Warhammer 40K: The Molech Gambit- How The Emperor Laid A Trap For Horus – Prime
Today we look at how Horus’ victory at Molech was all part of the Emperor’s grand plan.
Down through the long ages of Imperial history, the name of Molech conjures visions of a place of mystery and dark deeds. It is -a place of power and treachery, a place of mystery and dark deeds. The Battle of Molech was long known as one of the crucial engagements of the Horus Heresy. First mentioned way back in 1995 in White Dwarf #190, the battle was described as a victory for Horus, and the first place that Deamon infected Knights are described.
The battle has since been expanded on, most notably in the novel Vengeful Spirit. Here Molech is revealed as something like a turning point, not simply another battle but the point that Horus reached his true apotheosis and reached for godhood. We are presented then with the story of Molech as Horus’ greatest achievement, where he gained the power to rival the very Master of Mankind. Yet as with many things in the Grim Dark Universe, Molech is not what it seems and the events there are not as clear as they first appear. Rather than a great victory, Molech was, in fact, a trap that Horus fell for, leading to his ultimate downfall.
Part 1- The Story We Know
“The Emperor Traveled Here in Humble Guise”
To understand the trap, let us first look at what we have been told of Molech. Molech was a human settled world not too far from Terra and of a similar size. The planet was settled early in human Space faring history, and its civilization survived even Old Night fairly intact. Sometime before the Unification Wars the Emperor traveled to Molech in the company of several perpetuals. The exact time of his trip is unclear. Horus first says it was centuries or millennium before Unification18.
Later Horus adds that this took place “At the dawn of the great diaspora” 19. This is a little more solid but still vague, as it could refer to the first Stellar Exodus, which took place sometime between M2-M18 when humanity first started spreading to the stars. It could also refer to expansion during the dawn of the Dark Age of Technology, around M18 when the Warp Drive was invented and human expansion truly ballooned.
We also know that the Emperor arrived on Molech in a starship, however, he (and apparently some of his companions) returned to Terra without the ship, leaving it’s remains crashed on Molech. This could argue that the Emperor traveled to Molech during the earlier Stellar Exodus using pre-warp tech to reach the planet over a long journey, one that he and his Perpetual crew could survive and then chose to return to Terra by other means as it would be much faster. If the Emperor had traveled to Molech using a Warp Drive there doesn’t seem to be a particularly compelling reason as to why he would make a one way trip on the ship. Regardless of the exact time, we can say that it was with some certainty 10,000 years before the Heresy, and possibly much earlier. It has been long enough that his visit passed into myth’s and legends on Molech, though ones they recorded for posterity.
The Emperor came to Molech for a specific purpose. On Molech he found a portal to the Warp and was able to enter it, and there he found power, according to Horus:
“The Emperor needed a starship to reach Molech, but didn’t need it to get back. Whatever He found there made Him into a god or as near as makes no difference” 20.
“At the dawn of the great diaspora, the Emperor traveled here [Molech] in humble guise and found the gateway to a realm of immortal gods. He offered them things only a god-in-waiting could offer, and they trusted Him. They gave Him a measure of their power, and with that power, He wrought the science to unlock the mysteries of creation… But the Emperor had no intention of honouring His debt to the gods. he turned on them, taking their gifts and blending them with His genecraft to give birth to demigods.”21
Thus On Molech, the Emperor found His apotheosis by making a bargain with the gods of Chaos He transformed from a mere immortal psyker of immense power into the Emperor of Mankind, a god or as close to one as makes no difference. Here too, He learned secrets that would later allow him to create the Primarchs, but here as well, He betrayed the gods of Chaos in some manner and possibly caused their enmity towards humanity. Thus for many things, the Emperor, the Imperium, the Long War, and the Primarchs, Molech was the beginning.
“Then Tell Me Of Molech”
Long years later, after the rise and fall of human civilizations across the galaxy, the Emperor returned to Molech. He came at the height of the Great Crusade in all His power and glory, bringing with him no less than four of his Primarch sons: The Lion, Jaghatai Khan, Fulgrim of the Emperor’s Children, and Horus Lupercal. With them came portions of their Legions descending on the world with unmatched might. There was no resistance, nor was any expected; the people of Molech had long awaited a return to the Terran fold, and the compliance was peaceful.
