Alpharius

Remembrancer sketch of Alpharius... Or is it?

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

– Kurt Vonnegut

"Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”"

– Mark 5:9

"What kind of fool do you take me for? He's Alpharius, He's Alpharius, You're Alpharius?! I'M ALPHARIUS!! ARE THERE ANY MORE ALPHARIUS' I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT?!!"

– Alpharius' real estate agent, Alpharius

"Now do you remember? Who you are? What you were meant to do? I cheated death, thanks to you. And thanks to you I've left my mark. You have too - you've written your own history. You're your own man. I'm Big Boss, and you are too... No... He's the two of us. Together. Where we are today? We built it. This story - this "legend" - it's ours. We can change the world - and with it, the future. I am you, and you are me. Carry that with you, wherever you go. Thank you... my friend. From here on out, you're Big Boss."

– Big Boss to Venom Snake, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

No such Primarch exists, please redirect yourself to the main page.

No, Seriously

Artistic rendering. Omitted from the picture is his magnificent, 18-inch long penis. What the hell Alpharius? We snuck in here to write that?! Shut up, Omegon. You're ruining it.

Alpharius, also known as The Last Primarch, Lord of Serpents, the Head of the Hydra, Lorum Ipsum, Anonymous and I AM ALPHARIUS! was the mysterious Primarch of the Alpha Legion. We don't have much information on him other than that Omegon, his twin-brother, looks identical to Alpharius.

During the Alpha Legion assault on Pluto Alpharius dueled Rogal and was killed. However....

He was supposedly killed by Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines again, but it may be Omegon who Guilliman killed.

Alpharius was the last Primarch found by the Emperor - long after the Emperor had established most of the Space Marine legions, and was in the process of reclaiming the galaxy for humanity. Whilst most of the Primarchs wound up on worlds in Imperial space, Alpharius wound up picked up by derelicts from some unknown world and grew into a Space Pirate - long before Huron Blackheart made it cool.

Fuck yeah. Alpharius in front, Omegon in back. Or maybe not.

One day, on a patrol in a no-name system, Horus' strike group came under attack by pirate forces - mostly small (and ancient by modern standards) fighter craft. The attack was carefully-staged, and the pirates managed to cripple one of the advance ships the fleet had, which forced Horus to move his own ship in to do something about it. When Horus managed to board the advance ship with his retinue, he was shocked to learn that a small team of pirates had somehow gotten on-board and were fighting their way to the bridge.

Fighting their way past the legion serfs, a squad of five burst into the bridge, whereupon Horus opened fire with his Combi-bolter. Four were taken down by Horus' suppressing fire, but the fifth one, who towered over even the Space Marines in Horus' retinue, dodged Horus' barrage and continued to advance regardless of the oncoming fire. It was only when Alpharius got to close range that he stopped his Eversor-esque charge, as both he and Horus immediately recognized the physical similarity between the two. Horus smiled, for he had found the last of his missing brothers. Just as planned. Or it would be. But unfortunately, this story is a lie.

In any case, Horus did not immediately send Alpharius back to Terra - instead, he kept Alpharius around for months, showing him how to get shit done. Alpharius quickly formed a pretty strong bond with Horus, since he seemed like a pretty cool guy who killed aliens and doesn't afraid of anything, and Alpharius and his men quickly adopted the Imperial creed. Horus was greatly impressed with Alpharius' skill, though Alpharius trolled Horus mercilessly by refusing to tell Horus what world he was from, and instead denied that any of the worlds Horus captured and brought into Imperial compliance were his point of origin.

The Emperor was pleased when Alpharius was finally found, but by this point, there wasn't much time for celebrations - the Great Crusade was in full swing. Alpharius was given command of the newly-formed 20th Space Marine legion, dubbed the Alpha Legion, and proceeded to get to work.

(THIS is without the memes? oh /tg/...)

But Wait!

The above account is considered the most well-known by fa/tg/uys and the gaming community in general, but "recorded facts" tell varying different stories. The Horus Heresy series of books suggests that the above origin story is a lie and gives three more discovery tales about Alpharius, then goes on to assert that they are all lies too but that they contain grains of truth that could lead to an even greater secret.

These are:

1. Growing up on a dead world with absolutely no-one to raise and educate him, only escaping by commandeering a Xenos vessel that had landed to plunder the planet's ruins, he then left to discover who made him. But this story is a lie.
2. Landing on a human world and living amongst them for ten years, but the planet is then attacked by the Slaugth who kept him as a curiosity and killed the remainder of the population. Alpharius would be saved by the Emperor directly but kept him hidden from public knowledge for many years while his son was rehabilitated. But this story is a lie.
3. Alpharius was not fully completed at the time of the scattering of the primarchs, thus was spared OR some part of him remained behind (potentially Omegon?). Either way he remained at the Emperor's side at the beginning of the Great Crusade and acted as His hidden agent until the time was right to reveal him. But this story is a lie.

