Terra so he can recuperate.
  • After Corax arrives (which is before Magnus and the 15^th show up), the Emperor orders Corax to go stop the Alpha Legion’s campaign of chaos across the Imperium. Corax also hopes to be able to find Curze in the process, but ends up fighting the Alpha Legion quite a lot.

Ultimately, the war does not last nearly as long as the canon Horus Heresy and is much more one-sided.  Magnus goes to Terra to fulfil his duty and destiny on the Golden Throne (indeed he feels it is a form of atonement yet also a great gift), and while Lorgar buys his group a lot of time (about a year or two) using the power of the Ruinstorm and the Alpha Legion buys even more with their efforts, eventually the Emperor alongside several Primarchs leads a massive force of Loyalist Astartes to meet them – and the traitors know too well their time is very limited with each campaign, each captured or cowed world, and each bloody ritual.

The Emperor is unable and unwilling to confront the distraction group until he can get off the Golden Throne and have at least three Legions by his side, which end up being the Thousand Sons, Space Wolves, and Imperial Fists (the Blood Angels are still far away due to where Horus had sent them, not out of malice but just because they were genuinely needed elsewhere.  The whole Red Angel thing doesn’t happen since in canon that was a deliberate setup by Horus).  The Blood Angels and Sanguinius work fast to sort their shit out after getting the call, but warp storms and warpfuckery from Khorne, who is currently quite scared, slow down the 9^th and stop them from joining too quickly.

Despite his strong desire to be with his father when they face the traitors, Guilliman continues to lead his Ultramarines with the Lion and his Dark Angels to break through harassing traitor forces (including many rebellious worlds left behind by the traitor legions) and reach Isstvan to rescue Horus from Isstvan III alongside all the other loyalist forces trapped there. 

During the meanwhile on Isstvan III, Horus and the survivors are barely scraping by, hunkering down on the world and feeling that the end is coming.  Because of this, they have a lot of heartwarming moments where they profess their undying loyalty and love for each other to the very end – from brother to brother, cousin to cousin, a father to his sons.  Nonetheless, death does not come to them as the Ultramarines and their allies arrive, retaking the Vengeful Spirit and the other ships from the disgusting Chaos-corrupted traitors, bringing up their brethren from the surface, and Guilliman and Horus embrace each other as brothers. 

The Lion does not, and in his typical untrusting and insensitive fashion asks if the traitor legion loyalists can be trusted.   Horus responds by proudly announcing that the previous Legion alignments of all on Isstvan no longer matter, as they are all his sons.  This prompts Abaddon to bring up the idea of rebranding the Legion to include the traitor legion loyalists, to which Horus agrees – Luna Wolves, Emperor’s Children, World Eaters and Death Guard unite under the new, shared banner of the Sons of Horus, symbolising their newfound bond with the Primarch through the intense suffering and betrayal, and with each other.

Reunited, the loyalist force then has the task, as per the Emperor’s orders, of following the trail of the three traitor legions forming the conquering force that is attempting to carve out a section of secessionist space.  Numerous times the large forces come into conflict, and despite having three Primarchs and a huge army, the combined might of the Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and Chaos-empowered Death Guard puts up a hell of a fight and in many cases leads to chases.  Worse still, the Ruinstorm plus the efforts of the Chaos Gods screws with their Warp travel and astropathic communications.  They fight numerous times, but Horus, Guilliman and the Lion are forced to be restrained with their engagements; even then, their combined tactical genius causes the traitors a lot of headache and limits their conquests.

Leading the survivors of Isstvan 5 alongside the few Raven Guard he has left, Corvus Corax travels out into the Imperium to do battle with the Alpha Legion in what becomes called the Silent War, with two sides specialising in stealth tactics and spec ops going head-to-head on numerous turbulent worlds.  At the same time, Corvus looks for leads on his rival Konrad Curze and tries to look for him while cleaning up the mess the Alpha Legion has made.

One flashpoint of conflict out on the fringes is Sotha, where Night Lords scouts working for Sevatar find the Pharos device.  Upon learning its function, Sevatar decides to activate it to help his Legion eventually find Curze, even with Lorgar’s vast Ruinstorm, spreading through the heart of the Imperium and clouding astropathic sight.  Loyalist forces led by Barabas Dantioch, having split off from Corax’s main group, stop them by destroying the Pharos, ensuring that the Lorgarian Heresy is not the last major threat the Imperium faces.

