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Magic: The Gathering

2018-02-20T13:54:53Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

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''"[[/tg/]] is [[fail|bad at]] Magic."'' - /tg/
[[Image:Richard Garfield.jpg|thumb|Richard Garfield, the Patron Saint of Magic: The Gathering. He's 2/2, so he's as strong as pack of [[Bear_cavalry|Grizzly Bears]] and could [[Awesome|fistfight them to death.]]]]
'''Magic: The Gathering''' (or just "'''Magic'''") is a collectible card game created by [[Richard Garfield]], and introduced to [[neckbeards]] everywhere in 1993. Despite the amount of [[Rage|RAGE]] the game has created over the years, it's still going strong. The game is currently in its 24th year of production with a large competitive following, consisting mostly of 40-year-old basement dwellers. Magic is notable for being the first [[Card Games|CCG]] of all time, granddady of all [[Card Games]], and its influence can be seen in almost every CCG since. It also has fucktons of fluff that is suprisingly fucking intricate and deep. [[Furry|Ink-Eyes]] comes from here, and is only depicted in one card.

Despite sharing the same build of title of [[World of Darkness]] settings, M:TG has nothing to do with [[White Wolf]].
its also the best card game of all time. Let that sink in for a bit.

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==Story==
You are a [[Planeswalker]], a [[wizard]] with near-limitless potential. One out of one million intelligent lifeforms carry the potential of becoming a Planeswalker, called the Spark. The vast majority of those live out their lives without even knowing of their potential. But a very small number of those, again one out of a million becomes far more. After a traumatizing experience or a moment of supreme clarity the Spark ignites, giving the being power beyond nearly anything in the Multiverse.

A Planeswalker has several abilities. First it can travel between the Planes of the Multiverse through the [[Blind Eternities]], the space between Planes in which they drift. Second they have great skill with channeling and using mana to cast spells and summon creatures. The Planeswalkers of old could do even more: they were gestalt forms of will, and could shapechange into anything they want. This also rendered them near indestructible, with their forms being easily replaceable. They were also nigh-immortal, the only thing posing a serious threat to a Planeswalker was another Planeswalker.

The old Planeswalkers were akin to gods, and continued to be so until roughly 4,000 years after the ascension of [[Urza]]. [[Dominaria]], the Nexus of the Multiverse had become something of a shithole because of various plotlines having royally screwed up the plane and rifts in time began to appear. After the sacrifices of many Planeswalkers these rifts were sealed in [[The Mending|the Mending]], an event that changed Planeswalkers for good. No longer gods amongst mortals, they were reduced to the power of mortal casters. They also lost their shapechanging and immortality, something that vexed many surviving Planeswalkers. Some like [[Nicol Bolas]] fought with tooth and nail to reobtain their powers, some like [[Liliana Vess]] made pacts with powerful creatures to be more powerful, and some like [[Sorin Markov]] accepted their loss. Then again Sorin's a vampire and so is naturally damn near immortal anyway, so his loss was rather less significant than others.

Gameplay wise there are five distinct eras:

===Pre-Revisionist===
Where the game started and still tried to find itself. Was broken as fuck; most decks consisted of a combination of [[Power Nine|Black Lotus]], Channel and Fireball for plenty of turn 1 kills, cards were wordy as fuck and the art was between trippy and butt ugly. This consists of the [[First Magic Sets|Alpha/Beta/Unlimited editions]], the old-timey stand-alone expansions ([[Arabian Nights]], Antiquities, [[Legends]], The Dark, Fallen Empires, [[Homelands|That Set Which Will Not Be Named]], the [[Ice Age]] Block (Coldsnap is a special case, while far newer than the other two it is still part of the block) and the first two sets of the Mirage block.

Back then there was not an awful lot of story on the cards (and no widespread Internet), so the main story had to be told through comic books. The story covered the war between two brothers, [[Urza]] and Mishra, the ice age that their war brought on, and how that was ended (with magic). All eras after this one are considered as post-revisionist, but that term is not used frequently.

===The Weatherlight Saga===
The ''magnum opus'' of M:TG, the Weatherlight Saga (starting from Weatherlight through the Rath, Urza, Masques and Invasion blocks) details the war between Urza and [[Phyrexia]], the [[steampunk]] [[zombie]] hell that is trying to invade [[Dominaria]] at the behest of its god-king [[Yawgmoth]]. This era includes the 5th to 7th editions of core sets, the [[Portal Starter Sets]] and the Starter Year sets. From this point onward the story became told through a combination of cards and novels named after their expansion sets, of varying quality. The story is held in high regard by many older fans of the game.

While mostly chronological, Urza's block takes place almost 900 years before Weatherlight. The story is about the crew of Skyship Weatherlight trying to gather the [[Legacy Weapon]], a series of artifacts designed to be able to destroy Yawgmoth. After he manages to invade Dominaria the Legacy manages to do so at a great cost; all but a few of Weatherlight's crewmembers are dead, alongside large swathes of the planet and some of the most prominent Planeswalkers in the Multiverse, including Urza himself.

===Post-Weatherlight Saga===
Though no official name exists, the Post-Weatherlight saga consists of four storylines (divided over six blocks) detailing various planes of the Multiverse. These are the [[Mirrodin]], [[Kamigawa]] and [[Ravnica]] blocks. Two of the other three blocks for the Odyssey (no not that one), a story taking place on the continent of [[Otaria]], which was largely untouched by [[Phyrexia]]. Here the Mirari landed, a magical orb that pumped massive amounts of mana into the world but would drive anyone who used it insane. After nearly destroying Otaria its owner, [[Karn]], appeared, fixed it and brought it with him to his home world of Mirrodin. Here he turned the Mirari into Memnarch, which promptly went insane and nearly destroyed Mirrodin. Kamigawa is a world based on [[Weeaboo|feudal Japan]] and was ravaged by enraged kami because [[Derp|someone had stolen the son of God]]. [[Ravnica]] took place on a world that was one big city: think [[Planescape|Sigil]] but less deadly and bigger. Ravnica was governed by ten guilds, until a number of them tried to upset the status quo and promptly got roflstomped. The final block was that of Time Spiral; which returned to Dominaria. The plane was ravaged by magic and the actions of Planeswalkers, unraveling spacetime and threatening the entire Multiverse. Through the sacrifices of many notable Planeswalkers (including Lord Windgrace, Leshrac Nightwalker and Jeska) the Multiverse was saved in an event called The Mending, but The Spark was fundamentally altered. Planeswalkers were no longer gods: they were just very powerful mages capable of traveling the Planes after a quick ritual instead of on a whim. They also became bound to their bodies, no longer bodies shaped by pure will. The Multiverse was safe, but filled with enraged and depowered gods, like [[Nicol Bolas]]. This era also included the 8th to 10th editions of core sets.

===Post-Mending===
This era has six blocks so far: [[Lorwyn|Lorwyn/Shadowmoor]], a plane that turns from bright upbeat British fairy-tale with facist [[Elf|Elves]] to a grim and gloomy spirit world filled with all sorts of nasties. The [[Alara]] block details the attempt of [[Nicol Bolas]] to slam five parts of a fractured plane together and feast on the released energy to make himself a god again: the slamming is a success but he fails when he is beaten by [[Ajani Goldmane]]. [[Zendikar]] is Australia on steroids and [[Call of Cthulhu]]; everything can and will try to kill you. On this world rested the [[Eldrazi]], a race of non-beings that can unmake anything with a touch. Freed by the machinations of, once again, Nicol Bolas. They are fighting [[Gideon Jura]] who beat one to death with his bare hands. Scars of Mirrodin returns to, wait for it, Mirrodin, which is conquered and compleated by Phyrexia. Whoops. They currently have a spy amongst their ranks; [[Tezzeret]], who was sent there by, you guessed it, Nicol Bolas. [[Innistrad]] is a world of East-European gothic horror where [[vampire]]s and [[werewolf|werewolves]] run business. It is one of the best sets ever with stuff like double-faced cards, monsters that get stronger when they die and awesome flavor. At the end of the block the Helvault, a prison for lots of demons, was destroyed. Releasing its contents. This was done by... no not Nicol Bolas. Not this time. It was [[Liliana Vess]], who wanted to kill a demon, Griselbrand, that was trapped inside to get out of a faustian bargain she made with him. Incidentally (as far as Liliana Vess is concerned), this world was going to shit because the angel Avacyn was trapped inside the Helvault too and she was released along side the demons. Then there is a Return to Ravnica, where the Guilds have picked up business once again for the time being, eventually they run a world-wide maze to see who gets to take control of the city in the Jace Beleran does by becoming the guildpact (I'm as confused as you). Finally there is Theros with the awesome flavor of Innistrad but with Greek mythology and awesome mechanics to represent it. Oh and Elspeth is there. This era also set off a new wave of core sets: after every Block was new core set with a year in it, staring in Magic 2010 to Magic Origins (released July 2015) and adding a few new cards every series. This era also introduced Planeswalkers as cards: a new permanent type that functions as a crossover between a player, a legendary creature and an enchantment. The game currently takes place in that era, where Planeswalkers have begun to rise in large numbers with the Multiverse's infinite secrets and powers at their feet. Here you decide what you will be.

===The Two-Block Paradigm===
This system officially started in Battle for Zendikar. How to deal with the 3rd set in a block had long been a thorn in the side of Magic R&D. To fix this they decided to simply stop making 3 set blocks. Core sets would no longer be released and a Block would consist of 2 sets. Usually the first set would be large and the second set small. There would be 2 blocks per year (Although considering Battle for Zendikar was released in October, not a 'January to December' year). Of course, draft structure will be different as well.

Also there is a big shift in story telling. The creative team actually knows what is going to happen quite a bit in advance (compared to before this shift) which, should provide us benefits like better foreshadowing and less [[Retcon|retcons.]] Each set contains five official (although in practice, probably more unofficial) cards that show events in the story deemed important. The official ones are called "spotlight cards" and can be identified by the planeswalker symbol watermark. The story will be across multiple platforms such as cards in the set, Uncharted Realms, Duels of the Planeswalkers, ect... Each block is still on a different plane than the blocks surrounding it, which of course means the creative team is building an average of 2 worlds per year (arguably less so in the cases when returning to a mtg world we've been to before). (Consider that the people who made [[Avatar]] spent five years building that one setting. This can't [[Not as planned|possibly end badly]].)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTpv4ZGZ8K8][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEWQ019LvYw][http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mm/metamorphosis].

There have been some growing pains and because WotC works so far in advance, it takes a while before we get the benefits of the lessons learned applying to Magic players (unless the lesson is to ban cards, in which case, if WotC is correct, Magic players as a whole are getting the better of 2 bad options). So don't be surprised if Standard for the next few sets will suck [http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/standard-2017-01-13] (as defined by it being bad, or it being okay, but only because WotC banned some cards, hurting players that bought a playset of those cards).

As if to make it hurt more, lately there has been tons of mistakes being made including but not limited to:
* Not testing whether a set with Dual Lands and lands that can search for them will lead to four color decks (breaking the point of having you chose between so many colors)
* Shorting (then increasing) the time a set rotates out, which has Battle for Zendikar be still in rotation for much more then it should have been in, while having the set after be taken out for a much shorter time.
* Having to ban four card in short succession, not because of how generally overpowered they were like the bans of old, but instead because they never printed any good answers to them.
* Missing an infinite combo, which dominated standard until it was banned.

Most of the story thus-far involves [[The Gatewatch]], a group a Planeswalkers who have taken [http://magiccards.info/query?q=oath+of+t%3A%22legendary+enchantment%22&v=scan&s=cname oaths] to keep the multiverse safe from existential threats. Nobody likes them and they got crushed by Nicol Bolas.

===The Three and One Model===
Whoops, turns out removing the primary source of deck staples and support cards was a bad idea after all. The block concept is out the door under this model, with a core set in the summer and three large sets in the fall, winter, and spring that will each be drafted separately. The first large set under the new model drops in the spring of 2018 and [[Awesome|will be returning to Dominaria,]] while the first new core set will be released in the summer of 2018. The "new plane every block" policy is also gone, as is the idea of having a "Masterpiece Series" (aka literal cardboard lottery) with every block; Wizards is going to be making the game's stay on each plane exactly as long as they feel like, and only releasing lottery rares when they "have something amazing." So probably still every other set to prop up box sales.
Read the announcement here: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/metamorphosis-2-0-2017-06-12

==Rules==
Each player starts with a life total of 20, it is the goal of the game to reduce your opponent's life to 0 or less. Occasionally a player's goal will involve winning through some other win condition (i.e. making the opponent draw when no cards remain in their library, give the opponent 10 or more poison counters, [http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Alternate-win_card card specific win conditions], or dealing commander damage). Each player takes a turn until only one player is left in the game.

===Game expressions===
*'''[[Mana]]''' - Mana is the magical resource of the game, it is what you commonly use to play cards. Mana you have drawn from a source is kept in your '''mana pool''', waiting for you to spend it. However, at the end of each phase and each step in a turn, your mana pool is emptied, so there's no saving up by constantly draining your lands. There used to be a rule called Mana Burn, in which if you didn't use all the mana you had in your mana pool you would take damage, loosing 1 life for each unspent mana. It did a few good things, like give [[Legends#Mana_Drain|Mana Drain]] a draw back, but ultimately R&D decided Magic was better off without it.

*'''Spell''' - Spells are any card that is currently on the stack.

*'''The Stack''' - This, children, is where [https://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/feature/362#splitsecond almost] all the real bullshit occurs. The stack is where almost any effect other than those that produce mana go to wait to '''resolve'''. whenever an effect (such as playing a card, activating an ability of an artifact or creature, etc.) goes on the stack, all the players in the game receive '''priority''' in turn order to respond. When a player has priority, no other player can act. When something is on the stack, only effects that are played at instant speed may be added to the stack, such as other abilities or instants themselves. You never have to put anything on the stack when you have priority, it just gives you the ability to respond to another players move if you choose. Effects on the stack resolve from the one to be put on last resolving first, this means that whenever you respond to your opponents move with, your response will always take effect before his move. For example if your opponent casts a spell to destroy one of your creatures in play, and you have the appropriate amount of mana to play a counter spell, you can tap your lands and add your counter spell to the stack, targeting your opponents destruction spell. When the stack resolves, your counter spell will be the last effect on the stack, and as such will resolve first, countering your opponents spell and saving your creature. Note that your opponent also receives priority again when you play the counter spell, meaning that it'll be possible for him to add a new spell to kill your creature after you have played the counter spell, meaning he'll kill your creature anyway. But then again, you'll receive priority again as well, and so on and so on.

*'''Tap''' - Tapping is the act of turning a card 90 degrees, this is done to indicate that the card has been exhausted. You tap a land when you draw mana from it, you tap a creature to attack with it, and many abilities of creatures or artifacts require that you tap the card as well.

*'''Ability''' - Abilities are found in a permanent's text field. Abilities can be either activated or triggered abilities. An activated ability is noted for having a cost followed by a colon followed by the effect of the ability. For example, "''Tap<nowiki> : </nowiki>Draw a card, then discard a card .''" Triggered abilities however, will be added to the stack whenever a certain condition is met, for example "''Whenever you gain 1 life, draw a card''". A triggered ability can be triggered as many times as the condition for it is met, and an activated ability can be activated as many times as you can possibly pay the cost.

*'''Hand''' - No, not that hand, stupid. Your hand of cards. You can normally only have 7 cards in your hand when your turn ends (any more than that are usually discarded), and your hand of cards is kept so your opponent can't see it. You start the game with a hand of 7 cards, and you draw 1 card each turn, there are cards that let you draw more cards however.

*'''Library''' - You library is your deck of cards, it must contain no less than 60 cards, and it is often ideal to not include more than 60 cards either. It also may not contain more than four copies of the same card. If you are asked to draw a card and you cannot because there are no more cards left in your library, you lose the game (or win, if you have Laboratory Maniac out), just as if you had hit 0 life.

*'''Graveyard''' - This is where used sorceries, instants and destroyed cards go. Some cards are able to return cards from here, but normally they just stay dead. This is a place of magic and wonder for any deck that runs revive. Until someone plays Samurai of the Pale Curtain...

===Structure of a turn===
The first step in a turn is the '''untap step''', here all the cards in play that are tapped are untapped. The next step is your '''upkeep''', nothing happens here by default, it is only in place for some cards to trigger different effects at the start of your turn.

After your upkeep is your '''draw step''', here you simply draw a card from the top of your library.

Next is your first main phase, here you can play any spells that are played at sorcery speed, this is things such as artifacts, creatures, enchantments, planeswalkers, land (lands are weird, playing them doesn't use the stack and as such can't be responded to, so one could make the case that in some ways they are faster than instants, also lands can NEVER be "PLAYED" when it is not your turn where as other things considered sorcery speed can be instant speed through things like Flash). and sorceries themselves.

After your first main phase is your combat phase, this is broken up into several subphases itself. The first thing to happen is that you declare any creatures you want to '''attack''' to attack by tapping them, you opponent is then given the choice of '''blocking''' your creatures. Only an untapped creature can block, and a creature can only participate in one block each combat. However, several creatures can be picked to block the same creature at once, meaning that it is possible to 'gang up' on attackers in order to kill them. When creatures are in combat with each other they will deal each other damage at the same time, meaning that two 1/1's will kill each other at the same time. In the case of multiple creatures blocking one creature, the attacker assigns the damage that his creature would deal out to the blocking creatures as he wishes, for example a 2/2 blocked by two 1/1's could deal 1 damage to both creatures and kill them both.
Any unblocked creatures will deal their damage to the opponent.
Once all damage has been assigned, the '''clean up''' step follows, where all creatures that have taken lethal damage will be sent to their owner's graveyards.

After combat you have your second main phase, where you can do exactly the same as in the first.

After the second main phase, you have the end of turn step, pretty much the same deal as with the upkeep, nothing really happens here unless a card says so. Lastly, after your end of turn step, you discard down to the maximum hand size if you have exceeded it, so if you for example have 9 cards in hand, you will have to discard 2 of them to meet the required of 7.

===Types of cards===
The game of Magic contains several different '''supertypes''' of cards:

*'''Lands''' - Lands are the player's most basic resource, and they are tapped to allow the player to play their other cards that have a '''mana cost'''. You can normally play only one land from your hand per turn.
[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=109713 Example of a Land card.]

*'''Creatures''' - Creatures are the players soldiers and guardians, they primarily participate in combat, although as with all things in Magic, there are many exceptions this. Creatures have many '''subtypes''', these are commonly referred to as '''creature types''', most creatures have a race and a profession creature type, for example "''Creature - Human Warrior''". Creatures have a toughness and a power score, portrayed as P/T on the bottom right corner of the card. Power determines the amount of damage the creature can cause in combat, whereas toughness is how much damage it can take before it is destroyed. Damage assigned to a creature is cleared at the end of each turn, meaning that if a creature isn't killed by the amount of damage it has sustained, it'll return to its full toughness at the end of the turn. This means that the same creature will often participate in several combat steps before it is finally killed. Damage assigned to players however, is never healed by any other means than other cards that give the player an amount of life upon being played.
[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=129586 Example of a Creature card.]

*'''Enchantments''' - These are raw magic that you create, they can do all different kinds of things, and generally have a constant effect on the game, until they are destroyed by your opponent. There are global and local variants of enchantments, the local being a subtype called '''auras''', these are attached to other cards in play to enhance them or weaken them. A lot of competitive players dislike auras since they are destroyed if their 'host' is destroyed, meaning that it is easier for your opponent to make a lot of you cards obsolete by destroying one card.
[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=129572 Example of an Enchantment card.]

*'''Sorceries''' - Sorceries are spells that you can only cast on your own turn, and when nothing is on the stack, they'll have some kind of immediate effect on the game, but they are not persistent like enchantments. This means that it is common for sorceries to simply just destroy something else in play or to give a temporary boost to a creature or something like that. The more massive destructive effects in the game are commonly found in sorceries, such as globally destroying all lands or creatures in play.
[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=129808 Example of a Sorcery card.]

*'''Instants''' - Just like sorceries, however an instant can also be played in an opponent's turn, they'll often do the same as sorceries, but stuff like counter magic, that is a spell that prevents your opponent's spell from resolving, are only instants.
[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=19570 Example of an Instant card.]

*'''Artifacts''' - All kinds of magic items, like a staff or some other kind of stuff. Normally this is equipment for the player himself, but some artifacts can be equipped by the player's creatures, making them work like auras, only they do not need a 'host' to be in play, and as such are a lot more persistent than auras. Some artifacts are also creatures, this is stuff like golems or other kinds of magical constructs. Artifact are generally colorless, with some exceptions, so almost all of them are suitable for any deck.
[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=129704 Example of an Artifact card.]

*'''Basic''' - A supertype currently found only on land cards. A deck can contain any number of the same basic card.
[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=129560 Example of a Basic card.]

*'''Legendary''' - Much like Basic, Legendary only appears together with another supertype. If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners' graveyards. Legendary cards are often stuff like characters from the plot line of Magic, or somehow else very special things like specific places in the case of legendary lands.
[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=26793 Example of a Legendary card.]

*'''Tribal''' - A newcomer among the supertypes, a Tribal card lets a noncreature card have creature types. For example, a card that would allow you to destroy a goblin card would work on any goblin creature, as well as a Tribal Enchantment - Goblin. Sadly the "Tribal" card type is unlikely to be printed on new cards.
[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=146167 Example of a Tribal card.]

*'''[[Planeswalker]]''' - Another newcomer, a Planeswalker is similar to an enchantment. Planeswalkers come into play with a certain amount of loyalty counters on them. Once per turn a planeswalker can use one of its activated abilities during his main phase whenever he may play a sorcery, either adding or subtracting the indicated amount of counters. A planeswalker can be targeted for either spells or abilities that deal damage, and can be targeted in an attack phase like a player. For each damage a planeswalker takes, instead remove that many loyalty counters. If a planeswalker has no loyalty counters left on it, it is destroyed. Similarly to the Legendary supertype, "if a player controls two or more planeswalkers that share a planeswalker type, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners' graveyards". Planeswalkers can do some really awesome shit, such as create 5 4/4 dragons or force your opponent to mill 20 cards from their library. Keeping one alive can be a royal pain in the ass.
[http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=140222 Example of a Planeswalker card.]

===Colors of Magic===
[[Image:Magic Card Back.jpg|thumb|The back of a Magic card. It features the trademarked pentagram of the colours. The pentagram is set up in such a way that colours that have parts of their philosophies in common are adjacent to each other, whereas colours that oppose each other are positioned opposite of each other.]]

As well as having different types of cards, the game of Magic has five different colors to choose from when building a deck. It is important to have the appropriate type of land for the colour of magic that you are playing with, since no basic land except a mountain can produce red mana, which is needed to play red spells. Certain effects are associated with certain colours, and only rarely if ever appear in the others - this is to ensure that the colours feel different to play, and that there is a point of having different colours in the first place. For a more thorough examination of the colors of ''Magic'' and their relationships with each other see [[Color Pie]].

*'''White''' - This is the mostly [[Paladin|goody-two-shoes]] or zealously genocidal, censoring and totalitarian (be it communist, or possibly other types of extreme) of the colour pie, white often prevents damage to creatures and restore life to players. As excels with instant, sorceries, and enchantments that get rid off opposing creatures, with one of their main schticks being that the remove creatures from the game rather than sending them to the graveyard. They also have a tendency to have powerful creature enchantments to buff their creatures or prevent their opponents creatures from attacking or blocking. It is most notable for having the most non-damage boardwipes in the game. Among it's older cards are cards that create life gain win conditions. It has a general philosophy of having a large amount of small creatures instead a few big ones. White embodies law, order, community, healing, and light. White is the color most like and yet completely different from Black, both being absolute for entirely different reasons.The symbol for white is a sun. The white lands are plains. White's characters are either heroic and otherwise benevolent individuals such as [[Ajani Goldmane]], [[Elspeth Tirel]] and Commodore Guff, or fanatical assholes like Konda and [[Elesh Norn]].

*'''Blue''' - Blue is the color of logic, thought, observation, prescience, and arcane magic. It is the best color at things like countermagic, drawing cards, and [[Just As Planned|using minor trickery to be a general pain in the butt]]. These things make blue the most effective color when used on its own, and the most hated by other players because blue played right will keep them from doing anything with their counter cards and will never run out of them, and blue players have a tendency to complain when WotC tries to do something to balance the counter spells. Thankfully, blue's creatures tend to the least effective at killing the opponent, in terms of strength and abilities, and blue also lacks the ability to deal with things if it can't counter them. Of course, Blue makes up for that by having the most cards that allow you take control of an opponent's creature (All the colors have some, having the most in the following order: Blue, Red, Black, Green, and White with exactly 1). Blue is generally the opposite of Red, similar to reason and emotion, and likewise have elements of each other. Thus, the two will generally make the most scientific and steampunk decks when put together. Blue concerns itself with such things as logic, water, science, knowledge, divination, time, and air. The blue symbol is a drop of water. The blue land is an island. Blue's most foremost Planeswalkers include [[Jace Beleren]], [[Tezzeret]] and [[Bo Levar]].

*'''Black''' - Black is the more diabolical of the colors, in brooding desire for any of the following, not necessarily exclusive of each other: independence in an oppressive world, inordinate wealth, immortality, godhood, control of others, vengeance, veneration of evil, world conquest, by any means. It is the color of self-interest, individuality, moral relativism, classical capitalism, and devil's bargains. It often has the ability to emulate other colors to a lesser degree... for a cost. The more powerful black creatures sometimes turn on their player. It also contains lots of abilities that require sacrificing creatures, forcing the opponent to sacrifice creatures, killing opposing creatures, and the best discard abilities. As an intentional weakness, black lacks any significant artifact or enchantment kill. Black contains such things as sickness, destruction, necromancy, death, murder, blood rituals, assassination, crime, torture, darkness, and [[FATAL|corruption]]. A skull is the symbol for black. The black land is a swamp. Black is the color most like and yet completely different from White, both being absolute for entirely different reasons. Black has spawned many infamous Planeswalkers such as Leshrac, the Walker of the Night; Tevesh Szat, the Doom of Fools; [[Liliana Vess]] and [[Nicol Bolas]] (well he's actually multi-colored, but the center of his shard is black), the Eternal Serpent and Lord of the Blind Eternities. In addition, it has a few heroic characters such as [[Sorin Markov]] and Toshiro Umezawa, proving that it is not inherently evil.

*'''Red''' - Red is the color of passion, freedom, and [[rage]]. Red contains some of the more self-destructive cards of the colors, but the power of the effects usually make up for it. Many of red's spells focus on directly damaging the opponent, players call them "burn spells", and in fact it's completely viable to run a red deck with no creatures and just burn spells. Creature wise, red has the cheapest in game. Red is generally the opposite of Blue, similar to emotion and reason, and likewise have elements of each other.Thus, the two are generally make the most scientific decks and steampunk decks when put together. The domain of red is such things as speed, destruction, fire, angry mobs (green and white have a fair and smaller share of these), lightning, dragons, and recklessness. Red's symbol is a ball of fire. The red land is a mountain. Some of Red's most famous Planeswalkers are [[Jaya Ballard]], Lord Windgrace of Urborg and [[Chandra Nalaar]].

*'''Green''' - Green associates itself with [[Druid|nature and the cycle of life]], growth, exploration of the wilds, and brute strength. It usually has the most powerful and straight-forward creatures, which also have the best ratio of power and toughness for the mana cost. Green contains cards that can increase the strength of your creatures, cards that give you more mana more quickly and give you access to the other colors of mana, and cards that let you create and profit from large numbers of small creatures or small numbers of very large creatures. Green is the least common color run on its own because it needs to use small easy to kill creatures to [[get shit done]], but is commonly put in other decks as a side color. The green symbol is a tree. The green land is a forest. Green's famous Planeswalkers include [[Garruk Wildspeaker]], [[Nissa Revane]], Kristina of the Woods and [[Freyalise]].

*'''Colorless''' - Colourless (Grey) mana is composed of two things: non magic-artificial creations including some robots and laser cannons, and [[Eldrazi|Cthuhloids]]. Mana of any color can be used for colorless mana costs. This is useful to ease the stress of colored mana requirements in multicoloured decks, and making cards that can fit in decks of any color - Artifacts are usually colorless. Artificial creatures cannot become Planeswalkers (but this does not stop them from trying to become them, as Memnarch has demonstrated), but they can inherit or obtain the power somehow: [[Karn]] the silver [[golem]] is as far as known the only one to have done so. The only other colorless planeswalker is [[Ugin]], who's basically Magic Buddha because he's so enlightened that he's transcended the five colors.
**As of Battle for Zendikar, colorless has its own land type, which is Waste, and its own symbol, which is a grey four-pointed star. This specifically-colorless mana is used primarily for the [[Eldrazi]], which are the freaky babies of Cthulu and Galactus. The Eldrazi are so ancient that they precede the planes and color itself. Yeah, that's right, they're older than even the game and fluff itself can even comprehend.

It is possible to build decks that are a mix of more than one color - in fact there are many spells that require anything from two to five different colors of mana to play. It is however not advisable to have more than 3 colours in a single deck unless you know what you are doing, since it'll begin to become a problem to get access to all the different colours of mana you need during play. This means you'll be left with a hand full of cards you can't play, and a table full of lands you have no use for - not a good position to be in. The full extreme of this is to have all five colors in your deck, which is something referred to as [[WUBRG]] (after the letters for each color). Unless (and even when) you know exactly what you're doing and built a deck around the concept, WUBRG is very difficult to play.

==Players==
[[Image:AZNs Magic.jpg|thumb|AZNs playing Magic]]
The developers of Magic have put out their 3 archetypes of players:

*'''Timmy''' - The player who just wants to experience something cool, something you can tell stories about. Often it's through casting gigantic creatures and game-changing spells, not caring that they're frequently too expensive to be much good at winning the game. Social gamers or even griefers can also be considered a type of Timmy; after all, the story you're telling doesn't always have to be about the game itself.

*'''Johnny''' - A combo player, these are the guys who'll spend days looking through cards to find a [http://magiccards.info/6e/en/89.html bizarre] [http://magiccards.info/mr/en/318.html combo] of cards that makes them [http://magiccards.info/4e/en/16.html win the game] if they can pull it off. They often end up building decks that don't participate in the game itself, and are more oriented on getting their combo into play, turning the game into a sort of solitaire.

*'''Spike''' - The competitive player of the bunch. They'll build decks to win and only play to win, their fun is in winning, and sometimes turn the game into [[Powergamer|an obnoxious competition]], even outside of tournaments. Needless to say, they're highly disliked at social games when they even bother showing up outside of a competitive setting, even when they mean no harm. On the other hand, it also means that their decks are made to work effectively and will win more often than not. That isn't to say Spike will put up with ''everything'' just to win. For example, some Spikes might hate it when only a few strategies are viable, or conversely when too many are viable and it's impossible to prepare against them all.

The three archetypes mix and match, meaning that it is possible to be a Johnny-Timmy player, aiming to make some kind of combo that'll give you a million life and an army of 100/100 creatures or some other kind of stupid nonsense.

Recently, it has come to light that there are 2 more pseudo-archetypes, though these aren't really archetypes proper. The types here are on a separate axis than the aforementioned three. They are as follows:

*'''Vorthos''' - Vorthoses care about [[Fluff|flavour and the story part of the game]]. They'll build a deck that re-enacts the forces Urza rallied to fight the [[Elesh Norn|Phyrexians]]. Fluff is of key importance in the mind of a Vorthos. Stories, [[rule 34|art]], flavour text, and block novels are all things that a Vorthos focuses on. As a result, it can be considered to be a close relative of the Timmy, with the emphasis on "cool things" being replaced by a stronger focus on fluff-accuracy. As a result, their decks tend to vary wildly in their efficacy.

*'''Melvin''' - On the opposite side of this spectrum lies Melvin. Melvins love to deconstruct the rules, [[Crunch|find out why things tick.]] A Melvin will [[Munchkin|base a deck on shit like banding that average players don't pay attention to, or some sub-clause of an obscure part of the comprehensive rules]]. They differ from the typical munchkin in that they love reading the logs and development process of various cards and learning what led to a given rule being changed or the rationale behind said rule change, rather than simply exploiting said rules for its own sake. They're similar to Johnnys in their eccentric hacker spirit.

It should be noted that a Vorthos-Melvin is probably a philosopher. Spike-Johnnys are sometimes great gaming partners for Johnny-Timmys, since one is a competitive combo user, and the other is a combo user who is in it for fun, and one or both of will either have a lot of respect for the opponents' combo, or be quite irritated that it interrupted theirs. Johnny-Vorthos-Melvins will have the most difficult time putting together a deck they can play at all, let alone one that can be viable in a tournament setting, but those that do so find it highly rewarding when they make it work for them.

==Building a Deck==

Alright so you've read this article, looked at a few cards, maybe even gotten yourself a few booster packs or a hand-me-down collection. What now?

The process of deckbuilding can, at first, seem like an extremely difficult one, and in many ways it is. You have possibly hundreds of variables to consider depending on what you're building for and thousands of cards to sort through to find the best ones for the job.

But before you overwhelm yourself, look at what you have in your stuff and find a card you like. It doesn't even have to be a powerful one, just something that catches your eye and gets the gears turning. For this example, we'll use something flashy yet robust, the card Fireball. A classic design and very easy to find, Fireball is a card that can generate truly explosive results and kill your opponent in one shot. Awesome! What now?

Well, let's think of what we want to do here. Let's say in this case we want to use Fireball as our win-condition. For this, we'll need obviously Red Mana to cast it, but also additional Mana to make it lethal. So now we're going to look for things that feed into that concept; making more Mana for a bigger Fireball. This is the process referred to as focusing the deck, and is essential to building a successful one. The more streamlined and tight your focus is, the more of a chance the deck will do what you want it to do. Trying to do too many things at once will leave you lacking in all of them, so it's usually better to have a strong theme to accomplish your Plan A.

So focusing, we need a way to make Mana for our Fireball. Land is of course the most basic way of generating Mana, so we should play more lands to make more Mana! Right? Well perhaps, but by filling up the deck with too much land, we're not going to be drawing any spells. Too little though, and we won't be able to cast the spells that we draw. Finding that balance is another key part of deckbuilding and takes a lot of time to get the right feel for it. In general though, your deck should contain 24 lands, adding in 1 or 2 for a slower deck with big mana threats, and removing 1 to 3 for a faster more aggressive deck.

In this case let's start with 24 lands, and 4 Fireballs. We have 28 cards, so we need 32 more to make a legal deck. Since we want the greatest chance of drawing the cards we need as possible, we won't exceed 60 cards here. In most cases in fact, you should never play more than 60 cards. Every card you add is keeping you one card away from drawing the one you really need. A common mistake for many new players is to just keep piling on cards until they make some 78 card monstrosity, don't do this. Treat 60 as the minimum and maximum for every deck you make, it will make your deck faster and more consistent. So what will we add into those 32 slots?

We have Mana to cast a Fireball that can deal up to 23 damage at once, which is lethal, but would require every land in our deck to do so. Sounds kinda slow, right? So what can we do to speed it up? Since we're playing a Red deck, we should start by looking at the options Red has to generate more Mana. Red has access to a few Ritual cards, which can make mana fairly quickly but only in single shots. This means that to make this path work we'd need a lot of these Rituals, and to get lucky by drawing enough of them to make a lethal Fireball. Not the most efficient option, but it can work! Our other obvious option in Red is Artifacts that generate mana. We can play something as small as a Fire Diamond, or something big like a Gilded Lotus. These also feed into each other, but come with the downside of clogging up our deck when we have enough mana to make a lethal Fireball. So a step in the right direction, since this mana is renewable, but still not quite as fast as what we need. But we're out of options in Red, what now?

Now we look at our other colors, of course! The best place to start is to look at the color wheel on the back of a Magic card. Notice the arrangement of the colors on the wheel. Any color that is adjacent to another on the wheel is "allied" with that color, which is to say that they work well together. Red is allied with Green and Black. Many Black cards let you draw cards or even search your deck for specific ones, which could be helpful for the deck to find the cards it needs when it needs them, but since Green has some of that too now and since Black is more about making little aggressive dudes, killing things, bringing things back from the dead and giant demons, let's skip it and look at Green.

Green is the color of nature, and as such has cards that revolve around the generation of mana. Perfect for our goal, and once you start looking you'll notice that green has a ton of cards that are dedicated to making more mana. They come in two flavors; abilities that put mana in the pool, and cards that pull lands from the deck itself. But which flavor do we need? In this case, the ones that pull lands from the deck itself are the ones that we want. This is because they thin our deck out, eliminating lands and reducing our chances at not being able to draw spells. Afterall, what good is having tons of mana if you have nothing to cast with it? Some common options in this slot are Rampant Growth and Cultivate, so we'll add 4 of each to the deck.

Now we have 4 Fireballs, 4 Rampant Growths, 4 Cultivates, and 24 lands. We have 36 cards and need 24 more. Since we still have space, we can add some of those cards that add mana to our pool. Elves tend to be very, very good at this, so we can rock a tribal theme with these guys to generate a lot of mana very quickly. Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystics, and Elvish Archdruid are easy to find solid slots in this section. With 4 of each in play at once we can generate a potential 4+4+(16x4) mana per turn. Quite lethal for casting a Fireball. So let's add 4 of each!

Now we have 4 Fireballs, 4 Rampant Growths, 4 Cultivates, 4 Llanowar Elves, 4 Elvish Mystics, 4 Elvish Archdruids, and 24 lands. We have 52 cards and need 8 more. Wow, that was fast, suddenly we have only 8 spaces left! This is where we add the extra utility stuff to get our deck fully streamlined, and since we absolutely need to draw our Fireballs to win, we should add spells that draw cards. Sadly this is neither Green nor Red's strong suit, but we do have a few choices.

Since we're already ramping lands out of the deck, we might not need a powerful draw engine anyway. A solid option in Green for straight card draw is Harmonize, but it clocks in at 4 mana. If we get a good start, this is nothing though, so we can rock 4 of these guys with not too much worry. Now we have 4 slots left, so how do we top it off? Well, we do have a lot of Elves, why not add in Elvish Visionary? 4 of her gets us to 60!

Now you have a deck that is streamlined to win off Fireball, but can also win by playing a ton of Elves and beating face! A Plan A that just so happens to have a solid Plan B! By playing with the deck you'll probably start to find it could use some fine tuning to beat what you play against, but what matters here is that we have a solid foundation to build from. When making tweaks, be sure to keep the central idea of the deck in mind. And of course, keep practicing making decks and test them to see what works for you.

==See also==
*[[Magic Formats]]
*[[Deck archetype]]
*[[Vampire: The Eternal Struggle]] - Another card game by Richard Garfield.
*[[Magic: the Gathering RPG]] - a [[/tg/]]-made RPG with mechanics based on the game.
*[[M/tg/]]
*[[MaRo]]
*[[Magic: The Gathering Gameplay Principles]]
*[[Space: The Convergence]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.wizards.com/magic/ Official site] 
*[http://magic.wizards.com/en/game-info/gameplay/rules-and-formats/rules Rulebooks: basic and comprehensive]
*[http://magiccards.info/ magiccards.info] - A card database.
*[http://mtgsalvation.com/ MTG Salvation] - A Magic fansite.
*[https://www.slightlymagic.net/ Slightly Magic] - Another Magic fansite, this one focuses on [[Video games|vidya adaptations]] of Magic both official and fan-made.
===Retailers===
*[[Local Game Store|Your Friendly Local Game Store]]
*[https://www.abugames.com// ABU Games]
*[http://www.tcgplayer.com/ TCG Player]
*[http://www.cardkingdom.com/ Card Kingdom]
*[http://www.magiccardmarket.eu/ Magic Card Market Europe] - Part of the Europian card market specifically dedicated to MTG, amazingly cheap, just remember to order in the right language

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:SageOwlGorgonFlail.jpg| Yes, in MtG, birds can be equipped with the heads of dead monster girls, it's good stuff.
Image:WeeabooAkroma.jpg| Any character can be cutesified. Angels are extra weak against that kinda thing
Image:AkromaVsAkroma.png| The Legend Rule is kinda silly.
Image:JustWhoTheHellDoYouThinkWeAre.jpg| So MANY RATS!
Image:SleddingOnTheGoon.jpg| No goblin resists the sled!
Image:TrogdorScaresAkromaKinda.jpg| Dragon Shadow works against paragons of Justice.
Image:MtGPenisskeleton.jpg| Black has a bunch of undead teachers who can help you on your quest for ultimate power.
Image:MTGpeniswalker.jpg| Indeed...ultimate power...
Image:OdiousDesuTrow.jpg| How could you hate this guy? He loves his rat.
Image:HedronCrabAndCube.jpg| Blue has crabs.... These crabs are smarter than you might think
Image:Sadcrab.jpg| A hedron crab's life does have sadness every so often.
Image:Artificer Planeswalker by craniifer.jpg| A proper vintage artifact player can pull stuff even against a broken deck.
Image:Headless-y-u-no.jpg
Image:Magic-NOU.jpg
Image:Ancient_Aliens_dies_to_removal.jpg| This summarizes 90% of the posts on Magic forums.
</gallery>

{{Card Games}}
{{MTG-Settings}}
{{Planeswalkers}}

Dark Heresy

2018-02-20T09:13:05Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

:''This page refers to the first edition of '''Dark Heresy'''. For the newest edition, see [[Dark Heresy Second Edition]].''
{{Game Infobox
|name = Dark Heresy
|picture = [[Image:DHlogo.gif|200px]]
|type = RPG
|system = d%
|playno = 3+
|time = 10+ minutes
|publisher = Fantasy Flight Games
|authors = Owen Barnes, Kate Flack, Mike Mason
|year = 2008
|books = Dark Heresy Core Rulebook
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:175px">
*''The Game Master's Kit''
*''Purge the Unclean''
*''The Inquisitor's Handbook''
*''Disciples of the Dark Gods''
*''Creatures Anathema''
*''Tattered Fates''
*''Damned Cities''
*''The Radical's Handbook''
*''Ascension''
*''Dead Stars''
*''Blood of Martyrs''
*''The Black Sepulchre''
*''Daemon Hunter''
*''Church of the Damned''
*''Book of Judgement''
*''The Haarlock's Legacy Trilogy''
*''The Chaos Commandment''
*''The Lathe Worlds''</div>
}}
'''''Dark Heresy''''' is an RPG set in the ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' universe. It is to 40k as ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'' is to ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'', and indeed uses a very similar system.

Basically you're fucked like in [[WFRP]], only instead of dying from blood poisoning caused by a dirty pitchfork you get to have your innards blown across the wall and then subsequently set on fire by a plasma gun (probably your own). This is if you are lucky. All kinds of worse things can happen - being eaten by xenos or hungry daemons, afflicted by Chaos mutation, and if you are especially unfortunate... *gulp* ...surviving to reach Inquisitorhood. It has the best critical hit charts ever made. You don't even need the rest of the game (although it is all good, it's just a LOT). Just start a campaign, wing it, and whenever anyone gets a good hit, roll on the critical hit charts. Holy fucking hell, did boiling bone marrow just turn my femur into a frag grenade? Fuck.

All player characters are supposed to be human acolytes working for the [[Inquisition]], although they may come from many different vocations. From the feral world warrior to the hive ganger, from the inducted Guardsman to the detached Sister of Battle. However, whilst the official adventures focus on inquisitorial investigations, the authors themselves have acknowledged the ease of relocating the game's focus to other aspects of the 41st millennium, such as an [[Imperial Guard]] platoon where all player characters are soldiers in one of the many warzones.

Some anons have expressed dislike towards Dark Heresy due to the limited power-level, as the current official ruleset does not allow players to assume the roles of [[Space Marine|Spess Mehreens]] (with the exception of the [[Grey Knights]], but the splatbook that introduces them warns you that letting the token Ward fanboy play one may lead to overpowered game-wrecking [[Powergamer | bullshit]] if not done very carefully) or any aliens, since those characters would simply be unfit for this kind of gameplay. So, if you want to play Spess Mehreens, Farseers or Fire Warriors, ''Dark Heresy'' might not be for you - get the Inquisitor, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, or Black Crusade additions to fulfill your Mary/Marty Sue/Stu fantasies.

However, there are also several player-created supplements dealing with additional career paths like Adeptus Astartes or xenos races like Orks. Check the Dark Reign link at the end of the page for this kind of material, should playing ordinary people with [[Imperial Guard|balls of steel]] be beneath your dignity.

This edition of Dark Heresy has pretty much been shut down and replaced with [[Dark Heresy Second Edition]].

[[File:BarrelDragon-DPBC-EN-R-1E.png|325px]]
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[[File:UnitedWeStand-YS17-EN-C-1E.png|325px]]

==Careers==
Including the Inquisitor's Handbook, Blood of Martyrs, & Daemon Hunter supplements, the playable character classes and career trees are:
*'''Adept''' (Lexograph or Logister) - The brains of the party, quite useful when it comes to knowledge.
*'''[[Sisters of Battle|Adepta Sororitas]]''' (Famulous, Hospitaller, or Battle Sister) - Nuns with guns. The ''Inquisitor's Handbook'' adds in Sisters of Battle, but it represents them in a general light, so one might just be a booky nun rather than shooty. With ''Blood of Martyrs'', rules are added in for strictly being bolter-bitches and nothing else.
*'''Arbitrator''' (Enforcer or Investigator) - [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aaubVlhNK4 Judge Dredd] in space. 'Nuff said.
*'''Assassin''' (Nihilator or Infiltrator) - Murderhobos with little to no training or scrubs who really wish they were working for the Officio Assassinorum. (depending on career).
*'''Cleric''' (Confessor or Zealot) - Clerics of the [[Empra]] who kick arse for the Throne. Imagine a priest with a sawn-off shotgun.
*'''Guardsman''' (Stormtrooper, Officer or Sniper) - See [[Imperial Guard]]
*'''[[Psyker|Imperial Psyker]]''' (Savant or Scholar) - Can try to channel the chaotic energies of the warp, usually with [[not as planned|mixed results]].
*'''Scum''' (Ganger or Fixer) - The rogues of 40k actually have a skill called "blather". Apart from that, the name says everything else you need to know about them.
*'''[[Adeptus Mechanicus|Tech-Priest]]''' (Technomancer or Omniprophet) - Borg clerics of the Omnissiah.
*'''[[Grey Knight]]''' (Strike Squad, Purgation Squad, or Purifier) - Super powerful, super fanatical Space Marines owned by the Inquisition for only the most dangerous and imperative missions, like killing Greater Daemons or Chaos Primarchs. If you choose this, you will single handedly turn your whole campaign into a [[Kaldor Draigo|Mary Sue campaign centered around you being a dickass]]. Well, only if your campaign is investigation-focused since GK's cannot investigate shit and generally undermine the entire cell's ability to work subtly unless locked in their room until the final battle.

Additional Career Paths are available in the splatbooks, such as all of the Ascension career paths.

*'''Crusader''' A Paladin pinched from 3.5 and made grimdark.
*'''Death Cult Assasin''' The real deal. What Murderhobos from the core rulebook wish they were.
*'''Desperado''' Scum who have managed to actually become GOOD at what they do, becoming Made Men and/or Mafia Dons.
*'''Hierophant''' If a Cleric is a Priest, these guys are Bishops.
*'''Interrogator''' Inquisitors in training.
*'''Judge''' [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl_sRb0uQ7A Do we really have to explain this?]
*'''Magos''' As to Techpriest as Hierophant is to Cleric.
*'''Palatine''' A very angry nun with lots of guns, which gets other nuns to follow her on account of being the angriest and gunniest of the bunch.
*''' Primaris Psyker''' Holocaust on legs; a Primaris geared towards battle can roll 14 power die, and can kill twenty people at once (sometimes even enemies!) with a single cast.
*'''Sage''' Even Adepts think they're nerds.
*'''Storm Trooper''' Guardsman Special Forces. See [[Imperial Guard]].
*'''[[Vindicare]] Assasin''' Can be anything from a Murderhobo who's good with a gun, or a Guardsman sniper.
*'''Inquisitor''' Nobody expects them. except when they do.

Although all characters need to be human, their origins may vary wildly. To give just a few examples: feral world people tend to behave like Conan or Tarzan whilst hive-worlders could best be compared to Adam Jensen or Shadowrun characters, and the [[Schola Progenium]] produces fanatical Nazi zealots who are blissfully ignorant of the Imperium's more corrupt elements. Voidborn characters are usually just strange because of their pale skin - good luck convincing that angry mob over there your friend isn't a mutant.

==Important Things to Remember==

*[[Grimdark|Grim darkness]] is grim.
*Nobody expects the Imperial [[Inquisition]].
**Not even the [[Inquisitor]].
*When the [[Psyker]] attempts to use his [[not as planned|powers]], watch for strange things happening. Preferably twenty metres away. Or farther.
*That guy over there looks strange. He is probably a heretic.
*'''USE COVER!'''
*'''USE GRENADES TOO!'''
*'''KILL IT WITH FIRE!'''
*If you meet a Chaos Space Marine, you're already dead, you're just too stupid to realize it yet.
*Everything is baleful. Everything.
*Sooner or later your GM will discover the Slaugth. If you suspect that this may be the case (maniacal laughter is a tell-tale sign), buy flame weapons. All the flame weapons.
* If you have a solid projectile or bolt type gun, get a fire selector. They're relatively cheap, and effectively triple your magazine size by allowing you to have three magazines loaded at the same time.

==How To Survive A Firefight==
Dark Heresy has something of a reputation for being highly lethal - your average starting character has somewhere between 9 and 14 wounds at most, and most rifle-class weapons do 1d10+3 damage on a hit - but assuming your GM isn't a complete dick and your characters fight intelligently, you can generally come off very well against most varieties of human opponent, and careful planning and equipment selection can even the odds even when fighting against xenos or demons.

Crucially, nobody takes as much damage as you might assume at first glance. Although the listed damage of weapons seems high compared to a character's total wounds, your toughness bonus and armour points both considerably reduce incoming damage. A starting Guardsman ignores between 6-8 points of damage from every attack, and that's assuming he's standing in the open like a gormless idiot. On top of this, one of the most commonly forgotten aspects of the Dark Heresy combat system is that everyone gets one Reaction per round, which can (among other things) be spent at any time to attempt to dodge or parry an attack, completely negating it. Although the odds of success aren't always fantastic, it's better to try and dodge that shot or parry that axe than sit there and take it!

Equipment selection is also very important. Although badass characters can indeed be very dangerous even with poor gear, even a low-rank inexperienced character can dramatically improve their combat effectiveness by making prudent choices when it comes to their loadout. If an acolyte cell plans together and chooses their equipment to complement each other, they can make themselves very deadly as a team. For a start, a set of Guard Flak armour is inexpensive, commonly available, comfortably wearable by all but the most unusually weedy characters, and dramatically improves your resilience to incoming fire. Any cell of acolytes that expects serious combat should be able to at least equip all its members with a set of Guard Flak, if it can't afford anything better.

When it comes to weapons, anyone can and should carry a few grenades if at all possible. Even for a character with low ballistic skill and no proficiency with grenades, all you need to do is land them reasonably close to whoever you're trying to hit. Depending on the precise situation, you might even be able to get away with dropping them on unsuspecting opponents from above or letting them roll down slopes to your foes, and they have the potential to injure multiple enemies at a time. Used properly, then can help turn the tide in a battle where you find yourself outnumbered.

The cell's primary firearms should be chosen to work well together. Weapons that can fire fully-automatic and weapons that have the Accurate quality are generally your best choices. A good hit with a full-auto burst can do serious damage to enemies, but by far their most important aspect is the ability to lay down Suppressive Fire. Crucially, even if you have terrible ballistic skill and no training with the weapon you're using, your ability to suppress enemies is completely unhindered. Your burst of fire almost certainly won't hit anything, but the difficulty of the test your foes must make to resist being pinned is unchanged regardless of how well you can aim. This can give less combat-oriented careers, such as the Adept, an important role to play when it comes to a fight, where they might otherwise have been reduced to hiding behind something heavy and occasionally plinking away with some crappy pistol.

High BS characters can be quite dangerous with fully automatic weapons, but should give serious consideration to using Accurate single-shot weapons, especially if they've picked up the Talents for making Called Shots at reduced penalty. Not only does an Accurate weapon grant an additional bonus to your chances to hit if you take the time to aim it, it can do extra dice of damage on a good shot - unlike a full-auto attack, this is a single hit that does more damage rather than multiple hits that are each individually subject to reduction by the target's toughness and armour. This makes Accurate weapons great at punching through the damage reduction of particularly tough enemies, particularly if combined with the Called Shot to aim for a part of the target that is less well armoured or isn't in cover properly. With appropriate weapon modifications (such as the Red Dot Sight) and a Half Action to aim, the acolyte is looking at at least a +30 bonus to hit. Most firefights will take place well within an Accurate weapon's effective short range, raising that bonus to +40.

Combine these two classes of weapon within your group, and you'll have some acolytes that lay down suppressive fire and force enemies into cover and some who can take accurate potshots at the suppressed enemies to take them down with little fear of receiving effective return fire. Any foe who manages to find cover sufficient to shield him from all shots can probably be reached with a well-placed grenade.

A good rule of thumb for any firefight is that if you're not in cover, all you should be doing is trying to change this state of affairs. Even if you're a tough guy in decent armour, the small amounts of damage that come through will add up if you're under fire by a lot of enemies. Take cover as quickly as you can whenever you can, and you drastically increase your odds of survival. Just as importantly, you must not be afraid of running away! The feeling that the group has to defeat every encounter that comes their way leads to many deaths. Sometimes, retreating in order to fight again some other day, hopefully better prepared, is the best option. If the fight isn't going your way - you're getting surrounded, taking too many injuries, or running out of munitions - make a break for it.

A cell of acolytes is at its most dangerous if it can prepare the area of the fight beforehand. Your role doesn't always have to be offensive, kicking in the cultists' door and firing wildly, hoping for the best; if you can figure out some way to lure your enemies to a carefully prepared killing zone (for example, your cell might pose as black market merchants with whom your enemies try to trade for supplies in order to bring them out of hiding), you hold a significant advantage. Heavy cover can be prepared in advance, with machine-gunners ready in hiding to cut down unsuspecting foes; scenery where enemies are likely to try and take cover once the fight begins can be rigged with booby traps or remote-detonator explosives. You can also position your group to surround the enemy and possibly attack from above, making it very difficult for them to find effective cover in the first place.

For psykers, you have ridiculously high chances of your brain exploding. Only cast if you need to, and do it with the minimum number of dice you can get away with to minimize perils. If you do cast, think carefully what sort of mind bullets you'll throw.

In conclusion, equipment and cohesive tactics are what make or break an acolyte cell in a serious firefight. Although having experience, high skills and plenty of talents helps, a lack of these is more than made up for by pimped out gear and a good plan. If you have both, your cell can become a force to fear even for very well trained and equipped enemies.

===Alternate take: The Rules of Not Dying Like an Idiot in the 41st Millenium===
# Always check the body. Or destroy it. Better yet, both.
# Never turn your back on an opponent.
# Three reloads for your main, minimum.
# Geek the psyker first.
# There is such thing as overkill, just not when daemons are involved.
# Take care of your weapon.
# Violence is usually a good answer, but not ALWAYS the best.
# Mourn later, kill the bastards now.
# Always try the mundane answer first. The Warp is not the answer to every problem, and is more often than not the cause of said problem. Psykers who get too full of their own magical purple bullshit die horribly.
# Grenades aren't just for killing. Cover destrution and area denial can be vital.
# ALWAYS have a sidearm. That includes you, CQC RapeBlender.
# Save some space in your backpack. You never know.
# When in doubt, fucking cheat. (in character)
# Be unpredictable. To your enemies. No one likes a LOLRANDUMB fucktard on their team.
# This list is subject to change without notice. Be flexible.
# With the exception of Rules 1-3, feel free to disregard any and all rules if they for some reason impede your survival. BE FUCKING FLEXIBLE.

==Sample Combat==

The party of bold/stupid/adventurous and ignorant members (perfect =][= material really) was investigating a psychic disturbance up on a large hillock of shale and scree. Upon getting most of the way up, the Arbites slips arse over head on loose scree and goes tumbling down, taking the Scum with him in the process in a manner which would please the chaos gods with its twisted irony... despite the Arbites denying it was deliberate as they tumble down together.

Both him and the Scum are really busted up in a tangled mess of broken bones, skulls and dirt at the bottom of the hill. The well-intentioned but stupid Psyker decides to save the day by announcing that he'll fix them up, and before Angry Nun can finish screaming out "no don't the veil is weak here!" he's happily botching a power roll.

"A Horror of the ruinous ones appears!" 
Arbites promptly passes out in fear 
Scum runs screaming, defecating and hobbling 
Tech Priest runs behind the truck, soiling his robes 
Psyker runs screaming so he can die tired 
Angry Nun gets angry(er) 

DING DING 
Round One! 
Horror sets Psyker on fire and sets off in pursuit 
Angry Nun hauls out 10G sawn-off and holy plasms of banishing, begins chasing the Horror ([[Indrick Boreale|bold and foolish!]]) 
Psyker burns a bit but is still mostly functional at running 
Tech Priest snaps a shot off at the horror with las-carbine, doesn't do very much, resumes hiding 
Scum: "Weeeeza gunna diiiiiie!"; runs screaming for cover 
Arbites: "zzzz" 

DING DING 
Round Two! 
Horror lands a good old fire-bolt to the back of the Psyker and sets the truck on fire 
Angry Nun scores a good hit with some banishing water and hurts the Horror a bit 
Psyker is in a fair bit of pain, still on fire and running around going "Ow! Ow! Ow! Oh God-Emprah it burns!" 
Tech Priest notices the sacred machine is in pain and needs fixing 
Scum does what scum do and hides under the truck 
Arbites: "zzzz" 

DING DING 
Round Three! 
Horror bolts the Psyker a bit more 
Angry Nun grievously hurts the Horror a bit more 
Psyker is still on fire and roughly at about 0 wounds and about to go into criticals, agony level of about 8/10 
Tech Priest is doing badly at putting fire out 
Scum catches fire underneath the truck 
Arbites: 'zzzz' 

DING DING 
Round Four! 
Horror blows the foot off the Psyker with a bolt 
Angry Nun is busting up the Horror pretty good, but a bad roll on the dice means a lot less damage than hoped (even after a re-roll on a fate point) 
Psyker, still on fire, minus foot and now crawling in agony 
Tech Priest manages to get the truck fire under control 
Scum rolls around on fire 
Arbites wakes up, shrieks a bit and passes out again 

DING DING 
Round Five! 
Horror lands another bolt... 
Angry Nun snaps off some serious pain on the Horror, he's looking very wobbly now 
Psyker detonates in a shower of meat, shrapnel, armour and exploding munitions; the area is now safe, except for the Horror 
Tech Priest gets injured by chunks of Psyker 
Scum gets injured by chunks of Psyker, continues burning 
Arbites: 'zzzz' 

DING DING 
Round Six! 
Angry Nun vs Horror at the same initiative 
Angry Nun pulls trigger on sawn-off shotgun 
Horror lets loose with a Psychic Scream 
Angry Nun falls down on 5pts of Fatigue, Horror explodes in shower of gibs and returns whence it came 
Psyker rains down on the landscape in burning chunks 
Tech Priest puts the Scum out 
Scum is much happier now that he's not on fire anymore 
Arbites: 'zzzz' 

==Dramatis Personae of the Calixis Sector==

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====Historical====
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*'''Solomon Haarlock:''' Rogue Trader, discoverer of the Calyx Expanse.
*'''Golgenna Angevin:''' Lord Militant of the Angevin Crusade, which won the Calixis Sector for the Imperium. The crusade was a success in spite of his gross incompetence, mostly due to the actions of Drusus (see below).
*'''Drusus:''' General in the Angevin Crusade, responsible for cleaning up Lord Militant Angevin's massive cock-ups. Was assassinated on Maccabeus Quintus and was resurrected by the Emperor (at least supposedly), and was declared a Living Saint. After the crusade, became Calixis' first Lord Sector Governor.
*'''Erasmus Haarlock:''' The last known member of the Haarlock Dynasty, who killed the rest of the family to avenge the death of his wife, and attempted to harness the power of the Tyrant Star to resurrect her. Hinted at being one of the Seven Devils of Calyx and the herald of the End Times. Continues to not be a ripoff of [[anime|Captain Harlock]].
*'''Umbra Malygris:''' An Arch-Magos and perpetrator of one of the most wide-scale tech-heresies in the sector's history, whose influence is still feared to this day.
*'''Cassilda Cognos:''' Founder of the Tyrantine Cabal.</div></div>

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====The Holy Ordos====
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*'''Aegult Caiden:''' Head of the Calixian Conclave. Spends most of his time being mysterious and shit. Nobody even knows what he looks like, because he always wears a mask.
*'''The Tyrantine Cabal:''' A group of Inquisitors dedicated to studying the Tyrant Star. Responsible for a lot of coverups even from the Inquisition as a whole. Members include:
**'''Anton Zerbe:''' Head of the Tyrantine Cabal, like any good Amalathian, he's trying to keep the other Cabal members from going at each others' throats.
**'''Rykehuss:''' Monodominant Witchhunter with all the subtlety of a brick to the face. Has a penchant for burning entire towns to the ground just because he has a funny feeling.
**'''Ahmazzi:''' Three hundred-year-old Daemonhunter. Wants you damn kids to get off his lawn. Is actually a wanted heretic with an Excommunication Order.
**'''Astrid Skane:''' A Recongregator, otherwise a female version of Judge Dredd. Can be quite subtle despite what you think, and hates Nobility.
**'''Van Vuygens:''' The foremost expert on Tyranids in the Calixis Sector. Currently investigating a large-scale xenos incursion that may or may not be the Slaugth.
**'''Globus Vaarak:''' A fat, sarcastic Amalathian who resembles Sloth from ''The Goonies'' if he had three artificial limbs. Responsible for training an above-average number of promising Interrogators.
**'''Olithane Rathbone:''' As an Istvaanian, she's the Cabal's resident shit-stirrer.
**'''Soldevan:''' Xanthite who's quite a few cards short of an Emperor's Tarot. His brain is in a jar he carries around. Did we mention he's crazy?
**'''Vownus Kaede:''' A psyker and Polypsykana sympathizer. Enjoys trolling Inquisitor Rykehuss.
**'''Al-Subaai:''' The newest member of the Cabal and former Interrogator for Inquisitor Van Vuygens. Focuses mainly on the Cold Trade. Knows the true purpose of Aglets and boybands.
*'''The Scholariate at Arms:''' A highly effective Ordo Malleus Chamber dedicated to the principle of strength through competition, and tolerates a broad number of factions within its membership. Members include:
**'''Ghankus Dhar:''' Proctor of the Scholariate. Lone survivor of a major Chaos incursion on Spectoris.
**'''Suresya:''' A secretive but effective Daemonhunter. Secretly a Phaenonite.
**'''Octus Enoch:''' Specializes in preventing Daemonic incursions through prevention or fulfillment of prophecy; may be an Ocularian for this reason.
*'''Silas Marr:''' An extremely controversial Inquisitor obsessed with the Haarlock Dynasty.
*'''Glavious Wroth:''' An Amalathian dedicated to policing the Inquistion itself, which has naturally made a lot of enemies (particularly the Tyrantine Cabal).
*'''Antonia Mesmeron:''' An Oblationist whose presence, identity and purpose is unknown to the Calixian Conclave.</div></div>

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====Adeptus Terra====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
*'''Marius Hax:''' Current Lord Sector. A complete hardass who rules the Calixis Sector with an iron fist. Known to be paranoid about that control slipping away from him. Presently being manipulated by the Istvaanian faction and undermined by the Recongregator faction.
*'''Duke Severus XIII:''' Lord Sub-sector of the Periphery and descendant of a Rogue Trader screwed by Drusus after the Angevin Crusade. [[Derp|Declared independence from the Imperium with the help of a kabal of Dark Eldar]]. Not mentioned in Dark Heresy, but the default setting for [[Only War]] deals with Severus getting his shit kicked in by the Imperium, Warboss Ghenghiz Grimtoof Git-Slaver, [[Thousand Sons|Sektoth the False Whisperer]], and his Dark Eldar "allies".</div></div>

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====Ministorum====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
*'''Ignato:''' Arch-Cardinal of the Calixis Sector, Cardinal of the Golgenna Reach, and head of the Tarsine Synod. Spends most of his time struggling to unify the sector Munitorum, dealing with Hestor's schemes and attempting to root out the Temple Tendency in the sector. Secretly part of a conspiracy to destabilize the sector, even though this [[Derp|completely contradicts the rest of his fluff]] and Hestor should have been given this role.
*'''Kregory Hestor:''' Cardinal of the Drusus Marches and head of the Drusian Cult. Currently using the Maccabeus Schism to weasel as much power from Ignato as possible and increase the independence of his arch-diocese.
*'''Pyris Valcarna:''' Cardinal of the Adrantis sub-sector. A major ally of Ignato. Focuses his time on the situation in Tranch and Magos Redole's research.
*'''Quiro Olranna:''' Cardinal of the Josian Reach. A major ally of Hestor in his schemes.
*'''Cal Sutai Arran:''' Cardinal of the Malfian sub-sector and head of the Periphery Church. Known as "the Venerable Cal," is the oldest and most respected member of the Calixian Synod. Worried that the Maccabeus Schism is turning into outright heresy. Rides around in a hoverchair armed with a fucking psycannon.
*'''Fortis:''' Cardinal of the Periphery and the Halo Stars. A major ally of the Venerable Cal. In conflict with Hestor over the control of Port Wander and the Koronus Expanse beyond. One of the few individuals privy to the Margin Crusade's catastrophic failure (read: the fact that the Margin Crusade exists only in propaganda).
*'''Dantius Landsholt:''' Cardinal of the Hazeroth sub-sector. Grossly incompetent but a loyal supporter of Ignato.
*'''Yvenna:''' Cardinal of the Markayn Marches. In conflict with the Red Redemption. Holds a deep personal hatred for Cardinal Olranna.
*'''Priam:''' Archdeacon Procurator of the Golgenna Reach. Secretly the High Priest of the Temple Tendency in the Calixis Sector.
*'''Archdeacon Ludmilla:''' Leader of the Red Redemption in the Calixis Sector.</div></div>

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====Mechanicus====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
*'''Castellar:''' High Fabricator of the Lathes. Named after a font.
*'''Ralwure the Golden:''' Second-in command of the Lathes. Head of a fundamentalist faction of the Calixian Mechanicus.
*'''Halix Redole:''' The sector's foremost Genetor, responsible for several innovative organic devices and substances. Currently studying the Adrantis Civilization, a pre-Imperial human culture native to the sector.</div></div>

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====Rogues and Heretics====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
=====Rogue Inquisitors=====
*'''Felroth Gelt:''' A Xanthite Inquisitor on the run from the Calixian Conclave. Keeper of a voluminous journal that serves as a vehicle for much of Dark Heresy's fluff. Originator of that famous "only the insane have strength enough to prosper" quote.
*'''Staven Arcturos:''' A Radical Inquisitor of the Xenos Hybris faction obsessed with the Eldar.
*'''Natius Osrinn:''' A former protege of Inquisitor van Nuygens who became a Xanthite and headed out into the Koronus Expanse.
=====Other Rogue Servants of the Holy Ordos=====
*'''Ferran Ghast:''' A former Interrogator of Inquisitor Cognos who sows apparently random mayhem throughout the sector.
*'''Hettesh Kane:''' A sanctioned psyker formally working under the Ordo Hereticus, now a friend of the Burning Princess.
*'''Seraph:''' A mind-cleansed former member of the Moritat death-cult in the employ of Inquisitor Mesmeron. Was once daemon-possessed, and may be succumbing to Khornate influences.
*'''Cyrrik Scayl:''' A techpriest seconded to the Ordo Hereticus who became a disciple of heretek Nomen Ryne. Currently attempting to transfer a human mind into a machine, which is the direst tech-heresy imaginable.
*'''The Unknown Heretic:''' An individual known only for hunting members of the Calixian Conclave and demonstrating an intimate knowledge of the workings of the Inquisition.
=====Others=====
*'''Myrchella Sinderfell:''' A Scintillan noblewoman and the end result of a Recongregator experiment in genetic engineering gone horribly wrong. Has dabbled in every heresy imaginable, including warpcraft, and travels the sector indulging in continuous acts of wanton depravity.
*'''Magos Vathek:''' A former Disciple of Thule obsessed with making zombies and other freaky shit.
*'''The Burning Princess:''' An alpha-plus rogue psyker and pyromaniac who has escaped several attempts to capture her.
*'''Coriolanus Vestra:''' A missionary turned heretic who was driven insane by the Tyrant Star in the Koronus Expanse.
*'''Tobias Belasco:''' A Malfian noble and another product of the same experiment as Myrchella Sinderfell, with a similar appetite for depravity. Noted for being a cannibal. Active in the smuggling of xenos artifacts and human trafficking. On the run from both the Inquisition and his own family. Appears to be at least partially inspired by Baron Harkonnen.
</div></div>

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====Cults and Recidivists====
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
=====Chaos Cults=====
*'''Pilgrims of Hayte:''' A nihilist cult of Chaos Undivided from Malfi that exists mainly to wreck shit. Named after a Brother Cadfael novel.
*'''Ateanism:''' A philosophy based on Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" that turns its adherents into the pawns of [[Slaanesh]].
*'''Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness:''' Worshipers of Balphomael, who provides power, wealth and influence in exchange for human lives.
*'''Menagerie:''' What you would get if the Joker formed a cult of [[Tzeentch]]. Dedicated to spreading madness throughout the sector through plays and carnivals. Particularly adept at absorbing other cults and organizations.
=====Other Cults=====
*'''[[Temple Tendency]]:''' The remnants of the former Imperial Cult under Goge Vandire, which plots to overthrow the current Ministorum and reestablish its place as the dominant branch of the Imperial Cult.
*'''Night Cult:''' A splinter faction of a funerary cult centered in Maccabeus Quintus that trucks in reanimation and other forms of necromancy.

=====Other Heretical Organizations=====
*'''Logicians:''' A technocratic organization united through progressive ideology and a desire to return to the Dark Age of Technology. Popular with hereteks for obvious reasons.
*'''Pale Throng:''' A militant mutant supremacy organization that spread throughout the Calixis Sector in the aftermath of the Tranch War.

=====Recidivist Organizations=====
*'''Kasballica:''' The Space Mafia. Yeah, that pretty much covers it.
*'''Serrated Query:''' An atheist, xenophile, Warp-using cartel. Extremely resourceful due to their freethinking mindset, willingness to experiment, and devotion to profit above all others.

*'''Amaranthine Syndicate:''' A seemingly legitimate trading organization that, in addition to its smuggling operations, is actually the pawn of a xenos species known as the Slaugth.
*'''Beast House:''' A group of hunters and smugglers who traffic in xenos creatures, mainly for gladiatorial arenas and other blood sports.</div></div>

==Supplemental Books==
Dark Heresy used to pump out new splats all the time, but with the release of its second edition there's presumably no more that will be coming. Here's a list of of what there is.

*'''Game Master's Kit''' - A GM screen with art on one side, and some handy notes on the other. Comes with a pre-written adventure and new rules for using poisons and toxins.

*'''Purge the Unclean''' - Typical adventure splatbook, comes with three pre-written adventures that can run one into the other, or not. Gives insight in the shadowy nature of the Calixis sector.

*'''The Inquisitor's Handbook''' - Almost essential once your campaign is underway. Provides a little bit of everything for everything, but the best part is getting character creation details for [[Sisters of Battle|nuns with fucking guns]].

*'''Disciples of the Dark Gods''' - Splatbook that provides details on the various evil cults and rivalries within the Calixis sector, and includes a pre-written adventure revolving around said cults and rivalries. Also includes unique xenos species and adversaries, and expands on the Slaugth, previously introduced in the '''Game Masters Kit.'''

*'''Creatures Anathema''' - Basic beast splatbook, but has good art and gives some options for xenos gear.

*'''The Haarlock Legacy:''' ''Tattered Fates/Damned Cities/Dead Stars'' - A pre-written adventure spanning three books, it's fucking huge. Pretty interesting story, and surrounds FFG's take on the Harlock character from the anime ''Space Pirate Captain Harlock'', aptly named Erasmus Haarlock. The three books are available together as a trilogy, but for whatever reason when you try to buy it looking through Dark Heresy's product page, it's unavailable. To buy it, just look for it through the Shop section of the FFG site. Also provides plot hooks for advancing the Calixis Sector setting, which will never be developed by FFG.

*'''The Radical's Handbook''' - Splatbook that gives instruction on how to tread the thin line of the Inquisition and [[Blam|how not to]]. Adds in new alternate career paths, new heretical and xenos gear, and lots and lots of [[Heresy|HERESY]]. Not to be confused with ''The Radical Handbook'', about how to be cool in the '90s.

*'''Ascension''' - [[Skub|Super useful]] supplement for taking your campaign to the next level. Adds in "ascended" ranks, or ranks 9-16. Acolytes leave behind their acolyte-ness and become Throne Agents, those actually trusted by the Inquisition. The new career ranks range from your murderhobo assassin actually becoming a Vindicare, or going straight to be ''the'' Inquisitor. Gives you skill and talent masteries, as well as making psychic powers even more prevalent (Time to rend the veil with [[Rape|''Unnatural Willpower'']]). Also adds in the influence talents, to represent the power your characters now hold. [[Troll|If you get only one DH supplement, get this one.]] Common consensus is that this splatbook is poorly balanced and breaks aspects of higher-level gameplay while remaining incompatible with higher-powered FFG games.

*'''Blood of Martyrs''' - Rules on how to be even more pious and fanatical as you play as Adeptus Ministorum, or [[Ecclesiarchy]], characters, and it redoes SoBs into their more Battle Sister counterparts. Gives you new alt. career ranks, backgrounds, and gear to help you purge the heretic.

*'''The Apostasy Gambit:''' ''The Black Sepulchre''/''The Church of the Damned''/''The Chaos Commandment'' - Another fucking huge pre-written adventure spread across three splatbooks. Each book can be played together or separately, but it's pretty interesting to play them together. Somewhat controversial for advancing the official setting in grimdark/grimderp ways. The events are actually referenced in Only War, but only briefly.

*'''Daemon Hunter''' - Gives you what it says, rules to play Ordo Malleus characters dedicated to killing daemons. Gives you all the background fluff and gear you'll need to play. The biggest pull of this book is that it finally adds in rules for including and playing [[Grey Knights]] in your campaign. (Be warned, if not carefully monitored, even one PC grey knight will fuck over your campaign and become the sole [[Mary Sue]] badass. (''Starting stats are 2d10 + 30? Really? With Ascension's Heroic and Mastery characteristic upgrades, a Grey Knight can top out at 80 in a stat just through character creation and buying characteristic advances''.) Since this was printed after [[Deathwatch]] was released, it gives guidelines on playing as Grey Knights in a Deathwatch campaign and vice-versa.

*'''Book of Judgement''' - Neato splatbook that contains rules on how to basically played Judge Dredd-esque campaign or story. It has new alternate career ranks, backgrounds, and careers for characters on the good or bad side of Imperial law. Comes with a pre-written adventure, Jurisdiction.

*'''The Lathe Worlds''' - Likely the last splatbook for Dark Heresy 1e, it focuses on the tech worlds of the titular Lathe Worlds. The new rules, backgrounds, career ranks, and gear this book brings definitely is more focused on tech-priest characters, but not completely. '''''Skitarii is OP''''' and the book in general breaks the Techpriest class by making it capable of performing the functions of all the other classes. Has a pre-written adventure within as well. Probably the last Dark Heresy supplement, since <strike>Only War - Inquisitorial Paint Job Edition</strike> Dark Heresy 2nd edition has been released.

==Software==
*[[Servitor_Bot|An IRC bot with DH functions coded by /tg/ anonymous.]]

==Links==
*[[Maid RPG]], a game comparable and [[What|compatible]] with Dark Heresy.
*[http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffgforums/forums/show/53.page Official Forums from FFG]
*[[Lexicanum|Lexicanum]] - Everything you always wanted to know about 40k (but were afraid to ask)
*[http://darkheresy.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Heresypedia] - Another fansite for ''Dark Heresy''.
*A [http://goo.gl/1Jd2CI character folio] (Not the one from Black Industries) for all you heretics.
*[[The Guy Who Cried Grendel]] - A classic /tg/ storytime
*[[All Guardsmen Party|The All Guardsmen Party]] - Another storytime
*[http://www.cold-moon.com/40k/40kRP/DHCampaign/CharacterSheets.htm The character sheets, available for printout. You know, because copying breaks the rulebook's poor little spine.]
*[https://www.mediafire.com/?laj4tr275fl2s09 WH40k RPG map assets], for making your own sectors.

==Crit Tables (fucking psychotic)==
{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0
|- valign=middle align=center
!Method / Location!! Leg!! Head!! Body!! Arm
|- valign=middle align=center
! Rending
|[[Image:DH CH rending leg.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH rending head.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH rending body.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH rending arm.JPG|thumb]]
|- valign=middle align=center
! Impact
|[[Image:DH CH impact leg.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH impact head.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH impact body.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH impact arm.JPG|thumb]]
|- valign=middle align=center
! Explosive
|[[Image:DH CH explosive leg.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH explosive head.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH explosive body.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH explosive arm.JPG|thumb]]
|- valign=middle align=center
! Energy
|[[Image:DH CH energy leg.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH energy head.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH energy body.JPG|thumb]]
|[[Image:DH CH energy arm.JPG|thumb]]
|}

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
DarkHeresyCore.jpg|Actual Cover
Tgdhcover.jpg|Alternate DH cover
DH flow.jpg|Accurate depiction of a ''Dark Heresy'' game.
</gallery>

{{Template:40k-FFG}}

Exterminatus

2018-02-19T23:49:45Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

{{Topquote|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_Béziers Kill them all, The Emperor will recognize His own.]|Inquisitor Arnaud Amalric}}
{{Topquote|FUKKIN' HERETICS!|If the Emperor had a Text-to-speech device, Heresy Scene}}
[[Image:Exterminatus Retribution.jpg|right|450px|"I didn't expect that kind of Imperial [[Inquisition]]-" '''*BLAM*'''|thumb]]
'''Exterminatus''' is the biggest middle finger the [[Imperium of Man|Imperium]] can give to [[xenos]] and [[Chaos]] infestations on their own planets. It basically involves UTTERLY DESTROYING THE PLANET SURFACE via heavy orbital bombardment if they decide that it would be impossible to retake the planet by drowning their enemies in corpses, like they usually do.

And, of course, there is no kill like overkill.

Before you go into some sort of sanctimonious tirade about the morality of blowing the fuck out of an entire planet, understand the context. A world deemed worthy of Exterminatus is one considered past the point where anything can be salvaged from it - whether because it's about to be lost to [[Tyranids|countless ravening giant insects that will zerg-rush and eat fucking everything]] or [[Ork|reality-warping omnicidal fungi that reproduce into millions of spores every time one dies and will all kill you because they think it's fun]] or because it will be turned into a fucking [[Chaos|daemon-and-tentacle-rape-infested shit-pit where neither sanity nor time has any meaning]]. The alternative is fucking glassing a planet and trying to deny it to the enemy or ensure SOMETHING can be saved. It's the last-ditch measure and it's there because the alternative sucks even worse. It is the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth Scorched Earth] strategy on a planetary scale: if you can't have it, burn it, and that shit's broken the back of more empires and armies than we can count.

... [[grimdark|Or, you know, because the Inquisitor who ordered it decided he wanted one for his birthday]]. Oversight on Exterminatus orders is fairly nonexistent and it's easy to see why. The problem is the same one real life atomic weapons have, who do you want to have to be able to launch them? You want the most powerful, highly ranked people to have that authority, but if there so highly ranked and with so much power, who watches them? Who second guesses an Inquisitor's judgement about if a world is to be blown up or not? Nobody. [[Kryptman|The Imperium's only solution is to just declare the trigger happy sod Excommunicate Traitoris afterwards if they don't agree]]. The [[Just as Planned|over the top villainy of Warhammer 40k]] means that some fuckholes within the Imperium do get trigger happy with this, ordering an Exterminatus on worlds over things like a few of its people coming into contact with alien technology, or a small hint of [[heresy]] that would probably not require killing everything, or a loose pubic hair being in the Imperial's cereal this morning.

On the bright side, these instances are few and far between, and anyone caught destroying an uncorrupted planet, either for the [[lulz]] or [[Derp|stupidity]], is seen as wasting the "Emprah's Resource, Time and Money", and is forced to explain their [[Heresy|legitimate reasoning]]; though their excuse would most likely be something along the lines of "Chaos was there!" (or [[Kryptman|this could actually save Holy Terra here]], but he was still <s>called a [[Heresy|heretic]]</s> publicly sidelined from active duty for going overboard (yet being kept as 'consultant' by his colleagues because he just might be right).) and they would proceed to get a light slap on the wrist... [[Salamanders|unless they unfortunately meet a giant, angry black dude in green.]] What, you're surprised that an Empire of "Space Nazis 2.0" can have actual legitimate excuses, common sense, reasoning and sensibility? You're in for a whole new series of surprises...

(Joking aside, it's somewhat fluff dependent; in Seventh Retribution by Ben Counter, for instance, the Exterminatus is never even mentioned as a 'solution' despite the fact that the planet got infested with half a dozen demons with great powers. They use said power to mind control thousand of civilians to use them as cannon folder against the Imperial guard, or sacrifice hundreds of innocents to raise a well known flaying daemon to wreak havoc (although part of this was because the Officio Assassinorium had to be 100% sure that they had absolutely killed the antagonist with no margin for error). Also in both the ''Space Wolves Omnibus'' and in the Ultramarines ''Nightbringer'' books, we get Inquisitors saying they have been at it for well over a century without calling down the Exterminatus even once. Even in Retribution, Lord General Castor admits that the world was lost anyway.)

[[Deal with it]]. Bitching any further will rile the [[Commissar|Commissariat]]. You have been warned.

==Methods of Exterminatus==
The Imperium has several means for dealing with hopeless infestations:

===Just Shoot the Shit Out of It (Orbital Bombardment)===

Saturating planets with over-sized lazor cannons larger than apartment buildings is the stereotypical way of nuking the fuck out of something you don't like. Space Marine battlebarge bombardment cannons, Nova cannons, Lance batteries and any type of HUGE lazor is often used. Examples of this include the [[Dark Angels]] destroying their homeworld, Caliban, <s>after it was lost to heretics within their chapter</s> AFTER SOMEONE THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO HUNT FOR DINNER FOR OUR TOTALLY NON-HERETICAL AND OBVIOUSLY LOYAL BROTHERS USING THE ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT CANNONS, the [[Night Lords]]' purge of Nostramo, and during the purging of Typhon.

===Virus Bombs===

Virus Bombs are warheads loaded with the Life Eater virus, a biological payload that causes living tissue (plant or animal) to rot and decompose (which probably gives Nurgle a massive boner). The gist is that they release a virus that spreads by contact and causes necrosis of tissues and rapid decay of plant and animal tissues. This immediate rot causes a buildup of flammable gases, which in turn can be ignited by one of the lazors above (or any still smoldering Lho sticks, or any other source of flame), sweeping the area in firestorms. A relentless bombing of these fucking things is what reduced [[Tallarn]] from a verdant forest world to the desert hellhole it is now. They were also used by [[Horus|Warmaster Horus]] to kill off loyalists in the Traitor Legions during the Istvaan Campaign of the [[Horus Heresy]] (Life Eater virus eats through any filters and corrodes power armour till it gets to the gooey marine inside, though a Dreadnought can endure it easily). Though a popular method of Exterminatus during the [[Great Crusade]], according to [[Amberley Vail]], virus bombs are only rarely used in the "present time" because the Inquisition has figured out that every time they're used, they feed the fucking [[Nurgle|Plaguefather]]. Whoops.

===Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo===

Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedoes are [[plasma]] torpedoes that burst in low planetary orbit and super-heat the atmosphere of a planet until all combustible material ignites. This method of Exterminatus was used on Medusa IV. Pretty much like the Virus Bomb, except it skips right to the firestorm part and directly turns the planet's surface into an endless expanse of raging hellfire. It is said that the aftermath of the planet's surface (Medusa IV's case) was melted to glass and that the entire world burned like a piece of amber in space even a month after the attack had been launched. They are only effective on planets with relatively stable atmospheres made of flammable gas, however, and plasma torpedos are both somewhat rare and expensive.

===Modalis Atmospheric Missile===

Another weapon that has similar results from the Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo but its function is completely different. Regarded as the most powerful incendiary device accessible in the Imperium. The Modalis Atmospheric Missile is one ECKS BAWKS HUEG Phosphex weapons used to burn a planet into a crisp. Think White Phosphorous on steroids. A salvo of several Modalis Atmospheric Missiles from orbiting warships will blanket an entire world in deadly Phosphex. The resultant firestorm of green mist will eat away at every carbon-based element on the planet, rendering it uninhabitable. All that would be left would be dust and echoes.

===Cyclonic Torpedoes===

The primary method of Exterminatus used in the 41st millennium, these are basically nukes OD'd on steroids. These capital ship-fired warheads each generate a series of massive, self-sustaining nuclear reactions, which, when fired in bulk, fuels a much larger reaction that causes the devastation to spread and multiply, eventually glassing the entire world with a thermonuclear holocaust given a sufficient barrage. If you fire enough in the same spot it will break through the crust of a planet, causing part of the mantle to erupt out, royally buttfucking the entire planet in the process ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM see ''Fire Warrior'' end cinematic]). [[Krieg]] is an example of a radioactive perpetual-winter world that survived multiple cyclonic torpedo strikes, though in this case it was on a much smaller scale. This was the method that probably killed Typhon, in combination with the above shoot-the-shit-out-of-it method. (Another theory holds that the bombardment is used to remove anything that might prevent the torpedo from reaching the surface or to weaken planets crust.) Only the [[Inquisition]] and the [[Space Marines]] are authorized to carry cyclonic torpedoes in their warships, the former because the Inquisition has the authority to do anything, and the latter because the Imperium figures that if the Space Marines can't beat it, nothing else will.

Cyclonic Torpedoes are pretty variable in their strength, either due to there being different classes of torpedoes or the fact that the strength of a single cyclonic torpedo has never been nailed down in official materials. In one case, ol' Abby dropped a dozen to fry a single hive, in another a single torpedo is a qualified planet cracker. Similarly, this method is the easiest to thwart with shields, as they disrupt the stacked efficiency needed for ongoing detonation.

===Two-Stage Cyclonic Torpedoes===

In the two-stage torpedo, a [[melta]] charge activates first to allow the weapon to burrow into the planet's crust and down to the core. The second stage thermonuclear charge then goes off, causing the planet to break apart Death Star style. This is really the only way to deal with Necron Tomb Worlds since, due to their tendency to make everything subterranean, they aren't overly bothered by the other methods which devastate the surface but leave the planet as a whole mostly intact. Talos of the Night Lords used a smaller version of these when a Genesis Chapter strike cruiser tried to hide behind a moon. So he [[Awesome|blew a continent-sized hole through the moon]], and watched the loyalist ship get torn apart as a new asteroid field got shotgunned into space.

===Smashing It with a Fucking Moon===

This method involves radically altering the orbit of a nearby moon or large asteroid and placing it on a collision course with the planet, and therefore requires the use of several Mechanicus voidships. This method was used to destroy Phaenon Prime when the Virus Bomb failed to wipe out the planet's corruptive influence. It was also used during the [[Horus Heresy]] by renegade Iron Hands commander Autek Mor to destroy the World Eaters recruitment world of Bodt and during the Badab War to finally smash through [[Huron Blackheart]]'s defensive Ring of Steel around Badab. Needless to say, this pretty much fucking annihilates the planet in question (or whatever else it's thrown at like Huron's defensive systems). Despite its flair and effectiveness, [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rocks_Are_Not_Free! the Administratum vehemently requests that Imperial commanders avoid this method whenever possible], because it's stupidly expensive -- it can take weeks or even months for the moon or asteroid in question to actually strike the planet, which costs rations and sublight fuel while the ships sit around doing fuck-all; orbital bombardments only cost about one day's worth of rations and fuel, plus the ammunition, which comes out to be less expensive.

===Release the Krourk===

Krourk [[Ogryn]] are known as the most brutal, powerful, and primitive tribe of Ogryn in the Imperium (and that's saying something). They are so well-known for their frightening savagery in close combat that they're considered a solid match for Orks, and are also known for being so primitively stupid that the Imperial Guard can't even teach them to use traditional Ogryn weapons like ripper guns. Their reputation is so fearsome that it has gotten to the point where deploying thousands of these things is considered a crude method of Exterminatus amongst Imperial commanders, given that they'll attempt to kill anything within visual range, friend or foe.

===[[Daemon Engine|Pseudoscientific Sorcery]]===

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==Non-Imperium Exterminatus==
Several factions outside the Imperium do things similar to the Imperial Exterminatus (adding any examples from the lore would be greatly appreciated). However, most of them don't use these methods often. Some examples:

===Craftworld Eldar===

The [[Eldar|Craftworld Eldar]] have some respect for life (and not nearly as many weapons of mass destruction as they had before the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]]) so they don't do it often. Didn't stop them from purging all life in the Octarius system to clean up [[Kryptman|Kryptman's]] mess, though. The most well-known Eldar engines of planetary destruction are called [[Blackstone Fortress|Blackstone Fortresses]], which are ancient weapons they designed to fight the [[C'tan]]. To put it simply, think of a floating citadel with a distort weapon (like the ones the [[Wraithguard]] have) the size of an Emperor-class battleship. During the Gothic Wars, three Blackstone Fortresses combined their power to cause a star to go supernova, destroying an entire solar system.

In Apocalypse War Zone: Valedor, the Craftworld Eldar from [[Iyanden]] procured another type of ancient WMD, the Fireheart: a complex nodal resonator capable of causing a planet's molten core to enter violent death throes and send lakes of lava to the surface. The [[Dark Eldar]] originally had this, but they gave it away because they didn't have the psychic power to active the weapon. The Fireheart was used successfully on Valedor and prevented Hive Fleets [[Hive Fleet Kraken|Kraken]] and [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|Behemoth]] from joining forces. If they had, the [[Tyranids]] would have had all of the genetic data of the Orks and the Eldar, enabling them to fashion unthinkable monstrosities.

Before the fall (and possibly still kicking around somewhere) they had devices that fired entire suns or black holes at their enemies.

===Dark Eldar===

The [[Dark Eldar]] lack a good stockpile of planet-killing weaponry and prefer to keep planets intact for slaves, although they are still capable of exterminating the populace of entire planets if they wanted to. One method is pillaging the shit out of it. Its been proven time and time again that an entire Kabal is more than capable of kidnapping an entire planet of it's populace, faster than that local PDF trooper can finish his scream of agony. There has also been one instance of an entire Hive World being poisoned by the Dark Eldar, smashing a Space Hulk at a realm and havings its warp drives detonate to release hordes of daemons, and there's also counting the DE's ability to steal entire suns; allowing them to turn entire habitable planets into ice worlds if need be. They also possess a psychic doomsday device called The Fireheart to implode a planet's core -- originally invented and mass-produced by the Eldar Empire, what few Firehearts they have left are triggered by psychic resonance (and thus useless to Dark Eldar unless they can trick some Craftworlders into using it). The Kabal of the Dying Sun has devices that extinguish stars, while Vect keeps black holes in his back pocket to troll people.

Let's not forget just taking their sun as a trophy and letting the entire star system die...

The Dark Eldar can also just have other races kill planets for them. [[Just as Planned|Through manipulation from the sides; they could convince (and managed to do so at one point) the Imperium to declare Exterminatus on a planet.]]

===Necrons===

The [[Necrons]] have lost many WMDs, but may have several more just waiting to be awakened. ([[Not as Planned|Maybe the Necrons are more trigger-happy with Exterminatus than the Imperium, but they're better at ensuring there're no witnesses]]). One of their most notorious Exterminatus-tier machines was the [[The World Engine|World Engine]], which was a planet-sized vessel equipped with the largest [[Gauss|gauss weapon]] known to man. It looked like the combination of a Death Star, Unicron and a Forerunner Shield-World all rolled into one. A [[Rape|flying rape-machine of ungodly proportions]], it took a coalition of several Space Marine chapters and the entire Imperial fleet of the Vidar Subsector to destroy it. For some reason, it had shields that could withstand the [[Awesome|bombardment of an ''entire navy'',]] yet it was [[What|vulnerable]] to a ship [[Meme|impacting at sufficient velocity.]] (Although it is possible that the shields weren't designed to deflect speeding projectiles the size of battle barges.)

The Maynarkh dynasty deploys a peculiar device that causes supercharged solar flares that incinerate the daylight-facing sides of ALL planets in a system. <s>Granted, it only exterminates roughly half of each planet, but if they want to finish the job all they need is to wait half a day cycle and fire it again.</s> While dull people may not realize it, incinerating half a planet's surface would also incinerate its atmosphere, stripping the whole planet bare of its life giving biosphere, or whatever gases it had trapped. Unfortunately for the survivors, Maynarkh Necrons are more interested in making a planetfall and skinning them alive.

Maybe under certain circumstances, if the Necrons wanted to destroy a world, they could just unleash a particularly powerful Transcendent C'tan shard on it without a Tesseract Vault. Though it would most likely escape and be nearly impossible to return to Necron control, it would achieve the same effects. Also, the Tombworld of Thanatos has a giant hologram map of the galaxy known as the Celestial Orrery, and if you were to destroy a star on it, the real life counterpart would go supernova. However, the Necrons don't really use it (since they're more about conquering planets than destroying them). Instead, they just treat it like a giant bonsai tree. (You would think a branch to clip would be Terra, Fenris, Macragge, Baal etc but nope)

The Necrons can also employ an [[Abattoir]] when directly terraforming a planet. They are large, [[monolith]]-like devices except that they physically carry what they're transporting, are the size of a small city, and are covered in tentacles that disintegrate organic material while harvesting its anguish.

===Tyranids===

No, [[Tyranids]], you are the exterminatus.

A Tyranid fleet's primary objective is to devour entire planets and systems for biomass. After they're done, the world they invaded is left a lifeless rock, utterly devoid of life.

The Tyranids also travel through sublight via gravity manipulations, and these can rip apart asteroids and small moons entirely before the 'nids make planetfall.

===Orks===

In theory, the [[Ork]]s could develop an Exterminatus-size weapon (as much by accident and luck as by design); they grab an asteroid, put engines and weapons and armor on it, fill it with Orks, and then ram it full speed into a planet. It wouldn't matter if it turned out to function as a giant transport or just a suicide missile; it generates tremendous amounts of [[lulz]] and serves its purpose of making a big boom, which is all the Orks are concerned with. This haphazard design and construction process would limit the amount of these contraptions the Orks could build (if any). In general, however, Orks want to avoid wiping out everything on the planet from orbit, as it would leave them with nothing to fight on the ground. Although a Big Mek in need of roks once smashed a moon into a planet and took his pick from the best bits.

Ork Roks. Big hollowed asteroids they slam into planets as one way reentry vessels. Used during the Third War for Armageddon.

===Tau Empire===

While the [[Tau]] almost certainly have the technological capability to destroy entire planets (I mean, if the fucking [[Derp|Orks]] can figure it out, then the Tau definitely can), there are a number of philosophical, political, and strategic reasons that they would avoid doing this in all but the most extreme circumstances. For one, the Tau Empire is in the process of expanding, and it isn't exactly conducive to your expansion efforts to blow up perfectly colonizable worlds; thus the Tau would likely see Imperial Exterminatus orders as an egregious waste of resources, which they wouldn't be completely wrong about. Also, the Tau are arguably [[Grimdark|the only race in the 40k universe]] who operate by something parodying a moral compass, so the idea of obliterating a planet and its inhabitants is likely appalling to their [[Noblebright|naive wittle sensibilities]].

On the other hand, the Tau have officially declared some races (Orks, Tyranids, Dark Eldar, and Necrons) "lost causes" to be destroyed wherever encountered, so one could plausibly imagine a situation hopeless enough that they would sacrifice a planet to be rid of them. Still, they would probably try to at least leave the world itself salvageable and only exterminate the infesting species. There are stories of populations being sterilized or generally dispatched, which is about as mean as the Tau get; one such case was the Poctroon, who were the first sapient species they ever encountered. Their planet was ripe for colonization, and when the Tau arrived, the Poctroon all died of a 'mysterious' contagion, though the Tau obviously have admitted no diabolical fuckery.

As their expansion accelerated deeper into Imperial space, the Tau started to deploy more and more experimental technologies to both battlefields and production lines, some of which weren't properly tested. As a result, quite a few moons, planets and even stars have been accidentally destroyed by various mishaps. While such destruction sometimes happened to be advantageous to Tau forces (for example, by shattering Imperial defenses with massive tidal waves and earthquakes after the destruction of a planet's moon), they have shown no attempts to weaponize it.

The Tau also have orbital high-yield nuclear warhead options, but they generally use them to generate EMP pulses to blackout a wide area. They can also use these warheads to scatter toxic radiation over an area instead, though, burning through flesh and killing those below.

The Tau are also one of the few factions in 40k who still possess functioning terraforming technology (the Eldar lost theirs during the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]], Tyranid "terraforming" is more just them going about eating everything, and Necron terraforming is an Exterminatus on its own), so they can restore exterminated planets to habitability again, provided they haven't been utterly destroyed Deathstar-style. So yes, [[Meme| in the Tau Empire, Exterminatus get purged by YOU!]]

One of the notable example would be [[Commander Or'es'Ka]] from [[Dawn of War|dawn of war soulstorm]], where he had this huge ass gun called "Ar'Ka Cannon" installed on the moon of Kaurava system. The cannon can fire anywhere in the Kaurava system (including the moon where the cannon is), obliterate his enemies before he moves in. The said [[ork|BIGGIZT GUNZ]] is also the most Eco-friendly WMD ever built in the grimdark future, as it is capable of damaging only advance life form, while preventing from harming plants and building. Hilariously, he got the idea of WMD from watching the inquisition <s>doing their sorry excuse for fun</s> killing the enemies of the mankind FOR THE EMPEROR!!!

===Forces of Chaos===

Being former servants of the Imperium, fleets of [[Chaos Space Marines]] often still possess the good old Imperial Exterminatus weapons, like virus bombs for the old legions, cyclonic torpedoes for more recently turned traitors, or Just Shoot The Shit Out Of It for any warband with ships in their fleet big enough to carry the guns. Occasionally they will pillage Imperial Exteminatus weapons, or else invent some of their own with technology, sorcery, daemonic shit or some combination of the three. [[Honsou|Some]] Chaos guys tend to be quite inventive in finding ways to kill planets.

During one of his Black Crusades, [[Abaddon]] managed to steal or destroy all of the Blackstone Fortresses that the Imperium had in their possession. Naturally, they work just as well for Chaos as they did for the Eldar (and far better than they ever did for the Imperium). He also commissioned an incredibly huge destroyer of a spaceship, the front half of which is basically a battery of miles-long energy cannons. This "Armageddon Gun" can split a planet in half with one shot.

Then there is World Eaters, who live up to their name when they are united. 50,000 of these motherfuckers slaughtered 70 Sectors in Angron's Dominion of Fire campaign. [[Derp| Then all the planets they conquered was retaken. It seems like they forgot to salt the earth.]] To be fair though, Imperium needed four Chapters, two Titan Legions and more than thirty Guard Regiments (''However, WAAAGH Skargor took on fifty Guard regiments and SIX space murheen chapters. Perhaps World Eaters lack the power of [[dakka]].''). Back in Great Crusade, these butchers manually killed everything on the planets they went to conquer. Most of the time, it took them one day. This gave birth to another problem: There was no subjects on these planets to rule over. So the Emprah had to sent fleets to colonize planets left over by World Eaters, which was a pain in the arse for him.

Uniquely amongst 40k factions, the armies of Chaos can make planets Exterminatus-proof by turning them into [[Daemon World|Daemon Worlds]], where the laws of physics are fucked up so hard by the power of the [[Warp]] that all weapons just cease to function on and around it, or even achieve the opposite effect by nourishing the daemon patron of the world and making him even stronger (don't even think about virus bombing a [[Nurgle]] Daemon World). Though admittedly, from literally any point of view besides that of Chaos, Exterminatus is a preferable option to Daemon World transformation, as it would just kill you, rather than damning you to the eternity of torment.

Of course, there's also the act of summoning [[Aetaos'Rau'Keres]]. Keres will turn any planet he's summoned on into a lifeless husk. He doesn't care what side you are on or even if you're the cult that summoned him; he will murder ''everyone'' unlucky enough to be on the planet he's currently on. Such is his methods that he's the closest thing the Chaos Daemons have to a true planetary exterminatus.

==IRL Exterminatus==

''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_catastrophic_risk see Global Catastrophic Risk]''

===Thermo-Nuclear Holocaust===

Apparently, even when we aren't in the 41st millennium we still mastered the art of royally buttfucking a planet. In this case, it's ours, and a full-scale thermonuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union (who each have thousands and thousands of nukes) would be enough to kill off humanity multiple times over. This is how Mutually Assured Destruction works, threatening each other and our own planet with Exterminatus with zero chance of survival, just so we won't begin another World War. Because [[Imperium of Man|we're bastards like that]]. The Cobalt Bombs described by Dr. Strangelove above are actually possible, though currently theoretical. Nuclear weapons designed to be deployed as bombs or missiles aren't strong enough to destroy the world with only 50 warheads, but if you don't mind moving the weapon once it's built, the only limit on how big your nuke can get is how much material you're willing to use on it. In theory, the doomsday device of Dr. Strangelove could be achieved with a single massive bomb.

This is further worth mentioning because automated retaliation systems that could activate nuclear weapons in response to a detected threat ''actually existed''. The Soviet Union had the "Dead Hand" system, based off of seismic, air pressure, and EM sensors. The system was normally kept inactive and was only supposed to be turned on during a crisis to guarantee that the Soviets would still be able to use their weapons even if their leadership was taken out by a first strike.

Some believe that elements of the Dead Hand system may have been lost or buried, and are active to this day. [[grimdark|A ticking automated Exterminatus waiting for a signal from aging cold-war era sensors.]]

An old quote from the film ''WarGames'' summarizes the game of Global Thermonuclear War/Exterminatus: ''The only winning move is not to play..."

===An Asteroid===

Really, all it takes to kill everything on a planet is a big enough rock traveling fast enough. Normally it's the cloud of dust that is kicked up into the atmosphere and blocks out the sun that does most of the work. Dinosaurs learned this the hard way. Of course, this doesn't really work too well on a forge or hive world which is already like that. For raw destructive force, however, the damage is a function of the speed and size of the asteroid. The former has some practical limits (though a civilization looking to weaponize this sort of exterminatus could possibly bring the rock up to relativistic speeds), but the latter can be nearly unlimited. A collision with a near planet-sized object would be more devastating than most ''fictional'' exterminatus weapons, obliterating the target world entirely. There could be any number of so-called 'rogue' planets floating in the empty spaces between stars, ready to slide into the solar system and crash into Earth, assuming humanity fails its collective ''Save or Die'' roll for the week. They'd have to [[fail]] incredibly hard because the overwhelming chance is that the rogue body will end up into the Sun (or Jupiter as a distant second choice), but yeah. [[Just as planned|Shit happens, yo!]]

===Super Volcano===

Works on the same principal as the asteroid, that if you get enough shit into the atmosphere you've royally fucked all life bigger than a mouse. This may not be very likely though on Earth as one of the biggest volcanoes (see yellowstone park) wouldn't wipe out humanity, probably. Maybe.

Unless, of course, seismic activity from that eruption managed to trigger the [http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25598050/ OTHER NINETEEN] super volcanoes.

===SAGE-Bombing===

The electronic equivalent of Exterminatus, a Sagebomb is achieved by repeatedly using the SAGE (Japanese for "lower") tag on a thread, ergo reducing its priority. When fired in bulk by multiple users simultaneously, such barrages of SAGE are capable of dragging almost any thread screaming down to the depths of a given imageboard, where they will eventually be purged. The ultimate fate for all threads containing [[Furry]] and similar [[Heresy]].

...Or at least that's how many fa/tg/uys think it works.

SAGE is supposed to add a "negative" response to a given thread, ergo reducing its apparent post-count. Because such a system would be easy to [[troll]] others, however, SAGE instead is used simply to reply without bumping a given thread. In [[Dungeons and Dragons|olden times]], SAGE ''did'' work that way supposedly, however, and was a tool of righteous wrath. Sagebombing still has an effect to the extent that once a thread passes the "autosage" limit it can no longer be bumped even by normal posts, and so even if it is still active it will still sink to the bottom of the board and into the depths of deletion; hence a large number of zero-content SAGEs will hasten the demise of the thread without bumping it in the process, although they do not actively cause the thread's departure.

===The Black Death===

What can be said about the Black Death or more accurately the Bubonic plague. It's killed more people than every war in human history put together,in 541–542 it killed one in four of the population of Constantinople, the cemeteries filled up, they ran of open land in the city, then the mass graves out side the city filled up, they threw the dead into guard towers, onto ships to sail the Mediterranean just to get them out of the city. food rotted in the fields and there was famine. During the 14th century, the plague had a second tour of Europe killing 30-60% of the total population across Europe, all of Europe, Peasant, Priest, noble or criminal the Plague killed everyone. on top of that, the Plague is horrifying to die of: [[Nurgle|you grow boils, your skin rots off your body, Seizures, continuous vomiting of blood, and extreme pain caused by the decay of the skin]]. In one of the many examples of the repercussion of the plague on the modern world, which would require an entire book to cover in full, it would not be hard to say that without the Plague, Nurgle and the entire gothic aesthetic of the Imperium would not exist.

===William Tecumseh Sherman===
[[File:Tree creed.JPG|200px|thumb|right|The only tree Khorne will ever decorate with bloody corpses on Christmas.]]
William, yeah [[that guy]], a Union commander and a [[Creed|tactical genius]], is known for nuking a lot of pretty places like Atlanta and pwning every [[Chaos Space Marine|Confederate]] and [[Tau|Native American]] force he faced. He invented the total war strategy, which it is basically the earliest form of exterminatus. His "March to the sea" consisted of one massive offensive, abandoning supply lines and trying to cause as much damage as possible. The goal was a total disruption not only of the confederate's military, but of their economy and infrastructure. Crops were burned and fields salted, wells were poisoned, and everything was done so that when it came time for Sherman's troops to fall back the enemy could not use anything of the land. Telegraph lines, Rail lines, bridges and more were destroyed in massive amounts, and goods that weren't stolen for their own use were burned to prevent their use by the confederate states, even if said good has no direct military value. Even to this day the [[rage]] is legendary in the south. He and his troops are accused by southerners of rape, pillage, and plunder. <S>Sherman was actually against unchecked rampages like this</S>,[[Blam]]. Because of his hatred for everything, he becomes the [[Spiritual liege|spiritual forefather]] of [[/b/|anonymous]], for the fact he has shown those basement dweller the [[Humanity Fuck Yeah| true meaning to be humans]]. <S>He probably ascended to daemonhood of Khorne after his death, like pretty much all extremely badass warlords</S>[[Blam]] Sherman is one of the few humans to ever experience Reincarnation, as he obviously would become Inquisitor Kryptman in the Tyrannic Wars.

===Nine Familial Exterminations===

To put it simply: for your [[HERESY]], you, your entire family, your grandmother, your ancestors, your cats and your children are to be put to death! It is the most serious punishment created in the ancient [[Imperium|Imperial china]] in order to erase heresy stains at that time period. This is still being practices today in North Korea, however.

Fun Fact: One man actually managed to piss off the emperor enough that he got a ten familial exterminations.

===Wiki page Deletion===

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| [[Image:Konata_no_redeeming_value.gif|50px]]
| This article is bad and may or may not require deleting. Comment on the article's '''[[:{{TALKPAGENAME}}|talk page]]'''. '''Reason:''' This is how you set an article to be deleted:: Just add <nowiki>"{{deletion|reason}}"</nowiki> somewhere on the page.
|}
An electronic equivalent of Exterminatus for every wiki. To delete a page, the user must mark the page for review by the [[User:Wikifag|mod]] and provide a valid reason for why the article deserves to be purged. On this wiki for example, any non-/tg/-related shit should be removed to make sure that the only content is about a /tg/ related meme, or relates to traditional games in anyway. Unlike every other exterminatus above, the information can be reclaimed if the wiki has its backup file. That been said, vandalism is pointless, as users don't need mod permission to undo someone's shit changes.

==The Fall of Typhon==
Good to know there's a ceremony for blowing up a planet.

''"We have arrived, and it is now that we perform our charge. ''
''In fealty to the God-Emperor (our undying Lord) and by the grace of the Golden Throne, I declare Exterminatus upon the Imperial world of Typhon Primaris. ''
''I hereby sign the death warrant of an entire world and consign a million souls to oblivion. ''
''May Imperial Justice account in all balance. ''
''The Emperor Protects."''

==The Words of Gabriel Angelos==
''It is human nature to seek culpability in a time of tragedy. It is a sign of strength to cry out against fate, rather than to bow one's head and succumb. Inevitably many will fault the hands upon the sword which felled Typhon, the Ordo Malleus. But the Inquisition merely performs the duty of its office. To further fear them is redundant; to hate them, heretical. Those more sensible will place responsibility with those who forced the hands of the Inquisition. With some fortune, they may foster this hatred into purpose, and further rule their own fate by coming to the Emperor's service.''

''Yet ultimately, it was I who set these events into motion, with a single blow from my hammer, God Splitter.'' --Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens

Fuck, that's deep. The use of a properly modified version of this quote from Dawn of War Retribution has proved highly effective in sageing furfag troll threads and thus has been sanctioned by the holy /tg/ Inquisition for public use (keep it on /tg/).

==Battlefleet Gothic: Armada==
''Admiral Spire, it is said that heresy is like a tree. ''
''Its roots lie in darkness while its leaves wave in the sun. ''
''You can prune away its branches, even cut the tree to the ground. ''
''Yet it will grow again, ever stronger. ''
''Such is the nature of heresy and why it is so difficult to destroy. ''
''Some may question my right to destroy a world of ten billion souls. ''
''But for those who truly understand, realize I have no right to let them live. ''
''No sacrifice is too great. No treachery too small. ''
--Inquisitor Horst

==Exterminatus on the Tabletop==
Though not the most effective of lists, it is particularly hilarious and surprisingly fluffy to declare Exterminatus on large table games of 40k. The general gist is to simply stock up on as many large blast templates fired from off table as possible, whether via army list or stratagems. One relatively simple list is to simply take a [[Grey Knights]] army, field a single Bro-Capt. or Grand Master with an orbital Strike Relay, [[Witch Hunters|Karamazov]] (who also has one) and two troop choices (if you're playing a regular game -- if you're playing [[Apocalypse]], you can skip the troops) Then cram in as many Techmarines as you can, give them all Orbital Strike Relays and watch the bombs drop. For the average 3000 point game, you can get Krazypants off and 20 bare-bones techies with the relays. that's 21 Strength 10 AP1 pie-plates smashing down on your opponents Baneblades, Warhounds and other special hard-as-balls to kill shit your opponents have! Also great for swarm-busting (the relays can fire D3 pieplates each per guy but at Strength 6). Picture Krazypantsoff standing on a hilltop, pointing at buildings and going "Bang.", then watching them all blow up. Of course, if the Inquisitor dies, you're fucked. So maybe just camp him in cover. But that's only if you're lame.

For those of you with enough money to field the Horus Heresy army list from Forge World, Horus can call down an orbital strike with infinite range and S10 AP1 from anywhere on the map. Now you can reenact the Istvaan III atrocities yourself!

For an Apocalypse game you can also field an exterminatus guard force.
All you need is:
n * 6 guardsmen (one with a vox).
The list is fairly simple - Just field as many Company Command Squads with nothing but Master of Ordinance and fire away (for a 3k game its almost 38 s9 ap3 blasts a turn)
Don't forget to field some epic(troll) music to laugh at your opponents face, and after the battle proceed with knocking the table down to finish with a speech gritty nuff to make Sturnn himself proud.

As of 7th edition, it's now possible to forego the FoC chart and take whatever models you want. This means you can take 15 Chapter Masters in a 2k list.

In 40k terms, you can get some SERIOUS Exterminatus going with the [[Necrons|'Crons]] and their Doomsday Arks. In one Primary Detachment, for example, you can take a fully viable 1500-point Necron army as so: Overlord with Warscythe, 5 Immortals, 10 Warriors and 3 Doomsday Arks. If the Doomsday Arks don't move, they can provide one 72" Strength 10 AP 1 Primary Weapon Large Blast each, allowing for some serious [[butthurt]] from your opponents (and this may make you [[That Guy]] if done well because this is a level of cheese on the table that France would be proud of). If you're trying to break into a bunker-sized fortification, use these three things on the doors. Then you can re-enact the dying moments of [[The Conquest of Uttu Prime]] sans the [[Megalith]]!

==TL;DR==
You fuckers just backed Chaos and now you have a daemon infestation? Your planet 'gon git [[FATAL|raaaaaaaaaaaaaaped]].

<gallery>
image:exterminatus.jpg
image:exterminatus2.jpg
File:Red nuke button turned into EXTERMINATUS.png|Suffer not the Furry to live
File:Exterminatusthread.jpg|The E-quisition vigilantly purges the Emperor's internets of chaos taint.
File:Foxy Lady.jpg|If the inhabitants of a planet remotely resembles this creature, it's guaranteed to be exterminatused upon discovery. If pictures like this are found on a thread in /tg/, it's guaranteed to be saged and trolled upon discovery
File:Fall_of_Reach_1.jpg|If said inhabitants started space-faring like a certain [[Chakat|Chakat]], then you could call your local Inquisition or any Xeno manly enough to [[Get shit done|get shit done, just like the Covenant shown in the image.]]
File:Hello exterminatus Warhammer 40k sister of battle rule 34.jpg|See? The Internet can even make the end of the world look sexy!
File:Rocks are not free citizen.jpg|Don't suggest bolides as a method of exterminatus.
File:Sherman.gif
File:Ohara Incident.png|Although this is not a planet, it's just too B-E-A-[[weeaboo]]-TIFUL.
</gallery>

Vidya:
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNc242mbiUs&feature=channel_video_title
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM
* The unofficial theme-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_tIw9Il934
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEGo41443iI The heresy scene mentioned in the quotes at the top.]
[[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Meme]]

Exterminatus

2018-02-19T23:48:57Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

{{Topquote|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_Béziers Kill them all, The Emperor will recognize His own.]|Inquisitor Arnaud Amalric}}
{{Topquote|FUKKIN' HERETICS!|If the Emperor had a Text-to-speech device, Heresy Scene}}
[[Image:Exterminatus Retribution.jpg|right|450px|"I didn't expect that kind of Imperial [[Inquisition]]-" '''*BLAM*'''|thumb]]
'''Exterminatus''' is the biggest middle finger the [[Imperium of Man|Imperium]] can give to [[xenos]] and [[Chaos]] infestations on their own planets. It basically involves UTTERLY DESTROYING THE PLANET SURFACE via heavy orbital bombardment if they decide that it would be impossible to retake the planet by drowning their enemies in corpses, like they usually do.

And, of course, there is no kill like overkill.

Before you go into some sort of sanctimonious tirade about the morality of blowing the fuck out of an entire planet, understand the context. A world deemed worthy of Exterminatus is one considered past the point where anything can be salvaged from it - whether because it's about to be lost to [[Tyranids|countless ravening giant insects that will zerg-rush and eat fucking everything]] or [[Ork|reality-warping omnicidal fungi that reproduce into millions of spores every time one dies and will all kill you because they think it's fun]] or because it will be turned into a fucking [[Chaos|daemon-and-tentacle-rape-infested shit-pit where neither sanity nor time has any meaning]]. The alternative is fucking glassing a planet and trying to deny it to the enemy or ensure SOMETHING can be saved. It's the last-ditch measure and it's there because the alternative sucks even worse. It is the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth Scorched Earth] strategy on a planetary scale: if you can't have it, burn it, and that shit's broken the back of more empires and armies than we can count.

... [[grimdark|Or, you know, because the Inquisitor who ordered it decided he wanted one for his birthday]]. Oversight on Exterminatus orders is fairly nonexistent and it's easy to see why. The problem is the same one real life atomic weapons have, who do you want to have to be able to launch them? You want the most powerful, highly ranked people to have that authority, but if there so highly ranked and with so much power, who watches them? Who second guesses an Inquisitor's judgement about if a world is to be blown up or not? Nobody. [[Kryptman|The Imperium's only solution is to just declare the trigger happy sod Excommunicate Traitoris afterwards if they don't agree]]. The [[Just as Planned|over the top villainy of Warhammer 40k]] means that some fuckholes within the Imperium do get trigger happy with this, ordering an Exterminatus on worlds over things like a few of its people coming into contact with alien technology, or a small hint of [[heresy]] that would probably not require killing everything, or a loose pubic hair being in the Imperial's cereal this morning.

On the bright side, these instances are few and far between, and anyone caught destroying an uncorrupted planet, either for the [[lulz]] or [[Derp|stupidity]], is seen as wasting the "Emprah's Resource, Time and Money", and is forced to explain their [[Heresy|legitimate reasoning]]; though their excuse would most likely be something along the lines of "Chaos was there!" (or [[Kryptman|this could actually save Holy Terra here]], but he was still <s>called a [[Heresy|heretic]]</s> publicly sidelined from active duty for going overboard (yet being kept as 'consultant' by his colleagues because he just might be right).) and they would proceed to get a light slap on the wrist... [[Salamanders|unless they unfortunately meet a giant, angry black dude in green.]] What, you're surprised that an Empire of "Space Nazis 2.0" can have actual legitimate excuses, common sense, reasoning and sensibility? You're in for a whole new series of surprises...

(Joking aside, it's somewhat fluff dependent; in Seventh Retribution by Ben Counter, for instance, the Exterminatus is never even mentioned as a 'solution' despite the fact that the planet got infested with half a dozen demons with great powers. They use said power to mind control thousand of civilians to use them as cannon folder against the Imperial guard, or sacrifice hundreds of innocents to raise a well known flaying daemon to wreak havoc (although part of this was because the Officio Assassinorium had to be 100% sure that they had absolutely killed the antagonist with no margin for error). Also in both the ''Space Wolves Omnibus'' and in the Ultramarines ''Nightbringer'' books, we get Inquisitors saying they have been at it for well over a century without calling down the Exterminatus even once. Even in Retribution, Lord General Castor admits that the world was lost anyway.)

[[Deal with it]]. Bitching any further will rile the [[Commissar|Commissariat]]. You have been warned.

==Methods of Exterminatus==
The Imperium has several means for dealing with hopeless infestations:

===Just Shoot the Shit Out of It (Orbital Bombardment)===

Saturating planets with over-sized lazor cannons larger than apartment buildings is the stereotypical way of nuking the fuck out of something you don't like. Space Marine battlebarge bombardment cannons, Nova cannons, Lance batteries and any type of HUGE lazor is often used. Examples of this include the [[Dark Angels]] destroying their homeworld, Caliban, <s>after it was lost to heretics within their chapter</s> AFTER SOMEONE THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO HUNT FOR DINNER FOR OUR TOTALLY NON-HERETICAL AND OBVIOUSLY LOYAL BROTHERS USING THE ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT CANNONS, the [[Night Lords]]' purge of Nostramo, and during the purging of Typhon.

===Virus Bombs===

Virus Bombs are warheads loaded with the Life Eater virus, a biological payload that causes living tissue (plant or animal) to rot and decompose (which probably gives Nurgle a massive boner). The gist is that they release a virus that spreads by contact and causes necrosis of tissues and rapid decay of plant and animal tissues. This immediate rot causes a buildup of flammable gases, which in turn can be ignited by one of the lazors above (or any still smoldering Lho sticks, or any other source of flame), sweeping the area in firestorms. A relentless bombing of these fucking things is what reduced [[Tallarn]] from a verdant forest world to the desert hellhole it is now. They were also used by [[Horus|Warmaster Horus]] to kill off loyalists in the Traitor Legions during the Istvaan Campaign of the [[Horus Heresy]] (Life Eater virus eats through any filters and corrodes power armour till it gets to the gooey marine inside, though a Dreadnought can endure it easily). Though a popular method of Exterminatus during the [[Great Crusade]], according to [[Amberley Vail]], virus bombs are only rarely used in the "present time" because the Inquisition has figured out that every time they're used, they feed the fucking [[Nurgle|Plaguefather]]. Whoops.

===Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo===

Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedoes are [[plasma]] torpedoes that burst in low planetary orbit and super-heat the atmosphere of a planet until all combustible material ignites. This method of Exterminatus was used on Medusa IV. Pretty much like the Virus Bomb, except it skips right to the firestorm part and directly turns the planet's surface into an endless expanse of raging hellfire. It is said that the aftermath of the planet's surface (Medusa IV's case) was melted to glass and that the entire world burned like a piece of amber in space even a month after the attack had been launched. They are only effective on planets with relatively stable atmospheres made of flammable gas, however, and plasma torpedos are both somewhat rare and expensive.

===Modalis Atmospheric Missile===

Another weapon that has similar results from the Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo but its function is completely different. Regarded as the most powerful incendiary device accessible in the Imperium. The Modalis Atmospheric Missile is one ECKS BAWKS HUEG Phosphex weapons used to burn a planet into a crisp. Think White Phosphorous on steroids. A salvo of several Modalis Atmospheric Missiles from orbiting warships will blanket an entire world in deadly Phosphex. The resultant firestorm of green mist will eat away at every carbon-based element on the planet, rendering it uninhabitable. All that would be left would be dust and echoes.

===Cyclonic Torpedoes===

The primary method of Exterminatus used in the 41st millennium, these are basically nukes OD'd on steroids. These capital ship-fired warheads each generate a series of massive, self-sustaining nuclear reactions, which, when fired in bulk, fuels a much larger reaction that causes the devastation to spread and multiply, eventually glassing the entire world with a thermonuclear holocaust given a sufficient barrage. If you fire enough in the same spot it will break through the crust of a planet, causing part of the mantle to erupt out, royally buttfucking the entire planet in the process ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM see ''Fire Warrior'' end cinematic]). [[Krieg]] is an example of a radioactive perpetual-winter world that survived multiple cyclonic torpedo strikes, though in this case it was on a much smaller scale. This was the method that probably killed Typhon, in combination with the above shoot-the-shit-out-of-it method. (Another theory holds that the bombardment is used to remove anything that might prevent the torpedo from reaching the surface or to weaken planets crust.) Only the [[Inquisition]] and the [[Space Marines]] are authorized to carry cyclonic torpedoes in their warships, the former because the Inquisition has the authority to do anything, and the latter because the Imperium figures that if the Space Marines can't beat it, nothing else will.

Cyclonic Torpedoes are pretty variable in their strength, either due to there being different classes of torpedoes or the fact that the strength of a single cyclonic torpedo has never been nailed down in official materials. In one case, ol' Abby dropped a dozen to fry a single hive, in another a single torpedo is a qualified planet cracker. Similarly, this method is the easiest to thwart with shields, as they disrupt the stacked efficiency needed for ongoing detonation.

===Two-Stage Cyclonic Torpedoes===

In the two-stage torpedo, a [[melta]] charge activates first to allow the weapon to burrow into the planet's crust and down to the core. The second stage thermonuclear charge then goes off, causing the planet to break apart Death Star style. This is really the only way to deal with Necron Tomb Worlds since, due to their tendency to make everything subterranean, they aren't overly bothered by the other methods which devastate the surface but leave the planet as a whole mostly intact. Talos of the Night Lords used a smaller version of these when a Genesis Chapter strike cruiser tried to hide behind a moon. So he [[Awesome|blew a continent-sized hole through the moon]], and watched the loyalist ship get torn apart as a new asteroid field got shotgunned into space.

===Smashing It with a Fucking Moon===

This method involves radically altering the orbit of a nearby moon or large asteroid and placing it on a collision course with the planet, and therefore requires the use of several Mechanicus voidships. This method was used to destroy Phaenon Prime when the Virus Bomb failed to wipe out the planet's corruptive influence. It was also used during the [[Horus Heresy]] by renegade Iron Hands commander Autek Mor to destroy the World Eaters recruitment world of Bodt and during the Badab War to finally smash through [[Huron Blackheart]]'s defensive Ring of Steel around Badab. Needless to say, this pretty much fucking annihilates the planet in question (or whatever else it's thrown at like Huron's defensive systems). Despite its flair and effectiveness, [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rocks_Are_Not_Free! the Administratum vehemently requests that Imperial commanders avoid this method whenever possible], because it's stupidly expensive -- it can take weeks or even months for the moon or asteroid in question to actually strike the planet, which costs rations and sublight fuel while the ships sit around doing fuck-all; orbital bombardments only cost about one day's worth of rations and fuel, plus the ammunition, which comes out to be less expensive.

===Release the Krourk===

Krourk [[Ogryn]] are known as the most brutal, powerful, and primitive tribe of Ogryn in the Imperium (and that's saying something). They are so well-known for their frightening savagery in close combat that they're considered a solid match for Orks, and are also known for being so primitively stupid that the Imperial Guard can't even teach them to use traditional Ogryn weapons like ripper guns. Their reputation is so fearsome that it has gotten to the point where deploying thousands of these things is considered a crude method of Exterminatus amongst Imperial commanders, given that they'll attempt to kill anything within visual range, friend or foe.

===[[Daemon Engine|Pseudoscientific Sorcery]]===

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==Non-Imperium Exterminatus==
Several factions outside the Imperium do things similar to the Imperial Exterminatus (adding any examples from the lore would be greatly appreciated). However, most of them don't use these methods often. Some examples:

===Craftworld Eldar===

The [[Eldar|Craftworld Eldar]] have some respect for life (and not nearly as many weapons of mass destruction as they had before the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]]) so they don't do it often. Didn't stop them from purging all life in the Octarius system to clean up [[Kryptman|Kryptman's]] mess, though. The most well-known Eldar engines of planetary destruction are called [[Blackstone Fortress|Blackstone Fortresses]], which are ancient weapons they designed to fight the [[C'tan]]. To put it simply, think of a floating citadel with a distort weapon (like the ones the [[Wraithguard]] have) the size of an Emperor-class battleship. During the Gothic Wars, three Blackstone Fortresses combined their power to cause a star to go supernova, destroying an entire solar system.

In Apocalypse War Zone: Valedor, the Craftworld Eldar from [[Iyanden]] procured another type of ancient WMD, the Fireheart: a complex nodal resonator capable of causing a planet's molten core to enter violent death throes and send lakes of lava to the surface. The [[Dark Eldar]] originally had this, but they gave it away because they didn't have the psychic power to active the weapon. The Fireheart was used successfully on Valedor and prevented Hive Fleets [[Hive Fleet Kraken|Kraken]] and [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|Behemoth]] from joining forces. If they had, the [[Tyranids]] would have had all of the genetic data of the Orks and the Eldar, enabling them to fashion unthinkable monstrosities.

Before the fall (and possibly still kicking around somewhere) they had devices that fired entire suns or black holes at their enemies.

===Dark Eldar===

The [[Dark Eldar]] lack a good stockpile of planet-killing weaponry and prefer to keep planets intact for slaves, although they are still capable of exterminating the populace of entire planets if they wanted to. One method is pillaging the shit out of it. Its been proven time and time again that an entire Kabal is more than capable of kidnapping an entire planet of it's populace, faster than that local PDF trooper can finish his scream of agony. There has also been one instance of an entire Hive World being poisoned by the Dark Eldar, smashing a Space Hulk at a realm and havings its warp drives detonate to release hordes of daemons, and there's also counting the DE's ability to steal entire suns; allowing them to turn entire habitable planets into ice worlds if need be. They also possess a psychic doomsday device called The Fireheart to implode a planet's core -- originally invented and mass-produced by the Eldar Empire, what few Firehearts they have left are triggered by psychic resonance (and thus useless to Dark Eldar unless they can trick some Craftworlders into using it). The Kabal of the Dying Sun has devices that extinguish stars, while Vect keeps black holes in his back pocket to troll people.

Let's not forget just taking their sun as a trophy and letting the entire star system die...

The Dark Eldar can also just have other races kill planets for them. [[Just as Planned|Through manipulation from the sides; they could convince (and managed to do so at one point) the Imperium to declare Exterminatus on a planet.]]

===Necrons===

The [[Necrons]] have lost many WMDs, but may have several more just waiting to be awakened. ([[Not as Planned|Maybe the Necrons are more trigger-happy with Exterminatus than the Imperium, but they're better at ensuring there're no witnesses]]). One of their most notorious Exterminatus-tier machines was the [[The World Engine|World Engine]], which was a planet-sized vessel equipped with the largest [[Gauss|gauss weapon]] known to man. It looked like the combination of a Death Star, Unicron and a Forerunner Shield-World all rolled into one. A [[Rape|flying rape-machine of ungodly proportions]], it took a coalition of several Space Marine chapters and the entire Imperial fleet of the Vidar Subsector to destroy it. For some reason, it had shields that could withstand the [[Awesome|bombardment of an ''entire navy'',]] yet it was [[What|vulnerable]] to a ship [[Meme|impacting at sufficient velocity.]] (Although it is possible that the shields weren't designed to deflect speeding projectiles the size of battle barges.)

The Maynarkh dynasty deploys a peculiar device that causes supercharged solar flares that incinerate the daylight-facing sides of ALL planets in a system. <s>Granted, it only exterminates roughly half of each planet, but if they want to finish the job all they need is to wait half a day cycle and fire it again.</s> While dull people may not realize it, incinerating half a planet's surface would also incinerate its atmosphere, stripping the whole planet bare of its life giving biosphere, or whatever gases it had trapped. Unfortunately for the survivors, Maynarkh Necrons are more interested in making a planetfall and skinning them alive.

Maybe under certain circumstances, if the Necrons wanted to destroy a world, they could just unleash a particularly powerful Transcendent C'tan shard on it without a Tesseract Vault. Though it would most likely escape and be nearly impossible to return to Necron control, it would achieve the same effects. Also, the Tombworld of Thanatos has a giant hologram map of the galaxy known as the Celestial Orrery, and if you were to destroy a star on it, the real life counterpart would go supernova. However, the Necrons don't really use it (since they're more about conquering planets than destroying them). Instead, they just treat it like a giant bonsai tree. (You would think a branch to clip would be Terra, Fenris, Macragge, Baal etc but nope)

The Necrons can also employ an [[Abattoir]] when directly terraforming a planet. They are large, [[monolith]]-like devices except that they physically carry what they're transporting, are the size of a small city, and are covered in tentacles that disintegrate organic material while harvesting its anguish.

===Tyranids===

No, [[Tyranids]], you are the exterminatus.

A Tyranid fleet's primary objective is to devour entire planets and systems for biomass. After they're done, the world they invaded is left a lifeless rock, utterly devoid of life.

The Tyranids also travel through sublight via gravity manipulations, and these can rip apart asteroids and small moons entirely before the 'nids make planetfall.

===Orks===

In theory, the [[Ork]]s could develop an Exterminatus-size weapon (as much by accident and luck as by design); they grab an asteroid, put engines and weapons and armor on it, fill it with Orks, and then ram it full speed into a planet. It wouldn't matter if it turned out to function as a giant transport or just a suicide missile; it generates tremendous amounts of [[lulz]] and serves its purpose of making a big boom, which is all the Orks are concerned with. This haphazard design and construction process would limit the amount of these contraptions the Orks could build (if any). In general, however, Orks want to avoid wiping out everything on the planet from orbit, as it would leave them with nothing to fight on the ground. Although a Big Mek in need of roks once smashed a moon into a planet and took his pick from the best bits.

Ork Roks. Big hollowed asteroids they slam into planets as one way reentry vessels. Used during the Third War for Armageddon.

===Tau Empire===

While the [[Tau]] almost certainly have the technological capability to destroy entire planets (I mean, if the fucking [[Derp|Orks]] can figure it out, then the Tau definitely can), there are a number of philosophical, political, and strategic reasons that they would avoid doing this in all but the most extreme circumstances. For one, the Tau Empire is in the process of expanding, and it isn't exactly conducive to your expansion efforts to blow up perfectly colonizable worlds; thus the Tau would likely see Imperial Exterminatus orders as an egregious waste of resources, which they wouldn't be completely wrong about. Also, the Tau are arguably [[Grimdark|the only race in the 40k universe]] who operate by something parodying a moral compass, so the idea of obliterating a planet and its inhabitants is likely appalling to their [[Noblebright|naive wittle sensibilities]].

On the other hand, the Tau have officially declared some races (Orks, Tyranids, Dark Eldar, and Necrons) "lost causes" to be destroyed wherever encountered, so one could plausibly imagine a situation hopeless enough that they would sacrifice a planet to be rid of them. Still, they would probably try to at least leave the world itself salvageable and only exterminate the infesting species. There are stories of populations being sterilized or generally dispatched, which is about as mean as the Tau get; one such case was the Poctroon, who were the first sapient species they ever encountered. Their planet was ripe for colonization, and when the Tau arrived, the Poctroon all died of a 'mysterious' contagion, though the Tau obviously have admitted no diabolical fuckery.

As their expansion accelerated deeper into Imperial space, the Tau started to deploy more and more experimental technologies to both battlefields and production lines, some of which weren't properly tested. As a result, quite a few moons, planets and even stars have been accidentally destroyed by various mishaps. While such destruction sometimes happened to be advantageous to Tau forces (for example, by shattering Imperial defenses with massive tidal waves and earthquakes after the destruction of a planet's moon), they have shown no attempts to weaponize it.

The Tau also have orbital high-yield nuclear warhead options, but they generally use them to generate EMP pulses to blackout a wide area. They can also use these warheads to scatter toxic radiation over an area instead, though, burning through flesh and killing those below.

The Tau are also one of the few factions in 40k who still possess functioning terraforming technology (the Eldar lost theirs during the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]], Tyranid "terraforming" is more just them going about eating everything, and Necron terraforming is an Exterminatus on its own), so they can restore exterminated planets to habitability again, provided they haven't been utterly destroyed Deathstar-style. So yes, [[Meme| in the Tau Empire, Exterminatus get purged by YOU!]]

One of the notable example would be [[Commander Or'es'Ka]] from [[Dawn of War|dawn of war soulstorm]], where he had this huge ass gun called "Ar'Ka Cannon" installed on the moon of Kaurava system. The cannon can fire anywhere in the Kaurava system (including the moon where the cannon is), obliterate his enemies before he moves in. The said [[ork|BIGGIZT GUNZ]] is also the most Eco-friendly WMD ever built in the grimdark future, as it is capable of damaging only advance life form, while preventing from harming plants and building. Hilariously, he got the idea of WMD from watching the inquisition <s>doing their sorry excuse for fun</s> killing the enemies of the mankind FOR THE EMPEROR!!!

===Forces of Chaos===

Being former servants of the Imperium, fleets of [[Chaos Space Marines]] often still possess the good old Imperial Exterminatus weapons, like virus bombs for the old legions, cyclonic torpedoes for more recently turned traitors, or Just Shoot The Shit Out Of It for any warband with ships in their fleet big enough to carry the guns. Occasionally they will pillage Imperial Exteminatus weapons, or else invent some of their own with technology, sorcery, daemonic shit or some combination of the three. [[Honsou|Some]] Chaos guys tend to be quite inventive in finding ways to kill planets.

During one of his Black Crusades, [[Abaddon]] managed to steal or destroy all of the Blackstone Fortresses that the Imperium had in their possession. Naturally, they work just as well for Chaos as they did for the Eldar (and far better than they ever did for the Imperium). He also commissioned an incredibly huge destroyer of a spaceship, the front half of which is basically a battery of miles-long energy cannons. This "Armageddon Gun" can split a planet in half with one shot.

Then there is World Eaters, who live up to their name when they are united. 50,000 of these motherfuckers slaughtered 70 Sectors in Angron's Dominion of Fire campaign. [[Derp| Then all the planets they conquered was retaken. It seems like they forgot to salt the earth.]] To be fair though, Imperium needed four Chapters, two Titan Legions and more than thirty Guard Regiments (''However, WAAAGH Skargor took on fifty Guard regiments and SIX space murheen chapters. Perhaps World Eaters lack the power of [[dakka]].''). Back in Great Crusade, these butchers manually killed everything on the planets they went to conquer. Most of the time, it took them one day. This gave birth to another problem: There was no subjects on these planets to rule over. So the Emprah had to sent fleets to colonize planets left over by World Eaters, which was a pain in the arse for him.

Uniquely amongst 40k factions, the armies of Chaos can make planets Exterminatus-proof by turning them into [[Daemon World|Daemon Worlds]], where the laws of physics are fucked up so hard by the power of the [[Warp]] that all weapons just cease to function on and around it, or even achieve the opposite effect by nourishing the daemon patron of the world and making him even stronger (don't even think about virus bombing a [[Nurgle]] Daemon World). Though admittedly, from literally any point of view besides that of Chaos, Exterminatus is a preferable option to Daemon World transformation, as it would just kill you, rather than damning you to the eternity of torment.

Of course, there's also the act of summoning [[Aetaos'Rau'Keres]]. Keres will turn any planet he's summoned on into a lifeless husk. He doesn't care what side you are on or even if you're the cult that summoned him; he will murder ''everyone'' unlucky enough to be on the planet he's currently on. Such is his methods that he's the closest thing the Chaos Daemons have to a true planetary exterminatus.

==IRL Exterminatus==

''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_catastrophic_risk see Global Catastrophic Risk]''

===Thermo-Nuclear Holocaust===

Apparently, even when we aren't in the 41st millennium we still mastered the art of royally buttfucking a planet. In this case, it's ours, and a full-scale thermonuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union (who each have thousands and thousands of nukes) would be enough to kill off humanity multiple times over. This is how Mutually Assured Destruction works, threatening each other and our own planet with Exterminatus with zero chance of survival, just so we won't begin another World War. Because [[Imperium of Man|we're bastards like that]]. The Cobalt Bombs described by Dr. Strangelove above are actually possible, though currently theoretical. Nuclear weapons designed to be deployed as bombs or missiles aren't strong enough to destroy the world with only 50 warheads, but if you don't mind moving the weapon once it's built, the only limit on how big your nuke can get is how much material you're willing to use on it. In theory, the doomsday device of Dr. Strangelove could be achieved with a single massive bomb.

This is further worth mentioning because automated retaliation systems that could activate nuclear weapons in response to a detected threat ''actually existed''. The Soviet Union had the "Dead Hand" system, based off of seismic, air pressure, and EM sensors. The system was normally kept inactive and was only supposed to be turned on during a crisis to guarantee that the Soviets would still be able to use their weapons even if their leadership was taken out by a first strike.

Some believe that elements of the Dead Hand system may have been lost or buried, and are active to this day. [[grimdark|A ticking automated Exterminatus waiting for a signal from aging cold-war era sensors.]]

An old quote from the film ''WarGames'' summarizes the game of Global Thermonuclear War/Exterminatus: ''The only winning move is not to play..."

===An Asteroid===

Really, all it takes to kill everything on a planet is a big enough rock traveling fast enough. Normally it's the cloud of dust that is kicked up into the atmosphere and blocks out the sun that does most of the work. Dinosaurs learned this the hard way. Of course, this doesn't really work too well on a forge or hive world which is already like that. For raw destructive force, however, the damage is a function of the speed and size of the asteroid. The former has some practical limits (though a civilization looking to weaponize this sort of exterminatus could possibly bring the rock up to relativistic speeds), but the latter can be nearly unlimited. A collision with a near planet-sized object would be more devastating than most ''fictional'' exterminatus weapons, obliterating the target world entirely. There could be any number of so-called 'rogue' planets floating in the empty spaces between stars, ready to slide into the solar system and crash into Earth, assuming humanity fails its collective ''Save or Die'' roll for the week. They'd have to [[fail]] incredibly hard because the overwhelming chance is that the rogue body will end up into the Sun (or Jupiter as a distant second choice), but yeah. [[Just as planned|Shit happens, yo!]]

===Super Volcano===

Works on the same principal as the asteroid, that if you get enough shit into the atmosphere you've royally fucked all life bigger than a mouse. This may not be very likely though on Earth as one of the biggest volcanoes (see yellowstone park) wouldn't wipe out humanity, probably. Maybe.

Unless, of course, seismic activity from that eruption managed to trigger the [http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25598050/ OTHER NINETEEN] super volcanoes.

===SAGE-Bombing===

The electronic equivalent of Exterminatus, a Sagebomb is achieved by repeatedly using the SAGE (Japanese for "lower") tag on a thread, ergo reducing its priority. When fired in bulk by multiple users simultaneously, such barrages of SAGE are capable of dragging almost any thread screaming down to the depths of a given imageboard, where they will eventually be purged. The ultimate fate for all threads containing [[Furry]] and similar [[Heresy]].

...Or at least that's how many fa/tg/uys think it works.

SAGE is supposed to add a "negative" response to a given thread, ergo reducing its apparent post-count. Because such a system would be easy to [[troll]] others, however, SAGE instead is used simply to reply without bumping a given thread. In [[Dungeons and Dragons|olden times]], SAGE ''did'' work that way supposedly, however, and was a tool of righteous wrath. Sagebombing still has an effect to the extent that once a thread passes the "autosage" limit it can no longer be bumped even by normal posts, and so even if it is still active it will still sink to the bottom of the board and into the depths of deletion; hence a large number of zero-content SAGEs will hasten the demise of the thread without bumping it in the process, although they do not actively cause the thread's departure.

===The Black Death===

What can be said about the Black Death or more accurately the Bubonic plague. It's killed more people than every war in human history put together,in 541–542 it killed one in four of the population of Constantinople, the cemeteries filled up, they ran of open land in the city, then the mass graves out side the city filled up, they threw the dead into guard towers, onto ships to sail the Mediterranean just to get them out of the city. food rotted in the fields and there was famine. During the 14th century, the plague had a second tour of Europe killing 30-60% of the total population across Europe, all of Europe, Peasant, Priest, noble or criminal the Plague killed everyone. on top of that, the Plague is horrifying to die of: [[Nurgle|you grow boils, your skin rots off your body, Seizures, continuous vomiting of blood, and extreme pain caused by the decay of the skin]]. In one of the many examples of the repercussion of the plague on the modern world, which would require an entire book to cover in full, it would not be hard to say that without the Plague, Nurgle and the entire gothic aesthetic of the Imperium would not exist.

===William Tecumseh Sherman===
[[File:Tree creed.JPG|200px|thumb|right|The only tree Khorne will ever decorate with bloody corpses on Christmas.]]
William, yeah [[that guy]], a Union commander and a [[Creed|tactical genius]], is known for nuking a lot of pretty places like Atlanta and pwning every [[Chaos Space Marine|Confederate]] and [[Tau|Native American]] force he faced. He invented the total war strategy, which it is basically the earliest form of exterminatus. His "March to the sea" consisted of one massive offensive, abandoning supply lines and trying to cause as much damage as possible. The goal was a total disruption not only of the confederate's military, but of their economy and infrastructure. Crops were burned and fields salted, wells were poisoned, and everything was done so that when it came time for Sherman's troops to fall back the enemy could not use anything of the land. Telegraph lines, Rail lines, bridges and more were destroyed in massive amounts, and goods that weren't stolen for their own use were burned to prevent their use by the confederate states, even if said good has no direct military value. Even to this day the [[rage]] is legendary in the south. He and his troops are accused by southerners of rape, pillage, and plunder. <S>Sherman was actually against unchecked rampages like this</S>,[[Blam]]. Because of his hatred for everything, he becomes the [[Spiritual liege|spiritual forefather]] of [[/b/|anonymous]], for the fact he has shown those basement dweller the [[Humanity Fuck Yeah| true meaning to be humans]]. <S>He probably ascended to daemonhood of Khorne after his death, like pretty much all extremely badass warlords</S>[[Blam]] Sherman is one of the few humans to ever experience Reincarnation, as he obviously would become Inquisitor Kryptman in the Tyrannic Wars.

===Nine Familial Exterminations===

To put it simply: for your [[HERESY]], you, your entire family, your grandmother, your ancestors, your cats and your children are to be put to death! It is the most serious punishment created in the ancient [[Imperium|Imperial china]] in order to erase heresy stains at that time period. This is still being practices today in North Korea, however.

Fun Fact: One man actually managed to piss off the emperor enough that he got a ten familial exterminations.

===Wiki page Deletion===

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| [[Image:Konata_no_redeeming_value.gif|50px]]
| This article is bad and may or may not require deleting. Comment on the article's '''[[:{{TALKPAGENAME}}|talk page]]'''. '''Reason:''' This is how you set an article to be deleted:: Just add <nowiki>"{{deletion|reason}}"</nowiki> somewhere on the page.
|}
An electronic equivalent of Exterminatus for every wiki. To delete a page, the user must mark the page for review by the [[User:Wikifag|mod]] and provide a valid reason for why the article deserves to be purged. On this wiki for example, any non-/tg/-related shit should be removed to make sure that the only content is about a /tg/ related meme, or relates to traditional games in anyway. Unlike every other exterminatus above, the information can be reclaimed if the wiki has its backup file. That been said, vandalism is pointless, as users don't need mod permission to undo someone's shit changes.

==The Fall of Typhon==
Good to know there's a ceremony for blowing up a planet.

''"We have arrived, and it is now that we perform our charge. ''
''In fealty to the God-Emperor (our undying Lord) and by the grace of the Golden Throne, I declare Exterminatus upon the Imperial world of Typhon Primaris. ''
''I hereby sign the death warrant of an entire world and consign a million souls to oblivion. ''
''May Imperial Justice account in all balance. ''
''The Emperor Protects."''

==The Words of Gabriel Angelos==
''It is human nature to seek culpability in a time of tragedy. It is a sign of strength to cry out against fate, rather than to bow one's head and succumb. Inevitably many will fault the hands upon the sword which felled Typhon, the Ordo Malleus. But the Inquisition merely performs the duty of its office. To further fear them is redundant; to hate them, heretical. Those more sensible will place responsibility with those who forced the hands of the Inquisition. With some fortune, they may foster this hatred into purpose, and further rule their own fate by coming to the Emperor's service.''

''Yet ultimately, it was I who set these events into motion, with a single blow from my hammer, God Splitter.'' --Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens

Fuck, that's deep. The use of a properly modified version of this quote from Dawn of War Retribution has proved highly effective in sageing furfag troll threads and thus has been sanctioned by the holy /tg/ Inquisition for public use (keep it on /tg/).

==Battlefleet Gothic: Armada==
''Admiral Spire, it is said that heresy is like a tree. ''
''Its roots lie in darkness while its leaves wave in the sun. ''
''You can prune away its branches, even cut the tree to the ground. ''
''Yet it will grow again, ever stronger. ''
''Such is the nature of heresy and why it is so difficult to destroy. ''
''Some may question my right to destroy a world of ten billion souls. ''
''But for those who truly understand, realize I have no right to let them live. ''
''No sacrifice is too great. No treachery too small. ''
--Inquisitor Horst

==Exterminatus on the Tabletop==
Though not the most effective of lists, it is particularly hilarious and surprisingly fluffy to declare Exterminatus on large table games of 40k. The general gist is to simply stock up on as many large blast templates fired from off table as possible, whether via army list or stratagems. One relatively simple list is to simply take a [[Grey Knights]] army, field a single Bro-Capt. or Grand Master with an orbital Strike Relay, [[Witch Hunters|Karamazov]] (who also has one) and two troop choices (if you're playing a regular game -- if you're playing [[Apocalypse]], you can skip the troops) Then cram in as many Techmarines as you can, give them all Orbital Strike Relays and watch the bombs drop. For the average 3000 point game, you can get Krazypants off and 20 bare-bones techies with the relays. that's 21 Strength 10 AP1 pie-plates smashing down on your opponents Baneblades, Warhounds and other special hard-as-balls to kill shit your opponents have! Also great for swarm-busting (the relays can fire D3 pieplates each per guy but at Strength 6). Picture Krazypantsoff standing on a hilltop, pointing at buildings and going "Bang.", then watching them all blow up. Of course, if the Inquisitor dies, you're fucked. So maybe just camp him in cover. But that's only if you're lame.

For those of you with enough money to field the Horus Heresy army list from Forge World, Horus can call down an orbital strike with infinite range and S10 AP1 from anywhere on the map. Now you can reenact the Istvaan III atrocities yourself!

For an Apocalypse game you can also field an exterminatus guard force.
All you need is:
n * 6 guardsmen (one with a vox).
The list is fairly simple - Just field as many Company Command Squads with nothing but Master of Ordinance and fire away (for a 3k game its almost 38 s9 ap3 blasts a turn)
Don't forget to field some epic(troll) music to laugh at your opponents face, and after the battle proceed with knocking the table down to finish with a speech gritty nuff to make Sturnn himself proud.

As of 7th edition, it's now possible to forego the FoC chart and take whatever models you want. This means you can take 15 Chapter Masters in a 2k list.

In 40k terms, you can get some SERIOUS Exterminatus going with the [[Necrons|'Crons]] and their Doomsday Arks. In one Primary Detachment, for example, you can take a fully viable 1500-point Necron army as so: Overlord with Warscythe, 5 Immortals, 10 Warriors and 3 Doomsday Arks. If the Doomsday Arks don't move, they can provide one 72" Strength 10 AP 1 Primary Weapon Large Blast each, allowing for some serious [[butthurt]] from your opponents (and this may make you [[That Guy]] if done well because this is a level of cheese on the table that France would be proud of). If you're trying to break into a bunker-sized fortification, use these three things on the doors. Then you can re-enact the dying moments of [[The Conquest of Uttu Prime]] sans the [[Megalith]]!

==TL;DR==
You fuckers just backed Chaos and now you have a daemon infestation? Your planet 'gon git [[FATAL|raaaaaaaaaaaaaaped]].

<gallery>
image:exterminatus.jpg
image:exterminatus2.jpg
File:Red nuke button turned into EXTERMINATUS.png|Suffer not the Furry to live
File:Exterminatusthread.jpg|The E-quisition vigilantly purges the Emperor's internets of chaos taint.
File:Foxy Lady.jpg|If the inhabitants of a planet remotely resembles this creature, it's guaranteed to be exterminatused upon discovery. If pictures like this are found on a thread in /tg/, it's guaranteed to be saged and trolled upon discovery
File:Fall_of_Reach_1.jpg|If said inhabitants started space-faring like a certain [[Chakat|Chakat]], then you could call your local Inquisition or any Xeno manly enough to [[Get shit done|get shit done, just like the Covenant shown in the image.]]
File:Hello exterminatus Warhammer 40k sister of battle rule 34.jpg|See? The Internet can even make the end of the world look sexy!
File:Rocks are not free citizen.jpg|Don't suggest bolides as a method of exterminatus.
File:Sherman.gif
File:Ohara Incident.png|Although this is not a planet, it's just too B-E-A-[[weeaboo]]-TIFUL.
</gallery>

Vidya:
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNc242mbiUs&feature=channel_video_title
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM
* The unofficial theme-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_tIw9Il934
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEGo41443iI The heresy scene mentioned in the quotes at the top.]
[[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Meme]]

Exterminatus

2018-02-19T23:47:50Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

{{Topquote|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_Béziers Kill them all, The Emperor will recognize His own.]|Inquisitor Arnaud Amalric}}
{{Topquote|FUKKIN' HERETICS!|If the Emperor had a Text-to-speech device, Heresy Scene}}
[[Image:Exterminatus Retribution.jpg|right|450px|"I didn't expect that kind of Imperial [[Inquisition]]-" '''*BLAM*'''|thumb]]
'''Exterminatus''' is the biggest middle finger the [[Imperium of Man|Imperium]] can give to [[xenos]] and [[Chaos]] infestations on their own planets. It basically involves UTTERLY DESTROYING THE PLANET SURFACE via heavy orbital bombardment if they decide that it would be impossible to retake the planet by drowning their enemies in corpses, like they usually do.

And, of course, there is no kill like overkill.

Before you go into some sort of sanctimonious tirade about the morality of blowing the fuck out of an entire planet, understand the context. A world deemed worthy of Exterminatus is one considered past the point where anything can be salvaged from it - whether because it's about to be lost to [[Tyranids|countless ravening giant insects that will zerg-rush and eat fucking everything]] or [[Ork|reality-warping omnicidal fungi that reproduce into millions of spores every time one dies and will all kill you because they think it's fun]] or because it will be turned into a fucking [[Chaos|daemon-and-tentacle-rape-infested shit-pit where neither sanity nor time has any meaning]]. The alternative is fucking glassing a planet and trying to deny it to the enemy or ensure SOMETHING can be saved. It's the last-ditch measure and it's there because the alternative sucks even worse. It is the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth Scorched Earth] strategy on a planetary scale: if you can't have it, burn it, and that shit's broken the back of more empires and armies than we can count.

... [[grimdark|Or, you know, because the Inquisitor who ordered it decided he wanted one for his birthday]]. Oversight on Exterminatus orders is fairly nonexistent and it's easy to see why. The problem is the same one real life atomic weapons have, who do you want to have to be able to launch them? You want the most powerful, highly ranked people to have that authority, but if there so highly ranked and with so much power, who watches them? Who second guesses an Inquisitor's judgement about if a world is to be blown up or not? Nobody. [[Kryptman|The Imperium's only solution is to just declare the trigger happy sod Excommunicate Traitoris afterwards if they don't agree]]. The [[Just as Planned|over the top villainy of Warhammer 40k]] means that some fuckholes within the Imperium do get trigger happy with this, ordering an Exterminatus on worlds over things like a few of its people coming into contact with alien technology, or a small hint of [[heresy]] that would probably not require killing everything, or a loose pubic hair being in the Imperial's cereal this morning.

On the bright side, these instances are few and far between, and anyone caught destroying an uncorrupted planet, either for the [[lulz]] or [[Derp|stupidity]], is seen as wasting the "Emprah's Resource, Time and Money", and is forced to explain their [[Heresy|legitimate reasoning]]; though their excuse would most likely be something along the lines of "Chaos was there!" (or [[Kryptman|this could actually save Holy Terra here]], but he was still <s>called a [[Heresy|heretic]]</s> publicly sidelined from active duty for going overboard (yet being kept as 'consultant' by his colleagues because he just might be right).) and they would proceed to get a light slap on the wrist... [[Salamanders|unless they unfortunately meet a giant, angry black dude in green.]] What, you're surprised that an Empire of "Space Nazis 2.0" can have actual legitimate excuses, common sense, reasoning and sensibility? You're in for a whole new series of surprises...

(Joking aside, it's somewhat fluff dependent; in Seventh Retribution by Ben Counter, for instance, the Exterminatus is never even mentioned as a 'solution' despite the fact that the planet got infested with half a dozen demons with great powers. They use said power to mind control thousand of civilians to use them as cannon folder against the Imperial guard, or sacrifice hundreds of innocents to raise a well known flaying daemon to wreak havoc (although part of this was because the Officio Assassinorium had to be 100% sure that they had absolutely killed the antagonist with no margin for error). Also in both the ''Space Wolves Omnibus'' and in the Ultramarines ''Nightbringer'' books, we get Inquisitors saying they have been at it for well over a century without calling down the Exterminatus even once. Even in Retribution, Lord General Castor admits that the world was lost anyway.)

[[Deal with it]]. Bitching any further will rile the [[Commissar|Commissariat]]. You have been warned.

==Methods of Exterminatus==
The Imperium has several means for dealing with hopeless infestations:

===Just Shoot the Shit Out of It (Orbital Bombardment)===

Saturating planets with over-sized lazor cannons larger than apartment buildings is the stereotypical way of nuking the fuck out of something you don't like. Space Marine battlebarge bombardment cannons, Nova cannons, Lance batteries and any type of HUGE lazor is often used. Examples of this include the [[Dark Angels]] destroying their homeworld, Caliban, <s>after it was lost to heretics within their chapter</s> AFTER SOMEONE THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO HUNT FOR DINNER FOR OUR TOTALLY NON-HERETICAL AND OBVIOUSLY LOYAL BROTHERS USING THE ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT CANNONS, the [[Night Lords]]' purge of Nostramo, and during the purging of Typhon.

===Virus Bombs===

Virus Bombs are warheads loaded with the Life Eater virus, a biological payload that causes living tissue (plant or animal) to rot and decompose (which probably gives Nurgle a massive boner). The gist is that they release a virus that spreads by contact and causes necrosis of tissues and rapid decay of plant and animal tissues. This immediate rot causes a buildup of flammable gases, which in turn can be ignited by one of the lazors above (or any still smoldering Lho sticks, or any other source of flame), sweeping the area in firestorms. A relentless bombing of these fucking things is what reduced [[Tallarn]] from a verdant forest world to the desert hellhole it is now. They were also used by [[Horus|Warmaster Horus]] to kill off loyalists in the Traitor Legions during the Istvaan Campaign of the [[Horus Heresy]] (Life Eater virus eats through any filters and corrodes power armour till it gets to the gooey marine inside, though a Dreadnought can endure it easily). Though a popular method of Exterminatus during the [[Great Crusade]], according to [[Amberley Vail]], virus bombs are only rarely used in the "present time" because the Inquisition has figured out that every time they're used, they feed the fucking [[Nurgle|Plaguefather]]. Whoops.

===Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo===

Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedoes are [[plasma]] torpedoes that burst in low planetary orbit and super-heat the atmosphere of a planet until all combustible material ignites. This method of Exterminatus was used on Medusa IV. Pretty much like the Virus Bomb, except it skips right to the firestorm part and directly turns the planet's surface into an endless expanse of raging hellfire. It is said that the aftermath of the planet's surface (Medusa IV's case) was melted to glass and that the entire world burned like a piece of amber in space even a month after the attack had been launched. They are only effective on planets with relatively stable atmospheres made of flammable gas, however, and plasma torpedos are both somewhat rare and expensive.

===Modalis Atmospheric Missile===

Another weapon that has similar results from the Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo but its function is completely different. Regarded as the most powerful incendiary device accessible in the Imperium. The Modalis Atmospheric Missile is one ECKS BAWKS HUEG Phosphex weapons used to burn a planet into a crisp. Think White Phosphorous on steroids. A salvo of several Modalis Atmospheric Missiles from orbiting warships will blanket an entire world in deadly Phosphex. The resultant firestorm of green mist will eat away at every carbon-based element on the planet, rendering it uninhabitable. All that would be left would be dust and echoes.

===Cyclonic Torpedoes===

The primary method of Exterminatus used in the 41st millennium, these are basically nukes OD'd on steroids. These capital ship-fired warheads each generate a series of massive, self-sustaining nuclear reactions, which, when fired in bulk, fuels a much larger reaction that causes the devastation to spread and multiply, eventually glassing the entire world with a thermonuclear holocaust given a sufficient barrage. If you fire enough in the same spot it will break through the crust of a planet, causing part of the mantle to erupt out, royally buttfucking the entire planet in the process ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM see ''Fire Warrior'' end cinematic]). [[Krieg]] is an example of a radioactive perpetual-winter world that survived multiple cyclonic torpedo strikes, though in this case it was on a much smaller scale. This was the method that probably killed Typhon, in combination with the above shoot-the-shit-out-of-it method. (Another theory holds that the bombardment is used to remove anything that might prevent the torpedo from reaching the surface or to weaken planets crust.) Only the [[Inquisition]] and the [[Space Marines]] are authorized to carry cyclonic torpedoes in their warships, the former because the Inquisition has the authority to do anything, and the latter because the Imperium figures that if the Space Marines can't beat it, nothing else will.

Cyclonic Torpedoes are pretty variable in their strength, either due to there being different classes of torpedoes or the fact that the strength of a single cyclonic torpedo has never been nailed down in official materials. In one case, ol' Abby dropped a dozen to fry a single hive, in another a single torpedo is a qualified planet cracker. Similarly, this method is the easiest to thwart with shields, as they disrupt the stacked efficiency needed for ongoing detonation.

===Two-Stage Cyclonic Torpedoes===

In the two-stage torpedo, a [[melta]] charge activates first to allow the weapon to burrow into the planet's crust and down to the core. The second stage thermonuclear charge then goes off, causing the planet to break apart Death Star style. This is really the only way to deal with Necron Tomb Worlds since, due to their tendency to make everything subterranean, they aren't overly bothered by the other methods which devastate the surface but leave the planet as a whole mostly intact. Talos of the Night Lords used a smaller version of these when a Genesis Chapter strike cruiser tried to hide behind a moon. So he [[Awesome|blew a continent-sized hole through the moon]], and watched the loyalist ship get torn apart as a new asteroid field got shotgunned into space.

===Smashing It with a Fucking Moon===

This method involves radically altering the orbit of a nearby moon or large asteroid and placing it on a collision course with the planet, and therefore requires the use of several Mechanicus voidships. This method was used to destroy Phaenon Prime when the Virus Bomb failed to wipe out the planet's corruptive influence. It was also used during the [[Horus Heresy]] by renegade Iron Hands commander Autek Mor to destroy the World Eaters recruitment world of Bodt and during the Badab War to finally smash through [[Huron Blackheart]]'s defensive Ring of Steel around Badab. Needless to say, this pretty much fucking annihilates the planet in question (or whatever else it's thrown at like Huron's defensive systems). Despite its flair and effectiveness, [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rocks_Are_Not_Free! the Administratum vehemently requests that Imperial commanders avoid this method whenever possible], because it's stupidly expensive -- it can take weeks or even months for the moon or asteroid in question to actually strike the planet, which costs rations and sublight fuel while the ships sit around doing fuck-all; orbital bombardments only cost about one day's worth of rations and fuel, plus the ammunition, which comes out to be less expensive.

===Release the Krourk===

Krourk [[Ogryn]] are known as the most brutal, powerful, and primitive tribe of Ogryn in the Imperium (and that's saying something). They are so well-known for their frightening savagery in close combat that they're considered a solid match for Orks, and are also known for being so primitively stupid that the Imperial Guard can't even teach them to use traditional Ogryn weapons like ripper guns. Their reputation is so fearsome that it has gotten to the point where deploying thousands of these things is considered a crude method of Exterminatus amongst Imperial commanders, given that they'll attempt to kill anything within visual range, friend or foe.

===[[Daemon Engine|Pseudoscientific Sorcery]]===

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==Non-Imperium Exterminatus==
Several factions outside the Imperium do things similar to the Imperial Exterminatus (adding any examples from the lore would be greatly appreciated). However, most of them don't use these methods often. Some examples:

===Craftworld Eldar===

The [[Eldar|Craftworld Eldar]] have some respect for life (and not nearly as many weapons of mass destruction as they had before the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]]) so they don't do it often. Didn't stop them from purging all life in the Octarius system to clean up [[Kryptman|Kryptman's]] mess, though. The most well-known Eldar engines of planetary destruction are called [[Blackstone Fortress|Blackstone Fortresses]], which are ancient weapons they designed to fight the [[C'tan]]. To put it simply, think of a floating citadel with a distort weapon (like the ones the [[Wraithguard]] have) the size of an Emperor-class battleship. During the Gothic Wars, three Blackstone Fortresses combined their power to cause a star to go supernova, destroying an entire solar system.

In Apocalypse War Zone: Valedor, the Craftworld Eldar from [[Iyanden]] procured another type of ancient WMD, the Fireheart: a complex nodal resonator capable of causing a planet's molten core to enter violent death throes and send lakes of lava to the surface. The [[Dark Eldar]] originally had this, but they gave it away because they didn't have the psychic power to active the weapon. The Fireheart was used successfully on Valedor and prevented Hive Fleets [[Hive Fleet Kraken|Kraken]] and [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|Behemoth]] from joining forces. If they had, the [[Tyranids]] would have had all of the genetic data of the Orks and the Eldar, enabling them to fashion unthinkable monstrosities.

Before the fall (and possibly still kicking around somewhere) they had devices that fired entire suns or black holes at their enemies.

===Dark Eldar===

The [[Dark Eldar]] lack a good stockpile of planet-killing weaponry and prefer to keep planets intact for slaves, although they are still capable of exterminating the populace of entire planets if they wanted to. One method is pillaging the shit out of it. Its been proven time and time again that an entire Kabal is more than capable of kidnapping an entire planet of it's populace, faster than that local PDF trooper can finish his scream of agony. There has also been one instance of an entire Hive World being poisoned by the Dark Eldar, smashing a Space Hulk at a realm and havings its warp drives detonate to release hordes of daemons, and there's also counting the DE's ability to steal entire suns; allowing them to turn entire habitable planets into ice worlds if need be. They also possess a psychic doomsday device called The Fireheart to implode a planet's core -- originally invented and mass-produced by the Eldar Empire, what few Firehearts they have left are triggered by psychic resonance (and thus useless to Dark Eldar unless they can trick some Craftworlders into using it). The Kabal of the Dying Sun has devices that extinguish stars, while Vect keeps black holes in his back pocket to troll people.

Let's not forget just taking their sun as a trophy and letting the entire star system die...

The Dark Eldar can also just have other races kill planets for them. [[Just as Planned|Through manipulation from the sides; they could convince (and managed to do so at one point) the Imperium to declare Exterminatus on a planet.]]

===Necrons===

The [[Necrons]] have lost many WMDs, but may have several more just waiting to be awakened. ([[Not as Planned|Maybe the Necrons are more trigger-happy with Exterminatus than the Imperium, but they're better at ensuring there're no witnesses]]). One of their most notorious Exterminatus-tier machines was the [[The World Engine|World Engine]], which was a planet-sized vessel equipped with the largest [[Gauss|gauss weapon]] known to man. It looked like the combination of a Death Star, Unicron and a Forerunner Shield-World all rolled into one. A [[Rape|flying rape-machine of ungodly proportions]], it took a coalition of several Space Marine chapters and the entire Imperial fleet of the Vidar Subsector to destroy it. For some reason, it had shields that could withstand the [[Awesome|bombardment of an ''entire navy'',]] yet it was [[What|vulnerable]] to a ship [[Meme|impacting at sufficient velocity.]] (Although it is possible that the shields weren't designed to deflect speeding projectiles the size of battle barges.)

The Maynarkh dynasty deploys a peculiar device that causes supercharged solar flares that incinerate the daylight-facing sides of ALL planets in a system. <s>Granted, it only exterminates roughly half of each planet, but if they want to finish the job all they need is to wait half a day cycle and fire it again.</s> While dull people may not realize it, incinerating half a planet's surface would also incinerate its atmosphere, stripping the whole planet bare of its life giving biosphere, or whatever gases it had trapped. Unfortunately for the survivors, Maynarkh Necrons are more interested in making a planetfall and skinning them alive.

Maybe under certain circumstances, if the Necrons wanted to destroy a world, they could just unleash a particularly powerful Transcendent C'tan shard on it without a Tesseract Vault. Though it would most likely escape and be nearly impossible to return to Necron control, it would achieve the same effects. Also, the Tombworld of Thanatos has a giant hologram map of the galaxy known as the Celestial Orrery, and if you were to destroy a star on it, the real life counterpart would go supernova. However, the Necrons don't really use it (since they're more about conquering planets than destroying them). Instead, they just treat it like a giant bonsai tree. (You would think a branch to clip would be Terra, Fenris, Macragge, Baal etc but nope)

The Necrons can also employ an [[Abattoir]] when directly terraforming a planet. They are large, [[monolith]]-like devices except that they physically carry what they're transporting, are the size of a small city, and are covered in tentacles that disintegrate organic material while harvesting its anguish.

===Tyranids===

No, [[Tyranids]], you are the exterminatus.

A Tyranid fleet's primary objective is to devour entire planets and systems for biomass. After they're done, the world they invaded is left a lifeless rock, utterly devoid of life.

The Tyranids also travel through sublight via gravity manipulations, and these can rip apart asteroids and small moons entirely before the 'nids make planetfall.

===Orks===

In theory, the [[Ork]]s could develop an Exterminatus-size weapon (as much by accident and luck as by design); they grab an asteroid, put engines and weapons and armor on it, fill it with Orks, and then ram it full speed into a planet. It wouldn't matter if it turned out to function as a giant transport or just a suicide missile; it generates tremendous amounts of [[lulz]] and serves its purpose of making a big boom, which is all the Orks are concerned with. This haphazard design and construction process would limit the amount of these contraptions the Orks could build (if any). In general, however, Orks want to avoid wiping out everything on the planet from orbit, as it would leave them with nothing to fight on the ground. Although a Big Mek in need of roks once smashed a moon into a planet and took his pick from the best bits.

Ork Roks. Big hollowed asteroids they slam into planets as one way reentry vessels. Used during the Third War for Armageddon.

===Tau Empire===

While the [[Tau]] almost certainly have the technological capability to destroy entire planets (I mean, if the fucking [[Derp|Orks]] can figure it out, then the Tau definitely can), there are a number of philosophical, political, and strategic reasons that they would avoid doing this in all but the most extreme circumstances. For one, the Tau Empire is in the process of expanding, and it isn't exactly conducive to your expansion efforts to blow up perfectly colonizable worlds; thus the Tau would likely see Imperial Exterminatus orders as an egregious waste of resources, which they wouldn't be completely wrong about. Also, the Tau are arguably [[Grimdark|the only race in the 40k universe]] who operate by something parodying a moral compass, so the idea of obliterating a planet and its inhabitants is likely appalling to their [[Noblebright|naive wittle sensibilities]].

On the other hand, the Tau have officially declared some races (Orks, Tyranids, Dark Eldar, and Necrons) "lost causes" to be destroyed wherever encountered, so one could plausibly imagine a situation hopeless enough that they would sacrifice a planet to be rid of them. Still, they would probably try to at least leave the world itself salvageable and only exterminate the infesting species. There are stories of populations being sterilized or generally dispatched, which is about as mean as the Tau get; one such case was the Poctroon, who were the first sapient species they ever encountered. Their planet was ripe for colonization, and when the Tau arrived, the Poctroon all died of a 'mysterious' contagion, though the Tau obviously have admitted no diabolical fuckery.

As their expansion accelerated deeper into Imperial space, the Tau started to deploy more and more experimental technologies to both battlefields and production lines, some of which weren't properly tested. As a result, quite a few moons, planets and even stars have been accidentally destroyed by various mishaps. While such destruction sometimes happened to be advantageous to Tau forces (for example, by shattering Imperial defenses with massive tidal waves and earthquakes after the destruction of a planet's moon), they have shown no attempts to weaponize it.

The Tau also have orbital high-yield nuclear warhead options, but they generally use them to generate EMP pulses to blackout a wide area. They can also use these warheads to scatter toxic radiation over an area instead, though, burning through flesh and killing those below.

The Tau are also one of the few factions in 40k who still possess functioning terraforming technology (the Eldar lost theirs during the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]], Tyranid "terraforming" is more just them going about eating everything, and Necron terraforming is an Exterminatus on its own), so they can restore exterminated planets to habitability again, provided they haven't been utterly destroyed Deathstar-style. So yes, [[Meme| in the Tau Empire, Exterminatus get purged by YOU!]]

One of the notable example would be [[Commander Or'es'Ka]] from [[Dawn of War|dawn of war soulstorm]], where he had this huge ass gun called "Ar'Ka Cannon" installed on the moon of Kaurava system. The cannon can fire anywhere in the Kaurava system (including the moon where the cannon is), obliterate his enemies before he moves in. The said [[ork|BIGGIZT GUNZ]] is also the most Eco-friendly WMD ever built in the grimdark future, as it is capable of damaging only advance life form, while preventing from harming plants and building. Hilariously, he got the idea of WMD from watching the inquisition <s>doing their sorry excuse for fun</s> killing the enemies of the mankind FOR THE EMPEROR!!!

===Forces of Chaos===

Being former servants of the Imperium, fleets of [[Chaos Space Marines]] often still possess the good old Imperial Exterminatus weapons, like virus bombs for the old legions, cyclonic torpedoes for more recently turned traitors, or Just Shoot The Shit Out Of It for any warband with ships in their fleet big enough to carry the guns. Occasionally they will pillage Imperial Exteminatus weapons, or else invent some of their own with technology, sorcery, daemonic shit or some combination of the three. [[Honsou|Some]] Chaos guys tend to be quite inventive in finding ways to kill planets.

During one of his Black Crusades, [[Abaddon]] managed to steal or destroy all of the Blackstone Fortresses that the Imperium had in their possession. Naturally, they work just as well for Chaos as they did for the Eldar (and far better than they ever did for the Imperium). He also commissioned an incredibly huge destroyer of a spaceship, the front half of which is basically a battery of miles-long energy cannons. This "Armageddon Gun" can split a planet in half with one shot.

Then there is World Eaters, who live up to their name when they are united. 50,000 of these motherfuckers slaughtered 70 Sectors in Angron's Dominion of Fire campaign. [[Derp| Then all the planets they conquered was retaken. It seems like they forgot to salt the earth.]] To be fair though, Imperium needed four Chapters, two Titan Legions and more than thirty Guard Regiments (''However, WAAAGH Skargor took on fifty Guard regiments and SIX space murheen chapters. Perhaps World Eaters lack the power of [[dakka]].''). Back in Great Crusade, these butchers manually killed everything on the planets they went to conquer. Most of the time, it took them one day. This gave birth to another problem: There was no subjects on these planets to rule over. So the Emprah had to sent fleets to colonize planets left over by World Eaters, which was a pain in the arse for him.

Uniquely amongst 40k factions, the armies of Chaos can make planets Exterminatus-proof by turning them into [[Daemon World|Daemon Worlds]], where the laws of physics are fucked up so hard by the power of the [[Warp]] that all weapons just cease to function on and around it, or even achieve the opposite effect by nourishing the daemon patron of the world and making him even stronger (don't even think about virus bombing a [[Nurgle]] Daemon World). Though admittedly, from literally any point of view besides that of Chaos, Exterminatus is a preferable option to Daemon World transformation, as it would just kill you, rather than damning you to the eternity of torment.

Of course, there's also the act of summoning [[Aetaos'Rau'Keres]]. Keres will turn any planet he's summoned on into a lifeless husk. He doesn't care what side you are on or even if you're the cult that summoned him; he will murder ''everyone'' unlucky enough to be on the planet he's currently on. Such is his methods that he's the closest thing the Chaos Daemons have to a true planetary exterminatus.

==IRL Exterminatus==

''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_catastrophic_risk see Global Catastrophic Risk]''

===Thermo-Nuclear Holocaust===

Apparently, even when we aren't in the 41st millennium we still mastered the art of royally buttfucking a planet. In this case, it's ours, and a full-scale thermonuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union (who each have thousands and thousands of nukes) would be enough to kill off humanity multiple times over. This is how Mutually Assured Destruction works, threatening each other and our own planet with Exterminatus with zero chance of survival, just so we won't begin another World War. Because [[Imperium of Man|we're bastards like that]]. The Cobalt Bombs described by Dr. Strangelove above are actually possible, though currently theoretical. Nuclear weapons designed to be deployed as bombs or missiles aren't strong enough to destroy the world with only 50 warheads, but if you don't mind moving the weapon once it's built, the only limit on how big your nuke can get is how much material you're willing to use on it. In theory, the doomsday device of Dr. Strangelove could be achieved with a single massive bomb.

This is further worth mentioning because automated retaliation systems that could activate nuclear weapons in response to a detected threat ''actually existed''. The Soviet Union had the "Dead Hand" system, based off of seismic, air pressure, and EM sensors. The system was normally kept inactive and was only supposed to be turned on during a crisis to guarantee that the Soviets would still be able to use their weapons even if their leadership was taken out by a first strike.

Some believe that elements of the Dead Hand system may have been lost or buried, and are active to this day. [[grimdark|A ticking automated Exterminatus waiting for a signal from aging cold-war era sensors.]]

An old quote from the film ''WarGames'' summarizes the game of Global Thermonuclear War/Exterminatus: ''The only winning move is not to play..."

===An Asteroid===

Really, all it takes to kill everything on a planet is a big enough rock traveling fast enough. Normally it's the cloud of dust that is kicked up into the atmosphere and blocks out the sun that does most of the work. Dinosaurs learned this the hard way. Of course, this doesn't really work too well on a forge or hive world which is already like that. For raw destructive force, however, the damage is a function of the speed and size of the asteroid. The former has some practical limits (though a civilization looking to weaponize this sort of exterminatus could possibly bring the rock up to relativistic speeds), but the latter can be nearly unlimited. A collision with a near planet-sized object would be more devastating than most ''fictional'' exterminatus weapons, obliterating the target world entirely. There could be any number of so-called 'rogue' planets floating in the empty spaces between stars, ready to slide into the solar system and crash into Earth, assuming humanity fails its collective ''Save or Die'' roll for the week. They'd have to [[fail]] incredibly hard because the overwhelming chance is that the rogue body will end up into the Sun (or Jupiter as a distant second choice), but yeah. [[Just as planned|Shit happens, yo!]]

===Super Volcano===

Works on the same principal as the asteroid, that if you get enough shit into the atmosphere you've royally fucked all life bigger than a mouse. This may not be very likely though on Earth as one of the biggest volcanoes (see yellowstone park) wouldn't wipe out humanity, probably. Maybe.

Unless, of course, seismic activity from that eruption managed to trigger the [http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25598050/ OTHER NINETEEN] super volcanoes.

===SAGE-Bombing===

The electronic equivalent of Exterminatus, a Sagebomb is achieved by repeatedly using the SAGE (Japanese for "lower") tag on a thread, ergo reducing its priority. When fired in bulk by multiple users simultaneously, such barrages of SAGE are capable of dragging almost any thread screaming down to the depths of a given imageboard, where they will eventually be purged. The ultimate fate for all threads containing [[Furry]] and similar [[Heresy]].

...Or at least that's how many fa/tg/uys think it works.

SAGE is supposed to add a "negative" response to a given thread, ergo reducing its apparent post-count. Because such a system would be easy to [[troll]] others, however, SAGE instead is used simply to reply without bumping a given thread. In [[Dungeons and Dragons|olden times]], SAGE ''did'' work that way supposedly, however, and was a tool of righteous wrath. Sagebombing still has an effect to the extent that once a thread passes the "autosage" limit it can no longer be bumped even by normal posts, and so even if it is still active it will still sink to the bottom of the board and into the depths of deletion; hence a large number of zero-content SAGEs will hasten the demise of the thread without bumping it in the process, although they do not actively cause the thread's departure.

===The Black Death===

What can be said about the Black Death or more accurately the Bubonic plague. It's killed more people than every war in human history put together,in 541–542 it killed one in four of the population of Constantinople, the cemeteries filled up, they ran of open land in the city, then the mass graves out side the city filled up, they threw the dead into guard towers, onto ships to sail the Mediterranean just to get them out of the city. food rotted in the fields and there was famine. During the 14th century, the plague had a second tour of Europe killing 30-60% of the total population across Europe, all of Europe, Peasant, Priest, noble or criminal the Plague killed everyone. on top of that, the Plague is horrifying to die of: [[Nurgle|you grow boils, your skin rots off your body, Seizures, continuous vomiting of blood, and extreme pain caused by the decay of the skin]]. In one of the many examples of the repercussion of the plague on the modern world, which would require an entire book to cover in full, it would not be hard to say that without the Plague, Nurgle and the entire gothic aesthetic of the Imperium would not exist.

===William Tecumseh Sherman===
[[File:Tree creed.JPG|200px|thumb|right|The only tree Khorne will ever decorate with bloody corpses on Christmas.]]
William, yeah [[that guy]], a Union commander and a [[Creed|tactical genius]], is known for nuking a lot of pretty places like Atlanta and pwning every [[Chaos Space Marine|Confederate]] and [[Tau|Native American]] force he faced. He invented the total war strategy, which it is basically the earliest form of exterminatus. His "March to the sea" consisted of one massive offensive, abandoning supply lines and trying to cause as much damage as possible. The goal was a total disruption not only of the confederate's military, but of their economy and infrastructure. Crops were burned and fields salted, wells were poisoned, and everything was done so that when it came time for Sherman's troops to fall back the enemy could not use anything of the land. Telegraph lines, Rail lines, bridges and more were destroyed in massive amounts, and goods that weren't stolen for their own use were burned to prevent their use by the confederate states, even if said good has no direct military value. Even to this day the [[rage]] is legendary in the south. He and his troops are accused by southerners of rape, pillage, and plunder. <S>Sherman was actually against unchecked rampages like this</S>,[[Blam]]. Because of his hatred for everything, he becomes the [[Spiritual liege|spiritual forefather]] of [[/b/|anonymous]], for the fact he has shown those basement dweller the [[Humanity Fuck Yeah| true meaning to be humans]]. <S>He probably ascended to daemonhood of Khorne after his death, like pretty much all extremely badass warlords</S>[[Blam]] Sherman is one of the few humans to ever experience Reincarnation, as he obviously would become Inquisitor Kryptman in the Tyrannic Wars.

===Nine Familial Exterminations===

To put it simply: for your [[HERESY]], you, your entire family, your grandmother, your ancestors, your cats and your children are to be put to death! It is the most serious punishment created in the ancient [[Imperium|Imperial china]] in order to erase heresy stains at that time period. This is still being practices today in North Korea, however.

Fun Fact: One man actually managed to piss off the emperor enough that he got a ten familial exterminations.

===Wiki page Deletion===

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| [[Image:Konata_no_redeeming_value.gif|50px]]
| This article is bad and may or may not require deleting. Comment on the article's '''[[:{{TALKPAGENAME}}|talk page]]'''. '''Reason:''' This is how you set an article to be deleted:: Just add <nowiki>"{{deletion|reason}}"</nowiki> somewhere on the page.
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An electronic equivalent of Exterminatus for every wiki. To delete a page, the user must mark the page for review by the [[User:Wikifag|mod]] and provide a valid reason for why the article deserves to be purged. On this wiki for example, any non-/tg/-related shit should be removed to make sure that the only content is about a /tg/ related meme, or relates to traditional games in anyway. Unlike every other exterminatus above, the information can be reclaimed if the wiki has its backup file. That been said, vandalism is pointless, as users don't need mod permission to undo someone's shit changes.

==The Fall of Typhon==
Good to know there's a ceremony for blowing up a planet.

''"We have arrived, and it is now that we perform our charge. ''
''In fealty to the God-Emperor (our undying Lord) and by the grace of the Golden Throne, I declare Exterminatus upon the Imperial world of Typhon Primaris. ''
''I hereby sign the death warrant of an entire world and consign a million souls to oblivion. ''
''May Imperial Justice account in all balance. ''
''The Emperor Protects."''

==The Words of Gabriel Angelos==
''It is human nature to seek culpability in a time of tragedy. It is a sign of strength to cry out against fate, rather than to bow one's head and succumb. Inevitably many will fault the hands upon the sword which felled Typhon, the Ordo Malleus. But the Inquisition merely performs the duty of its office. To further fear them is redundant; to hate them, heretical. Those more sensible will place responsibility with those who forced the hands of the Inquisition. With some fortune, they may foster this hatred into purpose, and further rule their own fate by coming to the Emperor's service.''

''Yet ultimately, it was I who set these events into motion, with a single blow from my hammer, God Splitter.'' --Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens

Fuck, that's deep. The use of a properly modified version of this quote from Dawn of War Retribution has proved highly effective in sageing furfag troll threads and thus has been sanctioned by the holy /tg/ Inquisition for public use (keep it on /tg/).

==Battlefleet Gothic: Armada==
''Admiral Spire, it is said that heresy is like a tree. ''
''Its roots lie in darkness while its leaves wave in the sun. ''
''You can prune away its branches, even cut the tree to the ground. ''
''Yet it will grow again, ever stronger. ''
''Such is the nature of heresy and why it is so difficult to destroy. ''
''Some may question my right to destroy a world of ten billion souls. ''
''But for those who truly understand, realize I have no right to let them live. ''
''No sacrifice is too great. No treachery too small. ''
--Inquisitor Horst

==Exterminatus on the Tabletop==
Though not the most effective of lists, it is particularly hilarious and surprisingly fluffy to declare Exterminatus on large table games of 40k. The general gist is to simply stock up on as many large blast templates fired from off table as possible, whether via army list or stratagems. One relatively simple list is to simply take a [[Grey Knights]] army, field a single Bro-Capt. or Grand Master with an orbital Strike Relay, [[Witch Hunters|Karamazov]] (who also has one) and two troop choices (if you're playing a regular game -- if you're playing [[Apocalypse]], you can skip the troops) Then cram in as many Techmarines as you can, give them all Orbital Strike Relays and watch the bombs drop. For the average 3000 point game, you can get Krazypants off and 20 bare-bones techies with the relays. that's 21 Strength 10 AP1 pie-plates smashing down on your opponents Baneblades, Warhounds and other special hard-as-balls to kill shit your opponents have! Also great for swarm-busting (the relays can fire D3 pieplates each per guy but at Strength 6). Picture Krazypantsoff standing on a hilltop, pointing at buildings and going "Bang.", then watching them all blow up. Of course, if the Inquisitor dies, you're fucked. So maybe just camp him in cover. But that's only if you're lame.

For those of you with enough money to field the Horus Heresy army list from Forge World, Horus can call down an orbital strike with infinite range and S10 AP1 from anywhere on the map. Now you can reenact the Istvaan III atrocities yourself!

For an Apocalypse game you can also field an exterminatus guard force.
All you need is:
n * 6 guardsmen (one with a vox).
The list is fairly simple - Just field as many Company Command Squads with nothing but Master of Ordinance and fire away (for a 3k game its almost 38 s9 ap3 blasts a turn)
Don't forget to field some epic(troll) music to laugh at your opponents face, and after the battle proceed with knocking the table down to finish with a speech gritty nuff to make Sturnn himself proud.

As of 7th edition, it's now possible to forego the FoC chart and take whatever models you want. This means you can take 15 Chapter Masters in a 2k list.

In 40k terms, you can get some SERIOUS Exterminatus going with the [[Necrons|'Crons]] and their Doomsday Arks. In one Primary Detachment, for example, you can take a fully viable 1500-point Necron army as so: Overlord with Warscythe, 5 Immortals, 10 Warriors and 3 Doomsday Arks. If the Doomsday Arks don't move, they can provide one 72" Strength 10 AP 1 Primary Weapon Large Blast each, allowing for some serious [[butthurt]] from your opponents (and this may make you [[That Guy]] if done well because this is a level of cheese on the table that France would be proud of). If you're trying to break into a bunker-sized fortification, use these three things on the doors. Then you can re-enact the dying moments of [[The Conquest of Uttu Prime]] sans the [[Megalith]]!