In Alpharius: Head of the Hydra, the author uses ALL of these, to one degree or another. Alpharius was found on Terra and raised in secret, because the Emperor wasn't sure how many primarchs had survived the scattering (3). He spends much of the Great Crusade waging a shadow war against the enemies of the Imperium, until he hears about a warrior that sounds like a primarch and goes to investigate, anonymously, under the pretense of helping the Lion's bid for the position of the Warmaster during the Rangdan Xenocides (and the story of how the XXth met the Lion, of course, contradicts the account written in the Dark Angels novels). The warrior, revealed to be Omegon, is trapped on a dead, Slaugth-infested world (2); however, he hasn't been tortured or corrupted by the Slaugth. That world was previously killed by the Rangda, Omegon tells Alpharius that he wound up on a Dead World and escaped by hijacking some space pirates when they came to loot the place (1), before getting trapped on this planet while killing Slaugth.

Eventually, the two decide to go introduce themselves to Horus, and Omegon proceeds to attack the Vengeful Spirit, infiltrate it, and reveal himself to Horus as Alpharius. Therefore, EVERY Alpha Legion "origin" has some level of truth. Well played, Black Library. On top of that, it was Alpharius who had the slate-grey armor and infiltrated each of his brothers' legions when they were introduced to their fathers while Omegon was the one in the Pythian Scales with the Pale Spear when Alpharius found him. The fact that the prologue and the epilogue both feature Alpharius stating "I am Alpharius", followed by the statement "This is/was a lie", makes it even more confusing as to which twin is which. Indeed, it's entirely possible that the entire novel is a lie. It probably means that the protagonist of the novel is Omegon recounting stories told to him by Alpharius (since it is Omegon who is now the public face of the Legion after Horus met him), however Alpharius might have lied to Omegon or Omegon might have seeded some lies in the story himself... it gets confusing very quickly.

What this suggests, if all the stories are true and taken into context is that the twins were separated at the scattering, with one landing on a separate planet (the human world becoming the dead world when the xenos arrived) and was then raised by Xenos, but escaped (or was rescued) and attempted to search for his creator, finding Horus. While the one grew up in secrecy with the Emperor and accounts for much of the actions of the XXth legion LONG before the Primarch's "official" discovery.

This is supported in both the short stories, First Legion and The Last Council, real subtle use of the Alpha Omega troupe GW. In the former an individual calling himself "Alpharius" from the XXth Legion comes to the aid of Lion El'Jonson during the Rangdan Xenocides, nearly 90 years before Alpharius was officially discovered and the Alpha Legion was given its name. In the latter, Alpharius informs Horus about Malcador's plan to commit damnatio memoriae on one of the 2nd or 11th legions Primarchs; but considering that both of the the 2nd and 11th were dead and condemned by 963.M30, and Alpharius didn't (officially) join the Great Crusade until 981.M30. Granted in each story neither of the individuals may been one of the twin Primarchs and the Primarch simply took the name after they were eventually recovered. But it shows that someone called "Alpharius" was active before his official discovery, certainly adding fuel to the fire that one of the twins was in the service of the Emperor long before his counterpart was picked up at the end of the Great Crusade.

The fact that one of the twins is loyal to the Emperor while the other isn't, is supported in Vengeful Spirit by Graham McNeill, during a conversation between Malcador and the Emperor, Malcador reveals that the Dark Angels had come to the aid of Leman Russ and the Space Wolves against the Alpha Legion, to which the Emperor replies: "Alpharius...my son, what chance did you give my dream?" indicates that the Emperor is either unaware that Alpharius Omegon is actually two twin Primarchs, which seems unlikely given his whole creation of them using parts of his godlike power and psyche (however we do not know if the Twins formed in the gestation pod or the Warp has duplicated their pod somehow and sent both to different places), or that he IS aware of their dual nature but knows that the other twin would never turn on him. This is practically confirmed in the short story The Board is Set where in the allegorical game of strategies used to represent the outcomes of the Primarchs' destinies there were two pieces for the "Twins"; one red and one blue, representing their chosen side in the conflict. It also showed that at least some of the actions of the Emperor were done in order to ensure that the blue Twin did not switch sides and cause an overall Chaos victory. This means that the Emperor and Malcador were both fully aware of the nature of the Twin Primarchs if not their exact whereabouts and activities, as well as knowing that they were at odds with one another and striving to ensure that one of them remained loyal.

