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.

Yul Brynner 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

"'I have sinned,' he said, 'for I have betrayed innocent blood.'"

-Judas Iscariot, Matthew 27:4

"Cursed is the man who dies, but the evil done by him survives."

-Abu Bakr as-Siddiq

"How thou art fallen from Heaven,"

"O Day Star, son of the Dawn!"

"How thou art cut down to the ground,"

"Ye who laid the nations low!"

"You said in your heart, I will ascend to Heaven"

"Above the stars of God I will set my throne on high;"

-Isaiah 14:12-14:13

Horus Lupercal, The Breaker of Tyrants, The Jabo, The Warmaster, The Arch-Traitor, (more often known as just Horus or FUCKING HORUS!) was 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 son of his father the God-Emperor of Mankind, he began to resent his father's treatment of him and other Primarchs, and believing that the Emperor's secret plan was to become 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. If you really need to be told any of this, what the fuck are you doing on /tg/ in the first place? This is such common knowledge, that the outlines of the Horus Heresy and every bad ass taking part in it, are more or less engraved in the mind of every /tg/ reader. 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 influential Chaos champion ever, turned the Chaos legions from a genocidal force bent on utter domination for the glory of Chaos into a Saturday-morning cartoon villain organization. Also his armour made him look like an egg.

It is argued that Horus was not actually evil but possessed by the Chaos Gods or that he was a victim of Lorgar, who is officially labeled as "The First Heretic." However, he was still a massive dick. Hence the common saying in the post-Heresy Imperium: "Of all the mighty Primarchs, Horus sure was a dick."

But long story short, the Imperium got into this fucked up state because this guy had daddy issues (honestly, who didn't?), 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. They did show him that the Emperor was planning to discard him and the other rest of the Space Marines when their usefulness ended, and in fairness, that was actually completely true as Master of Mankind shows. Who says Chaos is the Great Deceiver?

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 that the Emperor received to create the Primarchs but by passing their near constant tests through sheer force of will rather than just taking it like the Emperor. Refusing to become a slave to the Ruinous Powers (or perhaps that's what the Chaos Gods wanted him to think) 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.

It's important to explore this clusterfuck of nonsense to make sense of the lore before one comes to the rubbish conclusion that the Emperor only became god-like after Molech. This is balls-deep nonsense. This is what Horus (who is himself not in any way whatsoever a good source for reliable information regarding Chaos) thinks he knows from his own narrow/skewed/manipulated point of view. The more commonly held belief is that, as with the vision he received from the Great Fuck Head Himself, he was misled. That the Emperor, a being capable of trapping and fighting a C'Tan shard during the Middle Ages, was always as powerful as He has been portrayed. It is described that the Primarchs are more than just flesh and bone, and that each of them has a fraction of His personality in them that they themselves embody. Ferrus Manus' rather dramatic death highlights that inside Primarchs lies a great deal of energy. Now to the heart of it and Molech. Why would a being as powerful as the Emperor, who has to combat 4 monstrously powerful otherworldly entities whilst maintaining a beacon anywhere he goes, soul bound psykers and fight throughout the Great Crusade, split His formidable power 20 times into 20 beings? You wouldn't. You'd grab extra power to do so. That was Molech. A source and gateway to a wellsource of power guarded by Chaos. A source the Emperor broke into and stole/took/tricked for His Primarch Project. Using the additional power, He crafted, with His scientific mastery, 20 genetically engineered super hosts, and (in the same way that god-aligned daemons are formed by splitting a portion off the God itself) used each portion of power as a blank mould, investing them with a slither of His personality and allowing the power to coalesce around it to form a soul/Emperor-Greater Daemon. That daemon (let's be honest, that's what it'd be) is then implanted in a host that can never die or degrade, perfectly tailored to hold it. Explaining why each Primarch radiates an aura of awe and magnificence. Horus didn't become as powerful as the Emperor, he retrieved the power that made himself and all his brothers and has it suffused into himself. He can take on the Emperor toe-to-toe when the Emperor holds back like we all know He does; but is not His equal in might.

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.

In Path of Heaven he appears in all his pomp and Chaotic corruption to assign Mortarion to kill Jaghatai Khan, explain that all his other generals have gone doolally and wax lyrical about killing the Emperor, as well as make the point that being 'roided up by the raw stuff of the Empyrean doesn't get you out of having to manage the logistics of a galactic civil war. Soon after, Mortarian kills his Navigators in a fit of rage and makes the dumbass decision to go into the warp anyway. In other words, he was the only one of his brothers who had his shit together, which was why the Horus Heresy fell apart so quickly after his death.

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 the Warmaster's Talon (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 comes to play more often then you may think, given most other Primarchs are bristling with Concussive, Strikedown, Blind or some weirder stat-lowering shit. As in 30k destroyer weapons don't have a "deathblow" result, titan-killer weapons cannot one-shot him, but they still hurt a lot, and while Shadowsword cannot spam D-strength, Magnus definitely can, and a horrible abomination of cheese that is a Warlord-class battle titan could vomit out enough D to kill three Horuses in one turn, so don't get too cocky.

All this for 500 points so use him wisely.

Horus VS other Primarchs:

Horus wins. Against any other Primarch. That's it. He beats ALMOST any other opponent he gets pitted against.

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. At least Lorgy could tie him down till the end of the game - other primarchs could not do even that. 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...

