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Horus

2022-05-03T21:28:29Z

2600:387:3:805:0:0:0:BD: /* Gallery */

{{heresy}}
[[File:Horus Portrait.png|400px|thumb|right|<s>Yul Brynner</s> <s>Lex Luthor</s> <s>Jean-Luc Picard</s> <s>Professor X pre-paralysis</s> <s>Vin Diesel</s> Horus Lupercal, the Warmaster. Here shown prior to getting his Chaos on.]]
{{Topquote|'''Let the galaxy burn.'''|Horus Lupercal, ruining everything for everyone for ever}}
{{Topquote|Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.|Satan in John Milton's ''Paradise Lost''.}}
{{Topquote|[[Primarch|Angels]] are bright still, though the brightest [[Chaos|fell]].|William Shakespeare}}
'''Horus *wah Daddy, I didn’t get enough hugs* Lupercal, The Breaker of Tyrants, The Warmaster, The Arch-Traitor, That Bald Cunt''' or '''[[If_the_Emperor_had_a_Text-to-Speech_Device|FUCKING HORUS!]]''' was the [[Primarch]] of the [[Black Legion|Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus/Black Legion]], and the main figure in the event known as the [[Horus Heresy|Horus]] [[Heresy]] (this is NOT a dead giveaway. Oh no), who is generally known as "'''THE GUY WHO FUCK'D IT ALL UP'''", [[Erebus |but not really really.]]

==Overview==
[[File:Past-Horus-Primarchs-.jpeg|300px|right|thumb|Young Horus in all his bald glory (looking weirdly like Benito Mussolini crossed with a WWE wrestler).]]
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 [[Just as planned|due to the lies]] of a [[Lorgar|certain religious zealot]]), eventually turned to [[Chaos]]. If you really need to be told any of this, what in the actual 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 [[Dwarf Fortress|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 Traitor 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 [[Eldrad|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 [[Erebus|religious nutjobs]], and [[Grimdark|because the Chaos Gods showed him horrific visions of the future, supposedly under the Emperor's rule]], all while conveniently leaving out the fact that it would be his own efforts to avert said future that would cause it in the first place. 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 and which totally contradicts previous Horus Heresy novels where the chambers the primarchs were supposed to live in once the Crusade ended were depicted. Why would you build large apartments for your "sons" if you really did not give a rat's ass about them? Or was the EMPRA intending on luring them into their respective apartment and then strangle them to death? Why go through all the effort when his psychic might was enough to force Lorgar to kneel (causing a small brain hemorrhage as evidenced by blood tricking out of his nose. See "The First Heretic)? He could have just BLAMMED them all Thunder Warrior style with all his psychic prowess and shit. Either way, you know what they say- the best lies contain a grain of truth. The Chaos Gods did show Horus the future he would create which seemed to prove that the EMPRA had planned his own ascension all along (so he obviously must enjoy to be chilling on the couch as a decomposing corpse these days).

It also doesn't help that there's prior precedence provided by Malcador committing damnatio memoriae on the [[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs_.7C_The_Forgotten_.26_The_Purged|11th and 2nd Primarchs]], a conspiracy which was first uncovered during its development by [[Alpharius#But_Wait.21|"Alpharius"]] and brought to the attention of the Warmaster himself, leading to a confrontation between [[Alpharius#But_Wait.21|"Alpharius"]], Horus, [[Jaghatai Khan]] & [[Malcador the Sigillite]] on [[Terra]]. After calling each other [[that guy|ambitious freeloaders]], Horus threatened Malcador's life, to which the Sigillite said if they didn't like the erasure of the recently lost legion, they could shove that <strike>precious</strike> vainglorious memory of theirs where the sun don't shine. When Horus tried to speak his dead brother's name as an act of defiance, Malcador froze his brain & had to be talked down from sploding his grey matter all over the room by Jaghatai & [[Alpharius#But_Wait.21|"Alpharius"]]. When he got back up, [[RAGE|Horus flipped a table and gave Malcador the bird when he had his back turned]], effectively planting the seed of resentment & pouring boiling piss over it.

It is during this confrontation that it's revealed that Horus had always disagreed with the idea of standard humans ruling over themselves & believed that since it was he, the other Primarchs and their Astartes who conquered the stars, that it should be themselves who rule over the compliant planets; rather than this opinion being implanted by the ruinous powers, it was merely exacerbated. His low opinion on mortals probably isn't helped by the fact that the conspiracy to condemn the memory of his [[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs_.7C_The_Forgotten_.26_The_Purged|lost brothers]] was concocted by baseline noble humans (there was even a noble present from House Carpinus by the name of [[Dune|Na-Baron]] Petronius Vivar at the confrontation with Malcador). Evidently, the other traitor Primarchs thought much the same when he revealed to them that it was the Emperor's plan to give the right to govern these planets to standard humans of noble houses, only to then discard the Primarchs and the remaining 18 legions ([[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs_.7C_The_Forgotten_.26_The_Purged|2nd and 11th style]]) once their stated purpose had been fulfilled. How this plan exactly meshes with putting Magnus on the Golden Throne to manage the Webway for Him is unknown, but we suspect it involves strapping an explosive collar around his neck that would detonate should he decide to peel his red ass off the chair. No bathroom breaks.

Either way though, the Emperor psychically nuking of Horus' body and soul means Horus is gone as fuck now, occasional Fabius Bile cloning shenanigans notwithstanding, and Horus' influence of modern 40K will remain posthumous.

Also, 40K(30K?) Horus has more of an reverse connection to his Egyptian god namesake, given the Egyptian Horus heroically took to the throne of the gods from a usurper while 40K Horus is instead the failed usurper.

==New fluff==
[[File:Horus vs The Emperor.jpg|600px|thumb|right|If this reminds you of every Baroque and/or Christianity-related painting from the Renaissance up until the 19th Century, good. Also note how the Custodes are Dark Silver and wearing Pickelhauben (That's because these are Sagittarum Guard).]]
Recent fluff from the book ''Vengeful Spirit'' has Horus visiting the same gate to the Warp on Molech that the [[Emperor]] used to get some of his 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 same powers that the Emperor received to create the Primarchs, but Horus gets them in a "legit" way (as far as the Ruinous Powers are concerned) by passing their near constant tests through sheer force of will, where the Emperor just took what he wanted. Refusing to become a slave to the Ruinous Powers (or perhaps that's what the Chaos Gods wanted him to think) he leaves his Warp-empire to return to his rebellion in the Materium. 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 [[Erebus|Great Fuckhead Himself]], he was misled. That the Emperor, a being capable of trapping and fighting a C'Tan (that as it turned out had been tired out prior by another warp entity... oops) during the Middle Ages, was always as powerful as He has been portrayed. It is explained 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 - 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? He wouldn't, he'd grab extra power to do so. That was Molech - a source and gateway to a wellspring of power claimed by Chaos for its use alone. 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. In the same way that god-aligned daemons are formed by splitting a portion off the God itself, He used each portion of power as a blank mold, investing them with a sliver of His personality and allowing the power to coalesce around it to form a soul/Emperor-Greater Daemon. That pseudo-daemon is then implanted in a host that can never die or degrade due to age, perfectly tailored to hold it. This explains 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 had it infused into himself. While it appears he has lost a significant chunk of this power (and a piece of his soul) after his duel with Leman Russ in the [[Battle of Trisolian]], the Ruinous Powers soon after began to mainline him with warp energy to the point where he began to bulge at the seams, so by the onset of the [[Siege of Terra]] he resembled something in between walking cancerous tumor growth amalgamation and juicing steroid junkie. Whether or not he will manage to be a match for the Emperor as yet remains to be seen. That said, we know who won the duel.

Following the duel with Russ, Horus suddenly entered a near coma, throwing the legion into disarray. Maloghurst later entered the Realm of Chaos and found that a part of Horus's soul - an uncorrupted part - was still trapped in the Warp. That part of his soul was suffering from the effects of Russ's spear, leading to the material Horus falling unconcious. The fragment expressed remorse over it's actions, as well as a morbid clarity that his rebellion was just part of the Gods plan and he had been manipulated into doing so. Left with no other option, Maloghurst destroyed the fragment at the cost of his own life, releasing Horus from his coma and giving him total control over the powers granted by the Chaos Gods, as well as leaving him utterly without doubt in his actions (however delusional they may actually have been).

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, Mortarion kills his Navigators in a fit of rage and makes the dumbass decision to go into the warp anyway. In other words, Horus 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, but 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 an Imperium of Chaos which would go to shit in a few centuries of infighting, taking humanity and gods themselves with it. It does make sense that at least Khorne and Nurgle would appreciate a bloody and decaying Imperium. One daemon even referred to Horus as "sacrificial lamb" needed to stop the Imperium from turning into a prosperous empire of reason, and kickstart the [[Long War]]. (Though Eldrad disagrees and John Grammaticus has seen Horus actually won the Heresy and Chaos was not only fine but enjoying the aftermath) The Emperor may have developed a counter-plan that caused the Chaos Gods to scream in frustration in ''The Outcast Dead'' but that book is fairly trippy. Later still, Lorgar hinted that the Chaos Gods were displeased with the Warmaster's unwillingness to become a slave to Chaos and that his ultimate defeat in the duel with the Emperor would be a punishment for his refusal to surrender his will to them. By the time of the Siege of Terra, his body and mind were outright falling apart as the Chaos Gods' power was becoming too much to handle, forcing Abaddon to do much of the actual work in leading the Traitor Legions while Horus was either comatose or too insane to form a coherent battle strategy.

Long after the Scouring, Fabius Bile succeeded in creating a stable clone of a pre-Molech Horus, who utterly wrecked a huge boarding party of traitor marines before being fucking impaled through the chest with his own talon by Abbadon. The clone was capable of speech and seemed to possess a semblance of memory from its twin brother's past (calling Abbadon its "son", just before being turned into a kebab). It's unknown why it was so hostile to other Astartes or what degree of control Fabius had over it. Several prominent marines were adamant that such an abomination (cloned Astartes apparently being the closest thing to taboo you can get for even a traitor marine) would not be Horus in any way, because his soul was annihilated by the Emperor.

==Good Guy Horus==
It's often forgotten by fans that before he was corrupted and decieved by [[Erebus]] and [[Lorgar]], Horus was a genuinely nice guy. Fans are quick to joke about "that dick Horus," but before [[Heresy|Things Went Wrong]] he was one of the most personable, down to earth primarchs. Yeah, part of the reason people fell for him so easily was that he shared the Emperor's psychic magnetism, but he also went out of his way to be friendly and considerate of custom, if not necessarily polite. Granted, at times he had arrogance to match [[Magnus]] and choler to match [[Angron]], but despite that he always made effort to honor those under his command, mortal and astartes alike. [[Konrad Curze|While]] [[Angron|many]] [[Mortarion|other]] [[Perturabo|primarchs]] saw their warriors as little more than tools, or [[Fulgrim|were]] [[Ferrus Manus|aloof]] and [[Corvus Corax|unapproachable]], Horus was a true father to his sons, guiding and shaping them personally. To most legions it would be unimaginable for the primarch to personally seek out and comfort a legionary during a time of crisis, but for the Luna Wolves, it was obvious. He was no saint or coddler, as we see him encourage rivalries within and between his legion and others, but in doing so he brought strength and glory. Even when dealing with outsiders, he always attempted diplomacy before making war, something even his gentler brothers cannot say. In fact, one of the primary reasons why Horus was named Warmaster over other candidates like Guilliman, the Lion, or even Sanguinius was that he was such a people person. He was friends with nearly all of his brothers and was superhumanly savvy when it came to knowing how to talk to people. In this same vein, he was also a master manipulator, and routinely used his savvy to get people, even people who didn't agree with him, to do what he wanted. He was in fact so good at this this he had the ability to change his personality and demeanor to suit particular situations, appearing a slightly different person to others based on what he thought would get him the best results. He got along famously with all of his brothers save one; even total psychos like Angron and Konrad Curze just couldn't help but love the guy. The only brother of his who didn't like him was Corax, which was due to the newly-initiated Warmaster somewhat clumsily trying to exert his authority over Corax and getting a bunch of Raven Guard killed unnecessarily. Horus was a cunning, brutal, supremely confident warlord with a huge cock (what) who nonetheless took great pains to make sure his warriors and mortal retainers were treated well, and furthermore, from the very few pre-Davin POV scenes we get, we know he ''actually believed'' others deserved to be treated well, it wasn't simply [[Fulgrim|feigned politeness]] or [[Roboute Guilliman|a calculated display of regard]]. Then fucking [[Erebus]] happened. Even his edgy rebellion and fall to Chaos was due to his honest love of people. He's basically 40k's version of Arthas Menethil.

==Capabilities==
It has often been said that Horus was the single greatest of all the Primarchs, and in many respects he genuinely was. Some of his brothers may have had an edge in one particular specialty or another, but Horus was very often among the top 5 in any given category, a jack of all trades, master of most, if you will. As a tactician, only Corax or the Lion were in his league, with the Lion possibly being just slightly better. As a grand strategist, he was akin in skill to Dorn and Guilliman, with Guilliman likely taking the top spot by a small margin. As a logistician, only Perturabo or Guilliman were his match. As a diplomat, only Guilliman, Lorgar, and potentially Magnus were in his league. As a leader of men, only Sanguinius was possessed of similar charisma and nobility. All these traits and more combined to make Horus a virtually unmatched general, one who could fight, plan, improvise, inspire, and negotiate with the absolute best of them. In terms of compliances, he had the single greatest number of military victories under his belt out of all the Primarchs. Only Dorn, the Lion, and Guilliman were close, and only Guilliman had a greater number of total compliances (ones gained through diplomacy or some other non-military means).

There was a flipside to his brilliance, however. While he was arguably the greatest conqueror out of the primarchs, he was not the type of person to leave a planet better than it was before. He had a tendency to destroy and then have legions such as the Ultramarines and Iron Warriors clean up his messes. While he was a magnificent diplomat and always felt that the primarchs should rule humanity, he never actually showed any interest in statesmanship. As a matter of fact, there is no hint that he ever governed a single planet. The primarch who conquered the most planets never stuck around to make something of his gains. He wanted to always be known as his father's favourite and then when he was given the warmaster position he started buckling under the pressure. In other words, he was the classic example of "wanting is better than having".

==On the Tabletop==
[[File:Horus.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Horus Lupercal, in all his miniature [[Awesome|glory]].]]
{| class=wikitable
! || 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 the 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.

Horus is an absolute motherfucker, and can be thought of as everything a Chapter Master should be between his Orbital Bombardment and army buffs. Letting reserves Outflank makes crossing the board much easier. His Justaerinstar will make anything shit its pants. The Ld bonus patches his Legion's weak morale, and 4+ seize can make a huge difference. His Orbital Bombardment is also awesome. The multi-wound EWless models one finds in 30k will die, and you're likely to put vehicles out of commission. Unfortunately this comes at a really steep fucking price (500 points!) so use him wisely.

As this is said to represent him as he was during the Great Crusade and the start of the Horus Heresy, it is possible he may get an updated profile to represent him as he was when he got all Chaos'd up. When or if that'll happen is anyone's guess, however.

==Horus VS other Primarchs:==
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Horus wins against any other Primarch except Leman Russ and super-charged Magnus. That's it. He beats ALMOST any other opponent he gets pitted against.
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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 almost 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 [[Angron|angry]], [[Fulgrim|pretty]] or [[Perturabo|well]] [[Ferrus Manus|equipped]] anyone else is... [[Sanguinius|so long as he doesn't piss off the Angel]]. Ouch, that Talon really hurts. So, yeah, almost no one can actually fight 1 on 1 with the Warmaster, barring some incredibly lucky rolls.