==TL;DR==
You fuckers just backed Chaos and now you have a daemon infestation? Your planet 'gon git [[FATAL|raaaaaaaaaaaaaaped]].

<gallery>
image:exterminatus.jpg
image:exterminatus2.jpg
File:Red nuke button turned into EXTERMINATUS.png|Suffer not the Furry to live
File:Exterminatusthread.jpg|The E-quisition vigilantly purges the Emperor's internets of chaos taint.
File:Foxy Lady.jpg|If the inhabitants of a planet remotely resembles this creature, it's guaranteed to be exterminatused upon discovery. If pictures like this are found on a thread in /tg/, it's guaranteed to be saged and trolled upon discovery
File:Fall_of_Reach_1.jpg|If said inhabitants started space-faring like a certain [[Chakat|Chakat]], then you could call your local Inquisition or any Xeno manly enough to [[Get shit done|get shit done, just like the Covenant shown in the image.]]
File:Hello exterminatus Warhammer 40k sister of battle rule 34.jpg|See? The Internet can even make the end of the world look sexy!
File:Rocks are not free citizen.jpg|Don't suggest bolides as a method of exterminatus.
File:Sherman.gif
File:Ohara Incident.png|Although this is not a planet, it's just too B-E-A-[[weeaboo]]-TIFUL.
</gallery>

Vidya:
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNc242mbiUs&feature=channel_video_title
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM
* The unofficial theme-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_tIw9Il934
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEGo41443iI The heresy scene mentioned in the quotes at the top.]
[[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Meme]]

Exterminatus

2018-02-19T23:47:27Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

{{Topquote|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_Béziers Kill them all, The Emperor will recognize His own.]|Inquisitor Arnaud Amalric}}
{{Topquote|FUKKIN' HERETICS!|If the Emperor had a Text-to-speech device, Heresy Scene}}
[[Image:Exterminatus Retribution.jpg|right|450px|"I didn't expect that kind of Imperial [[Inquisition]]-" '''*BLAM*'''|thumb]]
'''Exterminatus''' is the biggest middle finger the [[Imperium of Man|Imperium]] can give to [[xenos]] and [[Chaos]] infestations on their own planets. It basically involves UTTERLY DESTROYING THE PLANET SURFACE via heavy orbital bombardment if they decide that it would be impossible to retake the planet by drowning their enemies in corpses, like they usually do.

And, of course, there is no kill like overkill.

Before you go into some sort of sanctimonious tirade about the morality of blowing the fuck out of an entire planet, understand the context. A world deemed worthy of Exterminatus is one considered past the point where anything can be salvaged from it - whether because it's about to be lost to [[Tyranids|countless ravening giant insects that will zerg-rush and eat fucking everything]] or [[Ork|reality-warping omnicidal fungi that reproduce into millions of spores every time one dies and will all kill you because they think it's fun]] or because it will be turned into a fucking [[Chaos|daemon-and-tentacle-rape-infested shit-pit where neither sanity nor time has any meaning]]. The alternative is fucking glassing a planet and trying to deny it to the enemy or ensure SOMETHING can be saved. It's the last-ditch measure and it's there because the alternative sucks even worse. It is the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth Scorched Earth] strategy on a planetary scale: if you can't have it, burn it, and that shit's broken the back of more empires and armies than we can count.

... [[grimdark|Or, you know, because the Inquisitor who ordered it decided he wanted one for his birthday]]. Oversight on Exterminatus orders is fairly nonexistent and it's easy to see why. The problem is the same one real life atomic weapons have, who do you want to have to be able to launch them? You want the most powerful, highly ranked people to have that authority, but if there so highly ranked and with so much power, who watches them? Who second guesses an Inquisitor's judgement about if a world is to be blown up or not? Nobody. [[Kryptman|The Imperium's only solution is to just declare the trigger happy sod Excommunicate Traitoris afterwards if they don't agree]]. The [[Just as Planned|over the top villainy of Warhammer 40k]] means that some fuckholes within the Imperium do get trigger happy with this, ordering an Exterminatus on worlds over things like a few of its people coming into contact with alien technology, or a small hint of [[heresy]] that would probably not require killing everything, or a loose pubic hair being in the Imperial's cereal this morning.

On the bright side, these instances are few and far between, and anyone caught destroying an uncorrupted planet, either for the [[lulz]] or [[Derp|stupidity]], is seen as wasting the "Emprah's Resource, Time and Money", and is forced to explain their [[Heresy|legitimate reasoning]]; though their excuse would most likely be something along the lines of "Chaos was there!" (or [[Kryptman|this could actually save Holy Terra here]], but he was still <s>called a [[Heresy|heretic]]</s> publicly sidelined from active duty for going overboard (yet being kept as 'consultant' by his colleagues because he just might be right).) and they would proceed to get a light slap on the wrist... [[Salamanders|unless they unfortunately meet a giant, angry black dude in green.]] What, you're surprised that an Empire of "Space Nazis 2.0" can have actual legitimate excuses, common sense, reasoning and sensibility? You're in for a whole new series of surprises...

(Joking aside, it's somewhat fluff dependent; in Seventh Retribution by Ben Counter, for instance, the Exterminatus is never even mentioned as a 'solution' despite the fact that the planet got infested with half a dozen demons with great powers. They use said power to mind control thousand of civilians to use them as cannon folder against the Imperial guard, or sacrifice hundreds of innocents to raise a well known flaying daemon to wreak havoc (although part of this was because the Officio Assassinorium had to be 100% sure that they had absolutely killed the antagonist with no margin for error). Also in both the ''Space Wolves Omnibus'' and in the Ultramarines ''Nightbringer'' books, we get Inquisitors saying they have been at it for well over a century without calling down the Exterminatus even once. Even in Retribution, Lord General Castor admits that the world was lost anyway.)

[[Deal with it]]. Bitching any further will rile the [[Commissar|Commissariat]]. You have been warned.

==Methods of Exterminatus==
The Imperium has several means for dealing with hopeless infestations:

===Just Shoot the Shit Out of It (Orbital Bombardment)===

Saturating planets with over-sized lazor cannons larger than apartment buildings is the stereotypical way of nuking the fuck out of something you don't like. Space Marine battlebarge bombardment cannons, Nova cannons, Lance batteries and any type of HUGE lazor is often used. Examples of this include the [[Dark Angels]] destroying their homeworld, Caliban, <s>after it was lost to heretics within their chapter</s> AFTER SOMEONE THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO HUNT FOR DINNER FOR OUR TOTALLY NON-HERETICAL AND OBVIOUSLY LOYAL BROTHERS USING THE ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT CANNONS, the [[Night Lords]]' purge of Nostramo, and during the purging of Typhon.

===Virus Bombs===

Virus Bombs are warheads loaded with the Life Eater virus, a biological payload that causes living tissue (plant or animal) to rot and decompose (which probably gives Nurgle a massive boner). The gist is that they release a virus that spreads by contact and causes necrosis of tissues and rapid decay of plant and animal tissues. This immediate rot causes a buildup of flammable gases, which in turn can be ignited by one of the lazors above (or any still smoldering Lho sticks, or any other source of flame), sweeping the area in firestorms. A relentless bombing of these fucking things is what reduced [[Tallarn]] from a verdant forest world to the desert hellhole it is now. They were also used by [[Horus|Warmaster Horus]] to kill off loyalists in the Traitor Legions during the Istvaan Campaign of the [[Horus Heresy]] (Life Eater virus eats through any filters and corrodes power armour till it gets to the gooey marine inside, though a Dreadnought can endure it easily). Though a popular method of Exterminatus during the [[Great Crusade]], according to [[Amberley Vail]], virus bombs are only rarely used in the "present time" because the Inquisition has figured out that every time they're used, they feed the fucking [[Nurgle|Plaguefather]]. Whoops.

===Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo===

Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedoes are [[plasma]] torpedoes that burst in low planetary orbit and super-heat the atmosphere of a planet until all combustible material ignites. This method of Exterminatus was used on Medusa IV. Pretty much like the Virus Bomb, except it skips right to the firestorm part and directly turns the planet's surface into an endless expanse of raging hellfire. It is said that the aftermath of the planet's surface (Medusa IV's case) was melted to glass and that the entire world burned like a piece of amber in space even a month after the attack had been launched. They are only effective on planets with relatively stable atmospheres made of flammable gas, however, and plasma torpedos are both somewhat rare and expensive.

===Modalis Atmospheric Missile===

Another weapon that has similar results from the Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo but its function is completely different. Regarded as the most powerful incendiary device accessible in the Imperium. The Modalis Atmospheric Missile is one ECKS BAWKS HUEG Phosphex weapons used to burn a planet into a crisp. Think White Phosphorous on steroids. A salvo of several Modalis Atmospheric Missiles from orbiting warships will blanket an entire world in deadly Phosphex. The resultant firestorm of green mist will eat away at every carbon-based element on the planet, rendering it uninhabitable. All that would be left would be dust and echoes.

===Cyclonic Torpedoes===

The primary method of Exterminatus used in the 41st millennium, these are basically nukes OD'd on steroids. These capital ship-fired warheads each generate a series of massive, self-sustaining nuclear reactions, which, when fired in bulk, fuels a much larger reaction that causes the devastation to spread and multiply, eventually glassing the entire world with a thermonuclear holocaust given a sufficient barrage. If you fire enough in the same spot it will break through the crust of a planet, causing part of the mantle to erupt out, royally buttfucking the entire planet in the process ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM see ''Fire Warrior'' end cinematic]). [[Krieg]] is an example of a radioactive perpetual-winter world that survived multiple cyclonic torpedo strikes, though in this case it was on a much smaller scale. This was the method that probably killed Typhon, in combination with the above shoot-the-shit-out-of-it method. (Another theory holds that the bombardment is used to remove anything that might prevent the torpedo from reaching the surface or to weaken planets crust.) Only the [[Inquisition]] and the [[Space Marines]] are authorized to carry cyclonic torpedoes in their warships, the former because the Inquisition has the authority to do anything, and the latter because the Imperium figures that if the Space Marines can't beat it, nothing else will.

Cyclonic Torpedoes are pretty variable in their strength, either due to there being different classes of torpedoes or the fact that the strength of a single cyclonic torpedo has never been nailed down in official materials. In one case, ol' Abby dropped a dozen to fry a single hive, in another a single torpedo is a qualified planet cracker. Similarly, this method is the easiest to thwart with shields, as they disrupt the stacked efficiency needed for ongoing detonation.

===Two-Stage Cyclonic Torpedoes===

In the two-stage torpedo, a [[melta]] charge activates first to allow the weapon to burrow into the planet's crust and down to the core. The second stage thermonuclear charge then goes off, causing the planet to break apart Death Star style. This is really the only way to deal with Necron Tomb Worlds since, due to their tendency to make everything subterranean, they aren't overly bothered by the other methods which devastate the surface but leave the planet as a whole mostly intact. Talos of the Night Lords used a smaller version of these when a Genesis Chapter strike cruiser tried to hide behind a moon. So he [[Awesome|blew a continent-sized hole through the moon]], and watched the loyalist ship get torn apart as a new asteroid field got shotgunned into space.

===Smashing It with a Fucking Moon===

This method involves radically altering the orbit of a nearby moon or large asteroid and placing it on a collision course with the planet, and therefore requires the use of several Mechanicus voidships. This method was used to destroy Phaenon Prime when the Virus Bomb failed to wipe out the planet's corruptive influence. It was also used during the [[Horus Heresy]] by renegade Iron Hands commander Autek Mor to destroy the World Eaters recruitment world of Bodt and during the Badab War to finally smash through [[Huron Blackheart]]'s defensive Ring of Steel around Badab. Needless to say, this pretty much fucking annihilates the planet in question (or whatever else it's thrown at like Huron's defensive systems). Despite its flair and effectiveness, [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rocks_Are_Not_Free! the Administratum vehemently requests that Imperial commanders avoid this method whenever possible], because it's stupidly expensive -- it can take weeks or even months for the moon or asteroid in question to actually strike the planet, which costs rations and sublight fuel while the ships sit around doing fuck-all; orbital bombardments only cost about one day's worth of rations and fuel, plus the ammunition, which comes out to be less expensive.

===Release the Krourk===

Krourk [[Ogryn]] are known as the most brutal, powerful, and primitive tribe of Ogryn in the Imperium (and that's saying something). They are so well-known for their frightening savagery in close combat that they're considered a solid match for Orks, and are also known for being so primitively stupid that the Imperial Guard can't even teach them to use traditional Ogryn weapons like ripper guns. Their reputation is so fearsome that it has gotten to the point where deploying thousands of these things is considered a crude method of Exterminatus amongst Imperial commanders, given that they'll attempt to kill anything within visual range, friend or foe.

===[[Pseudoscientific Sorcery|Daemon Engine]]===

[[File:BarrelDragon-DPBC-EN-R-1E.png|400px]]
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==Non-Imperium Exterminatus==
Several factions outside the Imperium do things similar to the Imperial Exterminatus (adding any examples from the lore would be greatly appreciated). However, most of them don't use these methods often. Some examples:

===Craftworld Eldar===

The [[Eldar|Craftworld Eldar]] have some respect for life (and not nearly as many weapons of mass destruction as they had before the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]]) so they don't do it often. Didn't stop them from purging all life in the Octarius system to clean up [[Kryptman|Kryptman's]] mess, though. The most well-known Eldar engines of planetary destruction are called [[Blackstone Fortress|Blackstone Fortresses]], which are ancient weapons they designed to fight the [[C'tan]]. To put it simply, think of a floating citadel with a distort weapon (like the ones the [[Wraithguard]] have) the size of an Emperor-class battleship. During the Gothic Wars, three Blackstone Fortresses combined their power to cause a star to go supernova, destroying an entire solar system.

In Apocalypse War Zone: Valedor, the Craftworld Eldar from [[Iyanden]] procured another type of ancient WMD, the Fireheart: a complex nodal resonator capable of causing a planet's molten core to enter violent death throes and send lakes of lava to the surface. The [[Dark Eldar]] originally had this, but they gave it away because they didn't have the psychic power to active the weapon. The Fireheart was used successfully on Valedor and prevented Hive Fleets [[Hive Fleet Kraken|Kraken]] and [[Hive Fleet Behemoth|Behemoth]] from joining forces. If they had, the [[Tyranids]] would have had all of the genetic data of the Orks and the Eldar, enabling them to fashion unthinkable monstrosities.

Before the fall (and possibly still kicking around somewhere) they had devices that fired entire suns or black holes at their enemies.

===Dark Eldar===

The [[Dark Eldar]] lack a good stockpile of planet-killing weaponry and prefer to keep planets intact for slaves, although they are still capable of exterminating the populace of entire planets if they wanted to. One method is pillaging the shit out of it. Its been proven time and time again that an entire Kabal is more than capable of kidnapping an entire planet of it's populace, faster than that local PDF trooper can finish his scream of agony. There has also been one instance of an entire Hive World being poisoned by the Dark Eldar, smashing a Space Hulk at a realm and havings its warp drives detonate to release hordes of daemons, and there's also counting the DE's ability to steal entire suns; allowing them to turn entire habitable planets into ice worlds if need be. They also possess a psychic doomsday device called The Fireheart to implode a planet's core -- originally invented and mass-produced by the Eldar Empire, what few Firehearts they have left are triggered by psychic resonance (and thus useless to Dark Eldar unless they can trick some Craftworlders into using it). The Kabal of the Dying Sun has devices that extinguish stars, while Vect keeps black holes in his back pocket to troll people.

Let's not forget just taking their sun as a trophy and letting the entire star system die...

The Dark Eldar can also just have other races kill planets for them. [[Just as Planned|Through manipulation from the sides; they could convince (and managed to do so at one point) the Imperium to declare Exterminatus on a planet.]]

===Necrons===

The [[Necrons]] have lost many WMDs, but may have several more just waiting to be awakened. ([[Not as Planned|Maybe the Necrons are more trigger-happy with Exterminatus than the Imperium, but they're better at ensuring there're no witnesses]]). One of their most notorious Exterminatus-tier machines was the [[The World Engine|World Engine]], which was a planet-sized vessel equipped with the largest [[Gauss|gauss weapon]] known to man. It looked like the combination of a Death Star, Unicron and a Forerunner Shield-World all rolled into one. A [[Rape|flying rape-machine of ungodly proportions]], it took a coalition of several Space Marine chapters and the entire Imperial fleet of the Vidar Subsector to destroy it. For some reason, it had shields that could withstand the [[Awesome|bombardment of an ''entire navy'',]] yet it was [[What|vulnerable]] to a ship [[Meme|impacting at sufficient velocity.]] (Although it is possible that the shields weren't designed to deflect speeding projectiles the size of battle barges.)

The Maynarkh dynasty deploys a peculiar device that causes supercharged solar flares that incinerate the daylight-facing sides of ALL planets in a system. <s>Granted, it only exterminates roughly half of each planet, but if they want to finish the job all they need is to wait half a day cycle and fire it again.</s> While dull people may not realize it, incinerating half a planet's surface would also incinerate its atmosphere, stripping the whole planet bare of its life giving biosphere, or whatever gases it had trapped. Unfortunately for the survivors, Maynarkh Necrons are more interested in making a planetfall and skinning them alive.

Maybe under certain circumstances, if the Necrons wanted to destroy a world, they could just unleash a particularly powerful Transcendent C'tan shard on it without a Tesseract Vault. Though it would most likely escape and be nearly impossible to return to Necron control, it would achieve the same effects. Also, the Tombworld of Thanatos has a giant hologram map of the galaxy known as the Celestial Orrery, and if you were to destroy a star on it, the real life counterpart would go supernova. However, the Necrons don't really use it (since they're more about conquering planets than destroying them). Instead, they just treat it like a giant bonsai tree. (You would think a branch to clip would be Terra, Fenris, Macragge, Baal etc but nope)

The Necrons can also employ an [[Abattoir]] when directly terraforming a planet. They are large, [[monolith]]-like devices except that they physically carry what they're transporting, are the size of a small city, and are covered in tentacles that disintegrate organic material while harvesting its anguish.

===Tyranids===

No, [[Tyranids]], you are the exterminatus.

A Tyranid fleet's primary objective is to devour entire planets and systems for biomass. After they're done, the world they invaded is left a lifeless rock, utterly devoid of life.

The Tyranids also travel through sublight via gravity manipulations, and these can rip apart asteroids and small moons entirely before the 'nids make planetfall.

===Orks===

In theory, the [[Ork]]s could develop an Exterminatus-size weapon (as much by accident and luck as by design); they grab an asteroid, put engines and weapons and armor on it, fill it with Orks, and then ram it full speed into a planet. It wouldn't matter if it turned out to function as a giant transport or just a suicide missile; it generates tremendous amounts of [[lulz]] and serves its purpose of making a big boom, which is all the Orks are concerned with. This haphazard design and construction process would limit the amount of these contraptions the Orks could build (if any). In general, however, Orks want to avoid wiping out everything on the planet from orbit, as it would leave them with nothing to fight on the ground. Although a Big Mek in need of roks once smashed a moon into a planet and took his pick from the best bits.

Ork Roks. Big hollowed asteroids they slam into planets as one way reentry vessels. Used during the Third War for Armageddon.

===Tau Empire===

While the [[Tau]] almost certainly have the technological capability to destroy entire planets (I mean, if the fucking [[Derp|Orks]] can figure it out, then the Tau definitely can), there are a number of philosophical, political, and strategic reasons that they would avoid doing this in all but the most extreme circumstances. For one, the Tau Empire is in the process of expanding, and it isn't exactly conducive to your expansion efforts to blow up perfectly colonizable worlds; thus the Tau would likely see Imperial Exterminatus orders as an egregious waste of resources, which they wouldn't be completely wrong about. Also, the Tau are arguably [[Grimdark|the only race in the 40k universe]] who operate by something parodying a moral compass, so the idea of obliterating a planet and its inhabitants is likely appalling to their [[Noblebright|naive wittle sensibilities]].

On the other hand, the Tau have officially declared some races (Orks, Tyranids, Dark Eldar, and Necrons) "lost causes" to be destroyed wherever encountered, so one could plausibly imagine a situation hopeless enough that they would sacrifice a planet to be rid of them. Still, they would probably try to at least leave the world itself salvageable and only exterminate the infesting species. There are stories of populations being sterilized or generally dispatched, which is about as mean as the Tau get; one such case was the Poctroon, who were the first sapient species they ever encountered. Their planet was ripe for colonization, and when the Tau arrived, the Poctroon all died of a 'mysterious' contagion, though the Tau obviously have admitted no diabolical fuckery.

As their expansion accelerated deeper into Imperial space, the Tau started to deploy more and more experimental technologies to both battlefields and production lines, some of which weren't properly tested. As a result, quite a few moons, planets and even stars have been accidentally destroyed by various mishaps. While such destruction sometimes happened to be advantageous to Tau forces (for example, by shattering Imperial defenses with massive tidal waves and earthquakes after the destruction of a planet's moon), they have shown no attempts to weaponize it.

The Tau also have orbital high-yield nuclear warhead options, but they generally use them to generate EMP pulses to blackout a wide area. They can also use these warheads to scatter toxic radiation over an area instead, though, burning through flesh and killing those below.

The Tau are also one of the few factions in 40k who still possess functioning terraforming technology (the Eldar lost theirs during the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]], Tyranid "terraforming" is more just them going about eating everything, and Necron terraforming is an Exterminatus on its own), so they can restore exterminated planets to habitability again, provided they haven't been utterly destroyed Deathstar-style. So yes, [[Meme| in the Tau Empire, Exterminatus get purged by YOU!]]

One of the notable example would be [[Commander Or'es'Ka]] from [[Dawn of War|dawn of war soulstorm]], where he had this huge ass gun called "Ar'Ka Cannon" installed on the moon of Kaurava system. The cannon can fire anywhere in the Kaurava system (including the moon where the cannon is), obliterate his enemies before he moves in. The said [[ork|BIGGIZT GUNZ]] is also the most Eco-friendly WMD ever built in the grimdark future, as it is capable of damaging only advance life form, while preventing from harming plants and building. Hilariously, he got the idea of WMD from watching the inquisition <s>doing their sorry excuse for fun</s> killing the enemies of the mankind FOR THE EMPEROR!!!

===Forces of Chaos===

Being former servants of the Imperium, fleets of [[Chaos Space Marines]] often still possess the good old Imperial Exterminatus weapons, like virus bombs for the old legions, cyclonic torpedoes for more recently turned traitors, or Just Shoot The Shit Out Of It for any warband with ships in their fleet big enough to carry the guns. Occasionally they will pillage Imperial Exteminatus weapons, or else invent some of their own with technology, sorcery, daemonic shit or some combination of the three. [[Honsou|Some]] Chaos guys tend to be quite inventive in finding ways to kill planets.

During one of his Black Crusades, [[Abaddon]] managed to steal or destroy all of the Blackstone Fortresses that the Imperium had in their possession. Naturally, they work just as well for Chaos as they did for the Eldar (and far better than they ever did for the Imperium). He also commissioned an incredibly huge destroyer of a spaceship, the front half of which is basically a battery of miles-long energy cannons. This "Armageddon Gun" can split a planet in half with one shot.

Then there is World Eaters, who live up to their name when they are united. 50,000 of these motherfuckers slaughtered 70 Sectors in Angron's Dominion of Fire campaign. [[Derp| Then all the planets they conquered was retaken. It seems like they forgot to salt the earth.]] To be fair though, Imperium needed four Chapters, two Titan Legions and more than thirty Guard Regiments (''However, WAAAGH Skargor took on fifty Guard regiments and SIX space murheen chapters. Perhaps World Eaters lack the power of [[dakka]].''). Back in Great Crusade, these butchers manually killed everything on the planets they went to conquer. Most of the time, it took them one day. This gave birth to another problem: There was no subjects on these planets to rule over. So the Emprah had to sent fleets to colonize planets left over by World Eaters, which was a pain in the arse for him.

Uniquely amongst 40k factions, the armies of Chaos can make planets Exterminatus-proof by turning them into [[Daemon World|Daemon Worlds]], where the laws of physics are fucked up so hard by the power of the [[Warp]] that all weapons just cease to function on and around it, or even achieve the opposite effect by nourishing the daemon patron of the world and making him even stronger (don't even think about virus bombing a [[Nurgle]] Daemon World). Though admittedly, from literally any point of view besides that of Chaos, Exterminatus is a preferable option to Daemon World transformation, as it would just kill you, rather than damning you to the eternity of torment.

Of course, there's also the act of summoning [[Aetaos'Rau'Keres]]. Keres will turn any planet he's summoned on into a lifeless husk. He doesn't care what side you are on or even if you're the cult that summoned him; he will murder ''everyone'' unlucky enough to be on the planet he's currently on. Such is his methods that he's the closest thing the Chaos Daemons have to a true planetary exterminatus.

==IRL Exterminatus==

''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_catastrophic_risk see Global Catastrophic Risk]''

===Thermo-Nuclear Holocaust===

Apparently, even when we aren't in the 41st millennium we still mastered the art of royally buttfucking a planet. In this case, it's ours, and a full-scale thermonuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union (who each have thousands and thousands of nukes) would be enough to kill off humanity multiple times over. This is how Mutually Assured Destruction works, threatening each other and our own planet with Exterminatus with zero chance of survival, just so we won't begin another World War. Because [[Imperium of Man|we're bastards like that]]. The Cobalt Bombs described by Dr. Strangelove above are actually possible, though currently theoretical. Nuclear weapons designed to be deployed as bombs or missiles aren't strong enough to destroy the world with only 50 warheads, but if you don't mind moving the weapon once it's built, the only limit on how big your nuke can get is how much material you're willing to use on it. In theory, the doomsday device of Dr. Strangelove could be achieved with a single massive bomb.

This is further worth mentioning because automated retaliation systems that could activate nuclear weapons in response to a detected threat ''actually existed''. The Soviet Union had the "Dead Hand" system, based off of seismic, air pressure, and EM sensors. The system was normally kept inactive and was only supposed to be turned on during a crisis to guarantee that the Soviets would still be able to use their weapons even if their leadership was taken out by a first strike.

Some believe that elements of the Dead Hand system may have been lost or buried, and are active to this day. [[grimdark|A ticking automated Exterminatus waiting for a signal from aging cold-war era sensors.]]

An old quote from the film ''WarGames'' summarizes the game of Global Thermonuclear War/Exterminatus: ''The only winning move is not to play..."

===An Asteroid===

Really, all it takes to kill everything on a planet is a big enough rock traveling fast enough. Normally it's the cloud of dust that is kicked up into the atmosphere and blocks out the sun that does most of the work. Dinosaurs learned this the hard way. Of course, this doesn't really work too well on a forge or hive world which is already like that. For raw destructive force, however, the damage is a function of the speed and size of the asteroid. The former has some practical limits (though a civilization looking to weaponize this sort of exterminatus could possibly bring the rock up to relativistic speeds), but the latter can be nearly unlimited. A collision with a near planet-sized object would be more devastating than most ''fictional'' exterminatus weapons, obliterating the target world entirely. There could be any number of so-called 'rogue' planets floating in the empty spaces between stars, ready to slide into the solar system and crash into Earth, assuming humanity fails its collective ''Save or Die'' roll for the week. They'd have to [[fail]] incredibly hard because the overwhelming chance is that the rogue body will end up into the Sun (or Jupiter as a distant second choice), but yeah. [[Just as planned|Shit happens, yo!]]

===Super Volcano===

Works on the same principal as the asteroid, that if you get enough shit into the atmosphere you've royally fucked all life bigger than a mouse. This may not be very likely though on Earth as one of the biggest volcanoes (see yellowstone park) wouldn't wipe out humanity, probably. Maybe.

Unless, of course, seismic activity from that eruption managed to trigger the [http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-25598050/ OTHER NINETEEN] super volcanoes.

===SAGE-Bombing===

The electronic equivalent of Exterminatus, a Sagebomb is achieved by repeatedly using the SAGE (Japanese for "lower") tag on a thread, ergo reducing its priority. When fired in bulk by multiple users simultaneously, such barrages of SAGE are capable of dragging almost any thread screaming down to the depths of a given imageboard, where they will eventually be purged. The ultimate fate for all threads containing [[Furry]] and similar [[Heresy]].

...Or at least that's how many fa/tg/uys think it works.

SAGE is supposed to add a "negative" response to a given thread, ergo reducing its apparent post-count. Because such a system would be easy to [[troll]] others, however, SAGE instead is used simply to reply without bumping a given thread. In [[Dungeons and Dragons|olden times]], SAGE ''did'' work that way supposedly, however, and was a tool of righteous wrath. Sagebombing still has an effect to the extent that once a thread passes the "autosage" limit it can no longer be bumped even by normal posts, and so even if it is still active it will still sink to the bottom of the board and into the depths of deletion; hence a large number of zero-content SAGEs will hasten the demise of the thread without bumping it in the process, although they do not actively cause the thread's departure.

===The Black Death===

What can be said about the Black Death or more accurately the Bubonic plague. It's killed more people than every war in human history put together,in 541–542 it killed one in four of the population of Constantinople, the cemeteries filled up, they ran of open land in the city, then the mass graves out side the city filled up, they threw the dead into guard towers, onto ships to sail the Mediterranean just to get them out of the city. food rotted in the fields and there was famine. During the 14th century, the plague had a second tour of Europe killing 30-60% of the total population across Europe, all of Europe, Peasant, Priest, noble or criminal the Plague killed everyone. on top of that, the Plague is horrifying to die of: [[Nurgle|you grow boils, your skin rots off your body, Seizures, continuous vomiting of blood, and extreme pain caused by the decay of the skin]]. In one of the many examples of the repercussion of the plague on the modern world, which would require an entire book to cover in full, it would not be hard to say that without the Plague, Nurgle and the entire gothic aesthetic of the Imperium would not exist.

===William Tecumseh Sherman===
[[File:Tree creed.JPG|200px|thumb|right|The only tree Khorne will ever decorate with bloody corpses on Christmas.]]
William, yeah [[that guy]], a Union commander and a [[Creed|tactical genius]], is known for nuking a lot of pretty places like Atlanta and pwning every [[Chaos Space Marine|Confederate]] and [[Tau|Native American]] force he faced. He invented the total war strategy, which it is basically the earliest form of exterminatus. His "March to the sea" consisted of one massive offensive, abandoning supply lines and trying to cause as much damage as possible. The goal was a total disruption not only of the confederate's military, but of their economy and infrastructure. Crops were burned and fields salted, wells were poisoned, and everything was done so that when it came time for Sherman's troops to fall back the enemy could not use anything of the land. Telegraph lines, Rail lines, bridges and more were destroyed in massive amounts, and goods that weren't stolen for their own use were burned to prevent their use by the confederate states, even if said good has no direct military value. Even to this day the [[rage]] is legendary in the south. He and his troops are accused by southerners of rape, pillage, and plunder. <S>Sherman was actually against unchecked rampages like this</S>,[[Blam]]. Because of his hatred for everything, he becomes the [[Spiritual liege|spiritual forefather]] of [[/b/|anonymous]], for the fact he has shown those basement dweller the [[Humanity Fuck Yeah| true meaning to be humans]]. <S>He probably ascended to daemonhood of Khorne after his death, like pretty much all extremely badass warlords</S>[[Blam]] Sherman is one of the few humans to ever experience Reincarnation, as he obviously would become Inquisitor Kryptman in the Tyrannic Wars.

===Nine Familial Exterminations===

To put it simply: for your [[HERESY]], you, your entire family, your grandmother, your ancestors, your cats and your children are to be put to death! It is the most serious punishment created in the ancient [[Imperium|Imperial china]] in order to erase heresy stains at that time period. This is still being practices today in North Korea, however.

Fun Fact: One man actually managed to piss off the emperor enough that he got a ten familial exterminations.

===Wiki page Deletion===

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|-
| [[Image:Konata_no_redeeming_value.gif|50px]]
| This article is bad and may or may not require deleting. Comment on the article's '''[[:{{TALKPAGENAME}}|talk page]]'''. '''Reason:''' This is how you set an article to be deleted:: Just add <nowiki>"{{deletion|reason}}"</nowiki> somewhere on the page.
|}
An electronic equivalent of Exterminatus for every wiki. To delete a page, the user must mark the page for review by the [[User:Wikifag|mod]] and provide a valid reason for why the article deserves to be purged. On this wiki for example, any non-/tg/-related shit should be removed to make sure that the only content is about a /tg/ related meme, or relates to traditional games in anyway. Unlike every other exterminatus above, the information can be reclaimed if the wiki has its backup file. That been said, vandalism is pointless, as users don't need mod permission to undo someone's shit changes.

==The Fall of Typhon==
Good to know there's a ceremony for blowing up a planet.

''"We have arrived, and it is now that we perform our charge. ''
''In fealty to the God-Emperor (our undying Lord) and by the grace of the Golden Throne, I declare Exterminatus upon the Imperial world of Typhon Primaris. ''
''I hereby sign the death warrant of an entire world and consign a million souls to oblivion. ''
''May Imperial Justice account in all balance. ''
''The Emperor Protects."''

==The Words of Gabriel Angelos==
''It is human nature to seek culpability in a time of tragedy. It is a sign of strength to cry out against fate, rather than to bow one's head and succumb. Inevitably many will fault the hands upon the sword which felled Typhon, the Ordo Malleus. But the Inquisition merely performs the duty of its office. To further fear them is redundant; to hate them, heretical. Those more sensible will place responsibility with those who forced the hands of the Inquisition. With some fortune, they may foster this hatred into purpose, and further rule their own fate by coming to the Emperor's service.''

''Yet ultimately, it was I who set these events into motion, with a single blow from my hammer, God Splitter.'' --Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens

Fuck, that's deep. The use of a properly modified version of this quote from Dawn of War Retribution has proved highly effective in sageing furfag troll threads and thus has been sanctioned by the holy /tg/ Inquisition for public use (keep it on /tg/).

==Battlefleet Gothic: Armada==
''Admiral Spire, it is said that heresy is like a tree. ''
''Its roots lie in darkness while its leaves wave in the sun. ''
''You can prune away its branches, even cut the tree to the ground. ''
''Yet it will grow again, ever stronger. ''
''Such is the nature of heresy and why it is so difficult to destroy. ''
''Some may question my right to destroy a world of ten billion souls. ''
''But for those who truly understand, realize I have no right to let them live. ''
''No sacrifice is too great. No treachery too small. ''
--Inquisitor Horst

==Exterminatus on the Tabletop==
Though not the most effective of lists, it is particularly hilarious and surprisingly fluffy to declare Exterminatus on large table games of 40k. The general gist is to simply stock up on as many large blast templates fired from off table as possible, whether via army list or stratagems. One relatively simple list is to simply take a [[Grey Knights]] army, field a single Bro-Capt. or Grand Master with an orbital Strike Relay, [[Witch Hunters|Karamazov]] (who also has one) and two troop choices (if you're playing a regular game -- if you're playing [[Apocalypse]], you can skip the troops) Then cram in as many Techmarines as you can, give them all Orbital Strike Relays and watch the bombs drop. For the average 3000 point game, you can get Krazypants off and 20 bare-bones techies with the relays. that's 21 Strength 10 AP1 pie-plates smashing down on your opponents Baneblades, Warhounds and other special hard-as-balls to kill shit your opponents have! Also great for swarm-busting (the relays can fire D3 pieplates each per guy but at Strength 6). Picture Krazypantsoff standing on a hilltop, pointing at buildings and going "Bang.", then watching them all blow up. Of course, if the Inquisitor dies, you're fucked. So maybe just camp him in cover. But that's only if you're lame.

For those of you with enough money to field the Horus Heresy army list from Forge World, Horus can call down an orbital strike with infinite range and S10 AP1 from anywhere on the map. Now you can reenact the Istvaan III atrocities yourself!

For an Apocalypse game you can also field an exterminatus guard force.
All you need is:
n * 6 guardsmen (one with a vox).
The list is fairly simple - Just field as many Company Command Squads with nothing but Master of Ordinance and fire away (for a 3k game its almost 38 s9 ap3 blasts a turn)
Don't forget to field some epic(troll) music to laugh at your opponents face, and after the battle proceed with knocking the table down to finish with a speech gritty nuff to make Sturnn himself proud.

As of 7th edition, it's now possible to forego the FoC chart and take whatever models you want. This means you can take 15 Chapter Masters in a 2k list.

In 40k terms, you can get some SERIOUS Exterminatus going with the [[Necrons|'Crons]] and their Doomsday Arks. In one Primary Detachment, for example, you can take a fully viable 1500-point Necron army as so: Overlord with Warscythe, 5 Immortals, 10 Warriors and 3 Doomsday Arks. If the Doomsday Arks don't move, they can provide one 72" Strength 10 AP 1 Primary Weapon Large Blast each, allowing for some serious [[butthurt]] from your opponents (and this may make you [[That Guy]] if done well because this is a level of cheese on the table that France would be proud of). If you're trying to break into a bunker-sized fortification, use these three things on the doors. Then you can re-enact the dying moments of [[The Conquest of Uttu Prime]] sans the [[Megalith]]!

==TL;DR==
You fuckers just backed Chaos and now you have a daemon infestation? Your planet 'gon git [[FATAL|raaaaaaaaaaaaaaped]].

<gallery>
image:exterminatus.jpg
image:exterminatus2.jpg
File:Red nuke button turned into EXTERMINATUS.png|Suffer not the Furry to live
File:Exterminatusthread.jpg|The E-quisition vigilantly purges the Emperor's internets of chaos taint.
File:Foxy Lady.jpg|If the inhabitants of a planet remotely resembles this creature, it's guaranteed to be exterminatused upon discovery. If pictures like this are found on a thread in /tg/, it's guaranteed to be saged and trolled upon discovery
File:Fall_of_Reach_1.jpg|If said inhabitants started space-faring like a certain [[Chakat|Chakat]], then you could call your local Inquisition or any Xeno manly enough to [[Get shit done|get shit done, just like the Covenant shown in the image.]]
File:Hello exterminatus Warhammer 40k sister of battle rule 34.jpg|See? The Internet can even make the end of the world look sexy!
File:Rocks are not free citizen.jpg|Don't suggest bolides as a method of exterminatus.
File:Sherman.gif
File:Ohara Incident.png|Although this is not a planet, it's just too B-E-A-[[weeaboo]]-TIFUL.
</gallery>

Vidya:
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNc242mbiUs&feature=channel_video_title
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYXj9xOUFIM
* The unofficial theme-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_tIw9Il934
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEGo41443iI The heresy scene mentioned in the quotes at the top.]
[[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Meme]]

Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Lizardmen

2018-02-19T18:53:04Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

==Why Play Lizardmen==
Let's face it, because you like Dinosaurs and you like great looking models.
Lizardmen Core is extremely good. Saurus being tough and hard-hitting, Skinks filling many roles, acting as charge redirectors, harassing, shooting, scouting. Their elite infantry, Temple Guard, are complete murder in large packs and will roll over any infantry except the strongest units of Chaos Warriors. They have diverse and extremely powerful monsters, one of the best spellcasters in the entire game and Saurus characters are perfectly designed to destroy enemy Lords and Heroes in a quick, confusing and bloody fight, all the while riding a T-Rex or a raptor.

Lizardmen used to dominate by sheer magic power, as Slann were incredibly overpowered, stealing the light from the mainstay of a good Lizardmen army: infantry that simply refuses to run away and deals terrible damage.

Most Lizardmen units benefit from one or more of the following awesome special rules:
*Cold-Blooded: All Lizardmen units can roll three dice and choose the two lowest for Leadership tests.
*Scaly Skin: This is an Armour Save of some description, which combines with other armour. Most models have the 5+ version, but a few have 4+. Skinks now do gain a 6+ Scaly Skin which is a nice buff considering they went down in Leadership.
*Predatory Fighters: Most Saurus and Kroxigors gain this new rule which allows them to gain more attacks by rolling 6's to hit. The downside is that these extra 6'es don't generate further attacks and the unit must Pursue unless there is a Skink Character within 6". Luckily they don't have to Overrun so there are very few downsides to this special rule. Thanks blessed Vetock. Be warned that this rule affects Temple Guard, which might drag a Slann Mage-Priest with them into a trap!
*Aquatic: Skinks have Marsh and River Strider, gain the ability to become Steadfast in that terrain, and gain a -1 to hit against shooting. A great way to use the terrain to your advantage for flanking and general disruption while not getting bogged down (I see what you did there) in terrain.

[[File:Theodorakis.jpg|800px|left|thumb|Mikis Theodorakis, a Slann Lizardman disguised as a human exploiting the regressive obsession of the Greeks with the past glory of ancient Macedonia to restore the old dominance of his race.]]
[[File:Lizardmen race.jpg|800px|right|thumb|And here is an empire determined to overshadow Alexander the Great that the fans of Mikis Theodorakis are so proud of as it emerges in an age when people are too arrogant to understand its threat.]]

Last but not least, Lizardmen are one of the greatest sights in the game because they usually consist of very colourful units, the minis are great with almost no exception, and the mix of reptilian Aztecs with giant blood-hungry dinosaurs is the tightest shit ever.

==Unit Analysis==
===Lords & Heroes===
====Named Characters====
'''Note:''' Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced. You can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

*'''[[Lord Kroak]]:''' Story wise, he used to be [[God-Emperor of Mankind|the World's greatest magician, but then after a few thousand years or so he became a super-powerful corpse attached to a Magic Throne]]. He has a raft of special rules, including Unbreakable, Causes Fear, a 3+ Ward Save, -1 To Hit for any normal attacks directed at him, and the very powerful spell ''Deliverance of Itza''. However, he's '''400 points''', ''only'' knows that one spell, and is Flammable. Although fluffy and occasionally fun, you're almost always better off with an ordinary Slann (although he can make an awesome [[Counts As]] Mage Priest). Incidentally with The End Times Kroak can now take the Lore of Undeath, since it says that ALL wizards can generate spells from it (and with him being dead himself you can certainly argue he's more in tune with Death Magic than most Necromancers), so now he has a proper lore again! Though this is probably going to be FAQ'd out pretty soon.

*'''Lord Mazdamundi:''' Currently the most powerful Mage Priest, Mazdamundi rides a Stegadon. Like Lord Kroak, he has a massive raft of rules: four Slann disciplines, Stubborn, a 4+ Ward Save, Loremaster in any lore he wants, Always Strikes First with Strength 5 Poisoned attacks, destroys other magic items, owns a Battle Standard, and a mount that has a 2+ Scaly Skin save and grants Mazdamundi a 2+ armor save. If the Stegadon is killed, he can still use his Palanquin to move around. Yes, Mazdamundi ''sounds'' pretty awesome, but he costs a whopping '''780 points''', meaning he's impractical in all but the biggest battles. He also lost some of his godly 7th ed rules such an unlimited amount of dice when casting, a super-powerful spell, and the ability to re-roll Miscasts. Also his supposedly awesome weapon hits at WS2. To make matters worse, Zlaqq, his Stegadon, described as the biggest in Hexoatl (the most militarized City, with entire herds of them) has the profile of a normal Ancient Stegadon. It doesn't even get Sharpened Horns (Impact Hits causing D3 wounds) or Devastating Charge. Overall grossly overpriced for what he does, and this is sad since he is supposed to be one of, if not the, strongest wizard alive.

*'''Kroq-Gar:''' The pinnacle of Saurus carnage, mounted on the pinnacle of giant predators, all this represented by a wonderful model. Fluff-wise, Kroq-Gar is the absolute perfection of the Saurus race. One of the greatest warriors currently alive and simply the one you can trust to protect Lustria against invaders. Among his accomplishments are: fighting an unending horde of Daemons for 1000 years, being 8000 years old and still one of the best warriors of his entire species, being the sole survivor of a destroyed city, being entrusted to lead the crusade against Chaos by Lord Mazdamundi himself, and much more. He rides Grymloq, a massive Carnosaur, and together they pack a 5+ Ward Save. If Kroq-Gar or his mount is killed, the surviving one gets Frenzy. His spear gives him +1S on the Charge and deals two Wounds for the price of one (and he has 5 Attacks). For unknown reasons, despite millennia of fighting and winning against every kind of foe and being the strongest Saurus alive, he is still WS6. His Hand of the Gods is a Bound Spell casting 'Light of Shem' from the Lore of Light. Grymloq is also the only named mount to retain an improved stat line over 'basic' mounts in the Lizardmen book. However, the same problem as Lord Mazdamundi apply: at 520 pts, he is restricted to large battles, and Grymloq cannot have any of the upgrades normal Carnosaurs have. He doesn't even have the Blood Frenzy rule (unending Frenzy after causing the loss of 1 hp) which is standard on the basic version.

*'''Chakax:''' Once upon a time, Chakax choked a Daemon Prince with his bare hands, fought hundreds of wild jungle creatures for 2 days straight, guarded his unconscious Mage-Priest for weeks in the middle of the jungle, etc. When both he and a Slann are in a unit of Temple Guards, the whole unit becomes Unbreakable (until one of the two is killed). At the beginning of the Close Combat Phase, his mace forces the enemy to reveal all their Magic Items, and if he hits with it, he destroys a random one on a 5+ (only one roll per turn, alas). When fighting in a Challenge his Key grants him a 5+ Ward Save and afflicts his opponent with the Always Strikes Last rule, but since he shares it too (his weapon being basically a magical Great Weapon) and is only I3 he is not very likely to hit first, while his Mask prevents enemy Scouts from being placed within 20" of Chakax, and forces the enemy to revealed all hidden units when they are within 20" of Chakax (Skaven assassins, Night Goblin fanatics, etc.). Best used for defense, but unfortunately not very useful otherwise. Overall the worst named character in this book.

*'''Gor-Rok:''' Gor is his name, Gore is his game, and oh Old Ones, he Rocks at it. If you're making a model of him and at least one half of him isn't drenched in blood, you are doing it wrong. He is Stubborn, rerolls failed To Hit rolls (generating Predatory Fighter attacks on a 5+) and can ignore Killing Blow, Heroic Killing Blow and Multiple Wounds on a 2+, losing only 1 Wound if successful. Units charging him have to take Dangerous Terrain tests with a -1 modifier. At a new and improved cost of 185 points, he is interesting even in small games where he can hold your main line, while he can make a pack of Saurus really fearsome in larger battles. This is a character you want to put in a larger unit and wait for the enemy to charge. Very resistant, with T6 and an Armour Save of 2+, he is the perfect guy to take and hand out Challenges. However, he only has 2 Wounds, making him too frail to fight strong characters by himself. A lesser Gor-Rok can be emulated by spending 40 points on Sacred Helm of Itza on a Scar-Vet or Oldblood.

*'''[[Tehenhauin]]:''' The cheapest Lord the Lizardmen have (at 230pts), he is a Level 3 Wizard who uses the Lore of Beasts, is Immune to Poison, Unbreakable, has Poisoned Attacks, gains +1S on the turn he charges, has a 5+ ward save, and he makes all Skinks (and only skinks, not Mounts, Kroxigors in Skink units, etc.) hate Skaven. He rides a Tide of Serpents but can ride an Ancient Stegadon with an Engine of the Gods (for a bonus 280pts) like any normal Skink Priest. Though of little interest in most scenarios, he is a must-have in an all-Skink army or when fighting a Skaven army.

*'''Tetto'Eko:''' The only Skink Priest to ride a Palanquin, he is a Level 2 Lore of Heavens Loremaster. He can be accompanied by Skinks like Slann with their Temple Guard and can predict the future. In short, a buffed-up Skink Priest but without the upgrades or mount. When he is present, he lets you roll a D6 at the start of your turn: on a roll of a 1 you have to reroll all your 6's when casting, 2+ lets you reroll all 1's when casting. Not only do your casters get to reroll their 1's, this also affect the magic machines carried by Stegadons and Bastilladons, which improves them ten-fold. After deployment but before determining who gets the first turn, you may Vanguard D3 of your units because of his ability to predict the future. This may allow you to get your Stegadons and Carnosaurs into your opponent's face right off the bat, possibly avoiding a round of artillery fire. If Tetto'Eko successfully casts the spell ''Comet of Cassandora'', you may re-roll the dice at the start of each player Magic Phase to see if the comet arrives. His Palanquin gives him a 5+ Ward Save. In short: he is the missing link between the Skink Priest and the Slann. In larger battles, a Slann is more interesting, but because he is a Hero you could run both. His very reasonable point cost combined with always useful abilities make him (arguably) the best named character in the book.

*'''Tiktaq'To:''' A silly name, but a balanced character. Anyone shooting at him or his unit suffers an additional -1 To-hit, he has a 6+ Ward Save and Magic Resistance (1) as protection. His blade ignores Armour Saves and the unit he is with can perform a sort of Deep-Strike. He is as useful as a Skink special character can get. He can also upgrade a unit of Terradon Riders to have Ambush. However, thanks to the 8th Edition BRB, Flying Characters CANNOT join Flying Units, so he's fucked. In 7th, there was a special rule for Terradons allowing Characters to join Flying Units. It's no longer there. One can assume that it's changed in 9th (and thus written as such) or was assumed he could join but others could not (his special rule says him AND his unit benefit from it. He can join units).

*'''Oxyotl:''' Fluff-wise, like Kroq-Gar, Oxyotl belongs in the incredibly tough 8000 years survivors category, as he spent millenia in the Chaos Realms assassinating Greater Daemons before finding his way back to the normal world. On the tabletop however, he is nothing impressive. His only tricks being Sniper and a blowpipe that fires 3 times a turn instead of 2. He may be the cheapest Special Character the Lizardmen have at 160pts, but he is still only useful in small battles, where he is in fact devastating. In larger games, he does not perform anything a unit of normal Chameleons cannot do.
::'''Alternative''': ''No- what about VS VCs and TKs? Then the Sniper rule comes into play. Level 4 Necromancer- stay still then, at 6" shoot 3 shots- these need 4s to hit and are Poisoned on 5+. Watch your opponent cry as this orange devil runs around sniping characters until they waste time in killing him- like normal Skink but better.''
----

====Generic Characters====
''Note:'' While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

*'''[[Slann]] Mage-Priest:''' Big Pappa Toad, the core of most armies.
**The good: a Slann is a powerful Level 4 caster with an in-built 4+ Ward Save and can be both general and BSB at the same time. It has the ability to ignore terrain and is never considered on foot while still being Infantry, has five Wounds, the ability to swap spells with other Slann and to cast trough friendly Skink Priest models. He also has a lot of synergy with Temple Guard: units joined by a Slann are Stubborn, Immune to Psychology, and allow the Slann to auto-pass Look Out Sir! Additionally, since he is fielded in the second rank rather than the first he is never going to be involved in actual combat and can cast spells even while his unit is busy fighting in melee. A choice of Disciplines (see below) helps to make Slann one of the best generic wizards of the game.
**The bad: being the BSB means he drops dead if his unit flees from combat. Thankfully in a TG block and with the Banner of Discipline this is highly unlikely to happen.
**The ugly: sporting a pricetag of 300 fucking point vanilla, he is expensive as all fucks and Magic Items and Disciplines only worsen the situation. Mind you, he still does repay every single point you invest on him if you are careful not to make sub-par decisions.
::'''Another take''': ''300 is a lot of points but think about it, he has two of things as standard most characters don't have:''
::*''4+ Ward built in (45 points from the rulebook) ''
::*''lv4 as standard (roughly a lvl3 character is roughly the 185 mark so adding 35 points to them makes them with no gear 220 points)''
::''See? We are already at the 265 mark without accounting for his palanquin (counting as on foot but not on foot for Pit of Shades, etc which is amazingly good) and his ability to cast spells out of Skink Priest models. This plus his statline is why I think he is a relatively good purchase for 300 points.''

*'''DISCIPLINES'''
** Reservoir of Eldritch Energy: Can carry over an extra Dispel Dice on the roll of a 2+ to next Magic Phase. Nifty and cheap at 20 points. Though not a first pick, it is a close second.
** Soul of Stone: Can add or subtract 1 to the Miscast Table results. Will save your life sometimes but not that awesome. Still, it is only 25 points.
** Becalming Cogitation: Re-rolls its first failed dispel attempt in each Magic phase. Cheap at 25 points and good pick.
** Wandering Deliberations: Can learn Signature Spells from all 8 battle lores. Can't use with the Loremaster one. The eight signatures are nothing to sneeze at and each of them benefits from the Lore Attribute. It is kinda sad that we need to spend 30 points on this while a level 2 High Elf Lord with Combat Lord stats has it by default, though. If playing The End Times just fucking take this, I repeat, TAKE THIS IN END TIMES because with the new rules it will allow your Slann to know every spell of the eight battle lores (confirmed for the Loremaster of Hoeth so no reason to doubt it will work for the Slann). Yes, you heard right: for 30 points you get 64 spells (7 from each lore + each of the End Times spells for the BRB lores) and 4d6 dice from the powered-up Winds of Magic rolls. This is immense! Just remember it works only if you have the The End Times book.
** Harmonic Convergence: Roll two additional dice whenever attempting to Channel Power or Dispel dice. Nothing impressive until you notice the existence of Channeling Staff: suddenly you are Channeling three times a turn on a 5+. 30 points (plus 15 for the staff) rarely tasted so good.
** The Harrowing Scrutiny: Slann causes Terror. Meh... 30 points of overpriced garbage. Take the Shrieking Blade for 5 points and get Fear instead.
***'''Alternative Opinion''': ''This can be very good when facing low LD armies, as it means they might run away and not bog down your TG bunker - Still situational, mind you.''
** Transcendent Healing: Roll a d6 for each wound Slann has lost. On a 6 he regains it. Not bad, but not reliable enough to be good at 30 points.
** Unfathomable Presence: Can get Magic Resistance D3 each Magic Phase. Skip this one. If you are willing to spend 30 points on this you'd better pay the same 30 for MR2 with Obsidian Amulet and get the 2+ Save against spells, unless you truly need that Dragonbane Gem on your Slann.
** Focus of Mystery: Becomes a Loremaster in High Magic. Can't use with the Signature Spell one. 35 points are worth it? High Magic is a great lore that can do a bit of everything. Has two Signatures (you get both of them with this Discipline, obviously) so you get a grand total of eight spells. Great synergy with the Lizardmen army and don't forget its awesome Lore Attribute, Contemplation, that lets you forget a High magic spell after you cast it and roll for a new one on any other lore, which carries its Lore Attribute with it and can be swapped for the Signature. You can swap your less useful spells and tailor your list to better suit the situation during the game, so yes, it is fucking worth it. Overall one of the best Disciplines, even more so now that Slann can't Loremaster any other lore.
** Higher State of Consciousness: Slann becomes Ethereal and Unstable but can't join units. Costs as much as two other Disciplines, clocking in at 60 points, so take it only if you are absolutely positively sure about what the fuck you are doing. Used to be popular in 7th edition, but has not been seen around much lately. Can be deadly to your Slann, as losing combat will cause unsaveable Wounds.

*'''Saurus Oldblood:''' Killing machine. Can ride a Cold One or a Carnosaur. Can be tooled up to either assassinate Lord characters and Daemons, or solo regiments of infantry. Given how expensive a Slann is, he shows up in smaller battles as a general or in larger battles as a second Lord choice. Old Bloods have a 4+ Scaly Skin by default and a lot of Attacks before you buy any upgrades. However, these upgrades are expensive: the Carnosaur alone costs almost as much as a naked Slann (and the figurines themselves are not cheap either). The main downside is how hard it is to use both an Old Blood on Carnosaur and a Slann, because of their cost. One bad cannonball and you're down around 400 points. A very powerful build for the Old Blood is giving him the Armour of Destiny and the Fencer's Blades. This means he gets 6 S5 attacks at WS10. The build also gives him great survivability with a 2+ Armour Save and 4+ Ward. Guaranteed to make opponents rage, especially in smaller point games (such as 1000). The drawback to this build is that it cannot be a mounted Oldblood due to using two hand weapons so no extra armour from a Cold One or Carnosaur sadly.

*'''Saurus Scar Veteran:''' A lesser Old Blood at an affordable price. He can now even ride a Carnosaur. It still dishes out that Saurus melee butchery that makes people cry and it can ride a Cold One if you want him mounted but don't have enough points to take a Carnosaur. If your Slann is not your BSB, a Scar Vet can and take a magical banner. In larger games where you can afford a few Scar Vets (or a a couple of them and an Old Blood), equip them and use them like missiles: send a kitted-out Scar Vet after one thing and watch it get maimed. In smaller games they're more useful sitting in Saurus units to chew through infantry. Solid choice as a General at low level games and good in larger battles for supplementary killing power. If you take a Slann and a Scar Vet, you can have a very nice combo: a Carnosaur and your magical toad!

*'''Skink Chief:''' Cheaper now and with more mounted options this guy is a little more viable. Only take this guy mounted as he's way too soft compared to the Saurus characters, and Skinks in general suck as proper ranked units. Can take Stegadons, Ancient Stegadons and Terradons as mounts, which is what you should be doing. On a Terradon it can do some good character hunting and screw warmachine crews, as well as provide a Leadership buff to that Terradon unit, but it means your general should be someone else. Not a solid General choice but nice as a supporting character and a means to getting another big dinosaur on the table. Like the Scar Vet, he can be the BSB. You could use him against an opponent for tying down a monster- 5 dead Skinks a turn isn't much and tying down a 250pt model for 4 turns is surely worth 145 points (20 Skinks + Chief).

*'''Skink Priest:''' Good low-level Wizard. Can act as a range extender for Slann allowing them to send Magic Missiles or Direct Damage spells as if the Slann was where the Priest is standing. Can take the Engine of the Gods if mounted on a Stegadon, which makes a combination of a killing machine, maximum safety for the character and very powerful support to nearby units. They're limited to the Lores of the Heavens and Beasts but they have enough Magic Items to maximize their usage. They support the Slann or are used in large numbers to spam spells down the enemy's throat. Do not underestimate them as they have access to Comet Of Cassandora and Lizardmen are the only army that can reliably spam that spell. Wyssan's Wildform is a spell tailor-made for making Lizardmen rape machines.

===Core Units===
*'''Skinks:''' Cheap and spammable light infantry. Kroxigors can be taken in the second rank of the unit and are allowed to attack normally over the front rank of Skinks. This gets some heavy hitters in there. Overall, Skink units are a good place to put these thugs. They have a higher Ld and pass on the effect of causing Fear to the unit. Despite weak (native) Leadership and terrible Toughness, Skinks can be surprisingly effective against non-elite infantry and cavalry for one turn, in part thanks to their relatively high Initative. Stand and Shoot combined with the Poison rule enables their shooting attacks to auto wound. However, Skink Cohorts can be upgraded to have Poisoned melee attacks. Cohorts are not bad with this as Javelins can be <s>shot</s> thrown before going into melee. The price you're paying is incredibly low for what they can do.
*'''Skink Skirmishers:''' Always take javelin and shield. Blowpipes are useless on a mobile unit as you'll be needing 7's to hit after -1 Long Range, -1 moving, -1 Multiple Shots which means no poison! Javelins are Quick to Fire, so hit on 5's if you move with them and shoot from Long Range. Blowpipes are for the higher BS Chameleon Skinks. They keep their poison AND you gain a 5+ 6++ in close combat, which makes them infinitely better against chaff. ('''alternative opinion''': ''+1 Armour Save isn't much. As a small unit of artillery hunters with blowpipes are brilliant - march for 2 turns then shoot at close range. Blowpipes have 12" range, and since you can opt out of Multiple Shots, you can just use them as extra range javelins'')Skinks can be great for kiting enemy units and being an all-around thorn in their sides. Put simply, if the Skink Skirmishers manage to inflict wounds on any unit, your opponent will be compelled to either shoot at it, commit a unit to charge it, or try to ignore the damage they're doing. The first option is bad because damage spells and shooting units are overkill against Skink units that size, making it a waste of resources when other, more dangerous units, are around. The second option is bad because most close combat units are significantly more costly than Skinks and are much better suited to stopping/slowing your Saurus bricks from smashing through the battlefield. This gets even worse if the Skinks are able to shoot at the unit prior to the melee and inflict wounds. However, with cheap units like Skaven Clanrats, this is less of an issue, except that large Clanrat units shouldn't chase down half a dozen Skinks, and no one fields those kinds of units with an equivalent cost to your Skinks. With elite units, the problem is further exaggerated because any damage done to the Skinks is pointless. <strike>Most elite units cost close to 30 points a model,</strike> [[Derp]], '''maybe''' really powerhouse heavy cavalry, but most Elite Infantry runs from 12-16 points, which means that more than 2 ranged casualties is a lose-lose tradeoff at best. Ignoring the Skinks, as some players do, is even more stupid because that leaves them free to pick off other skirmishers, violate war machine crews, and chip off wounds from other important units or characters. In summary, Skink Skirmishers are suicide units that force bad tradeoffs for the enemy. They'll die when they're attacked, but it's a lose-lose situation, and in the wider context of the battle this leads the opponent to be inefficient with his units.
::'''Alternative Opinion''': ''Actually, Skink spamming is considered to be a particularly tasty form of [[powergamer|cheese]], since you can literally flood the battlefield in cheap, fast moving, little units with an array of poisoned weapons redirecting, shooting, and irritating your opponent's units to a not-quite-metaphorical death. If you can get Walk Between Worlds and Hand of Glory off on these, it's funny as you don't technically move them, but go 20" forward- then shoot at BS6 with blowpipes needing 3s to hit- on a unit of 20, 40 poisoned shots brings [[lulz]]''
*'''Saurus Warriors:''' The backbone of any Lizardmen army, Saurus Warriors pack a 5+ Scaly Skin save, shields, spears/hand weapons, 2 base Attacks, are Cold Blooded, and are WS3, S4, & T4. When rolling To Hit have a chance of generating more Hits, and they must pursue unless near Skinks. While the unit has some great stats for a hand-to-hand unit, their god-awful Initiative of 1 ensures that they don't leave combat unscathed, and their cost per model, spears included, is higher than just about any other rank-and-file core choice. These two key issues are mostly irrelevant though, because Saurus Warriors are the best fucking brick infantry in the game. Chaos Warriors may be better per model, but they cost a good bit more. Besides, no other faction can field R&F infantry as effective as yours without crippling their army size. Units that engage Saurus Warriors that have the misfortune of getting flanked by another unit of them might as well have never been deployed. Saurus Warriors either smash straight through the enemy lines, or end up in a slow grinding combat that leaves either half a unit of Saurus or a few dazed and bloodstained enemies left, ready to be swept away by the rest of your army. They can realistically tarpit any infantry unit short of Dragon-Ogres and the like, and even they still won't [[Anal Circumference|get through cleanly or untouched]].

===Special Units===
*'''Jungle Swarms:''' 35 points per base, minimum 2 per unit. Previously core units, they were rarely seen. They have now been moved to Special and given a few bonuses making them an interesting if specific choice. The great thing about these is that whenever some Jungle Swarms are in base-to-base contact with an enemy unit, all other Lizardmen units fighting this same unit get Poisoned Attacks! Suddenly your Saurus's 6's auto Wound while still generating new attacks through Predatory Fighter. A Shadow lore Slann casting Okkam's Mindrazor on the Jungle Swarms, making their Strength the same number as their Ld value, makes them devastating as they have 10: this gives them 5 attack S10 per swarm base with Poison Attacks.

*'''Temple Guard:''' Improved Saurus. They get light armour and halberds. When combined with a [[Slann]] (who is no longer forced to join them), they automatically pass Lookout Sir tests, become Immune to Psychology, Stubborn and cause Fear. These guys are easily a must-have if you have a Slann in your army, and are often worth taking even if you don't have a one. They cost a lot more than the Saurus warriors but hit much harder. Remember that due to the way Temple Guards and Slann rank-up, they get relatively few attacks and most combats against rank-and-file will be a slow grind unless you can break the enemy's morale. Lizardmen list usually field at least a pack of 20 TG along with a block of Saurus, and these serve as the main hitting force or tarpits of the army. You can really cheese out your opponent here, because a BSB Slann with Banner of Discipline and another Magic Banner is +3 Combat Resolution - a Horde of 30 is another +2, another +1 for Charging and so on - hey 10X10 Skavenslave unit, fancy a combat? (don't do this, you will never ever break them, and the Skaven will remain Stubborn forever)

*'''Cold One Cavalry:''' Lizardmen cavalry mounted on buffed raptors. They currently get no love because of their high price, making them one of the less cost-effective cavalry option this edition. Cold One Cavalry is in a weird place even regarding their abilities: the rider has a Temple Guard profile with a better Armour Save, as he has no light armour but gets +2 armour points from being mounted on a Cold One. He has no halberd but his spear gives him a +1S on the turn he charges, after which he fights with a normal Saurus Strength but still with better armour than a TG. The Cold One itself has the same profile as a normal Saurus, which means a Cold One rider and his mount are basically a Saurus and a weird TG, cause Fear and move at double speed while having a Stupid mount (which is not too much of a problem thanks to Cold Blooded). Point-wise, they are 30 each without spears, at which point a single one costs more than 2 TG but gets an intermediary profile between 2 Saurus and 1 Saurus + 1 TG. This price factor overshadows anything they can bring to the table as you will generally want more TGs or more Saurus instead of cavalry. They can be extremely useful, but will shine only in specific situation where their speed makes them the perfect hammer to a Saurus unit's anvil. Most people disregard COC entirely and will bring either more infantry or another monster, but these guys are not bad in themselves. A general who knows what he does might decide to field a few of them. However, this will be at the cost of the overall size of the army. Where COC excel is when serving as a delivery system for one or several Scar Veterans or Old Bloods armed to the teeth with magic weapons. They are solid enough to hit hard, soak up damage, and mounted Saurus characters are terrifying. They also provide a flanking unit that can withstand damage.

*'''Terradon Riders:''' Excellent for harassment tactics: hunting warmachine crews, isolated models and skirmishers. Their ability to drop rocks is also handy for softening up something tough before the Saurus or TG can deal the real damage. The ability to drop rocks and the Bola upgrade are interesting and give some punch to a unit which is otherwise quite weak.

*'''Ripperdactyl Riders:''' Competing with Terradon Riders for about the same role on the table, they are 40 pts each (5 more than Terradons) and more combat-oriented: they have Frenzy, but being flying cavalry means you get a free reform at the end of their movement to make sure they point in the direction of something you want to charge anyway. With Armour Piercing and 2 Killing Blow Attacks they are an interesting choice. The Lustrian Bloat Toad allows you to select one enemy unit per Ripperdactyl unit in your army. Against the chosen enemy unit, any Ripperdactyl unit will get an additional D3 Attacks per model generated by Frenzy. Mind you, the Skink riders have WS2, which means they will hit nothing. This make the spear of Rippderdacyl riders a bit useless: the mounts will be dealing the damage.

*'''Bastiladons:''' First unit to receive a 2+ Scaly Skin Armour Save, the Bastiladons only get T5 and will go down quite easily in combats against large infantry blocks. However, Bastiladons are exactly similar to tanks in that you want to use them as support for blocks of infantry. Their true power is in trotting alongside a big block of warriors, protecting their flanks. The +1I bonus of the Solar Engine is nice but only brings normal Saurus to I2, which is not enough to be a game changer. The Chotek spell, however, can really bring some hurt and deals flaming damages, forcing the enemy to either waste dispel dice on it or endure potentially heavy damage. Their second option, the Ark of Sotek, can shoot a weak projectile even when moving or marching, and can generate additional swarms in any Jungle Swarm unit in a 6" radius, which can go beyond the starting number. This is a funny ability but not critical unless you have a good number of swarms.

*'''Kroxigors:''' Giant crocodile-men. They are strong but not numerous enough, and Saurus warriors are a better option as they can absorb more wounds and deal more attacks. That said, they're not a dead unit but will usually serve as support, not as the main hitting force. With a Scaly Skin save of 4+, they're basically in Heavy Armour + Shield and they have S5 and Great Weapons, so that they hit at S7. Kroxigors have 3 Wounds each, 3 Attacks each and cause Fear. Because they are Monstrous Infantry, they can use all 3 of their attacks from the second rank. They can be combined with a Skink Cohort and occupy the second rank, dealing all their attacks. Unfortunately, they can also be attacked even if there is a first rank of Skinks, which means you cannot use the Skinks as shields for them.

*'''Chameleon Skinks:''' Your only Scouts option and great warmachine hunters. Their higher Ballistic Skill allows them to still get Poison on their blowpipe shots, unlike any unit of Skinks which moves. Regular Skink skirmishers require 7's to hit anything outside 6 inches if they move which means no Poison. They have their place in any thematic or fine-tuned army but unfortunately they suffer from the competition of the other Specials which are almost invariably better.

*'''Stegadon:''' The main Lizardmen monster. Few lists do not include a Stegadon, or even several of them. Stegadons are crewed by 5 Skinks who man the Giant Bow (a ballista in all but name), which can shoot even while moving. The Stegadon causes Terror and benefits from a handful of nice rules plus all the things which come with being a Monster.

===Rare Units===
*'''Ancient Stegadon:''' You thought the above was awesome? This guy is tougher, hits harder in combat and does 4D6 blowpipe shots! Again you will see infantry die with this angry old bastard. Then there is the special version mounted by Skink Priests...
**'''Engine of the Gods:''' In the previous book you were only able to take these as a mount for a Skink Priest, however they can now be taken in the rare section. It has 3 different effects:
***1. it gives all your units within 6" a 6+ Ward Save. This means you can go with spears on your Saurus, and still have a 6+ Ward Save.
***2. it can cast a Bound Spell, that does D6 S4 Flaming hits to units within 4D6. Mostly used for clearing chaff, but is just a nice thing to have in the back pocket although it's murder vs Dryads.
***3. each magic phase you can choose 1 lore from the main rulebook, and the Casting Values of all spells in that lore goes down by 1. Nice in a Beast lore Skink Priest spam list, because it will allow you to have an easier time casting Wysans Wildform on your Saurus.

*'''Salamander Hunting Packs:''' This unit can do some serious damage, and it's good for stopping Regenerating faggots. The salamanders got changed quite heavily with the new book. First of all they can no longer march and shoot, meaning you probably wont be shooting first turn anymore. Second they no longer give -3 to Armour Saves with their shooting attack, but it instead got strength 4. These guys are absolutely amazing! They can halve a unit's size with a single shot. These things work miracles!

*'''Razordon Hunting Packs:''' Each of these are able to make an Artillery Die amount of shots with a range of 18" each turn. They can move and shoot but they can no longer march and shoot. They are pretty terribad at hitting, so unless you have a Slann able to buff them with Hand of Glory you won't be hitting with many of the shots. However since they put out such a large amount of shots, at least some of them will hit. Now that there is no limit to the amount you can pack into a single unit, you could take a unit of 8 and just stick them into your enemies face and just dare them charge these guys. Even if he does he will surely come to regret it. Keep in mind that for both hunting pack units, the Skink handlers cannot be targeted by attacks but can dish out a couple of weak attacks back, which has a couple of situational anti-character uses.

*'''Troglodon:''' What a piece of shit this thing is. 200 points for a good looking model that can't do anything well. It's designed to be useful in any phase but M7 isn't anything to to write home about. Its Magic support is an upgrade you have to pay for that lets the Skink rider channel and it has the same rule that Skink Priests have, Arcane Vassal (Slann can cast through them.). The shooting attack is the lamest attempt to make its point cost: 1 S5 poisoned shot with D3 Wounds, with a short range and BS3... You might hit once or twice a game if lucky. In combat it will wilt faster than an erection after seeing goatse: 3 attacks from the beast and 1 from the Skink. The monster is only S/T 5 with a 4+ Scaly Skin save so any S4 infantry can kill it before the Thunderstomp comes. Its Primeval Roar is the only possibly useful thing this unit brings (but you aren't bringing it are you?). Once per game the Troglodon roars and boost all Predatory Fighters within 12" to get extra attacks on a 5+ instead of 6+. Best fielded 4' off the ground in a display case.
::'''Alternative Opinion:''' ''What I believe this guy MEANT to say was: TROGLODONS ARE AWESOME! M7? Awesome: I'm in your face turn one with Arcane Vassal spells (btw take this, and take the Discipline that grants you all the Signature Spells on your Slann and laugh as you snipe your opponents general with Lore of Death turn one). Its shooting is craptacular yes, but why are you shooting with it? Charge flanks with it and when crunch time comes, drop the Roar and watch your Saurus RIP AND TEAR the opponents a new pie hole. This, if enough punch is delivered, will knock seven shades of crap out of most armies, even giving Warriors of Chaos a run for their money. All this pain train for 200 points, oh and its Aquatic for extra lulz.'' (ONLY TIME IT'S SEMI SCARY is when it runs up on a suicide charge into the most populated spot and Lord Kroak channels through it. Otherwise it sucks, go with the original opinion)
::'''Original Opinion:''' ''I am pretty sure the "Alternative Opinion" was posted by Vetock himself. The Troglodon is terrible. Absolute fail in every phase. He seems to think the Arcane Vassal is good when in fact most spells don't even need it. As for his genius tactics of charging flanks with it, well I have been playing Warhammer for years and I can tell you now that it will never survive long enough to hit a flank in combat. As for the 5+ Roar thing: again, your opponent wont really care. Its just 200 points of pure fail. Take an ancient Steg instead.
''

==Building Your Army==
===Buying Your Army===

As always, the Battalion Box is a good start. It comes with 10 Temple Guard, 20 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry and 12 Skinks.

After that you will need to buy probably 2 more Saurus Warrior boxes unless you're going light on Saurus due to crippling fear of victory. Also the Skinks you get aren't really enough to run more than a single unit of skirmishers, so buy box of Skinks. The TG are also undersized so you might want to get another box to get them up to strength. This gives you a total of 20 Temple Guard, 52 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry and 32 Skinks. Mainly this gives you a smattering of units for a lower cost than buying the boxes and the amount you get in the boxed sets will be slightly less than what you need so there is no overflow... or by the sounds of it might just be easier to buy a second Battalion.

*2 Battalion: 20 Temple Guard, 40 Saurus Warriors, 16 Cold One Cavalry and 24 Skinks. 132£
*The other option: 20 Temple Guard, 52 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry, and 32 Skinks. 152£

Aside: it's a very minor thing, but the Cold One Cavalry sprue has decorative bits that can be used as jungle swarms (2 per 8 CoC, if you can rustle up some bases). So if you want jungle swarms the 2nd Battalion may be better. Also, the excess Cold One Cavalry can be modified into a pair of Scar Vets on Cold Ones. Can give you some cheap hitting power and a way to hit a points limit in your initial games until you figure out what you want to buy to flesh out the army.

Getting a Slann is mandatory. No you can't just say "screw it" even if you never play with it. Not having a Slann will get you laughed at by every neckbeard who hears of your foolishness.

If you want to start an army cheap and build up slowly, buy 1 box of Saurus and convert the 16th one to be something else (eg Scar Vet). This is a small army of about 250 points. After that, buy another box of Saurus unless you want to go all Skink.

===Army Composition===

Some people (you know who you are) think Lizardmen (and specifically Saurus), are a defensive army. This, however, is not true. Take 2 blocks of 30 Saurus, with spears if you're a taker (or have Gor-Rok to lead them). These are your main hitting force. Next, take 2+ units of Skinks. Blowpipes used to be better, but now take Lustrian Javelins. Next, your block of Temple Guard. 20 MINIMUM! No cheaping out here: these bad boys are gonna keep your Slann safe so may as well go all out. Buy a magic standard, Flaming is always handy in a pinch. Then you need to get some support...here is where your aquatic friends come in handy. No Flounder or Sebastian up in this shit, hell no! We got lizards who breathe FIRE (<s>despite being water dwelling reptiles...?</s> they spit acid which goes on fire when it comes into contact with the air) and ones that carry a shotgun of spikes to down insects (bring bug spray to Lustria). Two units of any mix well, however a Razordon is 65 points to a Salamander's 80 points, but now they are S4 so slightly better. Use this to hit the enemy, take ranks and warmachines out. They can also flank charge in a pinch (use them to chase down). Do all you can to make that hammer blow fall hard and fast.

That's your base, now your Slann. Ok here is what you want: Becalming Cogitation, Wandering Deliberations, Reservoir of Eldritch Energy and any other one of your choosing. Make the guy a BSB (hey, if he's so expensive as is, may as well make him worth it) Banner of Discipline ftw!

After that it's entirely up to you what to take. Terradons are a good answer to warmachines yet not as good as Ripperdactyls. Bastiladons in both forms are only worth their points if you have a specific plan for them, it's not a unit you can plop down and expect it to work wonders (i.e. you must actually think harder about your battle plan when using these, ditto for Ripperdactyls). GW again trying to push the newest box by making its model the cheapest. Bloodcrushers anyone?

Just remember if you are only taking units of 30 Saurus in a horde with spears, you won't get any real benefit of the fourth rank so consider taking them 6 across for the added lulz.

===Alternate Opinion===

Let's start with the Slann. Becalming Cogitation and Reservoir of Eldritch Energy are fine. It seems, however, that our friend who wrote the above (and messy) composition forgot about High Magic's Lore Attribute, which allows you to forget a spell of High Magic and replace it with one from any of the Eight Battle Magic Lores. These spells will automatically use their associated Lore Attribute and can always be the Signiture spell as per usual spell generation rules. That means, if you're in a bit of trouble, you can cast a High Magic lore spell, switch to Lore of Life, generate one from there, depending on what it is either keep it or swap it for 5+ Regeneration Signature Spell and then cast that. That not only gives a unit a nice Regeneration save (<S>which I believe counts as a 'Ward Save'</S> there are some differences - vulnerability to fire damage comes to mind) but it also gives the Wizard (or any other character in range) a Wound back. You can do this for any Lore. Wandering Deliberations is also good, as mentioned.

Next, as I am sure the above person knows, your General is automatically the character with the highest Leadership. Since Slann have Ld9, that means they are automatically the Army General unless you have more than one Slann or somehow have another Lord with Ld9 or above. Oldbloods have Ld8. This isn't a problem until you give the Slann the Banner of Discipline, which not only turns it into the BSB but gives it Ld+1. That means the Slann will have Ld10. Amazing for casting the Death Lore Signature spell. <strike>However, the Banner of Discipline also states that the Banner wielder cannot be used for Inspiring Presence. Meaning you have lost the ability to use the Slann to rally. This is a important seeing as many of the Lizardmen units are Ld5-6. Coldblooded helps, but is not always sufficient</strike>. As per the BRB FAQ, a General in a unit with the Banner of Discipline may use his Inspiring Presence with the +1 bonus. This gives any Lizardmen under the eyes of a Slann a 99.8% chance of success for all leadership tests. This is so stupidly good for the price that only an idiot would not take it.

Next, mixing Razordons and Salamanders is a fun idea, but they are both different firing types. Firstly, the Salamanders are Slow to Fire and fire as a Flame Cannon, while the Razordon are Quick to Fire and fire as Grapeshot from cannons. It would therefore be better to keep them separate. Yes, there is the bonus that the Razordons will be able to protect the Salamanders, but it's still a mess.

Bastiladons are worth their price. If you take Jungle Swarms, the Ark of Sotek is useful for a chance on a free base every turn, but the key worth is in the Solar Engine. The gem not only gives every Cold Blooded creature within range +1I (which is <s>stupidly useful</s> does nothing for I1 Saurus on protecting them against Pit of Shades for example) which also stacks with Hand of Glory for a potential +4I (and half of your Magic Phase), it's the Gem's power which is the real useful part of it. The spell is Power Level 3, meaning you need only a 3 to cast it (and your opponent needs only a 3 to dispel it). You've got a 66% chance of doing it with one die. Throw two and you're going to be unlucky to not cast it. The spell itself not only causes 1D3-2D6 S3-6 Flaming Hits, but also a 1/6 chance to reduce WS and BS skill by 1 for a turn. The fact you're going to be forcing your opponent to either accept the chance of the spell being powerful and causing damage OR using a couple of dice to dispel it (this is idiotic, Bound Spells are shit in 8th ed, and easily dispellable even by a lvl2 mage). If they do dispel it, you then simply laugh and use your remaining dice to cast some High Magic or Battle Lore spells which your opponent will struggle to dispel (except that they will use the same or even less dice than you used to cast it, since they get their Caster Level bonus to dispel and you do not get it to cast). The Bastiladon is also the proud owner of the only 2+ Scaly Skin Special Rule, meaning you're going to be resisting plenty of attacks. Yes, its Toughness is terrible (and a surprising number, <s>it should be errated IMO</s> it sucks, deal with it) but imagine a Skink Priest casting Wildform from a Lore of Beast on it, giving it +1S and +1T, or even +2/4T from Lore of Life. Making it the true tank it should be (why not cast it on a Stegadon instead?)

===Magic Items===

Yes the Lizardmen have some of the best okay gear available, unfortunately you will pay heavily for that advantage.

====Magic Weapons====
*'''The Blade of Realities:''' A new version of this and still pricey as hell but now ignoring Ward AND Armour Saves. The only downside is that it now takes up all of a Lord's points for magic items and thus robs you of the ability to take any Ward Saves of your own. As such it should probably be left at home for friendly games. On the other hand, since it means that opponents Lords/Heroes will have to rely on Toughness and Weapon Skill to avoid dying, it means you can use it on an Oldblood to go and destroy a specific target. If you put the Oldblood on a Cold One or Fuck-You-A-Saur, you can get a 1+ Armour Save (4+ Scaly Skin + Shield = 3+ - add the Cold One's or Carnosaur's +2 and you're up to 1+. Light armour can be added in case your mount dies so you stay at 2+). You then head straight for that Lord/Hero and unleash hell. Lore of Life's +2/+4 Toughness will make you even more resilient. Lore of Lights Weapon Skill/Initiative augment means you're going to hit more often. Lore of High Magic Movement/Initiative/Weapon Skill at +D3 is useful, but when you can make it so you improve all three it means your Oldblood and his Mount are going to get there quicker and when they do, they're going to be more likely to hit. +3 Movement will mean 9-10 Movement for the Mounts, +3 Initiative will mean your Oldblood is at Initiative 6 (and 7 if near Solar Gem) and +3 Weapon Skill means hitting at Weapon Skill 9. So, while Elves, Vampire Lords and Chaos Lords will still out-Initiative you (and Elves most likely will get re-rolls too) everything else will be hitting after you or at the same time. With WS9, you're likely to hit (bar specific specific Vampire Lord builds, named Elves and certain Elf and Chaos Lord builds, who will also be around WS9... Also any unit with Fencing Blades) and S5 means you're not too bad when it comes to wounding and since you're packing 5 Attacks, you're very much capable of killing any Lord/Hero in one go (though the likes of Tyrion, it'll be difficult). That's ignoring your Mount and the buff it got from the spells. A T9 Fuck-You-A-Saur is pretty fun. So is one with WS6, especially since it has 5 attacks and each one is D3 Wounds. Being able to smile when you tell your opponent that his Lord/Hero or Special Character can't make any saves would be glorious. The best bit, though, would be against the likes of Malekith, who has a 2+ Armour Save (when on mount) and 2+ Ward Save (against non-magical attacks) or against 1+ Armour Save and 3+ Ward Save Chaos Lords. All those points, wasted as you cleave through them. However, many people won't take named characters or spend so many points on a Lord, so the Blade of Realities has very limited uses in competitive play. However, against WAAC's in friendly games, it's delicious. Try this with a Slann just for the lulz (only once though). Laugh as you chew through tanks and still have a Ward Save!
*'''The Piranha Blade:''' Still a little bit expensive but now getting the bonus of reducing enemy armour. Against monster and Heroes probably a good idea but a hefty price to pay. Although as the Armour Piercing stacks on Impact Hits this item should be used on an Oldblood with the Stegadon Helm on a Carnosaur with Swiftstride. This combo is fucking hilarious, and leaves some points for other magic items.
::Another use is to give it to a Scar Vet on foot and challenge as it allows you to rack up the combat bonus with Overkill. With only 4 attacks you have the potential to get one Wound to kill the champ and the +5 Overkill bonus for a total of +6 to combat res. Pretty good for only 4 attacks. On average you'll get around +4ish which is still like Hitting and Wounding AND having your opponent fail all saves.

====Magic Armour====
*'''Sacred Stegadon Helm of Itza:''' The only Magic Armour the Lizardmen get but what an armour! For its bonus to Toughness and Impact Hits it's fricking cheap and your Saurus can also play mini-Minotaur on a Carnosaur for the lulz. For those who don't know, it gives +1 to Armour Save, +1 Toughness AND +D3 Impact Hits. Impact hits don't benefit from your weapon though. Your weapons stats only affect you when striking with it.

====Enchanted Items====
*'''The Cloak of Feathers:''' Yes, the same old thing that was in the <S>Codex</S> Armybook for like 10 editions. Still makes a flying Skink but now with a little bonus of some extra Magic Resistance. As it's cheap, you can use it to get the Priest in nice positions for the Arcane Vassal rule to help get in range for the shorter ranged spells a Slann may have.
*'''The Horn of Kygor:''' A musical instrument carved from a long dead dinosaur. When your Hero blows it, all Monsters and Beasts in your army within range, will gain the Frenzy rule for one turn. As it will not affect the riders and is extremely expensive for a One Use Only item that does fairly little, it's best to leave this at home.
*'''The Egg of Quango:''' Again a little dinosaur souvenir, but this still has life in it. You can summon the ancient dinosaur from its egg and with a little luck (on a 4+) he will clobber your enemies. As a One Use Only and requiring quite a bit of luck this should probably be left at home, but when you like dinosaurs (and that's why you're playing Lizardmen) then it's not bad. Although if it doesn't get so lucky, the poor bird inside dies :'( While it's 'fun' it's also rather silly. The whole point of the Quango was that it was some rare, mystical creature which could change the outcome of the War against Chaos, with Mazamundi deciding when it should be opened... He's decided it is now and it doesn't do anything to help the War in terms of fluff. But it is an amusing item.

====Arcane Items====
*'''Cube of Darkness:''' Basically a 5 point more expensive Dispel Scroll that works on a 2+. In addition, you roll a die for each Remains In Play spell on the board (including your own) and on a 2+ it ends. After taking a Dispel Scroll this is a near "must take" (if you can). Be careful as this item, by RAW, can dispel also your spells!
*'''Plaque of Dominion:''' A Bound Spell that makes enemy mages Stupid. If your opponent has his mage parked within range of a General/BSB leave this at home. If not... probably still leave it at home. Dispel Scroll first, Cube second.

====Magic Standards====
*'''Skavenpelt Banner:''' This banner grants the Frenzy and Hatred (Skaven) rules, and all other Skaven gain Hatred when attacking the bearer. As it is more than 50 points this banner can only be used on the BSB, and taking a Magic Banner on a BSB is a shitty idea as he can't take any other magic items for protection. Except the Slann, who can take much better banners at a cheaper price (e.g. Banner of Discipline) and still take magic items. Skip this item as a smart general will have you're unit chasing chaff as they are frenzied.
**'''Alternative Opinion:''' ''Ignore the special person who wrote above this. Put it on your Slann and watch 3 Attack Temple Guard madness roll across the field. You don't need to worry about hording with this shizzle as it is the cheese. And I don't see you ever failing a Leadership test with Cold Blooded and BSB and Stubborn with Reroll so you will never chase units across the field (wrong, their special rule states they ALWAYS have to pursue, unless they have a Skink with them).''
**'''Alternate Alternative Opinion:''' The Skavenpelt Banner will let you have a stupid amount of fun with your Temple Guard with a Slann BSB. However, the mandatory Overrun will screw over your Temple Guard if your opponent has any sort of chaff unit, or even a unit they don't mind feeding to the blender (which I really cannot imagine being fielded by Skaven, /irony). Also, if you lose combat you may not run, but your BSB is now holding 65 Points of Hatred(Skaven). Fun, but certainly not worth it.
*'''Jaguar Standard:''' Just cheap enough to be used by a unit of Temple Guard, the Jaguar Standard gives the unit Swiftstride. It's an OK choice for a banner but there are others that could probably work better. Nice way to make sure that if the Temple Guard run off after a unit due to their Predatory Fighter rule, they catch and kill whatever fled.

====Summary====
The ones to seriously consider are Cube of Darkness, Piranha Blade, Stegadon Helm, and perhaps the Cloak of Feathers. For any serious lists, don't bother with the rest though they have their uses.

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Remember the BRB also has some nice items.
Let us say you have a Slann, what should you buy it? Well, Banner of Discipline is one option, but that still means 100 magic points left! So, what else to get? Seeing as Vetock nerfed the Discipline that gave Magic Resistance (3) to Magic Resistance (D3) each turn, it would seem as if there was little in the way of magical protection for your Slann.... Except there is! For 40(or 45, I forget) points, you can buy an Obsidian Lodestone, this gives you Magic Resistance (3), guaranteed! This means not only do you not need to spend points on the Discipline (although it's cheaper but vastly inferior) but it means you've always got Magic Resistance (3) and therefore your unit of Temple Guard have it too!

:'''Alternate Opinion:''' ''A Slann already has a 4+ Ward Save, so on a 3+ you get a 2+ Ward against spells. Take Channeling Staff and Harmonic Convergence for Power Dice spam, and have the Obsidian Lodestone somewhere else.''

What else, you ask? Well, it seems as if writers have been slowly changing the way Fear and Terror works. You can now have just one model with the ability and everybody else in the unit has it. Although the BRB says this isn't the case, newer Armybooks are mentioning it. In the case of Lizardmen, it says that models in base contact with a Slann gain the cause Terror or cause Fear rule, so basically the unit causes it. So what does that mean? It means you buy a Shrieking Blade! For a mere 10 points, your Slann now causes Fear, therefore your Temple Guard unit now causes Fear! You could buy the Terror Discipline, but it's way more expensive. This is around 55 points (or 50, as I said, I forgot).

Spend the rest of your points on Cube of Darkness and Dispel Scroll ''(you cannot, just 1 Arcane Item per a character, and you already took the Channeling Staff).'' This means you have a Slann with 3+ Ward Save against Magical Attacks/Spells, which also affects your Temple Guard, but also the Slann causes Fear, making it possible for any unit charging your Temple Guard to be reduced to WS1, allowing your Temple Guard to have an even higher chance of survivability!

===Magic===

Yes please.

Now after the new book, the Lizardmen have gotten High Magic (the High Elf magic) for their Slann. Well not bad at all but the real thing is in the Lore Attribute: Contemplation. It allows you to forget a spell you successfully cast, and generate a new one out of High Magic or any normal Lore. This means you can drop spells you don't need and get new ones. Playing against Daemons? Light magic is there. Fighting against Chaos Knights? There you go: Searing Doom.

With magic, one of the biggest choices is which Lore for the Slann. Generally Life is regarded as the best for Slann as it can prevent Miscasts from nuking your Mega-Toad. Plus, who doesn't like Toughness 6 Saurus? Aside from your opponent, I mean. Generally it's best to take a lore based on your opponent's army. Metal and Shadow are pretty good choices. Heavens is a big NO as you already have Skink Priests to cast that one for you.
Typically, people opt for either Life or Light, with Life being more popular of a choice.

'''Lore of Life (Recommended)''': <strike>With the Loremaster discipline on a Slann, and thus allowing you to get every spell from the lore, this is probably the best choice as Earth Blood, Flesh to Stone, and Regrowth keep your warriors in the battle and help mitigate their relatively small numbers.</strike> Slann can only be a Loremaster in High Magic as of the most recent Armybook. Life is still awesome but Slann can't count on always having the Throne anymore. Throne of Vines helps make your Slann from killing himself and lets Flesh to Stone buff your Saurus to Toughness 8 (as well as buffing the effectiveness of the other spells)! Finally, Dwellers Below is possibly one of the most ridiculous spells in the game and can nuke entire units with no looking back. Generally this is probably the best of the lores to use for a balanced or defensive list. Remember that any good opponent will packing at least 1 Scroll so never depend on your first Dwellers working. In fact depend on it not working.

'''Lore of Light (Recommended)''': Although Life is probably better in a large tournament game Light can be devastating in Saurus-heavy armies with a Slann in the center. Birona's Timewarp and The Speed of Light are probably the best spells as they make up for the Saurus' low Initiative and mediocre Weapon Skill. The Timewarp will also give you an extra Attack and double the Movement, turning the Saurus into something more akin to Ogres in power (that's 3 attacks and 8 movement by the way) . Best of all is that both of them and their little cousin Pha's Protection (an Augment that will help against shooting and getting hit in combat at a -1 To Hit) can all be cast as 12" bubble buffs that can affect all units, allowing an army with a Slann in the center to be twice as effective. On another note the lore has some pretty good utility spells that can clear chaff (and also get a bonus versus the foul Undead and Daemons) and help stop your opponent from getting dangerous flank charges (The Net of Amyntok). All in all probably the second best lore for Lizards. One other thing to note is if you get some lucky rolling you can cast bubble Speed of Light and Phas Protection. The astute among you will notice that means most core (WS4 and lower) will be hitting your mighty Saurus on 6's. This is obviously huge and the fact that more people don't do this makes me sad.

'''Lore of Shadow''': The Lore Attribute is probably the most important part to the use of this Lore for lone Slann. Allowing the Slann to switch with any other character within 24" after a successful casting is a great way of getting him out of combats and switching in an expendable Skink or a fighty Saurus Character <strike>(assuming you are not in a Temple Guard block where you can't leave the unit</strike> 8th Ed book no longer states he must remain or even join TG). On the casting side of things Shadow is the most expensive lore to cast in the game <strike>which shouldn't be a problem for a Slann with the Discipline of Ruination for the extra Casting Die each spell</strike> - no ruination anymore in 8th. Otherwise most of the spells are Hexes that lower the capability of your opponent's units. Now a rundown of each spell:
* '''(Signature) Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma''': Lowering your opponent's WS, BS, LD, or I is great with Saurus as they have poor Initiative and a poor WS for elite troops. This spell allows you to level the playing field and hopefully start hitting on 3's. This Hex can also be used for hilarious effect with Purple Sun in the Lore of Death.
* '''(1) Steed of Shadows''': I guess it's cheap to cast but I've never seen a use for it as a Saurus leader is useless without his unit and Skink Priests and Chiefs have other ways to get flying. It could be lolzy for a flying Carnosaur or switching around with a Death lore Slann in the hilarious dual Shadow/Death Slann list but otherwise it seems to lack any use other than switching for the Sig if you don't have Loremaster (which you should).
* '''(2) The Enfeebling Foe''': Minus D3 Strength is okay for your Saurus but they are probably Tough enough already so they don't really need it. Could be okay versus Monsters and keeping your high Armour Saves.
* '''(3) The Withering''': The true winner of this lore in my opinion. Lowering you're opponents Toughness is one of the best Hexes in this game...

'''Lore of High Magic''': The signature Lizardmen lore, shared with High Elves(the Slann did teach them how to use magic after all). It is a pretty well balanced Lore for Lizardmen and much better suited for them than for High Elves. Hand of Glory gives +D3 Initiative/Movement/Weapon Skill, with its High Casting option giving +D3 to all of the stats, not just one. This counters Lizardmens average Weapon Skill (Saurus, warmachines created to fight, have WS3, unless they're on a Cold One or are Temple Guard, then you have WS4, Skinks have WS2) and Initiative. The Movement buff is just gravy. This is much better for Lizardmen than High Elves, since High Elves are rocking WS4 on their basic troops, and WS5/WS6 on their Rare/Specials. Walk Between Worlds is also useful for Lizardmen, especially for units such as Fuck-You-A-Saurs, Kroxigors, Cold One Cavalry and, most importantly, Salamanders. This allows you to move into perfect flanking positions, allowing your units to dish out some hurt while the opponent is tar-pitted against Saurus. The Salamanders are perfect for this spell as you can have as many as you want, a unit of 5 Salamanders shooting five S4 Flame Cannon Template shots over a horde of something or a tough unit to weaken them for your Saurus, is golden. Vaul's Unmaking is useful for removing powerful magical items from Lords/Heroes, especially named/special ones. I'm looking at you Tyrion (+3S sword, 1+/4++ Magic Armour, Gem) or Grimgor Ironhide (+2S ASF axe) and so on. The final High Magic spell, Fiery Convocation, is useful as it will constantly cause hits on the unit, regardless of how big it is. That 40 block horde? They all take a hit. It can whittle them down for your units to finish them off.

There are other viable Lores, such as Fire, but you can't get Loremaster any more, making it a bit of a problem. Even with Lore of Life, you're still only getting 4 spells out of 6.

Heads up people! With the new End times Khaine book, Slann are stupidly strong. If they know one spell from a lore then they know the entire lore now! Meaning the signature spell discipline they can take? Yeah can know all spells from all the basic lores now... And if they are Loremasters of a lore then they get to Reroll Casting attempts of that lore! So you can stick to High Lore and have a higher chance of casting all the spells you need! And ONE MOOOOORE THING!(Shush Uncle!) When the Slann use the High Magic Lore attribute then the moment they get a spell from a Lore they learn the '''Entire Lore'''.
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==Tactics==

There's a school of thought that stipulates that in order to win in WFB you need to be control 2 out of the 4 Phases in a turn. Lizardmen have magic and combat handed to them, so choosing to not take a Slann is really only useful if you're sure that its power as a magic user is unnecessary in the battle to be played. Lizardmen don't have the mobility to control the Movement Phase and we really don't have any truly dedicated ranged units like Elves or Empire.

Because of the lack of mobility on Lizardmen units and lack of long-ranged firepower, one should not play defensively. Imagine if Dwarfs lacked their warmachines and ranged units. No one would play Dwarfs because you could shoot the crap out of them for 3-4 turns and then run around behind them and flank the survivors. Lizardmen can't just stand there and shoot. The whole army needs to grind forward. Grind is really the best word here, if you're doing it right you should be making steady progress and crush anything that tries to stall you.

While some units can really move around compared to your Saurus, those units are all skinks, which means they're dead if you opponent looks at them with raised eyebrows. The exception is Cold One Cavalry which is pretty pricey and therefore will never be fielded in the numbers necessary to play them in a super-effective way.
:'''Alternative view''': ''Cold One cav cost 35 points each whereas Saurus cost 11. Saurus on foot get 2 Attacks whereas Cold Ones riders get 3 and 2 of those are at Strength 5 on the charge. They also have M7, a base 2+ Armour Save and 1 extra WS which helps a surprising amount. The big thing is that with 1" bases you reach critical mass very easily. Basically with 210 points you'll get 12 hits from COC against WS3 at S4/5 on the charge and COC won't die easily. 210 points of Saurus gives you 9 hits or 12 with spears if you run them 6 wide which you should at that point cost. All in all COCs are situationally more point cost effective than Saurus, generally against WS3, S3/4 units. Either way in a standard list run 5 COC to flank charge an existing combat.''

Against mobile armies like Bretonnia, Wood Elves or people who still think cavalry is good, don't wait for the knights or warriors to charge your flanks. Get a Skink skirmisher unit to stand in the way or charge them. Mobile armies will be a pain in the butt, especially if they have ranged cavalry as you will never catch them without carefully noting terrain placement etc.

Tarpits are something to avoid, even though your Saurus units will probably wipe out the offending unit (unless it's a half decent one like a Hammerer dart with a Dwarf Lord running a 1+ rerollable Armour Save and a 4++ in front or sword and board Grave Guard), it wastes time and options. That said if you do get tarpitted, don't worry. 90% of tarpits won't do much to your Saurus and very few have a real chance of beating 40+ Saurus Warriors (you did take a Horde right?). Try to avoid tarpits getting to your Temple Guard as you want them to be free to deal with issues not bogged down playing whack-a-mole.

<strike>Warmachines are the most annoying things for Lizardmen players. You have 2 options to deal with them quickly. Players who rely on warmachines to win are pussy bitches or Dwarfs, and should be mocked as such. Stone Throwers are absolute cunts when they hit and several Bolt Throwers will chew through a unit quickly. Against Dwarfs this is doubly so. In fact during a Dwarf player's Deployment Phase while they look to place their lame ass contraptions play this clip from Community where Senor Chang perfectly describes warmachine-heavy armies: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVneqqeyO2M] </strike>

The most annoying thing for Lizardmen players has to be Purple Sun of Xereus (just ask my mate Jed). You're marching along, merry as can be, when some poncy spellcaster decides to royally fuck up your plans. Bye-bye to TWO-THIRDS OF YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING ARMY IN ONE GODDAMN PHASE. They'll six-dice it every turn, so either fuck them up before they do the same to you or carry a Dispel Scroll and hope the poncy prick shoves his staff where the Purple Sun doesn't shine.

{{Warhammer_Tactics_Races}}
[[Category:Warhammer/Tactics]]

Horus Heresy

2018-02-18T09:59:54Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|500px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''this''.]]
:''[[Fulgrim|"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.]]'' 
:''[[Magnus the Red|Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.]]'' 
:''[[Angron|They will be of iron will and steely muscle.]]'' 
:''[[Perturabo|In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.]]'' 
:''[[Mortarion|They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.]]'' 
:''[[Alpharius|They will have tactics, strategies and machines]] [[Omegon|so that no foe can best them in battle.]]'' 
:''[[Konrad Curze|They are my bulwark against the Terror.]]'' 
:''[[Lorgar|They are the Defenders of Humanity.]]'' 
:''[[Horus|They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."]]'' 
:- The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], [[Not as planned|getting exactly what he wanted.]]
{{Topquote|The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.|Karl Popper}}

The '''Horus Heresy''' is one of the single biggest clusterfuck of events in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff, alongside the [[Eldar]]'s creation of a new [[Slaanesh|Chaos God]], and the [[War in Heaven|rampage and fall of the]] [[C'Tan|star gods]]. Needless to say, this heresy derailed the Emperor's plan and himself, and gave the Chaos Gods their most prominent armies to carry out their will in realspace.

In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor's favorite son, [[Horus| Horus Lupercal]], formerly Warmaster of the Imperium, was corrupted by Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor, taking nine [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] (Including [[Luna Wolves|his own]]), their respective Primarchs, and about half of the Imperial Army and Mechanicum with him. After waging war across the galaxy, Horus and his traitors eventually reached Holy Terra itself, hoping to murder the Emperor himself and cut the head off the proverbial snake and win the war.

Things went [[Not as Planned]] however, as he was eventually surrounded by loyalist forces at the height of the siege on Terra. As a final gambit, he dropped the shields of his flagship which allowed the Emperor to beam up and challenged him to a duel for the fate of humanity. Horus beat the Emperor within an inch of his life but was killed in turn after the Emperor put his foot down and obliterated Horus' soul from existence (as in it didn't go to the warp to be resurrected by daemons; it was literally erased from existence) when it finally became clear to him that Horus was beyond forgiveness. The Chaos gribbles he had been allied with disappeared and the now Chaos Marines that had followed him sulked back to the [[Eye of Terror]], starting the [[Long War]].

Because the Emperor was fucked up to the point where he had to be permanently attached to a life-support machine known as the "Golden Throne" just to survive, logic within the Imperium gradually decreased, eventually turning into the [[Grimdark]] empire it is today. And it was already pretty damn grimdark.

[[File:President.png|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''him''.]]
[[File:GodsOfWarhammer.jpg|500px|thumb|left|It was pretty much ''them''.]]

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course) and changed the flavour of the Imperium's Grimdark from Stalinist Soviet "if you breathe a word about religion, we rape you with knives" to Catholic [[Inquisition]] "if you breathe a word about the ''wrong'' religion, we rape you [[Exterminatus|or your whole planet]] with knives" unless you can find an Ecclesiarch to come and say: "nope, that's just another aspect of the Emperor". Don't count on this happening without hefty "donations".

The heresy lasted for several years (somewhere between seven and ten) and was fought all over the galaxy. The following are the most important battles and campaigns during the Heresy:
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Prospero|Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Betrayal at Calth|Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Battle of Tallarn]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

Following the Siege of Terra, Horus was permakilled, Big E was interred onto the Golden Throne, the surviving primarchs freaked out trying to figure out what do now that daddy was in a coma, the traitors fucked off into the Eye of Terror, and overall the galaxy slowly and collectively lost their minds now that their wise and all-powerful ruler was no longer around to tell them what to do.

== The Board Game ==
First published in 1993 by [[Game Designer's Workshop]], it was the Emprah versus his [[Horus|evil bastard of a son]] in the scorched earth of Terra. Units include [[Titan#Warhammer_40k|titans]] and [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spaw-]] oh shiARHGRBLLYRBGRDEWUODHGRYEB.

Ahem, as he was saying, The more recent edition (2010) is published by [[Fantasy Flight Games]]. Also a two-player [[wargame|war]] [[board game|game]], it includes over 100 sculpted minifigs, sculpted buildings, and even Horus and the Emprah themselves are units on the board. It also adds more territory, as the fight can be pushed back onto the [[heresy|traitor's]] flagship ''Vengeful Spirit''. Combat is less [[dice|dice-y]] and more card-y.

(Not to be confused with the lame Horus Heresy card game, whose only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway.)

== The Book Series ==
For the last decade, [[Black Library]] has been publishing novels that explore the events of the Horus Heresy, looking at the rivalries among the [[Primarchs]] and exploring just why everything went down the tubes. The novels are by a selection of different authors, which is a total pain if you like to organise your books alphabetically by author. The reception to the series has been somewhat... mixed; books generally considered to be good include [[Dan Abnett|the first trilogy]], [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Betrayer]], [[White Scars|Scars]], and the short story [[Alpha Legion|The Serpent Beneath]].

Of course, like we mentioned, there's some that are... um... Well, let's just say that the worst are a [[skub|matter of much debate]].

{{Template:Spoilers}}

=== Books I - X ===
*'''''Horus Rising:''''' A prologue story, introducing us to the series and Garviel Loken who will grow into a very significant character. An Emperor (not [[Emperor|Him]]) is killed at the beginning and some bugs are killed on a planet called Murder for no reason other than they were there. The Interex show up and ask "whadya do that for?". [[Erebus]] steals the '''MURDER SWORD''' from them.
*'''''False Gods:''''' Horus falls at Davin when wounded by the '''MURDER SWORD''' and gets a crash course in the chaos gods from [[Erebus]] & [[Magnus]]. After getting shown a few "truths" that WILL HAPPEN in the future (like the Emperor being worshipped as a god, Horus being reviled and forgotten) he decides to make war on the Imperium to [[FAIL|prevent]] all this from happening.
*'''''Galaxy in Flames:''''' Isstvan III happens and the traitors send the loyalists down to the planet without reinforcements and proceed to bomb them to fuck. Things don't go to plan when [[Angron]] decides to invade turning it into a [[Not as Planned]] drawn out conflict that the Warmaster can't really afford - Loken "dies"
*'''''Flight of the Eisenstein:''''' the other side of ''Galaxy in Flames'', Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved (and mega-bitchslapped) by [[Rogal Dorn]], who does not take the news from Isstvan [[Rage|very well]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'. There is also the very first canonical appearance of Plague Marines, Euphrati Keeler being all mystical and shit, and Malcador recruiting Garro as the first Knight-Errant.
*'''''Fulgrim:''''' one of the more forgettable stories in the series. Attempts to tell the story from Great Crusade all the way up to the [[Drop Site Massacre]] in one book. In short Fulgrim finds a sword, gets possessed, kills Ferrus Manus - the end. It is written by Graham McNiel though, and it has an awesome quote from Fulgrim "My Emperor's Children. What beautiful music they make." .
*'''''Descent of Angels:''''' This is the Heresy book that isn't about the Heresy, instead focusing on [[Zahariel]]'s time on [[Caliban]]. It portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness (he can not read people at all, so he comes off as 'do what I say or die!') and having Luther to handle the small talk. Hints that the Great Crusade <s>does more harm than good</s> {{BLAM}} is uniting the lost colonies of mankind into a united future! Luther gets sent home with Zahariel to hustle up more Dark Angels.
*'''''Legion''''' introduces [[the Cabal]], the [[Perpetual]]s and [[Omegon]]. READ THIS BOOK. Or don't, as this is where those things that would eventually take over the Heresy series and according to many completely ruin it (Cabal, Perpetuals) are introduced. I still would recommend reading it since when the novel introduces these ideas they are very fresh and interesting. Don't blame Legion when the rest of the novels were who ruined it. Alpha legion is trying to bring some chaos cultist into compliance. Chaos cultists activate planetary self destruct blood sacrifice. Alpha legion meets with the Cabal, agrees to work with them, then kills off all non-legion bystanders & ships with "FOR E-MONEY"!
*'''''Battle for the Abyss:''''' The book is so bad that other authors tried to retcon it out of existence. This book is so bad that you would have it was cobbled together from [[Matt Ward|Wardian fluff]] stitched together by [[C. S. Goto]]. Reading this book may, in fact, cause brain cancer so you should avoid it if at all possible. Everyone dies, so it does not affect much (as in anything). The only thing you need to remember is [[Lorgar]] built a fuckhueg space ship and filled it with Dreadnoughts, and it failed miserably.
*'''''Mechanicum:''''' Tech Priests turn renegade after Horus tells them they can do whatever they like with technology, so they release forbidden viral scrapcodes and screw everything up. Also turns out that [[Emperor|Big E]] invented the Machine-God by sealing a C'Tan on Mars back during the Saint George era, giving everyone visions of technology. Also more subtle hints that the Emperor is a god himself by using divine golden light to heal machines and instant access super wikipedia. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery. And for extra Grimdark, a tech priestess discovers that the Dark Age era humans stored a backup copy of wikipedia in the warp and <s>with a giant psyker powered terminal accesses said wikipedia and restores all the knowledge of mankind</s> floods her forge with lava to deny the traitors access. A psyker tech savant meets up with the goaler of the Void Dragon and takes over his fuck long shift.
*'''''Tales of Heresy:''''' short story collection, including [[The Last Church]]. Has a lot of twist endings.
** '''''Blood Games:''''' An assassin tries to kill the emperor. The Adeptus Custodes go to kill a traitor on Terra. The assassin was a Custodes probing the palace defences. The traitor was a triple agent working for Dorn.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor. When the liberated planet chooses freedom over Emperor, the wolves invade again.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. They worshiped the Emperor, but Lorgar no longer does. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The squad of Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp. Turns out the youngest of the squad in the future used sorcery to beam back her consciousness through time onto some psykers on the Black Ship. She <s>successfully warns the squad about Horus's Rebellion </s> is executed by a hard-core Sister for breaking her vow of [[Psyker|no funny stuff]].
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.
** '''''[[The Last Church]]:''''' A story about the Emperor destroying one of the churches on Terra during the reunification era in his effort to wipe out religion. The Emperor and the priest of the church have an enlightening conversation about the Emprah's trying to accomplish. The conversation ends up with the priest accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite, with him decrying that he's no more different than the old warlords who waged crusades and holy wars in the past to push their own agendas on other people. Emperor reveals himself as the very god the priest was worshiping, and nearly convinces him to stand by his side while his soldiers destroy the church. Priest gets cold feet and walks back into the church while it collapses. An end-times alarm clock starts ringing in the ruins.
** '''''After Desh'ea:''''' The War Hounds meet their primarch. Angron demeats the War Hounds. More specifically, the Emperor just beamed up Angron away from his last stand (rather than, you know, intervening with his Custodes or his fleet), leaving Angron pretty pissed. [[Kharn]] is a pretty great guy to be around, and pulls his femurs out of his lungs quickly enough to establish himself as Angron's best buddy ''after the War Hounds chain of command calmed Angron down as fleshy squeeze balls''.

=== Books XI - XX ===
*'''''Fallen Angels:''''' the sequel to Descent of Angels, is actually two stories rolled into one book that never converge. 1. The Lion fights a war to reclaim some Ordinatus devices and then hands them to Perturabo to gain his trust, not realising that his brother has already turned. 2. [[Zahariel]] and Luther clean out a daemon cult on Caliban... but not really.
*'''''Thousand Sons:''''' Part 1 of the Battle for Prospero. Runs through the Great Crusade where Magnus discovers the webway, but his Father already knew about it. Then the Edict of Nikaea where Magnus gets all passionate about not restricting psychic powers, then to Horus's vision quest where Magnus fails to keep his brother on the right path, then does the WORST thing possible by forcing himself through the palace psychic spam filter, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues and the thousand sons become a thousand sons all over again. Ahriman starts writing hit Rubric.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail because Horus sent a look-a-like, but in the process slay a shapeshifting daemonic counter-assassin sent by Erebus. While it is a decent book and we learn a lot, it didn't contribute much to the overall plot. On the more [[rage|vitriolic side]], the writing is a bit underwhelming in places; highlights include calling a pariah a psyker, another pariah with a contrived possession, and Horus uttering one of the most cliche one liners out there.
*'''''The First Heretic:''''' [[Lorgar]]'s turn to get a back story and generally considered one of the better books in the series. While you make never sympathize with them, this book really lets you understand why The Word Bearers fell to chaos, rather then being the "CHAOTIC EVIL MONSTERS" they are portrayed in the rest of the series.. Feels less rushed than "[[Fulgrim]]". Goes from Monarchia to a bit of soul searching in the Eye of Terror and discovers Cadia. Leads up to Istvaan V and the immediate aftermath. Signifcant subplots revolve around the inception of Possessed Marines, and what happens to the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] babysitters watching over the Word Bearers, and how the protagonist [[Argel Tal]] gets into a tragic bromance with the Custodes leader.
** '''''Aurelian:''''' A limited release short story until an ebook was published. The plot bounces around in-between a number of moments in Lorgar's history up to the prelude of the Shadow Crusade. One narrative involves how Lorgar's brothers still treat him like shit, especially when he's the only one who sees through Fulgrim's possession, and ends with Horus sending him to fuck up Ultima Segmentum and handing him Angron's (figurative, [[/d/|not literal]]) leash. The other narrative takes place in the 40 year gap in ''The First Heretic'', where Lorgar makes a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror with a Daemon Princess as his guide. They come to a dead Crone World where he puts a dying [[Avatar of Khaine|Avatar]] out of its misery and he's told that the Eldar panicked rather than embrace Chaos during the birth of Slaanesh, which is what caused them to nearly die out; the daemon prince(ss) tells Lorgar the same thing is happening with humanity during the Heresy, how Chaos really wants a [[A Game of Pretend|symbiotic relationship with humanity rather than to conquer it]]. In the middle of this, Khorne decides he's had enough of this talky wordy shit and sends [[An'ggrath]] to make things more exciting, and Lorgar narrowly beats him. Then Kairos Fateweaver comes and "tells" him about Calth and his relationship with Guilliman and his upcoming war with him in the most confusing as fuck discussion ever. The truth of most of the things told to Lorgar are left ambiguous, because, well, Fateweaver; but also Chaos has a lot riding on the Heresy coming to fruition for reasons left not entirely explored.
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. A civilian archeologist named Kasper Hawser hangs out with a company of the Space Wolves, where we learn a lot about their culture and attitudes. Turns out that Chaos infiltrated everything, so the outcome of Nikaea was practically rigged. The civilian himself even turns out to have been an unwitting spy for Chaos, but the Wolves knew anyway and didn't give a shit (they thought he worked for Magnus).
* '''''Age of Darkness:''''' A short story anthology.
** '''''Rules of Engagement:''''' Roboute lets one of his commanders lead in a series of wars that didn't really occur, and we get the best line ever said in regards to the [[Codex Astartes]]: despite the fact it does cover a lot, it's not meant to be followed biblically <s>which is a load of bull given that the Codex lets said commander win all the wars in the most efficient way possible while blindly following it and only failed in the last battle because he was in a war game against Girlyman</s>. (See the quote on the page on the Big Book of Astartes). The Imperium Secundus shows up, making for another bizarre plot element that ruins the series without adding anything.
** '''''Liar's Due:''''' You know those memes on how the [[Alpha Legion]] causes mass paranoia without actually involving any Astartes? Those aren't just memes. Alpha Legion serf arrives on a agri-world and turns it's allegiance to Horus by only hacking all their inter-planetary communications.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[Salamanders|Salamander]] and a grumpy ol' [[Ultramarine]] are sent in opposition to one of Horus' iterators to convince an industrial-militant world which side to side with. They almost side with Horus before the Warmaster's agents [[Exterminatus|wreck shit]] for the lulz. Oh, and to send the message that neutrality will be punished. The [[Iron Warriors]] were doing weird shit on that world for years beforehand, and was probably the more deciding factor than the lulz.
** '''''The Last Remembrancer:''''' Horus sent the one last remembrancer he had stored up as a gift to Dorn. Instead of in a box (or eight or some shit like that), it was the [[Dan Abnett]] of his day telling Dorn that the grimdark galaxy was grimdark. Also that the Emperor's vision of a galaxy of peace, unity, prosperity, and fluffy bunnies built up without any more grimdark attached than was strictly needed, probably wasn't very likely before any shit hit any fan either way. Also, Iacton Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iacton Qruze. Dorn says it's all lies and enemy propaganda before executing said remembrancer and torching all his ramblings.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Magnus's absent fleet from the Burning of Prospero comes home and shits a brick. The last known surviving squad of Thousand Sons outside of the Planet of the Sorcerers gets beaten up and they slowly figure out it was the Space Wolves who shit on Magnus's <s>parade</s> world and is stalking them. One plot twist later, most of them are dead, the last one decides he's gonna rebuild everything, with a few scant hints that his flesh-change genetic flaw will [[Blood Ravens|shift into kleptomania]].
** '''''The Face of Treachery:''''' The tie-in and conclusion of the audiodrama featuring the Raven Guard after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax [[troll]]ing Perturabo for a bit too long, Horus sends Angron in to finish the job, but Corax's cavalry arrives to troll Angron by getting the loyalists the fuck out of there. We also learn that Corax has a supersekrit psyker ability which lets him roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can out-troll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters (they let the World Eater commander think he was in command then blew his brains out when he tried to actually command). Ends with an transitory bit into ''Deliverance Lost''.
** '''''Little Horus:''''' Little Horus Aximand is struggling with the PTSD he got when he killed Loken and Torgaddon with [[Abaddon|Abby]]. Abby and Little Horus have a discussion (we mean Horus Aximand, not when Primarch Horus was sodomizing Abaddon again) about restoring the Mournival. A couple war scenes later, Little Horus learns the hard way that the White Scars are pretty badass, but his PTSD starts acting up again and he gets his face shaved off before the White Scars are driven off. Little Horus realizes his PTSD he had since killing Loken and Torgaddon ultimately stems from that time he helped kill Loken and Torgaddon, and gives a diatribe about how things like "change", "mood swings", and "hallucinations" are suited to his melancholic nature, saying things like "it's perfectly natural", "I'm fine, everything's fine. Everything is perfectly, absolutely fine", and "Therapy is for the weak. I'm fine". After the Mongolian shave, he gets his face reattached and ends up looking even more like Big Horus in the deal.
** '''''The Iron Within:''''' Some pretty bro-tier loyalist Iron Warriors build a fortress hanging from a cave over an ocean of prometheum in a hellhole of a world (giant cavern system & acidic atmosphere), and one of Perturabo's traitor Grand Companies come knocking to demand that they hand over the house keys. The loyalists give them a fuck-you in the form of a Dreadnought. A few melodramatic and horrific but generic war scenes later, and they get overrun (after a full year of siege thanks to the genius of a certain [[Barabas Dantioch]]), drop the fortress from the ceiling onto a titan, and get the hell out of there by hijacking one of the Iron Warriors warships via teleportation. An Ultramarine big wig was there to bring the loyalists home, informing them that [[Skub|Guilliman was fortifying Terra]] and he needed good siege workers to stall the traitors then to fortify Terra. While loyalist Iron Warriors were pretty cool, the story itself was pretty forgettable; and it left some open questions like whether the continuity errors were the result of "faulty astropathic communications" (see Outcast Dead) or if the Ultramarines were trolling the Iron Warriors to join in with the Imperium Secundus. And also why the Iron Warriors were determined to take a hellhole at an immense expense of people and materiel, including Titans, while they could have just said "fuck yo shit!" and left a fortress with no space or warp conveyance and arguably little strategic value in itself in the middle of nowhere alone. It mentions a few times that it looks really bad for a rebellion trying to gain initiative when a mere captain of their Legions tells their Primarch "fuck off, imma keeping this fortress & resources for the Emperor!" The message behind it being if you can't even control your own men, maybe this rebellion thing needs a rethinking, because hearing Horus can't even take this shitty outpost middle of nowhere and he's going to Terra might be bad press.
** '''''Savage Weapons:''''' A good story written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|ADB]]. Dark Angels are hunting down the Night Lords who are fucking with Forge Worlds, but the Night Lords are staying a step ahead of them, much to [[Rage|the Lion's frustration]]. After being advised by Horus to pass along a message, Kurze asks the Lion to meet up face-to-face on Tsagualsa. When they talk, while what they say to each other is offscreen, it's implied Kurze told Lion about the Fallen Angels and that Horus knew about their impending betrayal. Lion decides nobody is going to give him shit about being a rumored closet traitor, and the ensuing fight proves that Jonson is a badass among primarchs, until Kurze goes to his old fallback of strangling a fucker, and things get more even. Their respective honor guards go at it in the meantime, and showing [[Sevatar]] is a badass among Space Marines. Things end up in a draw, leaving things open for a new plotline within the Heresy, the ''Prince of Crows'' novella being the next.
*'''''The Outcast Dead:''''' A mess of continuity errors, at least when compared with the rest of the series, the other authors later claimed all the errors were absolutely intentional and a result of the messed-up nature of Warp-based communication. [[derp|''Riggggghhhhtttt!'']] More importantly: shortly after the start of the Heresy an astropath has routine nervous breakdown and is returned to Terra to get [[Witch Hunters|some R&R]]. What really ends up happening is that he gets there in time for [[Magnus]]'s astral body to reach Big E to warn him of Horus' betrayal, and the fuckhueg psychic shock of course dicks with the Astropath HQ compound something mighty. In the confusion and assloads of psychic phenomena that followed, the astropath gets implanted with a message for somebody regarding the war, but his PTSD keeps him from knowing what the hell it is or who it's for. The Custodes come in and tell him ''"[[Anal Circumference|Ve haff vays of making you talk.]]"'' and hand him over to a pair of [[Inquisition|kind counselors]] who torture the poor man half to death. After a time, he gets busted out in the nick of time by some convict Space Marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." to the others. They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra (amusingly, none of the escapees is very happy at the prospect of the Heresy but they are all [[rage|slightly miffed]] at being treated like shit by the Custodes just because of the Legion they belong to.) Other subplots revolve around: a psyker congregant at a slum church near the Imperial palace; a samurai witch hunter (no, really); '''''fucking [[Thunder Warriors]]'''''. Best bits are <s>[[Rip and tear|an unarmed, unarmored World Eater ripping a Custodes' spine out through his chest]]</s> the portrayal of the Emperor playing chess in dreams, revealing that the message is about his upcoming bitchslap from Horus.
*'''''Deliverance Lost:''''' [[Corvus Corax]], having just escaped from Istvaan V, decides to go ask daddy for a handout to get his Legion back on his feet, and gets the mother of all genetech to do it, though he has to do a bit of legwork to get it. Meanwhile, a bunch of faceless Alpha Legionnaires (okay, they do have faces, they just originally belonged to some Raven Guard) had infiltrated Corax's Legion at Istvaan, and are doing recon and intelligence gathering waiting for [[Omegon]] to give the go-ahead to fuck shit up. Corax, meanwhile sets up new geneseed methods that bring up new recruits to battle-ready marines ''in fucking hours'', with the potential to conscript literally anybody willing to become a Space Marine. The Alphas decide this probably isn't in their interest, and sabotage the new geneseed by tainting it with ''daemon blood'', turning second- and third-batch new Raven Guard into the twisted monsters we know that Corax ended up with. In one of the instances of retcon that was actually flavored with [[awesome]] and win, the mutant marines [[Grimdark|were still sapient]], but were left to fight on in the Emperor's name. After staging a mass insurrection on Deliverance's parent world with the help of some old guilders Corax ousted and the Dark Mechanicum, Omegon gets ''more'' Alphas infiltrated into the Raven for the endgame: steal the genetech, kill some Ravenguard, get the fuck out before anybody knows what the fuck just happened in here. A couple cockups along the way leads to the Raven Guard getting wise and isolating out the Alphas. The end of the novel was like a swingers party at the retirement home, everybody got screwed (even ''Horus''), nobody got what they hoped for (except for [[Omegon|the really deviant bastard]]), and all-around the reproductive material was a waste. Corax shut down his hothousing method, and starts fucking with the Traitors, even at reduced numbers. The book ends on a note with Alpharius-Omegon deciding that while their plan for saving the galaxy was still good, they decide working with Xenos isn't for them.
*'''''Know No Fear:''''' The Ultras are still ignorant about Istvaan and the civil war erupting around the galaxy, and are on muster at Calth with the Word Bearers [[troll|on orders from Horus]] to go kill some Orks together as a conciliatory gesture. They were in for a surprise. The Word Bearers, while happy as hell to get revenge, are really trying to [[Eldrad|dick over]] the Ultramarines to keep them out of the Heresy, if not destroy them outright. What happens next is the Word Bearers arrange some "accidents" using sorcery and good ol' fashioned treachery to fake a monumental fuck up in the ship yards that leave the Ultramarine forces blind, deaf, and crippled. They use the confusion to say that the Ultras ''still'' fucking them over, and take the chance to open not only a can, but entire cases of whoop-ass on the Ultras. Erebus turns Calth's pole into a screaming hellscape to start up a warp storm, while Kor Phaeron oversees the systematic extermination of the Ultramarines and also successfully poisons Calth's sun. Guilliman gets jettisoned into space, but survives because [[Spiritual Liege]]. He then leads a counterattack on Kor Phaeron, and while Kor comes ''this close'' to getting a Primarch kill with [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|Chaos mindbullets]], but in a moment of self-aggrandizement, he holds back tries to corrupt Guilliman with his own dagger-sized '''MURDER SWORD'''. Guilliman calmly tells him "The Codex Astartes <s>does</s> will not support this action" (it was really "You made an error" followed by an explanation of that error, and "but while I'm alive, I can do this") and [[Rip and Tear|rips out Kor Phaeron's main heart with an unpowered Lightning Claw]]. Kor Phaeron's minions run away with his carcass, allowing the Ultras to retake their space station, which in turn allows Mechanicus plot power, aided by a planet's worth of orbital defense batteries, to bring the ground war back into the Ultramarines' favor. The novel ends with Word Bearers getting the hell out of there, and the Ultramarines evacuating everyone they can off of Calth and telling everybody they can't to get underground, transitioning into underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pius]] being the special guest star with his very own subplot, and the Word Bearers having athame blades as special issue, one of which will [[Uriel Ventris|come back later]]. You might notice this summary is pretty spoilerific, but if you didn't know the broad strokes already, you're in the wrong place.
*'''''The Primarchs:''''' A novella anthology. As the name suggests, it contains stories featuring Primarchs.
**'''''The Reflection Crack'd:''''' - <s>[[Lucius]] and friends anally rape [[Fulgrim]]. Yeah.</s> While questionable use of a ''pear of anguish'' is featured during a game of "Stab the Fulgrim," the real story is this: Lucius and his buddies are deep into the [[/d/|sickfuckery]] which will come to characterize their Legion, but begin to suspect that Fulgrim might have a daemon in him when he begins acting like not-Fulgrim and uses sorcery. They ambush him and try to exorcise it with pain, because torturing a Slaaneshi daemon will totally work (though they find out that a Primarch can grow back a foot, and just about any other wound). Among everything else: [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bill]] is still an arrogant dick; Lucius is still a maniacal and colossally narcissistic sick fuck; Julius Kaesoron is still an angry badass; Marius Vairosean is still a sycophantic cunt; and Eidolon was still a self-important, whiny douche, but Fulgrim throws a tantrum and cuts his head off, and there was much cheering from the readers, and that ''plus'' almost certain off-screen fapping among the Legionaries leads into ''Angel Exterminatus''.
**'''''Feat of Iron''''' - [[Ferrus Manus]]'s Legion is trying to off some Eldar on a desert world, but can't find the major Eldar strategic asset because of Spess Elf warp bullshit. A Farseer thinks he can warn Ferrus about the Heresy, and traps him in the webway or some psychic realm for a spirit quest long enough to fight a [[Fulgrim|giant purple snake]] (which is [[/d/|disturbingly appropriate imagery]] when you think about it); and Ferrus thinks it was the wyrm that he killed and gave him his metal hands, but the snake tells him that he must be mistaking it for somebody else. Ferrus kills it, and meets the Farseer who tries to tell Ferrus that he wasn't just being a dick. Ferrus, having too many experiences with Eldar being dicks, knocks some sense into the Farseer, who manages to run just fast enough to avoid getting killed. Ferrus comes back and helps his Legion fight off the Eldar kill the Webway beacon, or whatever the hell it was. In the background of all of this, the Iron Hands, having lost Ferrus, decide to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bitch about potentially dead father, and work to complete the mission despite being weighed down by Imperial Army who are dying of dehydration and heat stroke. The Eldar figure out a way to use storm clouds that make Iron Hands bionics kill their users, and Ferrus has a bitch of an itch around his neck that he can't get rid of. [[Drop Site Massacre|I wonder if that's important]].
**'''''The Lion:''''' - Dark Angels fight daemons and reinstitute Librarians. The Lion teamkills Nemiel for reminding him about Nikaea, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books because [[Gav Thorpe]] wanted to prove he's a big boy author who can kill his characters. Then they steal an intelligent super warp engine (insta shifts the Dark Angel fleet into the warp without need for a jump point while teleporting itself and the Lion onto his flagship; Lion is capable of talking politely infront of so much power) from [[Typhus]] then set course for Macragge to sort out Guilliman.
**'''''Serpent Beneath:''''' - Alpharius Omegon plots against himself and destroys a facility built around what looks suspiciously like a Cadian Pylon (and said facility keeping the White Scars out of the war), due to [[Cake|an information leak]], and they can't have that. Except than none of the main players are Alpharius or Omegon. And Alpharius and Omegon can't decide if they're secretly working against each other or not. Also: considered to be one of the better works of the series, not only due to quality, but because of the sheer mindfuckery of the plot, keeping entirely within the rationale of the Alpha Legion without any jumps in logic or canon.

=== Books XXI - XXX ===
*'''''Fear to Tread:''''' Despite being Black Library's most financially successful book ''ever'' and hitting thirteen (!) on the New York Times bestseller list (without Oprah's recommendation, even), many [[/tg/|fa/tg/uy]]s find it a bit ridiculous. Why? Well, there's planets with giant frowny faces inhabited by garbage monsters, ships getting blown up by city-sized rocks launched from the aforementioned planets, a nearly-stereotypically-gay [[Slaanesh]]i daemon that doesn't actually serve much of a purpose in the story, and a villain named the Red Angel, despite the fact [[Angron]] already claimed that as a nickname (although he was first introduced in ''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'', so it's not [[James Swallow]]'s fault). Oh, and Sanguinius acts like an idiot about [[Chaos]] the whole time, which fits the [[fluff]], but come on, how many freaky supernatural signs do you need to see before you decide it's not just foul xenos? In all fairness, of course, ''Fear to Tread'' does have quite a few good moments, especially when it comes to [[Warp]]-related terror. It also has a priceless bromance between [[Horus]] and [[Sanguinius]], not to mention Sanguinius and his Legion get characterized very well. Sanguiniuns and Co end up reaching Imperium Secundus.

*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - A story about two parallel story lines. The first is set during the [[Battle of Phall]], a space battle between the Iron Warriors whole fleet and what was left over from a third of the Imperial Fists's fleet after a warpstorm were ran them" ashore" and left them drifting and isolated in the backwater Phall system. Despite having the superior numbers, more and bigger guns, suicidal expenditure cohorts, and the power of a raging hatred boner, the Iron Warriors were losing to the Imperial Fists's maneuverability and [[Alexis Polux|Captain Polux's]] protagonist power. Eventually, the Fists get the order and window to withdraw to Terra, though turning tail would put their fleet at a huge disadvantage. Given the choice between blind obedience to his father or carrying on the battle they were winning, Polux chooses the former and takes his Fists back to Terra, but ends up in the Imperium Secundus instead. This was also the first of the two depictions of Perturabo, and clearly the worst of the two as he's shown as a cold-hearted Saturday morning cartoon villain with rage control issues. The second story line follows [[Sigismund]] as he follows Rogal around the Imperial Palace, while he was ordered to command the fleet on its way to Istvaan and got trapped at Phall, but delegated it to Polux's predecessor. The twist is that he met Euphrati Keeler had a spiritual experience when they spoke, and felt that he would be needed more at Terra instead of as a drifting corpse permanently lost in orbit around some backwater, and so handed off job of commanding the fleet. When he eventually opened up to Rogal, this got him in trouble. See, Rogal was still one of the [[Imperial Truth|stupid atheists]] at this point, so he disowned Sigismund because he thought "serving a higher purpose" was arrogant and got in the way of doing his job. This left Sigismund feeling really sad and pissed off, thus was his start of <s>darkness</s> daddy issues. [[Black Templars|Really pissed off and bad ass daddy issues.]]
**'''''The Dark King''''' - A look into the head and story of Konrad Curze during the events leading up to the Dropsite Massacre. It shows how Curze, even if you buy that he was a murderous paladin of justice and order through fear rather than just a fearsome murderer, is getting pretty fucked up in the head and lives with the knowledge of his demise haunting him, which isn't that great for his sanity. It also involves him beating up Rogal Dorn, killing some Imp Fists and Emp's Children terminators <s>with his more advanced suit and built-in vox jammers </s>with his bare hands, then blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn. The first 10 is him being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace as a grand piece of art by fortifying it into a coldly functional fortress. The next 10 is Rogal having an existential monologue then a conversation with Malcador, all about why he doesn't know why Horus declared war on the Emperor and brought half of the Legions with him, and is partly afraid to find out why in case it makes sense. Malcador ends up knowing at least a little about Chaos, and somehow got his hands on a tarot deck Curze used throughout his life, even to the close of ''The Dark King''. (Don't ask how he got them. Really.) Also the (*Name Drop*) Lightning Tower is the important card that comes up, signifying a [[Siege of Terra|destruction of fortifications]] and/or a [[Imperium of Man|change of thinking through sacrifice]].
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Right before Istvaan, techpriest Pallas Ravachol is working on a top secret "Kaban" robot project on Mars realizes that the project has achieved sapience and is in fact a form of strong AI. Though he genuinely befriended the Kaban machine, Ravachol complains to boss Magos Chrom that working on an AI is both highly illegal and insanely dangerous. Chrom tells Ravachol not to be such a pussy since Horus himself gave the OK, and after some deliberation, has a death squad awaiting to escort the Ravachol off site the next morning. Ravachol, thinking there were few ways this could well, makes a break for it and flees for Magos Malevolus's forge, hoping to get somebody with some clout to reveal that his old boss and Horus were up to something. On the way, he spends time running away from a latex-clad sadist babe who persistently chases after him; since she's an AdMech equivalent of a Death Cultist assassin, this is a ''much'' better idea than it sounds. When he gets to Malevolus's forge, Malevolus distracts him with a legion of shiny Mk6 suits of Marine Power Armor long enough to drop the bomb to drop that they were for Horus. The latex-clad babe catches up to them both, and the techpriest flees again, only to be puzzled why Malevolus and the assassin are letting him run. As he gets out the door, he meets the Kaban machine, <s>and through the power of friendship, the Kaban decides to side with the good guys, and the day is saved.</s> Except this is the dark, gritty universe of 30K where brother turns against brother. Chrom told the Kaban Machine that it and Ravachol couldn't be friends for realsies, because rules and stuff, and taking up with Horus was a great idea. The Kaban Machine, not understanding how humans work nor '''The Power of Friendship''', didn't know any better than to agree and kills Ravachol right on the steps of Malevolus's forge. End story. An okay story, somewhat generic feeling prose. More of a who's who of the Dark Mechanicus during ''Mechanicum'' and telling where the hell that Kaban machine from the same book came from and how they seduced an AI into Chaos worship.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - A bridge between Istvaan V and ''Deliverance Lost'', also a companion story to the Raven's Flight audio drama. The story tells how Commander Marcus Valerius of the Imperial Army is stationed on Deliverance and keeps having recurring nightmares which is causing him worry about Corax. Commander Branne of the Raven Guard's garrison on Deliverance, is getting tired of how the Legion's pet human won't stop bitching about it, and decides to take Valerius out on a trip in the battle barge to Istvaan just to show him that everything is just fine. Meanwhile, Corax and a relative handful of surviving Raven Guard are fighting a guerilla war against the traitors, trying to stay one step ahead of the Iron Warriors and then the World Eaters, and in-between skirmishes, Corax spends a few thoughtful moments feeling bad about his Legion and the state of the Imperium now that things have gone to shit.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, after that he makes tokens (for the warrior-lodge, but he doesn't know that) and then he gets his windpipe crushed to make sure word doesn't get out about the tokens. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life up until the point where he's lying on his own floor, slowly suffocating to death. Ultimately it is kind of irrelevant, but the lore nerds or people who have been paying attention might find it interesting. It is however only barely 20 pages long, so you might as well read it anyway.
**'''''Prince of Crows''''' - A novella featuring the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain [[Sevatar]] of the Night Lords. With the Night Lords's forces all but shattered by the Dark Angels, Curze in a coma nearly dead, and the Dark Angels's fleet in pursuit, Sevatar has to knock some heads for the Night Lords to get their shit together and reorganize and rethink strategy. It's essentially about showing the fractures in the Night Lords Legion. As most stories written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]], it's pretty good.

*'''''Angel Exterminatus:''''' [[Perturabo]] just finished [[skub|fucking up (or being fucked by)]] some Fists, and [[Fulgrim]] finds him to polish off a plot hook from ''The Reflection Crack'd'' and recruit Pert for an expedition into the Eye of Terror because a renegade Eldar said he knows where to get ''the good shit'' (the eponymous Angel Exterminatus). Fulgrim wanted to make a show out of delivering exposition, and he had Pert use his skills to build a stadium and went storyteller mode; then the moment was killed when a Shattered Legion detachment composed of Iron Hands and a Raven Guard commando sniped Fulgrim (he got better). Of course, Pert took the moment to remind himself that this is why he can't have, [[Rage|won't ever have]], nice things. Thinking that Fulgrim had the scent of a powerful artifact or a superweapon, and seeing that Fulgrim was becoming the Primarch equivalent of a crack addict member of the Jersey Shore and his legion wasn't looking much better, Pert decided to play it safe by tagging along and making sure Fulgrim wouldn't break anything. On the way, a different Eldar scholar came to the Shattered Legion, telling them that Fulgrim and Pert can't be allowed to get to the Angel Exterminatus, or [[Daemon|Bad Things (Warp-registered trademark)]] will happen. Well into the journey into the Eye, the Iron Hands's resident mad scientist accidentally gave away their location, and the Emp's Children and Iron Warriors decide to throw a boarding party. After a few pages of pulse pounding action, Pert says "fuck this", and leaves as the Iron Hands's same mad scientist overloads the engines and does a [[Battlefleet Gothic|mother of a ramming maneuver]] which kills an Emp's Children ship. (Pert was getting sick of Fulgrim's shit at this point, so he decided not to let them know, leading to the loss of the ship and thousands of casualties for Fulgrim.) Then, they finally get there, they find a [[Crone World]] covered in ruins and occupied spirit stones being held in orbit around a black hole. Some wraithbone constructs pop up and Pert and Fulgrim have to fight to the heart of the planet to get at the Angel Exterminatus. On the way, Pert kills their renegade Eldar because he was a lyin' bitch. When they ''finally'' get there, Surprise! Daemon Primarch Fulgrim is supposed to be the Angel Exterminatus, and he betrays Pert (a bauble Fulgrim gave to Pert at the start of the book was a vitality-leeching thing), and they start the ritual which would sacrifice Pert to turn Fulgrim into a Daemon Prince. Then the Shattered Legion crashes the ceremony, and assists the Iron Warriors since it's clear they weren't working with the Emp's Children anymore. Pert kills Fulgrim, but it didn't count since Fulgrim's mortal essence works just as well as sacrifice. He goes full Daemon Prince despite a generous helping of Thunder Hammer to his [[gay|pretty face]], breaks every spirit stone on the planet, and disappears with every last one of his sick fucks. The Eldar scholar helping the Shattered Legion throws a bitch fit, revealing that both scholars were Dark Eldar who had cut a deal with Fulgrim (help him become a daemon and they get assloads of spirit stones to fuck with), and he had made sure that the Shattered Legions were there to put a wedge in that deal because...reasons. The Shattered Legion gets the hell out, and the Iron Warriors try to GTFO as the planet starts to fall into the black hole. The book ends, with Pert, being a wise man, orders them to reverse course and fly right into that fucker. Subplots include a lot of buildup for McNeil's Iron Warriors stories, the Shattered Legions' feelings on trying to unfuck an irreversibly fucked situation, some tense buildup of two Imperial Fists as they try to survive Fabius's turning them into mutants (which actually had a poor payoff). Despite being overall good, it's a bit of a skub novel because the depiction of Perturabo is so different from expected, rather than being the bitter [[RAGE|Rage]] machine from every other depiction, he's a quiet [[Neckbeard|nerd who plays with toys as a hobby]], but with muscles. And because the ghosts of eldar's Aspect Warriors and Wraith-Constructs inside a planet left inside the Eye of Terror is a canon-rape on par with C.S. Goto, the first death of Lucius at the hands of a Mary Sue despite previous claims that he was undefeated during the Heresy and his unexplained resurrection (<s>"How? Fucking Chaos, that's how."</s> Oh, sure, every CSM is immortal), and an Iron Hands legionnaire somehow being immune to sonic weapons by being deaf. And worst of all, a rotating Shadowsword turret.

*'''''Betrayer:''''' Lorgar and Angron rampage over the Ultramarines 500 worlds. Lots of references to Angron's past and his Butcher's Nails are killing him slowly. Turns out one of the Ultramarine worlds was his own Homeworld, so he destroys it and Lorgar makes him into a daemon-prince. Also remember the Furious Abyss? Lorgar has two more. Also focuses on Khârn and Argel Tal being bros, until Erebus decides to intervene and kill a bitch.

* '''''Angron:''''' An anthology about <s>Lorgar</s> <s>Horus</s> <s>Dorn</s> <s>Malcador</s> <s>the plumber for the Golden Throne</s> Fuck, we can't remember. It often gets passed over in the official lists, since it's actually a cheat since it's a republish of older short stories: '''After De'shea''', '''Butcher's Nails''' ''(print format)'', and '''Lord of the Red Sands''' ''(which was initially a standalone release,'' even later ''republished in'' The Imperial Truth'')''.

*'''''Mark of Calth:''''' Another set of short stories, though all focused on the [[Ultramarines]] or the [[Word Bearers]].
**'''''Shards of Erebus:''''' - We find that [[Erebus]] broke the '''MURDER SWORD''' into eight daggers/athames and shared them with his bros. Also shows how he returned to Davin to learn how to teleport with the '''MURDER SWORD''', then killing the priestess that helped him turn Horus. She somehow wins because she served Chaos before dying which pisses Erebus off.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Keeps bringing up what Calth used to be like. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to Nurgle everyone, and the Ultramarines save the day in the nick of time. After all, THE GREATEST OF THE-{{BLAM}}
**'''''Dark Heart''''' - A young Word Bearer is interrogated by Kor Phaeron after he ended up killing his mentor with dark powers (turned him insta inside out). A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degradation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A spacedock traffic controller survives the destruction of his star fort, and the fatal crash of his escape shuttle before ending up in a small underground arcology with other human survivors. Imperial cultists believe he is blessed, and when he starts hearing whispers and seeing unbelievers they start rounding everybody up for execution. Everybody gets slowly executed till he's the last one left. Learns he's been possessed and reveals to an Ultramarine that he was was infected by the vox from the ''Campanile''.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - An Ultramarine has a hard-on for a certain Word Bearer trolling him. Hunts down said Word Bearer into a cave system with a team of soldiers and Spess Merheens. Word Bearer trolls them by summoning a Gorgon. Ultramarine wins by tricking the Gorgon into looking at its reflection.
**'''''The Underworld War''''' - A story that has little to do with the actual Underworld War. It features a Gal Vorbak who sees the attack on Calth as a clusterfuck of fail. Has a plot-twist ending... turns out Daemons give visions of the future to potential Gal Vorbak, and said Gal Vorbak was given a vision of him not abandoning his fallen brothers on Calth. The Daemon doesn't have time for that shit so it lets him die during his transformation.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife, though not one from the '''MURDER SWORD'''. That's about it... totally... right. Wrong. The small sacrificial knife that Ollanius found was carved on Terra for a benign ritual, stolen by an evil Perpetual who was killed by ''the Emperor'' in medieval times, found in an archeological dig by Kasper Hawser, and went on other crazy murder-adventures, all while having rudimentary sentience.
**'''''Unmarked''''' - Ollanius Pius and friends is traveling through time and space using the athame from the previous story. We learn a lot more about Oll's past, going into detail about his offhand mentions that he was one of the Argonauts and that he served in the First World War and the First Gulf War.
*'''''Vulkan Lives:''''' What happened to Vulkan after the Dropsite Massacre? He got made Konrad Curze's torture bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer to the face. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc. Remember the Shattered Legions crew from ''Angel Exterminatus''? Now you get a new group that is far more bland and less distinct.
*'''''The Unremembered Empire:''''' [[Perpetual|Matt Damon]] killed Martin Luther King. This happens in the book. Also, unlike the cover and synopsis would imply, it's ''not'' about Sanguinius and Guilliman working together to build a back-up Imperium around Ultramar, which leads to the question of ''why that's on the cover?'' No one knows what it is really about, especially the book's description of itself (which describes its ''sequels''). Several things happen in the book as several unrelated subplots collide as several entities are drawn by the Pharos device to Macragge. There are implications that Guilliman's new backup Imperium is starving resources from Terra.
*'''''Scars:''''' Technically the third book of the Prospero arc. The Khan returns to the Imperium after killing Orks left over from Ullanor and can't decide what side to join. Turns his back on Leman Russ during a fight with the Alpha Legion and goes looking for his best friend Magnus, also gets into a fight with Mortarion on the way, also [[The Fallen|half his legion turns traitor]] but turns out it's no big deal.
** '''''Brotherhood of the Storm:''''' Prequel to Scars, shows the White Scars fighting Orks on Chondax.
*'''''Vengeful Spirit''''' Horus goes looking for power to make him equal to the Emperor and the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z (kinda). We learn that the Emperor gained his powers after making a pact with the Chaos Gods where they gave him a fraction of their power, then somehow managed to double-cross them in what is quite possibly the most retarded retcon ever introduced in the entire book series. (In all seriousness though, the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series. It could be the truth, or one of their beautifully crafted lies.) Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest. Also, if you have been ignoring the audio books, you will be a bit lost at the start of this one.
*'''''The Damnation of Pythos''''' A Lovecraftian Horror story disguised as a Horus Heresy story. Has the most grimdark ending of the series thus far, up there with Dead Men Walking. Adds just about as much to the overall series as ''Furious Abyss'' did, but is actually pretty well written, unlike "Furious Abyss". To cut a long story short, daemons take over a world in the Pandorax system, capture a starship and use it to start ferrying cultists from place to place. The book also has some crossover with 40k and the Pandorax Campaign.

=== Books XXXI to XL ===
*'''''Legacies of Betrayal''''' Another anthology, though this time it's a bit of cheat, and they just consolidated several pre-existing stories; some of the the novellas but also included print versions of audio books.
**'''Brotherhood of the Storm''' - see above
**'''Serpent''' - A really short and out-of-place story about a Davinite Priest.
**'''Hunters Moon''' - originally an audiobook involving peasant fishermen rescuing a crashed space wolf who is running from the Alpha Legion after killing Alpharius, it obviously doesn't end well.
**'''Veritas Ferrum''' - a prequel to Damnation of Pythos, about an Iron Hands starship escaping ''(against their better nature)'' from Isstvan with some survivors.
**'''Strike and Fade''' - More survivors of Isstvan, though this is about Salamanders just killing time (and Night Lords) whilst they wait to be rescued.
**'''Honour to the Dead''' - about Ultramarines and an innocent woman and child trying her hardest to follow them to safety.
**'''Butcher's Nails''' - A good one to read, Angron & Lorgar go on the Shadow-Crusade and come to an understanding whilst fighting Eldar.
**'''Warmaster''' - Horus considering how much of a badass he is while chatting with Ferrus Manus's skull.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go kidnap a warp code interpreter that will let them intercept garbled enemy communications.
**'''Wolfs Claw''' - Bjorn the Fell-Handed needs a replacement arm, but the Iron Priests are too busy, but he happens to find a nice fancy relic one just lying around.
**'''The Divine Word'''
**'''Thief of Revelations''' - After Prospero, the Thousand Sons need something to stop all their rampant mutation, so Ahriman goes to ask why Magnus has locked himself away. He's got bigger things to worry about and is looking across time and space for key events for future [[Just as Planned]] manipulations.
**'''Lucius the Eternal Warrior''' - After his first death ''(and unexplained resurrection)'' at the hands of Nykona Sharrowkyn, Lucius has somehow abandoned the Heresy and goes to the planet of Sorcerers to fight a duel with the bestest Thousand Son swordsman, ends up meeting Ahriman. [[wat|Uh-huh...]]
**'''The Eightfold Path''' - Kharn and the World Eaters realise that too much rip and tear is leading them [[Khorne|down a damning path]], but they're already too far gone.
**'''Guardian of Order''' - [[Cypher]] and [[Zahariel]] discover that the Ouroboros (banished in Fallen Angels) is coming back
**'''Heart of the Conqueror''' - Angron's Navigator gets a bit uppity about being made to turn traitor, despite having been picked for the job as the angry man's chauffeur by the Emperor himself. Blams herself during mid-warp transit with not-fun results for flagship.
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel is killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes about it on his armour. Said notes will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]] on the subject of killing Word Bearers (because it's that damn important to kill Word Bearers). Thiel eventually gets bored and goes back to Macragge in the end.
**'''Lone Wolf''' - Bjorn has lost all of his squad, but is now such an awesome badass that he can solo Bloodthirsters.
*'''''Death and Defiance''''' Yet another anthology
**'''Imperfect''' - Daemon-Fulgrim has been getting Fabius to clone Ferrus Manus, because the split personality thing makes him feel guilty about failing to turn his brother to Horus's side, but the clones are never quite right and go mental at each suggestion. Fabius also has his own stuff going on.
**'''Howl of the Heathworld''' - Space Wolves get sent to Terra to watch over Rogal Dorn so he doesn't start using psykers, its a pointless task and everyone know it. Also offers insight into the Wolves naming conventions.
**'''A Safe and Shadowed Place''' - [[Night Lords]] start stabbing each other in the back as soon as Curze goes missing while solo'ing Macragge. It's about a ship floating in the ruinstorm that has just discovered the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] and foreshadows problems for Ultramar.
**'''Virtues of the Sons''' - Sanguinius forsees that he will not always be in charge of the Blood Angels, but worries about the Red Thirst causing havoc with his sons futures. So gets Amit to duel Kharn and Azkaellon to duel Lucius in hopes they'll learn something. Azkaellon learns to let the rage out a bit and Amit learns a modicum of restraint.
**'''Gunsight''' - The Vindicare Assassin from Nemesis is still alive and on Horus' flagship, its about him spending years waiting for the opportune moment to get a shot, but he starts going mad while he waits. Gives ups when Horus plucks his killshot from the air and Horus gives him a chaos rifle for his change in loyalty.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anthology
**'''Daemonology''' - To and fro' story about [[Mortarion]]. On Terra he discovers the initial construction of the Golden Throne and gets told about Emp's plan for removing psykers. In the "present day" he captures a daemon and starts practising sorcery on it.
**'''Black Oculus''' - A short story about Navigators describing what it's like travelling in the warp.... basically it's [[Grimdark]].
**'''Chirurgeon''' - [[Fabius Bile]] narrating about his history, and what happened about the gene-flaw that almost wiped out the [[Emperor's Children]]. Totally has the gene-flaw and has been using his bestest bro turned servitor to keep it under wraps.
**'''Twisted''' - '''Maloghurst''' gets a story about him uncovering plots against Horus and gets wrapped up in intrigue. It actually shows him as a really clever bastard and a bit of a badass.
**'''Wolf Mother''' - [[Perpetual|Alivia Sureka]]'s kids get captured after their escape from Molech and she teams up with [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]] in order to get them back. Lots of coolness on Sevarian's part and we also get to see that Perpetuals can resist possession.
*'''''Tallarn: Executioner''''' - A novella about a vehicle squadron (Leman Russ Executioner, Vanquisher and a Salamander) having to deal with the toxic surface in the weeks after the surface bombardment and then come into contact with the Iron Warriors. Also the Alpha Legion have a hand in things, like they always do.
*'''''Tallarn: Ironclad''''' - Part two of the Tallarn story.
*'''''Deathfire''''' - What the Salamanders have been saying since Isstvan is true: Vulkan lives! Well now he does. Basically a bunch of Salamanders take his body from Macragge to Nocturne (with some side help from didn't ask for this Magnus) and throw him into Nocturne's largest volcano, and lo and behold he comes back to life, making that entire plotline pointless. Still has the fucking Fulgurite in his chest, though. TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nzml-zZ9M
*'''''The Wolf King ''''' - The Space Wolves find themselves set upon by the forces of the Alpha Legion before they can recover from the Razing of Prospero and are hounded to the edge of the Alaxxes Nebula (swiss cheese acid cloud). There the Alpha Legion beat the ever-living shi...stuffing out of the wolves whilst Russ locks himself in his room and sulks. Russ eventually summons his new favourite Bjorn to join him and they have bit of a heart to heart about what a bunch of morons they were in allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily by Horus. By the end Russ is back to his old self and celebrates by massacring every Alpha he can get his hands on even if it’s clear that his defeat is inevitable. Fortunately for the Wolves helps comes from a hidden armada of Dark Angels ostensibly "loyal" to [[Luther]], but unaware of the Horus Heresy or of the whereabouts or actions of the Lion. Russ borrows gear and manpower from them in exchange for info on current events which most likely finds its way back to Luther and sets the "Destiny of Caliban" in motion. Russ then heads for Terra.
*'''''War Without End''''': Anthologies Without End.
*'''''Pharos''''': Night Lords fucking up the Pharos Lighthouse on Sotha. Sanguinius eventually grows some balls and starts standing up to Guilliman instead of just being a pantomime Emperor, while the Lion is nowhere to be seen as usual. Warsmith Dantioch bites it while using the Pharos to burn the Night Lords out of his fortress, but inadvertently piques the interest of the [[Tyranids]], causing them to show up 10,000 years later. Skraivok become a prime example of DEMON SWORDS: NOT EVEN ONCE.
*'''''Eye of Terra''''': Another anthology.
*'''''Path Of Heaven''''': Sequel to Scars. The White Scars have been fighting traitor legions for a few years but are starting to show the strain. They finally make a shift back to Terra but things don't go as planned. Notable for digging into the Webway storyline and the Navis Nobilite as well as featuring a resurrected and suddenly competent Eidolon. Navigators weren't going to sit around while E-money built their replacement, White Scars use a prototype webway portal to escape their last stand, and Moratarion starts using sorcery to locate Typhon.
*'''The Seventh Serpent:''' a novella about the Shattered Legions going up against the Alpha Legion; a simple premise made awesome by sheer depth of Alpharian plot twists: They had been manipulated by Alpharius into fighting a battle against Loyalist Alpha Legionaires.
*'''The Silent War:''' Guess What?! It's ''another'' anthology of stories that GW have already sold individually as audio-books. So value might be had for those who hadn't listened to them.
*'''''Angels of Caliban:''''' two Dark Angels stories in one book again, though this one actually moves the plot forward. In Ultramar, the Lion captures Konrad Curze but only after discretely nuking a whole region despite a ban on orbital weapon use, which results in his disgrace and we find that it is Guilliman who breaks the Lion Sword. Curze reveals that there were chaos cults on Mcraggae too, and that Guilliman would be a traitor if he had landed a little to the left. On Caliban, the Fallen openly declare their rebellion from the Imperium and ironically steal some starships that were meant to collect them and actually bring them into the war again. [[Zahariel]] kills [[Cypher]] and takes his place.
*'''''Praetorian of Dorn''''' Alpharius tries to invade <s>Terra</s> Pluto. Dorn kills him. Yes, Alpharius is now dead. And not a fake either, but the real Alpharius. Omegon can confirm. Alpha Legions fags blew a gasket. Oh shit believe we did.
*'''''Corax''''' A compilation of all the Corax Stories, plus a new one, '''Weregeld''', which manages to undo all the hard work the previous stories have done and turn Corax into a douchebag. Kills all his mutated Raven Guard because he promised to kill warp stuff. Saves Russ and his arrogant ass though.

=== Books XLI onwards ===
*'''''The Master of Mankind''''': The Emperor is a dick: the book. We all knew this, but now it's set in stone. Highlights being: Emperor stating to Arkhan Land that the Primarchs are tools and he views them with a scientific but detached fascination. Referring to them as numbers but content to allow the fantasy of being their "father", an interpretation of the character that was fairly divisive to say the least. He actually seems to care more for his Custodians than he does any of his other creations, but they don't consider him to be a father and see him as just their warlord. Drach'nyen is also revealed to be the Daemon created when Caine killed Abel. In the end he closes the door on the webway and has to spend the rest of his time sitting in the chair keeping it shut. Despite this, it does show off why the Chaos Gods fear him, as he pretty much rapes an infinite army of Daemons; the Greater ones either flee or try and fail to fight him (being destroyed in a matter of moments) whilst the lesser ones die just by looking at him. Despite this, Drach'nyen nearly kills him, and <s>it is confirmed that fate has indeed decreed that Empy will die at the daemon's hand</s> claims that it will kill the Emperor (keep in mind that the future is malleable and Daemons lie). But how will it feast on the Emperor's tattered soul when Abaddon lacks arms to plunge it into his chest? (''But Abaddon never lost his arms due to the same retcon that let Eldrad live'') Also known as Master of skubkind. Reveals his grand plan of saving the human race from the Eldar fate by absolute control of every human to a custodian before shanking him with Drach'nyen and making him run into the webway. Also put all his chips into the ''Human Webway'' plan and screwed us all over without a backup. Can you tell that this is an ADB book?
*'''''Garro''''': Compilation of all the stories about Garro and his boy band, though they insist it isn't just an anthology since the audio book stories were expanded to be more written novel friendly.
*'''''Shattered Legions''''': It's an anthology containing an anthology. I shit thee not. It shoves together the limited edition anthology Meduson with a few other shorter stories, including some Alpha Legion stuff like the Seventh Serpent.
*'''''The Crimson King''''': Magnus was broken into shards when Russ felled him. Now the Thousand Sons with the help of Lucius the Eternal must put him back together.
*'''''Tallarn''''': Does it even need to be stated? It's another fucking anthology, this time putting all the tank porn of the Tallarn books into one binding.
*'''''Ruinstorm:''''' The conclusion to the Imperium Secundus plotline, as well as the follow on to Damnation of Pythos. Shows the Lion, Sanguinius and Guilliman trying to cross the Ruinstorm to reach Terra. Having a brief stopover at Pandorax, they decide to head out to Davin where the Heresy began and where destinies are re-made; they pass systems along the way that show what the Galaxy would look like if Chaos wins, such as a Forge World surrounded by an immense fortress wall in outer space 4000 miles thick, or a sector of space filled with solid ritualised geometric shapes that are perhaps light years across. Davin itself is surrounded by a cloud of bones and wreckage millions of kilometers thick, but the planet has long since been abandoned. There, Sanguinius finds out that in order to live through the Heresy he must become a monster even worse than Horus, but dying will curse his sons with the Black Rage; blood is on his hands either way. Instead, Sanguinius tries to sacrifice himself to save the day, but the [[Sanguinor]] steps in and takes his place while the fleets rain down a shitstorm and destroy the planet. In the aftermath, the Ruinstorm abates enough for them to reach Terra, but Horus has so much force that it is impossible for all three legions to reach, so Guilliman and the Lion agree to distract the Traitors long enough to give Sanguinius a window to get back and face his destiny, explaining why they never made it to the Siege since they were engaging Traitor fleets and burning their worlds.
*'''''Old Earth:''''' Set immediately after ''Vulkan Lives'', Vulkan and three Salamander legionaries ''(the rest of the Salamanders weren't informed of their Primarch's resurrection)'' travelled through the Webway by a gate hidden in a cave on Nocturne. On their path to Terra, they came across the Shattered Legions, who were preparing for their first major void engagement with the Sons of Horus. Just before the attack, some Medusan-born Iron Hands tried to stage a coup against Shadrak Meduson by revealing a hideous contraption of machines, and the last remnants of Ferrus Manus - his iron hand ''(They were under the illusion that they could resurrect their Primarch through cybernetics, it is hinted that the Mechanicum had some hand in this affair.)'' Thankfully, Vulkan shattered the hand, and Meduson assumed command again, though he was killed by '''Tybalt Marr''' in a boarding action after the Iron Hand refused to send reinforcements to him. In the end, it was revealed that the Emperor had Vulkan forged a weapon, that in the event Terra fell to Horus, would amplify the power of the Golden Throne to the point it coulf wipe out the entire Throneworld ''(this is probably one of Vulcan's nine relics)'' Oh, and Eldrad rescued [[Knights-Errant|Barthusa Narek]] from Nocturne and made him his assassin. They killed most of the Cabal, and finally rescued John Grammaticus, who had his memory wiped after his failure to assassinate Vulkan. With his memory restored, Grammaticus was ordered by Eldrad to find Ollanius Pius and go to Terra.
*'''''Wolfsbane:''''' No solid information yet, but it seems like Leman Russ leaves Terra to confront Horus himself. One can expect that it doesn't end well for him.

== The Primarchs Series ==

Because Black Library don't seem satisfied confusing us with all their anthologies, audio-books, and short stories, they have begun releasing a spin-off series of Horus Heresy novels centered on the Primarchs. The series don't really take place in a specific time, but generally focuses on expanding on the titular Primarch's backstory and motivations during events before the Horus Heresy (though some of them also have events occurring after it). Why Black Library lists it as part of the Horus Heresy series when that is the case is beyond our comprehension.

=== Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar ===
Centers on the papa smurf himself, and him trying to deal with how the Emperor used him like a rusty hammer to smack Lorgar in the head at Monarchia. Uses a conflict against Orks as a vehicle for him and the smurfs to express their angst over the event.

=== Leman Russ: The Great Wolf ===
Focuses on Leman Russ' notorious rivalry with the Lion, and explaining why to this day whenever the Chapters meet they throw the gauntlet down and beat the stuffing out of one another. Notably it reveals some interesting stuff like the Lion being aware of the Space Wolves' furry issue and keeping a lid on it.

=== Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero ===
Depicts the unlikely friendship between Magnus and old Pert with a joint venture between their legions. Things go wrong on the planet due to totally not Chaos cult nonsense, and it does a decent job of showing Magnus' flaws. Specifically on his inability to leave things that have "do not fuck with this" alone; something Pert tries and fails at making him understand.

=== Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia ===
Probably the book in the series that did the most character building of all of them. This book is a mix of showing off Perturabo's childhood on Olympia alongside a "current" day conflict against the Hrud. The former showing why Pert is the odd genius manchild guy he is, while the latter does a great job of showing why fucking with an alien species capable of controlling time is somewhat of a stupid idea. However, the real draw of the book is that it is mainly written as an attempt to merge together the seemingly contradictory depictions of Pert we've had over the years. Showing how the ruthless dick who decimates his legion for not being good enough in the Forgeworld books is the same guy who just wanted to be a builder in Angel Exterminatus. Yep. Definitely a sperg. Also he may or may not have wanted to bang his adopted sister.

=== Lorgar: Bearer of the Word ===
Yep, the first(ish?) heretic himself gets his own obligatory messed up childhood novel. Focusing slightly more on Kor Phaeron rather than Lorgar himself, showing him to be a manipulative dick who beat Lorgar as a child and never really bought into this whole "fatherhood" shtick, or this whole concept of [[Emperor|One True God]] but allowed Lorgar his fantasies and to take over Colchis ''(By "Word" or by "Mace")'' while Phaeron benefitted from increased position and secretly kept the faith of [[Chaos Gods]].

Though by the end Kor Phaeron wonders if Lorgar just let him think that he was manipulated and could have disposed of him at any time. The book does introduce a contrasting character to Kor Phaeron who actually shows Lorgar compassion growing up and was far more worthy of being named "father" but was far less useful to Lorgar's goals. The book shows that Lorgar isn't as stupid or naive as everyone thinks and does indeed realise that people have been using him for their own gains, but while he only really cares about doing the work of the gods, so long as they both align he doesn't seem to care.

=== Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix ===
Fulgrim tries to conquer the newly discovered planet Byzas with only 7 men. Along the way he encounters a brotherhood much like his own that wants to work with him that Fulgrim dismisses as a bunch of idealists. It's implied that he COULD have gotten the same results (Compliance) working with them but unfortunately that would have meant calling in backup and Fulgrim didn't want to do that so that was out of the question. In the end Fulgrim takes the world, but nearly dies. Several of the characters (Cyrius, Kasperos Telmar) later become prominent champions of chaos.

=== Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa ===

== The Tabletop Wargame ==
[[Forge World]] is producing a new line of books and models (''in addition to'' [[Imperial Armour]] and [[Warhammer Forge]]) to allow players to fight battles from the Horus Heresy in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. This includes rules and models for the [[Primarchs]] (both pre- and post-fall, for the Traitors) as well as ancient vehicles. No [[xenos]], unfortunately. Presumably this came about because GW felt that they just weren't making quite enough money from die-hard marine/chaos players and figured they could literally buy a dump-truck full of gold plated cocaine each if they made a version of the game that requires only Forge World minis AND thousands upon thousands of them. Still worth it, though.

=== Betrayal ===
Forge World starts big, as their first book covers the battles on Istvaan III, in which [[Horus]] sent the remaining loyalist elements of the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Emperor's Children]], [[Death Guard]], and [[World Eaters]] to the surface, ostensibly to rout the anti-Imperial resistance that had taken hold in the capital city, and then fired [[Exterminatus]] torpedoes (of the life-eater virus bomb variety) onto the city to wipe them out.

Unfortunately for Horus, not everything went as planned; not only did the loyalist Death Guard frigate ''Eisenstein'' escape to the [[Phalanx]] with word of Horus's betrayal, but loyalist elements on other ships were able to disrupt the bombardment and warn the loyalists on the ground that it was coming. Between the disruption, the warning, and good old-fashioned [[Space Marine]] toughness, only a third or so of the landed force had actually died. Horus would have fired another bombardment, but [[Angron]] and his traitor World Eaters jumped the gun and made planetfall; the other traitors were left with no choice but to deploy themselves and destroy the remaining loyalists personally.

''Betrayal'' contains a [[Great Crusade]] Legion army list (for which we have a [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines/Legion List‎|tactica]]), and rules for special characters and units from the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Death Guard]], [[Emperor's Children]], and [[World Eaters]] Legions, including their [[Primarch]]s (even [[Fulgrim]], who was not actually at the battle) and several major characters from the book series such as Garviel Loken.

===Massacre===
The infamous Drop Site Massacre is the focus of the next book, where seven Legions are sent to crush Horus’ rebellion, only for four of those to turn on the other three and crush them utterly. The books storyline is essentially just the ''first day'' of the battle, leading up to the death of [[Ferrus Manus]].

Massacre contains additional rules for special characters and units from the [[Iron Hands]], [[Night Lords]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Word Bearers]] Legions including their Primarchs and several more major characters from the book series make their debut such as Sevatar, Eidolon, Erebus and Kharn.

===Extermination===
Focusses on the second half of Istvaan V, as well as the Battle of Phall between the [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Imperial Fists]]; and on that note, it includes rules for those two Legions, as well as the [[Alpha Legion]] and the [[Raven Guard]].

It also gives us a complete Mechanicum Army List: the Taghmata.

====Condensed Lists====
The ICL and LACAL were initially released as part of the limited edition run of Extermination, but were then later released separately. They are fluff-lite, codex-equivalent books that also included all of the FAQs/Errata up to their release; which unfortunately was still the end of 6th edition so some rules haven't carried over well. ''(eg. [[Lorgar]]s psychic rules.)''

The Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List is basically the generic 30k Space Marine "codex", whilst the Isstvan Campaign Legions contains all of the collected rules for the legions from Books 1-3; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three books. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game. The ICL was continued in the Age of Darkness Legions, which collected everything to book 5, including the errata.

Later came the Mechanicum Taghamata Army List, which contained all the Mechanicum units and army lists mentioned and rearranged them to keep everything on the same page, but lacked the Questoris Knight Army. The Crusade Imperialis Army Lists contain the Solar Auxilia, Imperialis Militia/Warp Cults, and Questoris Knight Crusade army lists.

===Conquest===
Horus Heresy Volume Four is entitled 'Conquest', despite early hints from Forgeworld that it would be about the Battle of Prospero, it instead features Horus' conquest of the Imperium and the [[Skub|"Major"]] battles of this time, which is to say some battle-zones that Forgeworld made up to fill time whilst they worked on the more well known events from the in-universe history. ''(And to be fair, their response as to why Prospero was delayed was because it included four major factions, [[Adeptus Custodes|two of]] [[Sisters of Silence|which have]] NEVER been represented on the tabletop, so required more time to do them justice.)''

A large portion of the book is given over to running battles in the '''"Age of Darkness"''', which is a variant ruleset used as the default for Horus Heresy games ''(where only Troops usually score, amongst other things)'' and has rules and FOCs for Cityfight missions, rules for running ongoing campaigns, variant rules for mysterious terrain and objectives as well as including unique relics to be taken by the various army lists to add flavor to non-special characters.

It also introduces the [[Solar Auxilia]] and [[Imperial Knight|"Questoris" Knights]] (as an AdMech list) armies to play while the modellers take a break from building power armor 24/7.

===Tempest===
The fifth Horus Heresy book will cover the Battle of Calth. The rules for the [[Ultramarines]] (including [[Roboute Guilliman]] himself) as well as several warp-corrupted Word Bearer units are brought in alongside a few other new miscellaneous FW releases, including the Deredeo and the new Thanatars. There's also an Imperial Militia (Read: PDF) list that's super-customizable so you can make both loyalist and traitor lists. Also, the MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IS IN IT TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===Retribution===
Focused on 'Shadow Wars' far from the main fronts of the Heresy, in particular the Shattered Legions - that is, the [[Iron Hands]], [[Raven Guard]], and [[Salamanders]] in their weakened state following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre. But other Legions can also be included, with special rules for the Shattered Legions, Black Shields and a list for Armies of Dark Compliance - mixed traitor Legiones/Militia lists, as well as ten new special characters. It includes Legiones Astartes rules for the White Scars, Blood Angels and Dark Angels, so that players of those legions can start playing properly; however, it does not include special units, characters, or Primarchs for those legions. It also includes Garro and the Knights Errant and additional Mechanicum units and characters, including a new Dark Magos, [[Anacharis Scoria]]. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons will still need to wait for the Prospero book (Inferno, Book 7).

===Inferno===
In <s>Set to be book 3.</s> <s>late 2016.</s> <s>early 2017 (Because FW can't keep to schedule)</s> <s>December 2016</s> February 4, 2017, will come what many neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those [[Thousand Sons]] players, start saving up so you can play your space Egyptian sorcerers in all their 30k glory. Rules for the Sisters of Silence as an allied detachment and the Adeptus Custodes as a full army list will be present as well.

Well, it's come, and... it's uninspiring to say the least, with stuff like [[What|Magnus being straight up impossible to hit if he casts invisibility, not to mention pumping out 2d6 destroyer hits at every unit within 18" if he likes]], [[Derp|Custodes captains beating out every Primarch with a rollable 3+ invulnerable save]], some Custodes wargear being straight up [[Wat|left out of the book]] and to cap it all, [[Herp|pictures of tourists in the book ('''twice''') where you'd expect miniatures to be]]. You'd think with such a long development cycle the quality assurance would have been more thorough. Didn't help that [[Alan Bligh]] was likely fairly ill in late 2016, and his untimely death in May of 2017 means the Horus Heresy team now has a big hole in it.

===Malevolence===
It will feature White Scars, Blood Angels and Daemons. Also some new stuff for Space Wolves and Alpha Legion.

== See Also ==
*[[The War of The Beast]], for the next massive shit-show the Imperium was involved with.
* [[Alternate Heresy]], for a discussion of other possible outcomes of the (not necessarily Horus) Heresy.

== External Links ==
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/3170/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (1993)] at BoardGameGeek
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/63543/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (2010)] at BoardGameGeek

{{40k-Timeline}}

[[Category:Board Games]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Wargames]]

Horus Heresy

2018-02-18T09:59:33Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|500px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''this''.]]
:''[[Fulgrim|"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.]]'' 
:''[[Magnus the Red|Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.]]'' 
:''[[Angron|They will be of iron will and steely muscle.]]'' 
:''[[Perturabo|In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.]]'' 
:''[[Mortarion|They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.]]'' 
:''[[Alpharius|They will have tactics, strategies and machines]] [[Omegon|so that no foe can best them in battle.]]'' 
:''[[Konrad Curze|They are my bulwark against the Terror.]]'' 
:''[[Lorgar|They are the Defenders of Humanity.]]'' 
:''[[Horus|They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."]]'' 
:- The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], [[Not as planned|getting exactly what he wanted.]]
{{Topquote|The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.|Karl Popper}}

The '''Horus Heresy''' is one of the single biggest clusterfuck of events in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff, alongside the [[Eldar]]'s creation of a new [[Slaanesh|Chaos God]], and the [[War in Heaven|rampage and fall of the]] [[C'Tan|star gods]]. Needless to say, this heresy derailed the Emperor's plan and himself, and gave the Chaos Gods their most prominent armies to carry out their will in realspace.

In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor's favorite son, [[Horus| Horus Lupercal]], formerly Warmaster of the Imperium, was corrupted by Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor, taking nine [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] (Including [[Luna Wolves|his own]]), their respective Primarchs, and about half of the Imperial Army and Mechanicum with him. After waging war across the galaxy, Horus and his traitors eventually reached Holy Terra itself, hoping to murder the Emperor himself and cut the head off the proverbial snake and win the war.

Things went [[Not as Planned]] however, as he was eventually surrounded by loyalist forces at the height of the siege on Terra. As a final gambit, he dropped the shields of his flagship which allowed the Emperor to beam up and challenged him to a duel for the fate of humanity. Horus beat the Emperor within an inch of his life but was killed in turn after the Emperor put his foot down and obliterated Horus' soul from existence (as in it didn't go to the warp to be resurrected by daemons; it was literally erased from existence) when it finally became clear to him that Horus was beyond forgiveness. The Chaos gribbles he had been allied with disappeared and the now Chaos Marines that had followed him sulked back to the [[Eye of Terror]], starting the [[Long War]].

Because the Emperor was fucked up to the point where he had to be permanently attached to a life-support machine known as the "Golden Throne" just to survive, logic within the Imperium gradually decreased, eventually turning into the [[Grimdark]] empire it is today. And it was already pretty damn grimdark.

[[File:President.png|400px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''him''.]]
[[File:GodsOfWarhammer.jpg|500px|thumb|left|It was pretty much ''them''.]]

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course) and changed the flavour of the Imperium's Grimdark from Stalinist Soviet "if you breathe a word about religion, we rape you with knives" to Catholic [[Inquisition]] "if you breathe a word about the ''wrong'' religion, we rape you [[Exterminatus|or your whole planet]] with knives" unless you can find an Ecclesiarch to come and say: "nope, that's just another aspect of the Emperor". Don't count on this happening without hefty "donations".

The heresy lasted for several years (somewhere between seven and ten) and was fought all over the galaxy. The following are the most important battles and campaigns during the Heresy:
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Prospero|Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Betrayal at Calth|Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Battle of Tallarn]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

Following the Siege of Terra, Horus was permakilled, Big E was interred onto the Golden Throne, the surviving primarchs freaked out trying to figure out what do now that daddy was in a coma, the traitors fucked off into the Eye of Terror, and overall the galaxy slowly and collectively lost their minds now that their wise and all-powerful ruler was no longer around to tell them what to do.

== The Board Game ==
First published in 1993 by [[Game Designer's Workshop]], it was the Emprah versus his [[Horus|evil bastard of a son]] in the scorched earth of Terra. Units include [[Titan#Warhammer_40k|titans]] and [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spaw-]] oh shiARHGRBLLYRBGRDEWUODHGRYEB.

Ahem, as he was saying, The more recent edition (2010) is published by [[Fantasy Flight Games]]. Also a two-player [[wargame|war]] [[board game|game]], it includes over 100 sculpted minifigs, sculpted buildings, and even Horus and the Emprah themselves are units on the board. It also adds more territory, as the fight can be pushed back onto the [[heresy|traitor's]] flagship ''Vengeful Spirit''. Combat is less [[dice|dice-y]] and more card-y.

(Not to be confused with the lame Horus Heresy card game, whose only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway.)

== The Book Series ==
For the last decade, [[Black Library]] has been publishing novels that explore the events of the Horus Heresy, looking at the rivalries among the [[Primarchs]] and exploring just why everything went down the tubes. The novels are by a selection of different authors, which is a total pain if you like to organise your books alphabetically by author. The reception to the series has been somewhat... mixed; books generally considered to be good include [[Dan Abnett|the first trilogy]], [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Betrayer]], [[White Scars|Scars]], and the short story [[Alpha Legion|The Serpent Beneath]].

Of course, like we mentioned, there's some that are... um... Well, let's just say that the worst are a [[skub|matter of much debate]].

{{Template:Spoilers}}

=== Books I - X ===
*'''''Horus Rising:''''' A prologue story, introducing us to the series and Garviel Loken who will grow into a very significant character. An Emperor (not [[Emperor|Him]]) is killed at the beginning and some bugs are killed on a planet called Murder for no reason other than they were there. The Interex show up and ask "whadya do that for?". [[Erebus]] steals the '''MURDER SWORD''' from them.
*'''''False Gods:''''' Horus falls at Davin when wounded by the '''MURDER SWORD''' and gets a crash course in the chaos gods from [[Erebus]] & [[Magnus]]. After getting shown a few "truths" that WILL HAPPEN in the future (like the Emperor being worshipped as a god, Horus being reviled and forgotten) he decides to make war on the Imperium to [[FAIL|prevent]] all this from happening.
*'''''Galaxy in Flames:''''' Isstvan III happens and the traitors send the loyalists down to the planet without reinforcements and proceed to bomb them to fuck. Things don't go to plan when [[Angron]] decides to invade turning it into a [[Not as Planned]] drawn out conflict that the Warmaster can't really afford - Loken "dies"
*'''''Flight of the Eisenstein:''''' the other side of ''Galaxy in Flames'', Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved (and mega-bitchslapped) by [[Rogal Dorn]], who does not take the news from Isstvan [[Rage|very well]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'. There is also the very first canonical appearance of Plague Marines, Euphrati Keeler being all mystical and shit, and Malcador recruiting Garro as the first Knight-Errant.
*'''''Fulgrim:''''' one of the more forgettable stories in the series. Attempts to tell the story from Great Crusade all the way up to the [[Drop Site Massacre]] in one book. In short Fulgrim finds a sword, gets possessed, kills Ferrus Manus - the end. It is written by Graham McNiel though, and it has an awesome quote from Fulgrim "My Emperor's Children. What beautiful music they make." .
*'''''Descent of Angels:''''' This is the Heresy book that isn't about the Heresy, instead focusing on [[Zahariel]]'s time on [[Caliban]]. It portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness (he can not read people at all, so he comes off as 'do what I say or die!') and having Luther to handle the small talk. Hints that the Great Crusade <s>does more harm than good</s> {{BLAM}} is uniting the lost colonies of mankind into a united future! Luther gets sent home with Zahariel to hustle up more Dark Angels.
*'''''Legion''''' introduces [[the Cabal]], the [[Perpetual]]s and [[Omegon]]. READ THIS BOOK. Or don't, as this is where those things that would eventually take over the Heresy series and according to many completely ruin it (Cabal, Perpetuals) are introduced. I still would recommend reading it since when the novel introduces these ideas they are very fresh and interesting. Don't blame Legion when the rest of the novels were who ruined it. Alpha legion is trying to bring some chaos cultist into compliance. Chaos cultists activate planetary self destruct blood sacrifice. Alpha legion meets with the Cabal, agrees to work with them, then kills off all non-legion bystanders & ships with "FOR E-MONEY"!
*'''''Battle for the Abyss:''''' The book is so bad that other authors tried to retcon it out of existence. This book is so bad that you would have it was cobbled together from [[Matt Ward|Wardian fluff]] stitched together by [[C. S. Goto]]. Reading this book may, in fact, cause brain cancer so you should avoid it if at all possible. Everyone dies, so it does not affect much (as in anything). The only thing you need to remember is [[Lorgar]] built a fuckhueg space ship and filled it with Dreadnoughts, and it failed miserably.
*'''''Mechanicum:''''' Tech Priests turn renegade after Horus tells them they can do whatever they like with technology, so they release forbidden viral scrapcodes and screw everything up. Also turns out that [[Emperor|Big E]] invented the Machine-God by sealing a C'Tan on Mars back during the Saint George era, giving everyone visions of technology. Also more subtle hints that the Emperor is a god himself by using divine golden light to heal machines and instant access super wikipedia. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery. And for extra Grimdark, a tech priestess discovers that the Dark Age era humans stored a backup copy of wikipedia in the warp and <s>with a giant psyker powered terminal accesses said wikipedia and restores all the knowledge of mankind</s> floods her forge with lava to deny the traitors access. A psyker tech savant meets up with the goaler of the Void Dragon and takes over his fuck long shift.
*'''''Tales of Heresy:''''' short story collection, including [[The Last Church]]. Has a lot of twist endings.
** '''''Blood Games:''''' An assassin tries to kill the emperor. The Adeptus Custodes go to kill a traitor on Terra. The assassin was a Custodes probing the palace defences. The traitor was a triple agent working for Dorn.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor. When the liberated planet chooses freedom over Emperor, the wolves invade again.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. They worshiped the Emperor, but Lorgar no longer does. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The squad of Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp. Turns out the youngest of the squad in the future used sorcery to beam back her consciousness through time onto some psykers on the Black Ship. She <s>successfully warns the squad about Horus's Rebellion </s> is executed by a hard-core Sister for breaking her vow of [[Psyker|no funny stuff]].
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.
** '''''[[The Last Church]]:''''' A story about the Emperor destroying one of the churches on Terra during the reunification era in his effort to wipe out religion. The Emperor and the priest of the church have an enlightening conversation about the Emprah's trying to accomplish. The conversation ends up with the priest accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite, with him decrying that he's no more different than the old warlords who waged crusades and holy wars in the past to push their own agendas on other people. Emperor reveals himself as the very god the priest was worshiping, and nearly convinces him to stand by his side while his soldiers destroy the church. Priest gets cold feet and walks back into the church while it collapses. An end-times alarm clock starts ringing in the ruins.
** '''''After Desh'ea:''''' The War Hounds meet their primarch. Angron demeats the War Hounds. More specifically, the Emperor just beamed up Angron away from his last stand (rather than, you know, intervening with his Custodes or his fleet), leaving Angron pretty pissed. [[Kharn]] is a pretty great guy to be around, and pulls his femurs out of his lungs quickly enough to establish himself as Angron's best buddy ''after the War Hounds chain of command calmed Angron down as fleshy squeeze balls''.

