The fit was still new and unnatural, not yet worn in. The commander had been Warmaster for about a year, since the triumphant conclusion of the Ullanor campaign, and he was anxious to prove his new-found status, particularly in the eyes of his brothers. Loken always set his story in its proper time and place. It had been, as far as the warp-dilated horologs could attest, the two hundred and third year of the Great Crusade. But the death of Sejanus was usually all that fixed their attentions. There was a great tragedy implicit in the tale of the Emperor’s murder, a tragedy that Loken always wanted his listeners to appreciate. It was likely that he felt some shame about his complicity in the matter itself, for it was a case of blood spilled from misunderstanding. Loken was always careful to make sure his audience properly understood the irony in his story. And Loken would tell it again, a tale rehearsed through so many retellings, it almost told itself. Torgaddon would usually be the one to cajole him into telling it, for Torgaddon was the joker, a man of mighty laughter and idiot tricks. ‘I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor.’ It was a delicious conceit, and his comrades would chuckle at the sheer treason of it.
‘I WAS THERE ,’ he would say afterwards, until afterwards became a time quite devoid of laughter. the Sumaturan philosopher Sahlonum (fl. Why, then, do we not seem to see as far?’ ‘The new light of science shines more brightly than the old light of sorcery. ‘The difference between gods and daemons largely depends upon where one is standing at the time.’ attributed to the remembrancer Koestler (fl. ‘Myths grow like crystals, according to their own recurrent pattern but there must be a suitable core to start their growth.’ I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor… R EGULUS, Adept, Envoy of the Martian Mechanicum H EKTOR V ARVARUS, Lord Commander of the ArmyĮ RFA H INE S WEQ C HOROGUS, High Senior of the Navis Nobilite M ITHRAS T ULL, Subordinate Commander, the armies of the interex J EPHTA N AUD, General Commander, the armies of the interexĪ SHEROT, Indentured Kinebrach, Keeper of Devices P EETER E GON M OMUS, Architect designate M ERSADIE O LITON, Official remembrancer, documentaristĮ UPHRATI K EELER, Official remembrancer, imagist I GNACE K ARKASY, Official remembrancer, poet M ALOGHURST, ‘The Twisted’, Equerry to the Warmaster X AVYER J UBAL, Sergeant, Hellebore Tactical Squad N ERO V IPUS, Sergeant, Locasta Tactical Squad K ALUS E KADDON, Captain, Catulan Reaver Squadį ALKUS K IBRE, ‘Widowmaker’, Captain, Justaerin Terminator Squad V ERULAM M OY, ‘The Or’, Captain, 19th Company T YBALT M ARR, ‘The Either’, Captain, 18th Company S ERGHAR T ARGOST, Captain, 7th Company, Lodge Master H ORUS A XIMAND, ‘Little Horus’, Captain, 5th Company I ACTON Q RUZE, ‘The Half-heard’, Captain, 3rd Company S ANGUINIUS, Primarch of the Blood Angels R OGAL D ORN, Primarch of the Imperial Fists H ORUS, First Primarch and Warmaster, Commander-in-Chief of the Luna Wolves PART TWO ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN PART ONE ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN Horus is a star ascendant, but how much further can a star rise before it falls? He is a warrior without peer, a diplomat supreme. He is the Warmaster, the commander-in-chief of the Emperor’s military might, subjugator of a thousand thousand worlds and conqueror of the galaxy. Chief amongst the primarchs is Horus, called the Glorious, the Brightest Star, favourite of the Emperor, and like a son unto him. Organised into vast armies of tens of thousands called Legions, the Space Marines and their primarch leaders conquer the galaxy in the name of the Emperor. The Space Marines are the mightiest human warriors the galaxy has ever known, each capable of besting a hundred normal men or more in combat. They are unstoppable and magnificent, the pinnacle of the Emperor’s genetic experimentation.
First and foremost amongst these are the primarchs, superheroic beings who have led the Emperor’s armies of Space Marines in victory after victory. Triumphs are raised on a million worlds to record the epic deeds of his most powerful and deadly warriors. Gleaming citadels of marble and gold celebrate the many victories of the Emperor. The dawn of a new age of supremacy for humanity beckons. The vast armies of the Emperor of Earth have conquered the galaxy in a Great Crusade – the myriad alien races have been smashed by the Emperor’s elite warriors and wiped from the face of history. Mighty heroes battle for the right to rule the galaxy.
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