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'''These are the old numbers on Leman Russ pre-FAQ:'''
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*Horus vs. Leman Russ
**Horus, Round 1: Hits 2 times, wounds 1.777 times with his Claw, 0.888 wounds after saves, and IWND brings it down 0.555
**Horus Round 2 and on: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.111
**Leman Russ, full Wounds + charge/Counter-Attack (Balenight): hits 4.667 times, wounds 3.502, 1.167 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.834 at the start of the next turn.
**Leman Russ, full Wounds + charge/Counter-Attack (Helwinter): hits 4.861 times, wounds 4.051 times, 1.350 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 1.017 at the start of the next turn.
**Leman Russ, full Wounds (Balenight): hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1 wound after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.667
**Leman Russ, full Wounds (Helwinter): hits 4.190 times, wounds 3.492, 1.164 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.831 at the start of the next turn.
**Sever Life: Being a pain in the ass to calculate, Sever Life will go off most of the time against Horus, but for the purposes of this mathhammer Sever Life's chance to not go off will be included in its average Wounds roll:
***Every time Leman Russ Attacks Horus (as he'll always manage to Wound him and it doesn't say it's triggered via unsaved Wounds) Horus takes an additional 1.091 Wounds, only 0.364 of which will make it through Horus' save.
**Keeping Sever Life in mind and the fact that Leman Russ can split his attacks, the ideal way to split them (for round one and two anyway) would be: 2 Attacks with Balenight, 4/5 Attacks with Helfrost. Here's what that looks like:
***Leman Russ, full Wounds + charge/Counter-Attack: hits 4.851 times (1.333 times with Balenight, 3.518 times with Helwinter), wounds 5.023 times (1 time with Balenight, 2.932 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.674 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 1.341 wounds at the start of the next turn.
***Leman Russ, full Wounds: hits 4.177 times (1.333 times with Balenight, 2.844 times with Helwinter), wounds 4.461 times (1 time with Balenight, 2.370 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.487 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 1.154 wounds at the start of the next turn.
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 stated, this includes Sever Life and Breaker of Shields, Bringer of Ruin. The theoretical breakdown of the match would be:
*Round 1:
** Leman Russ, 6 Wounds, WS9, S6 + charge/Counter-Attack (2 attacks on Balenight, 5 attacks on Helwinter): hits 4.851 times (1.333 times with Balenight, 3.518 times with Helwinter), wounds 5.023 times (1 time with Balenight, 2.932 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.674 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 4.326 Wounds: Hits 2 times, wounds 1.777 times with his Claw, 0.888 wounds after saves.
*Round 2:
** Leman Russ, 5.112 Wounds, WS9, S6 (2 attacks on Balenight, 4 attacks on Helwinter): hits 4.177 times (1.333 times with Balenight, 2.844 times with Helwinter), wounds 4.461 times (1 time with Balenight, 2.370 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.487 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 2.839 Wounds: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 wounds after saves.
*Round 3:
** Leman Russ, 5.001 Wounds (IWND puts him slightly above 5, but it can't regenerate his damaged characteristics), WS8, S5 (3 attacks on Balenight, 3 attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.188 times (1.5 times with Balenight, 1.688 times with Helwinter), wounds 3.498 times (1 time with Balenight, 1.407 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.166 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 2.006 Wounds (IWND): Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 wounds after saves.
*Round 4:
** Leman Russ, 4.557 Wounds, WS8, S5 (3 attacks on Balenight, 3 attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.188 times (1.5 times with Balenight, 1.688 times with Helwinter), wounds 3.498 times (1 time with Balenight, 1.407 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.166 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 0.84 Wounds: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 wounds after saves.
*Round 5:
** Leman Russ, 4.446 Wounds (IWND), WS7, S4 (The Talon of Horus technically causes another unsaved wound here) (all attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.214 times, wounds 1.607 times, 0.536 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 0.637 Wounds (IWND): Hits 2 time, wounds 1.778 times with his Claw, 0.888 wounds after saves.
*Round 6:
** Leman Russ, 3.558 Wounds, WS6, S3 (all attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.214 times, wounds 1.071 times, 0.357 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 0.28 Wounds: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 wounds after saves.
*Round 7:
** Leman Russ, 2.67 Wounds, WS6, S3 (all attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.214 times, wounds 1.071 times, 0.357 wounds after saves.
** Horus is dead before IWND kicks in for him and so cannot strike back.
Mathematically, if Russ takes full advantage of Breaker of Shields, Bringer of Ruin then Horus loses the fight in 7 rounds (4 game turns!) while Russ still has 2.67 Wounds left. Whoah.
*Do note that IWND messes up the math a little at face value for Talon of Horus. Since Russ does not gain characteristics back that he lost because of Severing Strike, he'll appear to have fewer unsaved Wounds than he actually does.
</div>
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The above was based on Russ' armour before it got nerfed, which before would make -2 to hits against by round two. Now it is only -1 for the entire battle.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
'''Recalculations from Reddit by u/Fromageopain, showing Horus' win:'''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
*Round 1 (Russ's turn, 7 attacks from charge. If turns are swapped, still 7 from Counter-Attack, but Horus makes IWND first)
**Russ [6 Wounds, WS9, S6, 2 attacks with Balenight, 5 attacks with Helwinter]
***Hits 1.333 times with Balenight and 3.912 times with Helwinter, wounds 1 time with Balenight, 3.2601 times with Helwinter and add 1.091 for Sever Life. That leads to 1.7833 wounds after saves.
**Horus [4.222 Wounds, 6 Talon attacks]
***Hits 2 times, wound 1.778 times, 0.889 wounds after saves and 0.444 after IWND.
*Round 2 (Horus' turn)
**Russ [5.444 Wounds, WS9, S6, 2 Balenight 4 Helwinter]
***Hits 1.333 times with Balenight and 3.201 times with Helwinter, wounds 1 time with Balenight, 2.668 times with Helwinter and add 1.091 for Sever Life. That leads to 1.586 wounds after saves and 1.253 after IWND
**Horus [2.969 Wounds, 6 Talon]
***Hits 2 time, wounds 1.778 times, 0.889 wounds after saves.
*Round 3 (Russ' turn)
**Russ [4.555 Wounds, WS8, S5, 4 Balenight 2 Helwinter]
***Hits 1.5 times with Balenight and 1.375 times with Helwinter, wounds 1.111 times with Balenight and 1.407 times with Helwinter and add 1.091 for Sever Life. That leads to 1.203 wounds after saves.
**Horus [1.766 Wounds, 6 Talon]
***Hits 2 times, wound 1.778 times, 0.889 wounds after saves and 0.444 after IWND.
*Round 4 (Horus' Turn)
**Russ [4.111 Wounds, WS7, S4 (he is over 4 wounds thanks to IWND, but lost his characteristics since the talon wounded 4 times), 6 Balenight]
***Hits 3 times , wounds 0.917 times and add 1.091 for Sever Life (let's be kind), 0.669 wounds after saves and 0.335 after IWND.
**Horus [1.430 Wounds, 5 Talon 1 Worldbreaker]
***Hits 2.5 times with Talon and 0.75 times with Worldbreaker. wounds 2.222 and 0.625 times. That leads to 1.111 and 0.313 wounds after saves.
*Round 5: (Russ's turn)
**Russ [2.687 Wounds, WS6, S3, 6 Balenight]
***Hits 3 times , wounds 0.917 times, add 1.091 with Sever Life (let's be kind again), 0.669 wounds after saves.
**Horus, [0.761 Wounds, 5 Talon 1 Worldbreaker]
***Hits 2.5 time with Talon and 0.75 times with Worldbreaker, wounds 2.222 and 0.625 times. That leads to 1.111 and 0.313 wounds after saves. IWND brings this down to 1.09 wounds
*Round 6: (Horus' Turn)
**Russ [1.596 Wounds (IWND), WS5, S2, 6 attacks on Helwinter (Str2 cannot hurt T6)]
***Hits 3 times , wounds 0.582 times, 0.194 wounds after saves (not enough to actually kill Horus) and IWND will mean that Horus will actually heal more than Leman inflicts, resulting Horus gaining 0.139 wounds at the end of the turn
**Horus [0.900 Wounds, 5 Talon 1 Worldbreaker]
***Hits 2.5 time with Talon and 0.75 times with Worldbreaker, wounds 2.222 and 0.625 times. That leads to 1.111 and 0.313 wounds after saves.
*Round 7: (Russ's turn)
**Russ [0.172 Wounds, WS4, S1, all attacks on Helwinter]
***Hits 3 times , wounds 0.582 times, 0.194 wounds after saves.
**Horus [0.761 Wounds, gain +d3 attacks] and finish Leman...

Keep in mind that these results are made considering that Sever Life will apply regardless of Horus successfully saving the wounds inflicted by Balenight which is greatly benefiting Russ and is probably not the way the rule is supposed to work. On a side note, if Sever Life only triggers when Horus suffers an unsaved wound from Balenight, then the fight is way more one sided in Horus' favor because Leman would have to make more attacks using the sword in order to trigger Sever Life, losing damage since the axe hits harder than the sword.
</div>
</div>

The Wolf-king also has a secret weapon: Wolves... yeah. Russ can choose to have both his dogs accompany him, both of which are characters. Thanks to how wound allocation and challenges work, Russ can force Horus to engage with the dogs instead of him for 2 whole rounds, making Horus use Worldbreaker to ID the dogs, since if he uses the Talon it'll take 3 wounds total to kill the dogs and he can tank the full Worldbreaker on himself to stop the other dog from dying too fast, which prevents his stats from dropping early. By that point there is a high probability Horus will be on his last couple wounds if not already dead when the attacks from the wolves are added in to augment Leman Russ. Meaning Horus will simply die even faster. Emperor's Executioner indeed.

Thanks to HH6: Retribution, the Mechanicum has its primarch-like character. [[Anacharis Scoria]], lord of Xana and the first of the Dark Mechanicum used to be able to easily kill Horus thanks to a 3+ Invuln, Feel No Pain, and a weapon that wounds automatically and causes D3 wounds at AP2 per hit (making Horus' talon worthless). This allowed him to kill Horus in 5 rounds, whereas Horus needed 6 to kill him in return. He also got nerfed in the same FAQ that nerfed Russ, so now Horus kills him too.
</div>
</div>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Horus vs Leman.jpg| Ah too many wolves.

File:CGIHorus.jpeg| The first Primarch to be fully animated. They coulda made this an actual animated series...
</gallery>

{{Primarchs}}

[[Category:Chaos]]

Horus

2022-05-03T21:25:59Z

2600:387:3:805:0:0:0:BD: /* Gallery */

{{heresy}}
[[File:Horus Portrait.png|400px|thumb|right|<s>Yul Brynner</s> <s>Lex Luthor</s> <s>Jean-Luc Picard</s> <s>Professor X pre-paralysis</s> <s>Vin Diesel</s> Horus Lupercal, the Warmaster. Here shown prior to getting his Chaos on.]]
{{Topquote|'''Let the galaxy burn.'''|Horus Lupercal, ruining everything for everyone for ever}}
{{Topquote|Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.|Satan in John Milton's ''Paradise Lost''.}}
{{Topquote|[[Primarch|Angels]] are bright still, though the brightest [[Chaos|fell]].|William Shakespeare}}
'''Horus *wah Daddy, I didn’t get enough hugs* Lupercal, The Breaker of Tyrants, The Warmaster, The Arch-Traitor, That Bald Cunt''' or '''[[If_the_Emperor_had_a_Text-to-Speech_Device|FUCKING HORUS!]]''' was the [[Primarch]] of the [[Black Legion|Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus/Black Legion]], and the main figure in the event known as the [[Horus Heresy|Horus]] [[Heresy]] (this is NOT a dead giveaway. Oh no), who is generally known as "'''THE GUY WHO FUCK'D IT ALL UP'''", [[Erebus |but not really really.]]

==Overview==
[[File:Past-Horus-Primarchs-.jpeg|300px|right|thumb|Young Horus in all his bald glory (looking weirdly like Benito Mussolini crossed with a WWE wrestler).]]
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 [[Just as planned|due to the lies]] of a [[Lorgar|certain religious zealot]]), eventually turned to [[Chaos]]. If you really need to be told any of this, what in the actual 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 [[Dwarf Fortress|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 Traitor 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 [[Eldrad|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 [[Erebus|religious nutjobs]], and [[Grimdark|because the Chaos Gods showed him horrific visions of the future, supposedly under the Emperor's rule]], all while conveniently leaving out the fact that it would be his own efforts to avert said future that would cause it in the first place. 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 and which totally contradicts previous Horus Heresy novels where the chambers the primarchs were supposed to live in once the Crusade ended were depicted. Why would you build large apartments for your "sons" if you really did not give a rat's ass about them? Or was the EMPRA intending on luring them into their respective apartment and then strangle them to death? Why go through all the effort when his psychic might was enough to force Lorgar to kneel (causing a small brain hemorrhage as evidenced by blood tricking out of his nose. See "The First Heretic)? He could have just BLAMMED them all Thunder Warrior style with all his psychic prowess and shit. Either way, you know what they say- the best lies contain a grain of truth. The Chaos Gods did show Horus the future he would create which seemed to prove that the EMPRA had planned his own ascension all along (so he obviously must enjoy to be chilling on the couch as a decomposing corpse these days).

It also doesn't help that there's prior precedence provided by Malcador committing damnatio memoriae on the [[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs_.7C_The_Forgotten_.26_The_Purged|11th and 2nd Primarchs]], a conspiracy which was first uncovered during its development by [[Alpharius#But_Wait.21|"Alpharius"]] and brought to the attention of the Warmaster himself, leading to a confrontation between [[Alpharius#But_Wait.21|"Alpharius"]], Horus, [[Jaghatai Khan]] & [[Malcador the Sigillite]] on [[Terra]]. After calling each other [[that guy|ambitious freeloaders]], Horus threatened Malcador's life, to which the Sigillite said if they didn't like the erasure of the recently lost legion, they could shove that <strike>precious</strike> vainglorious memory of theirs where the sun don't shine. When Horus tried to speak his dead brother's name as an act of defiance, Malcador froze his brain & had to be talked down from sploding his grey matter all over the room by Jaghatai & [[Alpharius#But_Wait.21|"Alpharius"]]. When he got back up, [[RAGE|Horus flipped a table and gave Malcador the bird when he had his back turned]], effectively planting the seed of resentment & pouring boiling piss over it.

It is during this confrontation that it's revealed that Horus had always disagreed with the idea of standard humans ruling over themselves & believed that since it was he, the other Primarchs and their Astartes who conquered the stars, that it should be themselves who rule over the compliant planets; rather than this opinion being implanted by the ruinous powers, it was merely exacerbated. His low opinion on mortals probably isn't helped by the fact that the conspiracy to condemn the memory of his [[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs_.7C_The_Forgotten_.26_The_Purged|lost brothers]] was concocted by baseline noble humans (there was even a noble present from House Carpinus by the name of [[Dune|Na-Baron]] Petronius Vivar at the confrontation with Malcador). Evidently, the other traitor Primarchs thought much the same when he revealed to them that it was the Emperor's plan to give the right to govern these planets to standard humans of noble houses, only to then discard the Primarchs and the remaining 18 legions ([[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs_.7C_The_Forgotten_.26_The_Purged|2nd and 11th style]]) once their stated purpose had been fulfilled. How this plan exactly meshes with putting Magnus on the Golden Throne to manage the Webway for Him is unknown, but we suspect it involves strapping an explosive collar around his neck that would detonate should he decide to peel his red ass off the chair. No bathroom breaks.

Either way though, the Emperor psychically nuking of Horus' body and soul means Horus is gone as fuck now, occasional Fabius Bile cloning shenanigans notwithstanding, and Horus' influence of modern 40K will remain posthumous.

Also, 40K(30K?) Horus has more of an reverse connection to his Egyptian god namesake, given the Egyptian Horus heroically took to the throne of the gods from a usurper while 40K Horus is instead the failed usurper.

==New fluff==
[[File:Horus vs The Emperor.jpg|600px|thumb|right|If this reminds you of every Baroque and/or Christianity-related painting from the Renaissance up until the 19th Century, good. Also note how the Custodes are Dark Silver and wearing Pickelhauben (That's because these are Sagittarum Guard).]]
Recent fluff from the book ''Vengeful Spirit'' has Horus visiting the same gate to the Warp on Molech that the [[Emperor]] used to get some of his 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 same powers that the Emperor received to create the Primarchs, but Horus gets them in a "legit" way (as far as the Ruinous Powers are concerned) by passing their near constant tests through sheer force of will, where the Emperor just took what he wanted. Refusing to become a slave to the Ruinous Powers (or perhaps that's what the Chaos Gods wanted him to think) he leaves his Warp-empire to return to his rebellion in the Materium. 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 [[Erebus|Great Fuckhead Himself]], he was misled. That the Emperor, a being capable of trapping and fighting a C'Tan (that as it turned out had been tired out prior by another warp entity... oops) during the Middle Ages, was always as powerful as He has been portrayed. It is explained 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 - 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? He wouldn't, he'd grab extra power to do so. That was Molech - a source and gateway to a wellspring of power claimed by Chaos for its use alone. 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. In the same way that god-aligned daemons are formed by splitting a portion off the God itself, He used each portion of power as a blank mold, investing them with a sliver of His personality and allowing the power to coalesce around it to form a soul/Emperor-Greater Daemon. That pseudo-daemon is then implanted in a host that can never die or degrade due to age, perfectly tailored to hold it. This explains 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 had it infused into himself. While it appears he has lost a significant chunk of this power (and a piece of his soul) after his duel with Leman Russ in the [[Battle of Trisolian]], the Ruinous Powers soon after began to mainline him with warp energy to the point where he began to bulge at the seams, so by the onset of the [[Siege of Terra]] he resembled something in between walking cancerous tumor growth amalgamation and juicing steroid junkie. Whether or not he will manage to be a match for the Emperor as yet remains to be seen. That said, we know who won the duel.