After arriving in the world, the Emperor and his sons spent one hundred and eleven days in the world going about the Emperor’s business and fortifying the world. When they left, the Emperor used His considered power to block the memory of Molech and their visit from the minds of not just His four sons. Still, seemingly anyone who had gone there – both Horus Aximand and Abbadon were affected. When he departed, the Emperor left behind a garrison of 100 Imperial Army Regiments, three Titan Cohorts, the local Knight Houses, and a company each from the Ultramarines and Blood Angels – two Legions whose Primarch’s had not been on Molech 22.
It seems the Emperor wanted to hide all knowledge of Molech and it’s importance, going so far as to risk tampering with his sons’ memory. Yet there was a flaw in his plan. Though his sons could not recall Molech in detail, they could remember it a little. It was Horus who noticed the tampering while going through the Vengeful Spirits logs. He noticed the gap in his memory. While the Emperor had attempted to hide all knowledge of his visits to Molech, he had not been thorough.
Some settlers had left Molech after his first visit, and with took with them records of His visit and traveled to the world Dwell. There they interred these memories in the Mausolytic, a gestalt memory of millions of dead humans. It just so happened that one of those later dead happened to be an expert on pre-Unification myths about the Emperor, and this his spirit was able to use his knowledge to identify the being who visited Molech as the Emperor. Horus knew of the Mausolytic, traveled there, and thus learned of the Emperor’s visits to Molech. The Warmaster gleaned that He had become a god there, something Horus planned to do23.
“To Slay a god, a warrior must first become a god himself.”
So was Horus’ course set. With a massive and overwhelming force, he came to Molech, smashing the orbital defenses and battle fleet Molech with ease. He landed thousands of Space Marines and support troops on the planet and waged a decisive and devastating ground war. In the Cave of Hypnos, he defeated a guardian spirit left behind by the Emperor and regained his memories of his own visit to Molech, where the Emperor told His sons about His first visit and the power He gained. Horus then proceeded to the capital city of Lupercalia, where he found the portal to the warp. The perpetual Alivia Sureka (left behind by the Emperor to close the portal if it was ever threatened), tried to stop him. She failed, and Horus entered it.
Past the portal, Horus spend long eons battling for the favor of the Chaos gods. Rather than bargain and cheat like his father, Horus earned their trust and power and changed, an apotheosis, becoming godlike and gaining the power of the Chaos Pantheon. An ability to rival the Emperor of Mankind Himself. Leaving Molech Horus seems to have won a significant victory. Despite all the Emperor’s precautions, His greatest secret was revealed, and despite the defenses, He had put in place, Horus was able to gain the ultimate power and reach his own form of godhood24.
Part 2- The Truth and The Trap
So, it’s to Molech Then?
So far, we’ve discussed what happened on Molech at face value. However, several things about the events leading up to the battle do not make sense when examined carefully. Indeed on closer inspection, we can see that the truth of Molech is far different from what we have been told and that Molech was an elaborate trap set for Horus. Let us take a look at some of these details closely.
The first detail to examine is the Emperor’s first trip to Molech. It is here that Horus believes that the Emperor ascended to godhood and gained the knowledge to create the Primarchs. This knowledge is based on two facts:
- That the Emperor arrived on Molech in a starship but didn’t need one to return to Terra
- Knowledge that the Emperor imparted on him first hand during Horus’ first visit to Molech
These sources, however, have issues. First, the idea that only a god could travel from Molech to Terra without a spaceship is false. The Emperor likely knew several ways to travel vast distances without a spaceship before he visited Molech. Aside from knowledge of the Eldar Webway, the perpetuals seem to know some way to travel directly through space/time/the warp. Ollanius Pius uses this method to escape from Calth to reach Terra. Both the Emperor and Alvia Sureka knew Ollanius Pius25.
Since Alvia has been on Molech since the Emperor’s first visit, and as far we know, Ollanius has not visited Molech since then; he must have known the Emperor before He traveled to Molech and it as such the Emperor likely knew the same methods of travel as Pius. At the end of Vengeful Spirit, Sureka is “killed” on Molech, yet seems to survive due to being a perpetual and appears on a starship in the outer reaches of the system. A ship that had left while she was still trying to close the Warp Gate. Thus it seems that she too was able to leave Molech without a ship. 26.
