40K LORE: The Heresy Takes Root
Today we begin a history of the Horus Heresy – starting with the early shattering days that blew the Imperium apart.
The Warmaster is turned!
Swaying the Legions
Renouncing his oath to the Emperor, Horus led his Legion into worship of the myriad Chaos Gods. Horus’s genius was revealed as he converted half of the Legions, along with many regiments of the Imperial Army and several Titan Legions to his cause, revealing the Emperor to be as Horus saw him – a man undeserving of the praise and recognition of the human race. Angron of the World Eaters, Fulgrim of the Emperor’s Children and Mortarion of the Death Guard were the first Primarchs to side with the Warmaster. Horus found it easy exploit the Primarchs’ flaws – Angron’s frenzied love of violence was a match for Khorne; Fulgrim was corrupted by a daemon weapon of Slaanesh and its promise of unending perfection; Mortarion, already a close friend of his brother, was too easily persuaded, having been turned long before the Heresy through the efforts of his first captain Calas Typhon. Erebus had already vouched for the support of Lorgar and theWord Bearers, and Horus’s plans came together with these legions at his side. Magnus, however, had yet to be dealt with. The Primarch was aware of his brother’s fall and attempted to warn the Emperor of the impending betrayal. However, knowing that he would have to find a means of quickly warning the Emperor, Magnus decided to use his sorcery to deliver the message as an act of both desperation and vindication. The message penetrated the psychic defences of the Imperial Palace on Terra, shattering all the psychic wards the Emperor had placed on the Palace and destroying his secret project: a physical gate by which the Emperor intended to invade the Webway and take battle to the Eldar.
Scouring of Isstvan III
The first sign that Horus and his Legion had turned to Chaos was made evident when Horus virus bombed the rebel world of Isstvan III. ThePlanetary Governor of Isstvan III had declared his independence from the Imperium and the Council of Terra charged Horus with retaking that world. This order merely furthered Horus’s plans. Although the four Legions under his direct command had turned traitor, there were still some loyalist elements within the Sons of Horus, World Eaters, Emperor’s Children, and Death Guard; many of these were Terran Space Marines who had been recruited before being reunited with their Primarchs. Horus, under the guise of his orders, amassed his troops in the Isstvan System.
Horus had a plan by which he would destroy all loyalist elements of the Legions at his command. After a lengthy bombardment, Horus dispatched all Loyalist Marines down to the planet, ostensibly to bringing it back into the Imperium. At the moment of victory, however, the loyalist marines were betrayed: with a cold snarl of “Let the galaxy burn!, Horus ordered his ships to open fire on Istvann III and virus bombs began to rain down on the planet. However, some marines loyal to the Emperor had remained on board their ships, and as Isstvan III died, these soldiers fought desperately to warn their brethren on the surface. Their sacrifice saved many marines, as they were able to take shelter before the virus bombs struck. The population of Isstvan III received no such protection. Twelve billion people died almost immediately. The psychic shock of so many simultaneous deaths shrieked through the Warp, alerting the Emperor that something was terribly wrong and informing the Chaos Gods that Horus was now theirs. A contingent of loyalists led by Captain Garro of the Death Guard escaped the fleet orbiting Isstvan III aboard the damaged Eisenstein, fleeing to Terra to warn the Emperor.
Angron, realising that the virus bombs had not been fully effective against the loyalist marines, flew into a rage and hurled himself at the planet with fifty companies of World Eaters. Horus was furious at Angron for delaying his plans, yet reluctantly reinforced him with troops from the Sons of Horus, the Death Guard, and the Emperor’s Children. On Isstvan III, the remaining Loyalists under the command of Saul Tarvitz fought bravely against their own traitorous battle-brothers, but their cause was doomed. Soon only a few hundred of them remained until, finally, Horus grew unable to tolerate the delay, forced Angron to withdraw his forces, and ordered a systematic orbital bombardment that killed Isstvan III’s last brave survivors.