Great Crusade

Alpharius, unusual for the Primarchs, developed a different approach to his missions, focusing primarily on flexibility and personal initiative and making extensive use of subterfuge and non-Astartes specialist operatives. This was reflected with the Alpha Legion's symbol - a Hydra, which could strike from multiple directions at once, and which could keep going even with the loss of a head. This multiple-fronts, seemingly-unstructured approach towards warfare, naturally, pissed off Roboute Guilliman, who Alpharius refused to recognize as his spiritual liege, and Guilliman openly called Alpharius' tactics cowardly. Unlike most similar arguments (such as between the Lion and Leman Russ), this one turned violent in record time when Guilliman pointed to the Ultramarines' own record, something Alpharius could never hope to achieve, since Guilliman had a 100-year head-start on the Alpha Legion, which is partly false since the XXth "Ghost Legion" had existed since the early years of the Great Crusade and done the Emperor's wetwork in secret, though Guilliman probably wouldn't have known that. This might sting even more if the twins were separated as one of the origin stories suggest, and one of them was actually were in command of the Ghost Legion decades before Guilliman's discovery, meaning that Alpharius/Omegon could have actually had the headstart.

Determined to prove he was an infinitely better commander than Guilliman could hope to be, Alpharius took his forces and went on their very first assignment - a world that had thrown off Imperial rule, and was openly stating its intention to fight off Imperial forces. Rather than land immediately and bring the world to heel through force, Alpharius delayed, and the world fortified heavily. By this point, some two million PDF troopers stood ready to repulse the Space Marine invasion. It was only now that Alpharius struck - by taking advantage of and equipping Imperial-loyal citizens on the planet, Alpharius' forces managed to cause several diversionary attacks that drew the PDF away from their held locations, before a series of bombings cut them off, and the Alpha Legion cut the power to the city's central hive. Within a week, Alpharius had subjugated the world - having lost less than 3 dozen Space Marines in the process. Beaming with pride at his accomplishments, Alpharius returned to a meeting with his brothers with all the smug satisfaction of a Dark Heresy player that had just derailed his GM's campaign.

What he got was not what he expected. Instead of praising him Guilliman rebuked him pretty harshly, claiming that Alpharius' method had been "A waste of time, effort, and the Emperor's bolt-shells". The reason was that, while Guilliman certainly could appreciate the masterful organization and lack of casualties, he was an empire builder and looked beyond immediate conquest and compliance. Guilliman knew that leaving planets "conquered" but in ruins made for difficulty in rebuilding afterwards, and that it costed more effort and pain in the long run than a more strictly clinical alpha strike and that direct approaches (like he had his own Ultramarines do whenever possible) left planets in a better state to use and integrate in the Imperium once the ass-kicking was done. Ultrasmurf style was meant to inspire respect and make it easier to build/rebuild support for the Emprah, instead of leaving a traumatised, resentful population. Alpharius' stratagems had indeed spared Space Marine lives, but in doing so had totaled the rebels' infrastructure which seriously hurt the civilian population and would cost the Imperium much larger amounts of resources to set the planet back on its feet than if he'd gone in openly and just punched the fuckers in the face. However, this criticism misses the fact that a direct conquest leaves much more resentment and possibilities for rebel elements to cause mayhem on an already conquered world (something the XXth were well familiar with by that point, having covertly put down many such anti-Imperial rebellions in what should be stable Imperial territory), while a population that was thoroughly psychologically broken and jumping at shadows would be much more wary about their own seditious elements, fearing that it might be another ploy by their shadowy conquerors to test their loyalty and resolve (which sometimes it totally was), which would paradoxically result in a more stable state of affairs as the conquered population essentially starts to police itself to a degree. Guilliman, of course, was not completely blind to it, having founded his own secret police, Vigil Opertii, to ensure the stability of Ultramar, which ultimately makes him a bit of a hypocrite towards Alpharius, who strove to minimize the need for exactly those kinds of organizations to avoid spreading the efforts of his Legion too thin. Ultimately that was all for naught as when Malcador lost control over the Alpha Legion, he created the Inquisition instead, which debatably is much worse at these kinds of duties. All that being said however, Guilliman did manage to accrue the greatest number of total compliances of any Legion during the Great Crusade, so clearly he was doing something right.

Alpharius was likewise admonished by Rogal Dorn who, while acknowledging the sheer magnitude of what Alpharius had accomplished, dismissed his methods as unmanly and that his legion were "not fit to bear the Emperor's mark" because of the harm it did to the civilians on the planet. He didn't get on well with Mortarion or Russ either, coming close to conflict due to his lack of adherence to battlefield commands (though it seems the lord of the Death Guard rubs everyone up the wrong way). Magnus and his Thousand Sons went out of their way to avoid Alpharius wherever possible, but for unreported reasons. Rotten cherry on top of an already spoiled cake, even fucking Konrad Curze openly mocked Alpharius and his Legion for "hiding his sins in a shroud of lies".