=== Books XI - XX ===
*'''''Fallen Angels:''''' the sequel to Descent of Angels, is actually two stories rolled into one book that never converge. 1. The Lion fights a war to reclaim some Ordinatus devices and then hands them to Perturabo to gain his trust, not realising that his brother has already turned. 2. [[Zahariel]] and Luther clean out a daemon cult on Caliban... but not really.
*'''''Thousand Sons:''''' Part 1 of the Battle for Prospero. Runs through the Great Crusade where Magnus discovers the webway, but his Father already knew about it. Then the Edict of Nikaea where Magnus gets all passionate about not restricting psychic powers, then to Horus's vision quest where Magnus fails to keep his brother on the right path, then does the WORST thing possible by forcing himself through the palace psychic spam filter, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues and the thousand sons become a thousand sons all over again. Ahriman starts writing hit Rubric.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail because Horus sent a look-a-like, but in the process slay a shapeshifting daemonic counter-assassin sent by Erebus. While it is a decent book and we learn a lot, it didn't contribute much to the overall plot. On the more [[rage|vitriolic side]], the writing is a bit underwhelming in places; highlights include calling a pariah a psyker, another pariah with a contrived possession, and Horus uttering one of the most cliche one liners out there.
*'''''The First Heretic:''''' [[Lorgar]]'s turn to get a back story and generally considered one of the better books in the series. While you make never sympathize with them, this book really lets you understand why The Word Bearers fell to chaos, rather then being the "CHAOTIC EVIL MONSTERS" they are portrayed in the rest of the series.. Feels less rushed than "[[Fulgrim]]". Goes from Monarchia to a bit of soul searching in the Eye of Terror and discovers Cadia. Leads up to Istvaan V and the immediate aftermath. Signifcant subplots revolve around the inception of Possessed Marines, and what happens to the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] babysitters watching over the Word Bearers, and how the protagonist [[Argel Tal]] gets into a tragic bromance with the Custodes leader.
** '''''Aurelian:''''' A limited release short story until an ebook was published. The plot bounces around in-between a number of moments in Lorgar's history up to the prelude of the Shadow Crusade. One narrative involves how Lorgar's brothers still treat him like shit, especially when he's the only one who sees through Fulgrim's possession, and ends with Horus sending him to fuck up Ultima Segmentum and handing him Angron's (figurative, [[/d/|not literal]]) leash. The other narrative takes place in the 40 year gap in ''The First Heretic'', where Lorgar makes a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror with a Daemon Princess as his guide. They come to a dead Crone World where he puts a dying [[Avatar of Khaine|Avatar]] out of its misery and he's told that the Eldar panicked rather than embrace Chaos during the birth of Slaanesh, which is what caused them to nearly die out; the daemon prince(ss) tells Lorgar the same thing is happening with humanity during the Heresy, how Chaos really wants a [[A Game of Pretend|symbiotic relationship with humanity rather than to conquer it]]. In the middle of this, Khorne decides he's had enough of this talky wordy shit and sends [[An'ggrath]] to make things more exciting, and Lorgar narrowly beats him. Then Kairos Fateweaver comes and "tells" him about Calth and his relationship with Guilliman and his upcoming war with him in the most confusing as fuck discussion ever. The truth of most of the things told to Lorgar are left ambiguous, because, well, Fateweaver; but also Chaos has a lot riding on the Heresy coming to fruition for reasons left not entirely explored.
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. A civilian archeologist named Kasper Hawser hangs out with a company of the Space Wolves, where we learn a lot about their culture and attitudes. Turns out that Chaos infiltrated everything, so the outcome of Nikaea was practically rigged. The civilian himself even turns out to have been an unwitting spy for Chaos, but the Wolves knew anyway and didn't give a shit (they thought he worked for Magnus).
* '''''Age of Darkness:''''' A short story anthology.
** '''''Rules of Engagement:''''' Roboute lets one of his commanders lead in a series of wars that didn't really occur, and we get the best line ever said in regards to the [[Codex Astartes]]: despite the fact it does cover a lot, it's not meant to be followed biblically <s>which is a load of bull given that the Codex lets said commander win all the wars in the most efficient way possible while blindly following it and only failed in the last battle because he was in a war game against Girlyman</s>. (See the quote on the page on the Big Book of Astartes). The Imperium Secundus shows up, making for another bizarre plot element that ruins the series without adding anything.
** '''''Liar's Due:''''' You know those memes on how the [[Alpha Legion]] causes mass paranoia without actually involving any Astartes? Those aren't just memes. Alpha Legion serf arrives on a agri-world and turns it's allegiance to Horus by only hacking all their inter-planetary communications.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[Salamanders|Salamander]] and a grumpy ol' [[Ultramarine]] are sent in opposition to one of Horus' iterators to convince an industrial-militant world which side to side with. They almost side with Horus before the Warmaster's agents [[Exterminatus|wreck shit]] for the lulz. Oh, and to send the message that neutrality will be punished. The [[Iron Warriors]] were doing weird shit on that world for years beforehand, and was probably the more deciding factor than the lulz.
** '''''The Last Remembrancer:''''' Horus sent the one last remembrancer he had stored up as a gift to Dorn. Instead of in a box (or eight or some shit like that), it was the [[Dan Abnett]] of his day telling Dorn that the grimdark galaxy was grimdark. Also that the Emperor's vision of a galaxy of peace, unity, prosperity, and fluffy bunnies built up without any more grimdark attached than was strictly needed, probably wasn't very likely before any shit hit any fan either way. Also, Iacton Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iacton Qruze. Dorn says it's all lies and enemy propaganda before executing said remembrancer and torching all his ramblings.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Magnus's absent fleet from the Burning of Prospero comes home and shits a brick. The last known surviving squad of Thousand Sons outside of the Planet of the Sorcerers gets beaten up and they slowly figure out it was the Space Wolves who shit on Magnus's <s>parade</s> world and is stalking them. One plot twist later, most of them are dead, the last one decides he's gonna rebuild everything, with a few scant hints that his flesh-change genetic flaw will [[Blood Ravens|shift into kleptomania]].
** '''''The Face of Treachery:''''' The tie-in and conclusion of the audiodrama featuring the Raven Guard after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax [[troll]]ing Perturabo for a bit too long, Horus sends Angron in to finish the job, but Corax's cavalry arrives to troll Angron by getting the loyalists the fuck out of there. We also learn that Corax has a supersekrit psyker ability which lets him roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can out-troll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters (they let the World Eater commander think he was in command then blew his brains out when he tried to actually command). Ends with an transitory bit into ''Deliverance Lost''.
** '''''Little Horus:''''' Little Horus Aximand is struggling with the PTSD he got when he killed Loken and Torgaddon with [[Abaddon|Abby]]. Abby and Little Horus have a discussion (we mean Horus Aximand, not when Primarch Horus was sodomizing Abaddon again) about restoring the Mournival. A couple war scenes later, Little Horus learns the hard way that the White Scars are pretty badass, but his PTSD starts acting up again and he gets his face shaved off before the White Scars are driven off. Little Horus realizes his PTSD he had since killing Loken and Torgaddon ultimately stems from that time he helped kill Loken and Torgaddon, and gives a diatribe about how things like "change", "mood swings", and "hallucinations" are suited to his melancholic nature, saying things like "it's perfectly natural", "I'm fine, everything's fine. Everything is perfectly, absolutely fine", and "Therapy is for the weak. I'm fine". After the Mongolian shave, he gets his face reattached and ends up looking even more like Big Horus in the deal.
** '''''The Iron Within:''''' Some pretty bro-tier loyalist Iron Warriors build a fortress hanging from a cave over an ocean of prometheum in a hellhole of a world (giant cavern system & acidic atmosphere), and one of Perturabo's traitor Grand Companies come knocking to demand that they hand over the house keys. The loyalists give them a fuck-you in the form of a Dreadnought. A few melodramatic and horrific but generic war scenes later, and they get overrun (after a full year of siege thanks to the genius of a certain [[Barabas Dantioch]]), drop the fortress from the ceiling onto a titan, and get the hell out of there by hijacking one of the Iron Warriors warships via teleportation. An Ultramarine big wig was there to bring the loyalists home, informing them that [[Skub|Guilliman was fortifying Terra]] and he needed good siege workers to stall the traitors then to fortify Terra. While loyalist Iron Warriors were pretty cool, the story itself was pretty forgettable; and it left some open questions like whether the continuity errors were the result of "faulty astropathic communications" (see Outcast Dead) or if the Ultramarines were trolling the Iron Warriors to join in with the Imperium Secundus. And also why the Iron Warriors were determined to take a hellhole at an immense expense of people and materiel, including Titans, while they could have just said "fuck yo shit!" and left a fortress with no space or warp conveyance and arguably little strategic value in itself in the middle of nowhere alone. It mentions a few times that it looks really bad for a rebellion trying to gain initiative when a mere captain of their Legions tells their Primarch "fuck off, imma keeping this fortress & resources for the Emperor!" The message behind it being if you can't even control your own men, maybe this rebellion thing needs a rethinking, because hearing Horus can't even take this shitty outpost middle of nowhere and he's going to Terra might be bad press.
** '''''Savage Weapons:''''' A good story written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|ADB]]. Dark Angels are hunting down the Night Lords who are fucking with Forge Worlds, but the Night Lords are staying a step ahead of them, much to [[Rage|the Lion's frustration]]. After being advised by Horus to pass along a message, Kurze asks the Lion to meet up face-to-face on Tsagualsa. When they talk, while what they say to each other is offscreen, it's implied Kurze told Lion about the Fallen Angels and that Horus knew about their impending betrayal. Lion decides nobody is going to give him shit about being a rumored closet traitor, and the ensuing fight proves that Jonson is a badass among primarchs, until Kurze goes to his old fallback of strangling a fucker, and things get more even. Their respective honor guards go at it in the meantime, and showing [[Sevatar]] is a badass among Space Marines. Things end up in a draw, leaving things open for a new plotline within the Heresy, the ''Prince of Crows'' novella being the next.
*'''''The Outcast Dead:''''' A mess of continuity errors, at least when compared with the rest of the series, the other authors later claimed all the errors were absolutely intentional and a result of the messed-up nature of Warp-based communication. [[derp|''Riggggghhhhtttt!'']] More importantly: shortly after the start of the Heresy an astropath has routine nervous breakdown and is returned to Terra to get [[Witch Hunters|some R&R]]. What really ends up happening is that he gets there in time for [[Magnus]]'s astral body to reach Big E to warn him of Horus' betrayal, and the fuckhueg psychic shock of course dicks with the Astropath HQ compound something mighty. In the confusion and assloads of psychic phenomena that followed, the astropath gets implanted with a message for somebody regarding the war, but his PTSD keeps him from knowing what the hell it is or who it's for. The Custodes come in and tell him ''"[[Anal Circumference|Ve haff vays of making you talk.]]"'' and hand him over to a pair of [[Inquisition|kind counselors]] who torture the poor man half to death. After a time, he gets busted out in the nick of time by some convict Space Marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." to the others. They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra (amusingly, none of the escapees is very happy at the prospect of the Heresy but they are all [[rage|slightly miffed]] at being treated like shit by the Custodes just because of the Legion they belong to.) Other subplots revolve around: a psyker congregant at a slum church near the Imperial palace; a samurai witch hunter (no, really); '''''fucking [[Thunder Warriors]]'''''. Best bits are <s>[[Rip and tear|an unarmed, unarmored World Eater ripping a Custodes' spine out through his chest]]</s> the portrayal of the Emperor playing chess in dreams, revealing that the message is about his upcoming bitchslap from Horus.
*'''''Deliverance Lost:''''' [[Corvus Corax]], having just escaped from Istvaan V, decides to go ask daddy for a handout to get his Legion back on his feet, and gets the mother of all genetech to do it, though he has to do a bit of legwork to get it. Meanwhile, a bunch of faceless Alpha Legionnaires (okay, they do have faces, they just originally belonged to some Raven Guard) had infiltrated Corax's Legion at Istvaan, and are doing recon and intelligence gathering waiting for [[Omegon]] to give the go-ahead to fuck shit up. Corax, meanwhile sets up new geneseed methods that bring up new recruits to battle-ready marines ''in fucking hours'', with the potential to conscript literally anybody willing to become a Space Marine. The Alphas decide this probably isn't in their interest, and sabotage the new geneseed by tainting it with ''daemon blood'', turning second- and third-batch new Raven Guard into the twisted monsters we know that Corax ended up with. In one of the instances of retcon that was actually flavored with [[awesome]] and win, the mutant marines [[Grimdark|were still sapient]], but were left to fight on in the Emperor's name. After staging a mass insurrection on Deliverance's parent world with the help of some old guilders Corax ousted and the Dark Mechanicum, Omegon gets ''more'' Alphas infiltrated into the Raven for the endgame: steal the genetech, kill some Ravenguard, get the fuck out before anybody knows what the fuck just happened in here. A couple cockups along the way leads to the Raven Guard getting wise and isolating out the Alphas. The end of the novel was like a swingers party at the retirement home, everybody got screwed (even ''Horus''), nobody got what they hoped for (except for [[Omegon|the really deviant bastard]]), and all-around the reproductive material was a waste. Corax shut down his hothousing method, and starts fucking with the Traitors, even at reduced numbers. The book ends on a note with Alpharius-Omegon deciding that while their plan for saving the galaxy was still good, they decide working with Xenos isn't for them.
*'''''Know No Fear:''''' The Ultras are still ignorant about Istvaan and the civil war erupting around the galaxy, and are on muster at Calth with the Word Bearers [[troll|on orders from Horus]] to go kill some Orks together as a conciliatory gesture. They were in for a surprise. The Word Bearers, while happy as hell to get revenge, are really trying to [[Eldrad|dick over]] the Ultramarines to keep them out of the Heresy, if not destroy them outright. What happens next is the Word Bearers arrange some "accidents" using sorcery and good ol' fashioned treachery to fake a monumental fuck up in the ship yards that leave the Ultramarine forces blind, deaf, and crippled. They use the confusion to say that the Ultras ''still'' fucking them over, and take the chance to open not only a can, but entire cases of whoop-ass on the Ultras. Erebus turns Calth's pole into a screaming hellscape to start up a warp storm, while Kor Phaeron oversees the systematic extermination of the Ultramarines and also successfully poisons Calth's sun. Guilliman gets jettisoned into space, but survives because [[Spiritual Liege]]. He then leads a counterattack on Kor Phaeron, and while Kor comes ''this close'' to getting a Primarch kill with [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|Chaos mindbullets]], but in a moment of self-aggrandizement, he holds back tries to corrupt Guilliman with his own dagger-sized '''MURDER SWORD'''. Guilliman calmly tells him "The Codex Astartes <s>does</s> will not support this action" (it was really "You made an error" followed by an explanation of that error, and "but while I'm alive, I can do this") and [[Rip and Tear|rips out Kor Phaeron's main heart with an unpowered Lightning Claw]]. Kor Phaeron's minions run away with his carcass, allowing the Ultras to retake their space station, which in turn allows Mechanicus plot power, aided by a planet's worth of orbital defense batteries, to bring the ground war back into the Ultramarines' favor. The novel ends with Word Bearers getting the hell out of there, and the Ultramarines evacuating everyone they can off of Calth and telling everybody they can't to get underground, transitioning into underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pius]] being the special guest star with his very own subplot, and the Word Bearers having athame blades as special issue, one of which will [[Uriel Ventris|come back later]]. You might notice this summary is pretty spoilerific, but if you didn't know the broad strokes already, you're in the wrong place.
*'''''The Primarchs:''''' A novella anthology. As the name suggests, it contains stories featuring Primarchs.
**'''''The Reflection Crack'd:''''' - <s>[[Lucius]] and friends anally rape [[Fulgrim]]. Yeah.</s> While questionable use of a ''pear of anguish'' is featured during a game of "Stab the Fulgrim," the real story is this: Lucius and his buddies are deep into the [[/d/|sickfuckery]] which will come to characterize their Legion, but begin to suspect that Fulgrim might have a daemon in him when he begins acting like not-Fulgrim and uses sorcery. They ambush him and try to exorcise it with pain, because torturing a Slaaneshi daemon will totally work (though they find out that a Primarch can grow back a foot, and just about any other wound). Among everything else: [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bill]] is still an arrogant dick; Lucius is still a maniacal and colossally narcissistic sick fuck; Julius Kaesoron is still an angry badass; Marius Vairosean is still a sycophantic cunt; and Eidolon was still a self-important, whiny douche, but Fulgrim throws a tantrum and cuts his head off, and there was much cheering from the readers, and that ''plus'' almost certain off-screen fapping among the Legionaries leads into ''Angel Exterminatus''.
**'''''Feat of Iron''''' - [[Ferrus Manus]]'s Legion is trying to off some Eldar on a desert world, but can't find the major Eldar strategic asset because of Spess Elf warp bullshit. A Farseer thinks he can warn Ferrus about the Heresy, and traps him in the webway or some psychic realm for a spirit quest long enough to fight a [[Fulgrim|giant purple snake]] (which is [[/d/|disturbingly appropriate imagery]] when you think about it); and Ferrus thinks it was the wyrm that he killed and gave him his metal hands, but the snake tells him that he must be mistaking it for somebody else. Ferrus kills it, and meets the Farseer who tries to tell Ferrus that he wasn't just being a dick. Ferrus, having too many experiences with Eldar being dicks, knocks some sense into the Farseer, who manages to run just fast enough to avoid getting killed. Ferrus comes back and helps his Legion fight off the Eldar kill the Webway beacon, or whatever the hell it was. In the background of all of this, the Iron Hands, having lost Ferrus, decide to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bitch about potentially dead father, and work to complete the mission despite being weighed down by Imperial Army who are dying of dehydration and heat stroke. The Eldar figure out a way to use storm clouds that make Iron Hands bionics kill their users, and Ferrus has a bitch of an itch around his neck that he can't get rid of. [[Drop Site Massacre|I wonder if that's important]].
**'''''The Lion:''''' - Dark Angels fight daemons and reinstitute Librarians. The Lion teamkills Nemiel for reminding him about Nikaea, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books because [[Gav Thorpe]] wanted to prove he's a big boy author who can kill his characters. Then they steal an intelligent super warp engine (insta shifts the Dark Angel fleet into the warp without need for a jump point while teleporting itself and the Lion onto his flagship; Lion is capable of talking politely infront of so much power) from [[Typhus]] then set course for Macragge to sort out Guilliman.
**'''''Serpent Beneath:''''' - Alpharius Omegon plots against himself and destroys a facility built around what looks suspiciously like a Cadian Pylon (and said facility keeping the White Scars out of the war), due to [[Cake|an information leak]], and they can't have that. Except than none of the main players are Alpharius or Omegon. And Alpharius and Omegon can't decide if they're secretly working against each other or not. Also: considered to be one of the better works of the series, not only due to quality, but because of the sheer mindfuckery of the plot, keeping entirely within the rationale of the Alpha Legion without any jumps in logic or canon.

=== Books XXI - XXX ===
*'''''Fear to Tread:''''' Despite being Black Library's most financially successful book ''ever'' and hitting thirteen (!) on the New York Times bestseller list (without Oprah's recommendation, even), many [[/tg/|fa/tg/uy]]s find it a bit ridiculous. Why? Well, there's planets with giant frowny faces inhabited by garbage monsters, ships getting blown up by city-sized rocks launched from the aforementioned planets, a nearly-stereotypically-gay [[Slaanesh]]i daemon that doesn't actually serve much of a purpose in the story, and a villain named the Red Angel, despite the fact [[Angron]] already claimed that as a nickname (although he was first introduced in ''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'', so it's not [[James Swallow]]'s fault). Oh, and Sanguinius acts like an idiot about [[Chaos]] the whole time, which fits the [[fluff]], but come on, how many freaky supernatural signs do you need to see before you decide it's not just foul xenos? In all fairness, of course, ''Fear to Tread'' does have quite a few good moments, especially when it comes to [[Warp]]-related terror. It also has a priceless bromance between [[Horus]] and [[Sanguinius]], not to mention Sanguinius and his Legion get characterized very well. Sanguiniuns and Co end up reaching Imperium Secundus.

*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - A story about two parallel story lines. The first is set during the [[Battle of Phall]], a space battle between the Iron Warriors whole fleet and what was left over from a third of the Imperial Fists's fleet after a warpstorm were ran them" ashore" and left them drifting and isolated in the backwater Phall system. Despite having the superior numbers, more and bigger guns, suicidal expenditure cohorts, and the power of a raging hatred boner, the Iron Warriors were losing to the Imperial Fists's maneuverability and [[Alexis Polux|Captain Polux's]] protagonist power. Eventually, the Fists get the order and window to withdraw to Terra, though turning tail would put their fleet at a huge disadvantage. Given the choice between blind obedience to his father or carrying on the battle they were winning, Polux chooses the former and takes his Fists back to Terra, but ends up in the Imperium Secundus instead. This was also the first of the two depictions of Perturabo, and clearly the worst of the two as he's shown as a cold-hearted Saturday morning cartoon villain with rage control issues. The second story line follows [[Sigismund]] as he follows Rogal around the Imperial Palace, while he was ordered to command the fleet on its way to Istvaan and got trapped at Phall, but delegated it to Polux's predecessor. The twist is that he met Euphrati Keeler had a spiritual experience when they spoke, and felt that he would be needed more at Terra instead of as a drifting corpse permanently lost in orbit around some backwater, and so handed off job of commanding the fleet. When he eventually opened up to Rogal, this got him in trouble. See, Rogal was still one of the [[Imperial Truth|stupid atheists]] at this point, so he disowned Sigismund because he thought "serving a higher purpose" was arrogant and got in the way of doing his job. This left Sigismund feeling really sad and pissed off, thus was his start of <s>darkness</s> daddy issues. [[Black Templars|Really pissed off and bad ass daddy issues.]]
**'''''The Dark King''''' - A look into the head and story of Konrad Curze during the events leading up to the Dropsite Massacre. It shows how Curze, even if you buy that he was a murderous paladin of justice and order through fear rather than just a fearsome murderer, is getting pretty fucked up in the head and lives with the knowledge of his demise haunting him, which isn't that great for his sanity. It also involves him beating up Rogal Dorn, killing some Imp Fists and Emp's Children terminators <s>with his more advanced suit and built-in vox jammers </s>with his bare hands, then blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn. The first 10 is him being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace as a grand piece of art by fortifying it into a coldly functional fortress. The next 10 is Rogal having an existential monologue then a conversation with Malcador, all about why he doesn't know why Horus declared war on the Emperor and brought half of the Legions with him, and is partly afraid to find out why in case it makes sense. Malcador ends up knowing at least a little about Chaos, and somehow got his hands on a tarot deck Curze used throughout his life, even to the close of ''The Dark King''. (Don't ask how he got them. Really.) Also the (*Name Drop*) Lightning Tower is the important card that comes up, signifying a [[Siege of Terra|destruction of fortifications]] and/or a [[Imperium of Man|change of thinking through sacrifice]].
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Right before Istvaan, techpriest Pallas Ravachol is working on a top secret "Kaban" robot project on Mars realizes that the project has achieved sapience and is in fact a form of strong AI. Though he genuinely befriended the Kaban machine, Ravachol complains to boss Magos Chrom that working on an AI is both highly illegal and insanely dangerous. Chrom tells Ravachol not to be such a pussy since Horus himself gave the OK, and after some deliberation, has a death squad awaiting to escort the Ravachol off site the next morning. Ravachol, thinking there were few ways this could well, makes a break for it and flees for Magos Malevolus's forge, hoping to get somebody with some clout to reveal that his old boss and Horus were up to something. On the way, he spends time running away from a latex-clad sadist babe who persistently chases after him; since she's an AdMech equivalent of a Death Cultist assassin, this is a ''much'' better idea than it sounds. When he gets to Malevolus's forge, Malevolus distracts him with a legion of shiny Mk6 suits of Marine Power Armor long enough to drop the bomb to drop that they were for Horus. The latex-clad babe catches up to them both, and the techpriest flees again, only to be puzzled why Malevolus and the assassin are letting him run. As he gets out the door, he meets the Kaban machine, <s>and through the power of friendship, the Kaban decides to side with the good guys, and the day is saved.</s> Except this is the dark, gritty universe of 30K where brother turns against brother. Chrom told the Kaban Machine that it and Ravachol couldn't be friends for realsies, because rules and stuff, and taking up with Horus was a great idea. The Kaban Machine, not understanding how humans work nor '''The Power of Friendship''', didn't know any better than to agree and kills Ravachol right on the steps of Malevolus's forge. End story. An okay story, somewhat generic feeling prose. More of a who's who of the Dark Mechanicus during ''Mechanicum'' and telling where the hell that Kaban machine from the same book came from and how they seduced an AI into Chaos worship.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - A bridge between Istvaan V and ''Deliverance Lost'', also a companion story to the Raven's Flight audio drama. The story tells how Commander Marcus Valerius of the Imperial Army is stationed on Deliverance and keeps having recurring nightmares which is causing him worry about Corax. Commander Branne of the Raven Guard's garrison on Deliverance, is getting tired of how the Legion's pet human won't stop bitching about it, and decides to take Valerius out on a trip in the battle barge to Istvaan just to show him that everything is just fine. Meanwhile, Corax and a relative handful of surviving Raven Guard are fighting a guerilla war against the traitors, trying to stay one step ahead of the Iron Warriors and then the World Eaters, and in-between skirmishes, Corax spends a few thoughtful moments feeling bad about his Legion and the state of the Imperium now that things have gone to shit.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, after that he makes tokens (for the warrior-lodge, but he doesn't know that) and then he gets his windpipe crushed to make sure word doesn't get out about the tokens. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life up until the point where he's lying on his own floor, slowly suffocating to death. Ultimately it is kind of irrelevant, but the lore nerds or people who have been paying attention might find it interesting. It is however only barely 20 pages long, so you might as well read it anyway.
**'''''Prince of Crows''''' - A novella featuring the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain [[Sevatar]] of the Night Lords. With the Night Lords's forces all but shattered by the Dark Angels, Curze in a coma nearly dead, and the Dark Angels's fleet in pursuit, Sevatar has to knock some heads for the Night Lords to get their shit together and reorganize and rethink strategy. It's essentially about showing the fractures in the Night Lords Legion. As most stories written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]], it's pretty good.

*'''''Angel Exterminatus:''''' [[Perturabo]] just finished [[skub|fucking up (or being fucked by)]] some Fists, and [[Fulgrim]] finds him to polish off a plot hook from ''The Reflection Crack'd'' and recruit Pert for an expedition into the Eye of Terror because a renegade Eldar said he knows where to get ''the good shit'' (the eponymous Angel Exterminatus). Fulgrim wanted to make a show out of delivering exposition, and he had Pert use his skills to build a stadium and went storyteller mode; then the moment was killed when a Shattered Legion detachment composed of Iron Hands and a Raven Guard commando sniped Fulgrim (he got better). Of course, Pert took the moment to remind himself that this is why he can't have, [[Rage|won't ever have]], nice things. Thinking that Fulgrim had the scent of a powerful artifact or a superweapon, and seeing that Fulgrim was becoming the Primarch equivalent of a crack addict member of the Jersey Shore and his legion wasn't looking much better, Pert decided to play it safe by tagging along and making sure Fulgrim wouldn't break anything. On the way, a different Eldar scholar came to the Shattered Legion, telling them that Fulgrim and Pert can't be allowed to get to the Angel Exterminatus, or [[Daemon|Bad Things (Warp-registered trademark)]] will happen. Well into the journey into the Eye, the Iron Hands's resident mad scientist accidentally gave away their location, and the Emp's Children and Iron Warriors decide to throw a boarding party. After a few pages of pulse pounding action, Pert says "fuck this", and leaves as the Iron Hands's same mad scientist overloads the engines and does a [[Battlefleet Gothic|mother of a ramming maneuver]] which kills an Emp's Children ship. (Pert was getting sick of Fulgrim's shit at this point, so he decided not to let them know, leading to the loss of the ship and thousands of casualties for Fulgrim.) Then, they finally get there, they find a [[Crone World]] covered in ruins and occupied spirit stones being held in orbit around a black hole. Some wraithbone constructs pop up and Pert and Fulgrim have to fight to the heart of the planet to get at the Angel Exterminatus. On the way, Pert kills their renegade Eldar because he was a lyin' bitch. When they ''finally'' get there, Surprise! Daemon Primarch Fulgrim is supposed to be the Angel Exterminatus, and he betrays Pert (a bauble Fulgrim gave to Pert at the start of the book was a vitality-leeching thing), and they start the ritual which would sacrifice Pert to turn Fulgrim into a Daemon Prince. Then the Shattered Legion crashes the ceremony, and assists the Iron Warriors since it's clear they weren't working with the Emp's Children anymore. Pert kills Fulgrim, but it didn't count since Fulgrim's mortal essence works just as well as sacrifice. He goes full Daemon Prince despite a generous helping of Thunder Hammer to his [[gay|pretty face]], breaks every spirit stone on the planet, and disappears with every last one of his sick fucks. The Eldar scholar helping the Shattered Legion throws a bitch fit, revealing that both scholars were Dark Eldar who had cut a deal with Fulgrim (help him become a daemon and they get assloads of spirit stones to fuck with), and he had made sure that the Shattered Legions were there to put a wedge in that deal because...reasons. The Shattered Legion gets the hell out, and the Iron Warriors try to GTFO as the planet starts to fall into the black hole. The book ends, with Pert, being a wise man, orders them to reverse course and fly right into that fucker. Subplots include a lot of buildup for McNeil's Iron Warriors stories, the Shattered Legions' feelings on trying to unfuck an irreversibly fucked situation, some tense buildup of two Imperial Fists as they try to survive Fabius's turning them into mutants (which actually had a poor payoff). Despite being overall good, it's a bit of a skub novel because the depiction of Perturabo is so different from expected, rather than being the bitter [[RAGE|Rage]] machine from every other depiction, he's a quiet [[Neckbeard|nerd who plays with toys as a hobby]], but with muscles. And because the ghosts of eldar's Aspect Warriors and Wraith-Constructs inside a planet left inside the Eye of Terror is a canon-rape on par with C.S. Goto, the first death of Lucius at the hands of a Mary Sue despite previous claims that he was undefeated during the Heresy and his unexplained resurrection (<s>"How? Fucking Chaos, that's how."</s> Oh, sure, every CSM is immortal), and an Iron Hands legionnaire somehow being immune to sonic weapons by being deaf. And worst of all, a rotating Shadowsword turret.

*'''''Betrayer:''''' Lorgar and Angron rampage over the Ultramarines 500 worlds. Lots of references to Angron's past and his Butcher's Nails are killing him slowly. Turns out one of the Ultramarine worlds was his own Homeworld, so he destroys it and Lorgar makes him into a daemon-prince. Also remember the Furious Abyss? Lorgar has two more. Also focuses on Khârn and Argel Tal being bros, until Erebus decides to intervene and kill a bitch.

* '''''Angron:''''' An anthology about <s>Lorgar</s> <s>Horus</s> <s>Dorn</s> <s>Malcador</s> <s>the plumber for the Golden Throne</s> Fuck, we can't remember. It often gets passed over in the official lists, since it's actually a cheat since it's a republish of older short stories: '''After De'shea''', '''Butcher's Nails''' ''(print format)'', and '''Lord of the Red Sands''' ''(which was initially a standalone release,'' even later ''republished in'' The Imperial Truth'')''.

*'''''Mark of Calth:''''' Another set of short stories, though all focused on the [[Ultramarines]] or the [[Word Bearers]].
**'''''Shards of Erebus:''''' - We find that [[Erebus]] broke the '''MURDER SWORD''' into eight daggers/athames and shared them with his bros. Also shows how he returned to Davin to learn how to teleport with the '''MURDER SWORD''', then killing the priestess that helped him turn Horus. She somehow wins because she served Chaos before dying which pisses Erebus off.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Keeps bringing up what Calth used to be like. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to Nurgle everyone, and the Ultramarines save the day in the nick of time. After all, THE GREATEST OF THE-{{BLAM}}
**'''''Dark Heart''''' - A young Word Bearer is interrogated by Kor Phaeron after he ended up killing his mentor with dark powers (turned him insta inside out). A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degradation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A spacedock traffic controller survives the destruction of his star fort, and the fatal crash of his escape shuttle before ending up in a small underground arcology with other human survivors. Imperial cultists believe he is blessed, and when he starts hearing whispers and seeing unbelievers they start rounding everybody up for execution. Everybody gets slowly executed till he's the last one left. Learns he's been possessed and reveals to an Ultramarine that he was was infected by the vox from the ''Campanile''.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - An Ultramarine has a hard-on for a certain Word Bearer trolling him. Hunts down said Word Bearer into a cave system with a team of soldiers and Spess Merheens. Word Bearer trolls them by summoning a Gorgon. Ultramarine wins by tricking the Gorgon into looking at its reflection.
**'''''The Underworld War''''' - A story that has little to do with the actual Underworld War. It features a Gal Vorbak who sees the attack on Calth as a clusterfuck of fail. Has a plot-twist ending... turns out Daemons give visions of the future to potential Gal Vorbak, and said Gal Vorbak was given a vision of him not abandoning his fallen brothers on Calth. The Daemon doesn't have time for that shit so it lets him die during his transformation.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife, though not one from the '''MURDER SWORD'''. That's about it... totally... right. Wrong. The small sacrificial knife that Ollanius found was carved on Terra for a benign ritual, stolen by an evil Perpetual who was killed by ''the Emperor'' in medieval times, found in an archeological dig by Kasper Hawser, and went on other crazy murder-adventures, all while having rudimentary sentience.
**'''''Unmarked''''' - Ollanius Pius and friends is traveling through time and space using the athame from the previous story. We learn a lot more about Oll's past, going into detail about his offhand mentions that he was one of the Argonauts and that he served in the First World War and the First Gulf War.
*'''''Vulkan Lives:''''' What happened to Vulkan after the Dropsite Massacre? He got made Konrad Curze's torture bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer to the face. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc. Remember the Shattered Legions crew from ''Angel Exterminatus''? Now you get a new group that is far more bland and less distinct.
*'''''The Unremembered Empire:''''' [[Perpetual|Matt Damon]] killed Martin Luther King. This happens in the book. Also, unlike the cover and synopsis would imply, it's ''not'' about Sanguinius and Guilliman working together to build a back-up Imperium around Ultramar, which leads to the question of ''why that's on the cover?'' No one knows what it is really about, especially the book's description of itself (which describes its ''sequels''). Several things happen in the book as several unrelated subplots collide as several entities are drawn by the Pharos device to Macragge. There are implications that Guilliman's new backup Imperium is starving resources from Terra.
*'''''Scars:''''' Technically the third book of the Prospero arc. The Khan returns to the Imperium after killing Orks left over from Ullanor and can't decide what side to join. Turns his back on Leman Russ during a fight with the Alpha Legion and goes looking for his best friend Magnus, also gets into a fight with Mortarion on the way, also [[The Fallen|half his legion turns traitor]] but turns out it's no big deal.
** '''''Brotherhood of the Storm:''''' Prequel to Scars, shows the White Scars fighting Orks on Chondax.
*'''''Vengeful Spirit''''' Horus goes looking for power to make him equal to the Emperor and the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z (kinda). We learn that the Emperor gained his powers after making a pact with the Chaos Gods where they gave him a fraction of their power, then somehow managed to double-cross them in what is quite possibly the most retarded retcon ever introduced in the entire book series. (In all seriousness though, the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series. It could be the truth, or one of their beautifully crafted lies.) Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest. Also, if you have been ignoring the audio books, you will be a bit lost at the start of this one.
*'''''The Damnation of Pythos''''' A Lovecraftian Horror story disguised as a Horus Heresy story. Has the most grimdark ending of the series thus far, up there with Dead Men Walking. Adds just about as much to the overall series as ''Furious Abyss'' did, but is actually pretty well written, unlike "Furious Abyss". To cut a long story short, daemons take over a world in the Pandorax system, capture a starship and use it to start ferrying cultists from place to place. The book also has some crossover with 40k and the Pandorax Campaign.

=== Books XXXI to XL ===
*'''''Legacies of Betrayal''''' Another anthology, though this time it's a bit of cheat, and they just consolidated several pre-existing stories; some of the the novellas but also included print versions of audio books.
**'''Brotherhood of the Storm''' - see above
**'''Serpent''' - A really short and out-of-place story about a Davinite Priest.
**'''Hunters Moon''' - originally an audiobook involving peasant fishermen rescuing a crashed space wolf who is running from the Alpha Legion after killing Alpharius, it obviously doesn't end well.
**'''Veritas Ferrum''' - a prequel to Damnation of Pythos, about an Iron Hands starship escaping ''(against their better nature)'' from Isstvan with some survivors.
**'''Strike and Fade''' - More survivors of Isstvan, though this is about Salamanders just killing time (and Night Lords) whilst they wait to be rescued.
**'''Honour to the Dead''' - about Ultramarines and an innocent woman and child trying her hardest to follow them to safety.
**'''Butcher's Nails''' - A good one to read, Angron & Lorgar go on the Shadow-Crusade and come to an understanding whilst fighting Eldar.
**'''Warmaster''' - Horus considering how much of a badass he is while chatting with Ferrus Manus's skull.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go kidnap a warp code interpreter that will let them intercept garbled enemy communications.
**'''Wolfs Claw''' - Bjorn the Fell-Handed needs a replacement arm, but the Iron Priests are too busy, but he happens to find a nice fancy relic one just lying around.
**'''The Divine Word'''
**'''Thief of Revelations''' - After Prospero, the Thousand Sons need something to stop all their rampant mutation, so Ahriman goes to ask why Magnus has locked himself away. He's got bigger things to worry about and is looking across time and space for key events for future [[Just as Planned]] manipulations.
**'''Lucius the Eternal Warrior''' - After his first death ''(and unexplained resurrection)'' at the hands of Nykona Sharrowkyn, Lucius has somehow abandoned the Heresy and goes to the planet of Sorcerers to fight a duel with the bestest Thousand Son swordsman, ends up meeting Ahriman. [[wat|Uh-huh...]]
**'''The Eightfold Path''' - Kharn and the World Eaters realise that too much rip and tear is leading them [[Khorne|down a damning path]], but they're already too far gone.
**'''Guardian of Order''' - [[Cypher]] and [[Zahariel]] discover that the Ouroboros (banished in Fallen Angels) is coming back
**'''Heart of the Conqueror''' - Angron's Navigator gets a bit uppity about being made to turn traitor, despite having been picked for the job as the angry man's chauffeur by the Emperor himself. Blams herself during mid-warp transit with not-fun results for flagship.
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel is killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes about it on his armour. Said notes will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]] on the subject of killing Word Bearers (because it's that damn important to kill Word Bearers). Thiel eventually gets bored and goes back to Macragge in the end.
**'''Lone Wolf''' - Bjorn has lost all of his squad, but is now such an awesome badass that he can solo Bloodthirsters.
*'''''Death and Defiance''''' Yet another anthology
**'''Imperfect''' - Daemon-Fulgrim has been getting Fabius to clone Ferrus Manus, because the split personality thing makes him feel guilty about failing to turn his brother to Horus's side, but the clones are never quite right and go mental at each suggestion. Fabius also has his own stuff going on.
**'''Howl of the Heathworld''' - Space Wolves get sent to Terra to watch over Rogal Dorn so he doesn't start using psykers, its a pointless task and everyone know it. Also offers insight into the Wolves naming conventions.
**'''A Safe and Shadowed Place''' - [[Night Lords]] start stabbing each other in the back as soon as Curze goes missing while solo'ing Macragge. It's about a ship floating in the ruinstorm that has just discovered the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] and foreshadows problems for Ultramar.
**'''Virtues of the Sons''' - Sanguinius forsees that he will not always be in charge of the Blood Angels, but worries about the Red Thirst causing havoc with his sons futures. So gets Amit to duel Kharn and Azkaellon to duel Lucius in hopes they'll learn something. Azkaellon learns to let the rage out a bit and Amit learns a modicum of restraint.
**'''Gunsight''' - The Vindicare Assassin from Nemesis is still alive and on Horus' flagship, its about him spending years waiting for the opportune moment to get a shot, but he starts going mad while he waits. Gives ups when Horus plucks his killshot from the air and Horus gives him a chaos rifle for his change in loyalty.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anthology
**'''Daemonology''' - To and fro' story about [[Mortarion]]. On Terra he discovers the initial construction of the Golden Throne and gets told about Emp's plan for removing psykers. In the "present day" he captures a daemon and starts practising sorcery on it.
**'''Black Oculus''' - A short story about Navigators describing what it's like travelling in the warp.... basically it's [[Grimdark]].
**'''Chirurgeon''' - [[Fabius Bile]] narrating about his history, and what happened about the gene-flaw that almost wiped out the [[Emperor's Children]]. Totally has the gene-flaw and has been using his bestest bro turned servitor to keep it under wraps.
**'''Twisted''' - '''Maloghurst''' gets a story about him uncovering plots against Horus and gets wrapped up in intrigue. It actually shows him as a really clever bastard and a bit of a badass.
**'''Wolf Mother''' - [[Perpetual|Alivia Sureka]]'s kids get captured after their escape from Molech and she teams up with [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]] in order to get them back. Lots of coolness on Sevarian's part and we also get to see that Perpetuals can resist possession.
*'''''Tallarn: Executioner''''' - A novella about a vehicle squadron (Leman Russ Executioner, Vanquisher and a Salamander) having to deal with the toxic surface in the weeks after the surface bombardment and then come into contact with the Iron Warriors. Also the Alpha Legion have a hand in things, like they always do.
*'''''Tallarn: Ironclad''''' - Part two of the Tallarn story.
*'''''Deathfire''''' - What the Salamanders have been saying since Isstvan is true: Vulkan lives! Well now he does. Basically a bunch of Salamanders take his body from Macragge to Nocturne (with some side help from didn't ask for this Magnus) and throw him into Nocturne's largest volcano, and lo and behold he comes back to life, making that entire plotline pointless. Still has the fucking Fulgurite in his chest, though. TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nzml-zZ9M
*'''''The Wolf King ''''' - The Space Wolves find themselves set upon by the forces of the Alpha Legion before they can recover from the Razing of Prospero and are hounded to the edge of the Alaxxes Nebula (swiss cheese acid cloud). There the Alpha Legion beat the ever-living shi...stuffing out of the wolves whilst Russ locks himself in his room and sulks. Russ eventually summons his new favourite Bjorn to join him and they have bit of a heart to heart about what a bunch of morons they were in allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily by Horus. By the end Russ is back to his old self and celebrates by massacring every Alpha he can get his hands on even if it’s clear that his defeat is inevitable. Fortunately for the Wolves helps comes from a hidden armada of Dark Angels ostensibly "loyal" to [[Luther]], but unaware of the Horus Heresy or of the whereabouts or actions of the Lion. Russ borrows gear and manpower from them in exchange for info on current events which most likely finds its way back to Luther and sets the "Destiny of Caliban" in motion. Russ then heads for Terra.
*'''''War Without End''''': Anthologies Without End.
*'''''Pharos''''': Night Lords fucking up the Pharos Lighthouse on Sotha. Sanguinius eventually grows some balls and starts standing up to Guilliman instead of just being a pantomime Emperor, while the Lion is nowhere to be seen as usual. Warsmith Dantioch bites it while using the Pharos to burn the Night Lords out of his fortress, but inadvertently piques the interest of the [[Tyranids]], causing them to show up 10,000 years later. Skraivok become a prime example of DEMON SWORDS: NOT EVEN ONCE.
*'''''Eye of Terra''''': Another anthology.
*'''''Path Of Heaven''''': Sequel to Scars. The White Scars have been fighting traitor legions for a few years but are starting to show the strain. They finally make a shift back to Terra but things don't go as planned. Notable for digging into the Webway storyline and the Navis Nobilite as well as featuring a resurrected and suddenly competent Eidolon. Navigators weren't going to sit around while E-money built their replacement, White Scars use a prototype webway portal to escape their last stand, and Moratarion starts using sorcery to locate Typhon.
*'''The Seventh Serpent:''' a novella about the Shattered Legions going up against the Alpha Legion; a simple premise made awesome by sheer depth of Alpharian plot twists: They had been manipulated by Alpharius into fighting a battle against Loyalist Alpha Legionaires.
*'''The Silent War:''' Guess What?! It's ''another'' anthology of stories that GW have already sold individually as audio-books. So value might be had for those who hadn't listened to them.
*'''''Angels of Caliban:''''' two Dark Angels stories in one book again, though this one actually moves the plot forward. In Ultramar, the Lion captures Konrad Curze but only after discretely nuking a whole region despite a ban on orbital weapon use, which results in his disgrace and we find that it is Guilliman who breaks the Lion Sword. Curze reveals that there were chaos cults on Mcraggae too, and that Guilliman would be a traitor if he had landed a little to the left. On Caliban, the Fallen openly declare their rebellion from the Imperium and ironically steal some starships that were meant to collect them and actually bring them into the war again. [[Zahariel]] kills [[Cypher]] and takes his place.
*'''''Praetorian of Dorn''''' Alpharius tries to invade <s>Terra</s> Pluto. Dorn kills him. Yes, Alpharius is now dead. And not a fake either, but the real Alpharius. Omegon can confirm. Alpha Legions fags blew a gasket. Oh shit believe we did.
*'''''Corax''''' A compilation of all the Corax Stories, plus a new one, '''Weregeld''', which manages to undo all the hard work the previous stories have done and turn Corax into a douchebag. Kills all his mutated Raven Guard because he promised to kill warp stuff. Saves Russ and his arrogant ass though.

=== Books XLI onwards ===
*'''''The Master of Mankind''''': The Emperor is a dick: the book. We all knew this, but now it's set in stone. Highlights being: Emperor stating to Arkhan Land that the Primarchs are tools and he views them with a scientific but detached fascination. Referring to them as numbers but content to allow the fantasy of being their "father", an interpretation of the character that was fairly divisive to say the least. He actually seems to care more for his Custodians than he does any of his other creations, but they don't consider him to be a father and see him as just their warlord. Drach'nyen is also revealed to be the Daemon created when Caine killed Abel. In the end he closes the door on the webway and has to spend the rest of his time sitting in the chair keeping it shut. Despite this, it does show off why the Chaos Gods fear him, as he pretty much rapes an infinite army of Daemons; the Greater ones either flee or try and fail to fight him (being destroyed in a matter of moments) whilst the lesser ones die just by looking at him. Despite this, Drach'nyen nearly kills him, and <s>it is confirmed that fate has indeed decreed that Empy will die at the daemon's hand</s> claims that it will kill the Emperor (keep in mind that the future is malleable and Daemons lie). But how will it feast on the Emperor's tattered soul when Abaddon lacks arms to plunge it into his chest? (''But Abaddon never lost his arms due to the same retcon that let Eldrad live'') Also known as Master of skubkind. Reveals his grand plan of saving the human race from the Eldar fate by absolute control of every human to a custodian before shanking him with Drach'nyen and making him run into the webway. Also put all his chips into the ''Human Webway'' plan and screwed us all over without a backup. Can you tell that this is an ADB book?
*'''''Garro''''': Compilation of all the stories about Garro and his boy band, though they insist it isn't just an anthology since the audio book stories were expanded to be more written novel friendly.
*'''''Shattered Legions''''': It's an anthology containing an anthology. I shit thee not. It shoves together the limited edition anthology Meduson with a few other shorter stories, including some Alpha Legion stuff like the Seventh Serpent.
*'''''The Crimson King''''': Magnus was broken into shards when Russ felled him. Now the Thousand Sons with the help of Lucius the Eternal must put him back together.
*'''''Tallarn''''': Does it even need to be stated? It's another fucking anthology, this time putting all the tank porn of the Tallarn books into one binding.
*'''''Ruinstorm:''''' The conclusion to the Imperium Secundus plotline, as well as the follow on to Damnation of Pythos. Shows the Lion, Sanguinius and Guilliman trying to cross the Ruinstorm to reach Terra. Having a brief stopover at Pandorax, they decide to head out to Davin where the Heresy began and where destinies are re-made; they pass systems along the way that show what the Galaxy would look like if Chaos wins, such as a Forge World surrounded by an immense fortress wall in outer space 4000 miles thick, or a sector of space filled with solid ritualised geometric shapes that are perhaps light years across. Davin itself is surrounded by a cloud of bones and wreckage millions of kilometers thick, but the planet has long since been abandoned. There, Sanguinius finds out that in order to live through the Heresy he must become a monster even worse than Horus, but dying will curse his sons with the Black Rage; blood is on his hands either way. Instead, Sanguinius tries to sacrifice himself to save the day, but the [[Sanguinor]] steps in and takes his place while the fleets rain down a shitstorm and destroy the planet. In the aftermath, the Ruinstorm abates enough for them to reach Terra, but Horus has so much force that it is impossible for all three legions to reach, so Guilliman and the Lion agree to distract the Traitors long enough to give Sanguinius a window to get back and face his destiny, explaining why they never made it to the Siege since they were engaging Traitor fleets and burning their worlds.
*'''''Old Earth:''''' Set immediately after ''Vulkan Lives'', Vulkan and three Salamander legionaries ''(the rest of the Salamanders weren't informed of their Primarch's resurrection)'' travelled through the Webway by a gate hidden in a cave on Nocturne. On their path to Terra, they came across the Shattered Legions, who were preparing for their first major void engagement with the Sons of Horus. Just before the attack, some Medusan-born Iron Hands tried to stage a coup against Shadrak Meduson by revealing a hideous contraption of machines, and the last remnants of Ferrus Manus - his iron hand ''(They were under the illusion that they could resurrect their Primarch through cybernetics, it is hinted that the Mechanicum had some hand in this affair.)'' Thankfully, Vulkan shattered the hand, and Meduson assumed command again, though he was killed by '''Tybalt Marr''' in a boarding action after the Iron Hand refused to send reinforcements to him. In the end, it was revealed that the Emperor had Vulkan forged a weapon, that in the event Terra fell to Horus, would amplify the power of the Golden Throne to the point it coulf wipe out the entire Throneworld ''(this is probably one of Vulcan's nine relics)'' Oh, and Eldrad rescued [[Knights-Errant|Barthusa Narek]] from Nocturne and made him his assassin. They killed most of the Cabal, and finally rescued John Grammaticus, who had his memory wiped after his failure to assassinate Vulkan. With his memory restored, Grammaticus was ordered by Eldrad to find Ollanius Pius and go to Terra.
*'''''Wolfsbane:''''' No solid information yet, but it seems like Leman Russ leaves Terra to confront Horus himself. One can expect that it doesn't end well for him.

== The Primarchs Series ==

Because Black Library don't seem satisfied confusing us with all their anthologies, audio-books, and short stories, they have begun releasing a spin-off series of Horus Heresy novels centered on the Primarchs. The series don't really take place in a specific time, but generally focuses on expanding on the titular Primarch's backstory and motivations during events before the Horus Heresy (though some of them also have events occurring after it). Why Black Library lists it as part of the Horus Heresy series when that is the case is beyond our comprehension.

=== Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar ===
Centers on the papa smurf himself, and him trying to deal with how the Emperor used him like a rusty hammer to smack Lorgar in the head at Monarchia. Uses a conflict against Orks as a vehicle for him and the smurfs to express their angst over the event.

=== Leman Russ: The Great Wolf ===
Focuses on Leman Russ' notorious rivalry with the Lion, and explaining why to this day whenever the Chapters meet they throw the gauntlet down and beat the stuffing out of one another. Notably it reveals some interesting stuff like the Lion being aware of the Space Wolves' furry issue and keeping a lid on it.

=== Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero ===
Depicts the unlikely friendship between Magnus and old Pert with a joint venture between their legions. Things go wrong on the planet due to totally not Chaos cult nonsense, and it does a decent job of showing Magnus' flaws. Specifically on his inability to leave things that have "do not fuck with this" alone; something Pert tries and fails at making him understand.

=== Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia ===
Probably the book in the series that did the most character building of all of them. This book is a mix of showing off Perturabo's childhood on Olympia alongside a "current" day conflict against the Hrud. The former showing why Pert is the odd genius manchild guy he is, while the latter does a great job of showing why fucking with an alien species capable of controlling time is somewhat of a stupid idea. However, the real draw of the book is that it is mainly written as an attempt to merge together the seemingly contradictory depictions of Pert we've had over the years. Showing how the ruthless dick who decimates his legion for not being good enough in the Forgeworld books is the same guy who just wanted to be a builder in Angel Exterminatus. Yep. Definitely a sperg. Also he may or may not have wanted to bang his adopted sister.

=== Lorgar: Bearer of the Word ===
Yep, the first(ish?) heretic himself gets his own obligatory messed up childhood novel. Focusing slightly more on Kor Phaeron rather than Lorgar himself, showing him to be a manipulative dick who beat Lorgar as a child and never really bought into this whole "fatherhood" shtick, or this whole concept of [[Emperor|One True God]] but allowed Lorgar his fantasies and to take over Colchis ''(By "Word" or by "Mace")'' while Phaeron benefitted from increased position and secretly kept the faith of [[Chaos Gods]].

Though by the end Kor Phaeron wonders if Lorgar just let him think that he was manipulated and could have disposed of him at any time. The book does introduce a contrasting character to Kor Phaeron who actually shows Lorgar compassion growing up and was far more worthy of being named "father" but was far less useful to Lorgar's goals. The book shows that Lorgar isn't as stupid or naive as everyone thinks and does indeed realise that people have been using him for their own gains, but while he only really cares about doing the work of the gods, so long as they both align he doesn't seem to care.

=== Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix ===
Fulgrim tries to conquer the newly discovered planet Byzas with only 7 men. Along the way he encounters a brotherhood much like his own that wants to work with him that Fulgrim dismisses as a bunch of idealists. It's implied that he COULD have gotten the same results (Compliance) working with them but unfortunately that would have meant calling in backup and Fulgrim didn't want to do that so that was out of the question. In the end Fulgrim takes the world, but nearly dies. Several of the characters (Cyrius, Kasperos Telmar) later become prominent champions of chaos.

=== Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa ===

== The Tabletop Wargame ==
[[Forge World]] is producing a new line of books and models (''in addition to'' [[Imperial Armour]] and [[Warhammer Forge]]) to allow players to fight battles from the Horus Heresy in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. This includes rules and models for the [[Primarchs]] (both pre- and post-fall, for the Traitors) as well as ancient vehicles. No [[xenos]], unfortunately. Presumably this came about because GW felt that they just weren't making quite enough money from die-hard marine/chaos players and figured they could literally buy a dump-truck full of gold plated cocaine each if they made a version of the game that requires only Forge World minis AND thousands upon thousands of them. Still worth it, though.

=== Betrayal ===
Forge World starts big, as their first book covers the battles on Istvaan III, in which [[Horus]] sent the remaining loyalist elements of the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Emperor's Children]], [[Death Guard]], and [[World Eaters]] to the surface, ostensibly to rout the anti-Imperial resistance that had taken hold in the capital city, and then fired [[Exterminatus]] torpedoes (of the life-eater virus bomb variety) onto the city to wipe them out.

Unfortunately for Horus, not everything went as planned; not only did the loyalist Death Guard frigate ''Eisenstein'' escape to the [[Phalanx]] with word of Horus's betrayal, but loyalist elements on other ships were able to disrupt the bombardment and warn the loyalists on the ground that it was coming. Between the disruption, the warning, and good old-fashioned [[Space Marine]] toughness, only a third or so of the landed force had actually died. Horus would have fired another bombardment, but [[Angron]] and his traitor World Eaters jumped the gun and made planetfall; the other traitors were left with no choice but to deploy themselves and destroy the remaining loyalists personally.

''Betrayal'' contains a [[Great Crusade]] Legion army list (for which we have a [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines/Legion List‎|tactica]]), and rules for special characters and units from the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Death Guard]], [[Emperor's Children]], and [[World Eaters]] Legions, including their [[Primarch]]s (even [[Fulgrim]], who was not actually at the battle) and several major characters from the book series such as Garviel Loken.

===Massacre===
The infamous Drop Site Massacre is the focus of the next book, where seven Legions are sent to crush Horus’ rebellion, only for four of those to turn on the other three and crush them utterly. The books storyline is essentially just the ''first day'' of the battle, leading up to the death of [[Ferrus Manus]].

Massacre contains additional rules for special characters and units from the [[Iron Hands]], [[Night Lords]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Word Bearers]] Legions including their Primarchs and several more major characters from the book series make their debut such as Sevatar, Eidolon, Erebus and Kharn.

===Extermination===
Focusses on the second half of Istvaan V, as well as the Battle of Phall between the [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Imperial Fists]]; and on that note, it includes rules for those two Legions, as well as the [[Alpha Legion]] and the [[Raven Guard]].

It also gives us a complete Mechanicum Army List: the Taghmata.

====Condensed Lists====
The ICL and LACAL were initially released as part of the limited edition run of Extermination, but were then later released separately. They are fluff-lite, codex-equivalent books that also included all of the FAQs/Errata up to their release; which unfortunately was still the end of 6th edition so some rules haven't carried over well. ''(eg. [[Lorgar]]s psychic rules.)''

The Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List is basically the generic 30k Space Marine "codex", whilst the Isstvan Campaign Legions contains all of the collected rules for the legions from Books 1-3; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three books. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game. The ICL was continued in the Age of Darkness Legions, which collected everything to book 5, including the errata.

Later came the Mechanicum Taghamata Army List, which contained all the Mechanicum units and army lists mentioned and rearranged them to keep everything on the same page, but lacked the Questoris Knight Army. The Crusade Imperialis Army Lists contain the Solar Auxilia, Imperialis Militia/Warp Cults, and Questoris Knight Crusade army lists.

===Conquest===
Horus Heresy Volume Four is entitled 'Conquest', despite early hints from Forgeworld that it would be about the Battle of Prospero, it instead features Horus' conquest of the Imperium and the [[Skub|"Major"]] battles of this time, which is to say some battle-zones that Forgeworld made up to fill time whilst they worked on the more well known events from the in-universe history. ''(And to be fair, their response as to why Prospero was delayed was because it included four major factions, [[Adeptus Custodes|two of]] [[Sisters of Silence|which have]] NEVER been represented on the tabletop, so required more time to do them justice.)''

A large portion of the book is given over to running battles in the '''"Age of Darkness"''', which is a variant ruleset used as the default for Horus Heresy games ''(where only Troops usually score, amongst other things)'' and has rules and FOCs for Cityfight missions, rules for running ongoing campaigns, variant rules for mysterious terrain and objectives as well as including unique relics to be taken by the various army lists to add flavor to non-special characters.

It also introduces the [[Solar Auxilia]] and [[Imperial Knight|"Questoris" Knights]] (as an AdMech list) armies to play while the modellers take a break from building power armor 24/7.

===Tempest===
The fifth Horus Heresy book will cover the Battle of Calth. The rules for the [[Ultramarines]] (including [[Roboute Guilliman]] himself) as well as several warp-corrupted Word Bearer units are brought in alongside a few other new miscellaneous FW releases, including the Deredeo and the new Thanatars. There's also an Imperial Militia (Read: PDF) list that's super-customizable so you can make both loyalist and traitor lists. Also, the MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IS IN IT TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===Retribution===
Focused on 'Shadow Wars' far from the main fronts of the Heresy, in particular the Shattered Legions - that is, the [[Iron Hands]], [[Raven Guard]], and [[Salamanders]] in their weakened state following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre. But other Legions can also be included, with special rules for the Shattered Legions, Black Shields and a list for Armies of Dark Compliance - mixed traitor Legiones/Militia lists, as well as ten new special characters. It includes Legiones Astartes rules for the White Scars, Blood Angels and Dark Angels, so that players of those legions can start playing properly; however, it does not include special units, characters, or Primarchs for those legions. It also includes Garro and the Knights Errant and additional Mechanicum units and characters, including a new Dark Magos, [[Anacharis Scoria]]. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons will still need to wait for the Prospero book (Inferno, Book 7).

===Inferno===
In <s>Set to be book 3.</s> <s>late 2016.</s> <s>early 2017 (Because FW can't keep to schedule)</s> <s>December 2016</s> February 4, 2017, will come what many neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those [[Thousand Sons]] players, start saving up so you can play your space Egyptian sorcerers in all their 30k glory. Rules for the Sisters of Silence as an allied detachment and the Adeptus Custodes as a full army list will be present as well.

Well, it's come, and... it's uninspiring to say the least, with stuff like [[What|Magnus being straight up impossible to hit if he casts invisibility, not to mention pumping out 2d6 destroyer hits at every unit within 18" if he likes]], [[Derp|Custodes captains beating out every Primarch with a rollable 3+ invulnerable save]], some Custodes wargear being straight up [[Wat|left out of the book]] and to cap it all, [[Herp|pictures of tourists in the book ('''twice''') where you'd expect miniatures to be]]. You'd think with such a long development cycle the quality assurance would have been more thorough. Didn't help that [[Alan Bligh]] was likely fairly ill in late 2016, and his untimely death in May of 2017 means the Horus Heresy team now has a big hole in it.

===Malevolence===
It will feature White Scars, Blood Angels and Daemons. Also some new stuff for Space Wolves and Alpha Legion.

== See Also ==
*[[The War of The Beast]], for the next massive shit-show the Imperium was involved with.
* [[Alternate Heresy]], for a discussion of other possible outcomes of the (not necessarily Horus) Heresy.

== External Links ==
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/3170/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (1993)] at BoardGameGeek
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/63543/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (2010)] at BoardGameGeek

{{40k-Timeline}}

[[Category:Board Games]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Wargames]]

Horus Heresy

2018-02-18T09:59:23Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|500px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''this''.]]
:''[[Fulgrim|"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.]]'' 
:''[[Magnus the Red|Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.]]'' 
:''[[Angron|They will be of iron will and steely muscle.]]'' 
:''[[Perturabo|In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.]]'' 
:''[[Mortarion|They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.]]'' 
:''[[Alpharius|They will have tactics, strategies and machines]] [[Omegon|so that no foe can best them in battle.]]'' 
:''[[Konrad Curze|They are my bulwark against the Terror.]]'' 
:''[[Lorgar|They are the Defenders of Humanity.]]'' 
:''[[Horus|They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."]]'' 
:- The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], [[Not as planned|getting exactly what he wanted.]]
{{Topquote|The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.|Karl Popper}}

The '''Horus Heresy''' is one of the single biggest clusterfuck of events in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff, alongside the [[Eldar]]'s creation of a new [[Slaanesh|Chaos God]], and the [[War in Heaven|rampage and fall of the]] [[C'Tan|star gods]]. Needless to say, this heresy derailed the Emperor's plan and himself, and gave the Chaos Gods their most prominent armies to carry out their will in realspace.

In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor's favorite son, [[Horus| Horus Lupercal]], formerly Warmaster of the Imperium, was corrupted by Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor, taking nine [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] (Including [[Luna Wolves|his own]]), their respective Primarchs, and about half of the Imperial Army and Mechanicum with him. After waging war across the galaxy, Horus and his traitors eventually reached Holy Terra itself, hoping to murder the Emperor himself and cut the head off the proverbial snake and win the war.

Things went [[Not as Planned]] however, as he was eventually surrounded by loyalist forces at the height of the siege on Terra. As a final gambit, he dropped the shields of his flagship which allowed the Emperor to beam up and challenged him to a duel for the fate of humanity. Horus beat the Emperor within an inch of his life but was killed in turn after the Emperor put his foot down and obliterated Horus' soul from existence (as in it didn't go to the warp to be resurrected by daemons; it was literally erased from existence) when it finally became clear to him that Horus was beyond forgiveness. The Chaos gribbles he had been allied with disappeared and the now Chaos Marines that had followed him sulked back to the [[Eye of Terror]], starting the [[Long War]].

Because the Emperor was fucked up to the point where he had to be permanently attached to a life-support machine known as the "Golden Throne" just to survive, logic within the Imperium gradually decreased, eventually turning into the [[Grimdark]] empire it is today. And it was already pretty damn grimdark.

[[File:President.png|500px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''him''.]]
[[File:GodsOfWarhammer.jpg|500px|thumb|left|It was pretty much ''them''.]]

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course) and changed the flavour of the Imperium's Grimdark from Stalinist Soviet "if you breathe a word about religion, we rape you with knives" to Catholic [[Inquisition]] "if you breathe a word about the ''wrong'' religion, we rape you [[Exterminatus|or your whole planet]] with knives" unless you can find an Ecclesiarch to come and say: "nope, that's just another aspect of the Emperor". Don't count on this happening without hefty "donations".

The heresy lasted for several years (somewhere between seven and ten) and was fought all over the galaxy. The following are the most important battles and campaigns during the Heresy:
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Prospero|Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Betrayal at Calth|Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Battle of Tallarn]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

Following the Siege of Terra, Horus was permakilled, Big E was interred onto the Golden Throne, the surviving primarchs freaked out trying to figure out what do now that daddy was in a coma, the traitors fucked off into the Eye of Terror, and overall the galaxy slowly and collectively lost their minds now that their wise and all-powerful ruler was no longer around to tell them what to do.

== The Board Game ==
First published in 1993 by [[Game Designer's Workshop]], it was the Emprah versus his [[Horus|evil bastard of a son]] in the scorched earth of Terra. Units include [[Titan#Warhammer_40k|titans]] and [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spaw-]] oh shiARHGRBLLYRBGRDEWUODHGRYEB.

Ahem, as he was saying, The more recent edition (2010) is published by [[Fantasy Flight Games]]. Also a two-player [[wargame|war]] [[board game|game]], it includes over 100 sculpted minifigs, sculpted buildings, and even Horus and the Emprah themselves are units on the board. It also adds more territory, as the fight can be pushed back onto the [[heresy|traitor's]] flagship ''Vengeful Spirit''. Combat is less [[dice|dice-y]] and more card-y.

(Not to be confused with the lame Horus Heresy card game, whose only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway.)

== The Book Series ==
For the last decade, [[Black Library]] has been publishing novels that explore the events of the Horus Heresy, looking at the rivalries among the [[Primarchs]] and exploring just why everything went down the tubes. The novels are by a selection of different authors, which is a total pain if you like to organise your books alphabetically by author. The reception to the series has been somewhat... mixed; books generally considered to be good include [[Dan Abnett|the first trilogy]], [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Betrayer]], [[White Scars|Scars]], and the short story [[Alpha Legion|The Serpent Beneath]].

Of course, like we mentioned, there's some that are... um... Well, let's just say that the worst are a [[skub|matter of much debate]].

{{Template:Spoilers}}

=== Books I - X ===
*'''''Horus Rising:''''' A prologue story, introducing us to the series and Garviel Loken who will grow into a very significant character. An Emperor (not [[Emperor|Him]]) is killed at the beginning and some bugs are killed on a planet called Murder for no reason other than they were there. The Interex show up and ask "whadya do that for?". [[Erebus]] steals the '''MURDER SWORD''' from them.
*'''''False Gods:''''' Horus falls at Davin when wounded by the '''MURDER SWORD''' and gets a crash course in the chaos gods from [[Erebus]] & [[Magnus]]. After getting shown a few "truths" that WILL HAPPEN in the future (like the Emperor being worshipped as a god, Horus being reviled and forgotten) he decides to make war on the Imperium to [[FAIL|prevent]] all this from happening.
*'''''Galaxy in Flames:''''' Isstvan III happens and the traitors send the loyalists down to the planet without reinforcements and proceed to bomb them to fuck. Things don't go to plan when [[Angron]] decides to invade turning it into a [[Not as Planned]] drawn out conflict that the Warmaster can't really afford - Loken "dies"
*'''''Flight of the Eisenstein:''''' the other side of ''Galaxy in Flames'', Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved (and mega-bitchslapped) by [[Rogal Dorn]], who does not take the news from Isstvan [[Rage|very well]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'. There is also the very first canonical appearance of Plague Marines, Euphrati Keeler being all mystical and shit, and Malcador recruiting Garro as the first Knight-Errant.
*'''''Fulgrim:''''' one of the more forgettable stories in the series. Attempts to tell the story from Great Crusade all the way up to the [[Drop Site Massacre]] in one book. In short Fulgrim finds a sword, gets possessed, kills Ferrus Manus - the end. It is written by Graham McNiel though, and it has an awesome quote from Fulgrim "My Emperor's Children. What beautiful music they make." .
*'''''Descent of Angels:''''' This is the Heresy book that isn't about the Heresy, instead focusing on [[Zahariel]]'s time on [[Caliban]]. It portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness (he can not read people at all, so he comes off as 'do what I say or die!') and having Luther to handle the small talk. Hints that the Great Crusade <s>does more harm than good</s> {{BLAM}} is uniting the lost colonies of mankind into a united future! Luther gets sent home with Zahariel to hustle up more Dark Angels.
*'''''Legion''''' introduces [[the Cabal]], the [[Perpetual]]s and [[Omegon]]. READ THIS BOOK. Or don't, as this is where those things that would eventually take over the Heresy series and according to many completely ruin it (Cabal, Perpetuals) are introduced. I still would recommend reading it since when the novel introduces these ideas they are very fresh and interesting. Don't blame Legion when the rest of the novels were who ruined it. Alpha legion is trying to bring some chaos cultist into compliance. Chaos cultists activate planetary self destruct blood sacrifice. Alpha legion meets with the Cabal, agrees to work with them, then kills off all non-legion bystanders & ships with "FOR E-MONEY"!
*'''''Battle for the Abyss:''''' The book is so bad that other authors tried to retcon it out of existence. This book is so bad that you would have it was cobbled together from [[Matt Ward|Wardian fluff]] stitched together by [[C. S. Goto]]. Reading this book may, in fact, cause brain cancer so you should avoid it if at all possible. Everyone dies, so it does not affect much (as in anything). The only thing you need to remember is [[Lorgar]] built a fuckhueg space ship and filled it with Dreadnoughts, and it failed miserably.
*'''''Mechanicum:''''' Tech Priests turn renegade after Horus tells them they can do whatever they like with technology, so they release forbidden viral scrapcodes and screw everything up. Also turns out that [[Emperor|Big E]] invented the Machine-God by sealing a C'Tan on Mars back during the Saint George era, giving everyone visions of technology. Also more subtle hints that the Emperor is a god himself by using divine golden light to heal machines and instant access super wikipedia. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery. And for extra Grimdark, a tech priestess discovers that the Dark Age era humans stored a backup copy of wikipedia in the warp and <s>with a giant psyker powered terminal accesses said wikipedia and restores all the knowledge of mankind</s> floods her forge with lava to deny the traitors access. A psyker tech savant meets up with the goaler of the Void Dragon and takes over his fuck long shift.
*'''''Tales of Heresy:''''' short story collection, including [[The Last Church]]. Has a lot of twist endings.
** '''''Blood Games:''''' An assassin tries to kill the emperor. The Adeptus Custodes go to kill a traitor on Terra. The assassin was a Custodes probing the palace defences. The traitor was a triple agent working for Dorn.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor. When the liberated planet chooses freedom over Emperor, the wolves invade again.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. They worshiped the Emperor, but Lorgar no longer does. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The squad of Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp. Turns out the youngest of the squad in the future used sorcery to beam back her consciousness through time onto some psykers on the Black Ship. She <s>successfully warns the squad about Horus's Rebellion </s> is executed by a hard-core Sister for breaking her vow of [[Psyker|no funny stuff]].
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.
** '''''[[The Last Church]]:''''' A story about the Emperor destroying one of the churches on Terra during the reunification era in his effort to wipe out religion. The Emperor and the priest of the church have an enlightening conversation about the Emprah's trying to accomplish. The conversation ends up with the priest accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite, with him decrying that he's no more different than the old warlords who waged crusades and holy wars in the past to push their own agendas on other people. Emperor reveals himself as the very god the priest was worshiping, and nearly convinces him to stand by his side while his soldiers destroy the church. Priest gets cold feet and walks back into the church while it collapses. An end-times alarm clock starts ringing in the ruins.
** '''''After Desh'ea:''''' The War Hounds meet their primarch. Angron demeats the War Hounds. More specifically, the Emperor just beamed up Angron away from his last stand (rather than, you know, intervening with his Custodes or his fleet), leaving Angron pretty pissed. [[Kharn]] is a pretty great guy to be around, and pulls his femurs out of his lungs quickly enough to establish himself as Angron's best buddy ''after the War Hounds chain of command calmed Angron down as fleshy squeeze balls''.

=== Books XI - XX ===
*'''''Fallen Angels:''''' the sequel to Descent of Angels, is actually two stories rolled into one book that never converge. 1. The Lion fights a war to reclaim some Ordinatus devices and then hands them to Perturabo to gain his trust, not realising that his brother has already turned. 2. [[Zahariel]] and Luther clean out a daemon cult on Caliban... but not really.
*'''''Thousand Sons:''''' Part 1 of the Battle for Prospero. Runs through the Great Crusade where Magnus discovers the webway, but his Father already knew about it. Then the Edict of Nikaea where Magnus gets all passionate about not restricting psychic powers, then to Horus's vision quest where Magnus fails to keep his brother on the right path, then does the WORST thing possible by forcing himself through the palace psychic spam filter, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues and the thousand sons become a thousand sons all over again. Ahriman starts writing hit Rubric.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail because Horus sent a look-a-like, but in the process slay a shapeshifting daemonic counter-assassin sent by Erebus. While it is a decent book and we learn a lot, it didn't contribute much to the overall plot. On the more [[rage|vitriolic side]], the writing is a bit underwhelming in places; highlights include calling a pariah a psyker, another pariah with a contrived possession, and Horus uttering one of the most cliche one liners out there.
*'''''The First Heretic:''''' [[Lorgar]]'s turn to get a back story and generally considered one of the better books in the series. While you make never sympathize with them, this book really lets you understand why The Word Bearers fell to chaos, rather then being the "CHAOTIC EVIL MONSTERS" they are portrayed in the rest of the series.. Feels less rushed than "[[Fulgrim]]". Goes from Monarchia to a bit of soul searching in the Eye of Terror and discovers Cadia. Leads up to Istvaan V and the immediate aftermath. Signifcant subplots revolve around the inception of Possessed Marines, and what happens to the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] babysitters watching over the Word Bearers, and how the protagonist [[Argel Tal]] gets into a tragic bromance with the Custodes leader.
** '''''Aurelian:''''' A limited release short story until an ebook was published. The plot bounces around in-between a number of moments in Lorgar's history up to the prelude of the Shadow Crusade. One narrative involves how Lorgar's brothers still treat him like shit, especially when he's the only one who sees through Fulgrim's possession, and ends with Horus sending him to fuck up Ultima Segmentum and handing him Angron's (figurative, [[/d/|not literal]]) leash. The other narrative takes place in the 40 year gap in ''The First Heretic'', where Lorgar makes a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror with a Daemon Princess as his guide. They come to a dead Crone World where he puts a dying [[Avatar of Khaine|Avatar]] out of its misery and he's told that the Eldar panicked rather than embrace Chaos during the birth of Slaanesh, which is what caused them to nearly die out; the daemon prince(ss) tells Lorgar the same thing is happening with humanity during the Heresy, how Chaos really wants a [[A Game of Pretend|symbiotic relationship with humanity rather than to conquer it]]. In the middle of this, Khorne decides he's had enough of this talky wordy shit and sends [[An'ggrath]] to make things more exciting, and Lorgar narrowly beats him. Then Kairos Fateweaver comes and "tells" him about Calth and his relationship with Guilliman and his upcoming war with him in the most confusing as fuck discussion ever. The truth of most of the things told to Lorgar are left ambiguous, because, well, Fateweaver; but also Chaos has a lot riding on the Heresy coming to fruition for reasons left not entirely explored.
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. A civilian archeologist named Kasper Hawser hangs out with a company of the Space Wolves, where we learn a lot about their culture and attitudes. Turns out that Chaos infiltrated everything, so the outcome of Nikaea was practically rigged. The civilian himself even turns out to have been an unwitting spy for Chaos, but the Wolves knew anyway and didn't give a shit (they thought he worked for Magnus).
* '''''Age of Darkness:''''' A short story anthology.
** '''''Rules of Engagement:''''' Roboute lets one of his commanders lead in a series of wars that didn't really occur, and we get the best line ever said in regards to the [[Codex Astartes]]: despite the fact it does cover a lot, it's not meant to be followed biblically <s>which is a load of bull given that the Codex lets said commander win all the wars in the most efficient way possible while blindly following it and only failed in the last battle because he was in a war game against Girlyman</s>. (See the quote on the page on the Big Book of Astartes). The Imperium Secundus shows up, making for another bizarre plot element that ruins the series without adding anything.
** '''''Liar's Due:''''' You know those memes on how the [[Alpha Legion]] causes mass paranoia without actually involving any Astartes? Those aren't just memes. Alpha Legion serf arrives on a agri-world and turns it's allegiance to Horus by only hacking all their inter-planetary communications.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[Salamanders|Salamander]] and a grumpy ol' [[Ultramarine]] are sent in opposition to one of Horus' iterators to convince an industrial-militant world which side to side with. They almost side with Horus before the Warmaster's agents [[Exterminatus|wreck shit]] for the lulz. Oh, and to send the message that neutrality will be punished. The [[Iron Warriors]] were doing weird shit on that world for years beforehand, and was probably the more deciding factor than the lulz.
** '''''The Last Remembrancer:''''' Horus sent the one last remembrancer he had stored up as a gift to Dorn. Instead of in a box (or eight or some shit like that), it was the [[Dan Abnett]] of his day telling Dorn that the grimdark galaxy was grimdark. Also that the Emperor's vision of a galaxy of peace, unity, prosperity, and fluffy bunnies built up without any more grimdark attached than was strictly needed, probably wasn't very likely before any shit hit any fan either way. Also, Iacton Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iacton Qruze. Dorn says it's all lies and enemy propaganda before executing said remembrancer and torching all his ramblings.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Magnus's absent fleet from the Burning of Prospero comes home and shits a brick. The last known surviving squad of Thousand Sons outside of the Planet of the Sorcerers gets beaten up and they slowly figure out it was the Space Wolves who shit on Magnus's <s>parade</s> world and is stalking them. One plot twist later, most of them are dead, the last one decides he's gonna rebuild everything, with a few scant hints that his flesh-change genetic flaw will [[Blood Ravens|shift into kleptomania]].
** '''''The Face of Treachery:''''' The tie-in and conclusion of the audiodrama featuring the Raven Guard after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax [[troll]]ing Perturabo for a bit too long, Horus sends Angron in to finish the job, but Corax's cavalry arrives to troll Angron by getting the loyalists the fuck out of there. We also learn that Corax has a supersekrit psyker ability which lets him roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can out-troll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters (they let the World Eater commander think he was in command then blew his brains out when he tried to actually command). Ends with an transitory bit into ''Deliverance Lost''.
** '''''Little Horus:''''' Little Horus Aximand is struggling with the PTSD he got when he killed Loken and Torgaddon with [[Abaddon|Abby]]. Abby and Little Horus have a discussion (we mean Horus Aximand, not when Primarch Horus was sodomizing Abaddon again) about restoring the Mournival. A couple war scenes later, Little Horus learns the hard way that the White Scars are pretty badass, but his PTSD starts acting up again and he gets his face shaved off before the White Scars are driven off. Little Horus realizes his PTSD he had since killing Loken and Torgaddon ultimately stems from that time he helped kill Loken and Torgaddon, and gives a diatribe about how things like "change", "mood swings", and "hallucinations" are suited to his melancholic nature, saying things like "it's perfectly natural", "I'm fine, everything's fine. Everything is perfectly, absolutely fine", and "Therapy is for the weak. I'm fine". After the Mongolian shave, he gets his face reattached and ends up looking even more like Big Horus in the deal.
** '''''The Iron Within:''''' Some pretty bro-tier loyalist Iron Warriors build a fortress hanging from a cave over an ocean of prometheum in a hellhole of a world (giant cavern system & acidic atmosphere), and one of Perturabo's traitor Grand Companies come knocking to demand that they hand over the house keys. The loyalists give them a fuck-you in the form of a Dreadnought. A few melodramatic and horrific but generic war scenes later, and they get overrun (after a full year of siege thanks to the genius of a certain [[Barabas Dantioch]]), drop the fortress from the ceiling onto a titan, and get the hell out of there by hijacking one of the Iron Warriors warships via teleportation. An Ultramarine big wig was there to bring the loyalists home, informing them that [[Skub|Guilliman was fortifying Terra]] and he needed good siege workers to stall the traitors then to fortify Terra. While loyalist Iron Warriors were pretty cool, the story itself was pretty forgettable; and it left some open questions like whether the continuity errors were the result of "faulty astropathic communications" (see Outcast Dead) or if the Ultramarines were trolling the Iron Warriors to join in with the Imperium Secundus. And also why the Iron Warriors were determined to take a hellhole at an immense expense of people and materiel, including Titans, while they could have just said "fuck yo shit!" and left a fortress with no space or warp conveyance and arguably little strategic value in itself in the middle of nowhere alone. It mentions a few times that it looks really bad for a rebellion trying to gain initiative when a mere captain of their Legions tells their Primarch "fuck off, imma keeping this fortress & resources for the Emperor!" The message behind it being if you can't even control your own men, maybe this rebellion thing needs a rethinking, because hearing Horus can't even take this shitty outpost middle of nowhere and he's going to Terra might be bad press.
** '''''Savage Weapons:''''' A good story written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|ADB]]. Dark Angels are hunting down the Night Lords who are fucking with Forge Worlds, but the Night Lords are staying a step ahead of them, much to [[Rage|the Lion's frustration]]. After being advised by Horus to pass along a message, Kurze asks the Lion to meet up face-to-face on Tsagualsa. When they talk, while what they say to each other is offscreen, it's implied Kurze told Lion about the Fallen Angels and that Horus knew about their impending betrayal. Lion decides nobody is going to give him shit about being a rumored closet traitor, and the ensuing fight proves that Jonson is a badass among primarchs, until Kurze goes to his old fallback of strangling a fucker, and things get more even. Their respective honor guards go at it in the meantime, and showing [[Sevatar]] is a badass among Space Marines. Things end up in a draw, leaving things open for a new plotline within the Heresy, the ''Prince of Crows'' novella being the next.
*'''''The Outcast Dead:''''' A mess of continuity errors, at least when compared with the rest of the series, the other authors later claimed all the errors were absolutely intentional and a result of the messed-up nature of Warp-based communication. [[derp|''Riggggghhhhtttt!'']] More importantly: shortly after the start of the Heresy an astropath has routine nervous breakdown and is returned to Terra to get [[Witch Hunters|some R&R]]. What really ends up happening is that he gets there in time for [[Magnus]]'s astral body to reach Big E to warn him of Horus' betrayal, and the fuckhueg psychic shock of course dicks with the Astropath HQ compound something mighty. In the confusion and assloads of psychic phenomena that followed, the astropath gets implanted with a message for somebody regarding the war, but his PTSD keeps him from knowing what the hell it is or who it's for. The Custodes come in and tell him ''"[[Anal Circumference|Ve haff vays of making you talk.]]"'' and hand him over to a pair of [[Inquisition|kind counselors]] who torture the poor man half to death. After a time, he gets busted out in the nick of time by some convict Space Marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." to the others. They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra (amusingly, none of the escapees is very happy at the prospect of the Heresy but they are all [[rage|slightly miffed]] at being treated like shit by the Custodes just because of the Legion they belong to.) Other subplots revolve around: a psyker congregant at a slum church near the Imperial palace; a samurai witch hunter (no, really); '''''fucking [[Thunder Warriors]]'''''. Best bits are <s>[[Rip and tear|an unarmed, unarmored World Eater ripping a Custodes' spine out through his chest]]</s> the portrayal of the Emperor playing chess in dreams, revealing that the message is about his upcoming bitchslap from Horus.
*'''''Deliverance Lost:''''' [[Corvus Corax]], having just escaped from Istvaan V, decides to go ask daddy for a handout to get his Legion back on his feet, and gets the mother of all genetech to do it, though he has to do a bit of legwork to get it. Meanwhile, a bunch of faceless Alpha Legionnaires (okay, they do have faces, they just originally belonged to some Raven Guard) had infiltrated Corax's Legion at Istvaan, and are doing recon and intelligence gathering waiting for [[Omegon]] to give the go-ahead to fuck shit up. Corax, meanwhile sets up new geneseed methods that bring up new recruits to battle-ready marines ''in fucking hours'', with the potential to conscript literally anybody willing to become a Space Marine. The Alphas decide this probably isn't in their interest, and sabotage the new geneseed by tainting it with ''daemon blood'', turning second- and third-batch new Raven Guard into the twisted monsters we know that Corax ended up with. In one of the instances of retcon that was actually flavored with [[awesome]] and win, the mutant marines [[Grimdark|were still sapient]], but were left to fight on in the Emperor's name. After staging a mass insurrection on Deliverance's parent world with the help of some old guilders Corax ousted and the Dark Mechanicum, Omegon gets ''more'' Alphas infiltrated into the Raven for the endgame: steal the genetech, kill some Ravenguard, get the fuck out before anybody knows what the fuck just happened in here. A couple cockups along the way leads to the Raven Guard getting wise and isolating out the Alphas. The end of the novel was like a swingers party at the retirement home, everybody got screwed (even ''Horus''), nobody got what they hoped for (except for [[Omegon|the really deviant bastard]]), and all-around the reproductive material was a waste. Corax shut down his hothousing method, and starts fucking with the Traitors, even at reduced numbers. The book ends on a note with Alpharius-Omegon deciding that while their plan for saving the galaxy was still good, they decide working with Xenos isn't for them.
*'''''Know No Fear:''''' The Ultras are still ignorant about Istvaan and the civil war erupting around the galaxy, and are on muster at Calth with the Word Bearers [[troll|on orders from Horus]] to go kill some Orks together as a conciliatory gesture. They were in for a surprise. The Word Bearers, while happy as hell to get revenge, are really trying to [[Eldrad|dick over]] the Ultramarines to keep them out of the Heresy, if not destroy them outright. What happens next is the Word Bearers arrange some "accidents" using sorcery and good ol' fashioned treachery to fake a monumental fuck up in the ship yards that leave the Ultramarine forces blind, deaf, and crippled. They use the confusion to say that the Ultras ''still'' fucking them over, and take the chance to open not only a can, but entire cases of whoop-ass on the Ultras. Erebus turns Calth's pole into a screaming hellscape to start up a warp storm, while Kor Phaeron oversees the systematic extermination of the Ultramarines and also successfully poisons Calth's sun. Guilliman gets jettisoned into space, but survives because [[Spiritual Liege]]. He then leads a counterattack on Kor Phaeron, and while Kor comes ''this close'' to getting a Primarch kill with [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|Chaos mindbullets]], but in a moment of self-aggrandizement, he holds back tries to corrupt Guilliman with his own dagger-sized '''MURDER SWORD'''. Guilliman calmly tells him "The Codex Astartes <s>does</s> will not support this action" (it was really "You made an error" followed by an explanation of that error, and "but while I'm alive, I can do this") and [[Rip and Tear|rips out Kor Phaeron's main heart with an unpowered Lightning Claw]]. Kor Phaeron's minions run away with his carcass, allowing the Ultras to retake their space station, which in turn allows Mechanicus plot power, aided by a planet's worth of orbital defense batteries, to bring the ground war back into the Ultramarines' favor. The novel ends with Word Bearers getting the hell out of there, and the Ultramarines evacuating everyone they can off of Calth and telling everybody they can't to get underground, transitioning into underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pius]] being the special guest star with his very own subplot, and the Word Bearers having athame blades as special issue, one of which will [[Uriel Ventris|come back later]]. You might notice this summary is pretty spoilerific, but if you didn't know the broad strokes already, you're in the wrong place.
*'''''The Primarchs:''''' A novella anthology. As the name suggests, it contains stories featuring Primarchs.
**'''''The Reflection Crack'd:''''' - <s>[[Lucius]] and friends anally rape [[Fulgrim]]. Yeah.</s> While questionable use of a ''pear of anguish'' is featured during a game of "Stab the Fulgrim," the real story is this: Lucius and his buddies are deep into the [[/d/|sickfuckery]] which will come to characterize their Legion, but begin to suspect that Fulgrim might have a daemon in him when he begins acting like not-Fulgrim and uses sorcery. They ambush him and try to exorcise it with pain, because torturing a Slaaneshi daemon will totally work (though they find out that a Primarch can grow back a foot, and just about any other wound). Among everything else: [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bill]] is still an arrogant dick; Lucius is still a maniacal and colossally narcissistic sick fuck; Julius Kaesoron is still an angry badass; Marius Vairosean is still a sycophantic cunt; and Eidolon was still a self-important, whiny douche, but Fulgrim throws a tantrum and cuts his head off, and there was much cheering from the readers, and that ''plus'' almost certain off-screen fapping among the Legionaries leads into ''Angel Exterminatus''.
**'''''Feat of Iron''''' - [[Ferrus Manus]]'s Legion is trying to off some Eldar on a desert world, but can't find the major Eldar strategic asset because of Spess Elf warp bullshit. A Farseer thinks he can warn Ferrus about the Heresy, and traps him in the webway or some psychic realm for a spirit quest long enough to fight a [[Fulgrim|giant purple snake]] (which is [[/d/|disturbingly appropriate imagery]] when you think about it); and Ferrus thinks it was the wyrm that he killed and gave him his metal hands, but the snake tells him that he must be mistaking it for somebody else. Ferrus kills it, and meets the Farseer who tries to tell Ferrus that he wasn't just being a dick. Ferrus, having too many experiences with Eldar being dicks, knocks some sense into the Farseer, who manages to run just fast enough to avoid getting killed. Ferrus comes back and helps his Legion fight off the Eldar kill the Webway beacon, or whatever the hell it was. In the background of all of this, the Iron Hands, having lost Ferrus, decide to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bitch about potentially dead father, and work to complete the mission despite being weighed down by Imperial Army who are dying of dehydration and heat stroke. The Eldar figure out a way to use storm clouds that make Iron Hands bionics kill their users, and Ferrus has a bitch of an itch around his neck that he can't get rid of. [[Drop Site Massacre|I wonder if that's important]].
**'''''The Lion:''''' - Dark Angels fight daemons and reinstitute Librarians. The Lion teamkills Nemiel for reminding him about Nikaea, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books because [[Gav Thorpe]] wanted to prove he's a big boy author who can kill his characters. Then they steal an intelligent super warp engine (insta shifts the Dark Angel fleet into the warp without need for a jump point while teleporting itself and the Lion onto his flagship; Lion is capable of talking politely infront of so much power) from [[Typhus]] then set course for Macragge to sort out Guilliman.
**'''''Serpent Beneath:''''' - Alpharius Omegon plots against himself and destroys a facility built around what looks suspiciously like a Cadian Pylon (and said facility keeping the White Scars out of the war), due to [[Cake|an information leak]], and they can't have that. Except than none of the main players are Alpharius or Omegon. And Alpharius and Omegon can't decide if they're secretly working against each other or not. Also: considered to be one of the better works of the series, not only due to quality, but because of the sheer mindfuckery of the plot, keeping entirely within the rationale of the Alpha Legion without any jumps in logic or canon.

=== Books XXI - XXX ===
*'''''Fear to Tread:''''' Despite being Black Library's most financially successful book ''ever'' and hitting thirteen (!) on the New York Times bestseller list (without Oprah's recommendation, even), many [[/tg/|fa/tg/uy]]s find it a bit ridiculous. Why? Well, there's planets with giant frowny faces inhabited by garbage monsters, ships getting blown up by city-sized rocks launched from the aforementioned planets, a nearly-stereotypically-gay [[Slaanesh]]i daemon that doesn't actually serve much of a purpose in the story, and a villain named the Red Angel, despite the fact [[Angron]] already claimed that as a nickname (although he was first introduced in ''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'', so it's not [[James Swallow]]'s fault). Oh, and Sanguinius acts like an idiot about [[Chaos]] the whole time, which fits the [[fluff]], but come on, how many freaky supernatural signs do you need to see before you decide it's not just foul xenos? In all fairness, of course, ''Fear to Tread'' does have quite a few good moments, especially when it comes to [[Warp]]-related terror. It also has a priceless bromance between [[Horus]] and [[Sanguinius]], not to mention Sanguinius and his Legion get characterized very well. Sanguiniuns and Co end up reaching Imperium Secundus.

*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - A story about two parallel story lines. The first is set during the [[Battle of Phall]], a space battle between the Iron Warriors whole fleet and what was left over from a third of the Imperial Fists's fleet after a warpstorm were ran them" ashore" and left them drifting and isolated in the backwater Phall system. Despite having the superior numbers, more and bigger guns, suicidal expenditure cohorts, and the power of a raging hatred boner, the Iron Warriors were losing to the Imperial Fists's maneuverability and [[Alexis Polux|Captain Polux's]] protagonist power. Eventually, the Fists get the order and window to withdraw to Terra, though turning tail would put their fleet at a huge disadvantage. Given the choice between blind obedience to his father or carrying on the battle they were winning, Polux chooses the former and takes his Fists back to Terra, but ends up in the Imperium Secundus instead. This was also the first of the two depictions of Perturabo, and clearly the worst of the two as he's shown as a cold-hearted Saturday morning cartoon villain with rage control issues. The second story line follows [[Sigismund]] as he follows Rogal around the Imperial Palace, while he was ordered to command the fleet on its way to Istvaan and got trapped at Phall, but delegated it to Polux's predecessor. The twist is that he met Euphrati Keeler had a spiritual experience when they spoke, and felt that he would be needed more at Terra instead of as a drifting corpse permanently lost in orbit around some backwater, and so handed off job of commanding the fleet. When he eventually opened up to Rogal, this got him in trouble. See, Rogal was still one of the [[Imperial Truth|stupid atheists]] at this point, so he disowned Sigismund because he thought "serving a higher purpose" was arrogant and got in the way of doing his job. This left Sigismund feeling really sad and pissed off, thus was his start of <s>darkness</s> daddy issues. [[Black Templars|Really pissed off and bad ass daddy issues.]]
**'''''The Dark King''''' - A look into the head and story of Konrad Curze during the events leading up to the Dropsite Massacre. It shows how Curze, even if you buy that he was a murderous paladin of justice and order through fear rather than just a fearsome murderer, is getting pretty fucked up in the head and lives with the knowledge of his demise haunting him, which isn't that great for his sanity. It also involves him beating up Rogal Dorn, killing some Imp Fists and Emp's Children terminators <s>with his more advanced suit and built-in vox jammers </s>with his bare hands, then blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn. The first 10 is him being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace as a grand piece of art by fortifying it into a coldly functional fortress. The next 10 is Rogal having an existential monologue then a conversation with Malcador, all about why he doesn't know why Horus declared war on the Emperor and brought half of the Legions with him, and is partly afraid to find out why in case it makes sense. Malcador ends up knowing at least a little about Chaos, and somehow got his hands on a tarot deck Curze used throughout his life, even to the close of ''The Dark King''. (Don't ask how he got them. Really.) Also the (*Name Drop*) Lightning Tower is the important card that comes up, signifying a [[Siege of Terra|destruction of fortifications]] and/or a [[Imperium of Man|change of thinking through sacrifice]].
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Right before Istvaan, techpriest Pallas Ravachol is working on a top secret "Kaban" robot project on Mars realizes that the project has achieved sapience and is in fact a form of strong AI. Though he genuinely befriended the Kaban machine, Ravachol complains to boss Magos Chrom that working on an AI is both highly illegal and insanely dangerous. Chrom tells Ravachol not to be such a pussy since Horus himself gave the OK, and after some deliberation, has a death squad awaiting to escort the Ravachol off site the next morning. Ravachol, thinking there were few ways this could well, makes a break for it and flees for Magos Malevolus's forge, hoping to get somebody with some clout to reveal that his old boss and Horus were up to something. On the way, he spends time running away from a latex-clad sadist babe who persistently chases after him; since she's an AdMech equivalent of a Death Cultist assassin, this is a ''much'' better idea than it sounds. When he gets to Malevolus's forge, Malevolus distracts him with a legion of shiny Mk6 suits of Marine Power Armor long enough to drop the bomb to drop that they were for Horus. The latex-clad babe catches up to them both, and the techpriest flees again, only to be puzzled why Malevolus and the assassin are letting him run. As he gets out the door, he meets the Kaban machine, <s>and through the power of friendship, the Kaban decides to side with the good guys, and the day is saved.</s> Except this is the dark, gritty universe of 30K where brother turns against brother. Chrom told the Kaban Machine that it and Ravachol couldn't be friends for realsies, because rules and stuff, and taking up with Horus was a great idea. The Kaban Machine, not understanding how humans work nor '''The Power of Friendship''', didn't know any better than to agree and kills Ravachol right on the steps of Malevolus's forge. End story. An okay story, somewhat generic feeling prose. More of a who's who of the Dark Mechanicus during ''Mechanicum'' and telling where the hell that Kaban machine from the same book came from and how they seduced an AI into Chaos worship.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - A bridge between Istvaan V and ''Deliverance Lost'', also a companion story to the Raven's Flight audio drama. The story tells how Commander Marcus Valerius of the Imperial Army is stationed on Deliverance and keeps having recurring nightmares which is causing him worry about Corax. Commander Branne of the Raven Guard's garrison on Deliverance, is getting tired of how the Legion's pet human won't stop bitching about it, and decides to take Valerius out on a trip in the battle barge to Istvaan just to show him that everything is just fine. Meanwhile, Corax and a relative handful of surviving Raven Guard are fighting a guerilla war against the traitors, trying to stay one step ahead of the Iron Warriors and then the World Eaters, and in-between skirmishes, Corax spends a few thoughtful moments feeling bad about his Legion and the state of the Imperium now that things have gone to shit.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, after that he makes tokens (for the warrior-lodge, but he doesn't know that) and then he gets his windpipe crushed to make sure word doesn't get out about the tokens. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life up until the point where he's lying on his own floor, slowly suffocating to death. Ultimately it is kind of irrelevant, but the lore nerds or people who have been paying attention might find it interesting. It is however only barely 20 pages long, so you might as well read it anyway.
**'''''Prince of Crows''''' - A novella featuring the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain [[Sevatar]] of the Night Lords. With the Night Lords's forces all but shattered by the Dark Angels, Curze in a coma nearly dead, and the Dark Angels's fleet in pursuit, Sevatar has to knock some heads for the Night Lords to get their shit together and reorganize and rethink strategy. It's essentially about showing the fractures in the Night Lords Legion. As most stories written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]], it's pretty good.

*'''''Angel Exterminatus:''''' [[Perturabo]] just finished [[skub|fucking up (or being fucked by)]] some Fists, and [[Fulgrim]] finds him to polish off a plot hook from ''The Reflection Crack'd'' and recruit Pert for an expedition into the Eye of Terror because a renegade Eldar said he knows where to get ''the good shit'' (the eponymous Angel Exterminatus). Fulgrim wanted to make a show out of delivering exposition, and he had Pert use his skills to build a stadium and went storyteller mode; then the moment was killed when a Shattered Legion detachment composed of Iron Hands and a Raven Guard commando sniped Fulgrim (he got better). Of course, Pert took the moment to remind himself that this is why he can't have, [[Rage|won't ever have]], nice things. Thinking that Fulgrim had the scent of a powerful artifact or a superweapon, and seeing that Fulgrim was becoming the Primarch equivalent of a crack addict member of the Jersey Shore and his legion wasn't looking much better, Pert decided to play it safe by tagging along and making sure Fulgrim wouldn't break anything. On the way, a different Eldar scholar came to the Shattered Legion, telling them that Fulgrim and Pert can't be allowed to get to the Angel Exterminatus, or [[Daemon|Bad Things (Warp-registered trademark)]] will happen. Well into the journey into the Eye, the Iron Hands's resident mad scientist accidentally gave away their location, and the Emp's Children and Iron Warriors decide to throw a boarding party. After a few pages of pulse pounding action, Pert says "fuck this", and leaves as the Iron Hands's same mad scientist overloads the engines and does a [[Battlefleet Gothic|mother of a ramming maneuver]] which kills an Emp's Children ship. (Pert was getting sick of Fulgrim's shit at this point, so he decided not to let them know, leading to the loss of the ship and thousands of casualties for Fulgrim.) Then, they finally get there, they find a [[Crone World]] covered in ruins and occupied spirit stones being held in orbit around a black hole. Some wraithbone constructs pop up and Pert and Fulgrim have to fight to the heart of the planet to get at the Angel Exterminatus. On the way, Pert kills their renegade Eldar because he was a lyin' bitch. When they ''finally'' get there, Surprise! Daemon Primarch Fulgrim is supposed to be the Angel Exterminatus, and he betrays Pert (a bauble Fulgrim gave to Pert at the start of the book was a vitality-leeching thing), and they start the ritual which would sacrifice Pert to turn Fulgrim into a Daemon Prince. Then the Shattered Legion crashes the ceremony, and assists the Iron Warriors since it's clear they weren't working with the Emp's Children anymore. Pert kills Fulgrim, but it didn't count since Fulgrim's mortal essence works just as well as sacrifice. He goes full Daemon Prince despite a generous helping of Thunder Hammer to his [[gay|pretty face]], breaks every spirit stone on the planet, and disappears with every last one of his sick fucks. The Eldar scholar helping the Shattered Legion throws a bitch fit, revealing that both scholars were Dark Eldar who had cut a deal with Fulgrim (help him become a daemon and they get assloads of spirit stones to fuck with), and he had made sure that the Shattered Legions were there to put a wedge in that deal because...reasons. The Shattered Legion gets the hell out, and the Iron Warriors try to GTFO as the planet starts to fall into the black hole. The book ends, with Pert, being a wise man, orders them to reverse course and fly right into that fucker. Subplots include a lot of buildup for McNeil's Iron Warriors stories, the Shattered Legions' feelings on trying to unfuck an irreversibly fucked situation, some tense buildup of two Imperial Fists as they try to survive Fabius's turning them into mutants (which actually had a poor payoff). Despite being overall good, it's a bit of a skub novel because the depiction of Perturabo is so different from expected, rather than being the bitter [[RAGE|Rage]] machine from every other depiction, he's a quiet [[Neckbeard|nerd who plays with toys as a hobby]], but with muscles. And because the ghosts of eldar's Aspect Warriors and Wraith-Constructs inside a planet left inside the Eye of Terror is a canon-rape on par with C.S. Goto, the first death of Lucius at the hands of a Mary Sue despite previous claims that he was undefeated during the Heresy and his unexplained resurrection (<s>"How? Fucking Chaos, that's how."</s> Oh, sure, every CSM is immortal), and an Iron Hands legionnaire somehow being immune to sonic weapons by being deaf. And worst of all, a rotating Shadowsword turret.

*'''''Betrayer:''''' Lorgar and Angron rampage over the Ultramarines 500 worlds. Lots of references to Angron's past and his Butcher's Nails are killing him slowly. Turns out one of the Ultramarine worlds was his own Homeworld, so he destroys it and Lorgar makes him into a daemon-prince. Also remember the Furious Abyss? Lorgar has two more. Also focuses on Khârn and Argel Tal being bros, until Erebus decides to intervene and kill a bitch.

* '''''Angron:''''' An anthology about <s>Lorgar</s> <s>Horus</s> <s>Dorn</s> <s>Malcador</s> <s>the plumber for the Golden Throne</s> Fuck, we can't remember. It often gets passed over in the official lists, since it's actually a cheat since it's a republish of older short stories: '''After De'shea''', '''Butcher's Nails''' ''(print format)'', and '''Lord of the Red Sands''' ''(which was initially a standalone release,'' even later ''republished in'' The Imperial Truth'')''.

*'''''Mark of Calth:''''' Another set of short stories, though all focused on the [[Ultramarines]] or the [[Word Bearers]].
**'''''Shards of Erebus:''''' - We find that [[Erebus]] broke the '''MURDER SWORD''' into eight daggers/athames and shared them with his bros. Also shows how he returned to Davin to learn how to teleport with the '''MURDER SWORD''', then killing the priestess that helped him turn Horus. She somehow wins because she served Chaos before dying which pisses Erebus off.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Keeps bringing up what Calth used to be like. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to Nurgle everyone, and the Ultramarines save the day in the nick of time. After all, THE GREATEST OF THE-{{BLAM}}
**'''''Dark Heart''''' - A young Word Bearer is interrogated by Kor Phaeron after he ended up killing his mentor with dark powers (turned him insta inside out). A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degradation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A spacedock traffic controller survives the destruction of his star fort, and the fatal crash of his escape shuttle before ending up in a small underground arcology with other human survivors. Imperial cultists believe he is blessed, and when he starts hearing whispers and seeing unbelievers they start rounding everybody up for execution. Everybody gets slowly executed till he's the last one left. Learns he's been possessed and reveals to an Ultramarine that he was was infected by the vox from the ''Campanile''.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - An Ultramarine has a hard-on for a certain Word Bearer trolling him. Hunts down said Word Bearer into a cave system with a team of soldiers and Spess Merheens. Word Bearer trolls them by summoning a Gorgon. Ultramarine wins by tricking the Gorgon into looking at its reflection.
**'''''The Underworld War''''' - A story that has little to do with the actual Underworld War. It features a Gal Vorbak who sees the attack on Calth as a clusterfuck of fail. Has a plot-twist ending... turns out Daemons give visions of the future to potential Gal Vorbak, and said Gal Vorbak was given a vision of him not abandoning his fallen brothers on Calth. The Daemon doesn't have time for that shit so it lets him die during his transformation.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife, though not one from the '''MURDER SWORD'''. That's about it... totally... right. Wrong. The small sacrificial knife that Ollanius found was carved on Terra for a benign ritual, stolen by an evil Perpetual who was killed by ''the Emperor'' in medieval times, found in an archeological dig by Kasper Hawser, and went on other crazy murder-adventures, all while having rudimentary sentience.
**'''''Unmarked''''' - Ollanius Pius and friends is traveling through time and space using the athame from the previous story. We learn a lot more about Oll's past, going into detail about his offhand mentions that he was one of the Argonauts and that he served in the First World War and the First Gulf War.
*'''''Vulkan Lives:''''' What happened to Vulkan after the Dropsite Massacre? He got made Konrad Curze's torture bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer to the face. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc. Remember the Shattered Legions crew from ''Angel Exterminatus''? Now you get a new group that is far more bland and less distinct.
*'''''The Unremembered Empire:''''' [[Perpetual|Matt Damon]] killed Martin Luther King. This happens in the book. Also, unlike the cover and synopsis would imply, it's ''not'' about Sanguinius and Guilliman working together to build a back-up Imperium around Ultramar, which leads to the question of ''why that's on the cover?'' No one knows what it is really about, especially the book's description of itself (which describes its ''sequels''). Several things happen in the book as several unrelated subplots collide as several entities are drawn by the Pharos device to Macragge. There are implications that Guilliman's new backup Imperium is starving resources from Terra.
*'''''Scars:''''' Technically the third book of the Prospero arc. The Khan returns to the Imperium after killing Orks left over from Ullanor and can't decide what side to join. Turns his back on Leman Russ during a fight with the Alpha Legion and goes looking for his best friend Magnus, also gets into a fight with Mortarion on the way, also [[The Fallen|half his legion turns traitor]] but turns out it's no big deal.
** '''''Brotherhood of the Storm:''''' Prequel to Scars, shows the White Scars fighting Orks on Chondax.
*'''''Vengeful Spirit''''' Horus goes looking for power to make him equal to the Emperor and the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z (kinda). We learn that the Emperor gained his powers after making a pact with the Chaos Gods where they gave him a fraction of their power, then somehow managed to double-cross them in what is quite possibly the most retarded retcon ever introduced in the entire book series. (In all seriousness though, the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series. It could be the truth, or one of their beautifully crafted lies.) Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest. Also, if you have been ignoring the audio books, you will be a bit lost at the start of this one.
*'''''The Damnation of Pythos''''' A Lovecraftian Horror story disguised as a Horus Heresy story. Has the most grimdark ending of the series thus far, up there with Dead Men Walking. Adds just about as much to the overall series as ''Furious Abyss'' did, but is actually pretty well written, unlike "Furious Abyss". To cut a long story short, daemons take over a world in the Pandorax system, capture a starship and use it to start ferrying cultists from place to place. The book also has some crossover with 40k and the Pandorax Campaign.

=== Books XXXI to XL ===
*'''''Legacies of Betrayal''''' Another anthology, though this time it's a bit of cheat, and they just consolidated several pre-existing stories; some of the the novellas but also included print versions of audio books.
**'''Brotherhood of the Storm''' - see above
**'''Serpent''' - A really short and out-of-place story about a Davinite Priest.
**'''Hunters Moon''' - originally an audiobook involving peasant fishermen rescuing a crashed space wolf who is running from the Alpha Legion after killing Alpharius, it obviously doesn't end well.
**'''Veritas Ferrum''' - a prequel to Damnation of Pythos, about an Iron Hands starship escaping ''(against their better nature)'' from Isstvan with some survivors.
**'''Strike and Fade''' - More survivors of Isstvan, though this is about Salamanders just killing time (and Night Lords) whilst they wait to be rescued.
**'''Honour to the Dead''' - about Ultramarines and an innocent woman and child trying her hardest to follow them to safety.
**'''Butcher's Nails''' - A good one to read, Angron & Lorgar go on the Shadow-Crusade and come to an understanding whilst fighting Eldar.
**'''Warmaster''' - Horus considering how much of a badass he is while chatting with Ferrus Manus's skull.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go kidnap a warp code interpreter that will let them intercept garbled enemy communications.
**'''Wolfs Claw''' - Bjorn the Fell-Handed needs a replacement arm, but the Iron Priests are too busy, but he happens to find a nice fancy relic one just lying around.
**'''The Divine Word'''
**'''Thief of Revelations''' - After Prospero, the Thousand Sons need something to stop all their rampant mutation, so Ahriman goes to ask why Magnus has locked himself away. He's got bigger things to worry about and is looking across time and space for key events for future [[Just as Planned]] manipulations.
**'''Lucius the Eternal Warrior''' - After his first death ''(and unexplained resurrection)'' at the hands of Nykona Sharrowkyn, Lucius has somehow abandoned the Heresy and goes to the planet of Sorcerers to fight a duel with the bestest Thousand Son swordsman, ends up meeting Ahriman. [[wat|Uh-huh...]]
**'''The Eightfold Path''' - Kharn and the World Eaters realise that too much rip and tear is leading them [[Khorne|down a damning path]], but they're already too far gone.
**'''Guardian of Order''' - [[Cypher]] and [[Zahariel]] discover that the Ouroboros (banished in Fallen Angels) is coming back
**'''Heart of the Conqueror''' - Angron's Navigator gets a bit uppity about being made to turn traitor, despite having been picked for the job as the angry man's chauffeur by the Emperor himself. Blams herself during mid-warp transit with not-fun results for flagship.
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel is killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes about it on his armour. Said notes will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]] on the subject of killing Word Bearers (because it's that damn important to kill Word Bearers). Thiel eventually gets bored and goes back to Macragge in the end.
**'''Lone Wolf''' - Bjorn has lost all of his squad, but is now such an awesome badass that he can solo Bloodthirsters.
*'''''Death and Defiance''''' Yet another anthology
**'''Imperfect''' - Daemon-Fulgrim has been getting Fabius to clone Ferrus Manus, because the split personality thing makes him feel guilty about failing to turn his brother to Horus's side, but the clones are never quite right and go mental at each suggestion. Fabius also has his own stuff going on.
**'''Howl of the Heathworld''' - Space Wolves get sent to Terra to watch over Rogal Dorn so he doesn't start using psykers, its a pointless task and everyone know it. Also offers insight into the Wolves naming conventions.
**'''A Safe and Shadowed Place''' - [[Night Lords]] start stabbing each other in the back as soon as Curze goes missing while solo'ing Macragge. It's about a ship floating in the ruinstorm that has just discovered the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] and foreshadows problems for Ultramar.
**'''Virtues of the Sons''' - Sanguinius forsees that he will not always be in charge of the Blood Angels, but worries about the Red Thirst causing havoc with his sons futures. So gets Amit to duel Kharn and Azkaellon to duel Lucius in hopes they'll learn something. Azkaellon learns to let the rage out a bit and Amit learns a modicum of restraint.
**'''Gunsight''' - The Vindicare Assassin from Nemesis is still alive and on Horus' flagship, its about him spending years waiting for the opportune moment to get a shot, but he starts going mad while he waits. Gives ups when Horus plucks his killshot from the air and Horus gives him a chaos rifle for his change in loyalty.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anthology
**'''Daemonology''' - To and fro' story about [[Mortarion]]. On Terra he discovers the initial construction of the Golden Throne and gets told about Emp's plan for removing psykers. In the "present day" he captures a daemon and starts practising sorcery on it.
**'''Black Oculus''' - A short story about Navigators describing what it's like travelling in the warp.... basically it's [[Grimdark]].
**'''Chirurgeon''' - [[Fabius Bile]] narrating about his history, and what happened about the gene-flaw that almost wiped out the [[Emperor's Children]]. Totally has the gene-flaw and has been using his bestest bro turned servitor to keep it under wraps.
**'''Twisted''' - '''Maloghurst''' gets a story about him uncovering plots against Horus and gets wrapped up in intrigue. It actually shows him as a really clever bastard and a bit of a badass.
**'''Wolf Mother''' - [[Perpetual|Alivia Sureka]]'s kids get captured after their escape from Molech and she teams up with [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]] in order to get them back. Lots of coolness on Sevarian's part and we also get to see that Perpetuals can resist possession.
*'''''Tallarn: Executioner''''' - A novella about a vehicle squadron (Leman Russ Executioner, Vanquisher and a Salamander) having to deal with the toxic surface in the weeks after the surface bombardment and then come into contact with the Iron Warriors. Also the Alpha Legion have a hand in things, like they always do.
*'''''Tallarn: Ironclad''''' - Part two of the Tallarn story.
*'''''Deathfire''''' - What the Salamanders have been saying since Isstvan is true: Vulkan lives! Well now he does. Basically a bunch of Salamanders take his body from Macragge to Nocturne (with some side help from didn't ask for this Magnus) and throw him into Nocturne's largest volcano, and lo and behold he comes back to life, making that entire plotline pointless. Still has the fucking Fulgurite in his chest, though. TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nzml-zZ9M
*'''''The Wolf King ''''' - The Space Wolves find themselves set upon by the forces of the Alpha Legion before they can recover from the Razing of Prospero and are hounded to the edge of the Alaxxes Nebula (swiss cheese acid cloud). There the Alpha Legion beat the ever-living shi...stuffing out of the wolves whilst Russ locks himself in his room and sulks. Russ eventually summons his new favourite Bjorn to join him and they have bit of a heart to heart about what a bunch of morons they were in allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily by Horus. By the end Russ is back to his old self and celebrates by massacring every Alpha he can get his hands on even if it’s clear that his defeat is inevitable. Fortunately for the Wolves helps comes from a hidden armada of Dark Angels ostensibly "loyal" to [[Luther]], but unaware of the Horus Heresy or of the whereabouts or actions of the Lion. Russ borrows gear and manpower from them in exchange for info on current events which most likely finds its way back to Luther and sets the "Destiny of Caliban" in motion. Russ then heads for Terra.
*'''''War Without End''''': Anthologies Without End.
*'''''Pharos''''': Night Lords fucking up the Pharos Lighthouse on Sotha. Sanguinius eventually grows some balls and starts standing up to Guilliman instead of just being a pantomime Emperor, while the Lion is nowhere to be seen as usual. Warsmith Dantioch bites it while using the Pharos to burn the Night Lords out of his fortress, but inadvertently piques the interest of the [[Tyranids]], causing them to show up 10,000 years later. Skraivok become a prime example of DEMON SWORDS: NOT EVEN ONCE.
*'''''Eye of Terra''''': Another anthology.
*'''''Path Of Heaven''''': Sequel to Scars. The White Scars have been fighting traitor legions for a few years but are starting to show the strain. They finally make a shift back to Terra but things don't go as planned. Notable for digging into the Webway storyline and the Navis Nobilite as well as featuring a resurrected and suddenly competent Eidolon. Navigators weren't going to sit around while E-money built their replacement, White Scars use a prototype webway portal to escape their last stand, and Moratarion starts using sorcery to locate Typhon.
*'''The Seventh Serpent:''' a novella about the Shattered Legions going up against the Alpha Legion; a simple premise made awesome by sheer depth of Alpharian plot twists: They had been manipulated by Alpharius into fighting a battle against Loyalist Alpha Legionaires.
*'''The Silent War:''' Guess What?! It's ''another'' anthology of stories that GW have already sold individually as audio-books. So value might be had for those who hadn't listened to them.
*'''''Angels of Caliban:''''' two Dark Angels stories in one book again, though this one actually moves the plot forward. In Ultramar, the Lion captures Konrad Curze but only after discretely nuking a whole region despite a ban on orbital weapon use, which results in his disgrace and we find that it is Guilliman who breaks the Lion Sword. Curze reveals that there were chaos cults on Mcraggae too, and that Guilliman would be a traitor if he had landed a little to the left. On Caliban, the Fallen openly declare their rebellion from the Imperium and ironically steal some starships that were meant to collect them and actually bring them into the war again. [[Zahariel]] kills [[Cypher]] and takes his place.
*'''''Praetorian of Dorn''''' Alpharius tries to invade <s>Terra</s> Pluto. Dorn kills him. Yes, Alpharius is now dead. And not a fake either, but the real Alpharius. Omegon can confirm. Alpha Legions fags blew a gasket. Oh shit believe we did.
*'''''Corax''''' A compilation of all the Corax Stories, plus a new one, '''Weregeld''', which manages to undo all the hard work the previous stories have done and turn Corax into a douchebag. Kills all his mutated Raven Guard because he promised to kill warp stuff. Saves Russ and his arrogant ass though.

=== Books XLI onwards ===
*'''''The Master of Mankind''''': The Emperor is a dick: the book. We all knew this, but now it's set in stone. Highlights being: Emperor stating to Arkhan Land that the Primarchs are tools and he views them with a scientific but detached fascination. Referring to them as numbers but content to allow the fantasy of being their "father", an interpretation of the character that was fairly divisive to say the least. He actually seems to care more for his Custodians than he does any of his other creations, but they don't consider him to be a father and see him as just their warlord. Drach'nyen is also revealed to be the Daemon created when Caine killed Abel. In the end he closes the door on the webway and has to spend the rest of his time sitting in the chair keeping it shut. Despite this, it does show off why the Chaos Gods fear him, as he pretty much rapes an infinite army of Daemons; the Greater ones either flee or try and fail to fight him (being destroyed in a matter of moments) whilst the lesser ones die just by looking at him. Despite this, Drach'nyen nearly kills him, and <s>it is confirmed that fate has indeed decreed that Empy will die at the daemon's hand</s> claims that it will kill the Emperor (keep in mind that the future is malleable and Daemons lie). But how will it feast on the Emperor's tattered soul when Abaddon lacks arms to plunge it into his chest? (''But Abaddon never lost his arms due to the same retcon that let Eldrad live'') Also known as Master of skubkind. Reveals his grand plan of saving the human race from the Eldar fate by absolute control of every human to a custodian before shanking him with Drach'nyen and making him run into the webway. Also put all his chips into the ''Human Webway'' plan and screwed us all over without a backup. Can you tell that this is an ADB book?
*'''''Garro''''': Compilation of all the stories about Garro and his boy band, though they insist it isn't just an anthology since the audio book stories were expanded to be more written novel friendly.
*'''''Shattered Legions''''': It's an anthology containing an anthology. I shit thee not. It shoves together the limited edition anthology Meduson with a few other shorter stories, including some Alpha Legion stuff like the Seventh Serpent.
*'''''The Crimson King''''': Magnus was broken into shards when Russ felled him. Now the Thousand Sons with the help of Lucius the Eternal must put him back together.
*'''''Tallarn''''': Does it even need to be stated? It's another fucking anthology, this time putting all the tank porn of the Tallarn books into one binding.
*'''''Ruinstorm:''''' The conclusion to the Imperium Secundus plotline, as well as the follow on to Damnation of Pythos. Shows the Lion, Sanguinius and Guilliman trying to cross the Ruinstorm to reach Terra. Having a brief stopover at Pandorax, they decide to head out to Davin where the Heresy began and where destinies are re-made; they pass systems along the way that show what the Galaxy would look like if Chaos wins, such as a Forge World surrounded by an immense fortress wall in outer space 4000 miles thick, or a sector of space filled with solid ritualised geometric shapes that are perhaps light years across. Davin itself is surrounded by a cloud of bones and wreckage millions of kilometers thick, but the planet has long since been abandoned. There, Sanguinius finds out that in order to live through the Heresy he must become a monster even worse than Horus, but dying will curse his sons with the Black Rage; blood is on his hands either way. Instead, Sanguinius tries to sacrifice himself to save the day, but the [[Sanguinor]] steps in and takes his place while the fleets rain down a shitstorm and destroy the planet. In the aftermath, the Ruinstorm abates enough for them to reach Terra, but Horus has so much force that it is impossible for all three legions to reach, so Guilliman and the Lion agree to distract the Traitors long enough to give Sanguinius a window to get back and face his destiny, explaining why they never made it to the Siege since they were engaging Traitor fleets and burning their worlds.
*'''''Old Earth:''''' Set immediately after ''Vulkan Lives'', Vulkan and three Salamander legionaries ''(the rest of the Salamanders weren't informed of their Primarch's resurrection)'' travelled through the Webway by a gate hidden in a cave on Nocturne. On their path to Terra, they came across the Shattered Legions, who were preparing for their first major void engagement with the Sons of Horus. Just before the attack, some Medusan-born Iron Hands tried to stage a coup against Shadrak Meduson by revealing a hideous contraption of machines, and the last remnants of Ferrus Manus - his iron hand ''(They were under the illusion that they could resurrect their Primarch through cybernetics, it is hinted that the Mechanicum had some hand in this affair.)'' Thankfully, Vulkan shattered the hand, and Meduson assumed command again, though he was killed by '''Tybalt Marr''' in a boarding action after the Iron Hand refused to send reinforcements to him. In the end, it was revealed that the Emperor had Vulkan forged a weapon, that in the event Terra fell to Horus, would amplify the power of the Golden Throne to the point it coulf wipe out the entire Throneworld ''(this is probably one of Vulcan's nine relics)'' Oh, and Eldrad rescued [[Knights-Errant|Barthusa Narek]] from Nocturne and made him his assassin. They killed most of the Cabal, and finally rescued John Grammaticus, who had his memory wiped after his failure to assassinate Vulkan. With his memory restored, Grammaticus was ordered by Eldrad to find Ollanius Pius and go to Terra.
*'''''Wolfsbane:''''' No solid information yet, but it seems like Leman Russ leaves Terra to confront Horus himself. One can expect that it doesn't end well for him.

== The Primarchs Series ==

Because Black Library don't seem satisfied confusing us with all their anthologies, audio-books, and short stories, they have begun releasing a spin-off series of Horus Heresy novels centered on the Primarchs. The series don't really take place in a specific time, but generally focuses on expanding on the titular Primarch's backstory and motivations during events before the Horus Heresy (though some of them also have events occurring after it). Why Black Library lists it as part of the Horus Heresy series when that is the case is beyond our comprehension.

=== Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar ===
Centers on the papa smurf himself, and him trying to deal with how the Emperor used him like a rusty hammer to smack Lorgar in the head at Monarchia. Uses a conflict against Orks as a vehicle for him and the smurfs to express their angst over the event.

=== Leman Russ: The Great Wolf ===
Focuses on Leman Russ' notorious rivalry with the Lion, and explaining why to this day whenever the Chapters meet they throw the gauntlet down and beat the stuffing out of one another. Notably it reveals some interesting stuff like the Lion being aware of the Space Wolves' furry issue and keeping a lid on it.

=== Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero ===
Depicts the unlikely friendship between Magnus and old Pert with a joint venture between their legions. Things go wrong on the planet due to totally not Chaos cult nonsense, and it does a decent job of showing Magnus' flaws. Specifically on his inability to leave things that have "do not fuck with this" alone; something Pert tries and fails at making him understand.

=== Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia ===
Probably the book in the series that did the most character building of all of them. This book is a mix of showing off Perturabo's childhood on Olympia alongside a "current" day conflict against the Hrud. The former showing why Pert is the odd genius manchild guy he is, while the latter does a great job of showing why fucking with an alien species capable of controlling time is somewhat of a stupid idea. However, the real draw of the book is that it is mainly written as an attempt to merge together the seemingly contradictory depictions of Pert we've had over the years. Showing how the ruthless dick who decimates his legion for not being good enough in the Forgeworld books is the same guy who just wanted to be a builder in Angel Exterminatus. Yep. Definitely a sperg. Also he may or may not have wanted to bang his adopted sister.

=== Lorgar: Bearer of the Word ===
Yep, the first(ish?) heretic himself gets his own obligatory messed up childhood novel. Focusing slightly more on Kor Phaeron rather than Lorgar himself, showing him to be a manipulative dick who beat Lorgar as a child and never really bought into this whole "fatherhood" shtick, or this whole concept of [[Emperor|One True God]] but allowed Lorgar his fantasies and to take over Colchis ''(By "Word" or by "Mace")'' while Phaeron benefitted from increased position and secretly kept the faith of [[Chaos Gods]].

Though by the end Kor Phaeron wonders if Lorgar just let him think that he was manipulated and could have disposed of him at any time. The book does introduce a contrasting character to Kor Phaeron who actually shows Lorgar compassion growing up and was far more worthy of being named "father" but was far less useful to Lorgar's goals. The book shows that Lorgar isn't as stupid or naive as everyone thinks and does indeed realise that people have been using him for their own gains, but while he only really cares about doing the work of the gods, so long as they both align he doesn't seem to care.

=== Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix ===
Fulgrim tries to conquer the newly discovered planet Byzas with only 7 men. Along the way he encounters a brotherhood much like his own that wants to work with him that Fulgrim dismisses as a bunch of idealists. It's implied that he COULD have gotten the same results (Compliance) working with them but unfortunately that would have meant calling in backup and Fulgrim didn't want to do that so that was out of the question. In the end Fulgrim takes the world, but nearly dies. Several of the characters (Cyrius, Kasperos Telmar) later become prominent champions of chaos.

=== Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa ===

== The Tabletop Wargame ==
[[Forge World]] is producing a new line of books and models (''in addition to'' [[Imperial Armour]] and [[Warhammer Forge]]) to allow players to fight battles from the Horus Heresy in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. This includes rules and models for the [[Primarchs]] (both pre- and post-fall, for the Traitors) as well as ancient vehicles. No [[xenos]], unfortunately. Presumably this came about because GW felt that they just weren't making quite enough money from die-hard marine/chaos players and figured they could literally buy a dump-truck full of gold plated cocaine each if they made a version of the game that requires only Forge World minis AND thousands upon thousands of them. Still worth it, though.

=== Betrayal ===
Forge World starts big, as their first book covers the battles on Istvaan III, in which [[Horus]] sent the remaining loyalist elements of the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Emperor's Children]], [[Death Guard]], and [[World Eaters]] to the surface, ostensibly to rout the anti-Imperial resistance that had taken hold in the capital city, and then fired [[Exterminatus]] torpedoes (of the life-eater virus bomb variety) onto the city to wipe them out.

Unfortunately for Horus, not everything went as planned; not only did the loyalist Death Guard frigate ''Eisenstein'' escape to the [[Phalanx]] with word of Horus's betrayal, but loyalist elements on other ships were able to disrupt the bombardment and warn the loyalists on the ground that it was coming. Between the disruption, the warning, and good old-fashioned [[Space Marine]] toughness, only a third or so of the landed force had actually died. Horus would have fired another bombardment, but [[Angron]] and his traitor World Eaters jumped the gun and made planetfall; the other traitors were left with no choice but to deploy themselves and destroy the remaining loyalists personally.

''Betrayal'' contains a [[Great Crusade]] Legion army list (for which we have a [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines/Legion List‎|tactica]]), and rules for special characters and units from the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Death Guard]], [[Emperor's Children]], and [[World Eaters]] Legions, including their [[Primarch]]s (even [[Fulgrim]], who was not actually at the battle) and several major characters from the book series such as Garviel Loken.

===Massacre===
The infamous Drop Site Massacre is the focus of the next book, where seven Legions are sent to crush Horus’ rebellion, only for four of those to turn on the other three and crush them utterly. The books storyline is essentially just the ''first day'' of the battle, leading up to the death of [[Ferrus Manus]].

Massacre contains additional rules for special characters and units from the [[Iron Hands]], [[Night Lords]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Word Bearers]] Legions including their Primarchs and several more major characters from the book series make their debut such as Sevatar, Eidolon, Erebus and Kharn.

===Extermination===
Focusses on the second half of Istvaan V, as well as the Battle of Phall between the [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Imperial Fists]]; and on that note, it includes rules for those two Legions, as well as the [[Alpha Legion]] and the [[Raven Guard]].

It also gives us a complete Mechanicum Army List: the Taghmata.

====Condensed Lists====
The ICL and LACAL were initially released as part of the limited edition run of Extermination, but were then later released separately. They are fluff-lite, codex-equivalent books that also included all of the FAQs/Errata up to their release; which unfortunately was still the end of 6th edition so some rules haven't carried over well. ''(eg. [[Lorgar]]s psychic rules.)''

The Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List is basically the generic 30k Space Marine "codex", whilst the Isstvan Campaign Legions contains all of the collected rules for the legions from Books 1-3; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three books. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game. The ICL was continued in the Age of Darkness Legions, which collected everything to book 5, including the errata.

Later came the Mechanicum Taghamata Army List, which contained all the Mechanicum units and army lists mentioned and rearranged them to keep everything on the same page, but lacked the Questoris Knight Army. The Crusade Imperialis Army Lists contain the Solar Auxilia, Imperialis Militia/Warp Cults, and Questoris Knight Crusade army lists.

===Conquest===
Horus Heresy Volume Four is entitled 'Conquest', despite early hints from Forgeworld that it would be about the Battle of Prospero, it instead features Horus' conquest of the Imperium and the [[Skub|"Major"]] battles of this time, which is to say some battle-zones that Forgeworld made up to fill time whilst they worked on the more well known events from the in-universe history. ''(And to be fair, their response as to why Prospero was delayed was because it included four major factions, [[Adeptus Custodes|two of]] [[Sisters of Silence|which have]] NEVER been represented on the tabletop, so required more time to do them justice.)''

A large portion of the book is given over to running battles in the '''"Age of Darkness"''', which is a variant ruleset used as the default for Horus Heresy games ''(where only Troops usually score, amongst other things)'' and has rules and FOCs for Cityfight missions, rules for running ongoing campaigns, variant rules for mysterious terrain and objectives as well as including unique relics to be taken by the various army lists to add flavor to non-special characters.

It also introduces the [[Solar Auxilia]] and [[Imperial Knight|"Questoris" Knights]] (as an AdMech list) armies to play while the modellers take a break from building power armor 24/7.

===Tempest===
The fifth Horus Heresy book will cover the Battle of Calth. The rules for the [[Ultramarines]] (including [[Roboute Guilliman]] himself) as well as several warp-corrupted Word Bearer units are brought in alongside a few other new miscellaneous FW releases, including the Deredeo and the new Thanatars. There's also an Imperial Militia (Read: PDF) list that's super-customizable so you can make both loyalist and traitor lists. Also, the MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IS IN IT TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===Retribution===
Focused on 'Shadow Wars' far from the main fronts of the Heresy, in particular the Shattered Legions - that is, the [[Iron Hands]], [[Raven Guard]], and [[Salamanders]] in their weakened state following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre. But other Legions can also be included, with special rules for the Shattered Legions, Black Shields and a list for Armies of Dark Compliance - mixed traitor Legiones/Militia lists, as well as ten new special characters. It includes Legiones Astartes rules for the White Scars, Blood Angels and Dark Angels, so that players of those legions can start playing properly; however, it does not include special units, characters, or Primarchs for those legions. It also includes Garro and the Knights Errant and additional Mechanicum units and characters, including a new Dark Magos, [[Anacharis Scoria]]. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons will still need to wait for the Prospero book (Inferno, Book 7).

===Inferno===
In <s>Set to be book 3.</s> <s>late 2016.</s> <s>early 2017 (Because FW can't keep to schedule)</s> <s>December 2016</s> February 4, 2017, will come what many neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those [[Thousand Sons]] players, start saving up so you can play your space Egyptian sorcerers in all their 30k glory. Rules for the Sisters of Silence as an allied detachment and the Adeptus Custodes as a full army list will be present as well.

Well, it's come, and... it's uninspiring to say the least, with stuff like [[What|Magnus being straight up impossible to hit if he casts invisibility, not to mention pumping out 2d6 destroyer hits at every unit within 18" if he likes]], [[Derp|Custodes captains beating out every Primarch with a rollable 3+ invulnerable save]], some Custodes wargear being straight up [[Wat|left out of the book]] and to cap it all, [[Herp|pictures of tourists in the book ('''twice''') where you'd expect miniatures to be]]. You'd think with such a long development cycle the quality assurance would have been more thorough. Didn't help that [[Alan Bligh]] was likely fairly ill in late 2016, and his untimely death in May of 2017 means the Horus Heresy team now has a big hole in it.

===Malevolence===
It will feature White Scars, Blood Angels and Daemons. Also some new stuff for Space Wolves and Alpha Legion.

== See Also ==
*[[The War of The Beast]], for the next massive shit-show the Imperium was involved with.
* [[Alternate Heresy]], for a discussion of other possible outcomes of the (not necessarily Horus) Heresy.

== External Links ==
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/3170/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (1993)] at BoardGameGeek
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/63543/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (2010)] at BoardGameGeek

{{40k-Timeline}}

[[Category:Board Games]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Wargames]]

Horus Heresy

2018-02-18T09:59:09Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|500px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''this''.]]
:''[[Fulgrim|"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.]]'' 
:''[[Magnus the Red|Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.]]'' 
:''[[Angron|They will be of iron will and steely muscle.]]'' 
:''[[Perturabo|In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.]]'' 
:''[[Mortarion|They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.]]'' 
:''[[Alpharius|They will have tactics, strategies and machines]] [[Omegon|so that no foe can best them in battle.]]'' 
:''[[Konrad Curze|They are my bulwark against the Terror.]]'' 
:''[[Lorgar|They are the Defenders of Humanity.]]'' 
:''[[Horus|They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."]]'' 
:- The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], [[Not as planned|getting exactly what he wanted.]]
{{Topquote|The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.|Karl Popper}}

The '''Horus Heresy''' is one of the single biggest clusterfuck of events in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff, alongside the [[Eldar]]'s creation of a new [[Slaanesh|Chaos God]], and the [[War in Heaven|rampage and fall of the]] [[C'Tan|star gods]]. Needless to say, this heresy derailed the Emperor's plan and himself, and gave the Chaos Gods their most prominent armies to carry out their will in realspace.

In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor's favorite son, [[Horus| Horus Lupercal]], formerly Warmaster of the Imperium, was corrupted by Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor, taking nine [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] (Including [[Luna Wolves|his own]]), their respective Primarchs, and about half of the Imperial Army and Mechanicum with him. After waging war across the galaxy, Horus and his traitors eventually reached Holy Terra itself, hoping to murder the Emperor himself and cut the head off the proverbial snake and win the war.

Things went [[Not as Planned]] however, as he was eventually surrounded by loyalist forces at the height of the siege on Terra. As a final gambit, he dropped the shields of his flagship which allowed the Emperor to beam up and challenged him to a duel for the fate of humanity. Horus beat the Emperor within an inch of his life but was killed in turn after the Emperor put his foot down and obliterated Horus' soul from existence (as in it didn't go to the warp to be resurrected by daemons; it was literally erased from existence) when it finally became clear to him that Horus was beyond forgiveness. The Chaos gribbles he had been allied with disappeared and the now Chaos Marines that had followed him sulked back to the [[Eye of Terror]], starting the [[Long War]].

Because the Emperor was fucked up to the point where he had to be permanently attached to a life-support machine known as the "Golden Throne" just to survive, logic within the Imperium gradually decreased, eventually turning into the [[Grimdark]] empire it is today. And it was already pretty damn grimdark.

[[File:President.png|600px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''him''.]]
[[File:GodsOfWarhammer.jpg|500px|thumb|left|It was pretty much ''them''.]]

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course) and changed the flavour of the Imperium's Grimdark from Stalinist Soviet "if you breathe a word about religion, we rape you with knives" to Catholic [[Inquisition]] "if you breathe a word about the ''wrong'' religion, we rape you [[Exterminatus|or your whole planet]] with knives" unless you can find an Ecclesiarch to come and say: "nope, that's just another aspect of the Emperor". Don't count on this happening without hefty "donations".

The heresy lasted for several years (somewhere between seven and ten) and was fought all over the galaxy. The following are the most important battles and campaigns during the Heresy:
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Prospero|Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Betrayal at Calth|Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Battle of Tallarn]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

Following the Siege of Terra, Horus was permakilled, Big E was interred onto the Golden Throne, the surviving primarchs freaked out trying to figure out what do now that daddy was in a coma, the traitors fucked off into the Eye of Terror, and overall the galaxy slowly and collectively lost their minds now that their wise and all-powerful ruler was no longer around to tell them what to do.

== The Board Game ==
First published in 1993 by [[Game Designer's Workshop]], it was the Emprah versus his [[Horus|evil bastard of a son]] in the scorched earth of Terra. Units include [[Titan#Warhammer_40k|titans]] and [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spaw-]] oh shiARHGRBLLYRBGRDEWUODHGRYEB.

Ahem, as he was saying, The more recent edition (2010) is published by [[Fantasy Flight Games]]. Also a two-player [[wargame|war]] [[board game|game]], it includes over 100 sculpted minifigs, sculpted buildings, and even Horus and the Emprah themselves are units on the board. It also adds more territory, as the fight can be pushed back onto the [[heresy|traitor's]] flagship ''Vengeful Spirit''. Combat is less [[dice|dice-y]] and more card-y.

(Not to be confused with the lame Horus Heresy card game, whose only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway.)

== The Book Series ==
For the last decade, [[Black Library]] has been publishing novels that explore the events of the Horus Heresy, looking at the rivalries among the [[Primarchs]] and exploring just why everything went down the tubes. The novels are by a selection of different authors, which is a total pain if you like to organise your books alphabetically by author. The reception to the series has been somewhat... mixed; books generally considered to be good include [[Dan Abnett|the first trilogy]], [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Betrayer]], [[White Scars|Scars]], and the short story [[Alpha Legion|The Serpent Beneath]].

Of course, like we mentioned, there's some that are... um... Well, let's just say that the worst are a [[skub|matter of much debate]].

{{Template:Spoilers}}

=== Books I - X ===
*'''''Horus Rising:''''' A prologue story, introducing us to the series and Garviel Loken who will grow into a very significant character. An Emperor (not [[Emperor|Him]]) is killed at the beginning and some bugs are killed on a planet called Murder for no reason other than they were there. The Interex show up and ask "whadya do that for?". [[Erebus]] steals the '''MURDER SWORD''' from them.
*'''''False Gods:''''' Horus falls at Davin when wounded by the '''MURDER SWORD''' and gets a crash course in the chaos gods from [[Erebus]] & [[Magnus]]. After getting shown a few "truths" that WILL HAPPEN in the future (like the Emperor being worshipped as a god, Horus being reviled and forgotten) he decides to make war on the Imperium to [[FAIL|prevent]] all this from happening.
*'''''Galaxy in Flames:''''' Isstvan III happens and the traitors send the loyalists down to the planet without reinforcements and proceed to bomb them to fuck. Things don't go to plan when [[Angron]] decides to invade turning it into a [[Not as Planned]] drawn out conflict that the Warmaster can't really afford - Loken "dies"
*'''''Flight of the Eisenstein:''''' the other side of ''Galaxy in Flames'', Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved (and mega-bitchslapped) by [[Rogal Dorn]], who does not take the news from Isstvan [[Rage|very well]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'. There is also the very first canonical appearance of Plague Marines, Euphrati Keeler being all mystical and shit, and Malcador recruiting Garro as the first Knight-Errant.
*'''''Fulgrim:''''' one of the more forgettable stories in the series. Attempts to tell the story from Great Crusade all the way up to the [[Drop Site Massacre]] in one book. In short Fulgrim finds a sword, gets possessed, kills Ferrus Manus - the end. It is written by Graham McNiel though, and it has an awesome quote from Fulgrim "My Emperor's Children. What beautiful music they make." .
*'''''Descent of Angels:''''' This is the Heresy book that isn't about the Heresy, instead focusing on [[Zahariel]]'s time on [[Caliban]]. It portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness (he can not read people at all, so he comes off as 'do what I say or die!') and having Luther to handle the small talk. Hints that the Great Crusade <s>does more harm than good</s> {{BLAM}} is uniting the lost colonies of mankind into a united future! Luther gets sent home with Zahariel to hustle up more Dark Angels.
*'''''Legion''''' introduces [[the Cabal]], the [[Perpetual]]s and [[Omegon]]. READ THIS BOOK. Or don't, as this is where those things that would eventually take over the Heresy series and according to many completely ruin it (Cabal, Perpetuals) are introduced. I still would recommend reading it since when the novel introduces these ideas they are very fresh and interesting. Don't blame Legion when the rest of the novels were who ruined it. Alpha legion is trying to bring some chaos cultist into compliance. Chaos cultists activate planetary self destruct blood sacrifice. Alpha legion meets with the Cabal, agrees to work with them, then kills off all non-legion bystanders & ships with "FOR E-MONEY"!
*'''''Battle for the Abyss:''''' The book is so bad that other authors tried to retcon it out of existence. This book is so bad that you would have it was cobbled together from [[Matt Ward|Wardian fluff]] stitched together by [[C. S. Goto]]. Reading this book may, in fact, cause brain cancer so you should avoid it if at all possible. Everyone dies, so it does not affect much (as in anything). The only thing you need to remember is [[Lorgar]] built a fuckhueg space ship and filled it with Dreadnoughts, and it failed miserably.
*'''''Mechanicum:''''' Tech Priests turn renegade after Horus tells them they can do whatever they like with technology, so they release forbidden viral scrapcodes and screw everything up. Also turns out that [[Emperor|Big E]] invented the Machine-God by sealing a C'Tan on Mars back during the Saint George era, giving everyone visions of technology. Also more subtle hints that the Emperor is a god himself by using divine golden light to heal machines and instant access super wikipedia. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery. And for extra Grimdark, a tech priestess discovers that the Dark Age era humans stored a backup copy of wikipedia in the warp and <s>with a giant psyker powered terminal accesses said wikipedia and restores all the knowledge of mankind</s> floods her forge with lava to deny the traitors access. A psyker tech savant meets up with the goaler of the Void Dragon and takes over his fuck long shift.
*'''''Tales of Heresy:''''' short story collection, including [[The Last Church]]. Has a lot of twist endings.
** '''''Blood Games:''''' An assassin tries to kill the emperor. The Adeptus Custodes go to kill a traitor on Terra. The assassin was a Custodes probing the palace defences. The traitor was a triple agent working for Dorn.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor. When the liberated planet chooses freedom over Emperor, the wolves invade again.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. They worshiped the Emperor, but Lorgar no longer does. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The squad of Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp. Turns out the youngest of the squad in the future used sorcery to beam back her consciousness through time onto some psykers on the Black Ship. She <s>successfully warns the squad about Horus's Rebellion </s> is executed by a hard-core Sister for breaking her vow of [[Psyker|no funny stuff]].
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.
** '''''[[The Last Church]]:''''' A story about the Emperor destroying one of the churches on Terra during the reunification era in his effort to wipe out religion. The Emperor and the priest of the church have an enlightening conversation about the Emprah's trying to accomplish. The conversation ends up with the priest accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite, with him decrying that he's no more different than the old warlords who waged crusades and holy wars in the past to push their own agendas on other people. Emperor reveals himself as the very god the priest was worshiping, and nearly convinces him to stand by his side while his soldiers destroy the church. Priest gets cold feet and walks back into the church while it collapses. An end-times alarm clock starts ringing in the ruins.
** '''''After Desh'ea:''''' The War Hounds meet their primarch. Angron demeats the War Hounds. More specifically, the Emperor just beamed up Angron away from his last stand (rather than, you know, intervening with his Custodes or his fleet), leaving Angron pretty pissed. [[Kharn]] is a pretty great guy to be around, and pulls his femurs out of his lungs quickly enough to establish himself as Angron's best buddy ''after the War Hounds chain of command calmed Angron down as fleshy squeeze balls''.

=== Books XI - XX ===
*'''''Fallen Angels:''''' the sequel to Descent of Angels, is actually two stories rolled into one book that never converge. 1. The Lion fights a war to reclaim some Ordinatus devices and then hands them to Perturabo to gain his trust, not realising that his brother has already turned. 2. [[Zahariel]] and Luther clean out a daemon cult on Caliban... but not really.
*'''''Thousand Sons:''''' Part 1 of the Battle for Prospero. Runs through the Great Crusade where Magnus discovers the webway, but his Father already knew about it. Then the Edict of Nikaea where Magnus gets all passionate about not restricting psychic powers, then to Horus's vision quest where Magnus fails to keep his brother on the right path, then does the WORST thing possible by forcing himself through the palace psychic spam filter, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues and the thousand sons become a thousand sons all over again. Ahriman starts writing hit Rubric.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail because Horus sent a look-a-like, but in the process slay a shapeshifting daemonic counter-assassin sent by Erebus. While it is a decent book and we learn a lot, it didn't contribute much to the overall plot. On the more [[rage|vitriolic side]], the writing is a bit underwhelming in places; highlights include calling a pariah a psyker, another pariah with a contrived possession, and Horus uttering one of the most cliche one liners out there.
*'''''The First Heretic:''''' [[Lorgar]]'s turn to get a back story and generally considered one of the better books in the series. While you make never sympathize with them, this book really lets you understand why The Word Bearers fell to chaos, rather then being the "CHAOTIC EVIL MONSTERS" they are portrayed in the rest of the series.. Feels less rushed than "[[Fulgrim]]". Goes from Monarchia to a bit of soul searching in the Eye of Terror and discovers Cadia. Leads up to Istvaan V and the immediate aftermath. Signifcant subplots revolve around the inception of Possessed Marines, and what happens to the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] babysitters watching over the Word Bearers, and how the protagonist [[Argel Tal]] gets into a tragic bromance with the Custodes leader.
** '''''Aurelian:''''' A limited release short story until an ebook was published. The plot bounces around in-between a number of moments in Lorgar's history up to the prelude of the Shadow Crusade. One narrative involves how Lorgar's brothers still treat him like shit, especially when he's the only one who sees through Fulgrim's possession, and ends with Horus sending him to fuck up Ultima Segmentum and handing him Angron's (figurative, [[/d/|not literal]]) leash. The other narrative takes place in the 40 year gap in ''The First Heretic'', where Lorgar makes a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror with a Daemon Princess as his guide. They come to a dead Crone World where he puts a dying [[Avatar of Khaine|Avatar]] out of its misery and he's told that the Eldar panicked rather than embrace Chaos during the birth of Slaanesh, which is what caused them to nearly die out; the daemon prince(ss) tells Lorgar the same thing is happening with humanity during the Heresy, how Chaos really wants a [[A Game of Pretend|symbiotic relationship with humanity rather than to conquer it]]. In the middle of this, Khorne decides he's had enough of this talky wordy shit and sends [[An'ggrath]] to make things more exciting, and Lorgar narrowly beats him. Then Kairos Fateweaver comes and "tells" him about Calth and his relationship with Guilliman and his upcoming war with him in the most confusing as fuck discussion ever. The truth of most of the things told to Lorgar are left ambiguous, because, well, Fateweaver; but also Chaos has a lot riding on the Heresy coming to fruition for reasons left not entirely explored.
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. A civilian archeologist named Kasper Hawser hangs out with a company of the Space Wolves, where we learn a lot about their culture and attitudes. Turns out that Chaos infiltrated everything, so the outcome of Nikaea was practically rigged. The civilian himself even turns out to have been an unwitting spy for Chaos, but the Wolves knew anyway and didn't give a shit (they thought he worked for Magnus).
* '''''Age of Darkness:''''' A short story anthology.
** '''''Rules of Engagement:''''' Roboute lets one of his commanders lead in a series of wars that didn't really occur, and we get the best line ever said in regards to the [[Codex Astartes]]: despite the fact it does cover a lot, it's not meant to be followed biblically <s>which is a load of bull given that the Codex lets said commander win all the wars in the most efficient way possible while blindly following it and only failed in the last battle because he was in a war game against Girlyman</s>. (See the quote on the page on the Big Book of Astartes). The Imperium Secundus shows up, making for another bizarre plot element that ruins the series without adding anything.
** '''''Liar's Due:''''' You know those memes on how the [[Alpha Legion]] causes mass paranoia without actually involving any Astartes? Those aren't just memes. Alpha Legion serf arrives on a agri-world and turns it's allegiance to Horus by only hacking all their inter-planetary communications.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[Salamanders|Salamander]] and a grumpy ol' [[Ultramarine]] are sent in opposition to one of Horus' iterators to convince an industrial-militant world which side to side with. They almost side with Horus before the Warmaster's agents [[Exterminatus|wreck shit]] for the lulz. Oh, and to send the message that neutrality will be punished. The [[Iron Warriors]] were doing weird shit on that world for years beforehand, and was probably the more deciding factor than the lulz.
** '''''The Last Remembrancer:''''' Horus sent the one last remembrancer he had stored up as a gift to Dorn. Instead of in a box (or eight or some shit like that), it was the [[Dan Abnett]] of his day telling Dorn that the grimdark galaxy was grimdark. Also that the Emperor's vision of a galaxy of peace, unity, prosperity, and fluffy bunnies built up without any more grimdark attached than was strictly needed, probably wasn't very likely before any shit hit any fan either way. Also, Iacton Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iacton Qruze. Dorn says it's all lies and enemy propaganda before executing said remembrancer and torching all his ramblings.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Magnus's absent fleet from the Burning of Prospero comes home and shits a brick. The last known surviving squad of Thousand Sons outside of the Planet of the Sorcerers gets beaten up and they slowly figure out it was the Space Wolves who shit on Magnus's <s>parade</s> world and is stalking them. One plot twist later, most of them are dead, the last one decides he's gonna rebuild everything, with a few scant hints that his flesh-change genetic flaw will [[Blood Ravens|shift into kleptomania]].
** '''''The Face of Treachery:''''' The tie-in and conclusion of the audiodrama featuring the Raven Guard after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax [[troll]]ing Perturabo for a bit too long, Horus sends Angron in to finish the job, but Corax's cavalry arrives to troll Angron by getting the loyalists the fuck out of there. We also learn that Corax has a supersekrit psyker ability which lets him roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can out-troll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters (they let the World Eater commander think he was in command then blew his brains out when he tried to actually command). Ends with an transitory bit into ''Deliverance Lost''.
** '''''Little Horus:''''' Little Horus Aximand is struggling with the PTSD he got when he killed Loken and Torgaddon with [[Abaddon|Abby]]. Abby and Little Horus have a discussion (we mean Horus Aximand, not when Primarch Horus was sodomizing Abaddon again) about restoring the Mournival. A couple war scenes later, Little Horus learns the hard way that the White Scars are pretty badass, but his PTSD starts acting up again and he gets his face shaved off before the White Scars are driven off. Little Horus realizes his PTSD he had since killing Loken and Torgaddon ultimately stems from that time he helped kill Loken and Torgaddon, and gives a diatribe about how things like "change", "mood swings", and "hallucinations" are suited to his melancholic nature, saying things like "it's perfectly natural", "I'm fine, everything's fine. Everything is perfectly, absolutely fine", and "Therapy is for the weak. I'm fine". After the Mongolian shave, he gets his face reattached and ends up looking even more like Big Horus in the deal.
** '''''The Iron Within:''''' Some pretty bro-tier loyalist Iron Warriors build a fortress hanging from a cave over an ocean of prometheum in a hellhole of a world (giant cavern system & acidic atmosphere), and one of Perturabo's traitor Grand Companies come knocking to demand that they hand over the house keys. The loyalists give them a fuck-you in the form of a Dreadnought. A few melodramatic and horrific but generic war scenes later, and they get overrun (after a full year of siege thanks to the genius of a certain [[Barabas Dantioch]]), drop the fortress from the ceiling onto a titan, and get the hell out of there by hijacking one of the Iron Warriors warships via teleportation. An Ultramarine big wig was there to bring the loyalists home, informing them that [[Skub|Guilliman was fortifying Terra]] and he needed good siege workers to stall the traitors then to fortify Terra. While loyalist Iron Warriors were pretty cool, the story itself was pretty forgettable; and it left some open questions like whether the continuity errors were the result of "faulty astropathic communications" (see Outcast Dead) or if the Ultramarines were trolling the Iron Warriors to join in with the Imperium Secundus. And also why the Iron Warriors were determined to take a hellhole at an immense expense of people and materiel, including Titans, while they could have just said "fuck yo shit!" and left a fortress with no space or warp conveyance and arguably little strategic value in itself in the middle of nowhere alone. It mentions a few times that it looks really bad for a rebellion trying to gain initiative when a mere captain of their Legions tells their Primarch "fuck off, imma keeping this fortress & resources for the Emperor!" The message behind it being if you can't even control your own men, maybe this rebellion thing needs a rethinking, because hearing Horus can't even take this shitty outpost middle of nowhere and he's going to Terra might be bad press.
** '''''Savage Weapons:''''' A good story written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|ADB]]. Dark Angels are hunting down the Night Lords who are fucking with Forge Worlds, but the Night Lords are staying a step ahead of them, much to [[Rage|the Lion's frustration]]. After being advised by Horus to pass along a message, Kurze asks the Lion to meet up face-to-face on Tsagualsa. When they talk, while what they say to each other is offscreen, it's implied Kurze told Lion about the Fallen Angels and that Horus knew about their impending betrayal. Lion decides nobody is going to give him shit about being a rumored closet traitor, and the ensuing fight proves that Jonson is a badass among primarchs, until Kurze goes to his old fallback of strangling a fucker, and things get more even. Their respective honor guards go at it in the meantime, and showing [[Sevatar]] is a badass among Space Marines. Things end up in a draw, leaving things open for a new plotline within the Heresy, the ''Prince of Crows'' novella being the next.
*'''''The Outcast Dead:''''' A mess of continuity errors, at least when compared with the rest of the series, the other authors later claimed all the errors were absolutely intentional and a result of the messed-up nature of Warp-based communication. [[derp|''Riggggghhhhtttt!'']] More importantly: shortly after the start of the Heresy an astropath has routine nervous breakdown and is returned to Terra to get [[Witch Hunters|some R&R]]. What really ends up happening is that he gets there in time for [[Magnus]]'s astral body to reach Big E to warn him of Horus' betrayal, and the fuckhueg psychic shock of course dicks with the Astropath HQ compound something mighty. In the confusion and assloads of psychic phenomena that followed, the astropath gets implanted with a message for somebody regarding the war, but his PTSD keeps him from knowing what the hell it is or who it's for. The Custodes come in and tell him ''"[[Anal Circumference|Ve haff vays of making you talk.]]"'' and hand him over to a pair of [[Inquisition|kind counselors]] who torture the poor man half to death. After a time, he gets busted out in the nick of time by some convict Space Marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." to the others. They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra (amusingly, none of the escapees is very happy at the prospect of the Heresy but they are all [[rage|slightly miffed]] at being treated like shit by the Custodes just because of the Legion they belong to.) Other subplots revolve around: a psyker congregant at a slum church near the Imperial palace; a samurai witch hunter (no, really); '''''fucking [[Thunder Warriors]]'''''. Best bits are <s>[[Rip and tear|an unarmed, unarmored World Eater ripping a Custodes' spine out through his chest]]</s> the portrayal of the Emperor playing chess in dreams, revealing that the message is about his upcoming bitchslap from Horus.
*'''''Deliverance Lost:''''' [[Corvus Corax]], having just escaped from Istvaan V, decides to go ask daddy for a handout to get his Legion back on his feet, and gets the mother of all genetech to do it, though he has to do a bit of legwork to get it. Meanwhile, a bunch of faceless Alpha Legionnaires (okay, they do have faces, they just originally belonged to some Raven Guard) had infiltrated Corax's Legion at Istvaan, and are doing recon and intelligence gathering waiting for [[Omegon]] to give the go-ahead to fuck shit up. Corax, meanwhile sets up new geneseed methods that bring up new recruits to battle-ready marines ''in fucking hours'', with the potential to conscript literally anybody willing to become a Space Marine. The Alphas decide this probably isn't in their interest, and sabotage the new geneseed by tainting it with ''daemon blood'', turning second- and third-batch new Raven Guard into the twisted monsters we know that Corax ended up with. In one of the instances of retcon that was actually flavored with [[awesome]] and win, the mutant marines [[Grimdark|were still sapient]], but were left to fight on in the Emperor's name. After staging a mass insurrection on Deliverance's parent world with the help of some old guilders Corax ousted and the Dark Mechanicum, Omegon gets ''more'' Alphas infiltrated into the Raven for the endgame: steal the genetech, kill some Ravenguard, get the fuck out before anybody knows what the fuck just happened in here. A couple cockups along the way leads to the Raven Guard getting wise and isolating out the Alphas. The end of the novel was like a swingers party at the retirement home, everybody got screwed (even ''Horus''), nobody got what they hoped for (except for [[Omegon|the really deviant bastard]]), and all-around the reproductive material was a waste. Corax shut down his hothousing method, and starts fucking with the Traitors, even at reduced numbers. The book ends on a note with Alpharius-Omegon deciding that while their plan for saving the galaxy was still good, they decide working with Xenos isn't for them.
*'''''Know No Fear:''''' The Ultras are still ignorant about Istvaan and the civil war erupting around the galaxy, and are on muster at Calth with the Word Bearers [[troll|on orders from Horus]] to go kill some Orks together as a conciliatory gesture. They were in for a surprise. The Word Bearers, while happy as hell to get revenge, are really trying to [[Eldrad|dick over]] the Ultramarines to keep them out of the Heresy, if not destroy them outright. What happens next is the Word Bearers arrange some "accidents" using sorcery and good ol' fashioned treachery to fake a monumental fuck up in the ship yards that leave the Ultramarine forces blind, deaf, and crippled. They use the confusion to say that the Ultras ''still'' fucking them over, and take the chance to open not only a can, but entire cases of whoop-ass on the Ultras. Erebus turns Calth's pole into a screaming hellscape to start up a warp storm, while Kor Phaeron oversees the systematic extermination of the Ultramarines and also successfully poisons Calth's sun. Guilliman gets jettisoned into space, but survives because [[Spiritual Liege]]. He then leads a counterattack on Kor Phaeron, and while Kor comes ''this close'' to getting a Primarch kill with [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|Chaos mindbullets]], but in a moment of self-aggrandizement, he holds back tries to corrupt Guilliman with his own dagger-sized '''MURDER SWORD'''. Guilliman calmly tells him "The Codex Astartes <s>does</s> will not support this action" (it was really "You made an error" followed by an explanation of that error, and "but while I'm alive, I can do this") and [[Rip and Tear|rips out Kor Phaeron's main heart with an unpowered Lightning Claw]]. Kor Phaeron's minions run away with his carcass, allowing the Ultras to retake their space station, which in turn allows Mechanicus plot power, aided by a planet's worth of orbital defense batteries, to bring the ground war back into the Ultramarines' favor. The novel ends with Word Bearers getting the hell out of there, and the Ultramarines evacuating everyone they can off of Calth and telling everybody they can't to get underground, transitioning into underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pius]] being the special guest star with his very own subplot, and the Word Bearers having athame blades as special issue, one of which will [[Uriel Ventris|come back later]]. You might notice this summary is pretty spoilerific, but if you didn't know the broad strokes already, you're in the wrong place.
*'''''The Primarchs:''''' A novella anthology. As the name suggests, it contains stories featuring Primarchs.
**'''''The Reflection Crack'd:''''' - <s>[[Lucius]] and friends anally rape [[Fulgrim]]. Yeah.</s> While questionable use of a ''pear of anguish'' is featured during a game of "Stab the Fulgrim," the real story is this: Lucius and his buddies are deep into the [[/d/|sickfuckery]] which will come to characterize their Legion, but begin to suspect that Fulgrim might have a daemon in him when he begins acting like not-Fulgrim and uses sorcery. They ambush him and try to exorcise it with pain, because torturing a Slaaneshi daemon will totally work (though they find out that a Primarch can grow back a foot, and just about any other wound). Among everything else: [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bill]] is still an arrogant dick; Lucius is still a maniacal and colossally narcissistic sick fuck; Julius Kaesoron is still an angry badass; Marius Vairosean is still a sycophantic cunt; and Eidolon was still a self-important, whiny douche, but Fulgrim throws a tantrum and cuts his head off, and there was much cheering from the readers, and that ''plus'' almost certain off-screen fapping among the Legionaries leads into ''Angel Exterminatus''.
**'''''Feat of Iron''''' - [[Ferrus Manus]]'s Legion is trying to off some Eldar on a desert world, but can't find the major Eldar strategic asset because of Spess Elf warp bullshit. A Farseer thinks he can warn Ferrus about the Heresy, and traps him in the webway or some psychic realm for a spirit quest long enough to fight a [[Fulgrim|giant purple snake]] (which is [[/d/|disturbingly appropriate imagery]] when you think about it); and Ferrus thinks it was the wyrm that he killed and gave him his metal hands, but the snake tells him that he must be mistaking it for somebody else. Ferrus kills it, and meets the Farseer who tries to tell Ferrus that he wasn't just being a dick. Ferrus, having too many experiences with Eldar being dicks, knocks some sense into the Farseer, who manages to run just fast enough to avoid getting killed. Ferrus comes back and helps his Legion fight off the Eldar kill the Webway beacon, or whatever the hell it was. In the background of all of this, the Iron Hands, having lost Ferrus, decide to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bitch about potentially dead father, and work to complete the mission despite being weighed down by Imperial Army who are dying of dehydration and heat stroke. The Eldar figure out a way to use storm clouds that make Iron Hands bionics kill their users, and Ferrus has a bitch of an itch around his neck that he can't get rid of. [[Drop Site Massacre|I wonder if that's important]].
**'''''The Lion:''''' - Dark Angels fight daemons and reinstitute Librarians. The Lion teamkills Nemiel for reminding him about Nikaea, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books because [[Gav Thorpe]] wanted to prove he's a big boy author who can kill his characters. Then they steal an intelligent super warp engine (insta shifts the Dark Angel fleet into the warp without need for a jump point while teleporting itself and the Lion onto his flagship; Lion is capable of talking politely infront of so much power) from [[Typhus]] then set course for Macragge to sort out Guilliman.
**'''''Serpent Beneath:''''' - Alpharius Omegon plots against himself and destroys a facility built around what looks suspiciously like a Cadian Pylon (and said facility keeping the White Scars out of the war), due to [[Cake|an information leak]], and they can't have that. Except than none of the main players are Alpharius or Omegon. And Alpharius and Omegon can't decide if they're secretly working against each other or not. Also: considered to be one of the better works of the series, not only due to quality, but because of the sheer mindfuckery of the plot, keeping entirely within the rationale of the Alpha Legion without any jumps in logic or canon.

=== Books XXI - XXX ===
*'''''Fear to Tread:''''' Despite being Black Library's most financially successful book ''ever'' and hitting thirteen (!) on the New York Times bestseller list (without Oprah's recommendation, even), many [[/tg/|fa/tg/uy]]s find it a bit ridiculous. Why? Well, there's planets with giant frowny faces inhabited by garbage monsters, ships getting blown up by city-sized rocks launched from the aforementioned planets, a nearly-stereotypically-gay [[Slaanesh]]i daemon that doesn't actually serve much of a purpose in the story, and a villain named the Red Angel, despite the fact [[Angron]] already claimed that as a nickname (although he was first introduced in ''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'', so it's not [[James Swallow]]'s fault). Oh, and Sanguinius acts like an idiot about [[Chaos]] the whole time, which fits the [[fluff]], but come on, how many freaky supernatural signs do you need to see before you decide it's not just foul xenos? In all fairness, of course, ''Fear to Tread'' does have quite a few good moments, especially when it comes to [[Warp]]-related terror. It also has a priceless bromance between [[Horus]] and [[Sanguinius]], not to mention Sanguinius and his Legion get characterized very well. Sanguiniuns and Co end up reaching Imperium Secundus.

*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - A story about two parallel story lines. The first is set during the [[Battle of Phall]], a space battle between the Iron Warriors whole fleet and what was left over from a third of the Imperial Fists's fleet after a warpstorm were ran them" ashore" and left them drifting and isolated in the backwater Phall system. Despite having the superior numbers, more and bigger guns, suicidal expenditure cohorts, and the power of a raging hatred boner, the Iron Warriors were losing to the Imperial Fists's maneuverability and [[Alexis Polux|Captain Polux's]] protagonist power. Eventually, the Fists get the order and window to withdraw to Terra, though turning tail would put their fleet at a huge disadvantage. Given the choice between blind obedience to his father or carrying on the battle they were winning, Polux chooses the former and takes his Fists back to Terra, but ends up in the Imperium Secundus instead. This was also the first of the two depictions of Perturabo, and clearly the worst of the two as he's shown as a cold-hearted Saturday morning cartoon villain with rage control issues. The second story line follows [[Sigismund]] as he follows Rogal around the Imperial Palace, while he was ordered to command the fleet on its way to Istvaan and got trapped at Phall, but delegated it to Polux's predecessor. The twist is that he met Euphrati Keeler had a spiritual experience when they spoke, and felt that he would be needed more at Terra instead of as a drifting corpse permanently lost in orbit around some backwater, and so handed off job of commanding the fleet. When he eventually opened up to Rogal, this got him in trouble. See, Rogal was still one of the [[Imperial Truth|stupid atheists]] at this point, so he disowned Sigismund because he thought "serving a higher purpose" was arrogant and got in the way of doing his job. This left Sigismund feeling really sad and pissed off, thus was his start of <s>darkness</s> daddy issues. [[Black Templars|Really pissed off and bad ass daddy issues.]]
**'''''The Dark King''''' - A look into the head and story of Konrad Curze during the events leading up to the Dropsite Massacre. It shows how Curze, even if you buy that he was a murderous paladin of justice and order through fear rather than just a fearsome murderer, is getting pretty fucked up in the head and lives with the knowledge of his demise haunting him, which isn't that great for his sanity. It also involves him beating up Rogal Dorn, killing some Imp Fists and Emp's Children terminators <s>with his more advanced suit and built-in vox jammers </s>with his bare hands, then blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn. The first 10 is him being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace as a grand piece of art by fortifying it into a coldly functional fortress. The next 10 is Rogal having an existential monologue then a conversation with Malcador, all about why he doesn't know why Horus declared war on the Emperor and brought half of the Legions with him, and is partly afraid to find out why in case it makes sense. Malcador ends up knowing at least a little about Chaos, and somehow got his hands on a tarot deck Curze used throughout his life, even to the close of ''The Dark King''. (Don't ask how he got them. Really.) Also the (*Name Drop*) Lightning Tower is the important card that comes up, signifying a [[Siege of Terra|destruction of fortifications]] and/or a [[Imperium of Man|change of thinking through sacrifice]].
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Right before Istvaan, techpriest Pallas Ravachol is working on a top secret "Kaban" robot project on Mars realizes that the project has achieved sapience and is in fact a form of strong AI. Though he genuinely befriended the Kaban machine, Ravachol complains to boss Magos Chrom that working on an AI is both highly illegal and insanely dangerous. Chrom tells Ravachol not to be such a pussy since Horus himself gave the OK, and after some deliberation, has a death squad awaiting to escort the Ravachol off site the next morning. Ravachol, thinking there were few ways this could well, makes a break for it and flees for Magos Malevolus's forge, hoping to get somebody with some clout to reveal that his old boss and Horus were up to something. On the way, he spends time running away from a latex-clad sadist babe who persistently chases after him; since she's an AdMech equivalent of a Death Cultist assassin, this is a ''much'' better idea than it sounds. When he gets to Malevolus's forge, Malevolus distracts him with a legion of shiny Mk6 suits of Marine Power Armor long enough to drop the bomb to drop that they were for Horus. The latex-clad babe catches up to them both, and the techpriest flees again, only to be puzzled why Malevolus and the assassin are letting him run. As he gets out the door, he meets the Kaban machine, <s>and through the power of friendship, the Kaban decides to side with the good guys, and the day is saved.</s> Except this is the dark, gritty universe of 30K where brother turns against brother. Chrom told the Kaban Machine that it and Ravachol couldn't be friends for realsies, because rules and stuff, and taking up with Horus was a great idea. The Kaban Machine, not understanding how humans work nor '''The Power of Friendship''', didn't know any better than to agree and kills Ravachol right on the steps of Malevolus's forge. End story. An okay story, somewhat generic feeling prose. More of a who's who of the Dark Mechanicus during ''Mechanicum'' and telling where the hell that Kaban machine from the same book came from and how they seduced an AI into Chaos worship.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - A bridge between Istvaan V and ''Deliverance Lost'', also a companion story to the Raven's Flight audio drama. The story tells how Commander Marcus Valerius of the Imperial Army is stationed on Deliverance and keeps having recurring nightmares which is causing him worry about Corax. Commander Branne of the Raven Guard's garrison on Deliverance, is getting tired of how the Legion's pet human won't stop bitching about it, and decides to take Valerius out on a trip in the battle barge to Istvaan just to show him that everything is just fine. Meanwhile, Corax and a relative handful of surviving Raven Guard are fighting a guerilla war against the traitors, trying to stay one step ahead of the Iron Warriors and then the World Eaters, and in-between skirmishes, Corax spends a few thoughtful moments feeling bad about his Legion and the state of the Imperium now that things have gone to shit.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, after that he makes tokens (for the warrior-lodge, but he doesn't know that) and then he gets his windpipe crushed to make sure word doesn't get out about the tokens. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life up until the point where he's lying on his own floor, slowly suffocating to death. Ultimately it is kind of irrelevant, but the lore nerds or people who have been paying attention might find it interesting. It is however only barely 20 pages long, so you might as well read it anyway.
**'''''Prince of Crows''''' - A novella featuring the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain [[Sevatar]] of the Night Lords. With the Night Lords's forces all but shattered by the Dark Angels, Curze in a coma nearly dead, and the Dark Angels's fleet in pursuit, Sevatar has to knock some heads for the Night Lords to get their shit together and reorganize and rethink strategy. It's essentially about showing the fractures in the Night Lords Legion. As most stories written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]], it's pretty good.

*'''''Angel Exterminatus:''''' [[Perturabo]] just finished [[skub|fucking up (or being fucked by)]] some Fists, and [[Fulgrim]] finds him to polish off a plot hook from ''The Reflection Crack'd'' and recruit Pert for an expedition into the Eye of Terror because a renegade Eldar said he knows where to get ''the good shit'' (the eponymous Angel Exterminatus). Fulgrim wanted to make a show out of delivering exposition, and he had Pert use his skills to build a stadium and went storyteller mode; then the moment was killed when a Shattered Legion detachment composed of Iron Hands and a Raven Guard commando sniped Fulgrim (he got better). Of course, Pert took the moment to remind himself that this is why he can't have, [[Rage|won't ever have]], nice things. Thinking that Fulgrim had the scent of a powerful artifact or a superweapon, and seeing that Fulgrim was becoming the Primarch equivalent of a crack addict member of the Jersey Shore and his legion wasn't looking much better, Pert decided to play it safe by tagging along and making sure Fulgrim wouldn't break anything. On the way, a different Eldar scholar came to the Shattered Legion, telling them that Fulgrim and Pert can't be allowed to get to the Angel Exterminatus, or [[Daemon|Bad Things (Warp-registered trademark)]] will happen. Well into the journey into the Eye, the Iron Hands's resident mad scientist accidentally gave away their location, and the Emp's Children and Iron Warriors decide to throw a boarding party. After a few pages of pulse pounding action, Pert says "fuck this", and leaves as the Iron Hands's same mad scientist overloads the engines and does a [[Battlefleet Gothic|mother of a ramming maneuver]] which kills an Emp's Children ship. (Pert was getting sick of Fulgrim's shit at this point, so he decided not to let them know, leading to the loss of the ship and thousands of casualties for Fulgrim.) Then, they finally get there, they find a [[Crone World]] covered in ruins and occupied spirit stones being held in orbit around a black hole. Some wraithbone constructs pop up and Pert and Fulgrim have to fight to the heart of the planet to get at the Angel Exterminatus. On the way, Pert kills their renegade Eldar because he was a lyin' bitch. When they ''finally'' get there, Surprise! Daemon Primarch Fulgrim is supposed to be the Angel Exterminatus, and he betrays Pert (a bauble Fulgrim gave to Pert at the start of the book was a vitality-leeching thing), and they start the ritual which would sacrifice Pert to turn Fulgrim into a Daemon Prince. Then the Shattered Legion crashes the ceremony, and assists the Iron Warriors since it's clear they weren't working with the Emp's Children anymore. Pert kills Fulgrim, but it didn't count since Fulgrim's mortal essence works just as well as sacrifice. He goes full Daemon Prince despite a generous helping of Thunder Hammer to his [[gay|pretty face]], breaks every spirit stone on the planet, and disappears with every last one of his sick fucks. The Eldar scholar helping the Shattered Legion throws a bitch fit, revealing that both scholars were Dark Eldar who had cut a deal with Fulgrim (help him become a daemon and they get assloads of spirit stones to fuck with), and he had made sure that the Shattered Legions were there to put a wedge in that deal because...reasons. The Shattered Legion gets the hell out, and the Iron Warriors try to GTFO as the planet starts to fall into the black hole. The book ends, with Pert, being a wise man, orders them to reverse course and fly right into that fucker. Subplots include a lot of buildup for McNeil's Iron Warriors stories, the Shattered Legions' feelings on trying to unfuck an irreversibly fucked situation, some tense buildup of two Imperial Fists as they try to survive Fabius's turning them into mutants (which actually had a poor payoff). Despite being overall good, it's a bit of a skub novel because the depiction of Perturabo is so different from expected, rather than being the bitter [[RAGE|Rage]] machine from every other depiction, he's a quiet [[Neckbeard|nerd who plays with toys as a hobby]], but with muscles. And because the ghosts of eldar's Aspect Warriors and Wraith-Constructs inside a planet left inside the Eye of Terror is a canon-rape on par with C.S. Goto, the first death of Lucius at the hands of a Mary Sue despite previous claims that he was undefeated during the Heresy and his unexplained resurrection (<s>"How? Fucking Chaos, that's how."</s> Oh, sure, every CSM is immortal), and an Iron Hands legionnaire somehow being immune to sonic weapons by being deaf. And worst of all, a rotating Shadowsword turret.

*'''''Betrayer:''''' Lorgar and Angron rampage over the Ultramarines 500 worlds. Lots of references to Angron's past and his Butcher's Nails are killing him slowly. Turns out one of the Ultramarine worlds was his own Homeworld, so he destroys it and Lorgar makes him into a daemon-prince. Also remember the Furious Abyss? Lorgar has two more. Also focuses on Khârn and Argel Tal being bros, until Erebus decides to intervene and kill a bitch.

* '''''Angron:''''' An anthology about <s>Lorgar</s> <s>Horus</s> <s>Dorn</s> <s>Malcador</s> <s>the plumber for the Golden Throne</s> Fuck, we can't remember. It often gets passed over in the official lists, since it's actually a cheat since it's a republish of older short stories: '''After De'shea''', '''Butcher's Nails''' ''(print format)'', and '''Lord of the Red Sands''' ''(which was initially a standalone release,'' even later ''republished in'' The Imperial Truth'')''.

*'''''Mark of Calth:''''' Another set of short stories, though all focused on the [[Ultramarines]] or the [[Word Bearers]].
**'''''Shards of Erebus:''''' - We find that [[Erebus]] broke the '''MURDER SWORD''' into eight daggers/athames and shared them with his bros. Also shows how he returned to Davin to learn how to teleport with the '''MURDER SWORD''', then killing the priestess that helped him turn Horus. She somehow wins because she served Chaos before dying which pisses Erebus off.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Keeps bringing up what Calth used to be like. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to Nurgle everyone, and the Ultramarines save the day in the nick of time. After all, THE GREATEST OF THE-{{BLAM}}
**'''''Dark Heart''''' - A young Word Bearer is interrogated by Kor Phaeron after he ended up killing his mentor with dark powers (turned him insta inside out). A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degradation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A spacedock traffic controller survives the destruction of his star fort, and the fatal crash of his escape shuttle before ending up in a small underground arcology with other human survivors. Imperial cultists believe he is blessed, and when he starts hearing whispers and seeing unbelievers they start rounding everybody up for execution. Everybody gets slowly executed till he's the last one left. Learns he's been possessed and reveals to an Ultramarine that he was was infected by the vox from the ''Campanile''.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - An Ultramarine has a hard-on for a certain Word Bearer trolling him. Hunts down said Word Bearer into a cave system with a team of soldiers and Spess Merheens. Word Bearer trolls them by summoning a Gorgon. Ultramarine wins by tricking the Gorgon into looking at its reflection.
**'''''The Underworld War''''' - A story that has little to do with the actual Underworld War. It features a Gal Vorbak who sees the attack on Calth as a clusterfuck of fail. Has a plot-twist ending... turns out Daemons give visions of the future to potential Gal Vorbak, and said Gal Vorbak was given a vision of him not abandoning his fallen brothers on Calth. The Daemon doesn't have time for that shit so it lets him die during his transformation.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife, though not one from the '''MURDER SWORD'''. That's about it... totally... right. Wrong. The small sacrificial knife that Ollanius found was carved on Terra for a benign ritual, stolen by an evil Perpetual who was killed by ''the Emperor'' in medieval times, found in an archeological dig by Kasper Hawser, and went on other crazy murder-adventures, all while having rudimentary sentience.
**'''''Unmarked''''' - Ollanius Pius and friends is traveling through time and space using the athame from the previous story. We learn a lot more about Oll's past, going into detail about his offhand mentions that he was one of the Argonauts and that he served in the First World War and the First Gulf War.
*'''''Vulkan Lives:''''' What happened to Vulkan after the Dropsite Massacre? He got made Konrad Curze's torture bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer to the face. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc. Remember the Shattered Legions crew from ''Angel Exterminatus''? Now you get a new group that is far more bland and less distinct.
*'''''The Unremembered Empire:''''' [[Perpetual|Matt Damon]] killed Martin Luther King. This happens in the book. Also, unlike the cover and synopsis would imply, it's ''not'' about Sanguinius and Guilliman working together to build a back-up Imperium around Ultramar, which leads to the question of ''why that's on the cover?'' No one knows what it is really about, especially the book's description of itself (which describes its ''sequels''). Several things happen in the book as several unrelated subplots collide as several entities are drawn by the Pharos device to Macragge. There are implications that Guilliman's new backup Imperium is starving resources from Terra.
*'''''Scars:''''' Technically the third book of the Prospero arc. The Khan returns to the Imperium after killing Orks left over from Ullanor and can't decide what side to join. Turns his back on Leman Russ during a fight with the Alpha Legion and goes looking for his best friend Magnus, also gets into a fight with Mortarion on the way, also [[The Fallen|half his legion turns traitor]] but turns out it's no big deal.
** '''''Brotherhood of the Storm:''''' Prequel to Scars, shows the White Scars fighting Orks on Chondax.
*'''''Vengeful Spirit''''' Horus goes looking for power to make him equal to the Emperor and the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z (kinda). We learn that the Emperor gained his powers after making a pact with the Chaos Gods where they gave him a fraction of their power, then somehow managed to double-cross them in what is quite possibly the most retarded retcon ever introduced in the entire book series. (In all seriousness though, the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series. It could be the truth, or one of their beautifully crafted lies.) Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest. Also, if you have been ignoring the audio books, you will be a bit lost at the start of this one.
*'''''The Damnation of Pythos''''' A Lovecraftian Horror story disguised as a Horus Heresy story. Has the most grimdark ending of the series thus far, up there with Dead Men Walking. Adds just about as much to the overall series as ''Furious Abyss'' did, but is actually pretty well written, unlike "Furious Abyss". To cut a long story short, daemons take over a world in the Pandorax system, capture a starship and use it to start ferrying cultists from place to place. The book also has some crossover with 40k and the Pandorax Campaign.

=== Books XXXI to XL ===
*'''''Legacies of Betrayal''''' Another anthology, though this time it's a bit of cheat, and they just consolidated several pre-existing stories; some of the the novellas but also included print versions of audio books.
**'''Brotherhood of the Storm''' - see above
**'''Serpent''' - A really short and out-of-place story about a Davinite Priest.
**'''Hunters Moon''' - originally an audiobook involving peasant fishermen rescuing a crashed space wolf who is running from the Alpha Legion after killing Alpharius, it obviously doesn't end well.
**'''Veritas Ferrum''' - a prequel to Damnation of Pythos, about an Iron Hands starship escaping ''(against their better nature)'' from Isstvan with some survivors.
**'''Strike and Fade''' - More survivors of Isstvan, though this is about Salamanders just killing time (and Night Lords) whilst they wait to be rescued.
**'''Honour to the Dead''' - about Ultramarines and an innocent woman and child trying her hardest to follow them to safety.
**'''Butcher's Nails''' - A good one to read, Angron & Lorgar go on the Shadow-Crusade and come to an understanding whilst fighting Eldar.
**'''Warmaster''' - Horus considering how much of a badass he is while chatting with Ferrus Manus's skull.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go kidnap a warp code interpreter that will let them intercept garbled enemy communications.
**'''Wolfs Claw''' - Bjorn the Fell-Handed needs a replacement arm, but the Iron Priests are too busy, but he happens to find a nice fancy relic one just lying around.
**'''The Divine Word'''
**'''Thief of Revelations''' - After Prospero, the Thousand Sons need something to stop all their rampant mutation, so Ahriman goes to ask why Magnus has locked himself away. He's got bigger things to worry about and is looking across time and space for key events for future [[Just as Planned]] manipulations.
**'''Lucius the Eternal Warrior''' - After his first death ''(and unexplained resurrection)'' at the hands of Nykona Sharrowkyn, Lucius has somehow abandoned the Heresy and goes to the planet of Sorcerers to fight a duel with the bestest Thousand Son swordsman, ends up meeting Ahriman. [[wat|Uh-huh...]]
**'''The Eightfold Path''' - Kharn and the World Eaters realise that too much rip and tear is leading them [[Khorne|down a damning path]], but they're already too far gone.
**'''Guardian of Order''' - [[Cypher]] and [[Zahariel]] discover that the Ouroboros (banished in Fallen Angels) is coming back
**'''Heart of the Conqueror''' - Angron's Navigator gets a bit uppity about being made to turn traitor, despite having been picked for the job as the angry man's chauffeur by the Emperor himself. Blams herself during mid-warp transit with not-fun results for flagship.
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel is killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes about it on his armour. Said notes will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]] on the subject of killing Word Bearers (because it's that damn important to kill Word Bearers). Thiel eventually gets bored and goes back to Macragge in the end.
**'''Lone Wolf''' - Bjorn has lost all of his squad, but is now such an awesome badass that he can solo Bloodthirsters.
*'''''Death and Defiance''''' Yet another anthology
**'''Imperfect''' - Daemon-Fulgrim has been getting Fabius to clone Ferrus Manus, because the split personality thing makes him feel guilty about failing to turn his brother to Horus's side, but the clones are never quite right and go mental at each suggestion. Fabius also has his own stuff going on.
**'''Howl of the Heathworld''' - Space Wolves get sent to Terra to watch over Rogal Dorn so he doesn't start using psykers, its a pointless task and everyone know it. Also offers insight into the Wolves naming conventions.
**'''A Safe and Shadowed Place''' - [[Night Lords]] start stabbing each other in the back as soon as Curze goes missing while solo'ing Macragge. It's about a ship floating in the ruinstorm that has just discovered the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] and foreshadows problems for Ultramar.
**'''Virtues of the Sons''' - Sanguinius forsees that he will not always be in charge of the Blood Angels, but worries about the Red Thirst causing havoc with his sons futures. So gets Amit to duel Kharn and Azkaellon to duel Lucius in hopes they'll learn something. Azkaellon learns to let the rage out a bit and Amit learns a modicum of restraint.
**'''Gunsight''' - The Vindicare Assassin from Nemesis is still alive and on Horus' flagship, its about him spending years waiting for the opportune moment to get a shot, but he starts going mad while he waits. Gives ups when Horus plucks his killshot from the air and Horus gives him a chaos rifle for his change in loyalty.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anthology
**'''Daemonology''' - To and fro' story about [[Mortarion]]. On Terra he discovers the initial construction of the Golden Throne and gets told about Emp's plan for removing psykers. In the "present day" he captures a daemon and starts practising sorcery on it.
**'''Black Oculus''' - A short story about Navigators describing what it's like travelling in the warp.... basically it's [[Grimdark]].
**'''Chirurgeon''' - [[Fabius Bile]] narrating about his history, and what happened about the gene-flaw that almost wiped out the [[Emperor's Children]]. Totally has the gene-flaw and has been using his bestest bro turned servitor to keep it under wraps.
**'''Twisted''' - '''Maloghurst''' gets a story about him uncovering plots against Horus and gets wrapped up in intrigue. It actually shows him as a really clever bastard and a bit of a badass.
**'''Wolf Mother''' - [[Perpetual|Alivia Sureka]]'s kids get captured after their escape from Molech and she teams up with [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]] in order to get them back. Lots of coolness on Sevarian's part and we also get to see that Perpetuals can resist possession.
*'''''Tallarn: Executioner''''' - A novella about a vehicle squadron (Leman Russ Executioner, Vanquisher and a Salamander) having to deal with the toxic surface in the weeks after the surface bombardment and then come into contact with the Iron Warriors. Also the Alpha Legion have a hand in things, like they always do.
*'''''Tallarn: Ironclad''''' - Part two of the Tallarn story.
*'''''Deathfire''''' - What the Salamanders have been saying since Isstvan is true: Vulkan lives! Well now he does. Basically a bunch of Salamanders take his body from Macragge to Nocturne (with some side help from didn't ask for this Magnus) and throw him into Nocturne's largest volcano, and lo and behold he comes back to life, making that entire plotline pointless. Still has the fucking Fulgurite in his chest, though. TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nzml-zZ9M
*'''''The Wolf King ''''' - The Space Wolves find themselves set upon by the forces of the Alpha Legion before they can recover from the Razing of Prospero and are hounded to the edge of the Alaxxes Nebula (swiss cheese acid cloud). There the Alpha Legion beat the ever-living shi...stuffing out of the wolves whilst Russ locks himself in his room and sulks. Russ eventually summons his new favourite Bjorn to join him and they have bit of a heart to heart about what a bunch of morons they were in allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily by Horus. By the end Russ is back to his old self and celebrates by massacring every Alpha he can get his hands on even if it’s clear that his defeat is inevitable. Fortunately for the Wolves helps comes from a hidden armada of Dark Angels ostensibly "loyal" to [[Luther]], but unaware of the Horus Heresy or of the whereabouts or actions of the Lion. Russ borrows gear and manpower from them in exchange for info on current events which most likely finds its way back to Luther and sets the "Destiny of Caliban" in motion. Russ then heads for Terra.
*'''''War Without End''''': Anthologies Without End.
*'''''Pharos''''': Night Lords fucking up the Pharos Lighthouse on Sotha. Sanguinius eventually grows some balls and starts standing up to Guilliman instead of just being a pantomime Emperor, while the Lion is nowhere to be seen as usual. Warsmith Dantioch bites it while using the Pharos to burn the Night Lords out of his fortress, but inadvertently piques the interest of the [[Tyranids]], causing them to show up 10,000 years later. Skraivok become a prime example of DEMON SWORDS: NOT EVEN ONCE.
*'''''Eye of Terra''''': Another anthology.
*'''''Path Of Heaven''''': Sequel to Scars. The White Scars have been fighting traitor legions for a few years but are starting to show the strain. They finally make a shift back to Terra but things don't go as planned. Notable for digging into the Webway storyline and the Navis Nobilite as well as featuring a resurrected and suddenly competent Eidolon. Navigators weren't going to sit around while E-money built their replacement, White Scars use a prototype webway portal to escape their last stand, and Moratarion starts using sorcery to locate Typhon.
*'''The Seventh Serpent:''' a novella about the Shattered Legions going up against the Alpha Legion; a simple premise made awesome by sheer depth of Alpharian plot twists: They had been manipulated by Alpharius into fighting a battle against Loyalist Alpha Legionaires.
*'''The Silent War:''' Guess What?! It's ''another'' anthology of stories that GW have already sold individually as audio-books. So value might be had for those who hadn't listened to them.
*'''''Angels of Caliban:''''' two Dark Angels stories in one book again, though this one actually moves the plot forward. In Ultramar, the Lion captures Konrad Curze but only after discretely nuking a whole region despite a ban on orbital weapon use, which results in his disgrace and we find that it is Guilliman who breaks the Lion Sword. Curze reveals that there were chaos cults on Mcraggae too, and that Guilliman would be a traitor if he had landed a little to the left. On Caliban, the Fallen openly declare their rebellion from the Imperium and ironically steal some starships that were meant to collect them and actually bring them into the war again. [[Zahariel]] kills [[Cypher]] and takes his place.
*'''''Praetorian of Dorn''''' Alpharius tries to invade <s>Terra</s> Pluto. Dorn kills him. Yes, Alpharius is now dead. And not a fake either, but the real Alpharius. Omegon can confirm. Alpha Legions fags blew a gasket. Oh shit believe we did.
*'''''Corax''''' A compilation of all the Corax Stories, plus a new one, '''Weregeld''', which manages to undo all the hard work the previous stories have done and turn Corax into a douchebag. Kills all his mutated Raven Guard because he promised to kill warp stuff. Saves Russ and his arrogant ass though.