Following the duel with Russ, Horus suddenly entered a near coma, throwing the legion into disarray. Maloghurst later entered the Realm of Chaos and found that a part of Horus's soul - an uncorrupted part - was still trapped in the Warp. That part of his soul was suffering from the effects of Russ's spear, leading to the material Horus falling unconcious. The fragment expressed remorse over it's actions, as well as a morbid clarity that his rebellion was just part of the Gods plan and he had been manipulated into doing so. Left with no other option, Maloghurst destroyed the fragment at the cost of his own life, releasing Horus from his coma and giving him total control over the powers granted by the Chaos Gods, as well as leaving him utterly without doubt in his actions (however delusional they may actually have been).

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, Mortarion kills his Navigators in a fit of rage and makes the dumbass decision to go into the warp anyway. In other words, Horus 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, but 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 an Imperium of Chaos which would go to shit in a few centuries of infighting, taking humanity and gods themselves with it. It does make sense that at least Khorne and Nurgle would appreciate a bloody and decaying Imperium. One daemon even referred to Horus as "sacrificial lamb" needed to stop the Imperium from turning into a prosperous empire of reason, and kickstart the [[Long War]]. (Though Eldrad disagrees and John Grammaticus has seen Horus actually won the Heresy and Chaos was not only fine but enjoying the aftermath) The Emperor may have developed a counter-plan that caused the Chaos Gods to scream in frustration in ''The Outcast Dead'' but that book is fairly trippy. Later still, Lorgar hinted that the Chaos Gods were displeased with the Warmaster's unwillingness to become a slave to Chaos and that his ultimate defeat in the duel with the Emperor would be a punishment for his refusal to surrender his will to them. By the time of the Siege of Terra, his body and mind were outright falling apart as the Chaos Gods' power was becoming too much to handle, forcing Abaddon to do much of the actual work in leading the Traitor Legions while Horus was either comatose or too insane to form a coherent battle strategy.

Long after the Scouring, Fabius Bile succeeded in creating a stable clone of a pre-Molech Horus, who utterly wrecked a huge boarding party of traitor marines before being fucking impaled through the chest with his own talon by Abbadon. The clone was capable of speech and seemed to possess a semblance of memory from its twin brother's past (calling Abbadon its "son", just before being turned into a kebab). It's unknown why it was so hostile to other Astartes or what degree of control Fabius had over it. Several prominent marines were adamant that such an abomination (cloned Astartes apparently being the closest thing to taboo you can get for even a traitor marine) would not be Horus in any way, because his soul was annihilated by the Emperor.

==Good Guy Horus==
It's often forgotten by fans that before he was corrupted and decieved by [[Erebus]] and [[Lorgar]], Horus was a genuinely nice guy. Fans are quick to joke about "that dick Horus," but before [[Heresy|Things Went Wrong]] he was one of the most personable, down to earth primarchs. Yeah, part of the reason people fell for him so easily was that he shared the Emperor's psychic magnetism, but he also went out of his way to be friendly and considerate of custom, if not necessarily polite. Granted, at times he had arrogance to match [[Magnus]] and choler to match [[Angron]], but despite that he always made effort to honor those under his command, mortal and astartes alike. [[Konrad Curze|While]] [[Angron|many]] [[Mortarion|other]] [[Perturabo|primarchs]] saw their warriors as little more than tools, or [[Fulgrim|were]] [[Ferrus Manus|aloof]] and [[Corvus Corax|unapproachable]], Horus was a true father to his sons, guiding and shaping them personally. To most legions it would be unimaginable for the primarch to personally seek out and comfort a legionary during a time of crisis, but for the Luna Wolves, it was obvious. He was no saint or coddler, as we see him encourage rivalries within and between his legion and others, but in doing so he brought strength and glory. Even when dealing with outsiders, he always attempted diplomacy before making war, something even his gentler brothers cannot say. In fact, one of the primary reasons why Horus was named Warmaster over other candidates like Guilliman, the Lion, or even Sanguinius was that he was such a people person. He was friends with nearly all of his brothers and was superhumanly savvy when it came to knowing how to talk to people. In this same vein, he was also a master manipulator, and routinely used his savvy to get people, even people who didn't agree with him, to do what he wanted. He was in fact so good at this this he had the ability to change his personality and demeanor to suit particular situations, appearing a slightly different person to others based on what he thought would get him the best results. He got along famously with all of his brothers save one; even total psychos like Angron and Konrad Curze just couldn't help but love the guy. The only brother of his who didn't like him was Corax, which was due to the newly-initiated Warmaster somewhat clumsily trying to exert his authority over Corax and getting a bunch of Raven Guard killed unnecessarily. Horus was a cunning, brutal, supremely confident warlord with a huge cock (what) who nonetheless took great pains to make sure his warriors and mortal retainers were treated well, and furthermore, from the very few pre-Davin POV scenes we get, we know he ''actually believed'' others deserved to be treated well, it wasn't simply [[Fulgrim|feigned politeness]] or [[Roboute Guilliman|a calculated display of regard]]. Then fucking [[Erebus]] happened. Even his edgy rebellion and fall to Chaos was due to his honest love of people. He's basically 40k's version of Arthas Menethil.

==Capabilities==
It has often been said that Horus was the single greatest of all the Primarchs, and in many respects he genuinely was. Some of his brothers may have had an edge in one particular specialty or another, but Horus was very often among the top 5 in any given category, a jack of all trades, master of most, if you will. As a tactician, only Corax or the Lion were in his league, with the Lion possibly being just slightly better. As a grand strategist, he was akin in skill to Dorn and Guilliman, with Guilliman likely taking the top spot by a small margin. As a logistician, only Perturabo or Guilliman were his match. As a diplomat, only Guilliman, Lorgar, and potentially Magnus were in his league. As a leader of men, only Sanguinius was possessed of similar charisma and nobility. All these traits and more combined to make Horus a virtually unmatched general, one who could fight, plan, improvise, inspire, and negotiate with the absolute best of them. In terms of compliances, he had the single greatest number of military victories under his belt out of all the Primarchs. Only Dorn, the Lion, and Guilliman were close, and only Guilliman had a greater number of total compliances (ones gained through diplomacy or some other non-military means).

There was a flipside to his brilliance, however. While he was arguably the greatest conqueror out of the primarchs, he was not the type of person to leave a planet better than it was before. He had a tendency to destroy and then have legions such as the Ultramarines and Iron Warriors clean up his messes. While he was a magnificent diplomat and always felt that the primarchs should rule humanity, he never actually showed any interest in statesmanship. As a matter of fact, there is no hint that he ever governed a single planet. The primarch who conquered the most planets never stuck around to make something of his gains. He wanted to always be known as his father's favourite and then when he was given the warmaster position he started buckling under the pressure. In other words, he was the classic example of "wanting is better than having".

==On the Tabletop==
[[File:Horus.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Horus Lupercal, in all his miniature [[Awesome|glory]].]]
{| class=wikitable
! || 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 the 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.

Horus is an absolute motherfucker, and can be thought of as everything a Chapter Master should be between his Orbital Bombardment and army buffs. Letting reserves Outflank makes crossing the board much easier. His Justaerinstar will make anything shit its pants. The Ld bonus patches his Legion's weak morale, and 4+ seize can make a huge difference. His Orbital Bombardment is also awesome. The multi-wound EWless models one finds in 30k will die, and you're likely to put vehicles out of commission. Unfortunately this comes at a really steep fucking price (500 points!) so use him wisely.

As this is said to represent him as he was during the Great Crusade and the start of the Horus Heresy, it is possible he may get an updated profile to represent him as he was when he got all Chaos'd up. When or if that'll happen is anyone's guess, however.

==Horus VS other Primarchs:==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Horus wins against any other Primarch except Leman Russ and super-charged Magnus. That's it. He beats ALMOST any other opponent he gets pitted against.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
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 almost 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 [[Angron|angry]], [[Fulgrim|pretty]] or [[Perturabo|well]] [[Ferrus Manus|equipped]] anyone else is... [[Sanguinius|so long as he doesn't piss off the Angel]]. Ouch, that Talon really hurts. So, yeah, almost no one can actually fight 1 on 1 with the Warmaster, barring some incredibly lucky rolls.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
'''These are the old numbers on Leman Russ pre-FAQ:'''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
*Horus vs. Leman Russ
**Horus, Round 1: Hits 2 times, wounds 1.777 times with his Claw, 0.888 wounds after saves, and IWND brings it down 0.555
**Horus Round 2 and on: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.111
**Leman Russ, full Wounds + charge/Counter-Attack (Balenight): hits 4.667 times, wounds 3.502, 1.167 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.834 at the start of the next turn.
**Leman Russ, full Wounds + charge/Counter-Attack (Helwinter): hits 4.861 times, wounds 4.051 times, 1.350 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 1.017 at the start of the next turn.
**Leman Russ, full Wounds (Balenight): hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1 wound after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.667
**Leman Russ, full Wounds (Helwinter): hits 4.190 times, wounds 3.492, 1.164 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 0.831 at the start of the next turn.
**Sever Life: Being a pain in the ass to calculate, Sever Life will go off most of the time against Horus, but for the purposes of this mathhammer Sever Life's chance to not go off will be included in its average Wounds roll:
***Every time Leman Russ Attacks Horus (as he'll always manage to Wound him and it doesn't say it's triggered via unsaved Wounds) Horus takes an additional 1.091 Wounds, only 0.364 of which will make it through Horus' save.
**Keeping Sever Life in mind and the fact that Leman Russ can split his attacks, the ideal way to split them (for round one and two anyway) would be: 2 Attacks with Balenight, 4/5 Attacks with Helfrost. Here's what that looks like:
***Leman Russ, full Wounds + charge/Counter-Attack: hits 4.851 times (1.333 times with Balenight, 3.518 times with Helwinter), wounds 5.023 times (1 time with Balenight, 2.932 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.674 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 1.341 wounds at the start of the next turn.
***Leman Russ, full Wounds: hits 4.177 times (1.333 times with Balenight, 2.844 times with Helwinter), wounds 4.461 times (1 time with Balenight, 2.370 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.487 wounds after saves and IWND brings it down to 1.154 wounds at the start of the next turn.
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 stated, this includes Sever Life and Breaker of Shields, Bringer of Ruin. The theoretical breakdown of the match would be:
*Round 1:
** Leman Russ, 6 Wounds, WS9, S6 + charge/Counter-Attack (2 attacks on Balenight, 5 attacks on Helwinter): hits 4.851 times (1.333 times with Balenight, 3.518 times with Helwinter), wounds 5.023 times (1 time with Balenight, 2.932 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.674 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 4.326 Wounds: Hits 2 times, wounds 1.777 times with his Claw, 0.888 wounds after saves.
*Round 2:
** Leman Russ, 5.112 Wounds, WS9, S6 (2 attacks on Balenight, 4 attacks on Helwinter): hits 4.177 times (1.333 times with Balenight, 2.844 times with Helwinter), wounds 4.461 times (1 time with Balenight, 2.370 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.487 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 2.839 Wounds: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 wounds after saves.
*Round 3:
** Leman Russ, 5.001 Wounds (IWND puts him slightly above 5, but it can't regenerate his damaged characteristics), WS8, S5 (3 attacks on Balenight, 3 attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.188 times (1.5 times with Balenight, 1.688 times with Helwinter), wounds 3.498 times (1 time with Balenight, 1.407 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.166 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 2.006 Wounds (IWND): Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 wounds after saves.
*Round 4:
** Leman Russ, 4.557 Wounds, WS8, S5 (3 attacks on Balenight, 3 attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.188 times (1.5 times with Balenight, 1.688 times with Helwinter), wounds 3.498 times (1 time with Balenight, 1.407 times with Helwinter, 1.091 times with Sever Life), 1.166 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 0.84 Wounds: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 wounds after saves.
*Round 5:
** Leman Russ, 4.446 Wounds (IWND), WS7, S4 (The Talon of Horus technically causes another unsaved wound here) (all attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.214 times, wounds 1.607 times, 0.536 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 0.637 Wounds (IWND): Hits 2 time, wounds 1.778 times with his Claw, 0.888 wounds after saves.
*Round 6:
** Leman Russ, 3.558 Wounds, WS6, S3 (all attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.214 times, wounds 1.071 times, 0.357 wounds after saves.
** Horus, 0.28 Wounds: Hits 1 time, wounds 0.888 times with his Claw, 0.444 wounds after saves.
*Round 7:
** Leman Russ, 2.67 Wounds, WS6, S3 (all attacks on Helwinter): hits 3.214 times, wounds 1.071 times, 0.357 wounds after saves.
** Horus is dead before IWND kicks in for him and so cannot strike back.
Mathematically, if Russ takes full advantage of Breaker of Shields, Bringer of Ruin then Horus loses the fight in 7 rounds (4 game turns!) while Russ still has 2.67 Wounds left. Whoah.
*Do note that IWND messes up the math a little at face value for Talon of Horus. Since Russ does not gain characteristics back that he lost because of Severing Strike, he'll appear to have fewer unsaved Wounds than he actually does.
</div>
</div>

The above was based on Russ' armour before it got nerfed, which before would make -2 to hits against by round two. Now it is only -1 for the entire battle.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
'''Recalculations from Reddit by u/Fromageopain, showing Horus' win:'''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
*Round 1 (Russ's turn, 7 attacks from charge. If turns are swapped, still 7 from Counter-Attack, but Horus makes IWND first)
**Russ [6 Wounds, WS9, S6, 2 attacks with Balenight, 5 attacks with Helwinter]
***Hits 1.333 times with Balenight and 3.912 times with Helwinter, wounds 1 time with Balenight, 3.2601 times with Helwinter and add 1.091 for Sever Life. That leads to 1.7833 wounds after saves.
**Horus [4.222 Wounds, 6 Talon attacks]
***Hits 2 times, wound 1.778 times, 0.889 wounds after saves and 0.444 after IWND.
*Round 2 (Horus' turn)
**Russ [5.444 Wounds, WS9, S6, 2 Balenight 4 Helwinter]
***Hits 1.333 times with Balenight and 3.201 times with Helwinter, wounds 1 time with Balenight, 2.668 times with Helwinter and add 1.091 for Sever Life. That leads to 1.586 wounds after saves and 1.253 after IWND
**Horus [2.969 Wounds, 6 Talon]
***Hits 2 time, wounds 1.778 times, 0.889 wounds after saves.
*Round 3 (Russ' turn)
**Russ [4.555 Wounds, WS8, S5, 4 Balenight 2 Helwinter]
***Hits 1.5 times with Balenight and 1.375 times with Helwinter, wounds 1.111 times with Balenight and 1.407 times with Helwinter and add 1.091 for Sever Life. That leads to 1.203 wounds after saves.
**Horus [1.766 Wounds, 6 Talon]
***Hits 2 times, wound 1.778 times, 0.889 wounds after saves and 0.444 after IWND.
*Round 4 (Horus' Turn)
**Russ [4.111 Wounds, WS7, S4 (he is over 4 wounds thanks to IWND, but lost his characteristics since the talon wounded 4 times), 6 Balenight]
***Hits 3 times , wounds 0.917 times and add 1.091 for Sever Life (let's be kind), 0.669 wounds after saves and 0.335 after IWND.
**Horus [1.430 Wounds, 5 Talon 1 Worldbreaker]
***Hits 2.5 times with Talon and 0.75 times with Worldbreaker. wounds 2.222 and 0.625 times. That leads to 1.111 and 0.313 wounds after saves.
*Round 5: (Russ's turn)
**Russ [2.687 Wounds, WS6, S3, 6 Balenight]
***Hits 3 times , wounds 0.917 times, add 1.091 with Sever Life (let's be kind again), 0.669 wounds after saves.
**Horus, [0.761 Wounds, 5 Talon 1 Worldbreaker]
***Hits 2.5 time with Talon and 0.75 times with Worldbreaker, wounds 2.222 and 0.625 times. That leads to 1.111 and 0.313 wounds after saves. IWND brings this down to 1.09 wounds
*Round 6: (Horus' Turn)
**Russ [1.596 Wounds (IWND), WS5, S2, 6 attacks on Helwinter (Str2 cannot hurt T6)]
***Hits 3 times , wounds 0.582 times, 0.194 wounds after saves (not enough to actually kill Horus) and IWND will mean that Horus will actually heal more than Leman inflicts, resulting Horus gaining 0.139 wounds at the end of the turn
**Horus [0.900 Wounds, 5 Talon 1 Worldbreaker]
***Hits 2.5 time with Talon and 0.75 times with Worldbreaker, wounds 2.222 and 0.625 times. That leads to 1.111 and 0.313 wounds after saves.
*Round 7: (Russ's turn)
**Russ [0.172 Wounds, WS4, S1, all attacks on Helwinter]
***Hits 3 times , wounds 0.582 times, 0.194 wounds after saves.
**Horus [0.761 Wounds, gain +d3 attacks] and finish Leman...