Suffice to say, Alpharius was fucking pissed. Many argue he was simply unlucky - had he been on the other side of the galaxy at the time, he would have likely hooked up with other brothers who may have been not only impressed with Alpharius' stunning accomplishment, but likely would have noted it for their own tactical use later and taught him to think about preserving non-combatant lives while he was at it. Though it was noted (with a hint of surprise) that Alpharius successfully campaigned briefly with the Lion and Ferrus Manus without incident. It's unfortunate that he/they never got the chance to fight side-by-side with Corax or even better, Vulkan. Not only is Vulkan THE bro-ing-est Primarch, who not even Mortarion or Curze could hate, Vulkan was one of the Primarchs who firmly instilled the creed of 'Mortals are people too. They don't have our strength, speed or wisdom. They do the best they can with what they have. Look after them', meaning he and Alpharius would've gotten on like a house on fire.

But yeah, sadly enough, Alpharius got chewed up by the stuck-ups and fed up with his available brothers being butthurt, he took off, believing fervently (and pretty accurately) that Guilliman hated him.

Important note Some or potentially all of this may well be Old Fluff. We've learned a lot about Alpharius in recent years as well as getting a more personal picture of the others and this story really does not fit with either of them. We know now that Alpharius was working for the Cabal and thus didn't join Horus because he was pissed or anything, in fact he was working AGAINST Horus so this squabbly stuff doesn't really fit. Perhaps Alpharius wanted to appear bitter and resentful and a natural choice for Horus to recruit but that's clearly not the whole truth. On top of that the spat with Guilliman doesn't sound like the Guilliman we've seen in the books. His own writings specifically say that whatever wins the battle is the right strategy and as a master of logistics, it seems weird for Guilliman to bitch about Alpharius winning by using the least resources possible. Maybe he thought Alpharius took too long or left the planet ripe for another rebellion but that's not the same as calling him a coward. On top of that given that a legion like the World Eaters or Iron Warriors would probably have butchered every single person on the planet in a rave-orgy of blood and death, calling a more restrained approach 'cowardly' just doesn't fit. It maybe sounds like Dorn to be pissed off for not developing and fortifying the worlds Alpharius conquered but only the Imperial Fists, Word Bearers and Ultramarines really did that; the other legions leaving it to the Imperials following behind them to re-build stuff. Whether Alpharius was playing up the rift to ensure Horus came calling or if this is just totally out of date is unknown but it's safe to say that this stuff isn't the whole truth. Just as planned...

Horus Heresy

When Horus turned to Chaos during the Horus heresy, Alpharius really had only met one brother who had not treated him like shit, and that was Horus - so it comes as no surprise that Alpharius followed Horus' descent into Chaos... Actually, this is another lie. The real reason Alpharius joined the Warmaster was because a Cabal of Xenos showed him that if Horus won, then Chaos would be defeated but only due to all of humanity stop feeding warp power to chaos by the virtue of everyone being dead. Hence the Alpha legion is all a bunch of closet loyalists Malal worshipers, seriously they are chaos worshipers trying to kill chaos. (So... double traitors? but unlike double heresy, it's like a double negative?) Could just be that Alpharius preferred the future that ensured humanity's continued existence rather than the one that had humanity go extinct at the hands of a victorious Horus; pro-humanity.

Alpharius also engages in a friendly bit of legion purging in the book The Seventh Serpent. He masquerades as Shadrak Meduson of the Iron Hands and sways Captain Cadmus Tyro and the ship Sisypheum starring Sabik Wayland and Nykona Sharrowkyn to destroy the loyalist Alpha Legion strike-cruiser Sigma led by Legate Chaitan during ship-refueling operations under the pretense of striking at Alpharius. The promethium fuel was sabotaged and the entire ship becomes an enormous bomb. Said bomb exploding on the sub-orbital refueling depot Lerna Two-Twelve while Iron Hands are still on it, killing more loyalists among the Iron Hands too. What a dick.

Engages in more mind-fuckery during the ensuing fight with Nykona and spares his life when he says that Magnus asked him to, seeding doubt in the Iron Hands. Just as planned.

BUT THERE WAS MORE

As it turns out, Alpharius' greatest secret was not his homeworld - it was that he had an identical twin, named Omegon. It is not clear if the Emperor intended this, nor was he even aware of it. Alpharius and Omegon are, in fact, both the Primarch of the Alpha Legion, although 'Alpharius' is the public face and appears as the more senior of the two. Both look alike, however, and the two switch their roles often. Alpha Legion marines have described this well-kept secret as the pair sharing one soul between two bodies, and the other Primarchs, unaware of the Alpha Legion Primarch's true nature, simply believed they WERE one person, named, appropriately enough, Alpharius Omegon. The only true way to tell the difference between the two was their armor, with Omegon's being all black due to his role as a stealth specialist whichever one you thought you weren't looking at, it was the other one? In addition to this, it's rumoured that Alpharius, or Omegon, or both of them, or someone, maybe... My head hurts!