=== Books XLI onwards ===
*'''''The Master of Mankind''''': The Emperor is a dick: the book. We all knew this, but now it's set in stone. Highlights being: Emperor stating to Arkhan Land that the Primarchs are tools and he views them with a scientific but detached fascination. Referring to them as numbers but content to allow the fantasy of being their "father", an interpretation of the character that was fairly divisive to say the least. He actually seems to care more for his Custodians than he does any of his other creations, but they don't consider him to be a father and see him as just their warlord. Drach'nyen is also revealed to be the Daemon created when Caine killed Abel. In the end he closes the door on the webway and has to spend the rest of his time sitting in the chair keeping it shut. Despite this, it does show off why the Chaos Gods fear him, as he pretty much rapes an infinite army of Daemons; the Greater ones either flee or try and fail to fight him (being destroyed in a matter of moments) whilst the lesser ones die just by looking at him. Despite this, Drach'nyen nearly kills him, and <s>it is confirmed that fate has indeed decreed that Empy will die at the daemon's hand</s> claims that it will kill the Emperor (keep in mind that the future is malleable and Daemons lie). But how will it feast on the Emperor's tattered soul when Abaddon lacks arms to plunge it into his chest? (''But Abaddon never lost his arms due to the same retcon that let Eldrad live'') Also known as Master of skubkind. Reveals his grand plan of saving the human race from the Eldar fate by absolute control of every human to a custodian before shanking him with Drach'nyen and making him run into the webway. Also put all his chips into the ''Human Webway'' plan and screwed us all over without a backup. Can you tell that this is an ADB book?
*'''''Garro''''': Compilation of all the stories about Garro and his boy band, though they insist it isn't just an anthology since the audio book stories were expanded to be more written novel friendly.
*'''''Shattered Legions''''': It's an anthology containing an anthology. I shit thee not. It shoves together the limited edition anthology Meduson with a few other shorter stories, including some Alpha Legion stuff like the Seventh Serpent.
*'''''The Crimson King''''': Magnus was broken into shards when Russ felled him. Now the Thousand Sons with the help of Lucius the Eternal must put him back together.
*'''''Tallarn''''': Does it even need to be stated? It's another fucking anthology, this time putting all the tank porn of the Tallarn books into one binding.
*'''''Ruinstorm:''''' The conclusion to the Imperium Secundus plotline, as well as the follow on to Damnation of Pythos. Shows the Lion, Sanguinius and Guilliman trying to cross the Ruinstorm to reach Terra. Having a brief stopover at Pandorax, they decide to head out to Davin where the Heresy began and where destinies are re-made; they pass systems along the way that show what the Galaxy would look like if Chaos wins, such as a Forge World surrounded by an immense fortress wall in outer space 4000 miles thick, or a sector of space filled with solid ritualised geometric shapes that are perhaps light years across. Davin itself is surrounded by a cloud of bones and wreckage millions of kilometers thick, but the planet has long since been abandoned. There, Sanguinius finds out that in order to live through the Heresy he must become a monster even worse than Horus, but dying will curse his sons with the Black Rage; blood is on his hands either way. Instead, Sanguinius tries to sacrifice himself to save the day, but the [[Sanguinor]] steps in and takes his place while the fleets rain down a shitstorm and destroy the planet. In the aftermath, the Ruinstorm abates enough for them to reach Terra, but Horus has so much force that it is impossible for all three legions to reach, so Guilliman and the Lion agree to distract the Traitors long enough to give Sanguinius a window to get back and face his destiny, explaining why they never made it to the Siege since they were engaging Traitor fleets and burning their worlds.
*'''''Old Earth:''''' Set immediately after ''Vulkan Lives'', Vulkan and three Salamander legionaries ''(the rest of the Salamanders weren't informed of their Primarch's resurrection)'' travelled through the Webway by a gate hidden in a cave on Nocturne. On their path to Terra, they came across the Shattered Legions, who were preparing for their first major void engagement with the Sons of Horus. Just before the attack, some Medusan-born Iron Hands tried to stage a coup against Shadrak Meduson by revealing a hideous contraption of machines, and the last remnants of Ferrus Manus - his iron hand ''(They were under the illusion that they could resurrect their Primarch through cybernetics, it is hinted that the Mechanicum had some hand in this affair.)'' Thankfully, Vulkan shattered the hand, and Meduson assumed command again, though he was killed by '''Tybalt Marr''' in a boarding action after the Iron Hand refused to send reinforcements to him. In the end, it was revealed that the Emperor had Vulkan forged a weapon, that in the event Terra fell to Horus, would amplify the power of the Golden Throne to the point it coulf wipe out the entire Throneworld ''(this is probably one of Vulcan's nine relics)'' Oh, and Eldrad rescued [[Knights-Errant|Barthusa Narek]] from Nocturne and made him his assassin. They killed most of the Cabal, and finally rescued John Grammaticus, who had his memory wiped after his failure to assassinate Vulkan. With his memory restored, Grammaticus was ordered by Eldrad to find Ollanius Pius and go to Terra.
*'''''Wolfsbane:''''' No solid information yet, but it seems like Leman Russ leaves Terra to confront Horus himself. One can expect that it doesn't end well for him.

== The Primarchs Series ==

Because Black Library don't seem satisfied confusing us with all their anthologies, audio-books, and short stories, they have begun releasing a spin-off series of Horus Heresy novels centered on the Primarchs. The series don't really take place in a specific time, but generally focuses on expanding on the titular Primarch's backstory and motivations during events before the Horus Heresy (though some of them also have events occurring after it). Why Black Library lists it as part of the Horus Heresy series when that is the case is beyond our comprehension.

=== Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar ===
Centers on the papa smurf himself, and him trying to deal with how the Emperor used him like a rusty hammer to smack Lorgar in the head at Monarchia. Uses a conflict against Orks as a vehicle for him and the smurfs to express their angst over the event.

=== Leman Russ: The Great Wolf ===
Focuses on Leman Russ' notorious rivalry with the Lion, and explaining why to this day whenever the Chapters meet they throw the gauntlet down and beat the stuffing out of one another. Notably it reveals some interesting stuff like the Lion being aware of the Space Wolves' furry issue and keeping a lid on it.

=== Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero ===
Depicts the unlikely friendship between Magnus and old Pert with a joint venture between their legions. Things go wrong on the planet due to totally not Chaos cult nonsense, and it does a decent job of showing Magnus' flaws. Specifically on his inability to leave things that have "do not fuck with this" alone; something Pert tries and fails at making him understand.

=== Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia ===
Probably the book in the series that did the most character building of all of them. This book is a mix of showing off Perturabo's childhood on Olympia alongside a "current" day conflict against the Hrud. The former showing why Pert is the odd genius manchild guy he is, while the latter does a great job of showing why fucking with an alien species capable of controlling time is somewhat of a stupid idea. However, the real draw of the book is that it is mainly written as an attempt to merge together the seemingly contradictory depictions of Pert we've had over the years. Showing how the ruthless dick who decimates his legion for not being good enough in the Forgeworld books is the same guy who just wanted to be a builder in Angel Exterminatus. Yep. Definitely a sperg. Also he may or may not have wanted to bang his adopted sister.

=== Lorgar: Bearer of the Word ===
Yep, the first(ish?) heretic himself gets his own obligatory messed up childhood novel. Focusing slightly more on Kor Phaeron rather than Lorgar himself, showing him to be a manipulative dick who beat Lorgar as a child and never really bought into this whole "fatherhood" shtick, or this whole concept of [[Emperor|One True God]] but allowed Lorgar his fantasies and to take over Colchis ''(By "Word" or by "Mace")'' while Phaeron benefitted from increased position and secretly kept the faith of [[Chaos Gods]].

Though by the end Kor Phaeron wonders if Lorgar just let him think that he was manipulated and could have disposed of him at any time. The book does introduce a contrasting character to Kor Phaeron who actually shows Lorgar compassion growing up and was far more worthy of being named "father" but was far less useful to Lorgar's goals. The book shows that Lorgar isn't as stupid or naive as everyone thinks and does indeed realise that people have been using him for their own gains, but while he only really cares about doing the work of the gods, so long as they both align he doesn't seem to care.

=== Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix ===
Fulgrim tries to conquer the newly discovered planet Byzas with only 7 men. Along the way he encounters a brotherhood much like his own that wants to work with him that Fulgrim dismisses as a bunch of idealists. It's implied that he COULD have gotten the same results (Compliance) working with them but unfortunately that would have meant calling in backup and Fulgrim didn't want to do that so that was out of the question. In the end Fulgrim takes the world, but nearly dies. Several of the characters (Cyrius, Kasperos Telmar) later become prominent champions of chaos.

=== Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa ===

== The Tabletop Wargame ==
[[Forge World]] is producing a new line of books and models (''in addition to'' [[Imperial Armour]] and [[Warhammer Forge]]) to allow players to fight battles from the Horus Heresy in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. This includes rules and models for the [[Primarchs]] (both pre- and post-fall, for the Traitors) as well as ancient vehicles. No [[xenos]], unfortunately. Presumably this came about because GW felt that they just weren't making quite enough money from die-hard marine/chaos players and figured they could literally buy a dump-truck full of gold plated cocaine each if they made a version of the game that requires only Forge World minis AND thousands upon thousands of them. Still worth it, though.

=== Betrayal ===
Forge World starts big, as their first book covers the battles on Istvaan III, in which [[Horus]] sent the remaining loyalist elements of the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Emperor's Children]], [[Death Guard]], and [[World Eaters]] to the surface, ostensibly to rout the anti-Imperial resistance that had taken hold in the capital city, and then fired [[Exterminatus]] torpedoes (of the life-eater virus bomb variety) onto the city to wipe them out.

Unfortunately for Horus, not everything went as planned; not only did the loyalist Death Guard frigate ''Eisenstein'' escape to the [[Phalanx]] with word of Horus's betrayal, but loyalist elements on other ships were able to disrupt the bombardment and warn the loyalists on the ground that it was coming. Between the disruption, the warning, and good old-fashioned [[Space Marine]] toughness, only a third or so of the landed force had actually died. Horus would have fired another bombardment, but [[Angron]] and his traitor World Eaters jumped the gun and made planetfall; the other traitors were left with no choice but to deploy themselves and destroy the remaining loyalists personally.

''Betrayal'' contains a [[Great Crusade]] Legion army list (for which we have a [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines/Legion List‎|tactica]]), and rules for special characters and units from the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Death Guard]], [[Emperor's Children]], and [[World Eaters]] Legions, including their [[Primarch]]s (even [[Fulgrim]], who was not actually at the battle) and several major characters from the book series such as Garviel Loken.

===Massacre===
The infamous Drop Site Massacre is the focus of the next book, where seven Legions are sent to crush Horus’ rebellion, only for four of those to turn on the other three and crush them utterly. The books storyline is essentially just the ''first day'' of the battle, leading up to the death of [[Ferrus Manus]].

Massacre contains additional rules for special characters and units from the [[Iron Hands]], [[Night Lords]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Word Bearers]] Legions including their Primarchs and several more major characters from the book series make their debut such as Sevatar, Eidolon, Erebus and Kharn.

===Extermination===
Focusses on the second half of Istvaan V, as well as the Battle of Phall between the [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Imperial Fists]]; and on that note, it includes rules for those two Legions, as well as the [[Alpha Legion]] and the [[Raven Guard]].

It also gives us a complete Mechanicum Army List: the Taghmata.

====Condensed Lists====
The ICL and LACAL were initially released as part of the limited edition run of Extermination, but were then later released separately. They are fluff-lite, codex-equivalent books that also included all of the FAQs/Errata up to their release; which unfortunately was still the end of 6th edition so some rules haven't carried over well. ''(eg. [[Lorgar]]s psychic rules.)''

The Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List is basically the generic 30k Space Marine "codex", whilst the Isstvan Campaign Legions contains all of the collected rules for the legions from Books 1-3; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three books. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game. The ICL was continued in the Age of Darkness Legions, which collected everything to book 5, including the errata.

Later came the Mechanicum Taghamata Army List, which contained all the Mechanicum units and army lists mentioned and rearranged them to keep everything on the same page, but lacked the Questoris Knight Army. The Crusade Imperialis Army Lists contain the Solar Auxilia, Imperialis Militia/Warp Cults, and Questoris Knight Crusade army lists.

===Conquest===
Horus Heresy Volume Four is entitled 'Conquest', despite early hints from Forgeworld that it would be about the Battle of Prospero, it instead features Horus' conquest of the Imperium and the [[Skub|"Major"]] battles of this time, which is to say some battle-zones that Forgeworld made up to fill time whilst they worked on the more well known events from the in-universe history. ''(And to be fair, their response as to why Prospero was delayed was because it included four major factions, [[Adeptus Custodes|two of]] [[Sisters of Silence|which have]] NEVER been represented on the tabletop, so required more time to do them justice.)''

A large portion of the book is given over to running battles in the '''"Age of Darkness"''', which is a variant ruleset used as the default for Horus Heresy games ''(where only Troops usually score, amongst other things)'' and has rules and FOCs for Cityfight missions, rules for running ongoing campaigns, variant rules for mysterious terrain and objectives as well as including unique relics to be taken by the various army lists to add flavor to non-special characters.

It also introduces the [[Solar Auxilia]] and [[Imperial Knight|"Questoris" Knights]] (as an AdMech list) armies to play while the modellers take a break from building power armor 24/7.

===Tempest===
The fifth Horus Heresy book will cover the Battle of Calth. The rules for the [[Ultramarines]] (including [[Roboute Guilliman]] himself) as well as several warp-corrupted Word Bearer units are brought in alongside a few other new miscellaneous FW releases, including the Deredeo and the new Thanatars. There's also an Imperial Militia (Read: PDF) list that's super-customizable so you can make both loyalist and traitor lists. Also, the MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IS IN IT TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===Retribution===
Focused on 'Shadow Wars' far from the main fronts of the Heresy, in particular the Shattered Legions - that is, the [[Iron Hands]], [[Raven Guard]], and [[Salamanders]] in their weakened state following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre. But other Legions can also be included, with special rules for the Shattered Legions, Black Shields and a list for Armies of Dark Compliance - mixed traitor Legiones/Militia lists, as well as ten new special characters. It includes Legiones Astartes rules for the White Scars, Blood Angels and Dark Angels, so that players of those legions can start playing properly; however, it does not include special units, characters, or Primarchs for those legions. It also includes Garro and the Knights Errant and additional Mechanicum units and characters, including a new Dark Magos, [[Anacharis Scoria]]. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons will still need to wait for the Prospero book (Inferno, Book 7).

===Inferno===
In <s>Set to be book 3.</s> <s>late 2016.</s> <s>early 2017 (Because FW can't keep to schedule)</s> <s>December 2016</s> February 4, 2017, will come what many neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those [[Thousand Sons]] players, start saving up so you can play your space Egyptian sorcerers in all their 30k glory. Rules for the Sisters of Silence as an allied detachment and the Adeptus Custodes as a full army list will be present as well.

Well, it's come, and... it's uninspiring to say the least, with stuff like [[What|Magnus being straight up impossible to hit if he casts invisibility, not to mention pumping out 2d6 destroyer hits at every unit within 18" if he likes]], [[Derp|Custodes captains beating out every Primarch with a rollable 3+ invulnerable save]], some Custodes wargear being straight up [[Wat|left out of the book]] and to cap it all, [[Herp|pictures of tourists in the book ('''twice''') where you'd expect miniatures to be]]. You'd think with such a long development cycle the quality assurance would have been more thorough. Didn't help that [[Alan Bligh]] was likely fairly ill in late 2016, and his untimely death in May of 2017 means the Horus Heresy team now has a big hole in it.

===Malevolence===
It will feature White Scars, Blood Angels and Daemons. Also some new stuff for Space Wolves and Alpha Legion.

== See Also ==
*[[The War of The Beast]], for the next massive shit-show the Imperium was involved with.
* [[Alternate Heresy]], for a discussion of other possible outcomes of the (not necessarily Horus) Heresy.

== External Links ==
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/3170/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (1993)] at BoardGameGeek
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/63543/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (2010)] at BoardGameGeek

{{40k-Timeline}}

[[Category:Board Games]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Wargames]]

Horus Heresy

2018-02-18T09:58:55Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|500px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''this''.]]
:''[[Fulgrim|"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.]]'' 
:''[[Magnus the Red|Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.]]'' 
:''[[Angron|They will be of iron will and steely muscle.]]'' 
:''[[Perturabo|In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.]]'' 
:''[[Mortarion|They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.]]'' 
:''[[Alpharius|They will have tactics, strategies and machines]] [[Omegon|so that no foe can best them in battle.]]'' 
:''[[Konrad Curze|They are my bulwark against the Terror.]]'' 
:''[[Lorgar|They are the Defenders of Humanity.]]'' 
:''[[Horus|They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."]]'' 
:- The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], [[Not as planned|getting exactly what he wanted.]]
{{Topquote|The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.|Karl Popper}}

The '''Horus Heresy''' is one of the single biggest clusterfuck of events in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff, alongside the [[Eldar]]'s creation of a new [[Slaanesh|Chaos God]], and the [[War in Heaven|rampage and fall of the]] [[C'Tan|star gods]]. Needless to say, this heresy derailed the Emperor's plan and himself, and gave the Chaos Gods their most prominent armies to carry out their will in realspace.

In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor's favorite son, [[Horus| Horus Lupercal]], formerly Warmaster of the Imperium, was corrupted by Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor, taking nine [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] (Including [[Luna Wolves|his own]]), their respective Primarchs, and about half of the Imperial Army and Mechanicum with him. After waging war across the galaxy, Horus and his traitors eventually reached Holy Terra itself, hoping to murder the Emperor himself and cut the head off the proverbial snake and win the war.

Things went [[Not as Planned]] however, as he was eventually surrounded by loyalist forces at the height of the siege on Terra. As a final gambit, he dropped the shields of his flagship which allowed the Emperor to beam up and challenged him to a duel for the fate of humanity. Horus beat the Emperor within an inch of his life but was killed in turn after the Emperor put his foot down and obliterated Horus' soul from existence (as in it didn't go to the warp to be resurrected by daemons; it was literally erased from existence) when it finally became clear to him that Horus was beyond forgiveness. The Chaos gribbles he had been allied with disappeared and the now Chaos Marines that had followed him sulked back to the [[Eye of Terror]], starting the [[Long War]].

Because the Emperor was fucked up to the point where he had to be permanently attached to a life-support machine known as the "Golden Throne" just to survive, logic within the Imperium gradually decreased, eventually turning into the [[Grimdark]] empire it is today. And it was already pretty damn grimdark.

[[File:President.png|700px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''him''.]]
[[File:GodsOfWarhammer.jpg|600px|thumb|left|It was pretty much ''them''.]]

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course) and changed the flavour of the Imperium's Grimdark from Stalinist Soviet "if you breathe a word about religion, we rape you with knives" to Catholic [[Inquisition]] "if you breathe a word about the ''wrong'' religion, we rape you [[Exterminatus|or your whole planet]] with knives" unless you can find an Ecclesiarch to come and say: "nope, that's just another aspect of the Emperor". Don't count on this happening without hefty "donations".

The heresy lasted for several years (somewhere between seven and ten) and was fought all over the galaxy. The following are the most important battles and campaigns during the Heresy:
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Prospero|Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Betrayal at Calth|Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Battle of Tallarn]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

Following the Siege of Terra, Horus was permakilled, Big E was interred onto the Golden Throne, the surviving primarchs freaked out trying to figure out what do now that daddy was in a coma, the traitors fucked off into the Eye of Terror, and overall the galaxy slowly and collectively lost their minds now that their wise and all-powerful ruler was no longer around to tell them what to do.

== The Board Game ==
First published in 1993 by [[Game Designer's Workshop]], it was the Emprah versus his [[Horus|evil bastard of a son]] in the scorched earth of Terra. Units include [[Titan#Warhammer_40k|titans]] and [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spaw-]] oh shiARHGRBLLYRBGRDEWUODHGRYEB.

Ahem, as he was saying, The more recent edition (2010) is published by [[Fantasy Flight Games]]. Also a two-player [[wargame|war]] [[board game|game]], it includes over 100 sculpted minifigs, sculpted buildings, and even Horus and the Emprah themselves are units on the board. It also adds more territory, as the fight can be pushed back onto the [[heresy|traitor's]] flagship ''Vengeful Spirit''. Combat is less [[dice|dice-y]] and more card-y.

(Not to be confused with the lame Horus Heresy card game, whose only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway.)

== The Book Series ==
For the last decade, [[Black Library]] has been publishing novels that explore the events of the Horus Heresy, looking at the rivalries among the [[Primarchs]] and exploring just why everything went down the tubes. The novels are by a selection of different authors, which is a total pain if you like to organise your books alphabetically by author. The reception to the series has been somewhat... mixed; books generally considered to be good include [[Dan Abnett|the first trilogy]], [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Betrayer]], [[White Scars|Scars]], and the short story [[Alpha Legion|The Serpent Beneath]].

Of course, like we mentioned, there's some that are... um... Well, let's just say that the worst are a [[skub|matter of much debate]].

{{Template:Spoilers}}

=== Books I - X ===
*'''''Horus Rising:''''' A prologue story, introducing us to the series and Garviel Loken who will grow into a very significant character. An Emperor (not [[Emperor|Him]]) is killed at the beginning and some bugs are killed on a planet called Murder for no reason other than they were there. The Interex show up and ask "whadya do that for?". [[Erebus]] steals the '''MURDER SWORD''' from them.
*'''''False Gods:''''' Horus falls at Davin when wounded by the '''MURDER SWORD''' and gets a crash course in the chaos gods from [[Erebus]] & [[Magnus]]. After getting shown a few "truths" that WILL HAPPEN in the future (like the Emperor being worshipped as a god, Horus being reviled and forgotten) he decides to make war on the Imperium to [[FAIL|prevent]] all this from happening.
*'''''Galaxy in Flames:''''' Isstvan III happens and the traitors send the loyalists down to the planet without reinforcements and proceed to bomb them to fuck. Things don't go to plan when [[Angron]] decides to invade turning it into a [[Not as Planned]] drawn out conflict that the Warmaster can't really afford - Loken "dies"
*'''''Flight of the Eisenstein:''''' the other side of ''Galaxy in Flames'', Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved (and mega-bitchslapped) by [[Rogal Dorn]], who does not take the news from Isstvan [[Rage|very well]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'. There is also the very first canonical appearance of Plague Marines, Euphrati Keeler being all mystical and shit, and Malcador recruiting Garro as the first Knight-Errant.
*'''''Fulgrim:''''' one of the more forgettable stories in the series. Attempts to tell the story from Great Crusade all the way up to the [[Drop Site Massacre]] in one book. In short Fulgrim finds a sword, gets possessed, kills Ferrus Manus - the end. It is written by Graham McNiel though, and it has an awesome quote from Fulgrim "My Emperor's Children. What beautiful music they make." .
*'''''Descent of Angels:''''' This is the Heresy book that isn't about the Heresy, instead focusing on [[Zahariel]]'s time on [[Caliban]]. It portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness (he can not read people at all, so he comes off as 'do what I say or die!') and having Luther to handle the small talk. Hints that the Great Crusade <s>does more harm than good</s> {{BLAM}} is uniting the lost colonies of mankind into a united future! Luther gets sent home with Zahariel to hustle up more Dark Angels.
*'''''Legion''''' introduces [[the Cabal]], the [[Perpetual]]s and [[Omegon]]. READ THIS BOOK. Or don't, as this is where those things that would eventually take over the Heresy series and according to many completely ruin it (Cabal, Perpetuals) are introduced. I still would recommend reading it since when the novel introduces these ideas they are very fresh and interesting. Don't blame Legion when the rest of the novels were who ruined it. Alpha legion is trying to bring some chaos cultist into compliance. Chaos cultists activate planetary self destruct blood sacrifice. Alpha legion meets with the Cabal, agrees to work with them, then kills off all non-legion bystanders & ships with "FOR E-MONEY"!
*'''''Battle for the Abyss:''''' The book is so bad that other authors tried to retcon it out of existence. This book is so bad that you would have it was cobbled together from [[Matt Ward|Wardian fluff]] stitched together by [[C. S. Goto]]. Reading this book may, in fact, cause brain cancer so you should avoid it if at all possible. Everyone dies, so it does not affect much (as in anything). The only thing you need to remember is [[Lorgar]] built a fuckhueg space ship and filled it with Dreadnoughts, and it failed miserably.
*'''''Mechanicum:''''' Tech Priests turn renegade after Horus tells them they can do whatever they like with technology, so they release forbidden viral scrapcodes and screw everything up. Also turns out that [[Emperor|Big E]] invented the Machine-God by sealing a C'Tan on Mars back during the Saint George era, giving everyone visions of technology. Also more subtle hints that the Emperor is a god himself by using divine golden light to heal machines and instant access super wikipedia. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery. And for extra Grimdark, a tech priestess discovers that the Dark Age era humans stored a backup copy of wikipedia in the warp and <s>with a giant psyker powered terminal accesses said wikipedia and restores all the knowledge of mankind</s> floods her forge with lava to deny the traitors access. A psyker tech savant meets up with the goaler of the Void Dragon and takes over his fuck long shift.
*'''''Tales of Heresy:''''' short story collection, including [[The Last Church]]. Has a lot of twist endings.
** '''''Blood Games:''''' An assassin tries to kill the emperor. The Adeptus Custodes go to kill a traitor on Terra. The assassin was a Custodes probing the palace defences. The traitor was a triple agent working for Dorn.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor. When the liberated planet chooses freedom over Emperor, the wolves invade again.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. They worshiped the Emperor, but Lorgar no longer does. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The squad of Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp. Turns out the youngest of the squad in the future used sorcery to beam back her consciousness through time onto some psykers on the Black Ship. She <s>successfully warns the squad about Horus's Rebellion </s> is executed by a hard-core Sister for breaking her vow of [[Psyker|no funny stuff]].
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.
** '''''[[The Last Church]]:''''' A story about the Emperor destroying one of the churches on Terra during the reunification era in his effort to wipe out religion. The Emperor and the priest of the church have an enlightening conversation about the Emprah's trying to accomplish. The conversation ends up with the priest accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite, with him decrying that he's no more different than the old warlords who waged crusades and holy wars in the past to push their own agendas on other people. Emperor reveals himself as the very god the priest was worshiping, and nearly convinces him to stand by his side while his soldiers destroy the church. Priest gets cold feet and walks back into the church while it collapses. An end-times alarm clock starts ringing in the ruins.
** '''''After Desh'ea:''''' The War Hounds meet their primarch. Angron demeats the War Hounds. More specifically, the Emperor just beamed up Angron away from his last stand (rather than, you know, intervening with his Custodes or his fleet), leaving Angron pretty pissed. [[Kharn]] is a pretty great guy to be around, and pulls his femurs out of his lungs quickly enough to establish himself as Angron's best buddy ''after the War Hounds chain of command calmed Angron down as fleshy squeeze balls''.

=== Books XI - XX ===
*'''''Fallen Angels:''''' the sequel to Descent of Angels, is actually two stories rolled into one book that never converge. 1. The Lion fights a war to reclaim some Ordinatus devices and then hands them to Perturabo to gain his trust, not realising that his brother has already turned. 2. [[Zahariel]] and Luther clean out a daemon cult on Caliban... but not really.
*'''''Thousand Sons:''''' Part 1 of the Battle for Prospero. Runs through the Great Crusade where Magnus discovers the webway, but his Father already knew about it. Then the Edict of Nikaea where Magnus gets all passionate about not restricting psychic powers, then to Horus's vision quest where Magnus fails to keep his brother on the right path, then does the WORST thing possible by forcing himself through the palace psychic spam filter, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues and the thousand sons become a thousand sons all over again. Ahriman starts writing hit Rubric.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail because Horus sent a look-a-like, but in the process slay a shapeshifting daemonic counter-assassin sent by Erebus. While it is a decent book and we learn a lot, it didn't contribute much to the overall plot. On the more [[rage|vitriolic side]], the writing is a bit underwhelming in places; highlights include calling a pariah a psyker, another pariah with a contrived possession, and Horus uttering one of the most cliche one liners out there.
*'''''The First Heretic:''''' [[Lorgar]]'s turn to get a back story and generally considered one of the better books in the series. While you make never sympathize with them, this book really lets you understand why The Word Bearers fell to chaos, rather then being the "CHAOTIC EVIL MONSTERS" they are portrayed in the rest of the series.. Feels less rushed than "[[Fulgrim]]". Goes from Monarchia to a bit of soul searching in the Eye of Terror and discovers Cadia. Leads up to Istvaan V and the immediate aftermath. Signifcant subplots revolve around the inception of Possessed Marines, and what happens to the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] babysitters watching over the Word Bearers, and how the protagonist [[Argel Tal]] gets into a tragic bromance with the Custodes leader.
** '''''Aurelian:''''' A limited release short story until an ebook was published. The plot bounces around in-between a number of moments in Lorgar's history up to the prelude of the Shadow Crusade. One narrative involves how Lorgar's brothers still treat him like shit, especially when he's the only one who sees through Fulgrim's possession, and ends with Horus sending him to fuck up Ultima Segmentum and handing him Angron's (figurative, [[/d/|not literal]]) leash. The other narrative takes place in the 40 year gap in ''The First Heretic'', where Lorgar makes a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror with a Daemon Princess as his guide. They come to a dead Crone World where he puts a dying [[Avatar of Khaine|Avatar]] out of its misery and he's told that the Eldar panicked rather than embrace Chaos during the birth of Slaanesh, which is what caused them to nearly die out; the daemon prince(ss) tells Lorgar the same thing is happening with humanity during the Heresy, how Chaos really wants a [[A Game of Pretend|symbiotic relationship with humanity rather than to conquer it]]. In the middle of this, Khorne decides he's had enough of this talky wordy shit and sends [[An'ggrath]] to make things more exciting, and Lorgar narrowly beats him. Then Kairos Fateweaver comes and "tells" him about Calth and his relationship with Guilliman and his upcoming war with him in the most confusing as fuck discussion ever. The truth of most of the things told to Lorgar are left ambiguous, because, well, Fateweaver; but also Chaos has a lot riding on the Heresy coming to fruition for reasons left not entirely explored.
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. A civilian archeologist named Kasper Hawser hangs out with a company of the Space Wolves, where we learn a lot about their culture and attitudes. Turns out that Chaos infiltrated everything, so the outcome of Nikaea was practically rigged. The civilian himself even turns out to have been an unwitting spy for Chaos, but the Wolves knew anyway and didn't give a shit (they thought he worked for Magnus).
* '''''Age of Darkness:''''' A short story anthology.
** '''''Rules of Engagement:''''' Roboute lets one of his commanders lead in a series of wars that didn't really occur, and we get the best line ever said in regards to the [[Codex Astartes]]: despite the fact it does cover a lot, it's not meant to be followed biblically <s>which is a load of bull given that the Codex lets said commander win all the wars in the most efficient way possible while blindly following it and only failed in the last battle because he was in a war game against Girlyman</s>. (See the quote on the page on the Big Book of Astartes). The Imperium Secundus shows up, making for another bizarre plot element that ruins the series without adding anything.
** '''''Liar's Due:''''' You know those memes on how the [[Alpha Legion]] causes mass paranoia without actually involving any Astartes? Those aren't just memes. Alpha Legion serf arrives on a agri-world and turns it's allegiance to Horus by only hacking all their inter-planetary communications.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[Salamanders|Salamander]] and a grumpy ol' [[Ultramarine]] are sent in opposition to one of Horus' iterators to convince an industrial-militant world which side to side with. They almost side with Horus before the Warmaster's agents [[Exterminatus|wreck shit]] for the lulz. Oh, and to send the message that neutrality will be punished. The [[Iron Warriors]] were doing weird shit on that world for years beforehand, and was probably the more deciding factor than the lulz.
** '''''The Last Remembrancer:''''' Horus sent the one last remembrancer he had stored up as a gift to Dorn. Instead of in a box (or eight or some shit like that), it was the [[Dan Abnett]] of his day telling Dorn that the grimdark galaxy was grimdark. Also that the Emperor's vision of a galaxy of peace, unity, prosperity, and fluffy bunnies built up without any more grimdark attached than was strictly needed, probably wasn't very likely before any shit hit any fan either way. Also, Iacton Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iacton Qruze. Dorn says it's all lies and enemy propaganda before executing said remembrancer and torching all his ramblings.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Magnus's absent fleet from the Burning of Prospero comes home and shits a brick. The last known surviving squad of Thousand Sons outside of the Planet of the Sorcerers gets beaten up and they slowly figure out it was the Space Wolves who shit on Magnus's <s>parade</s> world and is stalking them. One plot twist later, most of them are dead, the last one decides he's gonna rebuild everything, with a few scant hints that his flesh-change genetic flaw will [[Blood Ravens|shift into kleptomania]].
** '''''The Face of Treachery:''''' The tie-in and conclusion of the audiodrama featuring the Raven Guard after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax [[troll]]ing Perturabo for a bit too long, Horus sends Angron in to finish the job, but Corax's cavalry arrives to troll Angron by getting the loyalists the fuck out of there. We also learn that Corax has a supersekrit psyker ability which lets him roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can out-troll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters (they let the World Eater commander think he was in command then blew his brains out when he tried to actually command). Ends with an transitory bit into ''Deliverance Lost''.
** '''''Little Horus:''''' Little Horus Aximand is struggling with the PTSD he got when he killed Loken and Torgaddon with [[Abaddon|Abby]]. Abby and Little Horus have a discussion (we mean Horus Aximand, not when Primarch Horus was sodomizing Abaddon again) about restoring the Mournival. A couple war scenes later, Little Horus learns the hard way that the White Scars are pretty badass, but his PTSD starts acting up again and he gets his face shaved off before the White Scars are driven off. Little Horus realizes his PTSD he had since killing Loken and Torgaddon ultimately stems from that time he helped kill Loken and Torgaddon, and gives a diatribe about how things like "change", "mood swings", and "hallucinations" are suited to his melancholic nature, saying things like "it's perfectly natural", "I'm fine, everything's fine. Everything is perfectly, absolutely fine", and "Therapy is for the weak. I'm fine". After the Mongolian shave, he gets his face reattached and ends up looking even more like Big Horus in the deal.
** '''''The Iron Within:''''' Some pretty bro-tier loyalist Iron Warriors build a fortress hanging from a cave over an ocean of prometheum in a hellhole of a world (giant cavern system & acidic atmosphere), and one of Perturabo's traitor Grand Companies come knocking to demand that they hand over the house keys. The loyalists give them a fuck-you in the form of a Dreadnought. A few melodramatic and horrific but generic war scenes later, and they get overrun (after a full year of siege thanks to the genius of a certain [[Barabas Dantioch]]), drop the fortress from the ceiling onto a titan, and get the hell out of there by hijacking one of the Iron Warriors warships via teleportation. An Ultramarine big wig was there to bring the loyalists home, informing them that [[Skub|Guilliman was fortifying Terra]] and he needed good siege workers to stall the traitors then to fortify Terra. While loyalist Iron Warriors were pretty cool, the story itself was pretty forgettable; and it left some open questions like whether the continuity errors were the result of "faulty astropathic communications" (see Outcast Dead) or if the Ultramarines were trolling the Iron Warriors to join in with the Imperium Secundus. And also why the Iron Warriors were determined to take a hellhole at an immense expense of people and materiel, including Titans, while they could have just said "fuck yo shit!" and left a fortress with no space or warp conveyance and arguably little strategic value in itself in the middle of nowhere alone. It mentions a few times that it looks really bad for a rebellion trying to gain initiative when a mere captain of their Legions tells their Primarch "fuck off, imma keeping this fortress & resources for the Emperor!" The message behind it being if you can't even control your own men, maybe this rebellion thing needs a rethinking, because hearing Horus can't even take this shitty outpost middle of nowhere and he's going to Terra might be bad press.
** '''''Savage Weapons:''''' A good story written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|ADB]]. Dark Angels are hunting down the Night Lords who are fucking with Forge Worlds, but the Night Lords are staying a step ahead of them, much to [[Rage|the Lion's frustration]]. After being advised by Horus to pass along a message, Kurze asks the Lion to meet up face-to-face on Tsagualsa. When they talk, while what they say to each other is offscreen, it's implied Kurze told Lion about the Fallen Angels and that Horus knew about their impending betrayal. Lion decides nobody is going to give him shit about being a rumored closet traitor, and the ensuing fight proves that Jonson is a badass among primarchs, until Kurze goes to his old fallback of strangling a fucker, and things get more even. Their respective honor guards go at it in the meantime, and showing [[Sevatar]] is a badass among Space Marines. Things end up in a draw, leaving things open for a new plotline within the Heresy, the ''Prince of Crows'' novella being the next.
*'''''The Outcast Dead:''''' A mess of continuity errors, at least when compared with the rest of the series, the other authors later claimed all the errors were absolutely intentional and a result of the messed-up nature of Warp-based communication. [[derp|''Riggggghhhhtttt!'']] More importantly: shortly after the start of the Heresy an astropath has routine nervous breakdown and is returned to Terra to get [[Witch Hunters|some R&R]]. What really ends up happening is that he gets there in time for [[Magnus]]'s astral body to reach Big E to warn him of Horus' betrayal, and the fuckhueg psychic shock of course dicks with the Astropath HQ compound something mighty. In the confusion and assloads of psychic phenomena that followed, the astropath gets implanted with a message for somebody regarding the war, but his PTSD keeps him from knowing what the hell it is or who it's for. The Custodes come in and tell him ''"[[Anal Circumference|Ve haff vays of making you talk.]]"'' and hand him over to a pair of [[Inquisition|kind counselors]] who torture the poor man half to death. After a time, he gets busted out in the nick of time by some convict Space Marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." to the others. They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra (amusingly, none of the escapees is very happy at the prospect of the Heresy but they are all [[rage|slightly miffed]] at being treated like shit by the Custodes just because of the Legion they belong to.) Other subplots revolve around: a psyker congregant at a slum church near the Imperial palace; a samurai witch hunter (no, really); '''''fucking [[Thunder Warriors]]'''''. Best bits are <s>[[Rip and tear|an unarmed, unarmored World Eater ripping a Custodes' spine out through his chest]]</s> the portrayal of the Emperor playing chess in dreams, revealing that the message is about his upcoming bitchslap from Horus.
*'''''Deliverance Lost:''''' [[Corvus Corax]], having just escaped from Istvaan V, decides to go ask daddy for a handout to get his Legion back on his feet, and gets the mother of all genetech to do it, though he has to do a bit of legwork to get it. Meanwhile, a bunch of faceless Alpha Legionnaires (okay, they do have faces, they just originally belonged to some Raven Guard) had infiltrated Corax's Legion at Istvaan, and are doing recon and intelligence gathering waiting for [[Omegon]] to give the go-ahead to fuck shit up. Corax, meanwhile sets up new geneseed methods that bring up new recruits to battle-ready marines ''in fucking hours'', with the potential to conscript literally anybody willing to become a Space Marine. The Alphas decide this probably isn't in their interest, and sabotage the new geneseed by tainting it with ''daemon blood'', turning second- and third-batch new Raven Guard into the twisted monsters we know that Corax ended up with. In one of the instances of retcon that was actually flavored with [[awesome]] and win, the mutant marines [[Grimdark|were still sapient]], but were left to fight on in the Emperor's name. After staging a mass insurrection on Deliverance's parent world with the help of some old guilders Corax ousted and the Dark Mechanicum, Omegon gets ''more'' Alphas infiltrated into the Raven for the endgame: steal the genetech, kill some Ravenguard, get the fuck out before anybody knows what the fuck just happened in here. A couple cockups along the way leads to the Raven Guard getting wise and isolating out the Alphas. The end of the novel was like a swingers party at the retirement home, everybody got screwed (even ''Horus''), nobody got what they hoped for (except for [[Omegon|the really deviant bastard]]), and all-around the reproductive material was a waste. Corax shut down his hothousing method, and starts fucking with the Traitors, even at reduced numbers. The book ends on a note with Alpharius-Omegon deciding that while their plan for saving the galaxy was still good, they decide working with Xenos isn't for them.
*'''''Know No Fear:''''' The Ultras are still ignorant about Istvaan and the civil war erupting around the galaxy, and are on muster at Calth with the Word Bearers [[troll|on orders from Horus]] to go kill some Orks together as a conciliatory gesture. They were in for a surprise. The Word Bearers, while happy as hell to get revenge, are really trying to [[Eldrad|dick over]] the Ultramarines to keep them out of the Heresy, if not destroy them outright. What happens next is the Word Bearers arrange some "accidents" using sorcery and good ol' fashioned treachery to fake a monumental fuck up in the ship yards that leave the Ultramarine forces blind, deaf, and crippled. They use the confusion to say that the Ultras ''still'' fucking them over, and take the chance to open not only a can, but entire cases of whoop-ass on the Ultras. Erebus turns Calth's pole into a screaming hellscape to start up a warp storm, while Kor Phaeron oversees the systematic extermination of the Ultramarines and also successfully poisons Calth's sun. Guilliman gets jettisoned into space, but survives because [[Spiritual Liege]]. He then leads a counterattack on Kor Phaeron, and while Kor comes ''this close'' to getting a Primarch kill with [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|Chaos mindbullets]], but in a moment of self-aggrandizement, he holds back tries to corrupt Guilliman with his own dagger-sized '''MURDER SWORD'''. Guilliman calmly tells him "The Codex Astartes <s>does</s> will not support this action" (it was really "You made an error" followed by an explanation of that error, and "but while I'm alive, I can do this") and [[Rip and Tear|rips out Kor Phaeron's main heart with an unpowered Lightning Claw]]. Kor Phaeron's minions run away with his carcass, allowing the Ultras to retake their space station, which in turn allows Mechanicus plot power, aided by a planet's worth of orbital defense batteries, to bring the ground war back into the Ultramarines' favor. The novel ends with Word Bearers getting the hell out of there, and the Ultramarines evacuating everyone they can off of Calth and telling everybody they can't to get underground, transitioning into underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pius]] being the special guest star with his very own subplot, and the Word Bearers having athame blades as special issue, one of which will [[Uriel Ventris|come back later]]. You might notice this summary is pretty spoilerific, but if you didn't know the broad strokes already, you're in the wrong place.
*'''''The Primarchs:''''' A novella anthology. As the name suggests, it contains stories featuring Primarchs.
**'''''The Reflection Crack'd:''''' - <s>[[Lucius]] and friends anally rape [[Fulgrim]]. Yeah.</s> While questionable use of a ''pear of anguish'' is featured during a game of "Stab the Fulgrim," the real story is this: Lucius and his buddies are deep into the [[/d/|sickfuckery]] which will come to characterize their Legion, but begin to suspect that Fulgrim might have a daemon in him when he begins acting like not-Fulgrim and uses sorcery. They ambush him and try to exorcise it with pain, because torturing a Slaaneshi daemon will totally work (though they find out that a Primarch can grow back a foot, and just about any other wound). Among everything else: [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bill]] is still an arrogant dick; Lucius is still a maniacal and colossally narcissistic sick fuck; Julius Kaesoron is still an angry badass; Marius Vairosean is still a sycophantic cunt; and Eidolon was still a self-important, whiny douche, but Fulgrim throws a tantrum and cuts his head off, and there was much cheering from the readers, and that ''plus'' almost certain off-screen fapping among the Legionaries leads into ''Angel Exterminatus''.
**'''''Feat of Iron''''' - [[Ferrus Manus]]'s Legion is trying to off some Eldar on a desert world, but can't find the major Eldar strategic asset because of Spess Elf warp bullshit. A Farseer thinks he can warn Ferrus about the Heresy, and traps him in the webway or some psychic realm for a spirit quest long enough to fight a [[Fulgrim|giant purple snake]] (which is [[/d/|disturbingly appropriate imagery]] when you think about it); and Ferrus thinks it was the wyrm that he killed and gave him his metal hands, but the snake tells him that he must be mistaking it for somebody else. Ferrus kills it, and meets the Farseer who tries to tell Ferrus that he wasn't just being a dick. Ferrus, having too many experiences with Eldar being dicks, knocks some sense into the Farseer, who manages to run just fast enough to avoid getting killed. Ferrus comes back and helps his Legion fight off the Eldar kill the Webway beacon, or whatever the hell it was. In the background of all of this, the Iron Hands, having lost Ferrus, decide to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bitch about potentially dead father, and work to complete the mission despite being weighed down by Imperial Army who are dying of dehydration and heat stroke. The Eldar figure out a way to use storm clouds that make Iron Hands bionics kill their users, and Ferrus has a bitch of an itch around his neck that he can't get rid of. [[Drop Site Massacre|I wonder if that's important]].
**'''''The Lion:''''' - Dark Angels fight daemons and reinstitute Librarians. The Lion teamkills Nemiel for reminding him about Nikaea, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books because [[Gav Thorpe]] wanted to prove he's a big boy author who can kill his characters. Then they steal an intelligent super warp engine (insta shifts the Dark Angel fleet into the warp without need for a jump point while teleporting itself and the Lion onto his flagship; Lion is capable of talking politely infront of so much power) from [[Typhus]] then set course for Macragge to sort out Guilliman.
**'''''Serpent Beneath:''''' - Alpharius Omegon plots against himself and destroys a facility built around what looks suspiciously like a Cadian Pylon (and said facility keeping the White Scars out of the war), due to [[Cake|an information leak]], and they can't have that. Except than none of the main players are Alpharius or Omegon. And Alpharius and Omegon can't decide if they're secretly working against each other or not. Also: considered to be one of the better works of the series, not only due to quality, but because of the sheer mindfuckery of the plot, keeping entirely within the rationale of the Alpha Legion without any jumps in logic or canon.

=== Books XXI - XXX ===
*'''''Fear to Tread:''''' Despite being Black Library's most financially successful book ''ever'' and hitting thirteen (!) on the New York Times bestseller list (without Oprah's recommendation, even), many [[/tg/|fa/tg/uy]]s find it a bit ridiculous. Why? Well, there's planets with giant frowny faces inhabited by garbage monsters, ships getting blown up by city-sized rocks launched from the aforementioned planets, a nearly-stereotypically-gay [[Slaanesh]]i daemon that doesn't actually serve much of a purpose in the story, and a villain named the Red Angel, despite the fact [[Angron]] already claimed that as a nickname (although he was first introduced in ''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'', so it's not [[James Swallow]]'s fault). Oh, and Sanguinius acts like an idiot about [[Chaos]] the whole time, which fits the [[fluff]], but come on, how many freaky supernatural signs do you need to see before you decide it's not just foul xenos? In all fairness, of course, ''Fear to Tread'' does have quite a few good moments, especially when it comes to [[Warp]]-related terror. It also has a priceless bromance between [[Horus]] and [[Sanguinius]], not to mention Sanguinius and his Legion get characterized very well. Sanguiniuns and Co end up reaching Imperium Secundus.

*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - A story about two parallel story lines. The first is set during the [[Battle of Phall]], a space battle between the Iron Warriors whole fleet and what was left over from a third of the Imperial Fists's fleet after a warpstorm were ran them" ashore" and left them drifting and isolated in the backwater Phall system. Despite having the superior numbers, more and bigger guns, suicidal expenditure cohorts, and the power of a raging hatred boner, the Iron Warriors were losing to the Imperial Fists's maneuverability and [[Alexis Polux|Captain Polux's]] protagonist power. Eventually, the Fists get the order and window to withdraw to Terra, though turning tail would put their fleet at a huge disadvantage. Given the choice between blind obedience to his father or carrying on the battle they were winning, Polux chooses the former and takes his Fists back to Terra, but ends up in the Imperium Secundus instead. This was also the first of the two depictions of Perturabo, and clearly the worst of the two as he's shown as a cold-hearted Saturday morning cartoon villain with rage control issues. The second story line follows [[Sigismund]] as he follows Rogal around the Imperial Palace, while he was ordered to command the fleet on its way to Istvaan and got trapped at Phall, but delegated it to Polux's predecessor. The twist is that he met Euphrati Keeler had a spiritual experience when they spoke, and felt that he would be needed more at Terra instead of as a drifting corpse permanently lost in orbit around some backwater, and so handed off job of commanding the fleet. When he eventually opened up to Rogal, this got him in trouble. See, Rogal was still one of the [[Imperial Truth|stupid atheists]] at this point, so he disowned Sigismund because he thought "serving a higher purpose" was arrogant and got in the way of doing his job. This left Sigismund feeling really sad and pissed off, thus was his start of <s>darkness</s> daddy issues. [[Black Templars|Really pissed off and bad ass daddy issues.]]
**'''''The Dark King''''' - A look into the head and story of Konrad Curze during the events leading up to the Dropsite Massacre. It shows how Curze, even if you buy that he was a murderous paladin of justice and order through fear rather than just a fearsome murderer, is getting pretty fucked up in the head and lives with the knowledge of his demise haunting him, which isn't that great for his sanity. It also involves him beating up Rogal Dorn, killing some Imp Fists and Emp's Children terminators <s>with his more advanced suit and built-in vox jammers </s>with his bare hands, then blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn. The first 10 is him being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace as a grand piece of art by fortifying it into a coldly functional fortress. The next 10 is Rogal having an existential monologue then a conversation with Malcador, all about why he doesn't know why Horus declared war on the Emperor and brought half of the Legions with him, and is partly afraid to find out why in case it makes sense. Malcador ends up knowing at least a little about Chaos, and somehow got his hands on a tarot deck Curze used throughout his life, even to the close of ''The Dark King''. (Don't ask how he got them. Really.) Also the (*Name Drop*) Lightning Tower is the important card that comes up, signifying a [[Siege of Terra|destruction of fortifications]] and/or a [[Imperium of Man|change of thinking through sacrifice]].
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Right before Istvaan, techpriest Pallas Ravachol is working on a top secret "Kaban" robot project on Mars realizes that the project has achieved sapience and is in fact a form of strong AI. Though he genuinely befriended the Kaban machine, Ravachol complains to boss Magos Chrom that working on an AI is both highly illegal and insanely dangerous. Chrom tells Ravachol not to be such a pussy since Horus himself gave the OK, and after some deliberation, has a death squad awaiting to escort the Ravachol off site the next morning. Ravachol, thinking there were few ways this could well, makes a break for it and flees for Magos Malevolus's forge, hoping to get somebody with some clout to reveal that his old boss and Horus were up to something. On the way, he spends time running away from a latex-clad sadist babe who persistently chases after him; since she's an AdMech equivalent of a Death Cultist assassin, this is a ''much'' better idea than it sounds. When he gets to Malevolus's forge, Malevolus distracts him with a legion of shiny Mk6 suits of Marine Power Armor long enough to drop the bomb to drop that they were for Horus. The latex-clad babe catches up to them both, and the techpriest flees again, only to be puzzled why Malevolus and the assassin are letting him run. As he gets out the door, he meets the Kaban machine, <s>and through the power of friendship, the Kaban decides to side with the good guys, and the day is saved.</s> Except this is the dark, gritty universe of 30K where brother turns against brother. Chrom told the Kaban Machine that it and Ravachol couldn't be friends for realsies, because rules and stuff, and taking up with Horus was a great idea. The Kaban Machine, not understanding how humans work nor '''The Power of Friendship''', didn't know any better than to agree and kills Ravachol right on the steps of Malevolus's forge. End story. An okay story, somewhat generic feeling prose. More of a who's who of the Dark Mechanicus during ''Mechanicum'' and telling where the hell that Kaban machine from the same book came from and how they seduced an AI into Chaos worship.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - A bridge between Istvaan V and ''Deliverance Lost'', also a companion story to the Raven's Flight audio drama. The story tells how Commander Marcus Valerius of the Imperial Army is stationed on Deliverance and keeps having recurring nightmares which is causing him worry about Corax. Commander Branne of the Raven Guard's garrison on Deliverance, is getting tired of how the Legion's pet human won't stop bitching about it, and decides to take Valerius out on a trip in the battle barge to Istvaan just to show him that everything is just fine. Meanwhile, Corax and a relative handful of surviving Raven Guard are fighting a guerilla war against the traitors, trying to stay one step ahead of the Iron Warriors and then the World Eaters, and in-between skirmishes, Corax spends a few thoughtful moments feeling bad about his Legion and the state of the Imperium now that things have gone to shit.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, after that he makes tokens (for the warrior-lodge, but he doesn't know that) and then he gets his windpipe crushed to make sure word doesn't get out about the tokens. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life up until the point where he's lying on his own floor, slowly suffocating to death. Ultimately it is kind of irrelevant, but the lore nerds or people who have been paying attention might find it interesting. It is however only barely 20 pages long, so you might as well read it anyway.
**'''''Prince of Crows''''' - A novella featuring the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain [[Sevatar]] of the Night Lords. With the Night Lords's forces all but shattered by the Dark Angels, Curze in a coma nearly dead, and the Dark Angels's fleet in pursuit, Sevatar has to knock some heads for the Night Lords to get their shit together and reorganize and rethink strategy. It's essentially about showing the fractures in the Night Lords Legion. As most stories written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]], it's pretty good.

*'''''Angel Exterminatus:''''' [[Perturabo]] just finished [[skub|fucking up (or being fucked by)]] some Fists, and [[Fulgrim]] finds him to polish off a plot hook from ''The Reflection Crack'd'' and recruit Pert for an expedition into the Eye of Terror because a renegade Eldar said he knows where to get ''the good shit'' (the eponymous Angel Exterminatus). Fulgrim wanted to make a show out of delivering exposition, and he had Pert use his skills to build a stadium and went storyteller mode; then the moment was killed when a Shattered Legion detachment composed of Iron Hands and a Raven Guard commando sniped Fulgrim (he got better). Of course, Pert took the moment to remind himself that this is why he can't have, [[Rage|won't ever have]], nice things. Thinking that Fulgrim had the scent of a powerful artifact or a superweapon, and seeing that Fulgrim was becoming the Primarch equivalent of a crack addict member of the Jersey Shore and his legion wasn't looking much better, Pert decided to play it safe by tagging along and making sure Fulgrim wouldn't break anything. On the way, a different Eldar scholar came to the Shattered Legion, telling them that Fulgrim and Pert can't be allowed to get to the Angel Exterminatus, or [[Daemon|Bad Things (Warp-registered trademark)]] will happen. Well into the journey into the Eye, the Iron Hands's resident mad scientist accidentally gave away their location, and the Emp's Children and Iron Warriors decide to throw a boarding party. After a few pages of pulse pounding action, Pert says "fuck this", and leaves as the Iron Hands's same mad scientist overloads the engines and does a [[Battlefleet Gothic|mother of a ramming maneuver]] which kills an Emp's Children ship. (Pert was getting sick of Fulgrim's shit at this point, so he decided not to let them know, leading to the loss of the ship and thousands of casualties for Fulgrim.) Then, they finally get there, they find a [[Crone World]] covered in ruins and occupied spirit stones being held in orbit around a black hole. Some wraithbone constructs pop up and Pert and Fulgrim have to fight to the heart of the planet to get at the Angel Exterminatus. On the way, Pert kills their renegade Eldar because he was a lyin' bitch. When they ''finally'' get there, Surprise! Daemon Primarch Fulgrim is supposed to be the Angel Exterminatus, and he betrays Pert (a bauble Fulgrim gave to Pert at the start of the book was a vitality-leeching thing), and they start the ritual which would sacrifice Pert to turn Fulgrim into a Daemon Prince. Then the Shattered Legion crashes the ceremony, and assists the Iron Warriors since it's clear they weren't working with the Emp's Children anymore. Pert kills Fulgrim, but it didn't count since Fulgrim's mortal essence works just as well as sacrifice. He goes full Daemon Prince despite a generous helping of Thunder Hammer to his [[gay|pretty face]], breaks every spirit stone on the planet, and disappears with every last one of his sick fucks. The Eldar scholar helping the Shattered Legion throws a bitch fit, revealing that both scholars were Dark Eldar who had cut a deal with Fulgrim (help him become a daemon and they get assloads of spirit stones to fuck with), and he had made sure that the Shattered Legions were there to put a wedge in that deal because...reasons. The Shattered Legion gets the hell out, and the Iron Warriors try to GTFO as the planet starts to fall into the black hole. The book ends, with Pert, being a wise man, orders them to reverse course and fly right into that fucker. Subplots include a lot of buildup for McNeil's Iron Warriors stories, the Shattered Legions' feelings on trying to unfuck an irreversibly fucked situation, some tense buildup of two Imperial Fists as they try to survive Fabius's turning them into mutants (which actually had a poor payoff). Despite being overall good, it's a bit of a skub novel because the depiction of Perturabo is so different from expected, rather than being the bitter [[RAGE|Rage]] machine from every other depiction, he's a quiet [[Neckbeard|nerd who plays with toys as a hobby]], but with muscles. And because the ghosts of eldar's Aspect Warriors and Wraith-Constructs inside a planet left inside the Eye of Terror is a canon-rape on par with C.S. Goto, the first death of Lucius at the hands of a Mary Sue despite previous claims that he was undefeated during the Heresy and his unexplained resurrection (<s>"How? Fucking Chaos, that's how."</s> Oh, sure, every CSM is immortal), and an Iron Hands legionnaire somehow being immune to sonic weapons by being deaf. And worst of all, a rotating Shadowsword turret.

*'''''Betrayer:''''' Lorgar and Angron rampage over the Ultramarines 500 worlds. Lots of references to Angron's past and his Butcher's Nails are killing him slowly. Turns out one of the Ultramarine worlds was his own Homeworld, so he destroys it and Lorgar makes him into a daemon-prince. Also remember the Furious Abyss? Lorgar has two more. Also focuses on Khârn and Argel Tal being bros, until Erebus decides to intervene and kill a bitch.

* '''''Angron:''''' An anthology about <s>Lorgar</s> <s>Horus</s> <s>Dorn</s> <s>Malcador</s> <s>the plumber for the Golden Throne</s> Fuck, we can't remember. It often gets passed over in the official lists, since it's actually a cheat since it's a republish of older short stories: '''After De'shea''', '''Butcher's Nails''' ''(print format)'', and '''Lord of the Red Sands''' ''(which was initially a standalone release,'' even later ''republished in'' The Imperial Truth'')''.

*'''''Mark of Calth:''''' Another set of short stories, though all focused on the [[Ultramarines]] or the [[Word Bearers]].
**'''''Shards of Erebus:''''' - We find that [[Erebus]] broke the '''MURDER SWORD''' into eight daggers/athames and shared them with his bros. Also shows how he returned to Davin to learn how to teleport with the '''MURDER SWORD''', then killing the priestess that helped him turn Horus. She somehow wins because she served Chaos before dying which pisses Erebus off.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Keeps bringing up what Calth used to be like. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to Nurgle everyone, and the Ultramarines save the day in the nick of time. After all, THE GREATEST OF THE-{{BLAM}}
**'''''Dark Heart''''' - A young Word Bearer is interrogated by Kor Phaeron after he ended up killing his mentor with dark powers (turned him insta inside out). A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degradation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A spacedock traffic controller survives the destruction of his star fort, and the fatal crash of his escape shuttle before ending up in a small underground arcology with other human survivors. Imperial cultists believe he is blessed, and when he starts hearing whispers and seeing unbelievers they start rounding everybody up for execution. Everybody gets slowly executed till he's the last one left. Learns he's been possessed and reveals to an Ultramarine that he was was infected by the vox from the ''Campanile''.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - An Ultramarine has a hard-on for a certain Word Bearer trolling him. Hunts down said Word Bearer into a cave system with a team of soldiers and Spess Merheens. Word Bearer trolls them by summoning a Gorgon. Ultramarine wins by tricking the Gorgon into looking at its reflection.
**'''''The Underworld War''''' - A story that has little to do with the actual Underworld War. It features a Gal Vorbak who sees the attack on Calth as a clusterfuck of fail. Has a plot-twist ending... turns out Daemons give visions of the future to potential Gal Vorbak, and said Gal Vorbak was given a vision of him not abandoning his fallen brothers on Calth. The Daemon doesn't have time for that shit so it lets him die during his transformation.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife, though not one from the '''MURDER SWORD'''. That's about it... totally... right. Wrong. The small sacrificial knife that Ollanius found was carved on Terra for a benign ritual, stolen by an evil Perpetual who was killed by ''the Emperor'' in medieval times, found in an archeological dig by Kasper Hawser, and went on other crazy murder-adventures, all while having rudimentary sentience.
**'''''Unmarked''''' - Ollanius Pius and friends is traveling through time and space using the athame from the previous story. We learn a lot more about Oll's past, going into detail about his offhand mentions that he was one of the Argonauts and that he served in the First World War and the First Gulf War.
*'''''Vulkan Lives:''''' What happened to Vulkan after the Dropsite Massacre? He got made Konrad Curze's torture bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer to the face. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc. Remember the Shattered Legions crew from ''Angel Exterminatus''? Now you get a new group that is far more bland and less distinct.
*'''''The Unremembered Empire:''''' [[Perpetual|Matt Damon]] killed Martin Luther King. This happens in the book. Also, unlike the cover and synopsis would imply, it's ''not'' about Sanguinius and Guilliman working together to build a back-up Imperium around Ultramar, which leads to the question of ''why that's on the cover?'' No one knows what it is really about, especially the book's description of itself (which describes its ''sequels''). Several things happen in the book as several unrelated subplots collide as several entities are drawn by the Pharos device to Macragge. There are implications that Guilliman's new backup Imperium is starving resources from Terra.
*'''''Scars:''''' Technically the third book of the Prospero arc. The Khan returns to the Imperium after killing Orks left over from Ullanor and can't decide what side to join. Turns his back on Leman Russ during a fight with the Alpha Legion and goes looking for his best friend Magnus, also gets into a fight with Mortarion on the way, also [[The Fallen|half his legion turns traitor]] but turns out it's no big deal.
** '''''Brotherhood of the Storm:''''' Prequel to Scars, shows the White Scars fighting Orks on Chondax.
*'''''Vengeful Spirit''''' Horus goes looking for power to make him equal to the Emperor and the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z (kinda). We learn that the Emperor gained his powers after making a pact with the Chaos Gods where they gave him a fraction of their power, then somehow managed to double-cross them in what is quite possibly the most retarded retcon ever introduced in the entire book series. (In all seriousness though, the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series. It could be the truth, or one of their beautifully crafted lies.) Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest. Also, if you have been ignoring the audio books, you will be a bit lost at the start of this one.
*'''''The Damnation of Pythos''''' A Lovecraftian Horror story disguised as a Horus Heresy story. Has the most grimdark ending of the series thus far, up there with Dead Men Walking. Adds just about as much to the overall series as ''Furious Abyss'' did, but is actually pretty well written, unlike "Furious Abyss". To cut a long story short, daemons take over a world in the Pandorax system, capture a starship and use it to start ferrying cultists from place to place. The book also has some crossover with 40k and the Pandorax Campaign.

=== Books XXXI to XL ===
*'''''Legacies of Betrayal''''' Another anthology, though this time it's a bit of cheat, and they just consolidated several pre-existing stories; some of the the novellas but also included print versions of audio books.
**'''Brotherhood of the Storm''' - see above
**'''Serpent''' - A really short and out-of-place story about a Davinite Priest.
**'''Hunters Moon''' - originally an audiobook involving peasant fishermen rescuing a crashed space wolf who is running from the Alpha Legion after killing Alpharius, it obviously doesn't end well.
**'''Veritas Ferrum''' - a prequel to Damnation of Pythos, about an Iron Hands starship escaping ''(against their better nature)'' from Isstvan with some survivors.
**'''Strike and Fade''' - More survivors of Isstvan, though this is about Salamanders just killing time (and Night Lords) whilst they wait to be rescued.
**'''Honour to the Dead''' - about Ultramarines and an innocent woman and child trying her hardest to follow them to safety.
**'''Butcher's Nails''' - A good one to read, Angron & Lorgar go on the Shadow-Crusade and come to an understanding whilst fighting Eldar.
**'''Warmaster''' - Horus considering how much of a badass he is while chatting with Ferrus Manus's skull.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go kidnap a warp code interpreter that will let them intercept garbled enemy communications.
**'''Wolfs Claw''' - Bjorn the Fell-Handed needs a replacement arm, but the Iron Priests are too busy, but he happens to find a nice fancy relic one just lying around.
**'''The Divine Word'''
**'''Thief of Revelations''' - After Prospero, the Thousand Sons need something to stop all their rampant mutation, so Ahriman goes to ask why Magnus has locked himself away. He's got bigger things to worry about and is looking across time and space for key events for future [[Just as Planned]] manipulations.
**'''Lucius the Eternal Warrior''' - After his first death ''(and unexplained resurrection)'' at the hands of Nykona Sharrowkyn, Lucius has somehow abandoned the Heresy and goes to the planet of Sorcerers to fight a duel with the bestest Thousand Son swordsman, ends up meeting Ahriman. [[wat|Uh-huh...]]
**'''The Eightfold Path''' - Kharn and the World Eaters realise that too much rip and tear is leading them [[Khorne|down a damning path]], but they're already too far gone.
**'''Guardian of Order''' - [[Cypher]] and [[Zahariel]] discover that the Ouroboros (banished in Fallen Angels) is coming back
**'''Heart of the Conqueror''' - Angron's Navigator gets a bit uppity about being made to turn traitor, despite having been picked for the job as the angry man's chauffeur by the Emperor himself. Blams herself during mid-warp transit with not-fun results for flagship.
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel is killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes about it on his armour. Said notes will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]] on the subject of killing Word Bearers (because it's that damn important to kill Word Bearers). Thiel eventually gets bored and goes back to Macragge in the end.
**'''Lone Wolf''' - Bjorn has lost all of his squad, but is now such an awesome badass that he can solo Bloodthirsters.
*'''''Death and Defiance''''' Yet another anthology
**'''Imperfect''' - Daemon-Fulgrim has been getting Fabius to clone Ferrus Manus, because the split personality thing makes him feel guilty about failing to turn his brother to Horus's side, but the clones are never quite right and go mental at each suggestion. Fabius also has his own stuff going on.
**'''Howl of the Heathworld''' - Space Wolves get sent to Terra to watch over Rogal Dorn so he doesn't start using psykers, its a pointless task and everyone know it. Also offers insight into the Wolves naming conventions.
**'''A Safe and Shadowed Place''' - [[Night Lords]] start stabbing each other in the back as soon as Curze goes missing while solo'ing Macragge. It's about a ship floating in the ruinstorm that has just discovered the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] and foreshadows problems for Ultramar.
**'''Virtues of the Sons''' - Sanguinius forsees that he will not always be in charge of the Blood Angels, but worries about the Red Thirst causing havoc with his sons futures. So gets Amit to duel Kharn and Azkaellon to duel Lucius in hopes they'll learn something. Azkaellon learns to let the rage out a bit and Amit learns a modicum of restraint.
**'''Gunsight''' - The Vindicare Assassin from Nemesis is still alive and on Horus' flagship, its about him spending years waiting for the opportune moment to get a shot, but he starts going mad while he waits. Gives ups when Horus plucks his killshot from the air and Horus gives him a chaos rifle for his change in loyalty.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anthology
**'''Daemonology''' - To and fro' story about [[Mortarion]]. On Terra he discovers the initial construction of the Golden Throne and gets told about Emp's plan for removing psykers. In the "present day" he captures a daemon and starts practising sorcery on it.
**'''Black Oculus''' - A short story about Navigators describing what it's like travelling in the warp.... basically it's [[Grimdark]].
**'''Chirurgeon''' - [[Fabius Bile]] narrating about his history, and what happened about the gene-flaw that almost wiped out the [[Emperor's Children]]. Totally has the gene-flaw and has been using his bestest bro turned servitor to keep it under wraps.
**'''Twisted''' - '''Maloghurst''' gets a story about him uncovering plots against Horus and gets wrapped up in intrigue. It actually shows him as a really clever bastard and a bit of a badass.
**'''Wolf Mother''' - [[Perpetual|Alivia Sureka]]'s kids get captured after their escape from Molech and she teams up with [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]] in order to get them back. Lots of coolness on Sevarian's part and we also get to see that Perpetuals can resist possession.
*'''''Tallarn: Executioner''''' - A novella about a vehicle squadron (Leman Russ Executioner, Vanquisher and a Salamander) having to deal with the toxic surface in the weeks after the surface bombardment and then come into contact with the Iron Warriors. Also the Alpha Legion have a hand in things, like they always do.
*'''''Tallarn: Ironclad''''' - Part two of the Tallarn story.
*'''''Deathfire''''' - What the Salamanders have been saying since Isstvan is true: Vulkan lives! Well now he does. Basically a bunch of Salamanders take his body from Macragge to Nocturne (with some side help from didn't ask for this Magnus) and throw him into Nocturne's largest volcano, and lo and behold he comes back to life, making that entire plotline pointless. Still has the fucking Fulgurite in his chest, though. TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nzml-zZ9M
*'''''The Wolf King ''''' - The Space Wolves find themselves set upon by the forces of the Alpha Legion before they can recover from the Razing of Prospero and are hounded to the edge of the Alaxxes Nebula (swiss cheese acid cloud). There the Alpha Legion beat the ever-living shi...stuffing out of the wolves whilst Russ locks himself in his room and sulks. Russ eventually summons his new favourite Bjorn to join him and they have bit of a heart to heart about what a bunch of morons they were in allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily by Horus. By the end Russ is back to his old self and celebrates by massacring every Alpha he can get his hands on even if it’s clear that his defeat is inevitable. Fortunately for the Wolves helps comes from a hidden armada of Dark Angels ostensibly "loyal" to [[Luther]], but unaware of the Horus Heresy or of the whereabouts or actions of the Lion. Russ borrows gear and manpower from them in exchange for info on current events which most likely finds its way back to Luther and sets the "Destiny of Caliban" in motion. Russ then heads for Terra.
*'''''War Without End''''': Anthologies Without End.
*'''''Pharos''''': Night Lords fucking up the Pharos Lighthouse on Sotha. Sanguinius eventually grows some balls and starts standing up to Guilliman instead of just being a pantomime Emperor, while the Lion is nowhere to be seen as usual. Warsmith Dantioch bites it while using the Pharos to burn the Night Lords out of his fortress, but inadvertently piques the interest of the [[Tyranids]], causing them to show up 10,000 years later. Skraivok become a prime example of DEMON SWORDS: NOT EVEN ONCE.
*'''''Eye of Terra''''': Another anthology.
*'''''Path Of Heaven''''': Sequel to Scars. The White Scars have been fighting traitor legions for a few years but are starting to show the strain. They finally make a shift back to Terra but things don't go as planned. Notable for digging into the Webway storyline and the Navis Nobilite as well as featuring a resurrected and suddenly competent Eidolon. Navigators weren't going to sit around while E-money built their replacement, White Scars use a prototype webway portal to escape their last stand, and Moratarion starts using sorcery to locate Typhon.
*'''The Seventh Serpent:''' a novella about the Shattered Legions going up against the Alpha Legion; a simple premise made awesome by sheer depth of Alpharian plot twists: They had been manipulated by Alpharius into fighting a battle against Loyalist Alpha Legionaires.
*'''The Silent War:''' Guess What?! It's ''another'' anthology of stories that GW have already sold individually as audio-books. So value might be had for those who hadn't listened to them.
*'''''Angels of Caliban:''''' two Dark Angels stories in one book again, though this one actually moves the plot forward. In Ultramar, the Lion captures Konrad Curze but only after discretely nuking a whole region despite a ban on orbital weapon use, which results in his disgrace and we find that it is Guilliman who breaks the Lion Sword. Curze reveals that there were chaos cults on Mcraggae too, and that Guilliman would be a traitor if he had landed a little to the left. On Caliban, the Fallen openly declare their rebellion from the Imperium and ironically steal some starships that were meant to collect them and actually bring them into the war again. [[Zahariel]] kills [[Cypher]] and takes his place.
*'''''Praetorian of Dorn''''' Alpharius tries to invade <s>Terra</s> Pluto. Dorn kills him. Yes, Alpharius is now dead. And not a fake either, but the real Alpharius. Omegon can confirm. Alpha Legions fags blew a gasket. Oh shit believe we did.
*'''''Corax''''' A compilation of all the Corax Stories, plus a new one, '''Weregeld''', which manages to undo all the hard work the previous stories have done and turn Corax into a douchebag. Kills all his mutated Raven Guard because he promised to kill warp stuff. Saves Russ and his arrogant ass though.

=== Books XLI onwards ===
*'''''The Master of Mankind''''': The Emperor is a dick: the book. We all knew this, but now it's set in stone. Highlights being: Emperor stating to Arkhan Land that the Primarchs are tools and he views them with a scientific but detached fascination. Referring to them as numbers but content to allow the fantasy of being their "father", an interpretation of the character that was fairly divisive to say the least. He actually seems to care more for his Custodians than he does any of his other creations, but they don't consider him to be a father and see him as just their warlord. Drach'nyen is also revealed to be the Daemon created when Caine killed Abel. In the end he closes the door on the webway and has to spend the rest of his time sitting in the chair keeping it shut. Despite this, it does show off why the Chaos Gods fear him, as he pretty much rapes an infinite army of Daemons; the Greater ones either flee or try and fail to fight him (being destroyed in a matter of moments) whilst the lesser ones die just by looking at him. Despite this, Drach'nyen nearly kills him, and <s>it is confirmed that fate has indeed decreed that Empy will die at the daemon's hand</s> claims that it will kill the Emperor (keep in mind that the future is malleable and Daemons lie). But how will it feast on the Emperor's tattered soul when Abaddon lacks arms to plunge it into his chest? (''But Abaddon never lost his arms due to the same retcon that let Eldrad live'') Also known as Master of skubkind. Reveals his grand plan of saving the human race from the Eldar fate by absolute control of every human to a custodian before shanking him with Drach'nyen and making him run into the webway. Also put all his chips into the ''Human Webway'' plan and screwed us all over without a backup. Can you tell that this is an ADB book?
*'''''Garro''''': Compilation of all the stories about Garro and his boy band, though they insist it isn't just an anthology since the audio book stories were expanded to be more written novel friendly.
*'''''Shattered Legions''''': It's an anthology containing an anthology. I shit thee not. It shoves together the limited edition anthology Meduson with a few other shorter stories, including some Alpha Legion stuff like the Seventh Serpent.
*'''''The Crimson King''''': Magnus was broken into shards when Russ felled him. Now the Thousand Sons with the help of Lucius the Eternal must put him back together.
*'''''Tallarn''''': Does it even need to be stated? It's another fucking anthology, this time putting all the tank porn of the Tallarn books into one binding.
*'''''Ruinstorm:''''' The conclusion to the Imperium Secundus plotline, as well as the follow on to Damnation of Pythos. Shows the Lion, Sanguinius and Guilliman trying to cross the Ruinstorm to reach Terra. Having a brief stopover at Pandorax, they decide to head out to Davin where the Heresy began and where destinies are re-made; they pass systems along the way that show what the Galaxy would look like if Chaos wins, such as a Forge World surrounded by an immense fortress wall in outer space 4000 miles thick, or a sector of space filled with solid ritualised geometric shapes that are perhaps light years across. Davin itself is surrounded by a cloud of bones and wreckage millions of kilometers thick, but the planet has long since been abandoned. There, Sanguinius finds out that in order to live through the Heresy he must become a monster even worse than Horus, but dying will curse his sons with the Black Rage; blood is on his hands either way. Instead, Sanguinius tries to sacrifice himself to save the day, but the [[Sanguinor]] steps in and takes his place while the fleets rain down a shitstorm and destroy the planet. In the aftermath, the Ruinstorm abates enough for them to reach Terra, but Horus has so much force that it is impossible for all three legions to reach, so Guilliman and the Lion agree to distract the Traitors long enough to give Sanguinius a window to get back and face his destiny, explaining why they never made it to the Siege since they were engaging Traitor fleets and burning their worlds.
*'''''Old Earth:''''' Set immediately after ''Vulkan Lives'', Vulkan and three Salamander legionaries ''(the rest of the Salamanders weren't informed of their Primarch's resurrection)'' travelled through the Webway by a gate hidden in a cave on Nocturne. On their path to Terra, they came across the Shattered Legions, who were preparing for their first major void engagement with the Sons of Horus. Just before the attack, some Medusan-born Iron Hands tried to stage a coup against Shadrak Meduson by revealing a hideous contraption of machines, and the last remnants of Ferrus Manus - his iron hand ''(They were under the illusion that they could resurrect their Primarch through cybernetics, it is hinted that the Mechanicum had some hand in this affair.)'' Thankfully, Vulkan shattered the hand, and Meduson assumed command again, though he was killed by '''Tybalt Marr''' in a boarding action after the Iron Hand refused to send reinforcements to him. In the end, it was revealed that the Emperor had Vulkan forged a weapon, that in the event Terra fell to Horus, would amplify the power of the Golden Throne to the point it coulf wipe out the entire Throneworld ''(this is probably one of Vulcan's nine relics)'' Oh, and Eldrad rescued [[Knights-Errant|Barthusa Narek]] from Nocturne and made him his assassin. They killed most of the Cabal, and finally rescued John Grammaticus, who had his memory wiped after his failure to assassinate Vulkan. With his memory restored, Grammaticus was ordered by Eldrad to find Ollanius Pius and go to Terra.
*'''''Wolfsbane:''''' No solid information yet, but it seems like Leman Russ leaves Terra to confront Horus himself. One can expect that it doesn't end well for him.

== The Primarchs Series ==

Because Black Library don't seem satisfied confusing us with all their anthologies, audio-books, and short stories, they have begun releasing a spin-off series of Horus Heresy novels centered on the Primarchs. The series don't really take place in a specific time, but generally focuses on expanding on the titular Primarch's backstory and motivations during events before the Horus Heresy (though some of them also have events occurring after it). Why Black Library lists it as part of the Horus Heresy series when that is the case is beyond our comprehension.

=== Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar ===
Centers on the papa smurf himself, and him trying to deal with how the Emperor used him like a rusty hammer to smack Lorgar in the head at Monarchia. Uses a conflict against Orks as a vehicle for him and the smurfs to express their angst over the event.

=== Leman Russ: The Great Wolf ===
Focuses on Leman Russ' notorious rivalry with the Lion, and explaining why to this day whenever the Chapters meet they throw the gauntlet down and beat the stuffing out of one another. Notably it reveals some interesting stuff like the Lion being aware of the Space Wolves' furry issue and keeping a lid on it.

=== Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero ===
Depicts the unlikely friendship between Magnus and old Pert with a joint venture between their legions. Things go wrong on the planet due to totally not Chaos cult nonsense, and it does a decent job of showing Magnus' flaws. Specifically on his inability to leave things that have "do not fuck with this" alone; something Pert tries and fails at making him understand.

=== Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia ===
Probably the book in the series that did the most character building of all of them. This book is a mix of showing off Perturabo's childhood on Olympia alongside a "current" day conflict against the Hrud. The former showing why Pert is the odd genius manchild guy he is, while the latter does a great job of showing why fucking with an alien species capable of controlling time is somewhat of a stupid idea. However, the real draw of the book is that it is mainly written as an attempt to merge together the seemingly contradictory depictions of Pert we've had over the years. Showing how the ruthless dick who decimates his legion for not being good enough in the Forgeworld books is the same guy who just wanted to be a builder in Angel Exterminatus. Yep. Definitely a sperg. Also he may or may not have wanted to bang his adopted sister.

=== Lorgar: Bearer of the Word ===
Yep, the first(ish?) heretic himself gets his own obligatory messed up childhood novel. Focusing slightly more on Kor Phaeron rather than Lorgar himself, showing him to be a manipulative dick who beat Lorgar as a child and never really bought into this whole "fatherhood" shtick, or this whole concept of [[Emperor|One True God]] but allowed Lorgar his fantasies and to take over Colchis ''(By "Word" or by "Mace")'' while Phaeron benefitted from increased position and secretly kept the faith of [[Chaos Gods]].

Though by the end Kor Phaeron wonders if Lorgar just let him think that he was manipulated and could have disposed of him at any time. The book does introduce a contrasting character to Kor Phaeron who actually shows Lorgar compassion growing up and was far more worthy of being named "father" but was far less useful to Lorgar's goals. The book shows that Lorgar isn't as stupid or naive as everyone thinks and does indeed realise that people have been using him for their own gains, but while he only really cares about doing the work of the gods, so long as they both align he doesn't seem to care.

=== Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix ===
Fulgrim tries to conquer the newly discovered planet Byzas with only 7 men. Along the way he encounters a brotherhood much like his own that wants to work with him that Fulgrim dismisses as a bunch of idealists. It's implied that he COULD have gotten the same results (Compliance) working with them but unfortunately that would have meant calling in backup and Fulgrim didn't want to do that so that was out of the question. In the end Fulgrim takes the world, but nearly dies. Several of the characters (Cyrius, Kasperos Telmar) later become prominent champions of chaos.

=== Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa ===

== The Tabletop Wargame ==
[[Forge World]] is producing a new line of books and models (''in addition to'' [[Imperial Armour]] and [[Warhammer Forge]]) to allow players to fight battles from the Horus Heresy in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. This includes rules and models for the [[Primarchs]] (both pre- and post-fall, for the Traitors) as well as ancient vehicles. No [[xenos]], unfortunately. Presumably this came about because GW felt that they just weren't making quite enough money from die-hard marine/chaos players and figured they could literally buy a dump-truck full of gold plated cocaine each if they made a version of the game that requires only Forge World minis AND thousands upon thousands of them. Still worth it, though.

=== Betrayal ===
Forge World starts big, as their first book covers the battles on Istvaan III, in which [[Horus]] sent the remaining loyalist elements of the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Emperor's Children]], [[Death Guard]], and [[World Eaters]] to the surface, ostensibly to rout the anti-Imperial resistance that had taken hold in the capital city, and then fired [[Exterminatus]] torpedoes (of the life-eater virus bomb variety) onto the city to wipe them out.

Unfortunately for Horus, not everything went as planned; not only did the loyalist Death Guard frigate ''Eisenstein'' escape to the [[Phalanx]] with word of Horus's betrayal, but loyalist elements on other ships were able to disrupt the bombardment and warn the loyalists on the ground that it was coming. Between the disruption, the warning, and good old-fashioned [[Space Marine]] toughness, only a third or so of the landed force had actually died. Horus would have fired another bombardment, but [[Angron]] and his traitor World Eaters jumped the gun and made planetfall; the other traitors were left with no choice but to deploy themselves and destroy the remaining loyalists personally.

''Betrayal'' contains a [[Great Crusade]] Legion army list (for which we have a [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines/Legion List‎|tactica]]), and rules for special characters and units from the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Death Guard]], [[Emperor's Children]], and [[World Eaters]] Legions, including their [[Primarch]]s (even [[Fulgrim]], who was not actually at the battle) and several major characters from the book series such as Garviel Loken.

===Massacre===
The infamous Drop Site Massacre is the focus of the next book, where seven Legions are sent to crush Horus’ rebellion, only for four of those to turn on the other three and crush them utterly. The books storyline is essentially just the ''first day'' of the battle, leading up to the death of [[Ferrus Manus]].

Massacre contains additional rules for special characters and units from the [[Iron Hands]], [[Night Lords]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Word Bearers]] Legions including their Primarchs and several more major characters from the book series make their debut such as Sevatar, Eidolon, Erebus and Kharn.

===Extermination===
Focusses on the second half of Istvaan V, as well as the Battle of Phall between the [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Imperial Fists]]; and on that note, it includes rules for those two Legions, as well as the [[Alpha Legion]] and the [[Raven Guard]].

It also gives us a complete Mechanicum Army List: the Taghmata.

====Condensed Lists====
The ICL and LACAL were initially released as part of the limited edition run of Extermination, but were then later released separately. They are fluff-lite, codex-equivalent books that also included all of the FAQs/Errata up to their release; which unfortunately was still the end of 6th edition so some rules haven't carried over well. ''(eg. [[Lorgar]]s psychic rules.)''

The Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List is basically the generic 30k Space Marine "codex", whilst the Isstvan Campaign Legions contains all of the collected rules for the legions from Books 1-3; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three books. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game. The ICL was continued in the Age of Darkness Legions, which collected everything to book 5, including the errata.

Later came the Mechanicum Taghamata Army List, which contained all the Mechanicum units and army lists mentioned and rearranged them to keep everything on the same page, but lacked the Questoris Knight Army. The Crusade Imperialis Army Lists contain the Solar Auxilia, Imperialis Militia/Warp Cults, and Questoris Knight Crusade army lists.

===Conquest===
Horus Heresy Volume Four is entitled 'Conquest', despite early hints from Forgeworld that it would be about the Battle of Prospero, it instead features Horus' conquest of the Imperium and the [[Skub|"Major"]] battles of this time, which is to say some battle-zones that Forgeworld made up to fill time whilst they worked on the more well known events from the in-universe history. ''(And to be fair, their response as to why Prospero was delayed was because it included four major factions, [[Adeptus Custodes|two of]] [[Sisters of Silence|which have]] NEVER been represented on the tabletop, so required more time to do them justice.)''

A large portion of the book is given over to running battles in the '''"Age of Darkness"''', which is a variant ruleset used as the default for Horus Heresy games ''(where only Troops usually score, amongst other things)'' and has rules and FOCs for Cityfight missions, rules for running ongoing campaigns, variant rules for mysterious terrain and objectives as well as including unique relics to be taken by the various army lists to add flavor to non-special characters.

It also introduces the [[Solar Auxilia]] and [[Imperial Knight|"Questoris" Knights]] (as an AdMech list) armies to play while the modellers take a break from building power armor 24/7.

===Tempest===
The fifth Horus Heresy book will cover the Battle of Calth. The rules for the [[Ultramarines]] (including [[Roboute Guilliman]] himself) as well as several warp-corrupted Word Bearer units are brought in alongside a few other new miscellaneous FW releases, including the Deredeo and the new Thanatars. There's also an Imperial Militia (Read: PDF) list that's super-customizable so you can make both loyalist and traitor lists. Also, the MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IS IN IT TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===Retribution===
Focused on 'Shadow Wars' far from the main fronts of the Heresy, in particular the Shattered Legions - that is, the [[Iron Hands]], [[Raven Guard]], and [[Salamanders]] in their weakened state following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre. But other Legions can also be included, with special rules for the Shattered Legions, Black Shields and a list for Armies of Dark Compliance - mixed traitor Legiones/Militia lists, as well as ten new special characters. It includes Legiones Astartes rules for the White Scars, Blood Angels and Dark Angels, so that players of those legions can start playing properly; however, it does not include special units, characters, or Primarchs for those legions. It also includes Garro and the Knights Errant and additional Mechanicum units and characters, including a new Dark Magos, [[Anacharis Scoria]]. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons will still need to wait for the Prospero book (Inferno, Book 7).

===Inferno===
In <s>Set to be book 3.</s> <s>late 2016.</s> <s>early 2017 (Because FW can't keep to schedule)</s> <s>December 2016</s> February 4, 2017, will come what many neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those [[Thousand Sons]] players, start saving up so you can play your space Egyptian sorcerers in all their 30k glory. Rules for the Sisters of Silence as an allied detachment and the Adeptus Custodes as a full army list will be present as well.

Well, it's come, and... it's uninspiring to say the least, with stuff like [[What|Magnus being straight up impossible to hit if he casts invisibility, not to mention pumping out 2d6 destroyer hits at every unit within 18" if he likes]], [[Derp|Custodes captains beating out every Primarch with a rollable 3+ invulnerable save]], some Custodes wargear being straight up [[Wat|left out of the book]] and to cap it all, [[Herp|pictures of tourists in the book ('''twice''') where you'd expect miniatures to be]]. You'd think with such a long development cycle the quality assurance would have been more thorough. Didn't help that [[Alan Bligh]] was likely fairly ill in late 2016, and his untimely death in May of 2017 means the Horus Heresy team now has a big hole in it.

===Malevolence===
It will feature White Scars, Blood Angels and Daemons. Also some new stuff for Space Wolves and Alpha Legion.

== See Also ==
*[[The War of The Beast]], for the next massive shit-show the Imperium was involved with.
* [[Alternate Heresy]], for a discussion of other possible outcomes of the (not necessarily Horus) Heresy.

== External Links ==
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/3170/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (1993)] at BoardGameGeek
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/63543/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (2010)] at BoardGameGeek

{{40k-Timeline}}

[[Category:Board Games]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Wargames]]

Horus Heresy

2018-02-18T09:58:45Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|500px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''this''.]]
:''[[Fulgrim|"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.]]'' 
:''[[Magnus the Red|Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.]]'' 
:''[[Angron|They will be of iron will and steely muscle.]]'' 
:''[[Perturabo|In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.]]'' 
:''[[Mortarion|They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.]]'' 
:''[[Alpharius|They will have tactics, strategies and machines]] [[Omegon|so that no foe can best them in battle.]]'' 
:''[[Konrad Curze|They are my bulwark against the Terror.]]'' 
:''[[Lorgar|They are the Defenders of Humanity.]]'' 
:''[[Horus|They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."]]'' 
:- The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], [[Not as planned|getting exactly what he wanted.]]
{{Topquote|The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.|Karl Popper}}

The '''Horus Heresy''' is one of the single biggest clusterfuck of events in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff, alongside the [[Eldar]]'s creation of a new [[Slaanesh|Chaos God]], and the [[War in Heaven|rampage and fall of the]] [[C'Tan|star gods]]. Needless to say, this heresy derailed the Emperor's plan and himself, and gave the Chaos Gods their most prominent armies to carry out their will in realspace.

In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor's favorite son, [[Horus| Horus Lupercal]], formerly Warmaster of the Imperium, was corrupted by Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor, taking nine [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] (Including [[Luna Wolves|his own]]), their respective Primarchs, and about half of the Imperial Army and Mechanicum with him. After waging war across the galaxy, Horus and his traitors eventually reached Holy Terra itself, hoping to murder the Emperor himself and cut the head off the proverbial snake and win the war.

Things went [[Not as Planned]] however, as he was eventually surrounded by loyalist forces at the height of the siege on Terra. As a final gambit, he dropped the shields of his flagship which allowed the Emperor to beam up and challenged him to a duel for the fate of humanity. Horus beat the Emperor within an inch of his life but was killed in turn after the Emperor put his foot down and obliterated Horus' soul from existence (as in it didn't go to the warp to be resurrected by daemons; it was literally erased from existence) when it finally became clear to him that Horus was beyond forgiveness. The Chaos gribbles he had been allied with disappeared and the now Chaos Marines that had followed him sulked back to the [[Eye of Terror]], starting the [[Long War]].

Because the Emperor was fucked up to the point where he had to be permanently attached to a life-support machine known as the "Golden Throne" just to survive, logic within the Imperium gradually decreased, eventually turning into the [[Grimdark]] empire it is today. And it was already pretty damn grimdark.

[[File:President.png|700px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''him''.]]
[[File:GodsOfWarhammer.jpg|700px|thumb|left|It was pretty much ''them''.]]

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course) and changed the flavour of the Imperium's Grimdark from Stalinist Soviet "if you breathe a word about religion, we rape you with knives" to Catholic [[Inquisition]] "if you breathe a word about the ''wrong'' religion, we rape you [[Exterminatus|or your whole planet]] with knives" unless you can find an Ecclesiarch to come and say: "nope, that's just another aspect of the Emperor". Don't count on this happening without hefty "donations".

The heresy lasted for several years (somewhere between seven and ten) and was fought all over the galaxy. The following are the most important battles and campaigns during the Heresy:
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Prospero|Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Betrayal at Calth|Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Battle of Tallarn]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

Following the Siege of Terra, Horus was permakilled, Big E was interred onto the Golden Throne, the surviving primarchs freaked out trying to figure out what do now that daddy was in a coma, the traitors fucked off into the Eye of Terror, and overall the galaxy slowly and collectively lost their minds now that their wise and all-powerful ruler was no longer around to tell them what to do.

== The Board Game ==
First published in 1993 by [[Game Designer's Workshop]], it was the Emprah versus his [[Horus|evil bastard of a son]] in the scorched earth of Terra. Units include [[Titan#Warhammer_40k|titans]] and [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spaw-]] oh shiARHGRBLLYRBGRDEWUODHGRYEB.

Ahem, as he was saying, The more recent edition (2010) is published by [[Fantasy Flight Games]]. Also a two-player [[wargame|war]] [[board game|game]], it includes over 100 sculpted minifigs, sculpted buildings, and even Horus and the Emprah themselves are units on the board. It also adds more territory, as the fight can be pushed back onto the [[heresy|traitor's]] flagship ''Vengeful Spirit''. Combat is less [[dice|dice-y]] and more card-y.

(Not to be confused with the lame Horus Heresy card game, whose only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway.)

== The Book Series ==
For the last decade, [[Black Library]] has been publishing novels that explore the events of the Horus Heresy, looking at the rivalries among the [[Primarchs]] and exploring just why everything went down the tubes. The novels are by a selection of different authors, which is a total pain if you like to organise your books alphabetically by author. The reception to the series has been somewhat... mixed; books generally considered to be good include [[Dan Abnett|the first trilogy]], [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Betrayer]], [[White Scars|Scars]], and the short story [[Alpha Legion|The Serpent Beneath]].

Of course, like we mentioned, there's some that are... um... Well, let's just say that the worst are a [[skub|matter of much debate]].

{{Template:Spoilers}}

=== Books I - X ===
*'''''Horus Rising:''''' A prologue story, introducing us to the series and Garviel Loken who will grow into a very significant character. An Emperor (not [[Emperor|Him]]) is killed at the beginning and some bugs are killed on a planet called Murder for no reason other than they were there. The Interex show up and ask "whadya do that for?". [[Erebus]] steals the '''MURDER SWORD''' from them.
*'''''False Gods:''''' Horus falls at Davin when wounded by the '''MURDER SWORD''' and gets a crash course in the chaos gods from [[Erebus]] & [[Magnus]]. After getting shown a few "truths" that WILL HAPPEN in the future (like the Emperor being worshipped as a god, Horus being reviled and forgotten) he decides to make war on the Imperium to [[FAIL|prevent]] all this from happening.
*'''''Galaxy in Flames:''''' Isstvan III happens and the traitors send the loyalists down to the planet without reinforcements and proceed to bomb them to fuck. Things don't go to plan when [[Angron]] decides to invade turning it into a [[Not as Planned]] drawn out conflict that the Warmaster can't really afford - Loken "dies"
*'''''Flight of the Eisenstein:''''' the other side of ''Galaxy in Flames'', Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved (and mega-bitchslapped) by [[Rogal Dorn]], who does not take the news from Isstvan [[Rage|very well]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'. There is also the very first canonical appearance of Plague Marines, Euphrati Keeler being all mystical and shit, and Malcador recruiting Garro as the first Knight-Errant.
*'''''Fulgrim:''''' one of the more forgettable stories in the series. Attempts to tell the story from Great Crusade all the way up to the [[Drop Site Massacre]] in one book. In short Fulgrim finds a sword, gets possessed, kills Ferrus Manus - the end. It is written by Graham McNiel though, and it has an awesome quote from Fulgrim "My Emperor's Children. What beautiful music they make." .
*'''''Descent of Angels:''''' This is the Heresy book that isn't about the Heresy, instead focusing on [[Zahariel]]'s time on [[Caliban]]. It portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness (he can not read people at all, so he comes off as 'do what I say or die!') and having Luther to handle the small talk. Hints that the Great Crusade <s>does more harm than good</s> {{BLAM}} is uniting the lost colonies of mankind into a united future! Luther gets sent home with Zahariel to hustle up more Dark Angels.
*'''''Legion''''' introduces [[the Cabal]], the [[Perpetual]]s and [[Omegon]]. READ THIS BOOK. Or don't, as this is where those things that would eventually take over the Heresy series and according to many completely ruin it (Cabal, Perpetuals) are introduced. I still would recommend reading it since when the novel introduces these ideas they are very fresh and interesting. Don't blame Legion when the rest of the novels were who ruined it. Alpha legion is trying to bring some chaos cultist into compliance. Chaos cultists activate planetary self destruct blood sacrifice. Alpha legion meets with the Cabal, agrees to work with them, then kills off all non-legion bystanders & ships with "FOR E-MONEY"!
*'''''Battle for the Abyss:''''' The book is so bad that other authors tried to retcon it out of existence. This book is so bad that you would have it was cobbled together from [[Matt Ward|Wardian fluff]] stitched together by [[C. S. Goto]]. Reading this book may, in fact, cause brain cancer so you should avoid it if at all possible. Everyone dies, so it does not affect much (as in anything). The only thing you need to remember is [[Lorgar]] built a fuckhueg space ship and filled it with Dreadnoughts, and it failed miserably.
*'''''Mechanicum:''''' Tech Priests turn renegade after Horus tells them they can do whatever they like with technology, so they release forbidden viral scrapcodes and screw everything up. Also turns out that [[Emperor|Big E]] invented the Machine-God by sealing a C'Tan on Mars back during the Saint George era, giving everyone visions of technology. Also more subtle hints that the Emperor is a god himself by using divine golden light to heal machines and instant access super wikipedia. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery. And for extra Grimdark, a tech priestess discovers that the Dark Age era humans stored a backup copy of wikipedia in the warp and <s>with a giant psyker powered terminal accesses said wikipedia and restores all the knowledge of mankind</s> floods her forge with lava to deny the traitors access. A psyker tech savant meets up with the goaler of the Void Dragon and takes over his fuck long shift.
*'''''Tales of Heresy:''''' short story collection, including [[The Last Church]]. Has a lot of twist endings.
** '''''Blood Games:''''' An assassin tries to kill the emperor. The Adeptus Custodes go to kill a traitor on Terra. The assassin was a Custodes probing the palace defences. The traitor was a triple agent working for Dorn.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor. When the liberated planet chooses freedom over Emperor, the wolves invade again.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. They worshiped the Emperor, but Lorgar no longer does. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The squad of Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp. Turns out the youngest of the squad in the future used sorcery to beam back her consciousness through time onto some psykers on the Black Ship. She <s>successfully warns the squad about Horus's Rebellion </s> is executed by a hard-core Sister for breaking her vow of [[Psyker|no funny stuff]].
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.
** '''''[[The Last Church]]:''''' A story about the Emperor destroying one of the churches on Terra during the reunification era in his effort to wipe out religion. The Emperor and the priest of the church have an enlightening conversation about the Emprah's trying to accomplish. The conversation ends up with the priest accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite, with him decrying that he's no more different than the old warlords who waged crusades and holy wars in the past to push their own agendas on other people. Emperor reveals himself as the very god the priest was worshiping, and nearly convinces him to stand by his side while his soldiers destroy the church. Priest gets cold feet and walks back into the church while it collapses. An end-times alarm clock starts ringing in the ruins.
** '''''After Desh'ea:''''' The War Hounds meet their primarch. Angron demeats the War Hounds. More specifically, the Emperor just beamed up Angron away from his last stand (rather than, you know, intervening with his Custodes or his fleet), leaving Angron pretty pissed. [[Kharn]] is a pretty great guy to be around, and pulls his femurs out of his lungs quickly enough to establish himself as Angron's best buddy ''after the War Hounds chain of command calmed Angron down as fleshy squeeze balls''.

=== Books XI - XX ===
*'''''Fallen Angels:''''' the sequel to Descent of Angels, is actually two stories rolled into one book that never converge. 1. The Lion fights a war to reclaim some Ordinatus devices and then hands them to Perturabo to gain his trust, not realising that his brother has already turned. 2. [[Zahariel]] and Luther clean out a daemon cult on Caliban... but not really.
*'''''Thousand Sons:''''' Part 1 of the Battle for Prospero. Runs through the Great Crusade where Magnus discovers the webway, but his Father already knew about it. Then the Edict of Nikaea where Magnus gets all passionate about not restricting psychic powers, then to Horus's vision quest where Magnus fails to keep his brother on the right path, then does the WORST thing possible by forcing himself through the palace psychic spam filter, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues and the thousand sons become a thousand sons all over again. Ahriman starts writing hit Rubric.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail because Horus sent a look-a-like, but in the process slay a shapeshifting daemonic counter-assassin sent by Erebus. While it is a decent book and we learn a lot, it didn't contribute much to the overall plot. On the more [[rage|vitriolic side]], the writing is a bit underwhelming in places; highlights include calling a pariah a psyker, another pariah with a contrived possession, and Horus uttering one of the most cliche one liners out there.
*'''''The First Heretic:''''' [[Lorgar]]'s turn to get a back story and generally considered one of the better books in the series. While you make never sympathize with them, this book really lets you understand why The Word Bearers fell to chaos, rather then being the "CHAOTIC EVIL MONSTERS" they are portrayed in the rest of the series.. Feels less rushed than "[[Fulgrim]]". Goes from Monarchia to a bit of soul searching in the Eye of Terror and discovers Cadia. Leads up to Istvaan V and the immediate aftermath. Signifcant subplots revolve around the inception of Possessed Marines, and what happens to the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] babysitters watching over the Word Bearers, and how the protagonist [[Argel Tal]] gets into a tragic bromance with the Custodes leader.
** '''''Aurelian:''''' A limited release short story until an ebook was published. The plot bounces around in-between a number of moments in Lorgar's history up to the prelude of the Shadow Crusade. One narrative involves how Lorgar's brothers still treat him like shit, especially when he's the only one who sees through Fulgrim's possession, and ends with Horus sending him to fuck up Ultima Segmentum and handing him Angron's (figurative, [[/d/|not literal]]) leash. The other narrative takes place in the 40 year gap in ''The First Heretic'', where Lorgar makes a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror with a Daemon Princess as his guide. They come to a dead Crone World where he puts a dying [[Avatar of Khaine|Avatar]] out of its misery and he's told that the Eldar panicked rather than embrace Chaos during the birth of Slaanesh, which is what caused them to nearly die out; the daemon prince(ss) tells Lorgar the same thing is happening with humanity during the Heresy, how Chaos really wants a [[A Game of Pretend|symbiotic relationship with humanity rather than to conquer it]]. In the middle of this, Khorne decides he's had enough of this talky wordy shit and sends [[An'ggrath]] to make things more exciting, and Lorgar narrowly beats him. Then Kairos Fateweaver comes and "tells" him about Calth and his relationship with Guilliman and his upcoming war with him in the most confusing as fuck discussion ever. The truth of most of the things told to Lorgar are left ambiguous, because, well, Fateweaver; but also Chaos has a lot riding on the Heresy coming to fruition for reasons left not entirely explored.
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. A civilian archeologist named Kasper Hawser hangs out with a company of the Space Wolves, where we learn a lot about their culture and attitudes. Turns out that Chaos infiltrated everything, so the outcome of Nikaea was practically rigged. The civilian himself even turns out to have been an unwitting spy for Chaos, but the Wolves knew anyway and didn't give a shit (they thought he worked for Magnus).
* '''''Age of Darkness:''''' A short story anthology.
** '''''Rules of Engagement:''''' Roboute lets one of his commanders lead in a series of wars that didn't really occur, and we get the best line ever said in regards to the [[Codex Astartes]]: despite the fact it does cover a lot, it's not meant to be followed biblically <s>which is a load of bull given that the Codex lets said commander win all the wars in the most efficient way possible while blindly following it and only failed in the last battle because he was in a war game against Girlyman</s>. (See the quote on the page on the Big Book of Astartes). The Imperium Secundus shows up, making for another bizarre plot element that ruins the series without adding anything.
** '''''Liar's Due:''''' You know those memes on how the [[Alpha Legion]] causes mass paranoia without actually involving any Astartes? Those aren't just memes. Alpha Legion serf arrives on a agri-world and turns it's allegiance to Horus by only hacking all their inter-planetary communications.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[Salamanders|Salamander]] and a grumpy ol' [[Ultramarine]] are sent in opposition to one of Horus' iterators to convince an industrial-militant world which side to side with. They almost side with Horus before the Warmaster's agents [[Exterminatus|wreck shit]] for the lulz. Oh, and to send the message that neutrality will be punished. The [[Iron Warriors]] were doing weird shit on that world for years beforehand, and was probably the more deciding factor than the lulz.
** '''''The Last Remembrancer:''''' Horus sent the one last remembrancer he had stored up as a gift to Dorn. Instead of in a box (or eight or some shit like that), it was the [[Dan Abnett]] of his day telling Dorn that the grimdark galaxy was grimdark. Also that the Emperor's vision of a galaxy of peace, unity, prosperity, and fluffy bunnies built up without any more grimdark attached than was strictly needed, probably wasn't very likely before any shit hit any fan either way. Also, Iacton Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iacton Qruze. Dorn says it's all lies and enemy propaganda before executing said remembrancer and torching all his ramblings.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Magnus's absent fleet from the Burning of Prospero comes home and shits a brick. The last known surviving squad of Thousand Sons outside of the Planet of the Sorcerers gets beaten up and they slowly figure out it was the Space Wolves who shit on Magnus's <s>parade</s> world and is stalking them. One plot twist later, most of them are dead, the last one decides he's gonna rebuild everything, with a few scant hints that his flesh-change genetic flaw will [[Blood Ravens|shift into kleptomania]].
** '''''The Face of Treachery:''''' The tie-in and conclusion of the audiodrama featuring the Raven Guard after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax [[troll]]ing Perturabo for a bit too long, Horus sends Angron in to finish the job, but Corax's cavalry arrives to troll Angron by getting the loyalists the fuck out of there. We also learn that Corax has a supersekrit psyker ability which lets him roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can out-troll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters (they let the World Eater commander think he was in command then blew his brains out when he tried to actually command). Ends with an transitory bit into ''Deliverance Lost''.
** '''''Little Horus:''''' Little Horus Aximand is struggling with the PTSD he got when he killed Loken and Torgaddon with [[Abaddon|Abby]]. Abby and Little Horus have a discussion (we mean Horus Aximand, not when Primarch Horus was sodomizing Abaddon again) about restoring the Mournival. A couple war scenes later, Little Horus learns the hard way that the White Scars are pretty badass, but his PTSD starts acting up again and he gets his face shaved off before the White Scars are driven off. Little Horus realizes his PTSD he had since killing Loken and Torgaddon ultimately stems from that time he helped kill Loken and Torgaddon, and gives a diatribe about how things like "change", "mood swings", and "hallucinations" are suited to his melancholic nature, saying things like "it's perfectly natural", "I'm fine, everything's fine. Everything is perfectly, absolutely fine", and "Therapy is for the weak. I'm fine". After the Mongolian shave, he gets his face reattached and ends up looking even more like Big Horus in the deal.
** '''''The Iron Within:''''' Some pretty bro-tier loyalist Iron Warriors build a fortress hanging from a cave over an ocean of prometheum in a hellhole of a world (giant cavern system & acidic atmosphere), and one of Perturabo's traitor Grand Companies come knocking to demand that they hand over the house keys. The loyalists give them a fuck-you in the form of a Dreadnought. A few melodramatic and horrific but generic war scenes later, and they get overrun (after a full year of siege thanks to the genius of a certain [[Barabas Dantioch]]), drop the fortress from the ceiling onto a titan, and get the hell out of there by hijacking one of the Iron Warriors warships via teleportation. An Ultramarine big wig was there to bring the loyalists home, informing them that [[Skub|Guilliman was fortifying Terra]] and he needed good siege workers to stall the traitors then to fortify Terra. While loyalist Iron Warriors were pretty cool, the story itself was pretty forgettable; and it left some open questions like whether the continuity errors were the result of "faulty astropathic communications" (see Outcast Dead) or if the Ultramarines were trolling the Iron Warriors to join in with the Imperium Secundus. And also why the Iron Warriors were determined to take a hellhole at an immense expense of people and materiel, including Titans, while they could have just said "fuck yo shit!" and left a fortress with no space or warp conveyance and arguably little strategic value in itself in the middle of nowhere alone. It mentions a few times that it looks really bad for a rebellion trying to gain initiative when a mere captain of their Legions tells their Primarch "fuck off, imma keeping this fortress & resources for the Emperor!" The message behind it being if you can't even control your own men, maybe this rebellion thing needs a rethinking, because hearing Horus can't even take this shitty outpost middle of nowhere and he's going to Terra might be bad press.
** '''''Savage Weapons:''''' A good story written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|ADB]]. Dark Angels are hunting down the Night Lords who are fucking with Forge Worlds, but the Night Lords are staying a step ahead of them, much to [[Rage|the Lion's frustration]]. After being advised by Horus to pass along a message, Kurze asks the Lion to meet up face-to-face on Tsagualsa. When they talk, while what they say to each other is offscreen, it's implied Kurze told Lion about the Fallen Angels and that Horus knew about their impending betrayal. Lion decides nobody is going to give him shit about being a rumored closet traitor, and the ensuing fight proves that Jonson is a badass among primarchs, until Kurze goes to his old fallback of strangling a fucker, and things get more even. Their respective honor guards go at it in the meantime, and showing [[Sevatar]] is a badass among Space Marines. Things end up in a draw, leaving things open for a new plotline within the Heresy, the ''Prince of Crows'' novella being the next.
*'''''The Outcast Dead:''''' A mess of continuity errors, at least when compared with the rest of the series, the other authors later claimed all the errors were absolutely intentional and a result of the messed-up nature of Warp-based communication. [[derp|''Riggggghhhhtttt!'']] More importantly: shortly after the start of the Heresy an astropath has routine nervous breakdown and is returned to Terra to get [[Witch Hunters|some R&R]]. What really ends up happening is that he gets there in time for [[Magnus]]'s astral body to reach Big E to warn him of Horus' betrayal, and the fuckhueg psychic shock of course dicks with the Astropath HQ compound something mighty. In the confusion and assloads of psychic phenomena that followed, the astropath gets implanted with a message for somebody regarding the war, but his PTSD keeps him from knowing what the hell it is or who it's for. The Custodes come in and tell him ''"[[Anal Circumference|Ve haff vays of making you talk.]]"'' and hand him over to a pair of [[Inquisition|kind counselors]] who torture the poor man half to death. After a time, he gets busted out in the nick of time by some convict Space Marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." to the others. They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra (amusingly, none of the escapees is very happy at the prospect of the Heresy but they are all [[rage|slightly miffed]] at being treated like shit by the Custodes just because of the Legion they belong to.) Other subplots revolve around: a psyker congregant at a slum church near the Imperial palace; a samurai witch hunter (no, really); '''''fucking [[Thunder Warriors]]'''''. Best bits are <s>[[Rip and tear|an unarmed, unarmored World Eater ripping a Custodes' spine out through his chest]]</s> the portrayal of the Emperor playing chess in dreams, revealing that the message is about his upcoming bitchslap from Horus.
*'''''Deliverance Lost:''''' [[Corvus Corax]], having just escaped from Istvaan V, decides to go ask daddy for a handout to get his Legion back on his feet, and gets the mother of all genetech to do it, though he has to do a bit of legwork to get it. Meanwhile, a bunch of faceless Alpha Legionnaires (okay, they do have faces, they just originally belonged to some Raven Guard) had infiltrated Corax's Legion at Istvaan, and are doing recon and intelligence gathering waiting for [[Omegon]] to give the go-ahead to fuck shit up. Corax, meanwhile sets up new geneseed methods that bring up new recruits to battle-ready marines ''in fucking hours'', with the potential to conscript literally anybody willing to become a Space Marine. The Alphas decide this probably isn't in their interest, and sabotage the new geneseed by tainting it with ''daemon blood'', turning second- and third-batch new Raven Guard into the twisted monsters we know that Corax ended up with. In one of the instances of retcon that was actually flavored with [[awesome]] and win, the mutant marines [[Grimdark|were still sapient]], but were left to fight on in the Emperor's name. After staging a mass insurrection on Deliverance's parent world with the help of some old guilders Corax ousted and the Dark Mechanicum, Omegon gets ''more'' Alphas infiltrated into the Raven for the endgame: steal the genetech, kill some Ravenguard, get the fuck out before anybody knows what the fuck just happened in here. A couple cockups along the way leads to the Raven Guard getting wise and isolating out the Alphas. The end of the novel was like a swingers party at the retirement home, everybody got screwed (even ''Horus''), nobody got what they hoped for (except for [[Omegon|the really deviant bastard]]), and all-around the reproductive material was a waste. Corax shut down his hothousing method, and starts fucking with the Traitors, even at reduced numbers. The book ends on a note with Alpharius-Omegon deciding that while their plan for saving the galaxy was still good, they decide working with Xenos isn't for them.
*'''''Know No Fear:''''' The Ultras are still ignorant about Istvaan and the civil war erupting around the galaxy, and are on muster at Calth with the Word Bearers [[troll|on orders from Horus]] to go kill some Orks together as a conciliatory gesture. They were in for a surprise. The Word Bearers, while happy as hell to get revenge, are really trying to [[Eldrad|dick over]] the Ultramarines to keep them out of the Heresy, if not destroy them outright. What happens next is the Word Bearers arrange some "accidents" using sorcery and good ol' fashioned treachery to fake a monumental fuck up in the ship yards that leave the Ultramarine forces blind, deaf, and crippled. They use the confusion to say that the Ultras ''still'' fucking them over, and take the chance to open not only a can, but entire cases of whoop-ass on the Ultras. Erebus turns Calth's pole into a screaming hellscape to start up a warp storm, while Kor Phaeron oversees the systematic extermination of the Ultramarines and also successfully poisons Calth's sun. Guilliman gets jettisoned into space, but survives because [[Spiritual Liege]]. He then leads a counterattack on Kor Phaeron, and while Kor comes ''this close'' to getting a Primarch kill with [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|Chaos mindbullets]], but in a moment of self-aggrandizement, he holds back tries to corrupt Guilliman with his own dagger-sized '''MURDER SWORD'''. Guilliman calmly tells him "The Codex Astartes <s>does</s> will not support this action" (it was really "You made an error" followed by an explanation of that error, and "but while I'm alive, I can do this") and [[Rip and Tear|rips out Kor Phaeron's main heart with an unpowered Lightning Claw]]. Kor Phaeron's minions run away with his carcass, allowing the Ultras to retake their space station, which in turn allows Mechanicus plot power, aided by a planet's worth of orbital defense batteries, to bring the ground war back into the Ultramarines' favor. The novel ends with Word Bearers getting the hell out of there, and the Ultramarines evacuating everyone they can off of Calth and telling everybody they can't to get underground, transitioning into underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pius]] being the special guest star with his very own subplot, and the Word Bearers having athame blades as special issue, one of which will [[Uriel Ventris|come back later]]. You might notice this summary is pretty spoilerific, but if you didn't know the broad strokes already, you're in the wrong place.
*'''''The Primarchs:''''' A novella anthology. As the name suggests, it contains stories featuring Primarchs.
**'''''The Reflection Crack'd:''''' - <s>[[Lucius]] and friends anally rape [[Fulgrim]]. Yeah.</s> While questionable use of a ''pear of anguish'' is featured during a game of "Stab the Fulgrim," the real story is this: Lucius and his buddies are deep into the [[/d/|sickfuckery]] which will come to characterize their Legion, but begin to suspect that Fulgrim might have a daemon in him when he begins acting like not-Fulgrim and uses sorcery. They ambush him and try to exorcise it with pain, because torturing a Slaaneshi daemon will totally work (though they find out that a Primarch can grow back a foot, and just about any other wound). Among everything else: [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bill]] is still an arrogant dick; Lucius is still a maniacal and colossally narcissistic sick fuck; Julius Kaesoron is still an angry badass; Marius Vairosean is still a sycophantic cunt; and Eidolon was still a self-important, whiny douche, but Fulgrim throws a tantrum and cuts his head off, and there was much cheering from the readers, and that ''plus'' almost certain off-screen fapping among the Legionaries leads into ''Angel Exterminatus''.
**'''''Feat of Iron''''' - [[Ferrus Manus]]'s Legion is trying to off some Eldar on a desert world, but can't find the major Eldar strategic asset because of Spess Elf warp bullshit. A Farseer thinks he can warn Ferrus about the Heresy, and traps him in the webway or some psychic realm for a spirit quest long enough to fight a [[Fulgrim|giant purple snake]] (which is [[/d/|disturbingly appropriate imagery]] when you think about it); and Ferrus thinks it was the wyrm that he killed and gave him his metal hands, but the snake tells him that he must be mistaking it for somebody else. Ferrus kills it, and meets the Farseer who tries to tell Ferrus that he wasn't just being a dick. Ferrus, having too many experiences with Eldar being dicks, knocks some sense into the Farseer, who manages to run just fast enough to avoid getting killed. Ferrus comes back and helps his Legion fight off the Eldar kill the Webway beacon, or whatever the hell it was. In the background of all of this, the Iron Hands, having lost Ferrus, decide to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bitch about potentially dead father, and work to complete the mission despite being weighed down by Imperial Army who are dying of dehydration and heat stroke. The Eldar figure out a way to use storm clouds that make Iron Hands bionics kill their users, and Ferrus has a bitch of an itch around his neck that he can't get rid of. [[Drop Site Massacre|I wonder if that's important]].
**'''''The Lion:''''' - Dark Angels fight daemons and reinstitute Librarians. The Lion teamkills Nemiel for reminding him about Nikaea, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books because [[Gav Thorpe]] wanted to prove he's a big boy author who can kill his characters. Then they steal an intelligent super warp engine (insta shifts the Dark Angel fleet into the warp without need for a jump point while teleporting itself and the Lion onto his flagship; Lion is capable of talking politely infront of so much power) from [[Typhus]] then set course for Macragge to sort out Guilliman.
**'''''Serpent Beneath:''''' - Alpharius Omegon plots against himself and destroys a facility built around what looks suspiciously like a Cadian Pylon (and said facility keeping the White Scars out of the war), due to [[Cake|an information leak]], and they can't have that. Except than none of the main players are Alpharius or Omegon. And Alpharius and Omegon can't decide if they're secretly working against each other or not. Also: considered to be one of the better works of the series, not only due to quality, but because of the sheer mindfuckery of the plot, keeping entirely within the rationale of the Alpha Legion without any jumps in logic or canon.

=== Books XXI - XXX ===
*'''''Fear to Tread:''''' Despite being Black Library's most financially successful book ''ever'' and hitting thirteen (!) on the New York Times bestseller list (without Oprah's recommendation, even), many [[/tg/|fa/tg/uy]]s find it a bit ridiculous. Why? Well, there's planets with giant frowny faces inhabited by garbage monsters, ships getting blown up by city-sized rocks launched from the aforementioned planets, a nearly-stereotypically-gay [[Slaanesh]]i daemon that doesn't actually serve much of a purpose in the story, and a villain named the Red Angel, despite the fact [[Angron]] already claimed that as a nickname (although he was first introduced in ''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'', so it's not [[James Swallow]]'s fault). Oh, and Sanguinius acts like an idiot about [[Chaos]] the whole time, which fits the [[fluff]], but come on, how many freaky supernatural signs do you need to see before you decide it's not just foul xenos? In all fairness, of course, ''Fear to Tread'' does have quite a few good moments, especially when it comes to [[Warp]]-related terror. It also has a priceless bromance between [[Horus]] and [[Sanguinius]], not to mention Sanguinius and his Legion get characterized very well. Sanguiniuns and Co end up reaching Imperium Secundus.

*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - A story about two parallel story lines. The first is set during the [[Battle of Phall]], a space battle between the Iron Warriors whole fleet and what was left over from a third of the Imperial Fists's fleet after a warpstorm were ran them" ashore" and left them drifting and isolated in the backwater Phall system. Despite having the superior numbers, more and bigger guns, suicidal expenditure cohorts, and the power of a raging hatred boner, the Iron Warriors were losing to the Imperial Fists's maneuverability and [[Alexis Polux|Captain Polux's]] protagonist power. Eventually, the Fists get the order and window to withdraw to Terra, though turning tail would put their fleet at a huge disadvantage. Given the choice between blind obedience to his father or carrying on the battle they were winning, Polux chooses the former and takes his Fists back to Terra, but ends up in the Imperium Secundus instead. This was also the first of the two depictions of Perturabo, and clearly the worst of the two as he's shown as a cold-hearted Saturday morning cartoon villain with rage control issues. The second story line follows [[Sigismund]] as he follows Rogal around the Imperial Palace, while he was ordered to command the fleet on its way to Istvaan and got trapped at Phall, but delegated it to Polux's predecessor. The twist is that he met Euphrati Keeler had a spiritual experience when they spoke, and felt that he would be needed more at Terra instead of as a drifting corpse permanently lost in orbit around some backwater, and so handed off job of commanding the fleet. When he eventually opened up to Rogal, this got him in trouble. See, Rogal was still one of the [[Imperial Truth|stupid atheists]] at this point, so he disowned Sigismund because he thought "serving a higher purpose" was arrogant and got in the way of doing his job. This left Sigismund feeling really sad and pissed off, thus was his start of <s>darkness</s> daddy issues. [[Black Templars|Really pissed off and bad ass daddy issues.]]
**'''''The Dark King''''' - A look into the head and story of Konrad Curze during the events leading up to the Dropsite Massacre. It shows how Curze, even if you buy that he was a murderous paladin of justice and order through fear rather than just a fearsome murderer, is getting pretty fucked up in the head and lives with the knowledge of his demise haunting him, which isn't that great for his sanity. It also involves him beating up Rogal Dorn, killing some Imp Fists and Emp's Children terminators <s>with his more advanced suit and built-in vox jammers </s>with his bare hands, then blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn. The first 10 is him being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace as a grand piece of art by fortifying it into a coldly functional fortress. The next 10 is Rogal having an existential monologue then a conversation with Malcador, all about why he doesn't know why Horus declared war on the Emperor and brought half of the Legions with him, and is partly afraid to find out why in case it makes sense. Malcador ends up knowing at least a little about Chaos, and somehow got his hands on a tarot deck Curze used throughout his life, even to the close of ''The Dark King''. (Don't ask how he got them. Really.) Also the (*Name Drop*) Lightning Tower is the important card that comes up, signifying a [[Siege of Terra|destruction of fortifications]] and/or a [[Imperium of Man|change of thinking through sacrifice]].
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Right before Istvaan, techpriest Pallas Ravachol is working on a top secret "Kaban" robot project on Mars realizes that the project has achieved sapience and is in fact a form of strong AI. Though he genuinely befriended the Kaban machine, Ravachol complains to boss Magos Chrom that working on an AI is both highly illegal and insanely dangerous. Chrom tells Ravachol not to be such a pussy since Horus himself gave the OK, and after some deliberation, has a death squad awaiting to escort the Ravachol off site the next morning. Ravachol, thinking there were few ways this could well, makes a break for it and flees for Magos Malevolus's forge, hoping to get somebody with some clout to reveal that his old boss and Horus were up to something. On the way, he spends time running away from a latex-clad sadist babe who persistently chases after him; since she's an AdMech equivalent of a Death Cultist assassin, this is a ''much'' better idea than it sounds. When he gets to Malevolus's forge, Malevolus distracts him with a legion of shiny Mk6 suits of Marine Power Armor long enough to drop the bomb to drop that they were for Horus. The latex-clad babe catches up to them both, and the techpriest flees again, only to be puzzled why Malevolus and the assassin are letting him run. As he gets out the door, he meets the Kaban machine, <s>and through the power of friendship, the Kaban decides to side with the good guys, and the day is saved.</s> Except this is the dark, gritty universe of 30K where brother turns against brother. Chrom told the Kaban Machine that it and Ravachol couldn't be friends for realsies, because rules and stuff, and taking up with Horus was a great idea. The Kaban Machine, not understanding how humans work nor '''The Power of Friendship''', didn't know any better than to agree and kills Ravachol right on the steps of Malevolus's forge. End story. An okay story, somewhat generic feeling prose. More of a who's who of the Dark Mechanicus during ''Mechanicum'' and telling where the hell that Kaban machine from the same book came from and how they seduced an AI into Chaos worship.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - A bridge between Istvaan V and ''Deliverance Lost'', also a companion story to the Raven's Flight audio drama. The story tells how Commander Marcus Valerius of the Imperial Army is stationed on Deliverance and keeps having recurring nightmares which is causing him worry about Corax. Commander Branne of the Raven Guard's garrison on Deliverance, is getting tired of how the Legion's pet human won't stop bitching about it, and decides to take Valerius out on a trip in the battle barge to Istvaan just to show him that everything is just fine. Meanwhile, Corax and a relative handful of surviving Raven Guard are fighting a guerilla war against the traitors, trying to stay one step ahead of the Iron Warriors and then the World Eaters, and in-between skirmishes, Corax spends a few thoughtful moments feeling bad about his Legion and the state of the Imperium now that things have gone to shit.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, after that he makes tokens (for the warrior-lodge, but he doesn't know that) and then he gets his windpipe crushed to make sure word doesn't get out about the tokens. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life up until the point where he's lying on his own floor, slowly suffocating to death. Ultimately it is kind of irrelevant, but the lore nerds or people who have been paying attention might find it interesting. It is however only barely 20 pages long, so you might as well read it anyway.
**'''''Prince of Crows''''' - A novella featuring the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain [[Sevatar]] of the Night Lords. With the Night Lords's forces all but shattered by the Dark Angels, Curze in a coma nearly dead, and the Dark Angels's fleet in pursuit, Sevatar has to knock some heads for the Night Lords to get their shit together and reorganize and rethink strategy. It's essentially about showing the fractures in the Night Lords Legion. As most stories written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]], it's pretty good.

*'''''Angel Exterminatus:''''' [[Perturabo]] just finished [[skub|fucking up (or being fucked by)]] some Fists, and [[Fulgrim]] finds him to polish off a plot hook from ''The Reflection Crack'd'' and recruit Pert for an expedition into the Eye of Terror because a renegade Eldar said he knows where to get ''the good shit'' (the eponymous Angel Exterminatus). Fulgrim wanted to make a show out of delivering exposition, and he had Pert use his skills to build a stadium and went storyteller mode; then the moment was killed when a Shattered Legion detachment composed of Iron Hands and a Raven Guard commando sniped Fulgrim (he got better). Of course, Pert took the moment to remind himself that this is why he can't have, [[Rage|won't ever have]], nice things. Thinking that Fulgrim had the scent of a powerful artifact or a superweapon, and seeing that Fulgrim was becoming the Primarch equivalent of a crack addict member of the Jersey Shore and his legion wasn't looking much better, Pert decided to play it safe by tagging along and making sure Fulgrim wouldn't break anything. On the way, a different Eldar scholar came to the Shattered Legion, telling them that Fulgrim and Pert can't be allowed to get to the Angel Exterminatus, or [[Daemon|Bad Things (Warp-registered trademark)]] will happen. Well into the journey into the Eye, the Iron Hands's resident mad scientist accidentally gave away their location, and the Emp's Children and Iron Warriors decide to throw a boarding party. After a few pages of pulse pounding action, Pert says "fuck this", and leaves as the Iron Hands's same mad scientist overloads the engines and does a [[Battlefleet Gothic|mother of a ramming maneuver]] which kills an Emp's Children ship. (Pert was getting sick of Fulgrim's shit at this point, so he decided not to let them know, leading to the loss of the ship and thousands of casualties for Fulgrim.) Then, they finally get there, they find a [[Crone World]] covered in ruins and occupied spirit stones being held in orbit around a black hole. Some wraithbone constructs pop up and Pert and Fulgrim have to fight to the heart of the planet to get at the Angel Exterminatus. On the way, Pert kills their renegade Eldar because he was a lyin' bitch. When they ''finally'' get there, Surprise! Daemon Primarch Fulgrim is supposed to be the Angel Exterminatus, and he betrays Pert (a bauble Fulgrim gave to Pert at the start of the book was a vitality-leeching thing), and they start the ritual which would sacrifice Pert to turn Fulgrim into a Daemon Prince. Then the Shattered Legion crashes the ceremony, and assists the Iron Warriors since it's clear they weren't working with the Emp's Children anymore. Pert kills Fulgrim, but it didn't count since Fulgrim's mortal essence works just as well as sacrifice. He goes full Daemon Prince despite a generous helping of Thunder Hammer to his [[gay|pretty face]], breaks every spirit stone on the planet, and disappears with every last one of his sick fucks. The Eldar scholar helping the Shattered Legion throws a bitch fit, revealing that both scholars were Dark Eldar who had cut a deal with Fulgrim (help him become a daemon and they get assloads of spirit stones to fuck with), and he had made sure that the Shattered Legions were there to put a wedge in that deal because...reasons. The Shattered Legion gets the hell out, and the Iron Warriors try to GTFO as the planet starts to fall into the black hole. The book ends, with Pert, being a wise man, orders them to reverse course and fly right into that fucker. Subplots include a lot of buildup for McNeil's Iron Warriors stories, the Shattered Legions' feelings on trying to unfuck an irreversibly fucked situation, some tense buildup of two Imperial Fists as they try to survive Fabius's turning them into mutants (which actually had a poor payoff). Despite being overall good, it's a bit of a skub novel because the depiction of Perturabo is so different from expected, rather than being the bitter [[RAGE|Rage]] machine from every other depiction, he's a quiet [[Neckbeard|nerd who plays with toys as a hobby]], but with muscles. And because the ghosts of eldar's Aspect Warriors and Wraith-Constructs inside a planet left inside the Eye of Terror is a canon-rape on par with C.S. Goto, the first death of Lucius at the hands of a Mary Sue despite previous claims that he was undefeated during the Heresy and his unexplained resurrection (<s>"How? Fucking Chaos, that's how."</s> Oh, sure, every CSM is immortal), and an Iron Hands legionnaire somehow being immune to sonic weapons by being deaf. And worst of all, a rotating Shadowsword turret.

*'''''Betrayer:''''' Lorgar and Angron rampage over the Ultramarines 500 worlds. Lots of references to Angron's past and his Butcher's Nails are killing him slowly. Turns out one of the Ultramarine worlds was his own Homeworld, so he destroys it and Lorgar makes him into a daemon-prince. Also remember the Furious Abyss? Lorgar has two more. Also focuses on Khârn and Argel Tal being bros, until Erebus decides to intervene and kill a bitch.

* '''''Angron:''''' An anthology about <s>Lorgar</s> <s>Horus</s> <s>Dorn</s> <s>Malcador</s> <s>the plumber for the Golden Throne</s> Fuck, we can't remember. It often gets passed over in the official lists, since it's actually a cheat since it's a republish of older short stories: '''After De'shea''', '''Butcher's Nails''' ''(print format)'', and '''Lord of the Red Sands''' ''(which was initially a standalone release,'' even later ''republished in'' The Imperial Truth'')''.

*'''''Mark of Calth:''''' Another set of short stories, though all focused on the [[Ultramarines]] or the [[Word Bearers]].
**'''''Shards of Erebus:''''' - We find that [[Erebus]] broke the '''MURDER SWORD''' into eight daggers/athames and shared them with his bros. Also shows how he returned to Davin to learn how to teleport with the '''MURDER SWORD''', then killing the priestess that helped him turn Horus. She somehow wins because she served Chaos before dying which pisses Erebus off.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Keeps bringing up what Calth used to be like. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to Nurgle everyone, and the Ultramarines save the day in the nick of time. After all, THE GREATEST OF THE-{{BLAM}}
**'''''Dark Heart''''' - A young Word Bearer is interrogated by Kor Phaeron after he ended up killing his mentor with dark powers (turned him insta inside out). A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degradation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A spacedock traffic controller survives the destruction of his star fort, and the fatal crash of his escape shuttle before ending up in a small underground arcology with other human survivors. Imperial cultists believe he is blessed, and when he starts hearing whispers and seeing unbelievers they start rounding everybody up for execution. Everybody gets slowly executed till he's the last one left. Learns he's been possessed and reveals to an Ultramarine that he was was infected by the vox from the ''Campanile''.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - An Ultramarine has a hard-on for a certain Word Bearer trolling him. Hunts down said Word Bearer into a cave system with a team of soldiers and Spess Merheens. Word Bearer trolls them by summoning a Gorgon. Ultramarine wins by tricking the Gorgon into looking at its reflection.
**'''''The Underworld War''''' - A story that has little to do with the actual Underworld War. It features a Gal Vorbak who sees the attack on Calth as a clusterfuck of fail. Has a plot-twist ending... turns out Daemons give visions of the future to potential Gal Vorbak, and said Gal Vorbak was given a vision of him not abandoning his fallen brothers on Calth. The Daemon doesn't have time for that shit so it lets him die during his transformation.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife, though not one from the '''MURDER SWORD'''. That's about it... totally... right. Wrong. The small sacrificial knife that Ollanius found was carved on Terra for a benign ritual, stolen by an evil Perpetual who was killed by ''the Emperor'' in medieval times, found in an archeological dig by Kasper Hawser, and went on other crazy murder-adventures, all while having rudimentary sentience.
**'''''Unmarked''''' - Ollanius Pius and friends is traveling through time and space using the athame from the previous story. We learn a lot more about Oll's past, going into detail about his offhand mentions that he was one of the Argonauts and that he served in the First World War and the First Gulf War.
*'''''Vulkan Lives:''''' What happened to Vulkan after the Dropsite Massacre? He got made Konrad Curze's torture bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer to the face. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc. Remember the Shattered Legions crew from ''Angel Exterminatus''? Now you get a new group that is far more bland and less distinct.
*'''''The Unremembered Empire:''''' [[Perpetual|Matt Damon]] killed Martin Luther King. This happens in the book. Also, unlike the cover and synopsis would imply, it's ''not'' about Sanguinius and Guilliman working together to build a back-up Imperium around Ultramar, which leads to the question of ''why that's on the cover?'' No one knows what it is really about, especially the book's description of itself (which describes its ''sequels''). Several things happen in the book as several unrelated subplots collide as several entities are drawn by the Pharos device to Macragge. There are implications that Guilliman's new backup Imperium is starving resources from Terra.
*'''''Scars:''''' Technically the third book of the Prospero arc. The Khan returns to the Imperium after killing Orks left over from Ullanor and can't decide what side to join. Turns his back on Leman Russ during a fight with the Alpha Legion and goes looking for his best friend Magnus, also gets into a fight with Mortarion on the way, also [[The Fallen|half his legion turns traitor]] but turns out it's no big deal.
** '''''Brotherhood of the Storm:''''' Prequel to Scars, shows the White Scars fighting Orks on Chondax.
*'''''Vengeful Spirit''''' Horus goes looking for power to make him equal to the Emperor and the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z (kinda). We learn that the Emperor gained his powers after making a pact with the Chaos Gods where they gave him a fraction of their power, then somehow managed to double-cross them in what is quite possibly the most retarded retcon ever introduced in the entire book series. (In all seriousness though, the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series. It could be the truth, or one of their beautifully crafted lies.) Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest. Also, if you have been ignoring the audio books, you will be a bit lost at the start of this one.
*'''''The Damnation of Pythos''''' A Lovecraftian Horror story disguised as a Horus Heresy story. Has the most grimdark ending of the series thus far, up there with Dead Men Walking. Adds just about as much to the overall series as ''Furious Abyss'' did, but is actually pretty well written, unlike "Furious Abyss". To cut a long story short, daemons take over a world in the Pandorax system, capture a starship and use it to start ferrying cultists from place to place. The book also has some crossover with 40k and the Pandorax Campaign.

=== Books XXXI to XL ===
*'''''Legacies of Betrayal''''' Another anthology, though this time it's a bit of cheat, and they just consolidated several pre-existing stories; some of the the novellas but also included print versions of audio books.
**'''Brotherhood of the Storm''' - see above
**'''Serpent''' - A really short and out-of-place story about a Davinite Priest.
**'''Hunters Moon''' - originally an audiobook involving peasant fishermen rescuing a crashed space wolf who is running from the Alpha Legion after killing Alpharius, it obviously doesn't end well.
**'''Veritas Ferrum''' - a prequel to Damnation of Pythos, about an Iron Hands starship escaping ''(against their better nature)'' from Isstvan with some survivors.
**'''Strike and Fade''' - More survivors of Isstvan, though this is about Salamanders just killing time (and Night Lords) whilst they wait to be rescued.
**'''Honour to the Dead''' - about Ultramarines and an innocent woman and child trying her hardest to follow them to safety.
**'''Butcher's Nails''' - A good one to read, Angron & Lorgar go on the Shadow-Crusade and come to an understanding whilst fighting Eldar.
**'''Warmaster''' - Horus considering how much of a badass he is while chatting with Ferrus Manus's skull.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go kidnap a warp code interpreter that will let them intercept garbled enemy communications.
**'''Wolfs Claw''' - Bjorn the Fell-Handed needs a replacement arm, but the Iron Priests are too busy, but he happens to find a nice fancy relic one just lying around.
**'''The Divine Word'''
**'''Thief of Revelations''' - After Prospero, the Thousand Sons need something to stop all their rampant mutation, so Ahriman goes to ask why Magnus has locked himself away. He's got bigger things to worry about and is looking across time and space for key events for future [[Just as Planned]] manipulations.
**'''Lucius the Eternal Warrior''' - After his first death ''(and unexplained resurrection)'' at the hands of Nykona Sharrowkyn, Lucius has somehow abandoned the Heresy and goes to the planet of Sorcerers to fight a duel with the bestest Thousand Son swordsman, ends up meeting Ahriman. [[wat|Uh-huh...]]
**'''The Eightfold Path''' - Kharn and the World Eaters realise that too much rip and tear is leading them [[Khorne|down a damning path]], but they're already too far gone.
**'''Guardian of Order''' - [[Cypher]] and [[Zahariel]] discover that the Ouroboros (banished in Fallen Angels) is coming back
**'''Heart of the Conqueror''' - Angron's Navigator gets a bit uppity about being made to turn traitor, despite having been picked for the job as the angry man's chauffeur by the Emperor himself. Blams herself during mid-warp transit with not-fun results for flagship.
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel is killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes about it on his armour. Said notes will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]] on the subject of killing Word Bearers (because it's that damn important to kill Word Bearers). Thiel eventually gets bored and goes back to Macragge in the end.
**'''Lone Wolf''' - Bjorn has lost all of his squad, but is now such an awesome badass that he can solo Bloodthirsters.
*'''''Death and Defiance''''' Yet another anthology
**'''Imperfect''' - Daemon-Fulgrim has been getting Fabius to clone Ferrus Manus, because the split personality thing makes him feel guilty about failing to turn his brother to Horus's side, but the clones are never quite right and go mental at each suggestion. Fabius also has his own stuff going on.
**'''Howl of the Heathworld''' - Space Wolves get sent to Terra to watch over Rogal Dorn so he doesn't start using psykers, its a pointless task and everyone know it. Also offers insight into the Wolves naming conventions.
**'''A Safe and Shadowed Place''' - [[Night Lords]] start stabbing each other in the back as soon as Curze goes missing while solo'ing Macragge. It's about a ship floating in the ruinstorm that has just discovered the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] and foreshadows problems for Ultramar.
**'''Virtues of the Sons''' - Sanguinius forsees that he will not always be in charge of the Blood Angels, but worries about the Red Thirst causing havoc with his sons futures. So gets Amit to duel Kharn and Azkaellon to duel Lucius in hopes they'll learn something. Azkaellon learns to let the rage out a bit and Amit learns a modicum of restraint.
**'''Gunsight''' - The Vindicare Assassin from Nemesis is still alive and on Horus' flagship, its about him spending years waiting for the opportune moment to get a shot, but he starts going mad while he waits. Gives ups when Horus plucks his killshot from the air and Horus gives him a chaos rifle for his change in loyalty.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anthology
**'''Daemonology''' - To and fro' story about [[Mortarion]]. On Terra he discovers the initial construction of the Golden Throne and gets told about Emp's plan for removing psykers. In the "present day" he captures a daemon and starts practising sorcery on it.
**'''Black Oculus''' - A short story about Navigators describing what it's like travelling in the warp.... basically it's [[Grimdark]].
**'''Chirurgeon''' - [[Fabius Bile]] narrating about his history, and what happened about the gene-flaw that almost wiped out the [[Emperor's Children]]. Totally has the gene-flaw and has been using his bestest bro turned servitor to keep it under wraps.
**'''Twisted''' - '''Maloghurst''' gets a story about him uncovering plots against Horus and gets wrapped up in intrigue. It actually shows him as a really clever bastard and a bit of a badass.
**'''Wolf Mother''' - [[Perpetual|Alivia Sureka]]'s kids get captured after their escape from Molech and she teams up with [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]] in order to get them back. Lots of coolness on Sevarian's part and we also get to see that Perpetuals can resist possession.
*'''''Tallarn: Executioner''''' - A novella about a vehicle squadron (Leman Russ Executioner, Vanquisher and a Salamander) having to deal with the toxic surface in the weeks after the surface bombardment and then come into contact with the Iron Warriors. Also the Alpha Legion have a hand in things, like they always do.
*'''''Tallarn: Ironclad''''' - Part two of the Tallarn story.
*'''''Deathfire''''' - What the Salamanders have been saying since Isstvan is true: Vulkan lives! Well now he does. Basically a bunch of Salamanders take his body from Macragge to Nocturne (with some side help from didn't ask for this Magnus) and throw him into Nocturne's largest volcano, and lo and behold he comes back to life, making that entire plotline pointless. Still has the fucking Fulgurite in his chest, though. TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nzml-zZ9M
*'''''The Wolf King ''''' - The Space Wolves find themselves set upon by the forces of the Alpha Legion before they can recover from the Razing of Prospero and are hounded to the edge of the Alaxxes Nebula (swiss cheese acid cloud). There the Alpha Legion beat the ever-living shi...stuffing out of the wolves whilst Russ locks himself in his room and sulks. Russ eventually summons his new favourite Bjorn to join him and they have bit of a heart to heart about what a bunch of morons they were in allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily by Horus. By the end Russ is back to his old self and celebrates by massacring every Alpha he can get his hands on even if it’s clear that his defeat is inevitable. Fortunately for the Wolves helps comes from a hidden armada of Dark Angels ostensibly "loyal" to [[Luther]], but unaware of the Horus Heresy or of the whereabouts or actions of the Lion. Russ borrows gear and manpower from them in exchange for info on current events which most likely finds its way back to Luther and sets the "Destiny of Caliban" in motion. Russ then heads for Terra.
*'''''War Without End''''': Anthologies Without End.
*'''''Pharos''''': Night Lords fucking up the Pharos Lighthouse on Sotha. Sanguinius eventually grows some balls and starts standing up to Guilliman instead of just being a pantomime Emperor, while the Lion is nowhere to be seen as usual. Warsmith Dantioch bites it while using the Pharos to burn the Night Lords out of his fortress, but inadvertently piques the interest of the [[Tyranids]], causing them to show up 10,000 years later. Skraivok become a prime example of DEMON SWORDS: NOT EVEN ONCE.
*'''''Eye of Terra''''': Another anthology.
*'''''Path Of Heaven''''': Sequel to Scars. The White Scars have been fighting traitor legions for a few years but are starting to show the strain. They finally make a shift back to Terra but things don't go as planned. Notable for digging into the Webway storyline and the Navis Nobilite as well as featuring a resurrected and suddenly competent Eidolon. Navigators weren't going to sit around while E-money built their replacement, White Scars use a prototype webway portal to escape their last stand, and Moratarion starts using sorcery to locate Typhon.
*'''The Seventh Serpent:''' a novella about the Shattered Legions going up against the Alpha Legion; a simple premise made awesome by sheer depth of Alpharian plot twists: They had been manipulated by Alpharius into fighting a battle against Loyalist Alpha Legionaires.
*'''The Silent War:''' Guess What?! It's ''another'' anthology of stories that GW have already sold individually as audio-books. So value might be had for those who hadn't listened to them.
*'''''Angels of Caliban:''''' two Dark Angels stories in one book again, though this one actually moves the plot forward. In Ultramar, the Lion captures Konrad Curze but only after discretely nuking a whole region despite a ban on orbital weapon use, which results in his disgrace and we find that it is Guilliman who breaks the Lion Sword. Curze reveals that there were chaos cults on Mcraggae too, and that Guilliman would be a traitor if he had landed a little to the left. On Caliban, the Fallen openly declare their rebellion from the Imperium and ironically steal some starships that were meant to collect them and actually bring them into the war again. [[Zahariel]] kills [[Cypher]] and takes his place.
*'''''Praetorian of Dorn''''' Alpharius tries to invade <s>Terra</s> Pluto. Dorn kills him. Yes, Alpharius is now dead. And not a fake either, but the real Alpharius. Omegon can confirm. Alpha Legions fags blew a gasket. Oh shit believe we did.
*'''''Corax''''' A compilation of all the Corax Stories, plus a new one, '''Weregeld''', which manages to undo all the hard work the previous stories have done and turn Corax into a douchebag. Kills all his mutated Raven Guard because he promised to kill warp stuff. Saves Russ and his arrogant ass though.

=== Books XLI onwards ===
*'''''The Master of Mankind''''': The Emperor is a dick: the book. We all knew this, but now it's set in stone. Highlights being: Emperor stating to Arkhan Land that the Primarchs are tools and he views them with a scientific but detached fascination. Referring to them as numbers but content to allow the fantasy of being their "father", an interpretation of the character that was fairly divisive to say the least. He actually seems to care more for his Custodians than he does any of his other creations, but they don't consider him to be a father and see him as just their warlord. Drach'nyen is also revealed to be the Daemon created when Caine killed Abel. In the end he closes the door on the webway and has to spend the rest of his time sitting in the chair keeping it shut. Despite this, it does show off why the Chaos Gods fear him, as he pretty much rapes an infinite army of Daemons; the Greater ones either flee or try and fail to fight him (being destroyed in a matter of moments) whilst the lesser ones die just by looking at him. Despite this, Drach'nyen nearly kills him, and <s>it is confirmed that fate has indeed decreed that Empy will die at the daemon's hand</s> claims that it will kill the Emperor (keep in mind that the future is malleable and Daemons lie). But how will it feast on the Emperor's tattered soul when Abaddon lacks arms to plunge it into his chest? (''But Abaddon never lost his arms due to the same retcon that let Eldrad live'') Also known as Master of skubkind. Reveals his grand plan of saving the human race from the Eldar fate by absolute control of every human to a custodian before shanking him with Drach'nyen and making him run into the webway. Also put all his chips into the ''Human Webway'' plan and screwed us all over without a backup. Can you tell that this is an ADB book?
*'''''Garro''''': Compilation of all the stories about Garro and his boy band, though they insist it isn't just an anthology since the audio book stories were expanded to be more written novel friendly.
*'''''Shattered Legions''''': It's an anthology containing an anthology. I shit thee not. It shoves together the limited edition anthology Meduson with a few other shorter stories, including some Alpha Legion stuff like the Seventh Serpent.
*'''''The Crimson King''''': Magnus was broken into shards when Russ felled him. Now the Thousand Sons with the help of Lucius the Eternal must put him back together.
*'''''Tallarn''''': Does it even need to be stated? It's another fucking anthology, this time putting all the tank porn of the Tallarn books into one binding.
*'''''Ruinstorm:''''' The conclusion to the Imperium Secundus plotline, as well as the follow on to Damnation of Pythos. Shows the Lion, Sanguinius and Guilliman trying to cross the Ruinstorm to reach Terra. Having a brief stopover at Pandorax, they decide to head out to Davin where the Heresy began and where destinies are re-made; they pass systems along the way that show what the Galaxy would look like if Chaos wins, such as a Forge World surrounded by an immense fortress wall in outer space 4000 miles thick, or a sector of space filled with solid ritualised geometric shapes that are perhaps light years across. Davin itself is surrounded by a cloud of bones and wreckage millions of kilometers thick, but the planet has long since been abandoned. There, Sanguinius finds out that in order to live through the Heresy he must become a monster even worse than Horus, but dying will curse his sons with the Black Rage; blood is on his hands either way. Instead, Sanguinius tries to sacrifice himself to save the day, but the [[Sanguinor]] steps in and takes his place while the fleets rain down a shitstorm and destroy the planet. In the aftermath, the Ruinstorm abates enough for them to reach Terra, but Horus has so much force that it is impossible for all three legions to reach, so Guilliman and the Lion agree to distract the Traitors long enough to give Sanguinius a window to get back and face his destiny, explaining why they never made it to the Siege since they were engaging Traitor fleets and burning their worlds.
*'''''Old Earth:''''' Set immediately after ''Vulkan Lives'', Vulkan and three Salamander legionaries ''(the rest of the Salamanders weren't informed of their Primarch's resurrection)'' travelled through the Webway by a gate hidden in a cave on Nocturne. On their path to Terra, they came across the Shattered Legions, who were preparing for their first major void engagement with the Sons of Horus. Just before the attack, some Medusan-born Iron Hands tried to stage a coup against Shadrak Meduson by revealing a hideous contraption of machines, and the last remnants of Ferrus Manus - his iron hand ''(They were under the illusion that they could resurrect their Primarch through cybernetics, it is hinted that the Mechanicum had some hand in this affair.)'' Thankfully, Vulkan shattered the hand, and Meduson assumed command again, though he was killed by '''Tybalt Marr''' in a boarding action after the Iron Hand refused to send reinforcements to him. In the end, it was revealed that the Emperor had Vulkan forged a weapon, that in the event Terra fell to Horus, would amplify the power of the Golden Throne to the point it coulf wipe out the entire Throneworld ''(this is probably one of Vulcan's nine relics)'' Oh, and Eldrad rescued [[Knights-Errant|Barthusa Narek]] from Nocturne and made him his assassin. They killed most of the Cabal, and finally rescued John Grammaticus, who had his memory wiped after his failure to assassinate Vulkan. With his memory restored, Grammaticus was ordered by Eldrad to find Ollanius Pius and go to Terra.
*'''''Wolfsbane:''''' No solid information yet, but it seems like Leman Russ leaves Terra to confront Horus himself. One can expect that it doesn't end well for him.

== The Primarchs Series ==

Because Black Library don't seem satisfied confusing us with all their anthologies, audio-books, and short stories, they have begun releasing a spin-off series of Horus Heresy novels centered on the Primarchs. The series don't really take place in a specific time, but generally focuses on expanding on the titular Primarch's backstory and motivations during events before the Horus Heresy (though some of them also have events occurring after it). Why Black Library lists it as part of the Horus Heresy series when that is the case is beyond our comprehension.

=== Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar ===
Centers on the papa smurf himself, and him trying to deal with how the Emperor used him like a rusty hammer to smack Lorgar in the head at Monarchia. Uses a conflict against Orks as a vehicle for him and the smurfs to express their angst over the event.

=== Leman Russ: The Great Wolf ===
Focuses on Leman Russ' notorious rivalry with the Lion, and explaining why to this day whenever the Chapters meet they throw the gauntlet down and beat the stuffing out of one another. Notably it reveals some interesting stuff like the Lion being aware of the Space Wolves' furry issue and keeping a lid on it.

=== Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero ===
Depicts the unlikely friendship between Magnus and old Pert with a joint venture between their legions. Things go wrong on the planet due to totally not Chaos cult nonsense, and it does a decent job of showing Magnus' flaws. Specifically on his inability to leave things that have "do not fuck with this" alone; something Pert tries and fails at making him understand.

=== Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia ===
Probably the book in the series that did the most character building of all of them. This book is a mix of showing off Perturabo's childhood on Olympia alongside a "current" day conflict against the Hrud. The former showing why Pert is the odd genius manchild guy he is, while the latter does a great job of showing why fucking with an alien species capable of controlling time is somewhat of a stupid idea. However, the real draw of the book is that it is mainly written as an attempt to merge together the seemingly contradictory depictions of Pert we've had over the years. Showing how the ruthless dick who decimates his legion for not being good enough in the Forgeworld books is the same guy who just wanted to be a builder in Angel Exterminatus. Yep. Definitely a sperg. Also he may or may not have wanted to bang his adopted sister.

=== Lorgar: Bearer of the Word ===
Yep, the first(ish?) heretic himself gets his own obligatory messed up childhood novel. Focusing slightly more on Kor Phaeron rather than Lorgar himself, showing him to be a manipulative dick who beat Lorgar as a child and never really bought into this whole "fatherhood" shtick, or this whole concept of [[Emperor|One True God]] but allowed Lorgar his fantasies and to take over Colchis ''(By "Word" or by "Mace")'' while Phaeron benefitted from increased position and secretly kept the faith of [[Chaos Gods]].

Though by the end Kor Phaeron wonders if Lorgar just let him think that he was manipulated and could have disposed of him at any time. The book does introduce a contrasting character to Kor Phaeron who actually shows Lorgar compassion growing up and was far more worthy of being named "father" but was far less useful to Lorgar's goals. The book shows that Lorgar isn't as stupid or naive as everyone thinks and does indeed realise that people have been using him for their own gains, but while he only really cares about doing the work of the gods, so long as they both align he doesn't seem to care.

=== Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix ===
Fulgrim tries to conquer the newly discovered planet Byzas with only 7 men. Along the way he encounters a brotherhood much like his own that wants to work with him that Fulgrim dismisses as a bunch of idealists. It's implied that he COULD have gotten the same results (Compliance) working with them but unfortunately that would have meant calling in backup and Fulgrim didn't want to do that so that was out of the question. In the end Fulgrim takes the world, but nearly dies. Several of the characters (Cyrius, Kasperos Telmar) later become prominent champions of chaos.

=== Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa ===

== The Tabletop Wargame ==
[[Forge World]] is producing a new line of books and models (''in addition to'' [[Imperial Armour]] and [[Warhammer Forge]]) to allow players to fight battles from the Horus Heresy in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. This includes rules and models for the [[Primarchs]] (both pre- and post-fall, for the Traitors) as well as ancient vehicles. No [[xenos]], unfortunately. Presumably this came about because GW felt that they just weren't making quite enough money from die-hard marine/chaos players and figured they could literally buy a dump-truck full of gold plated cocaine each if they made a version of the game that requires only Forge World minis AND thousands upon thousands of them. Still worth it, though.

=== Betrayal ===
Forge World starts big, as their first book covers the battles on Istvaan III, in which [[Horus]] sent the remaining loyalist elements of the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Emperor's Children]], [[Death Guard]], and [[World Eaters]] to the surface, ostensibly to rout the anti-Imperial resistance that had taken hold in the capital city, and then fired [[Exterminatus]] torpedoes (of the life-eater virus bomb variety) onto the city to wipe them out.

Unfortunately for Horus, not everything went as planned; not only did the loyalist Death Guard frigate ''Eisenstein'' escape to the [[Phalanx]] with word of Horus's betrayal, but loyalist elements on other ships were able to disrupt the bombardment and warn the loyalists on the ground that it was coming. Between the disruption, the warning, and good old-fashioned [[Space Marine]] toughness, only a third or so of the landed force had actually died. Horus would have fired another bombardment, but [[Angron]] and his traitor World Eaters jumped the gun and made planetfall; the other traitors were left with no choice but to deploy themselves and destroy the remaining loyalists personally.

''Betrayal'' contains a [[Great Crusade]] Legion army list (for which we have a [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines/Legion List‎|tactica]]), and rules for special characters and units from the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Death Guard]], [[Emperor's Children]], and [[World Eaters]] Legions, including their [[Primarch]]s (even [[Fulgrim]], who was not actually at the battle) and several major characters from the book series such as Garviel Loken.

===Massacre===
The infamous Drop Site Massacre is the focus of the next book, where seven Legions are sent to crush Horus’ rebellion, only for four of those to turn on the other three and crush them utterly. The books storyline is essentially just the ''first day'' of the battle, leading up to the death of [[Ferrus Manus]].

Massacre contains additional rules for special characters and units from the [[Iron Hands]], [[Night Lords]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Word Bearers]] Legions including their Primarchs and several more major characters from the book series make their debut such as Sevatar, Eidolon, Erebus and Kharn.

===Extermination===
Focusses on the second half of Istvaan V, as well as the Battle of Phall between the [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Imperial Fists]]; and on that note, it includes rules for those two Legions, as well as the [[Alpha Legion]] and the [[Raven Guard]].

It also gives us a complete Mechanicum Army List: the Taghmata.

====Condensed Lists====
The ICL and LACAL were initially released as part of the limited edition run of Extermination, but were then later released separately. They are fluff-lite, codex-equivalent books that also included all of the FAQs/Errata up to their release; which unfortunately was still the end of 6th edition so some rules haven't carried over well. ''(eg. [[Lorgar]]s psychic rules.)''

The Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List is basically the generic 30k Space Marine "codex", whilst the Isstvan Campaign Legions contains all of the collected rules for the legions from Books 1-3; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three books. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game. The ICL was continued in the Age of Darkness Legions, which collected everything to book 5, including the errata.

Later came the Mechanicum Taghamata Army List, which contained all the Mechanicum units and army lists mentioned and rearranged them to keep everything on the same page, but lacked the Questoris Knight Army. The Crusade Imperialis Army Lists contain the Solar Auxilia, Imperialis Militia/Warp Cults, and Questoris Knight Crusade army lists.

===Conquest===
Horus Heresy Volume Four is entitled 'Conquest', despite early hints from Forgeworld that it would be about the Battle of Prospero, it instead features Horus' conquest of the Imperium and the [[Skub|"Major"]] battles of this time, which is to say some battle-zones that Forgeworld made up to fill time whilst they worked on the more well known events from the in-universe history. ''(And to be fair, their response as to why Prospero was delayed was because it included four major factions, [[Adeptus Custodes|two of]] [[Sisters of Silence|which have]] NEVER been represented on the tabletop, so required more time to do them justice.)''

A large portion of the book is given over to running battles in the '''"Age of Darkness"''', which is a variant ruleset used as the default for Horus Heresy games ''(where only Troops usually score, amongst other things)'' and has rules and FOCs for Cityfight missions, rules for running ongoing campaigns, variant rules for mysterious terrain and objectives as well as including unique relics to be taken by the various army lists to add flavor to non-special characters.

It also introduces the [[Solar Auxilia]] and [[Imperial Knight|"Questoris" Knights]] (as an AdMech list) armies to play while the modellers take a break from building power armor 24/7.

===Tempest===
The fifth Horus Heresy book will cover the Battle of Calth. The rules for the [[Ultramarines]] (including [[Roboute Guilliman]] himself) as well as several warp-corrupted Word Bearer units are brought in alongside a few other new miscellaneous FW releases, including the Deredeo and the new Thanatars. There's also an Imperial Militia (Read: PDF) list that's super-customizable so you can make both loyalist and traitor lists. Also, the MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IS IN IT TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===Retribution===
Focused on 'Shadow Wars' far from the main fronts of the Heresy, in particular the Shattered Legions - that is, the [[Iron Hands]], [[Raven Guard]], and [[Salamanders]] in their weakened state following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre. But other Legions can also be included, with special rules for the Shattered Legions, Black Shields and a list for Armies of Dark Compliance - mixed traitor Legiones/Militia lists, as well as ten new special characters. It includes Legiones Astartes rules for the White Scars, Blood Angels and Dark Angels, so that players of those legions can start playing properly; however, it does not include special units, characters, or Primarchs for those legions. It also includes Garro and the Knights Errant and additional Mechanicum units and characters, including a new Dark Magos, [[Anacharis Scoria]]. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons will still need to wait for the Prospero book (Inferno, Book 7).

===Inferno===
In <s>Set to be book 3.</s> <s>late 2016.</s> <s>early 2017 (Because FW can't keep to schedule)</s> <s>December 2016</s> February 4, 2017, will come what many neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those [[Thousand Sons]] players, start saving up so you can play your space Egyptian sorcerers in all their 30k glory. Rules for the Sisters of Silence as an allied detachment and the Adeptus Custodes as a full army list will be present as well.

Well, it's come, and... it's uninspiring to say the least, with stuff like [[What|Magnus being straight up impossible to hit if he casts invisibility, not to mention pumping out 2d6 destroyer hits at every unit within 18" if he likes]], [[Derp|Custodes captains beating out every Primarch with a rollable 3+ invulnerable save]], some Custodes wargear being straight up [[Wat|left out of the book]] and to cap it all, [[Herp|pictures of tourists in the book ('''twice''') where you'd expect miniatures to be]]. You'd think with such a long development cycle the quality assurance would have been more thorough. Didn't help that [[Alan Bligh]] was likely fairly ill in late 2016, and his untimely death in May of 2017 means the Horus Heresy team now has a big hole in it.

===Malevolence===
It will feature White Scars, Blood Angels and Daemons. Also some new stuff for Space Wolves and Alpha Legion.

== See Also ==
*[[The War of The Beast]], for the next massive shit-show the Imperium was involved with.
* [[Alternate Heresy]], for a discussion of other possible outcomes of the (not necessarily Horus) Heresy.

== External Links ==
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/3170/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (1993)] at BoardGameGeek
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/63543/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (2010)] at BoardGameGeek

{{40k-Timeline}}

[[Category:Board Games]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Wargames]]

Horus Heresy

2018-02-18T09:58:35Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|500px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''this''.]]
:''[[Fulgrim|"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.]]'' 
:''[[Magnus the Red|Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.]]'' 
:''[[Angron|They will be of iron will and steely muscle.]]'' 
:''[[Perturabo|In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.]]'' 
:''[[Mortarion|They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.]]'' 
:''[[Alpharius|They will have tactics, strategies and machines]] [[Omegon|so that no foe can best them in battle.]]'' 
:''[[Konrad Curze|They are my bulwark against the Terror.]]'' 
:''[[Lorgar|They are the Defenders of Humanity.]]'' 
:''[[Horus|They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."]]'' 
:- The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], [[Not as planned|getting exactly what he wanted.]]
{{Topquote|The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.|Karl Popper}}

The '''Horus Heresy''' is one of the single biggest clusterfuck of events in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff, alongside the [[Eldar]]'s creation of a new [[Slaanesh|Chaos God]], and the [[War in Heaven|rampage and fall of the]] [[C'Tan|star gods]]. Needless to say, this heresy derailed the Emperor's plan and himself, and gave the Chaos Gods their most prominent armies to carry out their will in realspace.

In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor's favorite son, [[Horus| Horus Lupercal]], formerly Warmaster of the Imperium, was corrupted by Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor, taking nine [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] (Including [[Luna Wolves|his own]]), their respective Primarchs, and about half of the Imperial Army and Mechanicum with him. After waging war across the galaxy, Horus and his traitors eventually reached Holy Terra itself, hoping to murder the Emperor himself and cut the head off the proverbial snake and win the war.

Things went [[Not as Planned]] however, as he was eventually surrounded by loyalist forces at the height of the siege on Terra. As a final gambit, he dropped the shields of his flagship which allowed the Emperor to beam up and challenged him to a duel for the fate of humanity. Horus beat the Emperor within an inch of his life but was killed in turn after the Emperor put his foot down and obliterated Horus' soul from existence (as in it didn't go to the warp to be resurrected by daemons; it was literally erased from existence) when it finally became clear to him that Horus was beyond forgiveness. The Chaos gribbles he had been allied with disappeared and the now Chaos Marines that had followed him sulked back to the [[Eye of Terror]], starting the [[Long War]].

Because the Emperor was fucked up to the point where he had to be permanently attached to a life-support machine known as the "Golden Throne" just to survive, logic within the Imperium gradually decreased, eventually turning into the [[Grimdark]] empire it is today. And it was already pretty damn grimdark.

[[File:President.png|700px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''him''.]]
[[File:GodsOfWarhammer.jpg|400px|thumb|left|It was pretty much ''them''.]]

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course) and changed the flavour of the Imperium's Grimdark from Stalinist Soviet "if you breathe a word about religion, we rape you with knives" to Catholic [[Inquisition]] "if you breathe a word about the ''wrong'' religion, we rape you [[Exterminatus|or your whole planet]] with knives" unless you can find an Ecclesiarch to come and say: "nope, that's just another aspect of the Emperor". Don't count on this happening without hefty "donations".

The heresy lasted for several years (somewhere between seven and ten) and was fought all over the galaxy. The following are the most important battles and campaigns during the Heresy:
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Prospero|Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Betrayal at Calth|Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Battle of Tallarn]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

Following the Siege of Terra, Horus was permakilled, Big E was interred onto the Golden Throne, the surviving primarchs freaked out trying to figure out what do now that daddy was in a coma, the traitors fucked off into the Eye of Terror, and overall the galaxy slowly and collectively lost their minds now that their wise and all-powerful ruler was no longer around to tell them what to do.

== The Board Game ==
First published in 1993 by [[Game Designer's Workshop]], it was the Emprah versus his [[Horus|evil bastard of a son]] in the scorched earth of Terra. Units include [[Titan#Warhammer_40k|titans]] and [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spaw-]] oh shiARHGRBLLYRBGRDEWUODHGRYEB.

Ahem, as he was saying, The more recent edition (2010) is published by [[Fantasy Flight Games]]. Also a two-player [[wargame|war]] [[board game|game]], it includes over 100 sculpted minifigs, sculpted buildings, and even Horus and the Emprah themselves are units on the board. It also adds more territory, as the fight can be pushed back onto the [[heresy|traitor's]] flagship ''Vengeful Spirit''. Combat is less [[dice|dice-y]] and more card-y.

(Not to be confused with the lame Horus Heresy card game, whose only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway.)

== The Book Series ==
For the last decade, [[Black Library]] has been publishing novels that explore the events of the Horus Heresy, looking at the rivalries among the [[Primarchs]] and exploring just why everything went down the tubes. The novels are by a selection of different authors, which is a total pain if you like to organise your books alphabetically by author. The reception to the series has been somewhat... mixed; books generally considered to be good include [[Dan Abnett|the first trilogy]], [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Betrayer]], [[White Scars|Scars]], and the short story [[Alpha Legion|The Serpent Beneath]].

Of course, like we mentioned, there's some that are... um... Well, let's just say that the worst are a [[skub|matter of much debate]].

{{Template:Spoilers}}

=== Books I - X ===
*'''''Horus Rising:''''' A prologue story, introducing us to the series and Garviel Loken who will grow into a very significant character. An Emperor (not [[Emperor|Him]]) is killed at the beginning and some bugs are killed on a planet called Murder for no reason other than they were there. The Interex show up and ask "whadya do that for?". [[Erebus]] steals the '''MURDER SWORD''' from them.
*'''''False Gods:''''' Horus falls at Davin when wounded by the '''MURDER SWORD''' and gets a crash course in the chaos gods from [[Erebus]] & [[Magnus]]. After getting shown a few "truths" that WILL HAPPEN in the future (like the Emperor being worshipped as a god, Horus being reviled and forgotten) he decides to make war on the Imperium to [[FAIL|prevent]] all this from happening.
*'''''Galaxy in Flames:''''' Isstvan III happens and the traitors send the loyalists down to the planet without reinforcements and proceed to bomb them to fuck. Things don't go to plan when [[Angron]] decides to invade turning it into a [[Not as Planned]] drawn out conflict that the Warmaster can't really afford - Loken "dies"
*'''''Flight of the Eisenstein:''''' the other side of ''Galaxy in Flames'', Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved (and mega-bitchslapped) by [[Rogal Dorn]], who does not take the news from Isstvan [[Rage|very well]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'. There is also the very first canonical appearance of Plague Marines, Euphrati Keeler being all mystical and shit, and Malcador recruiting Garro as the first Knight-Errant.
*'''''Fulgrim:''''' one of the more forgettable stories in the series. Attempts to tell the story from Great Crusade all the way up to the [[Drop Site Massacre]] in one book. In short Fulgrim finds a sword, gets possessed, kills Ferrus Manus - the end. It is written by Graham McNiel though, and it has an awesome quote from Fulgrim "My Emperor's Children. What beautiful music they make." .
*'''''Descent of Angels:''''' This is the Heresy book that isn't about the Heresy, instead focusing on [[Zahariel]]'s time on [[Caliban]]. It portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness (he can not read people at all, so he comes off as 'do what I say or die!') and having Luther to handle the small talk. Hints that the Great Crusade <s>does more harm than good</s> {{BLAM}} is uniting the lost colonies of mankind into a united future! Luther gets sent home with Zahariel to hustle up more Dark Angels.
*'''''Legion''''' introduces [[the Cabal]], the [[Perpetual]]s and [[Omegon]]. READ THIS BOOK. Or don't, as this is where those things that would eventually take over the Heresy series and according to many completely ruin it (Cabal, Perpetuals) are introduced. I still would recommend reading it since when the novel introduces these ideas they are very fresh and interesting. Don't blame Legion when the rest of the novels were who ruined it. Alpha legion is trying to bring some chaos cultist into compliance. Chaos cultists activate planetary self destruct blood sacrifice. Alpha legion meets with the Cabal, agrees to work with them, then kills off all non-legion bystanders & ships with "FOR E-MONEY"!
*'''''Battle for the Abyss:''''' The book is so bad that other authors tried to retcon it out of existence. This book is so bad that you would have it was cobbled together from [[Matt Ward|Wardian fluff]] stitched together by [[C. S. Goto]]. Reading this book may, in fact, cause brain cancer so you should avoid it if at all possible. Everyone dies, so it does not affect much (as in anything). The only thing you need to remember is [[Lorgar]] built a fuckhueg space ship and filled it with Dreadnoughts, and it failed miserably.
*'''''Mechanicum:''''' Tech Priests turn renegade after Horus tells them they can do whatever they like with technology, so they release forbidden viral scrapcodes and screw everything up. Also turns out that [[Emperor|Big E]] invented the Machine-God by sealing a C'Tan on Mars back during the Saint George era, giving everyone visions of technology. Also more subtle hints that the Emperor is a god himself by using divine golden light to heal machines and instant access super wikipedia. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery. And for extra Grimdark, a tech priestess discovers that the Dark Age era humans stored a backup copy of wikipedia in the warp and <s>with a giant psyker powered terminal accesses said wikipedia and restores all the knowledge of mankind</s> floods her forge with lava to deny the traitors access. A psyker tech savant meets up with the goaler of the Void Dragon and takes over his fuck long shift.
*'''''Tales of Heresy:''''' short story collection, including [[The Last Church]]. Has a lot of twist endings.
** '''''Blood Games:''''' An assassin tries to kill the emperor. The Adeptus Custodes go to kill a traitor on Terra. The assassin was a Custodes probing the palace defences. The traitor was a triple agent working for Dorn.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor. When the liberated planet chooses freedom over Emperor, the wolves invade again.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. They worshiped the Emperor, but Lorgar no longer does. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The squad of Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp. Turns out the youngest of the squad in the future used sorcery to beam back her consciousness through time onto some psykers on the Black Ship. She <s>successfully warns the squad about Horus's Rebellion </s> is executed by a hard-core Sister for breaking her vow of [[Psyker|no funny stuff]].
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.
** '''''[[The Last Church]]:''''' A story about the Emperor destroying one of the churches on Terra during the reunification era in his effort to wipe out religion. The Emperor and the priest of the church have an enlightening conversation about the Emprah's trying to accomplish. The conversation ends up with the priest accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite, with him decrying that he's no more different than the old warlords who waged crusades and holy wars in the past to push their own agendas on other people. Emperor reveals himself as the very god the priest was worshiping, and nearly convinces him to stand by his side while his soldiers destroy the church. Priest gets cold feet and walks back into the church while it collapses. An end-times alarm clock starts ringing in the ruins.
** '''''After Desh'ea:''''' The War Hounds meet their primarch. Angron demeats the War Hounds. More specifically, the Emperor just beamed up Angron away from his last stand (rather than, you know, intervening with his Custodes or his fleet), leaving Angron pretty pissed. [[Kharn]] is a pretty great guy to be around, and pulls his femurs out of his lungs quickly enough to establish himself as Angron's best buddy ''after the War Hounds chain of command calmed Angron down as fleshy squeeze balls''.

=== Books XI - XX ===
*'''''Fallen Angels:''''' the sequel to Descent of Angels, is actually two stories rolled into one book that never converge. 1. The Lion fights a war to reclaim some Ordinatus devices and then hands them to Perturabo to gain his trust, not realising that his brother has already turned. 2. [[Zahariel]] and Luther clean out a daemon cult on Caliban... but not really.
*'''''Thousand Sons:''''' Part 1 of the Battle for Prospero. Runs through the Great Crusade where Magnus discovers the webway, but his Father already knew about it. Then the Edict of Nikaea where Magnus gets all passionate about not restricting psychic powers, then to Horus's vision quest where Magnus fails to keep his brother on the right path, then does the WORST thing possible by forcing himself through the palace psychic spam filter, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues and the thousand sons become a thousand sons all over again. Ahriman starts writing hit Rubric.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail because Horus sent a look-a-like, but in the process slay a shapeshifting daemonic counter-assassin sent by Erebus. While it is a decent book and we learn a lot, it didn't contribute much to the overall plot. On the more [[rage|vitriolic side]], the writing is a bit underwhelming in places; highlights include calling a pariah a psyker, another pariah with a contrived possession, and Horus uttering one of the most cliche one liners out there.
*'''''The First Heretic:''''' [[Lorgar]]'s turn to get a back story and generally considered one of the better books in the series. While you make never sympathize with them, this book really lets you understand why The Word Bearers fell to chaos, rather then being the "CHAOTIC EVIL MONSTERS" they are portrayed in the rest of the series.. Feels less rushed than "[[Fulgrim]]". Goes from Monarchia to a bit of soul searching in the Eye of Terror and discovers Cadia. Leads up to Istvaan V and the immediate aftermath. Signifcant subplots revolve around the inception of Possessed Marines, and what happens to the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] babysitters watching over the Word Bearers, and how the protagonist [[Argel Tal]] gets into a tragic bromance with the Custodes leader.
** '''''Aurelian:''''' A limited release short story until an ebook was published. The plot bounces around in-between a number of moments in Lorgar's history up to the prelude of the Shadow Crusade. One narrative involves how Lorgar's brothers still treat him like shit, especially when he's the only one who sees through Fulgrim's possession, and ends with Horus sending him to fuck up Ultima Segmentum and handing him Angron's (figurative, [[/d/|not literal]]) leash. The other narrative takes place in the 40 year gap in ''The First Heretic'', where Lorgar makes a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror with a Daemon Princess as his guide. They come to a dead Crone World where he puts a dying [[Avatar of Khaine|Avatar]] out of its misery and he's told that the Eldar panicked rather than embrace Chaos during the birth of Slaanesh, which is what caused them to nearly die out; the daemon prince(ss) tells Lorgar the same thing is happening with humanity during the Heresy, how Chaos really wants a [[A Game of Pretend|symbiotic relationship with humanity rather than to conquer it]]. In the middle of this, Khorne decides he's had enough of this talky wordy shit and sends [[An'ggrath]] to make things more exciting, and Lorgar narrowly beats him. Then Kairos Fateweaver comes and "tells" him about Calth and his relationship with Guilliman and his upcoming war with him in the most confusing as fuck discussion ever. The truth of most of the things told to Lorgar are left ambiguous, because, well, Fateweaver; but also Chaos has a lot riding on the Heresy coming to fruition for reasons left not entirely explored.
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. A civilian archeologist named Kasper Hawser hangs out with a company of the Space Wolves, where we learn a lot about their culture and attitudes. Turns out that Chaos infiltrated everything, so the outcome of Nikaea was practically rigged. The civilian himself even turns out to have been an unwitting spy for Chaos, but the Wolves knew anyway and didn't give a shit (they thought he worked for Magnus).
* '''''Age of Darkness:''''' A short story anthology.
** '''''Rules of Engagement:''''' Roboute lets one of his commanders lead in a series of wars that didn't really occur, and we get the best line ever said in regards to the [[Codex Astartes]]: despite the fact it does cover a lot, it's not meant to be followed biblically <s>which is a load of bull given that the Codex lets said commander win all the wars in the most efficient way possible while blindly following it and only failed in the last battle because he was in a war game against Girlyman</s>. (See the quote on the page on the Big Book of Astartes). The Imperium Secundus shows up, making for another bizarre plot element that ruins the series without adding anything.
** '''''Liar's Due:''''' You know those memes on how the [[Alpha Legion]] causes mass paranoia without actually involving any Astartes? Those aren't just memes. Alpha Legion serf arrives on a agri-world and turns it's allegiance to Horus by only hacking all their inter-planetary communications.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[Salamanders|Salamander]] and a grumpy ol' [[Ultramarine]] are sent in opposition to one of Horus' iterators to convince an industrial-militant world which side to side with. They almost side with Horus before the Warmaster's agents [[Exterminatus|wreck shit]] for the lulz. Oh, and to send the message that neutrality will be punished. The [[Iron Warriors]] were doing weird shit on that world for years beforehand, and was probably the more deciding factor than the lulz.
** '''''The Last Remembrancer:''''' Horus sent the one last remembrancer he had stored up as a gift to Dorn. Instead of in a box (or eight or some shit like that), it was the [[Dan Abnett]] of his day telling Dorn that the grimdark galaxy was grimdark. Also that the Emperor's vision of a galaxy of peace, unity, prosperity, and fluffy bunnies built up without any more grimdark attached than was strictly needed, probably wasn't very likely before any shit hit any fan either way. Also, Iacton Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iacton Qruze. Dorn says it's all lies and enemy propaganda before executing said remembrancer and torching all his ramblings.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Magnus's absent fleet from the Burning of Prospero comes home and shits a brick. The last known surviving squad of Thousand Sons outside of the Planet of the Sorcerers gets beaten up and they slowly figure out it was the Space Wolves who shit on Magnus's <s>parade</s> world and is stalking them. One plot twist later, most of them are dead, the last one decides he's gonna rebuild everything, with a few scant hints that his flesh-change genetic flaw will [[Blood Ravens|shift into kleptomania]].
** '''''The Face of Treachery:''''' The tie-in and conclusion of the audiodrama featuring the Raven Guard after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax [[troll]]ing Perturabo for a bit too long, Horus sends Angron in to finish the job, but Corax's cavalry arrives to troll Angron by getting the loyalists the fuck out of there. We also learn that Corax has a supersekrit psyker ability which lets him roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can out-troll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters (they let the World Eater commander think he was in command then blew his brains out when he tried to actually command). Ends with an transitory bit into ''Deliverance Lost''.
** '''''Little Horus:''''' Little Horus Aximand is struggling with the PTSD he got when he killed Loken and Torgaddon with [[Abaddon|Abby]]. Abby and Little Horus have a discussion (we mean Horus Aximand, not when Primarch Horus was sodomizing Abaddon again) about restoring the Mournival. A couple war scenes later, Little Horus learns the hard way that the White Scars are pretty badass, but his PTSD starts acting up again and he gets his face shaved off before the White Scars are driven off. Little Horus realizes his PTSD he had since killing Loken and Torgaddon ultimately stems from that time he helped kill Loken and Torgaddon, and gives a diatribe about how things like "change", "mood swings", and "hallucinations" are suited to his melancholic nature, saying things like "it's perfectly natural", "I'm fine, everything's fine. Everything is perfectly, absolutely fine", and "Therapy is for the weak. I'm fine". After the Mongolian shave, he gets his face reattached and ends up looking even more like Big Horus in the deal.
** '''''The Iron Within:''''' Some pretty bro-tier loyalist Iron Warriors build a fortress hanging from a cave over an ocean of prometheum in a hellhole of a world (giant cavern system & acidic atmosphere), and one of Perturabo's traitor Grand Companies come knocking to demand that they hand over the house keys. The loyalists give them a fuck-you in the form of a Dreadnought. A few melodramatic and horrific but generic war scenes later, and they get overrun (after a full year of siege thanks to the genius of a certain [[Barabas Dantioch]]), drop the fortress from the ceiling onto a titan, and get the hell out of there by hijacking one of the Iron Warriors warships via teleportation. An Ultramarine big wig was there to bring the loyalists home, informing them that [[Skub|Guilliman was fortifying Terra]] and he needed good siege workers to stall the traitors then to fortify Terra. While loyalist Iron Warriors were pretty cool, the story itself was pretty forgettable; and it left some open questions like whether the continuity errors were the result of "faulty astropathic communications" (see Outcast Dead) or if the Ultramarines were trolling the Iron Warriors to join in with the Imperium Secundus. And also why the Iron Warriors were determined to take a hellhole at an immense expense of people and materiel, including Titans, while they could have just said "fuck yo shit!" and left a fortress with no space or warp conveyance and arguably little strategic value in itself in the middle of nowhere alone. It mentions a few times that it looks really bad for a rebellion trying to gain initiative when a mere captain of their Legions tells their Primarch "fuck off, imma keeping this fortress & resources for the Emperor!" The message behind it being if you can't even control your own men, maybe this rebellion thing needs a rethinking, because hearing Horus can't even take this shitty outpost middle of nowhere and he's going to Terra might be bad press.
** '''''Savage Weapons:''''' A good story written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|ADB]]. Dark Angels are hunting down the Night Lords who are fucking with Forge Worlds, but the Night Lords are staying a step ahead of them, much to [[Rage|the Lion's frustration]]. After being advised by Horus to pass along a message, Kurze asks the Lion to meet up face-to-face on Tsagualsa. When they talk, while what they say to each other is offscreen, it's implied Kurze told Lion about the Fallen Angels and that Horus knew about their impending betrayal. Lion decides nobody is going to give him shit about being a rumored closet traitor, and the ensuing fight proves that Jonson is a badass among primarchs, until Kurze goes to his old fallback of strangling a fucker, and things get more even. Their respective honor guards go at it in the meantime, and showing [[Sevatar]] is a badass among Space Marines. Things end up in a draw, leaving things open for a new plotline within the Heresy, the ''Prince of Crows'' novella being the next.
*'''''The Outcast Dead:''''' A mess of continuity errors, at least when compared with the rest of the series, the other authors later claimed all the errors were absolutely intentional and a result of the messed-up nature of Warp-based communication. [[derp|''Riggggghhhhtttt!'']] More importantly: shortly after the start of the Heresy an astropath has routine nervous breakdown and is returned to Terra to get [[Witch Hunters|some R&R]]. What really ends up happening is that he gets there in time for [[Magnus]]'s astral body to reach Big E to warn him of Horus' betrayal, and the fuckhueg psychic shock of course dicks with the Astropath HQ compound something mighty. In the confusion and assloads of psychic phenomena that followed, the astropath gets implanted with a message for somebody regarding the war, but his PTSD keeps him from knowing what the hell it is or who it's for. The Custodes come in and tell him ''"[[Anal Circumference|Ve haff vays of making you talk.]]"'' and hand him over to a pair of [[Inquisition|kind counselors]] who torture the poor man half to death. After a time, he gets busted out in the nick of time by some convict Space Marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." to the others. They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra (amusingly, none of the escapees is very happy at the prospect of the Heresy but they are all [[rage|slightly miffed]] at being treated like shit by the Custodes just because of the Legion they belong to.) Other subplots revolve around: a psyker congregant at a slum church near the Imperial palace; a samurai witch hunter (no, really); '''''fucking [[Thunder Warriors]]'''''. Best bits are <s>[[Rip and tear|an unarmed, unarmored World Eater ripping a Custodes' spine out through his chest]]</s> the portrayal of the Emperor playing chess in dreams, revealing that the message is about his upcoming bitchslap from Horus.
*'''''Deliverance Lost:''''' [[Corvus Corax]], having just escaped from Istvaan V, decides to go ask daddy for a handout to get his Legion back on his feet, and gets the mother of all genetech to do it, though he has to do a bit of legwork to get it. Meanwhile, a bunch of faceless Alpha Legionnaires (okay, they do have faces, they just originally belonged to some Raven Guard) had infiltrated Corax's Legion at Istvaan, and are doing recon and intelligence gathering waiting for [[Omegon]] to give the go-ahead to fuck shit up. Corax, meanwhile sets up new geneseed methods that bring up new recruits to battle-ready marines ''in fucking hours'', with the potential to conscript literally anybody willing to become a Space Marine. The Alphas decide this probably isn't in their interest, and sabotage the new geneseed by tainting it with ''daemon blood'', turning second- and third-batch new Raven Guard into the twisted monsters we know that Corax ended up with. In one of the instances of retcon that was actually flavored with [[awesome]] and win, the mutant marines [[Grimdark|were still sapient]], but were left to fight on in the Emperor's name. After staging a mass insurrection on Deliverance's parent world with the help of some old guilders Corax ousted and the Dark Mechanicum, Omegon gets ''more'' Alphas infiltrated into the Raven for the endgame: steal the genetech, kill some Ravenguard, get the fuck out before anybody knows what the fuck just happened in here. A couple cockups along the way leads to the Raven Guard getting wise and isolating out the Alphas. The end of the novel was like a swingers party at the retirement home, everybody got screwed (even ''Horus''), nobody got what they hoped for (except for [[Omegon|the really deviant bastard]]), and all-around the reproductive material was a waste. Corax shut down his hothousing method, and starts fucking with the Traitors, even at reduced numbers. The book ends on a note with Alpharius-Omegon deciding that while their plan for saving the galaxy was still good, they decide working with Xenos isn't for them.
*'''''Know No Fear:''''' The Ultras are still ignorant about Istvaan and the civil war erupting around the galaxy, and are on muster at Calth with the Word Bearers [[troll|on orders from Horus]] to go kill some Orks together as a conciliatory gesture. They were in for a surprise. The Word Bearers, while happy as hell to get revenge, are really trying to [[Eldrad|dick over]] the Ultramarines to keep them out of the Heresy, if not destroy them outright. What happens next is the Word Bearers arrange some "accidents" using sorcery and good ol' fashioned treachery to fake a monumental fuck up in the ship yards that leave the Ultramarine forces blind, deaf, and crippled. They use the confusion to say that the Ultras ''still'' fucking them over, and take the chance to open not only a can, but entire cases of whoop-ass on the Ultras. Erebus turns Calth's pole into a screaming hellscape to start up a warp storm, while Kor Phaeron oversees the systematic extermination of the Ultramarines and also successfully poisons Calth's sun. Guilliman gets jettisoned into space, but survives because [[Spiritual Liege]]. He then leads a counterattack on Kor Phaeron, and while Kor comes ''this close'' to getting a Primarch kill with [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|Chaos mindbullets]], but in a moment of self-aggrandizement, he holds back tries to corrupt Guilliman with his own dagger-sized '''MURDER SWORD'''. Guilliman calmly tells him "The Codex Astartes <s>does</s> will not support this action" (it was really "You made an error" followed by an explanation of that error, and "but while I'm alive, I can do this") and [[Rip and Tear|rips out Kor Phaeron's main heart with an unpowered Lightning Claw]]. Kor Phaeron's minions run away with his carcass, allowing the Ultras to retake their space station, which in turn allows Mechanicus plot power, aided by a planet's worth of orbital defense batteries, to bring the ground war back into the Ultramarines' favor. The novel ends with Word Bearers getting the hell out of there, and the Ultramarines evacuating everyone they can off of Calth and telling everybody they can't to get underground, transitioning into underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pius]] being the special guest star with his very own subplot, and the Word Bearers having athame blades as special issue, one of which will [[Uriel Ventris|come back later]]. You might notice this summary is pretty spoilerific, but if you didn't know the broad strokes already, you're in the wrong place.
*'''''The Primarchs:''''' A novella anthology. As the name suggests, it contains stories featuring Primarchs.
**'''''The Reflection Crack'd:''''' - <s>[[Lucius]] and friends anally rape [[Fulgrim]]. Yeah.</s> While questionable use of a ''pear of anguish'' is featured during a game of "Stab the Fulgrim," the real story is this: Lucius and his buddies are deep into the [[/d/|sickfuckery]] which will come to characterize their Legion, but begin to suspect that Fulgrim might have a daemon in him when he begins acting like not-Fulgrim and uses sorcery. They ambush him and try to exorcise it with pain, because torturing a Slaaneshi daemon will totally work (though they find out that a Primarch can grow back a foot, and just about any other wound). Among everything else: [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bill]] is still an arrogant dick; Lucius is still a maniacal and colossally narcissistic sick fuck; Julius Kaesoron is still an angry badass; Marius Vairosean is still a sycophantic cunt; and Eidolon was still a self-important, whiny douche, but Fulgrim throws a tantrum and cuts his head off, and there was much cheering from the readers, and that ''plus'' almost certain off-screen fapping among the Legionaries leads into ''Angel Exterminatus''.
**'''''Feat of Iron''''' - [[Ferrus Manus]]'s Legion is trying to off some Eldar on a desert world, but can't find the major Eldar strategic asset because of Spess Elf warp bullshit. A Farseer thinks he can warn Ferrus about the Heresy, and traps him in the webway or some psychic realm for a spirit quest long enough to fight a [[Fulgrim|giant purple snake]] (which is [[/d/|disturbingly appropriate imagery]] when you think about it); and Ferrus thinks it was the wyrm that he killed and gave him his metal hands, but the snake tells him that he must be mistaking it for somebody else. Ferrus kills it, and meets the Farseer who tries to tell Ferrus that he wasn't just being a dick. Ferrus, having too many experiences with Eldar being dicks, knocks some sense into the Farseer, who manages to run just fast enough to avoid getting killed. Ferrus comes back and helps his Legion fight off the Eldar kill the Webway beacon, or whatever the hell it was. In the background of all of this, the Iron Hands, having lost Ferrus, decide to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bitch about potentially dead father, and work to complete the mission despite being weighed down by Imperial Army who are dying of dehydration and heat stroke. The Eldar figure out a way to use storm clouds that make Iron Hands bionics kill their users, and Ferrus has a bitch of an itch around his neck that he can't get rid of. [[Drop Site Massacre|I wonder if that's important]].
**'''''The Lion:''''' - Dark Angels fight daemons and reinstitute Librarians. The Lion teamkills Nemiel for reminding him about Nikaea, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books because [[Gav Thorpe]] wanted to prove he's a big boy author who can kill his characters. Then they steal an intelligent super warp engine (insta shifts the Dark Angel fleet into the warp without need for a jump point while teleporting itself and the Lion onto his flagship; Lion is capable of talking politely infront of so much power) from [[Typhus]] then set course for Macragge to sort out Guilliman.
**'''''Serpent Beneath:''''' - Alpharius Omegon plots against himself and destroys a facility built around what looks suspiciously like a Cadian Pylon (and said facility keeping the White Scars out of the war), due to [[Cake|an information leak]], and they can't have that. Except than none of the main players are Alpharius or Omegon. And Alpharius and Omegon can't decide if they're secretly working against each other or not. Also: considered to be one of the better works of the series, not only due to quality, but because of the sheer mindfuckery of the plot, keeping entirely within the rationale of the Alpha Legion without any jumps in logic or canon.

