Editing Horus Heresy (section)

===Books XLI - L===
*'''''The Master of Mankind''''': The Emperor is a dick: the book. We all knew this but now it's set in stone. Highlights include the Emperor stating to Arkhan Land that the Primarchs are tools and he views them with a scientific but detached fascination. He refers to them as numbers but seems content to allow the fantasy of being their "father", an interpretation of the character that was fairly divisive to say the least. He actually seems to care more for his Custodians than he does any of his other creations, but they don't consider him their father and see him as just their warlord. Drach'nyen is also revealed to be the daemon created when Cain killed Abel. In the end the Emperor closes the door on the Webway and has to spend the rest of his time sitting in the chair keeping it shut. Despite this, it does show off why the Chaos Gods fear him, as he pretty much rapes an infinite army of Daemons; the greater daemons either flee or try and fail to fight him (being destroyed in a matter of moments) whilst the lesser ones die just by looking at him. Despite this, Drach'nyen nearly kills him, and claims that it will kill the Emperor (keep in mind that the future is VERY malleable, Daemons lie, and that this was written by a man whose hate-boner for Big-E exceeds that of The Four, themselves). But how will it feast on the Emperor's tattered soul when Abaddon lacks arms to plunge it into his chest? (Abaddon never lost his arms due to the same retcon that let Eldrad live) Also known as Master of Skubkind. The Emperor reveals his grand plan of saving the human race from the Eldar fate by giving absolute control of every human to a Custodian before shanking him with Drach'nyen and making him run into the Webway. Also put all his chips into the ''Human Webway'' plan and screwed us all over without a backup. Can you tell that this is an ADB book? It also features one of the most depressing endings of the whole Heresy series as in the last scene of the book the Emperor somberly acknowledges to one of his Custodian that he fears that he has now run out of cards to play and can't yet think of a way out of the whole situation. Grimdark, indeed.
*'''''Garro''''': Compilation of all the stories about Garro and his boy band, though they insist it isn't just an anthology since the audio book stories were expanded to be more written novel friendly. Malcador recruits Garro to be his Agentia Primus to do hard and unsavory work that needs to be done for the good of the Imperium. This work at first consists of building up Malcador's secret service retinue. His first mission is to travel to Calth post-betrayal and recruit an ex-Librarian Ultramarine, Tylos Rubio, who comments on Garro acting like a 'Knight Errant', giving birth to the organization's eventual name. The smurf is a stick in the mud but eventually comes around after his fellow Legionaries disown him for an act that is slightly more than the allowed amount of psychic (which is 0%). As soon as they return to Terra, a stick in the mud Custodian takes them away from Luna on behalf of Malcador to intercept an arriving fleet of civilian space ships headed by a World Eater ship. The fleet claims to be fleeing the Isstvan atrocity. Garro and Tylos are there to make sure the Custodian doesn't blow up any actual loyalists, but The Legionary ship is [[Emperor's Children|full]] of [[White Scars|sussy]] [[World Eaters|bakas]]. The WhiteScar contingent turn out to be the impostors and get nearly everyone in the adhoc fleet killed, as well as the Custodian, save for the World Eater who is recruited afterwards to be the third Knight Errant. Some time later, Garro infiltrates the Iron Fists' Phalanx in an attempt to recruit another ex-Librarian who got told to go to his room after the Edict of Nikaea. Garro makes his way to the sanctuary undetected but the ex-Librarian is a stick in the mud. They throw some fists but [[Rogal Dorn|King Stick in the Mud]] shows up and reveals Garro wasn't nearly as stealthy as he thought he was. Dorn lets Garro off the hook without too much hassle but tells him to question Malcador's cause and reveals to him that a fellow Death Guard Apothecary that Garro escaped Isstvan with on the Eisenstein has taken a sample of the megacancer from the Eisenstein for study in hopes that he could find a cure for it. Garro arrives just in time to see the Apothecary get infected and vents both him and the sample into space where it is then cooked by the sun. The three Knights are then deployed to the ruined world of Isstvan III with no clear objectives because Malcador is a troll sometimes. There, they find a group of loyalist army survivors and one Legionary calling himself Cerberus still alive after Horus' betrayal, albeit with severe PTSD. Cerberus attacks everyone and the Knights are prepared to put him out of his misery but then the army men turn out to be agents of Nurgle in disguise. They summon a whole horde of poxwalkers and the Knights play a round of [[Darktide|Darktide]] but with one man short until Cerberus joins the server. Once things quiet down, it is revealed that Cerberus is Garviel Loken. The rest of the book sees Garro searching for meaning that he thought he'd find in the role of being Malcador's spy boy but didn't. He even gets Malcador's permission to leave for some soul searching. This consists mostly of him seeking another audience with Euphrati Keeler, convinced that she'll elucidate on what he's supposed to do with himself. On his search for the saint, he meets Sigismund - who's interested in keeping Keeler alive and out of both Horus' and the Imperium's hands - and thwarts an attempt on Keeler's life by an ex-Eversor assassin sent by Horus (he's the Eversor from '''Nemesis'''). Garro finally finds Keeler but it turns out Malcador was tracking him the whole time and some Grey Knights show up to take Keeler into custody. Garro knows Sigismund will be miffed but understands this is just about the only way to keep her from getting her shit pushed in by more Horus assassins. In the end, Garro does not accomplish much in his soul searching but findsresolve anyway, faithful that his true purpose will be made known to him in time. 