Meanwhile, Fulgrim is trying hard to use Lorgar’s dark rituals to achieve his ascension, arguing with him over the value of “saving Angron”, saying it’s better to leave him as a mere pawn; a distraction while everyone else does the real work, and that Fulgrim can do much more useful stuff with that power (he won’t).  Reluctantly, Lorgar eventually agrees, realising that nothing can turn Angron away from his mad desire to fight the Emperor personally and that regardless of what he does their father will just brush him aside.  So, he does the ritual, and Fulgrim ascends to daemonhood to greatly bolster the traitor offensive.

Fulgrim ascends to daemonhood to lead his degenerate Legion even as the Emperor arrives to sear his way straight into the heart of their force, with Russ by his side and Magnus watching from afar.  Fulgrim and Lorgar put up a fight with their Legions against the relentless assault of Space Wolves, Thousand Sons, and Imperial Fists, but are very much on the backfoot and looking to retreat before the Emperor’s punishment arrives.  To help break through the Ruinstorm, the Emperor decides to temporarily lift the Edict of Nikaea and let the Thousand Sons psykers do their thing.  Letting Angron charge forward and be their distraction, the Word Bearers and Emperor’s Children depart as quickly as possible.  Their massive diversion has served its purpose, and now the traitors need their aid to solidify their territory out on the fringes around the Eye of Terror.

And so, Angron lands on a planet to confront the Emperor alone, heedless of the fate of his desperate, spurned sons trying to catch up to him, as they always have.  Russ and Magnus watch as Angron bellows his challenge at their father on the dusty, windswept open field, a cry of anguish and sorrow and rage.  They watch as he charges his father with a rabid fury, fuelled by his ever-growing madness of the ticking nails in the back of his brain, and is about to deliver a blow…

Only for the Emperor to simply raise his hand, and Angron falls unconscious.  The Emperor whispers words of apology and forgiveness on his lips as he prepares to put Angron in stasis, so that a cure for the Nails may yet be devised.  Witnessing their Primarch defeated and captured, the World Eaters, Kharn chief among them, are greatly demoralised.  The overwhelming loyalist force is then able to subdue them and take them prisoner between the Space Wolves’ martial prowess and Thousand Sons’ psychic might, the prospect of ever seeing their gene-father again used as leverage to extract compliance.  Conferring with his sons, the Emperor says that the 12^th is not irredeemable and does not deserve the fate of the 2^nd or 11^th; they simply need the Nails gone.

Processing the 12^th takes some time, during which Fulgrim and Lorgar take their legions to join the Iron Warriors, Night Lords and Death Guard fight off Horus and Guilliman.  Their struggle was hard before, but the arrival of two more traitor Legions plus Primarchs forces a retreat.  Noticing the Ruinstorm slowly dissipating and the plague of rebellions ceasing across the Imperium, the loyalists naturally conclude that the rampaging traitor force in the Imperium’s heart has been dealt with.

It is also around this time that the Alpha Legion rallies most of its strength to join the traitor legions and protect their efforts carving out a section of space within and around the Eye of Terror to be their new home, as the loyalists are starting to rally for a Great Scouring most terrible – one that threatens even to pierce right into the heart of the Eye, as the Emperor is at the forefront.  Lorgar’s faith in Chaos remains unshaken, but his hope in their ability to create a Chaos-aligned human empire is beginning to waver.  Meanwhile, Curze has been making a mess in Ultramar, practically seeking death as Angron did to the point of being revealed, and Corax goes there to intervene.  The two have a series of one-on-one duels, but Curze eventually escapes, Corax swearing to find him and bring him in.

The resurrected Vulkan gets to work rebuilding the Salamanders after recovering from Terra, and stands with Dorn as they seek to end the rebellion on Mars.  With the Ruinstorm offensive broken and the outer defences of Mars finally starting to open, Dorn takes the opportunity to broadcast his message to the Mechanicum and Kelbor-Hal that the traitors’ attempt on Sol is over and there is no real hope of the rebellion succeeding; no one is coming to help.  It takes a while further and a lot more pressure from the loyalists, but eventually Kelbor capitulates after Dorn offers surprisingly generous conditions of surrender for the sake of ending the Mechanicum’s highly destructive civil war ASAP.

The Khan’s forces and the Blood Angels are beset by more Warp Storms, Alpha Legion agents and insurgencies (both Chaos-corrupted and not), and so are quite slow to catch up with the Emperor’s forces.  The Emperor is preparing for a final battle against the traitors at the edge of the Eye of Terror, but his force won’t be enough against the six Legions and five Primarchs beginning to gather. 