=== Books XXI - XXX ===
*'''''Fear to Tread:''''' Despite being Black Library's most financially successful book ''ever'' and hitting thirteen (!) on the New York Times bestseller list (without Oprah's recommendation, even), many [[/tg/|fa/tg/uy]]s find it a bit ridiculous. Why? Well, there's planets with giant frowny faces inhabited by garbage monsters, ships getting blown up by city-sized rocks launched from the aforementioned planets, a nearly-stereotypically-gay [[Slaanesh]]i daemon that doesn't actually serve much of a purpose in the story, and a villain named the Red Angel, despite the fact [[Angron]] already claimed that as a nickname (although he was first introduced in ''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'', so it's not [[James Swallow]]'s fault). Oh, and Sanguinius acts like an idiot about [[Chaos]] the whole time, which fits the [[fluff]], but come on, how many freaky supernatural signs do you need to see before you decide it's not just foul xenos? In all fairness, of course, ''Fear to Tread'' does have quite a few good moments, especially when it comes to [[Warp]]-related terror. It also has a priceless bromance between [[Horus]] and [[Sanguinius]], not to mention Sanguinius and his Legion get characterized very well. Sanguiniuns and Co end up reaching Imperium Secundus.

*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - A story about two parallel story lines. The first is set during the [[Battle of Phall]], a space battle between the Iron Warriors whole fleet and what was left over from a third of the Imperial Fists's fleet after a warpstorm were ran them" ashore" and left them drifting and isolated in the backwater Phall system. Despite having the superior numbers, more and bigger guns, suicidal expenditure cohorts, and the power of a raging hatred boner, the Iron Warriors were losing to the Imperial Fists's maneuverability and [[Alexis Polux|Captain Polux's]] protagonist power. Eventually, the Fists get the order and window to withdraw to Terra, though turning tail would put their fleet at a huge disadvantage. Given the choice between blind obedience to his father or carrying on the battle they were winning, Polux chooses the former and takes his Fists back to Terra, but ends up in the Imperium Secundus instead. This was also the first of the two depictions of Perturabo, and clearly the worst of the two as he's shown as a cold-hearted Saturday morning cartoon villain with rage control issues. The second story line follows [[Sigismund]] as he follows Rogal around the Imperial Palace, while he was ordered to command the fleet on its way to Istvaan and got trapped at Phall, but delegated it to Polux's predecessor. The twist is that he met Euphrati Keeler had a spiritual experience when they spoke, and felt that he would be needed more at Terra instead of as a drifting corpse permanently lost in orbit around some backwater, and so handed off job of commanding the fleet. When he eventually opened up to Rogal, this got him in trouble. See, Rogal was still one of the [[Imperial Truth|stupid atheists]] at this point, so he disowned Sigismund because he thought "serving a higher purpose" was arrogant and got in the way of doing his job. This left Sigismund feeling really sad and pissed off, thus was his start of <s>darkness</s> daddy issues. [[Black Templars|Really pissed off and bad ass daddy issues.]]
**'''''The Dark King''''' - A look into the head and story of Konrad Curze during the events leading up to the Dropsite Massacre. It shows how Curze, even if you buy that he was a murderous paladin of justice and order through fear rather than just a fearsome murderer, is getting pretty fucked up in the head and lives with the knowledge of his demise haunting him, which isn't that great for his sanity. It also involves him beating up Rogal Dorn, killing some Imp Fists and Emp's Children terminators <s>with his more advanced suit and built-in vox jammers </s>with his bare hands, then blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn. The first 10 is him being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace as a grand piece of art by fortifying it into a coldly functional fortress. The next 10 is Rogal having an existential monologue then a conversation with Malcador, all about why he doesn't know why Horus declared war on the Emperor and brought half of the Legions with him, and is partly afraid to find out why in case it makes sense. Malcador ends up knowing at least a little about Chaos, and somehow got his hands on a tarot deck Curze used throughout his life, even to the close of ''The Dark King''. (Don't ask how he got them. Really.) Also the (*Name Drop*) Lightning Tower is the important card that comes up, signifying a [[Siege of Terra|destruction of fortifications]] and/or a [[Imperium of Man|change of thinking through sacrifice]].
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Right before Istvaan, techpriest Pallas Ravachol is working on a top secret "Kaban" robot project on Mars realizes that the project has achieved sapience and is in fact a form of strong AI. Though he genuinely befriended the Kaban machine, Ravachol complains to boss Magos Chrom that working on an AI is both highly illegal and insanely dangerous. Chrom tells Ravachol not to be such a pussy since Horus himself gave the OK, and after some deliberation, has a death squad awaiting to escort the Ravachol off site the next morning. Ravachol, thinking there were few ways this could well, makes a break for it and flees for Magos Malevolus's forge, hoping to get somebody with some clout to reveal that his old boss and Horus were up to something. On the way, he spends time running away from a latex-clad sadist babe who persistently chases after him; since she's an AdMech equivalent of a Death Cultist assassin, this is a ''much'' better idea than it sounds. When he gets to Malevolus's forge, Malevolus distracts him with a legion of shiny Mk6 suits of Marine Power Armor long enough to drop the bomb to drop that they were for Horus. The latex-clad babe catches up to them both, and the techpriest flees again, only to be puzzled why Malevolus and the assassin are letting him run. As he gets out the door, he meets the Kaban machine, <s>and through the power of friendship, the Kaban decides to side with the good guys, and the day is saved.</s> Except this is the dark, gritty universe of 30K where brother turns against brother. Chrom told the Kaban Machine that it and Ravachol couldn't be friends for realsies, because rules and stuff, and taking up with Horus was a great idea. The Kaban Machine, not understanding how humans work nor '''The Power of Friendship''', didn't know any better than to agree and kills Ravachol right on the steps of Malevolus's forge. End story. An okay story, somewhat generic feeling prose. More of a who's who of the Dark Mechanicus during ''Mechanicum'' and telling where the hell that Kaban machine from the same book came from and how they seduced an AI into Chaos worship.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - A bridge between Istvaan V and ''Deliverance Lost'', also a companion story to the Raven's Flight audio drama. The story tells how Commander Marcus Valerius of the Imperial Army is stationed on Deliverance and keeps having recurring nightmares which is causing him worry about Corax. Commander Branne of the Raven Guard's garrison on Deliverance, is getting tired of how the Legion's pet human won't stop bitching about it, and decides to take Valerius out on a trip in the battle barge to Istvaan just to show him that everything is just fine. Meanwhile, Corax and a relative handful of surviving Raven Guard are fighting a guerilla war against the traitors, trying to stay one step ahead of the Iron Warriors and then the World Eaters, and in-between skirmishes, Corax spends a few thoughtful moments feeling bad about his Legion and the state of the Imperium now that things have gone to shit.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, after that he makes tokens (for the warrior-lodge, but he doesn't know that) and then he gets his windpipe crushed to make sure word doesn't get out about the tokens. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life up until the point where he's lying on his own floor, slowly suffocating to death. Ultimately it is kind of irrelevant, but the lore nerds or people who have been paying attention might find it interesting. It is however only barely 20 pages long, so you might as well read it anyway.
**'''''Prince of Crows''''' - A novella featuring the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain [[Sevatar]] of the Night Lords. With the Night Lords's forces all but shattered by the Dark Angels, Curze in a coma nearly dead, and the Dark Angels's fleet in pursuit, Sevatar has to knock some heads for the Night Lords to get their shit together and reorganize and rethink strategy. It's essentially about showing the fractures in the Night Lords Legion. As most stories written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]], it's pretty good.

*'''''Angel Exterminatus:''''' [[Perturabo]] just finished [[skub|fucking up (or being fucked by)]] some Fists, and [[Fulgrim]] finds him to polish off a plot hook from ''The Reflection Crack'd'' and recruit Pert for an expedition into the Eye of Terror because a renegade Eldar said he knows where to get ''the good shit'' (the eponymous Angel Exterminatus). Fulgrim wanted to make a show out of delivering exposition, and he had Pert use his skills to build a stadium and went storyteller mode; then the moment was killed when a Shattered Legion detachment composed of Iron Hands and a Raven Guard commando sniped Fulgrim (he got better). Of course, Pert took the moment to remind himself that this is why he can't have, [[Rage|won't ever have]], nice things. Thinking that Fulgrim had the scent of a powerful artifact or a superweapon, and seeing that Fulgrim was becoming the Primarch equivalent of a crack addict member of the Jersey Shore and his legion wasn't looking much better, Pert decided to play it safe by tagging along and making sure Fulgrim wouldn't break anything. On the way, a different Eldar scholar came to the Shattered Legion, telling them that Fulgrim and Pert can't be allowed to get to the Angel Exterminatus, or [[Daemon|Bad Things (Warp-registered trademark)]] will happen. Well into the journey into the Eye, the Iron Hands's resident mad scientist accidentally gave away their location, and the Emp's Children and Iron Warriors decide to throw a boarding party. After a few pages of pulse pounding action, Pert says "fuck this", and leaves as the Iron Hands's same mad scientist overloads the engines and does a [[Battlefleet Gothic|mother of a ramming maneuver]] which kills an Emp's Children ship. (Pert was getting sick of Fulgrim's shit at this point, so he decided not to let them know, leading to the loss of the ship and thousands of casualties for Fulgrim.) Then, they finally get there, they find a [[Crone World]] covered in ruins and occupied spirit stones being held in orbit around a black hole. Some wraithbone constructs pop up and Pert and Fulgrim have to fight to the heart of the planet to get at the Angel Exterminatus. On the way, Pert kills their renegade Eldar because he was a lyin' bitch. When they ''finally'' get there, Surprise! Daemon Primarch Fulgrim is supposed to be the Angel Exterminatus, and he betrays Pert (a bauble Fulgrim gave to Pert at the start of the book was a vitality-leeching thing), and they start the ritual which would sacrifice Pert to turn Fulgrim into a Daemon Prince. Then the Shattered Legion crashes the ceremony, and assists the Iron Warriors since it's clear they weren't working with the Emp's Children anymore. Pert kills Fulgrim, but it didn't count since Fulgrim's mortal essence works just as well as sacrifice. He goes full Daemon Prince despite a generous helping of Thunder Hammer to his [[gay|pretty face]], breaks every spirit stone on the planet, and disappears with every last one of his sick fucks. The Eldar scholar helping the Shattered Legion throws a bitch fit, revealing that both scholars were Dark Eldar who had cut a deal with Fulgrim (help him become a daemon and they get assloads of spirit stones to fuck with), and he had made sure that the Shattered Legions were there to put a wedge in that deal because...reasons. The Shattered Legion gets the hell out, and the Iron Warriors try to GTFO as the planet starts to fall into the black hole. The book ends, with Pert, being a wise man, orders them to reverse course and fly right into that fucker. Subplots include a lot of buildup for McNeil's Iron Warriors stories, the Shattered Legions' feelings on trying to unfuck an irreversibly fucked situation, some tense buildup of two Imperial Fists as they try to survive Fabius's turning them into mutants (which actually had a poor payoff). Despite being overall good, it's a bit of a skub novel because the depiction of Perturabo is so different from expected, rather than being the bitter [[RAGE|Rage]] machine from every other depiction, he's a quiet [[Neckbeard|nerd who plays with toys as a hobby]], but with muscles. And because the ghosts of eldar's Aspect Warriors and Wraith-Constructs inside a planet left inside the Eye of Terror is a canon-rape on par with C.S. Goto, the first death of Lucius at the hands of a Mary Sue despite previous claims that he was undefeated during the Heresy and his unexplained resurrection (<s>"How? Fucking Chaos, that's how."</s> Oh, sure, every CSM is immortal), and an Iron Hands legionnaire somehow being immune to sonic weapons by being deaf. And worst of all, a rotating Shadowsword turret.

*'''''Betrayer:''''' Lorgar and Angron rampage over the Ultramarines 500 worlds. Lots of references to Angron's past and his Butcher's Nails are killing him slowly. Turns out one of the Ultramarine worlds was his own Homeworld, so he destroys it and Lorgar makes him into a daemon-prince. Also remember the Furious Abyss? Lorgar has two more. Also focuses on Khârn and Argel Tal being bros, until Erebus decides to intervene and kill a bitch.

* '''''Angron:''''' An anthology about <s>Lorgar</s> <s>Horus</s> <s>Dorn</s> <s>Malcador</s> <s>the plumber for the Golden Throne</s> Fuck, we can't remember. It often gets passed over in the official lists, since it's actually a cheat since it's a republish of older short stories: '''After De'shea''', '''Butcher's Nails''' ''(print format)'', and '''Lord of the Red Sands''' ''(which was initially a standalone release,'' even later ''republished in'' The Imperial Truth'')''.

*'''''Mark of Calth:''''' Another set of short stories, though all focused on the [[Ultramarines]] or the [[Word Bearers]].
**'''''Shards of Erebus:''''' - We find that [[Erebus]] broke the '''MURDER SWORD''' into eight daggers/athames and shared them with his bros. Also shows how he returned to Davin to learn how to teleport with the '''MURDER SWORD''', then killing the priestess that helped him turn Horus. She somehow wins because she served Chaos before dying which pisses Erebus off.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Keeps bringing up what Calth used to be like. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to Nurgle everyone, and the Ultramarines save the day in the nick of time. After all, THE GREATEST OF THE-{{BLAM}}
**'''''Dark Heart''''' - A young Word Bearer is interrogated by Kor Phaeron after he ended up killing his mentor with dark powers (turned him insta inside out). A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degradation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A spacedock traffic controller survives the destruction of his star fort, and the fatal crash of his escape shuttle before ending up in a small underground arcology with other human survivors. Imperial cultists believe he is blessed, and when he starts hearing whispers and seeing unbelievers they start rounding everybody up for execution. Everybody gets slowly executed till he's the last one left. Learns he's been possessed and reveals to an Ultramarine that he was was infected by the vox from the ''Campanile''.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - An Ultramarine has a hard-on for a certain Word Bearer trolling him. Hunts down said Word Bearer into a cave system with a team of soldiers and Spess Merheens. Word Bearer trolls them by summoning a Gorgon. Ultramarine wins by tricking the Gorgon into looking at its reflection.
**'''''The Underworld War''''' - A story that has little to do with the actual Underworld War. It features a Gal Vorbak who sees the attack on Calth as a clusterfuck of fail. Has a plot-twist ending... turns out Daemons give visions of the future to potential Gal Vorbak, and said Gal Vorbak was given a vision of him not abandoning his fallen brothers on Calth. The Daemon doesn't have time for that shit so it lets him die during his transformation.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife, though not one from the '''MURDER SWORD'''. That's about it... totally... right. Wrong. The small sacrificial knife that Ollanius found was carved on Terra for a benign ritual, stolen by an evil Perpetual who was killed by ''the Emperor'' in medieval times, found in an archeological dig by Kasper Hawser, and went on other crazy murder-adventures, all while having rudimentary sentience.
**'''''Unmarked''''' - Ollanius Pius and friends is traveling through time and space using the athame from the previous story. We learn a lot more about Oll's past, going into detail about his offhand mentions that he was one of the Argonauts and that he served in the First World War and the First Gulf War.
*'''''Vulkan Lives:''''' What happened to Vulkan after the Dropsite Massacre? He got made Konrad Curze's torture bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer to the face. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc. Remember the Shattered Legions crew from ''Angel Exterminatus''? Now you get a new group that is far more bland and less distinct.
*'''''The Unremembered Empire:''''' [[Perpetual|Matt Damon]] killed Martin Luther King. This happens in the book. Also, unlike the cover and synopsis would imply, it's ''not'' about Sanguinius and Guilliman working together to build a back-up Imperium around Ultramar, which leads to the question of ''why that's on the cover?'' No one knows what it is really about, especially the book's description of itself (which describes its ''sequels''). Several things happen in the book as several unrelated subplots collide as several entities are drawn by the Pharos device to Macragge. There are implications that Guilliman's new backup Imperium is starving resources from Terra.
*'''''Scars:''''' Technically the third book of the Prospero arc. The Khan returns to the Imperium after killing Orks left over from Ullanor and can't decide what side to join. Turns his back on Leman Russ during a fight with the Alpha Legion and goes looking for his best friend Magnus, also gets into a fight with Mortarion on the way, also [[The Fallen|half his legion turns traitor]] but turns out it's no big deal.
** '''''Brotherhood of the Storm:''''' Prequel to Scars, shows the White Scars fighting Orks on Chondax.
*'''''Vengeful Spirit''''' Horus goes looking for power to make him equal to the Emperor and the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z (kinda). We learn that the Emperor gained his powers after making a pact with the Chaos Gods where they gave him a fraction of their power, then somehow managed to double-cross them in what is quite possibly the most retarded retcon ever introduced in the entire book series. (In all seriousness though, the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series. It could be the truth, or one of their beautifully crafted lies.) Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest. Also, if you have been ignoring the audio books, you will be a bit lost at the start of this one.
*'''''The Damnation of Pythos''''' A Lovecraftian Horror story disguised as a Horus Heresy story. Has the most grimdark ending of the series thus far, up there with Dead Men Walking. Adds just about as much to the overall series as ''Furious Abyss'' did, but is actually pretty well written, unlike "Furious Abyss". To cut a long story short, daemons take over a world in the Pandorax system, capture a starship and use it to start ferrying cultists from place to place. The book also has some crossover with 40k and the Pandorax Campaign.

=== Books XXXI to XL ===
*'''''Legacies of Betrayal''''' Another anthology, though this time it's a bit of cheat, and they just consolidated several pre-existing stories; some of the the novellas but also included print versions of audio books.
**'''Brotherhood of the Storm''' - see above
**'''Serpent''' - A really short and out-of-place story about a Davinite Priest.
**'''Hunters Moon''' - originally an audiobook involving peasant fishermen rescuing a crashed space wolf who is running from the Alpha Legion after killing Alpharius, it obviously doesn't end well.
**'''Veritas Ferrum''' - a prequel to Damnation of Pythos, about an Iron Hands starship escaping ''(against their better nature)'' from Isstvan with some survivors.
**'''Strike and Fade''' - More survivors of Isstvan, though this is about Salamanders just killing time (and Night Lords) whilst they wait to be rescued.
**'''Honour to the Dead''' - about Ultramarines and an innocent woman and child trying her hardest to follow them to safety.
**'''Butcher's Nails''' - A good one to read, Angron & Lorgar go on the Shadow-Crusade and come to an understanding whilst fighting Eldar.
**'''Warmaster''' - Horus considering how much of a badass he is while chatting with Ferrus Manus's skull.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go kidnap a warp code interpreter that will let them intercept garbled enemy communications.
**'''Wolfs Claw''' - Bjorn the Fell-Handed needs a replacement arm, but the Iron Priests are too busy, but he happens to find a nice fancy relic one just lying around.
**'''The Divine Word'''
**'''Thief of Revelations''' - After Prospero, the Thousand Sons need something to stop all their rampant mutation, so Ahriman goes to ask why Magnus has locked himself away. He's got bigger things to worry about and is looking across time and space for key events for future [[Just as Planned]] manipulations.
**'''Lucius the Eternal Warrior''' - After his first death ''(and unexplained resurrection)'' at the hands of Nykona Sharrowkyn, Lucius has somehow abandoned the Heresy and goes to the planet of Sorcerers to fight a duel with the bestest Thousand Son swordsman, ends up meeting Ahriman. [[wat|Uh-huh...]]
**'''The Eightfold Path''' - Kharn and the World Eaters realise that too much rip and tear is leading them [[Khorne|down a damning path]], but they're already too far gone.
**'''Guardian of Order''' - [[Cypher]] and [[Zahariel]] discover that the Ouroboros (banished in Fallen Angels) is coming back
**'''Heart of the Conqueror''' - Angron's Navigator gets a bit uppity about being made to turn traitor, despite having been picked for the job as the angry man's chauffeur by the Emperor himself. Blams herself during mid-warp transit with not-fun results for flagship.
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel is killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes about it on his armour. Said notes will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]] on the subject of killing Word Bearers (because it's that damn important to kill Word Bearers). Thiel eventually gets bored and goes back to Macragge in the end.
**'''Lone Wolf''' - Bjorn has lost all of his squad, but is now such an awesome badass that he can solo Bloodthirsters.
*'''''Death and Defiance''''' Yet another anthology
**'''Imperfect''' - Daemon-Fulgrim has been getting Fabius to clone Ferrus Manus, because the split personality thing makes him feel guilty about failing to turn his brother to Horus's side, but the clones are never quite right and go mental at each suggestion. Fabius also has his own stuff going on.
**'''Howl of the Heathworld''' - Space Wolves get sent to Terra to watch over Rogal Dorn so he doesn't start using psykers, its a pointless task and everyone know it. Also offers insight into the Wolves naming conventions.
**'''A Safe and Shadowed Place''' - [[Night Lords]] start stabbing each other in the back as soon as Curze goes missing while solo'ing Macragge. It's about a ship floating in the ruinstorm that has just discovered the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] and foreshadows problems for Ultramar.
**'''Virtues of the Sons''' - Sanguinius forsees that he will not always be in charge of the Blood Angels, but worries about the Red Thirst causing havoc with his sons futures. So gets Amit to duel Kharn and Azkaellon to duel Lucius in hopes they'll learn something. Azkaellon learns to let the rage out a bit and Amit learns a modicum of restraint.
**'''Gunsight''' - The Vindicare Assassin from Nemesis is still alive and on Horus' flagship, its about him spending years waiting for the opportune moment to get a shot, but he starts going mad while he waits. Gives ups when Horus plucks his killshot from the air and Horus gives him a chaos rifle for his change in loyalty.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anthology
**'''Daemonology''' - To and fro' story about [[Mortarion]]. On Terra he discovers the initial construction of the Golden Throne and gets told about Emp's plan for removing psykers. In the "present day" he captures a daemon and starts practising sorcery on it.
**'''Black Oculus''' - A short story about Navigators describing what it's like travelling in the warp.... basically it's [[Grimdark]].
**'''Chirurgeon''' - [[Fabius Bile]] narrating about his history, and what happened about the gene-flaw that almost wiped out the [[Emperor's Children]]. Totally has the gene-flaw and has been using his bestest bro turned servitor to keep it under wraps.
**'''Twisted''' - '''Maloghurst''' gets a story about him uncovering plots against Horus and gets wrapped up in intrigue. It actually shows him as a really clever bastard and a bit of a badass.
**'''Wolf Mother''' - [[Perpetual|Alivia Sureka]]'s kids get captured after their escape from Molech and she teams up with [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]] in order to get them back. Lots of coolness on Sevarian's part and we also get to see that Perpetuals can resist possession.
*'''''Tallarn: Executioner''''' - A novella about a vehicle squadron (Leman Russ Executioner, Vanquisher and a Salamander) having to deal with the toxic surface in the weeks after the surface bombardment and then come into contact with the Iron Warriors. Also the Alpha Legion have a hand in things, like they always do.
*'''''Tallarn: Ironclad''''' - Part two of the Tallarn story.
*'''''Deathfire''''' - What the Salamanders have been saying since Isstvan is true: Vulkan lives! Well now he does. Basically a bunch of Salamanders take his body from Macragge to Nocturne (with some side help from didn't ask for this Magnus) and throw him into Nocturne's largest volcano, and lo and behold he comes back to life, making that entire plotline pointless. Still has the fucking Fulgurite in his chest, though. TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nzml-zZ9M
*'''''The Wolf King ''''' - The Space Wolves find themselves set upon by the forces of the Alpha Legion before they can recover from the Razing of Prospero and are hounded to the edge of the Alaxxes Nebula (swiss cheese acid cloud). There the Alpha Legion beat the ever-living shi...stuffing out of the wolves whilst Russ locks himself in his room and sulks. Russ eventually summons his new favourite Bjorn to join him and they have bit of a heart to heart about what a bunch of morons they were in allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily by Horus. By the end Russ is back to his old self and celebrates by massacring every Alpha he can get his hands on even if it’s clear that his defeat is inevitable. Fortunately for the Wolves helps comes from a hidden armada of Dark Angels ostensibly "loyal" to [[Luther]], but unaware of the Horus Heresy or of the whereabouts or actions of the Lion. Russ borrows gear and manpower from them in exchange for info on current events which most likely finds its way back to Luther and sets the "Destiny of Caliban" in motion. Russ then heads for Terra.
*'''''War Without End''''': Anthologies Without End.
*'''''Pharos''''': Night Lords fucking up the Pharos Lighthouse on Sotha. Sanguinius eventually grows some balls and starts standing up to Guilliman instead of just being a pantomime Emperor, while the Lion is nowhere to be seen as usual. Warsmith Dantioch bites it while using the Pharos to burn the Night Lords out of his fortress, but inadvertently piques the interest of the [[Tyranids]], causing them to show up 10,000 years later. Skraivok become a prime example of DEMON SWORDS: NOT EVEN ONCE.
*'''''Eye of Terra''''': Another anthology.
*'''''Path Of Heaven''''': Sequel to Scars. The White Scars have been fighting traitor legions for a few years but are starting to show the strain. They finally make a shift back to Terra but things don't go as planned. Notable for digging into the Webway storyline and the Navis Nobilite as well as featuring a resurrected and suddenly competent Eidolon. Navigators weren't going to sit around while E-money built their replacement, White Scars use a prototype webway portal to escape their last stand, and Moratarion starts using sorcery to locate Typhon.
*'''The Seventh Serpent:''' a novella about the Shattered Legions going up against the Alpha Legion; a simple premise made awesome by sheer depth of Alpharian plot twists: They had been manipulated by Alpharius into fighting a battle against Loyalist Alpha Legionaires.
*'''The Silent War:''' Guess What?! It's ''another'' anthology of stories that GW have already sold individually as audio-books. So value might be had for those who hadn't listened to them.
*'''''Angels of Caliban:''''' two Dark Angels stories in one book again, though this one actually moves the plot forward. In Ultramar, the Lion captures Konrad Curze but only after discretely nuking a whole region despite a ban on orbital weapon use, which results in his disgrace and we find that it is Guilliman who breaks the Lion Sword. Curze reveals that there were chaos cults on Mcraggae too, and that Guilliman would be a traitor if he had landed a little to the left. On Caliban, the Fallen openly declare their rebellion from the Imperium and ironically steal some starships that were meant to collect them and actually bring them into the war again. [[Zahariel]] kills [[Cypher]] and takes his place.
*'''''Praetorian of Dorn''''' Alpharius tries to invade <s>Terra</s> Pluto. Dorn kills him. Yes, Alpharius is now dead. And not a fake either, but the real Alpharius. Omegon can confirm. Alpha Legions fags blew a gasket. Oh shit believe we did.
*'''''Corax''''' A compilation of all the Corax Stories, plus a new one, '''Weregeld''', which manages to undo all the hard work the previous stories have done and turn Corax into a douchebag. Kills all his mutated Raven Guard because he promised to kill warp stuff. Saves Russ and his arrogant ass though.

=== Books XLI onwards ===
*'''''The Master of Mankind''''': The Emperor is a dick: the book. We all knew this, but now it's set in stone. Highlights being: Emperor stating to Arkhan Land that the Primarchs are tools and he views them with a scientific but detached fascination. Referring to them as numbers but content to allow the fantasy of being their "father", an interpretation of the character that was fairly divisive to say the least. He actually seems to care more for his Custodians than he does any of his other creations, but they don't consider him to be a father and see him as just their warlord. Drach'nyen is also revealed to be the Daemon created when Caine killed Abel. In the end he closes the door on the webway and has to spend the rest of his time sitting in the chair keeping it shut. Despite this, it does show off why the Chaos Gods fear him, as he pretty much rapes an infinite army of Daemons; the Greater ones either flee or try and fail to fight him (being destroyed in a matter of moments) whilst the lesser ones die just by looking at him. Despite this, Drach'nyen nearly kills him, and <s>it is confirmed that fate has indeed decreed that Empy will die at the daemon's hand</s> claims that it will kill the Emperor (keep in mind that the future is malleable and Daemons lie). But how will it feast on the Emperor's tattered soul when Abaddon lacks arms to plunge it into his chest? (''But Abaddon never lost his arms due to the same retcon that let Eldrad live'') Also known as Master of skubkind. Reveals his grand plan of saving the human race from the Eldar fate by absolute control of every human to a custodian before shanking him with Drach'nyen and making him run into the webway. Also put all his chips into the ''Human Webway'' plan and screwed us all over without a backup. Can you tell that this is an ADB book?
*'''''Garro''''': Compilation of all the stories about Garro and his boy band, though they insist it isn't just an anthology since the audio book stories were expanded to be more written novel friendly.
*'''''Shattered Legions''''': It's an anthology containing an anthology. I shit thee not. It shoves together the limited edition anthology Meduson with a few other shorter stories, including some Alpha Legion stuff like the Seventh Serpent.
*'''''The Crimson King''''': Magnus was broken into shards when Russ felled him. Now the Thousand Sons with the help of Lucius the Eternal must put him back together.
*'''''Tallarn''''': Does it even need to be stated? It's another fucking anthology, this time putting all the tank porn of the Tallarn books into one binding.
*'''''Ruinstorm:''''' The conclusion to the Imperium Secundus plotline, as well as the follow on to Damnation of Pythos. Shows the Lion, Sanguinius and Guilliman trying to cross the Ruinstorm to reach Terra. Having a brief stopover at Pandorax, they decide to head out to Davin where the Heresy began and where destinies are re-made; they pass systems along the way that show what the Galaxy would look like if Chaos wins, such as a Forge World surrounded by an immense fortress wall in outer space 4000 miles thick, or a sector of space filled with solid ritualised geometric shapes that are perhaps light years across. Davin itself is surrounded by a cloud of bones and wreckage millions of kilometers thick, but the planet has long since been abandoned. There, Sanguinius finds out that in order to live through the Heresy he must become a monster even worse than Horus, but dying will curse his sons with the Black Rage; blood is on his hands either way. Instead, Sanguinius tries to sacrifice himself to save the day, but the [[Sanguinor]] steps in and takes his place while the fleets rain down a shitstorm and destroy the planet. In the aftermath, the Ruinstorm abates enough for them to reach Terra, but Horus has so much force that it is impossible for all three legions to reach, so Guilliman and the Lion agree to distract the Traitors long enough to give Sanguinius a window to get back and face his destiny, explaining why they never made it to the Siege since they were engaging Traitor fleets and burning their worlds.
*'''''Old Earth:''''' Set immediately after ''Vulkan Lives'', Vulkan and three Salamander legionaries ''(the rest of the Salamanders weren't informed of their Primarch's resurrection)'' travelled through the Webway by a gate hidden in a cave on Nocturne. On their path to Terra, they came across the Shattered Legions, who were preparing for their first major void engagement with the Sons of Horus. Just before the attack, some Medusan-born Iron Hands tried to stage a coup against Shadrak Meduson by revealing a hideous contraption of machines, and the last remnants of Ferrus Manus - his iron hand ''(They were under the illusion that they could resurrect their Primarch through cybernetics, it is hinted that the Mechanicum had some hand in this affair.)'' Thankfully, Vulkan shattered the hand, and Meduson assumed command again, though he was killed by '''Tybalt Marr''' in a boarding action after the Iron Hand refused to send reinforcements to him. In the end, it was revealed that the Emperor had Vulkan forged a weapon, that in the event Terra fell to Horus, would amplify the power of the Golden Throne to the point it coulf wipe out the entire Throneworld ''(this is probably one of Vulcan's nine relics)'' Oh, and Eldrad rescued [[Knights-Errant|Barthusa Narek]] from Nocturne and made him his assassin. They killed most of the Cabal, and finally rescued John Grammaticus, who had his memory wiped after his failure to assassinate Vulkan. With his memory restored, Grammaticus was ordered by Eldrad to find Ollanius Pius and go to Terra.
*'''''Wolfsbane:''''' No solid information yet, but it seems like Leman Russ leaves Terra to confront Horus himself. One can expect that it doesn't end well for him.

== The Primarchs Series ==

Because Black Library don't seem satisfied confusing us with all their anthologies, audio-books, and short stories, they have begun releasing a spin-off series of Horus Heresy novels centered on the Primarchs. The series don't really take place in a specific time, but generally focuses on expanding on the titular Primarch's backstory and motivations during events before the Horus Heresy (though some of them also have events occurring after it). Why Black Library lists it as part of the Horus Heresy series when that is the case is beyond our comprehension.

=== Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar ===
Centers on the papa smurf himself, and him trying to deal with how the Emperor used him like a rusty hammer to smack Lorgar in the head at Monarchia. Uses a conflict against Orks as a vehicle for him and the smurfs to express their angst over the event.

=== Leman Russ: The Great Wolf ===
Focuses on Leman Russ' notorious rivalry with the Lion, and explaining why to this day whenever the Chapters meet they throw the gauntlet down and beat the stuffing out of one another. Notably it reveals some interesting stuff like the Lion being aware of the Space Wolves' furry issue and keeping a lid on it.

=== Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero ===
Depicts the unlikely friendship between Magnus and old Pert with a joint venture between their legions. Things go wrong on the planet due to totally not Chaos cult nonsense, and it does a decent job of showing Magnus' flaws. Specifically on his inability to leave things that have "do not fuck with this" alone; something Pert tries and fails at making him understand.

=== Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia ===
Probably the book in the series that did the most character building of all of them. This book is a mix of showing off Perturabo's childhood on Olympia alongside a "current" day conflict against the Hrud. The former showing why Pert is the odd genius manchild guy he is, while the latter does a great job of showing why fucking with an alien species capable of controlling time is somewhat of a stupid idea. However, the real draw of the book is that it is mainly written as an attempt to merge together the seemingly contradictory depictions of Pert we've had over the years. Showing how the ruthless dick who decimates his legion for not being good enough in the Forgeworld books is the same guy who just wanted to be a builder in Angel Exterminatus. Yep. Definitely a sperg. Also he may or may not have wanted to bang his adopted sister.

=== Lorgar: Bearer of the Word ===
Yep, the first(ish?) heretic himself gets his own obligatory messed up childhood novel. Focusing slightly more on Kor Phaeron rather than Lorgar himself, showing him to be a manipulative dick who beat Lorgar as a child and never really bought into this whole "fatherhood" shtick, or this whole concept of [[Emperor|One True God]] but allowed Lorgar his fantasies and to take over Colchis ''(By "Word" or by "Mace")'' while Phaeron benefitted from increased position and secretly kept the faith of [[Chaos Gods]].

Though by the end Kor Phaeron wonders if Lorgar just let him think that he was manipulated and could have disposed of him at any time. The book does introduce a contrasting character to Kor Phaeron who actually shows Lorgar compassion growing up and was far more worthy of being named "father" but was far less useful to Lorgar's goals. The book shows that Lorgar isn't as stupid or naive as everyone thinks and does indeed realise that people have been using him for their own gains, but while he only really cares about doing the work of the gods, so long as they both align he doesn't seem to care.

=== Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix ===
Fulgrim tries to conquer the newly discovered planet Byzas with only 7 men. Along the way he encounters a brotherhood much like his own that wants to work with him that Fulgrim dismisses as a bunch of idealists. It's implied that he COULD have gotten the same results (Compliance) working with them but unfortunately that would have meant calling in backup and Fulgrim didn't want to do that so that was out of the question. In the end Fulgrim takes the world, but nearly dies. Several of the characters (Cyrius, Kasperos Telmar) later become prominent champions of chaos.

=== Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa ===

== The Tabletop Wargame ==
[[Forge World]] is producing a new line of books and models (''in addition to'' [[Imperial Armour]] and [[Warhammer Forge]]) to allow players to fight battles from the Horus Heresy in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. This includes rules and models for the [[Primarchs]] (both pre- and post-fall, for the Traitors) as well as ancient vehicles. No [[xenos]], unfortunately. Presumably this came about because GW felt that they just weren't making quite enough money from die-hard marine/chaos players and figured they could literally buy a dump-truck full of gold plated cocaine each if they made a version of the game that requires only Forge World minis AND thousands upon thousands of them. Still worth it, though.

=== Betrayal ===
Forge World starts big, as their first book covers the battles on Istvaan III, in which [[Horus]] sent the remaining loyalist elements of the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Emperor's Children]], [[Death Guard]], and [[World Eaters]] to the surface, ostensibly to rout the anti-Imperial resistance that had taken hold in the capital city, and then fired [[Exterminatus]] torpedoes (of the life-eater virus bomb variety) onto the city to wipe them out.

Unfortunately for Horus, not everything went as planned; not only did the loyalist Death Guard frigate ''Eisenstein'' escape to the [[Phalanx]] with word of Horus's betrayal, but loyalist elements on other ships were able to disrupt the bombardment and warn the loyalists on the ground that it was coming. Between the disruption, the warning, and good old-fashioned [[Space Marine]] toughness, only a third or so of the landed force had actually died. Horus would have fired another bombardment, but [[Angron]] and his traitor World Eaters jumped the gun and made planetfall; the other traitors were left with no choice but to deploy themselves and destroy the remaining loyalists personally.

''Betrayal'' contains a [[Great Crusade]] Legion army list (for which we have a [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines/Legion List‎|tactica]]), and rules for special characters and units from the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Death Guard]], [[Emperor's Children]], and [[World Eaters]] Legions, including their [[Primarch]]s (even [[Fulgrim]], who was not actually at the battle) and several major characters from the book series such as Garviel Loken.

===Massacre===
The infamous Drop Site Massacre is the focus of the next book, where seven Legions are sent to crush Horus’ rebellion, only for four of those to turn on the other three and crush them utterly. The books storyline is essentially just the ''first day'' of the battle, leading up to the death of [[Ferrus Manus]].

Massacre contains additional rules for special characters and units from the [[Iron Hands]], [[Night Lords]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Word Bearers]] Legions including their Primarchs and several more major characters from the book series make their debut such as Sevatar, Eidolon, Erebus and Kharn.

===Extermination===
Focusses on the second half of Istvaan V, as well as the Battle of Phall between the [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Imperial Fists]]; and on that note, it includes rules for those two Legions, as well as the [[Alpha Legion]] and the [[Raven Guard]].

It also gives us a complete Mechanicum Army List: the Taghmata.

====Condensed Lists====
The ICL and LACAL were initially released as part of the limited edition run of Extermination, but were then later released separately. They are fluff-lite, codex-equivalent books that also included all of the FAQs/Errata up to their release; which unfortunately was still the end of 6th edition so some rules haven't carried over well. ''(eg. [[Lorgar]]s psychic rules.)''

The Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List is basically the generic 30k Space Marine "codex", whilst the Isstvan Campaign Legions contains all of the collected rules for the legions from Books 1-3; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three books. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game. The ICL was continued in the Age of Darkness Legions, which collected everything to book 5, including the errata.

Later came the Mechanicum Taghamata Army List, which contained all the Mechanicum units and army lists mentioned and rearranged them to keep everything on the same page, but lacked the Questoris Knight Army. The Crusade Imperialis Army Lists contain the Solar Auxilia, Imperialis Militia/Warp Cults, and Questoris Knight Crusade army lists.

===Conquest===
Horus Heresy Volume Four is entitled 'Conquest', despite early hints from Forgeworld that it would be about the Battle of Prospero, it instead features Horus' conquest of the Imperium and the [[Skub|"Major"]] battles of this time, which is to say some battle-zones that Forgeworld made up to fill time whilst they worked on the more well known events from the in-universe history. ''(And to be fair, their response as to why Prospero was delayed was because it included four major factions, [[Adeptus Custodes|two of]] [[Sisters of Silence|which have]] NEVER been represented on the tabletop, so required more time to do them justice.)''

A large portion of the book is given over to running battles in the '''"Age of Darkness"''', which is a variant ruleset used as the default for Horus Heresy games ''(where only Troops usually score, amongst other things)'' and has rules and FOCs for Cityfight missions, rules for running ongoing campaigns, variant rules for mysterious terrain and objectives as well as including unique relics to be taken by the various army lists to add flavor to non-special characters.

It also introduces the [[Solar Auxilia]] and [[Imperial Knight|"Questoris" Knights]] (as an AdMech list) armies to play while the modellers take a break from building power armor 24/7.

===Tempest===
The fifth Horus Heresy book will cover the Battle of Calth. The rules for the [[Ultramarines]] (including [[Roboute Guilliman]] himself) as well as several warp-corrupted Word Bearer units are brought in alongside a few other new miscellaneous FW releases, including the Deredeo and the new Thanatars. There's also an Imperial Militia (Read: PDF) list that's super-customizable so you can make both loyalist and traitor lists. Also, the MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IS IN IT TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===Retribution===
Focused on 'Shadow Wars' far from the main fronts of the Heresy, in particular the Shattered Legions - that is, the [[Iron Hands]], [[Raven Guard]], and [[Salamanders]] in their weakened state following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre. But other Legions can also be included, with special rules for the Shattered Legions, Black Shields and a list for Armies of Dark Compliance - mixed traitor Legiones/Militia lists, as well as ten new special characters. It includes Legiones Astartes rules for the White Scars, Blood Angels and Dark Angels, so that players of those legions can start playing properly; however, it does not include special units, characters, or Primarchs for those legions. It also includes Garro and the Knights Errant and additional Mechanicum units and characters, including a new Dark Magos, [[Anacharis Scoria]]. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons will still need to wait for the Prospero book (Inferno, Book 7).

===Inferno===
In <s>Set to be book 3.</s> <s>late 2016.</s> <s>early 2017 (Because FW can't keep to schedule)</s> <s>December 2016</s> February 4, 2017, will come what many neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those [[Thousand Sons]] players, start saving up so you can play your space Egyptian sorcerers in all their 30k glory. Rules for the Sisters of Silence as an allied detachment and the Adeptus Custodes as a full army list will be present as well.

Well, it's come, and... it's uninspiring to say the least, with stuff like [[What|Magnus being straight up impossible to hit if he casts invisibility, not to mention pumping out 2d6 destroyer hits at every unit within 18" if he likes]], [[Derp|Custodes captains beating out every Primarch with a rollable 3+ invulnerable save]], some Custodes wargear being straight up [[Wat|left out of the book]] and to cap it all, [[Herp|pictures of tourists in the book ('''twice''') where you'd expect miniatures to be]]. You'd think with such a long development cycle the quality assurance would have been more thorough. Didn't help that [[Alan Bligh]] was likely fairly ill in late 2016, and his untimely death in May of 2017 means the Horus Heresy team now has a big hole in it.

===Malevolence===
It will feature White Scars, Blood Angels and Daemons. Also some new stuff for Space Wolves and Alpha Legion.

== See Also ==
*[[The War of The Beast]], for the next massive shit-show the Imperium was involved with.
* [[Alternate Heresy]], for a discussion of other possible outcomes of the (not necessarily Horus) Heresy.

== External Links ==
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/3170/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (1993)] at BoardGameGeek
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/63543/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (2010)] at BoardGameGeek

{{40k-Timeline}}

[[Category:Board Games]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Wargames]]

Horus Heresy

2018-02-18T09:58:09Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|500px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''this''.]]
:''[[Fulgrim|"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.]]'' 
:''[[Magnus the Red|Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.]]'' 
:''[[Angron|They will be of iron will and steely muscle.]]'' 
:''[[Perturabo|In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.]]'' 
:''[[Mortarion|They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.]]'' 
:''[[Alpharius|They will have tactics, strategies and machines]] [[Omegon|so that no foe can best them in battle.]]'' 
:''[[Konrad Curze|They are my bulwark against the Terror.]]'' 
:''[[Lorgar|They are the Defenders of Humanity.]]'' 
:''[[Horus|They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."]]'' 
:- The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], [[Not as planned|getting exactly what he wanted.]]
{{Topquote|The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.|Karl Popper}}

The '''Horus Heresy''' is one of the single biggest clusterfuck of events in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff, alongside the [[Eldar]]'s creation of a new [[Slaanesh|Chaos God]], and the [[War in Heaven|rampage and fall of the]] [[C'Tan|star gods]]. Needless to say, this heresy derailed the Emperor's plan and himself, and gave the Chaos Gods their most prominent armies to carry out their will in realspace.

In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor's favorite son, [[Horus| Horus Lupercal]], formerly Warmaster of the Imperium, was corrupted by Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor, taking nine [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] (Including [[Luna Wolves|his own]]), their respective Primarchs, and about half of the Imperial Army and Mechanicum with him. After waging war across the galaxy, Horus and his traitors eventually reached Holy Terra itself, hoping to murder the Emperor himself and cut the head off the proverbial snake and win the war.

Things went [[Not as Planned]] however, as he was eventually surrounded by loyalist forces at the height of the siege on Terra. As a final gambit, he dropped the shields of his flagship which allowed the Emperor to beam up and challenged him to a duel for the fate of humanity. Horus beat the Emperor within an inch of his life but was killed in turn after the Emperor put his foot down and obliterated Horus' soul from existence (as in it didn't go to the warp to be resurrected by daemons; it was literally erased from existence) when it finally became clear to him that Horus was beyond forgiveness. The Chaos gribbles he had been allied with disappeared and the now Chaos Marines that had followed him sulked back to the [[Eye of Terror]], starting the [[Long War]].

Because the Emperor was fucked up to the point where he had to be permanently attached to a life-support machine known as the "Golden Throne" just to survive, logic within the Imperium gradually decreased, eventually turning into the [[Grimdark]] empire it is today. And it was already pretty damn grimdark.

[[File:President.png|700px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''him''.]]
[[File:GodsOfWarhammer.jpg|thumb|left|It was pretty much ''them''.]]

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course) and changed the flavour of the Imperium's Grimdark from Stalinist Soviet "if you breathe a word about religion, we rape you with knives" to Catholic [[Inquisition]] "if you breathe a word about the ''wrong'' religion, we rape you [[Exterminatus|or your whole planet]] with knives" unless you can find an Ecclesiarch to come and say: "nope, that's just another aspect of the Emperor". Don't count on this happening without hefty "donations".

The heresy lasted for several years (somewhere between seven and ten) and was fought all over the galaxy. The following are the most important battles and campaigns during the Heresy:
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Prospero|Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Betrayal at Calth|Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Battle of Tallarn]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

Following the Siege of Terra, Horus was permakilled, Big E was interred onto the Golden Throne, the surviving primarchs freaked out trying to figure out what do now that daddy was in a coma, the traitors fucked off into the Eye of Terror, and overall the galaxy slowly and collectively lost their minds now that their wise and all-powerful ruler was no longer around to tell them what to do.

== The Board Game ==
First published in 1993 by [[Game Designer's Workshop]], it was the Emprah versus his [[Horus|evil bastard of a son]] in the scorched earth of Terra. Units include [[Titan#Warhammer_40k|titans]] and [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spaw-]] oh shiARHGRBLLYRBGRDEWUODHGRYEB.

Ahem, as he was saying, The more recent edition (2010) is published by [[Fantasy Flight Games]]. Also a two-player [[wargame|war]] [[board game|game]], it includes over 100 sculpted minifigs, sculpted buildings, and even Horus and the Emprah themselves are units on the board. It also adds more territory, as the fight can be pushed back onto the [[heresy|traitor's]] flagship ''Vengeful Spirit''. Combat is less [[dice|dice-y]] and more card-y.

(Not to be confused with the lame Horus Heresy card game, whose only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway.)

== The Book Series ==
For the last decade, [[Black Library]] has been publishing novels that explore the events of the Horus Heresy, looking at the rivalries among the [[Primarchs]] and exploring just why everything went down the tubes. The novels are by a selection of different authors, which is a total pain if you like to organise your books alphabetically by author. The reception to the series has been somewhat... mixed; books generally considered to be good include [[Dan Abnett|the first trilogy]], [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Betrayer]], [[White Scars|Scars]], and the short story [[Alpha Legion|The Serpent Beneath]].

Of course, like we mentioned, there's some that are... um... Well, let's just say that the worst are a [[skub|matter of much debate]].

{{Template:Spoilers}}

=== Books I - X ===
*'''''Horus Rising:''''' A prologue story, introducing us to the series and Garviel Loken who will grow into a very significant character. An Emperor (not [[Emperor|Him]]) is killed at the beginning and some bugs are killed on a planet called Murder for no reason other than they were there. The Interex show up and ask "whadya do that for?". [[Erebus]] steals the '''MURDER SWORD''' from them.
*'''''False Gods:''''' Horus falls at Davin when wounded by the '''MURDER SWORD''' and gets a crash course in the chaos gods from [[Erebus]] & [[Magnus]]. After getting shown a few "truths" that WILL HAPPEN in the future (like the Emperor being worshipped as a god, Horus being reviled and forgotten) he decides to make war on the Imperium to [[FAIL|prevent]] all this from happening.
*'''''Galaxy in Flames:''''' Isstvan III happens and the traitors send the loyalists down to the planet without reinforcements and proceed to bomb them to fuck. Things don't go to plan when [[Angron]] decides to invade turning it into a [[Not as Planned]] drawn out conflict that the Warmaster can't really afford - Loken "dies"
*'''''Flight of the Eisenstein:''''' the other side of ''Galaxy in Flames'', Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved (and mega-bitchslapped) by [[Rogal Dorn]], who does not take the news from Isstvan [[Rage|very well]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'. There is also the very first canonical appearance of Plague Marines, Euphrati Keeler being all mystical and shit, and Malcador recruiting Garro as the first Knight-Errant.
*'''''Fulgrim:''''' one of the more forgettable stories in the series. Attempts to tell the story from Great Crusade all the way up to the [[Drop Site Massacre]] in one book. In short Fulgrim finds a sword, gets possessed, kills Ferrus Manus - the end. It is written by Graham McNiel though, and it has an awesome quote from Fulgrim "My Emperor's Children. What beautiful music they make." .
*'''''Descent of Angels:''''' This is the Heresy book that isn't about the Heresy, instead focusing on [[Zahariel]]'s time on [[Caliban]]. It portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness (he can not read people at all, so he comes off as 'do what I say or die!') and having Luther to handle the small talk. Hints that the Great Crusade <s>does more harm than good</s> {{BLAM}} is uniting the lost colonies of mankind into a united future! Luther gets sent home with Zahariel to hustle up more Dark Angels.
*'''''Legion''''' introduces [[the Cabal]], the [[Perpetual]]s and [[Omegon]]. READ THIS BOOK. Or don't, as this is where those things that would eventually take over the Heresy series and according to many completely ruin it (Cabal, Perpetuals) are introduced. I still would recommend reading it since when the novel introduces these ideas they are very fresh and interesting. Don't blame Legion when the rest of the novels were who ruined it. Alpha legion is trying to bring some chaos cultist into compliance. Chaos cultists activate planetary self destruct blood sacrifice. Alpha legion meets with the Cabal, agrees to work with them, then kills off all non-legion bystanders & ships with "FOR E-MONEY"!
*'''''Battle for the Abyss:''''' The book is so bad that other authors tried to retcon it out of existence. This book is so bad that you would have it was cobbled together from [[Matt Ward|Wardian fluff]] stitched together by [[C. S. Goto]]. Reading this book may, in fact, cause brain cancer so you should avoid it if at all possible. Everyone dies, so it does not affect much (as in anything). The only thing you need to remember is [[Lorgar]] built a fuckhueg space ship and filled it with Dreadnoughts, and it failed miserably.
*'''''Mechanicum:''''' Tech Priests turn renegade after Horus tells them they can do whatever they like with technology, so they release forbidden viral scrapcodes and screw everything up. Also turns out that [[Emperor|Big E]] invented the Machine-God by sealing a C'Tan on Mars back during the Saint George era, giving everyone visions of technology. Also more subtle hints that the Emperor is a god himself by using divine golden light to heal machines and instant access super wikipedia. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery. And for extra Grimdark, a tech priestess discovers that the Dark Age era humans stored a backup copy of wikipedia in the warp and <s>with a giant psyker powered terminal accesses said wikipedia and restores all the knowledge of mankind</s> floods her forge with lava to deny the traitors access. A psyker tech savant meets up with the goaler of the Void Dragon and takes over his fuck long shift.
*'''''Tales of Heresy:''''' short story collection, including [[The Last Church]]. Has a lot of twist endings.
** '''''Blood Games:''''' An assassin tries to kill the emperor. The Adeptus Custodes go to kill a traitor on Terra. The assassin was a Custodes probing the palace defences. The traitor was a triple agent working for Dorn.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor. When the liberated planet chooses freedom over Emperor, the wolves invade again.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. They worshiped the Emperor, but Lorgar no longer does. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The squad of Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp. Turns out the youngest of the squad in the future used sorcery to beam back her consciousness through time onto some psykers on the Black Ship. She <s>successfully warns the squad about Horus's Rebellion </s> is executed by a hard-core Sister for breaking her vow of [[Psyker|no funny stuff]].
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.
** '''''[[The Last Church]]:''''' A story about the Emperor destroying one of the churches on Terra during the reunification era in his effort to wipe out religion. The Emperor and the priest of the church have an enlightening conversation about the Emprah's trying to accomplish. The conversation ends up with the priest accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite, with him decrying that he's no more different than the old warlords who waged crusades and holy wars in the past to push their own agendas on other people. Emperor reveals himself as the very god the priest was worshiping, and nearly convinces him to stand by his side while his soldiers destroy the church. Priest gets cold feet and walks back into the church while it collapses. An end-times alarm clock starts ringing in the ruins.
** '''''After Desh'ea:''''' The War Hounds meet their primarch. Angron demeats the War Hounds. More specifically, the Emperor just beamed up Angron away from his last stand (rather than, you know, intervening with his Custodes or his fleet), leaving Angron pretty pissed. [[Kharn]] is a pretty great guy to be around, and pulls his femurs out of his lungs quickly enough to establish himself as Angron's best buddy ''after the War Hounds chain of command calmed Angron down as fleshy squeeze balls''.

=== Books XI - XX ===
*'''''Fallen Angels:''''' the sequel to Descent of Angels, is actually two stories rolled into one book that never converge. 1. The Lion fights a war to reclaim some Ordinatus devices and then hands them to Perturabo to gain his trust, not realising that his brother has already turned. 2. [[Zahariel]] and Luther clean out a daemon cult on Caliban... but not really.
*'''''Thousand Sons:''''' Part 1 of the Battle for Prospero. Runs through the Great Crusade where Magnus discovers the webway, but his Father already knew about it. Then the Edict of Nikaea where Magnus gets all passionate about not restricting psychic powers, then to Horus's vision quest where Magnus fails to keep his brother on the right path, then does the WORST thing possible by forcing himself through the palace psychic spam filter, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues and the thousand sons become a thousand sons all over again. Ahriman starts writing hit Rubric.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail because Horus sent a look-a-like, but in the process slay a shapeshifting daemonic counter-assassin sent by Erebus. While it is a decent book and we learn a lot, it didn't contribute much to the overall plot. On the more [[rage|vitriolic side]], the writing is a bit underwhelming in places; highlights include calling a pariah a psyker, another pariah with a contrived possession, and Horus uttering one of the most cliche one liners out there.
*'''''The First Heretic:''''' [[Lorgar]]'s turn to get a back story and generally considered one of the better books in the series. While you make never sympathize with them, this book really lets you understand why The Word Bearers fell to chaos, rather then being the "CHAOTIC EVIL MONSTERS" they are portrayed in the rest of the series.. Feels less rushed than "[[Fulgrim]]". Goes from Monarchia to a bit of soul searching in the Eye of Terror and discovers Cadia. Leads up to Istvaan V and the immediate aftermath. Signifcant subplots revolve around the inception of Possessed Marines, and what happens to the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] babysitters watching over the Word Bearers, and how the protagonist [[Argel Tal]] gets into a tragic bromance with the Custodes leader.
** '''''Aurelian:''''' A limited release short story until an ebook was published. The plot bounces around in-between a number of moments in Lorgar's history up to the prelude of the Shadow Crusade. One narrative involves how Lorgar's brothers still treat him like shit, especially when he's the only one who sees through Fulgrim's possession, and ends with Horus sending him to fuck up Ultima Segmentum and handing him Angron's (figurative, [[/d/|not literal]]) leash. The other narrative takes place in the 40 year gap in ''The First Heretic'', where Lorgar makes a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror with a Daemon Princess as his guide. They come to a dead Crone World where he puts a dying [[Avatar of Khaine|Avatar]] out of its misery and he's told that the Eldar panicked rather than embrace Chaos during the birth of Slaanesh, which is what caused them to nearly die out; the daemon prince(ss) tells Lorgar the same thing is happening with humanity during the Heresy, how Chaos really wants a [[A Game of Pretend|symbiotic relationship with humanity rather than to conquer it]]. In the middle of this, Khorne decides he's had enough of this talky wordy shit and sends [[An'ggrath]] to make things more exciting, and Lorgar narrowly beats him. Then Kairos Fateweaver comes and "tells" him about Calth and his relationship with Guilliman and his upcoming war with him in the most confusing as fuck discussion ever. The truth of most of the things told to Lorgar are left ambiguous, because, well, Fateweaver; but also Chaos has a lot riding on the Heresy coming to fruition for reasons left not entirely explored.
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. A civilian archeologist named Kasper Hawser hangs out with a company of the Space Wolves, where we learn a lot about their culture and attitudes. Turns out that Chaos infiltrated everything, so the outcome of Nikaea was practically rigged. The civilian himself even turns out to have been an unwitting spy for Chaos, but the Wolves knew anyway and didn't give a shit (they thought he worked for Magnus).
* '''''Age of Darkness:''''' A short story anthology.
** '''''Rules of Engagement:''''' Roboute lets one of his commanders lead in a series of wars that didn't really occur, and we get the best line ever said in regards to the [[Codex Astartes]]: despite the fact it does cover a lot, it's not meant to be followed biblically <s>which is a load of bull given that the Codex lets said commander win all the wars in the most efficient way possible while blindly following it and only failed in the last battle because he was in a war game against Girlyman</s>. (See the quote on the page on the Big Book of Astartes). The Imperium Secundus shows up, making for another bizarre plot element that ruins the series without adding anything.
** '''''Liar's Due:''''' You know those memes on how the [[Alpha Legion]] causes mass paranoia without actually involving any Astartes? Those aren't just memes. Alpha Legion serf arrives on a agri-world and turns it's allegiance to Horus by only hacking all their inter-planetary communications.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[Salamanders|Salamander]] and a grumpy ol' [[Ultramarine]] are sent in opposition to one of Horus' iterators to convince an industrial-militant world which side to side with. They almost side with Horus before the Warmaster's agents [[Exterminatus|wreck shit]] for the lulz. Oh, and to send the message that neutrality will be punished. The [[Iron Warriors]] were doing weird shit on that world for years beforehand, and was probably the more deciding factor than the lulz.
** '''''The Last Remembrancer:''''' Horus sent the one last remembrancer he had stored up as a gift to Dorn. Instead of in a box (or eight or some shit like that), it was the [[Dan Abnett]] of his day telling Dorn that the grimdark galaxy was grimdark. Also that the Emperor's vision of a galaxy of peace, unity, prosperity, and fluffy bunnies built up without any more grimdark attached than was strictly needed, probably wasn't very likely before any shit hit any fan either way. Also, Iacton Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iacton Qruze. Dorn says it's all lies and enemy propaganda before executing said remembrancer and torching all his ramblings.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Magnus's absent fleet from the Burning of Prospero comes home and shits a brick. The last known surviving squad of Thousand Sons outside of the Planet of the Sorcerers gets beaten up and they slowly figure out it was the Space Wolves who shit on Magnus's <s>parade</s> world and is stalking them. One plot twist later, most of them are dead, the last one decides he's gonna rebuild everything, with a few scant hints that his flesh-change genetic flaw will [[Blood Ravens|shift into kleptomania]].
** '''''The Face of Treachery:''''' The tie-in and conclusion of the audiodrama featuring the Raven Guard after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax [[troll]]ing Perturabo for a bit too long, Horus sends Angron in to finish the job, but Corax's cavalry arrives to troll Angron by getting the loyalists the fuck out of there. We also learn that Corax has a supersekrit psyker ability which lets him roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can out-troll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters (they let the World Eater commander think he was in command then blew his brains out when he tried to actually command). Ends with an transitory bit into ''Deliverance Lost''.
** '''''Little Horus:''''' Little Horus Aximand is struggling with the PTSD he got when he killed Loken and Torgaddon with [[Abaddon|Abby]]. Abby and Little Horus have a discussion (we mean Horus Aximand, not when Primarch Horus was sodomizing Abaddon again) about restoring the Mournival. A couple war scenes later, Little Horus learns the hard way that the White Scars are pretty badass, but his PTSD starts acting up again and he gets his face shaved off before the White Scars are driven off. Little Horus realizes his PTSD he had since killing Loken and Torgaddon ultimately stems from that time he helped kill Loken and Torgaddon, and gives a diatribe about how things like "change", "mood swings", and "hallucinations" are suited to his melancholic nature, saying things like "it's perfectly natural", "I'm fine, everything's fine. Everything is perfectly, absolutely fine", and "Therapy is for the weak. I'm fine". After the Mongolian shave, he gets his face reattached and ends up looking even more like Big Horus in the deal.
** '''''The Iron Within:''''' Some pretty bro-tier loyalist Iron Warriors build a fortress hanging from a cave over an ocean of prometheum in a hellhole of a world (giant cavern system & acidic atmosphere), and one of Perturabo's traitor Grand Companies come knocking to demand that they hand over the house keys. The loyalists give them a fuck-you in the form of a Dreadnought. A few melodramatic and horrific but generic war scenes later, and they get overrun (after a full year of siege thanks to the genius of a certain [[Barabas Dantioch]]), drop the fortress from the ceiling onto a titan, and get the hell out of there by hijacking one of the Iron Warriors warships via teleportation. An Ultramarine big wig was there to bring the loyalists home, informing them that [[Skub|Guilliman was fortifying Terra]] and he needed good siege workers to stall the traitors then to fortify Terra. While loyalist Iron Warriors were pretty cool, the story itself was pretty forgettable; and it left some open questions like whether the continuity errors were the result of "faulty astropathic communications" (see Outcast Dead) or if the Ultramarines were trolling the Iron Warriors to join in with the Imperium Secundus. And also why the Iron Warriors were determined to take a hellhole at an immense expense of people and materiel, including Titans, while they could have just said "fuck yo shit!" and left a fortress with no space or warp conveyance and arguably little strategic value in itself in the middle of nowhere alone. It mentions a few times that it looks really bad for a rebellion trying to gain initiative when a mere captain of their Legions tells their Primarch "fuck off, imma keeping this fortress & resources for the Emperor!" The message behind it being if you can't even control your own men, maybe this rebellion thing needs a rethinking, because hearing Horus can't even take this shitty outpost middle of nowhere and he's going to Terra might be bad press.
** '''''Savage Weapons:''''' A good story written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|ADB]]. Dark Angels are hunting down the Night Lords who are fucking with Forge Worlds, but the Night Lords are staying a step ahead of them, much to [[Rage|the Lion's frustration]]. After being advised by Horus to pass along a message, Kurze asks the Lion to meet up face-to-face on Tsagualsa. When they talk, while what they say to each other is offscreen, it's implied Kurze told Lion about the Fallen Angels and that Horus knew about their impending betrayal. Lion decides nobody is going to give him shit about being a rumored closet traitor, and the ensuing fight proves that Jonson is a badass among primarchs, until Kurze goes to his old fallback of strangling a fucker, and things get more even. Their respective honor guards go at it in the meantime, and showing [[Sevatar]] is a badass among Space Marines. Things end up in a draw, leaving things open for a new plotline within the Heresy, the ''Prince of Crows'' novella being the next.
*'''''The Outcast Dead:''''' A mess of continuity errors, at least when compared with the rest of the series, the other authors later claimed all the errors were absolutely intentional and a result of the messed-up nature of Warp-based communication. [[derp|''Riggggghhhhtttt!'']] More importantly: shortly after the start of the Heresy an astropath has routine nervous breakdown and is returned to Terra to get [[Witch Hunters|some R&R]]. What really ends up happening is that he gets there in time for [[Magnus]]'s astral body to reach Big E to warn him of Horus' betrayal, and the fuckhueg psychic shock of course dicks with the Astropath HQ compound something mighty. In the confusion and assloads of psychic phenomena that followed, the astropath gets implanted with a message for somebody regarding the war, but his PTSD keeps him from knowing what the hell it is or who it's for. The Custodes come in and tell him ''"[[Anal Circumference|Ve haff vays of making you talk.]]"'' and hand him over to a pair of [[Inquisition|kind counselors]] who torture the poor man half to death. After a time, he gets busted out in the nick of time by some convict Space Marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." to the others. They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra (amusingly, none of the escapees is very happy at the prospect of the Heresy but they are all [[rage|slightly miffed]] at being treated like shit by the Custodes just because of the Legion they belong to.) Other subplots revolve around: a psyker congregant at a slum church near the Imperial palace; a samurai witch hunter (no, really); '''''fucking [[Thunder Warriors]]'''''. Best bits are <s>[[Rip and tear|an unarmed, unarmored World Eater ripping a Custodes' spine out through his chest]]</s> the portrayal of the Emperor playing chess in dreams, revealing that the message is about his upcoming bitchslap from Horus.
*'''''Deliverance Lost:''''' [[Corvus Corax]], having just escaped from Istvaan V, decides to go ask daddy for a handout to get his Legion back on his feet, and gets the mother of all genetech to do it, though he has to do a bit of legwork to get it. Meanwhile, a bunch of faceless Alpha Legionnaires (okay, they do have faces, they just originally belonged to some Raven Guard) had infiltrated Corax's Legion at Istvaan, and are doing recon and intelligence gathering waiting for [[Omegon]] to give the go-ahead to fuck shit up. Corax, meanwhile sets up new geneseed methods that bring up new recruits to battle-ready marines ''in fucking hours'', with the potential to conscript literally anybody willing to become a Space Marine. The Alphas decide this probably isn't in their interest, and sabotage the new geneseed by tainting it with ''daemon blood'', turning second- and third-batch new Raven Guard into the twisted monsters we know that Corax ended up with. In one of the instances of retcon that was actually flavored with [[awesome]] and win, the mutant marines [[Grimdark|were still sapient]], but were left to fight on in the Emperor's name. After staging a mass insurrection on Deliverance's parent world with the help of some old guilders Corax ousted and the Dark Mechanicum, Omegon gets ''more'' Alphas infiltrated into the Raven for the endgame: steal the genetech, kill some Ravenguard, get the fuck out before anybody knows what the fuck just happened in here. A couple cockups along the way leads to the Raven Guard getting wise and isolating out the Alphas. The end of the novel was like a swingers party at the retirement home, everybody got screwed (even ''Horus''), nobody got what they hoped for (except for [[Omegon|the really deviant bastard]]), and all-around the reproductive material was a waste. Corax shut down his hothousing method, and starts fucking with the Traitors, even at reduced numbers. The book ends on a note with Alpharius-Omegon deciding that while their plan for saving the galaxy was still good, they decide working with Xenos isn't for them.
*'''''Know No Fear:''''' The Ultras are still ignorant about Istvaan and the civil war erupting around the galaxy, and are on muster at Calth with the Word Bearers [[troll|on orders from Horus]] to go kill some Orks together as a conciliatory gesture. They were in for a surprise. The Word Bearers, while happy as hell to get revenge, are really trying to [[Eldrad|dick over]] the Ultramarines to keep them out of the Heresy, if not destroy them outright. What happens next is the Word Bearers arrange some "accidents" using sorcery and good ol' fashioned treachery to fake a monumental fuck up in the ship yards that leave the Ultramarine forces blind, deaf, and crippled. They use the confusion to say that the Ultras ''still'' fucking them over, and take the chance to open not only a can, but entire cases of whoop-ass on the Ultras. Erebus turns Calth's pole into a screaming hellscape to start up a warp storm, while Kor Phaeron oversees the systematic extermination of the Ultramarines and also successfully poisons Calth's sun. Guilliman gets jettisoned into space, but survives because [[Spiritual Liege]]. He then leads a counterattack on Kor Phaeron, and while Kor comes ''this close'' to getting a Primarch kill with [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|Chaos mindbullets]], but in a moment of self-aggrandizement, he holds back tries to corrupt Guilliman with his own dagger-sized '''MURDER SWORD'''. Guilliman calmly tells him "The Codex Astartes <s>does</s> will not support this action" (it was really "You made an error" followed by an explanation of that error, and "but while I'm alive, I can do this") and [[Rip and Tear|rips out Kor Phaeron's main heart with an unpowered Lightning Claw]]. Kor Phaeron's minions run away with his carcass, allowing the Ultras to retake their space station, which in turn allows Mechanicus plot power, aided by a planet's worth of orbital defense batteries, to bring the ground war back into the Ultramarines' favor. The novel ends with Word Bearers getting the hell out of there, and the Ultramarines evacuating everyone they can off of Calth and telling everybody they can't to get underground, transitioning into underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pius]] being the special guest star with his very own subplot, and the Word Bearers having athame blades as special issue, one of which will [[Uriel Ventris|come back later]]. You might notice this summary is pretty spoilerific, but if you didn't know the broad strokes already, you're in the wrong place.
*'''''The Primarchs:''''' A novella anthology. As the name suggests, it contains stories featuring Primarchs.
**'''''The Reflection Crack'd:''''' - <s>[[Lucius]] and friends anally rape [[Fulgrim]]. Yeah.</s> While questionable use of a ''pear of anguish'' is featured during a game of "Stab the Fulgrim," the real story is this: Lucius and his buddies are deep into the [[/d/|sickfuckery]] which will come to characterize their Legion, but begin to suspect that Fulgrim might have a daemon in him when he begins acting like not-Fulgrim and uses sorcery. They ambush him and try to exorcise it with pain, because torturing a Slaaneshi daemon will totally work (though they find out that a Primarch can grow back a foot, and just about any other wound). Among everything else: [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bill]] is still an arrogant dick; Lucius is still a maniacal and colossally narcissistic sick fuck; Julius Kaesoron is still an angry badass; Marius Vairosean is still a sycophantic cunt; and Eidolon was still a self-important, whiny douche, but Fulgrim throws a tantrum and cuts his head off, and there was much cheering from the readers, and that ''plus'' almost certain off-screen fapping among the Legionaries leads into ''Angel Exterminatus''.
**'''''Feat of Iron''''' - [[Ferrus Manus]]'s Legion is trying to off some Eldar on a desert world, but can't find the major Eldar strategic asset because of Spess Elf warp bullshit. A Farseer thinks he can warn Ferrus about the Heresy, and traps him in the webway or some psychic realm for a spirit quest long enough to fight a [[Fulgrim|giant purple snake]] (which is [[/d/|disturbingly appropriate imagery]] when you think about it); and Ferrus thinks it was the wyrm that he killed and gave him his metal hands, but the snake tells him that he must be mistaking it for somebody else. Ferrus kills it, and meets the Farseer who tries to tell Ferrus that he wasn't just being a dick. Ferrus, having too many experiences with Eldar being dicks, knocks some sense into the Farseer, who manages to run just fast enough to avoid getting killed. Ferrus comes back and helps his Legion fight off the Eldar kill the Webway beacon, or whatever the hell it was. In the background of all of this, the Iron Hands, having lost Ferrus, decide to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bitch about potentially dead father, and work to complete the mission despite being weighed down by Imperial Army who are dying of dehydration and heat stroke. The Eldar figure out a way to use storm clouds that make Iron Hands bionics kill their users, and Ferrus has a bitch of an itch around his neck that he can't get rid of. [[Drop Site Massacre|I wonder if that's important]].
**'''''The Lion:''''' - Dark Angels fight daemons and reinstitute Librarians. The Lion teamkills Nemiel for reminding him about Nikaea, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books because [[Gav Thorpe]] wanted to prove he's a big boy author who can kill his characters. Then they steal an intelligent super warp engine (insta shifts the Dark Angel fleet into the warp without need for a jump point while teleporting itself and the Lion onto his flagship; Lion is capable of talking politely infront of so much power) from [[Typhus]] then set course for Macragge to sort out Guilliman.
**'''''Serpent Beneath:''''' - Alpharius Omegon plots against himself and destroys a facility built around what looks suspiciously like a Cadian Pylon (and said facility keeping the White Scars out of the war), due to [[Cake|an information leak]], and they can't have that. Except than none of the main players are Alpharius or Omegon. And Alpharius and Omegon can't decide if they're secretly working against each other or not. Also: considered to be one of the better works of the series, not only due to quality, but because of the sheer mindfuckery of the plot, keeping entirely within the rationale of the Alpha Legion without any jumps in logic or canon.

=== Books XXI - XXX ===
*'''''Fear to Tread:''''' Despite being Black Library's most financially successful book ''ever'' and hitting thirteen (!) on the New York Times bestseller list (without Oprah's recommendation, even), many [[/tg/|fa/tg/uy]]s find it a bit ridiculous. Why? Well, there's planets with giant frowny faces inhabited by garbage monsters, ships getting blown up by city-sized rocks launched from the aforementioned planets, a nearly-stereotypically-gay [[Slaanesh]]i daemon that doesn't actually serve much of a purpose in the story, and a villain named the Red Angel, despite the fact [[Angron]] already claimed that as a nickname (although he was first introduced in ''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'', so it's not [[James Swallow]]'s fault). Oh, and Sanguinius acts like an idiot about [[Chaos]] the whole time, which fits the [[fluff]], but come on, how many freaky supernatural signs do you need to see before you decide it's not just foul xenos? In all fairness, of course, ''Fear to Tread'' does have quite a few good moments, especially when it comes to [[Warp]]-related terror. It also has a priceless bromance between [[Horus]] and [[Sanguinius]], not to mention Sanguinius and his Legion get characterized very well. Sanguiniuns and Co end up reaching Imperium Secundus.

*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - A story about two parallel story lines. The first is set during the [[Battle of Phall]], a space battle between the Iron Warriors whole fleet and what was left over from a third of the Imperial Fists's fleet after a warpstorm were ran them" ashore" and left them drifting and isolated in the backwater Phall system. Despite having the superior numbers, more and bigger guns, suicidal expenditure cohorts, and the power of a raging hatred boner, the Iron Warriors were losing to the Imperial Fists's maneuverability and [[Alexis Polux|Captain Polux's]] protagonist power. Eventually, the Fists get the order and window to withdraw to Terra, though turning tail would put their fleet at a huge disadvantage. Given the choice between blind obedience to his father or carrying on the battle they were winning, Polux chooses the former and takes his Fists back to Terra, but ends up in the Imperium Secundus instead. This was also the first of the two depictions of Perturabo, and clearly the worst of the two as he's shown as a cold-hearted Saturday morning cartoon villain with rage control issues. The second story line follows [[Sigismund]] as he follows Rogal around the Imperial Palace, while he was ordered to command the fleet on its way to Istvaan and got trapped at Phall, but delegated it to Polux's predecessor. The twist is that he met Euphrati Keeler had a spiritual experience when they spoke, and felt that he would be needed more at Terra instead of as a drifting corpse permanently lost in orbit around some backwater, and so handed off job of commanding the fleet. When he eventually opened up to Rogal, this got him in trouble. See, Rogal was still one of the [[Imperial Truth|stupid atheists]] at this point, so he disowned Sigismund because he thought "serving a higher purpose" was arrogant and got in the way of doing his job. This left Sigismund feeling really sad and pissed off, thus was his start of <s>darkness</s> daddy issues. [[Black Templars|Really pissed off and bad ass daddy issues.]]
**'''''The Dark King''''' - A look into the head and story of Konrad Curze during the events leading up to the Dropsite Massacre. It shows how Curze, even if you buy that he was a murderous paladin of justice and order through fear rather than just a fearsome murderer, is getting pretty fucked up in the head and lives with the knowledge of his demise haunting him, which isn't that great for his sanity. It also involves him beating up Rogal Dorn, killing some Imp Fists and Emp's Children terminators <s>with his more advanced suit and built-in vox jammers </s>with his bare hands, then blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn. The first 10 is him being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace as a grand piece of art by fortifying it into a coldly functional fortress. The next 10 is Rogal having an existential monologue then a conversation with Malcador, all about why he doesn't know why Horus declared war on the Emperor and brought half of the Legions with him, and is partly afraid to find out why in case it makes sense. Malcador ends up knowing at least a little about Chaos, and somehow got his hands on a tarot deck Curze used throughout his life, even to the close of ''The Dark King''. (Don't ask how he got them. Really.) Also the (*Name Drop*) Lightning Tower is the important card that comes up, signifying a [[Siege of Terra|destruction of fortifications]] and/or a [[Imperium of Man|change of thinking through sacrifice]].
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Right before Istvaan, techpriest Pallas Ravachol is working on a top secret "Kaban" robot project on Mars realizes that the project has achieved sapience and is in fact a form of strong AI. Though he genuinely befriended the Kaban machine, Ravachol complains to boss Magos Chrom that working on an AI is both highly illegal and insanely dangerous. Chrom tells Ravachol not to be such a pussy since Horus himself gave the OK, and after some deliberation, has a death squad awaiting to escort the Ravachol off site the next morning. Ravachol, thinking there were few ways this could well, makes a break for it and flees for Magos Malevolus's forge, hoping to get somebody with some clout to reveal that his old boss and Horus were up to something. On the way, he spends time running away from a latex-clad sadist babe who persistently chases after him; since she's an AdMech equivalent of a Death Cultist assassin, this is a ''much'' better idea than it sounds. When he gets to Malevolus's forge, Malevolus distracts him with a legion of shiny Mk6 suits of Marine Power Armor long enough to drop the bomb to drop that they were for Horus. The latex-clad babe catches up to them both, and the techpriest flees again, only to be puzzled why Malevolus and the assassin are letting him run. As he gets out the door, he meets the Kaban machine, <s>and through the power of friendship, the Kaban decides to side with the good guys, and the day is saved.</s> Except this is the dark, gritty universe of 30K where brother turns against brother. Chrom told the Kaban Machine that it and Ravachol couldn't be friends for realsies, because rules and stuff, and taking up with Horus was a great idea. The Kaban Machine, not understanding how humans work nor '''The Power of Friendship''', didn't know any better than to agree and kills Ravachol right on the steps of Malevolus's forge. End story. An okay story, somewhat generic feeling prose. More of a who's who of the Dark Mechanicus during ''Mechanicum'' and telling where the hell that Kaban machine from the same book came from and how they seduced an AI into Chaos worship.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - A bridge between Istvaan V and ''Deliverance Lost'', also a companion story to the Raven's Flight audio drama. The story tells how Commander Marcus Valerius of the Imperial Army is stationed on Deliverance and keeps having recurring nightmares which is causing him worry about Corax. Commander Branne of the Raven Guard's garrison on Deliverance, is getting tired of how the Legion's pet human won't stop bitching about it, and decides to take Valerius out on a trip in the battle barge to Istvaan just to show him that everything is just fine. Meanwhile, Corax and a relative handful of surviving Raven Guard are fighting a guerilla war against the traitors, trying to stay one step ahead of the Iron Warriors and then the World Eaters, and in-between skirmishes, Corax spends a few thoughtful moments feeling bad about his Legion and the state of the Imperium now that things have gone to shit.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, after that he makes tokens (for the warrior-lodge, but he doesn't know that) and then he gets his windpipe crushed to make sure word doesn't get out about the tokens. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life up until the point where he's lying on his own floor, slowly suffocating to death. Ultimately it is kind of irrelevant, but the lore nerds or people who have been paying attention might find it interesting. It is however only barely 20 pages long, so you might as well read it anyway.
**'''''Prince of Crows''''' - A novella featuring the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain [[Sevatar]] of the Night Lords. With the Night Lords's forces all but shattered by the Dark Angels, Curze in a coma nearly dead, and the Dark Angels's fleet in pursuit, Sevatar has to knock some heads for the Night Lords to get their shit together and reorganize and rethink strategy. It's essentially about showing the fractures in the Night Lords Legion. As most stories written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]], it's pretty good.

*'''''Angel Exterminatus:''''' [[Perturabo]] just finished [[skub|fucking up (or being fucked by)]] some Fists, and [[Fulgrim]] finds him to polish off a plot hook from ''The Reflection Crack'd'' and recruit Pert for an expedition into the Eye of Terror because a renegade Eldar said he knows where to get ''the good shit'' (the eponymous Angel Exterminatus). Fulgrim wanted to make a show out of delivering exposition, and he had Pert use his skills to build a stadium and went storyteller mode; then the moment was killed when a Shattered Legion detachment composed of Iron Hands and a Raven Guard commando sniped Fulgrim (he got better). Of course, Pert took the moment to remind himself that this is why he can't have, [[Rage|won't ever have]], nice things. Thinking that Fulgrim had the scent of a powerful artifact or a superweapon, and seeing that Fulgrim was becoming the Primarch equivalent of a crack addict member of the Jersey Shore and his legion wasn't looking much better, Pert decided to play it safe by tagging along and making sure Fulgrim wouldn't break anything. On the way, a different Eldar scholar came to the Shattered Legion, telling them that Fulgrim and Pert can't be allowed to get to the Angel Exterminatus, or [[Daemon|Bad Things (Warp-registered trademark)]] will happen. Well into the journey into the Eye, the Iron Hands's resident mad scientist accidentally gave away their location, and the Emp's Children and Iron Warriors decide to throw a boarding party. After a few pages of pulse pounding action, Pert says "fuck this", and leaves as the Iron Hands's same mad scientist overloads the engines and does a [[Battlefleet Gothic|mother of a ramming maneuver]] which kills an Emp's Children ship. (Pert was getting sick of Fulgrim's shit at this point, so he decided not to let them know, leading to the loss of the ship and thousands of casualties for Fulgrim.) Then, they finally get there, they find a [[Crone World]] covered in ruins and occupied spirit stones being held in orbit around a black hole. Some wraithbone constructs pop up and Pert and Fulgrim have to fight to the heart of the planet to get at the Angel Exterminatus. On the way, Pert kills their renegade Eldar because he was a lyin' bitch. When they ''finally'' get there, Surprise! Daemon Primarch Fulgrim is supposed to be the Angel Exterminatus, and he betrays Pert (a bauble Fulgrim gave to Pert at the start of the book was a vitality-leeching thing), and they start the ritual which would sacrifice Pert to turn Fulgrim into a Daemon Prince. Then the Shattered Legion crashes the ceremony, and assists the Iron Warriors since it's clear they weren't working with the Emp's Children anymore. Pert kills Fulgrim, but it didn't count since Fulgrim's mortal essence works just as well as sacrifice. He goes full Daemon Prince despite a generous helping of Thunder Hammer to his [[gay|pretty face]], breaks every spirit stone on the planet, and disappears with every last one of his sick fucks. The Eldar scholar helping the Shattered Legion throws a bitch fit, revealing that both scholars were Dark Eldar who had cut a deal with Fulgrim (help him become a daemon and they get assloads of spirit stones to fuck with), and he had made sure that the Shattered Legions were there to put a wedge in that deal because...reasons. The Shattered Legion gets the hell out, and the Iron Warriors try to GTFO as the planet starts to fall into the black hole. The book ends, with Pert, being a wise man, orders them to reverse course and fly right into that fucker. Subplots include a lot of buildup for McNeil's Iron Warriors stories, the Shattered Legions' feelings on trying to unfuck an irreversibly fucked situation, some tense buildup of two Imperial Fists as they try to survive Fabius's turning them into mutants (which actually had a poor payoff). Despite being overall good, it's a bit of a skub novel because the depiction of Perturabo is so different from expected, rather than being the bitter [[RAGE|Rage]] machine from every other depiction, he's a quiet [[Neckbeard|nerd who plays with toys as a hobby]], but with muscles. And because the ghosts of eldar's Aspect Warriors and Wraith-Constructs inside a planet left inside the Eye of Terror is a canon-rape on par with C.S. Goto, the first death of Lucius at the hands of a Mary Sue despite previous claims that he was undefeated during the Heresy and his unexplained resurrection (<s>"How? Fucking Chaos, that's how."</s> Oh, sure, every CSM is immortal), and an Iron Hands legionnaire somehow being immune to sonic weapons by being deaf. And worst of all, a rotating Shadowsword turret.

*'''''Betrayer:''''' Lorgar and Angron rampage over the Ultramarines 500 worlds. Lots of references to Angron's past and his Butcher's Nails are killing him slowly. Turns out one of the Ultramarine worlds was his own Homeworld, so he destroys it and Lorgar makes him into a daemon-prince. Also remember the Furious Abyss? Lorgar has two more. Also focuses on Khârn and Argel Tal being bros, until Erebus decides to intervene and kill a bitch.

* '''''Angron:''''' An anthology about <s>Lorgar</s> <s>Horus</s> <s>Dorn</s> <s>Malcador</s> <s>the plumber for the Golden Throne</s> Fuck, we can't remember. It often gets passed over in the official lists, since it's actually a cheat since it's a republish of older short stories: '''After De'shea''', '''Butcher's Nails''' ''(print format)'', and '''Lord of the Red Sands''' ''(which was initially a standalone release,'' even later ''republished in'' The Imperial Truth'')''.

*'''''Mark of Calth:''''' Another set of short stories, though all focused on the [[Ultramarines]] or the [[Word Bearers]].
**'''''Shards of Erebus:''''' - We find that [[Erebus]] broke the '''MURDER SWORD''' into eight daggers/athames and shared them with his bros. Also shows how he returned to Davin to learn how to teleport with the '''MURDER SWORD''', then killing the priestess that helped him turn Horus. She somehow wins because she served Chaos before dying which pisses Erebus off.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Keeps bringing up what Calth used to be like. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to Nurgle everyone, and the Ultramarines save the day in the nick of time. After all, THE GREATEST OF THE-{{BLAM}}
**'''''Dark Heart''''' - A young Word Bearer is interrogated by Kor Phaeron after he ended up killing his mentor with dark powers (turned him insta inside out). A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degradation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A spacedock traffic controller survives the destruction of his star fort, and the fatal crash of his escape shuttle before ending up in a small underground arcology with other human survivors. Imperial cultists believe he is blessed, and when he starts hearing whispers and seeing unbelievers they start rounding everybody up for execution. Everybody gets slowly executed till he's the last one left. Learns he's been possessed and reveals to an Ultramarine that he was was infected by the vox from the ''Campanile''.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - An Ultramarine has a hard-on for a certain Word Bearer trolling him. Hunts down said Word Bearer into a cave system with a team of soldiers and Spess Merheens. Word Bearer trolls them by summoning a Gorgon. Ultramarine wins by tricking the Gorgon into looking at its reflection.
**'''''The Underworld War''''' - A story that has little to do with the actual Underworld War. It features a Gal Vorbak who sees the attack on Calth as a clusterfuck of fail. Has a plot-twist ending... turns out Daemons give visions of the future to potential Gal Vorbak, and said Gal Vorbak was given a vision of him not abandoning his fallen brothers on Calth. The Daemon doesn't have time for that shit so it lets him die during his transformation.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife, though not one from the '''MURDER SWORD'''. That's about it... totally... right. Wrong. The small sacrificial knife that Ollanius found was carved on Terra for a benign ritual, stolen by an evil Perpetual who was killed by ''the Emperor'' in medieval times, found in an archeological dig by Kasper Hawser, and went on other crazy murder-adventures, all while having rudimentary sentience.
**'''''Unmarked''''' - Ollanius Pius and friends is traveling through time and space using the athame from the previous story. We learn a lot more about Oll's past, going into detail about his offhand mentions that he was one of the Argonauts and that he served in the First World War and the First Gulf War.
*'''''Vulkan Lives:''''' What happened to Vulkan after the Dropsite Massacre? He got made Konrad Curze's torture bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer to the face. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc. Remember the Shattered Legions crew from ''Angel Exterminatus''? Now you get a new group that is far more bland and less distinct.
*'''''The Unremembered Empire:''''' [[Perpetual|Matt Damon]] killed Martin Luther King. This happens in the book. Also, unlike the cover and synopsis would imply, it's ''not'' about Sanguinius and Guilliman working together to build a back-up Imperium around Ultramar, which leads to the question of ''why that's on the cover?'' No one knows what it is really about, especially the book's description of itself (which describes its ''sequels''). Several things happen in the book as several unrelated subplots collide as several entities are drawn by the Pharos device to Macragge. There are implications that Guilliman's new backup Imperium is starving resources from Terra.
*'''''Scars:''''' Technically the third book of the Prospero arc. The Khan returns to the Imperium after killing Orks left over from Ullanor and can't decide what side to join. Turns his back on Leman Russ during a fight with the Alpha Legion and goes looking for his best friend Magnus, also gets into a fight with Mortarion on the way, also [[The Fallen|half his legion turns traitor]] but turns out it's no big deal.
** '''''Brotherhood of the Storm:''''' Prequel to Scars, shows the White Scars fighting Orks on Chondax.
*'''''Vengeful Spirit''''' Horus goes looking for power to make him equal to the Emperor and the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z (kinda). We learn that the Emperor gained his powers after making a pact with the Chaos Gods where they gave him a fraction of their power, then somehow managed to double-cross them in what is quite possibly the most retarded retcon ever introduced in the entire book series. (In all seriousness though, the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series. It could be the truth, or one of their beautifully crafted lies.) Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest. Also, if you have been ignoring the audio books, you will be a bit lost at the start of this one.
*'''''The Damnation of Pythos''''' A Lovecraftian Horror story disguised as a Horus Heresy story. Has the most grimdark ending of the series thus far, up there with Dead Men Walking. Adds just about as much to the overall series as ''Furious Abyss'' did, but is actually pretty well written, unlike "Furious Abyss". To cut a long story short, daemons take over a world in the Pandorax system, capture a starship and use it to start ferrying cultists from place to place. The book also has some crossover with 40k and the Pandorax Campaign.

=== Books XXXI to XL ===
*'''''Legacies of Betrayal''''' Another anthology, though this time it's a bit of cheat, and they just consolidated several pre-existing stories; some of the the novellas but also included print versions of audio books.
**'''Brotherhood of the Storm''' - see above
**'''Serpent''' - A really short and out-of-place story about a Davinite Priest.
**'''Hunters Moon''' - originally an audiobook involving peasant fishermen rescuing a crashed space wolf who is running from the Alpha Legion after killing Alpharius, it obviously doesn't end well.
**'''Veritas Ferrum''' - a prequel to Damnation of Pythos, about an Iron Hands starship escaping ''(against their better nature)'' from Isstvan with some survivors.
**'''Strike and Fade''' - More survivors of Isstvan, though this is about Salamanders just killing time (and Night Lords) whilst they wait to be rescued.
**'''Honour to the Dead''' - about Ultramarines and an innocent woman and child trying her hardest to follow them to safety.
**'''Butcher's Nails''' - A good one to read, Angron & Lorgar go on the Shadow-Crusade and come to an understanding whilst fighting Eldar.
**'''Warmaster''' - Horus considering how much of a badass he is while chatting with Ferrus Manus's skull.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go kidnap a warp code interpreter that will let them intercept garbled enemy communications.
**'''Wolfs Claw''' - Bjorn the Fell-Handed needs a replacement arm, but the Iron Priests are too busy, but he happens to find a nice fancy relic one just lying around.
**'''The Divine Word'''
**'''Thief of Revelations''' - After Prospero, the Thousand Sons need something to stop all their rampant mutation, so Ahriman goes to ask why Magnus has locked himself away. He's got bigger things to worry about and is looking across time and space for key events for future [[Just as Planned]] manipulations.
**'''Lucius the Eternal Warrior''' - After his first death ''(and unexplained resurrection)'' at the hands of Nykona Sharrowkyn, Lucius has somehow abandoned the Heresy and goes to the planet of Sorcerers to fight a duel with the bestest Thousand Son swordsman, ends up meeting Ahriman. [[wat|Uh-huh...]]
**'''The Eightfold Path''' - Kharn and the World Eaters realise that too much rip and tear is leading them [[Khorne|down a damning path]], but they're already too far gone.
**'''Guardian of Order''' - [[Cypher]] and [[Zahariel]] discover that the Ouroboros (banished in Fallen Angels) is coming back
**'''Heart of the Conqueror''' - Angron's Navigator gets a bit uppity about being made to turn traitor, despite having been picked for the job as the angry man's chauffeur by the Emperor himself. Blams herself during mid-warp transit with not-fun results for flagship.
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel is killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes about it on his armour. Said notes will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]] on the subject of killing Word Bearers (because it's that damn important to kill Word Bearers). Thiel eventually gets bored and goes back to Macragge in the end.
**'''Lone Wolf''' - Bjorn has lost all of his squad, but is now such an awesome badass that he can solo Bloodthirsters.
*'''''Death and Defiance''''' Yet another anthology
**'''Imperfect''' - Daemon-Fulgrim has been getting Fabius to clone Ferrus Manus, because the split personality thing makes him feel guilty about failing to turn his brother to Horus's side, but the clones are never quite right and go mental at each suggestion. Fabius also has his own stuff going on.
**'''Howl of the Heathworld''' - Space Wolves get sent to Terra to watch over Rogal Dorn so he doesn't start using psykers, its a pointless task and everyone know it. Also offers insight into the Wolves naming conventions.
**'''A Safe and Shadowed Place''' - [[Night Lords]] start stabbing each other in the back as soon as Curze goes missing while solo'ing Macragge. It's about a ship floating in the ruinstorm that has just discovered the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] and foreshadows problems for Ultramar.
**'''Virtues of the Sons''' - Sanguinius forsees that he will not always be in charge of the Blood Angels, but worries about the Red Thirst causing havoc with his sons futures. So gets Amit to duel Kharn and Azkaellon to duel Lucius in hopes they'll learn something. Azkaellon learns to let the rage out a bit and Amit learns a modicum of restraint.
**'''Gunsight''' - The Vindicare Assassin from Nemesis is still alive and on Horus' flagship, its about him spending years waiting for the opportune moment to get a shot, but he starts going mad while he waits. Gives ups when Horus plucks his killshot from the air and Horus gives him a chaos rifle for his change in loyalty.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anthology
**'''Daemonology''' - To and fro' story about [[Mortarion]]. On Terra he discovers the initial construction of the Golden Throne and gets told about Emp's plan for removing psykers. In the "present day" he captures a daemon and starts practising sorcery on it.
**'''Black Oculus''' - A short story about Navigators describing what it's like travelling in the warp.... basically it's [[Grimdark]].
**'''Chirurgeon''' - [[Fabius Bile]] narrating about his history, and what happened about the gene-flaw that almost wiped out the [[Emperor's Children]]. Totally has the gene-flaw and has been using his bestest bro turned servitor to keep it under wraps.
**'''Twisted''' - '''Maloghurst''' gets a story about him uncovering plots against Horus and gets wrapped up in intrigue. It actually shows him as a really clever bastard and a bit of a badass.
**'''Wolf Mother''' - [[Perpetual|Alivia Sureka]]'s kids get captured after their escape from Molech and she teams up with [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]] in order to get them back. Lots of coolness on Sevarian's part and we also get to see that Perpetuals can resist possession.
*'''''Tallarn: Executioner''''' - A novella about a vehicle squadron (Leman Russ Executioner, Vanquisher and a Salamander) having to deal with the toxic surface in the weeks after the surface bombardment and then come into contact with the Iron Warriors. Also the Alpha Legion have a hand in things, like they always do.
*'''''Tallarn: Ironclad''''' - Part two of the Tallarn story.
*'''''Deathfire''''' - What the Salamanders have been saying since Isstvan is true: Vulkan lives! Well now he does. Basically a bunch of Salamanders take his body from Macragge to Nocturne (with some side help from didn't ask for this Magnus) and throw him into Nocturne's largest volcano, and lo and behold he comes back to life, making that entire plotline pointless. Still has the fucking Fulgurite in his chest, though. TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nzml-zZ9M
*'''''The Wolf King ''''' - The Space Wolves find themselves set upon by the forces of the Alpha Legion before they can recover from the Razing of Prospero and are hounded to the edge of the Alaxxes Nebula (swiss cheese acid cloud). There the Alpha Legion beat the ever-living shi...stuffing out of the wolves whilst Russ locks himself in his room and sulks. Russ eventually summons his new favourite Bjorn to join him and they have bit of a heart to heart about what a bunch of morons they were in allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily by Horus. By the end Russ is back to his old self and celebrates by massacring every Alpha he can get his hands on even if it’s clear that his defeat is inevitable. Fortunately for the Wolves helps comes from a hidden armada of Dark Angels ostensibly "loyal" to [[Luther]], but unaware of the Horus Heresy or of the whereabouts or actions of the Lion. Russ borrows gear and manpower from them in exchange for info on current events which most likely finds its way back to Luther and sets the "Destiny of Caliban" in motion. Russ then heads for Terra.
*'''''War Without End''''': Anthologies Without End.
*'''''Pharos''''': Night Lords fucking up the Pharos Lighthouse on Sotha. Sanguinius eventually grows some balls and starts standing up to Guilliman instead of just being a pantomime Emperor, while the Lion is nowhere to be seen as usual. Warsmith Dantioch bites it while using the Pharos to burn the Night Lords out of his fortress, but inadvertently piques the interest of the [[Tyranids]], causing them to show up 10,000 years later. Skraivok become a prime example of DEMON SWORDS: NOT EVEN ONCE.
*'''''Eye of Terra''''': Another anthology.
*'''''Path Of Heaven''''': Sequel to Scars. The White Scars have been fighting traitor legions for a few years but are starting to show the strain. They finally make a shift back to Terra but things don't go as planned. Notable for digging into the Webway storyline and the Navis Nobilite as well as featuring a resurrected and suddenly competent Eidolon. Navigators weren't going to sit around while E-money built their replacement, White Scars use a prototype webway portal to escape their last stand, and Moratarion starts using sorcery to locate Typhon.
*'''The Seventh Serpent:''' a novella about the Shattered Legions going up against the Alpha Legion; a simple premise made awesome by sheer depth of Alpharian plot twists: They had been manipulated by Alpharius into fighting a battle against Loyalist Alpha Legionaires.
*'''The Silent War:''' Guess What?! It's ''another'' anthology of stories that GW have already sold individually as audio-books. So value might be had for those who hadn't listened to them.
*'''''Angels of Caliban:''''' two Dark Angels stories in one book again, though this one actually moves the plot forward. In Ultramar, the Lion captures Konrad Curze but only after discretely nuking a whole region despite a ban on orbital weapon use, which results in his disgrace and we find that it is Guilliman who breaks the Lion Sword. Curze reveals that there were chaos cults on Mcraggae too, and that Guilliman would be a traitor if he had landed a little to the left. On Caliban, the Fallen openly declare their rebellion from the Imperium and ironically steal some starships that were meant to collect them and actually bring them into the war again. [[Zahariel]] kills [[Cypher]] and takes his place.
*'''''Praetorian of Dorn''''' Alpharius tries to invade <s>Terra</s> Pluto. Dorn kills him. Yes, Alpharius is now dead. And not a fake either, but the real Alpharius. Omegon can confirm. Alpha Legions fags blew a gasket. Oh shit believe we did.
*'''''Corax''''' A compilation of all the Corax Stories, plus a new one, '''Weregeld''', which manages to undo all the hard work the previous stories have done and turn Corax into a douchebag. Kills all his mutated Raven Guard because he promised to kill warp stuff. Saves Russ and his arrogant ass though.

=== Books XLI onwards ===
*'''''The Master of Mankind''''': The Emperor is a dick: the book. We all knew this, but now it's set in stone. Highlights being: Emperor stating to Arkhan Land that the Primarchs are tools and he views them with a scientific but detached fascination. Referring to them as numbers but content to allow the fantasy of being their "father", an interpretation of the character that was fairly divisive to say the least. He actually seems to care more for his Custodians than he does any of his other creations, but they don't consider him to be a father and see him as just their warlord. Drach'nyen is also revealed to be the Daemon created when Caine killed Abel. In the end he closes the door on the webway and has to spend the rest of his time sitting in the chair keeping it shut. Despite this, it does show off why the Chaos Gods fear him, as he pretty much rapes an infinite army of Daemons; the Greater ones either flee or try and fail to fight him (being destroyed in a matter of moments) whilst the lesser ones die just by looking at him. Despite this, Drach'nyen nearly kills him, and <s>it is confirmed that fate has indeed decreed that Empy will die at the daemon's hand</s> claims that it will kill the Emperor (keep in mind that the future is malleable and Daemons lie). But how will it feast on the Emperor's tattered soul when Abaddon lacks arms to plunge it into his chest? (''But Abaddon never lost his arms due to the same retcon that let Eldrad live'') Also known as Master of skubkind. Reveals his grand plan of saving the human race from the Eldar fate by absolute control of every human to a custodian before shanking him with Drach'nyen and making him run into the webway. Also put all his chips into the ''Human Webway'' plan and screwed us all over without a backup. Can you tell that this is an ADB book?
*'''''Garro''''': Compilation of all the stories about Garro and his boy band, though they insist it isn't just an anthology since the audio book stories were expanded to be more written novel friendly.
*'''''Shattered Legions''''': It's an anthology containing an anthology. I shit thee not. It shoves together the limited edition anthology Meduson with a few other shorter stories, including some Alpha Legion stuff like the Seventh Serpent.
*'''''The Crimson King''''': Magnus was broken into shards when Russ felled him. Now the Thousand Sons with the help of Lucius the Eternal must put him back together.
*'''''Tallarn''''': Does it even need to be stated? It's another fucking anthology, this time putting all the tank porn of the Tallarn books into one binding.
*'''''Ruinstorm:''''' The conclusion to the Imperium Secundus plotline, as well as the follow on to Damnation of Pythos. Shows the Lion, Sanguinius and Guilliman trying to cross the Ruinstorm to reach Terra. Having a brief stopover at Pandorax, they decide to head out to Davin where the Heresy began and where destinies are re-made; they pass systems along the way that show what the Galaxy would look like if Chaos wins, such as a Forge World surrounded by an immense fortress wall in outer space 4000 miles thick, or a sector of space filled with solid ritualised geometric shapes that are perhaps light years across. Davin itself is surrounded by a cloud of bones and wreckage millions of kilometers thick, but the planet has long since been abandoned. There, Sanguinius finds out that in order to live through the Heresy he must become a monster even worse than Horus, but dying will curse his sons with the Black Rage; blood is on his hands either way. Instead, Sanguinius tries to sacrifice himself to save the day, but the [[Sanguinor]] steps in and takes his place while the fleets rain down a shitstorm and destroy the planet. In the aftermath, the Ruinstorm abates enough for them to reach Terra, but Horus has so much force that it is impossible for all three legions to reach, so Guilliman and the Lion agree to distract the Traitors long enough to give Sanguinius a window to get back and face his destiny, explaining why they never made it to the Siege since they were engaging Traitor fleets and burning their worlds.
*'''''Old Earth:''''' Set immediately after ''Vulkan Lives'', Vulkan and three Salamander legionaries ''(the rest of the Salamanders weren't informed of their Primarch's resurrection)'' travelled through the Webway by a gate hidden in a cave on Nocturne. On their path to Terra, they came across the Shattered Legions, who were preparing for their first major void engagement with the Sons of Horus. Just before the attack, some Medusan-born Iron Hands tried to stage a coup against Shadrak Meduson by revealing a hideous contraption of machines, and the last remnants of Ferrus Manus - his iron hand ''(They were under the illusion that they could resurrect their Primarch through cybernetics, it is hinted that the Mechanicum had some hand in this affair.)'' Thankfully, Vulkan shattered the hand, and Meduson assumed command again, though he was killed by '''Tybalt Marr''' in a boarding action after the Iron Hand refused to send reinforcements to him. In the end, it was revealed that the Emperor had Vulkan forged a weapon, that in the event Terra fell to Horus, would amplify the power of the Golden Throne to the point it coulf wipe out the entire Throneworld ''(this is probably one of Vulcan's nine relics)'' Oh, and Eldrad rescued [[Knights-Errant|Barthusa Narek]] from Nocturne and made him his assassin. They killed most of the Cabal, and finally rescued John Grammaticus, who had his memory wiped after his failure to assassinate Vulkan. With his memory restored, Grammaticus was ordered by Eldrad to find Ollanius Pius and go to Terra.
*'''''Wolfsbane:''''' No solid information yet, but it seems like Leman Russ leaves Terra to confront Horus himself. One can expect that it doesn't end well for him.

== The Primarchs Series ==

Because Black Library don't seem satisfied confusing us with all their anthologies, audio-books, and short stories, they have begun releasing a spin-off series of Horus Heresy novels centered on the Primarchs. The series don't really take place in a specific time, but generally focuses on expanding on the titular Primarch's backstory and motivations during events before the Horus Heresy (though some of them also have events occurring after it). Why Black Library lists it as part of the Horus Heresy series when that is the case is beyond our comprehension.

=== Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar ===
Centers on the papa smurf himself, and him trying to deal with how the Emperor used him like a rusty hammer to smack Lorgar in the head at Monarchia. Uses a conflict against Orks as a vehicle for him and the smurfs to express their angst over the event.

=== Leman Russ: The Great Wolf ===
Focuses on Leman Russ' notorious rivalry with the Lion, and explaining why to this day whenever the Chapters meet they throw the gauntlet down and beat the stuffing out of one another. Notably it reveals some interesting stuff like the Lion being aware of the Space Wolves' furry issue and keeping a lid on it.

=== Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero ===
Depicts the unlikely friendship between Magnus and old Pert with a joint venture between their legions. Things go wrong on the planet due to totally not Chaos cult nonsense, and it does a decent job of showing Magnus' flaws. Specifically on his inability to leave things that have "do not fuck with this" alone; something Pert tries and fails at making him understand.

=== Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia ===
Probably the book in the series that did the most character building of all of them. This book is a mix of showing off Perturabo's childhood on Olympia alongside a "current" day conflict against the Hrud. The former showing why Pert is the odd genius manchild guy he is, while the latter does a great job of showing why fucking with an alien species capable of controlling time is somewhat of a stupid idea. However, the real draw of the book is that it is mainly written as an attempt to merge together the seemingly contradictory depictions of Pert we've had over the years. Showing how the ruthless dick who decimates his legion for not being good enough in the Forgeworld books is the same guy who just wanted to be a builder in Angel Exterminatus. Yep. Definitely a sperg. Also he may or may not have wanted to bang his adopted sister.

=== Lorgar: Bearer of the Word ===
Yep, the first(ish?) heretic himself gets his own obligatory messed up childhood novel. Focusing slightly more on Kor Phaeron rather than Lorgar himself, showing him to be a manipulative dick who beat Lorgar as a child and never really bought into this whole "fatherhood" shtick, or this whole concept of [[Emperor|One True God]] but allowed Lorgar his fantasies and to take over Colchis ''(By "Word" or by "Mace")'' while Phaeron benefitted from increased position and secretly kept the faith of [[Chaos Gods]].

Though by the end Kor Phaeron wonders if Lorgar just let him think that he was manipulated and could have disposed of him at any time. The book does introduce a contrasting character to Kor Phaeron who actually shows Lorgar compassion growing up and was far more worthy of being named "father" but was far less useful to Lorgar's goals. The book shows that Lorgar isn't as stupid or naive as everyone thinks and does indeed realise that people have been using him for their own gains, but while he only really cares about doing the work of the gods, so long as they both align he doesn't seem to care.

=== Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix ===
Fulgrim tries to conquer the newly discovered planet Byzas with only 7 men. Along the way he encounters a brotherhood much like his own that wants to work with him that Fulgrim dismisses as a bunch of idealists. It's implied that he COULD have gotten the same results (Compliance) working with them but unfortunately that would have meant calling in backup and Fulgrim didn't want to do that so that was out of the question. In the end Fulgrim takes the world, but nearly dies. Several of the characters (Cyrius, Kasperos Telmar) later become prominent champions of chaos.

=== Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa ===

== The Tabletop Wargame ==
[[Forge World]] is producing a new line of books and models (''in addition to'' [[Imperial Armour]] and [[Warhammer Forge]]) to allow players to fight battles from the Horus Heresy in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. This includes rules and models for the [[Primarchs]] (both pre- and post-fall, for the Traitors) as well as ancient vehicles. No [[xenos]], unfortunately. Presumably this came about because GW felt that they just weren't making quite enough money from die-hard marine/chaos players and figured they could literally buy a dump-truck full of gold plated cocaine each if they made a version of the game that requires only Forge World minis AND thousands upon thousands of them. Still worth it, though.

=== Betrayal ===
Forge World starts big, as their first book covers the battles on Istvaan III, in which [[Horus]] sent the remaining loyalist elements of the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Emperor's Children]], [[Death Guard]], and [[World Eaters]] to the surface, ostensibly to rout the anti-Imperial resistance that had taken hold in the capital city, and then fired [[Exterminatus]] torpedoes (of the life-eater virus bomb variety) onto the city to wipe them out.

Unfortunately for Horus, not everything went as planned; not only did the loyalist Death Guard frigate ''Eisenstein'' escape to the [[Phalanx]] with word of Horus's betrayal, but loyalist elements on other ships were able to disrupt the bombardment and warn the loyalists on the ground that it was coming. Between the disruption, the warning, and good old-fashioned [[Space Marine]] toughness, only a third or so of the landed force had actually died. Horus would have fired another bombardment, but [[Angron]] and his traitor World Eaters jumped the gun and made planetfall; the other traitors were left with no choice but to deploy themselves and destroy the remaining loyalists personally.

''Betrayal'' contains a [[Great Crusade]] Legion army list (for which we have a [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines/Legion List‎|tactica]]), and rules for special characters and units from the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Death Guard]], [[Emperor's Children]], and [[World Eaters]] Legions, including their [[Primarch]]s (even [[Fulgrim]], who was not actually at the battle) and several major characters from the book series such as Garviel Loken.

===Massacre===
The infamous Drop Site Massacre is the focus of the next book, where seven Legions are sent to crush Horus’ rebellion, only for four of those to turn on the other three and crush them utterly. The books storyline is essentially just the ''first day'' of the battle, leading up to the death of [[Ferrus Manus]].

Massacre contains additional rules for special characters and units from the [[Iron Hands]], [[Night Lords]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Word Bearers]] Legions including their Primarchs and several more major characters from the book series make their debut such as Sevatar, Eidolon, Erebus and Kharn.

===Extermination===
Focusses on the second half of Istvaan V, as well as the Battle of Phall between the [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Imperial Fists]]; and on that note, it includes rules for those two Legions, as well as the [[Alpha Legion]] and the [[Raven Guard]].

It also gives us a complete Mechanicum Army List: the Taghmata.

====Condensed Lists====
The ICL and LACAL were initially released as part of the limited edition run of Extermination, but were then later released separately. They are fluff-lite, codex-equivalent books that also included all of the FAQs/Errata up to their release; which unfortunately was still the end of 6th edition so some rules haven't carried over well. ''(eg. [[Lorgar]]s psychic rules.)''

The Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List is basically the generic 30k Space Marine "codex", whilst the Isstvan Campaign Legions contains all of the collected rules for the legions from Books 1-3; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three books. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game. The ICL was continued in the Age of Darkness Legions, which collected everything to book 5, including the errata.

Later came the Mechanicum Taghamata Army List, which contained all the Mechanicum units and army lists mentioned and rearranged them to keep everything on the same page, but lacked the Questoris Knight Army. The Crusade Imperialis Army Lists contain the Solar Auxilia, Imperialis Militia/Warp Cults, and Questoris Knight Crusade army lists.

===Conquest===
Horus Heresy Volume Four is entitled 'Conquest', despite early hints from Forgeworld that it would be about the Battle of Prospero, it instead features Horus' conquest of the Imperium and the [[Skub|"Major"]] battles of this time, which is to say some battle-zones that Forgeworld made up to fill time whilst they worked on the more well known events from the in-universe history. ''(And to be fair, their response as to why Prospero was delayed was because it included four major factions, [[Adeptus Custodes|two of]] [[Sisters of Silence|which have]] NEVER been represented on the tabletop, so required more time to do them justice.)''

A large portion of the book is given over to running battles in the '''"Age of Darkness"''', which is a variant ruleset used as the default for Horus Heresy games ''(where only Troops usually score, amongst other things)'' and has rules and FOCs for Cityfight missions, rules for running ongoing campaigns, variant rules for mysterious terrain and objectives as well as including unique relics to be taken by the various army lists to add flavor to non-special characters.

It also introduces the [[Solar Auxilia]] and [[Imperial Knight|"Questoris" Knights]] (as an AdMech list) armies to play while the modellers take a break from building power armor 24/7.

===Tempest===
The fifth Horus Heresy book will cover the Battle of Calth. The rules for the [[Ultramarines]] (including [[Roboute Guilliman]] himself) as well as several warp-corrupted Word Bearer units are brought in alongside a few other new miscellaneous FW releases, including the Deredeo and the new Thanatars. There's also an Imperial Militia (Read: PDF) list that's super-customizable so you can make both loyalist and traitor lists. Also, the MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IS IN IT TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===Retribution===
Focused on 'Shadow Wars' far from the main fronts of the Heresy, in particular the Shattered Legions - that is, the [[Iron Hands]], [[Raven Guard]], and [[Salamanders]] in their weakened state following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre. But other Legions can also be included, with special rules for the Shattered Legions, Black Shields and a list for Armies of Dark Compliance - mixed traitor Legiones/Militia lists, as well as ten new special characters. It includes Legiones Astartes rules for the White Scars, Blood Angels and Dark Angels, so that players of those legions can start playing properly; however, it does not include special units, characters, or Primarchs for those legions. It also includes Garro and the Knights Errant and additional Mechanicum units and characters, including a new Dark Magos, [[Anacharis Scoria]]. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons will still need to wait for the Prospero book (Inferno, Book 7).

===Inferno===
In <s>Set to be book 3.</s> <s>late 2016.</s> <s>early 2017 (Because FW can't keep to schedule)</s> <s>December 2016</s> February 4, 2017, will come what many neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those [[Thousand Sons]] players, start saving up so you can play your space Egyptian sorcerers in all their 30k glory. Rules for the Sisters of Silence as an allied detachment and the Adeptus Custodes as a full army list will be present as well.

Well, it's come, and... it's uninspiring to say the least, with stuff like [[What|Magnus being straight up impossible to hit if he casts invisibility, not to mention pumping out 2d6 destroyer hits at every unit within 18" if he likes]], [[Derp|Custodes captains beating out every Primarch with a rollable 3+ invulnerable save]], some Custodes wargear being straight up [[Wat|left out of the book]] and to cap it all, [[Herp|pictures of tourists in the book ('''twice''') where you'd expect miniatures to be]]. You'd think with such a long development cycle the quality assurance would have been more thorough. Didn't help that [[Alan Bligh]] was likely fairly ill in late 2016, and his untimely death in May of 2017 means the Horus Heresy team now has a big hole in it.

===Malevolence===
It will feature White Scars, Blood Angels and Daemons. Also some new stuff for Space Wolves and Alpha Legion.

== See Also ==
*[[The War of The Beast]], for the next massive shit-show the Imperium was involved with.
* [[Alternate Heresy]], for a discussion of other possible outcomes of the (not necessarily Horus) Heresy.

== External Links ==
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/3170/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (1993)] at BoardGameGeek
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/63543/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (2010)] at BoardGameGeek

{{40k-Timeline}}

[[Category:Board Games]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Wargames]]

Horus Heresy

2018-02-18T09:57:31Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|500px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''this''.]]
:''[[Fulgrim|"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.]]'' 
:''[[Magnus the Red|Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.]]'' 
:''[[Angron|They will be of iron will and steely muscle.]]'' 
:''[[Perturabo|In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.]]'' 
:''[[Mortarion|They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.]]'' 
:''[[Alpharius|They will have tactics, strategies and machines]] [[Omegon|so that no foe can best them in battle.]]'' 
:''[[Konrad Curze|They are my bulwark against the Terror.]]'' 
:''[[Lorgar|They are the Defenders of Humanity.]]'' 
:''[[Horus|They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."]]'' 
:- The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], [[Not as planned|getting exactly what he wanted.]]
{{Topquote|The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.|Karl Popper}}

The '''Horus Heresy''' is one of the single biggest clusterfuck of events in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff, alongside the [[Eldar]]'s creation of a new [[Slaanesh|Chaos God]], and the [[War in Heaven|rampage and fall of the]] [[C'Tan|star gods]]. Needless to say, this heresy derailed the Emperor's plan and himself, and gave the Chaos Gods their most prominent armies to carry out their will in realspace.

In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor's favorite son, [[Horus| Horus Lupercal]], formerly Warmaster of the Imperium, was corrupted by Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor, taking nine [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] (Including [[Luna Wolves|his own]]), their respective Primarchs, and about half of the Imperial Army and Mechanicum with him. After waging war across the galaxy, Horus and his traitors eventually reached Holy Terra itself, hoping to murder the Emperor himself and cut the head off the proverbial snake and win the war.

Things went [[Not as Planned]] however, as he was eventually surrounded by loyalist forces at the height of the siege on Terra. As a final gambit, he dropped the shields of his flagship which allowed the Emperor to beam up and challenged him to a duel for the fate of humanity. Horus beat the Emperor within an inch of his life but was killed in turn after the Emperor put his foot down and obliterated Horus' soul from existence (as in it didn't go to the warp to be resurrected by daemons; it was literally erased from existence) when it finally became clear to him that Horus was beyond forgiveness. The Chaos gribbles he had been allied with disappeared and the now Chaos Marines that had followed him sulked back to the [[Eye of Terror]], starting the [[Long War]].

Because the Emperor was fucked up to the point where he had to be permanently attached to a life-support machine known as the "Golden Throne" just to survive, logic within the Imperium gradually decreased, eventually turning into the [[Grimdark]] empire it is today. And it was already pretty damn grimdark.

[[File:President.png|700px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''him''.]]
[[File:GodsOfWarhammer.jpg|left|It was pretty much ''them''.]]

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course) and changed the flavour of the Imperium's Grimdark from Stalinist Soviet "if you breathe a word about religion, we rape you with knives" to Catholic [[Inquisition]] "if you breathe a word about the ''wrong'' religion, we rape you [[Exterminatus|or your whole planet]] with knives" unless you can find an Ecclesiarch to come and say: "nope, that's just another aspect of the Emperor". Don't count on this happening without hefty "donations".

The heresy lasted for several years (somewhere between seven and ten) and was fought all over the galaxy. The following are the most important battles and campaigns during the Heresy:
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Prospero|Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Betrayal at Calth|Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Battle of Tallarn]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

Following the Siege of Terra, Horus was permakilled, Big E was interred onto the Golden Throne, the surviving primarchs freaked out trying to figure out what do now that daddy was in a coma, the traitors fucked off into the Eye of Terror, and overall the galaxy slowly and collectively lost their minds now that their wise and all-powerful ruler was no longer around to tell them what to do.

== The Board Game ==
First published in 1993 by [[Game Designer's Workshop]], it was the Emprah versus his [[Horus|evil bastard of a son]] in the scorched earth of Terra. Units include [[Titan#Warhammer_40k|titans]] and [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spaw-]] oh shiARHGRBLLYRBGRDEWUODHGRYEB.

Ahem, as he was saying, The more recent edition (2010) is published by [[Fantasy Flight Games]]. Also a two-player [[wargame|war]] [[board game|game]], it includes over 100 sculpted minifigs, sculpted buildings, and even Horus and the Emprah themselves are units on the board. It also adds more territory, as the fight can be pushed back onto the [[heresy|traitor's]] flagship ''Vengeful Spirit''. Combat is less [[dice|dice-y]] and more card-y.

(Not to be confused with the lame Horus Heresy card game, whose only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway.)

== The Book Series ==
For the last decade, [[Black Library]] has been publishing novels that explore the events of the Horus Heresy, looking at the rivalries among the [[Primarchs]] and exploring just why everything went down the tubes. The novels are by a selection of different authors, which is a total pain if you like to organise your books alphabetically by author. The reception to the series has been somewhat... mixed; books generally considered to be good include [[Dan Abnett|the first trilogy]], [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Betrayer]], [[White Scars|Scars]], and the short story [[Alpha Legion|The Serpent Beneath]].

Of course, like we mentioned, there's some that are... um... Well, let's just say that the worst are a [[skub|matter of much debate]].

{{Template:Spoilers}}

=== Books I - X ===
*'''''Horus Rising:''''' A prologue story, introducing us to the series and Garviel Loken who will grow into a very significant character. An Emperor (not [[Emperor|Him]]) is killed at the beginning and some bugs are killed on a planet called Murder for no reason other than they were there. The Interex show up and ask "whadya do that for?". [[Erebus]] steals the '''MURDER SWORD''' from them.
*'''''False Gods:''''' Horus falls at Davin when wounded by the '''MURDER SWORD''' and gets a crash course in the chaos gods from [[Erebus]] & [[Magnus]]. After getting shown a few "truths" that WILL HAPPEN in the future (like the Emperor being worshipped as a god, Horus being reviled and forgotten) he decides to make war on the Imperium to [[FAIL|prevent]] all this from happening.
*'''''Galaxy in Flames:''''' Isstvan III happens and the traitors send the loyalists down to the planet without reinforcements and proceed to bomb them to fuck. Things don't go to plan when [[Angron]] decides to invade turning it into a [[Not as Planned]] drawn out conflict that the Warmaster can't really afford - Loken "dies"
*'''''Flight of the Eisenstein:''''' the other side of ''Galaxy in Flames'', Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved (and mega-bitchslapped) by [[Rogal Dorn]], who does not take the news from Isstvan [[Rage|very well]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'. There is also the very first canonical appearance of Plague Marines, Euphrati Keeler being all mystical and shit, and Malcador recruiting Garro as the first Knight-Errant.
*'''''Fulgrim:''''' one of the more forgettable stories in the series. Attempts to tell the story from Great Crusade all the way up to the [[Drop Site Massacre]] in one book. In short Fulgrim finds a sword, gets possessed, kills Ferrus Manus - the end. It is written by Graham McNiel though, and it has an awesome quote from Fulgrim "My Emperor's Children. What beautiful music they make." .
*'''''Descent of Angels:''''' This is the Heresy book that isn't about the Heresy, instead focusing on [[Zahariel]]'s time on [[Caliban]]. It portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness (he can not read people at all, so he comes off as 'do what I say or die!') and having Luther to handle the small talk. Hints that the Great Crusade <s>does more harm than good</s> {{BLAM}} is uniting the lost colonies of mankind into a united future! Luther gets sent home with Zahariel to hustle up more Dark Angels.
*'''''Legion''''' introduces [[the Cabal]], the [[Perpetual]]s and [[Omegon]]. READ THIS BOOK. Or don't, as this is where those things that would eventually take over the Heresy series and according to many completely ruin it (Cabal, Perpetuals) are introduced. I still would recommend reading it since when the novel introduces these ideas they are very fresh and interesting. Don't blame Legion when the rest of the novels were who ruined it. Alpha legion is trying to bring some chaos cultist into compliance. Chaos cultists activate planetary self destruct blood sacrifice. Alpha legion meets with the Cabal, agrees to work with them, then kills off all non-legion bystanders & ships with "FOR E-MONEY"!
*'''''Battle for the Abyss:''''' The book is so bad that other authors tried to retcon it out of existence. This book is so bad that you would have it was cobbled together from [[Matt Ward|Wardian fluff]] stitched together by [[C. S. Goto]]. Reading this book may, in fact, cause brain cancer so you should avoid it if at all possible. Everyone dies, so it does not affect much (as in anything). The only thing you need to remember is [[Lorgar]] built a fuckhueg space ship and filled it with Dreadnoughts, and it failed miserably.
*'''''Mechanicum:''''' Tech Priests turn renegade after Horus tells them they can do whatever they like with technology, so they release forbidden viral scrapcodes and screw everything up. Also turns out that [[Emperor|Big E]] invented the Machine-God by sealing a C'Tan on Mars back during the Saint George era, giving everyone visions of technology. Also more subtle hints that the Emperor is a god himself by using divine golden light to heal machines and instant access super wikipedia. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery. And for extra Grimdark, a tech priestess discovers that the Dark Age era humans stored a backup copy of wikipedia in the warp and <s>with a giant psyker powered terminal accesses said wikipedia and restores all the knowledge of mankind</s> floods her forge with lava to deny the traitors access. A psyker tech savant meets up with the goaler of the Void Dragon and takes over his fuck long shift.
*'''''Tales of Heresy:''''' short story collection, including [[The Last Church]]. Has a lot of twist endings.
** '''''Blood Games:''''' An assassin tries to kill the emperor. The Adeptus Custodes go to kill a traitor on Terra. The assassin was a Custodes probing the palace defences. The traitor was a triple agent working for Dorn.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor. When the liberated planet chooses freedom over Emperor, the wolves invade again.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. They worshiped the Emperor, but Lorgar no longer does. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The squad of Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp. Turns out the youngest of the squad in the future used sorcery to beam back her consciousness through time onto some psykers on the Black Ship. She <s>successfully warns the squad about Horus's Rebellion </s> is executed by a hard-core Sister for breaking her vow of [[Psyker|no funny stuff]].
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.
** '''''[[The Last Church]]:''''' A story about the Emperor destroying one of the churches on Terra during the reunification era in his effort to wipe out religion. The Emperor and the priest of the church have an enlightening conversation about the Emprah's trying to accomplish. The conversation ends up with the priest accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite, with him decrying that he's no more different than the old warlords who waged crusades and holy wars in the past to push their own agendas on other people. Emperor reveals himself as the very god the priest was worshiping, and nearly convinces him to stand by his side while his soldiers destroy the church. Priest gets cold feet and walks back into the church while it collapses. An end-times alarm clock starts ringing in the ruins.
** '''''After Desh'ea:''''' The War Hounds meet their primarch. Angron demeats the War Hounds. More specifically, the Emperor just beamed up Angron away from his last stand (rather than, you know, intervening with his Custodes or his fleet), leaving Angron pretty pissed. [[Kharn]] is a pretty great guy to be around, and pulls his femurs out of his lungs quickly enough to establish himself as Angron's best buddy ''after the War Hounds chain of command calmed Angron down as fleshy squeeze balls''.

=== Books XI - XX ===
*'''''Fallen Angels:''''' the sequel to Descent of Angels, is actually two stories rolled into one book that never converge. 1. The Lion fights a war to reclaim some Ordinatus devices and then hands them to Perturabo to gain his trust, not realising that his brother has already turned. 2. [[Zahariel]] and Luther clean out a daemon cult on Caliban... but not really.
*'''''Thousand Sons:''''' Part 1 of the Battle for Prospero. Runs through the Great Crusade where Magnus discovers the webway, but his Father already knew about it. Then the Edict of Nikaea where Magnus gets all passionate about not restricting psychic powers, then to Horus's vision quest where Magnus fails to keep his brother on the right path, then does the WORST thing possible by forcing himself through the palace psychic spam filter, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues and the thousand sons become a thousand sons all over again. Ahriman starts writing hit Rubric.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail because Horus sent a look-a-like, but in the process slay a shapeshifting daemonic counter-assassin sent by Erebus. While it is a decent book and we learn a lot, it didn't contribute much to the overall plot. On the more [[rage|vitriolic side]], the writing is a bit underwhelming in places; highlights include calling a pariah a psyker, another pariah with a contrived possession, and Horus uttering one of the most cliche one liners out there.
*'''''The First Heretic:''''' [[Lorgar]]'s turn to get a back story and generally considered one of the better books in the series. While you make never sympathize with them, this book really lets you understand why The Word Bearers fell to chaos, rather then being the "CHAOTIC EVIL MONSTERS" they are portrayed in the rest of the series.. Feels less rushed than "[[Fulgrim]]". Goes from Monarchia to a bit of soul searching in the Eye of Terror and discovers Cadia. Leads up to Istvaan V and the immediate aftermath. Signifcant subplots revolve around the inception of Possessed Marines, and what happens to the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] babysitters watching over the Word Bearers, and how the protagonist [[Argel Tal]] gets into a tragic bromance with the Custodes leader.
** '''''Aurelian:''''' A limited release short story until an ebook was published. The plot bounces around in-between a number of moments in Lorgar's history up to the prelude of the Shadow Crusade. One narrative involves how Lorgar's brothers still treat him like shit, especially when he's the only one who sees through Fulgrim's possession, and ends with Horus sending him to fuck up Ultima Segmentum and handing him Angron's (figurative, [[/d/|not literal]]) leash. The other narrative takes place in the 40 year gap in ''The First Heretic'', where Lorgar makes a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror with a Daemon Princess as his guide. They come to a dead Crone World where he puts a dying [[Avatar of Khaine|Avatar]] out of its misery and he's told that the Eldar panicked rather than embrace Chaos during the birth of Slaanesh, which is what caused them to nearly die out; the daemon prince(ss) tells Lorgar the same thing is happening with humanity during the Heresy, how Chaos really wants a [[A Game of Pretend|symbiotic relationship with humanity rather than to conquer it]]. In the middle of this, Khorne decides he's had enough of this talky wordy shit and sends [[An'ggrath]] to make things more exciting, and Lorgar narrowly beats him. Then Kairos Fateweaver comes and "tells" him about Calth and his relationship with Guilliman and his upcoming war with him in the most confusing as fuck discussion ever. The truth of most of the things told to Lorgar are left ambiguous, because, well, Fateweaver; but also Chaos has a lot riding on the Heresy coming to fruition for reasons left not entirely explored.
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. A civilian archeologist named Kasper Hawser hangs out with a company of the Space Wolves, where we learn a lot about their culture and attitudes. Turns out that Chaos infiltrated everything, so the outcome of Nikaea was practically rigged. The civilian himself even turns out to have been an unwitting spy for Chaos, but the Wolves knew anyway and didn't give a shit (they thought he worked for Magnus).
* '''''Age of Darkness:''''' A short story anthology.
** '''''Rules of Engagement:''''' Roboute lets one of his commanders lead in a series of wars that didn't really occur, and we get the best line ever said in regards to the [[Codex Astartes]]: despite the fact it does cover a lot, it's not meant to be followed biblically <s>which is a load of bull given that the Codex lets said commander win all the wars in the most efficient way possible while blindly following it and only failed in the last battle because he was in a war game against Girlyman</s>. (See the quote on the page on the Big Book of Astartes). The Imperium Secundus shows up, making for another bizarre plot element that ruins the series without adding anything.
** '''''Liar's Due:''''' You know those memes on how the [[Alpha Legion]] causes mass paranoia without actually involving any Astartes? Those aren't just memes. Alpha Legion serf arrives on a agri-world and turns it's allegiance to Horus by only hacking all their inter-planetary communications.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[Salamanders|Salamander]] and a grumpy ol' [[Ultramarine]] are sent in opposition to one of Horus' iterators to convince an industrial-militant world which side to side with. They almost side with Horus before the Warmaster's agents [[Exterminatus|wreck shit]] for the lulz. Oh, and to send the message that neutrality will be punished. The [[Iron Warriors]] were doing weird shit on that world for years beforehand, and was probably the more deciding factor than the lulz.
** '''''The Last Remembrancer:''''' Horus sent the one last remembrancer he had stored up as a gift to Dorn. Instead of in a box (or eight or some shit like that), it was the [[Dan Abnett]] of his day telling Dorn that the grimdark galaxy was grimdark. Also that the Emperor's vision of a galaxy of peace, unity, prosperity, and fluffy bunnies built up without any more grimdark attached than was strictly needed, probably wasn't very likely before any shit hit any fan either way. Also, Iacton Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iacton Qruze. Dorn says it's all lies and enemy propaganda before executing said remembrancer and torching all his ramblings.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Magnus's absent fleet from the Burning of Prospero comes home and shits a brick. The last known surviving squad of Thousand Sons outside of the Planet of the Sorcerers gets beaten up and they slowly figure out it was the Space Wolves who shit on Magnus's <s>parade</s> world and is stalking them. One plot twist later, most of them are dead, the last one decides he's gonna rebuild everything, with a few scant hints that his flesh-change genetic flaw will [[Blood Ravens|shift into kleptomania]].
** '''''The Face of Treachery:''''' The tie-in and conclusion of the audiodrama featuring the Raven Guard after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax [[troll]]ing Perturabo for a bit too long, Horus sends Angron in to finish the job, but Corax's cavalry arrives to troll Angron by getting the loyalists the fuck out of there. We also learn that Corax has a supersekrit psyker ability which lets him roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can out-troll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters (they let the World Eater commander think he was in command then blew his brains out when he tried to actually command). Ends with an transitory bit into ''Deliverance Lost''.
** '''''Little Horus:''''' Little Horus Aximand is struggling with the PTSD he got when he killed Loken and Torgaddon with [[Abaddon|Abby]]. Abby and Little Horus have a discussion (we mean Horus Aximand, not when Primarch Horus was sodomizing Abaddon again) about restoring the Mournival. A couple war scenes later, Little Horus learns the hard way that the White Scars are pretty badass, but his PTSD starts acting up again and he gets his face shaved off before the White Scars are driven off. Little Horus realizes his PTSD he had since killing Loken and Torgaddon ultimately stems from that time he helped kill Loken and Torgaddon, and gives a diatribe about how things like "change", "mood swings", and "hallucinations" are suited to his melancholic nature, saying things like "it's perfectly natural", "I'm fine, everything's fine. Everything is perfectly, absolutely fine", and "Therapy is for the weak. I'm fine". After the Mongolian shave, he gets his face reattached and ends up looking even more like Big Horus in the deal.
** '''''The Iron Within:''''' Some pretty bro-tier loyalist Iron Warriors build a fortress hanging from a cave over an ocean of prometheum in a hellhole of a world (giant cavern system & acidic atmosphere), and one of Perturabo's traitor Grand Companies come knocking to demand that they hand over the house keys. The loyalists give them a fuck-you in the form of a Dreadnought. A few melodramatic and horrific but generic war scenes later, and they get overrun (after a full year of siege thanks to the genius of a certain [[Barabas Dantioch]]), drop the fortress from the ceiling onto a titan, and get the hell out of there by hijacking one of the Iron Warriors warships via teleportation. An Ultramarine big wig was there to bring the loyalists home, informing them that [[Skub|Guilliman was fortifying Terra]] and he needed good siege workers to stall the traitors then to fortify Terra. While loyalist Iron Warriors were pretty cool, the story itself was pretty forgettable; and it left some open questions like whether the continuity errors were the result of "faulty astropathic communications" (see Outcast Dead) or if the Ultramarines were trolling the Iron Warriors to join in with the Imperium Secundus. And also why the Iron Warriors were determined to take a hellhole at an immense expense of people and materiel, including Titans, while they could have just said "fuck yo shit!" and left a fortress with no space or warp conveyance and arguably little strategic value in itself in the middle of nowhere alone. It mentions a few times that it looks really bad for a rebellion trying to gain initiative when a mere captain of their Legions tells their Primarch "fuck off, imma keeping this fortress & resources for the Emperor!" The message behind it being if you can't even control your own men, maybe this rebellion thing needs a rethinking, because hearing Horus can't even take this shitty outpost middle of nowhere and he's going to Terra might be bad press.
** '''''Savage Weapons:''''' A good story written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|ADB]]. Dark Angels are hunting down the Night Lords who are fucking with Forge Worlds, but the Night Lords are staying a step ahead of them, much to [[Rage|the Lion's frustration]]. After being advised by Horus to pass along a message, Kurze asks the Lion to meet up face-to-face on Tsagualsa. When they talk, while what they say to each other is offscreen, it's implied Kurze told Lion about the Fallen Angels and that Horus knew about their impending betrayal. Lion decides nobody is going to give him shit about being a rumored closet traitor, and the ensuing fight proves that Jonson is a badass among primarchs, until Kurze goes to his old fallback of strangling a fucker, and things get more even. Their respective honor guards go at it in the meantime, and showing [[Sevatar]] is a badass among Space Marines. Things end up in a draw, leaving things open for a new plotline within the Heresy, the ''Prince of Crows'' novella being the next.
*'''''The Outcast Dead:''''' A mess of continuity errors, at least when compared with the rest of the series, the other authors later claimed all the errors were absolutely intentional and a result of the messed-up nature of Warp-based communication. [[derp|''Riggggghhhhtttt!'']] More importantly: shortly after the start of the Heresy an astropath has routine nervous breakdown and is returned to Terra to get [[Witch Hunters|some R&R]]. What really ends up happening is that he gets there in time for [[Magnus]]'s astral body to reach Big E to warn him of Horus' betrayal, and the fuckhueg psychic shock of course dicks with the Astropath HQ compound something mighty. In the confusion and assloads of psychic phenomena that followed, the astropath gets implanted with a message for somebody regarding the war, but his PTSD keeps him from knowing what the hell it is or who it's for. The Custodes come in and tell him ''"[[Anal Circumference|Ve haff vays of making you talk.]]"'' and hand him over to a pair of [[Inquisition|kind counselors]] who torture the poor man half to death. After a time, he gets busted out in the nick of time by some convict Space Marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." to the others. They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra (amusingly, none of the escapees is very happy at the prospect of the Heresy but they are all [[rage|slightly miffed]] at being treated like shit by the Custodes just because of the Legion they belong to.) Other subplots revolve around: a psyker congregant at a slum church near the Imperial palace; a samurai witch hunter (no, really); '''''fucking [[Thunder Warriors]]'''''. Best bits are <s>[[Rip and tear|an unarmed, unarmored World Eater ripping a Custodes' spine out through his chest]]</s> the portrayal of the Emperor playing chess in dreams, revealing that the message is about his upcoming bitchslap from Horus.
*'''''Deliverance Lost:''''' [[Corvus Corax]], having just escaped from Istvaan V, decides to go ask daddy for a handout to get his Legion back on his feet, and gets the mother of all genetech to do it, though he has to do a bit of legwork to get it. Meanwhile, a bunch of faceless Alpha Legionnaires (okay, they do have faces, they just originally belonged to some Raven Guard) had infiltrated Corax's Legion at Istvaan, and are doing recon and intelligence gathering waiting for [[Omegon]] to give the go-ahead to fuck shit up. Corax, meanwhile sets up new geneseed methods that bring up new recruits to battle-ready marines ''in fucking hours'', with the potential to conscript literally anybody willing to become a Space Marine. The Alphas decide this probably isn't in their interest, and sabotage the new geneseed by tainting it with ''daemon blood'', turning second- and third-batch new Raven Guard into the twisted monsters we know that Corax ended up with. In one of the instances of retcon that was actually flavored with [[awesome]] and win, the mutant marines [[Grimdark|were still sapient]], but were left to fight on in the Emperor's name. After staging a mass insurrection on Deliverance's parent world with the help of some old guilders Corax ousted and the Dark Mechanicum, Omegon gets ''more'' Alphas infiltrated into the Raven for the endgame: steal the genetech, kill some Ravenguard, get the fuck out before anybody knows what the fuck just happened in here. A couple cockups along the way leads to the Raven Guard getting wise and isolating out the Alphas. The end of the novel was like a swingers party at the retirement home, everybody got screwed (even ''Horus''), nobody got what they hoped for (except for [[Omegon|the really deviant bastard]]), and all-around the reproductive material was a waste. Corax shut down his hothousing method, and starts fucking with the Traitors, even at reduced numbers. The book ends on a note with Alpharius-Omegon deciding that while their plan for saving the galaxy was still good, they decide working with Xenos isn't for them.
*'''''Know No Fear:''''' The Ultras are still ignorant about Istvaan and the civil war erupting around the galaxy, and are on muster at Calth with the Word Bearers [[troll|on orders from Horus]] to go kill some Orks together as a conciliatory gesture. They were in for a surprise. The Word Bearers, while happy as hell to get revenge, are really trying to [[Eldrad|dick over]] the Ultramarines to keep them out of the Heresy, if not destroy them outright. What happens next is the Word Bearers arrange some "accidents" using sorcery and good ol' fashioned treachery to fake a monumental fuck up in the ship yards that leave the Ultramarine forces blind, deaf, and crippled. They use the confusion to say that the Ultras ''still'' fucking them over, and take the chance to open not only a can, but entire cases of whoop-ass on the Ultras. Erebus turns Calth's pole into a screaming hellscape to start up a warp storm, while Kor Phaeron oversees the systematic extermination of the Ultramarines and also successfully poisons Calth's sun. Guilliman gets jettisoned into space, but survives because [[Spiritual Liege]]. He then leads a counterattack on Kor Phaeron, and while Kor comes ''this close'' to getting a Primarch kill with [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|Chaos mindbullets]], but in a moment of self-aggrandizement, he holds back tries to corrupt Guilliman with his own dagger-sized '''MURDER SWORD'''. Guilliman calmly tells him "The Codex Astartes <s>does</s> will not support this action" (it was really "You made an error" followed by an explanation of that error, and "but while I'm alive, I can do this") and [[Rip and Tear|rips out Kor Phaeron's main heart with an unpowered Lightning Claw]]. Kor Phaeron's minions run away with his carcass, allowing the Ultras to retake their space station, which in turn allows Mechanicus plot power, aided by a planet's worth of orbital defense batteries, to bring the ground war back into the Ultramarines' favor. The novel ends with Word Bearers getting the hell out of there, and the Ultramarines evacuating everyone they can off of Calth and telling everybody they can't to get underground, transitioning into underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pius]] being the special guest star with his very own subplot, and the Word Bearers having athame blades as special issue, one of which will [[Uriel Ventris|come back later]]. You might notice this summary is pretty spoilerific, but if you didn't know the broad strokes already, you're in the wrong place.
*'''''The Primarchs:''''' A novella anthology. As the name suggests, it contains stories featuring Primarchs.
**'''''The Reflection Crack'd:''''' - <s>[[Lucius]] and friends anally rape [[Fulgrim]]. Yeah.</s> While questionable use of a ''pear of anguish'' is featured during a game of "Stab the Fulgrim," the real story is this: Lucius and his buddies are deep into the [[/d/|sickfuckery]] which will come to characterize their Legion, but begin to suspect that Fulgrim might have a daemon in him when he begins acting like not-Fulgrim and uses sorcery. They ambush him and try to exorcise it with pain, because torturing a Slaaneshi daemon will totally work (though they find out that a Primarch can grow back a foot, and just about any other wound). Among everything else: [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bill]] is still an arrogant dick; Lucius is still a maniacal and colossally narcissistic sick fuck; Julius Kaesoron is still an angry badass; Marius Vairosean is still a sycophantic cunt; and Eidolon was still a self-important, whiny douche, but Fulgrim throws a tantrum and cuts his head off, and there was much cheering from the readers, and that ''plus'' almost certain off-screen fapping among the Legionaries leads into ''Angel Exterminatus''.
**'''''Feat of Iron''''' - [[Ferrus Manus]]'s Legion is trying to off some Eldar on a desert world, but can't find the major Eldar strategic asset because of Spess Elf warp bullshit. A Farseer thinks he can warn Ferrus about the Heresy, and traps him in the webway or some psychic realm for a spirit quest long enough to fight a [[Fulgrim|giant purple snake]] (which is [[/d/|disturbingly appropriate imagery]] when you think about it); and Ferrus thinks it was the wyrm that he killed and gave him his metal hands, but the snake tells him that he must be mistaking it for somebody else. Ferrus kills it, and meets the Farseer who tries to tell Ferrus that he wasn't just being a dick. Ferrus, having too many experiences with Eldar being dicks, knocks some sense into the Farseer, who manages to run just fast enough to avoid getting killed. Ferrus comes back and helps his Legion fight off the Eldar kill the Webway beacon, or whatever the hell it was. In the background of all of this, the Iron Hands, having lost Ferrus, decide to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bitch about potentially dead father, and work to complete the mission despite being weighed down by Imperial Army who are dying of dehydration and heat stroke. The Eldar figure out a way to use storm clouds that make Iron Hands bionics kill their users, and Ferrus has a bitch of an itch around his neck that he can't get rid of. [[Drop Site Massacre|I wonder if that's important]].
**'''''The Lion:''''' - Dark Angels fight daemons and reinstitute Librarians. The Lion teamkills Nemiel for reminding him about Nikaea, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books because [[Gav Thorpe]] wanted to prove he's a big boy author who can kill his characters. Then they steal an intelligent super warp engine (insta shifts the Dark Angel fleet into the warp without need for a jump point while teleporting itself and the Lion onto his flagship; Lion is capable of talking politely infront of so much power) from [[Typhus]] then set course for Macragge to sort out Guilliman.
**'''''Serpent Beneath:''''' - Alpharius Omegon plots against himself and destroys a facility built around what looks suspiciously like a Cadian Pylon (and said facility keeping the White Scars out of the war), due to [[Cake|an information leak]], and they can't have that. Except than none of the main players are Alpharius or Omegon. And Alpharius and Omegon can't decide if they're secretly working against each other or not. Also: considered to be one of the better works of the series, not only due to quality, but because of the sheer mindfuckery of the plot, keeping entirely within the rationale of the Alpha Legion without any jumps in logic or canon.

=== Books XXI - XXX ===
*'''''Fear to Tread:''''' Despite being Black Library's most financially successful book ''ever'' and hitting thirteen (!) on the New York Times bestseller list (without Oprah's recommendation, even), many [[/tg/|fa/tg/uy]]s find it a bit ridiculous. Why? Well, there's planets with giant frowny faces inhabited by garbage monsters, ships getting blown up by city-sized rocks launched from the aforementioned planets, a nearly-stereotypically-gay [[Slaanesh]]i daemon that doesn't actually serve much of a purpose in the story, and a villain named the Red Angel, despite the fact [[Angron]] already claimed that as a nickname (although he was first introduced in ''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'', so it's not [[James Swallow]]'s fault). Oh, and Sanguinius acts like an idiot about [[Chaos]] the whole time, which fits the [[fluff]], but come on, how many freaky supernatural signs do you need to see before you decide it's not just foul xenos? In all fairness, of course, ''Fear to Tread'' does have quite a few good moments, especially when it comes to [[Warp]]-related terror. It also has a priceless bromance between [[Horus]] and [[Sanguinius]], not to mention Sanguinius and his Legion get characterized very well. Sanguiniuns and Co end up reaching Imperium Secundus.

*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - A story about two parallel story lines. The first is set during the [[Battle of Phall]], a space battle between the Iron Warriors whole fleet and what was left over from a third of the Imperial Fists's fleet after a warpstorm were ran them" ashore" and left them drifting and isolated in the backwater Phall system. Despite having the superior numbers, more and bigger guns, suicidal expenditure cohorts, and the power of a raging hatred boner, the Iron Warriors were losing to the Imperial Fists's maneuverability and [[Alexis Polux|Captain Polux's]] protagonist power. Eventually, the Fists get the order and window to withdraw to Terra, though turning tail would put their fleet at a huge disadvantage. Given the choice between blind obedience to his father or carrying on the battle they were winning, Polux chooses the former and takes his Fists back to Terra, but ends up in the Imperium Secundus instead. This was also the first of the two depictions of Perturabo, and clearly the worst of the two as he's shown as a cold-hearted Saturday morning cartoon villain with rage control issues. The second story line follows [[Sigismund]] as he follows Rogal around the Imperial Palace, while he was ordered to command the fleet on its way to Istvaan and got trapped at Phall, but delegated it to Polux's predecessor. The twist is that he met Euphrati Keeler had a spiritual experience when they spoke, and felt that he would be needed more at Terra instead of as a drifting corpse permanently lost in orbit around some backwater, and so handed off job of commanding the fleet. When he eventually opened up to Rogal, this got him in trouble. See, Rogal was still one of the [[Imperial Truth|stupid atheists]] at this point, so he disowned Sigismund because he thought "serving a higher purpose" was arrogant and got in the way of doing his job. This left Sigismund feeling really sad and pissed off, thus was his start of <s>darkness</s> daddy issues. [[Black Templars|Really pissed off and bad ass daddy issues.]]
**'''''The Dark King''''' - A look into the head and story of Konrad Curze during the events leading up to the Dropsite Massacre. It shows how Curze, even if you buy that he was a murderous paladin of justice and order through fear rather than just a fearsome murderer, is getting pretty fucked up in the head and lives with the knowledge of his demise haunting him, which isn't that great for his sanity. It also involves him beating up Rogal Dorn, killing some Imp Fists and Emp's Children terminators <s>with his more advanced suit and built-in vox jammers </s>with his bare hands, then blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn. The first 10 is him being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace as a grand piece of art by fortifying it into a coldly functional fortress. The next 10 is Rogal having an existential monologue then a conversation with Malcador, all about why he doesn't know why Horus declared war on the Emperor and brought half of the Legions with him, and is partly afraid to find out why in case it makes sense. Malcador ends up knowing at least a little about Chaos, and somehow got his hands on a tarot deck Curze used throughout his life, even to the close of ''The Dark King''. (Don't ask how he got them. Really.) Also the (*Name Drop*) Lightning Tower is the important card that comes up, signifying a [[Siege of Terra|destruction of fortifications]] and/or a [[Imperium of Man|change of thinking through sacrifice]].
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Right before Istvaan, techpriest Pallas Ravachol is working on a top secret "Kaban" robot project on Mars realizes that the project has achieved sapience and is in fact a form of strong AI. Though he genuinely befriended the Kaban machine, Ravachol complains to boss Magos Chrom that working on an AI is both highly illegal and insanely dangerous. Chrom tells Ravachol not to be such a pussy since Horus himself gave the OK, and after some deliberation, has a death squad awaiting to escort the Ravachol off site the next morning. Ravachol, thinking there were few ways this could well, makes a break for it and flees for Magos Malevolus's forge, hoping to get somebody with some clout to reveal that his old boss and Horus were up to something. On the way, he spends time running away from a latex-clad sadist babe who persistently chases after him; since she's an AdMech equivalent of a Death Cultist assassin, this is a ''much'' better idea than it sounds. When he gets to Malevolus's forge, Malevolus distracts him with a legion of shiny Mk6 suits of Marine Power Armor long enough to drop the bomb to drop that they were for Horus. The latex-clad babe catches up to them both, and the techpriest flees again, only to be puzzled why Malevolus and the assassin are letting him run. As he gets out the door, he meets the Kaban machine, <s>and through the power of friendship, the Kaban decides to side with the good guys, and the day is saved.</s> Except this is the dark, gritty universe of 30K where brother turns against brother. Chrom told the Kaban Machine that it and Ravachol couldn't be friends for realsies, because rules and stuff, and taking up with Horus was a great idea. The Kaban Machine, not understanding how humans work nor '''The Power of Friendship''', didn't know any better than to agree and kills Ravachol right on the steps of Malevolus's forge. End story. An okay story, somewhat generic feeling prose. More of a who's who of the Dark Mechanicus during ''Mechanicum'' and telling where the hell that Kaban machine from the same book came from and how they seduced an AI into Chaos worship.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - A bridge between Istvaan V and ''Deliverance Lost'', also a companion story to the Raven's Flight audio drama. The story tells how Commander Marcus Valerius of the Imperial Army is stationed on Deliverance and keeps having recurring nightmares which is causing him worry about Corax. Commander Branne of the Raven Guard's garrison on Deliverance, is getting tired of how the Legion's pet human won't stop bitching about it, and decides to take Valerius out on a trip in the battle barge to Istvaan just to show him that everything is just fine. Meanwhile, Corax and a relative handful of surviving Raven Guard are fighting a guerilla war against the traitors, trying to stay one step ahead of the Iron Warriors and then the World Eaters, and in-between skirmishes, Corax spends a few thoughtful moments feeling bad about his Legion and the state of the Imperium now that things have gone to shit.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, after that he makes tokens (for the warrior-lodge, but he doesn't know that) and then he gets his windpipe crushed to make sure word doesn't get out about the tokens. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life up until the point where he's lying on his own floor, slowly suffocating to death. Ultimately it is kind of irrelevant, but the lore nerds or people who have been paying attention might find it interesting. It is however only barely 20 pages long, so you might as well read it anyway.
**'''''Prince of Crows''''' - A novella featuring the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain [[Sevatar]] of the Night Lords. With the Night Lords's forces all but shattered by the Dark Angels, Curze in a coma nearly dead, and the Dark Angels's fleet in pursuit, Sevatar has to knock some heads for the Night Lords to get their shit together and reorganize and rethink strategy. It's essentially about showing the fractures in the Night Lords Legion. As most stories written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]], it's pretty good.

*'''''Angel Exterminatus:''''' [[Perturabo]] just finished [[skub|fucking up (or being fucked by)]] some Fists, and [[Fulgrim]] finds him to polish off a plot hook from ''The Reflection Crack'd'' and recruit Pert for an expedition into the Eye of Terror because a renegade Eldar said he knows where to get ''the good shit'' (the eponymous Angel Exterminatus). Fulgrim wanted to make a show out of delivering exposition, and he had Pert use his skills to build a stadium and went storyteller mode; then the moment was killed when a Shattered Legion detachment composed of Iron Hands and a Raven Guard commando sniped Fulgrim (he got better). Of course, Pert took the moment to remind himself that this is why he can't have, [[Rage|won't ever have]], nice things. Thinking that Fulgrim had the scent of a powerful artifact or a superweapon, and seeing that Fulgrim was becoming the Primarch equivalent of a crack addict member of the Jersey Shore and his legion wasn't looking much better, Pert decided to play it safe by tagging along and making sure Fulgrim wouldn't break anything. On the way, a different Eldar scholar came to the Shattered Legion, telling them that Fulgrim and Pert can't be allowed to get to the Angel Exterminatus, or [[Daemon|Bad Things (Warp-registered trademark)]] will happen. Well into the journey into the Eye, the Iron Hands's resident mad scientist accidentally gave away their location, and the Emp's Children and Iron Warriors decide to throw a boarding party. After a few pages of pulse pounding action, Pert says "fuck this", and leaves as the Iron Hands's same mad scientist overloads the engines and does a [[Battlefleet Gothic|mother of a ramming maneuver]] which kills an Emp's Children ship. (Pert was getting sick of Fulgrim's shit at this point, so he decided not to let them know, leading to the loss of the ship and thousands of casualties for Fulgrim.) Then, they finally get there, they find a [[Crone World]] covered in ruins and occupied spirit stones being held in orbit around a black hole. Some wraithbone constructs pop up and Pert and Fulgrim have to fight to the heart of the planet to get at the Angel Exterminatus. On the way, Pert kills their renegade Eldar because he was a lyin' bitch. When they ''finally'' get there, Surprise! Daemon Primarch Fulgrim is supposed to be the Angel Exterminatus, and he betrays Pert (a bauble Fulgrim gave to Pert at the start of the book was a vitality-leeching thing), and they start the ritual which would sacrifice Pert to turn Fulgrim into a Daemon Prince. Then the Shattered Legion crashes the ceremony, and assists the Iron Warriors since it's clear they weren't working with the Emp's Children anymore. Pert kills Fulgrim, but it didn't count since Fulgrim's mortal essence works just as well as sacrifice. He goes full Daemon Prince despite a generous helping of Thunder Hammer to his [[gay|pretty face]], breaks every spirit stone on the planet, and disappears with every last one of his sick fucks. The Eldar scholar helping the Shattered Legion throws a bitch fit, revealing that both scholars were Dark Eldar who had cut a deal with Fulgrim (help him become a daemon and they get assloads of spirit stones to fuck with), and he had made sure that the Shattered Legions were there to put a wedge in that deal because...reasons. The Shattered Legion gets the hell out, and the Iron Warriors try to GTFO as the planet starts to fall into the black hole. The book ends, with Pert, being a wise man, orders them to reverse course and fly right into that fucker. Subplots include a lot of buildup for McNeil's Iron Warriors stories, the Shattered Legions' feelings on trying to unfuck an irreversibly fucked situation, some tense buildup of two Imperial Fists as they try to survive Fabius's turning them into mutants (which actually had a poor payoff). Despite being overall good, it's a bit of a skub novel because the depiction of Perturabo is so different from expected, rather than being the bitter [[RAGE|Rage]] machine from every other depiction, he's a quiet [[Neckbeard|nerd who plays with toys as a hobby]], but with muscles. And because the ghosts of eldar's Aspect Warriors and Wraith-Constructs inside a planet left inside the Eye of Terror is a canon-rape on par with C.S. Goto, the first death of Lucius at the hands of a Mary Sue despite previous claims that he was undefeated during the Heresy and his unexplained resurrection (<s>"How? Fucking Chaos, that's how."</s> Oh, sure, every CSM is immortal), and an Iron Hands legionnaire somehow being immune to sonic weapons by being deaf. And worst of all, a rotating Shadowsword turret.

*'''''Betrayer:''''' Lorgar and Angron rampage over the Ultramarines 500 worlds. Lots of references to Angron's past and his Butcher's Nails are killing him slowly. Turns out one of the Ultramarine worlds was his own Homeworld, so he destroys it and Lorgar makes him into a daemon-prince. Also remember the Furious Abyss? Lorgar has two more. Also focuses on Khârn and Argel Tal being bros, until Erebus decides to intervene and kill a bitch.

* '''''Angron:''''' An anthology about <s>Lorgar</s> <s>Horus</s> <s>Dorn</s> <s>Malcador</s> <s>the plumber for the Golden Throne</s> Fuck, we can't remember. It often gets passed over in the official lists, since it's actually a cheat since it's a republish of older short stories: '''After De'shea''', '''Butcher's Nails''' ''(print format)'', and '''Lord of the Red Sands''' ''(which was initially a standalone release,'' even later ''republished in'' The Imperial Truth'')''.

*'''''Mark of Calth:''''' Another set of short stories, though all focused on the [[Ultramarines]] or the [[Word Bearers]].
**'''''Shards of Erebus:''''' - We find that [[Erebus]] broke the '''MURDER SWORD''' into eight daggers/athames and shared them with his bros. Also shows how he returned to Davin to learn how to teleport with the '''MURDER SWORD''', then killing the priestess that helped him turn Horus. She somehow wins because she served Chaos before dying which pisses Erebus off.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Keeps bringing up what Calth used to be like. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to Nurgle everyone, and the Ultramarines save the day in the nick of time. After all, THE GREATEST OF THE-{{BLAM}}
**'''''Dark Heart''''' - A young Word Bearer is interrogated by Kor Phaeron after he ended up killing his mentor with dark powers (turned him insta inside out). A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degradation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A spacedock traffic controller survives the destruction of his star fort, and the fatal crash of his escape shuttle before ending up in a small underground arcology with other human survivors. Imperial cultists believe he is blessed, and when he starts hearing whispers and seeing unbelievers they start rounding everybody up for execution. Everybody gets slowly executed till he's the last one left. Learns he's been possessed and reveals to an Ultramarine that he was was infected by the vox from the ''Campanile''.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - An Ultramarine has a hard-on for a certain Word Bearer trolling him. Hunts down said Word Bearer into a cave system with a team of soldiers and Spess Merheens. Word Bearer trolls them by summoning a Gorgon. Ultramarine wins by tricking the Gorgon into looking at its reflection.
**'''''The Underworld War''''' - A story that has little to do with the actual Underworld War. It features a Gal Vorbak who sees the attack on Calth as a clusterfuck of fail. Has a plot-twist ending... turns out Daemons give visions of the future to potential Gal Vorbak, and said Gal Vorbak was given a vision of him not abandoning his fallen brothers on Calth. The Daemon doesn't have time for that shit so it lets him die during his transformation.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife, though not one from the '''MURDER SWORD'''. That's about it... totally... right. Wrong. The small sacrificial knife that Ollanius found was carved on Terra for a benign ritual, stolen by an evil Perpetual who was killed by ''the Emperor'' in medieval times, found in an archeological dig by Kasper Hawser, and went on other crazy murder-adventures, all while having rudimentary sentience.
**'''''Unmarked''''' - Ollanius Pius and friends is traveling through time and space using the athame from the previous story. We learn a lot more about Oll's past, going into detail about his offhand mentions that he was one of the Argonauts and that he served in the First World War and the First Gulf War.
*'''''Vulkan Lives:''''' What happened to Vulkan after the Dropsite Massacre? He got made Konrad Curze's torture bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer to the face. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc. Remember the Shattered Legions crew from ''Angel Exterminatus''? Now you get a new group that is far more bland and less distinct.
*'''''The Unremembered Empire:''''' [[Perpetual|Matt Damon]] killed Martin Luther King. This happens in the book. Also, unlike the cover and synopsis would imply, it's ''not'' about Sanguinius and Guilliman working together to build a back-up Imperium around Ultramar, which leads to the question of ''why that's on the cover?'' No one knows what it is really about, especially the book's description of itself (which describes its ''sequels''). Several things happen in the book as several unrelated subplots collide as several entities are drawn by the Pharos device to Macragge. There are implications that Guilliman's new backup Imperium is starving resources from Terra.
*'''''Scars:''''' Technically the third book of the Prospero arc. The Khan returns to the Imperium after killing Orks left over from Ullanor and can't decide what side to join. Turns his back on Leman Russ during a fight with the Alpha Legion and goes looking for his best friend Magnus, also gets into a fight with Mortarion on the way, also [[The Fallen|half his legion turns traitor]] but turns out it's no big deal.
** '''''Brotherhood of the Storm:''''' Prequel to Scars, shows the White Scars fighting Orks on Chondax.
*'''''Vengeful Spirit''''' Horus goes looking for power to make him equal to the Emperor and the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z (kinda). We learn that the Emperor gained his powers after making a pact with the Chaos Gods where they gave him a fraction of their power, then somehow managed to double-cross them in what is quite possibly the most retarded retcon ever introduced in the entire book series. (In all seriousness though, the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series. It could be the truth, or one of their beautifully crafted lies.) Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest. Also, if you have been ignoring the audio books, you will be a bit lost at the start of this one.
*'''''The Damnation of Pythos''''' A Lovecraftian Horror story disguised as a Horus Heresy story. Has the most grimdark ending of the series thus far, up there with Dead Men Walking. Adds just about as much to the overall series as ''Furious Abyss'' did, but is actually pretty well written, unlike "Furious Abyss". To cut a long story short, daemons take over a world in the Pandorax system, capture a starship and use it to start ferrying cultists from place to place. The book also has some crossover with 40k and the Pandorax Campaign.

=== Books XXXI to XL ===
*'''''Legacies of Betrayal''''' Another anthology, though this time it's a bit of cheat, and they just consolidated several pre-existing stories; some of the the novellas but also included print versions of audio books.
**'''Brotherhood of the Storm''' - see above
**'''Serpent''' - A really short and out-of-place story about a Davinite Priest.
**'''Hunters Moon''' - originally an audiobook involving peasant fishermen rescuing a crashed space wolf who is running from the Alpha Legion after killing Alpharius, it obviously doesn't end well.
**'''Veritas Ferrum''' - a prequel to Damnation of Pythos, about an Iron Hands starship escaping ''(against their better nature)'' from Isstvan with some survivors.
**'''Strike and Fade''' - More survivors of Isstvan, though this is about Salamanders just killing time (and Night Lords) whilst they wait to be rescued.
**'''Honour to the Dead''' - about Ultramarines and an innocent woman and child trying her hardest to follow them to safety.
**'''Butcher's Nails''' - A good one to read, Angron & Lorgar go on the Shadow-Crusade and come to an understanding whilst fighting Eldar.
**'''Warmaster''' - Horus considering how much of a badass he is while chatting with Ferrus Manus's skull.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go kidnap a warp code interpreter that will let them intercept garbled enemy communications.
**'''Wolfs Claw''' - Bjorn the Fell-Handed needs a replacement arm, but the Iron Priests are too busy, but he happens to find a nice fancy relic one just lying around.
**'''The Divine Word'''
**'''Thief of Revelations''' - After Prospero, the Thousand Sons need something to stop all their rampant mutation, so Ahriman goes to ask why Magnus has locked himself away. He's got bigger things to worry about and is looking across time and space for key events for future [[Just as Planned]] manipulations.
**'''Lucius the Eternal Warrior''' - After his first death ''(and unexplained resurrection)'' at the hands of Nykona Sharrowkyn, Lucius has somehow abandoned the Heresy and goes to the planet of Sorcerers to fight a duel with the bestest Thousand Son swordsman, ends up meeting Ahriman. [[wat|Uh-huh...]]
**'''The Eightfold Path''' - Kharn and the World Eaters realise that too much rip and tear is leading them [[Khorne|down a damning path]], but they're already too far gone.
**'''Guardian of Order''' - [[Cypher]] and [[Zahariel]] discover that the Ouroboros (banished in Fallen Angels) is coming back
**'''Heart of the Conqueror''' - Angron's Navigator gets a bit uppity about being made to turn traitor, despite having been picked for the job as the angry man's chauffeur by the Emperor himself. Blams herself during mid-warp transit with not-fun results for flagship.
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel is killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes about it on his armour. Said notes will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]] on the subject of killing Word Bearers (because it's that damn important to kill Word Bearers). Thiel eventually gets bored and goes back to Macragge in the end.
**'''Lone Wolf''' - Bjorn has lost all of his squad, but is now such an awesome badass that he can solo Bloodthirsters.
*'''''Death and Defiance''''' Yet another anthology
**'''Imperfect''' - Daemon-Fulgrim has been getting Fabius to clone Ferrus Manus, because the split personality thing makes him feel guilty about failing to turn his brother to Horus's side, but the clones are never quite right and go mental at each suggestion. Fabius also has his own stuff going on.
**'''Howl of the Heathworld''' - Space Wolves get sent to Terra to watch over Rogal Dorn so he doesn't start using psykers, its a pointless task and everyone know it. Also offers insight into the Wolves naming conventions.
**'''A Safe and Shadowed Place''' - [[Night Lords]] start stabbing each other in the back as soon as Curze goes missing while solo'ing Macragge. It's about a ship floating in the ruinstorm that has just discovered the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] and foreshadows problems for Ultramar.
**'''Virtues of the Sons''' - Sanguinius forsees that he will not always be in charge of the Blood Angels, but worries about the Red Thirst causing havoc with his sons futures. So gets Amit to duel Kharn and Azkaellon to duel Lucius in hopes they'll learn something. Azkaellon learns to let the rage out a bit and Amit learns a modicum of restraint.
**'''Gunsight''' - The Vindicare Assassin from Nemesis is still alive and on Horus' flagship, its about him spending years waiting for the opportune moment to get a shot, but he starts going mad while he waits. Gives ups when Horus plucks his killshot from the air and Horus gives him a chaos rifle for his change in loyalty.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anthology
**'''Daemonology''' - To and fro' story about [[Mortarion]]. On Terra he discovers the initial construction of the Golden Throne and gets told about Emp's plan for removing psykers. In the "present day" he captures a daemon and starts practising sorcery on it.
**'''Black Oculus''' - A short story about Navigators describing what it's like travelling in the warp.... basically it's [[Grimdark]].
**'''Chirurgeon''' - [[Fabius Bile]] narrating about his history, and what happened about the gene-flaw that almost wiped out the [[Emperor's Children]]. Totally has the gene-flaw and has been using his bestest bro turned servitor to keep it under wraps.
**'''Twisted''' - '''Maloghurst''' gets a story about him uncovering plots against Horus and gets wrapped up in intrigue. It actually shows him as a really clever bastard and a bit of a badass.
**'''Wolf Mother''' - [[Perpetual|Alivia Sureka]]'s kids get captured after their escape from Molech and she teams up with [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]] in order to get them back. Lots of coolness on Sevarian's part and we also get to see that Perpetuals can resist possession.
*'''''Tallarn: Executioner''''' - A novella about a vehicle squadron (Leman Russ Executioner, Vanquisher and a Salamander) having to deal with the toxic surface in the weeks after the surface bombardment and then come into contact with the Iron Warriors. Also the Alpha Legion have a hand in things, like they always do.
*'''''Tallarn: Ironclad''''' - Part two of the Tallarn story.
*'''''Deathfire''''' - What the Salamanders have been saying since Isstvan is true: Vulkan lives! Well now he does. Basically a bunch of Salamanders take his body from Macragge to Nocturne (with some side help from didn't ask for this Magnus) and throw him into Nocturne's largest volcano, and lo and behold he comes back to life, making that entire plotline pointless. Still has the fucking Fulgurite in his chest, though. TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nzml-zZ9M
*'''''The Wolf King ''''' - The Space Wolves find themselves set upon by the forces of the Alpha Legion before they can recover from the Razing of Prospero and are hounded to the edge of the Alaxxes Nebula (swiss cheese acid cloud). There the Alpha Legion beat the ever-living shi...stuffing out of the wolves whilst Russ locks himself in his room and sulks. Russ eventually summons his new favourite Bjorn to join him and they have bit of a heart to heart about what a bunch of morons they were in allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily by Horus. By the end Russ is back to his old self and celebrates by massacring every Alpha he can get his hands on even if it’s clear that his defeat is inevitable. Fortunately for the Wolves helps comes from a hidden armada of Dark Angels ostensibly "loyal" to [[Luther]], but unaware of the Horus Heresy or of the whereabouts or actions of the Lion. Russ borrows gear and manpower from them in exchange for info on current events which most likely finds its way back to Luther and sets the "Destiny of Caliban" in motion. Russ then heads for Terra.
*'''''War Without End''''': Anthologies Without End.
*'''''Pharos''''': Night Lords fucking up the Pharos Lighthouse on Sotha. Sanguinius eventually grows some balls and starts standing up to Guilliman instead of just being a pantomime Emperor, while the Lion is nowhere to be seen as usual. Warsmith Dantioch bites it while using the Pharos to burn the Night Lords out of his fortress, but inadvertently piques the interest of the [[Tyranids]], causing them to show up 10,000 years later. Skraivok become a prime example of DEMON SWORDS: NOT EVEN ONCE.
*'''''Eye of Terra''''': Another anthology.
*'''''Path Of Heaven''''': Sequel to Scars. The White Scars have been fighting traitor legions for a few years but are starting to show the strain. They finally make a shift back to Terra but things don't go as planned. Notable for digging into the Webway storyline and the Navis Nobilite as well as featuring a resurrected and suddenly competent Eidolon. Navigators weren't going to sit around while E-money built their replacement, White Scars use a prototype webway portal to escape their last stand, and Moratarion starts using sorcery to locate Typhon.
*'''The Seventh Serpent:''' a novella about the Shattered Legions going up against the Alpha Legion; a simple premise made awesome by sheer depth of Alpharian plot twists: They had been manipulated by Alpharius into fighting a battle against Loyalist Alpha Legionaires.
*'''The Silent War:''' Guess What?! It's ''another'' anthology of stories that GW have already sold individually as audio-books. So value might be had for those who hadn't listened to them.
*'''''Angels of Caliban:''''' two Dark Angels stories in one book again, though this one actually moves the plot forward. In Ultramar, the Lion captures Konrad Curze but only after discretely nuking a whole region despite a ban on orbital weapon use, which results in his disgrace and we find that it is Guilliman who breaks the Lion Sword. Curze reveals that there were chaos cults on Mcraggae too, and that Guilliman would be a traitor if he had landed a little to the left. On Caliban, the Fallen openly declare their rebellion from the Imperium and ironically steal some starships that were meant to collect them and actually bring them into the war again. [[Zahariel]] kills [[Cypher]] and takes his place.
*'''''Praetorian of Dorn''''' Alpharius tries to invade <s>Terra</s> Pluto. Dorn kills him. Yes, Alpharius is now dead. And not a fake either, but the real Alpharius. Omegon can confirm. Alpha Legions fags blew a gasket. Oh shit believe we did.
*'''''Corax''''' A compilation of all the Corax Stories, plus a new one, '''Weregeld''', which manages to undo all the hard work the previous stories have done and turn Corax into a douchebag. Kills all his mutated Raven Guard because he promised to kill warp stuff. Saves Russ and his arrogant ass though.

=== Books XLI onwards ===
*'''''The Master of Mankind''''': The Emperor is a dick: the book. We all knew this, but now it's set in stone. Highlights being: Emperor stating to Arkhan Land that the Primarchs are tools and he views them with a scientific but detached fascination. Referring to them as numbers but content to allow the fantasy of being their "father", an interpretation of the character that was fairly divisive to say the least. He actually seems to care more for his Custodians than he does any of his other creations, but they don't consider him to be a father and see him as just their warlord. Drach'nyen is also revealed to be the Daemon created when Caine killed Abel. In the end he closes the door on the webway and has to spend the rest of his time sitting in the chair keeping it shut. Despite this, it does show off why the Chaos Gods fear him, as he pretty much rapes an infinite army of Daemons; the Greater ones either flee or try and fail to fight him (being destroyed in a matter of moments) whilst the lesser ones die just by looking at him. Despite this, Drach'nyen nearly kills him, and <s>it is confirmed that fate has indeed decreed that Empy will die at the daemon's hand</s> claims that it will kill the Emperor (keep in mind that the future is malleable and Daemons lie). But how will it feast on the Emperor's tattered soul when Abaddon lacks arms to plunge it into his chest? (''But Abaddon never lost his arms due to the same retcon that let Eldrad live'') Also known as Master of skubkind. Reveals his grand plan of saving the human race from the Eldar fate by absolute control of every human to a custodian before shanking him with Drach'nyen and making him run into the webway. Also put all his chips into the ''Human Webway'' plan and screwed us all over without a backup. Can you tell that this is an ADB book?
*'''''Garro''''': Compilation of all the stories about Garro and his boy band, though they insist it isn't just an anthology since the audio book stories were expanded to be more written novel friendly.
*'''''Shattered Legions''''': It's an anthology containing an anthology. I shit thee not. It shoves together the limited edition anthology Meduson with a few other shorter stories, including some Alpha Legion stuff like the Seventh Serpent.
*'''''The Crimson King''''': Magnus was broken into shards when Russ felled him. Now the Thousand Sons with the help of Lucius the Eternal must put him back together.
*'''''Tallarn''''': Does it even need to be stated? It's another fucking anthology, this time putting all the tank porn of the Tallarn books into one binding.
*'''''Ruinstorm:''''' The conclusion to the Imperium Secundus plotline, as well as the follow on to Damnation of Pythos. Shows the Lion, Sanguinius and Guilliman trying to cross the Ruinstorm to reach Terra. Having a brief stopover at Pandorax, they decide to head out to Davin where the Heresy began and where destinies are re-made; they pass systems along the way that show what the Galaxy would look like if Chaos wins, such as a Forge World surrounded by an immense fortress wall in outer space 4000 miles thick, or a sector of space filled with solid ritualised geometric shapes that are perhaps light years across. Davin itself is surrounded by a cloud of bones and wreckage millions of kilometers thick, but the planet has long since been abandoned. There, Sanguinius finds out that in order to live through the Heresy he must become a monster even worse than Horus, but dying will curse his sons with the Black Rage; blood is on his hands either way. Instead, Sanguinius tries to sacrifice himself to save the day, but the [[Sanguinor]] steps in and takes his place while the fleets rain down a shitstorm and destroy the planet. In the aftermath, the Ruinstorm abates enough for them to reach Terra, but Horus has so much force that it is impossible for all three legions to reach, so Guilliman and the Lion agree to distract the Traitors long enough to give Sanguinius a window to get back and face his destiny, explaining why they never made it to the Siege since they were engaging Traitor fleets and burning their worlds.
*'''''Old Earth:''''' Set immediately after ''Vulkan Lives'', Vulkan and three Salamander legionaries ''(the rest of the Salamanders weren't informed of their Primarch's resurrection)'' travelled through the Webway by a gate hidden in a cave on Nocturne. On their path to Terra, they came across the Shattered Legions, who were preparing for their first major void engagement with the Sons of Horus. Just before the attack, some Medusan-born Iron Hands tried to stage a coup against Shadrak Meduson by revealing a hideous contraption of machines, and the last remnants of Ferrus Manus - his iron hand ''(They were under the illusion that they could resurrect their Primarch through cybernetics, it is hinted that the Mechanicum had some hand in this affair.)'' Thankfully, Vulkan shattered the hand, and Meduson assumed command again, though he was killed by '''Tybalt Marr''' in a boarding action after the Iron Hand refused to send reinforcements to him. In the end, it was revealed that the Emperor had Vulkan forged a weapon, that in the event Terra fell to Horus, would amplify the power of the Golden Throne to the point it coulf wipe out the entire Throneworld ''(this is probably one of Vulcan's nine relics)'' Oh, and Eldrad rescued [[Knights-Errant|Barthusa Narek]] from Nocturne and made him his assassin. They killed most of the Cabal, and finally rescued John Grammaticus, who had his memory wiped after his failure to assassinate Vulkan. With his memory restored, Grammaticus was ordered by Eldrad to find Ollanius Pius and go to Terra.
*'''''Wolfsbane:''''' No solid information yet, but it seems like Leman Russ leaves Terra to confront Horus himself. One can expect that it doesn't end well for him.

== The Primarchs Series ==

Because Black Library don't seem satisfied confusing us with all their anthologies, audio-books, and short stories, they have begun releasing a spin-off series of Horus Heresy novels centered on the Primarchs. The series don't really take place in a specific time, but generally focuses on expanding on the titular Primarch's backstory and motivations during events before the Horus Heresy (though some of them also have events occurring after it). Why Black Library lists it as part of the Horus Heresy series when that is the case is beyond our comprehension.

=== Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar ===
Centers on the papa smurf himself, and him trying to deal with how the Emperor used him like a rusty hammer to smack Lorgar in the head at Monarchia. Uses a conflict against Orks as a vehicle for him and the smurfs to express their angst over the event.

=== Leman Russ: The Great Wolf ===
Focuses on Leman Russ' notorious rivalry with the Lion, and explaining why to this day whenever the Chapters meet they throw the gauntlet down and beat the stuffing out of one another. Notably it reveals some interesting stuff like the Lion being aware of the Space Wolves' furry issue and keeping a lid on it.

=== Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero ===
Depicts the unlikely friendship between Magnus and old Pert with a joint venture between their legions. Things go wrong on the planet due to totally not Chaos cult nonsense, and it does a decent job of showing Magnus' flaws. Specifically on his inability to leave things that have "do not fuck with this" alone; something Pert tries and fails at making him understand.

=== Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia ===
Probably the book in the series that did the most character building of all of them. This book is a mix of showing off Perturabo's childhood on Olympia alongside a "current" day conflict against the Hrud. The former showing why Pert is the odd genius manchild guy he is, while the latter does a great job of showing why fucking with an alien species capable of controlling time is somewhat of a stupid idea. However, the real draw of the book is that it is mainly written as an attempt to merge together the seemingly contradictory depictions of Pert we've had over the years. Showing how the ruthless dick who decimates his legion for not being good enough in the Forgeworld books is the same guy who just wanted to be a builder in Angel Exterminatus. Yep. Definitely a sperg. Also he may or may not have wanted to bang his adopted sister.

=== Lorgar: Bearer of the Word ===
Yep, the first(ish?) heretic himself gets his own obligatory messed up childhood novel. Focusing slightly more on Kor Phaeron rather than Lorgar himself, showing him to be a manipulative dick who beat Lorgar as a child and never really bought into this whole "fatherhood" shtick, or this whole concept of [[Emperor|One True God]] but allowed Lorgar his fantasies and to take over Colchis ''(By "Word" or by "Mace")'' while Phaeron benefitted from increased position and secretly kept the faith of [[Chaos Gods]].

Though by the end Kor Phaeron wonders if Lorgar just let him think that he was manipulated and could have disposed of him at any time. The book does introduce a contrasting character to Kor Phaeron who actually shows Lorgar compassion growing up and was far more worthy of being named "father" but was far less useful to Lorgar's goals. The book shows that Lorgar isn't as stupid or naive as everyone thinks and does indeed realise that people have been using him for their own gains, but while he only really cares about doing the work of the gods, so long as they both align he doesn't seem to care.

=== Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix ===
Fulgrim tries to conquer the newly discovered planet Byzas with only 7 men. Along the way he encounters a brotherhood much like his own that wants to work with him that Fulgrim dismisses as a bunch of idealists. It's implied that he COULD have gotten the same results (Compliance) working with them but unfortunately that would have meant calling in backup and Fulgrim didn't want to do that so that was out of the question. In the end Fulgrim takes the world, but nearly dies. Several of the characters (Cyrius, Kasperos Telmar) later become prominent champions of chaos.

=== Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa ===

== The Tabletop Wargame ==
[[Forge World]] is producing a new line of books and models (''in addition to'' [[Imperial Armour]] and [[Warhammer Forge]]) to allow players to fight battles from the Horus Heresy in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. This includes rules and models for the [[Primarchs]] (both pre- and post-fall, for the Traitors) as well as ancient vehicles. No [[xenos]], unfortunately. Presumably this came about because GW felt that they just weren't making quite enough money from die-hard marine/chaos players and figured they could literally buy a dump-truck full of gold plated cocaine each if they made a version of the game that requires only Forge World minis AND thousands upon thousands of them. Still worth it, though.

=== Betrayal ===
Forge World starts big, as their first book covers the battles on Istvaan III, in which [[Horus]] sent the remaining loyalist elements of the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Emperor's Children]], [[Death Guard]], and [[World Eaters]] to the surface, ostensibly to rout the anti-Imperial resistance that had taken hold in the capital city, and then fired [[Exterminatus]] torpedoes (of the life-eater virus bomb variety) onto the city to wipe them out.

Unfortunately for Horus, not everything went as planned; not only did the loyalist Death Guard frigate ''Eisenstein'' escape to the [[Phalanx]] with word of Horus's betrayal, but loyalist elements on other ships were able to disrupt the bombardment and warn the loyalists on the ground that it was coming. Between the disruption, the warning, and good old-fashioned [[Space Marine]] toughness, only a third or so of the landed force had actually died. Horus would have fired another bombardment, but [[Angron]] and his traitor World Eaters jumped the gun and made planetfall; the other traitors were left with no choice but to deploy themselves and destroy the remaining loyalists personally.

''Betrayal'' contains a [[Great Crusade]] Legion army list (for which we have a [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines/Legion List‎|tactica]]), and rules for special characters and units from the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Death Guard]], [[Emperor's Children]], and [[World Eaters]] Legions, including their [[Primarch]]s (even [[Fulgrim]], who was not actually at the battle) and several major characters from the book series such as Garviel Loken.

===Massacre===
The infamous Drop Site Massacre is the focus of the next book, where seven Legions are sent to crush Horus’ rebellion, only for four of those to turn on the other three and crush them utterly. The books storyline is essentially just the ''first day'' of the battle, leading up to the death of [[Ferrus Manus]].

Massacre contains additional rules for special characters and units from the [[Iron Hands]], [[Night Lords]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Word Bearers]] Legions including their Primarchs and several more major characters from the book series make their debut such as Sevatar, Eidolon, Erebus and Kharn.