Keep in mind that these results are made considering that Sever Life will apply regardless of Horus successfully saving the wounds inflicted by Balenight which is greatly benefiting Russ and is probably not the way the rule is supposed to work. On a side note, if Sever Life only triggers when Horus suffers an unsaved wound from Balenight, then the fight is way more one sided in Horus' favor because Leman would have to make more attacks using the sword in order to trigger Sever Life, losing damage since the axe hits harder than the sword.
</div>
</div>

The Wolf-king also has a secret weapon: Wolves... yeah. Russ can choose to have both his dogs accompany him, both of which are characters. Thanks to how wound allocation and challenges work, Russ can force Horus to engage with the dogs instead of him for 2 whole rounds, making Horus use Worldbreaker to ID the dogs, since if he uses the Talon it'll take 3 wounds total to kill the dogs and he can tank the full Worldbreaker on himself to stop the other dog from dying too fast, which prevents his stats from dropping early. By that point there is a high probability Horus will be on his last couple wounds if not already dead when the attacks from the wolves are added in to augment Leman Russ. Meaning Horus will simply die even faster. Emperor's Executioner indeed.

Thanks to HH6: Retribution, the Mechanicum has its primarch-like character. [[Anacharis Scoria]], lord of Xana and the first of the Dark Mechanicum used to be able to easily kill Horus thanks to a 3+ Invuln, Feel No Pain, and a weapon that wounds automatically and causes D3 wounds at AP2 per hit (making Horus' talon worthless). This allowed him to kill Horus in 5 rounds, whereas Horus needed 6 to kill him in return. He also got nerfed in the same FAQ that nerfed Russ, so now Horus kills him too.
</div>
</div>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Horus vs Leman.jpg| Ah too many wolves.
</gallery>
File:CGIHorus.jpeg| Evil Horus in all his glory finally animated. Too bad this wasn't a full animated series.

{{Primarchs}}

[[Category:Chaos]]

Black Templars

2022-05-03T21:10:16Z

2600:387:3:805:0:0:0:BD: /* About the Black Templars */

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Black Templars
|Heraldry = [[File:Blacktemplarslogo.png|250px]]
|Battle Cry = "No pity! No remorse! No fear!"
|Number =
|Founding = [[Second Founding]]
|Successors of = [[Imperial Fists]]
|Successor Chapters =
|Chapter Master = [[Helbrecht]]
|Primarch = [[Rogal Dorn]]
|Homeworld = ''[[Gloriana-class Battleship|Eternal Crusader]]'' (fleet-based)
|Specialty = Assault, close combat, cosplaying as neo-medieval Templar/Teutonic knights, anger
|Strength = Somewhere between one to six thousand if not more (Reports about their crusades are unsure and GW changes the number on a whim), likely the biggest chapter
|Allegiance = [[Imperium of Man]]
|Colours = Black with white [[Pauldrons|shoulder pads]]
}}
{{awesome}}

{{Topquote|I have dug my grave in this place and I will either triumph or I will die!|Reclusiarch Grimaldus, Hero of Helsreach ([[Awesome|he triumphed, by the way]])}}

{{Topquote|WHERE IS YOUR GOD? OH YEAH, HE'S WITH ME NOW!!|Rare Black Templar war cry/motto}}

The '''Black Templars,''' also known as '''Absolute Lunatics''' (by Rogal Dorn), are a [[Second Founding]] [[Space Marine Chapter]] of the [[Imperial Fists]]. These [[Space Marines|Space Marines]] are as manly as the [[Manly Marines]] and as angry as the [[Angry Marines]]. They make a hobby of dressing up as the Knights Hospitaller and trolling the Inquisition with their larger-than-Codex-approved numbers. They're righteously angry for the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]], they're usually close combat focused and their idea of a charge is a giant zerg rush of a hundred angry Crusaders who won't hesitate to skullfuck the nearest alien/mutant/heretic with their [[power weapon|power sword]] just because they look funny. [[Rip and Tear|Although they don't need swords that much...]]

The Black Templars and their iconography are of a mixture of the Knights Templar, Teutonic Knights and the Knights Hospitaller. Basically if you need someone's shit pushed in hard by a power armored fist, these are the guys you call.

Quite possibly the only Astartes heretics genuinely fear. Like "literally shat and pissed myself" fear. This fear is extended to Imperial allies, who the Templars have no problem weeding out those they see as weak in strength or faith with a polite bolt round to the head. So yeah, even the Imperium is afraid of these guys. Kinda explains why everyone in Helsreach was only moments away from shitting their pants every time they spoke to one of the Astartes.
As of 9th edition they are said to be heading [[Rip and Tear|towards the Octarius clusterfuck as well.]]

==About the Black Templars==
[[Image:Blacktempbeinbadass.jpg|thumb|left|"I came here to Purge Heretics and pray in chapels of the Emperor. And I don't see any Chapels."]]

The Black Templars have their origins in the first company of the [[Great Crusade]]-Era Imperial Fists, a group originally known as the Templar Brethren. They wore all-black armor and had black crosses on their right pauldron and shields, and were sworn to protect the Temple of Oaths (OK, the reality is that [[Forge World]] wanted to justify including Black Templars into [[Horus Heresy]]. They're really more Templar than Imperial Fist at this point already). Their Commander and First Captain of the Imperial Fists, [[Sigismund]], started the tradition of the Emperor's Champion, in which a Templar would challenge the enemy's champions to single combat. The Black Templar mentality was born during the [[Siege of Terra]], when Rogal Dorn allowed Sigismund to unleash himself in utter silence. After the Heresy had ended and [[Roboute Guilliman]] called for the [[Second Founding]], Sigismund took his Templar Brethren to found the Black Templars during which Dorn, gift the new chapter a Tier VIII ocean war cruiser, Cross of Dorn.

They express their [[Rage|fury]] through burning [[Codex Astartes|heretical texts]] (as kindling for the actual heretics), pwning [[furry|mutants]], [[Angry Marines|and skull fucking aliens]]. But you might say, "Isn't that what every other Spess Mehreen chapter does?" Well you'd be right, but they are the most proactive about it, celebrations on finishing one Crusade involve declaring a new Crusade, recruits are taken from all the planets they've been on then sent to join the fighting so that they never have to slow down, and they usually fight by zerg rushing their enemies with hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of heavily power armoured super humans holding power weapons while screaming a litany of curses at the top of their superhuman lungs. Also unlike other Chapters, they don't have scout teams, as they think they're not righteously angry enough. Instead all new Neophytes (read: meatshields) are given some crap and schooled in the field by a fully appointed Marine (called an "Initiate").

The foundation of Black Templar tactics are based on Sigismund's <s>anger management issues</s> teachings rather than Rowboat Gorillman's stupid book. This involves a bias for close-quarters combat (since the best way to make sure your enemy is well and truly dead is to skullfuck him with a chainsword), and a focus on duelling and honour-bound vengeance for the fallen. To quote the 4E Codex: "In battle, the Black Templars continue to fight in the style of their founder, Sigismund, preferring close combat to ranged warfare. Face-to-face with the enemy, a Black Templar can earn glory and respect and be sure that his foe is truly vanquished, fighting with righteous fury and the noblest ideals of honour. This is further emphasized by the fanaticism of Black Templars battle brothers, whose righteous anger makes them loath to retreat before an enemy. They will drive towards the foe relentlessly, their own casualties only serving to spur them on faster, hungry for vengeance on the slayers of their brethren."

The codex also notes that the Black Templars use two specific tactics most often, fairly similar in the broad strokes to how other Space Marines fight. The first tactic is the classical "death from above", where a devastating orbital bombardment is followed by a rain of drop pods and Thunderhawks, aimed to destroy vital targets. The other tactic is referred to as the "armoured spearhead", used if the Black Templars can land heavy equipment. Then they'll use bikes and Land Speeders to range and launch probing assaults, finding them smashing through the weakest spot in the enemy defences with Land Raiders, Rhinos, Predators and Vindicators. These columns will then slash left and right, eliminating and quite likely encircling individual enemy strongpoints until nothing is left.

The Black Templars are '''THE''' largest loyalist ([[Derp|"codex following"]]) chapter, estimated to have at least over two thousand marines in their ranks. This is primarily because the Black Templars sometimes split their crusade fleets to achive different campaign goals and they're scattered throughout the galaxy so the correct number of Templars in active service is only known by [[Helbrecht]], himself High Marshal of the Black Templars. Unfortunately, they're unwilling to fight beside psykers except for Grey Knights, they got all buddy-buddy with them fairly quickly, enough so that they willingly shared the STCs for the [[Land Raider|Land Raider Crusader]] with them, mind-wipes not withstanding of course. They also have a fondness for holy worlds, making with all haste to prioritize their defence before anything else.

They are descended from the [[Imperial Fists]], but obviously got more of Dorn's angry [[Gene Seed|splooge]] than his [[Imperial Fists|patient splooge]]. They sometimes get to wear cool Crusader helms, which are at least ten times as [[Awesome|awesome]] as the [[beakie]]s' Corvus helms.

The new Space Marines codex has changed several things about the chapter. It now states they worship the Emperor as a God like the larger Imperium and they have close ties with the Ecclesiarchy. This also makes them good friends with the [[Sisters of Battle]], whom they regularly team up with and have several alliances with. Emperor pity the heretics who have to face both of these groups of zealous nutters at once.

Alternatively, you could choose to ignore the fluff in the new codex that says that they worship the Emperor, as it is wrong and demonstrates a clear Ward-like level of disregard for previous (and better) fluff as it also says that out of all Astartes chapters, only the Black Templars worship the Emperor. This contradicts several novels that say the chapters they revolve around worship him. The first that come to mind are James Swallows series on the Blood Angels. THEN there's the fact that Grimaldus, the Black Templars' High Chaplain (you know, guy who knows better than anyone else what they believe), said that they DO NOT worship him in ADB's sequel to Helsreach, Blood and Fire.

<s>Shame the newer fluff decanonizes the old, but advancement is advancement.</s> Games Workshop says ''everything is canon'' so the debate is pointless. Besides, GW itself consistently holds that Space Marines do not worship the Emperor. GW lore even goes into details explaining that the Imperium accepts it as a quirk due to them being so physically and spiritually close to him that he only ''seems'' less divine to the Space Marines. The Inquisition and Ecclesiarchy don't like it, though. So, we have GW say "everything is canon" (In a multiple layers of reality due to Warp fuckery sort of way) and we have GW ''also'' saying that Space Marines do not worship the Emperor. Since they ''own'' Warhammer 40,000 we can safely say that Space Marines not worshiping the Emperor is the norm but there might be exceptions, a prominent example being the Blood Ravens from Dawn of War.

Regardless, they're utterly fanatical in enforcing the Emperor's will. Not what the Ecclesiarchy or Imperial Senate claims is his will, but his actual will. They refuse to work with (and often butcher) psykers because the Emperor said psykers and sorcery were no-nos. Logically, this means they would also respect his decree not to worship him and that he is not a god. [[Fail|The Black Templars were a Second Founding Chapter, so they would be fully aware of that.]]

As a curious aside, the Chapter's "fuck the man" policy has lead them to collect some odd friends. They are the only known allies for a few chapters, including the [[Celestial Lions]], [[Libators]], and [[Star Phantoms]]. This is also reflected by their largely independent attitude regarding anything. During the Great Apostasy, the Templars led the attack on the Imperial Palace to arrest Goge Vandire. It is also hilariously been confirmed that while Helbrecht is a fucking pussy and just accepts Primary-sues, some Marshals in the Chapter see them as [[Awesome|borderline heresy and loathe them to no end.]] One chaplain and a band of like-minded marines in the Angevin Crusade took this hatred to its logical conclusion by killing the entire Torchbearer Fleet (albeit at great cost and nearly breaking the crusader host as a whole). This includes all the Primaris Marines, the Custodes escort, any Marine who voted against such an action, and Marshall Angevin himself! They justified this by saying the Primaris were Cawl's creations and thus impure, meaning anyone who supported them was a heretic (even the Custodes and Guilliman). Let it be known that wih enough blind zealotry, the Templars can damn near kill anything.

From this page, especially their accomplishments, you might think they're better than everyone at what everyone else tries to do. You'd be right. But nobody has a problem with that because they're absolute badasses full of righteous anger for the Emprah.

==Accomplishments==
[[File:Black-templar-shielding-guardsman.jpg|450px|thumb|right|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU2oDhff-kw "They are my bulwark against the terror"].]]
*Vowing to go on an Eternal Crusade as part of their deal during the Second Founding and [[awesome|keeping it going non-stop for 10,000 years without getting killed or so diminished they had to settle down to rebuild!]] (Which is a really impressive feat even for superhuman Astartes.) Although the [[Horus Heresy]] novels have revealed that Sigismund didn't start this voluntarily, he was ''exiled'' by [[Rogal Dorn]], and a lot of their more notable traits - like their absolute hatred of psykers - stems from Sigismund's [[butthurt]] over how he got exiled in the first place.
*Not forgetting about the Chaos Space Marines who fled into the Eye of Terror. When Abaddon and company first busted back out of the Eye of Terror, Sigismund was up in their business within the hour. And he nearly killed Abaddon and lost for bullshit reasons. Even so, the Chaos Marines had such deep respect for him that they returned his body and wargear totally unharmed.
*Taking back a hundred planets that were stolen by the [[Tau|blue space socialists]] after the Ultramarines realized the Tyranids were heading their way and prioritized stopping the all-devouring bugs over the bluies.
*Killing an alien psyker and accidentally blowing out ten billion astropaths in the process, <del>[[Derp|oops]]</del> [[Just As Planned|just as planned]]. To be fair, said psyker was too powerful to let live and the Black Templars didn’t know its power would explode (which implies this was not normal for psykers).
*Wiping out countless alien species and actually sparing one alien species that was worshiping "The Voice of the Emperor" when they got there. They only destroyed their temples just in case this voice wasn't [[Emperor|talking about who they thought it was.]] We can assume they spread some sort of teaching of Emperor-worship and possibly supervised the creation of new temples to the Emperor just to be sure. Or they were total dicks about it.
*Successfully capturing [[Cypher]]! Then they were [[Fallen_Angels#Ophidium_Gulf_Crusade_incident|forced at gunpoint to hand him off]] to the Dark Angels chapter [[Just As Planned|where he almost immediately escapes.]]
*The Second Siege of Terra! When some crazy ass High Lord of Terra named Goge Vandire [[Age of Apostasy|usurped all power in Imperium]], thinking that he can do everything he wants, he wiped out some Templar fortresses with orbital strikes and when they found out they got all righteous angry! Assisting '''[[Sebastian Thor]]''', the Templars gather around a thousand Crusaders and along with some other Chapters as well as the Martian techno-guard; the Black Templars, with all fury, wage a frakkin' second siege of Terra!

==Keeps==
As the Black Templars are too busy being useful, they feel no need to have a permanent Chapter monastery. Instead, they will throw a keep on every few worlds they pass by, they ''are'' Imperial Fist successors after all. In fairness, their flagship the ''Eternal Crusader'' is a [[Gloriana-class Battleship|Gloriana class battleship]]. You know, the same class the Emperor Himself used as His flagship, so they don't really need a base beyond that.

Some fans have speculated that because of this, combined that they have been doing this for 10000 years, the Templars could have fuckhuge numbers of Marines. This is a retarded joke started by TTS that makes no sense. Not every Keep is staffed at all times. The 9th edition Supplement makes this fact abundantly clear.

