Horus

If this reminds you of every Baroque and/or Christianity-related painting from the Renaissance up until the 19th Century, good. You're paying attention.

Horus Lupercal, the Warmaster. Here shown prior to getting his Chaos on.

“Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.”

-Lucifer in John Milton's Paradise Lost

"Let the galaxy burn."

-Horus Lupercal

Horus Lupercal, The Breaker of Tyrants, The Warmaster, The Arch-Traitor, (more often known as just Horus) was A DAMN HERETIC the Primarch of the Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus/Black Legion, and the main figure in the event known as the Horus Heresy (this is NOT a dead giveaway. Oh no). Once the most favoured of his father the God-Emperor of Mankind, he began to resent his father's treatment upon him and the Primarchs, and, believing that the emperor wanted to be a god using his own Primarch sons as a tool (when in fact all this is due to the lies of a certain religious zealot), eventually turned to Chaos, heretically--oh come on! If you really need to be told any of this, what the fuck are you doing on /tg/ in the first place? Much like the Emperor being crippled and the Imperium devolving into a bureaucratic grimdark empire; The death of Horus and the placement of Abaddon as the most powerful Chaos champion evar turned the chaotic legions from a genocidal force bent on utter domination for the glory of Chaos into a Saturday-morning cartoon villain organization.

It is argued that Horus was not actually evil but was possessed by the chaos gods or that was just a victim of Lorgar, who even the authors of the Horus Heresy novels label as "The First Heretic." However, he was a massive dick. Hence the common saying in the post-heresy Imperium; "Of all the mighty Primarchs, Horus sure was a dick."

Long story short, the Imperium got fucked up because this guy had daddy issues, he got scammed by religious nutjobs, and because the Chaos Gods showed him horrific visions of the future, supposedly under the Emperor's rule. Lol-irony.

New fluff

Recent fluff from the book Vengeful Spirit has Horus visiting the same gate to the Warp on Molech that the Emperor used to get his psychic powers. While only seconds pass in the Materium, Horus spends what is basically implied to be an eternity inside the Warp battling rival Daemon Princes, amassing billions of warp-creature minions, and wrecking shit. In the end he somehow gains the powers of the Emperor but through sheer force of will (or perhaps that's what the Chaos Gods wanted him to think) refuses to become a slave to the Ruinous Powers and leaves his Warp-empire to return to his rebellion. Horus' time inside the Warp was so long that he, a fully grown primarch, had visibly aged. However with his new psychic hack abilities he disguises his over-the-hill face and still maintains his youthful appearance. Apparently the Emperor does the same trick. This was basically a big retcon by Black Library who previously explained Horus being able to fight toe-to-toe with the Big E as having all four Chaos Gods channel their powers into him at once. During the clusterfuck on Molech Horus also kills his former Luna Wolves soldier Iacton Qruze without a second thought, which is meant to symbolize him becoming even more evil or something.

Newest fluff heavily suggests that Chaos Gods plan from the very beginning was for Horus to lose only barely. Apparently the Gods knew about the Cabal's plans and made sure they would get the outcome of a fucked up Imperium that lasts for millennia, feeding them with all the negative emotions they needed, rather than Imperium of Chaos that would go to shit in a few centuries of in-fighting, taking humanity and gods themselves with it to its grave. One daemon even referred to Horus as "sacrificial lamb" needed to stop Imperium from turning into prosperous empire of reason, and kickstart the Long War. The Emperor may have developed a counter-plan that causes the Chaos Gods to scream in frustration in The Outcast Dead but that book is fairly trippy.

Thing is that a lot of these twists and turns are good (at least in the sense we never saw it coming) but very little of this really make sense with what we already know. It certainly makes absolutely no sense that the Imperium of today was somehow a goal for Chaos even if they did make it all grimdark. An on-going millennia long war just ensures that Chaos is always seen as evil and everyone is super paranoid about stopping them so that seems very counter productive for a force who only really works through secrecy and sedition. While disabling the Emperor is a good goal it's stupid to suggest that they are happy to kill him and not bring down the Imperium. The idea that Horus will (or at least could) murder-rape the galaxy so hard the Chaos gods disappear is actually kinda clever in that (presumably) the Chaos gods wouldn't see the potential danger until it's too late but if they can just see it coming anyway then why are they even bothering with Horus? It's just... There's all kinds of problems here.

On the Tabletop

Horus Lupercal, in all his miniature glory.

	Pts	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Horus:	500	8	5	7	6	6	6	5+1	10	2+/3++

Horus is everything you love about an HQ wrapped up in one man. He is a very good tactical HQ allowing reserves to outflank, giving every Son of Horus +1 to Leadership and seizing the initiative on a 4+. He and any Terminator unit he has joined may elect which turn they arrive in and they will not scatter if they choose to Deep Strike (and he bestows the rule to the entire unit). He also makes veteran-tactical squads and Justaerin Terminators troops choices (if he is the Warlord... but then again when are you not going to make him your Warlord?).

He is good at shooting with a BS of 5, night vision, a thing that gives - if he chooses to not fire during his turn - a single unit within 6" (other than super-heavy or Independent Characters) +1 BS, a twin-linked super-bolter, and an orbital bombardment using his BS (also twin-linked). And, finally, he is a monster in close combat, being able to take down full terminator squads in 1 turn if you roll well for his 6 attacks plus +D3 attacks if he is fighting a unit or character of weapon skill 4 or lower. He can rape blobs, MEQ's, TEQ's and HQ's.

His weapons are his Talon of Horus (an AP2 lightning claw which saddles whoever survives it with a -1 penalty to WS and S for every wound it inflicts that in theory can stack ,ensuring that even if he doesn't kill what he's fighting, his target will be completely unable to harm him or anybody else in close combat) and a S10 AP1 master-crafted thunderhammer called Worldbreaker. Combine this with an initiative of 6, and he will strike first most of the time. He's also pretty durable with a toughness and wounds of 6, 2+ armor save, 3+ invulnerable save, 5+ deny the witch, and an additional 3+ save against any psychic attack or adverse profile modifications, which if you exploit RAW gives him a second save as wounds are part of the profile [not since December FAQ].

All this for 500 points so use him wisely.

Horus VS other Primarchs:

Horus wins. Against any other Primarch. That's it.

No seriously, what did you expect? With WS 8, 6 Attacks with a S7 AP2 lightning claw that cripples whoever survives his onslaught or a MC S10 Thunder Hammer and 2+/3++ he can destroy any other Primarch relatively safely. He's clearly built to be the hardest dude around and his gear is borderline unfair. Disabling Strike is just disgusting and it's directly intended to make sure he stays the top dog no matter how angry, pretty or well equipped anyone else is. The only one who could really be a threat is Lorgar with Precognition, but even he will go down with the Talon as in just 3 rounds he will mathematically be brought to WS and S 4, wich means that even with Precognition he will struggle to wound Horus, while Horus will gain +d3 attacks for his Sire of the Sons of Horus rule. Also, by the end of Round 4 he should be WS and S 3, meaning he will hit and wounds Horus on 5s. Ouch, that Talon really hurts. So, yeah, no one can actually fight 1 on 1 with the Warmaster, barring some incredibly lucky rolls. Better hope for Sanguinius to come fast...

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