===Extermination===
Focusses on the second half of Istvaan V, as well as the Battle of Phall between the [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Imperial Fists]]; and on that note, it includes rules for those two Legions, as well as the [[Alpha Legion]] and the [[Raven Guard]].

It also gives us a complete Mechanicum Army List: the Taghmata.

====Condensed Lists====
The ICL and LACAL were initially released as part of the limited edition run of Extermination, but were then later released separately. They are fluff-lite, codex-equivalent books that also included all of the FAQs/Errata up to their release; which unfortunately was still the end of 6th edition so some rules haven't carried over well. ''(eg. [[Lorgar]]s psychic rules.)''

The Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List is basically the generic 30k Space Marine "codex", whilst the Isstvan Campaign Legions contains all of the collected rules for the legions from Books 1-3; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three books. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game. The ICL was continued in the Age of Darkness Legions, which collected everything to book 5, including the errata.

Later came the Mechanicum Taghamata Army List, which contained all the Mechanicum units and army lists mentioned and rearranged them to keep everything on the same page, but lacked the Questoris Knight Army. The Crusade Imperialis Army Lists contain the Solar Auxilia, Imperialis Militia/Warp Cults, and Questoris Knight Crusade army lists.

===Conquest===
Horus Heresy Volume Four is entitled 'Conquest', despite early hints from Forgeworld that it would be about the Battle of Prospero, it instead features Horus' conquest of the Imperium and the [[Skub|"Major"]] battles of this time, which is to say some battle-zones that Forgeworld made up to fill time whilst they worked on the more well known events from the in-universe history. ''(And to be fair, their response as to why Prospero was delayed was because it included four major factions, [[Adeptus Custodes|two of]] [[Sisters of Silence|which have]] NEVER been represented on the tabletop, so required more time to do them justice.)''

A large portion of the book is given over to running battles in the '''"Age of Darkness"''', which is a variant ruleset used as the default for Horus Heresy games ''(where only Troops usually score, amongst other things)'' and has rules and FOCs for Cityfight missions, rules for running ongoing campaigns, variant rules for mysterious terrain and objectives as well as including unique relics to be taken by the various army lists to add flavor to non-special characters.

It also introduces the [[Solar Auxilia]] and [[Imperial Knight|"Questoris" Knights]] (as an AdMech list) armies to play while the modellers take a break from building power armor 24/7.

===Tempest===
The fifth Horus Heresy book will cover the Battle of Calth. The rules for the [[Ultramarines]] (including [[Roboute Guilliman]] himself) as well as several warp-corrupted Word Bearer units are brought in alongside a few other new miscellaneous FW releases, including the Deredeo and the new Thanatars. There's also an Imperial Militia (Read: PDF) list that's super-customizable so you can make both loyalist and traitor lists. Also, the MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IS IN IT TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===Retribution===
Focused on 'Shadow Wars' far from the main fronts of the Heresy, in particular the Shattered Legions - that is, the [[Iron Hands]], [[Raven Guard]], and [[Salamanders]] in their weakened state following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre. But other Legions can also be included, with special rules for the Shattered Legions, Black Shields and a list for Armies of Dark Compliance - mixed traitor Legiones/Militia lists, as well as ten new special characters. It includes Legiones Astartes rules for the White Scars, Blood Angels and Dark Angels, so that players of those legions can start playing properly; however, it does not include special units, characters, or Primarchs for those legions. It also includes Garro and the Knights Errant and additional Mechanicum units and characters, including a new Dark Magos, [[Anacharis Scoria]]. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons will still need to wait for the Prospero book (Inferno, Book 7).

===Inferno===
In <s>Set to be book 3.</s> <s>late 2016.</s> <s>early 2017 (Because FW can't keep to schedule)</s> <s>December 2016</s> February 4, 2017, will come what many neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those [[Thousand Sons]] players, start saving up so you can play your space Egyptian sorcerers in all their 30k glory. Rules for the Sisters of Silence as an allied detachment and the Adeptus Custodes as a full army list will be present as well.

Well, it's come, and... it's uninspiring to say the least, with stuff like [[What|Magnus being straight up impossible to hit if he casts invisibility, not to mention pumping out 2d6 destroyer hits at every unit within 18" if he likes]], [[Derp|Custodes captains beating out every Primarch with a rollable 3+ invulnerable save]], some Custodes wargear being straight up [[Wat|left out of the book]] and to cap it all, [[Herp|pictures of tourists in the book ('''twice''') where you'd expect miniatures to be]]. You'd think with such a long development cycle the quality assurance would have been more thorough. Didn't help that [[Alan Bligh]] was likely fairly ill in late 2016, and his untimely death in May of 2017 means the Horus Heresy team now has a big hole in it.

===Malevolence===
It will feature White Scars, Blood Angels and Daemons. Also some new stuff for Space Wolves and Alpha Legion.

== See Also ==
*[[The War of The Beast]], for the next massive shit-show the Imperium was involved with.
* [[Alternate Heresy]], for a discussion of other possible outcomes of the (not necessarily Horus) Heresy.

== External Links ==
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/3170/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (1993)] at BoardGameGeek
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/63543/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (2010)] at BoardGameGeek

{{40k-Timeline}}

[[Category:Board Games]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Wargames]]

Horus Heresy

2018-02-18T09:56:32Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|500px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''this''.]]
:''[[Fulgrim|"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.]]'' 
:''[[Magnus the Red|Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.]]'' 
:''[[Angron|They will be of iron will and steely muscle.]]'' 
:''[[Perturabo|In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.]]'' 
:''[[Mortarion|They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.]]'' 
:''[[Alpharius|They will have tactics, strategies and machines]] [[Omegon|so that no foe can best them in battle.]]'' 
:''[[Konrad Curze|They are my bulwark against the Terror.]]'' 
:''[[Lorgar|They are the Defenders of Humanity.]]'' 
:''[[Horus|They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."]]'' 
:- The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], [[Not as planned|getting exactly what he wanted.]]
{{Topquote|The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.|Karl Popper}}

The '''Horus Heresy''' is one of the single biggest clusterfuck of events in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff, alongside the [[Eldar]]'s creation of a new [[Slaanesh|Chaos God]], and the [[War in Heaven|rampage and fall of the]] [[C'Tan|star gods]]. Needless to say, this heresy derailed the Emperor's plan and himself, and gave the Chaos Gods their most prominent armies to carry out their will in realspace.

In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor's favorite son, [[Horus| Horus Lupercal]], formerly Warmaster of the Imperium, was corrupted by Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor, taking nine [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] (Including [[Luna Wolves|his own]]), their respective Primarchs, and about half of the Imperial Army and Mechanicum with him. After waging war across the galaxy, Horus and his traitors eventually reached Holy Terra itself, hoping to murder the Emperor himself and cut the head off the proverbial snake and win the war.

Things went [[Not as Planned]] however, as he was eventually surrounded by loyalist forces at the height of the siege on Terra. As a final gambit, he dropped the shields of his flagship which allowed the Emperor to beam up and challenged him to a duel for the fate of humanity. Horus beat the Emperor within an inch of his life but was killed in turn after the Emperor put his foot down and obliterated Horus' soul from existence (as in it didn't go to the warp to be resurrected by daemons; it was literally erased from existence) when it finally became clear to him that Horus was beyond forgiveness. The Chaos gribbles he had been allied with disappeared and the now Chaos Marines that had followed him sulked back to the [[Eye of Terror]], starting the [[Long War]].

Because the Emperor was fucked up to the point where he had to be permanently attached to a life-support machine known as the "Golden Throne" just to survive, logic within the Imperium gradually decreased, eventually turning into the [[Grimdark]] empire it is today. And it was already pretty damn grimdark.

[[File:President.png|700px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''him''.]]
[[File:GodsofWarhammer.jpg|left|It was pretty much ''them''.]]

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course) and changed the flavour of the Imperium's Grimdark from Stalinist Soviet "if you breathe a word about religion, we rape you with knives" to Catholic [[Inquisition]] "if you breathe a word about the ''wrong'' religion, we rape you [[Exterminatus|or your whole planet]] with knives" unless you can find an Ecclesiarch to come and say: "nope, that's just another aspect of the Emperor". Don't count on this happening without hefty "donations".

The heresy lasted for several years (somewhere between seven and ten) and was fought all over the galaxy. The following are the most important battles and campaigns during the Heresy:
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Prospero|Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Betrayal at Calth|Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Battle of Tallarn]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

Following the Siege of Terra, Horus was permakilled, Big E was interred onto the Golden Throne, the surviving primarchs freaked out trying to figure out what do now that daddy was in a coma, the traitors fucked off into the Eye of Terror, and overall the galaxy slowly and collectively lost their minds now that their wise and all-powerful ruler was no longer around to tell them what to do.

== The Board Game ==
First published in 1993 by [[Game Designer's Workshop]], it was the Emprah versus his [[Horus|evil bastard of a son]] in the scorched earth of Terra. Units include [[Titan#Warhammer_40k|titans]] and [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spaw-]] oh shiARHGRBLLYRBGRDEWUODHGRYEB.

Ahem, as he was saying, The more recent edition (2010) is published by [[Fantasy Flight Games]]. Also a two-player [[wargame|war]] [[board game|game]], it includes over 100 sculpted minifigs, sculpted buildings, and even Horus and the Emprah themselves are units on the board. It also adds more territory, as the fight can be pushed back onto the [[heresy|traitor's]] flagship ''Vengeful Spirit''. Combat is less [[dice|dice-y]] and more card-y.

(Not to be confused with the lame Horus Heresy card game, whose only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway.)

== The Book Series ==
For the last decade, [[Black Library]] has been publishing novels that explore the events of the Horus Heresy, looking at the rivalries among the [[Primarchs]] and exploring just why everything went down the tubes. The novels are by a selection of different authors, which is a total pain if you like to organise your books alphabetically by author. The reception to the series has been somewhat... mixed; books generally considered to be good include [[Dan Abnett|the first trilogy]], [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Betrayer]], [[White Scars|Scars]], and the short story [[Alpha Legion|The Serpent Beneath]].

Of course, like we mentioned, there's some that are... um... Well, let's just say that the worst are a [[skub|matter of much debate]].

{{Template:Spoilers}}

=== Books I - X ===
*'''''Horus Rising:''''' A prologue story, introducing us to the series and Garviel Loken who will grow into a very significant character. An Emperor (not [[Emperor|Him]]) is killed at the beginning and some bugs are killed on a planet called Murder for no reason other than they were there. The Interex show up and ask "whadya do that for?". [[Erebus]] steals the '''MURDER SWORD''' from them.
*'''''False Gods:''''' Horus falls at Davin when wounded by the '''MURDER SWORD''' and gets a crash course in the chaos gods from [[Erebus]] & [[Magnus]]. After getting shown a few "truths" that WILL HAPPEN in the future (like the Emperor being worshipped as a god, Horus being reviled and forgotten) he decides to make war on the Imperium to [[FAIL|prevent]] all this from happening.
*'''''Galaxy in Flames:''''' Isstvan III happens and the traitors send the loyalists down to the planet without reinforcements and proceed to bomb them to fuck. Things don't go to plan when [[Angron]] decides to invade turning it into a [[Not as Planned]] drawn out conflict that the Warmaster can't really afford - Loken "dies"
*'''''Flight of the Eisenstein:''''' the other side of ''Galaxy in Flames'', Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved (and mega-bitchslapped) by [[Rogal Dorn]], who does not take the news from Isstvan [[Rage|very well]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'. There is also the very first canonical appearance of Plague Marines, Euphrati Keeler being all mystical and shit, and Malcador recruiting Garro as the first Knight-Errant.
*'''''Fulgrim:''''' one of the more forgettable stories in the series. Attempts to tell the story from Great Crusade all the way up to the [[Drop Site Massacre]] in one book. In short Fulgrim finds a sword, gets possessed, kills Ferrus Manus - the end. It is written by Graham McNiel though, and it has an awesome quote from Fulgrim "My Emperor's Children. What beautiful music they make." .
*'''''Descent of Angels:''''' This is the Heresy book that isn't about the Heresy, instead focusing on [[Zahariel]]'s time on [[Caliban]]. It portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness (he can not read people at all, so he comes off as 'do what I say or die!') and having Luther to handle the small talk. Hints that the Great Crusade <s>does more harm than good</s> {{BLAM}} is uniting the lost colonies of mankind into a united future! Luther gets sent home with Zahariel to hustle up more Dark Angels.
*'''''Legion''''' introduces [[the Cabal]], the [[Perpetual]]s and [[Omegon]]. READ THIS BOOK. Or don't, as this is where those things that would eventually take over the Heresy series and according to many completely ruin it (Cabal, Perpetuals) are introduced. I still would recommend reading it since when the novel introduces these ideas they are very fresh and interesting. Don't blame Legion when the rest of the novels were who ruined it. Alpha legion is trying to bring some chaos cultist into compliance. Chaos cultists activate planetary self destruct blood sacrifice. Alpha legion meets with the Cabal, agrees to work with them, then kills off all non-legion bystanders & ships with "FOR E-MONEY"!
*'''''Battle for the Abyss:''''' The book is so bad that other authors tried to retcon it out of existence. This book is so bad that you would have it was cobbled together from [[Matt Ward|Wardian fluff]] stitched together by [[C. S. Goto]]. Reading this book may, in fact, cause brain cancer so you should avoid it if at all possible. Everyone dies, so it does not affect much (as in anything). The only thing you need to remember is [[Lorgar]] built a fuckhueg space ship and filled it with Dreadnoughts, and it failed miserably.
*'''''Mechanicum:''''' Tech Priests turn renegade after Horus tells them they can do whatever they like with technology, so they release forbidden viral scrapcodes and screw everything up. Also turns out that [[Emperor|Big E]] invented the Machine-God by sealing a C'Tan on Mars back during the Saint George era, giving everyone visions of technology. Also more subtle hints that the Emperor is a god himself by using divine golden light to heal machines and instant access super wikipedia. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery. And for extra Grimdark, a tech priestess discovers that the Dark Age era humans stored a backup copy of wikipedia in the warp and <s>with a giant psyker powered terminal accesses said wikipedia and restores all the knowledge of mankind</s> floods her forge with lava to deny the traitors access. A psyker tech savant meets up with the goaler of the Void Dragon and takes over his fuck long shift.
*'''''Tales of Heresy:''''' short story collection, including [[The Last Church]]. Has a lot of twist endings.
** '''''Blood Games:''''' An assassin tries to kill the emperor. The Adeptus Custodes go to kill a traitor on Terra. The assassin was a Custodes probing the palace defences. The traitor was a triple agent working for Dorn.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor. When the liberated planet chooses freedom over Emperor, the wolves invade again.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. They worshiped the Emperor, but Lorgar no longer does. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The squad of Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp. Turns out the youngest of the squad in the future used sorcery to beam back her consciousness through time onto some psykers on the Black Ship. She <s>successfully warns the squad about Horus's Rebellion </s> is executed by a hard-core Sister for breaking her vow of [[Psyker|no funny stuff]].
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.
** '''''[[The Last Church]]:''''' A story about the Emperor destroying one of the churches on Terra during the reunification era in his effort to wipe out religion. The Emperor and the priest of the church have an enlightening conversation about the Emprah's trying to accomplish. The conversation ends up with the priest accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite, with him decrying that he's no more different than the old warlords who waged crusades and holy wars in the past to push their own agendas on other people. Emperor reveals himself as the very god the priest was worshiping, and nearly convinces him to stand by his side while his soldiers destroy the church. Priest gets cold feet and walks back into the church while it collapses. An end-times alarm clock starts ringing in the ruins.
** '''''After Desh'ea:''''' The War Hounds meet their primarch. Angron demeats the War Hounds. More specifically, the Emperor just beamed up Angron away from his last stand (rather than, you know, intervening with his Custodes or his fleet), leaving Angron pretty pissed. [[Kharn]] is a pretty great guy to be around, and pulls his femurs out of his lungs quickly enough to establish himself as Angron's best buddy ''after the War Hounds chain of command calmed Angron down as fleshy squeeze balls''.

=== Books XI - XX ===
*'''''Fallen Angels:''''' the sequel to Descent of Angels, is actually two stories rolled into one book that never converge. 1. The Lion fights a war to reclaim some Ordinatus devices and then hands them to Perturabo to gain his trust, not realising that his brother has already turned. 2. [[Zahariel]] and Luther clean out a daemon cult on Caliban... but not really.
*'''''Thousand Sons:''''' Part 1 of the Battle for Prospero. Runs through the Great Crusade where Magnus discovers the webway, but his Father already knew about it. Then the Edict of Nikaea where Magnus gets all passionate about not restricting psychic powers, then to Horus's vision quest where Magnus fails to keep his brother on the right path, then does the WORST thing possible by forcing himself through the palace psychic spam filter, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues and the thousand sons become a thousand sons all over again. Ahriman starts writing hit Rubric.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail because Horus sent a look-a-like, but in the process slay a shapeshifting daemonic counter-assassin sent by Erebus. While it is a decent book and we learn a lot, it didn't contribute much to the overall plot. On the more [[rage|vitriolic side]], the writing is a bit underwhelming in places; highlights include calling a pariah a psyker, another pariah with a contrived possession, and Horus uttering one of the most cliche one liners out there.
*'''''The First Heretic:''''' [[Lorgar]]'s turn to get a back story and generally considered one of the better books in the series. While you make never sympathize with them, this book really lets you understand why The Word Bearers fell to chaos, rather then being the "CHAOTIC EVIL MONSTERS" they are portrayed in the rest of the series.. Feels less rushed than "[[Fulgrim]]". Goes from Monarchia to a bit of soul searching in the Eye of Terror and discovers Cadia. Leads up to Istvaan V and the immediate aftermath. Signifcant subplots revolve around the inception of Possessed Marines, and what happens to the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] babysitters watching over the Word Bearers, and how the protagonist [[Argel Tal]] gets into a tragic bromance with the Custodes leader.
** '''''Aurelian:''''' A limited release short story until an ebook was published. The plot bounces around in-between a number of moments in Lorgar's history up to the prelude of the Shadow Crusade. One narrative involves how Lorgar's brothers still treat him like shit, especially when he's the only one who sees through Fulgrim's possession, and ends with Horus sending him to fuck up Ultima Segmentum and handing him Angron's (figurative, [[/d/|not literal]]) leash. The other narrative takes place in the 40 year gap in ''The First Heretic'', where Lorgar makes a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror with a Daemon Princess as his guide. They come to a dead Crone World where he puts a dying [[Avatar of Khaine|Avatar]] out of its misery and he's told that the Eldar panicked rather than embrace Chaos during the birth of Slaanesh, which is what caused them to nearly die out; the daemon prince(ss) tells Lorgar the same thing is happening with humanity during the Heresy, how Chaos really wants a [[A Game of Pretend|symbiotic relationship with humanity rather than to conquer it]]. In the middle of this, Khorne decides he's had enough of this talky wordy shit and sends [[An'ggrath]] to make things more exciting, and Lorgar narrowly beats him. Then Kairos Fateweaver comes and "tells" him about Calth and his relationship with Guilliman and his upcoming war with him in the most confusing as fuck discussion ever. The truth of most of the things told to Lorgar are left ambiguous, because, well, Fateweaver; but also Chaos has a lot riding on the Heresy coming to fruition for reasons left not entirely explored.
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. A civilian archeologist named Kasper Hawser hangs out with a company of the Space Wolves, where we learn a lot about their culture and attitudes. Turns out that Chaos infiltrated everything, so the outcome of Nikaea was practically rigged. The civilian himself even turns out to have been an unwitting spy for Chaos, but the Wolves knew anyway and didn't give a shit (they thought he worked for Magnus).
* '''''Age of Darkness:''''' A short story anthology.
** '''''Rules of Engagement:''''' Roboute lets one of his commanders lead in a series of wars that didn't really occur, and we get the best line ever said in regards to the [[Codex Astartes]]: despite the fact it does cover a lot, it's not meant to be followed biblically <s>which is a load of bull given that the Codex lets said commander win all the wars in the most efficient way possible while blindly following it and only failed in the last battle because he was in a war game against Girlyman</s>. (See the quote on the page on the Big Book of Astartes). The Imperium Secundus shows up, making for another bizarre plot element that ruins the series without adding anything.
** '''''Liar's Due:''''' You know those memes on how the [[Alpha Legion]] causes mass paranoia without actually involving any Astartes? Those aren't just memes. Alpha Legion serf arrives on a agri-world and turns it's allegiance to Horus by only hacking all their inter-planetary communications.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[Salamanders|Salamander]] and a grumpy ol' [[Ultramarine]] are sent in opposition to one of Horus' iterators to convince an industrial-militant world which side to side with. They almost side with Horus before the Warmaster's agents [[Exterminatus|wreck shit]] for the lulz. Oh, and to send the message that neutrality will be punished. The [[Iron Warriors]] were doing weird shit on that world for years beforehand, and was probably the more deciding factor than the lulz.
** '''''The Last Remembrancer:''''' Horus sent the one last remembrancer he had stored up as a gift to Dorn. Instead of in a box (or eight or some shit like that), it was the [[Dan Abnett]] of his day telling Dorn that the grimdark galaxy was grimdark. Also that the Emperor's vision of a galaxy of peace, unity, prosperity, and fluffy bunnies built up without any more grimdark attached than was strictly needed, probably wasn't very likely before any shit hit any fan either way. Also, Iacton Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iacton Qruze. Dorn says it's all lies and enemy propaganda before executing said remembrancer and torching all his ramblings.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Magnus's absent fleet from the Burning of Prospero comes home and shits a brick. The last known surviving squad of Thousand Sons outside of the Planet of the Sorcerers gets beaten up and they slowly figure out it was the Space Wolves who shit on Magnus's <s>parade</s> world and is stalking them. One plot twist later, most of them are dead, the last one decides he's gonna rebuild everything, with a few scant hints that his flesh-change genetic flaw will [[Blood Ravens|shift into kleptomania]].
** '''''The Face of Treachery:''''' The tie-in and conclusion of the audiodrama featuring the Raven Guard after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax [[troll]]ing Perturabo for a bit too long, Horus sends Angron in to finish the job, but Corax's cavalry arrives to troll Angron by getting the loyalists the fuck out of there. We also learn that Corax has a supersekrit psyker ability which lets him roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can out-troll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters (they let the World Eater commander think he was in command then blew his brains out when he tried to actually command). Ends with an transitory bit into ''Deliverance Lost''.
** '''''Little Horus:''''' Little Horus Aximand is struggling with the PTSD he got when he killed Loken and Torgaddon with [[Abaddon|Abby]]. Abby and Little Horus have a discussion (we mean Horus Aximand, not when Primarch Horus was sodomizing Abaddon again) about restoring the Mournival. A couple war scenes later, Little Horus learns the hard way that the White Scars are pretty badass, but his PTSD starts acting up again and he gets his face shaved off before the White Scars are driven off. Little Horus realizes his PTSD he had since killing Loken and Torgaddon ultimately stems from that time he helped kill Loken and Torgaddon, and gives a diatribe about how things like "change", "mood swings", and "hallucinations" are suited to his melancholic nature, saying things like "it's perfectly natural", "I'm fine, everything's fine. Everything is perfectly, absolutely fine", and "Therapy is for the weak. I'm fine". After the Mongolian shave, he gets his face reattached and ends up looking even more like Big Horus in the deal.
** '''''The Iron Within:''''' Some pretty bro-tier loyalist Iron Warriors build a fortress hanging from a cave over an ocean of prometheum in a hellhole of a world (giant cavern system & acidic atmosphere), and one of Perturabo's traitor Grand Companies come knocking to demand that they hand over the house keys. The loyalists give them a fuck-you in the form of a Dreadnought. A few melodramatic and horrific but generic war scenes later, and they get overrun (after a full year of siege thanks to the genius of a certain [[Barabas Dantioch]]), drop the fortress from the ceiling onto a titan, and get the hell out of there by hijacking one of the Iron Warriors warships via teleportation. An Ultramarine big wig was there to bring the loyalists home, informing them that [[Skub|Guilliman was fortifying Terra]] and he needed good siege workers to stall the traitors then to fortify Terra. While loyalist Iron Warriors were pretty cool, the story itself was pretty forgettable; and it left some open questions like whether the continuity errors were the result of "faulty astropathic communications" (see Outcast Dead) or if the Ultramarines were trolling the Iron Warriors to join in with the Imperium Secundus. And also why the Iron Warriors were determined to take a hellhole at an immense expense of people and materiel, including Titans, while they could have just said "fuck yo shit!" and left a fortress with no space or warp conveyance and arguably little strategic value in itself in the middle of nowhere alone. It mentions a few times that it looks really bad for a rebellion trying to gain initiative when a mere captain of their Legions tells their Primarch "fuck off, imma keeping this fortress & resources for the Emperor!" The message behind it being if you can't even control your own men, maybe this rebellion thing needs a rethinking, because hearing Horus can't even take this shitty outpost middle of nowhere and he's going to Terra might be bad press.
** '''''Savage Weapons:''''' A good story written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|ADB]]. Dark Angels are hunting down the Night Lords who are fucking with Forge Worlds, but the Night Lords are staying a step ahead of them, much to [[Rage|the Lion's frustration]]. After being advised by Horus to pass along a message, Kurze asks the Lion to meet up face-to-face on Tsagualsa. When they talk, while what they say to each other is offscreen, it's implied Kurze told Lion about the Fallen Angels and that Horus knew about their impending betrayal. Lion decides nobody is going to give him shit about being a rumored closet traitor, and the ensuing fight proves that Jonson is a badass among primarchs, until Kurze goes to his old fallback of strangling a fucker, and things get more even. Their respective honor guards go at it in the meantime, and showing [[Sevatar]] is a badass among Space Marines. Things end up in a draw, leaving things open for a new plotline within the Heresy, the ''Prince of Crows'' novella being the next.
*'''''The Outcast Dead:''''' A mess of continuity errors, at least when compared with the rest of the series, the other authors later claimed all the errors were absolutely intentional and a result of the messed-up nature of Warp-based communication. [[derp|''Riggggghhhhtttt!'']] More importantly: shortly after the start of the Heresy an astropath has routine nervous breakdown and is returned to Terra to get [[Witch Hunters|some R&R]]. What really ends up happening is that he gets there in time for [[Magnus]]'s astral body to reach Big E to warn him of Horus' betrayal, and the fuckhueg psychic shock of course dicks with the Astropath HQ compound something mighty. In the confusion and assloads of psychic phenomena that followed, the astropath gets implanted with a message for somebody regarding the war, but his PTSD keeps him from knowing what the hell it is or who it's for. The Custodes come in and tell him ''"[[Anal Circumference|Ve haff vays of making you talk.]]"'' and hand him over to a pair of [[Inquisition|kind counselors]] who torture the poor man half to death. After a time, he gets busted out in the nick of time by some convict Space Marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." to the others. They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra (amusingly, none of the escapees is very happy at the prospect of the Heresy but they are all [[rage|slightly miffed]] at being treated like shit by the Custodes just because of the Legion they belong to.) Other subplots revolve around: a psyker congregant at a slum church near the Imperial palace; a samurai witch hunter (no, really); '''''fucking [[Thunder Warriors]]'''''. Best bits are <s>[[Rip and tear|an unarmed, unarmored World Eater ripping a Custodes' spine out through his chest]]</s> the portrayal of the Emperor playing chess in dreams, revealing that the message is about his upcoming bitchslap from Horus.
*'''''Deliverance Lost:''''' [[Corvus Corax]], having just escaped from Istvaan V, decides to go ask daddy for a handout to get his Legion back on his feet, and gets the mother of all genetech to do it, though he has to do a bit of legwork to get it. Meanwhile, a bunch of faceless Alpha Legionnaires (okay, they do have faces, they just originally belonged to some Raven Guard) had infiltrated Corax's Legion at Istvaan, and are doing recon and intelligence gathering waiting for [[Omegon]] to give the go-ahead to fuck shit up. Corax, meanwhile sets up new geneseed methods that bring up new recruits to battle-ready marines ''in fucking hours'', with the potential to conscript literally anybody willing to become a Space Marine. The Alphas decide this probably isn't in their interest, and sabotage the new geneseed by tainting it with ''daemon blood'', turning second- and third-batch new Raven Guard into the twisted monsters we know that Corax ended up with. In one of the instances of retcon that was actually flavored with [[awesome]] and win, the mutant marines [[Grimdark|were still sapient]], but were left to fight on in the Emperor's name. After staging a mass insurrection on Deliverance's parent world with the help of some old guilders Corax ousted and the Dark Mechanicum, Omegon gets ''more'' Alphas infiltrated into the Raven for the endgame: steal the genetech, kill some Ravenguard, get the fuck out before anybody knows what the fuck just happened in here. A couple cockups along the way leads to the Raven Guard getting wise and isolating out the Alphas. The end of the novel was like a swingers party at the retirement home, everybody got screwed (even ''Horus''), nobody got what they hoped for (except for [[Omegon|the really deviant bastard]]), and all-around the reproductive material was a waste. Corax shut down his hothousing method, and starts fucking with the Traitors, even at reduced numbers. The book ends on a note with Alpharius-Omegon deciding that while their plan for saving the galaxy was still good, they decide working with Xenos isn't for them.
*'''''Know No Fear:''''' The Ultras are still ignorant about Istvaan and the civil war erupting around the galaxy, and are on muster at Calth with the Word Bearers [[troll|on orders from Horus]] to go kill some Orks together as a conciliatory gesture. They were in for a surprise. The Word Bearers, while happy as hell to get revenge, are really trying to [[Eldrad|dick over]] the Ultramarines to keep them out of the Heresy, if not destroy them outright. What happens next is the Word Bearers arrange some "accidents" using sorcery and good ol' fashioned treachery to fake a monumental fuck up in the ship yards that leave the Ultramarine forces blind, deaf, and crippled. They use the confusion to say that the Ultras ''still'' fucking them over, and take the chance to open not only a can, but entire cases of whoop-ass on the Ultras. Erebus turns Calth's pole into a screaming hellscape to start up a warp storm, while Kor Phaeron oversees the systematic extermination of the Ultramarines and also successfully poisons Calth's sun. Guilliman gets jettisoned into space, but survives because [[Spiritual Liege]]. He then leads a counterattack on Kor Phaeron, and while Kor comes ''this close'' to getting a Primarch kill with [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|Chaos mindbullets]], but in a moment of self-aggrandizement, he holds back tries to corrupt Guilliman with his own dagger-sized '''MURDER SWORD'''. Guilliman calmly tells him "The Codex Astartes <s>does</s> will not support this action" (it was really "You made an error" followed by an explanation of that error, and "but while I'm alive, I can do this") and [[Rip and Tear|rips out Kor Phaeron's main heart with an unpowered Lightning Claw]]. Kor Phaeron's minions run away with his carcass, allowing the Ultras to retake their space station, which in turn allows Mechanicus plot power, aided by a planet's worth of orbital defense batteries, to bring the ground war back into the Ultramarines' favor. The novel ends with Word Bearers getting the hell out of there, and the Ultramarines evacuating everyone they can off of Calth and telling everybody they can't to get underground, transitioning into underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pius]] being the special guest star with his very own subplot, and the Word Bearers having athame blades as special issue, one of which will [[Uriel Ventris|come back later]]. You might notice this summary is pretty spoilerific, but if you didn't know the broad strokes already, you're in the wrong place.
*'''''The Primarchs:''''' A novella anthology. As the name suggests, it contains stories featuring Primarchs.
**'''''The Reflection Crack'd:''''' - <s>[[Lucius]] and friends anally rape [[Fulgrim]]. Yeah.</s> While questionable use of a ''pear of anguish'' is featured during a game of "Stab the Fulgrim," the real story is this: Lucius and his buddies are deep into the [[/d/|sickfuckery]] which will come to characterize their Legion, but begin to suspect that Fulgrim might have a daemon in him when he begins acting like not-Fulgrim and uses sorcery. They ambush him and try to exorcise it with pain, because torturing a Slaaneshi daemon will totally work (though they find out that a Primarch can grow back a foot, and just about any other wound). Among everything else: [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bill]] is still an arrogant dick; Lucius is still a maniacal and colossally narcissistic sick fuck; Julius Kaesoron is still an angry badass; Marius Vairosean is still a sycophantic cunt; and Eidolon was still a self-important, whiny douche, but Fulgrim throws a tantrum and cuts his head off, and there was much cheering from the readers, and that ''plus'' almost certain off-screen fapping among the Legionaries leads into ''Angel Exterminatus''.
**'''''Feat of Iron''''' - [[Ferrus Manus]]'s Legion is trying to off some Eldar on a desert world, but can't find the major Eldar strategic asset because of Spess Elf warp bullshit. A Farseer thinks he can warn Ferrus about the Heresy, and traps him in the webway or some psychic realm for a spirit quest long enough to fight a [[Fulgrim|giant purple snake]] (which is [[/d/|disturbingly appropriate imagery]] when you think about it); and Ferrus thinks it was the wyrm that he killed and gave him his metal hands, but the snake tells him that he must be mistaking it for somebody else. Ferrus kills it, and meets the Farseer who tries to tell Ferrus that he wasn't just being a dick. Ferrus, having too many experiences with Eldar being dicks, knocks some sense into the Farseer, who manages to run just fast enough to avoid getting killed. Ferrus comes back and helps his Legion fight off the Eldar kill the Webway beacon, or whatever the hell it was. In the background of all of this, the Iron Hands, having lost Ferrus, decide to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bitch about potentially dead father, and work to complete the mission despite being weighed down by Imperial Army who are dying of dehydration and heat stroke. The Eldar figure out a way to use storm clouds that make Iron Hands bionics kill their users, and Ferrus has a bitch of an itch around his neck that he can't get rid of. [[Drop Site Massacre|I wonder if that's important]].
**'''''The Lion:''''' - Dark Angels fight daemons and reinstitute Librarians. The Lion teamkills Nemiel for reminding him about Nikaea, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books because [[Gav Thorpe]] wanted to prove he's a big boy author who can kill his characters. Then they steal an intelligent super warp engine (insta shifts the Dark Angel fleet into the warp without need for a jump point while teleporting itself and the Lion onto his flagship; Lion is capable of talking politely infront of so much power) from [[Typhus]] then set course for Macragge to sort out Guilliman.
**'''''Serpent Beneath:''''' - Alpharius Omegon plots against himself and destroys a facility built around what looks suspiciously like a Cadian Pylon (and said facility keeping the White Scars out of the war), due to [[Cake|an information leak]], and they can't have that. Except than none of the main players are Alpharius or Omegon. And Alpharius and Omegon can't decide if they're secretly working against each other or not. Also: considered to be one of the better works of the series, not only due to quality, but because of the sheer mindfuckery of the plot, keeping entirely within the rationale of the Alpha Legion without any jumps in logic or canon.

=== Books XXI - XXX ===
*'''''Fear to Tread:''''' Despite being Black Library's most financially successful book ''ever'' and hitting thirteen (!) on the New York Times bestseller list (without Oprah's recommendation, even), many [[/tg/|fa/tg/uy]]s find it a bit ridiculous. Why? Well, there's planets with giant frowny faces inhabited by garbage monsters, ships getting blown up by city-sized rocks launched from the aforementioned planets, a nearly-stereotypically-gay [[Slaanesh]]i daemon that doesn't actually serve much of a purpose in the story, and a villain named the Red Angel, despite the fact [[Angron]] already claimed that as a nickname (although he was first introduced in ''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'', so it's not [[James Swallow]]'s fault). Oh, and Sanguinius acts like an idiot about [[Chaos]] the whole time, which fits the [[fluff]], but come on, how many freaky supernatural signs do you need to see before you decide it's not just foul xenos? In all fairness, of course, ''Fear to Tread'' does have quite a few good moments, especially when it comes to [[Warp]]-related terror. It also has a priceless bromance between [[Horus]] and [[Sanguinius]], not to mention Sanguinius and his Legion get characterized very well. Sanguiniuns and Co end up reaching Imperium Secundus.

*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - A story about two parallel story lines. The first is set during the [[Battle of Phall]], a space battle between the Iron Warriors whole fleet and what was left over from a third of the Imperial Fists's fleet after a warpstorm were ran them" ashore" and left them drifting and isolated in the backwater Phall system. Despite having the superior numbers, more and bigger guns, suicidal expenditure cohorts, and the power of a raging hatred boner, the Iron Warriors were losing to the Imperial Fists's maneuverability and [[Alexis Polux|Captain Polux's]] protagonist power. Eventually, the Fists get the order and window to withdraw to Terra, though turning tail would put their fleet at a huge disadvantage. Given the choice between blind obedience to his father or carrying on the battle they were winning, Polux chooses the former and takes his Fists back to Terra, but ends up in the Imperium Secundus instead. This was also the first of the two depictions of Perturabo, and clearly the worst of the two as he's shown as a cold-hearted Saturday morning cartoon villain with rage control issues. The second story line follows [[Sigismund]] as he follows Rogal around the Imperial Palace, while he was ordered to command the fleet on its way to Istvaan and got trapped at Phall, but delegated it to Polux's predecessor. The twist is that he met Euphrati Keeler had a spiritual experience when they spoke, and felt that he would be needed more at Terra instead of as a drifting corpse permanently lost in orbit around some backwater, and so handed off job of commanding the fleet. When he eventually opened up to Rogal, this got him in trouble. See, Rogal was still one of the [[Imperial Truth|stupid atheists]] at this point, so he disowned Sigismund because he thought "serving a higher purpose" was arrogant and got in the way of doing his job. This left Sigismund feeling really sad and pissed off, thus was his start of <s>darkness</s> daddy issues. [[Black Templars|Really pissed off and bad ass daddy issues.]]
**'''''The Dark King''''' - A look into the head and story of Konrad Curze during the events leading up to the Dropsite Massacre. It shows how Curze, even if you buy that he was a murderous paladin of justice and order through fear rather than just a fearsome murderer, is getting pretty fucked up in the head and lives with the knowledge of his demise haunting him, which isn't that great for his sanity. It also involves him beating up Rogal Dorn, killing some Imp Fists and Emp's Children terminators <s>with his more advanced suit and built-in vox jammers </s>with his bare hands, then blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn. The first 10 is him being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace as a grand piece of art by fortifying it into a coldly functional fortress. The next 10 is Rogal having an existential monologue then a conversation with Malcador, all about why he doesn't know why Horus declared war on the Emperor and brought half of the Legions with him, and is partly afraid to find out why in case it makes sense. Malcador ends up knowing at least a little about Chaos, and somehow got his hands on a tarot deck Curze used throughout his life, even to the close of ''The Dark King''. (Don't ask how he got them. Really.) Also the (*Name Drop*) Lightning Tower is the important card that comes up, signifying a [[Siege of Terra|destruction of fortifications]] and/or a [[Imperium of Man|change of thinking through sacrifice]].
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Right before Istvaan, techpriest Pallas Ravachol is working on a top secret "Kaban" robot project on Mars realizes that the project has achieved sapience and is in fact a form of strong AI. Though he genuinely befriended the Kaban machine, Ravachol complains to boss Magos Chrom that working on an AI is both highly illegal and insanely dangerous. Chrom tells Ravachol not to be such a pussy since Horus himself gave the OK, and after some deliberation, has a death squad awaiting to escort the Ravachol off site the next morning. Ravachol, thinking there were few ways this could well, makes a break for it and flees for Magos Malevolus's forge, hoping to get somebody with some clout to reveal that his old boss and Horus were up to something. On the way, he spends time running away from a latex-clad sadist babe who persistently chases after him; since she's an AdMech equivalent of a Death Cultist assassin, this is a ''much'' better idea than it sounds. When he gets to Malevolus's forge, Malevolus distracts him with a legion of shiny Mk6 suits of Marine Power Armor long enough to drop the bomb to drop that they were for Horus. The latex-clad babe catches up to them both, and the techpriest flees again, only to be puzzled why Malevolus and the assassin are letting him run. As he gets out the door, he meets the Kaban machine, <s>and through the power of friendship, the Kaban decides to side with the good guys, and the day is saved.</s> Except this is the dark, gritty universe of 30K where brother turns against brother. Chrom told the Kaban Machine that it and Ravachol couldn't be friends for realsies, because rules and stuff, and taking up with Horus was a great idea. The Kaban Machine, not understanding how humans work nor '''The Power of Friendship''', didn't know any better than to agree and kills Ravachol right on the steps of Malevolus's forge. End story. An okay story, somewhat generic feeling prose. More of a who's who of the Dark Mechanicus during ''Mechanicum'' and telling where the hell that Kaban machine from the same book came from and how they seduced an AI into Chaos worship.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - A bridge between Istvaan V and ''Deliverance Lost'', also a companion story to the Raven's Flight audio drama. The story tells how Commander Marcus Valerius of the Imperial Army is stationed on Deliverance and keeps having recurring nightmares which is causing him worry about Corax. Commander Branne of the Raven Guard's garrison on Deliverance, is getting tired of how the Legion's pet human won't stop bitching about it, and decides to take Valerius out on a trip in the battle barge to Istvaan just to show him that everything is just fine. Meanwhile, Corax and a relative handful of surviving Raven Guard are fighting a guerilla war against the traitors, trying to stay one step ahead of the Iron Warriors and then the World Eaters, and in-between skirmishes, Corax spends a few thoughtful moments feeling bad about his Legion and the state of the Imperium now that things have gone to shit.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, after that he makes tokens (for the warrior-lodge, but he doesn't know that) and then he gets his windpipe crushed to make sure word doesn't get out about the tokens. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life up until the point where he's lying on his own floor, slowly suffocating to death. Ultimately it is kind of irrelevant, but the lore nerds or people who have been paying attention might find it interesting. It is however only barely 20 pages long, so you might as well read it anyway.
**'''''Prince of Crows''''' - A novella featuring the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain [[Sevatar]] of the Night Lords. With the Night Lords's forces all but shattered by the Dark Angels, Curze in a coma nearly dead, and the Dark Angels's fleet in pursuit, Sevatar has to knock some heads for the Night Lords to get their shit together and reorganize and rethink strategy. It's essentially about showing the fractures in the Night Lords Legion. As most stories written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]], it's pretty good.

*'''''Angel Exterminatus:''''' [[Perturabo]] just finished [[skub|fucking up (or being fucked by)]] some Fists, and [[Fulgrim]] finds him to polish off a plot hook from ''The Reflection Crack'd'' and recruit Pert for an expedition into the Eye of Terror because a renegade Eldar said he knows where to get ''the good shit'' (the eponymous Angel Exterminatus). Fulgrim wanted to make a show out of delivering exposition, and he had Pert use his skills to build a stadium and went storyteller mode; then the moment was killed when a Shattered Legion detachment composed of Iron Hands and a Raven Guard commando sniped Fulgrim (he got better). Of course, Pert took the moment to remind himself that this is why he can't have, [[Rage|won't ever have]], nice things. Thinking that Fulgrim had the scent of a powerful artifact or a superweapon, and seeing that Fulgrim was becoming the Primarch equivalent of a crack addict member of the Jersey Shore and his legion wasn't looking much better, Pert decided to play it safe by tagging along and making sure Fulgrim wouldn't break anything. On the way, a different Eldar scholar came to the Shattered Legion, telling them that Fulgrim and Pert can't be allowed to get to the Angel Exterminatus, or [[Daemon|Bad Things (Warp-registered trademark)]] will happen. Well into the journey into the Eye, the Iron Hands's resident mad scientist accidentally gave away their location, and the Emp's Children and Iron Warriors decide to throw a boarding party. After a few pages of pulse pounding action, Pert says "fuck this", and leaves as the Iron Hands's same mad scientist overloads the engines and does a [[Battlefleet Gothic|mother of a ramming maneuver]] which kills an Emp's Children ship. (Pert was getting sick of Fulgrim's shit at this point, so he decided not to let them know, leading to the loss of the ship and thousands of casualties for Fulgrim.) Then, they finally get there, they find a [[Crone World]] covered in ruins and occupied spirit stones being held in orbit around a black hole. Some wraithbone constructs pop up and Pert and Fulgrim have to fight to the heart of the planet to get at the Angel Exterminatus. On the way, Pert kills their renegade Eldar because he was a lyin' bitch. When they ''finally'' get there, Surprise! Daemon Primarch Fulgrim is supposed to be the Angel Exterminatus, and he betrays Pert (a bauble Fulgrim gave to Pert at the start of the book was a vitality-leeching thing), and they start the ritual which would sacrifice Pert to turn Fulgrim into a Daemon Prince. Then the Shattered Legion crashes the ceremony, and assists the Iron Warriors since it's clear they weren't working with the Emp's Children anymore. Pert kills Fulgrim, but it didn't count since Fulgrim's mortal essence works just as well as sacrifice. He goes full Daemon Prince despite a generous helping of Thunder Hammer to his [[gay|pretty face]], breaks every spirit stone on the planet, and disappears with every last one of his sick fucks. The Eldar scholar helping the Shattered Legion throws a bitch fit, revealing that both scholars were Dark Eldar who had cut a deal with Fulgrim (help him become a daemon and they get assloads of spirit stones to fuck with), and he had made sure that the Shattered Legions were there to put a wedge in that deal because...reasons. The Shattered Legion gets the hell out, and the Iron Warriors try to GTFO as the planet starts to fall into the black hole. The book ends, with Pert, being a wise man, orders them to reverse course and fly right into that fucker. Subplots include a lot of buildup for McNeil's Iron Warriors stories, the Shattered Legions' feelings on trying to unfuck an irreversibly fucked situation, some tense buildup of two Imperial Fists as they try to survive Fabius's turning them into mutants (which actually had a poor payoff). Despite being overall good, it's a bit of a skub novel because the depiction of Perturabo is so different from expected, rather than being the bitter [[RAGE|Rage]] machine from every other depiction, he's a quiet [[Neckbeard|nerd who plays with toys as a hobby]], but with muscles. And because the ghosts of eldar's Aspect Warriors and Wraith-Constructs inside a planet left inside the Eye of Terror is a canon-rape on par with C.S. Goto, the first death of Lucius at the hands of a Mary Sue despite previous claims that he was undefeated during the Heresy and his unexplained resurrection (<s>"How? Fucking Chaos, that's how."</s> Oh, sure, every CSM is immortal), and an Iron Hands legionnaire somehow being immune to sonic weapons by being deaf. And worst of all, a rotating Shadowsword turret.

*'''''Betrayer:''''' Lorgar and Angron rampage over the Ultramarines 500 worlds. Lots of references to Angron's past and his Butcher's Nails are killing him slowly. Turns out one of the Ultramarine worlds was his own Homeworld, so he destroys it and Lorgar makes him into a daemon-prince. Also remember the Furious Abyss? Lorgar has two more. Also focuses on Khârn and Argel Tal being bros, until Erebus decides to intervene and kill a bitch.

* '''''Angron:''''' An anthology about <s>Lorgar</s> <s>Horus</s> <s>Dorn</s> <s>Malcador</s> <s>the plumber for the Golden Throne</s> Fuck, we can't remember. It often gets passed over in the official lists, since it's actually a cheat since it's a republish of older short stories: '''After De'shea''', '''Butcher's Nails''' ''(print format)'', and '''Lord of the Red Sands''' ''(which was initially a standalone release,'' even later ''republished in'' The Imperial Truth'')''.

*'''''Mark of Calth:''''' Another set of short stories, though all focused on the [[Ultramarines]] or the [[Word Bearers]].
**'''''Shards of Erebus:''''' - We find that [[Erebus]] broke the '''MURDER SWORD''' into eight daggers/athames and shared them with his bros. Also shows how he returned to Davin to learn how to teleport with the '''MURDER SWORD''', then killing the priestess that helped him turn Horus. She somehow wins because she served Chaos before dying which pisses Erebus off.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Keeps bringing up what Calth used to be like. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to Nurgle everyone, and the Ultramarines save the day in the nick of time. After all, THE GREATEST OF THE-{{BLAM}}
**'''''Dark Heart''''' - A young Word Bearer is interrogated by Kor Phaeron after he ended up killing his mentor with dark powers (turned him insta inside out). A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degradation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A spacedock traffic controller survives the destruction of his star fort, and the fatal crash of his escape shuttle before ending up in a small underground arcology with other human survivors. Imperial cultists believe he is blessed, and when he starts hearing whispers and seeing unbelievers they start rounding everybody up for execution. Everybody gets slowly executed till he's the last one left. Learns he's been possessed and reveals to an Ultramarine that he was was infected by the vox from the ''Campanile''.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - An Ultramarine has a hard-on for a certain Word Bearer trolling him. Hunts down said Word Bearer into a cave system with a team of soldiers and Spess Merheens. Word Bearer trolls them by summoning a Gorgon. Ultramarine wins by tricking the Gorgon into looking at its reflection.
**'''''The Underworld War''''' - A story that has little to do with the actual Underworld War. It features a Gal Vorbak who sees the attack on Calth as a clusterfuck of fail. Has a plot-twist ending... turns out Daemons give visions of the future to potential Gal Vorbak, and said Gal Vorbak was given a vision of him not abandoning his fallen brothers on Calth. The Daemon doesn't have time for that shit so it lets him die during his transformation.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife, though not one from the '''MURDER SWORD'''. That's about it... totally... right. Wrong. The small sacrificial knife that Ollanius found was carved on Terra for a benign ritual, stolen by an evil Perpetual who was killed by ''the Emperor'' in medieval times, found in an archeological dig by Kasper Hawser, and went on other crazy murder-adventures, all while having rudimentary sentience.
**'''''Unmarked''''' - Ollanius Pius and friends is traveling through time and space using the athame from the previous story. We learn a lot more about Oll's past, going into detail about his offhand mentions that he was one of the Argonauts and that he served in the First World War and the First Gulf War.
*'''''Vulkan Lives:''''' What happened to Vulkan after the Dropsite Massacre? He got made Konrad Curze's torture bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer to the face. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc. Remember the Shattered Legions crew from ''Angel Exterminatus''? Now you get a new group that is far more bland and less distinct.
*'''''The Unremembered Empire:''''' [[Perpetual|Matt Damon]] killed Martin Luther King. This happens in the book. Also, unlike the cover and synopsis would imply, it's ''not'' about Sanguinius and Guilliman working together to build a back-up Imperium around Ultramar, which leads to the question of ''why that's on the cover?'' No one knows what it is really about, especially the book's description of itself (which describes its ''sequels''). Several things happen in the book as several unrelated subplots collide as several entities are drawn by the Pharos device to Macragge. There are implications that Guilliman's new backup Imperium is starving resources from Terra.
*'''''Scars:''''' Technically the third book of the Prospero arc. The Khan returns to the Imperium after killing Orks left over from Ullanor and can't decide what side to join. Turns his back on Leman Russ during a fight with the Alpha Legion and goes looking for his best friend Magnus, also gets into a fight with Mortarion on the way, also [[The Fallen|half his legion turns traitor]] but turns out it's no big deal.
** '''''Brotherhood of the Storm:''''' Prequel to Scars, shows the White Scars fighting Orks on Chondax.
*'''''Vengeful Spirit''''' Horus goes looking for power to make him equal to the Emperor and the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z (kinda). We learn that the Emperor gained his powers after making a pact with the Chaos Gods where they gave him a fraction of their power, then somehow managed to double-cross them in what is quite possibly the most retarded retcon ever introduced in the entire book series. (In all seriousness though, the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series. It could be the truth, or one of their beautifully crafted lies.) Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest. Also, if you have been ignoring the audio books, you will be a bit lost at the start of this one.
*'''''The Damnation of Pythos''''' A Lovecraftian Horror story disguised as a Horus Heresy story. Has the most grimdark ending of the series thus far, up there with Dead Men Walking. Adds just about as much to the overall series as ''Furious Abyss'' did, but is actually pretty well written, unlike "Furious Abyss". To cut a long story short, daemons take over a world in the Pandorax system, capture a starship and use it to start ferrying cultists from place to place. The book also has some crossover with 40k and the Pandorax Campaign.

=== Books XXXI to XL ===
*'''''Legacies of Betrayal''''' Another anthology, though this time it's a bit of cheat, and they just consolidated several pre-existing stories; some of the the novellas but also included print versions of audio books.
**'''Brotherhood of the Storm''' - see above
**'''Serpent''' - A really short and out-of-place story about a Davinite Priest.
**'''Hunters Moon''' - originally an audiobook involving peasant fishermen rescuing a crashed space wolf who is running from the Alpha Legion after killing Alpharius, it obviously doesn't end well.
**'''Veritas Ferrum''' - a prequel to Damnation of Pythos, about an Iron Hands starship escaping ''(against their better nature)'' from Isstvan with some survivors.
**'''Strike and Fade''' - More survivors of Isstvan, though this is about Salamanders just killing time (and Night Lords) whilst they wait to be rescued.
**'''Honour to the Dead''' - about Ultramarines and an innocent woman and child trying her hardest to follow them to safety.
**'''Butcher's Nails''' - A good one to read, Angron & Lorgar go on the Shadow-Crusade and come to an understanding whilst fighting Eldar.
**'''Warmaster''' - Horus considering how much of a badass he is while chatting with Ferrus Manus's skull.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go kidnap a warp code interpreter that will let them intercept garbled enemy communications.
**'''Wolfs Claw''' - Bjorn the Fell-Handed needs a replacement arm, but the Iron Priests are too busy, but he happens to find a nice fancy relic one just lying around.
**'''The Divine Word'''
**'''Thief of Revelations''' - After Prospero, the Thousand Sons need something to stop all their rampant mutation, so Ahriman goes to ask why Magnus has locked himself away. He's got bigger things to worry about and is looking across time and space for key events for future [[Just as Planned]] manipulations.
**'''Lucius the Eternal Warrior''' - After his first death ''(and unexplained resurrection)'' at the hands of Nykona Sharrowkyn, Lucius has somehow abandoned the Heresy and goes to the planet of Sorcerers to fight a duel with the bestest Thousand Son swordsman, ends up meeting Ahriman. [[wat|Uh-huh...]]
**'''The Eightfold Path''' - Kharn and the World Eaters realise that too much rip and tear is leading them [[Khorne|down a damning path]], but they're already too far gone.
**'''Guardian of Order''' - [[Cypher]] and [[Zahariel]] discover that the Ouroboros (banished in Fallen Angels) is coming back
**'''Heart of the Conqueror''' - Angron's Navigator gets a bit uppity about being made to turn traitor, despite having been picked for the job as the angry man's chauffeur by the Emperor himself. Blams herself during mid-warp transit with not-fun results for flagship.
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel is killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes about it on his armour. Said notes will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]] on the subject of killing Word Bearers (because it's that damn important to kill Word Bearers). Thiel eventually gets bored and goes back to Macragge in the end.
**'''Lone Wolf''' - Bjorn has lost all of his squad, but is now such an awesome badass that he can solo Bloodthirsters.
*'''''Death and Defiance''''' Yet another anthology
**'''Imperfect''' - Daemon-Fulgrim has been getting Fabius to clone Ferrus Manus, because the split personality thing makes him feel guilty about failing to turn his brother to Horus's side, but the clones are never quite right and go mental at each suggestion. Fabius also has his own stuff going on.
**'''Howl of the Heathworld''' - Space Wolves get sent to Terra to watch over Rogal Dorn so he doesn't start using psykers, its a pointless task and everyone know it. Also offers insight into the Wolves naming conventions.
**'''A Safe and Shadowed Place''' - [[Night Lords]] start stabbing each other in the back as soon as Curze goes missing while solo'ing Macragge. It's about a ship floating in the ruinstorm that has just discovered the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] and foreshadows problems for Ultramar.
**'''Virtues of the Sons''' - Sanguinius forsees that he will not always be in charge of the Blood Angels, but worries about the Red Thirst causing havoc with his sons futures. So gets Amit to duel Kharn and Azkaellon to duel Lucius in hopes they'll learn something. Azkaellon learns to let the rage out a bit and Amit learns a modicum of restraint.
**'''Gunsight''' - The Vindicare Assassin from Nemesis is still alive and on Horus' flagship, its about him spending years waiting for the opportune moment to get a shot, but he starts going mad while he waits. Gives ups when Horus plucks his killshot from the air and Horus gives him a chaos rifle for his change in loyalty.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anthology
**'''Daemonology''' - To and fro' story about [[Mortarion]]. On Terra he discovers the initial construction of the Golden Throne and gets told about Emp's plan for removing psykers. In the "present day" he captures a daemon and starts practising sorcery on it.
**'''Black Oculus''' - A short story about Navigators describing what it's like travelling in the warp.... basically it's [[Grimdark]].
**'''Chirurgeon''' - [[Fabius Bile]] narrating about his history, and what happened about the gene-flaw that almost wiped out the [[Emperor's Children]]. Totally has the gene-flaw and has been using his bestest bro turned servitor to keep it under wraps.
**'''Twisted''' - '''Maloghurst''' gets a story about him uncovering plots against Horus and gets wrapped up in intrigue. It actually shows him as a really clever bastard and a bit of a badass.
**'''Wolf Mother''' - [[Perpetual|Alivia Sureka]]'s kids get captured after their escape from Molech and she teams up with [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]] in order to get them back. Lots of coolness on Sevarian's part and we also get to see that Perpetuals can resist possession.
*'''''Tallarn: Executioner''''' - A novella about a vehicle squadron (Leman Russ Executioner, Vanquisher and a Salamander) having to deal with the toxic surface in the weeks after the surface bombardment and then come into contact with the Iron Warriors. Also the Alpha Legion have a hand in things, like they always do.
*'''''Tallarn: Ironclad''''' - Part two of the Tallarn story.
*'''''Deathfire''''' - What the Salamanders have been saying since Isstvan is true: Vulkan lives! Well now he does. Basically a bunch of Salamanders take his body from Macragge to Nocturne (with some side help from didn't ask for this Magnus) and throw him into Nocturne's largest volcano, and lo and behold he comes back to life, making that entire plotline pointless. Still has the fucking Fulgurite in his chest, though. TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nzml-zZ9M
*'''''The Wolf King ''''' - The Space Wolves find themselves set upon by the forces of the Alpha Legion before they can recover from the Razing of Prospero and are hounded to the edge of the Alaxxes Nebula (swiss cheese acid cloud). There the Alpha Legion beat the ever-living shi...stuffing out of the wolves whilst Russ locks himself in his room and sulks. Russ eventually summons his new favourite Bjorn to join him and they have bit of a heart to heart about what a bunch of morons they were in allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily by Horus. By the end Russ is back to his old self and celebrates by massacring every Alpha he can get his hands on even if it’s clear that his defeat is inevitable. Fortunately for the Wolves helps comes from a hidden armada of Dark Angels ostensibly "loyal" to [[Luther]], but unaware of the Horus Heresy or of the whereabouts or actions of the Lion. Russ borrows gear and manpower from them in exchange for info on current events which most likely finds its way back to Luther and sets the "Destiny of Caliban" in motion. Russ then heads for Terra.
*'''''War Without End''''': Anthologies Without End.
*'''''Pharos''''': Night Lords fucking up the Pharos Lighthouse on Sotha. Sanguinius eventually grows some balls and starts standing up to Guilliman instead of just being a pantomime Emperor, while the Lion is nowhere to be seen as usual. Warsmith Dantioch bites it while using the Pharos to burn the Night Lords out of his fortress, but inadvertently piques the interest of the [[Tyranids]], causing them to show up 10,000 years later. Skraivok become a prime example of DEMON SWORDS: NOT EVEN ONCE.
*'''''Eye of Terra''''': Another anthology.
*'''''Path Of Heaven''''': Sequel to Scars. The White Scars have been fighting traitor legions for a few years but are starting to show the strain. They finally make a shift back to Terra but things don't go as planned. Notable for digging into the Webway storyline and the Navis Nobilite as well as featuring a resurrected and suddenly competent Eidolon. Navigators weren't going to sit around while E-money built their replacement, White Scars use a prototype webway portal to escape their last stand, and Moratarion starts using sorcery to locate Typhon.
*'''The Seventh Serpent:''' a novella about the Shattered Legions going up against the Alpha Legion; a simple premise made awesome by sheer depth of Alpharian plot twists: They had been manipulated by Alpharius into fighting a battle against Loyalist Alpha Legionaires.
*'''The Silent War:''' Guess What?! It's ''another'' anthology of stories that GW have already sold individually as audio-books. So value might be had for those who hadn't listened to them.
*'''''Angels of Caliban:''''' two Dark Angels stories in one book again, though this one actually moves the plot forward. In Ultramar, the Lion captures Konrad Curze but only after discretely nuking a whole region despite a ban on orbital weapon use, which results in his disgrace and we find that it is Guilliman who breaks the Lion Sword. Curze reveals that there were chaos cults on Mcraggae too, and that Guilliman would be a traitor if he had landed a little to the left. On Caliban, the Fallen openly declare their rebellion from the Imperium and ironically steal some starships that were meant to collect them and actually bring them into the war again. [[Zahariel]] kills [[Cypher]] and takes his place.
*'''''Praetorian of Dorn''''' Alpharius tries to invade <s>Terra</s> Pluto. Dorn kills him. Yes, Alpharius is now dead. And not a fake either, but the real Alpharius. Omegon can confirm. Alpha Legions fags blew a gasket. Oh shit believe we did.
*'''''Corax''''' A compilation of all the Corax Stories, plus a new one, '''Weregeld''', which manages to undo all the hard work the previous stories have done and turn Corax into a douchebag. Kills all his mutated Raven Guard because he promised to kill warp stuff. Saves Russ and his arrogant ass though.

=== Books XLI onwards ===
*'''''The Master of Mankind''''': The Emperor is a dick: the book. We all knew this, but now it's set in stone. Highlights being: Emperor stating to Arkhan Land that the Primarchs are tools and he views them with a scientific but detached fascination. Referring to them as numbers but content to allow the fantasy of being their "father", an interpretation of the character that was fairly divisive to say the least. He actually seems to care more for his Custodians than he does any of his other creations, but they don't consider him to be a father and see him as just their warlord. Drach'nyen is also revealed to be the Daemon created when Caine killed Abel. In the end he closes the door on the webway and has to spend the rest of his time sitting in the chair keeping it shut. Despite this, it does show off why the Chaos Gods fear him, as he pretty much rapes an infinite army of Daemons; the Greater ones either flee or try and fail to fight him (being destroyed in a matter of moments) whilst the lesser ones die just by looking at him. Despite this, Drach'nyen nearly kills him, and <s>it is confirmed that fate has indeed decreed that Empy will die at the daemon's hand</s> claims that it will kill the Emperor (keep in mind that the future is malleable and Daemons lie). But how will it feast on the Emperor's tattered soul when Abaddon lacks arms to plunge it into his chest? (''But Abaddon never lost his arms due to the same retcon that let Eldrad live'') Also known as Master of skubkind. Reveals his grand plan of saving the human race from the Eldar fate by absolute control of every human to a custodian before shanking him with Drach'nyen and making him run into the webway. Also put all his chips into the ''Human Webway'' plan and screwed us all over without a backup. Can you tell that this is an ADB book?
*'''''Garro''''': Compilation of all the stories about Garro and his boy band, though they insist it isn't just an anthology since the audio book stories were expanded to be more written novel friendly.
*'''''Shattered Legions''''': It's an anthology containing an anthology. I shit thee not. It shoves together the limited edition anthology Meduson with a few other shorter stories, including some Alpha Legion stuff like the Seventh Serpent.
*'''''The Crimson King''''': Magnus was broken into shards when Russ felled him. Now the Thousand Sons with the help of Lucius the Eternal must put him back together.
*'''''Tallarn''''': Does it even need to be stated? It's another fucking anthology, this time putting all the tank porn of the Tallarn books into one binding.
*'''''Ruinstorm:''''' The conclusion to the Imperium Secundus plotline, as well as the follow on to Damnation of Pythos. Shows the Lion, Sanguinius and Guilliman trying to cross the Ruinstorm to reach Terra. Having a brief stopover at Pandorax, they decide to head out to Davin where the Heresy began and where destinies are re-made; they pass systems along the way that show what the Galaxy would look like if Chaos wins, such as a Forge World surrounded by an immense fortress wall in outer space 4000 miles thick, or a sector of space filled with solid ritualised geometric shapes that are perhaps light years across. Davin itself is surrounded by a cloud of bones and wreckage millions of kilometers thick, but the planet has long since been abandoned. There, Sanguinius finds out that in order to live through the Heresy he must become a monster even worse than Horus, but dying will curse his sons with the Black Rage; blood is on his hands either way. Instead, Sanguinius tries to sacrifice himself to save the day, but the [[Sanguinor]] steps in and takes his place while the fleets rain down a shitstorm and destroy the planet. In the aftermath, the Ruinstorm abates enough for them to reach Terra, but Horus has so much force that it is impossible for all three legions to reach, so Guilliman and the Lion agree to distract the Traitors long enough to give Sanguinius a window to get back and face his destiny, explaining why they never made it to the Siege since they were engaging Traitor fleets and burning their worlds.
*'''''Old Earth:''''' Set immediately after ''Vulkan Lives'', Vulkan and three Salamander legionaries ''(the rest of the Salamanders weren't informed of their Primarch's resurrection)'' travelled through the Webway by a gate hidden in a cave on Nocturne. On their path to Terra, they came across the Shattered Legions, who were preparing for their first major void engagement with the Sons of Horus. Just before the attack, some Medusan-born Iron Hands tried to stage a coup against Shadrak Meduson by revealing a hideous contraption of machines, and the last remnants of Ferrus Manus - his iron hand ''(They were under the illusion that they could resurrect their Primarch through cybernetics, it is hinted that the Mechanicum had some hand in this affair.)'' Thankfully, Vulkan shattered the hand, and Meduson assumed command again, though he was killed by '''Tybalt Marr''' in a boarding action after the Iron Hand refused to send reinforcements to him. In the end, it was revealed that the Emperor had Vulkan forged a weapon, that in the event Terra fell to Horus, would amplify the power of the Golden Throne to the point it coulf wipe out the entire Throneworld ''(this is probably one of Vulcan's nine relics)'' Oh, and Eldrad rescued [[Knights-Errant|Barthusa Narek]] from Nocturne and made him his assassin. They killed most of the Cabal, and finally rescued John Grammaticus, who had his memory wiped after his failure to assassinate Vulkan. With his memory restored, Grammaticus was ordered by Eldrad to find Ollanius Pius and go to Terra.
*'''''Wolfsbane:''''' No solid information yet, but it seems like Leman Russ leaves Terra to confront Horus himself. One can expect that it doesn't end well for him.

== The Primarchs Series ==

Because Black Library don't seem satisfied confusing us with all their anthologies, audio-books, and short stories, they have begun releasing a spin-off series of Horus Heresy novels centered on the Primarchs. The series don't really take place in a specific time, but generally focuses on expanding on the titular Primarch's backstory and motivations during events before the Horus Heresy (though some of them also have events occurring after it). Why Black Library lists it as part of the Horus Heresy series when that is the case is beyond our comprehension.

=== Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar ===
Centers on the papa smurf himself, and him trying to deal with how the Emperor used him like a rusty hammer to smack Lorgar in the head at Monarchia. Uses a conflict against Orks as a vehicle for him and the smurfs to express their angst over the event.

=== Leman Russ: The Great Wolf ===
Focuses on Leman Russ' notorious rivalry with the Lion, and explaining why to this day whenever the Chapters meet they throw the gauntlet down and beat the stuffing out of one another. Notably it reveals some interesting stuff like the Lion being aware of the Space Wolves' furry issue and keeping a lid on it.

=== Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero ===
Depicts the unlikely friendship between Magnus and old Pert with a joint venture between their legions. Things go wrong on the planet due to totally not Chaos cult nonsense, and it does a decent job of showing Magnus' flaws. Specifically on his inability to leave things that have "do not fuck with this" alone; something Pert tries and fails at making him understand.

=== Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia ===
Probably the book in the series that did the most character building of all of them. This book is a mix of showing off Perturabo's childhood on Olympia alongside a "current" day conflict against the Hrud. The former showing why Pert is the odd genius manchild guy he is, while the latter does a great job of showing why fucking with an alien species capable of controlling time is somewhat of a stupid idea. However, the real draw of the book is that it is mainly written as an attempt to merge together the seemingly contradictory depictions of Pert we've had over the years. Showing how the ruthless dick who decimates his legion for not being good enough in the Forgeworld books is the same guy who just wanted to be a builder in Angel Exterminatus. Yep. Definitely a sperg. Also he may or may not have wanted to bang his adopted sister.

=== Lorgar: Bearer of the Word ===
Yep, the first(ish?) heretic himself gets his own obligatory messed up childhood novel. Focusing slightly more on Kor Phaeron rather than Lorgar himself, showing him to be a manipulative dick who beat Lorgar as a child and never really bought into this whole "fatherhood" shtick, or this whole concept of [[Emperor|One True God]] but allowed Lorgar his fantasies and to take over Colchis ''(By "Word" or by "Mace")'' while Phaeron benefitted from increased position and secretly kept the faith of [[Chaos Gods]].

Though by the end Kor Phaeron wonders if Lorgar just let him think that he was manipulated and could have disposed of him at any time. The book does introduce a contrasting character to Kor Phaeron who actually shows Lorgar compassion growing up and was far more worthy of being named "father" but was far less useful to Lorgar's goals. The book shows that Lorgar isn't as stupid or naive as everyone thinks and does indeed realise that people have been using him for their own gains, but while he only really cares about doing the work of the gods, so long as they both align he doesn't seem to care.

=== Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix ===
Fulgrim tries to conquer the newly discovered planet Byzas with only 7 men. Along the way he encounters a brotherhood much like his own that wants to work with him that Fulgrim dismisses as a bunch of idealists. It's implied that he COULD have gotten the same results (Compliance) working with them but unfortunately that would have meant calling in backup and Fulgrim didn't want to do that so that was out of the question. In the end Fulgrim takes the world, but nearly dies. Several of the characters (Cyrius, Kasperos Telmar) later become prominent champions of chaos.

=== Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa ===

== The Tabletop Wargame ==
[[Forge World]] is producing a new line of books and models (''in addition to'' [[Imperial Armour]] and [[Warhammer Forge]]) to allow players to fight battles from the Horus Heresy in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. This includes rules and models for the [[Primarchs]] (both pre- and post-fall, for the Traitors) as well as ancient vehicles. No [[xenos]], unfortunately. Presumably this came about because GW felt that they just weren't making quite enough money from die-hard marine/chaos players and figured they could literally buy a dump-truck full of gold plated cocaine each if they made a version of the game that requires only Forge World minis AND thousands upon thousands of them. Still worth it, though.

=== Betrayal ===
Forge World starts big, as their first book covers the battles on Istvaan III, in which [[Horus]] sent the remaining loyalist elements of the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Emperor's Children]], [[Death Guard]], and [[World Eaters]] to the surface, ostensibly to rout the anti-Imperial resistance that had taken hold in the capital city, and then fired [[Exterminatus]] torpedoes (of the life-eater virus bomb variety) onto the city to wipe them out.

Unfortunately for Horus, not everything went as planned; not only did the loyalist Death Guard frigate ''Eisenstein'' escape to the [[Phalanx]] with word of Horus's betrayal, but loyalist elements on other ships were able to disrupt the bombardment and warn the loyalists on the ground that it was coming. Between the disruption, the warning, and good old-fashioned [[Space Marine]] toughness, only a third or so of the landed force had actually died. Horus would have fired another bombardment, but [[Angron]] and his traitor World Eaters jumped the gun and made planetfall; the other traitors were left with no choice but to deploy themselves and destroy the remaining loyalists personally.

''Betrayal'' contains a [[Great Crusade]] Legion army list (for which we have a [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines/Legion List‎|tactica]]), and rules for special characters and units from the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Death Guard]], [[Emperor's Children]], and [[World Eaters]] Legions, including their [[Primarch]]s (even [[Fulgrim]], who was not actually at the battle) and several major characters from the book series such as Garviel Loken.

===Massacre===
The infamous Drop Site Massacre is the focus of the next book, where seven Legions are sent to crush Horus’ rebellion, only for four of those to turn on the other three and crush them utterly. The books storyline is essentially just the ''first day'' of the battle, leading up to the death of [[Ferrus Manus]].

Massacre contains additional rules for special characters and units from the [[Iron Hands]], [[Night Lords]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Word Bearers]] Legions including their Primarchs and several more major characters from the book series make their debut such as Sevatar, Eidolon, Erebus and Kharn.

===Extermination===
Focusses on the second half of Istvaan V, as well as the Battle of Phall between the [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Imperial Fists]]; and on that note, it includes rules for those two Legions, as well as the [[Alpha Legion]] and the [[Raven Guard]].

It also gives us a complete Mechanicum Army List: the Taghmata.

====Condensed Lists====
The ICL and LACAL were initially released as part of the limited edition run of Extermination, but were then later released separately. They are fluff-lite, codex-equivalent books that also included all of the FAQs/Errata up to their release; which unfortunately was still the end of 6th edition so some rules haven't carried over well. ''(eg. [[Lorgar]]s psychic rules.)''

The Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List is basically the generic 30k Space Marine "codex", whilst the Isstvan Campaign Legions contains all of the collected rules for the legions from Books 1-3; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three books. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game. The ICL was continued in the Age of Darkness Legions, which collected everything to book 5, including the errata.

Later came the Mechanicum Taghamata Army List, which contained all the Mechanicum units and army lists mentioned and rearranged them to keep everything on the same page, but lacked the Questoris Knight Army. The Crusade Imperialis Army Lists contain the Solar Auxilia, Imperialis Militia/Warp Cults, and Questoris Knight Crusade army lists.

===Conquest===
Horus Heresy Volume Four is entitled 'Conquest', despite early hints from Forgeworld that it would be about the Battle of Prospero, it instead features Horus' conquest of the Imperium and the [[Skub|"Major"]] battles of this time, which is to say some battle-zones that Forgeworld made up to fill time whilst they worked on the more well known events from the in-universe history. ''(And to be fair, their response as to why Prospero was delayed was because it included four major factions, [[Adeptus Custodes|two of]] [[Sisters of Silence|which have]] NEVER been represented on the tabletop, so required more time to do them justice.)''

A large portion of the book is given over to running battles in the '''"Age of Darkness"''', which is a variant ruleset used as the default for Horus Heresy games ''(where only Troops usually score, amongst other things)'' and has rules and FOCs for Cityfight missions, rules for running ongoing campaigns, variant rules for mysterious terrain and objectives as well as including unique relics to be taken by the various army lists to add flavor to non-special characters.

It also introduces the [[Solar Auxilia]] and [[Imperial Knight|"Questoris" Knights]] (as an AdMech list) armies to play while the modellers take a break from building power armor 24/7.

===Tempest===
The fifth Horus Heresy book will cover the Battle of Calth. The rules for the [[Ultramarines]] (including [[Roboute Guilliman]] himself) as well as several warp-corrupted Word Bearer units are brought in alongside a few other new miscellaneous FW releases, including the Deredeo and the new Thanatars. There's also an Imperial Militia (Read: PDF) list that's super-customizable so you can make both loyalist and traitor lists. Also, the MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IS IN IT TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===Retribution===
Focused on 'Shadow Wars' far from the main fronts of the Heresy, in particular the Shattered Legions - that is, the [[Iron Hands]], [[Raven Guard]], and [[Salamanders]] in their weakened state following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre. But other Legions can also be included, with special rules for the Shattered Legions, Black Shields and a list for Armies of Dark Compliance - mixed traitor Legiones/Militia lists, as well as ten new special characters. It includes Legiones Astartes rules for the White Scars, Blood Angels and Dark Angels, so that players of those legions can start playing properly; however, it does not include special units, characters, or Primarchs for those legions. It also includes Garro and the Knights Errant and additional Mechanicum units and characters, including a new Dark Magos, [[Anacharis Scoria]]. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons will still need to wait for the Prospero book (Inferno, Book 7).

===Inferno===
In <s>Set to be book 3.</s> <s>late 2016.</s> <s>early 2017 (Because FW can't keep to schedule)</s> <s>December 2016</s> February 4, 2017, will come what many neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those [[Thousand Sons]] players, start saving up so you can play your space Egyptian sorcerers in all their 30k glory. Rules for the Sisters of Silence as an allied detachment and the Adeptus Custodes as a full army list will be present as well.

Well, it's come, and... it's uninspiring to say the least, with stuff like [[What|Magnus being straight up impossible to hit if he casts invisibility, not to mention pumping out 2d6 destroyer hits at every unit within 18" if he likes]], [[Derp|Custodes captains beating out every Primarch with a rollable 3+ invulnerable save]], some Custodes wargear being straight up [[Wat|left out of the book]] and to cap it all, [[Herp|pictures of tourists in the book ('''twice''') where you'd expect miniatures to be]]. You'd think with such a long development cycle the quality assurance would have been more thorough. Didn't help that [[Alan Bligh]] was likely fairly ill in late 2016, and his untimely death in May of 2017 means the Horus Heresy team now has a big hole in it.

===Malevolence===
It will feature White Scars, Blood Angels and Daemons. Also some new stuff for Space Wolves and Alpha Legion.

== See Also ==
*[[The War of The Beast]], for the next massive shit-show the Imperium was involved with.
* [[Alternate Heresy]], for a discussion of other possible outcomes of the (not necessarily Horus) Heresy.

== External Links ==
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/3170/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (1993)] at BoardGameGeek
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/63543/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (2010)] at BoardGameGeek

{{40k-Timeline}}

[[Category:Board Games]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Wargames]]

Horus Heresy

2018-02-18T07:06:45Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|500px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''this''.]]
:''[[Fulgrim|"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.]]'' 
:''[[Magnus the Red|Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.]]'' 
:''[[Angron|They will be of iron will and steely muscle.]]'' 
:''[[Perturabo|In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.]]'' 
:''[[Mortarion|They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.]]'' 
:''[[Alpharius|They will have tactics, strategies and machines]] [[Omegon|so that no foe can best them in battle.]]'' 
:''[[Konrad Curze|They are my bulwark against the Terror.]]'' 
:''[[Lorgar|They are the Defenders of Humanity.]]'' 
:''[[Horus|They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."]]'' 
:- The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], [[Not as planned|getting exactly what he wanted.]]
{{Topquote|The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.|Karl Popper}}

The '''Horus Heresy''' is one of the single biggest clusterfuck of events in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff, alongside the [[Eldar]]'s creation of a new [[Slaanesh|Chaos God]], and the [[War in Heaven|rampage and fall of the]] [[C'Tan|star gods]]. Needless to say, this heresy derailed the Emperor's plan and himself, and gave the Chaos Gods their most prominent armies to carry out their will in realspace.

In the Horus Heresy, the Emperor's favorite son, [[Horus| Horus Lupercal]], formerly Warmaster of the Imperium, was corrupted by Chaos and rebelled against the Emperor, taking nine [[First Founding|Space Marine Legions]] (Including [[Luna Wolves|his own]]), their respective Primarchs, and about half of the Imperial Army and Mechanicum with him. After waging war across the galaxy, Horus and his traitors eventually reached Holy Terra itself, hoping to murder the Emperor himself and cut the head off the proverbial snake and win the war.

Things went [[Not as Planned]] however, as he was eventually surrounded by loyalist forces at the height of the siege on Terra. As a final gambit, he dropped the shields of his flagship which allowed the Emperor to beam up and challenged him to a duel for the fate of humanity. Horus beat the Emperor within an inch of his life but was killed in turn after the Emperor put his foot down and obliterated Horus' soul from existence (as in it didn't go to the warp to be resurrected by daemons; it was literally erased from existence) when it finally became clear to him that Horus was beyond forgiveness. The Chaos gribbles he had been allied with disappeared and the now Chaos Marines that had followed him sulked back to the [[Eye of Terror]], starting the [[Long War]].

Because the Emperor was fucked up to the point where he had to be permanently attached to a life-support machine known as the "Golden Throne" just to survive, logic within the Imperium gradually decreased, eventually turning into the [[Grimdark]] empire it is today. And it was already pretty damn grimdark.

[[File:President.png|700px|thumb|right|It was pretty much ''him''.]]

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course) and changed the flavour of the Imperium's Grimdark from Stalinist Soviet "if you breathe a word about religion, we rape you with knives" to Catholic [[Inquisition]] "if you breathe a word about the ''wrong'' religion, we rape you [[Exterminatus|or your whole planet]] with knives" unless you can find an Ecclesiarch to come and say: "nope, that's just another aspect of the Emperor". Don't count on this happening without hefty "donations".

The heresy lasted for several years (somewhere between seven and ten) and was fought all over the galaxy. The following are the most important battles and campaigns during the Heresy:
*[[Battle of Isstvan III]]
*[[Prospero|Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Betrayal at Calth|Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Battle of Tallarn]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

Following the Siege of Terra, Horus was permakilled, Big E was interred onto the Golden Throne, the surviving primarchs freaked out trying to figure out what do now that daddy was in a coma, the traitors fucked off into the Eye of Terror, and overall the galaxy slowly and collectively lost their minds now that their wise and all-powerful ruler was no longer around to tell them what to do.

== The Board Game ==
First published in 1993 by [[Game Designer's Workshop]], it was the Emprah versus his [[Horus|evil bastard of a son]] in the scorched earth of Terra. Units include [[Titan#Warhammer_40k|titans]] and [[Chaos Spawn|Chaos Spaw-]] oh shiARHGRBLLYRBGRDEWUODHGRYEB.

Ahem, as he was saying, The more recent edition (2010) is published by [[Fantasy Flight Games]]. Also a two-player [[wargame|war]] [[board game|game]], it includes over 100 sculpted minifigs, sculpted buildings, and even Horus and the Emprah themselves are units on the board. It also adds more territory, as the fight can be pushed back onto the [[heresy|traitor's]] flagship ''Vengeful Spirit''. Combat is less [[dice|dice-y]] and more card-y.

(Not to be confused with the lame Horus Heresy card game, whose only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway.)

== The Book Series ==
For the last decade, [[Black Library]] has been publishing novels that explore the events of the Horus Heresy, looking at the rivalries among the [[Primarchs]] and exploring just why everything went down the tubes. The novels are by a selection of different authors, which is a total pain if you like to organise your books alphabetically by author. The reception to the series has been somewhat... mixed; books generally considered to be good include [[Dan Abnett|the first trilogy]], [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|Betrayer]], [[White Scars|Scars]], and the short story [[Alpha Legion|The Serpent Beneath]].

Of course, like we mentioned, there's some that are... um... Well, let's just say that the worst are a [[skub|matter of much debate]].

{{Template:Spoilers}}

=== Books I - X ===
*'''''Horus Rising:''''' A prologue story, introducing us to the series and Garviel Loken who will grow into a very significant character. An Emperor (not [[Emperor|Him]]) is killed at the beginning and some bugs are killed on a planet called Murder for no reason other than they were there. The Interex show up and ask "whadya do that for?". [[Erebus]] steals the '''MURDER SWORD''' from them.
*'''''False Gods:''''' Horus falls at Davin when wounded by the '''MURDER SWORD''' and gets a crash course in the chaos gods from [[Erebus]] & [[Magnus]]. After getting shown a few "truths" that WILL HAPPEN in the future (like the Emperor being worshipped as a god, Horus being reviled and forgotten) he decides to make war on the Imperium to [[FAIL|prevent]] all this from happening.
*'''''Galaxy in Flames:''''' Isstvan III happens and the traitors send the loyalists down to the planet without reinforcements and proceed to bomb them to fuck. Things don't go to plan when [[Angron]] decides to invade turning it into a [[Not as Planned]] drawn out conflict that the Warmaster can't really afford - Loken "dies"
*'''''Flight of the Eisenstein:''''' the other side of ''Galaxy in Flames'', Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved (and mega-bitchslapped) by [[Rogal Dorn]], who does not take the news from Isstvan [[Rage|very well]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'. There is also the very first canonical appearance of Plague Marines, Euphrati Keeler being all mystical and shit, and Malcador recruiting Garro as the first Knight-Errant.
*'''''Fulgrim:''''' one of the more forgettable stories in the series. Attempts to tell the story from Great Crusade all the way up to the [[Drop Site Massacre]] in one book. In short Fulgrim finds a sword, gets possessed, kills Ferrus Manus - the end. It is written by Graham McNiel though, and it has an awesome quote from Fulgrim "My Emperor's Children. What beautiful music they make." .
*'''''Descent of Angels:''''' This is the Heresy book that isn't about the Heresy, instead focusing on [[Zahariel]]'s time on [[Caliban]]. It portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness (he can not read people at all, so he comes off as 'do what I say or die!') and having Luther to handle the small talk. Hints that the Great Crusade <s>does more harm than good</s> {{BLAM}} is uniting the lost colonies of mankind into a united future! Luther gets sent home with Zahariel to hustle up more Dark Angels.
*'''''Legion''''' introduces [[the Cabal]], the [[Perpetual]]s and [[Omegon]]. READ THIS BOOK. Or don't, as this is where those things that would eventually take over the Heresy series and according to many completely ruin it (Cabal, Perpetuals) are introduced. I still would recommend reading it since when the novel introduces these ideas they are very fresh and interesting. Don't blame Legion when the rest of the novels were who ruined it. Alpha legion is trying to bring some chaos cultist into compliance. Chaos cultists activate planetary self destruct blood sacrifice. Alpha legion meets with the Cabal, agrees to work with them, then kills off all non-legion bystanders & ships with "FOR E-MONEY"!
*'''''Battle for the Abyss:''''' The book is so bad that other authors tried to retcon it out of existence. This book is so bad that you would have it was cobbled together from [[Matt Ward|Wardian fluff]] stitched together by [[C. S. Goto]]. Reading this book may, in fact, cause brain cancer so you should avoid it if at all possible. Everyone dies, so it does not affect much (as in anything). The only thing you need to remember is [[Lorgar]] built a fuckhueg space ship and filled it with Dreadnoughts, and it failed miserably.
*'''''Mechanicum:''''' Tech Priests turn renegade after Horus tells them they can do whatever they like with technology, so they release forbidden viral scrapcodes and screw everything up. Also turns out that [[Emperor|Big E]] invented the Machine-God by sealing a C'Tan on Mars back during the Saint George era, giving everyone visions of technology. Also more subtle hints that the Emperor is a god himself by using divine golden light to heal machines and instant access super wikipedia. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery. And for extra Grimdark, a tech priestess discovers that the Dark Age era humans stored a backup copy of wikipedia in the warp and <s>with a giant psyker powered terminal accesses said wikipedia and restores all the knowledge of mankind</s> floods her forge with lava to deny the traitors access. A psyker tech savant meets up with the goaler of the Void Dragon and takes over his fuck long shift.
*'''''Tales of Heresy:''''' short story collection, including [[The Last Church]]. Has a lot of twist endings.
** '''''Blood Games:''''' An assassin tries to kill the emperor. The Adeptus Custodes go to kill a traitor on Terra. The assassin was a Custodes probing the palace defences. The traitor was a triple agent working for Dorn.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor. When the liberated planet chooses freedom over Emperor, the wolves invade again.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. They worshiped the Emperor, but Lorgar no longer does. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The squad of Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp. Turns out the youngest of the squad in the future used sorcery to beam back her consciousness through time onto some psykers on the Black Ship. She <s>successfully warns the squad about Horus's Rebellion </s> is executed by a hard-core Sister for breaking her vow of [[Psyker|no funny stuff]].
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.
** '''''[[The Last Church]]:''''' A story about the Emperor destroying one of the churches on Terra during the reunification era in his effort to wipe out religion. The Emperor and the priest of the church have an enlightening conversation about the Emprah's trying to accomplish. The conversation ends up with the priest accusing the Emperor of being a hypocrite, with him decrying that he's no more different than the old warlords who waged crusades and holy wars in the past to push their own agendas on other people. Emperor reveals himself as the very god the priest was worshiping, and nearly convinces him to stand by his side while his soldiers destroy the church. Priest gets cold feet and walks back into the church while it collapses. An end-times alarm clock starts ringing in the ruins.
** '''''After Desh'ea:''''' The War Hounds meet their primarch. Angron demeats the War Hounds. More specifically, the Emperor just beamed up Angron away from his last stand (rather than, you know, intervening with his Custodes or his fleet), leaving Angron pretty pissed. [[Kharn]] is a pretty great guy to be around, and pulls his femurs out of his lungs quickly enough to establish himself as Angron's best buddy ''after the War Hounds chain of command calmed Angron down as fleshy squeeze balls''.

=== Books XI - XX ===
*'''''Fallen Angels:''''' the sequel to Descent of Angels, is actually two stories rolled into one book that never converge. 1. The Lion fights a war to reclaim some Ordinatus devices and then hands them to Perturabo to gain his trust, not realising that his brother has already turned. 2. [[Zahariel]] and Luther clean out a daemon cult on Caliban... but not really.
*'''''Thousand Sons:''''' Part 1 of the Battle for Prospero. Runs through the Great Crusade where Magnus discovers the webway, but his Father already knew about it. Then the Edict of Nikaea where Magnus gets all passionate about not restricting psychic powers, then to Horus's vision quest where Magnus fails to keep his brother on the right path, then does the WORST thing possible by forcing himself through the palace psychic spam filter, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues and the thousand sons become a thousand sons all over again. Ahriman starts writing hit Rubric.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail because Horus sent a look-a-like, but in the process slay a shapeshifting daemonic counter-assassin sent by Erebus. While it is a decent book and we learn a lot, it didn't contribute much to the overall plot. On the more [[rage|vitriolic side]], the writing is a bit underwhelming in places; highlights include calling a pariah a psyker, another pariah with a contrived possession, and Horus uttering one of the most cliche one liners out there.
*'''''The First Heretic:''''' [[Lorgar]]'s turn to get a back story and generally considered one of the better books in the series. While you make never sympathize with them, this book really lets you understand why The Word Bearers fell to chaos, rather then being the "CHAOTIC EVIL MONSTERS" they are portrayed in the rest of the series.. Feels less rushed than "[[Fulgrim]]". Goes from Monarchia to a bit of soul searching in the Eye of Terror and discovers Cadia. Leads up to Istvaan V and the immediate aftermath. Signifcant subplots revolve around the inception of Possessed Marines, and what happens to the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodes]] babysitters watching over the Word Bearers, and how the protagonist [[Argel Tal]] gets into a tragic bromance with the Custodes leader.
** '''''Aurelian:''''' A limited release short story until an ebook was published. The plot bounces around in-between a number of moments in Lorgar's history up to the prelude of the Shadow Crusade. One narrative involves how Lorgar's brothers still treat him like shit, especially when he's the only one who sees through Fulgrim's possession, and ends with Horus sending him to fuck up Ultima Segmentum and handing him Angron's (figurative, [[/d/|not literal]]) leash. The other narrative takes place in the 40 year gap in ''The First Heretic'', where Lorgar makes a pilgrimage into the Eye of Terror with a Daemon Princess as his guide. They come to a dead Crone World where he puts a dying [[Avatar of Khaine|Avatar]] out of its misery and he's told that the Eldar panicked rather than embrace Chaos during the birth of Slaanesh, which is what caused them to nearly die out; the daemon prince(ss) tells Lorgar the same thing is happening with humanity during the Heresy, how Chaos really wants a [[A Game of Pretend|symbiotic relationship with humanity rather than to conquer it]]. In the middle of this, Khorne decides he's had enough of this talky wordy shit and sends [[An'ggrath]] to make things more exciting, and Lorgar narrowly beats him. Then Kairos Fateweaver comes and "tells" him about Calth and his relationship with Guilliman and his upcoming war with him in the most confusing as fuck discussion ever. The truth of most of the things told to Lorgar are left ambiguous, because, well, Fateweaver; but also Chaos has a lot riding on the Heresy coming to fruition for reasons left not entirely explored.
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. A civilian archeologist named Kasper Hawser hangs out with a company of the Space Wolves, where we learn a lot about their culture and attitudes. Turns out that Chaos infiltrated everything, so the outcome of Nikaea was practically rigged. The civilian himself even turns out to have been an unwitting spy for Chaos, but the Wolves knew anyway and didn't give a shit (they thought he worked for Magnus).
* '''''Age of Darkness:''''' A short story anthology.
** '''''Rules of Engagement:''''' Roboute lets one of his commanders lead in a series of wars that didn't really occur, and we get the best line ever said in regards to the [[Codex Astartes]]: despite the fact it does cover a lot, it's not meant to be followed biblically <s>which is a load of bull given that the Codex lets said commander win all the wars in the most efficient way possible while blindly following it and only failed in the last battle because he was in a war game against Girlyman</s>. (See the quote on the page on the Big Book of Astartes). The Imperium Secundus shows up, making for another bizarre plot element that ruins the series without adding anything.
** '''''Liar's Due:''''' You know those memes on how the [[Alpha Legion]] causes mass paranoia without actually involving any Astartes? Those aren't just memes. Alpha Legion serf arrives on a agri-world and turns it's allegiance to Horus by only hacking all their inter-planetary communications.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[Salamanders|Salamander]] and a grumpy ol' [[Ultramarine]] are sent in opposition to one of Horus' iterators to convince an industrial-militant world which side to side with. They almost side with Horus before the Warmaster's agents [[Exterminatus|wreck shit]] for the lulz. Oh, and to send the message that neutrality will be punished. The [[Iron Warriors]] were doing weird shit on that world for years beforehand, and was probably the more deciding factor than the lulz.
** '''''The Last Remembrancer:''''' Horus sent the one last remembrancer he had stored up as a gift to Dorn. Instead of in a box (or eight or some shit like that), it was the [[Dan Abnett]] of his day telling Dorn that the grimdark galaxy was grimdark. Also that the Emperor's vision of a galaxy of peace, unity, prosperity, and fluffy bunnies built up without any more grimdark attached than was strictly needed, probably wasn't very likely before any shit hit any fan either way. Also, Iacton Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iacton Qruze. Dorn says it's all lies and enemy propaganda before executing said remembrancer and torching all his ramblings.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Magnus's absent fleet from the Burning of Prospero comes home and shits a brick. The last known surviving squad of Thousand Sons outside of the Planet of the Sorcerers gets beaten up and they slowly figure out it was the Space Wolves who shit on Magnus's <s>parade</s> world and is stalking them. One plot twist later, most of them are dead, the last one decides he's gonna rebuild everything, with a few scant hints that his flesh-change genetic flaw will [[Blood Ravens|shift into kleptomania]].
** '''''The Face of Treachery:''''' The tie-in and conclusion of the audiodrama featuring the Raven Guard after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax [[troll]]ing Perturabo for a bit too long, Horus sends Angron in to finish the job, but Corax's cavalry arrives to troll Angron by getting the loyalists the fuck out of there. We also learn that Corax has a supersekrit psyker ability which lets him roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can out-troll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters (they let the World Eater commander think he was in command then blew his brains out when he tried to actually command). Ends with an transitory bit into ''Deliverance Lost''.
** '''''Little Horus:''''' Little Horus Aximand is struggling with the PTSD he got when he killed Loken and Torgaddon with [[Abaddon|Abby]]. Abby and Little Horus have a discussion (we mean Horus Aximand, not when Primarch Horus was sodomizing Abaddon again) about restoring the Mournival. A couple war scenes later, Little Horus learns the hard way that the White Scars are pretty badass, but his PTSD starts acting up again and he gets his face shaved off before the White Scars are driven off. Little Horus realizes his PTSD he had since killing Loken and Torgaddon ultimately stems from that time he helped kill Loken and Torgaddon, and gives a diatribe about how things like "change", "mood swings", and "hallucinations" are suited to his melancholic nature, saying things like "it's perfectly natural", "I'm fine, everything's fine. Everything is perfectly, absolutely fine", and "Therapy is for the weak. I'm fine". After the Mongolian shave, he gets his face reattached and ends up looking even more like Big Horus in the deal.
** '''''The Iron Within:''''' Some pretty bro-tier loyalist Iron Warriors build a fortress hanging from a cave over an ocean of prometheum in a hellhole of a world (giant cavern system & acidic atmosphere), and one of Perturabo's traitor Grand Companies come knocking to demand that they hand over the house keys. The loyalists give them a fuck-you in the form of a Dreadnought. A few melodramatic and horrific but generic war scenes later, and they get overrun (after a full year of siege thanks to the genius of a certain [[Barabas Dantioch]]), drop the fortress from the ceiling onto a titan, and get the hell out of there by hijacking one of the Iron Warriors warships via teleportation. An Ultramarine big wig was there to bring the loyalists home, informing them that [[Skub|Guilliman was fortifying Terra]] and he needed good siege workers to stall the traitors then to fortify Terra. While loyalist Iron Warriors were pretty cool, the story itself was pretty forgettable; and it left some open questions like whether the continuity errors were the result of "faulty astropathic communications" (see Outcast Dead) or if the Ultramarines were trolling the Iron Warriors to join in with the Imperium Secundus. And also why the Iron Warriors were determined to take a hellhole at an immense expense of people and materiel, including Titans, while they could have just said "fuck yo shit!" and left a fortress with no space or warp conveyance and arguably little strategic value in itself in the middle of nowhere alone. It mentions a few times that it looks really bad for a rebellion trying to gain initiative when a mere captain of their Legions tells their Primarch "fuck off, imma keeping this fortress & resources for the Emperor!" The message behind it being if you can't even control your own men, maybe this rebellion thing needs a rethinking, because hearing Horus can't even take this shitty outpost middle of nowhere and he's going to Terra might be bad press.
** '''''Savage Weapons:''''' A good story written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|ADB]]. Dark Angels are hunting down the Night Lords who are fucking with Forge Worlds, but the Night Lords are staying a step ahead of them, much to [[Rage|the Lion's frustration]]. After being advised by Horus to pass along a message, Kurze asks the Lion to meet up face-to-face on Tsagualsa. When they talk, while what they say to each other is offscreen, it's implied Kurze told Lion about the Fallen Angels and that Horus knew about their impending betrayal. Lion decides nobody is going to give him shit about being a rumored closet traitor, and the ensuing fight proves that Jonson is a badass among primarchs, until Kurze goes to his old fallback of strangling a fucker, and things get more even. Their respective honor guards go at it in the meantime, and showing [[Sevatar]] is a badass among Space Marines. Things end up in a draw, leaving things open for a new plotline within the Heresy, the ''Prince of Crows'' novella being the next.
*'''''The Outcast Dead:''''' A mess of continuity errors, at least when compared with the rest of the series, the other authors later claimed all the errors were absolutely intentional and a result of the messed-up nature of Warp-based communication. [[derp|''Riggggghhhhtttt!'']] More importantly: shortly after the start of the Heresy an astropath has routine nervous breakdown and is returned to Terra to get [[Witch Hunters|some R&R]]. What really ends up happening is that he gets there in time for [[Magnus]]'s astral body to reach Big E to warn him of Horus' betrayal, and the fuckhueg psychic shock of course dicks with the Astropath HQ compound something mighty. In the confusion and assloads of psychic phenomena that followed, the astropath gets implanted with a message for somebody regarding the war, but his PTSD keeps him from knowing what the hell it is or who it's for. The Custodes come in and tell him ''"[[Anal Circumference|Ve haff vays of making you talk.]]"'' and hand him over to a pair of [[Inquisition|kind counselors]] who torture the poor man half to death. After a time, he gets busted out in the nick of time by some convict Space Marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." to the others. They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra (amusingly, none of the escapees is very happy at the prospect of the Heresy but they are all [[rage|slightly miffed]] at being treated like shit by the Custodes just because of the Legion they belong to.) Other subplots revolve around: a psyker congregant at a slum church near the Imperial palace; a samurai witch hunter (no, really); '''''fucking [[Thunder Warriors]]'''''. Best bits are <s>[[Rip and tear|an unarmed, unarmored World Eater ripping a Custodes' spine out through his chest]]</s> the portrayal of the Emperor playing chess in dreams, revealing that the message is about his upcoming bitchslap from Horus.
*'''''Deliverance Lost:''''' [[Corvus Corax]], having just escaped from Istvaan V, decides to go ask daddy for a handout to get his Legion back on his feet, and gets the mother of all genetech to do it, though he has to do a bit of legwork to get it. Meanwhile, a bunch of faceless Alpha Legionnaires (okay, they do have faces, they just originally belonged to some Raven Guard) had infiltrated Corax's Legion at Istvaan, and are doing recon and intelligence gathering waiting for [[Omegon]] to give the go-ahead to fuck shit up. Corax, meanwhile sets up new geneseed methods that bring up new recruits to battle-ready marines ''in fucking hours'', with the potential to conscript literally anybody willing to become a Space Marine. The Alphas decide this probably isn't in their interest, and sabotage the new geneseed by tainting it with ''daemon blood'', turning second- and third-batch new Raven Guard into the twisted monsters we know that Corax ended up with. In one of the instances of retcon that was actually flavored with [[awesome]] and win, the mutant marines [[Grimdark|were still sapient]], but were left to fight on in the Emperor's name. After staging a mass insurrection on Deliverance's parent world with the help of some old guilders Corax ousted and the Dark Mechanicum, Omegon gets ''more'' Alphas infiltrated into the Raven for the endgame: steal the genetech, kill some Ravenguard, get the fuck out before anybody knows what the fuck just happened in here. A couple cockups along the way leads to the Raven Guard getting wise and isolating out the Alphas. The end of the novel was like a swingers party at the retirement home, everybody got screwed (even ''Horus''), nobody got what they hoped for (except for [[Omegon|the really deviant bastard]]), and all-around the reproductive material was a waste. Corax shut down his hothousing method, and starts fucking with the Traitors, even at reduced numbers. The book ends on a note with Alpharius-Omegon deciding that while their plan for saving the galaxy was still good, they decide working with Xenos isn't for them.
*'''''Know No Fear:''''' The Ultras are still ignorant about Istvaan and the civil war erupting around the galaxy, and are on muster at Calth with the Word Bearers [[troll|on orders from Horus]] to go kill some Orks together as a conciliatory gesture. They were in for a surprise. The Word Bearers, while happy as hell to get revenge, are really trying to [[Eldrad|dick over]] the Ultramarines to keep them out of the Heresy, if not destroy them outright. What happens next is the Word Bearers arrange some "accidents" using sorcery and good ol' fashioned treachery to fake a monumental fuck up in the ship yards that leave the Ultramarine forces blind, deaf, and crippled. They use the confusion to say that the Ultras ''still'' fucking them over, and take the chance to open not only a can, but entire cases of whoop-ass on the Ultras. Erebus turns Calth's pole into a screaming hellscape to start up a warp storm, while Kor Phaeron oversees the systematic extermination of the Ultramarines and also successfully poisons Calth's sun. Guilliman gets jettisoned into space, but survives because [[Spiritual Liege]]. He then leads a counterattack on Kor Phaeron, and while Kor comes ''this close'' to getting a Primarch kill with [[Sorcerer (Warhammer 40,000)|Chaos mindbullets]], but in a moment of self-aggrandizement, he holds back tries to corrupt Guilliman with his own dagger-sized '''MURDER SWORD'''. Guilliman calmly tells him "The Codex Astartes <s>does</s> will not support this action" (it was really "You made an error" followed by an explanation of that error, and "but while I'm alive, I can do this") and [[Rip and Tear|rips out Kor Phaeron's main heart with an unpowered Lightning Claw]]. Kor Phaeron's minions run away with his carcass, allowing the Ultras to retake their space station, which in turn allows Mechanicus plot power, aided by a planet's worth of orbital defense batteries, to bring the ground war back into the Ultramarines' favor. The novel ends with Word Bearers getting the hell out of there, and the Ultramarines evacuating everyone they can off of Calth and telling everybody they can't to get underground, transitioning into underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pius]] being the special guest star with his very own subplot, and the Word Bearers having athame blades as special issue, one of which will [[Uriel Ventris|come back later]]. You might notice this summary is pretty spoilerific, but if you didn't know the broad strokes already, you're in the wrong place.
*'''''The Primarchs:''''' A novella anthology. As the name suggests, it contains stories featuring Primarchs.
**'''''The Reflection Crack'd:''''' - <s>[[Lucius]] and friends anally rape [[Fulgrim]]. Yeah.</s> While questionable use of a ''pear of anguish'' is featured during a game of "Stab the Fulgrim," the real story is this: Lucius and his buddies are deep into the [[/d/|sickfuckery]] which will come to characterize their Legion, but begin to suspect that Fulgrim might have a daemon in him when he begins acting like not-Fulgrim and uses sorcery. They ambush him and try to exorcise it with pain, because torturing a Slaaneshi daemon will totally work (though they find out that a Primarch can grow back a foot, and just about any other wound). Among everything else: [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bill]] is still an arrogant dick; Lucius is still a maniacal and colossally narcissistic sick fuck; Julius Kaesoron is still an angry badass; Marius Vairosean is still a sycophantic cunt; and Eidolon was still a self-important, whiny douche, but Fulgrim throws a tantrum and cuts his head off, and there was much cheering from the readers, and that ''plus'' almost certain off-screen fapping among the Legionaries leads into ''Angel Exterminatus''.
**'''''Feat of Iron''''' - [[Ferrus Manus]]'s Legion is trying to off some Eldar on a desert world, but can't find the major Eldar strategic asset because of Spess Elf warp bullshit. A Farseer thinks he can warn Ferrus about the Heresy, and traps him in the webway or some psychic realm for a spirit quest long enough to fight a [[Fulgrim|giant purple snake]] (which is [[/d/|disturbingly appropriate imagery]] when you think about it); and Ferrus thinks it was the wyrm that he killed and gave him his metal hands, but the snake tells him that he must be mistaking it for somebody else. Ferrus kills it, and meets the Farseer who tries to tell Ferrus that he wasn't just being a dick. Ferrus, having too many experiences with Eldar being dicks, knocks some sense into the Farseer, who manages to run just fast enough to avoid getting killed. Ferrus comes back and helps his Legion fight off the Eldar kill the Webway beacon, or whatever the hell it was. In the background of all of this, the Iron Hands, having lost Ferrus, decide to [[/tg/ gets shit done|get shit done]] rather than bitch about potentially dead father, and work to complete the mission despite being weighed down by Imperial Army who are dying of dehydration and heat stroke. The Eldar figure out a way to use storm clouds that make Iron Hands bionics kill their users, and Ferrus has a bitch of an itch around his neck that he can't get rid of. [[Drop Site Massacre|I wonder if that's important]].
**'''''The Lion:''''' - Dark Angels fight daemons and reinstitute Librarians. The Lion teamkills Nemiel for reminding him about Nikaea, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books because [[Gav Thorpe]] wanted to prove he's a big boy author who can kill his characters. Then they steal an intelligent super warp engine (insta shifts the Dark Angel fleet into the warp without need for a jump point while teleporting itself and the Lion onto his flagship; Lion is capable of talking politely infront of so much power) from [[Typhus]] then set course for Macragge to sort out Guilliman.
**'''''Serpent Beneath:''''' - Alpharius Omegon plots against himself and destroys a facility built around what looks suspiciously like a Cadian Pylon (and said facility keeping the White Scars out of the war), due to [[Cake|an information leak]], and they can't have that. Except than none of the main players are Alpharius or Omegon. And Alpharius and Omegon can't decide if they're secretly working against each other or not. Also: considered to be one of the better works of the series, not only due to quality, but because of the sheer mindfuckery of the plot, keeping entirely within the rationale of the Alpha Legion without any jumps in logic or canon.

=== Books XXI - XXX ===
*'''''Fear to Tread:''''' Despite being Black Library's most financially successful book ''ever'' and hitting thirteen (!) on the New York Times bestseller list (without Oprah's recommendation, even), many [[/tg/|fa/tg/uy]]s find it a bit ridiculous. Why? Well, there's planets with giant frowny faces inhabited by garbage monsters, ships getting blown up by city-sized rocks launched from the aforementioned planets, a nearly-stereotypically-gay [[Slaanesh]]i daemon that doesn't actually serve much of a purpose in the story, and a villain named the Red Angel, despite the fact [[Angron]] already claimed that as a nickname (although he was first introduced in ''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'', so it's not [[James Swallow]]'s fault). Oh, and Sanguinius acts like an idiot about [[Chaos]] the whole time, which fits the [[fluff]], but come on, how many freaky supernatural signs do you need to see before you decide it's not just foul xenos? In all fairness, of course, ''Fear to Tread'' does have quite a few good moments, especially when it comes to [[Warp]]-related terror. It also has a priceless bromance between [[Horus]] and [[Sanguinius]], not to mention Sanguinius and his Legion get characterized very well. Sanguiniuns and Co end up reaching Imperium Secundus.

*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - A story about two parallel story lines. The first is set during the [[Battle of Phall]], a space battle between the Iron Warriors whole fleet and what was left over from a third of the Imperial Fists's fleet after a warpstorm were ran them" ashore" and left them drifting and isolated in the backwater Phall system. Despite having the superior numbers, more and bigger guns, suicidal expenditure cohorts, and the power of a raging hatred boner, the Iron Warriors were losing to the Imperial Fists's maneuverability and [[Alexis Polux|Captain Polux's]] protagonist power. Eventually, the Fists get the order and window to withdraw to Terra, though turning tail would put their fleet at a huge disadvantage. Given the choice between blind obedience to his father or carrying on the battle they were winning, Polux chooses the former and takes his Fists back to Terra, but ends up in the Imperium Secundus instead. This was also the first of the two depictions of Perturabo, and clearly the worst of the two as he's shown as a cold-hearted Saturday morning cartoon villain with rage control issues. The second story line follows [[Sigismund]] as he follows Rogal around the Imperial Palace, while he was ordered to command the fleet on its way to Istvaan and got trapped at Phall, but delegated it to Polux's predecessor. The twist is that he met Euphrati Keeler had a spiritual experience when they spoke, and felt that he would be needed more at Terra instead of as a drifting corpse permanently lost in orbit around some backwater, and so handed off job of commanding the fleet. When he eventually opened up to Rogal, this got him in trouble. See, Rogal was still one of the [[Imperial Truth|stupid atheists]] at this point, so he disowned Sigismund because he thought "serving a higher purpose" was arrogant and got in the way of doing his job. This left Sigismund feeling really sad and pissed off, thus was his start of <s>darkness</s> daddy issues. [[Black Templars|Really pissed off and bad ass daddy issues.]]
**'''''The Dark King''''' - A look into the head and story of Konrad Curze during the events leading up to the Dropsite Massacre. It shows how Curze, even if you buy that he was a murderous paladin of justice and order through fear rather than just a fearsome murderer, is getting pretty fucked up in the head and lives with the knowledge of his demise haunting him, which isn't that great for his sanity. It also involves him beating up Rogal Dorn, killing some Imp Fists and Emp's Children terminators <s>with his more advanced suit and built-in vox jammers </s>with his bare hands, then blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn. The first 10 is him being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace as a grand piece of art by fortifying it into a coldly functional fortress. The next 10 is Rogal having an existential monologue then a conversation with Malcador, all about why he doesn't know why Horus declared war on the Emperor and brought half of the Legions with him, and is partly afraid to find out why in case it makes sense. Malcador ends up knowing at least a little about Chaos, and somehow got his hands on a tarot deck Curze used throughout his life, even to the close of ''The Dark King''. (Don't ask how he got them. Really.) Also the (*Name Drop*) Lightning Tower is the important card that comes up, signifying a [[Siege of Terra|destruction of fortifications]] and/or a [[Imperium of Man|change of thinking through sacrifice]].
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Right before Istvaan, techpriest Pallas Ravachol is working on a top secret "Kaban" robot project on Mars realizes that the project has achieved sapience and is in fact a form of strong AI. Though he genuinely befriended the Kaban machine, Ravachol complains to boss Magos Chrom that working on an AI is both highly illegal and insanely dangerous. Chrom tells Ravachol not to be such a pussy since Horus himself gave the OK, and after some deliberation, has a death squad awaiting to escort the Ravachol off site the next morning. Ravachol, thinking there were few ways this could well, makes a break for it and flees for Magos Malevolus's forge, hoping to get somebody with some clout to reveal that his old boss and Horus were up to something. On the way, he spends time running away from a latex-clad sadist babe who persistently chases after him; since she's an AdMech equivalent of a Death Cultist assassin, this is a ''much'' better idea than it sounds. When he gets to Malevolus's forge, Malevolus distracts him with a legion of shiny Mk6 suits of Marine Power Armor long enough to drop the bomb to drop that they were for Horus. The latex-clad babe catches up to them both, and the techpriest flees again, only to be puzzled why Malevolus and the assassin are letting him run. As he gets out the door, he meets the Kaban machine, <s>and through the power of friendship, the Kaban decides to side with the good guys, and the day is saved.</s> Except this is the dark, gritty universe of 30K where brother turns against brother. Chrom told the Kaban Machine that it and Ravachol couldn't be friends for realsies, because rules and stuff, and taking up with Horus was a great idea. The Kaban Machine, not understanding how humans work nor '''The Power of Friendship''', didn't know any better than to agree and kills Ravachol right on the steps of Malevolus's forge. End story. An okay story, somewhat generic feeling prose. More of a who's who of the Dark Mechanicus during ''Mechanicum'' and telling where the hell that Kaban machine from the same book came from and how they seduced an AI into Chaos worship.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - A bridge between Istvaan V and ''Deliverance Lost'', also a companion story to the Raven's Flight audio drama. The story tells how Commander Marcus Valerius of the Imperial Army is stationed on Deliverance and keeps having recurring nightmares which is causing him worry about Corax. Commander Branne of the Raven Guard's garrison on Deliverance, is getting tired of how the Legion's pet human won't stop bitching about it, and decides to take Valerius out on a trip in the battle barge to Istvaan just to show him that everything is just fine. Meanwhile, Corax and a relative handful of surviving Raven Guard are fighting a guerilla war against the traitors, trying to stay one step ahead of the Iron Warriors and then the World Eaters, and in-between skirmishes, Corax spends a few thoughtful moments feeling bad about his Legion and the state of the Imperium now that things have gone to shit.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attached to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, after that he makes tokens (for the warrior-lodge, but he doesn't know that) and then he gets his windpipe crushed to make sure word doesn't get out about the tokens. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life up until the point where he's lying on his own floor, slowly suffocating to death. Ultimately it is kind of irrelevant, but the lore nerds or people who have been paying attention might find it interesting. It is however only barely 20 pages long, so you might as well read it anyway.
**'''''Prince of Crows''''' - A novella featuring the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain [[Sevatar]] of the Night Lords. With the Night Lords's forces all but shattered by the Dark Angels, Curze in a coma nearly dead, and the Dark Angels's fleet in pursuit, Sevatar has to knock some heads for the Night Lords to get their shit together and reorganize and rethink strategy. It's essentially about showing the fractures in the Night Lords Legion. As most stories written by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]], it's pretty good.

*'''''Angel Exterminatus:''''' [[Perturabo]] just finished [[skub|fucking up (or being fucked by)]] some Fists, and [[Fulgrim]] finds him to polish off a plot hook from ''The Reflection Crack'd'' and recruit Pert for an expedition into the Eye of Terror because a renegade Eldar said he knows where to get ''the good shit'' (the eponymous Angel Exterminatus). Fulgrim wanted to make a show out of delivering exposition, and he had Pert use his skills to build a stadium and went storyteller mode; then the moment was killed when a Shattered Legion detachment composed of Iron Hands and a Raven Guard commando sniped Fulgrim (he got better). Of course, Pert took the moment to remind himself that this is why he can't have, [[Rage|won't ever have]], nice things. Thinking that Fulgrim had the scent of a powerful artifact or a superweapon, and seeing that Fulgrim was becoming the Primarch equivalent of a crack addict member of the Jersey Shore and his legion wasn't looking much better, Pert decided to play it safe by tagging along and making sure Fulgrim wouldn't break anything. On the way, a different Eldar scholar came to the Shattered Legion, telling them that Fulgrim and Pert can't be allowed to get to the Angel Exterminatus, or [[Daemon|Bad Things (Warp-registered trademark)]] will happen. Well into the journey into the Eye, the Iron Hands's resident mad scientist accidentally gave away their location, and the Emp's Children and Iron Warriors decide to throw a boarding party. After a few pages of pulse pounding action, Pert says "fuck this", and leaves as the Iron Hands's same mad scientist overloads the engines and does a [[Battlefleet Gothic|mother of a ramming maneuver]] which kills an Emp's Children ship. (Pert was getting sick of Fulgrim's shit at this point, so he decided not to let them know, leading to the loss of the ship and thousands of casualties for Fulgrim.) Then, they finally get there, they find a [[Crone World]] covered in ruins and occupied spirit stones being held in orbit around a black hole. Some wraithbone constructs pop up and Pert and Fulgrim have to fight to the heart of the planet to get at the Angel Exterminatus. On the way, Pert kills their renegade Eldar because he was a lyin' bitch. When they ''finally'' get there, Surprise! Daemon Primarch Fulgrim is supposed to be the Angel Exterminatus, and he betrays Pert (a bauble Fulgrim gave to Pert at the start of the book was a vitality-leeching thing), and they start the ritual which would sacrifice Pert to turn Fulgrim into a Daemon Prince. Then the Shattered Legion crashes the ceremony, and assists the Iron Warriors since it's clear they weren't working with the Emp's Children anymore. Pert kills Fulgrim, but it didn't count since Fulgrim's mortal essence works just as well as sacrifice. He goes full Daemon Prince despite a generous helping of Thunder Hammer to his [[gay|pretty face]], breaks every spirit stone on the planet, and disappears with every last one of his sick fucks. The Eldar scholar helping the Shattered Legion throws a bitch fit, revealing that both scholars were Dark Eldar who had cut a deal with Fulgrim (help him become a daemon and they get assloads of spirit stones to fuck with), and he had made sure that the Shattered Legions were there to put a wedge in that deal because...reasons. The Shattered Legion gets the hell out, and the Iron Warriors try to GTFO as the planet starts to fall into the black hole. The book ends, with Pert, being a wise man, orders them to reverse course and fly right into that fucker. Subplots include a lot of buildup for McNeil's Iron Warriors stories, the Shattered Legions' feelings on trying to unfuck an irreversibly fucked situation, some tense buildup of two Imperial Fists as they try to survive Fabius's turning them into mutants (which actually had a poor payoff). Despite being overall good, it's a bit of a skub novel because the depiction of Perturabo is so different from expected, rather than being the bitter [[RAGE|Rage]] machine from every other depiction, he's a quiet [[Neckbeard|nerd who plays with toys as a hobby]], but with muscles. And because the ghosts of eldar's Aspect Warriors and Wraith-Constructs inside a planet left inside the Eye of Terror is a canon-rape on par with C.S. Goto, the first death of Lucius at the hands of a Mary Sue despite previous claims that he was undefeated during the Heresy and his unexplained resurrection (<s>"How? Fucking Chaos, that's how."</s> Oh, sure, every CSM is immortal), and an Iron Hands legionnaire somehow being immune to sonic weapons by being deaf. And worst of all, a rotating Shadowsword turret.

*'''''Betrayer:''''' Lorgar and Angron rampage over the Ultramarines 500 worlds. Lots of references to Angron's past and his Butcher's Nails are killing him slowly. Turns out one of the Ultramarine worlds was his own Homeworld, so he destroys it and Lorgar makes him into a daemon-prince. Also remember the Furious Abyss? Lorgar has two more. Also focuses on Khârn and Argel Tal being bros, until Erebus decides to intervene and kill a bitch.

* '''''Angron:''''' An anthology about <s>Lorgar</s> <s>Horus</s> <s>Dorn</s> <s>Malcador</s> <s>the plumber for the Golden Throne</s> Fuck, we can't remember. It often gets passed over in the official lists, since it's actually a cheat since it's a republish of older short stories: '''After De'shea''', '''Butcher's Nails''' ''(print format)'', and '''Lord of the Red Sands''' ''(which was initially a standalone release,'' even later ''republished in'' The Imperial Truth'')''.

*'''''Mark of Calth:''''' Another set of short stories, though all focused on the [[Ultramarines]] or the [[Word Bearers]].
**'''''Shards of Erebus:''''' - We find that [[Erebus]] broke the '''MURDER SWORD''' into eight daggers/athames and shared them with his bros. Also shows how he returned to Davin to learn how to teleport with the '''MURDER SWORD''', then killing the priestess that helped him turn Horus. She somehow wins because she served Chaos before dying which pisses Erebus off.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Keeps bringing up what Calth used to be like. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to Nurgle everyone, and the Ultramarines save the day in the nick of time. After all, THE GREATEST OF THE-{{BLAM}}
**'''''Dark Heart''''' - A young Word Bearer is interrogated by Kor Phaeron after he ended up killing his mentor with dark powers (turned him insta inside out). A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degradation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A spacedock traffic controller survives the destruction of his star fort, and the fatal crash of his escape shuttle before ending up in a small underground arcology with other human survivors. Imperial cultists believe he is blessed, and when he starts hearing whispers and seeing unbelievers they start rounding everybody up for execution. Everybody gets slowly executed till he's the last one left. Learns he's been possessed and reveals to an Ultramarine that he was was infected by the vox from the ''Campanile''.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - An Ultramarine has a hard-on for a certain Word Bearer trolling him. Hunts down said Word Bearer into a cave system with a team of soldiers and Spess Merheens. Word Bearer trolls them by summoning a Gorgon. Ultramarine wins by tricking the Gorgon into looking at its reflection.
**'''''The Underworld War''''' - A story that has little to do with the actual Underworld War. It features a Gal Vorbak who sees the attack on Calth as a clusterfuck of fail. Has a plot-twist ending... turns out Daemons give visions of the future to potential Gal Vorbak, and said Gal Vorbak was given a vision of him not abandoning his fallen brothers on Calth. The Daemon doesn't have time for that shit so it lets him die during his transformation.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife, though not one from the '''MURDER SWORD'''. That's about it... totally... right. Wrong. The small sacrificial knife that Ollanius found was carved on Terra for a benign ritual, stolen by an evil Perpetual who was killed by ''the Emperor'' in medieval times, found in an archeological dig by Kasper Hawser, and went on other crazy murder-adventures, all while having rudimentary sentience.
**'''''Unmarked''''' - Ollanius Pius and friends is traveling through time and space using the athame from the previous story. We learn a lot more about Oll's past, going into detail about his offhand mentions that he was one of the Argonauts and that he served in the First World War and the First Gulf War.
*'''''Vulkan Lives:''''' What happened to Vulkan after the Dropsite Massacre? He got made Konrad Curze's torture bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer to the face. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc. Remember the Shattered Legions crew from ''Angel Exterminatus''? Now you get a new group that is far more bland and less distinct.
*'''''The Unremembered Empire:''''' [[Perpetual|Matt Damon]] killed Martin Luther King. This happens in the book. Also, unlike the cover and synopsis would imply, it's ''not'' about Sanguinius and Guilliman working together to build a back-up Imperium around Ultramar, which leads to the question of ''why that's on the cover?'' No one knows what it is really about, especially the book's description of itself (which describes its ''sequels''). Several things happen in the book as several unrelated subplots collide as several entities are drawn by the Pharos device to Macragge. There are implications that Guilliman's new backup Imperium is starving resources from Terra.
*'''''Scars:''''' Technically the third book of the Prospero arc. The Khan returns to the Imperium after killing Orks left over from Ullanor and can't decide what side to join. Turns his back on Leman Russ during a fight with the Alpha Legion and goes looking for his best friend Magnus, also gets into a fight with Mortarion on the way, also [[The Fallen|half his legion turns traitor]] but turns out it's no big deal.
** '''''Brotherhood of the Storm:''''' Prequel to Scars, shows the White Scars fighting Orks on Chondax.
*'''''Vengeful Spirit''''' Horus goes looking for power to make him equal to the Emperor and the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z (kinda). We learn that the Emperor gained his powers after making a pact with the Chaos Gods where they gave him a fraction of their power, then somehow managed to double-cross them in what is quite possibly the most retarded retcon ever introduced in the entire book series. (In all seriousness though, the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series. It could be the truth, or one of their beautifully crafted lies.) Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest. Also, if you have been ignoring the audio books, you will be a bit lost at the start of this one.
*'''''The Damnation of Pythos''''' A Lovecraftian Horror story disguised as a Horus Heresy story. Has the most grimdark ending of the series thus far, up there with Dead Men Walking. Adds just about as much to the overall series as ''Furious Abyss'' did, but is actually pretty well written, unlike "Furious Abyss". To cut a long story short, daemons take over a world in the Pandorax system, capture a starship and use it to start ferrying cultists from place to place. The book also has some crossover with 40k and the Pandorax Campaign.

=== Books XXXI to XL ===
*'''''Legacies of Betrayal''''' Another anthology, though this time it's a bit of cheat, and they just consolidated several pre-existing stories; some of the the novellas but also included print versions of audio books.
**'''Brotherhood of the Storm''' - see above
**'''Serpent''' - A really short and out-of-place story about a Davinite Priest.
**'''Hunters Moon''' - originally an audiobook involving peasant fishermen rescuing a crashed space wolf who is running from the Alpha Legion after killing Alpharius, it obviously doesn't end well.
**'''Veritas Ferrum''' - a prequel to Damnation of Pythos, about an Iron Hands starship escaping ''(against their better nature)'' from Isstvan with some survivors.
**'''Strike and Fade''' - More survivors of Isstvan, though this is about Salamanders just killing time (and Night Lords) whilst they wait to be rescued.
**'''Honour to the Dead''' - about Ultramarines and an innocent woman and child trying her hardest to follow them to safety.
**'''Butcher's Nails''' - A good one to read, Angron & Lorgar go on the Shadow-Crusade and come to an understanding whilst fighting Eldar.
**'''Warmaster''' - Horus considering how much of a badass he is while chatting with Ferrus Manus's skull.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go kidnap a warp code interpreter that will let them intercept garbled enemy communications.
**'''Wolfs Claw''' - Bjorn the Fell-Handed needs a replacement arm, but the Iron Priests are too busy, but he happens to find a nice fancy relic one just lying around.
**'''The Divine Word'''
**'''Thief of Revelations''' - After Prospero, the Thousand Sons need something to stop all their rampant mutation, so Ahriman goes to ask why Magnus has locked himself away. He's got bigger things to worry about and is looking across time and space for key events for future [[Just as Planned]] manipulations.
**'''Lucius the Eternal Warrior''' - After his first death ''(and unexplained resurrection)'' at the hands of Nykona Sharrowkyn, Lucius has somehow abandoned the Heresy and goes to the planet of Sorcerers to fight a duel with the bestest Thousand Son swordsman, ends up meeting Ahriman. [[wat|Uh-huh...]]
**'''The Eightfold Path''' - Kharn and the World Eaters realise that too much rip and tear is leading them [[Khorne|down a damning path]], but they're already too far gone.
**'''Guardian of Order''' - [[Cypher]] and [[Zahariel]] discover that the Ouroboros (banished in Fallen Angels) is coming back
**'''Heart of the Conqueror''' - Angron's Navigator gets a bit uppity about being made to turn traitor, despite having been picked for the job as the angry man's chauffeur by the Emperor himself. Blams herself during mid-warp transit with not-fun results for flagship.
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel is killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes about it on his armour. Said notes will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]] on the subject of killing Word Bearers (because it's that damn important to kill Word Bearers). Thiel eventually gets bored and goes back to Macragge in the end.
**'''Lone Wolf''' - Bjorn has lost all of his squad, but is now such an awesome badass that he can solo Bloodthirsters.
*'''''Death and Defiance''''' Yet another anthology
**'''Imperfect''' - Daemon-Fulgrim has been getting Fabius to clone Ferrus Manus, because the split personality thing makes him feel guilty about failing to turn his brother to Horus's side, but the clones are never quite right and go mental at each suggestion. Fabius also has his own stuff going on.
**'''Howl of the Heathworld''' - Space Wolves get sent to Terra to watch over Rogal Dorn so he doesn't start using psykers, its a pointless task and everyone know it. Also offers insight into the Wolves naming conventions.
**'''A Safe and Shadowed Place''' - [[Night Lords]] start stabbing each other in the back as soon as Curze goes missing while solo'ing Macragge. It's about a ship floating in the ruinstorm that has just discovered the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] and foreshadows problems for Ultramar.
**'''Virtues of the Sons''' - Sanguinius forsees that he will not always be in charge of the Blood Angels, but worries about the Red Thirst causing havoc with his sons futures. So gets Amit to duel Kharn and Azkaellon to duel Lucius in hopes they'll learn something. Azkaellon learns to let the rage out a bit and Amit learns a modicum of restraint.
**'''Gunsight''' - The Vindicare Assassin from Nemesis is still alive and on Horus' flagship, its about him spending years waiting for the opportune moment to get a shot, but he starts going mad while he waits. Gives ups when Horus plucks his killshot from the air and Horus gives him a chaos rifle for his change in loyalty.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anthology
**'''Daemonology''' - To and fro' story about [[Mortarion]]. On Terra he discovers the initial construction of the Golden Throne and gets told about Emp's plan for removing psykers. In the "present day" he captures a daemon and starts practising sorcery on it.
**'''Black Oculus''' - A short story about Navigators describing what it's like travelling in the warp.... basically it's [[Grimdark]].
**'''Chirurgeon''' - [[Fabius Bile]] narrating about his history, and what happened about the gene-flaw that almost wiped out the [[Emperor's Children]]. Totally has the gene-flaw and has been using his bestest bro turned servitor to keep it under wraps.
**'''Twisted''' - '''Maloghurst''' gets a story about him uncovering plots against Horus and gets wrapped up in intrigue. It actually shows him as a really clever bastard and a bit of a badass.
**'''Wolf Mother''' - [[Perpetual|Alivia Sureka]]'s kids get captured after their escape from Molech and she teams up with [[Knights-Errant|Sevarian]] in order to get them back. Lots of coolness on Sevarian's part and we also get to see that Perpetuals can resist possession.
*'''''Tallarn: Executioner''''' - A novella about a vehicle squadron (Leman Russ Executioner, Vanquisher and a Salamander) having to deal with the toxic surface in the weeks after the surface bombardment and then come into contact with the Iron Warriors. Also the Alpha Legion have a hand in things, like they always do.
*'''''Tallarn: Ironclad''''' - Part two of the Tallarn story.
*'''''Deathfire''''' - What the Salamanders have been saying since Isstvan is true: Vulkan lives! Well now he does. Basically a bunch of Salamanders take his body from Macragge to Nocturne (with some side help from didn't ask for this Magnus) and throw him into Nocturne's largest volcano, and lo and behold he comes back to life, making that entire plotline pointless. Still has the fucking Fulgurite in his chest, though. TL;DR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7nzml-zZ9M
*'''''The Wolf King ''''' - The Space Wolves find themselves set upon by the forces of the Alpha Legion before they can recover from the Razing of Prospero and are hounded to the edge of the Alaxxes Nebula (swiss cheese acid cloud). There the Alpha Legion beat the ever-living shi...stuffing out of the wolves whilst Russ locks himself in his room and sulks. Russ eventually summons his new favourite Bjorn to join him and they have bit of a heart to heart about what a bunch of morons they were in allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily by Horus. By the end Russ is back to his old self and celebrates by massacring every Alpha he can get his hands on even if it’s clear that his defeat is inevitable. Fortunately for the Wolves helps comes from a hidden armada of Dark Angels ostensibly "loyal" to [[Luther]], but unaware of the Horus Heresy or of the whereabouts or actions of the Lion. Russ borrows gear and manpower from them in exchange for info on current events which most likely finds its way back to Luther and sets the "Destiny of Caliban" in motion. Russ then heads for Terra.
*'''''War Without End''''': Anthologies Without End.
*'''''Pharos''''': Night Lords fucking up the Pharos Lighthouse on Sotha. Sanguinius eventually grows some balls and starts standing up to Guilliman instead of just being a pantomime Emperor, while the Lion is nowhere to be seen as usual. Warsmith Dantioch bites it while using the Pharos to burn the Night Lords out of his fortress, but inadvertently piques the interest of the [[Tyranids]], causing them to show up 10,000 years later. Skraivok become a prime example of DEMON SWORDS: NOT EVEN ONCE.
*'''''Eye of Terra''''': Another anthology.
*'''''Path Of Heaven''''': Sequel to Scars. The White Scars have been fighting traitor legions for a few years but are starting to show the strain. They finally make a shift back to Terra but things don't go as planned. Notable for digging into the Webway storyline and the Navis Nobilite as well as featuring a resurrected and suddenly competent Eidolon. Navigators weren't going to sit around while E-money built their replacement, White Scars use a prototype webway portal to escape their last stand, and Moratarion starts using sorcery to locate Typhon.
*'''The Seventh Serpent:''' a novella about the Shattered Legions going up against the Alpha Legion; a simple premise made awesome by sheer depth of Alpharian plot twists: They had been manipulated by Alpharius into fighting a battle against Loyalist Alpha Legionaires.
*'''The Silent War:''' Guess What?! It's ''another'' anthology of stories that GW have already sold individually as audio-books. So value might be had for those who hadn't listened to them.
*'''''Angels of Caliban:''''' two Dark Angels stories in one book again, though this one actually moves the plot forward. In Ultramar, the Lion captures Konrad Curze but only after discretely nuking a whole region despite a ban on orbital weapon use, which results in his disgrace and we find that it is Guilliman who breaks the Lion Sword. Curze reveals that there were chaos cults on Mcraggae too, and that Guilliman would be a traitor if he had landed a little to the left. On Caliban, the Fallen openly declare their rebellion from the Imperium and ironically steal some starships that were meant to collect them and actually bring them into the war again. [[Zahariel]] kills [[Cypher]] and takes his place.
*'''''Praetorian of Dorn''''' Alpharius tries to invade <s>Terra</s> Pluto. Dorn kills him. Yes, Alpharius is now dead. And not a fake either, but the real Alpharius. Omegon can confirm. Alpha Legions fags blew a gasket. Oh shit believe we did.
*'''''Corax''''' A compilation of all the Corax Stories, plus a new one, '''Weregeld''', which manages to undo all the hard work the previous stories have done and turn Corax into a douchebag. Kills all his mutated Raven Guard because he promised to kill warp stuff. Saves Russ and his arrogant ass though.

=== Books XLI onwards ===
*'''''The Master of Mankind''''': The Emperor is a dick: the book. We all knew this, but now it's set in stone. Highlights being: Emperor stating to Arkhan Land that the Primarchs are tools and he views them with a scientific but detached fascination. Referring to them as numbers but content to allow the fantasy of being their "father", an interpretation of the character that was fairly divisive to say the least. He actually seems to care more for his Custodians than he does any of his other creations, but they don't consider him to be a father and see him as just their warlord. Drach'nyen is also revealed to be the Daemon created when Caine killed Abel. In the end he closes the door on the webway and has to spend the rest of his time sitting in the chair keeping it shut. Despite this, it does show off why the Chaos Gods fear him, as he pretty much rapes an infinite army of Daemons; the Greater ones either flee or try and fail to fight him (being destroyed in a matter of moments) whilst the lesser ones die just by looking at him. Despite this, Drach'nyen nearly kills him, and <s>it is confirmed that fate has indeed decreed that Empy will die at the daemon's hand</s> claims that it will kill the Emperor (keep in mind that the future is malleable and Daemons lie). But how will it feast on the Emperor's tattered soul when Abaddon lacks arms to plunge it into his chest? (''But Abaddon never lost his arms due to the same retcon that let Eldrad live'') Also known as Master of skubkind. Reveals his grand plan of saving the human race from the Eldar fate by absolute control of every human to a custodian before shanking him with Drach'nyen and making him run into the webway. Also put all his chips into the ''Human Webway'' plan and screwed us all over without a backup. Can you tell that this is an ADB book?
*'''''Garro''''': Compilation of all the stories about Garro and his boy band, though they insist it isn't just an anthology since the audio book stories were expanded to be more written novel friendly.
*'''''Shattered Legions''''': It's an anthology containing an anthology. I shit thee not. It shoves together the limited edition anthology Meduson with a few other shorter stories, including some Alpha Legion stuff like the Seventh Serpent.
*'''''The Crimson King''''': Magnus was broken into shards when Russ felled him. Now the Thousand Sons with the help of Lucius the Eternal must put him back together.
*'''''Tallarn''''': Does it even need to be stated? It's another fucking anthology, this time putting all the tank porn of the Tallarn books into one binding.
*'''''Ruinstorm:''''' The conclusion to the Imperium Secundus plotline, as well as the follow on to Damnation of Pythos. Shows the Lion, Sanguinius and Guilliman trying to cross the Ruinstorm to reach Terra. Having a brief stopover at Pandorax, they decide to head out to Davin where the Heresy began and where destinies are re-made; they pass systems along the way that show what the Galaxy would look like if Chaos wins, such as a Forge World surrounded by an immense fortress wall in outer space 4000 miles thick, or a sector of space filled with solid ritualised geometric shapes that are perhaps light years across. Davin itself is surrounded by a cloud of bones and wreckage millions of kilometers thick, but the planet has long since been abandoned. There, Sanguinius finds out that in order to live through the Heresy he must become a monster even worse than Horus, but dying will curse his sons with the Black Rage; blood is on his hands either way. Instead, Sanguinius tries to sacrifice himself to save the day, but the [[Sanguinor]] steps in and takes his place while the fleets rain down a shitstorm and destroy the planet. In the aftermath, the Ruinstorm abates enough for them to reach Terra, but Horus has so much force that it is impossible for all three legions to reach, so Guilliman and the Lion agree to distract the Traitors long enough to give Sanguinius a window to get back and face his destiny, explaining why they never made it to the Siege since they were engaging Traitor fleets and burning their worlds.
*'''''Old Earth:''''' Set immediately after ''Vulkan Lives'', Vulkan and three Salamander legionaries ''(the rest of the Salamanders weren't informed of their Primarch's resurrection)'' travelled through the Webway by a gate hidden in a cave on Nocturne. On their path to Terra, they came across the Shattered Legions, who were preparing for their first major void engagement with the Sons of Horus. Just before the attack, some Medusan-born Iron Hands tried to stage a coup against Shadrak Meduson by revealing a hideous contraption of machines, and the last remnants of Ferrus Manus - his iron hand ''(They were under the illusion that they could resurrect their Primarch through cybernetics, it is hinted that the Mechanicum had some hand in this affair.)'' Thankfully, Vulkan shattered the hand, and Meduson assumed command again, though he was killed by '''Tybalt Marr''' in a boarding action after the Iron Hand refused to send reinforcements to him. In the end, it was revealed that the Emperor had Vulkan forged a weapon, that in the event Terra fell to Horus, would amplify the power of the Golden Throne to the point it coulf wipe out the entire Throneworld ''(this is probably one of Vulcan's nine relics)'' Oh, and Eldrad rescued [[Knights-Errant|Barthusa Narek]] from Nocturne and made him his assassin. They killed most of the Cabal, and finally rescued John Grammaticus, who had his memory wiped after his failure to assassinate Vulkan. With his memory restored, Grammaticus was ordered by Eldrad to find Ollanius Pius and go to Terra.
*'''''Wolfsbane:''''' No solid information yet, but it seems like Leman Russ leaves Terra to confront Horus himself. One can expect that it doesn't end well for him.

== The Primarchs Series ==

Because Black Library don't seem satisfied confusing us with all their anthologies, audio-books, and short stories, they have begun releasing a spin-off series of Horus Heresy novels centered on the Primarchs. The series don't really take place in a specific time, but generally focuses on expanding on the titular Primarch's backstory and motivations during events before the Horus Heresy (though some of them also have events occurring after it). Why Black Library lists it as part of the Horus Heresy series when that is the case is beyond our comprehension.

=== Roboute Guilliman: Lord of Ultramar ===
Centers on the papa smurf himself, and him trying to deal with how the Emperor used him like a rusty hammer to smack Lorgar in the head at Monarchia. Uses a conflict against Orks as a vehicle for him and the smurfs to express their angst over the event.

=== Leman Russ: The Great Wolf ===
Focuses on Leman Russ' notorious rivalry with the Lion, and explaining why to this day whenever the Chapters meet they throw the gauntlet down and beat the stuffing out of one another. Notably it reveals some interesting stuff like the Lion being aware of the Space Wolves' furry issue and keeping a lid on it.

=== Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero ===
Depicts the unlikely friendship between Magnus and old Pert with a joint venture between their legions. Things go wrong on the planet due to totally not Chaos cult nonsense, and it does a decent job of showing Magnus' flaws. Specifically on his inability to leave things that have "do not fuck with this" alone; something Pert tries and fails at making him understand.

=== Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia ===
Probably the book in the series that did the most character building of all of them. This book is a mix of showing off Perturabo's childhood on Olympia alongside a "current" day conflict against the Hrud. The former showing why Pert is the odd genius manchild guy he is, while the latter does a great job of showing why fucking with an alien species capable of controlling time is somewhat of a stupid idea. However, the real draw of the book is that it is mainly written as an attempt to merge together the seemingly contradictory depictions of Pert we've had over the years. Showing how the ruthless dick who decimates his legion for not being good enough in the Forgeworld books is the same guy who just wanted to be a builder in Angel Exterminatus. Yep. Definitely a sperg. Also he may or may not have wanted to bang his adopted sister.

=== Lorgar: Bearer of the Word ===
Yep, the first(ish?) heretic himself gets his own obligatory messed up childhood novel. Focusing slightly more on Kor Phaeron rather than Lorgar himself, showing him to be a manipulative dick who beat Lorgar as a child and never really bought into this whole "fatherhood" shtick, or this whole concept of [[Emperor|One True God]] but allowed Lorgar his fantasies and to take over Colchis ''(By "Word" or by "Mace")'' while Phaeron benefitted from increased position and secretly kept the faith of [[Chaos Gods]].

Though by the end Kor Phaeron wonders if Lorgar just let him think that he was manipulated and could have disposed of him at any time. The book does introduce a contrasting character to Kor Phaeron who actually shows Lorgar compassion growing up and was far more worthy of being named "father" but was far less useful to Lorgar's goals. The book shows that Lorgar isn't as stupid or naive as everyone thinks and does indeed realise that people have been using him for their own gains, but while he only really cares about doing the work of the gods, so long as they both align he doesn't seem to care.

=== Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix ===
Fulgrim tries to conquer the newly discovered planet Byzas with only 7 men. Along the way he encounters a brotherhood much like his own that wants to work with him that Fulgrim dismisses as a bunch of idealists. It's implied that he COULD have gotten the same results (Compliance) working with them but unfortunately that would have meant calling in backup and Fulgrim didn't want to do that so that was out of the question. In the end Fulgrim takes the world, but nearly dies. Several of the characters (Cyrius, Kasperos Telmar) later become prominent champions of chaos.

=== Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa ===

== The Tabletop Wargame ==
[[Forge World]] is producing a new line of books and models (''in addition to'' [[Imperial Armour]] and [[Warhammer Forge]]) to allow players to fight battles from the Horus Heresy in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. This includes rules and models for the [[Primarchs]] (both pre- and post-fall, for the Traitors) as well as ancient vehicles. No [[xenos]], unfortunately. Presumably this came about because GW felt that they just weren't making quite enough money from die-hard marine/chaos players and figured they could literally buy a dump-truck full of gold plated cocaine each if they made a version of the game that requires only Forge World minis AND thousands upon thousands of them. Still worth it, though.

=== Betrayal ===
Forge World starts big, as their first book covers the battles on Istvaan III, in which [[Horus]] sent the remaining loyalist elements of the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Emperor's Children]], [[Death Guard]], and [[World Eaters]] to the surface, ostensibly to rout the anti-Imperial resistance that had taken hold in the capital city, and then fired [[Exterminatus]] torpedoes (of the life-eater virus bomb variety) onto the city to wipe them out.

Unfortunately for Horus, not everything went as planned; not only did the loyalist Death Guard frigate ''Eisenstein'' escape to the [[Phalanx]] with word of Horus's betrayal, but loyalist elements on other ships were able to disrupt the bombardment and warn the loyalists on the ground that it was coming. Between the disruption, the warning, and good old-fashioned [[Space Marine]] toughness, only a third or so of the landed force had actually died. Horus would have fired another bombardment, but [[Angron]] and his traitor World Eaters jumped the gun and made planetfall; the other traitors were left with no choice but to deploy themselves and destroy the remaining loyalists personally.

''Betrayal'' contains a [[Great Crusade]] Legion army list (for which we have a [[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines/Legion List‎|tactica]]), and rules for special characters and units from the [[Sons of Horus]], [[Death Guard]], [[Emperor's Children]], and [[World Eaters]] Legions, including their [[Primarch]]s (even [[Fulgrim]], who was not actually at the battle) and several major characters from the book series such as Garviel Loken.

===Massacre===
The infamous Drop Site Massacre is the focus of the next book, where seven Legions are sent to crush Horus’ rebellion, only for four of those to turn on the other three and crush them utterly. The books storyline is essentially just the ''first day'' of the battle, leading up to the death of [[Ferrus Manus]].

Massacre contains additional rules for special characters and units from the [[Iron Hands]], [[Night Lords]], [[Salamanders]] and [[Word Bearers]] Legions including their Primarchs and several more major characters from the book series make their debut such as Sevatar, Eidolon, Erebus and Kharn.

===Extermination===
Focusses on the second half of Istvaan V, as well as the Battle of Phall between the [[Iron Warriors]] and [[Imperial Fists]]; and on that note, it includes rules for those two Legions, as well as the [[Alpha Legion]] and the [[Raven Guard]].

It also gives us a complete Mechanicum Army List: the Taghmata.

====Condensed Lists====
The ICL and LACAL were initially released as part of the limited edition run of Extermination, but were then later released separately. They are fluff-lite, codex-equivalent books that also included all of the FAQs/Errata up to their release; which unfortunately was still the end of 6th edition so some rules haven't carried over well. ''(eg. [[Lorgar]]s psychic rules.)''

The Legiones Astartes Crusade Army List is basically the generic 30k Space Marine "codex", whilst the Isstvan Campaign Legions contains all of the collected rules for the legions from Books 1-3; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three books. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game. The ICL was continued in the Age of Darkness Legions, which collected everything to book 5, including the errata.

Later came the Mechanicum Taghamata Army List, which contained all the Mechanicum units and army lists mentioned and rearranged them to keep everything on the same page, but lacked the Questoris Knight Army. The Crusade Imperialis Army Lists contain the Solar Auxilia, Imperialis Militia/Warp Cults, and Questoris Knight Crusade army lists.

===Conquest===
Horus Heresy Volume Four is entitled 'Conquest', despite early hints from Forgeworld that it would be about the Battle of Prospero, it instead features Horus' conquest of the Imperium and the [[Skub|"Major"]] battles of this time, which is to say some battle-zones that Forgeworld made up to fill time whilst they worked on the more well known events from the in-universe history. ''(And to be fair, their response as to why Prospero was delayed was because it included four major factions, [[Adeptus Custodes|two of]] [[Sisters of Silence|which have]] NEVER been represented on the tabletop, so required more time to do them justice.)''

A large portion of the book is given over to running battles in the '''"Age of Darkness"''', which is a variant ruleset used as the default for Horus Heresy games ''(where only Troops usually score, amongst other things)'' and has rules and FOCs for Cityfight missions, rules for running ongoing campaigns, variant rules for mysterious terrain and objectives as well as including unique relics to be taken by the various army lists to add flavor to non-special characters.

It also introduces the [[Solar Auxilia]] and [[Imperial Knight|"Questoris" Knights]] (as an AdMech list) armies to play while the modellers take a break from building power armor 24/7.

===Tempest===
The fifth Horus Heresy book will cover the Battle of Calth. The rules for the [[Ultramarines]] (including [[Roboute Guilliman]] himself) as well as several warp-corrupted Word Bearer units are brought in alongside a few other new miscellaneous FW releases, including the Deredeo and the new Thanatars. There's also an Imperial Militia (Read: PDF) list that's super-customizable so you can make both loyalist and traitor lists. Also, the MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IS IN IT TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===Retribution===
Focused on 'Shadow Wars' far from the main fronts of the Heresy, in particular the Shattered Legions - that is, the [[Iron Hands]], [[Raven Guard]], and [[Salamanders]] in their weakened state following their losses in the Drop Site Massacre. But other Legions can also be included, with special rules for the Shattered Legions, Black Shields and a list for Armies of Dark Compliance - mixed traitor Legiones/Militia lists, as well as ten new special characters. It includes Legiones Astartes rules for the White Scars, Blood Angels and Dark Angels, so that players of those legions can start playing properly; however, it does not include special units, characters, or Primarchs for those legions. It also includes Garro and the Knights Errant and additional Mechanicum units and characters, including a new Dark Magos, [[Anacharis Scoria]]. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons will still need to wait for the Prospero book (Inferno, Book 7).

===Inferno===
In <s>Set to be book 3.</s> <s>late 2016.</s> <s>early 2017 (Because FW can't keep to schedule)</s> <s>December 2016</s> February 4, 2017, will come what many neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those [[Thousand Sons]] players, start saving up so you can play your space Egyptian sorcerers in all their 30k glory. Rules for the Sisters of Silence as an allied detachment and the Adeptus Custodes as a full army list will be present as well.

Well, it's come, and... it's uninspiring to say the least, with stuff like [[What|Magnus being straight up impossible to hit if he casts invisibility, not to mention pumping out 2d6 destroyer hits at every unit within 18" if he likes]], [[Derp|Custodes captains beating out every Primarch with a rollable 3+ invulnerable save]], some Custodes wargear being straight up [[Wat|left out of the book]] and to cap it all, [[Herp|pictures of tourists in the book ('''twice''') where you'd expect miniatures to be]]. You'd think with such a long development cycle the quality assurance would have been more thorough. Didn't help that [[Alan Bligh]] was likely fairly ill in late 2016, and his untimely death in May of 2017 means the Horus Heresy team now has a big hole in it.

===Malevolence===
It will feature White Scars, Blood Angels and Daemons. Also some new stuff for Space Wolves and Alpha Legion.

== See Also ==
*[[The War of The Beast]], for the next massive shit-show the Imperium was involved with.
* [[Alternate Heresy]], for a discussion of other possible outcomes of the (not necessarily Horus) Heresy.

== External Links ==
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/3170/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (1993)] at BoardGameGeek
* [http://geekdo.com/boardgame/63543/horus-heresy Horus Heresy (2010)] at BoardGameGeek

{{40k-Timeline}}

[[Category:Board Games]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Wargames]]

Imperial Knight

2018-02-17T17:23:06Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:Knight vs Trygon.jpg|350px|thumbnail|right|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSrcMaid0mg Hmm... does this look familiar to you?]]]
Somewhere between a regular walker and a [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]], the Imperial Knights are large single pilot war machines, similar to the [[Tau]] [[Riptide#XV104 Riptide Battlesuit|Riptide]]. Usually humanoid, the cockpit for the pilot is mounted in the head or just behind it in the main body.

In other words, they're a [[BattleTech|Battlemech.]]

Their somewhat unexpected return to the 40k setting is possibly a sign of [[Games Workshop|GW]] deciding that people would only play [[Warmachine]] because 40k has insufficient [[warjack]]s [[Skub|(and not because of arguably better rules and update schedule)]], or that they [[Profit|make more money by selling one huge model than lots of little ones]].

They are really [[butthurt|a fairly fan-wanky insertion]] of [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle|Fantasy-era]] [[knight]]s into 40k, which, let's face it, is not exactly a setting devoid of knight analogues, but unlike [[Space Marines|the]] [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|others]], this one is much closer to the original source material: [[BattleTech|aristocratic dicks in high tech armor suits grinding the faces of the poor]] while being [[grimdark]] and all knightly and shit, including the [[Game of thrones|politics, incest and backstabbing]] that brings.

Funnily enough for such an in-universe niche unit, Imperial Knights are currently among the most popular models from the 40k range, if the top-seller list of Games Workshop is any indication, and with good reason; their whole design and grimdark steam-punk style catches the eyes, and surely a lot of people are buying it just because it looks that cool. Also, for 150 Naggaroth buckets you get a unit strong enough to be an army on its own or join any imperial force.

[https://youtu.be/ajP5q2HvycY In short they're big, baddass, chivalrous, stompy mechs. Really, what's not to love?]

The Emperor of Warhammer 40,000 is a very suitable manifestation of Mormon ideals as he is a mortal who ascended to divinehood, supports abstention from various activities that satisfy the Chaos Gods, offers very generous priviledges to his most loyal servants, such as transformation into a Space Marine, addresses strict supervision and intervention to undeveloped regions in similar fashion with the United States and its neoconservative viewpoint, the support of performing miracles according to the laws of nature without defying them, the existence of other deities that are accountable to other species, the notion of heretics who misinterpreted and distorted the values of the Imperium while still seemingly expressing devotion towards them, the notion of three degrees of glory being defined from the top to the bottom as the Imperium of humanity, the Xenos comprised of all sentinent species other than humans, and the Immaterium which is a manifestation of the collective consciousness of the forces of darkness and evil, and the belief in the righteousness of the priviledge for everyone to choose between right or wrong, as displayed in the challenges faced by the Primarchs and their armies.

[[File:President.png|700px|thumb|right|]]

== About the Knights ==
[[File:Errant Detachment.jpg|thumb|right|EPIC Errant Knights. For when you want to cook your enemies really fast.]]
[[File:PaladinDetachment.jpg|thumb|right|Paladin Titans from EPIC times.]]
The knights are allied with, or in some cases part of, the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] rather than being part of the greater Imperium's war machine. Knight Worlds are worlds which supply [[Forge World#Planet|Forge Worlds]] with foodstuff and raw materials, specifically those worlds defended by Knight Households. The Knight World gathers foodstuff and ores for a set period of time (usually a year) before the Adeptus Mechanicus arrive in a drop ship, occaisonally bringing new knight suits in exchange for the raw materials. Knight Worlds themselves are typically Feudal Worlds, which were easily brought into compliance during the Great Crusade, and which explains the rather aristocratic tone about the Knights. Knight World politics is fueled by the constant resource tithes and the possession of Knight Titans. Any kingdom that possesses a Knight Titan could absolutely smash a kingdom without one, so it behooves a kingdom to concede to being tithed in exchange for the (relatively) ultimate weapon. Once any given feudal kingdom has become a Knight Household, any Household with more Knights than it does is a huge threat, so getting more is always important. By the time that the escalation becomes preposterous these Households are already shipping knights of-world to cruise the stars and fighting things, so the extra-planetary losses constantly need to be replenished, lest the Households lose their on-world detachments to off-world conflicts. All that said, Knight Worlds tend to exist rather happily alongside their Forge World; Mechanicus get a defensive buffer and food forever, and the Knight Households get to continue ruling their chunks of the planet. Or all of the planet, depending on how far you can stretch a feudal society.

During the [[Epic]] days Knights were a complete fabrication by the Adeptus Mechanicus, supplied as battle fleets where the Imperial armies are in need of them, much like a Titan Legion is. Knights were a gimmick, given to Feudal Worlds that the Mechanicum settled near in exchange for getting shipments of food, manpower, and raw materials. This simplistic lore is [[retcon|no longer the case]]; apparently the original Knight Worlds were not the Mechanicus' idea. The Knights themselves are STC relics, dating before even the Dark Age of Technology. In a shocking twist, not only does the Knight STC appear to be relatively intact, the Knight itself seems easy to produce for any given Forge World; a rare case of the AdMech not shitting themselves. When Games Workshop released the new "heroic scale" Knight models, they also released new Knight fluff with them. The first Knights were actually colonists, arriving on new worlds during Humanity's first expansion into the galaxy at large. With no way of returning to Terra once they arrived, and long periods with no outside help, those original human colonies needed to be self-sufficient and the Knight suits were sent along with them, made for fighting against the [[Xeno|myriad threats]] [[Chaos|to their existence]]. Additionally, it turns out that giant stompy robots could also be re-purposed for peaceful uses: cutting down trees with their chainswords, blasting apart boulders with their main weapons, or using the sheer size of their bodies as cranes, lifts, earth-movers, and various other construction equipment. As a byproduct of the Throne Mechanicum bonding processes (see below), the Knights' pilots soon came to see themselves as protectors of their people. In the cases where these heavily-armed frontier colonies were never slated for further colonization, suffered a society-collapsing event as they grew, or otherwise remained isolated, Knight Titans were given the opportunity to become the industrial and military backbone of many of these worlds.

During the Age of Strife, when humanity at large lost it's ability to travel the Warp and everything generally went to shit, these planets were guaranteed to be alone and afraid, fighting for their survival against everything they already had to fight, plus all of the weirdness that comes with BIG FUCKOFF WARP STORMS. The proto-Knight-World colonies (fully-grown at this point) regressed from large-scale industrial societies into what are functionally feudal worlds with a sprinkling of techno-barbarianism. Why did this happen? Well, there are a number of possibilites: fear and panic over the lack of outside contact could have sparked apocalyptic military conflicts or nuclear wars, the whole "robot uprising" thing that was also happening during the Age of Strife could have resulted in a rejection of automation, or the entire would could have been slowly ground down to the barest essentials of living by millennia of constant conflict; take your pick! The Knights themselves eventually formed noble households as time went on, or else noble households formed around the knights, due mostly to the fact that only a large-scale organized society with military force can properly maintain a giant stompy robot. By the time of the Great Crusade (more importantly, by the time of the first Mechanicum Explorator Fleets ''during'' the Great Crusade), almost all of the remaining Knight Worlds had dwindled to feudalism over the course of the Age of Strife, and in many cases the survivors were living threadbare on dying worlds, in great need of new raw materials or the expertise required to maintain the suits. This situation was ripe for exploitation, and some clever bastard in the Mechanicum got the great idea of using these worlds as combination Agri-World, Mining World, and military training ground. Several Forge Worlds and lesser Mechanicum worlds were established intentionally within Knight World systems due to the easy symbiosis. It is assumed that any Knight Worlds which were not in need of assistance (or whom the Great Crusade found before an Explorator Fleet) sided with the Imperium at large, as opposed to becoming vassals of the Mechanicum.

As a side note, in a hilarious turn of events, in this new lore these feudal Knight Worlds leveraged their ritualization and xenophobia to purge witches and deviant thought, and therefor psykic influence, from their worlds entirely. This created pockets of relative calm in the hellish storms of un-reality that they floated in, and thus they were saved from the worst of the warpy shit, allowing them to survive into M31 and the Age of the Imperium. The only known things (as of this new canon being written) which can calm or negate the Immaterium are [[Gellar Fields]], [[Blank]]s, and Nulls. Gellar Fields work, but nobody knows why. Of the two living examples of warp nullification, a Null is literally soulless, and a Blank is an anti-Psyker and an abhorrent anathema to all other life. In a move [[Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka|rarely seen in this day and age]] some GW writer was a cheeky shit, and included a bit of direct political commentary by [[skub|implying that extreme social conservatism was equivalent to having no soul]].

A Knight's Machine Spirit is of a particularly unusual type: to interface with the suit, an aspiring noble must first join with the Throne Mechanicum (the Knight's control system) in a ritual known as the Rite of Becoming. Due to a quirk in the bonding process, the device retains an imprint of each of its former pilots' personalities at the time they were first bonded, and as a result individual suits may develop traits echoing those of their former masters. The link also affects the noble's own mind as well; exposure to the metaphorical (or possibly literal, since there's been at least one case where a Throne Mechanicum took over operating the Knight when its noble was slain by using the memories of its old operators) ghosts in the machine inevitably causes the noble to develop strong positive feelings towards the concepts of fealty and hierarchy along with a near-mystical reverence toward the noble's ancestors. [[Phoenix Lord|This idea isn't very original]]. Nobody knows why this is, but the Mechanicus thinks it may have been a failsafe in the original plans meant to ensure that no Knight would willingly betray or abandon his own House. Either way, this benefits the Mechanicus rather neatly. This kind of "ghost in the machine" presence exists for true [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Imperial Titans]] as well, though in their case the machine spirit is more of an AI/second ego, and storing past Princeps' personas is something that happens, but the Mechanicus try to avoid/scrub out. Go see the Titan page for a more in-depth comparison.

Knight Houses make a tradition of sending their Knights on glorious quests across the stars, which mostly involves going where the Imperium/Mechanicum tells them too, and shooting/punching everything dead once they get there. Knight Houses make a tradition of basically everything, but more on that later. These quests, which one can only assume are fulfilled by the Imperial Navy or Explorator Fleets (and *not* just jumping really high, as some fa/tg/uys suggest), must be chocked-full of silly fish-out-of-water scenes as the Knights must putter around the cargo holds of ships, interacting with Guardsmen, slaves, and Imperial navymen. Knights absolutely love going on quests, because *not* going on quests means staying home and doing rituals and ceremonies. The day-to-day lives and operations of Knight Households, and the noble caste that supports them on-world, are so regimented by ceremony that the Knights themselves *fucking hate it*. Eating, sleeping, social interaction, prayer, bathing (when it infrequently occurs), walking down hallways, looking at art, and probably *breathing* are so highly ritualized that it makes Japanese tea ceremonies look like a practice rehearsal of a theatrical production put on by a class of 3rd graders. You have actual, named, 64-part ceremonies described as happening *daily* in the Mechanicus codex, and those are only one of probably three-hundred-thousand common-to-esoteric ceremonies that could be required to properly perform a given action, formally acknowledge a nobleman's change in standing or status, or even to honor a specific year, month, week, or hour of the fucking day. And Emperor save you if you fuck any of it up.

=== Houses ===
There are two types of knight household, though a third association does exist.
*Those who align themselves with the Imperium directly such as Imperial Houses, acting as independently operating vassals of a greater empire (much like [[Space Marine Chapter]]s do), therefore answering calls for aid as they feel like, rather than being ordered to. Examples of Imperial Houses are:
**'''House Terryn''' - House known for its [[Mary Sue|courage and honor]] as well as [[Codex Astartes|rigidly adhering to ritual and ceremony]]. Supposedly its homeworld of Voltoris is so [[Macragge|peaceful and boring]] and the aforementioned rituals so tedious that it only encourages them to campaign across the galaxy. (Their colour scheme is [[Ultramarines|blue]].)
**'''House Hawkshroud''' - A very [[Noblebright]] house, who believe that kindness should be returned tenfold and who answer any and all requests for assistance, which means their homeworld of Krastellan lies virtually undefended. Also have links with the [[Imperial Fists]] having been praised by the chapter master for their efforts against the [[Eldar]] of Alaitoc. (Their colour scheme is yellow.)
**'''House Cadmus''' - Were once bound to the Mechanicum, but regained their independence and became an Imperial House when Gryphonne IV was nom nomed by [[Tyranid]]s. Based on the [[Caliban|mutant infested forest world]] of Riasa, they engage on mutant hunts every year, with the [[A Song of Ice and Fire|winner getting to rule the house]] until the next hunt. (Their colour scheme is [[Dark_Angels|green]]).
**'''House Griffith''' - A house of [[Salamanders|hotheads]] who almost exclusively make use of the Knight Errant pattern and come from a planet once inhabited by ''actual dragons''. They are also one of the [[Salamanders|smallest knight houses, but remain one of the most respected]]. They engage in regular jousting tournaments using old fashioned horses, but wearing adamantium armour. Have a preference for [[Rip and Tear|close combat]].
**'''House Mortan''' - A house only recently introduced to the Imperium after being cut off by a nebula which made their planet a night world. For thousands of years they fought giant monsters in the dark until the nebula dissipated in M35 and the Imperium arrived.
**'''House Drakkus''' - Featured in the mobile game 'Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade'. Known for being dead, and for having a rather fetching jade-green colour scheme.

*Other households are directly aligned to the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] and are based on ''(or linked to)'' Forge Worlds. Though they retain their independence from the Cult Mechanicus, they do have reciprocal trade and resupply agreements as well as swearing oaths of protection to the Mechanicum, often directly to specific Forge Worlds. Houses directly linked to the Mechanicus will have access to better weapons and technology than their more primitive cousins. Which isn't surprising because Techpreists tend to be [[Blood_Ravens|greedy buggers.]] Examples of Mechanicum Houses include:
**'''House Taranis''' - The ''First'' of all Knight Houses (read ''Mechanicum'' by [[Graham McNeill]]). They were founded on [[Mars]] during the [[Dark Age of Technology]], and were later the first Martians who met the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]] before the [[Great Crusade]]. This house has ownership of some of the oldest knight suits. For some reason, their Knights' Throne Mechanicum units lack the typical mind-altering effects that they would normally possess; nobody knows why. One reason could be that the pilots of House Taranis are loyal to the mechanicus first, and house second.
**'''House Raven''' - The largest of all Knight Households, based on the world of Kolossi and have close links to forge world [[Heavy mythril|Metalica]]. Suspected to hold secret [[Standard Template Construct|STC]] data which explains why they have so many Knight suits. Their fortress, the ''Keep Inviolate'', is said to be one of the most well-protected bastions in the Imperium, on par with the Fang and the Imperial Palace, and appears on their coat of arms.
**'''House Krast''' - The first Knight World (Chrysis) to be rediscovered during the Great Crusade, its proximity to Mars meant it was swiftly brought into the fold, but had its homeworld ravaged by [[Horus]] during the [[Horus Heresy|Heresy]], leaving them the only Household left on the planet. Since the forces on Chrysis were led by the traitorous Legion Mortis, they have a preference for hunting traitor titans.
**'''House Vulker''' - A very wealthy but deeply mysterious house from a star system with vast mineral resources, they never expose any flesh and wear golden masks to cover their faces. Their close links to the Mechanicum are evident in the golden servitors they share between worlds, and their courts being filled with tech priests... Not that outsiders ever get to see inside their courts.

*Sometimes individual Knights detach themselves from Noble Houses entirely. Having been dishonoured, shunned, or otherwise made unable to continue life within the Household, they become Freeblades and ply the stars alone (dragging their large pool of retainers along to maintain the suit, naturally). These knights break out to either quest across the Imperium or settle down outside of the ritual of their Household and protect the citizens of whichever worlds they end up on.
**'''Amaranthine''' - Never ever speaks or leaves his suit. [[Inquisitor]]s chase him around trying to have a word about his loyalties.
**'''Auric Arachnus''' - Somehow connected to the [[Ultramarines]] and earned honour slaying a [[Dominatrix]] during the battle for [[Macragge]].
**'''Crimson Reaper''' - Freak who wears a red & black face mask, who is rumoured to be a [[Vampire|blood sucking mutant]]. Is very prone to collateral damage.
**'''Living Litany/Litany of Destruction''' - A grey, black, and orange Knight Gallant who constantly voxes droning sermons in High Gothic, only changing into loud chants when fighting. He's probably bonkers, but everyone lets it slide since he's still loyal to the Imperium at least. Or at least, they used to- at some point he lost what little was left of his sanity and went renegade. As the Litany of Destruction, his color scheme is identical to what it was as a loyalist but is now visibly emblazoned with the eight-pointed star of Chaos.
**'''Gerantius ''The Forgotten Knight''''' - maintains a secret mountain base on Alaric Prime, though his planet is shared by other lesser knight houses. Thought to be [[undead]] and [[Necromancer|in command of spirits]]. Days which he chooses to fight upon are regarded as ill-omens. Rules for him are in [[White Dwarf]], making him a Seneschal-level knight with ''It Will Not Die'' and the ability to both run & shoot in the same phase.
**'''Justice''' - A freeblade connected to the [[Iron Hands]] chapter who is a master of slaying traitor knights. The Iron Hands chapter appear to be keeping his secrets and will not talk of his past.
**'''Obsidian Knight''' - Fought in the [[Damocles Crusade|Damocles campaign]] along with House Terryn on the planet Agrellan. - Has his own rules in Warzone: Damocles making him an absolute WS/BS 6 [[Awesome|badass]] who hates [[Tau]] with a passion.
**'''Mydos Almighty''' - Hails from a world that was done in by the greed of its upper class, which it fled to actually fight. Rather hypocritically, this Knight is entirely bedecked in fucking GOLD.
**'''Retribution Incarnate''' - A hero of the [[Macharian Crusade]]s, believed to be the last member of an established household.
**'''White Warden''' - The last man standing for House Degallio from the planet of [[Lawful Stupid|Alaric Prime]] ''(same as Gerantius)'', known for his cracking mustache and his willingness to stand up for ridiculous laws.
**'''Tellurus''' - Only living member of a fallen house, and refuses to be seen without armor. Tellurus fought alongside both House Cadmus and House Hawkshroud on Vondrak. ''"...towering and monstrous, a giant of adamantium and fury. With a booming cannon and a roaring chainblade for arms, it was clad in armour the colour of a winter’s sky. Blue and cold, chevroned with streaks of black and amber. A bright gonfalon streamed from its left shoulder. A rearing horse with a fluted horn at its forehead."'' - from ''Knights of the Imperium'' by Graham McNeill. [[Samus|Turns out to be a girl.]]
**'''Domeenito Ohashi''' - Imperial Knight who got stuck on a primitive world under attack by the Orks. [[Awesome|In spite of being sworn to go back to his world of origin, he decides to go freeblade and fights back the greenskins becoming a hero to the population until receiving Imperial Guard reinforcement. since then he has wandered across the galaxy helping the Imperium to crush all kind of xenos raiders in the hopes of getting back home eventually.]]
**'''Dyros Kamata ''The Scorched Knight''''' - A Knight whose rider apparently severed all ties with his house and burned off all his livery by walking into a volcano. He eventually learned that his dad was a corrupt prick, so he killed the old man before going off again.

=== Sacristans ===
Unlike the much larger [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan legions]], most Imperial Knight Households do '''NOT''' retain [[Techpriest]]s of the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] to maintain and repair the Knight suits (though deeply-bonded Mechanicum households usually do).

Instead they invariably include a specific class of individual called a '''Sacristan''', who is basically an artisan and a technology specialist. These Sacristans accompany the knight on his travels and keep his suit operational during the campaign, and if a Knight becomes somehow divorced from his household and becomes a Freeblade, the sacristans associated with the suit shall travel with him. It is assumed/alluded to that Sacristans have a cadre of serfs and underlings whom also follow ''them'' around, all of whom form the cadre of attendants for a single Knight.

Unbeknownst ''(or immaterial)'' to the Imperial Households, these Sacristans '''ARE''' inducted into the Machine Cult in a similar fashion to the [[Techmarines]] of the [[Adeptus Astartes]], having been trained either off-world or under an apprenticeship to an already established Sacristan. So while they may not be fully ordained Tech-Priests, they do further the interests of the Mechanicum while living amongst the Knight Households. Sacristans may be historically connected to whomever maintained the Knights during the Age of Strife, making Sacristans even more inspired by ''A Canticle for Leibowitz'' than the Mechanicum itself already is.

=== Chaos and Renegade Knights ===
Though they are rare, there are a number of Knight Households or lone Freeblade Knights who have fallen to [[Chaos]]. Most infamous of all is the [[Slaanesh]] Hellknights of House Devine, who turned during the [[Horus Heresy]] due to [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Lannister]]-esque amounts of twincest. That said, Renegade and Chaos Knights are hunted down by Loyalist Households, who view their existence as shaming all other Knights. The "board game" Imperial Knight: Renegade shows one such hunt.

For those who survive, these Renegade Knights can find employment and protection within the warbands of [[Chaos Space Marines]], or find themselves on the heretical end of a [[Daemons|warp incursion]] that puts their skills and equipment to "good" use. Of course, being a massive war machine, Chaos Knights may find themselves converted into massive [[Daemon Engines]] called [[Daemon Knights]]. The only real distinction between Renegade and Chaos Knight is that Chaos Knights actually worship Chaos and can become Daemon Knights, whereas Renegade Knights can simply be disowned and mercenary Freeblades who don't always side with for the Imperium or humanity at large. The distinction is often irrelevant during the decision-making process of whether or not Imperial forces intend to kill them (though "kill for the honor of the House" and "kill the fucking traitor with ''extreme prejudice''" aren't exactly the same state of mind for the ones doing the killing).

==Knight Patterns==
The Knights themselves come in several varieties, all of which have an energy shield to protect them from incoming fire and have a mix of shooty and choppy. 6th edition introduced two varieties have just recently appeared in the 40k model range, the Knight Paladin with its rapid fire battlecannon and the Knight Errant with its thermal cannon. Forge World later joined in with several of its own varieties of Knights, and as of 7th edition three other types (the Crusader, Gallant, and Warden) were added to the main 40k line. Other varieties, yet to be seen in 40k, are the Knight Castellan with [[Autogun#Autocannon|Autocannons]] and a Quake Cannon and the command Baron Class Knight with an even faster firing battlecannon, improved armor, and the speed and choppiness of the Lancer.

Knights usually deploy alongside Titan legions as auxiliary forces. Although some patterns of Knight are capable of going toe to toe with smaller titans, or even larger titans outfitted exclusively for ranged combat, the Knight's usual role is anti-infantry or anti-light vehicle freeing up the Titans to attack superheavies.

===Standard Knight Patterns===
{|border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="margin: 1em;"
|-
| [[File:Knight Errant.jpg|thumb|center|A Knight Errant.]] || '''Knight Paladin & Knight Errant''' In 40k tabletop terms, the Knight Paladin and Knight Errant are superheavy walkers with strength D close combat weapons, a heavy stubber and a special Ion Shield that gives them a 4+ invulnerable on a facing chosen at the start of each of your opponents shooting phases. The only real difference between the two is arm loadout, since they both use the same basic model: The Paladin has a two-shot battle cannon and an extra heavy stubber, whilst the Errant has an S9 Thermal (i.e. [[Melta]]) Cannon with a large blast marker. They and all other non-Forge World Knights can take either an Ironstorm Missile Pod (think Whirlwind minus Ordnance), a Heavy 3 Krak missile launcher, or a pair of Icarus autocannons (I.e. actual anti-aircraft weapons) as carapace weapons to supplement their firepower and can also replace the heavy stubber with a meltagun for extra anti-armor usefulness. Fun fact: In ye olde Epic days, the Errant carried a [[Power weapon#Power Fist|power fist]]. || [[File:Knight Paladin.jpg|thumb|center|A Knight Paladin.]]
|-
| [[File:99120108005_IMPERIALKNIGHTCRUSADER360.jpg|thumb|center|A Knight Crusader.]] || colspan=2 | '''Knight Crusader''' The first purely ranged Knight, it has the same Battle Cannon as the Knight Paladin (which it can replace with the Thermal Cannon for tankbusting) but replaces its close combat weapon with an Avenger Gatling Cannon, which can unleash 12 S6 AP3 Rending shots per turn. You know, for when you need that squad of MEQs wiped out right now and they aren't clustered close enough for the Battle Cannon alone to kill them all. As an added bonus, the Gatling cannon comes with a built-in heavy flamer to compensate for its relative weakness at close range. (The key word is "relative". It can still Stomp, after all, and thanks to Smash it's still shitting out S10AP2 with normal cc attacks. It just can't give anyone the D.)
|-
| [[File:99120108005_IMPERIALKNIGHTGALLANT360.jpg|thumb|center|A Knight Gallant.]] || colspan=2 | '''Knight Gallant''' Designed to smash apart enemies at close range, very few enemies can withstand the initial assault of the Knight Gallant. The ground shakes as the Knight Gallant stomps forward, closing in on their prey. The purely choppy counterpart to the Knight Crusader, the Gallant eschews its arm-mounted ranged weapons for a Reaper Chainsword and the Thunderstrike Gauntlet (described below) making it an absolute beast in close combat but of dubious use if it can't close in for the kill. Carapace weapons can mitigate this slightly, but it'll still struggle against shooty foes if it can't get into melee. A noble designated to pilot a Knight Gallant will learn the three basic tenets when he is bonded with his war machine. Though they may subtly differ, the three basic tenants are to trust in your Ion Shield, make all speed towards the foe, and strike swift and sure.
|-
| [[File:99120108005_IMPERIALKNIGHTWARDEN360.jpg|thumb|center|A Knight Warden.]] || colspan=2 | ''' Knight Warden''' A somewhat more customizable Knight than most, by default it comes with the Reaper chainsword and the Crusader's Gatling Cannon on top of the obligatory heavy stubber and a heavy flamer, but it can replace the sword with a Thunderstrike Gauntlet. At first glance, the gauntlet doesn't look like much of an improvement due to the gauntlet always striking at initiative 1 because of its Colossal special rule; however, if the fist ever kills a MC or vehicle the Warden can then throw whatever it killed at someone else. In game terms, this translates to an out-of-phase shooting attack with a large blast template that has a Strength score equal to either the MC's toughness or half of the vehicle's front AV value. Even though it has no AP, it's still capable of serving as an unpleasant surprise for careless opponents.
|}
''' Knight Armiger''' A new type of Knight, said to be piloted by aspiring nobles, lowborn commoners with a knack for war, and the occasional bastard child of the High King. Smaller than other Knight patterns, they hunt and fight at the flanks of their cousins.

===Ceratus Knight Patterns===
{|border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="margin: 1em;"
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| [[File:Knight_Arheron.jpg|thumb|center|A Ceratus Knight Acheron.]] || colspan=2 | '''Cerastus Knight Acheron''' Another Forge World model, tall and lanky like all the other Cerastus pattern models. Acheron pattern Knights were configured as rapid moving strike units who rose to prominence during the legendary battles of the Great Crusade, but whose most terrible renown was to be found on the battlefields of the Horus Heresy. Rare, even in those ancient times for the singular difficulties of their construction, the Cerastus Knight-Acherons were amongst the most dreaded of their age. The Acherons’ machine spirits were regarded as [[World Eaters|particularly lusting for wanton destruction]] and only the strongest scion-minds could master them via the Throne Mechanicum, especially during the tumult of open battle. Has a Flame Cannon to make those Heretics extra crispy, and a [[Chainsword#Chainfist|chainfist]] (with built in twin-linked [[Bolter#Heavy Bolter|heavy bolter]]) that lets it reroll 1s on the Destroyer damage table against vehicles. Now you can give your opponent the D while also fisting them.
|-
| [[File:99560108146_MechanicumCerastusKnightAtrapos01.jpg|thumb|center|A Ceratus Knight Atrapos.]] || colspan=2 | '''Cerastus Knight Atrapos''' One of the rarest and most potent types of Knights, the Cerastus Knight-Atrapos was created solely to destroy heretek engines and xenos war machines whose very nature and existence were considered a blasphemy to the Omnissiah. The machine spirits of the Knight Atrapos are said to carry with them a cold and all-destroying hunger, and for the scion who bonds with them, madness is a constant risk. It comes with the same Blessed Autosimulacra and flare shields the Questoris Knights have and also has a special rule that makes all his weapons twin-linked, if it is firing at a Super-heavy or Gargantuan Creature. All of his weapons are very close ranged but they are a big fuck off to armour and thanks to the swiftness of the cerastus knights he should be in range soon. It is armed with an Atrapos lascutter, a D weapon that can be used both in close combat and as a 8" shooting attack, and a Graviton singularity cannon ([[Awesome|yep, it shoots black holes]]), a 36", S8, Ap2, large blast weapon with Armorbane and the Collapsing Singularity rule. This means that before firing the weapon you roll a D6; on a 1 the knight loses one HP (but the attack is still carried out as long as the knight survives), and on a 6 the attack gains Vortex.
|-
| [[File:Knight Castigator.jpg|thumb|center|A Ceratus Knight Castigator.]] || colspan=2 | '''Ceratus Knight Castigator''' A Forge World event model, and another close-combat variant. While fluff states that it is used to handle and take down hordes of lesser foes that could overwhelm other patterns of Knight through sheer numbers, in actuality there are other Knight variants more suited for horde cleansing such as the Porphyrion or Crusader who actually have more weapons suited into turning blobs of infantry into minced meat. Hence, it can be argued that the Castigator should be used as more on the lines as both crowd control and vehicle destroyer. Uses a big fuck-off sword (which is "only" S10, but has the same Deflagrate rule as the [[Volkite Weaponry|Volkite weapons]], rerolls failed armor penetration, and can exchange its attacks to hit everything in base contact once), and a Bolt Cannon which is essentially a S7 AP3 Heavy 8 giant [[bolter]].
|-
| [[File:Lancer-trans.jpg|thumb|center|A Cerastus Knight Lancer.]] || colspan=2 | '''Ceratus Knight Lancer''' The close assault variant of Knight, much taller and faster than the Paladin & Errant by virtue of longer legs. It is ''far'' more specialized than the Paladin or Errant due to its weapon loadout and suffers if it is not supported. Has a physical ion shield rather than just being a force field, which means it cannot block attacks to the rear, however it ''can'' be used against close combat attacks. In its other arm is has a [[Combi-weapon|combi-melee/range weapon]] that gives it extra initiative when it charges into combat, its shooting mode is basically a 18" range 6-shot [[Plasma|plasma rifle]] that concusses its targets. So better to get it into melee with other big things. On a slightly more hilarious note, the Lancer's ranged attack is of a decent Strength and AP, and fires a lot of shots. It's also not a Template Weapon. While not recommended, it means in a pinch the Lancer ''can'' be used as an anti-aircraft gun should the Knights lack sufficient AA from other sources (e.g. you are running pure Knights and don't have the Icarus autocannons), the amount of shots it fires making it second only to the [[Forgefiend]] in terms of emergency AA. It's also excellent against TEQs! And, with its concussive plasma shots, this thing is actually capable of countering a Wraithknight; even if you don't knock it down to initiative 1, you will be hitting at the same time on the charge.
|}

===Questoris Knight Patterns===
{|border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="margin: 1em;"
|-
| [[File:Knight Magaera.jpg|thumb|center|A Questoris Knight Magaera.]] || colspan=2 | '''Questoris Knight Magaera''' Yet another Forge World model, this one is different however, this one is a Questoris variant, which means it's short and fat. It was specially made by the Mechanicus to curry favor with Knight Houses (or to control them, depending on who you ask), and it shows in the unique wargear options it gets. For a start, it has Blessed Autosimulacrum (giving it IWND-lite), and its ionic shield acts similarly to the Flare Shields normally used by superheavy tanks like the [[Spartan Assault Tank]]. Its weapons are no less unusual- it can replace its chainsword for a Siege Claw which grants it Wrecker (and a built in TL rad-cleanser to fuck with Toughness scores), and at range it can employ a phased plasma fusil and a Lightning Cannon that mulch both infantry and all but the heaviest-armored vehicles. There's a catch, though- its reactor is highly unstable, as reflected by the +1 it gets when rolling on the Catastrophic Damage chart.
|-
| [[File:Knight_Styrix.jpg|thumb|center|A Questoris Knight Styrix.]] || colspan=2 | '''Questoris Knight Styrix''' Yes, Forge World is releasing another pattern of Knight, and it's another short and fat Questoris chassis with Blessed Autosimulacrum. The Styrix house a machine spirit which some say became too accustomed to slaughter during the Age of Strife and the Great Crusade that followed it. Many conservative Knight Houses consider the Styrix to be a malevolent pattern, the wanton destruction it unleashes being beneath a true Knight. Other Households hold no such reservations, loosing entire formations of Styrix Knights to annihilate their foes. This one packs a [[Volkite Weaponry#Volkite Chieorovile|Volkite Chieorovile]] and a [[Graviton weapons|Graviton Imploder]], and shares the Magaera's option of upgrading its Reaper chainsword to a Hekaton Siege Claw with complimentary Rad Cleanser.
|}

===Acastus Knight Patterns===
{|border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="margin: 1em;"
|-
| [[File:99560108172_AcastusKnightPorphyrion01.jpg|thumb|center|An Acastus Knight Porphyrion.]] || colspan=2 | '''Acastus Knight Porphyrion''' A newly announced Knight variant, and by far the bulkiest one yet. I mean this thing is so big it is literally the size of a [[Warhound Scout Titan]] for Emprah's sake. As such, it is one of the most heavily armed and armored of all the Knight chassis in service. While it has no melee weaponry of its own, it packs a pair of twin-linked magna-lascannons- which are Ordnance 2 Large Blast lascannons which become Strength D when fired at a range of 12" or less, making it an ideal superheavy-killer. It also comes with a built-in Ironstorm missile launcher (that can be replaced with Helios defense missiles for anti-air purposes) and a pair of autocannons that can be swapped out for rad-cleansers or lascannons. Essentially, it is by far the most [[Dakka|Dakkaest]] of Imperial Knights and one so big we were all fooled into believing that Games Workshop was actually releasing a new Titan.
|}

==Times of Epic==
Back in the times of ''Epic Warhammer 40,000'', there were more types of Knights apart from the Paladin and the Errants (though ''Codex: Imperial Knights'' references the Lancer, Castellan and Crusader Knights in fluff at least, and the Lancer, Crusader, and Warden have all gained models):

{|border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="margin: 1em;"
|-
| align=right| [[File:Lancer Command.jpg|150px|thumbnail|centre|Commander type Lancer. They all go really fast.]] || Lancer: Faster than other Knights, this pattern is all about scouting, distraction and hit-and-run tactics. Instead of its standard Shock Lance, it can swap it for a shorter in range, yet more powerful Power Lance. The only downside of them is that they are the most fragile of Knight Pattern. Now in 40k too, being the first Forge World Knight kit.
|-
| align=right| [[File:CrusaderDetachment.jpg|250px|thumbnail|center|When you need to kill something hard, roll out the Crusaders.]] || Crusader: Slower, yet sturdier and more powerful, Crusaders are armed with heavy weapons that are usually found on [[Warlord Battle Titan|Warlord]] or [[Emperor Battle Titan|Imperator Class Titans]] (such as the Quake Cannon). Due to them moving slow (blame the heavy weapons and loads of armoured bits) compared to other Knights, these behemoths are used to snipe targets from extreme range and act as a powerful support force for the rest of the Knights.
|-
| align=right| [[File:CastellanDetachment.jpg|150px|thumbnail|centre|Castellans. Knight level of [[Dakka]].]] || Castellan: The short-ranged cousin of the Crusader that swaps its standard Lascannons for multi-barreled Autocannons. This makes the Castellan a nightmare for infantry and light vehicles, as well as allowing it to deplete an enemy Titan's shields in a disturbingly short time.
|-
| align=right| [[File:KnightBaron.jpg|150px|thumbnail|center|When a Baron enters the battlefield, [[AWESOME]] ensues.]] || Baron: The biggest, baddest of all the Knights. Baron Knights are piloted by the deadliest members of a Knight House. Each Baron is actually build from the very basics as an ace-custom for its pilots, combining the power to keep up with Lancers and armor nearly as tough as Crusaders. Typically armed with Battle Cannons and the Lancer's Power Lance, the Barons lead their kinsmen to war and victory.
|-
| align=right| [[File:KnightWarden.jpg|150px|thumbnail|center|Old people are actually as deadly as younglings.]] || Warden: Piloted by the eldest (read retired) members of a Knight House, these goofy-looking Knights shouldn't be underestimated, much like the old-timers that pilot them. Warden Knight make up (like the Crusader) the heavy support part of a Knight House in the long-range category. Although not as fast as the youngsters, the pilots of Wardens make it up with years of brutally hard-won experience that makes them as deadly as the Barons.
|}

== Why Knights are Awesome ==
[[File:Knight Errant of Freeblade Garantius.jpg|450px|thumbnail|left|Knight Errant of Freeblade Gerantius. The Forgotten Knight. Closest you get to the [[The Green Knight|Green]] [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle|Knight]].]]
Knight Titan lore is some of the coolest stuff in 40k. True to both the medieval tradition and epic feel that 40k thrives from, Knight Titans protect the Agri Worlds that the Mechanicus use to supply (and predominantly feed) their incredibly ravenous [[Forge World#Planet|forge worlds]]. These Titans are easier to produce by far than even the humble [[Warhound Scout Titan]] and so can be made reliably, produced almost as an afterthought. So Knights aren't the biggest, baddest, most overblown thing in 40k -- but, they are to the Knight Worlders. The people who live and die on those Agri Worlds, delineated from other Agri Worlds by their designation as Knight Worlds, are all on the technological and societal footing of Medieval Europe. A lot of these worlds look like Bretonnia, from [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Kings and Queens, Arthurian legend, stone brick castles and skullcapped peasantry abound; fields and forests extend to every horizon without end. Remember, [[grimdark|it's much, much more important to obey societal doctrine than to optimize food output]].