When Keeps are staffed, they are commanded by a Castellan, who is responsible for the upkeep and defense of said Keep. He is also responsible for the recruitment of Aspirants into the chapter, who go through some of the most intense training of perhaps any chapter. By which we mean they are forced to fight each other, walk through traps in the dark, and throw their arm into a blazing fire while reciting fucking scripture, all while being [[Grimdark|indoctrinated into complete and unquestioning loyalty to "the will of the Emperor".]] Yeah, the Templars are absolute lunatics.

But how does one become an aspirant? It generally depends on the location of the Keep. On Death worlds, an aspirant might fill the back of some dangerous beast with swords and bring an offering. On other worlds, prospective warriors might be press ganged, or even kidnapped into service. Just to remind you that ADB's interpretation of the Black Templars can be full of shit.

To add further insult to Injury, the Templar's keeps serve no purpose defensively, or even to improve the lives of the people on the planet. They serve only the Black Templars interests.

Why no one has called out the Templars for leaving empty fortifications all across the galaxy that any genius could steal for themselves can only be called a miracle.

==Organization==
Since the Imperial Fists told [[Roboute_Guilliman|Papa Smurf]] to go fuck himself and his [[Codex Astartes|Codex]], the Black Templars have an organization different from Codex Chapters. They organize themselves into Fighting Companies, with much of it on the fly. Their ranks and positions include:

*'''[[High Marshal]]''': The Chapter Master of the Black Templars, who decides which Crusades the Black Templars will participate in, without bothering for an okay from the [[High Lords of Terra]]. [[Helbrecht]] serves as the current High Marshal. Interestingly enough, in their original Codex the High Marshal and regular Marshals typically do not go face to face with the enemy (to the point where Helbrecht never actually touched down in the Third War for Armageddon, he stayed in space dictating the orbital battle), [[Reasonable Marines|Marshals and High Marshals prefer to stay back assessing the battlefield]] and advising the various squads through their communicators about where they should strike and shoot to make the most out of their troops. The irony of such a rage-happy rip-and-tear Chapter having a reasonable and intelligent command style is not lost.
*'''[[Marshal]]''': The commander of a Crusade, a Marshal is equivalent to a Captain, they're the ones that lead the individual Crusades. When a Crusade is called and there is no Marshal to lead it a candidate is chosen from among the sword brethren and if the High Marshal thinks he is fit for the task appointed Marshal. There has only ever been one case of a candidate being rejected by the High Marshall. It is from the ranks of the Marshals that the new High Marshal is picked should he fall in battle.
*'''[[Emperor's Champion]]''': Before an undertaking usually during battle preparations, one of the Black Templars may have a vision granted by the Emperor. This knight will be declared by the [[Chaplain]]s to be the Emperor's Champion, as their founder Sigismund was ten millennia ago. He will be given the Black Sword and the Armour of Faith, and serve as an inspiration to the rest of the Crusading host. As with the first Emperor's Champion, Sigismund, it is the sole duty of those who bear the title to seek out and challenge any enemy champion the crusading force meets in battle. If he is killed before his mission is complete it is considered an ill omen indeed, though there is no requirement for ''every'' crusade to actually have one, the 8th edition codex says there is only ever one in the chapter at any given time. It is unknown what happens to the knight who is chosen after the completion of a Crusade as none have been shown to survive long enough for it to matter. Other chapters, most usually Imperial Fist's successors, occasionally have an Emperor's Champion who serves a similar purpose but without the artifacts.
*'''[[Castellan]]''': The lieutenants of the Marshal, a temporary position chosen by the Marshals (one guy cannot be everywhere) and who is a Castellan can vary depending on the current Crusade or even the current battle ([[Reasonable Marines|pick who's best to lead the current fight]]). The Castellans lead the Fighting Companies of a Crusade, and they're also chosen from the Sword Brethren.
*'''Sergeant''': The only Codex rank the Black Templars employ. Also from the Sword Brethren (notice a pattern, yet?).
*'''[[Sword Brethren]]''': Roughly analogous to Veterans in Codex Chapters, Sword Brethren are the senior battle brothers of the Marshal. They also get to use [[Terminator]] armour.
*'''[[Initiate]]s''': Rank and file battle-brothers. Marines (typically Neophytes) dying around them has a beneficial effect on Initiates, making them run harder into enemy gunfire for reasons unknown and oft-speculated upon.
*'''[[Black Templar Neophyte|Neophytes]]''': While most Chapters have their neophytes serve in some sort of recon force, the Black Templars have their new Space Marines join the Crusade at the front lines and hit the ground running. Given that this has worked for ten thousand years, they may be onto something. Every Neophyte is assigned to an Initiate who is to train and tutor them. The Neophyte serves as the apprentice to the Initiate, sort of like Jedi in [[Star Wars]] but the Neophyte gets smacked if they even dare bitch about sand. They are also quite useful to Initiates to use as shields (literally) in battle.

===Chapter Strength===
[[Image:Praykillburn.jpg|400px|thumb|right|It's a lot like this, really.]]
Despite being a Codex Chapter (well, they're a Codex Chapter as of the newest Codex), they basically just cherry pick whatever they want from it. In particular, they're exploiting a loophole in the Codex Astartes that says a Crusading Chapter can go above the limit of 1,000 Marines, because they don't have a Fortress Monastery, a disastrous campaign or Warp mishap could destroy the entire Chapter if not for this stipulation. The Black Templars, however, take this to mean "have as many Marines as you want!" Seeing as they have multiple Crusades at once, they must be the best Marines around. Seeing as every other Crusading Chapter has roughly a thousand Marines (usually less). Guess that's what happens when you genuinely embrace righteous fury and unleash it upon the alien, the mutant, and the heretic.

However, it's not actually clear how many Marines they actually ''have.'' Some [[neckbeards]] (both fanboys and bitter opponents) exaggerate the actual numbers, referring to them as [[First Founding#Legions in 40k|legion strength]] and/or believing that their numbers are figuratively ''without limit'' and end up with ridiculously high guesses. Given the vagaries of in-universe time due to warp phenomena and the inevitable depletion of assets due to the nature of their work, as well as the fact that they have shit record keeping due to a complete lack of [[Librarian]]s, the actual number of active Templars would be in constant flux.

In ''Blood and Fire,'' Grimaldus mentions that they typically have dozens of Crusades going on at any point in time; [[Deathwatch (RPG)|other sources]] tell us that the Black Templars as an entire Chapter actually consist of a total of three '''"primary"''' Crusade fleets from which all other fighting companies are split from and deployed on their own '''"secondary"''' Crusades when necessary. This coincides with the original codex, which said that there were usually no more than three Crusades at any given time but that they can stretch themselves according to necessity, and states that in one exceptional case there were up to fourteen Crusades operating in the Segmentum Solar during the Treachery of Dalmark.

If we were to base the numbers off the estimate in the back of the 4th edition Codex: Black Templars, the deployment map totals greater than 6000 marines, with several of those Crusades routinely exceeding 500 marines. But when you factor in normal redeployment over the years that number isn't very helpful as many of those Crusades were finished by the time others arose. When you consider it like that, [[Blood Angels|many]] [[Minotaurs|other]] [[Dark Angels|chapters]] have deployed en masse over the years and would also generate a similar deployment map. Furthermore, only a handful of Crusades numbered relatively close to one thousand, with only Armageddon passing it, with 1,232 Marines total and even that number was questioned (?) by the author; for this campaign, High Marshal [[Helbrecht]] was said to have mustered three crusades.

So we can either take it as written in the Order of Battle that the three crusades represent the "normal" three crusades and hence the entire chapter, giving us an absolute ''minimum'' of over 1000 marines, or we can assume that the three crusades are not the primary crusades at all, which still doesn't give us much of an indication of the chapter size, leaving us at square one.

To make things even more confusing, each Crusade will be accompanied by a '''Black Sword''' and a set of the Armour of Faith, to be used by the Emperor's Champion. The 4E codex said that every Crusade and fighting company would have its own Champion, but the 6E Codex and the newer novels changed this older fluff and said that there could only be a ''single'' Champion in the entire Chapter at any given time, and that only a handful arise every century. Plus, there are only ten Black Swords in the Chapter and they are held by the Chaplains, just in case they find the Champion within their Crusade. This implies that there can only be ten Crusades active at any one time; hence, if the three Crusades at Armageddon, taken to be around 1,232, are three-tenths of the Chapter's overall size, the Black Templars have around 4,000 marines.

However, the novel ''Eternal Crusader'' flat-out says that the whole Chapter could gather together on the [[Battle-barge|Eternal Crusader]] itself and barely tax the capabilities of the vessel, and that ''"the mere'"'' 200 marines of Helbrecht's Crusade, which constituted one fifth of the Black Templars' total forces, meant that the vessel was mostly empty, making them far more Chapter sized. The book also shows High Marshal Helbrecht purposefully exaggerating the size of his contingent at Armageddon from 400 marines to 900 in order to gain overall command of the Astartes forces that had arrived ''(many Chapters had brought a lot more men than the Templars, and would have had more right to overall command)''. Helbrecht would later leave Armageddon briefly to muster [[A Game of Pretend|"more"]] Black Templars ''(but only bringing the number up to what he promised)'', so it is easy to see how the size of his contingent would be misleading to an outside observer.

The old Codex also suggested somewhere between 5000-6000 ''"if certain accounts are to be believed"'' which places a level of uncertainty on the number, and if you consider the above statement would sound reasonable if you took Helbrecht at his word about the availability to Black Templar soldiers and could easily show how the Administratum has been misled into thinking the Templars are much larger than they actually are. [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|A-D-B]] also suggested about 6000 in an offhand comment; therefore, it is currently our highest reasonable upper limit without resorting to guesses.

Also, Chapters in general have a habit of seconding Marines to "Honor Companies" which are basically autonomous companies or ones dedicated to certain tasks or seconded to other forces. The Codex allows for an infinite number of honor companies as they aren't within the Chapter's chain of command and are essentially their own miniature Chapter (though probably cannot get their own recruits). Chapters commonly use this to totally circumvent the recruitment restrictions. Which of course means the number of Astartes actually in the galaxy is impossible to know even if every Chapter had exactly a thousand Marines and there were exactly a thousand Chapters there could actually be a quadrillion fuck tons of Marines for all we know.

----
[https://guyhaley.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/im-baaaacccckkk/#comment-5779 The author of ''Eternal Crusader'' later acknowledged on his blog that the Black Templars could have maintained extreme numbers in the past, but that the overall strength of the Chapter was reduced to a thousand (more or less) as result of a corporate decision by GW, not just of the codex authors.] Heresy!

It is perhaps best to repeat the Black Library's own take on the fluff: 40k is in the fucking dark ages and everything written down could be a legend, propaganda, an event that happened, or a rumor based on a real event. Any guess as to the number of Marines in the Black Templars is just that, a guess, and a book offers only the author's point of view, or what he wants you to think, or he himself is a fabrications.

8th Edition still maintains the information confusion over the Black Templar's actual numbers, just like before. While the Imperial Index states that ''"each Black Templars battle-fleet contains thousands of warriors."'' The actual Space Marine Codex states that "''the size of each can vary from several battle-brothers to several hundred"'' and though it also says there is no fixed number of Crusades.

The latest fluff from ''Psychic Awakening: Faith and Fury'' gives the throwaway line that ''"each of the crusades is comprised of thousands of space marines"'' without substantiating how many crusades there actually are. There are are still only nine Black Swords in existence ''(Guilliman destroyed one to defeat Skarbrand during the events of Rise of the Primarch)''. So one could infer that there are anywhere between two and nine crusades at most, and their arrangement can change fluidly, just as mentioned above. Of course, since "thousands" of Astartes per crusade would still mean that at minimum there are four thousand Black Templars in the Chapter as that is the only way for the bare minimum of "crusades" plural and "thousands" for each.

...Not much seems to have changed, fanboys and opponents can believe what they want.

==On Psykers==
{{topquote|WHAT HAVE THE PSYKERS EVER DONE FOR US?!"<br>"Navigation."<br>"What?"<br>"...The navigators are psykers."<br>"Oh, yeah, that's true."<br>"And the astropaths."<br>"Yes, them as well. Warp travel and communications, I'll grant the psykers are pretty good at that."<br>"And the Grey Knights."<br>"WELL OF COURSE the Grey Knights. We'd be in a right mess without them now wouldn't we. But apart from the navigators, astropaths, and grey knights, WHAT HAVE THE PSYKERS EVER DONE FOR US?!|Brother Regulus addressing his squad}}

For most of their history the Black Templars didn't have any Librarians. This was generally thought as a pretty simple fact, they hate all forms of witches. They even have a special rule call "Abhor the Witch". That was until 6th edition when it was more explicitly stated that they had no real compunction against Astropaths and Navigators, since they were the only people who knew how to drive the massive Crusading fleets (pure unadulterated HOLY RAGE!! can't steer a ship through the Warp after all). Of course, this was always true since the BT always accepted those psykers that the Emperor himself had sanctioned (although they watched them closely), which includes Astropaths, Navigators and (surprise, surprise) the Grey Knights. Which invalidates the logic of the following paragraph.

According to the GW apologists, the major difference between their codex and 6E is their opinion on other psykers: In previous works, it was made pretty clear that they wouldn't suffer the witch no matter who they were (except for the aforementioned groups the Emperor sanctioned personally), and as such literally couldn't ally with any other psyker-using force except for the Grey Knights (and even then, it was AoC (Note: "AoC" is a 6th Ed construct)). Come the 6E Codex however, suddenly all their hatred for every psyker was scaled back to merely just being a hatred to all enemy psykers. Some may call this fluff-rape and all that in their neckbearded [[RAGE]], but others realize that setting up tons of restrictions would ultimately serve to cripple the Templars and ultimately just kept things easier by just generalizing it, to say nothing of the fact that the Emperor himself was a psyker. Not to mention the whole organization of sanctioned psykers used by the Imperium. Those guys were permitted to operate by...uh...someone, right? If it was the Imperial Senate, then they speak with the Emperor's voice, so the Black Templars can suck it. If it was literally anyone else with that kind of authority then it would be someone even closer to the Emperor in authority than merely his voice. So, the general hatred of psykers just isn't feasible anyway.

So it was changed. The Black Templars hatred is only towards alien and rogue psykers and that they have great respect for the ones in the fleet (and don't go bugfuck nuts, which is no mean feat for a mortal psyker). So why no Librarians? There are three <s>theories</s> hypothesis in the codex:

*They still enforce the Edict of Nikaea. Considered most likely, given their [[Crunch|special rule]] "Abhor the Witch!"
*A gene-seed defect.
*They lost them during The Howling.

A small part of it likely has to do with their recruiting process. Since they recruit from the worlds they Crusade on, and they spend a decent amount of time purging renegade psykers, there probably aren't any psykers left for them to recruit and they're not likely to recruit Psykers found by somebody else. It still doesn't explain why they've never had a recorded incident of latent Psykers awakening once they've been recruited.

Rather hilariously, the Black Templars are not even certain why they don't have Librarians; because the Librarius usually maintains the records of the chapter, the Templars have allowed their understanding of history to fall into decay. For the time being, they have come to the conclusion that the loss of the Librarius is simply part of the Emperor's grand design, and should he see fit to bless them with Librarians again they would gladly use them.

Given how the Warp (and 40K in general) works as a genuine Clap Your Hands If You Believe setting, it could be that the Black Templar's own hatred of psykers causes any psykers or latent psykers they didn't realize were such to either become non-psykers or simply inactive/latent and remain that way.

To add to all the confusion above, the newest Codex says that the Black Templars flat out hate all psykers, and treat their navigators and Astropaths as little more than dignified slaves, throwing another wrench into the whole fucking situation.