Pulling back, Roboute, Lion, and Horus rally their forces to join with Russ and the Emperor, and after a brief reunion, they prepare for more loyalists to arrive to mount a final assault.  The time bought during these efforts is used by the anxious traitors (namely Perturabo) to erect defences on their worlds and prepare the strongest armies they can muster to defend their Chaos empire, including insurrectionists, secessionists, and the Chaos-corrupted of all kinds.

Lorgar goes on a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror to plead for aid from his gods, and they respond by making him a Daemon Primarch; their immortal champion against the Emperor, infused with all the raw power they dare to put in him.  He then joins with the other traitor legions to lead from the front and is so powerful he’s able to wrangle Mortarion and Fulgrim into getting their act together.

The Khan and Sanguinius both arrive to rally with the Emperor, but warp storms have gotten so intense around the Eye that not all their Legions make it in time, diminishing the loyalists’ strength notably.  Nonetheless, the Emperor deems them ready to go in and says that they can’t afford to wait any longer.  Leading from the restored Vengeful Spirit, the Emperor takes the huge loyalist army in a single gigantic battle against the traitors to settle the war.

The war takes place on the surface of a planet that the loyalists besiege (possibly Cadia), with Perturabo commanding the defence while Fulgrim, Mortarion, and Lorgar lead the charge with their legions against the loyalists while the Night Lords and Alpha Legion do what they do best.  The Emperor leads the loyalist charge, with Guilliman and Horus jointly commanding the armies and Russ, Sanguinius, and the Khan fighting on the field; Russ and Sanguinius by their father’s side.  Jaghatai Khan and his White Scars assist the assault with their high-speed hit-and-run tactics, countering the Iron Warriors’ strategy and matching the Night Lords’ tactics.  The few Thousand Sons partaking in the assault stick right close to the Emperor and his sons as do the Custodes, the Emperor bolstering their psychic might and resilience against Chaos greatly while Magnus the Red does what he can from the Throne.

Fulgrim and Mortarion play an important role in the traitors’ strategy by drawing away Sanguinius and Russ, respectively, ensuring the Emperor is not backed up by any Primarchs by engaging in legendary duels with them.  Sanguinius is disgusted with how far Fulgrim has fallen but Fulgrim is enraged by his particularly intense jealousy of Sanguinius being the “perfect angel” that he always strived to be.  Ultimately, the aid from Custodes, Thousand Sons psykers and the best of the Blood Angels helps Sanguinius banish him, though he is greatly weakened and his ability to keep going is diminished. 

Meanwhile Russ expresses his disgust in a more literal sense at Mortarion’s state but is shocked by how the Thousand Sons with him are able to shield the Wolf Lord and his guards from Nurgle’s diseases, allowing Russ to outmanoeuvre and outfight his daemonic brother, banishing him as well.  While Russ is also exhausted to the point of being mostly out of the fight, he begins to respect the warp-sorcery of the 15^th.

Continuing to lead the charge, the Emperor breaks into Perturabo’s fortress, fighting his way through traitor forces and finally reaching Perturabo’s command room to confront his wayward fourth son. But now that he’s quite thoroughly drawn away from his sons, super-Lorgar takes the opportunity to teleport onto the Vengeful Spirit in the hopes that he can kill Horus and Guilliman and cripple the loyalists from their fleet.  As he fights through the ship, the Emperor speaks with Perturabo.

Finally opening his heart in the intense moment, Perturabo explains his grievances against the Emperor; the hard jobs he always did, the rebellion of Olympia, and why he turned traitor and joined with Lorgar.  He also explains that Lorgar is on the Vengeful Spirit as they speak, and that he’s so powerful now that the traitors have basically won.

The Emperor, immediately upon Peturabo finishing, reaches out and engages in a psychic conversation with Perturabo that only lasts five seconds in real time. No one knows what was said between them, or how much, but the change in Perturabo was instant. He immediately disables his fortress’ teleportation inhibitors, allowing the Emperor to reach Lorgar, and broadcasts a message amongst the traitors that the defence is lost and to surrender to the loyalists; especially to his Iron Warriors.  The Emperor orders at the same time that any surrendering Iron Warriors not showing signs of Chaos corruption are to be taken prisoner unharmed.

Teleporting with his Custodes and Thousand Sons psykers up to the Vengeful Spirit (Perturabo left on the planet having surrendered), the Emperor seeks out Lorgar’s monstrous Warp presence easily to beat him.  He arrives just as Lorgar has gravely wounded both Horus and Guilliman, and the two engage in a duel for the ages as their respective bodyguards also fight.