So it should be clear that merely being able to leave Molech without a space ship is not proof of godhood, and the Emperor would have been able to do it both before and after his visit to the planet. The second source of Horus’ knowledge is, of course, what the Emperor tells him, and this is a source we cannot trust. For if the Emperor were laying a trap, he would say whatever was needed to bait it. Now, it does seem that the Emperor did go to Molech and go through the portal; Sureka remembers helping the Emperor after he left the portal, and Horus does not change his story after going through the portal. 27. What remains unclear is what exactly the Emperor gained going through the portal. Was it godhood? Was it knowledge to make Primarchs, or was it something else? In the end, Horus is led to Molech and the Warp Portal based on some faulty information – but information that is tantalizing enough to make him stage a major operation to follow up on it.
“The Dead Don’t Easily Give Up Their Secrets.”
So we know what set Horus on his path, faulty information fed to him by the Emperor. Next, let us turn our study to the Emperor’s cover-up of Molech. According to the standard narrative, Molech was a place of utmost importance to the Emperor. It was where He became a god, and anyone seeking to rival him could travel there and obtain massive power. It and Horus believe this is one of the most important places in the galaxy, and keeping it secret would be highly valuable to the Emperor. Indeed He goes to great lengths to hide what’s on Molech, altering his son’s memory and concealing evidence of his previous trips.
And yet we have to ask the obvious question. Why did He bring his sons to Molech in the first place? And when he did, why tell them about his trip through the portal? Why do all this to then only wipe their memory of the event? These actions make no sense. The Primarchs were not needed on Molech, nor does the Emperor seem to have done anything with them there other than telling them about the portal. Given the secrecy and that He looks not to have wanted them to know about it, why even risk bringing them to the planet?
Unless He did want them to know. Indeed the only conceivable reason for bringing them to Molech was to hide a memory to plant a seed. Also consider the Primarchs he brought, Horus, Fulgrim, The Lion, and the Khan. These might well be the ones he felt where most likely to rebel, we know, for instance, that Russ had been found by then, but he wasn’t invited along- and he was considered the most trustworthy of all. 28
If Molech was a trap, then the Emperor’s actions make more sense. He took the 4 Primarchs he considered most likely to rebel there, and then planted the seed that Molech was important, later hiding that knowledge behind a trail of breadcrumbs. Let us also consider that the Emperor’s cover-up is poorly done. When protecting this, what seems to be one of His most important, He does a half job of a secret. He alters the memories of the Primarchs and their men, but not the records of the Great Crusade nor the logs of the ships, like the Vengeful Spirit, that were at Molech. It’s this “oversight” that allows Horus to realize there are gaps in his memory in the first place.
Let us also consider how Horus gains the next bit of information- the Mausolytic of Dwell. Here was one of a kind depository of knowledge; one is no doubt known to the Emperor. In a massive coincidence, some of the early settlers of Dwell came from Molech with knowledge of the Emperor’s first visit, and the story that he didn’t need a spaceship to leave. That alone wouldn’t have told Horus what he needed; there was also the famous expert on pre-Unification History- someone again the Emperor likely would have known of and known personally. It was his knowledge combined with the myths from Dwell that identified the visitor to Molech as the Emperor. This is a massive coincidence, one that really shouldn’t have been possible, and one that the Emperor probably should have caught, since Horus was able to find this source of knowledge relatively easily. Of course, it wouldn’t be a coincidence if the Emperor deliberately planned it.
“What need did the Emperor have to fortify Molech with such strength?”
Finally, let us turn to the defenses the Emperor left on Molech. On the ground, he left 100 Imperial Army Regiments, three Titan Cohorts, the local Knight Houses, and a company each from the Ultramarines and Blood Angels. In space, he left a decent sized battle fleet and other orbital defenses. Lastly, there was his special reserves: a guardian spirit that was some psychic entity and Alivia Sureka. Sureka was tasked with stopping lone madmen and adventures who might sneak past the other defenses from accessing the portal and was given the knowledge to permanently seal the portal if needed 29.