==Notable members==
*''[[Sigismund]]'': First Chapter Master/Soul brother who made the chapter when Dorn broke the Legion up.
*''High Marshal [[Helbrecht]]'': Their current Chapter Master. Gets fucked up by Imotekh the Stormlord who proceeds to take his arm as a trophy. Helbrecht then manages to destroy his entire fucking flagship as retaliation. Currently on <s>a manhunt for [[Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka]] alongside [[Commissar Yarrick]]</s> Crusade to drive Chaos away from some Shrine Worlds.
*''Chaplain [[Grimaldus]]'': THE most badass [[Chaplain]] in the entire Godsdamn Imperium, with the possible exception of [[Lemartes]]. He fought the biggest Ork WAAAGH in history on a very old temple that had relics and artifacts that were sacred to the Imperium. The battle only ended after the temple collapsed and buried every Ork and Marine under the rubble. But since Grimaldus was too badass to die, he crawled out of the temple with a few relics he managed to save. And besides the guy has the word [[Grimdark|grim]] in his fucking name! How can he not be badass? The main caveat about his description is in his depiction in the book Helsreach, featuring Grimaldus' service in Armageddon leading up to his title as "Hero of Helsreach", where we learn he is equally skilled at tantrum-throwing/sulking, as he is kicking lots of ork ass. But to be fair, this isn't the Grimaldus we know and love as first. Helsreach is about him manning up under constant pressure, him finding he has to stop feeling like he has to be his old boss's bitch all the time and learning to be the butch. He does manage to man up and becomes the badass we all know and love (by the end of things, like, the very last second before a cathedral falls on him and knocks him out and not a second sooner). Plus, he had the stones to do it all WITHOUT A [[ROSARIUS]].
*''[[Tankred]]'': He who endures. Also is partial to bitches.
*''High Marshal Ludoldus'': A previous High Marshal notable for having led the Templars during two Crusades that were separated by over 2000 years, specifically the Vinculus Crusade (833.M41) and the Jerulas Crusade (645.M39). Considering that he was already High Marshall by the time of Vinculus, one can only conclude that Ludoldus was FUCKING OLD... and totally blows [[Dante]] out of the water as the guy even has ''old'' in his fucking name. Or you know warp shenanigans.
*''Castellan Draco'': notable role in the Vinculus crusade, notably in killing Inquisitor Lord Vinculus after he got possessed, but not after his own losses; that is, he got buried in rubble after lacing the cult's massive fortress with explosives. For his valiant efforts, he got his lost parts replaced with bionics, a relic suit of armour and Lord Vinculus' sword. Declared Excommunicate Traitoris in IF supplement, becoming the first SM special character with a model who turned traitor in 40k. Well, "turn traitor" according to the Inquisition who just lost a Lord Inquisitor to him and embarrassing the entire Inquisition with such a reveal.
* ''High Marshal Bohemond'': Led the Chapter during the War of the Beast.
* ''Marshal Magneric'' See Tankred above imagine if he was in command of his own Crusade. Unlike most dreadnoughts he still kept his name and rank and rarely slept which made him into a crazy fanatic (and implied to be the source of the religious zeal) spends most of his days hunting his old BFF Warsmith Kalkator until Orks of The Beast showed up.

==Daily Rituals of a Black Templar==
Think [[Angry Marines]] but with less copious cursing.
* 03:50: Morning Call to Prayer: Initiates awaken their respective Neophytes from their comfortable slumber on bare stone floors. This often involves buckets of ice water, vox-casters playing hymns with the volume control knob broken off, or a power armor shod foot up the ass depending on the Initiate in question. Complaints that this awakening occurred ten minutes prior to scheduled reveille are met with readmistration of the waking aid.
* 04:00: Morning Prayer: Neophytes are berated for their perceived failings by their responsible Initiates, who are in turn berated by the Sword Brethren, the Sword Brethren by the Castellans, up to the Marshal who berates the entire Fleet then swears a solemn vow to an icon of the Emperor that they will do better and prove themselves worthy by stabbing heretics in the throat with their swords. Tactics may also be discussed and orders of battle issued, assuming they involve rushing headlong at the enemy.
* 05:00: Morning Firing Rites: The Initiates school their apprentices on the art of shooting xenos in the face while simultaneously swinging a chainsword. This shooting preferably occurs while rushing across the active firing range in order to close with the target and hit it with the bolt pistol if possible.
* 07:00: Morning Battle Practice: Initiates inform their neophytes that if they are done being cowardly whelps they may now avail themselves of a sword with which to stab shit.
* 11:55: Milk and cookies break. Any neophytes stupid enough to drink milk or eat cookies in front of their Initiate gets their meal pushed in their noses and eyeballs respectively. Things get interesting if they dipped their cookies in their milk.
* 12:00: Midday Prayer: Neophytes are told how poorly they did during the morning exercises, any sense of pride or joy is rooted out. The Marshal leads the Fleet in prayer and promises the Emperor they will kill more things even more righteously this afternoon.
* 13:00: Midday Meal: The chapter serfs provide cold cuts for the Brothers' enjoyment. Lunchmeat is usually collected by the serfs following each battle and stored in the ships' freezers. Naturally, Neophytes do not get something to eat yet as the Initiates insult them for even assuming they get to eat. The Neophytes soon learn that the Emperor has a sense of humor when the Initiates are informed that only Sword Brethren on up are allowed to eat.
* 13:15: Tactical Indoctrination: Locations of the vital organs and blood vessels of xenos species that may be encountered on the current Crusade and the weak spots of Daemons are reviewed, occasionally an Initiate will cuff his Neophyte on the back of the head and reiterate "Yes that, you stab that retard." Other tactics may also be discussed as long as they involve inserting blades into things.
* 14:00: Afternoon Battle Practice: Initiates attempt to kill their Neophyte with a power sword. If the Neophyte is not dead in four hours he passes muster.
* 18:00: Evening Firing Rites: Neophytes are instructed in how to operate heavy and specialty weaponry dropped by their responsible Initiate when he abandons it so that he may swing his sword with both hands to better kill shit or is eaten by a monstrous creature which he bravely <s>(read:stupidly)</s> (read:RIGHTEOUSLY) tried to skullfuck in CQC.
* 20:00: Evening Prayer: After short session of critique and berating, the Emperors' Champion leads a sermon about how awesome the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emprah]] is and how much He wants them to bifurcate/decapitate the current heretics/mutants/xenos they are fighting with power weapons.
* 21:00: Evening Meal: A feast is served by the chapter serfs. Alcohol and anything that has a pleasant taste will not be consumed as the Emperor looks down on those that enjoy life. No hamburger, no cheeseburgers, no french fries, no milkshakes, no potato chips; you will drink water distilled from the Fleet's waste/reactor AND LIKE IT!
* 21:30: Night-fighting/zero-gravity exercises: Initiates instruct their charges on stabbing things by the glow of a power sword and how to fight in a zero-gravity environment without jump packs (stab foe, use corpse as a springboard to assault another foe, repeat).
* 23:15: Wargear Maintenance: Initiates encourage Neophytes to keep weapons in proper working order with phrases like, "Sharpen your shit you incompetent bastard" as the Emperor reserves great disdain for those that kill heretics with dull blades.
* 23:45: Free time: The Initiate is free to challenge his Neophyte to a short duel. Wounds heal better during sleep anyway.
* 00:00 Rest period: The Initiate sees his Neophyte off to bed, with one last punch to the face to help him fall asleep. The Sword Brethren then punch the Initiates in the face before they retire for rest period.

Note that this constitutes a day off for a Black Templar. A working day will involve 23 hours of rushing monstrous creatures with melee weapons. Neophytes are expected to pull bullet sponge duty so the Initiate is not distracted by little things like enemy gunfire (and that their spilled blood will allow the Initiates to glide on the ground to their enemy faster) as seen here:

===Black Templar Combat Training===
Brother-Initiate Teuton McTemplar: "Neophyte, get your ass over here and hold my Lascannon while I charge that [[Carnifex]] with my Power Fist!"

Neophyte Hans Wolfgang: "But sir I have not yet earned my power armour and a Lascannon weighs 100 kilos..."

Brother-Initiate Teuton McTemplar: "You are going to pick up that spotlight and burn some fucking xenos, and you are going to like it!"

Note: It would be nice if this could happen, but in reality, you can only arm Neophytes with shotguns or bolt pistols with CCWs, though you were able to arm an initiate with both a Lascannon and a Power Fist in their original codex. Hilariously too you could go completely overboard and have one marine armed with a Power fist, three bolt pistols (or two bolt pistols and a bolter), a Chainsword, a Power Weapon, a Heavy Bolter, a Missile Launcher (or a Multi-Melta), a Lascannon, and a Plasma Cannon [[Obliterators|ALL AT THE SAME TIME]] (though while funny is still a terrible thing to put on the battlefield as he can still only fire one per turn, pistols notwithstanding). Talk about a jack of all trades...

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Black Templar|Tactics/Black Templar]]
*Their [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lrs9nIITQk| theme] by [[HMKids]].
*Also their [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0TzUNti3rY| theme] by Andrew W.K.
*Their [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyAEBux88hw| '''ONE TRUE ULTIMATE THEME] by [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqGKtkZ8-MlAeTVL0fFAMnw| StringStorm].
*An [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaUi8Dv73hA| accurate representation] of their daily lives
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUplioG2DC4| The unofficial animated version of Helsreach.]
*Their thoughts on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrJVZZLv2GE| furfags. ]
*Their continued campaign against the [https://youtu.be/j02V_34PXZg| furfags. ]
*[https://youtu.be/4uqKyofFfm0| The Black Templars deep strike some furries.]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afpn6skCDhA&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=Flashgitz| Glorious part 2]
*[https://youtu.be/JU2oDhff-kw| Black Templar, also featuring an Inceptor looking awesome and guardsmen holding the line.]
*[[White Templars]]
*[[Red Templars]]
*[[Silver Templars]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Templar Terminator.jpg|Actually pretty nice guys, once you get to know them.
Image:1206768954856.jpg|They also like to sing.
Image:howdoipurge.png
Image:bffs.jpg|'''Purging with my Kin!
Image:Imheretopurgehereticsandchewbubblegumandimalloutofbubblegum.jpg|Look at them hips.
Image:Black templar terminator by deadxcross.jpg|When you want to purge as much Heretics and Xenos as possible.
Image:A not so Little Sister by DeadXCross.jpg|They can even inspire zealots of their own.
Image:PURGINGWITHMYKIN.gif|The Black Templars' name does not corelate to the other Second Founding Imperial Fists because [https://youtu.be/0Vh_N8CpcL0?t=1208 they are absolute lunatics]
Image:WH40K_-_Black_Templar.jpg|Impaled with Extreme Prejudice!
</gallery>

{{Black-Templars}}
{{Template:Marines-Official}}

Black Templars

2022-05-03T21:01:07Z

2600:387:3:805:0:0:0:BD: /* About the Black Templars */

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Black Templars
|Heraldry = [[File:Blacktemplarslogo.png|250px]]
|Battle Cry = "No pity! No remorse! No fear!"
|Number =
|Founding = [[Second Founding]]
|Successors of = [[Imperial Fists]]
|Successor Chapters =
|Chapter Master = [[Helbrecht]]
|Primarch = [[Rogal Dorn]]
|Homeworld = ''[[Gloriana-class Battleship|Eternal Crusader]]'' (fleet-based)
|Specialty = Assault, close combat, cosplaying as neo-medieval Templar/Teutonic knights, anger
|Strength = Somewhere between one to six thousand if not more (Reports about their crusades are unsure and GW changes the number on a whim), likely the biggest chapter
|Allegiance = [[Imperium of Man]]
|Colours = Black with white [[Pauldrons|shoulder pads]]
}}
{{awesome}}

{{Topquote|I have dug my grave in this place and I will either triumph or I will die!|Reclusiarch Grimaldus, Hero of Helsreach ([[Awesome|he triumphed, by the way]])}}

{{Topquote|WHERE IS YOUR GOD? OH YEAH, HE'S WITH ME NOW!!|Rare Black Templar war cry/motto}}

The '''Black Templars,''' also known as '''Absolute Lunatics''' (by Rogal Dorn), are a [[Second Founding]] [[Space Marine Chapter]] of the [[Imperial Fists]]. These [[Space Marines|Space Marines]] are as manly as the [[Manly Marines]] and as angry as the [[Angry Marines]]. They make a hobby of dressing up as the Knights Hospitaller and trolling the Inquisition with their larger-than-Codex-approved numbers. They're righteously angry for the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]], they're usually close combat focused and their idea of a charge is a giant zerg rush of a hundred angry Crusaders who won't hesitate to skullfuck the nearest alien/mutant/heretic with their [[power weapon|power sword]] just because they look funny. [[Rip and Tear|Although they don't need swords that much...]]

The Black Templars and their iconography are of a mixture of the Knights Templar, Teutonic Knights and the Knights Hospitaller. Basically if you need someone's shit pushed in hard by a power armored fist, these are the guys you call.

Quite possibly the only Astartes heretics genuinely fear. Like "literally shat and pissed myself" fear. This fear is extended to Imperial allies, who the Templars have no problem weeding out those they see as weak in strength or faith with a polite bolt round to the head. So yeah, even the Imperium is afraid of these guys. Kinda explains why everyone in Helsreach was only moments away from shitting their pants every time they spoke to one of the Astartes.
As of 9th edition they are said to be heading [[Rip and Tear|towards the Octarius clusterfuck as well.]]

==About the Black Templars==
[[Image:Blacktempbeinbadass.jpg|thumb|left|"I came here to Purge Heretics and pray in chapels of the Emperor. And I don't see any Chapels."]]

The Black Templars have their origins in the first company of the [[Great Crusade]]-Era Imperial Fists, a group originally known as the Templar Brethren. They wore all-black armor and had black crosses on their right pauldron and shields, and were sworn to protect the Temple of Oaths (OK, the reality is that [[Forge World]] wanted to justify including Black Templars into [[Horus Heresy]]. They're really more Templar than Imperial Fist at this point already). Their Commander and First Captain of the Imperial Fists, [[Sigismund]], started the tradition of the Emperor's Champion, in which a Templar would challenge the enemy's champions to single combat. The Black Templar mentality was born during the [[Siege of Terra]], when Rogal Dorn allowed Sigismund to unleash himself in utter silence. After the Heresy had ended and [[Roboute Guilliman]] called for the [[Second Founding]], Sigismund took his Templar Brethren to found the Black Templars during which Dorn, gift the new chapter a Tier VIII ocean war cruiser, Cross of Dorn.

They express their [[Rage|fury]] through burning [[Codex Astartes|heretical texts]] (as kindling for the actual heretics), pwning [[furry|mutants]], [[Angry Marines|and skull fucking aliens]]. But you might say, "Isn't that what every other Spess Mehreen chapter does?" Well you'd be right, but they are the most proactive about it, celebrations on finishing one Crusade involve declaring a new Crusade, recruits are taken from all the planets they've been on then sent to join the fighting so that they never have to slow down, and they usually fight by zerg rushing their enemies with hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of heavily power armoured super humans holding power weapons while screaming a litany of curses at the top of their superhuman lungs. Also unlike other Chapters, they don't have scout teams, as they think they're not righteously angry enough. Instead all new Neophytes (read: meatshields) are given some crap and schooled in the field by a fully appointed Marine (called an "Initiate").

The foundation of Black Templar tactics are based on Sigismund's <s>anger management issues</s> teachings rather than Rowboat Gorillman's stupid book. This involves a bias for close-quarters combat (since the best way to make sure your enemy is well and truly dead is to skullfuck him with a chainsword), and a focus on duelling and honour-bound vengeance for the fallen. To quote the 4E Codex: "In battle, the Black Templars continue to fight in the style of their founder, Sigismund, preferring close combat to ranged warfare. Face-to-face with the enemy, a Black Templar can earn glory and respect and be sure that his foe is truly vanquished, fighting with righteous fury and the noblest ideals of honour. This is further emphasized by the fanaticism of Black Templars battle brothers, whose righteous anger makes them loath to retreat before an enemy. They will drive towards the foe relentlessly, their own casualties only serving to spur them on faster, hungry for vengeance on the slayers of their brethren."

The codex also notes that the Black Templars use two specific tactics most often, fairly similar in the broad strokes to how other Space Marines fight. The first tactic is the classical "death from above", where a devastating orbital bombardment is followed by a rain of drop pods and Thunderhawks, aimed to destroy vital targets. The other tactic is referred to as the "armoured spearhead", used if the Black Templars can land heavy equipment. Then they'll use bikes and Land Speeders to range and launch probing assaults, finding them smashing through the weakest spot in the enemy defences with Land Raiders, Rhinos, Predators and Vindicators. These columns will then slash left and right, eliminating and quite likely encircling individual enemy strongpoints until nothing is left.

The Black Templars are '''THE''' largest loyalist ([[Derp|"codex following"]]) chapter, estimated to have at least over two thousand marines in their ranks. This is primarily because the Black Templars sometimes split their crusade fleets to achive different campaign goals and they're scattered throughout the galaxy so the correct number of Templars in active service is only known by [[Helbrecht]], himself High Marshal of the Black Templars. Unfortunately, they're unwilling to fight beside psykers except for Grey Knights, they got all buddy-buddy with them fairly quickly, enough so that they willingly shared the STCs for the [[Land Raider|Land Raider Crusader]] with them, mind-wipes not withstanding of course. They also have a fondness for holy worlds, making with all haste to prioritize their defence before anything else.