Unrestrained by mortal flesh and fuelled by desperate gods, Lorgar is so incredibly powerful that he has the upper hand against the Emperor, and the massive clash of energies around them starts to distort reality.  In desperation, the Emperor focuses on simply trying to banish Lorgar into the Warp or maybe even draw some Warp power Dark King-style if things go really south.  Nonetheless, the battle goes poorly for the Emperor and eventually he is beaten and wounded, incapacitated just as Horus and Guilliman are.

However, there is a loud proclamation: “Our father does not fight alone.”

Russ and Sanguinius have somewhat recovered from their duels and teleported up to the ship, ready to die to defeat Lorgar and protect their father; Lorgar laughs at this, however, knowing that despite the nobility of their defiance he is still so powerful that he can best them.  The Emperor’s nearby Custodes have all been killed in the duel, the Thousand Sons psykers doing their best just to stay alive in Lorgar’s immense presence, all but two dead.  But just before a doomed battle can begin, a third defiant son appears: a powerful psychic projection of Magnus the Red, his already vast powers amplified by the Golden Throne greatly.  Before Lorgar can react or strike down their father Magnus’ projection clashes with the super-daemon with raw power, forcing him away; but before Lorgar can muster a potentially lethal counterattack Magnus breaks off.  Sanguinius briefly engages the prophet-turned-monster, knowing he is simply keeping Lorgar busy and just trying to stay alive.  Russ joins in to take some of the pressure off; as much as he wants to take his two beaten brothers to safety, Sanguinius is at risk of death if he does not intervene.

With this time bought, Magnus, through his projection, joins his might with that of his father, grabbing his hand and heaving him back to his feet.  Just as Lorgar sends the Angel and the Wolf flying with a blast of raw power, the Emperor and his son reach out together and with a blast of raw energy obliterate Lorgar’s form, casting him back into the Warp.

With all three Daemon Primarchs banished and the non-Daemonic Primarch having surrendered with his legion, morale is thoroughly broken amongst the traitors, and they are routed.  The Word Bearers, Death Guard, and Emperor’s Children retreat to the Warp while the Night Lords and Alpha Legion evacuate elsewhere.  Perturabo and his Iron Warriors surrender to the loyalists, awaiting judgement.

In the aftermath of the battle, the Emperor reflects upon his choices and the disastrous civil war in his Imperium that could have gone far, far worse.  He had already given the Primarchs with him a basic education on what Chaos is to prepare them for the attack, but while battling Lorgar his lost son told him of how he had learned of Chaos from Erebus and Kor Phaeron.  It is at that moment the Emperor realises that his Imperial Truth plan of starving the Chaos Gods through ignorance was folly.

He is also greatly impressed by the Thousand Sons psykers who stuck by him and his sons against the horrors of Chaos and aided their battles against the Daemon Primarchs significantly; speaking with Chief Librarian Ahzek Ahriman after the battle, he explains that they fought off the countless voices of temptation speaking into their minds by focusing entirely on a belief in the Emperor himself; having absolute faith in him and his ability to protect them and prevail, even when Lorgar was beating him down.

While he is not immediately convinced, the Emperor begins to truly doubt the doctrine of the Imperial Truth and becomes less stringent with its enforcement, and considers what he learned from Ahriman in determining the fate of Magnus’ tortured Legion.  Not yet willing (and not believing himself and the Imperium able) to wage war upon the Eye of Terror and the worlds under the three Chaos Legions’ control, he sets forth cleaning up the messy state of the Imperium with his sons before eventually returning to the Webway Project, which he also informs the Primarchs of.

Quick summary of the fate of each Primarch/Legion:

• Lorgar, Fulgrim, Mortarion, and their Legions have gone full Chaos and dwell in the Eye of Terror, with a collection of corrupted planets to their name. They continue to wage the Long War against the Imperium, but are not as much of a threat as Chaos is in canon. 
  • Lorgar has been made the Warmaster of Chaos and the main champion of the ruinous powers, leading the charge against the Imperium in the occasional Black Crusade. He is not considered a failure at any point as the traitors’ expectations have always been limited.
• Opposing them is, ironically enough, Perturabo and his Iron Warriors. As penance and a means to prove himself worthy of rejoining the Imperium, Perturabo has made himself the first line of defence against Chaos, taking his Legion to turn Cadia into a powerful fortress world where he oversees a stalwart defence against his daemonic brothers.
  • Humbled greatly by his defeat in the final battle and feeling as though his inner rage from Olympia has burned itself out due to the Emperor’s forgiveness, he is no longer as bitter as he once was; but instead determined, resolved, and penitent, ironically more like Dorn.
• The Night Lords and Alpha Legion are both Renegade forces, harassing and attacking the Imperium from numerous angles with hit-and-run tactics and raiding. Neither are all that unified, but fight in different ways; the 8^th with their terror tactics, the 20^th with their typical convoluted craziness.
  • Sevatar and many of the Night Lords that also care about their Primarch are more focused on their search for their absent gene-father. Curze himself foresaw the ill fate of Lorgar’s rebellion and has gone into hiding, in his typically fatalistic way believing himself doomed to a similarly ill fate; but not without craving vindication through death at Corax’s hands.
    • Like in canon, some Night Lords do drink the Chaos Kool-Aid for the sake of power.
  • Alpharius and Omegon are both alive, but their whereabouts are unknown even to themselves. However, they do have minds so I will give them some as best I can (since they’re the Alpha Legion you can still believe whatever you want)
    • The part of the story about Alpharius meeting with the Cabal and thus believing he can best serve the Emperor by destroying the Imperium is all a lie, and the Alpha Legion are meant to be a form of controlled opposition.
    • While Omegon was not as loyal to the Emperor, he trusted his twin’s lead, and they take their Legion (who do actually know what side they’re really on) to help bolster the Imperium’s defences by attacking and disrupting it as Renegades.
  • Furthermore, the Alpha Legion going balls-to-the-wall all-out on the Imperium with minimal restraint is a key reason why the Lorgarian Heresy isn’t a piddly little uprising in comparison the Horus Heresy. The Legion’s massive size, high-quality wargear, highly effective and reasonable tactics, networks of sleeper agents, scheming, mastery of stealth tactics and infiltration, and two Primarchs worked together to make a terrifyingly effective force of chaos and disruption.
    • The Alpha Legion easily held the White Scars at bay while simultaneously lending large forces to aid the traitors, causing large uprisings within all loyalist Legions, seeding Chaos cults all over the Imperium (Alpharius was given a full Chaos education by the Emperor on Terra) and inciting rebellions and assassinating key individuals to cause power vacuums on the Imperium’s worlds.
    • This incredibly powerful campaign continues to the modern day and makes the Alpha Legion alone one of the greatest threats to the Imperium short of massive xenos armies.
• Angron is in stasis and his Legion have been thoroughly screened and placed under Horus’ direct command; the hope is that eventually Angron can have the Nails removed and thus the 12^th can be restored as a functional and loyal Legion. There is also a mandate that all World Eaters have their Butcher’s Nails removed.
• The Lion ends up in a coma within the Rock like in canon, with the Dark Angels nonetheless mostly unified as only part of the Legion went to Caliban, though distressed by their missing Primarch. The Emperor is suspicious of the Lion’s absence and will eventually figure out what happened on Caliban.
  • The Fallen have joined either the three Chaos Legions in the Eye of Terror or the two Renegade Legions.
• As for Horus, he remains Warmaster, overseeing the Imperium’s military forces as the Emperor’s number two in that regard. As for his Legion, they were greatly beaten down and suffered heavy casualties on Isstvan III but have been bolstered by the traitor legion loyalists who were with them. 
  • Guilliman takes the time to explain to him that there is in fact more to their work than just crusading and there is a place for all of them now the Crusade is over (for now), to help assuage Horus’ worries. As a result, they develop a better bond and Horus ends up respecting Guilliman on a more personal level.
• The Thousand Sons have unfortunately been greatly diminished once again by Tzeentch being a total asshole, their ranks absolutely ravaged by not just warfare but also the warp storms and flesh-change that Tzeentch throws at them. However, Ahriman has realised that the Emperor and the power of belief might be the key to safeguarding their vulnerable psyker souls, and has a long debate with Magnus (who is eventually relieved of the Golden Throne once the Webway Project is finished) on the matter.
  • While Magnus is not a fan of Emperor-worship and has some doubts, he is desperate for a solution to save his sons and so sanctions Ahriman’s new doctrine for the Legion to guard themselves against Chaos through faith.
  • The result is that, while still distrusted due to their psyker nature, the Thousand Sons become almost as faithful as the Word Bearers once were. Initially, it’s a desperate act looking for salvation from the Flesh-Change, but once it starts to go away, they see it as a miracle and vindication of their belief.  Their numbers begin to grow and they become a huge asset to the Imperium; a living embodiment of what humanity can strive to be as an increasingly psychic race.
  • Magnus is so grateful that his beloved sons are now guarded from their age-old curse that he starts to read up on the Lectitio Divinitatus and wonders if Lorgar may have been right.
• The White Scars and their Primarch, as is their way, stick to the fringes of the Imperium’s territory, soaring the stars as they fight off external threats. This also means they run into the Renegade Legions quite a lot, and the Alpha Legion develops into something of a nemesis for them.
• The Space Wolves and Blood Angels remain largely unchanged from the way they were before, working alongside the Ultramarines to clean up the Imperium, as do their Primarchs.
• The Shattered Legions remain in a sorry state, though with the aid of other Legions their rebuilding commences. Vulkan gets the Salamanders put together faster than the others since he started earlier, though he has not forgotten his torment at Curze’s hands.
  • Corvus Corax does take some time to oversee the rebuilding of the Raven Guard, but prefers to stay on the hunt for Curze, vengeful and determined to punish him; Curze stopping him from killing Lorgar is one of many things he wants retribution for. Notably, many of the traitor legion loyalists from Isstvan 5 join the Raven Guard.
  • Ferrus Manus, meanwhile, has his intact body preserved in a stasis pod, in Fulgrim’s possession. Like in canon, Fulgrim is insecure over his failure to convince his brother to join him and so tasks Fabius Bile with cloning him.  The Iron Hands are determined to retrieve their gene-father’s body and destroy the Emperor’s Children and their Primarch in revenge.
• The Imperial Fists are split between the Terran garrison and those serving under the Warmaster, aiding Rogal Dorn in stopping the civil war on Mars. They remain mostly the same as they were before.
• Malcador the Sigillite has been busy forming the Inquisition in response to the Word Bearers and Alpha Legion sowing treachery and Chaos corruption across the entire Imperium; the founding members of the Knights-Errant are the same (for the most part) and they did escape on the Eisenstein as they did in canon. In addition, he aided the Primarchs on and near Terra in their efforts.
  • Now that the war is over, Malcador enters consultation with the Emperor and Magnus the Red on the creation of the Grey Knights as a force to combat Lorgar and the forces of Chaos most effectively. Combining the knowledge the Thousand Sons have gained from the power of faith honing and controlling their psychic might, the Grey Knights are created as a secret First Chapter of the Thousand Sons dedicated to daemon-hunting, taking orders from Malcador as the Master of the Inquisition.
    • The Grey Knights recruit from the Thousand Sons’ best of the best in terms of might, loyalty and stability. Ahriman is proposed as Chapter Master but it is agreed after Magnus’ protests that he is kept on as the cyclopean Primarch’s second-in-command.