Nathaniel Garro – Flees aboard the Eisenstein
Flight of the Eisenstein
The seventy Loyalists led by Captain Garro commandeered the Imperial frigate Eisenstein and evading the forces of Horus, were able to escape from the Isstvan system into the Immaterium. The Eisenstein was badly damaged during its escape from Isstvan III; all its astropaths were dead and its lone navigator was mortally wounded. However, Garro managed to attract the attention of passing loyalist ships by setting the vessel’s warp engines to self-destruct and ejecting them from the ship. Rogal Dorn’s Imperial Fists Legion had been becalmed in the Warp with its fleet for some time and his navigators sensed the detonation of the Eisenstein’s Warp drives. Making an immediate course for the location of the ship’s beacon, Dorn met with Garro, who explained to him all that had happened with the traitor legions.
The remaining crew of the Eisenstein, now aboard Primarch Dorn’s fortress-monastery Phalanx, was able to reach Terra (after Dorn’s fleet destroyed the Eisenstein to ensure no Chaos taint remained), allowing the loyal marines to report the extent of the atrocities that had occurred in the Isstvan system. It was said in later millennia that without this warning, the Imperium would have faced even greater difficulties in responding to Horus’s next moves although his warning may have enabled Horus to enact the drop site massacre.
The fate of these seventy marines is ultimately 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. Others believe that Captain Garro, shocked by the terrible betrayal, became an apothecary, vowing never to kill again. Others believe some of these men formed the nucleus of the elite Space Marines Chapter later known as the Grey Knights, for Malcador the Sigillite had presented eight of the survivors to the Emperor before his departure. These men were gifted psykers, came from the ranks of the Legions that had turned traitor, and yet maintained both an unbreakable faith in the Emperor and talent for resisting the temptations of Chaos
Iron Hands fight the Emperor’s Children: The Dropsite Massacre
Dropsite Massacre
After ridding himself of all suspected loyalist members within the three Legions under his direct command, Horus chose Isstvan V as his command post and prepared a trap for his former brothers and their Legions.
Agonizing over the betrayal of his most beloved son, the Emperor ordered the deployment of seven full Space Marine Legions against him. Their orders were to take Horus and the Primarchs allied with him into custody and bring them back to Terra to explain their actions. Unbeknownst to the Emperor, four of the Primarchs and their Legions chosen for this task had already turned against him, forming a “fifth column” which would strike against the loyalists at the most decisive moment.
The initial naval operations seemed to go well for the loyalists. The Imperial Navy gained orbit over Isstvan V and the Legions proceeded with their planetary deployment. Under the overall command of Ferrus Manus, three whole Legions took part in the first wave of landings; the Salamanders lead byVulkan, the Raven Guard under Corax, and Manus’s own Iron Hands. Horus had foreknowledge of the location of the loyalist drop site and his forces mauled the Legions during their landings, keeping them pinned down and unable to advance.
Ferrus Manus engaged Fulgrim in personal combat, only to die at his hands while the Emperor’s Children butchered the Iron Hands. The loyalists retreated towards the apparent safety of their brothers in the second wave, hoping to gain reinforcement; what happened next took them completely by surprise. The four Legions of the second wave – The Night Lords of Konrad Curze, the Iron Warriors of Perturabo, the Word Bearers of Lorgar, and the Alpha Legion of Alpharius – already seduced to the cause of Horus, opened fire on their unsuspecting brothers, slaughtering them wholesale. This orgy of carnage would later become widely known as the Istvaan V Drop Site Massacre. A phrase attributed to the Warmaster himself can easily summarise the entire battle: “When the traitor’s hand strikes, it strikes with the strength of a Legion.” After the battle, Fulgrim presented the head of Ferrus Manus to Horus as a trophy.
Next Time, The Warmaster reaches Terra
~I’m getting all tingly awaiting the new boxed set!