They are descended from the [[Imperial Fists]], but obviously got more of Dorn's angry [[Gene Seed|splooge]] than his [[Imperial Fists|patient splooge]]. They sometimes get to wear cool Crusader helms, which are at least ten times as [[Awesome|awesome]] as the [[beakie]]s' Corvus helms.

The new Space Marines codex has changed several things about the chapter. It now states they worship the Emperor as a God like the larger Imperium and they have close ties with the Ecclesiarchy. This also makes them good friends with the [[Sisters of Battle]], whom they regularly team up with and have several alliances with. Emperor pity the heretics who have to face both of these groups of zealous nutters at once.

Alternatively, you could choose to ignore the fluff in the new codex that says that they worship the Emperor, as it is wrong and demonstrates a clear Ward-like level of disregard for previous (and better) fluff as it also says that out of all Astartes chapters, only the Black Templars worship the Emperor. This contradicts several novels that say the chapters they revolve around worship him. The first that come to mind are James Swallows series on the Blood Angels. THEN there's the fact that Grimaldus, the Black Templars' High Chaplain (you know, guy who knows better than anyone else what they believe), said that they DO NOT worship him in ADB's sequel to Helsreach, Blood and Fire.

<s>Shame the newer fluff decanonizes the old, but advancement is advancement.</s> Games Workshop says ''everything is canon'' so the debate is pointless. Besides, GW itself consistently holds that Space Marines do not worship the Emperor. GW lore even goes into details explaining that the Imperium accepts it as a quirk due to them being so physically and spiritually close to him that he only ''seems'' less divine to the Space Marines. The Inquisition and Ecclesiarchy don't like it, though. So, we have GW say "everything is canon" (In a multiple layers of reality due to Warp fuckery sort of way) and we have GW ''also'' saying that Space Marines do not worship the Emperor. Since they ''own'' Warhammer 40,000 we can safely say that Space Marines not worshiping the Emperor is the norm but there might be exceptions, a prominent example being the Blood Ravens from Dawn of War.

Regardless, they're utterly fanatical in enforcing the Emperor's will. Not what the Ecclesiarchy or Imperial Senate claims is his will, but his actual will. They refuse to work with (and often butcher) psykers because the Emperor said psykers and sorcery were no-nos. Logically, this means they would also respect his decree not to worship him and that he is not a god. [[Fail|The Black Templars were a Second Founding Chapter, so they would be fully aware of that.]]

As a curious aside, the Chapter's "fuck the man" policy has lead them to collect some odd friends. They are the only known allies for a few chapters, including the [[Celestial Lions]], [[Libators]], and [[Star Phantoms]]. This is also reflected by their largely independent attitude regarding anything. During the Great Apostasy, the Templars led the attack on the Imperial Palace to arrest Goge Vandire. It is also hilariously been confirmed that while Helbrecht is a fucking pussy and just accepts Primary-sues, some Marshals in the Chapter see them as [[Awesome|borderline heresy and loathe them to no end.]] One chaplain and a band of like-minded marines in the Angevin Crusade took this hatred to its logical conclusion by killing all the Primaris Marines, the Custodes escort, any Marine who voted against such an action, and Marshall Angevin himself!

From this page, especially their accomplishments, you might think they're better than everyone at what everyone else tries to do. You'd be right. But nobody has a problem with that because they're absolute badasses full of righteous anger for the Emprah.

==Accomplishments==
[[File:Black-templar-shielding-guardsman.jpg|450px|thumb|right|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU2oDhff-kw "They are my bulwark against the terror"].]]
*Vowing to go on an Eternal Crusade as part of their deal during the Second Founding and [[awesome|keeping it going non-stop for 10,000 years without getting killed or so diminished they had to settle down to rebuild!]] (Which is a really impressive feat even for superhuman Astartes.) Although the [[Horus Heresy]] novels have revealed that Sigismund didn't start this voluntarily, he was ''exiled'' by [[Rogal Dorn]], and a lot of their more notable traits - like their absolute hatred of psykers - stems from Sigismund's [[butthurt]] over how he got exiled in the first place.
*Not forgetting about the Chaos Space Marines who fled into the Eye of Terror. When Abaddon and company first busted back out of the Eye of Terror, Sigismund was up in their business within the hour. And he nearly killed Abaddon and lost for bullshit reasons. Even so, the Chaos Marines had such deep respect for him that they returned his body and wargear totally unharmed.
*Taking back a hundred planets that were stolen by the [[Tau|blue space socialists]] after the Ultramarines realized the Tyranids were heading their way and prioritized stopping the all-devouring bugs over the bluies.
*Killing an alien psyker and accidentally blowing out ten billion astropaths in the process, <del>[[Derp|oops]]</del> [[Just As Planned|just as planned]]. To be fair, said psyker was too powerful to let live and the Black Templars didn’t know its power would explode (which implies this was not normal for psykers).
*Wiping out countless alien species and actually sparing one alien species that was worshiping "The Voice of the Emperor" when they got there. They only destroyed their temples just in case this voice wasn't [[Emperor|talking about who they thought it was.]] We can assume they spread some sort of teaching of Emperor-worship and possibly supervised the creation of new temples to the Emperor just to be sure. Or they were total dicks about it.
*Successfully capturing [[Cypher]]! Then they were [[Fallen_Angels#Ophidium_Gulf_Crusade_incident|forced at gunpoint to hand him off]] to the Dark Angels chapter [[Just As Planned|where he almost immediately escapes.]]
*The Second Siege of Terra! When some crazy ass High Lord of Terra named Goge Vandire [[Age of Apostasy|usurped all power in Imperium]], thinking that he can do everything he wants, he wiped out some Templar fortresses with orbital strikes and when they found out they got all righteous angry! Assisting '''[[Sebastian Thor]]''', the Templars gather around a thousand Crusaders and along with some other Chapters as well as the Martian techno-guard; the Black Templars, with all fury, wage a frakkin' second siege of Terra!

==Keeps==
As the Black Templars are too busy being useful, they feel no need to have a permanent Chapter monastery. Instead, they will throw a keep on every few worlds they pass by, they ''are'' Imperial Fist successors after all. In fairness, their flagship the ''Eternal Crusader'' is a [[Gloriana-class Battleship|Gloriana class battleship]]. You know, the same class the Emperor Himself used as His flagship, so they don't really need a base beyond that.

Some fans have speculated that because of this, combined that they have been doing this for 10000 years, the Templars could have fuckhuge numbers of Marines. This is a retarded joke started by TTS that makes no sense. Not every Keep is staffed at all times. The 9th edition Supplement makes this fact abundantly clear.

When Keeps are staffed, they are commanded by a Castellan, who is responsible for the upkeep and defense of said Keep. He is also responsible for the recruitment of Aspirants into the chapter, who go through some of the most intense training of perhaps any chapter. By which we mean they are forced to fight each other, walk through traps in the dark, and throw their arm into a blazing fire while reciting fucking scripture, all while being [[Grimdark|indoctrinated into complete and unquestioning loyalty to "the will of the Emperor".]] Yeah, the Templars are absolute lunatics.

But how does one become an aspirant? It generally depends on the location of the Keep. On Death worlds, an aspirant might fill the back of some dangerous beast with swords and bring an offering. On other worlds, prospective warriors might be press ganged, or even kidnapped into service. Just to remind you that ADB's interpretation of the Black Templars can be full of shit.

To add further insult to Injury, the Templar's keeps serve no purpose defensively, or even to improve the lives of the people on the planet. They serve only the Black Templars interests.

Why no one has called out the Templars for leaving empty fortifications all across the galaxy that any genius could steal for themselves can only be called a miracle.

==Organization==
Since the Imperial Fists told [[Roboute_Guilliman|Papa Smurf]] to go fuck himself and his [[Codex Astartes|Codex]], the Black Templars have an organization different from Codex Chapters. They organize themselves into Fighting Companies, with much of it on the fly. Their ranks and positions include:

*'''[[High Marshal]]''': The Chapter Master of the Black Templars, who decides which Crusades the Black Templars will participate in, without bothering for an okay from the [[High Lords of Terra]]. [[Helbrecht]] serves as the current High Marshal. Interestingly enough, in their original Codex the High Marshal and regular Marshals typically do not go face to face with the enemy (to the point where Helbrecht never actually touched down in the Third War for Armageddon, he stayed in space dictating the orbital battle), [[Reasonable Marines|Marshals and High Marshals prefer to stay back assessing the battlefield]] and advising the various squads through their communicators about where they should strike and shoot to make the most out of their troops. The irony of such a rage-happy rip-and-tear Chapter having a reasonable and intelligent command style is not lost.
*'''[[Marshal]]''': The commander of a Crusade, a Marshal is equivalent to a Captain, they're the ones that lead the individual Crusades. When a Crusade is called and there is no Marshal to lead it a candidate is chosen from among the sword brethren and if the High Marshal thinks he is fit for the task appointed Marshal. There has only ever been one case of a candidate being rejected by the High Marshall. It is from the ranks of the Marshals that the new High Marshal is picked should he fall in battle.
*'''[[Emperor's Champion]]''': Before an undertaking usually during battle preparations, one of the Black Templars may have a vision granted by the Emperor. This knight will be declared by the [[Chaplain]]s to be the Emperor's Champion, as their founder Sigismund was ten millennia ago. He will be given the Black Sword and the Armour of Faith, and serve as an inspiration to the rest of the Crusading host. As with the first Emperor's Champion, Sigismund, it is the sole duty of those who bear the title to seek out and challenge any enemy champion the crusading force meets in battle. If he is killed before his mission is complete it is considered an ill omen indeed, though there is no requirement for ''every'' crusade to actually have one, the 8th edition codex says there is only ever one in the chapter at any given time. It is unknown what happens to the knight who is chosen after the completion of a Crusade as none have been shown to survive long enough for it to matter. Other chapters, most usually Imperial Fist's successors, occasionally have an Emperor's Champion who serves a similar purpose but without the artifacts.
*'''[[Castellan]]''': The lieutenants of the Marshal, a temporary position chosen by the Marshals (one guy cannot be everywhere) and who is a Castellan can vary depending on the current Crusade or even the current battle ([[Reasonable Marines|pick who's best to lead the current fight]]). The Castellans lead the Fighting Companies of a Crusade, and they're also chosen from the Sword Brethren.
*'''Sergeant''': The only Codex rank the Black Templars employ. Also from the Sword Brethren (notice a pattern, yet?).
*'''[[Sword Brethren]]''': Roughly analogous to Veterans in Codex Chapters, Sword Brethren are the senior battle brothers of the Marshal. They also get to use [[Terminator]] armour.
*'''[[Initiate]]s''': Rank and file battle-brothers. Marines (typically Neophytes) dying around them has a beneficial effect on Initiates, making them run harder into enemy gunfire for reasons unknown and oft-speculated upon.
*'''[[Black Templar Neophyte|Neophytes]]''': While most Chapters have their neophytes serve in some sort of recon force, the Black Templars have their new Space Marines join the Crusade at the front lines and hit the ground running. Given that this has worked for ten thousand years, they may be onto something. Every Neophyte is assigned to an Initiate who is to train and tutor them. The Neophyte serves as the apprentice to the Initiate, sort of like Jedi in [[Star Wars]] but the Neophyte gets smacked if they even dare bitch about sand. They are also quite useful to Initiates to use as shields (literally) in battle.

===Chapter Strength===
[[Image:Praykillburn.jpg|400px|thumb|right|It's a lot like this, really.]]
Despite being a Codex Chapter (well, they're a Codex Chapter as of the newest Codex), they basically just cherry pick whatever they want from it. In particular, they're exploiting a loophole in the Codex Astartes that says a Crusading Chapter can go above the limit of 1,000 Marines, because they don't have a Fortress Monastery, a disastrous campaign or Warp mishap could destroy the entire Chapter if not for this stipulation. The Black Templars, however, take this to mean "have as many Marines as you want!" Seeing as they have multiple Crusades at once, they must be the best Marines around. Seeing as every other Crusading Chapter has roughly a thousand Marines (usually less). Guess that's what happens when you genuinely embrace righteous fury and unleash it upon the alien, the mutant, and the heretic.

However, it's not actually clear how many Marines they actually ''have.'' Some [[neckbeards]] (both fanboys and bitter opponents) exaggerate the actual numbers, referring to them as [[First Founding#Legions in 40k|legion strength]] and/or believing that their numbers are figuratively ''without limit'' and end up with ridiculously high guesses. Given the vagaries of in-universe time due to warp phenomena and the inevitable depletion of assets due to the nature of their work, as well as the fact that they have shit record keeping due to a complete lack of [[Librarian]]s, the actual number of active Templars would be in constant flux.

In ''Blood and Fire,'' Grimaldus mentions that they typically have dozens of Crusades going on at any point in time; [[Deathwatch (RPG)|other sources]] tell us that the Black Templars as an entire Chapter actually consist of a total of three '''"primary"''' Crusade fleets from which all other fighting companies are split from and deployed on their own '''"secondary"''' Crusades when necessary. This coincides with the original codex, which said that there were usually no more than three Crusades at any given time but that they can stretch themselves according to necessity, and states that in one exceptional case there were up to fourteen Crusades operating in the Segmentum Solar during the Treachery of Dalmark.

If we were to base the numbers off the estimate in the back of the 4th edition Codex: Black Templars, the deployment map totals greater than 6000 marines, with several of those Crusades routinely exceeding 500 marines. But when you factor in normal redeployment over the years that number isn't very helpful as many of those Crusades were finished by the time others arose. When you consider it like that, [[Blood Angels|many]] [[Minotaurs|other]] [[Dark Angels|chapters]] have deployed en masse over the years and would also generate a similar deployment map. Furthermore, only a handful of Crusades numbered relatively close to one thousand, with only Armageddon passing it, with 1,232 Marines total and even that number was questioned (?) by the author; for this campaign, High Marshal [[Helbrecht]] was said to have mustered three crusades.

So we can either take it as written in the Order of Battle that the three crusades represent the "normal" three crusades and hence the entire chapter, giving us an absolute ''minimum'' of over 1000 marines, or we can assume that the three crusades are not the primary crusades at all, which still doesn't give us much of an indication of the chapter size, leaving us at square one.

To make things even more confusing, each Crusade will be accompanied by a '''Black Sword''' and a set of the Armour of Faith, to be used by the Emperor's Champion. The 4E codex said that every Crusade and fighting company would have its own Champion, but the 6E Codex and the newer novels changed this older fluff and said that there could only be a ''single'' Champion in the entire Chapter at any given time, and that only a handful arise every century. Plus, there are only ten Black Swords in the Chapter and they are held by the Chaplains, just in case they find the Champion within their Crusade. This implies that there can only be ten Crusades active at any one time; hence, if the three Crusades at Armageddon, taken to be around 1,232, are three-tenths of the Chapter's overall size, the Black Templars have around 4,000 marines.

However, the novel ''Eternal Crusader'' flat-out says that the whole Chapter could gather together on the [[Battle-barge|Eternal Crusader]] itself and barely tax the capabilities of the vessel, and that ''"the mere'"'' 200 marines of Helbrecht's Crusade, which constituted one fifth of the Black Templars' total forces, meant that the vessel was mostly empty, making them far more Chapter sized. The book also shows High Marshal Helbrecht purposefully exaggerating the size of his contingent at Armageddon from 400 marines to 900 in order to gain overall command of the Astartes forces that had arrived ''(many Chapters had brought a lot more men than the Templars, and would have had more right to overall command)''. Helbrecht would later leave Armageddon briefly to muster [[A Game of Pretend|"more"]] Black Templars ''(but only bringing the number up to what he promised)'', so it is easy to see how the size of his contingent would be misleading to an outside observer.

The old Codex also suggested somewhere between 5000-6000 ''"if certain accounts are to be believed"'' which places a level of uncertainty on the number, and if you consider the above statement would sound reasonable if you took Helbrecht at his word about the availability to Black Templar soldiers and could easily show how the Administratum has been misled into thinking the Templars are much larger than they actually are. [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|A-D-B]] also suggested about 6000 in an offhand comment; therefore, it is currently our highest reasonable upper limit without resorting to guesses.