On the face of it, these seem like formidable defenses. They are significant to tell the traitor Primarchs that Molech is worth defending. They are also strong enough to stop any random raid by Xenos or renegades. However, they are not strong enough to stop a mass attack by Legion Troops. From Horus’ first arrival in the system, it’s clear to pretty much all involved that Molechs fate is sealed. The orbital assets are easily dispatched, and while the ground fighting is fierce, its never a real risk for Horus. For all its millions of troops, there is only a very small handful of Space Marines, a token force, on the world, and they cannot hope to win. Thus Molech’s defenses are strong enough to attract attention but not strong enough to stop a determined attacker.
And what of Alivia Sureka? She was left on the planet for thousands of years to prevent precisely this sort of thing from happening and then fails at the ultimate test. She seems to be trying to stop Horus and barely fails, but we have to ask why the portal wasn’t sealed in the first place. Sureka says the Emperor could close it, but not seal it, but that she can seal it for good 30. But if she could have sealed it all along, why did she wait? Why didn’t the Emperor have her seal it long ago, rather than run the risk of someone else accessing the power? There seems no good reason to keep the portal open once He’d used it, unless as bait for a trap.
Part 3: The Emperor’s Prey
“This is the Hellgate You Spoke of?”
So here, by looking at some of the facts closer, we have an alternate view of what happened on Molech. At some point, the Emperor did indeed go to Molech and gained something, though what he achieved is less clear then Horus thinks. The Emperor then later brought some of his sons, likely those he felt most likely to betray him and planted a seed in their mind that Molech was a place they could gain power. He hid this knowledge from them but left a trail of breadcrumbs so that if they looked hard enough, they could uncover both the “truth” and that He had tried to hide it from them. Both this “hidden truth” and the importance the Emperor seemed to give Molech’s defenses would convince a traitor that Molech was essential and be bait for a trap.
Though the Emperor had the means to neutralize the threat Molech presented, He chose not to. Instead of leaving it, inadequately defended. All of this combined to draw a traitor – in this case, Horus to Molech – and present enough of a challenge that the traitor would believe the lies the Emperor told them about what could be gained by going through the gate. Everything, from the cover-up to the defenders, would convince the traitor to pass through the Warp Gate, while the “best” the Emperor could muster would fail to prevent this from happening.
Viewed from this angle, it seems almost obvious that the Emperor wanted Horus, or whichever Primarch rebelled against him to go to Molech and through the Warp Gate. All of His actions, from unaccountably bringing Primarchs to Molech, to failing to cover it up to not sealing the gate thousands of years ago, make perfect sense if they were part of a grand trap. Even His failure to weed out a Chaos Cult, the Serpent Cult, on Molech would make sense if it were all meant as a trap. Everything leads to the moment Horus went through the gate and claimed the power of the Chaos Pantheon.
“Finally, after everything, Horus was a god.”
If the Emperor wanted Horus to go though the Warp Gate, He must have had a very good reason; it’s undeniable that Horus gained massive power beyond the gate. He considered himself a god afterwards31. Everyone else that sees him notices he is changed; Leman Russ once felt he could have beaten Horus in a fight, not so after Molech. Even if not a god, he is soon known as the Ascendant Vessel of Chaos. It’s clear he gained a lot, so why push him towards that goal?
There are a couple of reasons that appear to us. One is that despite his power, he is not the Emperor’s equal. Horus might think that he became a god, but he is still outclassed by his father, as their final confrontation proves. Maybe the Emperor wanted to make Horus overconfident, to drive Horus into confronting He-of Terra in the Warp and through psychic means, rather than merely martial ways, in a battleground where He was the real master.
Another possibility is that taking on the power of the Warp made Horus vulnerable in ways he had not been before. Ways the Emperor had planned for. Near the start of the Great Crusade, when only Horus, Russ, and Ferrus Manus had been found, the Emperor gifted Russ with The Spear of the Emperor. This was a powerful and deadly weapon, made with all of the Emperor’s skill, and one Russ considered to have an ill-word, an evil fate32. Russ ended up not using the spear, because of how it made him feel. However, once the Heresy was in full swing, Russ resolved to fight Horus in person, it was revealed to Russ that he could not beat Horus, but if he could only wound Horus with the spear, it would lead to his downfall33. This Russ does, and though he loses the fight, the minor wound seems to have an out of proportion effect on Horus. Is it possible that the Emperor foresaw all this beforehand, giving Russ a weapon that would specifically prove useful against someone who had gone through the Molech portal? His view is long, after all.