Okay! Back on track. It's rumored that someone had several of the Alpha Legion Marines surgically altered to look exactly like them so they could stand in as extra body doubles if/when it was needed. This was easier for the Alphas than it would've been for any other Legion, because some alpha legionnaires were unusually freakishly tall, and their primarchs were the shortest of the bunch, rather than being giants with one eye, wings, and/or metal hands. It also helped that digesting a small portion of their primarch's blood made those body-doubles powerful enough to be mistaken as true Primarchs not only by appearance but also by their combat prowess for quite a long time (up to a several hours), although it isn't known if this were a common ability amongst Alpha Legionnaires, or was it artificially engineered only for the body-doubles.

It's unknown if Guilliman killed Omegon, or simply some dipshit Alpha Legion Marine who decided to pull a Spartacus and pose as them. OR NEITHER. So you can see where the memes come from. Who the hell did Guilliman kill?

Maybe the whole war on Eskrador was a big chunk of disinformation trolling made by Alpha Legion agents to fake their primarch's death. Or they want the Inquisition to think so. After all the only source of information about said war was Inquisitor Kravin's report - who mysteriously disappeared shortly after and may or may not be an Alpha Legion agent undercover. That being said: The Ultramarines have no records about the Eskrador war, but again those records may or may not be lost or may or may not be destroyed due to some Alpha Legion black ops... or just lost due to shitty imperial record keeping, as it would not be the first time that's happened.

And to keep up the mystery, when Gregor Eisenhorn needed someone to keep Alizabeth Bequin's clone Alizabeth 'Beta' Bequin safe he got someone whose only response was "I am Alpharius" and can make an Emperor's Children Space Marine run away just by showing his face.

... Goddamnit this is confusing.

It gets worse. A short story printed in The Primarchs Horus Heresy book shows that by drinking the Primarch's blood an Alpha Legion Marine took on the genetic coding of the primarchs, fooling even the apothecary on the mission. Also at the end Alpharius and Omegon are speaking about the necessities of war as the mission before was a one way trip including the death of a rogue psyker who became close to Omegon. Omegon seemed to think the sacrifice was not necessary whilst Alpharius believed it was, hinting that the brothers were not in agreement on all things. As their plan in Legion relied on killing off humanity to kill off chaos, Omegon is probably looking for another option. This may or may not mean the Alpha Legion has some connection to The Purge, but as with all other things on this page nobody fucking knows.

It is notable that in Deliverance Lost, the Alpha Legion betrayed even the Cabal. And the third Forge World Horus Heresy book includes a large story which ended with Alpharius (or was it?) screwing over Horus by not garrisoning an area after the Alpha Legion conquered it. At this point, combined with how even Alpharius and Omegon don't seem to agree, it's questionable if the Alpha Legion is even unified in its purpose. They wouldn't be the only ones divided over betraying the Imperium.

Death

In Praetorians of Dorn, it was revealed that the blood memory method thing that Sheed Ranko used to "become" Omegon wasn't the only way for a Primarch to operate outside of their bodies. The legion possessed psykers with the ability to transfer the consciousness of a primarch into a legionary.

However, all speculation above may now be moot. In the same book, Alpharius himself (apparently not a proxy, having been pulling shit no mere Legionary's body could have done) led an attack on the Sol System, Dorn tanks a shot in his shoulder to pin Alpharius in place then ripped his skull apart with his big-ass chainsword. Alpharius is actually DEAD. Omegon, half the galaxy away, sensed it and decided to adopt Alpharius's identity permanently.

(For a longer explanation: Alpharius has his psyche reconstructed to resemble that of the legion Harrowmaster, Silonius, so he could mask his mental presence on Terra from the Emperor, Malcador and any other psykers capable of sensing him. Alpharius goes physically goes into the fight, slowly unlocking his mental blocks as the Legion's plan reaches its climax. Then he ambushes (and subsequently tries to reason with or confuse) Dorn, who ignores everything and proceeds to shred Alpharius' body. YEAH. He dead.)

Despite speculation by many Alpha Legion fans that he pulled a body double trick or proxy, Alpharius is definitely roadkill. John French has confirmed it in an interview (in 30:35~31:30) and Omegon felt his brother's death. That's the cool thing about this book: It shows us that the Alpha Legion is smart as fuck but ain't invincible. Just as planned can get tiring when you have too many twist, turns and loop de loops like these two clowns insist on doing.

Whilst Alpharius is super dead from the whole Pluto thing, there is yet another account from of Alpharius dying that is less known. In the short story Hunter's Moon a Space Wolf named Torbjorn (insert shitty Overwatch meme here) details how he killed Alpharius by arriving on his ship peacefully and then shooting him in the head.