Imagine what someone from that world would think when they see a Knight Titan. The most agile giant robots the Imperium makes, capable of shrugging off lasers and plasma bombs, tower silently over a field on a world that probably doesn't even have gunpowder weaponry or a Copernican idea of the night sky. The kingdoms of the planet may have their petty wars, but life is dominated by meeting the food and resource quotas of machine-men from the sky, who build and fix the Knights that children and adults view with awe and reverence, like some amalgam of god and monster. These machine-men could destroy entire kingdoms on a whim by dropping stars from the sky. Kingdoms train their nobles and knightly warriors to fight with swords, horses, and hammers. They conscript armies from farming peasants, and use squads of bowmen to kill men at range....except for the Knight Titan pilots. Those who are honorable enough or skilled enough may graduate beyond knighthood, to Knighthood. Someone who takes a bath maybe twice a month and lives by torchlight has the duty to step inside a machine of such power and complexity that the science of the Fortieth Millennium proves incapable of comprehending it. Those men are revered beyond their kings, for they are the wielders of magic and death, and are entrusted with more true power than any other man on the planet. Those men fight monsters, murderous warriors from the sky, and even other Knights from enemy kingdoms. Sometimes, when the machine men come down when they aren't expected, the men who pilot the god-monsters must go far away to battle alongside the machine men in their wars. Not a war on the other side of the world, but a war on a distant star, surrounded by machines and giants even larger than they.

Imagine the man who has the lifelong job of knowing how to run the Knights, whose sacred duty is to recruit and train pilots. Imagine. A lord or general may give the order to bring cavalry around the left flank, and fire the laser cannon onto the walls of his enemy's castle. Despite his most valorous deeds, his children grow up playing with a giant metal god standing over them, silent and omnipotent, resplendent in livery and gold leaf. These children one day grow old and tell stories not of lords and generals, but of the time when their kingdom's metal giant slew a great beast, or razed an entire castle single-handedly, or ran across the entire world to deliver medicine to a dying king. Imagine what a pilot is to his subjects, or his lords. What legends would be told of them, the men who step inside the kingdom's giant? Their legends are not sagas of inscrutable gods or immortal emperors or statistic-scale tragedies, but of simple, honorable soldiers told by humble, hardworking people centuries after those soldiers are but dust and memory.

If you are not crying tears of pure [[awesome]] right now then you are either have no soul or are [[Sly Marbo]].

==6th Edition and Beyond==
[[File:IKErrant battle.jpg|450px|thumbnail|right|THOU SHALL NOT PASS BY A KNIGHT OF HOUSE TERRYN!! HAVE AT THEE [[Tau|BLUEBERRIES]]!!!.]]

Imperial Knights became a Codex in 6th edition. With the ability to be a Household detachment of 3-6 knights or an allied detachment of 1-3 knights, Knights may ally with [[Chaos]], [[Daemon]]s, [[Necron]]s and [[Tyranid|'Nids]] as Come the Apocalypse, [[Dark Eldar]], [[Tau]] and [[Orks]] as Desperate Allies; [[Eldar]] as Allies of Convenience; and all of the Imperium Faction as Battle Brothers (Yes, even [[Grey Knights]]).

'''Note:''' Imperial Knights are only Vehicles, only scoring if they're your primary. But let's face it you're always playing Purge the Alien anyway, even when it's not. The GW Imperial Knights are not Lords of War for other Imperial armies (the FW ones, however, can fit there), they are an army unto themselves. If you're playing 3-6 as a primary detachment, pick one as your Warlord; he gets relics and +1 WS/BS

Lets do the numbers:
*'''1000 pts''' - You can have up to 2 models to fit the points cost. Sadly this means no Primary Detachment or even formations in low point games as everything has a bare 3-knight minimum requirement. You could run 3 Gallants, and have 75 points left for other options/upgrades, but it's not even remotely competitive, even as the formation.
*'''1250 pts''' - Up to three models this time, making it the first points level you can play with your Primary detachment. With the new codex and a slew of upgrades, depending on what you choose, you can fill out the remaining 100 points with either upgrades to the knights themselves, or take one of the more expensive knights (like the Crusader).
*'''1500 pts''' - Perfect if you plan on only taking Paladins, taking Errants will nab you some extra points to upgrade those stubbers into melta guns (or take a gauntlet for every 2 Errants). At this points cost you can field 4 of these Knights. If you want to field any other types, especially the formations, you're gonna have to start dropping knights, or take a few Gallants to free up the points.
*'''1750pts''' - Now possibly the new sweet spot for Knights. With around 250 extra points to play around with, you can either afford to bring in some Crusaders to pack more damage, upgrade every knight with a carapace weapon, or take 3 Gallants (the cheapest Knights) to bring 5 knights in a 1750 game.
*'''1850pts''' - Similar to above, but now you can field 5 Knights without having 3 or 4 of them be Gallants while still having a decent amount of points to play around with. Note that 5 bare naked Errants cost exactly the same amount, so if you're confident in your melta-spam, this works too.
*'''2000pts''' - Now with upgrades, this has also become a sweet spot for people looking to field the Exalted Court or Baronial Court. With roughly 150 extra points to play with, you can either grant each of your knights one of the relics, or start upgrading them with extra weapons and other whistles. Alternatively, you can field up to 6 bare-bones Gallants at this point, which is just enough to take two Gallant Lance Formations (although this is not wise, it is recommended, if only to see the horror in your opponent's face when 6 knights basically leap across the table to charge him).
So what if you want to deploy 6 Knights on the field at once? You are looking at somewhere between 2220 - 2250pts. If you can do this you just paid $840 USD for an entire army of only 6 models, you sir are the envy of many neckbeards and [[Ork#Flash Gits|clearly have more dollars than sense]]. And we thought the Grey Knights were an elite army per model. Or you can just, oh I don't know, scratch build 6 knights and save yourself $820 bucks. Just sayin'.

Note: Flyers may not be laughing quite as hard with the new 7th edition codex, but may giggle a little as the carapace mounted AC isn't too scary (unless you have five knights all with that weapon...but then your opponent may laugh for different reasons). The Warden/Crusaders gatling cannon can do some credible anti-flyer work and may be your best bet. Regardless, it remains a valid tactic to continue to take all those point you couldn't spend (see above) and buy a Vengeance Weapons Battery w. Quad Icarus, or two, or even better a Firestorm Redoubt.

Second Note: FW have made their own version of an all-knight list, which actually has Knights fitting into a modified force org chart.

==Warhammer 40,000 Freeblade==
Yet another exercise in wasted potential, Warhammer 40,00: Freeblade is a [[Awesome|badass looking third person Imperial Knights game]] [[Skub|for iOS and Android]]. You can play it on Windows 10 now!

The plot's simple; you're a newly initiated knight of House Drakkus and your bonding ritual only just finishes when Chaos Space Marines dedicated to Khorne show up and fuck shit up. You end up being the last knight of House Drakkus and you get rescued by the Dark Angels who take you on a merry adventure of fucking [[Orks]] and [[Chaos]] up.

[[Fall of the Eldar|OH NO]]. Turns out that it is a free2play nightmare, with forced 30 second video ads and amazing amounts of not so subtle hints that you should really be buying their shitty supply drop 'loot crates' and a mind boggling array of other detritus.
You know you have a pile of exploitative and badly written shit on your hands when upon clicking on said loot crate, a [[Dark Angels|derpy marine]] with cybernetic implants and a voice like a talking vibrator pops up and proclaims he "Can scarce imagine what glorious spoils lie within- let us find out!" Bleargh.

Its only saving grace is the paint and customise your own knight section, which is kind of fun! One can then take take pictures of said pimped out knight and then promptly uninstall.

==See Also ==
* [[Imperial Knight House Creation Tables]], work-in-progress tables you can roll on to generate a Knight House of your own.
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Knights(7E)]]
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Questoris Knight Crusade (30k)]]
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Imperial Knights(8E)]]

{{Mechanicus}}
{{40k-Imperial-Vehicles}}
{{Imperium}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}

Khorne

2018-02-16T14:10:03Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:Khorne mark.png|center]]
[[File:khorne_by_baklaher-d7335e6.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Special K in all his glory, Sitting comfortably on his Skull Throne, being pissed off at everyone and everything.]]<div style="font-size:1.10em;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic;font-family:serif;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em"> BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! MILK FOR THE KHORNE FLAKES! - The creed of Khorne being Overused to Death'''</div>

''"Craniums for the Cranium Chair!"'' 
-[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZI0ZX1DrRw| A weird Swedish red panda's take on the iconic battlecry.]

''"Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before - it takes something from him."'' 
-Louis L'Amour

''"The important thing in life is not victory but combat: it is not to have vanquished but to have fought well."'' 
-Pierre de Coubertin

''"War is the father of all." 
-Heraclitus

''"Who was the first that forged the deadly blade? Of rugged steel his savage soul was made."'' 
-Tacitus

{{heresy}}

==Introduction==
'''Khorne''', also known as Kharnath, Arkhar, Khorgar, [[Viking|Kjorn]], Khar, the Bloody Handed, the Axefather, the Bloodwolf, The Great Khorneholio, Special K, the [[Ulric|Wolf-Father]], Frowny Face McMurderaxe, Sergeant Slaughter, the Lord of Fighters, [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|The Parapeligac Sociopath]], Angry Jesus, Definitely not fucking Khaine and 8870 other names, is the [[Chaos God]] of war, murder, savagery, hatred, rage, wrath, battle, and [[Vance Motherfucking Stubbs|manliness]]. He is also the mofo that the Klingons worship. As well as this he symbolises courage, athleticism, determination, daring, discipline, sportsmanship, honor, impulsiveness, and struggling onward in the face of any odds. But mostly he's simply about being angry.

He is commonly held to be the strongest Chaos God by default, and is associated with wolves and powerful hunting dogs, as well as lions and bulls. For another reason that is likely inspired by occultism, Khorne's sacred number is eight - and thus, his followers tend to organize themselves into groups of eights and its multiples. Fun fact, this also means that the names of Khornate daemons are usually comprised of eight syllables.
[[File:SkullThrone.jpg|400px|right|thumb|The Big K in all his glory contemplating on whose rectum he is going to shove his chainaxe into with extreme prejudice.(Spoiler: its everyone)]]
Khorne, by virtue of being the most powerful Chaos God, is also the most powerful general "divinity" in both iterations of Warhammer. In both versions of Warhammer, his followers are characterized by an overbearing need to spill blood and engage in honest battle, as well as a violent code of martial honour and a "survival of the fittest" approach to morality. They tend to be dutiful, as well, but said duties involve whacking their axes into their enemy and painting their blood all over villages gargling their blood as mouthwash (if only because Khorne's only real command is to spill worthy blood in his name).

This is where Khorne and Slaanesh generally clash as enemy gods. While Khorne instills discipline, honor and a sense of selfless duty towards his followers to obey a single purpose (I.E: Spill blood in his name), Slaanesh is the polar opposite. Slaanesh instead tells his/her followers to do whatever they want for their own selfish pursuits for pleasure, not caring the consequences of such acts. (I.E: Using your authority to hoard food from your starving citizens, so you could indulge in bottomless gluttony everyday.)

This is also why Khorne is at odds with Tzeentch: Tzeentch sees things like honor and discipline as unnecessary hamstrings towards one's advancement and opts that everything is on the table when one wishes to further their position (I.E.: Why duel your Chaos Lord for his position when you could arrange for an "accident" to happen to him instead? Sure its a low-blow, but if your lord was too stupid to not see that betrayal coming, was he really deserving your loyalty?). The same can be said for his disdain of sorcery. Tzeentch thinks that mortals using the power of the gods themselves is fair game in their pursuit of progress (so long as you can control it), while Khorne thinks that using anything else but your own strength alone means you are weak and his "survival of the fittest" ideal has no place for you.

Khorne also has the distinction of being the only Chaos God whose word you can take at face value. They don't realize that disdain for scheming and backstabbing isn't the same as being stupid. Nor do they realize that over-complicating things is actually the worst thing a planner can do. Any plan that relies on more than one variable to succeed (ie: the vast majority of Tzeentch plots) is almost always doomed to fail ([[Just as Planned|that said Tzeentchian plans have divination included into them, eliminating most tactical miscalculations]], [[Not as Planned|unless Tzeentch wanted it to happen.]]). So you actually want results? Be practical. Involve only as many steps as you need (IE: Beat someone up, until they're reduced to a bloody smear on the ground).

Basically, Khorne isn't a stupid brute, he's actually pretty smart. The god of battles knows a thing or two about tactics and warfare. That said, Khorne's doctrine is inflexible. One, straightforward approach to anything. Simply put: Break everything in half. Which means that it all rides on an "all-or-nothing" deal. If his battering ram approach doesn't work there's little to be done to salvage the situation beyond everyone dying a glorious death. Usually this isn't the case for most battles, the Khornates' overwhelming need to quench their bloodlust gets in the way of reorganization. Of course, if things go according to plan, there are only few things that can stop the demonically-possessed no brakes hate train.

If Khorne had a voice actor it would be [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFseqTnysBY BRAIN BLESSED!]

Yes, Brain Blessed apparently.
===Appearance===
Khorne is described as resembling a giant, iron-hewed warrior clad in red armour, with a massive sword and a winged helm that conceals a snarling face like that of a wolf. This humanoid form could be seen as something darkly meaningful, were it not for the fact that more or less everyone in both settings is conveniently human-shaped.
[[File:Khorne First.jpg|thumb|right|400px|The first depiction of Khorne in Warhammer art.]]
Of course, most artists at GW forget that he's supposed to look a giant Chaos Warrior and instead make him look like an overgrown Bloodthirster on a chair.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Name
!Class
!Value
!Wargear
!Quantity
!References
|-
|Ork Shoota Boy
|Light Tackle
|11 Points
|’Eavy Armour, Shoota, Choppa and Stikkbombs
|72
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Orks]
|-
|Ork Big Shoota Boy
|Light Linebacker
|16 Points
|’Eavy Armour, Big Shoota, Choppa and Stikkbombs
|9
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Mekboy]
|-
|Chaos Space Marine
|Medium Tackle
|18 Points
|Mark of Khorne, Power Armour, Boltgun, Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Frag Grenades and Krak Grenades
|28
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Chaos_Space_Marine]
|-
|Ork Boss Nob
|Light Quarterback
|21 Points
|’Eavy Armour, Shoota, Choppa and Stikkbombs
|9
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Nob]
|-
|Khorne Berzerker
|Light Fullback
|23 Points
|Mark of Khorne, Power Armour, Bolt Pistol, Chainaxe, Frag Grenades and Krak Grenades
|21
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Khornate_Berzerkers]
|-
|Possessed
|Light Halfback
|30 Points
|Mark of Khorne, Power Armour and Vorpal Claws
|40
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Possessed]
|-
|Plasma Gunner Marine
|Medium Linebacker
|31 Points
|Mark of Khorne, Power Armour, Plasma Gun, Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Frag Grenades and Krak Grenades
|8
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Plasma_Weapons]
|-
|Veteran Berzerker
|Medium Fullback
|38 Points
|Mark of Khorne, Power Armour, Plasma Pistol, Chainaxe, Frag Grenades and Krak Grenades
|9
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Kh%C3%A2rn_the_Betrayer]
|-
|Chaos Assault Terminator
|Heavy Fullback
|41 Points
|Mark of Khorne, Terminator Armour and Pair of Lightning Claws
|48
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Chaos_Terminator]
|-
|Bloodcrusher
|Medium Halfback
|45 Points
|Hellblade and Juggernaut
|47
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Juggernaut]
|-
|Bloodhunter
|Heavy Halfback
|50 Points
|Hellblade and Juggernaut
|7
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Skulltaker]
|-
|Meganob
|Medium Quarterback
|50 Points
|Two Killsaws, Mega Armour and Stikkbombs
|57
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Meganob]
|-
|Deffkopta
|Wide Receiver
|55 Points
|Kustom Mega-Blasta, Choppa and Buzzsaw
|45
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Deffkopta]
|-
|Chaos Reaper Terminator
|Light Cornerback
|60 Points
|Mark of Khorne, Terminator Armour, Reaper Autocannon and Power Axe
|12
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Reaper_Autocannon]
|-
|Killa Kan
|Heavy Quarterback
|65 Points
|Kustom Mega-Blasta, Kan Klaw and Extra Armour
|45
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Killa_Kan]
|-
|Chaos Rhino
|Heavy Linebacker
|65 Points
|Dual Combi-Bolters, Searchlight, Smoke Launchers, Daemonic Possession and Extra Armour
|11
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Rhino]
|-
|Ork Warboss
|Light Center
|105 Points
|Cybork Body, Mega Armour, Twin-Linked Shoota, Power Klaw and Stikkbombs
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Warboss]
|-
|Soul Grinder
|Heavy Tackle
|190 Points
|Phlegm Bombardment, Harvester Cannon and Iron Claw
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Soul_Grinder]
|-
|Forgefiend
|Medium Cornerback
|205 Points
|Three Ectoplasma Cannons and Daemonic Possession
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Forgefiend]
|-
|Bloodthirster
|Medium Center
|250 Points
|Warp-Forged Armour, Lash of Khorne and Axe of Khorne
|2
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Bloodthirster]
|-
|Chaos Land Raider
|Heavy Cornerback
|255 Points
|Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter, Two Twin-Linked Lascannons, Extra Armour, Daemonic Possession, Searchlight and Smoke Launchers
|6
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Land_Raider]
|-
|Stompa
|Heavy Center
|770 Points
|Three Big Shootas, Deff Kannon, Skorcha, Supa-Gatler, Three Supa-Rokkits, Twin-Linked Big Shoota and Mega-Choppa
|3
|[http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Gargant]
|}

===Khorne and His Worship===
Khorne is the easiest god ever to worship. Where [[Tzeentch|other]] [[Slaanesh|more]] [[Nurgle|pussified]] gods may demand you to memorize overly long prayers and hymns, or to build huge houses of worship and other such unmanly bullshit, Khorne is venerated with one thing and one thing only: the time-honoured tradition of [[rip and tear|hack'n'slash]].

Khorne is worshipped on the battlefield. His hymns are the sound of steel on steel, his sacraments are the blows of hammer and axe, his only prayer the bellowing of the warcry "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" and his libation is the blood spilled in his name.

In essence, you worship Khorne by being a good warrior. And as a warrior, you'll find your interests and his tend to generally align; he wants death but isn't picky on who, and you want to live to fight another day. Thus, the mere act of preserving your life will earn the pleasure of the god of battle.

However, Khorne is one of those honourable war-gods. So don't think that beating your enemies by anything other than sheer strength, skill and aggression will make him happy. And for the love of Sigmar/Empra, don't try to cheat by picking fights with the weak or helpless or by giving him baby skulls. Khorne expects a form of savage, viking-esque dignity from his followers and for them to be generally [[Fist of the North Star|manly]], this means you have to fight worthy opponents and those generally able to at least hold up a sword. ''Only after'' the worthwhile enemies are out of the way; then you can gorge yourself on the blood of women and children all you want (or make them fight amongst themselves and recruit the survivors, or enslave them, or whatever). Most of the writers forget this, thinking that Khorne really gives no fucks about what you kill, and it makes Khorne [[Rage|snarl in anger]]. Though he continues to send his flesh-hounds to hunt down those who flee and abandon their brothers on the battlefield, be they Chaos or non-Chaos.

Aside from that and (obviously) never backing down from a fight, Khorne has no commandments whatsoever. But deviating from the aforementioned in the slightest is begging for the flesh-hounds to tear your ass apart.

Such as it is, it would be incorrect to think Khorne doesn't have priests dedicated to him. Though, being a warrior god, these priests tend to be warriors themselves and are often marked by their god. In essence, the only difference between them and a Chaos marauder/Space Marine is several pounds of armour. In Warhammer Fantasy, these priests are called 'Bloodfathers', and in lieu of magic that is gifted to their priests by other gods, Khorne just gives [[AWESOME|HOLYSHITAWESOME]] fighting skills and visions of bloodshed. In [[skub|Age of Sigmar]], they're called Slaughterpriests and they basically lead by example, killing while screaming out Khorne's name. If the killing is good enough, Khorne will empower the priest and/or his allies; but if the killing is unworthy, the priest himself will feel Khorne's wrath.

Khorne is also venerated by working brass into your armour and weapons and donning fashionable high collars. Occasionally, a warrior so pleases Khorne that he gifts him with specially made ones that in addition to looking fabulous can also grant total fucking immunity to magic.

Anyway, Khorne is worshiped by warriors, generals and basically anyone who likes battle. His chosen Space Marines legion is of course the World Eaters, in Warhammer Fantasy, the Norscans tend to venerate him with the greatest piety, especially the Aesling tribe, who are Khorne's most devoted servants in Fantasy.

===Khorne's take on magic===
As posted by an Anon some time ago, he perfectly summed up what Khorne's opinion on magic is: FUCK WIZARDS!!!!

Okay, here's what the "FUCK WIZARDS" thing means.

Note that the hate of psykers/wizards/etc is pretty much the exact same and works by the same logic for both Khornates and the SoB/Black Templar/etc. Its a [[Conan the Barbarian|Conan-esque]] kind of swords and sorcery thing. Khornates hate wizards for [[3e|trivializing encounters with a single spell and overshadowing fighters]]. They hate turning what should be a military endeavor into a weird wizard show where people turn into frogs. They hate Slaaneshi for the same reason, they take what should be a wholesome murder fest and make it into something creepy and weird, what with them "discomporting themselves with the dead" and all that. In Realms of Chaos, its entirely possible for a librarian or wizard to go to Khorne. They just refrain from using their powers, and only use their psi/magic (in combat) to resist spells from that point onward.

They are okay with laser beams. They are okay with sniper rifles. They are okay with flaming swords. They are okay with running people over with tanks. They are okay with chemical gas. They are okay with exterminatus. They are okay with holocausts. They are okay with blitzkriegs. They are okay with honorable duels at dawn.

They are not okay with turning people to frogs, mind controlling people, raining glitterdust from the skies to blind everyone, raising armies of zombies to do the killing for you, and so forth. They are not okay with someone pointing their finger and you dropping dead. They are okay with rituals to summon demons. They are okay with navigating the warp without crashing into suns. They are okay with sending astropathic messages. They are okay with chaining wizards up and forcing them to eternally forge magic items on pain of death.

You may consider it hypocritical that Khornates are okay with blatantly unfair TECHNOLOGICAL murder, but not okay with blatantly unfair MIND/MAGICAL murder, but the point, or at least one interpretation, is that wizards/psykers fucking cheat. They do. They steal the power of the Warp for their own ends. As long as they stay in line, and do nothing but permit the warrior to enact his craft, fine, let them live, albeit in terror, enslaved by chains of brass until the day they are no longer useful, at which point their skulls can join Khorne's throne.

But stealing the Gods' own fire and using it to do what mortals should do through their own skill and strength is unacceptable. Remember that technology is completely valid to Khorne. Stealth is completely valid to Khorne. Skill is completely valid to Khorne. Cleverness is completely valid to Khorne. The nuclear bomb and other innovations that come after it could be seen to be unfair. But it is a mortal invention. Mortals should give honor to Khorne by murdering each other through the sweat of their brow.

The scientist who devises new ways to kill is a saint. His work can be put to any other use -- [[Slaanesh|enriching human life]], [[Nurgle|ending hunger, fighting diseases]], [[Tzeentch|answering great questions]]. But the scientist who devises new bombs and weapons is, in his own way, a champion of Khorne. He takes his limitless human potential and nobly limits himself to new ways to kill. Whether you kill with a sword or a bomb, you are killing using good old fashioned mortal strength and genius. You aren't stealing warp energy from the gods in the form of a fireball and cravenly calling it your own.

The forger of enchanted weapons, though deserving of slavery and abuse as all wizards are until the day they die, is an ideal symbol. It is fitting that spell energy be subjugated to and entombed within cold steel, just as wizards deserve to be subjugated to warriors until they lie cold and headless in the ground or else burnt to ash. The magic weapon is a symbol of might's superiority to magic.

The jury is still out on whether or not Khorne is okay with magically imbued people.

Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! When the Galaxy burns, we will define righteousness!

tl;dr Magic is unmanly, grab a sword (or a 16-inch battleship cannon, if that's your thing) and go kill like real men do already.

===Khorne and other Chaos gods===
As a rule, Khorne despises [[Slaanesh]] because s/he's an effeminate milk-sop who can't grow a beard or swing an axe like she's got a pair (even though she's probably got the biggest pair, but less on that), and also because he personifies acting outwardly (ie: seeking the deaths of others), while Slaanesh acts inwardly (ie: pleasuring him/herself). Khorne also finds Slaanesh's obsession with luxury and torture wasteful and dishonorable. Slaanesh is about living it up while Khorne is about tearing it the fuck down. Basically, Slaanesh is a THOT and Khorne is the THOT patrol.

Khorne also hates [[Tzeentch]], though they are not fundamental rivals, because his reliance on magic is seen as a sign of weakness and his desire not to face his foes in person is decried by Khorne as cowardly. Khorne sees his penchant for deceit and trickery as dishonorable. Also Khorne prefers muscles over books (plus Tzeentch is a huge NEEEEEEEEEEEEEERD).

Khorne thinks he hates [[Nurgle]] also, because the fat fuck doesn't even try to get shit done. Thus, his embodiment as sloth runs contrary to the active, vital aspect of Khorne, but he's all for death if its by homicide or genocide.

Of all the Chaos gods, Khorne actually hates [[Malal]] the least. For one thing, he respects the lost god for sticking to his guns: he hates the other gods, wants them dead and is actively working towards that goal. Since Nurgle just sits there being a scabby procrastinator, Tzeentch just has to have his fingers in everyone's business and Slaanesh is fucking Slaanesh (no literally, s/he is fucking him/herself right now, go look if you don't believe me), this is something Khorne can sympathize with. Also, Malal is the only chaos god to put up a halfway decent fight when Khorne manages to find him, which would mean that they would be best buds if Malal wasn't a self destructive, omnicidal lunatic.

In short he hates everyone and pissed at everyone, including you even if you worship him (usually its a matter how pissed he is at you). And they hate him too. Except for Nurgle, who's too nice to hate anyone.
Except Tzeentch. The know-it-all, indecisive, over-thinking, birdy bastard...

===Khorne and non-Chaotic Gods===
Well, [[Ulric]] is his little brother and they tend to get along rather well. Ulric's still ridiculing Khorne over the fact that one of his greatest champions, Haargroth, got his head smashed in by Ulric's Ar-Ulric, Khorne usually replies by pointing out that ''Storm of Chaos'' isn't canon anymore. Not that that stops Ulric. Khorne and Ulric often get into arguments over which one of them is moar Viking; with Khorne usually winning by pointing out that his top worshipers actually are Vikings and that he has a Valkyrie. They also settle this with arm wrestling and drinking contests. There's a lot of belligerence, but you can sense the brotherly love underneath. Indeed, it's kind of a [[Fist of the North Star|Raoh/Ken relationship]].

Despite both being war-gods, Khorne has a poor relationship with [[Myrmidia]]. Khorne, despite being a master of tactics and sieges and the finer points of warfare, vastly prefers a manly head-on charge, and Myrmidia's sissy "planning" approach to warfare therefore offends Khorne. Most meetings between the Blood God and the Maiden of Strategy end with the Blood God fuming impotently because his strict code of martial honour does not permit him to hit girls (or pull their hair) and retreating to his tree house.

Khorne is the only Chaos God who tolerates Sigmar because he thinks he's pretty bad-ass AND respects the idea of a mortal man becoming a god. That and Sigmar's comic book series, Sigmar the Emprahrian, has great splashpages of fights and no SWORDSWORDSWORDS. However, this tolerance is only one-sided, and while Khorne respects him, it doesn't mean he won't try to put an axe in his head for being an sworn enemy of Chaos.

When asked about the [[Emperor]], Khorne usually responds with a streaming torrent of bloody curses and oaths which causes a bloody froth to start leaking from his helmet. In short, he is remarkably indifferent to the old man. Ironically, they share many of the same beliefs: They both disliked psykers, they both have a kick ass thrones, and they both have units dedicated to close combat. Hell, even the Emprah's head is a skull. What's not to like?

Khorne is utterly sick and tired of anyone who dares associate him with [[Khaine|40Khaine]]. Before eviscerating anyone who makes that connection, he will often give a short PowerPoint presentation, explaining how Khaine is an honourless god of murder and sadism while he himself is a god of honourable and forthright battle and courage, and how sadism is contrary to his code (Khorne indeed used to be about honorable combat, but now he's just about mindless violence and hating everyone for either piss-poor reasons or for no reason at all. Goddammit, GW). Khorne then reiterates that Khaine's elfishness and love for scantily clad women is sickening and makes him more like Slaanesh... Of course, this is just a front on Khorne's part. Khaine's love of war combined with his elfness and that his most ardent worshippers are scantily-clad women proves Khaine to be the secret love-child of Khorne and Slaanesh (tsundere confir- *sounds of violent, painful evisceration* '''{{Blam|WHO DARES? IN MY OWN PAGE, OF ALL THINGS? FUCK YOUUUUUUUU}}''' '''''[[Slaanesh|Search your feelings you know it to be true]].

That being said, Khaine does have a dual nature in Fantasy thanks to being worshiped by [[Dark Elves]] and paid respect to by [[High Elves]], where one side is indeed honorable and just wants to keep fighting and being badass which means Khorne can tolerate him approximately half the time. The fact that both are patrons of [[Blood Bowl]] teams is usually the common ground, with Khaine and Khorne crashing/trashing some other God's house to watch on game nights while downing can after can of Bloodweisers and shoveling Dwarf Rinds in their faces. Khaine periodically tries to invade the realm of Khorne whenever the Khornate team beats the Dark Elf team, with such meetings ending with Khorne individually breaking every bone in his body and spitting on the pain-wracked heap. When Khaine's team beats Khorne's, Khorne takes out his aggression by beating the fuck out of Slaanesh while Dark Elves go on safari hunting [[Warriors of Chaos|Khorne's worshipers]].

Khorne has absolutely no patience for the [[Horned Rat]], who is a favorite of Nurgle and Tzeentch respectively. It's a weak vermin whose very existence pisses him off. As a result, Khorne is much more fond of [[Sotek]] who encourages killing the fuck out of [[Skaven]] whenever they appear, and is also a fan of blood sacrifice (the fact that Sotek wants hearts and cares nothing for skulls is reassuring since they don't intrude on each other's fetish); this fondness is entirely one-sided.

Like the other Chaos Gods, Khorne has no fucking clue what the Great Maw is. However, it doesn't seem to complain when [[Ogre Kingdoms|Ogres]] worship Khorne, so he's got nothing against him...her...it...schclim...whatever, the big god-thing that wants to eat.

The pantheon of the [[Tomb Kings]] mostly stick to themselves, so Khorne only knows they exist..

Khorne is impressed with the [[Bretonnia|Bretonnian]] race by the fact they're the epitome of honor and glorious valor. On the other hand, their entire race has been tricked by a single fucking Elf Goddess into doing their every command which fills Khorne with incomprehensible fury. As it stands, the first being that's going to get the axe when Khorne manages to get an avatar to manifest in the material plane is Lileath.

[[Mork]] and [[Gork]]/Gork and Mork are Khorne's old drinking buddies. They piss him off more than any other beings in existence, but after a good 3-way beatdown and a few billion cases of squig beer he realizes they're alright company.

Khorne has a feeling that he'd get along with the gods of the [[Dwarfs]], but even their introductions (being long ass winded descriptions of their primary worshipers and their lineages) irritate him so much he can't even get into a conversation with them. One of them is STILL giving his own introduction, and has been for about 20,000 years or so now (and he hasn't even reached the changes that have happened since he started). Unable to make him aware of what's going on around him, Khorne simply moved him into the guest room and bricked it off with a wall of skulls.

As for the [[Tyranid|Bugs?]], Khorne hates them '''''Especially''''' due to them not having real blood, just vile alien ichor.

==His portrayal in Warhammer Fantasy==
He's a half-way mythologically accurate version of [[Viking|Odin]], whose very name means Fury (and one translation means 'frenzy'). You could also make the case that Khorne is Thor minus any protective instincts towards humanity, as both are whirling vortices of blood and spit who are associated with the colour red and its connotation of anger.

No, that's it. Get the fuck out; he's an axe-crazy, psychopathic, evil-as-balls daemonic version of Odin - so basically the Norse god of wisdom, with wisdom actually treated the way Vikings would have recognised. Currently there's a bit of a debate about how much of Odin he represents (see discussion page) so this bit will list the similarities and some of the differences.

Well, for one thing, Chaos worshipers in Warhammer Fantasy actually are Vikings. Read about them [[Warriors of Chaos|here]]. Secondly, Khorne is closely associated with wolves in that setting (one of Odin's names literally translates to 'Battle Wolf'), and even has a wolf-like pet in Karanak, thus, fulfilling a role similar to Freki and Geri, or more closely, Garmr. Also, it's revealed in Knight of the Realm that Khorne owns two hunting wolves/giant fleshhounds called Garmr and Gormr, with whom he partakes in a wild hunt across the heavens.

Another point of similarity is that both Odin and Khorne are war gods explicitly connected with berserker rage. They have their own warrior-cults associated with them who fight with said rage and Odin's Olfhednar are practically the same as Khorne's Chosen in both form and function.

Additionally, thanks to Valkia, Khorne also has a Valkyrie to further the similarity between him and Odin. This was inevitable, of course, given that the Warriors of Chaos are indeed an evil version of the Vikings as has already been stated. It should also be noted that Valkia's similarity to the Valkyries is not a superficial one. She is actually referred to as 'the Sword-Maiden of the Blood God' in the WoC codex, and is Khorne's Chooser of the Slain who carries those worthy champions and warriors of his to fight on in the Blood God's halls after death.

Finally, we got a glimpse of his neck of the Realm of Chaos in the Valkia novel written by Sarah Cock-well. It was basically Chaos Valhalla, and here's some of his quotes:

"A cleaved head no longer plots." "A head stuck on a pike no longer conspires." "Put to the sword they who disagree."

Now for the differences, aside from the obvious physical ones Odin also scries, it's woman's magic taught to him by Frigg and Freya. He's got the rage, yeah, but he's also all about fate and averting ragnarok, (directly opposed to Khorne's goals) even if he knows he can't stop it since fate works that way. We see this in the Havamal, Grimnismal, the Voluspa, and the Lokasenna. Hell, in Lokasenna, we learn he cross dresses, ie was tied into shamanic practices (Indo-Europeans have a thing for seers in drag). He can also get to Tzeentch levels with his planning and Odin's perfectly fine with Runic magic, whereas Khorne hates that shit.

==Champions Of Khorne==
===In 40K===
Because most fa/tg/uys are idiots and newfags who likely don't know that another Warhammer existed long before bolters and power armour. And this makes the Blood God snarl in anger.

* [[Kharn the Betrayer]]: Embodiment of Crazy Awesome and Patron Saint of fun guys everywhere. Kharn is Khorne's greatest mortal champion in 40K and has a wholly deserved reputation as a team-killing nuts:o. Once upon a time, Kharn was a straight-laced, meticulous Assault Captain of the World Eaters 8th company. But [[Horus Heresy|after a certain chain of events]] dedicated himself wholly to Khorne, thus becoming one of the most fucking lethal warriors in the galaxy as well as probably the most religiously devoted of Khorne's servants. Also notable for shattering two entire Space Marine legions by himself with a flamethrower in a single night. Despite this, since his first appearance (where he was no different from other Berzerkers) he became more and more coolheaded when not in combat (and even then there are moments when he is coolheaded in combat).

* [[Angron]]: '''HE! GETS! SHIT! DONE!!!''''. Khorne's foremost Daemon Prince alongside Doombreed. PERIOD.

* [[Doombreed]]: Khorne's greatest Daemon Prince ever and possibly either Genghis Khan or Turgeis the Devil IRL. Notable for launching an actually successful Dark Crusade that wiped out two Space Marine chapters. Which is more than a [[Abaddon|certain armless failure has pulled off]].

* [[Svane Vulfbad]]: EVEN IN 40K KHORNE'S CHOSEN ARE VIKINGS. Svane Vulfbad is motherfucking badass [[Awesome|Chaos Terminator Space Wolf Chaos Lord]] who grew tired of the Imperium's sickening effeminate inability to GET SHIT DONE and the Space Wolves' sickening fur-fetishes and instead decided to dedicated himself to a god worthy of his kickassery. He thus became a badass Chaos Lord dedicated to Khorne (because a berserker god of war who likes axes meshes well with Vikings) and slaughtered a shitton of Space Wolves despite being outnumbered and escaped Harald Deathwolf. He is currently rampaging throughout the Imperium. He has the best facial hair in all of 40k.

* [[Crull]]: A Chaos Lord from Winter Assault notable only for making idiotic statements, and utilizing Sorcerers in his warband when there's some possessing to be done. Also has a weird way of saying "drown".

* [[Azariah Kyras]]: A Librarian who somehow became a Champion of Khorne and who ascended to daemonhood. Presumably, his [[Awesome|speaking skills were great enough that the Blood God was able to give him slight leeway in regards to the 'no Psyker rule']], likely because he was a philosopher of carrion and slaughter, showing Khorne's way as freedom, freedom in meaningless, in mindlessness, which he accuses the functionings of the universe of. Khorne loves that stuff, existentialism for skulls, especially when it's an arch-traitor responsible for the deaths of billions, then declaring openly his allegience of Chaos to his fellow Mehreens as he is about to ascend as one of the most powerful daemon princes ever. A psyker who uses psykic powers to bring about good old kinetic Exterminatus, their reputation to raise covert cults of slaughter, discover their lust for combat and seek to encompass it, and ultimatedly be the poster child of Khornist Existentialism is too good of a chance for Khorne to pass up, who either wins against the galaxy or gets to devour Kyras' soul in a good long bloodbashing and probably still make a good Greater Daemon of Khorne out of him, probably the one and only Chaos tactical genius who could actually lead a Black Crusade properly. That's another reason Khorne likes him. Kyras' no funny business style of simply tearing a sector apart however possible tends to draw other Chaos God devotees under the wing of a Khornate champion. Here is the speech of doom that he gives the player's army (before the last level of the game ) or per canon, the Blood Ravens following Captain Diomedes before the climax:

"Faithful... enlightened... ambitious... brethren.

In but a single decade, a few mere swipes of the pendulum, we have gathered a sacrifice to Khorne that will be made legend.Though it was a simpler, weaker voice that illuminated me during my centuries upon the Judgement of Carrion... it was Khorne's messenger that showed me the true path of freedom from our pathetic corpse-Emperor.

And what is this path? This meaning, this purpose to which we gather the skulls of our foes? It is nothing. There is no meaning, no purpose. We murder. We kill. It is mindless savagery, this UNIVERSE IS MINDLESS!

In mere hours, billions will die. Innocent! Guilty! Strong and weak! Honest and deceitful! ALL of them! They will scream, they will burn, and for no purpose but that mighty Khorne may revel in their bloodshed! And united in this void of purpose, fear, or duty... we shall at long last be free!

BLOOD! FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!! SKULLS! FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!! LET... THE GALAXY... BUUUURRRRNNN!!!"

Also notable as the single <s>longest-to-fucking-kill-boss in the history of the Dawn of War series other than [[Ulkair]].</s> ( '''Actually''' if you play tyranids and spam warriors with venom upgrades and he dies in uhnder 5 minutes.) '''FUCK'''. Still, pure undiluted awesome.

===In Fantasy===
'''VIKINGS!!!''' '''VIIIIIIIIIIIIKIIIIIIIIIIIIINNGSSSSSSSS!!!'''

[[Space Wolves|NO...]]

* [[Valkia the Bloody]]: A pissed off badass Valkyrie who chooses who will fight on in the Halls of the Blood God after they die in glorious battle. She managed to kill a motherfucking DAEMON PRINCE as a lowly, un-Marked, un-augmented human in SINGLE COMBAT to earn Khorne's favour, CUT ITS FUCKING HEAD OFF, AND THEN CARRIED IT BACK TO THE NORTH TO PLACE AT THE FOOT OF THE SKULL THRONE. And then she died on the way. But Khorne was so impressed by this badassery/ pissed off by her death, he resurrected her as a fucking Daemon Princess. Now she flies around the battlefields of the world slaughtering anything that looks at her funny and bearing Norsemen to the Khorne's place for a glorious afterlife of fighting and drinking. She is also far more attractive than anything of Slaanesh's menagerie, much to the Prince of Pleasure's eternal rage and the Bloodfather's great amusement, primarily due to having hair.

* Garmr Hrodvitnir: Aka Billy Squigins, A Chaos Lord of Khorne who managed to almost kill Gotrek Fucking Gurnisson in a fight. 'Nuff said.

* Hrothgar Daemonaxe: A Chaos Lord who only had his rules and miniatures released at a Games Day. He had the statline of a Bloodthirster. His miniature also depicts him throttling an elf, which makes him a good person.

* Arbaal the Undefeated: Nicknamed 'Arbaal the Easily Defeatable' due to his rules from Champions of Chaos having been shockingly awful. Arbaal's been effectively retcon'd out of existence under the excuse that he's journeyed into the Realm of Chaos to challenge Khorne himself to a fight. Good luck with that.

* Scyla Anfingrimm: The greatest You-Know-What ever to walk the earth. Scyla was a Chaos Lord of Khorne who got one too many mutations before his time and devolved into a YKW. But he's the most badass YKW ever, and is a leadership 10 general. Which is impressive considering the only thing he can say is "'''KILL FOR KHORNE! KILL FOR KHORNE! KILL FOR KHORNE!'''".

* Chaos Lord Varmisgal: A Chaos Lord who's blood has turned to liquid bronze. He is responsible for the stalking brass bull of Nuln and the great raid into the Misty Mountains... it is also alleged he ate his own penis.

* Valmir Aesling: A Norscan king and Champion of Khorne who destroyed the Norse Dwarf Hold of Kraka Drak. Managed to get a fucking Daemon Prince to work for him, slaughtered a metric fuck-ton of Norse Dwarfs (roughly 8 times the manliness of a regular Dwarf and thus worth 24 Space Wolves). [[Awesome|Also rode a motherfucking chariot pulled by skinless bears]].

* Egil Styrbjorn: A Norscan High Yarl of the Skaeligs and probably the greatest epitome of manliness a Chaos Warrior devoted to Khorne can achieve. He slew a lot and took names, kicked Bretonnian arses, sexed many women yet never got a proper heir (only daughters). It was so bad for him that he adopted a boy that became later his personal shamanistic seer and advisor...that is until he banged a Kurgan Sorceress that was prophesied by said shaman to bear Egil's son, yet the damned cheese eating surrender monkeys took her and his unborn son away, which he answered them with apocalyptic RAAAAAGE and titanic slaughter (added that said Sorceress wanted to sacrifice the unborn child for immortality actually made this a good situation). And thus there was an epic campaign to retrieve the boy. Wields two badass flaming axes called Garmr and Gormr. Really dislikes the Lady of the Lake and other Southerner gods. So manly he is that he let a Grail Knight stab him only to throw back his sword to him. Also known for embodying Khorne's tactical take on war, which he mercilessly used against the Bretonnian Knights that stubbornly charged his warriors head on (until said knights realized that they were duped and slaughtered in seconds).

==Fun Khorne Facts==
* Interestingly the word "Khorne" in Ancient Cypriot Greek literally means to "Shit Blood". Kh' - "To force outward", ORN - "Back passage", Ee - "Blood".
*A possible factor in Khorne's birth was the Aztecs, who basically worshipped the guy (Hint: BLOOD SACRIFICE) and might have chucked him into existence along with the Mongols.
*Doombreed, Khorne's second daemon prince servant, might actually be Genghis Khan himself.
*Khorne's color scheme (red, brass and black) is almost the same as the German flag's and Soviet Russia's flag's color scheme (just replace brass with gold [and brass and gold are already fairly similar in colour]). Hitler and Stalin were allies of convenience and then turned on each other in WW2, remember "(he) cares not from whence the blood flows..."
*Khorne's looking for ways to incorporate dinosaurs into his armies, due to the sheer amount of [[RIP AND TEAR]] they can unleash on their enemies. He's unbelievably pissed that he hasn't managed to get any yet- '''{{Blam|YOU GAVE IT AWAY?!?!? FFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUUUUUU}}'''
*Khorne <strike>secretly</strike> '''blatantly''' hates everyone who kills the defenceless in his name. He'd plot ways to kill them, but he's too mad to do that. (So what else is new?)
*Khorne was just able to stand watching Jurassic World once it got going due to the Indominus Rex and how it made everything else look like faggots. He raged when it died. He's looking for its skull 'cause he wishes he could have it as one of his servants- *sounds of swords and blood* '''{{Blam|FAGGOT!}}''' (Why couldn't Khorne just seek the skull of the Mosasaurus that killed it? Or Rexie, T-rex is classic, I hear you say.) To that, I answer that coz without the Mosasaurus then Rex would'a DIED.
*Khorne is unsure whether or not he hates [[Cultist-chan]], due to a) the fact that she can't do anything except scream about 'kap-tooring eet for kay-oss' and get purged and b) the fact that she's so good at spreading [[RAEG]] amongst various unlucky meatsacks and fa/tg/uys. And that indecisiveness makes him foam at the mouth in an
*Khorne practically invented flipping the table when you lose at card games, or it goes too slowly. He does this whenever the major Warp entities play cards in the Formless Wastes.
*Followers of Khorne actually have the ability to pull off [[LIIVI]]/[[Eldrad]] level dick-style moves in battle. They just choose not to do this.
*Khorne wanted [[Settra the Imperishable]] as one of his servants once. However, Settra won't ever serve Khorne, even going so far as to give ALL OF CHAOS the '''motherfucking middle finger''' before going off to hunt down [[Nagash]]. That said, Settra may well be one of the few mortal beings besides his own servants Khorne has any respect for. He still hates Settra though.
*Slaanesh once created some Kayos Spess Mehreens with his/her colour scheme, but with armour nicked off fallen Khornate warriors. And when Khorne saw this, '''his wrath was legendary'''.
*Slaanesh and Khorne also have regular 'plans' on Friday night- *sounds of something even bigger than a [[Bloodthirster]] coming through and much ripping and tearing* '''{{Blam|NO! YOU'RE LYING!}}'''
* [[Emperor|That Twat With The Chair]] and Khorne haven't '''SMACKED DOWN''' yet, but Khorne is secretly looking forward to it when it happens- he wants to test Spess Jaysis's might against his own. Tickets are now on sale!
*If an internet hyperlink comes up red, it's not because the page doesn't exist, it's because Khorne looked at what was once on the other end, and '''he didn't like what he saw''', so much so that the hyperlink is stained with the blood of what once was.
* Khorne's favorite form of grouping is in ogdoads, for reasons that should be obvious once you know what that word means.
* Khorne's favorite [[video game|vidja]] is [[Doom]]. For obvious reasons.
* If Khorne is acting calm towards you, don't relax. He doesn't like anything, he just hates some things less than others. There is such a thing as cold-hatred.
* Khorne was '''ALMOST''' pleased when [[Iskandar Khayon]] smashed his ship, the ''Tlaloc'', into the Slaaneshi world of Harmony, killing a whole shitload of Slaaneshi fucks and breaking the planet in half. Then he remembered Khayon was a damn Thousand Son Sorcerer. Fuck.
*Khorne will not stab you in the back. He will simply stab you in the face until your face stops resembling a face.

==Gallery==
{{promotions}}
<gallery>
Image:Khornate.JPG|Khorne's followers off the battlefield. REVERSE ARMWRESTLE!!!
Image:khornewaffel.JPG|Waffles for the Blood God!
Image:Khornetrainer.JPG|Khorne's trainers prefer violent Pokémon.
Image:khorneberserker.png|Would have been a somewhat adequate picture, had they taken the right photographs of the actual Berzerkers. Lulz.
Image:Khorne_tattoo.jpg|Mark of Khorne.
Image:Free like a riding demon by Ragathol.jpg|Khornette.
Image:Backwardsthrone.jpg|Just as Planned. Always. As. Planned.
File:Khornette.jpg|Khorne wants to know why the drawfags never give them noses.
File:Tea Time.jpg|In the grim darkness of the far future, there is still time for tea...
File:Khorne-Art.jpg|Warriors of Chaos: making everything in 40K look like bitches since 2002.
Image:You're_madder_than_Khorne.png|There '''is''' such a thing as being too mad for Khorne!
Image:Khorneholiover2.png |The Great Khorneholio. He needs blood and skulls for his bunghole.
Image:Khorne-and-Slaanesh.jpg|Nine months later Khaine was born...
Image:Anon_pleases_Khorne.png|Anon begins his trail to becoming a Khorne Berserker.
Image:Khorne Flakes.jpg|The tastiest of all! Add blood for more flavor.
</gallery>

==See also==

*[[Brass]]
*[[Berserker]] - Chaos Space Marines with Axes and a bad attitude.
*[[Angron]] - Daemon prince of Khorne and the Primarch of World Eaters.
*[[World Eaters]]
*[[Khârn|Khârn the Betrayer]] - A pretty fun guy to be around.
*[[Valkia the Bloody]] - Scarousal in it's purest form.
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Khorne_Daemonkin(7E)|Tactics/Khorne Daemonkin]] - That's right, meatsacks! The servants of Khorne have their own codex!
*[[Rage]]
*[[Sorcerers of Khorne]] - Double heresy!
*[[Doombreed]] - One angry son of a bitch.
* This pretty much sums up his forces: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-gSJW3sHXE&feature=channel_video_title
*[[Katanas_are_Underpowered_in_d20#Khorne_is_underpowered_in_40k|Khorne is underpowered in 40k]]
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vljHBXA3UKE - death metal song devoted to Khorne.
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8mEOiI4pjs - trash metal song summing up Khorne pretty well.
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUB9QGKCNmI - a bunch of anime Khorne worshippers. Better than it sounds.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8mEOiI4pjs - another metal song devoted to Khorne. GW actually commissioned this one. Yes, they really were that awesome back in the day.

{{Template:ChaosGods}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Age of Sigmar]]

Chaos Space Marines

2018-02-16T13:49:57Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

{{heresy}}
''"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."'' 
-Revelation 6:8
[[File:Crimson Slaughter Chaos Marine ukitakumuki.jpg|thumb|500px|left|Chaos up in this motherfucker.]]
[[File:GodsOfWarhammer.jpg|thumb|right|800px]]
[[File:President.png|thumb|right|800px]]

'''Chaos Space Marines''' (also known as '''Heretic Astartes''' and '''Astartes Traitoris''') are, simply enough, [[Space Marines]] that have fallen to, or were inducted to, [[Chaos]]. They are also one of the main factions in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. The first Chaos Marines were born during the [[Horus Heresy]] from the nine [[Traitor Legion]]s. Since then, many Space Marines (and even a few full [[Space Marine Chapter|Chapters]]) have gone rogue, becoming Renegades. However, this is mostly a [[fluff]] distinction, as the [[Codex]] does not differentiate between the two. Oh, there was a time when there was a crunch distinction that was worth a damn, but those days may never return.

CSM supplement their lack of more easily available loyalist resources (recruits, tech, supplies, etc.) by way of Chaos warp stuff from the dark Gods, plundered weapons from whoever is unlucky enough to lose an engagement to them, daemons because they are aligned with Chaos, and renegades from the Imperium, which are always available because the Imperium [[Grimdark|treats its subjects like steampunk condoms]].

==Overview==
[[File:Black crusade by yogh art-d5bqzea.jpg|thumb|450px|left|Birds have never been so scary.]]
Chaos Space Marines are basically Imperial Space Marines who have forsaken their oath to the Imperium of Man to serve the Ruinous Powers, which is [[Heresy]]. Marines do this for a number of reasons, although the cause of this is usually finding that the ways of Chaos suit them more than the Imperium or the classic case of the Imperium dicking them over (Largely the case for post-heresy chapters).

The origins of Chaos Space Marines go back to [[Erebus]] of the Word Bearers, the first Chaos Marine, who then corrupted the recently emotionally discouraged Primarch [[Lorgar]] to Chaos. Erebus would then set into motion the events that would lead to Warmaster Horus being wounded on Davin's moon, where he would fall to the corruptions of Chaos. Horus, supreme Warmaster of the Imperium, would then gather [[Mortarion|<s>7</s>]] [[Omegon|8]] [[Konrad Curze|more]] [[Alpharius|of]] [[Angron|his]] [[Magnus the Red|distraught]] [[Perturabo|brother]] [[Fulgrim|primarchs]] to his cause, along with a good fraction of Imperial forces and the Adeptus Mechanicus in full-scale rebellion against the Imperium, resulting in the Horus Heresy. When Horus got roflstomped by the Emprah during their duel, most of the Traitors fled to the Eye of Terror because of the loss of leadership, resulting in what would be known as "Chaos Space Marines".

Naturally, they fight just like Space Marines except <s>on average they are stronger, more experienced, and older, given that the majority stood with their Primarchs during the Great Crusade</s> only worse because Mary Sues need punching bags. They keep using shit they were equipped with prior to the Horus Heresy such as [[bolter|bolters]] and the ever useful Space Marine [[plot armor|plot]] [[pauldrons|armor]], which would explain why they didn't fist fuck each other to death before reaching the Eye of Terror or why they would follow the lead of a particular [[Saturday]] [[Abaddon|morning cartoon villain]]. Chaos Marines are also commonly known to compensate their aging weapons (which didn't really age much considering how fucktarded Imperium tech support is) by using demon magic, giving themselves penis fingers for that extra edge in combat. Naturally they lack some of the weapons and [[Standard Template Construct|equipment Imperium "invented" (or rather dug up) for the last 10 000 years]], such as [[Razorback Transport|Razorbacks]], [[Centurion Squad|Centurion suits]], [[Autogun|assault cannons]] or [[Grav-Weaponry|grav guns]], and although they often get their hands on such pieces of tech (mostly by killing corpse-worshipers who own them) their Dark Mechanicum allies have few to zero spare parts and/or ammo for them, those trophies rarely last in use for a long time. The later reason is also why Chaos marines no longer use some of them more delicate and advanced tech, like Land Speeder variants, or Whirlwinds, which they definitely HAD before the Heresy - those things require just too much maintenance to fit into their more independent and chaotic combat doctrines.
[[File:1286933675792.jpg|400px|right|thumb|The eternal war rages on.]]
For all their powers from Chaos, however, most of them are nowhere nearly as organized as their loyalist counterparts. Turning to Chaos tends to drive marines insane, causing them to usually lose much of the useful tactics they had when they were loyalists. Although, more organized legions like the Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, and Black Legion do still remain much more of a competent military force than most of the other traitor legions.

Different warbands of Chaos Space Marines are every bit as prone to fighting each other as they are anything else for any number of reasons; evil doesn't get along with evil, they're all nuts and just want to fight something, other warband worships a different Chaos god. Yeah, these guys are nuts, infighting inside individual warbands is not unheard off, and their leaders always have to watch their back because every single marine has hopes of killing their superiors and taking over. So yeah, if they didn't have the [[Eye of Terror]] to hide in and the Imperium wasn't so idiot ball prone it probably would have killed them by now. However, when they DO get their shit together, they fuck up the Imperium on a scale undreamed of by every other race in Warhammer. See the Dominion of Fire or the Cholercaust Blood Crusade. '''GODDAMN IT, KHORNATE BERZERKERS ARE AWESOME.'''

They ''were'' the oldest fogies (or at least the ones from traitor legions are anyway) in the setting, barring the [[Eldar|space elves]], [[Bjorn the Fell Handed|That one angry viking dreadnought]], who's about their age, the [[Necrons|Tomb King expys]] and maybe a few of the [[Tyranid|Omnivorous Space Bug Lizards things]] but now they've been retconned. CSM today may be some of the veterans from the Heresy or they could just be newfags that decided they were too cool for the Imperium. Fucking hell this is depressing.

Many Chaos Marines eventually dedicate themselves to one of the four [[Chaos Gods]], becoming little more than an extension of the god's will. This path has great risk and great reward, as the Chaos Gods are quite capricious; between two equally-dedicated champions, one will become a [[Chaos Spawn|horrific beast that should not be named]], whereas the other will achieve apotheosis and become a [[Daemon Prince]].

*'''[[Khorne|Khornate Champions]]:''' Those who worship Khorne (such as the [[World Eaters]] Traitor Legion) become close quarters badasses full of [[rage|RAAAAAAAAAGGGEEEE]]!. Khornate champions are among the best dedicated melee fighters in the setting. They are insane, ruthless, and barbaric, and continually lust after BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD and SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! Marines dedicated to Khorne are usually called [[Khorne Berzerkers]], after the Berzerkers of the World Eaters Legion, of whom [[Kharn]] (swell guy by the way) is the most famous. They are famed for their use of the [[chainaxe]] and their fucktastically fearless charges. They also get the best speeches. Although do note that Khornate followers are not all pure-CQC fighters, any weapon that spills blood in honorable combat like heavy weapons or vehicles is welcomed by Khorne. '''"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! MILK FOR THE KHORNE FLAKES!!"'''

*'''[[Nurgle|Nurglic Champions]]:''' These guys are rotting, diseased, decaying sacks of flesh who can take hits that would kill a squad of Terminators. They're something of a meat shield as far as Chaos is concerned (although not as much as [[Cornholio the Cultist|Chaos Cultists]]). They've contracted every disease in creation and then some. Despite looking like a bag of things best not described, Nurgle's followers won't hesitate to give you a big, long, family hug. D'awww. The [[Death Guard]] fell to Nurgle, but it wasn't really their fault.

*'''[[Slaanesh|Slaaneshi Champions]]:''' The followers of Slaanesh simply want to experience pleasure to the highest degree, most of which usually involves the euphoria gained from killing another person. Thus, Slaaneshi followers typically hype themselves up on drugs in order to intensify the sensations they experience, whether from sex or from slaughter. Slaaneshi Marines have taken so many drugs their bodies ''start to produce them normally.'' And yes, this is really canon. They also get penis fingers to give them the extra edge in combat (somehow) and hyperactive awareness, meaning that Slaaneshi followers typically move so fast that they're at par with Eldar reflexes. [[Doomrider]] is one of the most famous Slaaneshi champions (at least on /tg/), although he isn't from the [[Emperor's Children]], the Chaos Legion that fell to Slaanesh; [[Lucius the Eternal]], on the other hand, is.

*'''[[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian Champions]]:''' All followers of Tzeentch are tricky and conniving, and many of them are also powerful [[psyker]]s (as Tzeentch is the god of magic). Warriors under Tzeentch tend to rape anything in ranged combat with either enhanced weapons or SPACE MAGIC that would turn heroes into [[Chaos Spawn]], squa-'''GRAABBRLBLLRBLRLRBLR'''
**Ahem. To continue where the previous writer left off... squads of infantry into ash, and vehicles into puddles of molten goo. The [[Thousand Sons]] Legion is dedicated to Tzeentch; their (former) chief diviner, [[Ahriman]], is one of the better-known Tzeentchian sorcerers.

*'''[[Chaos Undivided|Undivided]]:''' Back in the good ol' days, Chaos Undivided was the concept of worshiping Chaos as a combined entity or pantheon. The [[Word Bearers]] were probably the most well-known worshippers of Chaos Undivided. Since then, it has been largely retconned; instead, Chaos Undivided refers to Chaos Marines with the support of all four Chaos gods (such as [[Failbaddon]]). This has left the Word Bearers in something of a weird spot, as their core concept has been badly mangled. Although, this is not completely out of place: Undivided followers ''do'' have the support of all four Chaos Gods due to their doctrine, but because they don't swear complete servitude to one like what the [[Death Guard]] and [[World Eaters]] did, they don't receive the full power of each Chaos God either...well except Failbaddon, who for some reason does not seem to get that his position as the "Most powerful champion of Chaos" is an ironic joke. Also, 5th Chaos God Malice, there is a raging debate as to whether Malice is the weakest or the strongest of the gods. And no, its not another incarnation of Tzeentch as was thought many, many millennia ago…

Note that many bands of Undivided Marines exploit Chaos for their own gain and feel little devotion to the Ruinous Powers, seeing it as no more than a tool for their goals. The [[Alpha Legion]], for instance, are closet loyalists (or not, or double heretics, or triple heretics, or Brotha's doin' it for themselves, nobody knows), whereas the [[Night Lords]] Legion only cares about spreading terror, which Chaos is undoubtedly useful for, but they look down upon the religious. Similarly, the [[Soul Drinkers]], a Renegade Chapter with an entire book series, are enemies of both Chaos and the [[Imperium of Man]] (they fight for the [[Emperor]]'s ideals… don't ask, it's complicated), although most in the Imperium would consider them "Chaos Marines."

*'''[[Malal|Malice]]:''' Way back when, [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] had a [[Chaos Gods#The_Other_Ones|minor Chaos God]] named Malal. Malal was a paradox, in that he is the embodiment of Chaos' chaotic behavior. His main goal was the spread of chaos (not the Warp energies, but actual chaos like anarchy and disruption) by screwing up the plans of the other Ruinous Powers, so he had dedicated Champions that hunted down other Chaos Champions and generally dicked over the Chaos Gods. However, [[Games Workshop]] had to remove him from the setting due to a trademark dispute with the author that invented him. In 40k, meanwhile, there's a warband called the [[Sons of Malice]] that hunt down other Chaos Marines and seem to worship a minor Chaos power named "Malice." This has led /tg/ to believe that Malal/Malice exists in 40k and can be invoked upon for power, although this is of dubious canonicity at best.

==The Traitor Legions==
[[File:Word Bearers by Chingonman.jpg|500px|right|thumb|When Space Jehovah's Witnesses come knocking, don't answer the door.]]
When the [[Horus Heresy]] struck, nine of the original twenty Legions turned against the [[Emprah]]. These guys are basically the original and the best. All of these survived the Siege of Terra and escaped into the [[Eye of Terror]] with a very large number of bodies (Space Marine legions frequently numbered up to 100,000 members by the time of the Heresy). Over time, they have become widely scattered, generally working in mixed warbands combining a variety of Traitor Legionnaires, Renegade Marines, and lesser humans (frequently rebellious Imperial Guard). However, it should be noted that quite a few Chaos Marines still fight as a Legion (generally drastically reduced in size) led by their original (now-Daemon) Primarch (if they're still alive, anyway). It's very rare to see more than a Grand Company (roughly equal in size to a Chapter of loyalist Marines) in any given battle unless it's an organized invasion (of which the most notable examples are the Black Crusades led by a [[Abaddon|certain armless failure]]), the Legion's primarch himself calls them to fuck some shit up, or you're dealing with the Word Bearers or Iron Warriors, who are generally more organized than anybody else. The following are the nine Traitor Legions:

*[[Emperor's Children]]: Also known as the [[Pretty Marines]], their Primarch is [[Fulgrim]],who is now <s>a painting</s> getting his serpentine dick sucked by a swarm of daemonettes on his pleasure planet. <s>possibly still a painting</s> They don't operate as a Legion at all anymore, mostly because [[Kharn]] kinda fucked all their shit up. Anyway, they were basically OCD hyper-perfectionists that also really liked to party. They got ever-more hedonistic, attracted the attentions of [[Slaanesh]], and the rest is history. Their Cult unit is the [[Noise Marines]], which are (as their name implies) Chaos Marines that like to kill people with noise. This used to mean sweet heavy-metal guitars, but GW retconned that, so now they have less-impressive (but still cool) <s>bass cannons</s> sonic cannons.

*[[Iron Warriors]]: The evil twins of the [[Imperial Fists]], they really like to build shit and then tear (somebody else's) shit down. In other words, they are masters of siege warfare (basically, rooting out cover-camping bitches). Their Primarch is [[Perturabo]]. They're generally the second most coherent of the Traitor Legions, retaining most of their pre-Heresy organization and numbers, although their great companies are generally independent and only answer to Perturabo himself, who on his part don't give a fuck and let them fight each other just for lulz. Also, they probably created the [[Obliterator|Obliterator Virus]], seeing as how they seem to have special connections with the Obliterator Cult. Sadly, they can no longer take [[Basilisk|Basilisks]] and don't have any special rules or Cult units (seeing as how that was quite broken back in 3rd), but GW did throw them a bone in the new book with the [[Warpsmith]] (not to be confused with a [[Warsmith]], which is also Iron Warriors-related). One of their noted leaders is [[Honsou]], a Warsmith in the running for "evilest villain."

*[[Night Lords]]: Their Primarch was [[Konrad Curze]] (also known as the Night Haunter). They're basically space-terrorists, which (unsurprisingly) means they created Raptors, the sociopathic, predatory answer to the loyalists' Assault Marines. They prefer ambush tactics, which is quite difficult when you're walking around in Power Amour and wearing stupid bat-wing helmets. They also like screaming like maniacs to cause terror. They are one of the few legions (in fact, pretty much the only one) who refuse to employ Daemons or live in the Eye of Terror (well, at least the "loyalist" warbands, the current bigger one is lead by an actual Daemon Prince, which is pretty contradictory). They're also pretty much the only Traitor Legion that has a dead Primarch (except Black Legion), on account of [[Konrad Curze|Konrad Curze's]] desire to go down like an emo to rebel against daddy.

*[[World Eaters]]: [[Angron]]- Dissolved after [[Kharn]] turned the legion against themselves, what a guy. Now acting as roaming warbands and mercenaries. They still unite every now and then when Angron wants to fuck something's shit up, such as [[Cadia]]. The only legion known to get shit done when called up to do so.

*[[Death Guard]]: [[Mortarion]] - Don't show up much in the fluff, though plague marines and champions can be found in many other warbands and, next to world-eater berserkers, are the most common of the one-deity dedicated units. Also before Thirteenth Black Crusade Typhus's Blight Fleet kicked major ass in systems all around the Eye of Terror, turning entire planetary populations into zombies. As of 8th edition they are now their own separate army. Oh, and mortarion has returned, and his model is [[skub|controversial in terms of appearance]]

*[[Thousand Sons]]: [[Magnus the Red]] - Another legion that doesn't show up much at all in fluff after the Horus Heresy and [[Rubric Marines|rubric marines]] don't show up much in other legions' warbands and most warbands use their own sorcerers. Except for [[Ahriman]]; Ahriman goes out trolling the Harlequins and those few [[Inquisitor]]s. Ahriman also does this because Tzeentch likes dicking Magnus over in his passive-aggressive way. Fluff-wise, Thousand Sons walk through the Universe, searching for knowledge like ancient books and artifacts to research and nerd out in their libraries, and majicking the shit out of anyone stupid or bold enough to stand on their way. Being smart and cunning motherfuckers they fight only where it really needed and only on their own terms (read: very rarely). Have recently succeeded in fucking up the Fenris furries with Big-Red leading them. And are now there own army and range of models.With a giant daemon version of magnus with wings.

*[[Black Legion]]: [[Horus]] - Originally called the Luna Wolves and then the Sons of Horus. Unites every now and then when [[Abaddon|Failbaddon]] wants to launch another Black Crusade. It's a miracle they're still surviving with Abaddon's incompetent leadership and numerous failed black crusades, which should have probably left them extremely undermanned. However, their ranks are quickly filled by the <s>millions of volunteers who sign up because ''god damn that paint job looks cool''</s> actually its because Failbaddon keeps stealing other legion's troops or 'buying' them and daemons with big promises he can't keep. Basically he is like a compulsive gambler who has borrowed money from every money lender in existence, some of whom are gods. They are the largest legion by far, stated to outnumber the Word Bearers ten to one. They have no real central command structure outside of a Black Crusade, and even then Abaddon, being the failure that he is, can't keep the Legion's shit together for very long before they start breaking off every which way in search of a fight, usually getting slaughtered not long afterwards.

*[[Word Bearers]]: [[Lorgar]] - The Only Legion to have retained its Chaplains in the form of [[Dark Apostle]]s, who can often lead a Word Bearers' Warband in the place of a Chaos Lord or Champion. They're one of the more organized and complete legions as they have a central daemon world of their own named "Sicarus". Sicarus is covered in dozens of temples and cathedrals devoted to Chaos. The Word Bearers are still united under the banner of their Primarch: Lorgar (even if the lazy bastard never does anything these days but sit around doing nothing). The most coherent after the Iron Warriors, seen as their great companies (or Hosts, as they call them) are still working together under the watchful eye of the Dark Council.

*<s>[[Alpha Legion]]: [[Alpharius]]/[[Omegon]]</s>- No such legion or primarchs exists, further speculation on this issue is [[heresy]] and will result in execution. Said non-existent Legion has never trolled the Imperium for the last 10,000 years by faking the death of every member, any idea to the contrary is [[HERESY]]. Also masters of <s>sneaking around undetected</s> fucking enemies brains with multi-step Just As Planned schemes, that aren't over complicated or lack the fallback plans (unlike Thousand Sons ones). In fact their fallback fallback plans usually have their own fallback plans just in case. Pretty much everything Imperium knows about them is a misinformation, suspected to be one, or a truth no one believes in since it looks like a misinformation.

=== Renegades ===
The legions of old are not the only source of Chaos Space Marines, with the fluff no longer being clear on whether they even are the largest source anymore. Loyalist marines get turned to Chaos like all the time (well, okay, it's actually pretty rare considering the limited numbers of Space Marines, but significant enough). Most often it's just a few individual marines or squads, sometimes it goes so far to entire companies, and rarely (but not rarely enough) entire chapters turn to Chaos. Sometimes it's the Imperium's own fault for turning initially loyal marines against the system due to a misunderstanding or an overzealous Inquisitor declaring them heretics and the new 'renegades' then realize that since no matter what they do they'll be viewed as traitors by the Imperium, they may as well become traitors in reality. Sometimes, like with the [[Abyssal Crusade]], it's a case of [[just as planned]] succeeding so hard Tzeentch isn't even miffed that particular plot gets tied up. Other times, marines "caught" some Chaos taint due to fighting Chaos too much without proper Librarian control (bonus points if Librarians themselves get corrupted), committing terrible crimes in their fights against Ruinous Powers, or trying to fight Chaos with Chaos, like the [[Relictors]]. And finally, a Chapters' own flaws in temperament may leave them all too easily manipulated into bring their damnation upon themselves.

What is the most surprising, is that shit still happens despite loyalist marines being heavily brainwashed, even more than Death Korps of Krieg or Sisters of Battle (both of which are famous for having close to zero Chaos corruption rate). More so, marines even have a specific organ, to make them even more brainwashable. Some speculate the reason behind this is just Astartes longevity - after all SoBs and Kriegers didn't get continuously exposed to Ruinous Powers for hundreds of years. Others say that marines are just naturally susceptible to corruption, which makes sense, if you believe the story daemons tell: that Primarchs were made with the help of The Four, and were given their power to make them something more than just genetically engineered humans. A theory from 30k states that the reason Marines are more easily turned to Chaos is that Marines naturally are fanatical in almost anything they do, and when feeling scolded by the very thing they are fanatical about it makes them do a full 180" to worship something else instead. This is what happened to the [[Word Bearers]], and most modern day Marines are at least as religious as the Word Bearers were before the Horus Heresy.

ADB once said that Abaddon embodies the old Biblical thing about Satan refusing to bow down to man, and this might be applied to most Chaos Space Marines. Space Marines are expected to give their whole lives - centuries (if not millenia) and sometimes even [[Dreadnought|beyond that]] - to war, so that ordinary humans, most of whom will never have to fight for their lives, can live in relative comfort. Unsurprisingly many Space Marines do resent this on some level, although regular indoctrination help them cope with that particular feeling by redirecting it toward xenos/heretics in [[rip and tear|a more productive way]]. It has been suggested that Marines genuinely treating mortals with respect are probably in the minority, though, and then along comes a Word Bearer talking about these Gods who will set them free, who'll make them the masters instead of the servants... Despite the nigh-constant indoctrination these words don't always fall on deaf ears.

No matter the true reason behind, this shit happens, and from one retcon to another after-Heresy chapter renegades become more and more prevalent to the point that they could actually outnumber the old Legions, even if the Black Legion isn't shy about inducting any who is willing to join and swear fealty to [[Abaddon]] amongst their ranks.

==A "Meta-History" of Sorts==
I suppose we should [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader|start at the beginning]]? So, back in the day, Chaos introduced in the tome Slaves To Darkness, which was effectively an expansion to Rogue Trader. That's right,
the original 40k didn't have Chaos, although it did have Warp Demons. In the original Rogue Trader narrative, the Emperor was encased in the Golden Throne because he was thousands of years old and he needed life force from psykers in order to survive. Once Slaves to Darkness and its sister book Lost and the Damned were introduced, it was revealed that there was this event called the Horus Heresy, and Horus was a primarch that rebelled and nearly killed the Emperor. Talk about a pretty hefty background update!

Crunchwise, the CSM were just marines with some different wargear selection, as well as the ability to get Chaos mutations. It gets really confusing from there (Can you say, D1000 chart with 100+ mutations?) so the less said about the First Edition days, the better. The first, most important thing to remember is that Chaos was effectively a WHFB expy, so it included beastmen, daemons and renegades [[Awesome|all rolled into one]].

===2nd Ed: First Age of Whoop-Ass===
Hoo-boy... I want you to picture it, if you can, a codex wherein Chaos Lords had no stats under 5, daemons could be freely taken in any FO slot (or the equivalent for 2nd Ed) and everything, ''everything'' could push a loyalist's shit in. The CSM received a promotion in the fluff to primary antagonists after getting retconned into the reason as to why the Emperor ascended to the Golden Throne (via Horus traitorous ways and that mortal wound). Those were the days of 2nd edition; that's when Chaos was a unified front led by an interesting character on a 10,000 year quest for bloody vengeance. These were the days when a [[Bloodthirster]] would use an [[Avatar]] as a speedbump, and yet the only trump against CSM were the Eldar (And to a lesser extent the Tyranids when they evolved beyond Genestealer cults). Your characters could equip a Bloodletter's sword if you so chose to do so, as well as Chaos Terminator armour that could save on a 2d6 roll of 2+. Noise Marines, Thousand Sons, Khorne Berzerkers and Plague Marines all got their start here, and they started out as ''Troops'' (or rather, their second ed equivalent). You could also take [[Foulspawn]], a special character Nurgle [[Chaos Spawn|Thing]]/[[Daemon Prince]] with 19 wounds (!) that stole wounds from his kills and could regenerate lost wounds every turn. And guess what? You could field beasts, renegades and daemons in your army. It was also possible to give Chaos Marines equipment and vehicles that only their loyalist equivalents get nowadays (including [[Dude, Where's my Land Speeder?|assault cannons, storm bolters, cyclone missile launchers, and various support vehicles]]), in order to accurately represent the equipment used by Renegades from later Foundings. However, they had to pay an extra 50% traitor tax in order to take them.

Yeah, it sounds fucking insane and the coolest thing ever, and it was. Arguably, things were a bit nascent because in spite of all the other extras, they were still very much just space marines with other armies rolled into it. They had the same stats and many of the same rules and wargear as their loyalist counterparts.

===3rd Ed: Roller Coaster into [[Awesome]]===
Third edition started by screwing everyone: the rules were fucked up to try and shift the balance of power towards infantry and away from characters (so sayeth GW, anyway). Regardless, this is one of a few times that GW actually dialed back the power creep inherent in their game systems to such a degree that all existing armies got hosed (worst of all, Eldar) and CSM were no exception. The Codex pumped out was a hackneyed shadow of its former self that needed constant reference checks to the main rules because all the rules for your stuff got printed there instead of your codex. This first release however brought about the much-loved [[Obliterators]], [[Possessed]] and [[Raptors]] and GW did make rules for entire cult armies available for download on their website at the time, which was a thing GW used to do.

Halfway through its life-cycle, GW introduced [[Tau]] and [[Necrons]], breaking the game with [[Fish of Fury]] and just simply existing, respectively. [[List of 40K Cheese|In the midst of this renewed cheese surge, the CSM got a second lease on life]], cranking their competitiveness to second place behind the dreaded third ed 'crons. These were the days of the 200+ point CSM lord that could out-punch fucking ANYTHING! We're talking about a wargear sheet noticeably larger than any other faction, which also included the curious ability to make your aspiring champions psykers. You could load up a squad with stacks of veteran skills, sneaking them into position, moving through cover and then finishing with a furious charge. [[Defiler|That enemy crab thing]] gets its big introduction as a monstrous creature AND a walker! These were the days when you ''bought'' as opposed to rolled for the powers your Possessed had; where you could dedicate vehicles to the Gods, and that gave you certain options (thus creating the Sonic Dreadnought... and Predator). You could take a Slaaneshi psyker and give him and his unit immunity from shooting attacks with a well rolled minor psychic power. Best of all, these were the days of fielding Traitor Legions - ridiculously unbalanced lists that would either fall flat on their faces and cost way too much (Thousand Sons) or tear the fucking table in half (Iron Warriors).

Games Workshop tried valiantly to dial back the cheese by releasing Imperial Assassins, Daemonhunters and Witchhunters but once the Eye of Terror campaign hit and the official (and also cheesy) Lost and the Damned rules were out, third ed was firmly [[Cultist-chan|captoored by chaoz.]]

===4th Ed: The Sudden Betrayal===
That rat-bastard, pointy-eared fuck! In 4th ed, [[Gav Thorpe]] raped Chaos and left her to die in a fucking gutter. Those broken-as-hell traitor legions lists? Instead of fixing them for players that liked the other legions, they were removed. Veteran skills? Gone. Wargear? Toast. Lost and the Damned? More like "lost-a la vista," amirite. Daemons? Worst of all, Thorpe figured they needed their own, super-shitty codex. CSM players were ''pissed'' at the "streamlining" their armies got, but they endured it because at the time there were a few nifty silver linings. You could still technically have your cult army/legion/whatever and they were all not bad; that is to say the codex was at least internally balanced. During this time, the Eldar got pumped from worse than last place to playable, Tyranids got an update that was fair as well, Fish of Fury got pulled from the Tau Codex and the loyalists got a decent buff in the 4th ed SM codices. Nothing spectacular, but everything felt fair; it felt like we could have fun with each other and save our bitter sniping for the rightly-deserving Necron players and their totes OP 3E rules. For a brief period of time, the rules system was stable and there was hope that this trend might continue...

===5th Ed: Abandon (the Despoiler) Ship!===
[[Matt Ward|And then this happened.]] GW, in a moment of clarity and business acumen, summoned Matt Ward from the pit to turn the 40K metagame on its larynx through its asshole to promote sales of their most popular line, Space Marines. [[Dawn of War]] had just come out and Relic/THQ made the Space Marines really good (and Imperial Guard, and Eldar, [[Dawn of Eldar|especially the Eldar]] but they would have to wait until 6E to get their cheese on). CSM didn't get a release in this edition because GW decided instead to dedicate their time to fanboy service while throwing a bone to the Dark Eldar and Orks. This was when the 4th ed. rules were used to create the well-known CSM mono-build for 5th ed (Lash Prince, Plague Marines, Termicide, Obliterators and ''maybe'' a Chosen squad for guiding deep strikes). However, once the 5th ed Grey Knights landed, Chaos was truly on its ass. These were the days all the jokes made against Chaos finally made it to the internets and the forces of Chaos shifted from that terrifying adversary feared across the galaxy to the Imperium's punching bag ''du jour''. Many were the veteran players who simply left in disgust.

===6th Ed: A New Hope? A New NOPE!===
Rumours started pouring in furiously when 6th ed was nearing release. Close combat will have AP values? Oooo! What's this - CSM will be the first codex out the gate? Hot damn! New models? BITCHIN'! Revamped rules to finally reclaim some of the fucking glory we lost in the last two goddamn editions? Hallelujah!

So, 2013 has come and gone along with that release and I think we can all say how disappointing that truly was. Of the few bright spots was [[Helldrake|a new flyer with a *AHEM* ''gigantic exhaust port'']]. ("Gaze into the Eye of Terror!" and "Glory to the Goatse of Chaos!" were only some of the reactions.) Many lulz were enjoyed by /tg/ of its... ahem, questionable design aesthetics. This however says nothing of the fact that crunch-wise it is arguably the cheesiest flyer in all of 6th ed - praise the dark gods, indeed? Well, not really because there was a lot of dead weight and questionable mechanic design in that book. Speaking to the former, [[Mutilators]] and [[Warp Talons]] were just laughably useless. On top of that, random tables plagued the book (though nowhere near as much as the Chaos Daemons), troops were of questionable value and utility and the army played like Space Marines, but with too many goddamn cuts to it.

When it comes to the traitor marines themselves, /tg/'s opinions were divided. Some praised the new design for its focus on intricate trims and warp-induced mutations (eyes, tentacles), whereas others disliked it for its lack of [[Grimdark]], claiming it looked too cartoonish and too playful. Crunchwise, as if we haven't said it enough, this book was well and truly fucked. We really tried to like it, but any list that requires supplements and/or Forgeworld models/books to fill strategic gaps in the codex is a pretty bad list.

===7th Ed: What the Fuck is this even===
Chaos Space Marines played similar to their loyalist counterparts, having access to most of the same wargear and vehicles, plus some unique stuff at the expense of all the stuff that makes loyalists remotely useful in a (completely vain) attempt to play up the [[RIP AND TEAR]] side in an edition favouring shooting. They have some of the same strengths and amplified weaknesses, expensive-to-overpriced units, are easily often outnumbered, but overall, they tend to play too aggressively to the point of carelessness. Thanks to all this nerf-slapping, their ranking amongst armies has tanked from the notably OP 3.5 days; the codex and army have since fallen into decline due to progressively weaker books in favour of the worst kind of fan-service for a handful of factions. CSM did get a release in the form of Khorne Daemonkin, but it just blended two books together with some new rules and wargear instead of fixing glaring problems with the units in them; they ''were'' weak due to their garbled 6E codex. Fortunately, 7E has been putting the screws to every single Codex released in 5th Ed while GW releases an unrelenting tide of half-assed pseudo-codices that don't even cover an FOC while adding bullshit mechanics like grav-spam, decurions or buffing the Eldar sky-high.

That lasted until the release of the Traitor Legions supplement. With the release of the supplement, CSM got legion specific buffs and abilites, for Fluffy builds. For example, Alpha Legion armies can't have any marks, but they get to pass on their warlord trait to a friendly character if the current warlord dies. Night Lords get Raptors as core, Iron Warriors get [[Derp|Mutilators]] and [[Awesome|Obliterators]], Word Bearers get Possessed, and so on. Ironically, it's now better to take Khorne CSM over berserkers, because they're basically the same unit, but one is cheaper. Overall, Death Guard and Emperor's Children seem to be the best options at the moment, followed by the Alpha Legion. Basic Emperor's Children marines with Icon of excess are 190 pts for a 10 man squad of initiative 5 marines, with 4+ FNP, Fearless, and a roll on the combat drug table, which can give them +1 WS, BS, S, T, A, I. Death Guard Marines, meanwhile, are incredible also (Likely even better than the EC ones), 170 pts for a 10 man squad of toughness 5 marines with 5+ FNP and fearless but with a -1 to initiative. Iron Warriors, while initially derided, can bring three pairs of Tank Hunter Obliterators and three Twinlinked Vindicators at 1850 points, with a team or two of fortification-camping, Fearless, Tank Hunter, ObSec Autocannon Havocs.

For the second half of 7th ed, it was safe to say that CSM were solid again. Could every Legion deal with Scatbike spam, Crisis/Markerlight shenanigans, or free DTs easily? Not exactly. But World Eaters could get to melee faster than anyone else. Black Legion could pull crazy alpha strikes and use 13-point marines with Rage, Counter-Attack, +1 strength if the charge roll is 8+, Ld9 (10 on the champ), Crusader, Fear, and Hatred (with permanent re-rolls to hit against Imperium). So we might not be quite as good as [[Cheese|Craftworld Eldar]], grav-spamming [[Smashfucker]] Loyalists or Guard and their absurd amounts of ordnance but CSM could fuck up the mid-tier Tau, Mechanicum and Necrons with ease again (the less said about the benighted Nids, Deldar and Orks the better; don't ask about the Sisters). We're calling that a result! It seems someone understood the risk-reward paradigm of the CSM (the risk in putting your eggs in a basket that would either collapse or rip and tear your opponent).

... and then 7th ed. ended. A minor loss but thank god that's over!

===8th Ed: Time to hope once again?===

What does this mean for the future? Well, seeing how the Traitor Legions book was a decent step forward there is hope for a functional army where the crunch matches the scary what-the-fuckery of the fluff. This is nice; according to the news, the Traitor lists aren't going anywhere and whatever weakness the current list has is mainly a go-to while the book gets written. Benefit of the doubt, sure - but there's not a lot else to go on, here.

Thankfully, a lot of the garbage from 6th and 7th has been thrown out with them. No more "randomness because Chaos, guys!" as pretty much ''all'' the random tables from all over 7th are scrapped as are the Decurions. This is a big step forward although a curious step into the mists of time, harkening back to 2nd. CSM can still ally with Daemons and Renegades so that's still nice (although it would be nice if Renegades had a list that didn't rely on Forgeworld). There are some issues with the index we've been handed but this too shall pass.

Overall, things are looking bright for what is arguably the most benighted faction in the game aside from Sisters. Those poor gals...

==See Also==
*[[Warriors of Chaos]]: The much <s>more</s> <s>competent</s> <s>useful</s> less punching bag counterparts to the Chaos Marines in Warhammer Fantasy, at least until the Age of Sigmar took hold.
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Chaos Space Marines(8E)|Tactics/Chaos Space Marines]]
*[[What it's like]]: <s>A needlessly elaborate and dysfunctional take on the subject. Seriously, they'd get fuck all accomplished if they were as described. (As if they aren't getting fuck all accomplished already)</s> A fluffy, grimdark take on the subject. People complaining about absurdities and functionality have a strangely selective ability to suspend disbelief when looking at [[Imperium|other factions]].

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:1227181112539.jpg|The Typical Chaos Space Marine
File:1174923365695wq1vj1.png|The dreaded [[Night Lords]] preparing an ambush
File:Emperor s Children by megalaros.jpg|Slaaneshi noise marine. Because words can hurt.
File:Lcw.jpg|[[Imperium|They]] think that corpse on a throne is a god!
File:Firstkeeper.jpg|Change we can believe in!
</gallery>

{{Chaos-Official}}
{{Chaos Space Marines}}
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Chaos Space Marines

2018-02-16T06:00:47Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

{{heresy}}
''"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."'' 
-Revelation 6:8
[[File:Crimson Slaughter Chaos Marine ukitakumuki.jpg|thumb|500px|left|Chaos up in this motherfucker.]]
[[File:GodsOfWarhammer.jpg|thumb|right|800px]]
[[File:President.png|thumb|right|800px]]

'''Chaos Space Marines''' (also known as '''Heretic Astartes''' and '''Astartes Traitoris''') are, simply enough, [[Space Marines]] that have fallen to, or were inducted to, [[Chaos]]. They are also one of the main factions in [[Warhammer 40,000]]. The first Chaos Marines were born during the [[Horus Heresy]] from the nine [[Traitor Legion]]s. Since then, many Space Marines (and even a few full [[Space Marine Chapter|Chapters]]) have gone rogue, becoming Renegades. However, this is mostly a [[fluff]] distinction, as the [[Codex]] does not differentiate between the two. Oh, there was a time when there was a crunch distinction that was worth a damn, but those days may never return.

CSM supplement their lack of more easily available loyalist resources (recruits, tech, supplies, etc.) by way of Chaos warp stuff from the dark Gods, plundered weapons from whoever is unlucky enough to lose an engagement to them, daemons because they are aligned with Chaos, and renegades from the Imperium, which are always available because the Imperium [[Grimdark|treats its subjects like steampunk condoms]].

==Overview==
[[File:Black crusade by yogh art-d5bqzea.jpg|thumb|450px|left|Birds have never been so scary.]]
Chaos Space Marines are basically Imperial Space Marines who have forsaken their oath to the Imperium of Man to serve the Ruinous Powers, which is [[Heresy]]. Marines do this for a number of reasons, although the cause of this is usually finding that the ways of Chaos suit them more than the Imperium or the classic case of the Imperium dicking them over (Largely the case for post-heresy chapters).

The origins of Chaos Space Marines go back to [[Erebus]] of the Word Bearers, the first Chaos Marine, who then corrupted the recently emotionally discouraged Primarch [[Lorgar]] to Chaos. Erebus would then set into motion the events that would lead to Warmaster Horus being wounded on Davin's moon, where he would fall to the corruptions of Chaos. Horus, supreme Warmaster of the Imperium, would then gather [[Mortarion|<s>7</s>]] [[Omegon|8]] [[Konrad Curze|more]] [[Alpharius|of]] [[Angron|his]] [[Magnus the Red|distraught]] [[Perturabo|brother]] [[Fulgrim|primarchs]] to his cause, along with a good fraction of Imperial forces and the Adeptus Mechanicus in full-scale rebellion against the Imperium, resulting in the Horus Heresy. When Horus got roflstomped by the Emprah during their duel, most of the Traitors fled to the Eye of Terror because of the loss of leadership, resulting in what would be known as "Chaos Space Marines".

Naturally, they fight just like Space Marines except <s>on average they are stronger, more experienced, and older, given that the majority stood with their Primarchs during the Great Crusade</s> only worse because Mary Sues need punching bags. They keep using shit they were equipped with prior to the Horus Heresy such as [[bolter|bolters]] and the ever useful Space Marine [[plot armor|plot]] [[pauldrons|armor]], which would explain why they didn't fist fuck each other to death before reaching the Eye of Terror or why they would follow the lead of a particular [[Saturday]] [[Abaddon|morning cartoon villain]]. Chaos Marines are also commonly known to compensate their aging weapons (which didn't really age much considering how fucktarded Imperium tech support is) by using demon magic, giving themselves penis fingers for that extra edge in combat. Naturally they lack some of the weapons and [[Standard Template Construct|equipment Imperium "invented" (or rather dug up) for the last 10 000 years]], such as [[Razorback Transport|Razorbacks]], [[Centurion Squad|Centurion suits]], [[Autogun|assault cannons]] or [[Grav-Weaponry|grav guns]], and although they often get their hands on such pieces of tech (mostly by killing corpse-worshipers who own them) their Dark Mechanicum allies have few to zero spare parts and/or ammo for them, those trophies rarely last in use for a long time. The later reason is also why Chaos marines no longer use some of them more delicate and advanced tech, like Land Speeder variants, or Whirlwinds, which they definitely HAD before the Heresy - those things require just too much maintenance to fit into their more independent and chaotic combat doctrines.
[[File:1286933675792.jpg|400px|right|thumb|The eternal war rages on.]]
For all their powers from Chaos, however, most of them are nowhere nearly as organized as their loyalist counterparts. Turning to Chaos tends to drive marines insane, causing them to usually lose much of the useful tactics they had when they were loyalists. Although, more organized legions like the Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, and Black Legion do still remain much more of a competent military force than most of the other traitor legions.

Different warbands of Chaos Space Marines are every bit as prone to fighting each other as they are anything else for any number of reasons; evil doesn't get along with evil, they're all nuts and just want to fight something, other warband worships a different Chaos god. Yeah, these guys are nuts, infighting inside individual warbands is not unheard off, and their leaders always have to watch their back because every single marine has hopes of killing their superiors and taking over. So yeah, if they didn't have the [[Eye of Terror]] to hide in and the Imperium wasn't so idiot ball prone it probably would have killed them by now. However, when they DO get their shit together, they fuck up the Imperium on a scale undreamed of by every other race in Warhammer. See the Dominion of Fire or the Cholercaust Blood Crusade. '''GODDAMN IT, KHORNATE BERZERKERS ARE AWESOME.'''

They ''were'' the oldest fogies (or at least the ones from traitor legions are anyway) in the setting, barring the [[Eldar|space elves]], [[Bjorn the Fell Handed|That one angry viking dreadnought]], who's about their age, the [[Necrons|Tomb King expys]] and maybe a few of the [[Tyranid|Omnivorous Space Bug Lizards things]] but now they've been retconned. CSM today may be some of the veterans from the Heresy or they could just be newfags that decided they were too cool for the Imperium. Fucking hell this is depressing.

Many Chaos Marines eventually dedicate themselves to one of the four [[Chaos Gods]], becoming little more than an extension of the god's will. This path has great risk and great reward, as the Chaos Gods are quite capricious; between two equally-dedicated champions, one will become a [[Chaos Spawn|horrific beast that should not be named]], whereas the other will achieve apotheosis and become a [[Daemon Prince]].

*'''[[Khorne|Khornate Champions]]:''' Those who worship Khorne (such as the [[World Eaters]] Traitor Legion) become close quarters badasses full of [[rage|RAAAAAAAAAGGGEEEE]]!. Khornate champions are among the best dedicated melee fighters in the setting. They are insane, ruthless, and barbaric, and continually lust after BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD and SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! Marines dedicated to Khorne are usually called [[Khorne Berzerkers]], after the Berzerkers of the World Eaters Legion, of whom [[Kharn]] (swell guy by the way) is the most famous. They are famed for their use of the [[chainaxe]] and their fucktastically fearless charges. They also get the best speeches. Although do note that Khornate followers are not all pure-CQC fighters, any weapon that spills blood in honorable combat like heavy weapons or vehicles is welcomed by Khorne. '''"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! MILK FOR THE KHORNE FLAKES!!"'''

*'''[[Nurgle|Nurglic Champions]]:''' These guys are rotting, diseased, decaying sacks of flesh who can take hits that would kill a squad of Terminators. They're something of a meat shield as far as Chaos is concerned (although not as much as [[Cornholio the Cultist|Chaos Cultists]]). They've contracted every disease in creation and then some. Despite looking like a bag of things best not described, Nurgle's followers won't hesitate to give you a big, long, family hug. D'awww. The [[Death Guard]] fell to Nurgle, but it wasn't really their fault.

*'''[[Slaanesh|Slaaneshi Champions]]:''' The followers of Slaanesh simply want to experience pleasure to the highest degree, most of which usually involves the euphoria gained from killing another person. Thus, Slaaneshi followers typically hype themselves up on drugs in order to intensify the sensations they experience, whether from sex or from slaughter. Slaaneshi Marines have taken so many drugs their bodies ''start to produce them normally.'' And yes, this is really canon. They also get penis fingers to give them the extra edge in combat (somehow) and hyperactive awareness, meaning that Slaaneshi followers typically move so fast that they're at par with Eldar reflexes. [[Doomrider]] is one of the most famous Slaaneshi champions (at least on /tg/), although he isn't from the [[Emperor's Children]], the Chaos Legion that fell to Slaanesh; [[Lucius the Eternal]], on the other hand, is.

*'''[[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian Champions]]:''' All followers of Tzeentch are tricky and conniving, and many of them are also powerful [[psyker]]s (as Tzeentch is the god of magic). Warriors under Tzeentch tend to rape anything in ranged combat with either enhanced weapons or SPACE MAGIC that would turn heroes into [[Chaos Spawn]], squa-'''GRAABBRLBLLRBLRLRBLR'''
**Ahem. To continue where the previous writer left off... squads of infantry into ash, and vehicles into puddles of molten goo. The [[Thousand Sons]] Legion is dedicated to Tzeentch; their (former) chief diviner, [[Ahriman]], is one of the better-known Tzeentchian sorcerers.

*'''[[Chaos Undivided|Undivided]]:''' Back in the good ol' days, Chaos Undivided was the concept of worshiping Chaos as a combined entity or pantheon. The [[Word Bearers]] were probably the most well-known worshippers of Chaos Undivided. Since then, it has been largely retconned; instead, Chaos Undivided refers to Chaos Marines with the support of all four Chaos gods (such as [[Failbaddon]]). This has left the Word Bearers in something of a weird spot, as their core concept has been badly mangled. Although, this is not completely out of place: Undivided followers ''do'' have the support of all four Chaos Gods due to their doctrine, but because they don't swear complete servitude to one like what the [[Death Guard]] and [[World Eaters]] did, they don't receive the full power of each Chaos God either...well except Failbaddon, who for some reason does not seem to get that his position as the "Most powerful champion of Chaos" is an ironic joke. Also, 5th Chaos God Malice, there is a raging debate as to whether Malice is the weakest or the strongest of the gods. And no, its not another incarnation of Tzeentch as was thought many, many millennia ago…

Note that many bands of Undivided Marines exploit Chaos for their own gain and feel little devotion to the Ruinous Powers, seeing it as no more than a tool for their goals. The [[Alpha Legion]], for instance, are closet loyalists (or not, or double heretics, or triple heretics, or Brotha's doin' it for themselves, nobody knows), whereas the [[Night Lords]] Legion only cares about spreading terror, which Chaos is undoubtedly useful for, but they look down upon the religious. Similarly, the [[Soul Drinkers]], a Renegade Chapter with an entire book series, are enemies of both Chaos and the [[Imperium of Man]] (they fight for the [[Emperor]]'s ideals… don't ask, it's complicated), although most in the Imperium would consider them "Chaos Marines."

*'''[[Malal|Malice]]:''' Way back when, [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] had a [[Chaos Gods#The_Other_Ones|minor Chaos God]] named Malal. Malal was a paradox, in that he is the embodiment of Chaos' chaotic behavior. His main goal was the spread of chaos (not the Warp energies, but actual chaos like anarchy and disruption) by screwing up the plans of the other Ruinous Powers, so he had dedicated Champions that hunted down other Chaos Champions and generally dicked over the Chaos Gods. However, [[Games Workshop]] had to remove him from the setting due to a trademark dispute with the author that invented him. In 40k, meanwhile, there's a warband called the [[Sons of Malice]] that hunt down other Chaos Marines and seem to worship a minor Chaos power named "Malice." This has led /tg/ to believe that Malal/Malice exists in 40k and can be invoked upon for power, although this is of dubious canonicity at best.

==The Traitor Legions==
[[File:Word Bearers by Chingonman.jpg|500px|right|thumb|When Space Jehovah's Witnesses come knocking, don't answer the door.]]
When the [[Horus Heresy]] struck, nine of the original twenty Legions turned against the [[Emprah]]. These guys are basically the original and the best. All of these survived the Siege of Terra and escaped into the [[Eye of Terror]] with a very large number of bodies (Space Marine legions frequently numbered up to 100,000 members by the time of the Heresy). Over time, they have become widely scattered, generally working in mixed warbands combining a variety of Traitor Legionnaires, Renegade Marines, and lesser humans (frequently rebellious Imperial Guard). However, it should be noted that quite a few Chaos Marines still fight as a Legion (generally drastically reduced in size) led by their original (now-Daemon) Primarch (if they're still alive, anyway). It's very rare to see more than a Grand Company (roughly equal in size to a Chapter of loyalist Marines) in any given battle unless it's an organized invasion (of which the most notable examples are the Black Crusades led by a [[Abaddon|certain armless failure]]), the Legion's primarch himself calls them to fuck some shit up, or you're dealing with the Word Bearers or Iron Warriors, who are generally more organized than anybody else. The following are the nine Traitor Legions:

*[[Emperor's Children]]: Also known as the [[Pretty Marines]], their Primarch is [[Fulgrim]],who is now <s>a painting</s> getting his serpentine dick sucked by a swarm of daemonettes on his pleasure planet. <s>possibly still a painting</s> They don't operate as a Legion at all anymore, mostly because [[Kharn]] kinda fucked all their shit up. Anyway, they were basically OCD hyper-perfectionists that also really liked to party. They got ever-more hedonistic, attracted the attentions of [[Slaanesh]], and the rest is history. Their Cult unit is the [[Noise Marines]], which are (as their name implies) Chaos Marines that like to kill people with noise. This used to mean sweet heavy-metal guitars, but GW retconned that, so now they have less-impressive (but still cool) <s>bass cannons</s> sonic cannons.

*[[Iron Warriors]]: The evil twins of the [[Imperial Fists]], they really like to build shit and then tear (somebody else's) shit down. In other words, they are masters of siege warfare (basically, rooting out cover-camping bitches). Their Primarch is [[Perturabo]]. They're generally the second most coherent of the Traitor Legions, retaining most of their pre-Heresy organization and numbers, although their great companies are generally independent and only answer to Perturabo himself, who on his part don't give a fuck and let them fight each other just for lulz. Also, they probably created the [[Obliterator|Obliterator Virus]], seeing as how they seem to have special connections with the Obliterator Cult. Sadly, they can no longer take [[Basilisk|Basilisks]] and don't have any special rules or Cult units (seeing as how that was quite broken back in 3rd), but GW did throw them a bone in the new book with the [[Warpsmith]] (not to be confused with a [[Warsmith]], which is also Iron Warriors-related). One of their noted leaders is [[Honsou]], a Warsmith in the running for "evilest villain."

*[[Night Lords]]: Their Primarch was [[Konrad Curze]] (also known as the Night Haunter). They're basically space-terrorists, which (unsurprisingly) means they created Raptors, the sociopathic, predatory answer to the loyalists' Assault Marines. They prefer ambush tactics, which is quite difficult when you're walking around in Power Amour and wearing stupid bat-wing helmets. They also like screaming like maniacs to cause terror. They are one of the few legions (in fact, pretty much the only one) who refuse to employ Daemons or live in the Eye of Terror (well, at least the "loyalist" warbands, the current bigger one is lead by an actual Daemon Prince, which is pretty contradictory). They're also pretty much the only Traitor Legion that has a dead Primarch (except Black Legion), on account of [[Konrad Curze|Konrad Curze's]] desire to go down like an emo to rebel against daddy.

*[[World Eaters]]: [[Angron]]- Dissolved after [[Kharn]] turned the legion against themselves, what a guy. Now acting as roaming warbands and mercenaries. They still unite every now and then when Angron wants to fuck something's shit up, such as [[Cadia]]. The only legion known to get shit done when called up to do so.

*[[Death Guard]]: [[Mortarion]] - Don't show up much in the fluff, though plague marines and champions can be found in many other warbands and, next to world-eater berserkers, are the most common of the one-deity dedicated units. Also before Thirteenth Black Crusade Typhus's Blight Fleet kicked major ass in systems all around the Eye of Terror, turning entire planetary populations into zombies. As of 8th edition they are now their own separate army. Oh, and mortarion has returned, and his model is [[skub|controversial in terms of appearance]]

*[[Thousand Sons]]: [[Magnus the Red]] - Another legion that doesn't show up much at all in fluff after the Horus Heresy and [[Rubric Marines|rubric marines]] don't show up much in other legions' warbands and most warbands use their own sorcerers. Except for [[Ahriman]]; Ahriman goes out trolling the Harlequins and those few [[Inquisitor]]s. Ahriman also does this because Tzeentch likes dicking Magnus over in his passive-aggressive way. Fluff-wise, Thousand Sons walk through the Universe, searching for knowledge like ancient books and artifacts to research and nerd out in their libraries, and majicking the shit out of anyone stupid or bold enough to stand on their way. Being smart and cunning motherfuckers they fight only where it really needed and only on their own terms (read: very rarely). Have recently succeeded in fucking up the Fenris furries with Big-Red leading them. And are now there own army and range of models.With a giant daemon version of magnus with wings.

*[[Black Legion]]: [[Horus]] - Originally called the Luna Wolves and then the Sons of Horus. Unites every now and then when [[Abaddon|Failbaddon]] wants to launch another Black Crusade. It's a miracle they're still surviving with Abaddon's incompetent leadership and numerous failed black crusades, which should have probably left them extremely undermanned. However, their ranks are quickly filled by the <s>millions of volunteers who sign up because ''god damn that paint job looks cool''</s> actually its because Failbaddon keeps stealing other legion's troops or 'buying' them and daemons with big promises he can't keep. Basically he is like a compulsive gambler who has borrowed money from every money lender in existence, some of whom are gods. They are the largest legion by far, stated to outnumber the Word Bearers ten to one. They have no real central command structure outside of a Black Crusade, and even then Abaddon, being the failure that he is, can't keep the Legion's shit together for very long before they start breaking off every which way in search of a fight, usually getting slaughtered not long afterwards.

*[[Word Bearers]]: [[Lorgar]] - The Only Legion to have retained its Chaplains in the form of [[Dark Apostle]]s, who can often lead a Word Bearers' Warband in the place of a Chaos Lord or Champion. They're one of the more organized and complete legions as they have a central daemon world of their own named "Sicarus". Sicarus is covered in dozens of temples and cathedrals devoted to Chaos. The Word Bearers are still united under the banner of their Primarch: Lorgar (even if the lazy bastard never does anything these days but sit around doing nothing). The most coherent after the Iron Warriors, seen as their great companies (or Hosts, as they call them) are still working together under the watchful eye of the Dark Council.

*<s>[[Alpha Legion]]: [[Alpharius]]/[[Omegon]]</s>- No such legion or primarchs exists, further speculation on this issue is [[heresy]] and will result in execution. Said non-existent Legion has never trolled the Imperium for the last 10,000 years by faking the death of every member, any idea to the contrary is [[HERESY]]. Also masters of <s>sneaking around undetected</s> fucking enemies brains with multi-step Just As Planned schemes, that aren't over complicated or lack the fallback plans (unlike Thousand Sons ones). In fact their fallback fallback plans usually have their own fallback plans just in case. Pretty much everything Imperium knows about them is a misinformation, suspected to be one, or a truth no one believes in since it looks like a misinformation.

=== Renegades ===
The legions of old are not the only source of Chaos Space Marines, nor are they even the largest source. Loyalist marines get turned to Chaos like all the time - most often it's just a few individual marines or squads, sometimes it goes so far to entire companies, and rarely (but not rarely enough) entire chapters turn to Chaos. Sometimes it's the Imperium's own fault for turning initially loyal marines against the system due to a misunderstanding or an overzealous Inquisitor declaring them heretics. The new renegades then realize that since no matter what they do they'll be viewed as traitors by the Imperium, they may as well become traitors in reality. Other times, marines "caught" some Chaos taint due to fighting Chaos too much without proper Librarian control (bonus points if Librarians themselves get corrupted), committing terrible crimes in their fights against Ruinous Powers, or trying to fight Chaos with Chaos, like the [[Relictors]]. And finally, a Chapters' own flaws in temperament may leave them all too easily manipulated into bring their damnation upon themselves.

What is the most surprising, is that shit still happens despite loyalist marines being heavily brainwashed, even more than Death Korps of Krieg or Sisters of Battle (both of which are famous for having close to zero Chaos corruption rate). More so, marines even have a specific organ, to make them even more brainwashable. Some speculate the reason behind this is just Astartes longevity - after all SoBs and Kriegers didn't get continuously exposed to Ruinous Powers for hundreds of years. Others say that marines are just naturally susceptible to corruption, which makes sense, if you believe the story daemons tell: that Primarchs were made with the help of The Four, and were given their power to make them something more than just genetically engineered humans. A theory from 30k states that the reason Marines are more easily turned to Chaos is that Marines naturally are fanatical in almost anything they do, which, when feeling scolded by the very thing they are fanatical about, makes them do a full 180" to worship something else instead. This is what happened to the [[Word Bearers]], and most modern day Marines are at least as religious as the Word Bearers were before the Horus Heresy.

ADB once said that Abaddon embodies the old Biblical thing about Satan refusing to bow down to man, and this might be applied to most Chaos Space Marines. Space Marines are expected to give their whole lives- centuries- to war, so that ordinary humans, most of whom will never have to fight for their lives, can live in relative comfort. Unsurprisingly, many Space Marines resent this on some level (those who treat mortals with respect are probably in the minority) and then along comes a Word Bearer talking about these gods who will set them free, who'll make them the masters instead of the servants...

No matter the true reason behind, this shit happens, and from one retcon to another after-Heresy chapter renegades become more and more prevalent, to the point that they could actually outnumber the old legions.

==A "Meta-History" of Sorts==
I suppose we should [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader|start at the beginning]]? So, back in the day, Chaos introduced in the tome Slaves To Darkness, which was effectively an expansion to Rogue Trader. That's right,
the original 40k didn't have Chaos, although it did have Warp Demons. In the original Rogue Trader narrative, the Emperor was encased in the Golden Throne because he was thousands of years old and he needed life force from psykers in order to survive. Once Slaves to Darkness and its sister book Lost and the Damned were introduced, it was revealed that there was this event called the Horus Heresy, and Horus was a primarch that rebelled and nearly killed the Emperor. Talk about a pretty hefty background update!

Crunchwise, the CSM were just marines with some different wargear selection, as well as the ability to get Chaos mutations. It gets really confusing from there (Can you say, D1000 chart with 100+ mutations?) so the less said about the First Edition days, the better. The first, most important thing to remember is that Chaos was effectively a WHFB expy, so it included beastmen, daemons and renegades [[Awesome|all rolled into one]].

===2nd Ed: First Age of Whoop-Ass===
Hoo-boy... I want you to picture it, if you can, a codex wherein Chaos Lords had no stats under 5, daemons could be freely taken in any FO slot (or the equivalent for 2nd Ed) and everything, ''everything'' could push a loyalist's shit in. The CSM received a promotion in the fluff to primary antagonists after getting retconned into the reason as to why the Emperor ascended to the Golden Throne (via Horus traitorous ways and that mortal wound). Those were the days of 2nd edition; that's when Chaos was a unified front led by an interesting character on a 10,000 year quest for bloody vengeance. These were the days when a [[Bloodthirster]] would use an [[Avatar]] as a speedbump, and yet the only trump against CSM were the Eldar. Your characters could equip a Bloodletter's sword if you so chose to do so, as well as chaos armour that could save on a 2d6 roll of 2+. Noise Marines, Thousand Sons, Khorne Berzerkers and Plague Marines all got their start here, and they started out as ''Troops'' (or rather, their second ed equivalent). You could also take a special character Nurgle daemon prince with 19 wounds (!) that stole wounds from his kills and could regenerate lost wounds every turn. And guess what? You could field beasts, renegades and daemons in your army. It was also possible to give Chaos Marines equipment and vehicles that only their loyalist equivalents get nowadays (including [[Dude, Where's my Land Speeder?|assault cannons, storm bolters, cyclone missile launchers, and various support vehicles]]), in order to accurately represent the equipment used by Renegades from later Foundings. However, they had to pay an extra 50% traitor tax in order to take them.

Yeah, it sounds fucking insane and the coolest thing ever. Arguably, things were a bit nascent because in spite of all the other extras, they were still very much just space marines with other armies rolled into it. They had the same stats and many of the same rules and wargear as their loyalist counterparts.

===3rd Ed: Roller Coaster into [[Awesome]]===
Third edition started by screwing everyone: the rules were fucked up to try and shift the balance of power towards infantry and away from characters (so sayeth GW, anyway). Regardless, this is one of a few times that GW actually dialed back the power creep inherent in their game systems to such a degree that all existing armies got hosed (worst of all, Eldar) and CSM were no exception. The Codex pumped out was a hackneyed shadow of its former self that needed constant reference checks to the main rules because all the rules for your stuff got printed there instead of your codex. This first release however brought about the much-loved [[Obliterators]], [[Possessed]] and [[Raptors]] and GW did make rules for entire cult armies available for download on their website at the time, which was a thing GW used to do.

Halfway through its life-cycle, GW introduced [[Tau]] and [[Necrons]], breaking the game with [[Fish of Fury]] and just simply existing, respectively. In the midst of this renewed cheese surge, the CSM got a second lease on life, cranking their competitiveness to second place behind the dreaded third ed 'crons. These were the days of the 200+ point CSM lord that could out-punch fucking ANYTHING! We're talking about a wargear sheet noticeably larger than any other faction, which also included the curious ability to make your aspiring champions psykers. You could load up a squad with stacks of veteran skills, sneaking them into position, moving through cover and then finishing with a furious charge. [[Defiler|That enemy crab thing]] gets its big introduction as a monstrous creature AND a walker! These were the days when you ''bought'' as opposed to rolled for the powers your possessed had; where you could dedicate vehicles to the gods, and that gave you certain options (thus creating the sonic dreadnought... and predator). You could take a Slaaneshi psyker and give him and his unit immunity from shooting attacks with a well rolled minor psychic power. Best of all, these were the days of fielding traitor legions - ridiculously unbalanced lists that would either fall flat on their faces and cost way too much (Thousand Sons) or tear the fucking table in half (Iron Warriors).

Games Workshop tried valiantly to dial back the cheese by releasing Imperial Assassins, Daemonhunters and Witchhunters but once the Eye of Terror campaign hit and the official (and also cheesy) Lost and the Damned rules were out, third ed was firmly [[Cultist-chan|captoored by chaoz.]]

===4th Ed: The Sudden Betrayal===
That rat-bastard, pointy-eared fuck! In 4th ed, [[Gav Thorpe]] raped Chaos and left her to die in a fucking gutter. Those broken-as-hell traitor legions lists? Instead of fixing them for players that liked the other legions, they were removed. Veteran skills? Gone. Wargear? Toast. Lost and the Damned? More like "lost-a la vista," amirite. Daemons? Worst of all, Thorpe figured they needed their own, super-shitty codex. CSM players were ''pissed'' at the "streamlining" their armies got, but they endured it because at the time there were a few nifty silver linings. You could still technically have your cult army/legion/whatever and they were all not bad; that is to say the codex was at least internally balanced. During this time, the Eldar got pumped from worse than last place to playable, Tyranids got an update that was fair as well, Fish of Fury got pulled from the Tau Codex and the loyalists got a decent buff in the 4th ed SM codices. Nothing spectacular, but everything felt fair; it felt like we could have fun with each other and save our bitter sniping for the rightly-deserving Necron players and their totes OP 3E rules. For a brief period of time, the rules system was stable and there was hope that this trend might continue...

===5th Ed: Abandon (the Despoiler) Ship!===
[[Matt Ward|And then this happened.]] GW, in a moment of clarity and business acumen, summoned Matt Ward from the pit to turn the 40K metagame on its larynx through its asshole to promote sales of their most popular line, Space Marines. [[Dawn of War]] had just come out and Relic/THQ made the Space Marines really good (and Imperial Guard, and Eldar, [[Dawn of Eldar|especially the Eldar]] but they would have to wait until 6E to get their cheese on). CSM didn't get a release in this edition because GW decided instead to dedicate their time to fanboy service while throwing a bone to the Dark Eldar and Orks. This was when the 4th ed. rules were used to create the well-known CSM mono-build for 5th ed (Lash Prince, Plague Marines, Termicide, Obliterators and ''maybe'' a Chosen squad for guiding deep strikes). However, once the 5th ed Grey Knights landed, Chaos was truly on its ass. These were the days all the jokes made against chaos finally made it to the internets and the forces of chaos shifted from that terrifying adversary feared across the galaxy to the Imperium's punching bag du jour. Many were the old guard who left in disgust.

===6th Ed: A New Hope? A New NOPE!===
Rumours started pouring in furiously when 6th ed was nearing release. Close combat will have AP values? Oooo! What's this - CSM will be the first codex out the gate? Hot damn! New models? BITCHIN'! Revamped rules to finally reclaim some of the fucking glory we lost in the last two goddamn editions? Hallelujah!

So, 2013 has come and gone along with that release and I think we can all say how disappointing that truly was. Of the few bright spots was a new flyer with a *AHEM* "gigantic exhaust port." "Gaze into the eye of terror!" and "Glory to the Goatse of Chaos!" were only some of the reactions. Many lulz were enjoyed by /tg/ of its... ahem, questionable design aesthetics. This however says nothing of the fact that crunch-wise it is arguably the cheesiest flyer in all of 6th ed - praise the dark gods, indeed? Well, not really because there was a lot of dead weight and questionable mechanic design in that book. Speaking to the former, [[Mutilators]] and [[Warp Talons]] were just laughably useless. On top of that, random tables plagued the book (though nowhere near as much as the Chaos Daemons), troops were of questionable value and utility and the army played like Space Marines, but with too many goddamn cuts to it.

When it comes to the traitor marines themselves, /tg/'s opinions were divided. Some praised the new design for its focus on intricate trims and warp-induced mutations (eyes, tentacles), whereas others disliked it for its lack of [[Grimdark]], claiming it looked too cartoonish and too playful. Crunchwise, as if we haven't said it enough, this book was well and truly fucked. We really tried to like it, but any list that requires supplements and/or Forgeworld models/books to fill strategic gaps in the codex is a pretty bad list.

===7th Ed: What the Fuck is this even===
Chaos Space Marines played similar to their loyalist counterparts, having access to most of the same wargear and vehicles, plus some unique stuff at the expense of all the stuff that makes loyalists remotely useful in a vain attempt to play up the [[RIP AND TEAR]] side. They have some of the same strengths and amplified weaknesses, expensive-to-overpriced units, are easily often outnumbered, but overall, they tend to play too aggressively to the point of carelessness. Thanks to all this nerf-slapping, their ranking amongst armies has tanked from the notably OP 3.5 days; the codex and army have since fallen into decline due to progressively weaker books in favour of the worst kind of fan-service for a handful of factions. CSM did get a release in the form of Khorne Daemonkin, but it just blended two books together with some new rules and wargear instead of fixing glaring problems with the units in them; they ''were'' weak due to their garbled 6E codex. Fortunately, 7E has been putting the screws to every single Codex released in 5th Ed while GW releases an unrelenting tide of half-assed pseudo-codices that don't even cover an FOC while adding bullshit mechanics like grav-spam, decurions or buffing the Eldar sky-high.

That is until the release of the Traitor Legions supplement. With the release of the supplement, CSM got legion specific buffs and abilites, for Fluffy builds. For example, Alpha Legion armies can't have any marks, but they get to pass on their warlord trait to a friendly character if the current warlord dies. Night Lords get Raptors as core, Iron Warriors get [[Derp|Mutilators]] and [[Awesome|Obliterators]], Word Bearers get Possessed, and so on. Ironically, it's now better to take Khorne CSM over berserkers, because they're basically the same unit, but one is cheaper. Overall, Death Guard and Emperor's Children seem to be the best options at the moment, followed by the Alpha Legion. Basic Emperor's Children marines with Icon of excess are 190 pts for a 10 man squad of initiative 5 marines, with 4+ FNP, Fearless, and a roll on the combat drug table, which can give them +1 WS, BS, S, T, A, I. Death Guard Marines, meanwhile, are incredible also (Likely even better than the EC ones), 170 pts for a 10 man squad of toughness 5 marines with 5+ FNP and fearless but with a -1 to initiative. Iron Warriors, while initially derided, can bring three pairs of Tank Hunter Obliterators and three Twinlinked Vindicators at 1850 points, with a team or two of fortification-camping, Fearless, Tank Hunter, ObSec Autocannon Havocs.

Yup, it's safe to say that CSM are good again. Can every Legion deal with Scatbike spam, Crisis/Markerlight shenanigans, or free DTs easily? Not exactly. But World Eaters can get to melee faster than anyone else. Black Legion can pull crazy alpha strikes and use 13-point marines with Rage, Counter-Attack, +1 strength if the charge roll is 8+, Ld9 (10 on the champ), Crusader, Fear, and Hatred (with permanent re-rolls to hit against Imperium). So we may not be quite as good as Craftworld Eldar, grav-spamming smash-fucker Loyalists or Guard and their absurd amounts of ordnance, but we can fuck up the mid-tier Tau, Mechanicum and Necrons with ease again (the less said about the benighted Nids, Deldar and Orks the better; don't ask about the Sisters). We're calling that a result! It seems someone understood the risk-reward paradigm of the CSM (the risk in putting your eggs in a basket that would either collapse or rip and tear your opponent).

... and then 7th ed. ended. A minor loss but thank god that's over!

===8th Ed: Time to hope once again?===

What does this mean for the future? Well, seeing how the Traitor Legions book was a decent step forward there is hope for a functional army where the crunch matches the scary what-the-fuckery of the fluff. This is nice; according to the news, the Traitor lists aren't going anywhere and whatever weakness the current list has is mainly a go-to while the book gets written. Benefit of the doubt, sure - but there's not a lot else to go on, here.

Thankfully, a lot of the garbage from 6th and 7th has been thrown out with them. No more "randomness because Chaos, guys!" as pretty much ''all'' the random tables from all over 7th are scrapped as are the Decurions. This is a big step forward although a curious step into the mists of time, harkening back to 2nd. CSM can still ally with Daemons and Renegades so that's still nice (although it would be nice if Renegades had a list that didn't rely on Forgeworld). There are some issues with the index we've been handed but this too shall pass.

Overall, things are looking bright for what is arguably the most benighted faction in the game aside from Sisters. Those poor gals...

==See Also==
*[[Warriors of Chaos]]: The much <s>more</s> <s>competent</s> <s>useful</s> less punching bag counterparts to the Chaos Marines in Warhammer Fantasy, at least until the Age of Sigmar took hold.
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Chaos Space Marines(8E)|Tactics/Chaos Space Marines]]
*[[What it's like]]: <s>A needlessly elaborate and dysfunctional take on the subject. Seriously, they'd get fuck all accomplished if they were as described. (As if they aren't getting fuck all accomplished already)</s> A fluffy, grimdark take on the subject. People complaining about absurdities and functionality have a strangely selective ability to suspend disbelief when looking at [[Imperium|other factions]].

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:1227181112539.jpg|The Typical Chaos Space Marine
File:1174923365695wq1vj1.png|The dreaded [[Night Lords]] preparing an ambush
File:Emperor s Children by megalaros.jpg|Slaaneshi noise marine. Because words can hurt.
File:Lcw.jpg|[[Imperium|They]] think that corpse on a throne is a god!
File:Firstkeeper.jpg|Change we can believe in!
</gallery>

{{Chaos-Official}}
{{Chaos Space Marines}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}

Adeptus Mechanicus

2018-02-15T20:16:41Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

{{awesome}}
{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= Adeptus Mechanicus
|image= [[Image:AdMech_Flag.jpg ‎|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital=[[Mars]]
|Official Languages=Lingua-technis, Low Gothic, High Gothic
|Power=Galactic Superpower
|Size=Galactic 125 Known Forgeworlds totals presumably in the tens-of-thousands Numerous outposts and research stations
|Head of State=[[High Lords of Terra#Members|Fabricator-General of Mars]]
|Head of Government=[[High Lords of Terra#Members|Fabricator-General of Mars]]
|Governmental Structure=Totalitarian Theocratic Technocracy (''Before Great Crusade'') Semi-Autonomous Theocratic Technocracy (''Great Crusade'')
|State Religion/Ideology=[[Omnissiah]]
|Demographic=[[Humans]], various [[Servitors]], Assorted Transhuman
|Military Force=[[Skitarii]], [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Collegia Titanica]], [[Ordinatus|Centurio Ordinatus]], [[Legio Cybernetica]], [[Imperial Knight|Knight Houses]]
}}

''"War is the science of destruction."'' 
- John Abbott

''"Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences."'' 
- Freeman Dyson

''"Sometimes I wonder why you submitted to the changes."'' 
''"Improvements! I submit to no one. I chose them."'' 
- A-4D & General Grievous

''"[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy-sVTaZRPk Our Wrath Has Come Online]"'' 
- War Cant of Mars

Basically what happens when you combine the extreme technophilia and cyborg-fetishism of the [[Cyberpunk]] Genre with the religiosity and aesthetics of Medieval Gothic, the '''Adeptus Mechanicus'''; [https://youtu.be/7p3H5avBJs0 Formerly] known as the '''Mechanicum''' and often shortened as '''Admech''', is an organization in the [[Imperium of Man]] (In the loosest sense of the word) responsible for technology, engineering and most of the Imperium's Industrial production, as well as the operation of the [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]] Legions.

The Adeptus Mechanicus, whose individual members are known as [[Techpriest]]s, own thousands of heavily polluted planet-factories known as [[Forge World#Planet|forge worlds]], which are covered in massive manufactoria or, as they are known to speakers of Low Gothic, 'work'. The largest forge world of the Adeptus Mechanicus is [[Mars]], homeworld of the Adeptus Mechanicus, on which the most badass weapons ever known to man are made. Despite being part of the Imperium, the AdMech was actually its own nation and a respectable superpower in its own right throughout the Great Crusade and largely is to this day. The 'being-part-of-the-Imperium' shtick began as just a symbolic gesture of goodwill signed by the Treaty of Mars, but was codified when they became the "Adeptus Mechanicus" after their former leader fell to chaos. They still secured protection and quasi-independence though, courtesy of [[Awesome|marching an Imperator titan into the senate chamber and holding them at building-sized gunpoint]]. You could almost think of the Adeptus Mechanicus as relative to the Imperium of man the same way Scotland does to the United Kingdom. The Imperium of man may be sovereign over the Ad-mech, but the Adeptus Mechanicus is it's own political entity. Given that 40k is British this comparison may even be intentional. Because of this, the AdMech is arguably more powerful then the rest of the Imperium as they hold claim to all the various Forgeworlds, Mining worlds and Research Stations needed for the production of machines of war for the Imperium. Essentially speaking, the AdMech could possibly survive without the Imperium (although it would be difficult), while the Imperium can't afford to do the same.

They also have a [[monopoly]] on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvN5lCVkRk all the really cool shit for themselves]—like Titans, [[Ordinatus]], and other wonderful stuff—only letting the Imperials have it when really, really necessary (or if they're threatened personally). They have two armies of their own, which are not anything like the [[Imperial Guard]], as they are mostly composed of badass angry cyborgs and boxy technogrunge robots that are more violent than ED209, and giant, tank-crushing, [[Servitor|lobotomized minions]]. They are also technological rivals with the [[Tau]] and potentially have made a few advances beyond the [[Eldar]], though the Eldar are much more advanced in psionic technology.

Only the [[Necrons]], an entire race of robots who's race-wide robotization was not their most advanced feat, eclipse them when it comes to technology; the Adeptus Mechanicus are mostly against this, seeing it as perverse because it's alien (Though there are some who even like or revere the Necrons because of this, and a few who may be jealous of the Necrons). Their primary reason for hoarding all the good shit is to keep it out of the hands of [[Chaos]] in case an army rebels, though they're also territorial as fuck when it comes to technology. They typically look like a cross between [[Star Wars|Jawas]] and [[/co/|Doctor Octopus]], as well as wearing the sort of rebreather masks that you'll typically see on riot police.

[[File:Tzimeros.png|800px|left|thumb|Marvel Supervillain Thanos Tzimeros.]]
[[File:Mavel.jpg|1200px|left|thumb|And the only superheroes who can beat him.]]

==The Commandments of the Mechanicus==
The Mechanicus have some ideas that they abide by:

'''The Mysteries:'''
#Life is directed motion.
#The spirit is the spark of life.
#Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.
#Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.
#Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.
#Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.
#Comprehension is the key to all things.
#The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

'''The Warnings:'''
#The alien mechanism is a perversion of the true path.
#The soul is the conscience of sentience.
#A soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah.
#The Soulless sentience is the enemy of all.
#The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question.
#The machine spirit guards the knowledge of the ancients.
#Flesh is fallible, but ritual honors the machine spirit.
#To break with ritual is to break with faith.

==What the Mechanicus does==
[[Image:Mechanical-man.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Awesome|"You may say, it is impossible for a man to become like the Machine. And I would reply, that only the smallest mind strives to comprehend its limits." - Fabricator General Kane.]]]]
The main role of the Adeptus Mechanicus is to maintain the advanced equipment of the Imperium; which despite stereotypes, they are actually very good at. Most of their rituals to appease machinery are pretty much the same methods we would use to repair our machinery with a whole bunch of religious iconography mixed in. The terms used by the Mechanicus are actually quite similar to our engineers if you swap some of the words (replace machine spirit with A.I, sacred oils with lubricant etc.) Because of its religious nature some of the components of the rituals are unnecessary but almost all Tech-Priests skip the unnecessary stuff in dire situations while some abandon the unnecessary parts altogether. It's also implied that the so-called holy chants are really them repeating instructions to themselves, which would be useful for remembering what you're doing. The cases where chanting is actually necessary is where they are working with something like a [[Land Raider]] or Titan - both of which have a temperamental machine spirit - that you don't want to piss off.

They spend a lot of time traveling across the galaxy looking for some old laptops called "[[Standard Template Construct]]s" that have all the info necessary for the first human colonist do their job well (mostly a mix of Ikea and "high-tech for dummies" manuals). This is the reason why you will end selling grox hamburgers if you study to be a scientist (unless you have balls or are a spess mehreen artificer who might make something really good) in the [[Imperium]]: everything was already done by the ancients in the Dark Age of [[Cyberpunk|William Gibson]] and recorded in these STCs. Thanks to glitches and borderline developers and programmers, all the STCs found by the Mechanicus are more fucked up than Windows Vista. While often the recovered STCs are useless or incomplete, there are instances where they are actually functional, for example the STC data of the Land Raider and the Land Speeder as well as Centurion armour are well known, another nice example is the one found in the novel Skitarius by [[Rob Sanders]], where the badass protagonist helps the Adeptus Mechanicus priests to find a sort of "Empyrean Bomb", capable to dissipate warp phenomena. More often than not STC data comes from print-outs from fragmented STCs, or copies of these print-outs. These printouts, when discovered, are studied, translated and argued over for centuries before any useful products are made from them. If they ever find an undamaged complete STC, this would likely cause a schism within the Mechanicus, which will tear the Imperium asunder. It's worth noting that different writers seem to have different ideas of what an STC is. Some depict them as a single blueprint for some high-tech equipment, some depict them as a database of those blueprints, and on at least one occasion an STC was portrayed as what can be described as a massive 3-D Printer. The Adeptus Mechanicus also attempt sometimes to loot [[Necron]] tombs and will gladly put an entire world at risk for this, and act like it's blasphemy of the most serious kind when people wall it off because of the goddamn killer robot skeletons! The idiots. The Priests of Mars also will not mind getting their hands on Xenos artifacts to see how such "blasphemies" can work, and maybe give a hint of how a [[Orky|"pure" design should have been.]]

[[Image:MECHANICUS.jpg|thumb|500px|left|The faculty of engineering never looked so cool!]]
Very rarely the Adeptus will actually invent something. While they do adapt designs occasionally the only things they actually invented from scratch is the [[Lascannon]], the Dunestrider perpetual motion machine (whose creator was promptly executed and all designs lost upon creation), as well all the [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titans]], except for the Reaver Class and the Apocalypse Class, which were invented during the Age of Strife and the Dark Age of Technology respectively. Which is pretty odd, until you realize that they invented them [[Horus Heresy|pre-heresy]]. Even things like [[Land Raider]]s and [[Land Speeder]]s, which were said to have been given critically important parts by the famous Mr. Land himself, were actually just made from really old bits Land found in the galaxy's third biggest library/archive/warehouse (the one on Terra). Well, they also invented the Infernus pattern Predator. Sure they built it on the [[Rhino Transport|Rhino]] chassis, but they created a pattern without killing everyone involved. Of course, they aren't ''actually'' "inventing" it. They are, supposedly, using divinely inspired reason to create something that has always existed, implicit in the logical structure of the universe. This is, interestingly, not a new idea, it can be traced back to philosophers like Plato, ultimately the Mechanicus will play to no end with the meaning of the word "invent" to get the job done, as too often and despite /tg/'s cartoonish flanderization your average techpriest will have enough common sense to "feel divinely inspired" whenever his/her neck is on the line, you know, desperation is the mother of all inven... Ahem, I mean, "divinely inspired reason".

Also important to mention is what they ''do not do.'' The Mechanicus by and large are the greediest gits in the galaxy. They hoard technology like it is going out of style, which would be fine, if they didn't hoard and defend it, but that isn't the point. The point ''is'' that they're basically [[Monopoly|a mega-corporation that will try to own, buy, sell and take by force any existing technology]]. Getting a part, gun, computer, vehicle, schematic, program, eyepatch, cookie recipe, or even a [[Miniatures|tiny plastic model]] that wasn't specifically mass-produced and shipped to the [[Departmento Munitorum]] so ''they'' can give it to you, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvN5lCVkRk is nearly impossible.] Anything with any kind of passing significance or interest to the Mechanicus is guarded by 7-foot cyborg death machines. Anything in the private possession of a Mechanicus operative that ''might be'' harder to make than a bolt or nut is treated like the holy grail. I dare you to try and [[rage|take a 8,000 year-old flash drive from a techpriest who just found it.]] It's worse than taking little plastic models from [[tg|fat men]] [[neckbeards|with beards]].

===Mechanicum Understanding of Science===
There's the common misconception that the AdMech don't really understand science and approach all tech with rituals. That's arguably wrong. In the "Mechanicum" novel they are shown to have actual theoretical knowledge of physics. Yes, that's 31st millennium, but it's quite clear that even in the 41st they know about "normal" science like mechanic, thermodynamic, biology, optics, quantum physics etc. AdMech has probably as much science as we have today and more. And they are quite happy to play with it. What they don't really understand and they don't like to play with (unless they are really forced to) is the hyper advanced tech from the dark age of technology.

Take the lasgun as an example. There are almost infinite patterns of lasguns. They are almost all developed after the great crusade because we know that the lasgun wasn't that common back there. So they understand materials and mechanics well enough to create different stocks and triggers. They understand optics as they can focus the las beam with different barrel lengths. And they do use this knowledge to create new patterns. What they won't modify is the power pack. Because the power pack is a scary super advanced piece of technology that not only will hold enough energy for a hundred las shots powerful enough to kill an armored man, but it will be easily rechargeable thousands of times. And they don't have a clue on how that works.

There's a quite good reason to that. The ultra advanced science used in the Dark Age of Technology was developed with the aid of AIs and super advanced computers. It's entirely possible that even the scientists of that time didn't fully understand their science and a lot of r&d was done automatically by artificial intelligence far superior to humans, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9OHn5ZF4Uo&t with programing so complex no human actually knew how the damn thing was thinking]. Now you can't do this anymore because you know that AIs will try to kill you. In the "Mechanicum" novel the Dragon Caretaker says that the Emperor engineered the creation of the Mechanicum. Why the atheist Emperor would create a machine cult if not because it was the only way to retain a technology that the humanity would have no possibility to comprehend anymore once that the AIs would be wiped out?

This is interesting because it's said that the Emperor defeated the Dragon during the late Roman Empire, for this purpose. This means that he foresaw the rebellion of the machines and the long night and allowed it as a mean to develop a technology that could then be salvaged after.

Then the Horus Heresy came and fucked up everything. And yes, the cult mentality of AdMech involved probably more than should have been. But the real reason that they don't go around innovating and creating new stuff, it's that id doesn't pay off. The real "power" of their technology comes from the Dark Age of Technology stuff and they are not able to touch that.

And this is not all. The lack of AIs and uber computational power might hinder you from understanding advanced science to a point, yes. But it will absolutely wreck your ability to produce practical applications of said advanced science. Let me make an example, ok? You are fifty years in the future and fusion energy is an everyday reality from fusion power plants. ITER worked after all. You are transported on to a desert island and you have all the scientific knowledge of humanity in your brain. You are asked to build a practical fusion based power source. You can use any tool and component but you don't have access to computers. Can you do it?

Nah. You can understand perfectly how the thing should work and how to design one. But without computers you don't have the ability of run the extremely complex calculations and simulations to optimize the reactor to the point that it produces more energy than it consumes. So they hand you a blueprint of a currently working reactor. Can you build it now? Sure. You have a blueprint and the theoretical knowledge to understand what you are doing, so you build the damn thing.

Then they ask you if you can build another but slightly different. Bigger? Smaller? More powerful? Less powerful? Doesn't matter. Can you do that?

Well... maybe? You have the blueprints of a working design and you have the theoretical understanding on how it works, so you can try to modify it. But you still don't have the computational power to validate your modifications so... you can try? Best case scenario, it works. Worst case scenario? You nuke the whole fucking island. On the average? It will kinda work but it will less efficient/polished/optimized than the original design.

So you don't really like to modify the original (standard) template (construct), unless you are '''really''' forced to. Does it remind you of something? Yep, that's the mechanicum mindset.

==History of the Adeptus Mechanicus==

The Mechanicus was established in the distant past, when a bunch of <s>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk machine worshiping technophiles]</s> normal people terraformed Mars during mankind's dominating of the Solar System and colonizing of the galaxy. Thus Mars became an extremely technologically advanced society of astronauts, scientists, engineers, manufacturers, and miners wherein they could pursue advances in technology and power the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. After a while, during the [[Age of Strife]], their precious atmosphere was punctured, and solar radiation <s>beat down on their filthy heads</s> burned the land, boiled the seas, and took the sky from them, nuking all life. Everybody either did one of three things: die, hide underground, or turn feral. After hundreds of years of living from half-working mechanical bunker to partially-pressurized archaic hab spire; people began to look upon technology as a saviour and way to return to the former heights of glory. Thus, did a new cult spread amongst the people of Mars, wherein they paid reverence to the Machine God. [[Just as planned]]. And then they joined the [[EMPRAH]] because they saw him as an aspect of the Machine God called the '[[Omnissiah]]'. As if the parallels aren't already tremendously clear at this point.

[[File:Techpriests_are_still_human_deep_inside.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Who said they are not human or lack the human factor? And thanks to Priests of Mars this is canon.]]
Except it's giant load of bullshit. The Tech-priesthood were FORCED to acknowledge the Big E as an incarnate of Machine God quite literally at gunpoint. This happened after they sent pretty much their entire fleet and army to Terra to prevent the Unification of meatbags, so they can continue to raid ancient Terran tombs and libraries once or twice a century. The Emperor's fleet fucked them so hard only one in ten returned to Mars to tell the tale. Needless to say, the Fabricator-General was very cooperative when the Emprah's armada arrived in Mars' orbit. At least they managed to get a special exemption from the "no religions" rule, possibly because the Emperor already knew about the Dragon of Mars (see below; then again it wouldn't be the first time a head of state was a hypocrite or practiced double standards). In exchange for giving the Imperium all the guns and tanks they needed, the Emperor promised the Fabricator-General full autonomy on all Forge Worlds, as well as access to Navigators and Astropaths for space travel, and all Archeotech found during the [[Great Crusade]]. Naturally, this managed to smooth things over between the two factions, resulting in the Treaty of Mars and the beginning of the Imperium; As a sign of their alliance, the Emperor changed his sigil from the lightning bolt, as used by the [[Thunder Warriors]], to the two-headed Aquila.

Hilariously, the "Machine God" may actually be the Void Dragon, one of the ancient [[C'tan]] Star Gods. The Void Dragon is actually one of the most powerful of the C'tan, and gains control over machines. All those techpriests are going to have serious problems when it wakes up... Oh yeah. It's on Mars because the EMPRAH roofied it and turned it into an angry cave on Mars. It's now guarded by the Mechanicus in their Noctys Labyrinth. This point of view is not certain, so the Machine God may be anything like the collective mass of all machines or the sum of all knowledge, neither would all Mechanicus accept a C'Tan as their lord (but that's the point, they don't know it's a C'tan if it is). But it's a more [[Grimdark|fun]] version, isn't it? They also created a [[Steel Confessors|Chapter]] of their own [[Space Marines]] once.

==The Machine Spirits==
''"If you run from technology, it will chase you."'' 
- Robert M. Pirsig
[[Image:Magos Dominus.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Your average Magos]]
The "[[Machine Spirit]]" is the Imperium's version of Artificial Intelligence, mainly because after the reunification of [[Earth|Terra]]; the Emperor forbade the use of AI in machinery (partly because of the ancient rebellion of the [[Men of Iron]], but mostly to prevent Chaos-corrupted AIs from skullfucking them, Skynet style).

For all the importance of Machine Spirits to the Mechanicus, it's not entirely clear what they actually are. One theory holds that there is actually a semi-sentient AI fragment in pretty much everything electronic, a leftover from the Age of Strife. These "ghosts in the machine" quite literally must be appeased, or else they'll fuck with the targeting systems in your Bolter at the worst possible moment, start doing doughnuts with your Land Raider, and generally act like [[dick]]s. All the ritual and apparent silliness of the Cult Mechanicus, then, is actually necessary to keep the machines operating.

The prevailing theory within the Mechanicus itself would seem to hold that a Machine Spirit is a fragment of the Machine God itself. Whether this is simply rhetoric (you need to keep your gun oiled, or it'll backfire, and the cogboys are just really picky about how you oil it) or the actual truth (the Machine God extends its awareness to literally every machine in the universe, which is disturbingly more possible than one might think), the fact remains that Machine Spirits are real enough to severely ruin your day (or your continent, in the case of an itinerant Land Raider), and the ritual and mysticism surrounding the Cult Mechanicum's everyday activities is far more important to them than even the Imperial Creed.

The Techpriests of Mars got around the restrictions against "Abominable Intelligence" in true WH40K [[grimdark]] fashion: cut out the "Artificial" part and make it organic, and vice versa. Nearly every piece of sophisticated machinery in the Imperium operates via a cogitator, analogous to a modern-day microchip, which is basically the cloned or recycled brain of a human converted to function like a horrific cyborg version of a CPU. This interpretation of the "Machine Spirit" is particularly disturbing, to be sure, but is a necessity because the Iron Men incident and Age of Strife in general made the Imperium fear the "Silica Animus". The only true difference between a semi-organic cogitator and a true AI is that their machine spirits have no ability to learn or improve on their own, and therefore must be manually programmed by their operators if they need to learn or do anything that is outside their current programming. Thus, it is now nearly (but not entirely) impossible for machines to rebel on their own, quelling the fears of the Imperium.

In any of these cases, it can be easily understood why machines are revered by the Mechanicus and why they are treated like sentient beings. Although, the AdMech is a bit fuzzy just ''how'' sentient machines are; are they somehow capable of thought like organics or no more sentient than your bread toaster at home?

== Forge Worlds ==



See [[Forge World#Planet]] for a comprehensive list of all Forge Worlds.

Forge Worlds are all based on Mars. Literally so -- the AdMech so revere the nuke blasted hellscape of Mars that they intentionally terraform other planets into it. Filled with a combination of research labs, libraries, churches, forges, warehouses and factories, the Forge Worlds provide the Imperium with the vast majority of their equipment.

Each Forge World has their own color scheme, themes, and specialties, similar to Space Marine chapters or Imperial Guard regiments.

=== 8th Edition's Forge Worlds of choice are: ===

* '''Mars''': The original. Likely has a C'tan (The [[Void Dragon]]) buried inside it. Mars is a radioactive desert wasteland where factories and other forge world bits are built on top of kilometer deep ruins of previous bits, all infested with insane robots, sentient demonic warp viruses, and other things that go bump in the night. Immediately after the Dark Age of Technology they went full ''Kin-Dza-Dza'' and devolved into atmosphere-less techno-barbarianism until the Emperor showed up after he conquered Earth.
* '''Lucius''': Teleportation and Armor specialists, as well as known for a strange "solar blessed" metal called Luciun. Lucius is hollow, with an artificial star inside. Was attacked by Hive Fleet Leviathan, they survived by hiding inside their planet and sending out hordes of Servitors, letting them get eaten, then using Servo-skulls to pull the techy bits back underground and put them on new cloned bodies before the biomass could be absorbed, effectively starving the Leviathan forces to death. Had a civil war called the Inculcata Schism that almost caused the planet to ''implode'' (teleportation specialists is a nice way of saying "experiments with warp tech"), so they wear red as a way to kiss up to Mars. This is a common theme among forge worlds.
* '''Agripinaa''': Right outside of and now the front line to the Eye of Terror, after Cadia fell all the refugees fled to Stygies VIII and Agripinaa... who promptly conscripted them into their Skitarii and Servitor forces -- by force. They effectively blackmailed millions of desperate refugees, trapped on their planet and in orbit, and turned them into various flavors of mindless or brainwashed combat cyborgs. Also known for sending incursions around and occasionally ''into'' the Eye of Terror.
* '''Stygies VIII''': Had '''two''' Titan legions based on it during the Horus Hersey, '''both''' of which turned traitor. They were saved at the last minute by the [[Eldar]], leading to them having a soft spot for Xenos. Home to the Xenarite faction, a faction that believes in studying Xenos technology. The official reason for this blatant tech-heresy is to better understand why Humanity's technology is superior. Stygies is also home to the "Runic Priests," (No, [[Space Wolves|not those]]), a faction of AdMech that specialize in intuition, speculation, and improvisation. Ultimately they were considered "too big to fail," so the High Lords of Terra declared they were to be left alone, despite flirting with Xenos crap and Heretekal science. Eventually the Inquisition found out and decided to purge the planet anyway, in the '''Xenarite Schism'''. Stygies VIII responded by unleashing a computer virus that constantly purges the Administratum and the Ordo Xenos' computer systems of any evidence or discussion of how Stygies VIII is technically a Heretek world, while the Xenarites went mostly underground. [[Deathwatch]] Kill Teams still frequently attack them, alongside various Xenos forces who want their tech back. Stygians are stealth specialists, which they will deny whenever asked; they're also known for pretending to be from Mars when needed due to their color scheme. Oh, and they're currently invading the Eldar Webway in an attempt at raiding the [[Black Library]].
* '''Graia''': Even more aspie than normal AdMechs, Graia are nearly immune to psykers due to being too logical to manipulate. Notable for their space station that covers a huge portion of their planet, which is actually a space ''ship'' which Graia move around, and even take through the warp! Both Chaos and the Necrons target them for it. The whole Forge World lives on this <s>yellow submarine</s> space thing due to opening some sort of portal to ''somewhere'' on the planet's surface long ago. Known for refusing to retreat even when losses are guaranteed because to do so would mean their logical predictions were wrong. Red on their uniform is ostensibly because they are loyal to Mars, but actually because they like blood.
* '''Metalica''': Metalica is a completely sterile world, no atmosphere, no life, no anything but ''metal''. This may or may not be due to an [[retcon|ancient copyright scouring]] by a musical group bearing a similar name. Their Titan Legion was nearly destroyed during the Third War for Armageddon; their Princeps' decided that the best way to screw over the Orks was to fight the [[gargant]]s by over-extending like suicidal maniacs, and then ''become'' suicidal maniacs by self-destructing in the heart of the Ork forces. Totally ''not'' the noise AdMech -- their guns are intentionally loud to ''proclaim the glory of the Omnissiah.'' Metalica is also known for being the first Imperium force to go on a Tyranid safari. That's right, they're '''[[Awesome|actively hunting Hive Fleet Leviathan.]]''' They are, in fact, ''so metal.''
* '''Ryza''': Energy shield and plasma specialists, who have nothing to do with the [[Tau]] because they managed to remain relatively unmolested until the Mechanicus found them again during the Great Crusade. They have been invaded by [[Orks]] repeatedly, to the point that most of their Forge World's output goes directly to it's own self defense. The more red on a Ryzan's robe, the more important they are. Led an aborted invasion of the Maelstrom in an attempt to go after the DarkMech world of Sarum. Ryza has a sect of Ruststalkers that have gone rogue, but still worship the Omnissiah so whatevs, it's all good. Known for being very ''enthusiastic'' towards melee combat, may or may not be due to Ork influence.

=== 8th Edition was nice enough to flesh out several back-canon Forge Worlds as well: ===

* '''Triplex Phall''': Isolated, on the far east side of the galaxy, Triplex Phall has recovered a ton of STC and Archeotech but refused to give it to Mars. Basically AdMech Protestants. Mars now has a Skitarii Legion following them around with express instructions to warn Mars if Triplex Phall forces find any more secret tech. Invaded by Hive Fleet Kraken, attacked by Typhus, and invaded by Demons.
* '''Deimos''': The moon of Mars, gifted to the Grey Knights of Titan at the end of the Horus Heresy. They make Grey Knight wargear and use Servitors to transfer the material between the Grey Knights and Deimos, mindscrubbing them at each end, allowing both organizations to keep their secrets. Deimos has ''three'' different Knight houses, because apparently the Grey Knights aren't enough knights for Deimos.
* '''Voss Prime''': The most Mars-fanboyish of the Mars Fanboys, has a focus on Legio Cybernetica robots. Closest Forge World to Armageddon. Voss has a huge asteroid field that repelled an Ork [[Waaagh]] merely on accident. Known for good tanks, but crappy plasma weapons. Not to be confused with Voss, which is another Forge World not too far away from Voss Prime.
* '''Gryphonne IV''': The lost Forge world. They are responsible for a lot of Imperial Guard support-tank patterns, thanks to the real-life [[Forge_World#Company|Forge World]]. The Tyranids ate their planet after they refused to listen to Inquisitor Kryptman, so they have become the first nomadic Forge "World": a space fleet actively seeking out a planet they can terraform into a new Mars. Whether or not Gryphonnians want to terraform said world into (degenerate-biome barren world) present-day Mars, or a (lush and properly-terraformed) Dark Age of Technology Mars is anyone's guess. Gryphonne IV is ''definitely not'' [[Craftworld|copying anything]].

The "big" Forge World remains Mars, with [[Cawl]] being the only unique character in the AdMech force. (Hieronomus Tezla says hello.) Lucius and (Metalica or Ryza depending on the current Edition) round out as the "main three" Forge Worlds, fluff wise.

However, each world has their own rules and details in the fluff, although the new ones remain somewhat intentionally vague for [[your dudes]] purposes -- Triplex Phall lends itself to odd conversions because "It's Archeotech!"; Deimos lends itself to borrowing some Grey Knights aesthetic and allies; Gryphonne IV being nomadic lends itself to battle damage and the like. Even the "old" forge worlds get some additional flavor in the new fluff -- Stygies VIII lends itself well to sneaky types or Xenos conversions and allies; Agripinaa force-conscripting refugees encourages Servitors / Skitarii converted from Imperial Guard (or even Ecclesiarchy and Necromunda). Metalica going on a ''fucking safari'' for Hive Fleet Leviathan splinter fleets just screams "Nid Hunter" Skitarii.

==The Religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus==
(Forgive OP's bellicose statement, but the fluff and novels pertaining to the AdMech are rather obscure to whether or not they truly understand what they talk about.)

Begin Rant/file exc.//>>

''Children, I'm fucking fed up with your shit. Cult Mechanicus IS NOT a replacement of rational thought with religion for the sake of operating machines.It's a (in-universe) developed philosophy of collective rationalism. AdMechs don't throw their critical thinking out of the window. They just already took this thinking, put it on a pedestal, brought it to its apex (Dark Age), suffered for it, suffered for it again (Horus Heresy, Schism of Mars), then looked at it and asked : "What do we do now?" Every Mechanicum is a rationalist, in a meaning that when he goes through all the critical thinking to the basic reason of his existence, he takes on the dogma of Quest for Knowledge. That he exists to Rationalize the Universe, move towards learning and understanding the Universe and its laws. It's also a collective quest - adept doesn't seek knowledge just for himself, he sees all the Adeptus Mechanicus as one single huge Gnostical Engine, a Machine of Comprehension designed to learn. He's just a single little gear in the heart of enormous Over-Intellect gathering and producing knowledge.

''For what sake? AdMechs thought a lot about this question, and took one answer.

''For the sake of Mankind.

''Now THIS is where shit gets religious.

''As of it now, humanity utilizes science for egoistical purposes of survival (scientists need something to eat) and/or domination, which can be understood by every human through his instincts. Society of Mars, however, got devoid of this motivators, as they dropped their human instincts, so they had to find new goals. This is where the Schism takes roots, as well as the "Cult" part. Every rational human can tell you that objectively life has no meaning. Accepting that fact is what brought the galaxy Necrons and Iron Men. AdMechs knew that this is what they wish to avoid. And the most effective way to avoid that is to walk the irrational way and put a sense for your existence through Faith.

''This is what they did.

''They are the fanatics in the sense that they BELIEVE that Universe CAN be comprehended, while they have 0 proof of that. They BELIEVE that critical thinking works, while living in a Galaxy that laughs at any attempts of rationalization. They BELIEVE that Quest for Knowledge can be completed. And it this faith, they are being paradoxical and irrational. And they know it. Lets have a look at Universal Laws, that Mechanicum use as the foundation of their philosophy.

''The Mysteries

''01. Life is directed motion.

''This gives a definition to "life", as existence of individual. A definition that basically says "Only that thing which irrationally takes a (faith) direction for its way can be called a Living Thing".

''02. The spirit is the spark of life.

''Here they recognize the illogical existence of Souls and Warp, and their defining roles in being representation of one's beliefs.

''03. Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.

''04. Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.

''05. Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.

''Here they define ability for rational thinking.

''06. Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.

''07. Comprehension is the key to all things.

''And HERE they put this thinking as their Way to exist.

''08. The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

''And establish an ideal, to which they are heading. --Anon

End Rant/file//>>

Another Magos adds:
There's definitely variation in the creed between forgeworlds and different cults-- even post Heresy, Mars is not unified-- but a lot of them operate on this sort of platonic/hermeticist logic. Regardless of whether they believe all knowledge already exists or that the disciplined mind can create new things, the religion is trying for union with some perfect being. Whether that's taken to mean "become a robot because the flesh is weak", "find salvation in logic", or even "cultivate the Omnissiah within you" (which would lead to radical differences in practice, from penitent cyberization cults to contemplative engineering orders, which we see in the many faces of the Mechanicum, [[Koriel Zeth]], Forgeworld Mezoa, the [[Myrmidon]] Orders, etc), it all leads back to a cautious quest to be the best you can be with logic as your guide.

===The Void Dragon===
A lot of their tech stuffs come from the Void Dragon that the Emperor bested and imprisoned on Mars ages ago as so humanity could gain mastery over machines. While it might have worked pretty well back when the Imperium wasn't the festering portaloo of a grimdark shitpit that it is today, it's pretty much a matter of time now. The Necrons already attempted to raid Mars - and succeeded, well, sort of. They got vaporized before they could really even do anything, but the fact that they managed to even land proved a point the High Lords of Terra had been turning a blind eye towards for ages.

If the T-800s get what they want and party on Mars long enough to wake the Void Dragon up, you can bet it's going to be a pretty goddamned bad day for just about any human not [[Feral World|wearing loincloths and still bashing rocks together]]. The few Mechanicus agents who have figured this out have either gone rogue, blammed or gone totally bonkers, ripping all the implants from their flesh. And when you're a member of the Mechanicus, that's about 80% of your body.

Of course, the even worse possibility is that the void dragon enjoys this situation, as every time the tech-priests remove their flesh and place more machine into it, they could be feeding him a fraction of their soul. As there are quite a few tech-priests out there, and humanity being the rabbits they are, this would give him a lifetime of souls to be eating, and a personal army that is very much willing. Ironically, given this, it could mean the Void Dragon might side with humanity as an endlessly increasing supply of soul-stuff. The Mechanicus gets its implants and technology and does not lose enough of their souls to not pass on when they die, the Void Dragon gets a bit of soul from each of them and their numbers endlessly increase with humanity's ever growing population. Everyone wins and, as we all know, Dragons are rather protective of their hoards....

By the way, the "Void" Dragon is actually only called "The Dragon" in the official fluff, probably as a reference to Metropolis. <s>But for God knows what unreasonable reason, /tg/ insists on calling him the "Void Dragon", thus confusing him with an Eldar aircraft, or with an Eldar pirate warband. Unless it's an obscure vidya reference. Whatever, maybe it just sounds cooler.</s> The [[Eldar]] refer to it as the "Void Dragon", and the aircraft and pirate warband take their names from it.

'''UPDATE:''' The new Codex: Necrons written by our [[Matt Ward|Spiritual Liege]] reveals the necrons are no longer enslaved by the C'tan, instead they are their sworn enemies for tricking them into giving up flesh, thus they were probably going to Mars to capture the Imperial held C'tan shard of the Void Dragon as they won't see humans reliable, or perhaps they were under control of another shard, and wanted to liberate it, oh whatever, for what we know it may have been [[Trazyn the Infinite|Trollzyn]] trying to loot Mars. Or, maybe they simply realize that having a C'tan that can control technology on a planet-sized machine-scape is a ''bad'' idea. It is unlikely that the Void Dragon would have been shattered, though. Because it is hard to do that to something with technology when that something has complete control over all technology. Yeah. Which, in hind-sight, might be part of the reason why the Necrons went into hibernation. Because when you are a living machine and you just pissed off something that controls machines... it is a good time to ''run away'' really fast.

The only thing that changes as a result of that is once the Void Dragon (shard or whole, who knows?) wakes up, it will be the only C'tan with ready access to an army, and a pretty damn huge one at that- so it's not only going to be a real bad day for the Imperium, but the Necrons as well.

'''UPDATE 2:''' And now it seems the World Engine of [[Astral Knights]] fame was supposed to be en route to Mars in order to allow his usurper Phaeron to get himself a new Void Dragon Pokémon, good thing he got sabotaged.

==Why Everything is so Grimdark==
''"The Mechanicus does NOT have the technology. They haven't been living on some fancy paradise planet since pre-Fall. Mars is an anarchic nightmare shithole the moment you leave the safe zones into the kilometers of labyrinthine corridors beneath it full of rogue machinery, self-aware and malevolent AI from before the Fall, and the daemon programs of the Heresy. EVERYTHING in the databases is fucked. The databases are fragmented over the entire surface to the extent that it would be impossible to see one tenth of the total files in the ludicrously extended life of a Magos even assuming that they are completely safe to visit. And they are not.

''The files have been corrupted into madness by the Fall, and the unleashing of the most potent informational warfare systems ever to exist to defeat the Iron Men. Nearly all of Mars was rendered uninhabitable, what they live in now is built on the top of the ruins. They send archeotech expeditions in to find shit, nearly all of them never come back. The sheer number of rogue war machine running around in there is sufficient to rape the mind. Then came the Heresy, which was not earth-exclusive. Mars as the second most critical planet in the Imperium was the site of fighting nearly as ferocious as on Terra, with Mechanicus loyalists and Hereteks fighting tooth, nail, and mechadendrite everywhere. Ancient machines were unleashed, viruses both normal and daemonic unleashed into all the computer systems. Towards the close of the Heresy, Rogal Dorn sent some Space Marine operatives to wipe the planet clean of all life. Nearly every single stored record on Mars was rendered unusable, and those that survived are half the time self-aware and don't like you, or daemonic and actively try to kill you.

''If you come back with a schematic, it is almost certainly gibberish, and if it isn't, it's probably corrupted into uselessness. If it does come back whole it was probably malevolently fucked with so that instead of a Lasgun power cell it's a fucking grenade set to detonate the second you finish building it. Why do you think they want off-world STCs so damned much if they had them all here? The fucking Heresy is why. Off-world they only have to contend with the Fall's war and its effects on the machinery plus twenty thousand years of degradation with no maintenance. But at least off-world it'll probably just not work instead of actively seeking to kill you.

''Why do you think they seek to placate the Machine Spirit? It's because it exists. The fragments of trillions of self-aware programs, flourishing during the Dark Age of Technology and shattered by Man in his war with the Iron men, imprisoning the few who had not set themselves irrevocably into the machinery, a prison smashed wide open by the Heresy. Everything that can hold programming in the Imperium has a shard of a program in it. EVERYTHING. And you'd better fucking please it or it will do everything in its power to make your day shit. Sure, if it's a Lasgun it'll just not work or start shooting off rounds by itself, but if you piss off a Land Raider you can say bye-bye to half a continent. They apply these principles to things without spirits by habit, since they're so used to dealing with tanks that if not talked to just right might go rogue and annihilate the Manufactorum before they can be killed.

''This is why they do not like ANYONE fucking with technology, because it is so rare to find anything that just works it is critical it not be compromised. That, and they do not have the actual knowledge to fuck with it intelligently, just through experimentation, which inevitably leads to slaughter. Pressing buttons to see what works is fine in a 21st century computer, but it is a very stupid thing to do at the helm of a 410th century starship with the destructive power to end solar systems. The entire knowledge base of humanity was lost. Not forgotten, but outright lost. Everything at all, poof. Nobody knows anything because the Fall fucked everything up and the Heresy double-fucked it. To rebuild the theoretical framework needed to design new technologies that don't kill everyone near them would require starting from the ground up. They don't have the time, they never have, and they never will.

''This gets on to the point of war and what it does to technology. Someone will parrot that it makes it go much faster. Yes, it makes practical applications of technology go much faster. It also utterly stops all research on the scientific theories behind those technologies. This means that when war chugs along for a decade or two things get done. It means when it goes on too long you run out of theories to turn into technologies, and then you run out of technologies to apply. You stagnate. When you have been fighting in a war for survival in a drastically overextended empire, this is what happens. You are desperate for any extra materiel that can possibly be produced. Half your entire fucking military might went rogue, smashed the half that stayed and a whole swathe of the logistical side of your society, leaving you with the tattered shreds of a war machine to keep hold of an empire that was reaching straining point with an army far larger. There is no time for the sort of applied research programs that took Man twenty five thousand years to develop, in a time of unprecedented growth and prosperity.

''This is also why the Adeptus Mechanicus insists on cargo cultism. It's because when you are dealing with things you barely understand because everything you knew about them was destroyed it is the safest and most reliable option. The rituals do not exists for mysticism, they exist because they are the most practical means of building, repairing and maintaining the equipment they have with the knowledge surviving. You don't understand why pressing that button makes it go, because the manual tried to take over your brain and the copies are all unreadable and the research base that would let you reverse-engineer it does not exist and cannot be built.

''Why are the Tau doing so well with their technology? Because they had peace. Eight thousand years unmolested by any enemy and they were helped the entire time by the most advanced biological race in the galaxy. Give the Imperium eight thousand years of peace and I can guarantee you it will be harder than it was during the Great Crusade.

''Since some still don't get the idea, try this:

''Build a library, fill it with all human knowledge. You take it elsewhere when you need a book from it, but the book is only a simplified copy. You don't understand the real book, and you don't need to. Nobody takes the real books anywhere because why would you, when there's a whole library there?

''Now that library goes rogue and the maintenance machinery starts killing everyone any-fucking-where near it. Where the fuck did they all come from, you swear to god there weren't this many, and there weren't because they're using the library's information to fight their war. The government fights a battle that destroys the planet against these robots and tears apart the library to stop them using it, only to be destroyed in the process. The library is leveled, cast into flames, every book burned and every computer virus-laden.

''Then comes a man who worked there. He talks to the few surviving library workers, assembles their information, and starts rebuilding a city around the library and expanding it as the librarians find little scraps of paper and fragmented bits of files that stuck together just right read something. They rebuild a library from scrap on the ashes of the old. It isn't a shadow on the glory of the old, but it is all they have.

''Then the city turns on itself, kills its master, and the librarians turn to rage. Half of them kill the other half and destroy the remnants of the library because where they're going they won't need science. Everything burns, and the city is left to a scattered few survivors, walls open to the world, with the hungry predators circling.

''The Adeptus Mechanicus is the sole surviving librarian, desperately scrabbling through the ashes of paper and splinters of hard drives for anything to help him and the city he needs to survive just a second longer.

''The Imperium isn't grim because things suck by choice and could be fine if a sensible person came along. That sensible person wouldn't survive fifty seconds of the reality. The Imperium is grim because every single shit decision, every single sacrifice, every single death, every single man woman and child suffering a shit life in the worst conditions imaginable, is the absolute best that can be done. It is a study of the worst happening to everyone and what part of your humanity must be sacrificed today just to stand a chance of survival, and all it asks is whether or not it would have perhaps been better to die."'' --Baron von Evilsatan

== On the Tabletop ==
''See also [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Adeptus_Mechanicus(8E)|AdMech 8E Tactics]]''

8th Edition has landed, and the AdMech are resurgent. Having Cult Mechanicus and Skitarii merged together into one list was good enough, but they also merged Imperial Knights as "Questor Mechanicus" -- AdMech aligned Imperial Knight houses. Imperial Armor: Fires of Cyraxus is coming out "real soon now" which will have AdMech vs Tau and promises a bunch of new stuff, as well.

The biggest change, outside of the Knights now being part of AdMech (which means they can be repaired~!) is the promotion of the Enginseer from Elite to HQ, allowing for a cheap HQ option if a tax is needed.

The Mechanicus received an entire army's worth of new plastic models and rulebook! Praise the Omnissiah!

At the moment, the Admech is divided into a number of different mini-factions. Currently, the [[Skitarii]] and the Cult Mechanicus army have been fully released. There is also the "Titan Guard" Secutarii on the way, but they're a Forge World army. The [[Legio Cybernetica]] is also part of the Adeptus Mechanicus, though aside from the Kastelan, they're [[Horus Heresy]] only. There's also the Taghmata, which are like feudal troops, but they're not as much of a thing in the lore of 40K (though they have a HH dex, see below).

The current releases include Skitarii, who are like if the Guard were badass technogrunge medievalpunk super-soldiers with access to all the good shit, spider-tanks, scout walkers that are basically the Sentinel if it was good, Servitors on tank treads that will wreck your shit, giant crazy-tough robots that will wreck your shit harder, and a plastic Magos HQ unit! Truly, venerate the Omnissiah, and He will provide. The Cult Mechanicus, meanwhile, consists mainly of half-naked tech-priests with a fetish for electricity and some battle servitors, including the aformentioned Kastelan. Tech-Priest Magos are also the only figures in modern 40k that carry [[Volkite]] weapons. The upcoming Titan Guard are divided into Peltasts and Hoplites, which are fitting descriptions as the former look to be ranged skirmishers, while the latter are heavily armored spearmen (the spears happen to shoot electricity).

== Notable Members ==
[[Archmagos]] [[Belisarius Cawl]]: Creator of the Primarines, their wargear, and Big G's current armor.

==Gallery==
{{Promotions}}
<gallery>
image:Adeptus_Mechanicus.jpg
Image:TechpriestChiyo.jpg|D'awwww.
Image:Mechanicuuuuus.jpg
Image:AdMech_Couple.jpg|D'awwww. By the way this is canon.
Image:CircleA_AdMech.jpg|PRAISE THE OMNISSIAH!
Image:rave_heretek_by_psykerscum.jpg|Someone got Chaos on my Mechanicus, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbAUwi4D3Ew now with theme music!]
image:1318818198286.gif.jpg|We're not sure if that's tech-heresy or an actual activation ritual. Ask your local Magos for clarification.
Image:Leokadia chernabog by mr culexus-d3hxqx2.jpg|showin' a little augmented leg
Image:AdMech Scientific Method.jpg|Science in the 41st Millennium.
Image:Madonna mechanicae by sexual yeti-daubney.jpg|TECHPRIESTESS TITTIES
</gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Adeptus_Mechanicus(8E)|Mechanicus Tactics.]] - [[Awesome|Yes, they have rules now.]]
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Mechanicum_(30k)|Heresy Era Mechanicum Tactics.]] - 6th/early 7th edition rules. Very different from either of the 40k versions.
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Mechanicum:_Taghmata_(30k)|Mechanicum: Taghmata (30k)]] - Current 7th edition rules. Still very different to the 40k versions.

==Links==
*The Adeptus Mechanicus are [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17PM-UMVud8 avid music lovers.]
*This is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ecvLRxb3MU their theme] done by [[HMKids]].
*And one for [https://youtu.be/Jb8J1zx2Lrg the Machine Cult].

{{Mechanicus}}
{{Imperium}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}
{{Template:40k-Governments}}

Adeptus Mechanicus

2018-02-15T20:16:17Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

{{awesome}}
{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= Adeptus Mechanicus
|image= [[Image:AdMech_Flag.jpg ‎|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital=[[Mars]]
|Official Languages=Lingua-technis, Low Gothic, High Gothic
|Power=Galactic Superpower
|Size=Galactic 125 Known Forgeworlds totals presumably in the tens-of-thousands Numerous outposts and research stations
|Head of State=[[High Lords of Terra#Members|Fabricator-General of Mars]]
|Head of Government=[[High Lords of Terra#Members|Fabricator-General of Mars]]
|Governmental Structure=Totalitarian Theocratic Technocracy (''Before Great Crusade'') Semi-Autonomous Theocratic Technocracy (''Great Crusade'')
|State Religion/Ideology=[[Omnissiah]]
|Demographic=[[Humans]], various [[Servitors]], Assorted Transhuman
|Military Force=[[Skitarii]], [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Collegia Titanica]], [[Ordinatus|Centurio Ordinatus]], [[Legio Cybernetica]], [[Imperial Knight|Knight Houses]]
}}

''"War is the science of destruction."'' 
- John Abbott

''"Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences."'' 
- Freeman Dyson

''"Sometimes I wonder why you submitted to the changes."'' 
''"Improvements! I submit to no one. I chose them."'' 
- A-4D & General Grievous

''"[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy-sVTaZRPk Our Wrath Has Come Online]"'' 
- War Cant of Mars

Basically what happens when you combine the extreme technophilia and cyborg-fetishism of the [[Cyberpunk]] Genre with the religiosity and aesthetics of Medieval Gothic, the '''Adeptus Mechanicus'''; [https://youtu.be/7p3H5avBJs0 Formerly] known as the '''Mechanicum''' and often shortened as '''Admech''', is an organization in the [[Imperium of Man]] (In the loosest sense of the word) responsible for technology, engineering and most of the Imperium's Industrial production, as well as the operation of the [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]] Legions.

The Adeptus Mechanicus, whose individual members are known as [[Techpriest]]s, own thousands of heavily polluted planet-factories known as [[Forge World#Planet|forge worlds]], which are covered in massive manufactoria or, as they are known to speakers of Low Gothic, 'work'. The largest forge world of the Adeptus Mechanicus is [[Mars]], homeworld of the Adeptus Mechanicus, on which the most badass weapons ever known to man are made. Despite being part of the Imperium, the AdMech was actually its own nation and a respectable superpower in its own right throughout the Great Crusade and largely is to this day. The 'being-part-of-the-Imperium' shtick began as just a symbolic gesture of goodwill signed by the Treaty of Mars, but was codified when they became the "Adeptus Mechanicus" after their former leader fell to chaos. They still secured protection and quasi-independence though, courtesy of [[Awesome|marching an Imperator titan into the senate chamber and holding them at building-sized gunpoint]]. You could almost think of the Adeptus Mechanicus as relative to the Imperium of man the same way Scotland does to the United Kingdom. The Imperium of man may be sovereign over the Ad-mech, but the Adeptus Mechanicus is it's own political entity. Given that 40k is British this comparison may even be intentional. Because of this, the AdMech is arguably more powerful then the rest of the Imperium as they hold claim to all the various Forgeworlds, Mining worlds and Research Stations needed for the production of machines of war for the Imperium. Essentially speaking, the AdMech could possibly survive without the Imperium (although it would be difficult), while the Imperium can't afford to do the same.

They also have a [[monopoly]] on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvN5lCVkRk all the really cool shit for themselves]—like Titans, [[Ordinatus]], and other wonderful stuff—only letting the Imperials have it when really, really necessary (or if they're threatened personally). They have two armies of their own, which are not anything like the [[Imperial Guard]], as they are mostly composed of badass angry cyborgs and boxy technogrunge robots that are more violent than ED209, and giant, tank-crushing, [[Servitor|lobotomized minions]]. They are also technological rivals with the [[Tau]] and potentially have made a few advances beyond the [[Eldar]], though the Eldar are much more advanced in psionic technology.

Only the [[Necrons]], an entire race of robots who's race-wide robotization was not their most advanced feat, eclipse them when it comes to technology; the Adeptus Mechanicus are mostly against this, seeing it as perverse because it's alien (Though there are some who even like or revere the Necrons because of this, and a few who may be jealous of the Necrons). Their primary reason for hoarding all the good shit is to keep it out of the hands of [[Chaos]] in case an army rebels, though they're also territorial as fuck when it comes to technology. They typically look like a cross between [[Star Wars|Jawas]] and [[/co/|Doctor Octopus]], as well as wearing the sort of rebreather masks that you'll typically see on riot police.

[[File:Tzimeros.png|600px|left|thumb|Marvel Supervillain Thanos Tzimeros.]]
[[File:Mavel.jpg|800px|right|thumb|And the only superheroes who can beat him.]]

==The Commandments of the Mechanicus==
The Mechanicus have some ideas that they abide by:

'''The Mysteries:'''
#Life is directed motion.
#The spirit is the spark of life.
#Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.
#Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.
#Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.
#Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.
#Comprehension is the key to all things.
#The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

'''The Warnings:'''
#The alien mechanism is a perversion of the true path.
#The soul is the conscience of sentience.
#A soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah.
#The Soulless sentience is the enemy of all.
#The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question.
#The machine spirit guards the knowledge of the ancients.
#Flesh is fallible, but ritual honors the machine spirit.
#To break with ritual is to break with faith.

==What the Mechanicus does==
[[Image:Mechanical-man.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Awesome|"You may say, it is impossible for a man to become like the Machine. And I would reply, that only the smallest mind strives to comprehend its limits." - Fabricator General Kane.]]]]
The main role of the Adeptus Mechanicus is to maintain the advanced equipment of the Imperium; which despite stereotypes, they are actually very good at. Most of their rituals to appease machinery are pretty much the same methods we would use to repair our machinery with a whole bunch of religious iconography mixed in. The terms used by the Mechanicus are actually quite similar to our engineers if you swap some of the words (replace machine spirit with A.I, sacred oils with lubricant etc.) Because of its religious nature some of the components of the rituals are unnecessary but almost all Tech-Priests skip the unnecessary stuff in dire situations while some abandon the unnecessary parts altogether. It's also implied that the so-called holy chants are really them repeating instructions to themselves, which would be useful for remembering what you're doing. The cases where chanting is actually necessary is where they are working with something like a [[Land Raider]] or Titan - both of which have a temperamental machine spirit - that you don't want to piss off.

They spend a lot of time traveling across the galaxy looking for some old laptops called "[[Standard Template Construct]]s" that have all the info necessary for the first human colonist do their job well (mostly a mix of Ikea and "high-tech for dummies" manuals). This is the reason why you will end selling grox hamburgers if you study to be a scientist (unless you have balls or are a spess mehreen artificer who might make something really good) in the [[Imperium]]: everything was already done by the ancients in the Dark Age of [[Cyberpunk|William Gibson]] and recorded in these STCs. Thanks to glitches and borderline developers and programmers, all the STCs found by the Mechanicus are more fucked up than Windows Vista. While often the recovered STCs are useless or incomplete, there are instances where they are actually functional, for example the STC data of the Land Raider and the Land Speeder as well as Centurion armour are well known, another nice example is the one found in the novel Skitarius by [[Rob Sanders]], where the badass protagonist helps the Adeptus Mechanicus priests to find a sort of "Empyrean Bomb", capable to dissipate warp phenomena. More often than not STC data comes from print-outs from fragmented STCs, or copies of these print-outs. These printouts, when discovered, are studied, translated and argued over for centuries before any useful products are made from them. If they ever find an undamaged complete STC, this would likely cause a schism within the Mechanicus, which will tear the Imperium asunder. It's worth noting that different writers seem to have different ideas of what an STC is. Some depict them as a single blueprint for some high-tech equipment, some depict them as a database of those blueprints, and on at least one occasion an STC was portrayed as what can be described as a massive 3-D Printer. The Adeptus Mechanicus also attempt sometimes to loot [[Necron]] tombs and will gladly put an entire world at risk for this, and act like it's blasphemy of the most serious kind when people wall it off because of the goddamn killer robot skeletons! The idiots. The Priests of Mars also will not mind getting their hands on Xenos artifacts to see how such "blasphemies" can work, and maybe give a hint of how a [[Orky|"pure" design should have been.]]

[[Image:MECHANICUS.jpg|thumb|500px|left|The faculty of engineering never looked so cool!]]
Very rarely the Adeptus will actually invent something. While they do adapt designs occasionally the only things they actually invented from scratch is the [[Lascannon]], the Dunestrider perpetual motion machine (whose creator was promptly executed and all designs lost upon creation), as well all the [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titans]], except for the Reaver Class and the Apocalypse Class, which were invented during the Age of Strife and the Dark Age of Technology respectively. Which is pretty odd, until you realize that they invented them [[Horus Heresy|pre-heresy]]. Even things like [[Land Raider]]s and [[Land Speeder]]s, which were said to have been given critically important parts by the famous Mr. Land himself, were actually just made from really old bits Land found in the galaxy's third biggest library/archive/warehouse (the one on Terra). Well, they also invented the Infernus pattern Predator. Sure they built it on the [[Rhino Transport|Rhino]] chassis, but they created a pattern without killing everyone involved. Of course, they aren't ''actually'' "inventing" it. They are, supposedly, using divinely inspired reason to create something that has always existed, implicit in the logical structure of the universe. This is, interestingly, not a new idea, it can be traced back to philosophers like Plato, ultimately the Mechanicus will play to no end with the meaning of the word "invent" to get the job done, as too often and despite /tg/'s cartoonish flanderization your average techpriest will have enough common sense to "feel divinely inspired" whenever his/her neck is on the line, you know, desperation is the mother of all inven... Ahem, I mean, "divinely inspired reason".

Also important to mention is what they ''do not do.'' The Mechanicus by and large are the greediest gits in the galaxy. They hoard technology like it is going out of style, which would be fine, if they didn't hoard and defend it, but that isn't the point. The point ''is'' that they're basically [[Monopoly|a mega-corporation that will try to own, buy, sell and take by force any existing technology]]. Getting a part, gun, computer, vehicle, schematic, program, eyepatch, cookie recipe, or even a [[Miniatures|tiny plastic model]] that wasn't specifically mass-produced and shipped to the [[Departmento Munitorum]] so ''they'' can give it to you, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvN5lCVkRk is nearly impossible.] Anything with any kind of passing significance or interest to the Mechanicus is guarded by 7-foot cyborg death machines. Anything in the private possession of a Mechanicus operative that ''might be'' harder to make than a bolt or nut is treated like the holy grail. I dare you to try and [[rage|take a 8,000 year-old flash drive from a techpriest who just found it.]] It's worse than taking little plastic models from [[tg|fat men]] [[neckbeards|with beards]].

===Mechanicum Understanding of Science===
There's the common misconception that the AdMech don't really understand science and approach all tech with rituals. That's arguably wrong. In the "Mechanicum" novel they are shown to have actual theoretical knowledge of physics. Yes, that's 31st millennium, but it's quite clear that even in the 41st they know about "normal" science like mechanic, thermodynamic, biology, optics, quantum physics etc. AdMech has probably as much science as we have today and more. And they are quite happy to play with it. What they don't really understand and they don't like to play with (unless they are really forced to) is the hyper advanced tech from the dark age of technology.

Take the lasgun as an example. There are almost infinite patterns of lasguns. They are almost all developed after the great crusade because we know that the lasgun wasn't that common back there. So they understand materials and mechanics well enough to create different stocks and triggers. They understand optics as they can focus the las beam with different barrel lengths. And they do use this knowledge to create new patterns. What they won't modify is the power pack. Because the power pack is a scary super advanced piece of technology that not only will hold enough energy for a hundred las shots powerful enough to kill an armored man, but it will be easily rechargeable thousands of times. And they don't have a clue on how that works.

There's a quite good reason to that. The ultra advanced science used in the Dark Age of Technology was developed with the aid of AIs and super advanced computers. It's entirely possible that even the scientists of that time didn't fully understand their science and a lot of r&d was done automatically by artificial intelligence far superior to humans, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9OHn5ZF4Uo&t with programing so complex no human actually knew how the damn thing was thinking]. Now you can't do this anymore because you know that AIs will try to kill you. In the "Mechanicum" novel the Dragon Caretaker says that the Emperor engineered the creation of the Mechanicum. Why the atheist Emperor would create a machine cult if not because it was the only way to retain a technology that the humanity would have no possibility to comprehend anymore once that the AIs would be wiped out?

This is interesting because it's said that the Emperor defeated the Dragon during the late Roman Empire, for this purpose. This means that he foresaw the rebellion of the machines and the long night and allowed it as a mean to develop a technology that could then be salvaged after.

Then the Horus Heresy came and fucked up everything. And yes, the cult mentality of AdMech involved probably more than should have been. But the real reason that they don't go around innovating and creating new stuff, it's that id doesn't pay off. The real "power" of their technology comes from the Dark Age of Technology stuff and they are not able to touch that.

And this is not all. The lack of AIs and uber computational power might hinder you from understanding advanced science to a point, yes. But it will absolutely wreck your ability to produce practical applications of said advanced science. Let me make an example, ok? You are fifty years in the future and fusion energy is an everyday reality from fusion power plants. ITER worked after all. You are transported on to a desert island and you have all the scientific knowledge of humanity in your brain. You are asked to build a practical fusion based power source. You can use any tool and component but you don't have access to computers. Can you do it?

Nah. You can understand perfectly how the thing should work and how to design one. But without computers you don't have the ability of run the extremely complex calculations and simulations to optimize the reactor to the point that it produces more energy than it consumes. So they hand you a blueprint of a currently working reactor. Can you build it now? Sure. You have a blueprint and the theoretical knowledge to understand what you are doing, so you build the damn thing.

Then they ask you if you can build another but slightly different. Bigger? Smaller? More powerful? Less powerful? Doesn't matter. Can you do that?

Well... maybe? You have the blueprints of a working design and you have the theoretical understanding on how it works, so you can try to modify it. But you still don't have the computational power to validate your modifications so... you can try? Best case scenario, it works. Worst case scenario? You nuke the whole fucking island. On the average? It will kinda work but it will less efficient/polished/optimized than the original design.

So you don't really like to modify the original (standard) template (construct), unless you are '''really''' forced to. Does it remind you of something? Yep, that's the mechanicum mindset.

==History of the Adeptus Mechanicus==

The Mechanicus was established in the distant past, when a bunch of <s>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk machine worshiping technophiles]</s> normal people terraformed Mars during mankind's dominating of the Solar System and colonizing of the galaxy. Thus Mars became an extremely technologically advanced society of astronauts, scientists, engineers, manufacturers, and miners wherein they could pursue advances in technology and power the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. After a while, during the [[Age of Strife]], their precious atmosphere was punctured, and solar radiation <s>beat down on their filthy heads</s> burned the land, boiled the seas, and took the sky from them, nuking all life. Everybody either did one of three things: die, hide underground, or turn feral. After hundreds of years of living from half-working mechanical bunker to partially-pressurized archaic hab spire; people began to look upon technology as a saviour and way to return to the former heights of glory. Thus, did a new cult spread amongst the people of Mars, wherein they paid reverence to the Machine God. [[Just as planned]]. And then they joined the [[EMPRAH]] because they saw him as an aspect of the Machine God called the '[[Omnissiah]]'. As if the parallels aren't already tremendously clear at this point.

[[File:Techpriests_are_still_human_deep_inside.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Who said they are not human or lack the human factor? And thanks to Priests of Mars this is canon.]]
Except it's giant load of bullshit. The Tech-priesthood were FORCED to acknowledge the Big E as an incarnate of Machine God quite literally at gunpoint. This happened after they sent pretty much their entire fleet and army to Terra to prevent the Unification of meatbags, so they can continue to raid ancient Terran tombs and libraries once or twice a century. The Emperor's fleet fucked them so hard only one in ten returned to Mars to tell the tale. Needless to say, the Fabricator-General was very cooperative when the Emprah's armada arrived in Mars' orbit. At least they managed to get a special exemption from the "no religions" rule, possibly because the Emperor already knew about the Dragon of Mars (see below; then again it wouldn't be the first time a head of state was a hypocrite or practiced double standards). In exchange for giving the Imperium all the guns and tanks they needed, the Emperor promised the Fabricator-General full autonomy on all Forge Worlds, as well as access to Navigators and Astropaths for space travel, and all Archeotech found during the [[Great Crusade]]. Naturally, this managed to smooth things over between the two factions, resulting in the Treaty of Mars and the beginning of the Imperium; As a sign of their alliance, the Emperor changed his sigil from the lightning bolt, as used by the [[Thunder Warriors]], to the two-headed Aquila.

Hilariously, the "Machine God" may actually be the Void Dragon, one of the ancient [[C'tan]] Star Gods. The Void Dragon is actually one of the most powerful of the C'tan, and gains control over machines. All those techpriests are going to have serious problems when it wakes up... Oh yeah. It's on Mars because the EMPRAH roofied it and turned it into an angry cave on Mars. It's now guarded by the Mechanicus in their Noctys Labyrinth. This point of view is not certain, so the Machine God may be anything like the collective mass of all machines or the sum of all knowledge, neither would all Mechanicus accept a C'Tan as their lord (but that's the point, they don't know it's a C'tan if it is). But it's a more [[Grimdark|fun]] version, isn't it? They also created a [[Steel Confessors|Chapter]] of their own [[Space Marines]] once.

==The Machine Spirits==
''"If you run from technology, it will chase you."'' 
- Robert M. Pirsig
[[Image:Magos Dominus.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Your average Magos]]
The "[[Machine Spirit]]" is the Imperium's version of Artificial Intelligence, mainly because after the reunification of [[Earth|Terra]]; the Emperor forbade the use of AI in machinery (partly because of the ancient rebellion of the [[Men of Iron]], but mostly to prevent Chaos-corrupted AIs from skullfucking them, Skynet style).

For all the importance of Machine Spirits to the Mechanicus, it's not entirely clear what they actually are. One theory holds that there is actually a semi-sentient AI fragment in pretty much everything electronic, a leftover from the Age of Strife. These "ghosts in the machine" quite literally must be appeased, or else they'll fuck with the targeting systems in your Bolter at the worst possible moment, start doing doughnuts with your Land Raider, and generally act like [[dick]]s. All the ritual and apparent silliness of the Cult Mechanicus, then, is actually necessary to keep the machines operating.