By making a pact with the dark gods, Horus does also seem to have given himself another weakness. When the Warmaster’s fleets arrive at Terra, it is revealed that the Emperor’s power is such that no daemon can set foot on the world. Even the Primarchs who have made pacts with the gods, Magnus, Fulgrim, Angron, and likely Horus, were to set foot on Terra – they would be destroyed. This helps buy the defender’s time 34.
Yet it is at the end of The Lost and The Damned that the true effect of the Emperor’s trap is seen. Throughout the novel, Abbadon notices that Horus seems to be diminishing, not only does he seem to be losing his humanity, but he seems to be spending more time in the Warp and somehow getting weaker. He is then hit with this revelation:
“‘You have seen it,’ Layak said steadily. ‘You can sense it. Horus is failing. He is too strong to defeat, but it may be that he is too weak to claim victory. The Pantheon gift him with great ability, but the favour of the gods carries a steep price… Horus’ soul is bright with divine might, but it burns. Mighty as his being is, it is finite. He is not invincible in this world or the other; If we delay too long, he will be devoured by the power he commands.”efn_note]ibid pg 414[/efn_note]
Here is the truth, the power Horus gained at Molech is killing him.
“I Am Coming For You, Father”
Here then we see the jaws of the Emperors trap spring shut, and his real goal can be glimpsed. The Emperor lured Horus to Molech and through the Warp Gate with the promise of power. However, once Horus stepped through the gate, he was playing the game on the Emperor’s terms. Gifted with immense power, the Warmaster was suddenly on a time limit. Horus faced a countdown to his own death, and so had to drive hard for Terra. This meant that the Emperor was controlling the game at this point and had removed Horus’ freedom of action.
Horus could not, for instance, consolidate his gains, or turn on Ultramar and destroy the threat to his rear. Nor could Horus try to build a splinter Imperium and build up forces for a war of attrition. Facing a countdown, Horus couldn’t even accept a temporary defeat, could not retreat from Terra to try again, or become a lingering danger. Once he passed through the warp gate, Horus had little choice but to risk everything on the quickest path to Terra and a confrontation with his father. By tricking Horus into the Warp Portal, the Emperor dictated all of Horus’ actions past that point, and they were entirely predictable.
Indeed, it seems that from the moment Horus decided to go to Molech to the final confrontation with his Father, he was following the Emperor’s plans for him, doing exactly what the Emperor wanted. Molech was a carefully laid trap, set up over decades if not millennium, designed to draw in a traitor son and trap them into a predictable course of action that would ultimately lead them to the Emperor and death. This was maybe one of the Emperor’s most brilliant plans.
Molech was not where Horus became a god, Molech is where Horus died; it just took him a while to realize it.
- Graham McNeill. Vengeful Spirit, The Battle of Molech. (Nottingham: Black Library, 2014), pg. 61
- ibid pg. 379
- ibid pg. 62
- ibid pg. 379
- ibid pgs 60-61
- ibid pgs 58-61
- ibid pgs 211-621
- ibid pg. 412
- ibid pg. 621
- ibid pg 551
- ibid pg 153
- ibid pg 556
- ibid pg 556
- ibid pg 616
- Guy Haley. Wolfsbane, The Wyrd Spear Cast. (Nottingham: Black Library, 2018), pg. 134
- ibid pg 198
- Guy Haley. Siege of Terra: The Lost and the Damned (Nottingham: Black Library, 2019), pg. 115
- Graham McNeill. Vengeful Spirit, The Battle of Molech. (Nottingham: Black Library, 2014), pg. 61
- ibid pg. 379
- ibid pg. 62
- ibid pg. 379
- ibid pgs 60-61
- ibid pgs 58-61
- ibid pgs 211-621
- ibid pg. 412
- ibid pg. 621
- ibid pg 551
- ibid pg 153
- ibid pg 556
- ibid pg 556
- ibid pg 616
- Guy Haley. Wolfsbane, The Wyrd Spear Cast. (Nottingham: Black Library, 2018), pg. 134
- ibid pg 198
- Guy Haley. Siege of Terra: The Lost and the Damned (Nottingham: Black Library, 2019), pg. 115