Well, it wasn't that simple. He arrived on the ship for some diplomacy stuff and to verify if the Alpha Legion were super traitor heretics or not. Basically the Space Wolves squad was there to guard Alpharius in case he DID go traitor so they could murder the fuck out of him the moment they turned. Alpharius saw right through that shit (because duh), but he was still playing along. Then Alpharius asked them to kneel. Unfortunately for all parties involved, Space Wolves are very stubborn regarding such things.

Alpharius threw a stupid babby hissy fit about them and their "rightful" burning of Prospero (as Torbjorn is the speaker we know that he isn't the most reliable source as the entire story rings of Space Wolf propaganda, but we do know that the events do seem to have happened as he said, but most likely the "ignoble and rash" Alpharius was probably just pointing out just how fucking stupid destroying an entire loyal legion and then being self righteous about it is).

Anyway, Alpha Legion fan-wankery aside the two groups broke into battle. “Alpharius” then killed some Space Wolves in CQC and then got shot in the face dead by Torbjorn. Torbjorn then jacked an Alpha Legion ship and fled to the planet they were orbiting, Pelago. He then told the story to some fishermen and noted he would likely either be found by Alpha Legion or Space Wolf forces very soon since he put out a distress call.

A few hours of sailing later a Space Wolf Stormbird appeared from the sky, to Torbjorn's brief delight, opened the back door revealing “Alpharius” (to Torbjorn's confusion as he was notably not dead and had his skull perfectly intact and unblemished) and then the Alpha Legion murdered Torbjorn and two of the three sailors, leaving one alive. This was likely to seed fear of the Alpha Legion into Pelago because the Alpha Legion loves mind games. What the point was of taking the effort to repaint a stormbird was is debatable, but perhaps Alpharius just wanted to see the look on his face.

Now we have three stories of Alpharius' death. On Pluto, where he definitely did bite the dust, on Pelago where he certainly didn’t, and on Eskrador, where it might have been the remaining twin who was killed. In regards to Pelago we can apply some common sense and realize there is no way in hell shooting a Primarch in the head would kill him. Probably not even hurt him. Hell, there are stories of normal Astartes shrugging off boltgun headshots.

In any case, with his Legion's ability to transfer memories and consciousness, even if their physical bodies are well and truly dead, the Primarch's minds may be fragmented throughout the members of the Legion and influencing them to the point that it becomes impossible to say where Legionaries end and their Primarch begins ...again, meta.

Worse still, one of their monikers as a Legion is the “Ghost Legion”. While obviously a reference to their stealthy and clandestine nature, given their proclivity towards mind-swapping and other such nonsense, who’s to say that “Ghost” part isn’t just a bit more literal than first thought? Especially with a dead Primarch on their hands. While just baseless speculation, it’s possible those claiming to be Alpharius are not lying. A Primarch possessing marines claiming to be him would truly make the Alpha Legion a “Ghost Legion” after all. Though there isn’t much evidence to support any of this, it’s still a nifty thought.

To cap this Tzeenchian fustercluck of a conspiracy off, there also appears to be an Alpha Legion Chaos Lord claiming to be none other than the big man himself; when the High Lords sent a dozen Vindicare Assassins after him, he responded by sending their heads into the food storage halls of the fucking High Lords of Terra. So who knows what the hell that might imply?

In conclusion, one of the Twin Primarchs of the Alpha Legion definitely died at the Battle of Pluto during the opening phase of the Solar War, the prelude to the Siege of Terra itself. Which Primarch died exactly? Yes.

The Big Reveal

Eeeeeeecept it turns out that may have all been bullshit, for Head of the Hydra finally established the "true" story of Alpharius. Alpharius was in fact the first Primarch found, on a world within a stone's toss of Terra (possibly on Terra itself, since the people who find him know what the Imperium is and he was apparently found prior to the end of the Unification War, meaning the Emperor hadn't yet left Terra). His discovery was kept hidden from everyone except Emps, Malcador, and Valdor, as the Emperor didn't know how many other Primarchs had survived the scattering. For that reason, the Emperor was reportedly beyond elated to have found Alpharius.

Alpharius was placed into Malcador Daycare (explains a lot) while Big E went around doing Big E things, and acted as the head of the "Shadow Legion", using wetwork teams, psyops, and deep-cover sleeper agents to maintain order on compliant worlds and soften up noncompliant planets for his brothers' legions. He also apparently infiltrated some of the other legions by using his ability to alter others' perception of him, thus meeting several of his brothers at their rediscovery while disguised as one of their legion.

Alpharius eventually discovered Omegon already wearing the Pythian Scales and wielding the Pale Spear, and the two agreed to keep their existence hidden until all the remaining Primarchs were found. It was Omegon who revealed himself to Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit and introduced himself with "I am Alpharius" (making this line a lie, since he's actually Omegon). While Alpharius kept his existence hidden and operated as "Omegon". At the end of the novel, when "Omegon" (actually Alpharius) feels that "Alpharius" (actually Omegon) had been killed by Dorn, he states "I was Alpharius" - which is a lie because he had been "Omegon"... who turned out to be Alpharius all along. Is your head hurting yet?