*'''''Shattered Legions''''': It's an anthology containing an anthology. I shit thee not. It shoves together the limited edition anthology Meduson with a few other shorter stories, including some Alpha Legion stuff like the Seventh Serpent.
*'''''The Crimson King''''': Magnus was broken into shards when Russ felled him. Now the Thousand Sons with the help of Lucius the Eternal must put him back together. Kairos Fateweaver makes an appearance. Ties into the Ahriman Trilogy
*'''''Tallarn''''': Does it even need to be stated? It's another fucking anthology, this time putting all the tank porn of the Tallarn books into one binding. It is worth a read if you are a fan of Imperial Guard (Army), as most of the storylines are about around mortal tank crews doing what they do best (dying).
*'''''Ruinstorm:''''' The conclusion to the Imperium Secundus plotline, as well as the follow on to Damnation of Pythos. Shows the Lion, Sanguinius and Guilliman trying to cross the Ruinstorm to reach Terra. After a brief stopover at Pandorax, they decide to head out to Davin where the Heresy began and where destinies are remade; they pass systems along the way that show what the Galaxy would look like if Chaos wins, such as a Forge World surrounded by an immense fortress wall in outer space 4000 miles thick and a sector of space filled with solid ritualized geometric shapes that are perhaps light years across. Davin itself is surrounded by a cloud of bones and wreckage millions of kilometers thick, but the planet has long since been abandoned. There Sanguinius finds out that in order to live through the Heresy he must become a monster even worse than Horus, but dying will curse his sons with the Black Rage; blood is on his hands either way. Instead, Sanguinius tries to sacrifice himself to save the day, but the [[Sanguinor]] steps in and takes his place while the fleets rain down a shitstorm and destroy the planet. In the aftermath, the Ruinstorm abates enough for them to reach Terra, but Horus has so much force that it is impossible for all three legions to reach, so Guilliman and the Lion agree to distract the Traitors long enough to give Sanguinius a window to get back and face his destiny, explaining why they never made it to the Siege since they were engaging Traitor fleets and burning their worlds.
*'''''Old Earth:''''' Set immediately after ''Deathfire'', Vulkan and three Salamander legionaries (the rest of the Salamanders weren't informed of their Primarch's resurrection) travel through the Webway by a gate hidden in a cave on Nocturne. On their path to Terra, they came across the Shattered Legions who were preparing for their first major void engagement with the Sons of Horus. Just before the attack, some Medusan-born Iron Hands tried to stage a coup against Shadrak Meduson by revealing a hideous contraption of machines and the last remnants of Ferrus Manus - ''his iron hand'' (they were under the illusion that they could resurrect their Primarch through cybernetics; it is hinted that the Mechanicum had some <s>hand</s>{{BLAM}}{{blam|that pun was so bad heresy is automatic}} in this affair). Thankfully Vulkan shatters the hand and Meduson assumes command again, though he was killed by '''Tybalt Marr''' in a boarding action after the Iron Hands refused to send reinforcements to him. In the end, it is revealed that the Emperor had Vulkan forge a weapon that, in the event Terra fell to Horus, would amplify the power of the Golden Throne into a fatal FUCK YOU nuke into the heart of the Chaos God's domains, sadly also wiping out the entire Throneworld (this is possibly also one of Vulkan's nine relics). Oh, and Eldrad rescues [[Knights-Errant|Barthusa Narek]] from Nocturne and makes him his assassin. They killed most of the Cabal, including a vaguely amphibian alien sitting on top of a jungle pyramid. Yes, Eldrad Ulthran might just be the only person alive to have killed an Old One. Finally they rescue John Grammaticus, who had his memory wiped after his failure to assassinate Vulkan. With his memory restored, Grammaticus is ordered by Eldrad to find Ollanius Pius and go to Terra.
*'''''The Burden of Loyalty:''''' In the grim darkness of the 3rd millennium, there are only anthologies.
**'''The Thirteenth Wolf:''' Old Guard Space Wolves get lost in a a series of Warp Portals during the battle of Prospero. 
**'''Into Exile:''' Arkhan-the-Humble-Land basically has to have a Boltgun Shoved in his face to leave during the initial Mars Revolt.
**'''Cybernetica:''' Story full of [[awesome]] about how Carrion the Raven Guard Tech-aspirant awaiting graduation watches his fellows get slaughtered before hulking out Sith-Style. Meanwhile an Iron Warrior proves how badass they are when not under the thumb of their whiny emo excuse of a primarch by literally throwing Carrion off a tower so he's the sole target of an incoming Warlord Titan. Carrion then joins the Knights-Errants and actually makes Dorn backpedal and heads back to Mars to aid the Resistance in taking it back through use of Heretek.
*'''''Wolfsbane:''''' Leman Russ faces off against Horus, with the help of the Spear of Russ mentioned in the FUCKOLD Space Wolves novels. They're evenly matched but Russ seems to get the better of Horus when the Spear partially de-corrupts the Warmaster. Unfortunately for him, Russ tries to bring his brother back to his senses rather than strike a killing blow and is dragged away barely conscious by his men after Horus retaliates, setting the stage for the Battle of Yarant. Also a glimpse of [[Belisarius Cawl]] from back in his earlier, fleshier years.
*'''''Born of Flame:''''' ANTHOLOGIES!