Editing Ashur of Banipal (section)

==The Great Crusade==
On the eve to the 78th anniversary of Ashur’s ascension to king of Banipal came a stranger to Babylon V and praising the Primarch’s good work. That man later revealed himself to Ashur as the Emperor of Mankind in private, and he told Ashur of all the great things they could undertake if he joined the Emperor’s crusade across the stars. Ashur hesitated, believing that his absence would lead to Babylon V falling into a state of disrepair, again. His suspicions would later turn out to be true, but at the time the Emperor swayed him, promising of all the good he would be able to do, how he could improve the lives of people throughout the galaxy and helping to create an Imperium of planets where humans of all kinds would be able to live their days in peace. Ashur eventually agreed, and for the first time since his infancy did he travel into space and behold the beauty of the void. It was here he was reunited with his Legion, the thirteenth, calling themselves “Packmules” in jest for they were specialist drivers used for logistics and deployment of other troops. Ashur was immediately awestruck and recognised the deep connection to his genesons and he would be seen embracing whole squads at once and celebrating their reunion in his own way. His Legionnaires, not used to such gleeful affection, quickly overcame their military demeanour and returned it in kind.

Ashur had entrusted all his chapter commanders with his full support, as he saw himself as the first among equals, and his genesons vowed to do everything in their capacity to not disappoint him. In fact, seeing how much the separation of Primarch and Astartes hurt both sides emotionally, Ashur proclaimed that his chapter commanders would be as much Primarch unto the other Astartes as he would be and that they should be loyal and faithful to them as they would be unto him. This order brought about quite some confusion, yet at the same time the Lord of Bronze and Bone had deeply anchored the strong ties of loyalty and brotherhood in his legion, and the idea to embrace their chapter commander’s wisdom and righteousness would only further breed a sense of internal reliability. If only he had seen what this sense of self-reliance would cause in his genesons maybe Ashur had been wise to decide otherwise.

Over the course of the Great Crusade, Ashur would repeatedly face the harsh reality of being a Space Marine primarch as he would have to fight time and time again, making his heart bleed at the loss of life and destruction in his wake. He would often face criticism over his delicate approach from his brothers and the Emperor, as his progress of bringing worlds to compliance was always slower than other Primarchs'. The first and most devastating experience of his military career was the conquest of the Domush sector. The local population fought with unparalleled zeal for their sector's self-declared Emperor and proved to be a worthy match for the Astartes, much to Ashur's personal frustration. After their campaign was ended succesfully, Ashur worried that having to shed blood in such cruelty was to be his fate forever until the end of his days.

Another grievous experience to the Lord of Bronze and Bone was his campaign on the planet Yar Kin Nu alongside the [[Chosen of Hecate]] and their Primarch [[Lambach Kropor]]. Having grown up superstitious and fearful of "wychcraft", he was shaken deeply at the sudden revelation that his battle brothers were also Psykers during the climactic battle at the planetary capitol Dom Ran Kin. Before that very battle, he and Lambach had exchanged many words and he had grown to love Lambach the most out of his brothers that had been discovered up until that point, and so the realisation of Lambach's talents hit Ashur hard.

After the battle at Ullanor and the Emperor's terrible defeat, Ashur became ever more unruly at the seemingly increasing pressure of Terran bureaucracy and its dictatorial rule, and he would often be heard criticising the Lords of Terra - Unofficially, of course. Apart from this, many reports would reach Ashur involving questionable military actions and collateral damage caused by his Loxodontii legionnaires. He would ignore them, not wanting to doubt his own genesons and waving the reports off as misunderstanding or exaggeration. Eventually, he could not ignore them anymore as they became more detailed and more numerous. He realised he had to take back control over his legion by force and purge his chain of command.