So bottom line, if the events of the novel are to be believed, then Omegon is dead, Alpharius is alive and back to being Alpharius. Additionally, he was loyal all along, and that every action he took throughout the Heresy was designed to make Chaos lose without blowing the legion's cover. Alpharius had been given a directive by the Emperor to ensure the survival of the Imperium at all costs, including taking actions that might look like treason to the outside observer. This would include doing things like intentionally botching conquests to make planetary campaigns tie up more resources, delaying the Khan so he could receive the message to return to Terra, and prematurely exposing all of the vulnerabilities that the Alpha Legion had found in Terra's defenses in Praetorian of Dorn long before Horus showed up in an elaborate Blood Game (which Alpharius invented) so they could be remedied. This all ironically makes him one of the most loyal Primarchs amongst his brothers.

...but then it ends with "This was a lie". What exactly was the lie- Omegon passing himself off as Alpharius or the entire novel's events? We have absolutely no idea, which is probably how Alpharius would like it.

Tabletop

Alpharius' awesome new model... or is it? Also note the massive red pimple in the middle of his forehead.

	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Alpharius:	7	7	6	6	6	6	5	10	2+/4++

While not a monster of close combat like other Primarchs, Alpharius gives candy to his army while fucking with the opponents like no one but him can (That being said, even the worst of combat primarchs will whomp just about anything else). Sire of the Alpha Legion grants all Alpha Legion units Preferred Enemy (Everything) and gives Alpharius Preferred Enemy (Everything), Counter attack, Move through Cover, Scout, and Crusader- but not right away. You see, after both sides deploy he can opt out of deploying normally or via deep striking and choose to hide in any Alpha Legion Infantry unit which is part of the Primary Detachment, disguised as a rank-and-file model, but can reveal himself starting at turn 2 (and does so automatically at turn 5) replacing a model and gaining all of the above buffs. If the unit he's hiding in is "falling back" when he reveals himself, it auto-rallies, and if it's destroyed while he's still hiding (or if it is in a Transport and there is no space for him), he just goes into reserves (you must write which unit is hiding Alpharius...but if you're a true Alpha Legionnaire you'd have 6 different notes, none of them with your actual handwriting style). Be careful though: remember that he is Bulky and that he can only be revealed at the beginning of your own turn, so if he is hiding in a transport at full capacity he could be impossible to place (for example in a ten man Breacher squad inside a Rhino) unless you already disembarked the Squad on the previous turn, so plan accordingly. He can also Seize the Initiative on a 4+, give units arriving via Outflank a +D3 movement bonus and, best of all, if an enemy unit is successfully brought in from reserves and your army has an identical version of that same type also in reserve, roll a D6: on a 4+, the opponent brings in your unit instead. Combine him with his Legion RoW to almost guarantee going first and almost completely negate your enemy's reserves.

As far as equipment goes: on defense,The Pythian Scales gives him 2+ armor save and 4+ invulnerable save and also ignores the effects of Poison and Fleshbane. Not bad. His weapon, The Pale Spear doesn't boost his Strength, but it does have AP1, Armourbane, and Instant Death along with Two-Handed (as an interesting note, this actually makes him one of the best Primarchs for murdering monsters: he is one of the few Primarchs with access to Instant Death without a proc from a dice roll. He could reasonably take out a trio of Carnifex in a single round of CQC, or more topically, a squad of Taghmatta). He also has the following equipment: Venom Spheres, Master-Crafted Plasma Blaster, Cognis Signum, Nuncio Vox and Camelioline, making him quite the force multiplier and perfectly capable to adapt to a variety of circumstances, like he should be.

All in all, Alpharius is one of the if not flat out the single best force multiplier in Warhammer 30k, as his value for money only increases the larger battles get. In 3000pts games, stubborn and other once per game abilities are useful. At 1000pts they are less so. Preferred enemy (Everything) is universally useful and becomes more useful the larger the armies become (seriously, you'd happily pay 415 points to give your apocalypse army preferred enemy anyway, never mind that you're also getting a Primarch as well).

Alpharius VS other Primarchs:

Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying. With that in mind, this section is about how Alpharius fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to happen in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also, all of the Primarch use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?).

• Alpharius VS Horus
  • Horus hits 4 times (Talon), wounds 3.556 times, 1.778 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.444 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.567 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.234 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius loses. Badly.

• Alpharius VS Angron
  • Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 2.222 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.889.
  • Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.851 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.518 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius loses really badly.