Also, Chapters in general have a habit of seconding Marines to "Honor Companies" which are basically autonomous companies or ones dedicated to certain tasks or seconded to other forces. The Codex allows for an infinite number of honor companies as they aren't within the Chapter's chain of command and are essentially their own miniature Chapter (though probably cannot get their own recruits). Chapters commonly use this to totally circumvent the recruitment restrictions. Which of course means the number of Astartes actually in the galaxy is impossible to know even if every Chapter had exactly a thousand Marines and there were exactly a thousand Chapters there could actually be a quadrillion fuck tons of Marines for all we know.

----
[https://guyhaley.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/im-baaaacccckkk/#comment-5779 The author of ''Eternal Crusader'' later acknowledged on his blog that the Black Templars could have maintained extreme numbers in the past, but that the overall strength of the Chapter was reduced to a thousand (more or less) as result of a corporate decision by GW, not just of the codex authors.] Heresy!

It is perhaps best to repeat the Black Library's own take on the fluff: 40k is in the fucking dark ages and everything written down could be a legend, propaganda, an event that happened, or a rumor based on a real event. Any guess as to the number of Marines in the Black Templars is just that, a guess, and a book offers only the author's point of view, or what he wants you to think, or he himself is a fabrications.

8th Edition still maintains the information confusion over the Black Templar's actual numbers, just like before. While the Imperial Index states that ''"each Black Templars battle-fleet contains thousands of warriors."'' The actual Space Marine Codex states that "''the size of each can vary from several battle-brothers to several hundred"'' and though it also says there is no fixed number of Crusades.

The latest fluff from ''Psychic Awakening: Faith and Fury'' gives the throwaway line that ''"each of the crusades is comprised of thousands of space marines"'' without substantiating how many crusades there actually are. There are are still only nine Black Swords in existence ''(Guilliman destroyed one to defeat Skarbrand during the events of Rise of the Primarch)''. So one could infer that there are anywhere between two and nine crusades at most, and their arrangement can change fluidly, just as mentioned above. Of course, since "thousands" of Astartes per crusade would still mean that at minimum there are four thousand Black Templars in the Chapter as that is the only way for the bare minimum of "crusades" plural and "thousands" for each.

...Not much seems to have changed, fanboys and opponents can believe what they want.

==On Psykers==
{{topquote|WHAT HAVE THE PSYKERS EVER DONE FOR US?!"<br>"Navigation."<br>"What?"<br>"...The navigators are psykers."<br>"Oh, yeah, that's true."<br>"And the astropaths."<br>"Yes, them as well. Warp travel and communications, I'll grant the psykers are pretty good at that."<br>"And the Grey Knights."<br>"WELL OF COURSE the Grey Knights. We'd be in a right mess without them now wouldn't we. But apart from the navigators, astropaths, and grey knights, WHAT HAVE THE PSYKERS EVER DONE FOR US?!|Brother Regulus addressing his squad}}

For most of their history the Black Templars didn't have any Librarians. This was generally thought as a pretty simple fact, they hate all forms of witches. They even have a special rule call "Abhor the Witch". That was until 6th edition when it was more explicitly stated that they had no real compunction against Astropaths and Navigators, since they were the only people who knew how to drive the massive Crusading fleets (pure unadulterated HOLY RAGE!! can't steer a ship through the Warp after all). Of course, this was always true since the BT always accepted those psykers that the Emperor himself had sanctioned (although they watched them closely), which includes Astropaths, Navigators and (surprise, surprise) the Grey Knights. Which invalidates the logic of the following paragraph.

According to the GW apologists, the major difference between their codex and 6E is their opinion on other psykers: In previous works, it was made pretty clear that they wouldn't suffer the witch no matter who they were (except for the aforementioned groups the Emperor sanctioned personally), and as such literally couldn't ally with any other psyker-using force except for the Grey Knights (and even then, it was AoC (Note: "AoC" is a 6th Ed construct)). Come the 6E Codex however, suddenly all their hatred for every psyker was scaled back to merely just being a hatred to all enemy psykers. Some may call this fluff-rape and all that in their neckbearded [[RAGE]], but others realize that setting up tons of restrictions would ultimately serve to cripple the Templars and ultimately just kept things easier by just generalizing it, to say nothing of the fact that the Emperor himself was a psyker. Not to mention the whole organization of sanctioned psykers used by the Imperium. Those guys were permitted to operate by...uh...someone, right? If it was the Imperial Senate, then they speak with the Emperor's voice, so the Black Templars can suck it. If it was literally anyone else with that kind of authority then it would be someone even closer to the Emperor in authority than merely his voice. So, the general hatred of psykers just isn't feasible anyway.

So it was changed. The Black Templars hatred is only towards alien and rogue psykers and that they have great respect for the ones in the fleet (and don't go bugfuck nuts, which is no mean feat for a mortal psyker). So why no Librarians? There are three <s>theories</s> hypothesis in the codex:

*They still enforce the Edict of Nikaea. Considered most likely, given their [[Crunch|special rule]] "Abhor the Witch!"
*A gene-seed defect.
*They lost them during The Howling.

A small part of it likely has to do with their recruiting process. Since they recruit from the worlds they Crusade on, and they spend a decent amount of time purging renegade psykers, there probably aren't any psykers left for them to recruit and they're not likely to recruit Psykers found by somebody else. It still doesn't explain why they've never had a recorded incident of latent Psykers awakening once they've been recruited.

Rather hilariously, the Black Templars are not even certain why they don't have Librarians; because the Librarius usually maintains the records of the chapter, the Templars have allowed their understanding of history to fall into decay. For the time being, they have come to the conclusion that the loss of the Librarius is simply part of the Emperor's grand design, and should he see fit to bless them with Librarians again they would gladly use them.

Given how the Warp (and 40K in general) works as a genuine Clap Your Hands If You Believe setting, it could be that the Black Templar's own hatred of psykers causes any psykers or latent psykers they didn't realize were such to either become non-psykers or simply inactive/latent and remain that way.

To add to all the confusion above, the newest Codex says that the Black Templars flat out hate all psykers, and treat their navigators and Astropaths as little more than dignified slaves, throwing another wrench into the whole fucking situation.

==Notable members==
*''[[Sigismund]]'': First Chapter Master/Soul brother who made the chapter when Dorn broke the Legion up.
*''High Marshal [[Helbrecht]]'': Their current Chapter Master. Gets fucked up by Imotekh the Stormlord who proceeds to take his arm as a trophy. Helbrecht then manages to destroy his entire fucking flagship as retaliation. Currently on <s>a manhunt for [[Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka]] alongside [[Commissar Yarrick]]</s> Crusade to drive Chaos away from some Shrine Worlds.
*''Chaplain [[Grimaldus]]'': THE most badass [[Chaplain]] in the entire Godsdamn Imperium, with the possible exception of [[Lemartes]]. He fought the biggest Ork WAAAGH in history on a very old temple that had relics and artifacts that were sacred to the Imperium. The battle only ended after the temple collapsed and buried every Ork and Marine under the rubble. But since Grimaldus was too badass to die, he crawled out of the temple with a few relics he managed to save. And besides the guy has the word [[Grimdark|grim]] in his fucking name! How can he not be badass? The main caveat about his description is in his depiction in the book Helsreach, featuring Grimaldus' service in Armageddon leading up to his title as "Hero of Helsreach", where we learn he is equally skilled at tantrum-throwing/sulking, as he is kicking lots of ork ass. But to be fair, this isn't the Grimaldus we know and love as first. Helsreach is about him manning up under constant pressure, him finding he has to stop feeling like he has to be his old boss's bitch all the time and learning to be the butch. He does manage to man up and becomes the badass we all know and love (by the end of things, like, the very last second before a cathedral falls on him and knocks him out and not a second sooner). Plus, he had the stones to do it all WITHOUT A [[ROSARIUS]].
*''[[Tankred]]'': He who endures. Also is partial to bitches.
*''High Marshal Ludoldus'': A previous High Marshal notable for having led the Templars during two Crusades that were separated by over 2000 years, specifically the Vinculus Crusade (833.M41) and the Jerulas Crusade (645.M39). Considering that he was already High Marshall by the time of Vinculus, one can only conclude that Ludoldus was FUCKING OLD... and totally blows [[Dante]] out of the water as the guy even has ''old'' in his fucking name. Or you know warp shenanigans.
*''Castellan Draco'': notable role in the Vinculus crusade, notably in killing Inquisitor Lord Vinculus after he got possessed, but not after his own losses; that is, he got buried in rubble after lacing the cult's massive fortress with explosives. For his valiant efforts, he got his lost parts replaced with bionics, a relic suit of armour and Lord Vinculus' sword. Declared Excommunicate Traitoris in IF supplement, becoming the first SM special character with a model who turned traitor in 40k. Well, "turn traitor" according to the Inquisition who just lost a Lord Inquisitor to him and embarrassing the entire Inquisition with such a reveal.
* ''High Marshal Bohemond'': Led the Chapter during the War of the Beast.
* ''Marshal Magneric'' See Tankred above imagine if he was in command of his own Crusade. Unlike most dreadnoughts he still kept his name and rank and rarely slept which made him into a crazy fanatic (and implied to be the source of the religious zeal) spends most of his days hunting his old BFF Warsmith Kalkator until Orks of The Beast showed up.

==Daily Rituals of a Black Templar==
Think [[Angry Marines]] but with less copious cursing.
* 03:50: Morning Call to Prayer: Initiates awaken their respective Neophytes from their comfortable slumber on bare stone floors. This often involves buckets of ice water, vox-casters playing hymns with the volume control knob broken off, or a power armor shod foot up the ass depending on the Initiate in question. Complaints that this awakening occurred ten minutes prior to scheduled reveille are met with readmistration of the waking aid.
* 04:00: Morning Prayer: Neophytes are berated for their perceived failings by their responsible Initiates, who are in turn berated by the Sword Brethren, the Sword Brethren by the Castellans, up to the Marshal who berates the entire Fleet then swears a solemn vow to an icon of the Emperor that they will do better and prove themselves worthy by stabbing heretics in the throat with their swords. Tactics may also be discussed and orders of battle issued, assuming they involve rushing headlong at the enemy.
* 05:00: Morning Firing Rites: The Initiates school their apprentices on the art of shooting xenos in the face while simultaneously swinging a chainsword. This shooting preferably occurs while rushing across the active firing range in order to close with the target and hit it with the bolt pistol if possible.
* 07:00: Morning Battle Practice: Initiates inform their neophytes that if they are done being cowardly whelps they may now avail themselves of a sword with which to stab shit.
* 11:55: Milk and cookies break. Any neophytes stupid enough to drink milk or eat cookies in front of their Initiate gets their meal pushed in their noses and eyeballs respectively. Things get interesting if they dipped their cookies in their milk.
* 12:00: Midday Prayer: Neophytes are told how poorly they did during the morning exercises, any sense of pride or joy is rooted out. The Marshal leads the Fleet in prayer and promises the Emperor they will kill more things even more righteously this afternoon.
* 13:00: Midday Meal: The chapter serfs provide cold cuts for the Brothers' enjoyment. Lunchmeat is usually collected by the serfs following each battle and stored in the ships' freezers. Naturally, Neophytes do not get something to eat yet as the Initiates insult them for even assuming they get to eat. The Neophytes soon learn that the Emperor has a sense of humor when the Initiates are informed that only Sword Brethren on up are allowed to eat.
* 13:15: Tactical Indoctrination: Locations of the vital organs and blood vessels of xenos species that may be encountered on the current Crusade and the weak spots of Daemons are reviewed, occasionally an Initiate will cuff his Neophyte on the back of the head and reiterate "Yes that, you stab that retard." Other tactics may also be discussed as long as they involve inserting blades into things.
* 14:00: Afternoon Battle Practice: Initiates attempt to kill their Neophyte with a power sword. If the Neophyte is not dead in four hours he passes muster.
* 18:00: Evening Firing Rites: Neophytes are instructed in how to operate heavy and specialty weaponry dropped by their responsible Initiate when he abandons it so that he may swing his sword with both hands to better kill shit or is eaten by a monstrous creature which he bravely <s>(read:stupidly)</s> (read:RIGHTEOUSLY) tried to skullfuck in CQC.
* 20:00: Evening Prayer: After short session of critique and berating, the Emperors' Champion leads a sermon about how awesome the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emprah]] is and how much He wants them to bifurcate/decapitate the current heretics/mutants/xenos they are fighting with power weapons.
* 21:00: Evening Meal: A feast is served by the chapter serfs. Alcohol and anything that has a pleasant taste will not be consumed as the Emperor looks down on those that enjoy life. No hamburger, no cheeseburgers, no french fries, no milkshakes, no potato chips; you will drink water distilled from the Fleet's waste/reactor AND LIKE IT!
* 21:30: Night-fighting/zero-gravity exercises: Initiates instruct their charges on stabbing things by the glow of a power sword and how to fight in a zero-gravity environment without jump packs (stab foe, use corpse as a springboard to assault another foe, repeat).
* 23:15: Wargear Maintenance: Initiates encourage Neophytes to keep weapons in proper working order with phrases like, "Sharpen your shit you incompetent bastard" as the Emperor reserves great disdain for those that kill heretics with dull blades.
* 23:45: Free time: The Initiate is free to challenge his Neophyte to a short duel. Wounds heal better during sleep anyway.
* 00:00 Rest period: The Initiate sees his Neophyte off to bed, with one last punch to the face to help him fall asleep. The Sword Brethren then punch the Initiates in the face before they retire for rest period.

Note that this constitutes a day off for a Black Templar. A working day will involve 23 hours of rushing monstrous creatures with melee weapons. Neophytes are expected to pull bullet sponge duty so the Initiate is not distracted by little things like enemy gunfire (and that their spilled blood will allow the Initiates to glide on the ground to their enemy faster) as seen here:

===Black Templar Combat Training===
Brother-Initiate Teuton McTemplar: "Neophyte, get your ass over here and hold my Lascannon while I charge that [[Carnifex]] with my Power Fist!"

Neophyte Hans Wolfgang: "But sir I have not yet earned my power armour and a Lascannon weighs 100 kilos..."

Brother-Initiate Teuton McTemplar: "You are going to pick up that spotlight and burn some fucking xenos, and you are going to like it!"

Note: It would be nice if this could happen, but in reality, you can only arm Neophytes with shotguns or bolt pistols with CCWs, though you were able to arm an initiate with both a Lascannon and a Power Fist in their original codex. Hilariously too you could go completely overboard and have one marine armed with a Power fist, three bolt pistols (or two bolt pistols and a bolter), a Chainsword, a Power Weapon, a Heavy Bolter, a Missile Launcher (or a Multi-Melta), a Lascannon, and a Plasma Cannon [[Obliterators|ALL AT THE SAME TIME]] (though while funny is still a terrible thing to put on the battlefield as he can still only fire one per turn, pistols notwithstanding). Talk about a jack of all trades...

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Black Templar|Tactics/Black Templar]]
*Their [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lrs9nIITQk| theme] by [[HMKids]].
*Also their [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0TzUNti3rY| theme] by Andrew W.K.
*Their [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyAEBux88hw| '''ONE TRUE ULTIMATE THEME] by [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqGKtkZ8-MlAeTVL0fFAMnw| StringStorm].
*An [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaUi8Dv73hA| accurate representation] of their daily lives
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUplioG2DC4| The unofficial animated version of Helsreach.]
*Their thoughts on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrJVZZLv2GE| furfags. ]
*Their continued campaign against the [https://youtu.be/j02V_34PXZg| furfags. ]
*[https://youtu.be/4uqKyofFfm0| The Black Templars deep strike some furries.]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afpn6skCDhA&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=Flashgitz| Glorious part 2]
*[https://youtu.be/JU2oDhff-kw| Black Templar, also featuring an Inceptor looking awesome and guardsmen holding the line.]
*[[White Templars]]
*[[Red Templars]]
*[[Silver Templars]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Templar Terminator.jpg|Actually pretty nice guys, once you get to know them.
Image:1206768954856.jpg|They also like to sing.
Image:howdoipurge.png
Image:bffs.jpg|'''Purging with my Kin!
Image:Imheretopurgehereticsandchewbubblegumandimalloutofbubblegum.jpg|Look at them hips.
Image:Black templar terminator by deadxcross.jpg|When you want to purge as much Heretics and Xenos as possible.
Image:A not so Little Sister by DeadXCross.jpg|They can even inspire zealots of their own.
Image:PURGINGWITHMYKIN.gif|The Black Templars' name does not corelate to the other Second Founding Imperial Fists because [https://youtu.be/0Vh_N8CpcL0?t=1208 they are absolute lunatics]
Image:WH40K_-_Black_Templar.jpg|Impaled with Extreme Prejudice!
</gallery>

{{Black-Templars}}
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