Horns of Ruin

Horns of Ruin
Number	XXIX
Founding	First Founding
Successors of	N/A
Primarch	Kranios the Destroyer
Strength	180,000 at start of Heresy
Specialty	Rampant Destruction
Allegiance	Chaos Undivided

This page details people, events, and organisations from The /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe.

Summary of Legion XXIX

Undivided, Destruction

Legion Tactics

The purpose of the Horns of Ruin was to cause destruction. In Kranios' eyes in was the purest and simplest form of what he was meant to be. The Legion make great use of collateral damage often leaving little to no sign that whatever enemy they had faced had ever existed in the first place. It was not simply the ruins or burnt out shells of cities that other Legion's wars left behind. Where glorious capitals of the enemy once stood, the Horn's of Ruin often left nothing, no hint that a civilization ever even existed in the place. So great was the destruction they caused that some of their enemies confused their name to be a singular "Horn of Ruin" a type of terrible Exterminatus weapon the Imperium made use of rather than an actual army of individual soldiers.

Legion Equipment

The Horns of Ruin make use of every kind of Imperial tech that they were offered, though they often favor weapons that provide a more explosive impact or a heavier and more constant stream of gunfire rather then smaller or more discrete firearms. Kranios' Legion made extensive use of heavy artillery, siege guns, and explosives no matter what enemy they faced. Dreadnoughts were highly respected, though more so for their destructive and endurance capabilities, rather than any aspects to do with experience or wisdom. Vehicles used by the Horns of Ruin tend to be slower or less armored but much heavier hitting variants of most vehicles used in the Imperium.

The Legion's relationship with the Mechanicus was a tumultuous one. While the Mechanicus at large appreciated their proper revilement and efficient destruction of xenos and their tech heresy as well as proper respect for greater weapons, individual members of the Mechanicus sent among these Astartes had to submit to a chorus of unholy screams of mechanical agony as the Horns of Ruin pushed their guns and vehicles to their limits in order to cause maximum damage, often resulting in the sometimes permanent crippling of these weapons.

Legion Doctrine

Once Kranios received his legion he began to bolster it with all the men who stood a chance of surviving the initiation progress. Into each legionnaire was beaten a desire for warfare in its most grueling and harsh forms. No mercy was ever to be given to the enemy and none was to be received. It was understood among them that any planet they were unleashed upon had rejected the Emperor's offer of being a part of His Imperium and was thus only deserving of total annihilation. As the Horns of Ruin brought shattered world after shattered world into the Imperium some criticized them for the brutal nature of their wars, but very rarely were these qualms brought up in the presence of Kranios or his Legion.

Kranios, Primarch of the Horns of Ruin

Appearance

Kranios had a very harsh appearance, and stood at the taller end of the spectrum of his brothers while still retaining the bulk others had lost. The Primarch's bronze skin was covered in the various scars he had received throughout his life, most noticeably the one he received from his fall down the mountain as a child, which had left a massive mark that ran along the side of his head. The scars were only made worse by a harsh looking face that made even his smiles and laughs appear mean spirited, though that may have been because they often were. Kranios often kept his head shaved, and grew a short black beard over his face.

He remained in his armor at almost all times, content to know that he was created for destruction and war. He seemed to have little intention or interest in trying to be anyone who was not concerned with annihilating the enemies of the Imperium. He is said to have found it amusing that some of his brothers have tried to play the man or some form of beast and not the war machines they were designed to be.

Youth

Kranios' homeworld, Satares, was a volatile and dangerous planet save for precious few sub continents where the tectonic plates held still. The constant earthquakes and raging storms gave birth to countless mountains and bottomless chasms as far as any eye could see, save for the few "Eyes" that dotted the planet. In these Eyes had been built massive cities, hubs of culture and progress. Then Kranios fell from the sky.

The gestation pod careened through a sky over one of Satares' greatest capitals and crashed into a neighboring mountain ridge. The young primarch crawled from his carriage, dazed and confused high in the mountains, before slipping and falling down the mountain side, against jagged rocks and steep inclines into the camp of a tribe of mountain people, men and women who were descendants of those who had been cast out of the cities in ages past. The infant was bruised and bloody and a gash was so deep in his head that his brain could be seen beating, but though the giants were a harsh people, any child who fell from the sky alive was a good omen to them, half dead or otherwise.

The Coming of The Emperor

Kranios healed, was in good health, and set off on the same kind of life many of his brothers did. He used his strength to take control of the Mountain People, he used the mountain people to take control of one of Satares' Cities, and he used the City to begin creating the war machines, and then he used his newly made warmachines to take control over his world. That is how he described it. The people of Satares described it as 30 years of excruciating terror and atrocity as the mountain people slaughtered, destroyed, and ruined at the cost of hundreds of their own people, while being led by a true giant who seemed hell bent on destroying their civilization. Not one city yielded willingly to Kranios, knowing that submission to him meant slavery and a life of suffering. This was fine with Kranios, he enjoyed every hard fought battle as his enemies lashed out like beasts as their cities crumbled. Had his enemies surrendered he would have become bored.