• Alpharius vs Mortarion
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.136 times, 0.568 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.0124 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius loses badly

• Alpharius vs Fulgrim
  • Fulgrim hits 5.333 times, wounds 3.556, 1.778 wounds after saves and 1.444 wounds after IWND.
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.567 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.234 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius loses badly.

• Alpharius vs Ferrus Manus
  • Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.042 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.709 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.136 times, 0.379 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.045 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius loses. Again, badly.

• Alpharius VS Vulkan
  • Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.136 times, 0.379 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius loses and can't even wound Vulkan at all.

• Alpharius VS Lorgar
  • Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.041 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.708 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius round 1: hits 3.333 times, wounds 1.9444 times, 0.972 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.639 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius round 2: hits 3.889 times, wounds 2.268 times, 1.134 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.801 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Now this was a fight! Alpharius finally wins against the weakest of the Primarchs! Let's just keep quiet about Lorgar not using his Psychic Powers...

• Alpharius VS Perturabo
  • Perturabo hits 2.667 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.111 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.567 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.234 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius loses.

• Alpharius vs Konrad Curze
  • Curze hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.851 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.517 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius loses.

• Alpharius VS Rogal Dorn
  • Dorn hits 2.667 times, wounds 2 times, 1 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.667 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.851 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.517 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius still loses, but not by much this time.

• Alpharius VS Corvus Corax
  • Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1.5 wounds (Scourge)/1.125 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167/0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius hits 2.92/1.944 times and wounds 1.701/1.134 times, 1.134/0.756 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.801/0.423 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Even without counting Hit and Run bonuses, Alpharius still loses. That's pretty telling as to his power in primarch-on-primarch duels.

• Alpharius VS Roboute Guilliman
  • Guilliman Round 1: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.111 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Guilliman Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.963 times, 1.482 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.148 wounds at the start of the next turn.
    • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times (Remember he got Preferred Enemy), 0.851 wounds after saves and 0.425 after Armor of Reason. And IWND will take that down to 0.092 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Guilliman wins really easily, as the damage Alpharius does is almost irrelevant, thus making the claim that he personally killed the lord of the Alpha Legion actually believable...But then again, every Primarch could have actually killed him!

• Alpharius VS Leman Russ
  • Russ hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 times after saves, plus 0.583 wounds from Sever Life for a whole 2.083 wounds and IWND will take that down to 1.75 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Alpharius round 1: hits 1.944 times, wounds 1.134 times, 0.567 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.231.
  • Alpharius Round 2 and thereafter: hits 0.972 times, wounds 0.567 times, 0.283 times after saves and IWND will take that down to -0.049 wounds.
  • Alpharius is utterly destroyed.

• Jaghatai VS Alpharius
  • Jaghatai hits 4 times, wounds 2 times, 1 wound after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.666
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.136 times, 0.379 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.045 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Khan easily slays Alpharius.

• TLDR version: Alpharius is not really in the same league as the others in terms of raw balls out combat power. He's still crazy deadly against most things but against other Primarchs, even weakened by shooting, he doesn't really compete (which makes sense fluffwise, as he was the physically smallest and preferred to win by cunning). As a result, he functions more as a strategic asset/force multiplier. His other rules make him unlikely to be fighting unless it's on his terms, appearing from the shadows to eat a terminator squad before you can drop Angron on him (he's especially and hilariously deadly against expensive multi-wound terminators who can't even hide behind FNP). Guess he was the last son for a reason kinda busy stealing your reserves, buffing his army and sneaking into the perfect position to win the war in a single strike to focus as much on fighting face to face.
  • If you are a true son of Alpharius then you'll use his weakness to your advantage, keeping your enemy guessing where he'll appear and letting an opposing Primarch chase him around salivating at the idea of killing a brother so much that they forget that half their army hasn't shown up and the few units they roll for are actually Alpha Legionnaires in disguise. He's a subtle leader of a subtle legion. Used wisely his abilities can swing any battle but if you try to use him just as a giant beatstick then you'll waste a lot of points and get the invisible brother killed. At least if that happens you can rest assured that your legion will continue to fight and win, unlike a certain armless failure. Also, since Alpharius may be considered 'only half a primarch', these fights put him at an unfair disadvantage, obviously. A true son of Alpharius would field him and Omegon and have them fight enemy primarchs together in order to win.
  • TL;DR of the TL;DR: If alone, use him to hit-and-run while buffing your troops; if with Omegon, have them attack together. Using him as a one-man beatstick is heretical and tactical suicide.

The Primarchs of the Space Marine Legions
Loyalist Corvus Corax - Ferrus Manus - Jaghatai Khan Leman Russ - Lion El'Jonson - Roboute Guilliman Rogal Dorn - Sanguinius - Vulkan
Traitor Alpharius/Omegon - Angron - Fulgrim Horus - Konrad Curze/Night Haunter - Lorgar Magnus the Red - Mortarion - Perturabo