40K Lore: The Homes of Magnus
Today we look at Prospero and Sortiarus, the two homes of Magnus the Red.
Prospero
Prospero was the Homeworld of Magnus the Red and his Legion, the Thousand Sons.
It was a desolate, dark planet and was chosen by its inhabitants because of its distance from Terra. Mutants and Psykers lived in reclusion and study, and Magnus fit in well with this group due to his incredible psychic potential.
In the end, the only good thing about Prospero was its remoteness, which made it easy to hide on. It had one major city, Tizca, a gleaming city of white marble, with spires reaching into the sky. It was situated on the most central of the many mountains of the planet, nourished by underground hydroponics and techno-psychic collectible arrays providing sustainable energy. All the towers were gleaming and there were soaring obelisks and towering pyramids.
When Magnus arrived, he crashed into the central plaza of the city. The city was very vulnerable from attack from above, but no one seemed to notice this until Leman Russ came and bombarded the planet. He attacked the planet with extreme viciousness and devastating results, slaughtering all he could find. In the end, after a grueling duel between the two primarchs, Magnus cast spells that took all of the great city, his marines, and his precious libraries to a new Homeworld, the Planet of Sorcerers.
Later in the Heresy, the White Scars under Jaghatai Khan arrived to investigate what had transpired. They found no survivors from either side and the vengeful ghosts of slain Thousand Sons wandering the ruins of Tizca. The Khan was confronted by a shade of Magnus, who discussed both of their successes and failures and may have been tempting his brother to join the forces of Chaos. After refusing Magnus, Jaghatai then refused the newly arrived Mortarion and the two Primarch’s battled as their fleets clashed in space. After a brief but intense battle between Astartes warships, the Death Guard disengaged.
At least one indigenous species on Prospero was known to have been hostile and extremely dangerous to human life. The psychneuein, a species commonly found on Prospero, was a major threat to the early settlers of Prospero and continued to present a problem to the inhabitants of the world all the way up to the end, when the planet’s entire ecosystem was destroyed by planetary bombardment.
The psychneuein reproduced by implanting eggs into a host’s brain psychically. An infected host would have no idea they’d been implanted until the eggs began to grow, causing severe pain and ultimately, death as the eggs hatched. On only one known occasion has a victim been successfully cured of the implanted psychic eggs. An archaeologist, living in Tizca, had been implanted while outside the city on a day trip. She later collapsed and was taken to a hospital where a team of highly skilled Thousand Sons Astartes were able to use their powers to remove the eggs from her brain in a form of psychic surgery.
Sortiarius
Sortiarius, the Planet of the Sorcerers, is a Daemon World located deep in the Eye of Terror. It is the current homeworld of the Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marine Legion.
At the conclusion of the Battle of Prospero, Magnus the Red used his sorcerous powers for a last-ditch master spell, transporting the surviving warriors of his Legion through the warp to another planet, one promised to them as sanctuary. This planet is now the Daemon World of Magnus the Red; dark, rocky, volcanic and in constant turmoil. Its skies are storms of warp energy; low-hanging multi-coloured clouds cover the land and rain drops of energy to fill up the unnaturally dark rivers and seas. The Sorcerer’s Towers of the Thousand Sons thrust up from rocks jutting from lava plains, twisted mockeries of what the City of Light once was. Dwarfing all other towers is Magnus’s own, an obsidian monolith called the Tower of the Cyclops. As well as being staffed by thousands of servants and troops, Magnus’s tower also possesses a sorcerous, great, glowing eye. The Eye of the Tower watches over the planet, its gaze also penetrating through the warp into the material galaxy. This allows Magnus to sense the arcane artefacts and gifted psykers which fascinate him, so that he can despatch his Thousand Sons to raid the Imperium.
When the Thousand Sons first arrived on the planet, they found it unpopulated. Over thousands of years of raiding, they have acquired a multitude of minions. This has created a servant underclass, some of which have escaped their masters into the hostile land. These escaped servants then often join the nominally independent nomadic warbands upon the Planet of the Sorcerers, warbands led by both Champions from the Thousand Sons or powerful mortals risen from the ranks of the escaped servants. Often, these mortal champions arising among the warbands are then recruited back to serve the Thousand Sons. Individuals with psychic powers are much sought after for the Thousand Sons to act as servants, becoming known as Thrall Wizards, psykers bound to the service of particular Sorcerers. Also notable is the amount of Beastmen arisen upon the planet, a subordinate population group that developed over thousands of years. While some of these mutants – specifically referred to as Tzaangors – enter various warbands, most remain wild. Little is said of flora or fauna, apart from the presence of Chaos Houndsamongst some warbands.
Learn More of the Thousand Sons
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~There’s no place like home…