As for the longer-term fate of the Imperium, Chaos and renegades remain significant threats, but minor ones in comparison to the awakening of the Necrons and arrival of the Tyranids.  Both xenos forces see the massively powerful, mostly unified human Imperium as the biggest threat/meal, so humanity becomes embroiled in all-out, often desperate war against overwhelming alien threats.  Despite victory at Ullanor, the Orks remain the plague on the galaxy they always have been and occasionally threaten the Imperium with huge Waaaghs.  At some stage, the remaining Krorks resurface to wage WAAAGH on the Imperium, and not long after the first Tyranid Hive Fleets comes the Silent King.

The Eldar, Dark Eldar, and Tau are minor issues compared to the Imperium’s massive war against the Necrons and Tyranids, but they and Chaos forces seek opportunities to gain power/do some damage where they can.  The Emperor and Guilliman broker deals with most Craftworlds such as Iyanden and Ulthwe, though Biel-Tan remains militant and dangerous, while Horus, having learned from his experiences bringing the Interex into the fold, vassalizes the Tau.  The Dark Eldar in Commoragh are eventually destroyed but remain a significant nuisance for the Imperium for a good while.

The result of the Lorgarian Heresy is a Nobledark setting.  The situation often gets bad: super-evil shit (Slaanesh, Night Lords) persists and ruins people’s lives/minds, the Imperium still uses servitors, the Tyranids and Necrons are massive threats that continue to plunge the Imperium into difficult wars, but there are noble and optimistic characters who can overcome them in a setting with clear direction.  It’s a balance of sorts between what the Emperor wants and what Chaos wants, because the grimdark setting of 40k is exactly what Chaos wants.