The Emperor arrived on Satares, to find it's few remaining Mega-cities belching out black smoke and deadly war machines, and sitting on the throne found in the greatest of these glorified war factories was Kranios. Despite the lack of anything beautiful in his world, the Emperor could not deny that the conquests and the appearance of this man proved him to be one of his lost sons. The Emperor offered him a place in his great crusade, and Kranios, seeing the great weapons the Emperor and his men wielded, accepted.

The Great Crusade

Kranios and his legion joined the crusade with a vengeance. Being the fourth Priamrch found, leading a massive legion of 180,000 Astartes, bolstered by men from his homeworld of Satares, and backed by his factories equipped with the STCs of the Imperium, Kranios felt truly invincible. The Primarch seemed to miss the point of the Crusade, focusing on the war and not the union of mankind, but as worlds rich with plunder, minerals, and promises of rich agriculture fell into the Imperium's possession the Emperor turned a blind eye to the lack of a population that the Horns of Ruin left behind.

Kranios obsession with his war meant he only met a few of his brothers in passing, when he first joined the crusade and during later summons by his father. Even those he was quick to dismiss himself from. Though this made him distant the Primarch had perhaps one or two brother he had fought with that he could enjoy or at least tolerate the presence of.

Kranios came to blows with the Primarch of the Eternal Zealots, Aubrey. His brother's later arrival to the crusade and the rumors of his dealings with xenos rather then destroying them had filled Kranios with nothing but contempt for the man. Kranios had insulted Aubrey after the Zealot's heart filled speech at the council of Nikaea and the two would have certainly come to blows had it not been for the Emperor's presence and a brother's intervention. They met again later, only for Kranios to provoke Aubrey to anger once more and receive a devastating punch to the jaw during a bout of laughter. Kranios would awake an hour later, alone and furious over the humiliation his brother had given him.

The Heresy

The Horns of Ruin were quick to fall to the powers of Chaos. Kranios did not find the idea of standing idly by once the Great Crusade had been finished to be as near as tempting as the never ending war that Hektor's new Gods had promised, and his Astartes were all to eager to follow behind him. After taking part in the Massacre on Istvaan V, the Siege of Terra, Hektor's subsequent death and the Emperors internment on the Golden Throne, Kranios and his Legion made there way to the Eye of Terror, reducing every world that crossed their path along the way to ash.

Post-Heresy

Kranios now resides on his own daemon world. Sometime during his Legions slaughtering fest towards the Eye of Terror, he had somehow gained the means and the favor required to not only ascend to daemonhood but he also managed to provoke the collapse of Satares in the material world, bringing it through into the Immaterium.

Satares' jagged landscape is now divided into six separate domains, four of which are each devoted to a Chaos God. Each domain hosts one city, and each city is dominated by an overlooking spire occupied by those who had the luck of gaining Kranios' favor in life.

The worlds "Capital" is Kranios' own city where he resides. Kranios regularly holds an event where each city presents a gift to their Overlord. Whichever city brings the most pleasing gift, is given leave to slaughter the losing gods' followers as tribute in order to bring glory to the winning city's patron. During this time of bloodshed the only safe havens that bring a chance of survival to the losing followers are the Gods' devoted cities.

The city of Khorne is dominated by the Pillar of Blood. It is ruled over by the Horns of Ruin's first captain, Muraxes, who showed Kranios all the ways a man makes war and how to destroy ones enemies. It constantly belches out war machines and daemonic weapons for Kranios' champions

The city of Tzeencth is watched over by the Tower of Change. It is resided by powerful Psyker, who is said to be the one who showed Kranios how to obtain his princedom. The city is beset by dark whispers at all hours, and is constantly trying to find daemonic secrets to bring to Kranios

The city of Slaanesh is graced by the Spire of Pleasure. It is blessed with the presence of a Daemonette, who is rumored to have been spawned from the soul of same young woman who found Kranios and raised him as a child. The city births a menagerie of daemonic brides and unspeakable pleasures.

The city of Nurgle is plagued by the Ziggurat of Plagues. It is home to the disease ridden medicine man who cared for Kranios' wounds throughout his battles on Satares. The city is devoted to crafting spells and finding ways for Satares inhabitants to writhe their way into the Matterium.

In an empty corner of the Daemon world of Satares lies a ghostly and dead city and looming over it is a collapsing excuse for a Spire. Here is held the Horn of Ruin. THE Horn of Ruin. It was originally granted as a gift to the Emperor. A massive war horn made of bone and wrapped in black iron. It was meant to signify how Kranios and his Legion would answer any call the Emperor gave no matter where he was in the galaxy, but the Legion stole it back during the Siege of Terra and cursed it beyond imagination. For it to be sounded on any of the Imperium's planets now would be a death knell, as every building would collapse and every hint of civilization would turn to dust at it's awful noise.