As of Inferno two challengers have emerged. Leman Russ with his negative modifiers to hit and his sword of awesome can fight Horus on a pretty much even footing. Magnus without magical buffs get slaughtered but Magnus without magic is like the Imperium without crippling levels of stupidity and when he casts Iron Arm, Warp Speed and Endurance on himself he makes a very good fist of this fight. Just for fun, here's the numbers on Leman Russ:

• Horus vs. Leman Russ
  • Horus, Round 1: Hits 2 times, wounds 1.77 times with his Claw, 0.88 wounds after saves, and IWND brings it down 0.67
  • Horus Round 2 and on: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.88 times with his Claw, 0.44 after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.293
  • Leman Russ, full Wounds + charge/Counter-Attack : hits 4,67 times, wounds 3,5 (with his Sword), 1,16 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.77
  • Leman Russ, full Wounds : hits 4 times, wounds 3 (with his Sword), 1 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.67

Leman's negative to hit modifier is brutal, basically negating Horus' ability to do any damage, while Leman is still pounding him over the head. As always, this doesn't include his Sword's ability to do D3 extra wounds if he rolls over Horus' toughness (of 6) on 2D6, which could easily have Horus down in a few rounds. HOWEVER the fight is not as easy as it seems since Russ' performance will become far less impressive after a few disabling strikes in the face from the Warmaster's Talon. If he survives long enough - 4 rounds mathematically - to wound Russ two times, Horus will hit on a 5+ and the Sword of Balenight will need 6s in order to make any damage, forcing Russ to use his axe. At this point, even the Elavagar armour can't prevent the Wolf King from being slowly stomped by his brother. The theoretical breakdown of the match would be :

• Turn 1 :
  • Leman Russ, 6 Wounds, WS9, S6 + charge/Counter-Attack : hits 4,67 times, wounds 3,5 (with his Sword), 1,16 wounds after saves + 1.35 wound from Sever Life, 0.45 after saves
  • Horus, 4,39 Wounds: Hits 2 times, wounds 1.77 times with his Claw, 0.88 wounds after saves
• Turn 2 :
  • Leman Russ, 5,12 Wounds, WS9, S6 : hits 4 times, wounds 3 (with his Sword), 1 wounds after saves + 1.16 wound from Sever Life, 0.39 after saves
  • Horus, 3 Wounds: Hits 1 time, wounds 0,88 times with his Claw, 0.44 wounds after saves
• Turn 3 :
  • Leman Russ, 4,68 Wounds, WS8, S5: hits 3 times, 1.67 wounds (with his Sword), 0.55 wounds after saves + 0.64 wound from Sever Life, 0.21 after saves
  • Horus, 2.24 Wounds: Hits 1 time, wounds 0,88 times with his Claw, 0.44 wounds after saves
• Turn 4 :
  • Leman Russ, 4,24 Wounds, WS8, S5: hits 3 times, 1.67 wounds (with his Sword), 0.55 wounds after saves + 0.64 wound from Sever Life, 0.21 after saves
  • Horus, 1.68 Wounds: Hits 1 time, wounds 0,88 times with his Claw, 0.44 wounds after saves
• Turn 5 :
  • Leman Russ, 3,80 Wounds, WS7, S4: hits 3 times, 1.5 wounds (with his Axe), 0.50 wounds after saves
  • Horus, 1.18 Wounds: Hits 2 times, wounds 1.77 times with his Claw, 0.88 wounds after saves
• Turn 6 :
  • Leman Russ, 2.92 Wounds, WS6, S3: hits 3 times, 1 wounds (with his Axe), 0.33 wounds after saves
  • Horus, 0.85 Wounds: Hits 2 times, wounds 1.77 times with his Claw, 0.88 wounds after saves
• Turn 7 :
  • Leman Russ, 2.04 Wounds, WS6, S3: hits 3 times, 1 wounds (with his Axe), 0.33 wounds after saves
  • Horus, 0.52 Wounds: Hits 2 times, wounds 1.77 times with his Claw, 0.88 wounds after saves
• Turn 8 :
  • Leman Russ, 1.16 Wounds, WS5, S2: hits 3 times, 0.5 wounds (with his Axe), 0.16 wounds after saves
  • Horus, 0.36 Wounds: Hits 2 times, wounds 1.77 times with his Claw, 0.88 wounds after saves
• Turn 9 :
  • Leman Russ, 0.28 Wounds, WS4, S1: hits 3 times, 0.5 wounds (with his Axe), 0.16 wounds after saves
  • Horus, 0.20 Wounds: Hits 2,67 times, wounds 2.37 times with his Claw, 1,18 wounds after saves

Mathematically, Horus actually wins the fight in 9 turns with 0.20 Wounds left. Whoah.

Thanks to HH6: Retribution, the Mechanicum has its primarch-like character. Anacharis Scoria, lord of Xana and the first of the Dark Mechanicum, boasts a brutal statline with T6 and 5W. He's an eternal warrior with FNP and IWND and a 2+/3++. But the key of his possible victory is the Vodian Sceptre, a weapon that auto-deals d3 wounds, ignoring the FNP and forbidding IWND against them. All hangs on whether or not he's able to tank the first round (Horus will be using the talon as there's no benefit in using world breaker)

If that tanking happens, Scoria wins. If not, well, Horus is down to its last wound due to fighting a model worth 200 points less than him. Same goes for Scoria, he will take 4 wounds if he wins. AVE OMNISSIAH!

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