The prevailing theory within the Mechanicus itself would seem to hold that a Machine Spirit is a fragment of the Machine God itself. Whether this is simply rhetoric (you need to keep your gun oiled, or it'll backfire, and the cogboys are just really picky about how you oil it) or the actual truth (the Machine God extends its awareness to literally every machine in the universe, which is disturbingly more possible than one might think), the fact remains that Machine Spirits are real enough to severely ruin your day (or your continent, in the case of an itinerant Land Raider), and the ritual and mysticism surrounding the Cult Mechanicum's everyday activities is far more important to them than even the Imperial Creed.

The Techpriests of Mars got around the restrictions against "Abominable Intelligence" in true WH40K [[grimdark]] fashion: cut out the "Artificial" part and make it organic, and vice versa. Nearly every piece of sophisticated machinery in the Imperium operates via a cogitator, analogous to a modern-day microchip, which is basically the cloned or recycled brain of a human converted to function like a horrific cyborg version of a CPU. This interpretation of the "Machine Spirit" is particularly disturbing, to be sure, but is a necessity because the Iron Men incident and Age of Strife in general made the Imperium fear the "Silica Animus". The only true difference between a semi-organic cogitator and a true AI is that their machine spirits have no ability to learn or improve on their own, and therefore must be manually programmed by their operators if they need to learn or do anything that is outside their current programming. Thus, it is now nearly (but not entirely) impossible for machines to rebel on their own, quelling the fears of the Imperium.

In any of these cases, it can be easily understood why machines are revered by the Mechanicus and why they are treated like sentient beings. Although, the AdMech is a bit fuzzy just ''how'' sentient machines are; are they somehow capable of thought like organics or no more sentient than your bread toaster at home?

== Forge Worlds ==



See [[Forge World#Planet]] for a comprehensive list of all Forge Worlds.

Forge Worlds are all based on Mars. Literally so -- the AdMech so revere the nuke blasted hellscape of Mars that they intentionally terraform other planets into it. Filled with a combination of research labs, libraries, churches, forges, warehouses and factories, the Forge Worlds provide the Imperium with the vast majority of their equipment.

Each Forge World has their own color scheme, themes, and specialties, similar to Space Marine chapters or Imperial Guard regiments.

=== 8th Edition's Forge Worlds of choice are: ===

* '''Mars''': The original. Likely has a C'tan (The [[Void Dragon]]) buried inside it. Mars is a radioactive desert wasteland where factories and other forge world bits are built on top of kilometer deep ruins of previous bits, all infested with insane robots, sentient demonic warp viruses, and other things that go bump in the night. Immediately after the Dark Age of Technology they went full ''Kin-Dza-Dza'' and devolved into atmosphere-less techno-barbarianism until the Emperor showed up after he conquered Earth.
* '''Lucius''': Teleportation and Armor specialists, as well as known for a strange "solar blessed" metal called Luciun. Lucius is hollow, with an artificial star inside. Was attacked by Hive Fleet Leviathan, they survived by hiding inside their planet and sending out hordes of Servitors, letting them get eaten, then using Servo-skulls to pull the techy bits back underground and put them on new cloned bodies before the biomass could be absorbed, effectively starving the Leviathan forces to death. Had a civil war called the Inculcata Schism that almost caused the planet to ''implode'' (teleportation specialists is a nice way of saying "experiments with warp tech"), so they wear red as a way to kiss up to Mars. This is a common theme among forge worlds.
* '''Agripinaa''': Right outside of and now the front line to the Eye of Terror, after Cadia fell all the refugees fled to Stygies VIII and Agripinaa... who promptly conscripted them into their Skitarii and Servitor forces -- by force. They effectively blackmailed millions of desperate refugees, trapped on their planet and in orbit, and turned them into various flavors of mindless or brainwashed combat cyborgs. Also known for sending incursions around and occasionally ''into'' the Eye of Terror.
* '''Stygies VIII''': Had '''two''' Titan legions based on it during the Horus Hersey, '''both''' of which turned traitor. They were saved at the last minute by the [[Eldar]], leading to them having a soft spot for Xenos. Home to the Xenarite faction, a faction that believes in studying Xenos technology. The official reason for this blatant tech-heresy is to better understand why Humanity's technology is superior. Stygies is also home to the "Runic Priests," (No, [[Space Wolves|not those]]), a faction of AdMech that specialize in intuition, speculation, and improvisation. Ultimately they were considered "too big to fail," so the High Lords of Terra declared they were to be left alone, despite flirting with Xenos crap and Heretekal science. Eventually the Inquisition found out and decided to purge the planet anyway, in the '''Xenarite Schism'''. Stygies VIII responded by unleashing a computer virus that constantly purges the Administratum and the Ordo Xenos' computer systems of any evidence or discussion of how Stygies VIII is technically a Heretek world, while the Xenarites went mostly underground. [[Deathwatch]] Kill Teams still frequently attack them, alongside various Xenos forces who want their tech back. Stygians are stealth specialists, which they will deny whenever asked; they're also known for pretending to be from Mars when needed due to their color scheme. Oh, and they're currently invading the Eldar Webway in an attempt at raiding the [[Black Library]].
* '''Graia''': Even more aspie than normal AdMechs, Graia are nearly immune to psykers due to being too logical to manipulate. Notable for their space station that covers a huge portion of their planet, which is actually a space ''ship'' which Graia move around, and even take through the warp! Both Chaos and the Necrons target them for it. The whole Forge World lives on this <s>yellow submarine</s> space thing due to opening some sort of portal to ''somewhere'' on the planet's surface long ago. Known for refusing to retreat even when losses are guaranteed because to do so would mean their logical predictions were wrong. Red on their uniform is ostensibly because they are loyal to Mars, but actually because they like blood.
* '''Metalica''': Metalica is a completely sterile world, no atmosphere, no life, no anything but ''metal''. This may or may not be due to an [[retcon|ancient copyright scouring]] by a musical group bearing a similar name. Their Titan Legion was nearly destroyed during the Third War for Armageddon; their Princeps' decided that the best way to screw over the Orks was to fight the [[gargant]]s by over-extending like suicidal maniacs, and then ''become'' suicidal maniacs by self-destructing in the heart of the Ork forces. Totally ''not'' the noise AdMech -- their guns are intentionally loud to ''proclaim the glory of the Omnissiah.'' Metalica is also known for being the first Imperium force to go on a Tyranid safari. That's right, they're '''[[Awesome|actively hunting Hive Fleet Leviathan.]]''' They are, in fact, ''so metal.''
* '''Ryza''': Energy shield and plasma specialists, who have nothing to do with the [[Tau]] because they managed to remain relatively unmolested until the Mechanicus found them again during the Great Crusade. They have been invaded by [[Orks]] repeatedly, to the point that most of their Forge World's output goes directly to it's own self defense. The more red on a Ryzan's robe, the more important they are. Led an aborted invasion of the Maelstrom in an attempt to go after the DarkMech world of Sarum. Ryza has a sect of Ruststalkers that have gone rogue, but still worship the Omnissiah so whatevs, it's all good. Known for being very ''enthusiastic'' towards melee combat, may or may not be due to Ork influence.

=== 8th Edition was nice enough to flesh out several back-canon Forge Worlds as well: ===

* '''Triplex Phall''': Isolated, on the far east side of the galaxy, Triplex Phall has recovered a ton of STC and Archeotech but refused to give it to Mars. Basically AdMech Protestants. Mars now has a Skitarii Legion following them around with express instructions to warn Mars if Triplex Phall forces find any more secret tech. Invaded by Hive Fleet Kraken, attacked by Typhus, and invaded by Demons.
* '''Deimos''': The moon of Mars, gifted to the Grey Knights of Titan at the end of the Horus Heresy. They make Grey Knight wargear and use Servitors to transfer the material between the Grey Knights and Deimos, mindscrubbing them at each end, allowing both organizations to keep their secrets. Deimos has ''three'' different Knight houses, because apparently the Grey Knights aren't enough knights for Deimos.
* '''Voss Prime''': The most Mars-fanboyish of the Mars Fanboys, has a focus on Legio Cybernetica robots. Closest Forge World to Armageddon. Voss has a huge asteroid field that repelled an Ork [[Waaagh]] merely on accident. Known for good tanks, but crappy plasma weapons. Not to be confused with Voss, which is another Forge World not too far away from Voss Prime.
* '''Gryphonne IV''': The lost Forge world. They are responsible for a lot of Imperial Guard support-tank patterns, thanks to the real-life [[Forge_World#Company|Forge World]]. The Tyranids ate their planet after they refused to listen to Inquisitor Kryptman, so they have become the first nomadic Forge "World": a space fleet actively seeking out a planet they can terraform into a new Mars. Whether or not Gryphonnians want to terraform said world into (degenerate-biome barren world) present-day Mars, or a (lush and properly-terraformed) Dark Age of Technology Mars is anyone's guess. Gryphonne IV is ''definitely not'' [[Craftworld|copying anything]].

The "big" Forge World remains Mars, with [[Cawl]] being the only unique character in the AdMech force. (Hieronomus Tezla says hello.) Lucius and (Metalica or Ryza depending on the current Edition) round out as the "main three" Forge Worlds, fluff wise.

However, each world has their own rules and details in the fluff, although the new ones remain somewhat intentionally vague for [[your dudes]] purposes -- Triplex Phall lends itself to odd conversions because "It's Archeotech!"; Deimos lends itself to borrowing some Grey Knights aesthetic and allies; Gryphonne IV being nomadic lends itself to battle damage and the like. Even the "old" forge worlds get some additional flavor in the new fluff -- Stygies VIII lends itself well to sneaky types or Xenos conversions and allies; Agripinaa force-conscripting refugees encourages Servitors / Skitarii converted from Imperial Guard (or even Ecclesiarchy and Necromunda). Metalica going on a ''fucking safari'' for Hive Fleet Leviathan splinter fleets just screams "Nid Hunter" Skitarii.

==The Religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus==
(Forgive OP's bellicose statement, but the fluff and novels pertaining to the AdMech are rather obscure to whether or not they truly understand what they talk about.)

Begin Rant/file exc.//>>

''Children, I'm fucking fed up with your shit. Cult Mechanicus IS NOT a replacement of rational thought with religion for the sake of operating machines.It's a (in-universe) developed philosophy of collective rationalism. AdMechs don't throw their critical thinking out of the window. They just already took this thinking, put it on a pedestal, brought it to its apex (Dark Age), suffered for it, suffered for it again (Horus Heresy, Schism of Mars), then looked at it and asked : "What do we do now?" Every Mechanicum is a rationalist, in a meaning that when he goes through all the critical thinking to the basic reason of his existence, he takes on the dogma of Quest for Knowledge. That he exists to Rationalize the Universe, move towards learning and understanding the Universe and its laws. It's also a collective quest - adept doesn't seek knowledge just for himself, he sees all the Adeptus Mechanicus as one single huge Gnostical Engine, a Machine of Comprehension designed to learn. He's just a single little gear in the heart of enormous Over-Intellect gathering and producing knowledge.

''For what sake? AdMechs thought a lot about this question, and took one answer.

''For the sake of Mankind.

''Now THIS is where shit gets religious.

''As of it now, humanity utilizes science for egoistical purposes of survival (scientists need something to eat) and/or domination, which can be understood by every human through his instincts. Society of Mars, however, got devoid of this motivators, as they dropped their human instincts, so they had to find new goals. This is where the Schism takes roots, as well as the "Cult" part. Every rational human can tell you that objectively life has no meaning. Accepting that fact is what brought the galaxy Necrons and Iron Men. AdMechs knew that this is what they wish to avoid. And the most effective way to avoid that is to walk the irrational way and put a sense for your existence through Faith.

''This is what they did.

''They are the fanatics in the sense that they BELIEVE that Universe CAN be comprehended, while they have 0 proof of that. They BELIEVE that critical thinking works, while living in a Galaxy that laughs at any attempts of rationalization. They BELIEVE that Quest for Knowledge can be completed. And it this faith, they are being paradoxical and irrational. And they know it. Lets have a look at Universal Laws, that Mechanicum use as the foundation of their philosophy.

''The Mysteries

''01. Life is directed motion.

''This gives a definition to "life", as existence of individual. A definition that basically says "Only that thing which irrationally takes a (faith) direction for its way can be called a Living Thing".

''02. The spirit is the spark of life.

''Here they recognize the illogical existence of Souls and Warp, and their defining roles in being representation of one's beliefs.

''03. Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.

''04. Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.

''05. Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.

''Here they define ability for rational thinking.

''06. Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.

''07. Comprehension is the key to all things.

''And HERE they put this thinking as their Way to exist.

''08. The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

''And establish an ideal, to which they are heading. --Anon

End Rant/file//>>

Another Magos adds:
There's definitely variation in the creed between forgeworlds and different cults-- even post Heresy, Mars is not unified-- but a lot of them operate on this sort of platonic/hermeticist logic. Regardless of whether they believe all knowledge already exists or that the disciplined mind can create new things, the religion is trying for union with some perfect being. Whether that's taken to mean "become a robot because the flesh is weak", "find salvation in logic", or even "cultivate the Omnissiah within you" (which would lead to radical differences in practice, from penitent cyberization cults to contemplative engineering orders, which we see in the many faces of the Mechanicum, [[Koriel Zeth]], Forgeworld Mezoa, the [[Myrmidon]] Orders, etc), it all leads back to a cautious quest to be the best you can be with logic as your guide.

===The Void Dragon===
A lot of their tech stuffs come from the Void Dragon that the Emperor bested and imprisoned on Mars ages ago as so humanity could gain mastery over machines. While it might have worked pretty well back when the Imperium wasn't the festering portaloo of a grimdark shitpit that it is today, it's pretty much a matter of time now. The Necrons already attempted to raid Mars - and succeeded, well, sort of. They got vaporized before they could really even do anything, but the fact that they managed to even land proved a point the High Lords of Terra had been turning a blind eye towards for ages.

If the T-800s get what they want and party on Mars long enough to wake the Void Dragon up, you can bet it's going to be a pretty goddamned bad day for just about any human not [[Feral World|wearing loincloths and still bashing rocks together]]. The few Mechanicus agents who have figured this out have either gone rogue, blammed or gone totally bonkers, ripping all the implants from their flesh. And when you're a member of the Mechanicus, that's about 80% of your body.

Of course, the even worse possibility is that the void dragon enjoys this situation, as every time the tech-priests remove their flesh and place more machine into it, they could be feeding him a fraction of their soul. As there are quite a few tech-priests out there, and humanity being the rabbits they are, this would give him a lifetime of souls to be eating, and a personal army that is very much willing. Ironically, given this, it could mean the Void Dragon might side with humanity as an endlessly increasing supply of soul-stuff. The Mechanicus gets its implants and technology and does not lose enough of their souls to not pass on when they die, the Void Dragon gets a bit of soul from each of them and their numbers endlessly increase with humanity's ever growing population. Everyone wins and, as we all know, Dragons are rather protective of their hoards....

By the way, the "Void" Dragon is actually only called "The Dragon" in the official fluff, probably as a reference to Metropolis. <s>But for God knows what unreasonable reason, /tg/ insists on calling him the "Void Dragon", thus confusing him with an Eldar aircraft, or with an Eldar pirate warband. Unless it's an obscure vidya reference. Whatever, maybe it just sounds cooler.</s> The [[Eldar]] refer to it as the "Void Dragon", and the aircraft and pirate warband take their names from it.

'''UPDATE:''' The new Codex: Necrons written by our [[Matt Ward|Spiritual Liege]] reveals the necrons are no longer enslaved by the C'tan, instead they are their sworn enemies for tricking them into giving up flesh, thus they were probably going to Mars to capture the Imperial held C'tan shard of the Void Dragon as they won't see humans reliable, or perhaps they were under control of another shard, and wanted to liberate it, oh whatever, for what we know it may have been [[Trazyn the Infinite|Trollzyn]] trying to loot Mars. Or, maybe they simply realize that having a C'tan that can control technology on a planet-sized machine-scape is a ''bad'' idea. It is unlikely that the Void Dragon would have been shattered, though. Because it is hard to do that to something with technology when that something has complete control over all technology. Yeah. Which, in hind-sight, might be part of the reason why the Necrons went into hibernation. Because when you are a living machine and you just pissed off something that controls machines... it is a good time to ''run away'' really fast.

The only thing that changes as a result of that is once the Void Dragon (shard or whole, who knows?) wakes up, it will be the only C'tan with ready access to an army, and a pretty damn huge one at that- so it's not only going to be a real bad day for the Imperium, but the Necrons as well.

'''UPDATE 2:''' And now it seems the World Engine of [[Astral Knights]] fame was supposed to be en route to Mars in order to allow his usurper Phaeron to get himself a new Void Dragon Pokémon, good thing he got sabotaged.

==Why Everything is so Grimdark==
''"The Mechanicus does NOT have the technology. They haven't been living on some fancy paradise planet since pre-Fall. Mars is an anarchic nightmare shithole the moment you leave the safe zones into the kilometers of labyrinthine corridors beneath it full of rogue machinery, self-aware and malevolent AI from before the Fall, and the daemon programs of the Heresy. EVERYTHING in the databases is fucked. The databases are fragmented over the entire surface to the extent that it would be impossible to see one tenth of the total files in the ludicrously extended life of a Magos even assuming that they are completely safe to visit. And they are not.

''The files have been corrupted into madness by the Fall, and the unleashing of the most potent informational warfare systems ever to exist to defeat the Iron Men. Nearly all of Mars was rendered uninhabitable, what they live in now is built on the top of the ruins. They send archeotech expeditions in to find shit, nearly all of them never come back. The sheer number of rogue war machine running around in there is sufficient to rape the mind. Then came the Heresy, which was not earth-exclusive. Mars as the second most critical planet in the Imperium was the site of fighting nearly as ferocious as on Terra, with Mechanicus loyalists and Hereteks fighting tooth, nail, and mechadendrite everywhere. Ancient machines were unleashed, viruses both normal and daemonic unleashed into all the computer systems. Towards the close of the Heresy, Rogal Dorn sent some Space Marine operatives to wipe the planet clean of all life. Nearly every single stored record on Mars was rendered unusable, and those that survived are half the time self-aware and don't like you, or daemonic and actively try to kill you.

''If you come back with a schematic, it is almost certainly gibberish, and if it isn't, it's probably corrupted into uselessness. If it does come back whole it was probably malevolently fucked with so that instead of a Lasgun power cell it's a fucking grenade set to detonate the second you finish building it. Why do you think they want off-world STCs so damned much if they had them all here? The fucking Heresy is why. Off-world they only have to contend with the Fall's war and its effects on the machinery plus twenty thousand years of degradation with no maintenance. But at least off-world it'll probably just not work instead of actively seeking to kill you.

''Why do you think they seek to placate the Machine Spirit? It's because it exists. The fragments of trillions of self-aware programs, flourishing during the Dark Age of Technology and shattered by Man in his war with the Iron men, imprisoning the few who had not set themselves irrevocably into the machinery, a prison smashed wide open by the Heresy. Everything that can hold programming in the Imperium has a shard of a program in it. EVERYTHING. And you'd better fucking please it or it will do everything in its power to make your day shit. Sure, if it's a Lasgun it'll just not work or start shooting off rounds by itself, but if you piss off a Land Raider you can say bye-bye to half a continent. They apply these principles to things without spirits by habit, since they're so used to dealing with tanks that if not talked to just right might go rogue and annihilate the Manufactorum before they can be killed.

''This is why they do not like ANYONE fucking with technology, because it is so rare to find anything that just works it is critical it not be compromised. That, and they do not have the actual knowledge to fuck with it intelligently, just through experimentation, which inevitably leads to slaughter. Pressing buttons to see what works is fine in a 21st century computer, but it is a very stupid thing to do at the helm of a 410th century starship with the destructive power to end solar systems. The entire knowledge base of humanity was lost. Not forgotten, but outright lost. Everything at all, poof. Nobody knows anything because the Fall fucked everything up and the Heresy double-fucked it. To rebuild the theoretical framework needed to design new technologies that don't kill everyone near them would require starting from the ground up. They don't have the time, they never have, and they never will.

''This gets on to the point of war and what it does to technology. Someone will parrot that it makes it go much faster. Yes, it makes practical applications of technology go much faster. It also utterly stops all research on the scientific theories behind those technologies. This means that when war chugs along for a decade or two things get done. It means when it goes on too long you run out of theories to turn into technologies, and then you run out of technologies to apply. You stagnate. When you have been fighting in a war for survival in a drastically overextended empire, this is what happens. You are desperate for any extra materiel that can possibly be produced. Half your entire fucking military might went rogue, smashed the half that stayed and a whole swathe of the logistical side of your society, leaving you with the tattered shreds of a war machine to keep hold of an empire that was reaching straining point with an army far larger. There is no time for the sort of applied research programs that took Man twenty five thousand years to develop, in a time of unprecedented growth and prosperity.

''This is also why the Adeptus Mechanicus insists on cargo cultism. It's because when you are dealing with things you barely understand because everything you knew about them was destroyed it is the safest and most reliable option. The rituals do not exists for mysticism, they exist because they are the most practical means of building, repairing and maintaining the equipment they have with the knowledge surviving. You don't understand why pressing that button makes it go, because the manual tried to take over your brain and the copies are all unreadable and the research base that would let you reverse-engineer it does not exist and cannot be built.

''Why are the Tau doing so well with their technology? Because they had peace. Eight thousand years unmolested by any enemy and they were helped the entire time by the most advanced biological race in the galaxy. Give the Imperium eight thousand years of peace and I can guarantee you it will be harder than it was during the Great Crusade.

''Since some still don't get the idea, try this:

''Build a library, fill it with all human knowledge. You take it elsewhere when you need a book from it, but the book is only a simplified copy. You don't understand the real book, and you don't need to. Nobody takes the real books anywhere because why would you, when there's a whole library there?

''Now that library goes rogue and the maintenance machinery starts killing everyone any-fucking-where near it. Where the fuck did they all come from, you swear to god there weren't this many, and there weren't because they're using the library's information to fight their war. The government fights a battle that destroys the planet against these robots and tears apart the library to stop them using it, only to be destroyed in the process. The library is leveled, cast into flames, every book burned and every computer virus-laden.

''Then comes a man who worked there. He talks to the few surviving library workers, assembles their information, and starts rebuilding a city around the library and expanding it as the librarians find little scraps of paper and fragmented bits of files that stuck together just right read something. They rebuild a library from scrap on the ashes of the old. It isn't a shadow on the glory of the old, but it is all they have.

''Then the city turns on itself, kills its master, and the librarians turn to rage. Half of them kill the other half and destroy the remnants of the library because where they're going they won't need science. Everything burns, and the city is left to a scattered few survivors, walls open to the world, with the hungry predators circling.

''The Adeptus Mechanicus is the sole surviving librarian, desperately scrabbling through the ashes of paper and splinters of hard drives for anything to help him and the city he needs to survive just a second longer.

''The Imperium isn't grim because things suck by choice and could be fine if a sensible person came along. That sensible person wouldn't survive fifty seconds of the reality. The Imperium is grim because every single shit decision, every single sacrifice, every single death, every single man woman and child suffering a shit life in the worst conditions imaginable, is the absolute best that can be done. It is a study of the worst happening to everyone and what part of your humanity must be sacrificed today just to stand a chance of survival, and all it asks is whether or not it would have perhaps been better to die."'' --Baron von Evilsatan

== On the Tabletop ==
''See also [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Adeptus_Mechanicus(8E)|AdMech 8E Tactics]]''

8th Edition has landed, and the AdMech are resurgent. Having Cult Mechanicus and Skitarii merged together into one list was good enough, but they also merged Imperial Knights as "Questor Mechanicus" -- AdMech aligned Imperial Knight houses. Imperial Armor: Fires of Cyraxus is coming out "real soon now" which will have AdMech vs Tau and promises a bunch of new stuff, as well.

The biggest change, outside of the Knights now being part of AdMech (which means they can be repaired~!) is the promotion of the Enginseer from Elite to HQ, allowing for a cheap HQ option if a tax is needed.

The Mechanicus received an entire army's worth of new plastic models and rulebook! Praise the Omnissiah!

At the moment, the Admech is divided into a number of different mini-factions. Currently, the [[Skitarii]] and the Cult Mechanicus army have been fully released. There is also the "Titan Guard" Secutarii on the way, but they're a Forge World army. The [[Legio Cybernetica]] is also part of the Adeptus Mechanicus, though aside from the Kastelan, they're [[Horus Heresy]] only. There's also the Taghmata, which are like feudal troops, but they're not as much of a thing in the lore of 40K (though they have a HH dex, see below).

The current releases include Skitarii, who are like if the Guard were badass technogrunge medievalpunk super-soldiers with access to all the good shit, spider-tanks, scout walkers that are basically the Sentinel if it was good, Servitors on tank treads that will wreck your shit, giant crazy-tough robots that will wreck your shit harder, and a plastic Magos HQ unit! Truly, venerate the Omnissiah, and He will provide. The Cult Mechanicus, meanwhile, consists mainly of half-naked tech-priests with a fetish for electricity and some battle servitors, including the aformentioned Kastelan. Tech-Priest Magos are also the only figures in modern 40k that carry [[Volkite]] weapons. The upcoming Titan Guard are divided into Peltasts and Hoplites, which are fitting descriptions as the former look to be ranged skirmishers, while the latter are heavily armored spearmen (the spears happen to shoot electricity).

== Notable Members ==
[[Archmagos]] [[Belisarius Cawl]]: Creator of the Primarines, their wargear, and Big G's current armor.

==Gallery==
{{Promotions}}
<gallery>
image:Adeptus_Mechanicus.jpg
Image:TechpriestChiyo.jpg|D'awwww.
Image:Mechanicuuuuus.jpg
Image:AdMech_Couple.jpg|D'awwww. By the way this is canon.
Image:CircleA_AdMech.jpg|PRAISE THE OMNISSIAH!
Image:rave_heretek_by_psykerscum.jpg|Someone got Chaos on my Mechanicus, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbAUwi4D3Ew now with theme music!]
image:1318818198286.gif.jpg|We're not sure if that's tech-heresy or an actual activation ritual. Ask your local Magos for clarification.
Image:Leokadia chernabog by mr culexus-d3hxqx2.jpg|showin' a little augmented leg
Image:AdMech Scientific Method.jpg|Science in the 41st Millennium.
Image:Madonna mechanicae by sexual yeti-daubney.jpg|TECHPRIESTESS TITTIES
</gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Adeptus_Mechanicus(8E)|Mechanicus Tactics.]] - [[Awesome|Yes, they have rules now.]]
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Mechanicum_(30k)|Heresy Era Mechanicum Tactics.]] - 6th/early 7th edition rules. Very different from either of the 40k versions.
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Mechanicum:_Taghmata_(30k)|Mechanicum: Taghmata (30k)]] - Current 7th edition rules. Still very different to the 40k versions.

==Links==
*The Adeptus Mechanicus are [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17PM-UMVud8 avid music lovers.]
*This is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ecvLRxb3MU their theme] done by [[HMKids]].
*And one for [https://youtu.be/Jb8J1zx2Lrg the Machine Cult].

{{Mechanicus}}
{{Imperium}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}
{{Template:40k-Governments}}

Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Lizardmen

2018-02-15T20:14:33Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Lizardmen

2018-02-15T20:13:59Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

==Why Play Lizardmen==
Let's face it, because you like Dinosaurs and you like great looking models.
Lizardmen Core is extremely good. Saurus being tough and hard-hitting, Skinks filling many roles, acting as charge redirectors, harassing, shooting, scouting. Their elite infantry, Temple Guard, are complete murder in large packs and will roll over any infantry except the strongest units of Chaos Warriors. They have diverse and extremely powerful monsters, one of the best spellcasters in the entire game and Saurus characters are perfectly designed to destroy enemy Lords and Heroes in a quick, confusing and bloody fight, all the while riding a T-Rex or a raptor.

Lizardmen used to dominate by sheer magic power, as Slann were incredibly overpowered, stealing the light from the mainstay of a good Lizardmen army: infantry that simply refuses to run away and deals terrible damage.

Most Lizardmen units benefit from one or more of the following awesome special rules:
*Cold-Blooded: All Lizardmen units can roll three dice and choose the two lowest for Leadership tests.
*Scaly Skin: This is an Armour Save of some description, which combines with other armour. Most models have the 5+ version, but a few have 4+. Skinks now do gain a 6+ Scaly Skin which is a nice buff considering they went down in Leadership.
*Predatory Fighters: Most Saurus and Kroxigors gain this new rule which allows them to gain more attacks by rolling 6's to hit. The downside is that these extra 6'es don't generate further attacks and the unit must Pursue unless there is a Skink Character within 6". Luckily they don't have to Overrun so there are very few downsides to this special rule. Thanks blessed Vetock. Be warned that this rule affects Temple Guard, which might drag a Slann Mage-Priest with them into a trap!
*Aquatic: Skinks have Marsh and River Strider, gain the ability to become Steadfast in that terrain, and gain a -1 to hit against shooting. A great way to use the terrain to your advantage for flanking and general disruption while not getting bogged down (I see what you did there) in terrain.

Last but not least, Lizardmen are one of the greatest sights in the game because they usually consist of very colourful units, the minis are great with almost no exception, and the mix of reptilian Aztecs with giant blood-hungry dinosaurs is the tightest shit ever.

[[File:Theodorakis.jpg|800px|left|thumb|Mikis Theodorakis, a Slann Lizardman disguised as a human exploiting the regressive obsession of the Greeks with the past glory of ancient Macedonia to restore the old dominance of his race.]]
[[File:Lizardmen race.jpg|800px|right|thumb|And here is an empire determined to overshadow Alexander the Great that the fans of Mikis Theodorakis are so proud of as it emerges in an age when people are too arrogant to understand its threat.]]

==Unit Analysis==
===Lords & Heroes===
====Named Characters====
'''Note:''' Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced. You can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

*'''[[Lord Kroak]]:''' Story wise, he used to be [[God-Emperor of Mankind|the World's greatest magician, but then after a few thousand years or so he became a super-powerful corpse attached to a Magic Throne]]. He has a raft of special rules, including Unbreakable, Causes Fear, a 3+ Ward Save, -1 To Hit for any normal attacks directed at him, and the very powerful spell ''Deliverance of Itza''. However, he's '''400 points''', ''only'' knows that one spell, and is Flammable. Although fluffy and occasionally fun, you're almost always better off with an ordinary Slann (although he can make an awesome [[Counts As]] Mage Priest). Incidentally with The End Times Kroak can now take the Lore of Undeath, since it says that ALL wizards can generate spells from it (and with him being dead himself you can certainly argue he's more in tune with Death Magic than most Necromancers), so now he has a proper lore again! Though this is probably going to be FAQ'd out pretty soon.

*'''Lord Mazdamundi:''' Currently the most powerful Mage Priest, Mazdamundi rides a Stegadon. Like Lord Kroak, he has a massive raft of rules: four Slann disciplines, Stubborn, a 4+ Ward Save, Loremaster in any lore he wants, Always Strikes First with Strength 5 Poisoned attacks, destroys other magic items, owns a Battle Standard, and a mount that has a 2+ Scaly Skin save and grants Mazdamundi a 2+ armor save. If the Stegadon is killed, he can still use his Palanquin to move around. Yes, Mazdamundi ''sounds'' pretty awesome, but he costs a whopping '''780 points''', meaning he's impractical in all but the biggest battles. He also lost some of his godly 7th ed rules such an unlimited amount of dice when casting, a super-powerful spell, and the ability to re-roll Miscasts. Also his supposedly awesome weapon hits at WS2. To make matters worse, Zlaqq, his Stegadon, described as the biggest in Hexoatl (the most militarized City, with entire herds of them) has the profile of a normal Ancient Stegadon. It doesn't even get Sharpened Horns (Impact Hits causing D3 wounds) or Devastating Charge. Overall grossly overpriced for what he does, and this is sad since he is supposed to be one of, if not the, strongest wizard alive.

*'''Kroq-Gar:''' The pinnacle of Saurus carnage, mounted on the pinnacle of giant predators, all this represented by a wonderful model. Fluff-wise, Kroq-Gar is the absolute perfection of the Saurus race. One of the greatest warriors currently alive and simply the one you can trust to protect Lustria against invaders. Among his accomplishments are: fighting an unending horde of Daemons for 1000 years, being 8000 years old and still one of the best warriors of his entire species, being the sole survivor of a destroyed city, being entrusted to lead the crusade against Chaos by Lord Mazdamundi himself, and much more. He rides Grymloq, a massive Carnosaur, and together they pack a 5+ Ward Save. If Kroq-Gar or his mount is killed, the surviving one gets Frenzy. His spear gives him +1S on the Charge and deals two Wounds for the price of one (and he has 5 Attacks). For unknown reasons, despite millennia of fighting and winning against every kind of foe and being the strongest Saurus alive, he is still WS6. His Hand of the Gods is a Bound Spell casting 'Light of Shem' from the Lore of Light. Grymloq is also the only named mount to retain an improved stat line over 'basic' mounts in the Lizardmen book. However, the same problem as Lord Mazdamundi apply: at 520 pts, he is restricted to large battles, and Grymloq cannot have any of the upgrades normal Carnosaurs have. He doesn't even have the Blood Frenzy rule (unending Frenzy after causing the loss of 1 hp) which is standard on the basic version.

*'''Chakax:''' Once upon a time, Chakax choked a Daemon Prince with his bare hands, fought hundreds of wild jungle creatures for 2 days straight, guarded his unconscious Mage-Priest for weeks in the middle of the jungle, etc. When both he and a Slann are in a unit of Temple Guards, the whole unit becomes Unbreakable (until one of the two is killed). At the beginning of the Close Combat Phase, his mace forces the enemy to reveal all their Magic Items, and if he hits with it, he destroys a random one on a 5+ (only one roll per turn, alas). When fighting in a Challenge his Key grants him a 5+ Ward Save and afflicts his opponent with the Always Strikes Last rule, but since he shares it too (his weapon being basically a magical Great Weapon) and is only I3 he is not very likely to hit first, while his Mask prevents enemy Scouts from being placed within 20" of Chakax, and forces the enemy to revealed all hidden units when they are within 20" of Chakax (Skaven assassins, Night Goblin fanatics, etc.). Best used for defense, but unfortunately not very useful otherwise. Overall the worst named character in this book.

*'''Gor-Rok:''' Gor is his name, Gore is his game, and oh Old Ones, he Rocks at it. If you're making a model of him and at least one half of him isn't drenched in blood, you are doing it wrong. He is Stubborn, rerolls failed To Hit rolls (generating Predatory Fighter attacks on a 5+) and can ignore Killing Blow, Heroic Killing Blow and Multiple Wounds on a 2+, losing only 1 Wound if successful. Units charging him have to take Dangerous Terrain tests with a -1 modifier. At a new and improved cost of 185 points, he is interesting even in small games where he can hold your main line, while he can make a pack of Saurus really fearsome in larger battles. This is a character you want to put in a larger unit and wait for the enemy to charge. Very resistant, with T6 and an Armour Save of 2+, he is the perfect guy to take and hand out Challenges. However, he only has 2 Wounds, making him too frail to fight strong characters by himself. A lesser Gor-Rok can be emulated by spending 40 points on Sacred Helm of Itza on a Scar-Vet or Oldblood.

*'''[[Tehenhauin]]:''' The cheapest Lord the Lizardmen have (at 230pts), he is a Level 3 Wizard who uses the Lore of Beasts, is Immune to Poison, Unbreakable, has Poisoned Attacks, gains +1S on the turn he charges, has a 5+ ward save, and he makes all Skinks (and only skinks, not Mounts, Kroxigors in Skink units, etc.) hate Skaven. He rides a Tide of Serpents but can ride an Ancient Stegadon with an Engine of the Gods (for a bonus 280pts) like any normal Skink Priest. Though of little interest in most scenarios, he is a must-have in an all-Skink army or when fighting a Skaven army.

*'''Tetto'Eko:''' The only Skink Priest to ride a Palanquin, he is a Level 2 Lore of Heavens Loremaster. He can be accompanied by Skinks like Slann with their Temple Guard and can predict the future. In short, a buffed-up Skink Priest but without the upgrades or mount. When he is present, he lets you roll a D6 at the start of your turn: on a roll of a 1 you have to reroll all your 6's when casting, 2+ lets you reroll all 1's when casting. Not only do your casters get to reroll their 1's, this also affect the magic machines carried by Stegadons and Bastilladons, which improves them ten-fold. After deployment but before determining who gets the first turn, you may Vanguard D3 of your units because of his ability to predict the future. This may allow you to get your Stegadons and Carnosaurs into your opponent's face right off the bat, possibly avoiding a round of artillery fire. If Tetto'Eko successfully casts the spell ''Comet of Cassandora'', you may re-roll the dice at the start of each player Magic Phase to see if the comet arrives. His Palanquin gives him a 5+ Ward Save. In short: he is the missing link between the Skink Priest and the Slann. In larger battles, a Slann is more interesting, but because he is a Hero you could run both. His very reasonable point cost combined with always useful abilities make him (arguably) the best named character in the book.

*'''Tiktaq'To:''' A silly name, but a balanced character. Anyone shooting at him or his unit suffers an additional -1 To-hit, he has a 6+ Ward Save and Magic Resistance (1) as protection. His blade ignores Armour Saves and the unit he is with can perform a sort of Deep-Strike. He is as useful as a Skink special character can get. He can also upgrade a unit of Terradon Riders to have Ambush. However, thanks to the 8th Edition BRB, Flying Characters CANNOT join Flying Units, so he's fucked. In 7th, there was a special rule for Terradons allowing Characters to join Flying Units. It's no longer there. One can assume that it's changed in 9th (and thus written as such) or was assumed he could join but others could not (his special rule says him AND his unit benefit from it. He can join units).

*'''Oxyotl:''' Fluff-wise, like Kroq-Gar, Oxyotl belongs in the incredibly tough 8000 years survivors category, as he spent millenia in the Chaos Realms assassinating Greater Daemons before finding his way back to the normal world. On the tabletop however, he is nothing impressive. His only tricks being Sniper and a blowpipe that fires 3 times a turn instead of 2. He may be the cheapest Special Character the Lizardmen have at 160pts, but he is still only useful in small battles, where he is in fact devastating. In larger games, he does not perform anything a unit of normal Chameleons cannot do.
::'''Alternative''': ''No- what about VS VCs and TKs? Then the Sniper rule comes into play. Level 4 Necromancer- stay still then, at 6" shoot 3 shots- these need 4s to hit and are Poisoned on 5+. Watch your opponent cry as this orange devil runs around sniping characters until they waste time in killing him- like normal Skink but better.''
----

====Generic Characters====
''Note:'' While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

*'''[[Slann]] Mage-Priest:''' Big Pappa Toad, the core of most armies.
**The good: a Slann is a powerful Level 4 caster with an in-built 4+ Ward Save and can be both general and BSB at the same time. It has the ability to ignore terrain and is never considered on foot while still being Infantry, has five Wounds, the ability to swap spells with other Slann and to cast trough friendly Skink Priest models. He also has a lot of synergy with Temple Guard: units joined by a Slann are Stubborn, Immune to Psychology, and allow the Slann to auto-pass Look Out Sir! Additionally, since he is fielded in the second rank rather than the first he is never going to be involved in actual combat and can cast spells even while his unit is busy fighting in melee. A choice of Disciplines (see below) helps to make Slann one of the best generic wizards of the game.
**The bad: being the BSB means he drops dead if his unit flees from combat. Thankfully in a TG block and with the Banner of Discipline this is highly unlikely to happen.
**The ugly: sporting a pricetag of 300 fucking point vanilla, he is expensive as all fucks and Magic Items and Disciplines only worsen the situation. Mind you, he still does repay every single point you invest on him if you are careful not to make sub-par decisions.
::'''Another take''': ''300 is a lot of points but think about it, he has two of things as standard most characters don't have:''
::*''4+ Ward built in (45 points from the rulebook) ''
::*''lv4 as standard (roughly a lvl3 character is roughly the 185 mark so adding 35 points to them makes them with no gear 220 points)''
::''See? We are already at the 265 mark without accounting for his palanquin (counting as on foot but not on foot for Pit of Shades, etc which is amazingly good) and his ability to cast spells out of Skink Priest models. This plus his statline is why I think he is a relatively good purchase for 300 points.''

*'''DISCIPLINES'''
** Reservoir of Eldritch Energy: Can carry over an extra Dispel Dice on the roll of a 2+ to next Magic Phase. Nifty and cheap at 20 points. Though not a first pick, it is a close second.
** Soul of Stone: Can add or subtract 1 to the Miscast Table results. Will save your life sometimes but not that awesome. Still, it is only 25 points.
** Becalming Cogitation: Re-rolls its first failed dispel attempt in each Magic phase. Cheap at 25 points and good pick.
** Wandering Deliberations: Can learn Signature Spells from all 8 battle lores. Can't use with the Loremaster one. The eight signatures are nothing to sneeze at and each of them benefits from the Lore Attribute. It is kinda sad that we need to spend 30 points on this while a level 2 High Elf Lord with Combat Lord stats has it by default, though. If playing The End Times just fucking take this, I repeat, TAKE THIS IN END TIMES because with the new rules it will allow your Slann to know every spell of the eight battle lores (confirmed for the Loremaster of Hoeth so no reason to doubt it will work for the Slann). Yes, you heard right: for 30 points you get 64 spells (7 from each lore + each of the End Times spells for the BRB lores) and 4d6 dice from the powered-up Winds of Magic rolls. This is immense! Just remember it works only if you have the The End Times book.
** Harmonic Convergence: Roll two additional dice whenever attempting to Channel Power or Dispel dice. Nothing impressive until you notice the existence of Channeling Staff: suddenly you are Channeling three times a turn on a 5+. 30 points (plus 15 for the staff) rarely tasted so good.
** The Harrowing Scrutiny: Slann causes Terror. Meh... 30 points of overpriced garbage. Take the Shrieking Blade for 5 points and get Fear instead.
***'''Alternative Opinion''': ''This can be very good when facing low LD armies, as it means they might run away and not bog down your TG bunker - Still situational, mind you.''
** Transcendent Healing: Roll a d6 for each wound Slann has lost. On a 6 he regains it. Not bad, but not reliable enough to be good at 30 points.
** Unfathomable Presence: Can get Magic Resistance D3 each Magic Phase. Skip this one. If you are willing to spend 30 points on this you'd better pay the same 30 for MR2 with Obsidian Amulet and get the 2+ Save against spells, unless you truly need that Dragonbane Gem on your Slann.
** Focus of Mystery: Becomes a Loremaster in High Magic. Can't use with the Signature Spell one. 35 points are worth it? High Magic is a great lore that can do a bit of everything. Has two Signatures (you get both of them with this Discipline, obviously) so you get a grand total of eight spells. Great synergy with the Lizardmen army and don't forget its awesome Lore Attribute, Contemplation, that lets you forget a High magic spell after you cast it and roll for a new one on any other lore, which carries its Lore Attribute with it and can be swapped for the Signature. You can swap your less useful spells and tailor your list to better suit the situation during the game, so yes, it is fucking worth it. Overall one of the best Disciplines, even more so now that Slann can't Loremaster any other lore.
** Higher State of Consciousness: Slann becomes Ethereal and Unstable but can't join units. Costs as much as two other Disciplines, clocking in at 60 points, so take it only if you are absolutely positively sure about what the fuck you are doing. Used to be popular in 7th edition, but has not been seen around much lately. Can be deadly to your Slann, as losing combat will cause unsaveable Wounds.

*'''Saurus Oldblood:''' Killing machine. Can ride a Cold One or a Carnosaur. Can be tooled up to either assassinate Lord characters and Daemons, or solo regiments of infantry. Given how expensive a Slann is, he shows up in smaller battles as a general or in larger battles as a second Lord choice. Old Bloods have a 4+ Scaly Skin by default and a lot of Attacks before you buy any upgrades. However, these upgrades are expensive: the Carnosaur alone costs almost as much as a naked Slann (and the figurines themselves are not cheap either). The main downside is how hard it is to use both an Old Blood on Carnosaur and a Slann, because of their cost. One bad cannonball and you're down around 400 points. A very powerful build for the Old Blood is giving him the Armour of Destiny and the Fencer's Blades. This means he gets 6 S5 attacks at WS10. The build also gives him great survivability with a 2+ Armour Save and 4+ Ward. Guaranteed to make opponents rage, especially in smaller point games (such as 1000). The drawback to this build is that it cannot be a mounted Oldblood due to using two hand weapons so no extra armour from a Cold One or Carnosaur sadly.

*'''Saurus Scar Veteran:''' A lesser Old Blood at an affordable price. He can now even ride a Carnosaur. It still dishes out that Saurus melee butchery that makes people cry and it can ride a Cold One if you want him mounted but don't have enough points to take a Carnosaur. If your Slann is not your BSB, a Scar Vet can and take a magical banner. In larger games where you can afford a few Scar Vets (or a a couple of them and an Old Blood), equip them and use them like missiles: send a kitted-out Scar Vet after one thing and watch it get maimed. In smaller games they're more useful sitting in Saurus units to chew through infantry. Solid choice as a General at low level games and good in larger battles for supplementary killing power. If you take a Slann and a Scar Vet, you can have a very nice combo: a Carnosaur and your magical toad!

*'''Skink Chief:''' Cheaper now and with more mounted options this guy is a little more viable. Only take this guy mounted as he's way too soft compared to the Saurus characters, and Skinks in general suck as proper ranked units. Can take Stegadons, Ancient Stegadons and Terradons as mounts, which is what you should be doing. On a Terradon it can do some good character hunting and screw warmachine crews, as well as provide a Leadership buff to that Terradon unit, but it means your general should be someone else. Not a solid General choice but nice as a supporting character and a means to getting another big dinosaur on the table. Like the Scar Vet, he can be the BSB. You could use him against an opponent for tying down a monster- 5 dead Skinks a turn isn't much and tying down a 250pt model for 4 turns is surely worth 145 points (20 Skinks + Chief).

*'''Skink Priest:''' Good low-level Wizard. Can act as a range extender for Slann allowing them to send Magic Missiles or Direct Damage spells as if the Slann was where the Priest is standing. Can take the Engine of the Gods if mounted on a Stegadon, which makes a combination of a killing machine, maximum safety for the character and very powerful support to nearby units. They're limited to the Lores of the Heavens and Beasts but they have enough Magic Items to maximize their usage. They support the Slann or are used in large numbers to spam spells down the enemy's throat. Do not underestimate them as they have access to Comet Of Cassandora and Lizardmen are the only army that can reliably spam that spell. Wyssan's Wildform is a spell tailor-made for making Lizardmen rape machines.

===Core Units===
*'''Skinks:''' Cheap and spammable light infantry. Kroxigors can be taken in the second rank of the unit and are allowed to attack normally over the front rank of Skinks. This gets some heavy hitters in there. Overall, Skink units are a good place to put these thugs. They have a higher Ld and pass on the effect of causing Fear to the unit. Despite weak (native) Leadership and terrible Toughness, Skinks can be surprisingly effective against non-elite infantry and cavalry for one turn, in part thanks to their relatively high Initative. Stand and Shoot combined with the Poison rule enables their shooting attacks to auto wound. However, Skink Cohorts can be upgraded to have Poisoned melee attacks. Cohorts are not bad with this as Javelins can be <s>shot</s> thrown before going into melee. The price you're paying is incredibly low for what they can do.
*'''Skink Skirmishers:''' Always take javelin and shield. Blowpipes are useless on a mobile unit as you'll be needing 7's to hit after -1 Long Range, -1 moving, -1 Multiple Shots which means no poison! Javelins are Quick to Fire, so hit on 5's if you move with them and shoot from Long Range. Blowpipes are for the higher BS Chameleon Skinks. They keep their poison AND you gain a 5+ 6++ in close combat, which makes them infinitely better against chaff. ('''alternative opinion''': ''+1 Armour Save isn't much. As a small unit of artillery hunters with blowpipes are brilliant - march for 2 turns then shoot at close range. Blowpipes have 12" range, and since you can opt out of Multiple Shots, you can just use them as extra range javelins'')Skinks can be great for kiting enemy units and being an all-around thorn in their sides. Put simply, if the Skink Skirmishers manage to inflict wounds on any unit, your opponent will be compelled to either shoot at it, commit a unit to charge it, or try to ignore the damage they're doing. The first option is bad because damage spells and shooting units are overkill against Skink units that size, making it a waste of resources when other, more dangerous units, are around. The second option is bad because most close combat units are significantly more costly than Skinks and are much better suited to stopping/slowing your Saurus bricks from smashing through the battlefield. This gets even worse if the Skinks are able to shoot at the unit prior to the melee and inflict wounds. However, with cheap units like Skaven Clanrats, this is less of an issue, except that large Clanrat units shouldn't chase down half a dozen Skinks, and no one fields those kinds of units with an equivalent cost to your Skinks. With elite units, the problem is further exaggerated because any damage done to the Skinks is pointless. <strike>Most elite units cost close to 30 points a model,</strike> [[Derp]], '''maybe''' really powerhouse heavy cavalry, but most Elite Infantry runs from 12-16 points, which means that more than 2 ranged casualties is a lose-lose tradeoff at best. Ignoring the Skinks, as some players do, is even more stupid because that leaves them free to pick off other skirmishers, violate war machine crews, and chip off wounds from other important units or characters. In summary, Skink Skirmishers are suicide units that force bad tradeoffs for the enemy. They'll die when they're attacked, but it's a lose-lose situation, and in the wider context of the battle this leads the opponent to be inefficient with his units.
::'''Alternative Opinion''': ''Actually, Skink spamming is considered to be a particularly tasty form of [[powergamer|cheese]], since you can literally flood the battlefield in cheap, fast moving, little units with an array of poisoned weapons redirecting, shooting, and irritating your opponent's units to a not-quite-metaphorical death. If you can get Walk Between Worlds and Hand of Glory off on these, it's funny as you don't technically move them, but go 20" forward- then shoot at BS6 with blowpipes needing 3s to hit- on a unit of 20, 40 poisoned shots brings [[lulz]]''
*'''Saurus Warriors:''' The backbone of any Lizardmen army, Saurus Warriors pack a 5+ Scaly Skin save, shields, spears/hand weapons, 2 base Attacks, are Cold Blooded, and are WS3, S4, & T4. When rolling To Hit have a chance of generating more Hits, and they must pursue unless near Skinks. While the unit has some great stats for a hand-to-hand unit, their god-awful Initiative of 1 ensures that they don't leave combat unscathed, and their cost per model, spears included, is higher than just about any other rank-and-file core choice. These two key issues are mostly irrelevant though, because Saurus Warriors are the best fucking brick infantry in the game. Chaos Warriors may be better per model, but they cost a good bit more. Besides, no other faction can field R&F infantry as effective as yours without crippling their army size. Units that engage Saurus Warriors that have the misfortune of getting flanked by another unit of them might as well have never been deployed. Saurus Warriors either smash straight through the enemy lines, or end up in a slow grinding combat that leaves either half a unit of Saurus or a few dazed and bloodstained enemies left, ready to be swept away by the rest of your army. They can realistically tarpit any infantry unit short of Dragon-Ogres and the like, and even they still won't [[Anal Circumference|get through cleanly or untouched]].

===Special Units===
*'''Jungle Swarms:''' 35 points per base, minimum 2 per unit. Previously core units, they were rarely seen. They have now been moved to Special and given a few bonuses making them an interesting if specific choice. The great thing about these is that whenever some Jungle Swarms are in base-to-base contact with an enemy unit, all other Lizardmen units fighting this same unit get Poisoned Attacks! Suddenly your Saurus's 6's auto Wound while still generating new attacks through Predatory Fighter. A Shadow lore Slann casting Okkam's Mindrazor on the Jungle Swarms, making their Strength the same number as their Ld value, makes them devastating as they have 10: this gives them 5 attack S10 per swarm base with Poison Attacks.

*'''Temple Guard:''' Improved Saurus. They get light armour and halberds. When combined with a [[Slann]] (who is no longer forced to join them), they automatically pass Lookout Sir tests, become Immune to Psychology, Stubborn and cause Fear. These guys are easily a must-have if you have a Slann in your army, and are often worth taking even if you don't have a one. They cost a lot more than the Saurus warriors but hit much harder. Remember that due to the way Temple Guards and Slann rank-up, they get relatively few attacks and most combats against rank-and-file will be a slow grind unless you can break the enemy's morale. Lizardmen list usually field at least a pack of 20 TG along with a block of Saurus, and these serve as the main hitting force or tarpits of the army. You can really cheese out your opponent here, because a BSB Slann with Banner of Discipline and another Magic Banner is +3 Combat Resolution - a Horde of 30 is another +2, another +1 for Charging and so on - hey 10X10 Skavenslave unit, fancy a combat? (don't do this, you will never ever break them, and the Skaven will remain Stubborn forever)

*'''Cold One Cavalry:''' Lizardmen cavalry mounted on buffed raptors. They currently get no love because of their high price, making them one of the less cost-effective cavalry option this edition. Cold One Cavalry is in a weird place even regarding their abilities: the rider has a Temple Guard profile with a better Armour Save, as he has no light armour but gets +2 armour points from being mounted on a Cold One. He has no halberd but his spear gives him a +1S on the turn he charges, after which he fights with a normal Saurus Strength but still with better armour than a TG. The Cold One itself has the same profile as a normal Saurus, which means a Cold One rider and his mount are basically a Saurus and a weird TG, cause Fear and move at double speed while having a Stupid mount (which is not too much of a problem thanks to Cold Blooded). Point-wise, they are 30 each without spears, at which point a single one costs more than 2 TG but gets an intermediary profile between 2 Saurus and 1 Saurus + 1 TG. This price factor overshadows anything they can bring to the table as you will generally want more TGs or more Saurus instead of cavalry. They can be extremely useful, but will shine only in specific situation where their speed makes them the perfect hammer to a Saurus unit's anvil. Most people disregard COC entirely and will bring either more infantry or another monster, but these guys are not bad in themselves. A general who knows what he does might decide to field a few of them. However, this will be at the cost of the overall size of the army. Where COC excel is when serving as a delivery system for one or several Scar Veterans or Old Bloods armed to the teeth with magic weapons. They are solid enough to hit hard, soak up damage, and mounted Saurus characters are terrifying. They also provide a flanking unit that can withstand damage.

*'''Terradon Riders:''' Excellent for harassment tactics: hunting warmachine crews, isolated models and skirmishers. Their ability to drop rocks is also handy for softening up something tough before the Saurus or TG can deal the real damage. The ability to drop rocks and the Bola upgrade are interesting and give some punch to a unit which is otherwise quite weak.

*'''Ripperdactyl Riders:''' Competing with Terradon Riders for about the same role on the table, they are 40 pts each (5 more than Terradons) and more combat-oriented: they have Frenzy, but being flying cavalry means you get a free reform at the end of their movement to make sure they point in the direction of something you want to charge anyway. With Armour Piercing and 2 Killing Blow Attacks they are an interesting choice. The Lustrian Bloat Toad allows you to select one enemy unit per Ripperdactyl unit in your army. Against the chosen enemy unit, any Ripperdactyl unit will get an additional D3 Attacks per model generated by Frenzy. Mind you, the Skink riders have WS2, which means they will hit nothing. This make the spear of Rippderdacyl riders a bit useless: the mounts will be dealing the damage.

*'''Bastiladons:''' First unit to receive a 2+ Scaly Skin Armour Save, the Bastiladons only get T5 and will go down quite easily in combats against large infantry blocks. However, Bastiladons are exactly similar to tanks in that you want to use them as support for blocks of infantry. Their true power is in trotting alongside a big block of warriors, protecting their flanks. The +1I bonus of the Solar Engine is nice but only brings normal Saurus to I2, which is not enough to be a game changer. The Chotek spell, however, can really bring some hurt and deals flaming damages, forcing the enemy to either waste dispel dice on it or endure potentially heavy damage. Their second option, the Ark of Sotek, can shoot a weak projectile even when moving or marching, and can generate additional swarms in any Jungle Swarm unit in a 6" radius, which can go beyond the starting number. This is a funny ability but not critical unless you have a good number of swarms.

*'''Kroxigors:''' Giant crocodile-men. They are strong but not numerous enough, and Saurus warriors are a better option as they can absorb more wounds and deal more attacks. That said, they're not a dead unit but will usually serve as support, not as the main hitting force. With a Scaly Skin save of 4+, they're basically in Heavy Armour + Shield and they have S5 and Great Weapons, so that they hit at S7. Kroxigors have 3 Wounds each, 3 Attacks each and cause Fear. Because they are Monstrous Infantry, they can use all 3 of their attacks from the second rank. They can be combined with a Skink Cohort and occupy the second rank, dealing all their attacks. Unfortunately, they can also be attacked even if there is a first rank of Skinks, which means you cannot use the Skinks as shields for them.

*'''Chameleon Skinks:''' Your only Scouts option and great warmachine hunters. Their higher Ballistic Skill allows them to still get Poison on their blowpipe shots, unlike any unit of Skinks which moves. Regular Skink skirmishers require 7's to hit anything outside 6 inches if they move which means no Poison. They have their place in any thematic or fine-tuned army but unfortunately they suffer from the competition of the other Specials which are almost invariably better.

*'''Stegadon:''' The main Lizardmen monster. Few lists do not include a Stegadon, or even several of them. Stegadons are crewed by 5 Skinks who man the Giant Bow (a ballista in all but name), which can shoot even while moving. The Stegadon causes Terror and benefits from a handful of nice rules plus all the things which come with being a Monster.

===Rare Units===
*'''Ancient Stegadon:''' You thought the above was awesome? This guy is tougher, hits harder in combat and does 4D6 blowpipe shots! Again you will see infantry die with this angry old bastard. Then there is the special version mounted by Skink Priests...
**'''Engine of the Gods:''' In the previous book you were only able to take these as a mount for a Skink Priest, however they can now be taken in the rare section. It has 3 different effects:
***1. it gives all your units within 6" a 6+ Ward Save. This means you can go with spears on your Saurus, and still have a 6+ Ward Save.
***2. it can cast a Bound Spell, that does D6 S4 Flaming hits to units within 4D6. Mostly used for clearing chaff, but is just a nice thing to have in the back pocket although it's murder vs Dryads.
***3. each magic phase you can choose 1 lore from the main rulebook, and the Casting Values of all spells in that lore goes down by 1. Nice in a Beast lore Skink Priest spam list, because it will allow you to have an easier time casting Wysans Wildform on your Saurus.

*'''Salamander Hunting Packs:''' This unit can do some serious damage, and it's good for stopping Regenerating faggots. The salamanders got changed quite heavily with the new book. First of all they can no longer march and shoot, meaning you probably wont be shooting first turn anymore. Second they no longer give -3 to Armour Saves with their shooting attack, but it instead got strength 4. These guys are absolutely amazing! They can halve a unit's size with a single shot. These things work miracles!

*'''Razordon Hunting Packs:''' Each of these are able to make an Artillery Die amount of shots with a range of 18" each turn. They can move and shoot but they can no longer march and shoot. They are pretty terribad at hitting, so unless you have a Slann able to buff them with Hand of Glory you won't be hitting with many of the shots. However since they put out such a large amount of shots, at least some of them will hit. Now that there is no limit to the amount you can pack into a single unit, you could take a unit of 8 and just stick them into your enemies face and just dare them charge these guys. Even if he does he will surely come to regret it. Keep in mind that for both hunting pack units, the Skink handlers cannot be targeted by attacks but can dish out a couple of weak attacks back, which has a couple of situational anti-character uses.

*'''Troglodon:''' What a piece of shit this thing is. 200 points for a good looking model that can't do anything well. It's designed to be useful in any phase but M7 isn't anything to to write home about. Its Magic support is an upgrade you have to pay for that lets the Skink rider channel and it has the same rule that Skink Priests have, Arcane Vassal (Slann can cast through them.). The shooting attack is the lamest attempt to make its point cost: 1 S5 poisoned shot with D3 Wounds, with a short range and BS3... You might hit once or twice a game if lucky. In combat it will wilt faster than an erection after seeing goatse: 3 attacks from the beast and 1 from the Skink. The monster is only S/T 5 with a 4+ Scaly Skin save so any S4 infantry can kill it before the Thunderstomp comes. Its Primeval Roar is the only possibly useful thing this unit brings (but you aren't bringing it are you?). Once per game the Troglodon roars and boost all Predatory Fighters within 12" to get extra attacks on a 5+ instead of 6+. Best fielded 4' off the ground in a display case.
::'''Alternative Opinion:''' ''What I believe this guy MEANT to say was: TROGLODONS ARE AWESOME! M7? Awesome: I'm in your face turn one with Arcane Vassal spells (btw take this, and take the Discipline that grants you all the Signature Spells on your Slann and laugh as you snipe your opponents general with Lore of Death turn one). Its shooting is craptacular yes, but why are you shooting with it? Charge flanks with it and when crunch time comes, drop the Roar and watch your Saurus RIP AND TEAR the opponents a new pie hole. This, if enough punch is delivered, will knock seven shades of crap out of most armies, even giving Warriors of Chaos a run for their money. All this pain train for 200 points, oh and its Aquatic for extra lulz.'' (ONLY TIME IT'S SEMI SCARY is when it runs up on a suicide charge into the most populated spot and Lord Kroak channels through it. Otherwise it sucks, go with the original opinion)
::'''Original Opinion:''' ''I am pretty sure the "Alternative Opinion" was posted by Vetock himself. The Troglodon is terrible. Absolute fail in every phase. He seems to think the Arcane Vassal is good when in fact most spells don't even need it. As for his genius tactics of charging flanks with it, well I have been playing Warhammer for years and I can tell you now that it will never survive long enough to hit a flank in combat. As for the 5+ Roar thing: again, your opponent wont really care. Its just 200 points of pure fail. Take an ancient Steg instead.
''

==Building Your Army==
===Buying Your Army===

As always, the Battalion Box is a good start. It comes with 10 Temple Guard, 20 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry and 12 Skinks.

After that you will need to buy probably 2 more Saurus Warrior boxes unless you're going light on Saurus due to crippling fear of victory. Also the Skinks you get aren't really enough to run more than a single unit of skirmishers, so buy box of Skinks. The TG are also undersized so you might want to get another box to get them up to strength. This gives you a total of 20 Temple Guard, 52 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry and 32 Skinks. Mainly this gives you a smattering of units for a lower cost than buying the boxes and the amount you get in the boxed sets will be slightly less than what you need so there is no overflow... or by the sounds of it might just be easier to buy a second Battalion.

*2 Battalion: 20 Temple Guard, 40 Saurus Warriors, 16 Cold One Cavalry and 24 Skinks. 132£
*The other option: 20 Temple Guard, 52 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry, and 32 Skinks. 152£

Aside: it's a very minor thing, but the Cold One Cavalry sprue has decorative bits that can be used as jungle swarms (2 per 8 CoC, if you can rustle up some bases). So if you want jungle swarms the 2nd Battalion may be better. Also, the excess Cold One Cavalry can be modified into a pair of Scar Vets on Cold Ones. Can give you some cheap hitting power and a way to hit a points limit in your initial games until you figure out what you want to buy to flesh out the army.

Getting a Slann is mandatory. No you can't just say "screw it" even if you never play with it. Not having a Slann will get you laughed at by every neckbeard who hears of your foolishness.

If you want to start an army cheap and build up slowly, buy 1 box of Saurus and convert the 16th one to be something else (eg Scar Vet). This is a small army of about 250 points. After that, buy another box of Saurus unless you want to go all Skink.

===Army Composition===

Some people (you know who you are) think Lizardmen (and specifically Saurus), are a defensive army. This, however, is not true. Take 2 blocks of 30 Saurus, with spears if you're a taker (or have Gor-Rok to lead them). These are your main hitting force. Next, take 2+ units of Skinks. Blowpipes used to be better, but now take Lustrian Javelins. Next, your block of Temple Guard. 20 MINIMUM! No cheaping out here: these bad boys are gonna keep your Slann safe so may as well go all out. Buy a magic standard, Flaming is always handy in a pinch. Then you need to get some support...here is where your aquatic friends come in handy. No Flounder or Sebastian up in this shit, hell no! We got lizards who breathe FIRE (<s>despite being water dwelling reptiles...?</s> they spit acid which goes on fire when it comes into contact with the air) and ones that carry a shotgun of spikes to down insects (bring bug spray to Lustria). Two units of any mix well, however a Razordon is 65 points to a Salamander's 80 points, but now they are S4 so slightly better. Use this to hit the enemy, take ranks and warmachines out. They can also flank charge in a pinch (use them to chase down). Do all you can to make that hammer blow fall hard and fast.

That's your base, now your Slann. Ok here is what you want: Becalming Cogitation, Wandering Deliberations, Reservoir of Eldritch Energy and any other one of your choosing. Make the guy a BSB (hey, if he's so expensive as is, may as well make him worth it) Banner of Discipline ftw!

After that it's entirely up to you what to take. Terradons are a good answer to warmachines yet not as good as Ripperdactyls. Bastiladons in both forms are only worth their points if you have a specific plan for them, it's not a unit you can plop down and expect it to work wonders (i.e. you must actually think harder about your battle plan when using these, ditto for Ripperdactyls). GW again trying to push the newest box by making its model the cheapest. Bloodcrushers anyone?

Just remember if you are only taking units of 30 Saurus in a horde with spears, you won't get any real benefit of the fourth rank so consider taking them 6 across for the added lulz.

===Alternate Opinion===

Let's start with the Slann. Becalming Cogitation and Reservoir of Eldritch Energy are fine. It seems, however, that our friend who wrote the above (and messy) composition forgot about High Magic's Lore Attribute, which allows you to forget a spell of High Magic and replace it with one from any of the Eight Battle Magic Lores. These spells will automatically use their associated Lore Attribute and can always be the Signiture spell as per usual spell generation rules. That means, if you're in a bit of trouble, you can cast a High Magic lore spell, switch to Lore of Life, generate one from there, depending on what it is either keep it or swap it for 5+ Regeneration Signature Spell and then cast that. That not only gives a unit a nice Regeneration save (<S>which I believe counts as a 'Ward Save'</S> there are some differences - vulnerability to fire damage comes to mind) but it also gives the Wizard (or any other character in range) a Wound back. You can do this for any Lore. Wandering Deliberations is also good, as mentioned.

Next, as I am sure the above person knows, your General is automatically the character with the highest Leadership. Since Slann have Ld9, that means they are automatically the Army General unless you have more than one Slann or somehow have another Lord with Ld9 or above. Oldbloods have Ld8. This isn't a problem until you give the Slann the Banner of Discipline, which not only turns it into the BSB but gives it Ld+1. That means the Slann will have Ld10. Amazing for casting the Death Lore Signature spell. <strike>However, the Banner of Discipline also states that the Banner wielder cannot be used for Inspiring Presence. Meaning you have lost the ability to use the Slann to rally. This is a important seeing as many of the Lizardmen units are Ld5-6. Coldblooded helps, but is not always sufficient</strike>. As per the BRB FAQ, a General in a unit with the Banner of Discipline may use his Inspiring Presence with the +1 bonus. This gives any Lizardmen under the eyes of a Slann a 99.8% chance of success for all leadership tests. This is so stupidly good for the price that only an idiot would not take it.

Next, mixing Razordons and Salamanders is a fun idea, but they are both different firing types. Firstly, the Salamanders are Slow to Fire and fire as a Flame Cannon, while the Razordon are Quick to Fire and fire as Grapeshot from cannons. It would therefore be better to keep them separate. Yes, there is the bonus that the Razordons will be able to protect the Salamanders, but it's still a mess.

Bastiladons are worth their price. If you take Jungle Swarms, the Ark of Sotek is useful for a chance on a free base every turn, but the key worth is in the Solar Engine. The gem not only gives every Cold Blooded creature within range +1I (which is <s>stupidly useful</s> does nothing for I1 Saurus on protecting them against Pit of Shades for example) which also stacks with Hand of Glory for a potential +4I (and half of your Magic Phase), it's the Gem's power which is the real useful part of it. The spell is Power Level 3, meaning you need only a 3 to cast it (and your opponent needs only a 3 to dispel it). You've got a 66% chance of doing it with one die. Throw two and you're going to be unlucky to not cast it. The spell itself not only causes 1D3-2D6 S3-6 Flaming Hits, but also a 1/6 chance to reduce WS and BS skill by 1 for a turn. The fact you're going to be forcing your opponent to either accept the chance of the spell being powerful and causing damage OR using a couple of dice to dispel it (this is idiotic, Bound Spells are shit in 8th ed, and easily dispellable even by a lvl2 mage). If they do dispel it, you then simply laugh and use your remaining dice to cast some High Magic or Battle Lore spells which your opponent will struggle to dispel (except that they will use the same or even less dice than you used to cast it, since they get their Caster Level bonus to dispel and you do not get it to cast). The Bastiladon is also the proud owner of the only 2+ Scaly Skin Special Rule, meaning you're going to be resisting plenty of attacks. Yes, its Toughness is terrible (and a surprising number, <s>it should be errated IMO</s> it sucks, deal with it) but imagine a Skink Priest casting Wildform from a Lore of Beast on it, giving it +1S and +1T, or even +2/4T from Lore of Life. Making it the true tank it should be (why not cast it on a Stegadon instead?)

===Magic Items===

Yes the Lizardmen have some of the best okay gear available, unfortunately you will pay heavily for that advantage.

====Magic Weapons====
*'''The Blade of Realities:''' A new version of this and still pricey as hell but now ignoring Ward AND Armour Saves. The only downside is that it now takes up all of a Lord's points for magic items and thus robs you of the ability to take any Ward Saves of your own. As such it should probably be left at home for friendly games. On the other hand, since it means that opponents Lords/Heroes will have to rely on Toughness and Weapon Skill to avoid dying, it means you can use it on an Oldblood to go and destroy a specific target. If you put the Oldblood on a Cold One or Fuck-You-A-Saur, you can get a 1+ Armour Save (4+ Scaly Skin + Shield = 3+ - add the Cold One's or Carnosaur's +2 and you're up to 1+. Light armour can be added in case your mount dies so you stay at 2+). You then head straight for that Lord/Hero and unleash hell. Lore of Life's +2/+4 Toughness will make you even more resilient. Lore of Lights Weapon Skill/Initiative augment means you're going to hit more often. Lore of High Magic Movement/Initiative/Weapon Skill at +D3 is useful, but when you can make it so you improve all three it means your Oldblood and his Mount are going to get there quicker and when they do, they're going to be more likely to hit. +3 Movement will mean 9-10 Movement for the Mounts, +3 Initiative will mean your Oldblood is at Initiative 6 (and 7 if near Solar Gem) and +3 Weapon Skill means hitting at Weapon Skill 9. So, while Elves, Vampire Lords and Chaos Lords will still out-Initiative you (and Elves most likely will get re-rolls too) everything else will be hitting after you or at the same time. With WS9, you're likely to hit (bar specific specific Vampire Lord builds, named Elves and certain Elf and Chaos Lord builds, who will also be around WS9... Also any unit with Fencing Blades) and S5 means you're not too bad when it comes to wounding and since you're packing 5 Attacks, you're very much capable of killing any Lord/Hero in one go (though the likes of Tyrion, it'll be difficult). That's ignoring your Mount and the buff it got from the spells. A T9 Fuck-You-A-Saur is pretty fun. So is one with WS6, especially since it has 5 attacks and each one is D3 Wounds. Being able to smile when you tell your opponent that his Lord/Hero or Special Character can't make any saves would be glorious. The best bit, though, would be against the likes of Malekith, who has a 2+ Armour Save (when on mount) and 2+ Ward Save (against non-magical attacks) or against 1+ Armour Save and 3+ Ward Save Chaos Lords. All those points, wasted as you cleave through them. However, many people won't take named characters or spend so many points on a Lord, so the Blade of Realities has very limited uses in competitive play. However, against WAAC's in friendly games, it's delicious. Try this with a Slann just for the lulz (only once though). Laugh as you chew through tanks and still have a Ward Save!
*'''The Piranha Blade:''' Still a little bit expensive but now getting the bonus of reducing enemy armour. Against monster and Heroes probably a good idea but a hefty price to pay. Although as the Armour Piercing stacks on Impact Hits this item should be used on an Oldblood with the Stegadon Helm on a Carnosaur with Swiftstride. This combo is fucking hilarious, and leaves some points for other magic items.
::Another use is to give it to a Scar Vet on foot and challenge as it allows you to rack up the combat bonus with Overkill. With only 4 attacks you have the potential to get one Wound to kill the champ and the +5 Overkill bonus for a total of +6 to combat res. Pretty good for only 4 attacks. On average you'll get around +4ish which is still like Hitting and Wounding AND having your opponent fail all saves.

====Magic Armour====
*'''Sacred Stegadon Helm of Itza:''' The only Magic Armour the Lizardmen get but what an armour! For its bonus to Toughness and Impact Hits it's fricking cheap and your Saurus can also play mini-Minotaur on a Carnosaur for the lulz. For those who don't know, it gives +1 to Armour Save, +1 Toughness AND +D3 Impact Hits. Impact hits don't benefit from your weapon though. Your weapons stats only affect you when striking with it.

====Enchanted Items====
*'''The Cloak of Feathers:''' Yes, the same old thing that was in the <S>Codex</S> Armybook for like 10 editions. Still makes a flying Skink but now with a little bonus of some extra Magic Resistance. As it's cheap, you can use it to get the Priest in nice positions for the Arcane Vassal rule to help get in range for the shorter ranged spells a Slann may have.
*'''The Horn of Kygor:''' A musical instrument carved from a long dead dinosaur. When your Hero blows it, all Monsters and Beasts in your army within range, will gain the Frenzy rule for one turn. As it will not affect the riders and is extremely expensive for a One Use Only item that does fairly little, it's best to leave this at home.
*'''The Egg of Quango:''' Again a little dinosaur souvenir, but this still has life in it. You can summon the ancient dinosaur from its egg and with a little luck (on a 4+) he will clobber your enemies. As a One Use Only and requiring quite a bit of luck this should probably be left at home, but when you like dinosaurs (and that's why you're playing Lizardmen) then it's not bad. Although if it doesn't get so lucky, the poor bird inside dies :'( While it's 'fun' it's also rather silly. The whole point of the Quango was that it was some rare, mystical creature which could change the outcome of the War against Chaos, with Mazamundi deciding when it should be opened... He's decided it is now and it doesn't do anything to help the War in terms of fluff. But it is an amusing item.

====Arcane Items====
*'''Cube of Darkness:''' Basically a 5 point more expensive Dispel Scroll that works on a 2+. In addition, you roll a die for each Remains In Play spell on the board (including your own) and on a 2+ it ends. After taking a Dispel Scroll this is a near "must take" (if you can). Be careful as this item, by RAW, can dispel also your spells!
*'''Plaque of Dominion:''' A Bound Spell that makes enemy mages Stupid. If your opponent has his mage parked within range of a General/BSB leave this at home. If not... probably still leave it at home. Dispel Scroll first, Cube second.

====Magic Standards====
*'''Skavenpelt Banner:''' This banner grants the Frenzy and Hatred (Skaven) rules, and all other Skaven gain Hatred when attacking the bearer. As it is more than 50 points this banner can only be used on the BSB, and taking a Magic Banner on a BSB is a shitty idea as he can't take any other magic items for protection. Except the Slann, who can take much better banners at a cheaper price (e.g. Banner of Discipline) and still take magic items. Skip this item as a smart general will have you're unit chasing chaff as they are frenzied.
**'''Alternative Opinion:''' ''Ignore the special person who wrote above this. Put it on your Slann and watch 3 Attack Temple Guard madness roll across the field. You don't need to worry about hording with this shizzle as it is the cheese. And I don't see you ever failing a Leadership test with Cold Blooded and BSB and Stubborn with Reroll so you will never chase units across the field (wrong, their special rule states they ALWAYS have to pursue, unless they have a Skink with them).''
**'''Alternate Alternative Opinion:''' The Skavenpelt Banner will let you have a stupid amount of fun with your Temple Guard with a Slann BSB. However, the mandatory Overrun will screw over your Temple Guard if your opponent has any sort of chaff unit, or even a unit they don't mind feeding to the blender (which I really cannot imagine being fielded by Skaven, /irony). Also, if you lose combat you may not run, but your BSB is now holding 65 Points of Hatred(Skaven). Fun, but certainly not worth it.
*'''Jaguar Standard:''' Just cheap enough to be used by a unit of Temple Guard, the Jaguar Standard gives the unit Swiftstride. It's an OK choice for a banner but there are others that could probably work better. Nice way to make sure that if the Temple Guard run off after a unit due to their Predatory Fighter rule, they catch and kill whatever fled.

====Summary====
The ones to seriously consider are Cube of Darkness, Piranha Blade, Stegadon Helm, and perhaps the Cloak of Feathers. For any serious lists, don't bother with the rest though they have their uses.

----

Remember the BRB also has some nice items.
Let us say you have a Slann, what should you buy it? Well, Banner of Discipline is one option, but that still means 100 magic points left! So, what else to get? Seeing as Vetock nerfed the Discipline that gave Magic Resistance (3) to Magic Resistance (D3) each turn, it would seem as if there was little in the way of magical protection for your Slann.... Except there is! For 40(or 45, I forget) points, you can buy an Obsidian Lodestone, this gives you Magic Resistance (3), guaranteed! This means not only do you not need to spend points on the Discipline (although it's cheaper but vastly inferior) but it means you've always got Magic Resistance (3) and therefore your unit of Temple Guard have it too!

:'''Alternate Opinion:''' ''A Slann already has a 4+ Ward Save, so on a 3+ you get a 2+ Ward against spells. Take Channeling Staff and Harmonic Convergence for Power Dice spam, and have the Obsidian Lodestone somewhere else.''

What else, you ask? Well, it seems as if writers have been slowly changing the way Fear and Terror works. You can now have just one model with the ability and everybody else in the unit has it. Although the BRB says this isn't the case, newer Armybooks are mentioning it. In the case of Lizardmen, it says that models in base contact with a Slann gain the cause Terror or cause Fear rule, so basically the unit causes it. So what does that mean? It means you buy a Shrieking Blade! For a mere 10 points, your Slann now causes Fear, therefore your Temple Guard unit now causes Fear! You could buy the Terror Discipline, but it's way more expensive. This is around 55 points (or 50, as I said, I forgot).

Spend the rest of your points on Cube of Darkness and Dispel Scroll ''(you cannot, just 1 Arcane Item per a character, and you already took the Channeling Staff).'' This means you have a Slann with 3+ Ward Save against Magical Attacks/Spells, which also affects your Temple Guard, but also the Slann causes Fear, making it possible for any unit charging your Temple Guard to be reduced to WS1, allowing your Temple Guard to have an even higher chance of survivability!

===Magic===

Yes please.

Now after the new book, the Lizardmen have gotten High Magic (the High Elf magic) for their Slann. Well not bad at all but the real thing is in the Lore Attribute: Contemplation. It allows you to forget a spell you successfully cast, and generate a new one out of High Magic or any normal Lore. This means you can drop spells you don't need and get new ones. Playing against Daemons? Light magic is there. Fighting against Chaos Knights? There you go: Searing Doom.

With magic, one of the biggest choices is which Lore for the Slann. Generally Life is regarded as the best for Slann as it can prevent Miscasts from nuking your Mega-Toad. Plus, who doesn't like Toughness 6 Saurus? Aside from your opponent, I mean. Generally it's best to take a lore based on your opponent's army. Metal and Shadow are pretty good choices. Heavens is a big NO as you already have Skink Priests to cast that one for you.
Typically, people opt for either Life or Light, with Life being more popular of a choice.

'''Lore of Life (Recommended)''': <strike>With the Loremaster discipline on a Slann, and thus allowing you to get every spell from the lore, this is probably the best choice as Earth Blood, Flesh to Stone, and Regrowth keep your warriors in the battle and help mitigate their relatively small numbers.</strike> Slann can only be a Loremaster in High Magic as of the most recent Armybook. Life is still awesome but Slann can't count on always having the Throne anymore. Throne of Vines helps make your Slann from killing himself and lets Flesh to Stone buff your Saurus to Toughness 8 (as well as buffing the effectiveness of the other spells)! Finally, Dwellers Below is possibly one of the most ridiculous spells in the game and can nuke entire units with no looking back. Generally this is probably the best of the lores to use for a balanced or defensive list. Remember that any good opponent will packing at least 1 Scroll so never depend on your first Dwellers working. In fact depend on it not working.

'''Lore of Light (Recommended)''': Although Life is probably better in a large tournament game Light can be devastating in Saurus-heavy armies with a Slann in the center. Birona's Timewarp and The Speed of Light are probably the best spells as they make up for the Saurus' low Initiative and mediocre Weapon Skill. The Timewarp will also give you an extra Attack and double the Movement, turning the Saurus into something more akin to Ogres in power (that's 3 attacks and 8 movement by the way) . Best of all is that both of them and their little cousin Pha's Protection (an Augment that will help against shooting and getting hit in combat at a -1 To Hit) can all be cast as 12" bubble buffs that can affect all units, allowing an army with a Slann in the center to be twice as effective. On another note the lore has some pretty good utility spells that can clear chaff (and also get a bonus versus the foul Undead and Daemons) and help stop your opponent from getting dangerous flank charges (The Net of Amyntok). All in all probably the second best lore for Lizards. One other thing to note is if you get some lucky rolling you can cast bubble Speed of Light and Phas Protection. The astute among you will notice that means most core (WS4 and lower) will be hitting your mighty Saurus on 6's. This is obviously huge and the fact that more people don't do this makes me sad.

'''Lore of Shadow''': The Lore Attribute is probably the most important part to the use of this Lore for lone Slann. Allowing the Slann to switch with any other character within 24" after a successful casting is a great way of getting him out of combats and switching in an expendable Skink or a fighty Saurus Character <strike>(assuming you are not in a Temple Guard block where you can't leave the unit</strike> 8th Ed book no longer states he must remain or even join TG). On the casting side of things Shadow is the most expensive lore to cast in the game <strike>which shouldn't be a problem for a Slann with the Discipline of Ruination for the extra Casting Die each spell</strike> - no ruination anymore in 8th. Otherwise most of the spells are Hexes that lower the capability of your opponent's units. Now a rundown of each spell:
* '''(Signature) Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma''': Lowering your opponent's WS, BS, LD, or I is great with Saurus as they have poor Initiative and a poor WS for elite troops. This spell allows you to level the playing field and hopefully start hitting on 3's. This Hex can also be used for hilarious effect with Purple Sun in the Lore of Death.
* '''(1) Steed of Shadows''': I guess it's cheap to cast but I've never seen a use for it as a Saurus leader is useless without his unit and Skink Priests and Chiefs have other ways to get flying. It could be lolzy for a flying Carnosaur or switching around with a Death lore Slann in the hilarious dual Shadow/Death Slann list but otherwise it seems to lack any use other than switching for the Sig if you don't have Loremaster (which you should).
* '''(2) The Enfeebling Foe''': Minus D3 Strength is okay for your Saurus but they are probably Tough enough already so they don't really need it. Could be okay versus Monsters and keeping your high Armour Saves.
* '''(3) The Withering''': The true winner of this lore in my opinion. Lowering you're opponents Toughness is one of the best Hexes in this game...

'''Lore of High Magic''': The signature Lizardmen lore, shared with High Elves(the Slann did teach them how to use magic after all). It is a pretty well balanced Lore for Lizardmen and much better suited for them than for High Elves. Hand of Glory gives +D3 Initiative/Movement/Weapon Skill, with its High Casting option giving +D3 to all of the stats, not just one. This counters Lizardmens average Weapon Skill (Saurus, warmachines created to fight, have WS3, unless they're on a Cold One or are Temple Guard, then you have WS4, Skinks have WS2) and Initiative. The Movement buff is just gravy. This is much better for Lizardmen than High Elves, since High Elves are rocking WS4 on their basic troops, and WS5/WS6 on their Rare/Specials. Walk Between Worlds is also useful for Lizardmen, especially for units such as Fuck-You-A-Saurs, Kroxigors, Cold One Cavalry and, most importantly, Salamanders. This allows you to move into perfect flanking positions, allowing your units to dish out some hurt while the opponent is tar-pitted against Saurus. The Salamanders are perfect for this spell as you can have as many as you want, a unit of 5 Salamanders shooting five S4 Flame Cannon Template shots over a horde of something or a tough unit to weaken them for your Saurus, is golden. Vaul's Unmaking is useful for removing powerful magical items from Lords/Heroes, especially named/special ones. I'm looking at you Tyrion (+3S sword, 1+/4++ Magic Armour, Gem) or Grimgor Ironhide (+2S ASF axe) and so on. The final High Magic spell, Fiery Convocation, is useful as it will constantly cause hits on the unit, regardless of how big it is. That 40 block horde? They all take a hit. It can whittle them down for your units to finish them off.

There are other viable Lores, such as Fire, but you can't get Loremaster any more, making it a bit of a problem. Even with Lore of Life, you're still only getting 4 spells out of 6.

Heads up people! With the new End times Khaine book, Slann are stupidly strong. If they know one spell from a lore then they know the entire lore now! Meaning the signature spell discipline they can take? Yeah can know all spells from all the basic lores now... And if they are Loremasters of a lore then they get to Reroll Casting attempts of that lore! So you can stick to High Lore and have a higher chance of casting all the spells you need! And ONE MOOOOORE THING!(Shush Uncle!) When the Slann use the High Magic Lore attribute then the moment they get a spell from a Lore they learn the '''Entire Lore'''.
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==Tactics==

There's a school of thought that stipulates that in order to win in WFB you need to be control 2 out of the 4 Phases in a turn. Lizardmen have magic and combat handed to them, so choosing to not take a Slann is really only useful if you're sure that its power as a magic user is unnecessary in the battle to be played. Lizardmen don't have the mobility to control the Movement Phase and we really don't have any truly dedicated ranged units like Elves or Empire.

Because of the lack of mobility on Lizardmen units and lack of long-ranged firepower, one should not play defensively. Imagine if Dwarfs lacked their warmachines and ranged units. No one would play Dwarfs because you could shoot the crap out of them for 3-4 turns and then run around behind them and flank the survivors. Lizardmen can't just stand there and shoot. The whole army needs to grind forward. Grind is really the best word here, if you're doing it right you should be making steady progress and crush anything that tries to stall you.

While some units can really move around compared to your Saurus, those units are all skinks, which means they're dead if you opponent looks at them with raised eyebrows. The exception is Cold One Cavalry which is pretty pricey and therefore will never be fielded in the numbers necessary to play them in a super-effective way.
:'''Alternative view''': ''Cold One cav cost 35 points each whereas Saurus cost 11. Saurus on foot get 2 Attacks whereas Cold Ones riders get 3 and 2 of those are at Strength 5 on the charge. They also have M7, a base 2+ Armour Save and 1 extra WS which helps a surprising amount. The big thing is that with 1" bases you reach critical mass very easily. Basically with 210 points you'll get 12 hits from COC against WS3 at S4/5 on the charge and COC won't die easily. 210 points of Saurus gives you 9 hits or 12 with spears if you run them 6 wide which you should at that point cost. All in all COCs are situationally more point cost effective than Saurus, generally against WS3, S3/4 units. Either way in a standard list run 5 COC to flank charge an existing combat.''

Against mobile armies like Bretonnia, Wood Elves or people who still think cavalry is good, don't wait for the knights or warriors to charge your flanks. Get a Skink skirmisher unit to stand in the way or charge them. Mobile armies will be a pain in the butt, especially if they have ranged cavalry as you will never catch them without carefully noting terrain placement etc.

Tarpits are something to avoid, even though your Saurus units will probably wipe out the offending unit (unless it's a half decent one like a Hammerer dart with a Dwarf Lord running a 1+ rerollable Armour Save and a 4++ in front or sword and board Grave Guard), it wastes time and options. That said if you do get tarpitted, don't worry. 90% of tarpits won't do much to your Saurus and very few have a real chance of beating 40+ Saurus Warriors (you did take a Horde right?). Try to avoid tarpits getting to your Temple Guard as you want them to be free to deal with issues not bogged down playing whack-a-mole.

<strike>Warmachines are the most annoying things for Lizardmen players. You have 2 options to deal with them quickly. Players who rely on warmachines to win are pussy bitches or Dwarfs, and should be mocked as such. Stone Throwers are absolute cunts when they hit and several Bolt Throwers will chew through a unit quickly. Against Dwarfs this is doubly so. In fact during a Dwarf player's Deployment Phase while they look to place their lame ass contraptions play this clip from Community where Senor Chang perfectly describes warmachine-heavy armies: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVneqqeyO2M] </strike>

The most annoying thing for Lizardmen players has to be Purple Sun of Xereus (just ask my mate Jed). You're marching along, merry as can be, when some poncy spellcaster decides to royally fuck up your plans. Bye-bye to TWO-THIRDS OF YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING ARMY IN ONE GODDAMN PHASE. They'll six-dice it every turn, so either fuck them up before they do the same to you or carry a Dispel Scroll and hope the poncy prick shoves his staff where the Purple Sun doesn't shine.

{{Warhammer_Tactics_Races}}
[[Category:Warhammer/Tactics]]

Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Lizardmen

2018-02-15T20:13:28Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:Theodorakis.jpg|800px|left|thumb|Mikis Theodorakis, a Slann Lizardman disguised as a human exploiting the regressive obsession of the Greeks with the past glory of ancient Macedonia to restore the old dominance of his race.]]
[[File:Lizardmen race.jpg|800px|right|thumb|And here is an empire determined to overshadow Alexander the Great that the fans of Mikis Theodorakis are so proud of as it emerges in an age when people are too arrogant to understand its threat.]]

==Why Play Lizardmen==
Let's face it, because you like Dinosaurs and you like great looking models.
Lizardmen Core is extremely good. Saurus being tough and hard-hitting, Skinks filling many roles, acting as charge redirectors, harassing, shooting, scouting. Their elite infantry, Temple Guard, are complete murder in large packs and will roll over any infantry except the strongest units of Chaos Warriors. They have diverse and extremely powerful monsters, one of the best spellcasters in the entire game and Saurus characters are perfectly designed to destroy enemy Lords and Heroes in a quick, confusing and bloody fight, all the while riding a T-Rex or a raptor.

Lizardmen used to dominate by sheer magic power, as Slann were incredibly overpowered, stealing the light from the mainstay of a good Lizardmen army: infantry that simply refuses to run away and deals terrible damage.

Most Lizardmen units benefit from one or more of the following awesome special rules:
*Cold-Blooded: All Lizardmen units can roll three dice and choose the two lowest for Leadership tests.
*Scaly Skin: This is an Armour Save of some description, which combines with other armour. Most models have the 5+ version, but a few have 4+. Skinks now do gain a 6+ Scaly Skin which is a nice buff considering they went down in Leadership.
*Predatory Fighters: Most Saurus and Kroxigors gain this new rule which allows them to gain more attacks by rolling 6's to hit. The downside is that these extra 6'es don't generate further attacks and the unit must Pursue unless there is a Skink Character within 6". Luckily they don't have to Overrun so there are very few downsides to this special rule. Thanks blessed Vetock. Be warned that this rule affects Temple Guard, which might drag a Slann Mage-Priest with them into a trap!
*Aquatic: Skinks have Marsh and River Strider, gain the ability to become Steadfast in that terrain, and gain a -1 to hit against shooting. A great way to use the terrain to your advantage for flanking and general disruption while not getting bogged down (I see what you did there) in terrain.

Last but not least, Lizardmen are one of the greatest sights in the game because they usually consist of very colourful units, the minis are great with almost no exception, and the mix of reptilian Aztecs with giant blood-hungry dinosaurs is the tightest shit ever.

==Unit Analysis==
===Lords & Heroes===
====Named Characters====
'''Note:''' Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced. You can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

*'''[[Lord Kroak]]:''' Story wise, he used to be [[God-Emperor of Mankind|the World's greatest magician, but then after a few thousand years or so he became a super-powerful corpse attached to a Magic Throne]]. He has a raft of special rules, including Unbreakable, Causes Fear, a 3+ Ward Save, -1 To Hit for any normal attacks directed at him, and the very powerful spell ''Deliverance of Itza''. However, he's '''400 points''', ''only'' knows that one spell, and is Flammable. Although fluffy and occasionally fun, you're almost always better off with an ordinary Slann (although he can make an awesome [[Counts As]] Mage Priest). Incidentally with The End Times Kroak can now take the Lore of Undeath, since it says that ALL wizards can generate spells from it (and with him being dead himself you can certainly argue he's more in tune with Death Magic than most Necromancers), so now he has a proper lore again! Though this is probably going to be FAQ'd out pretty soon.

*'''Lord Mazdamundi:''' Currently the most powerful Mage Priest, Mazdamundi rides a Stegadon. Like Lord Kroak, he has a massive raft of rules: four Slann disciplines, Stubborn, a 4+ Ward Save, Loremaster in any lore he wants, Always Strikes First with Strength 5 Poisoned attacks, destroys other magic items, owns a Battle Standard, and a mount that has a 2+ Scaly Skin save and grants Mazdamundi a 2+ armor save. If the Stegadon is killed, he can still use his Palanquin to move around. Yes, Mazdamundi ''sounds'' pretty awesome, but he costs a whopping '''780 points''', meaning he's impractical in all but the biggest battles. He also lost some of his godly 7th ed rules such an unlimited amount of dice when casting, a super-powerful spell, and the ability to re-roll Miscasts. Also his supposedly awesome weapon hits at WS2. To make matters worse, Zlaqq, his Stegadon, described as the biggest in Hexoatl (the most militarized City, with entire herds of them) has the profile of a normal Ancient Stegadon. It doesn't even get Sharpened Horns (Impact Hits causing D3 wounds) or Devastating Charge. Overall grossly overpriced for what he does, and this is sad since he is supposed to be one of, if not the, strongest wizard alive.

*'''Kroq-Gar:''' The pinnacle of Saurus carnage, mounted on the pinnacle of giant predators, all this represented by a wonderful model. Fluff-wise, Kroq-Gar is the absolute perfection of the Saurus race. One of the greatest warriors currently alive and simply the one you can trust to protect Lustria against invaders. Among his accomplishments are: fighting an unending horde of Daemons for 1000 years, being 8000 years old and still one of the best warriors of his entire species, being the sole survivor of a destroyed city, being entrusted to lead the crusade against Chaos by Lord Mazdamundi himself, and much more. He rides Grymloq, a massive Carnosaur, and together they pack a 5+ Ward Save. If Kroq-Gar or his mount is killed, the surviving one gets Frenzy. His spear gives him +1S on the Charge and deals two Wounds for the price of one (and he has 5 Attacks). For unknown reasons, despite millennia of fighting and winning against every kind of foe and being the strongest Saurus alive, he is still WS6. His Hand of the Gods is a Bound Spell casting 'Light of Shem' from the Lore of Light. Grymloq is also the only named mount to retain an improved stat line over 'basic' mounts in the Lizardmen book. However, the same problem as Lord Mazdamundi apply: at 520 pts, he is restricted to large battles, and Grymloq cannot have any of the upgrades normal Carnosaurs have. He doesn't even have the Blood Frenzy rule (unending Frenzy after causing the loss of 1 hp) which is standard on the basic version.

*'''Chakax:''' Once upon a time, Chakax choked a Daemon Prince with his bare hands, fought hundreds of wild jungle creatures for 2 days straight, guarded his unconscious Mage-Priest for weeks in the middle of the jungle, etc. When both he and a Slann are in a unit of Temple Guards, the whole unit becomes Unbreakable (until one of the two is killed). At the beginning of the Close Combat Phase, his mace forces the enemy to reveal all their Magic Items, and if he hits with it, he destroys a random one on a 5+ (only one roll per turn, alas). When fighting in a Challenge his Key grants him a 5+ Ward Save and afflicts his opponent with the Always Strikes Last rule, but since he shares it too (his weapon being basically a magical Great Weapon) and is only I3 he is not very likely to hit first, while his Mask prevents enemy Scouts from being placed within 20" of Chakax, and forces the enemy to revealed all hidden units when they are within 20" of Chakax (Skaven assassins, Night Goblin fanatics, etc.). Best used for defense, but unfortunately not very useful otherwise. Overall the worst named character in this book.

*'''Gor-Rok:''' Gor is his name, Gore is his game, and oh Old Ones, he Rocks at it. If you're making a model of him and at least one half of him isn't drenched in blood, you are doing it wrong. He is Stubborn, rerolls failed To Hit rolls (generating Predatory Fighter attacks on a 5+) and can ignore Killing Blow, Heroic Killing Blow and Multiple Wounds on a 2+, losing only 1 Wound if successful. Units charging him have to take Dangerous Terrain tests with a -1 modifier. At a new and improved cost of 185 points, he is interesting even in small games where he can hold your main line, while he can make a pack of Saurus really fearsome in larger battles. This is a character you want to put in a larger unit and wait for the enemy to charge. Very resistant, with T6 and an Armour Save of 2+, he is the perfect guy to take and hand out Challenges. However, he only has 2 Wounds, making him too frail to fight strong characters by himself. A lesser Gor-Rok can be emulated by spending 40 points on Sacred Helm of Itza on a Scar-Vet or Oldblood.

*'''[[Tehenhauin]]:''' The cheapest Lord the Lizardmen have (at 230pts), he is a Level 3 Wizard who uses the Lore of Beasts, is Immune to Poison, Unbreakable, has Poisoned Attacks, gains +1S on the turn he charges, has a 5+ ward save, and he makes all Skinks (and only skinks, not Mounts, Kroxigors in Skink units, etc.) hate Skaven. He rides a Tide of Serpents but can ride an Ancient Stegadon with an Engine of the Gods (for a bonus 280pts) like any normal Skink Priest. Though of little interest in most scenarios, he is a must-have in an all-Skink army or when fighting a Skaven army.

*'''Tetto'Eko:''' The only Skink Priest to ride a Palanquin, he is a Level 2 Lore of Heavens Loremaster. He can be accompanied by Skinks like Slann with their Temple Guard and can predict the future. In short, a buffed-up Skink Priest but without the upgrades or mount. When he is present, he lets you roll a D6 at the start of your turn: on a roll of a 1 you have to reroll all your 6's when casting, 2+ lets you reroll all 1's when casting. Not only do your casters get to reroll their 1's, this also affect the magic machines carried by Stegadons and Bastilladons, which improves them ten-fold. After deployment but before determining who gets the first turn, you may Vanguard D3 of your units because of his ability to predict the future. This may allow you to get your Stegadons and Carnosaurs into your opponent's face right off the bat, possibly avoiding a round of artillery fire. If Tetto'Eko successfully casts the spell ''Comet of Cassandora'', you may re-roll the dice at the start of each player Magic Phase to see if the comet arrives. His Palanquin gives him a 5+ Ward Save. In short: he is the missing link between the Skink Priest and the Slann. In larger battles, a Slann is more interesting, but because he is a Hero you could run both. His very reasonable point cost combined with always useful abilities make him (arguably) the best named character in the book.

*'''Tiktaq'To:''' A silly name, but a balanced character. Anyone shooting at him or his unit suffers an additional -1 To-hit, he has a 6+ Ward Save and Magic Resistance (1) as protection. His blade ignores Armour Saves and the unit he is with can perform a sort of Deep-Strike. He is as useful as a Skink special character can get. He can also upgrade a unit of Terradon Riders to have Ambush. However, thanks to the 8th Edition BRB, Flying Characters CANNOT join Flying Units, so he's fucked. In 7th, there was a special rule for Terradons allowing Characters to join Flying Units. It's no longer there. One can assume that it's changed in 9th (and thus written as such) or was assumed he could join but others could not (his special rule says him AND his unit benefit from it. He can join units).

*'''Oxyotl:''' Fluff-wise, like Kroq-Gar, Oxyotl belongs in the incredibly tough 8000 years survivors category, as he spent millenia in the Chaos Realms assassinating Greater Daemons before finding his way back to the normal world. On the tabletop however, he is nothing impressive. His only tricks being Sniper and a blowpipe that fires 3 times a turn instead of 2. He may be the cheapest Special Character the Lizardmen have at 160pts, but he is still only useful in small battles, where he is in fact devastating. In larger games, he does not perform anything a unit of normal Chameleons cannot do.
::'''Alternative''': ''No- what about VS VCs and TKs? Then the Sniper rule comes into play. Level 4 Necromancer- stay still then, at 6" shoot 3 shots- these need 4s to hit and are Poisoned on 5+. Watch your opponent cry as this orange devil runs around sniping characters until they waste time in killing him- like normal Skink but better.''
----

====Generic Characters====
''Note:'' While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

*'''[[Slann]] Mage-Priest:''' Big Pappa Toad, the core of most armies.
**The good: a Slann is a powerful Level 4 caster with an in-built 4+ Ward Save and can be both general and BSB at the same time. It has the ability to ignore terrain and is never considered on foot while still being Infantry, has five Wounds, the ability to swap spells with other Slann and to cast trough friendly Skink Priest models. He also has a lot of synergy with Temple Guard: units joined by a Slann are Stubborn, Immune to Psychology, and allow the Slann to auto-pass Look Out Sir! Additionally, since he is fielded in the second rank rather than the first he is never going to be involved in actual combat and can cast spells even while his unit is busy fighting in melee. A choice of Disciplines (see below) helps to make Slann one of the best generic wizards of the game.
**The bad: being the BSB means he drops dead if his unit flees from combat. Thankfully in a TG block and with the Banner of Discipline this is highly unlikely to happen.
**The ugly: sporting a pricetag of 300 fucking point vanilla, he is expensive as all fucks and Magic Items and Disciplines only worsen the situation. Mind you, he still does repay every single point you invest on him if you are careful not to make sub-par decisions.
::'''Another take''': ''300 is a lot of points but think about it, he has two of things as standard most characters don't have:''
::*''4+ Ward built in (45 points from the rulebook) ''
::*''lv4 as standard (roughly a lvl3 character is roughly the 185 mark so adding 35 points to them makes them with no gear 220 points)''
::''See? We are already at the 265 mark without accounting for his palanquin (counting as on foot but not on foot for Pit of Shades, etc which is amazingly good) and his ability to cast spells out of Skink Priest models. This plus his statline is why I think he is a relatively good purchase for 300 points.''

*'''DISCIPLINES'''
** Reservoir of Eldritch Energy: Can carry over an extra Dispel Dice on the roll of a 2+ to next Magic Phase. Nifty and cheap at 20 points. Though not a first pick, it is a close second.
** Soul of Stone: Can add or subtract 1 to the Miscast Table results. Will save your life sometimes but not that awesome. Still, it is only 25 points.
** Becalming Cogitation: Re-rolls its first failed dispel attempt in each Magic phase. Cheap at 25 points and good pick.
** Wandering Deliberations: Can learn Signature Spells from all 8 battle lores. Can't use with the Loremaster one. The eight signatures are nothing to sneeze at and each of them benefits from the Lore Attribute. It is kinda sad that we need to spend 30 points on this while a level 2 High Elf Lord with Combat Lord stats has it by default, though. If playing The End Times just fucking take this, I repeat, TAKE THIS IN END TIMES because with the new rules it will allow your Slann to know every spell of the eight battle lores (confirmed for the Loremaster of Hoeth so no reason to doubt it will work for the Slann). Yes, you heard right: for 30 points you get 64 spells (7 from each lore + each of the End Times spells for the BRB lores) and 4d6 dice from the powered-up Winds of Magic rolls. This is immense! Just remember it works only if you have the The End Times book.
** Harmonic Convergence: Roll two additional dice whenever attempting to Channel Power or Dispel dice. Nothing impressive until you notice the existence of Channeling Staff: suddenly you are Channeling three times a turn on a 5+. 30 points (plus 15 for the staff) rarely tasted so good.
** The Harrowing Scrutiny: Slann causes Terror. Meh... 30 points of overpriced garbage. Take the Shrieking Blade for 5 points and get Fear instead.
***'''Alternative Opinion''': ''This can be very good when facing low LD armies, as it means they might run away and not bog down your TG bunker - Still situational, mind you.''
** Transcendent Healing: Roll a d6 for each wound Slann has lost. On a 6 he regains it. Not bad, but not reliable enough to be good at 30 points.
** Unfathomable Presence: Can get Magic Resistance D3 each Magic Phase. Skip this one. If you are willing to spend 30 points on this you'd better pay the same 30 for MR2 with Obsidian Amulet and get the 2+ Save against spells, unless you truly need that Dragonbane Gem on your Slann.
** Focus of Mystery: Becomes a Loremaster in High Magic. Can't use with the Signature Spell one. 35 points are worth it? High Magic is a great lore that can do a bit of everything. Has two Signatures (you get both of them with this Discipline, obviously) so you get a grand total of eight spells. Great synergy with the Lizardmen army and don't forget its awesome Lore Attribute, Contemplation, that lets you forget a High magic spell after you cast it and roll for a new one on any other lore, which carries its Lore Attribute with it and can be swapped for the Signature. You can swap your less useful spells and tailor your list to better suit the situation during the game, so yes, it is fucking worth it. Overall one of the best Disciplines, even more so now that Slann can't Loremaster any other lore.
** Higher State of Consciousness: Slann becomes Ethereal and Unstable but can't join units. Costs as much as two other Disciplines, clocking in at 60 points, so take it only if you are absolutely positively sure about what the fuck you are doing. Used to be popular in 7th edition, but has not been seen around much lately. Can be deadly to your Slann, as losing combat will cause unsaveable Wounds.

*'''Saurus Oldblood:''' Killing machine. Can ride a Cold One or a Carnosaur. Can be tooled up to either assassinate Lord characters and Daemons, or solo regiments of infantry. Given how expensive a Slann is, he shows up in smaller battles as a general or in larger battles as a second Lord choice. Old Bloods have a 4+ Scaly Skin by default and a lot of Attacks before you buy any upgrades. However, these upgrades are expensive: the Carnosaur alone costs almost as much as a naked Slann (and the figurines themselves are not cheap either). The main downside is how hard it is to use both an Old Blood on Carnosaur and a Slann, because of their cost. One bad cannonball and you're down around 400 points. A very powerful build for the Old Blood is giving him the Armour of Destiny and the Fencer's Blades. This means he gets 6 S5 attacks at WS10. The build also gives him great survivability with a 2+ Armour Save and 4+ Ward. Guaranteed to make opponents rage, especially in smaller point games (such as 1000). The drawback to this build is that it cannot be a mounted Oldblood due to using two hand weapons so no extra armour from a Cold One or Carnosaur sadly.

*'''Saurus Scar Veteran:''' A lesser Old Blood at an affordable price. He can now even ride a Carnosaur. It still dishes out that Saurus melee butchery that makes people cry and it can ride a Cold One if you want him mounted but don't have enough points to take a Carnosaur. If your Slann is not your BSB, a Scar Vet can and take a magical banner. In larger games where you can afford a few Scar Vets (or a a couple of them and an Old Blood), equip them and use them like missiles: send a kitted-out Scar Vet after one thing and watch it get maimed. In smaller games they're more useful sitting in Saurus units to chew through infantry. Solid choice as a General at low level games and good in larger battles for supplementary killing power. If you take a Slann and a Scar Vet, you can have a very nice combo: a Carnosaur and your magical toad!

*'''Skink Chief:''' Cheaper now and with more mounted options this guy is a little more viable. Only take this guy mounted as he's way too soft compared to the Saurus characters, and Skinks in general suck as proper ranked units. Can take Stegadons, Ancient Stegadons and Terradons as mounts, which is what you should be doing. On a Terradon it can do some good character hunting and screw warmachine crews, as well as provide a Leadership buff to that Terradon unit, but it means your general should be someone else. Not a solid General choice but nice as a supporting character and a means to getting another big dinosaur on the table. Like the Scar Vet, he can be the BSB. You could use him against an opponent for tying down a monster- 5 dead Skinks a turn isn't much and tying down a 250pt model for 4 turns is surely worth 145 points (20 Skinks + Chief).

*'''Skink Priest:''' Good low-level Wizard. Can act as a range extender for Slann allowing them to send Magic Missiles or Direct Damage spells as if the Slann was where the Priest is standing. Can take the Engine of the Gods if mounted on a Stegadon, which makes a combination of a killing machine, maximum safety for the character and very powerful support to nearby units. They're limited to the Lores of the Heavens and Beasts but they have enough Magic Items to maximize their usage. They support the Slann or are used in large numbers to spam spells down the enemy's throat. Do not underestimate them as they have access to Comet Of Cassandora and Lizardmen are the only army that can reliably spam that spell. Wyssan's Wildform is a spell tailor-made for making Lizardmen rape machines.

===Core Units===
*'''Skinks:''' Cheap and spammable light infantry. Kroxigors can be taken in the second rank of the unit and are allowed to attack normally over the front rank of Skinks. This gets some heavy hitters in there. Overall, Skink units are a good place to put these thugs. They have a higher Ld and pass on the effect of causing Fear to the unit. Despite weak (native) Leadership and terrible Toughness, Skinks can be surprisingly effective against non-elite infantry and cavalry for one turn, in part thanks to their relatively high Initative. Stand and Shoot combined with the Poison rule enables their shooting attacks to auto wound. However, Skink Cohorts can be upgraded to have Poisoned melee attacks. Cohorts are not bad with this as Javelins can be <s>shot</s> thrown before going into melee. The price you're paying is incredibly low for what they can do.
*'''Skink Skirmishers:''' Always take javelin and shield. Blowpipes are useless on a mobile unit as you'll be needing 7's to hit after -1 Long Range, -1 moving, -1 Multiple Shots which means no poison! Javelins are Quick to Fire, so hit on 5's if you move with them and shoot from Long Range. Blowpipes are for the higher BS Chameleon Skinks. They keep their poison AND you gain a 5+ 6++ in close combat, which makes them infinitely better against chaff. ('''alternative opinion''': ''+1 Armour Save isn't much. As a small unit of artillery hunters with blowpipes are brilliant - march for 2 turns then shoot at close range. Blowpipes have 12" range, and since you can opt out of Multiple Shots, you can just use them as extra range javelins'')Skinks can be great for kiting enemy units and being an all-around thorn in their sides. Put simply, if the Skink Skirmishers manage to inflict wounds on any unit, your opponent will be compelled to either shoot at it, commit a unit to charge it, or try to ignore the damage they're doing. The first option is bad because damage spells and shooting units are overkill against Skink units that size, making it a waste of resources when other, more dangerous units, are around. The second option is bad because most close combat units are significantly more costly than Skinks and are much better suited to stopping/slowing your Saurus bricks from smashing through the battlefield. This gets even worse if the Skinks are able to shoot at the unit prior to the melee and inflict wounds. However, with cheap units like Skaven Clanrats, this is less of an issue, except that large Clanrat units shouldn't chase down half a dozen Skinks, and no one fields those kinds of units with an equivalent cost to your Skinks. With elite units, the problem is further exaggerated because any damage done to the Skinks is pointless. <strike>Most elite units cost close to 30 points a model,</strike> [[Derp]], '''maybe''' really powerhouse heavy cavalry, but most Elite Infantry runs from 12-16 points, which means that more than 2 ranged casualties is a lose-lose tradeoff at best. Ignoring the Skinks, as some players do, is even more stupid because that leaves them free to pick off other skirmishers, violate war machine crews, and chip off wounds from other important units or characters. In summary, Skink Skirmishers are suicide units that force bad tradeoffs for the enemy. They'll die when they're attacked, but it's a lose-lose situation, and in the wider context of the battle this leads the opponent to be inefficient with his units.
::'''Alternative Opinion''': ''Actually, Skink spamming is considered to be a particularly tasty form of [[powergamer|cheese]], since you can literally flood the battlefield in cheap, fast moving, little units with an array of poisoned weapons redirecting, shooting, and irritating your opponent's units to a not-quite-metaphorical death. If you can get Walk Between Worlds and Hand of Glory off on these, it's funny as you don't technically move them, but go 20" forward- then shoot at BS6 with blowpipes needing 3s to hit- on a unit of 20, 40 poisoned shots brings [[lulz]]''
*'''Saurus Warriors:''' The backbone of any Lizardmen army, Saurus Warriors pack a 5+ Scaly Skin save, shields, spears/hand weapons, 2 base Attacks, are Cold Blooded, and are WS3, S4, & T4. When rolling To Hit have a chance of generating more Hits, and they must pursue unless near Skinks. While the unit has some great stats for a hand-to-hand unit, their god-awful Initiative of 1 ensures that they don't leave combat unscathed, and their cost per model, spears included, is higher than just about any other rank-and-file core choice. These two key issues are mostly irrelevant though, because Saurus Warriors are the best fucking brick infantry in the game. Chaos Warriors may be better per model, but they cost a good bit more. Besides, no other faction can field R&F infantry as effective as yours without crippling their army size. Units that engage Saurus Warriors that have the misfortune of getting flanked by another unit of them might as well have never been deployed. Saurus Warriors either smash straight through the enemy lines, or end up in a slow grinding combat that leaves either half a unit of Saurus or a few dazed and bloodstained enemies left, ready to be swept away by the rest of your army. They can realistically tarpit any infantry unit short of Dragon-Ogres and the like, and even they still won't [[Anal Circumference|get through cleanly or untouched]].

===Special Units===
*'''Jungle Swarms:''' 35 points per base, minimum 2 per unit. Previously core units, they were rarely seen. They have now been moved to Special and given a few bonuses making them an interesting if specific choice. The great thing about these is that whenever some Jungle Swarms are in base-to-base contact with an enemy unit, all other Lizardmen units fighting this same unit get Poisoned Attacks! Suddenly your Saurus's 6's auto Wound while still generating new attacks through Predatory Fighter. A Shadow lore Slann casting Okkam's Mindrazor on the Jungle Swarms, making their Strength the same number as their Ld value, makes them devastating as they have 10: this gives them 5 attack S10 per swarm base with Poison Attacks.

*'''Temple Guard:''' Improved Saurus. They get light armour and halberds. When combined with a [[Slann]] (who is no longer forced to join them), they automatically pass Lookout Sir tests, become Immune to Psychology, Stubborn and cause Fear. These guys are easily a must-have if you have a Slann in your army, and are often worth taking even if you don't have a one. They cost a lot more than the Saurus warriors but hit much harder. Remember that due to the way Temple Guards and Slann rank-up, they get relatively few attacks and most combats against rank-and-file will be a slow grind unless you can break the enemy's morale. Lizardmen list usually field at least a pack of 20 TG along with a block of Saurus, and these serve as the main hitting force or tarpits of the army. You can really cheese out your opponent here, because a BSB Slann with Banner of Discipline and another Magic Banner is +3 Combat Resolution - a Horde of 30 is another +2, another +1 for Charging and so on - hey 10X10 Skavenslave unit, fancy a combat? (don't do this, you will never ever break them, and the Skaven will remain Stubborn forever)

*'''Cold One Cavalry:''' Lizardmen cavalry mounted on buffed raptors. They currently get no love because of their high price, making them one of the less cost-effective cavalry option this edition. Cold One Cavalry is in a weird place even regarding their abilities: the rider has a Temple Guard profile with a better Armour Save, as he has no light armour but gets +2 armour points from being mounted on a Cold One. He has no halberd but his spear gives him a +1S on the turn he charges, after which he fights with a normal Saurus Strength but still with better armour than a TG. The Cold One itself has the same profile as a normal Saurus, which means a Cold One rider and his mount are basically a Saurus and a weird TG, cause Fear and move at double speed while having a Stupid mount (which is not too much of a problem thanks to Cold Blooded). Point-wise, they are 30 each without spears, at which point a single one costs more than 2 TG but gets an intermediary profile between 2 Saurus and 1 Saurus + 1 TG. This price factor overshadows anything they can bring to the table as you will generally want more TGs or more Saurus instead of cavalry. They can be extremely useful, but will shine only in specific situation where their speed makes them the perfect hammer to a Saurus unit's anvil. Most people disregard COC entirely and will bring either more infantry or another monster, but these guys are not bad in themselves. A general who knows what he does might decide to field a few of them. However, this will be at the cost of the overall size of the army. Where COC excel is when serving as a delivery system for one or several Scar Veterans or Old Bloods armed to the teeth with magic weapons. They are solid enough to hit hard, soak up damage, and mounted Saurus characters are terrifying. They also provide a flanking unit that can withstand damage.

*'''Terradon Riders:''' Excellent for harassment tactics: hunting warmachine crews, isolated models and skirmishers. Their ability to drop rocks is also handy for softening up something tough before the Saurus or TG can deal the real damage. The ability to drop rocks and the Bola upgrade are interesting and give some punch to a unit which is otherwise quite weak.

*'''Ripperdactyl Riders:''' Competing with Terradon Riders for about the same role on the table, they are 40 pts each (5 more than Terradons) and more combat-oriented: they have Frenzy, but being flying cavalry means you get a free reform at the end of their movement to make sure they point in the direction of something you want to charge anyway. With Armour Piercing and 2 Killing Blow Attacks they are an interesting choice. The Lustrian Bloat Toad allows you to select one enemy unit per Ripperdactyl unit in your army. Against the chosen enemy unit, any Ripperdactyl unit will get an additional D3 Attacks per model generated by Frenzy. Mind you, the Skink riders have WS2, which means they will hit nothing. This make the spear of Rippderdacyl riders a bit useless: the mounts will be dealing the damage.

*'''Bastiladons:''' First unit to receive a 2+ Scaly Skin Armour Save, the Bastiladons only get T5 and will go down quite easily in combats against large infantry blocks. However, Bastiladons are exactly similar to tanks in that you want to use them as support for blocks of infantry. Their true power is in trotting alongside a big block of warriors, protecting their flanks. The +1I bonus of the Solar Engine is nice but only brings normal Saurus to I2, which is not enough to be a game changer. The Chotek spell, however, can really bring some hurt and deals flaming damages, forcing the enemy to either waste dispel dice on it or endure potentially heavy damage. Their second option, the Ark of Sotek, can shoot a weak projectile even when moving or marching, and can generate additional swarms in any Jungle Swarm unit in a 6" radius, which can go beyond the starting number. This is a funny ability but not critical unless you have a good number of swarms.

*'''Kroxigors:''' Giant crocodile-men. They are strong but not numerous enough, and Saurus warriors are a better option as they can absorb more wounds and deal more attacks. That said, they're not a dead unit but will usually serve as support, not as the main hitting force. With a Scaly Skin save of 4+, they're basically in Heavy Armour + Shield and they have S5 and Great Weapons, so that they hit at S7. Kroxigors have 3 Wounds each, 3 Attacks each and cause Fear. Because they are Monstrous Infantry, they can use all 3 of their attacks from the second rank. They can be combined with a Skink Cohort and occupy the second rank, dealing all their attacks. Unfortunately, they can also be attacked even if there is a first rank of Skinks, which means you cannot use the Skinks as shields for them.

*'''Chameleon Skinks:''' Your only Scouts option and great warmachine hunters. Their higher Ballistic Skill allows them to still get Poison on their blowpipe shots, unlike any unit of Skinks which moves. Regular Skink skirmishers require 7's to hit anything outside 6 inches if they move which means no Poison. They have their place in any thematic or fine-tuned army but unfortunately they suffer from the competition of the other Specials which are almost invariably better.

*'''Stegadon:''' The main Lizardmen monster. Few lists do not include a Stegadon, or even several of them. Stegadons are crewed by 5 Skinks who man the Giant Bow (a ballista in all but name), which can shoot even while moving. The Stegadon causes Terror and benefits from a handful of nice rules plus all the things which come with being a Monster.

===Rare Units===
*'''Ancient Stegadon:''' You thought the above was awesome? This guy is tougher, hits harder in combat and does 4D6 blowpipe shots! Again you will see infantry die with this angry old bastard. Then there is the special version mounted by Skink Priests...
**'''Engine of the Gods:''' In the previous book you were only able to take these as a mount for a Skink Priest, however they can now be taken in the rare section. It has 3 different effects:
***1. it gives all your units within 6" a 6+ Ward Save. This means you can go with spears on your Saurus, and still have a 6+ Ward Save.
***2. it can cast a Bound Spell, that does D6 S4 Flaming hits to units within 4D6. Mostly used for clearing chaff, but is just a nice thing to have in the back pocket although it's murder vs Dryads.
***3. each magic phase you can choose 1 lore from the main rulebook, and the Casting Values of all spells in that lore goes down by 1. Nice in a Beast lore Skink Priest spam list, because it will allow you to have an easier time casting Wysans Wildform on your Saurus.

*'''Salamander Hunting Packs:''' This unit can do some serious damage, and it's good for stopping Regenerating faggots. The salamanders got changed quite heavily with the new book. First of all they can no longer march and shoot, meaning you probably wont be shooting first turn anymore. Second they no longer give -3 to Armour Saves with their shooting attack, but it instead got strength 4. These guys are absolutely amazing! They can halve a unit's size with a single shot. These things work miracles!

*'''Razordon Hunting Packs:''' Each of these are able to make an Artillery Die amount of shots with a range of 18" each turn. They can move and shoot but they can no longer march and shoot. They are pretty terribad at hitting, so unless you have a Slann able to buff them with Hand of Glory you won't be hitting with many of the shots. However since they put out such a large amount of shots, at least some of them will hit. Now that there is no limit to the amount you can pack into a single unit, you could take a unit of 8 and just stick them into your enemies face and just dare them charge these guys. Even if he does he will surely come to regret it. Keep in mind that for both hunting pack units, the Skink handlers cannot be targeted by attacks but can dish out a couple of weak attacks back, which has a couple of situational anti-character uses.

*'''Troglodon:''' What a piece of shit this thing is. 200 points for a good looking model that can't do anything well. It's designed to be useful in any phase but M7 isn't anything to to write home about. Its Magic support is an upgrade you have to pay for that lets the Skink rider channel and it has the same rule that Skink Priests have, Arcane Vassal (Slann can cast through them.). The shooting attack is the lamest attempt to make its point cost: 1 S5 poisoned shot with D3 Wounds, with a short range and BS3... You might hit once or twice a game if lucky. In combat it will wilt faster than an erection after seeing goatse: 3 attacks from the beast and 1 from the Skink. The monster is only S/T 5 with a 4+ Scaly Skin save so any S4 infantry can kill it before the Thunderstomp comes. Its Primeval Roar is the only possibly useful thing this unit brings (but you aren't bringing it are you?). Once per game the Troglodon roars and boost all Predatory Fighters within 12" to get extra attacks on a 5+ instead of 6+. Best fielded 4' off the ground in a display case.
::'''Alternative Opinion:''' ''What I believe this guy MEANT to say was: TROGLODONS ARE AWESOME! M7? Awesome: I'm in your face turn one with Arcane Vassal spells (btw take this, and take the Discipline that grants you all the Signature Spells on your Slann and laugh as you snipe your opponents general with Lore of Death turn one). Its shooting is craptacular yes, but why are you shooting with it? Charge flanks with it and when crunch time comes, drop the Roar and watch your Saurus RIP AND TEAR the opponents a new pie hole. This, if enough punch is delivered, will knock seven shades of crap out of most armies, even giving Warriors of Chaos a run for their money. All this pain train for 200 points, oh and its Aquatic for extra lulz.'' (ONLY TIME IT'S SEMI SCARY is when it runs up on a suicide charge into the most populated spot and Lord Kroak channels through it. Otherwise it sucks, go with the original opinion)
::'''Original Opinion:''' ''I am pretty sure the "Alternative Opinion" was posted by Vetock himself. The Troglodon is terrible. Absolute fail in every phase. He seems to think the Arcane Vassal is good when in fact most spells don't even need it. As for his genius tactics of charging flanks with it, well I have been playing Warhammer for years and I can tell you now that it will never survive long enough to hit a flank in combat. As for the 5+ Roar thing: again, your opponent wont really care. Its just 200 points of pure fail. Take an ancient Steg instead.
''

==Building Your Army==
===Buying Your Army===

As always, the Battalion Box is a good start. It comes with 10 Temple Guard, 20 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry and 12 Skinks.

After that you will need to buy probably 2 more Saurus Warrior boxes unless you're going light on Saurus due to crippling fear of victory. Also the Skinks you get aren't really enough to run more than a single unit of skirmishers, so buy box of Skinks. The TG are also undersized so you might want to get another box to get them up to strength. This gives you a total of 20 Temple Guard, 52 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry and 32 Skinks. Mainly this gives you a smattering of units for a lower cost than buying the boxes and the amount you get in the boxed sets will be slightly less than what you need so there is no overflow... or by the sounds of it might just be easier to buy a second Battalion.

*2 Battalion: 20 Temple Guard, 40 Saurus Warriors, 16 Cold One Cavalry and 24 Skinks. 132£
*The other option: 20 Temple Guard, 52 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry, and 32 Skinks. 152£

Aside: it's a very minor thing, but the Cold One Cavalry sprue has decorative bits that can be used as jungle swarms (2 per 8 CoC, if you can rustle up some bases). So if you want jungle swarms the 2nd Battalion may be better. Also, the excess Cold One Cavalry can be modified into a pair of Scar Vets on Cold Ones. Can give you some cheap hitting power and a way to hit a points limit in your initial games until you figure out what you want to buy to flesh out the army.

Getting a Slann is mandatory. No you can't just say "screw it" even if you never play with it. Not having a Slann will get you laughed at by every neckbeard who hears of your foolishness.

If you want to start an army cheap and build up slowly, buy 1 box of Saurus and convert the 16th one to be something else (eg Scar Vet). This is a small army of about 250 points. After that, buy another box of Saurus unless you want to go all Skink.

===Army Composition===

Some people (you know who you are) think Lizardmen (and specifically Saurus), are a defensive army. This, however, is not true. Take 2 blocks of 30 Saurus, with spears if you're a taker (or have Gor-Rok to lead them). These are your main hitting force. Next, take 2+ units of Skinks. Blowpipes used to be better, but now take Lustrian Javelins. Next, your block of Temple Guard. 20 MINIMUM! No cheaping out here: these bad boys are gonna keep your Slann safe so may as well go all out. Buy a magic standard, Flaming is always handy in a pinch. Then you need to get some support...here is where your aquatic friends come in handy. No Flounder or Sebastian up in this shit, hell no! We got lizards who breathe FIRE (<s>despite being water dwelling reptiles...?</s> they spit acid which goes on fire when it comes into contact with the air) and ones that carry a shotgun of spikes to down insects (bring bug spray to Lustria). Two units of any mix well, however a Razordon is 65 points to a Salamander's 80 points, but now they are S4 so slightly better. Use this to hit the enemy, take ranks and warmachines out. They can also flank charge in a pinch (use them to chase down). Do all you can to make that hammer blow fall hard and fast.

That's your base, now your Slann. Ok here is what you want: Becalming Cogitation, Wandering Deliberations, Reservoir of Eldritch Energy and any other one of your choosing. Make the guy a BSB (hey, if he's so expensive as is, may as well make him worth it) Banner of Discipline ftw!

After that it's entirely up to you what to take. Terradons are a good answer to warmachines yet not as good as Ripperdactyls. Bastiladons in both forms are only worth their points if you have a specific plan for them, it's not a unit you can plop down and expect it to work wonders (i.e. you must actually think harder about your battle plan when using these, ditto for Ripperdactyls). GW again trying to push the newest box by making its model the cheapest. Bloodcrushers anyone?

Just remember if you are only taking units of 30 Saurus in a horde with spears, you won't get any real benefit of the fourth rank so consider taking them 6 across for the added lulz.

===Alternate Opinion===

Let's start with the Slann. Becalming Cogitation and Reservoir of Eldritch Energy are fine. It seems, however, that our friend who wrote the above (and messy) composition forgot about High Magic's Lore Attribute, which allows you to forget a spell of High Magic and replace it with one from any of the Eight Battle Magic Lores. These spells will automatically use their associated Lore Attribute and can always be the Signiture spell as per usual spell generation rules. That means, if you're in a bit of trouble, you can cast a High Magic lore spell, switch to Lore of Life, generate one from there, depending on what it is either keep it or swap it for 5+ Regeneration Signature Spell and then cast that. That not only gives a unit a nice Regeneration save (<S>which I believe counts as a 'Ward Save'</S> there are some differences - vulnerability to fire damage comes to mind) but it also gives the Wizard (or any other character in range) a Wound back. You can do this for any Lore. Wandering Deliberations is also good, as mentioned.

Next, as I am sure the above person knows, your General is automatically the character with the highest Leadership. Since Slann have Ld9, that means they are automatically the Army General unless you have more than one Slann or somehow have another Lord with Ld9 or above. Oldbloods have Ld8. This isn't a problem until you give the Slann the Banner of Discipline, which not only turns it into the BSB but gives it Ld+1. That means the Slann will have Ld10. Amazing for casting the Death Lore Signature spell. <strike>However, the Banner of Discipline also states that the Banner wielder cannot be used for Inspiring Presence. Meaning you have lost the ability to use the Slann to rally. This is a important seeing as many of the Lizardmen units are Ld5-6. Coldblooded helps, but is not always sufficient</strike>. As per the BRB FAQ, a General in a unit with the Banner of Discipline may use his Inspiring Presence with the +1 bonus. This gives any Lizardmen under the eyes of a Slann a 99.8% chance of success for all leadership tests. This is so stupidly good for the price that only an idiot would not take it.

Next, mixing Razordons and Salamanders is a fun idea, but they are both different firing types. Firstly, the Salamanders are Slow to Fire and fire as a Flame Cannon, while the Razordon are Quick to Fire and fire as Grapeshot from cannons. It would therefore be better to keep them separate. Yes, there is the bonus that the Razordons will be able to protect the Salamanders, but it's still a mess.

Bastiladons are worth their price. If you take Jungle Swarms, the Ark of Sotek is useful for a chance on a free base every turn, but the key worth is in the Solar Engine. The gem not only gives every Cold Blooded creature within range +1I (which is <s>stupidly useful</s> does nothing for I1 Saurus on protecting them against Pit of Shades for example) which also stacks with Hand of Glory for a potential +4I (and half of your Magic Phase), it's the Gem's power which is the real useful part of it. The spell is Power Level 3, meaning you need only a 3 to cast it (and your opponent needs only a 3 to dispel it). You've got a 66% chance of doing it with one die. Throw two and you're going to be unlucky to not cast it. The spell itself not only causes 1D3-2D6 S3-6 Flaming Hits, but also a 1/6 chance to reduce WS and BS skill by 1 for a turn. The fact you're going to be forcing your opponent to either accept the chance of the spell being powerful and causing damage OR using a couple of dice to dispel it (this is idiotic, Bound Spells are shit in 8th ed, and easily dispellable even by a lvl2 mage). If they do dispel it, you then simply laugh and use your remaining dice to cast some High Magic or Battle Lore spells which your opponent will struggle to dispel (except that they will use the same or even less dice than you used to cast it, since they get their Caster Level bonus to dispel and you do not get it to cast). The Bastiladon is also the proud owner of the only 2+ Scaly Skin Special Rule, meaning you're going to be resisting plenty of attacks. Yes, its Toughness is terrible (and a surprising number, <s>it should be errated IMO</s> it sucks, deal with it) but imagine a Skink Priest casting Wildform from a Lore of Beast on it, giving it +1S and +1T, or even +2/4T from Lore of Life. Making it the true tank it should be (why not cast it on a Stegadon instead?)

===Magic Items===

Yes the Lizardmen have some of the best okay gear available, unfortunately you will pay heavily for that advantage.

====Magic Weapons====
*'''The Blade of Realities:''' A new version of this and still pricey as hell but now ignoring Ward AND Armour Saves. The only downside is that it now takes up all of a Lord's points for magic items and thus robs you of the ability to take any Ward Saves of your own. As such it should probably be left at home for friendly games. On the other hand, since it means that opponents Lords/Heroes will have to rely on Toughness and Weapon Skill to avoid dying, it means you can use it on an Oldblood to go and destroy a specific target. If you put the Oldblood on a Cold One or Fuck-You-A-Saur, you can get a 1+ Armour Save (4+ Scaly Skin + Shield = 3+ - add the Cold One's or Carnosaur's +2 and you're up to 1+. Light armour can be added in case your mount dies so you stay at 2+). You then head straight for that Lord/Hero and unleash hell. Lore of Life's +2/+4 Toughness will make you even more resilient. Lore of Lights Weapon Skill/Initiative augment means you're going to hit more often. Lore of High Magic Movement/Initiative/Weapon Skill at +D3 is useful, but when you can make it so you improve all three it means your Oldblood and his Mount are going to get there quicker and when they do, they're going to be more likely to hit. +3 Movement will mean 9-10 Movement for the Mounts, +3 Initiative will mean your Oldblood is at Initiative 6 (and 7 if near Solar Gem) and +3 Weapon Skill means hitting at Weapon Skill 9. So, while Elves, Vampire Lords and Chaos Lords will still out-Initiative you (and Elves most likely will get re-rolls too) everything else will be hitting after you or at the same time. With WS9, you're likely to hit (bar specific specific Vampire Lord builds, named Elves and certain Elf and Chaos Lord builds, who will also be around WS9... Also any unit with Fencing Blades) and S5 means you're not too bad when it comes to wounding and since you're packing 5 Attacks, you're very much capable of killing any Lord/Hero in one go (though the likes of Tyrion, it'll be difficult). That's ignoring your Mount and the buff it got from the spells. A T9 Fuck-You-A-Saur is pretty fun. So is one with WS6, especially since it has 5 attacks and each one is D3 Wounds. Being able to smile when you tell your opponent that his Lord/Hero or Special Character can't make any saves would be glorious. The best bit, though, would be against the likes of Malekith, who has a 2+ Armour Save (when on mount) and 2+ Ward Save (against non-magical attacks) or against 1+ Armour Save and 3+ Ward Save Chaos Lords. All those points, wasted as you cleave through them. However, many people won't take named characters or spend so many points on a Lord, so the Blade of Realities has very limited uses in competitive play. However, against WAAC's in friendly games, it's delicious. Try this with a Slann just for the lulz (only once though). Laugh as you chew through tanks and still have a Ward Save!
*'''The Piranha Blade:''' Still a little bit expensive but now getting the bonus of reducing enemy armour. Against monster and Heroes probably a good idea but a hefty price to pay. Although as the Armour Piercing stacks on Impact Hits this item should be used on an Oldblood with the Stegadon Helm on a Carnosaur with Swiftstride. This combo is fucking hilarious, and leaves some points for other magic items.
::Another use is to give it to a Scar Vet on foot and challenge as it allows you to rack up the combat bonus with Overkill. With only 4 attacks you have the potential to get one Wound to kill the champ and the +5 Overkill bonus for a total of +6 to combat res. Pretty good for only 4 attacks. On average you'll get around +4ish which is still like Hitting and Wounding AND having your opponent fail all saves.

====Magic Armour====
*'''Sacred Stegadon Helm of Itza:''' The only Magic Armour the Lizardmen get but what an armour! For its bonus to Toughness and Impact Hits it's fricking cheap and your Saurus can also play mini-Minotaur on a Carnosaur for the lulz. For those who don't know, it gives +1 to Armour Save, +1 Toughness AND +D3 Impact Hits. Impact hits don't benefit from your weapon though. Your weapons stats only affect you when striking with it.

====Enchanted Items====
*'''The Cloak of Feathers:''' Yes, the same old thing that was in the <S>Codex</S> Armybook for like 10 editions. Still makes a flying Skink but now with a little bonus of some extra Magic Resistance. As it's cheap, you can use it to get the Priest in nice positions for the Arcane Vassal rule to help get in range for the shorter ranged spells a Slann may have.
*'''The Horn of Kygor:''' A musical instrument carved from a long dead dinosaur. When your Hero blows it, all Monsters and Beasts in your army within range, will gain the Frenzy rule for one turn. As it will not affect the riders and is extremely expensive for a One Use Only item that does fairly little, it's best to leave this at home.
*'''The Egg of Quango:''' Again a little dinosaur souvenir, but this still has life in it. You can summon the ancient dinosaur from its egg and with a little luck (on a 4+) he will clobber your enemies. As a One Use Only and requiring quite a bit of luck this should probably be left at home, but when you like dinosaurs (and that's why you're playing Lizardmen) then it's not bad. Although if it doesn't get so lucky, the poor bird inside dies :'( While it's 'fun' it's also rather silly. The whole point of the Quango was that it was some rare, mystical creature which could change the outcome of the War against Chaos, with Mazamundi deciding when it should be opened... He's decided it is now and it doesn't do anything to help the War in terms of fluff. But it is an amusing item.

====Arcane Items====
*'''Cube of Darkness:''' Basically a 5 point more expensive Dispel Scroll that works on a 2+. In addition, you roll a die for each Remains In Play spell on the board (including your own) and on a 2+ it ends. After taking a Dispel Scroll this is a near "must take" (if you can). Be careful as this item, by RAW, can dispel also your spells!
*'''Plaque of Dominion:''' A Bound Spell that makes enemy mages Stupid. If your opponent has his mage parked within range of a General/BSB leave this at home. If not... probably still leave it at home. Dispel Scroll first, Cube second.

====Magic Standards====
*'''Skavenpelt Banner:''' This banner grants the Frenzy and Hatred (Skaven) rules, and all other Skaven gain Hatred when attacking the bearer. As it is more than 50 points this banner can only be used on the BSB, and taking a Magic Banner on a BSB is a shitty idea as he can't take any other magic items for protection. Except the Slann, who can take much better banners at a cheaper price (e.g. Banner of Discipline) and still take magic items. Skip this item as a smart general will have you're unit chasing chaff as they are frenzied.
**'''Alternative Opinion:''' ''Ignore the special person who wrote above this. Put it on your Slann and watch 3 Attack Temple Guard madness roll across the field. You don't need to worry about hording with this shizzle as it is the cheese. And I don't see you ever failing a Leadership test with Cold Blooded and BSB and Stubborn with Reroll so you will never chase units across the field (wrong, their special rule states they ALWAYS have to pursue, unless they have a Skink with them).''
**'''Alternate Alternative Opinion:''' The Skavenpelt Banner will let you have a stupid amount of fun with your Temple Guard with a Slann BSB. However, the mandatory Overrun will screw over your Temple Guard if your opponent has any sort of chaff unit, or even a unit they don't mind feeding to the blender (which I really cannot imagine being fielded by Skaven, /irony). Also, if you lose combat you may not run, but your BSB is now holding 65 Points of Hatred(Skaven). Fun, but certainly not worth it.
*'''Jaguar Standard:''' Just cheap enough to be used by a unit of Temple Guard, the Jaguar Standard gives the unit Swiftstride. It's an OK choice for a banner but there are others that could probably work better. Nice way to make sure that if the Temple Guard run off after a unit due to their Predatory Fighter rule, they catch and kill whatever fled.

====Summary====
The ones to seriously consider are Cube of Darkness, Piranha Blade, Stegadon Helm, and perhaps the Cloak of Feathers. For any serious lists, don't bother with the rest though they have their uses.

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Remember the BRB also has some nice items.
Let us say you have a Slann, what should you buy it? Well, Banner of Discipline is one option, but that still means 100 magic points left! So, what else to get? Seeing as Vetock nerfed the Discipline that gave Magic Resistance (3) to Magic Resistance (D3) each turn, it would seem as if there was little in the way of magical protection for your Slann.... Except there is! For 40(or 45, I forget) points, you can buy an Obsidian Lodestone, this gives you Magic Resistance (3), guaranteed! This means not only do you not need to spend points on the Discipline (although it's cheaper but vastly inferior) but it means you've always got Magic Resistance (3) and therefore your unit of Temple Guard have it too!

:'''Alternate Opinion:''' ''A Slann already has a 4+ Ward Save, so on a 3+ you get a 2+ Ward against spells. Take Channeling Staff and Harmonic Convergence for Power Dice spam, and have the Obsidian Lodestone somewhere else.''

What else, you ask? Well, it seems as if writers have been slowly changing the way Fear and Terror works. You can now have just one model with the ability and everybody else in the unit has it. Although the BRB says this isn't the case, newer Armybooks are mentioning it. In the case of Lizardmen, it says that models in base contact with a Slann gain the cause Terror or cause Fear rule, so basically the unit causes it. So what does that mean? It means you buy a Shrieking Blade! For a mere 10 points, your Slann now causes Fear, therefore your Temple Guard unit now causes Fear! You could buy the Terror Discipline, but it's way more expensive. This is around 55 points (or 50, as I said, I forgot).

Spend the rest of your points on Cube of Darkness and Dispel Scroll ''(you cannot, just 1 Arcane Item per a character, and you already took the Channeling Staff).'' This means you have a Slann with 3+ Ward Save against Magical Attacks/Spells, which also affects your Temple Guard, but also the Slann causes Fear, making it possible for any unit charging your Temple Guard to be reduced to WS1, allowing your Temple Guard to have an even higher chance of survivability!

===Magic===

Yes please.

Now after the new book, the Lizardmen have gotten High Magic (the High Elf magic) for their Slann. Well not bad at all but the real thing is in the Lore Attribute: Contemplation. It allows you to forget a spell you successfully cast, and generate a new one out of High Magic or any normal Lore. This means you can drop spells you don't need and get new ones. Playing against Daemons? Light magic is there. Fighting against Chaos Knights? There you go: Searing Doom.

With magic, one of the biggest choices is which Lore for the Slann. Generally Life is regarded as the best for Slann as it can prevent Miscasts from nuking your Mega-Toad. Plus, who doesn't like Toughness 6 Saurus? Aside from your opponent, I mean. Generally it's best to take a lore based on your opponent's army. Metal and Shadow are pretty good choices. Heavens is a big NO as you already have Skink Priests to cast that one for you.
Typically, people opt for either Life or Light, with Life being more popular of a choice.

'''Lore of Life (Recommended)''': <strike>With the Loremaster discipline on a Slann, and thus allowing you to get every spell from the lore, this is probably the best choice as Earth Blood, Flesh to Stone, and Regrowth keep your warriors in the battle and help mitigate their relatively small numbers.</strike> Slann can only be a Loremaster in High Magic as of the most recent Armybook. Life is still awesome but Slann can't count on always having the Throne anymore. Throne of Vines helps make your Slann from killing himself and lets Flesh to Stone buff your Saurus to Toughness 8 (as well as buffing the effectiveness of the other spells)! Finally, Dwellers Below is possibly one of the most ridiculous spells in the game and can nuke entire units with no looking back. Generally this is probably the best of the lores to use for a balanced or defensive list. Remember that any good opponent will packing at least 1 Scroll so never depend on your first Dwellers working. In fact depend on it not working.

'''Lore of Light (Recommended)''': Although Life is probably better in a large tournament game Light can be devastating in Saurus-heavy armies with a Slann in the center. Birona's Timewarp and The Speed of Light are probably the best spells as they make up for the Saurus' low Initiative and mediocre Weapon Skill. The Timewarp will also give you an extra Attack and double the Movement, turning the Saurus into something more akin to Ogres in power (that's 3 attacks and 8 movement by the way) . Best of all is that both of them and their little cousin Pha's Protection (an Augment that will help against shooting and getting hit in combat at a -1 To Hit) can all be cast as 12" bubble buffs that can affect all units, allowing an army with a Slann in the center to be twice as effective. On another note the lore has some pretty good utility spells that can clear chaff (and also get a bonus versus the foul Undead and Daemons) and help stop your opponent from getting dangerous flank charges (The Net of Amyntok). All in all probably the second best lore for Lizards. One other thing to note is if you get some lucky rolling you can cast bubble Speed of Light and Phas Protection. The astute among you will notice that means most core (WS4 and lower) will be hitting your mighty Saurus on 6's. This is obviously huge and the fact that more people don't do this makes me sad.

'''Lore of Shadow''': The Lore Attribute is probably the most important part to the use of this Lore for lone Slann. Allowing the Slann to switch with any other character within 24" after a successful casting is a great way of getting him out of combats and switching in an expendable Skink or a fighty Saurus Character <strike>(assuming you are not in a Temple Guard block where you can't leave the unit</strike> 8th Ed book no longer states he must remain or even join TG). On the casting side of things Shadow is the most expensive lore to cast in the game <strike>which shouldn't be a problem for a Slann with the Discipline of Ruination for the extra Casting Die each spell</strike> - no ruination anymore in 8th. Otherwise most of the spells are Hexes that lower the capability of your opponent's units. Now a rundown of each spell:
* '''(Signature) Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma''': Lowering your opponent's WS, BS, LD, or I is great with Saurus as they have poor Initiative and a poor WS for elite troops. This spell allows you to level the playing field and hopefully start hitting on 3's. This Hex can also be used for hilarious effect with Purple Sun in the Lore of Death.
* '''(1) Steed of Shadows''': I guess it's cheap to cast but I've never seen a use for it as a Saurus leader is useless without his unit and Skink Priests and Chiefs have other ways to get flying. It could be lolzy for a flying Carnosaur or switching around with a Death lore Slann in the hilarious dual Shadow/Death Slann list but otherwise it seems to lack any use other than switching for the Sig if you don't have Loremaster (which you should).
* '''(2) The Enfeebling Foe''': Minus D3 Strength is okay for your Saurus but they are probably Tough enough already so they don't really need it. Could be okay versus Monsters and keeping your high Armour Saves.
* '''(3) The Withering''': The true winner of this lore in my opinion. Lowering you're opponents Toughness is one of the best Hexes in this game...

'''Lore of High Magic''': The signature Lizardmen lore, shared with High Elves(the Slann did teach them how to use magic after all). It is a pretty well balanced Lore for Lizardmen and much better suited for them than for High Elves. Hand of Glory gives +D3 Initiative/Movement/Weapon Skill, with its High Casting option giving +D3 to all of the stats, not just one. This counters Lizardmens average Weapon Skill (Saurus, warmachines created to fight, have WS3, unless they're on a Cold One or are Temple Guard, then you have WS4, Skinks have WS2) and Initiative. The Movement buff is just gravy. This is much better for Lizardmen than High Elves, since High Elves are rocking WS4 on their basic troops, and WS5/WS6 on their Rare/Specials. Walk Between Worlds is also useful for Lizardmen, especially for units such as Fuck-You-A-Saurs, Kroxigors, Cold One Cavalry and, most importantly, Salamanders. This allows you to move into perfect flanking positions, allowing your units to dish out some hurt while the opponent is tar-pitted against Saurus. The Salamanders are perfect for this spell as you can have as many as you want, a unit of 5 Salamanders shooting five S4 Flame Cannon Template shots over a horde of something or a tough unit to weaken them for your Saurus, is golden. Vaul's Unmaking is useful for removing powerful magical items from Lords/Heroes, especially named/special ones. I'm looking at you Tyrion (+3S sword, 1+/4++ Magic Armour, Gem) or Grimgor Ironhide (+2S ASF axe) and so on. The final High Magic spell, Fiery Convocation, is useful as it will constantly cause hits on the unit, regardless of how big it is. That 40 block horde? They all take a hit. It can whittle them down for your units to finish them off.

There are other viable Lores, such as Fire, but you can't get Loremaster any more, making it a bit of a problem. Even with Lore of Life, you're still only getting 4 spells out of 6.

Heads up people! With the new End times Khaine book, Slann are stupidly strong. If they know one spell from a lore then they know the entire lore now! Meaning the signature spell discipline they can take? Yeah can know all spells from all the basic lores now... And if they are Loremasters of a lore then they get to Reroll Casting attempts of that lore! So you can stick to High Lore and have a higher chance of casting all the spells you need! And ONE MOOOOORE THING!(Shush Uncle!) When the Slann use the High Magic Lore attribute then the moment they get a spell from a Lore they learn the '''Entire Lore'''.
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==Tactics==

There's a school of thought that stipulates that in order to win in WFB you need to be control 2 out of the 4 Phases in a turn. Lizardmen have magic and combat handed to them, so choosing to not take a Slann is really only useful if you're sure that its power as a magic user is unnecessary in the battle to be played. Lizardmen don't have the mobility to control the Movement Phase and we really don't have any truly dedicated ranged units like Elves or Empire.

Because of the lack of mobility on Lizardmen units and lack of long-ranged firepower, one should not play defensively. Imagine if Dwarfs lacked their warmachines and ranged units. No one would play Dwarfs because you could shoot the crap out of them for 3-4 turns and then run around behind them and flank the survivors. Lizardmen can't just stand there and shoot. The whole army needs to grind forward. Grind is really the best word here, if you're doing it right you should be making steady progress and crush anything that tries to stall you.

While some units can really move around compared to your Saurus, those units are all skinks, which means they're dead if you opponent looks at them with raised eyebrows. The exception is Cold One Cavalry which is pretty pricey and therefore will never be fielded in the numbers necessary to play them in a super-effective way.
:'''Alternative view''': ''Cold One cav cost 35 points each whereas Saurus cost 11. Saurus on foot get 2 Attacks whereas Cold Ones riders get 3 and 2 of those are at Strength 5 on the charge. They also have M7, a base 2+ Armour Save and 1 extra WS which helps a surprising amount. The big thing is that with 1" bases you reach critical mass very easily. Basically with 210 points you'll get 12 hits from COC against WS3 at S4/5 on the charge and COC won't die easily. 210 points of Saurus gives you 9 hits or 12 with spears if you run them 6 wide which you should at that point cost. All in all COCs are situationally more point cost effective than Saurus, generally against WS3, S3/4 units. Either way in a standard list run 5 COC to flank charge an existing combat.''

Against mobile armies like Bretonnia, Wood Elves or people who still think cavalry is good, don't wait for the knights or warriors to charge your flanks. Get a Skink skirmisher unit to stand in the way or charge them. Mobile armies will be a pain in the butt, especially if they have ranged cavalry as you will never catch them without carefully noting terrain placement etc.

Tarpits are something to avoid, even though your Saurus units will probably wipe out the offending unit (unless it's a half decent one like a Hammerer dart with a Dwarf Lord running a 1+ rerollable Armour Save and a 4++ in front or sword and board Grave Guard), it wastes time and options. That said if you do get tarpitted, don't worry. 90% of tarpits won't do much to your Saurus and very few have a real chance of beating 40+ Saurus Warriors (you did take a Horde right?). Try to avoid tarpits getting to your Temple Guard as you want them to be free to deal with issues not bogged down playing whack-a-mole.

<strike>Warmachines are the most annoying things for Lizardmen players. You have 2 options to deal with them quickly. Players who rely on warmachines to win are pussy bitches or Dwarfs, and should be mocked as such. Stone Throwers are absolute cunts when they hit and several Bolt Throwers will chew through a unit quickly. Against Dwarfs this is doubly so. In fact during a Dwarf player's Deployment Phase while they look to place their lame ass contraptions play this clip from Community where Senor Chang perfectly describes warmachine-heavy armies: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVneqqeyO2M] </strike>

The most annoying thing for Lizardmen players has to be Purple Sun of Xereus (just ask my mate Jed). You're marching along, merry as can be, when some poncy spellcaster decides to royally fuck up your plans. Bye-bye to TWO-THIRDS OF YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING ARMY IN ONE GODDAMN PHASE. They'll six-dice it every turn, so either fuck them up before they do the same to you or carry a Dispel Scroll and hope the poncy prick shoves his staff where the Purple Sun doesn't shine.

{{Warhammer_Tactics_Races}}
[[Category:Warhammer/Tactics]]

Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Lizardmen

2018-02-15T20:13:18Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:Theodorakis.jpg|1400px|left|thumb|Mikis Theodorakis, a Slann Lizardman disguised as a human exploiting the regressive obsession of the Greeks with the past glory of ancient Macedonia to restore the old dominance of his race.]]
[[File:Lizardmen race.jpg|1400px|right|thumb|And here is an empire determined to overshadow Alexander the Great that the fans of Mikis Theodorakis are so proud of as it emerges in an age when people are too arrogant to understand its threat.]]

==Why Play Lizardmen==
Let's face it, because you like Dinosaurs and you like great looking models.
Lizardmen Core is extremely good. Saurus being tough and hard-hitting, Skinks filling many roles, acting as charge redirectors, harassing, shooting, scouting. Their elite infantry, Temple Guard, are complete murder in large packs and will roll over any infantry except the strongest units of Chaos Warriors. They have diverse and extremely powerful monsters, one of the best spellcasters in the entire game and Saurus characters are perfectly designed to destroy enemy Lords and Heroes in a quick, confusing and bloody fight, all the while riding a T-Rex or a raptor.

Lizardmen used to dominate by sheer magic power, as Slann were incredibly overpowered, stealing the light from the mainstay of a good Lizardmen army: infantry that simply refuses to run away and deals terrible damage.

Most Lizardmen units benefit from one or more of the following awesome special rules:
*Cold-Blooded: All Lizardmen units can roll three dice and choose the two lowest for Leadership tests.
*Scaly Skin: This is an Armour Save of some description, which combines with other armour. Most models have the 5+ version, but a few have 4+. Skinks now do gain a 6+ Scaly Skin which is a nice buff considering they went down in Leadership.
*Predatory Fighters: Most Saurus and Kroxigors gain this new rule which allows them to gain more attacks by rolling 6's to hit. The downside is that these extra 6'es don't generate further attacks and the unit must Pursue unless there is a Skink Character within 6". Luckily they don't have to Overrun so there are very few downsides to this special rule. Thanks blessed Vetock. Be warned that this rule affects Temple Guard, which might drag a Slann Mage-Priest with them into a trap!
*Aquatic: Skinks have Marsh and River Strider, gain the ability to become Steadfast in that terrain, and gain a -1 to hit against shooting. A great way to use the terrain to your advantage for flanking and general disruption while not getting bogged down (I see what you did there) in terrain.

Last but not least, Lizardmen are one of the greatest sights in the game because they usually consist of very colourful units, the minis are great with almost no exception, and the mix of reptilian Aztecs with giant blood-hungry dinosaurs is the tightest shit ever.

==Unit Analysis==
===Lords & Heroes===
====Named Characters====
'''Note:''' Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced. You can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

*'''[[Lord Kroak]]:''' Story wise, he used to be [[God-Emperor of Mankind|the World's greatest magician, but then after a few thousand years or so he became a super-powerful corpse attached to a Magic Throne]]. He has a raft of special rules, including Unbreakable, Causes Fear, a 3+ Ward Save, -1 To Hit for any normal attacks directed at him, and the very powerful spell ''Deliverance of Itza''. However, he's '''400 points''', ''only'' knows that one spell, and is Flammable. Although fluffy and occasionally fun, you're almost always better off with an ordinary Slann (although he can make an awesome [[Counts As]] Mage Priest). Incidentally with The End Times Kroak can now take the Lore of Undeath, since it says that ALL wizards can generate spells from it (and with him being dead himself you can certainly argue he's more in tune with Death Magic than most Necromancers), so now he has a proper lore again! Though this is probably going to be FAQ'd out pretty soon.

*'''Lord Mazdamundi:''' Currently the most powerful Mage Priest, Mazdamundi rides a Stegadon. Like Lord Kroak, he has a massive raft of rules: four Slann disciplines, Stubborn, a 4+ Ward Save, Loremaster in any lore he wants, Always Strikes First with Strength 5 Poisoned attacks, destroys other magic items, owns a Battle Standard, and a mount that has a 2+ Scaly Skin save and grants Mazdamundi a 2+ armor save. If the Stegadon is killed, he can still use his Palanquin to move around. Yes, Mazdamundi ''sounds'' pretty awesome, but he costs a whopping '''780 points''', meaning he's impractical in all but the biggest battles. He also lost some of his godly 7th ed rules such an unlimited amount of dice when casting, a super-powerful spell, and the ability to re-roll Miscasts. Also his supposedly awesome weapon hits at WS2. To make matters worse, Zlaqq, his Stegadon, described as the biggest in Hexoatl (the most militarized City, with entire herds of them) has the profile of a normal Ancient Stegadon. It doesn't even get Sharpened Horns (Impact Hits causing D3 wounds) or Devastating Charge. Overall grossly overpriced for what he does, and this is sad since he is supposed to be one of, if not the, strongest wizard alive.

*'''Kroq-Gar:''' The pinnacle of Saurus carnage, mounted on the pinnacle of giant predators, all this represented by a wonderful model. Fluff-wise, Kroq-Gar is the absolute perfection of the Saurus race. One of the greatest warriors currently alive and simply the one you can trust to protect Lustria against invaders. Among his accomplishments are: fighting an unending horde of Daemons for 1000 years, being 8000 years old and still one of the best warriors of his entire species, being the sole survivor of a destroyed city, being entrusted to lead the crusade against Chaos by Lord Mazdamundi himself, and much more. He rides Grymloq, a massive Carnosaur, and together they pack a 5+ Ward Save. If Kroq-Gar or his mount is killed, the surviving one gets Frenzy. His spear gives him +1S on the Charge and deals two Wounds for the price of one (and he has 5 Attacks). For unknown reasons, despite millennia of fighting and winning against every kind of foe and being the strongest Saurus alive, he is still WS6. His Hand of the Gods is a Bound Spell casting 'Light of Shem' from the Lore of Light. Grymloq is also the only named mount to retain an improved stat line over 'basic' mounts in the Lizardmen book. However, the same problem as Lord Mazdamundi apply: at 520 pts, he is restricted to large battles, and Grymloq cannot have any of the upgrades normal Carnosaurs have. He doesn't even have the Blood Frenzy rule (unending Frenzy after causing the loss of 1 hp) which is standard on the basic version.

*'''Chakax:''' Once upon a time, Chakax choked a Daemon Prince with his bare hands, fought hundreds of wild jungle creatures for 2 days straight, guarded his unconscious Mage-Priest for weeks in the middle of the jungle, etc. When both he and a Slann are in a unit of Temple Guards, the whole unit becomes Unbreakable (until one of the two is killed). At the beginning of the Close Combat Phase, his mace forces the enemy to reveal all their Magic Items, and if he hits with it, he destroys a random one on a 5+ (only one roll per turn, alas). When fighting in a Challenge his Key grants him a 5+ Ward Save and afflicts his opponent with the Always Strikes Last rule, but since he shares it too (his weapon being basically a magical Great Weapon) and is only I3 he is not very likely to hit first, while his Mask prevents enemy Scouts from being placed within 20" of Chakax, and forces the enemy to revealed all hidden units when they are within 20" of Chakax (Skaven assassins, Night Goblin fanatics, etc.). Best used for defense, but unfortunately not very useful otherwise. Overall the worst named character in this book.

*'''Gor-Rok:''' Gor is his name, Gore is his game, and oh Old Ones, he Rocks at it. If you're making a model of him and at least one half of him isn't drenched in blood, you are doing it wrong. He is Stubborn, rerolls failed To Hit rolls (generating Predatory Fighter attacks on a 5+) and can ignore Killing Blow, Heroic Killing Blow and Multiple Wounds on a 2+, losing only 1 Wound if successful. Units charging him have to take Dangerous Terrain tests with a -1 modifier. At a new and improved cost of 185 points, he is interesting even in small games where he can hold your main line, while he can make a pack of Saurus really fearsome in larger battles. This is a character you want to put in a larger unit and wait for the enemy to charge. Very resistant, with T6 and an Armour Save of 2+, he is the perfect guy to take and hand out Challenges. However, he only has 2 Wounds, making him too frail to fight strong characters by himself. A lesser Gor-Rok can be emulated by spending 40 points on Sacred Helm of Itza on a Scar-Vet or Oldblood.

*'''[[Tehenhauin]]:''' The cheapest Lord the Lizardmen have (at 230pts), he is a Level 3 Wizard who uses the Lore of Beasts, is Immune to Poison, Unbreakable, has Poisoned Attacks, gains +1S on the turn he charges, has a 5+ ward save, and he makes all Skinks (and only skinks, not Mounts, Kroxigors in Skink units, etc.) hate Skaven. He rides a Tide of Serpents but can ride an Ancient Stegadon with an Engine of the Gods (for a bonus 280pts) like any normal Skink Priest. Though of little interest in most scenarios, he is a must-have in an all-Skink army or when fighting a Skaven army.

*'''Tetto'Eko:''' The only Skink Priest to ride a Palanquin, he is a Level 2 Lore of Heavens Loremaster. He can be accompanied by Skinks like Slann with their Temple Guard and can predict the future. In short, a buffed-up Skink Priest but without the upgrades or mount. When he is present, he lets you roll a D6 at the start of your turn: on a roll of a 1 you have to reroll all your 6's when casting, 2+ lets you reroll all 1's when casting. Not only do your casters get to reroll their 1's, this also affect the magic machines carried by Stegadons and Bastilladons, which improves them ten-fold. After deployment but before determining who gets the first turn, you may Vanguard D3 of your units because of his ability to predict the future. This may allow you to get your Stegadons and Carnosaurs into your opponent's face right off the bat, possibly avoiding a round of artillery fire. If Tetto'Eko successfully casts the spell ''Comet of Cassandora'', you may re-roll the dice at the start of each player Magic Phase to see if the comet arrives. His Palanquin gives him a 5+ Ward Save. In short: he is the missing link between the Skink Priest and the Slann. In larger battles, a Slann is more interesting, but because he is a Hero you could run both. His very reasonable point cost combined with always useful abilities make him (arguably) the best named character in the book.

*'''Tiktaq'To:''' A silly name, but a balanced character. Anyone shooting at him or his unit suffers an additional -1 To-hit, he has a 6+ Ward Save and Magic Resistance (1) as protection. His blade ignores Armour Saves and the unit he is with can perform a sort of Deep-Strike. He is as useful as a Skink special character can get. He can also upgrade a unit of Terradon Riders to have Ambush. However, thanks to the 8th Edition BRB, Flying Characters CANNOT join Flying Units, so he's fucked. In 7th, there was a special rule for Terradons allowing Characters to join Flying Units. It's no longer there. One can assume that it's changed in 9th (and thus written as such) or was assumed he could join but others could not (his special rule says him AND his unit benefit from it. He can join units).

*'''Oxyotl:''' Fluff-wise, like Kroq-Gar, Oxyotl belongs in the incredibly tough 8000 years survivors category, as he spent millenia in the Chaos Realms assassinating Greater Daemons before finding his way back to the normal world. On the tabletop however, he is nothing impressive. His only tricks being Sniper and a blowpipe that fires 3 times a turn instead of 2. He may be the cheapest Special Character the Lizardmen have at 160pts, but he is still only useful in small battles, where he is in fact devastating. In larger games, he does not perform anything a unit of normal Chameleons cannot do.
::'''Alternative''': ''No- what about VS VCs and TKs? Then the Sniper rule comes into play. Level 4 Necromancer- stay still then, at 6" shoot 3 shots- these need 4s to hit and are Poisoned on 5+. Watch your opponent cry as this orange devil runs around sniping characters until they waste time in killing him- like normal Skink but better.''
----

====Generic Characters====
''Note:'' While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

*'''[[Slann]] Mage-Priest:''' Big Pappa Toad, the core of most armies.
**The good: a Slann is a powerful Level 4 caster with an in-built 4+ Ward Save and can be both general and BSB at the same time. It has the ability to ignore terrain and is never considered on foot while still being Infantry, has five Wounds, the ability to swap spells with other Slann and to cast trough friendly Skink Priest models. He also has a lot of synergy with Temple Guard: units joined by a Slann are Stubborn, Immune to Psychology, and allow the Slann to auto-pass Look Out Sir! Additionally, since he is fielded in the second rank rather than the first he is never going to be involved in actual combat and can cast spells even while his unit is busy fighting in melee. A choice of Disciplines (see below) helps to make Slann one of the best generic wizards of the game.
**The bad: being the BSB means he drops dead if his unit flees from combat. Thankfully in a TG block and with the Banner of Discipline this is highly unlikely to happen.
**The ugly: sporting a pricetag of 300 fucking point vanilla, he is expensive as all fucks and Magic Items and Disciplines only worsen the situation. Mind you, he still does repay every single point you invest on him if you are careful not to make sub-par decisions.
::'''Another take''': ''300 is a lot of points but think about it, he has two of things as standard most characters don't have:''
::*''4+ Ward built in (45 points from the rulebook) ''
::*''lv4 as standard (roughly a lvl3 character is roughly the 185 mark so adding 35 points to them makes them with no gear 220 points)''
::''See? We are already at the 265 mark without accounting for his palanquin (counting as on foot but not on foot for Pit of Shades, etc which is amazingly good) and his ability to cast spells out of Skink Priest models. This plus his statline is why I think he is a relatively good purchase for 300 points.''

*'''DISCIPLINES'''
** Reservoir of Eldritch Energy: Can carry over an extra Dispel Dice on the roll of a 2+ to next Magic Phase. Nifty and cheap at 20 points. Though not a first pick, it is a close second.
** Soul of Stone: Can add or subtract 1 to the Miscast Table results. Will save your life sometimes but not that awesome. Still, it is only 25 points.
** Becalming Cogitation: Re-rolls its first failed dispel attempt in each Magic phase. Cheap at 25 points and good pick.
** Wandering Deliberations: Can learn Signature Spells from all 8 battle lores. Can't use with the Loremaster one. The eight signatures are nothing to sneeze at and each of them benefits from the Lore Attribute. It is kinda sad that we need to spend 30 points on this while a level 2 High Elf Lord with Combat Lord stats has it by default, though. If playing The End Times just fucking take this, I repeat, TAKE THIS IN END TIMES because with the new rules it will allow your Slann to know every spell of the eight battle lores (confirmed for the Loremaster of Hoeth so no reason to doubt it will work for the Slann). Yes, you heard right: for 30 points you get 64 spells (7 from each lore + each of the End Times spells for the BRB lores) and 4d6 dice from the powered-up Winds of Magic rolls. This is immense! Just remember it works only if you have the The End Times book.
** Harmonic Convergence: Roll two additional dice whenever attempting to Channel Power or Dispel dice. Nothing impressive until you notice the existence of Channeling Staff: suddenly you are Channeling three times a turn on a 5+. 30 points (plus 15 for the staff) rarely tasted so good.
** The Harrowing Scrutiny: Slann causes Terror. Meh... 30 points of overpriced garbage. Take the Shrieking Blade for 5 points and get Fear instead.
***'''Alternative Opinion''': ''This can be very good when facing low LD armies, as it means they might run away and not bog down your TG bunker - Still situational, mind you.''
** Transcendent Healing: Roll a d6 for each wound Slann has lost. On a 6 he regains it. Not bad, but not reliable enough to be good at 30 points.
** Unfathomable Presence: Can get Magic Resistance D3 each Magic Phase. Skip this one. If you are willing to spend 30 points on this you'd better pay the same 30 for MR2 with Obsidian Amulet and get the 2+ Save against spells, unless you truly need that Dragonbane Gem on your Slann.
** Focus of Mystery: Becomes a Loremaster in High Magic. Can't use with the Signature Spell one. 35 points are worth it? High Magic is a great lore that can do a bit of everything. Has two Signatures (you get both of them with this Discipline, obviously) so you get a grand total of eight spells. Great synergy with the Lizardmen army and don't forget its awesome Lore Attribute, Contemplation, that lets you forget a High magic spell after you cast it and roll for a new one on any other lore, which carries its Lore Attribute with it and can be swapped for the Signature. You can swap your less useful spells and tailor your list to better suit the situation during the game, so yes, it is fucking worth it. Overall one of the best Disciplines, even more so now that Slann can't Loremaster any other lore.
** Higher State of Consciousness: Slann becomes Ethereal and Unstable but can't join units. Costs as much as two other Disciplines, clocking in at 60 points, so take it only if you are absolutely positively sure about what the fuck you are doing. Used to be popular in 7th edition, but has not been seen around much lately. Can be deadly to your Slann, as losing combat will cause unsaveable Wounds.

*'''Saurus Oldblood:''' Killing machine. Can ride a Cold One or a Carnosaur. Can be tooled up to either assassinate Lord characters and Daemons, or solo regiments of infantry. Given how expensive a Slann is, he shows up in smaller battles as a general or in larger battles as a second Lord choice. Old Bloods have a 4+ Scaly Skin by default and a lot of Attacks before you buy any upgrades. However, these upgrades are expensive: the Carnosaur alone costs almost as much as a naked Slann (and the figurines themselves are not cheap either). The main downside is how hard it is to use both an Old Blood on Carnosaur and a Slann, because of their cost. One bad cannonball and you're down around 400 points. A very powerful build for the Old Blood is giving him the Armour of Destiny and the Fencer's Blades. This means he gets 6 S5 attacks at WS10. The build also gives him great survivability with a 2+ Armour Save and 4+ Ward. Guaranteed to make opponents rage, especially in smaller point games (such as 1000). The drawback to this build is that it cannot be a mounted Oldblood due to using two hand weapons so no extra armour from a Cold One or Carnosaur sadly.

*'''Saurus Scar Veteran:''' A lesser Old Blood at an affordable price. He can now even ride a Carnosaur. It still dishes out that Saurus melee butchery that makes people cry and it can ride a Cold One if you want him mounted but don't have enough points to take a Carnosaur. If your Slann is not your BSB, a Scar Vet can and take a magical banner. In larger games where you can afford a few Scar Vets (or a a couple of them and an Old Blood), equip them and use them like missiles: send a kitted-out Scar Vet after one thing and watch it get maimed. In smaller games they're more useful sitting in Saurus units to chew through infantry. Solid choice as a General at low level games and good in larger battles for supplementary killing power. If you take a Slann and a Scar Vet, you can have a very nice combo: a Carnosaur and your magical toad!

*'''Skink Chief:''' Cheaper now and with more mounted options this guy is a little more viable. Only take this guy mounted as he's way too soft compared to the Saurus characters, and Skinks in general suck as proper ranked units. Can take Stegadons, Ancient Stegadons and Terradons as mounts, which is what you should be doing. On a Terradon it can do some good character hunting and screw warmachine crews, as well as provide a Leadership buff to that Terradon unit, but it means your general should be someone else. Not a solid General choice but nice as a supporting character and a means to getting another big dinosaur on the table. Like the Scar Vet, he can be the BSB. You could use him against an opponent for tying down a monster- 5 dead Skinks a turn isn't much and tying down a 250pt model for 4 turns is surely worth 145 points (20 Skinks + Chief).

*'''Skink Priest:''' Good low-level Wizard. Can act as a range extender for Slann allowing them to send Magic Missiles or Direct Damage spells as if the Slann was where the Priest is standing. Can take the Engine of the Gods if mounted on a Stegadon, which makes a combination of a killing machine, maximum safety for the character and very powerful support to nearby units. They're limited to the Lores of the Heavens and Beasts but they have enough Magic Items to maximize their usage. They support the Slann or are used in large numbers to spam spells down the enemy's throat. Do not underestimate them as they have access to Comet Of Cassandora and Lizardmen are the only army that can reliably spam that spell. Wyssan's Wildform is a spell tailor-made for making Lizardmen rape machines.

===Core Units===
*'''Skinks:''' Cheap and spammable light infantry. Kroxigors can be taken in the second rank of the unit and are allowed to attack normally over the front rank of Skinks. This gets some heavy hitters in there. Overall, Skink units are a good place to put these thugs. They have a higher Ld and pass on the effect of causing Fear to the unit. Despite weak (native) Leadership and terrible Toughness, Skinks can be surprisingly effective against non-elite infantry and cavalry for one turn, in part thanks to their relatively high Initative. Stand and Shoot combined with the Poison rule enables their shooting attacks to auto wound. However, Skink Cohorts can be upgraded to have Poisoned melee attacks. Cohorts are not bad with this as Javelins can be <s>shot</s> thrown before going into melee. The price you're paying is incredibly low for what they can do.
*'''Skink Skirmishers:''' Always take javelin and shield. Blowpipes are useless on a mobile unit as you'll be needing 7's to hit after -1 Long Range, -1 moving, -1 Multiple Shots which means no poison! Javelins are Quick to Fire, so hit on 5's if you move with them and shoot from Long Range. Blowpipes are for the higher BS Chameleon Skinks. They keep their poison AND you gain a 5+ 6++ in close combat, which makes them infinitely better against chaff. ('''alternative opinion''': ''+1 Armour Save isn't much. As a small unit of artillery hunters with blowpipes are brilliant - march for 2 turns then shoot at close range. Blowpipes have 12" range, and since you can opt out of Multiple Shots, you can just use them as extra range javelins'')Skinks can be great for kiting enemy units and being an all-around thorn in their sides. Put simply, if the Skink Skirmishers manage to inflict wounds on any unit, your opponent will be compelled to either shoot at it, commit a unit to charge it, or try to ignore the damage they're doing. The first option is bad because damage spells and shooting units are overkill against Skink units that size, making it a waste of resources when other, more dangerous units, are around. The second option is bad because most close combat units are significantly more costly than Skinks and are much better suited to stopping/slowing your Saurus bricks from smashing through the battlefield. This gets even worse if the Skinks are able to shoot at the unit prior to the melee and inflict wounds. However, with cheap units like Skaven Clanrats, this is less of an issue, except that large Clanrat units shouldn't chase down half a dozen Skinks, and no one fields those kinds of units with an equivalent cost to your Skinks. With elite units, the problem is further exaggerated because any damage done to the Skinks is pointless. <strike>Most elite units cost close to 30 points a model,</strike> [[Derp]], '''maybe''' really powerhouse heavy cavalry, but most Elite Infantry runs from 12-16 points, which means that more than 2 ranged casualties is a lose-lose tradeoff at best. Ignoring the Skinks, as some players do, is even more stupid because that leaves them free to pick off other skirmishers, violate war machine crews, and chip off wounds from other important units or characters. In summary, Skink Skirmishers are suicide units that force bad tradeoffs for the enemy. They'll die when they're attacked, but it's a lose-lose situation, and in the wider context of the battle this leads the opponent to be inefficient with his units.
::'''Alternative Opinion''': ''Actually, Skink spamming is considered to be a particularly tasty form of [[powergamer|cheese]], since you can literally flood the battlefield in cheap, fast moving, little units with an array of poisoned weapons redirecting, shooting, and irritating your opponent's units to a not-quite-metaphorical death. If you can get Walk Between Worlds and Hand of Glory off on these, it's funny as you don't technically move them, but go 20" forward- then shoot at BS6 with blowpipes needing 3s to hit- on a unit of 20, 40 poisoned shots brings [[lulz]]''
*'''Saurus Warriors:''' The backbone of any Lizardmen army, Saurus Warriors pack a 5+ Scaly Skin save, shields, spears/hand weapons, 2 base Attacks, are Cold Blooded, and are WS3, S4, & T4. When rolling To Hit have a chance of generating more Hits, and they must pursue unless near Skinks. While the unit has some great stats for a hand-to-hand unit, their god-awful Initiative of 1 ensures that they don't leave combat unscathed, and their cost per model, spears included, is higher than just about any other rank-and-file core choice. These two key issues are mostly irrelevant though, because Saurus Warriors are the best fucking brick infantry in the game. Chaos Warriors may be better per model, but they cost a good bit more. Besides, no other faction can field R&F infantry as effective as yours without crippling their army size. Units that engage Saurus Warriors that have the misfortune of getting flanked by another unit of them might as well have never been deployed. Saurus Warriors either smash straight through the enemy lines, or end up in a slow grinding combat that leaves either half a unit of Saurus or a few dazed and bloodstained enemies left, ready to be swept away by the rest of your army. They can realistically tarpit any infantry unit short of Dragon-Ogres and the like, and even they still won't [[Anal Circumference|get through cleanly or untouched]].

===Special Units===
*'''Jungle Swarms:''' 35 points per base, minimum 2 per unit. Previously core units, they were rarely seen. They have now been moved to Special and given a few bonuses making them an interesting if specific choice. The great thing about these is that whenever some Jungle Swarms are in base-to-base contact with an enemy unit, all other Lizardmen units fighting this same unit get Poisoned Attacks! Suddenly your Saurus's 6's auto Wound while still generating new attacks through Predatory Fighter. A Shadow lore Slann casting Okkam's Mindrazor on the Jungle Swarms, making their Strength the same number as their Ld value, makes them devastating as they have 10: this gives them 5 attack S10 per swarm base with Poison Attacks.

*'''Temple Guard:''' Improved Saurus. They get light armour and halberds. When combined with a [[Slann]] (who is no longer forced to join them), they automatically pass Lookout Sir tests, become Immune to Psychology, Stubborn and cause Fear. These guys are easily a must-have if you have a Slann in your army, and are often worth taking even if you don't have a one. They cost a lot more than the Saurus warriors but hit much harder. Remember that due to the way Temple Guards and Slann rank-up, they get relatively few attacks and most combats against rank-and-file will be a slow grind unless you can break the enemy's morale. Lizardmen list usually field at least a pack of 20 TG along with a block of Saurus, and these serve as the main hitting force or tarpits of the army. You can really cheese out your opponent here, because a BSB Slann with Banner of Discipline and another Magic Banner is +3 Combat Resolution - a Horde of 30 is another +2, another +1 for Charging and so on - hey 10X10 Skavenslave unit, fancy a combat? (don't do this, you will never ever break them, and the Skaven will remain Stubborn forever)

*'''Cold One Cavalry:''' Lizardmen cavalry mounted on buffed raptors. They currently get no love because of their high price, making them one of the less cost-effective cavalry option this edition. Cold One Cavalry is in a weird place even regarding their abilities: the rider has a Temple Guard profile with a better Armour Save, as he has no light armour but gets +2 armour points from being mounted on a Cold One. He has no halberd but his spear gives him a +1S on the turn he charges, after which he fights with a normal Saurus Strength but still with better armour than a TG. The Cold One itself has the same profile as a normal Saurus, which means a Cold One rider and his mount are basically a Saurus and a weird TG, cause Fear and move at double speed while having a Stupid mount (which is not too much of a problem thanks to Cold Blooded). Point-wise, they are 30 each without spears, at which point a single one costs more than 2 TG but gets an intermediary profile between 2 Saurus and 1 Saurus + 1 TG. This price factor overshadows anything they can bring to the table as you will generally want more TGs or more Saurus instead of cavalry. They can be extremely useful, but will shine only in specific situation where their speed makes them the perfect hammer to a Saurus unit's anvil. Most people disregard COC entirely and will bring either more infantry or another monster, but these guys are not bad in themselves. A general who knows what he does might decide to field a few of them. However, this will be at the cost of the overall size of the army. Where COC excel is when serving as a delivery system for one or several Scar Veterans or Old Bloods armed to the teeth with magic weapons. They are solid enough to hit hard, soak up damage, and mounted Saurus characters are terrifying. They also provide a flanking unit that can withstand damage.

*'''Terradon Riders:''' Excellent for harassment tactics: hunting warmachine crews, isolated models and skirmishers. Their ability to drop rocks is also handy for softening up something tough before the Saurus or TG can deal the real damage. The ability to drop rocks and the Bola upgrade are interesting and give some punch to a unit which is otherwise quite weak.

*'''Ripperdactyl Riders:''' Competing with Terradon Riders for about the same role on the table, they are 40 pts each (5 more than Terradons) and more combat-oriented: they have Frenzy, but being flying cavalry means you get a free reform at the end of their movement to make sure they point in the direction of something you want to charge anyway. With Armour Piercing and 2 Killing Blow Attacks they are an interesting choice. The Lustrian Bloat Toad allows you to select one enemy unit per Ripperdactyl unit in your army. Against the chosen enemy unit, any Ripperdactyl unit will get an additional D3 Attacks per model generated by Frenzy. Mind you, the Skink riders have WS2, which means they will hit nothing. This make the spear of Rippderdacyl riders a bit useless: the mounts will be dealing the damage.

*'''Bastiladons:''' First unit to receive a 2+ Scaly Skin Armour Save, the Bastiladons only get T5 and will go down quite easily in combats against large infantry blocks. However, Bastiladons are exactly similar to tanks in that you want to use them as support for blocks of infantry. Their true power is in trotting alongside a big block of warriors, protecting their flanks. The +1I bonus of the Solar Engine is nice but only brings normal Saurus to I2, which is not enough to be a game changer. The Chotek spell, however, can really bring some hurt and deals flaming damages, forcing the enemy to either waste dispel dice on it or endure potentially heavy damage. Their second option, the Ark of Sotek, can shoot a weak projectile even when moving or marching, and can generate additional swarms in any Jungle Swarm unit in a 6" radius, which can go beyond the starting number. This is a funny ability but not critical unless you have a good number of swarms.

*'''Kroxigors:''' Giant crocodile-men. They are strong but not numerous enough, and Saurus warriors are a better option as they can absorb more wounds and deal more attacks. That said, they're not a dead unit but will usually serve as support, not as the main hitting force. With a Scaly Skin save of 4+, they're basically in Heavy Armour + Shield and they have S5 and Great Weapons, so that they hit at S7. Kroxigors have 3 Wounds each, 3 Attacks each and cause Fear. Because they are Monstrous Infantry, they can use all 3 of their attacks from the second rank. They can be combined with a Skink Cohort and occupy the second rank, dealing all their attacks. Unfortunately, they can also be attacked even if there is a first rank of Skinks, which means you cannot use the Skinks as shields for them.

*'''Chameleon Skinks:''' Your only Scouts option and great warmachine hunters. Their higher Ballistic Skill allows them to still get Poison on their blowpipe shots, unlike any unit of Skinks which moves. Regular Skink skirmishers require 7's to hit anything outside 6 inches if they move which means no Poison. They have their place in any thematic or fine-tuned army but unfortunately they suffer from the competition of the other Specials which are almost invariably better.

*'''Stegadon:''' The main Lizardmen monster. Few lists do not include a Stegadon, or even several of them. Stegadons are crewed by 5 Skinks who man the Giant Bow (a ballista in all but name), which can shoot even while moving. The Stegadon causes Terror and benefits from a handful of nice rules plus all the things which come with being a Monster.

===Rare Units===
*'''Ancient Stegadon:''' You thought the above was awesome? This guy is tougher, hits harder in combat and does 4D6 blowpipe shots! Again you will see infantry die with this angry old bastard. Then there is the special version mounted by Skink Priests...
**'''Engine of the Gods:''' In the previous book you were only able to take these as a mount for a Skink Priest, however they can now be taken in the rare section. It has 3 different effects:
***1. it gives all your units within 6" a 6+ Ward Save. This means you can go with spears on your Saurus, and still have a 6+ Ward Save.
***2. it can cast a Bound Spell, that does D6 S4 Flaming hits to units within 4D6. Mostly used for clearing chaff, but is just a nice thing to have in the back pocket although it's murder vs Dryads.
***3. each magic phase you can choose 1 lore from the main rulebook, and the Casting Values of all spells in that lore goes down by 1. Nice in a Beast lore Skink Priest spam list, because it will allow you to have an easier time casting Wysans Wildform on your Saurus.

*'''Salamander Hunting Packs:''' This unit can do some serious damage, and it's good for stopping Regenerating faggots. The salamanders got changed quite heavily with the new book. First of all they can no longer march and shoot, meaning you probably wont be shooting first turn anymore. Second they no longer give -3 to Armour Saves with their shooting attack, but it instead got strength 4. These guys are absolutely amazing! They can halve a unit's size with a single shot. These things work miracles!

*'''Razordon Hunting Packs:''' Each of these are able to make an Artillery Die amount of shots with a range of 18" each turn. They can move and shoot but they can no longer march and shoot. They are pretty terribad at hitting, so unless you have a Slann able to buff them with Hand of Glory you won't be hitting with many of the shots. However since they put out such a large amount of shots, at least some of them will hit. Now that there is no limit to the amount you can pack into a single unit, you could take a unit of 8 and just stick them into your enemies face and just dare them charge these guys. Even if he does he will surely come to regret it. Keep in mind that for both hunting pack units, the Skink handlers cannot be targeted by attacks but can dish out a couple of weak attacks back, which has a couple of situational anti-character uses.

*'''Troglodon:''' What a piece of shit this thing is. 200 points for a good looking model that can't do anything well. It's designed to be useful in any phase but M7 isn't anything to to write home about. Its Magic support is an upgrade you have to pay for that lets the Skink rider channel and it has the same rule that Skink Priests have, Arcane Vassal (Slann can cast through them.). The shooting attack is the lamest attempt to make its point cost: 1 S5 poisoned shot with D3 Wounds, with a short range and BS3... You might hit once or twice a game if lucky. In combat it will wilt faster than an erection after seeing goatse: 3 attacks from the beast and 1 from the Skink. The monster is only S/T 5 with a 4+ Scaly Skin save so any S4 infantry can kill it before the Thunderstomp comes. Its Primeval Roar is the only possibly useful thing this unit brings (but you aren't bringing it are you?). Once per game the Troglodon roars and boost all Predatory Fighters within 12" to get extra attacks on a 5+ instead of 6+. Best fielded 4' off the ground in a display case.
::'''Alternative Opinion:''' ''What I believe this guy MEANT to say was: TROGLODONS ARE AWESOME! M7? Awesome: I'm in your face turn one with Arcane Vassal spells (btw take this, and take the Discipline that grants you all the Signature Spells on your Slann and laugh as you snipe your opponents general with Lore of Death turn one). Its shooting is craptacular yes, but why are you shooting with it? Charge flanks with it and when crunch time comes, drop the Roar and watch your Saurus RIP AND TEAR the opponents a new pie hole. This, if enough punch is delivered, will knock seven shades of crap out of most armies, even giving Warriors of Chaos a run for their money. All this pain train for 200 points, oh and its Aquatic for extra lulz.'' (ONLY TIME IT'S SEMI SCARY is when it runs up on a suicide charge into the most populated spot and Lord Kroak channels through it. Otherwise it sucks, go with the original opinion)
::'''Original Opinion:''' ''I am pretty sure the "Alternative Opinion" was posted by Vetock himself. The Troglodon is terrible. Absolute fail in every phase. He seems to think the Arcane Vassal is good when in fact most spells don't even need it. As for his genius tactics of charging flanks with it, well I have been playing Warhammer for years and I can tell you now that it will never survive long enough to hit a flank in combat. As for the 5+ Roar thing: again, your opponent wont really care. Its just 200 points of pure fail. Take an ancient Steg instead.
''

==Building Your Army==
===Buying Your Army===

As always, the Battalion Box is a good start. It comes with 10 Temple Guard, 20 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry and 12 Skinks.

After that you will need to buy probably 2 more Saurus Warrior boxes unless you're going light on Saurus due to crippling fear of victory. Also the Skinks you get aren't really enough to run more than a single unit of skirmishers, so buy box of Skinks. The TG are also undersized so you might want to get another box to get them up to strength. This gives you a total of 20 Temple Guard, 52 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry and 32 Skinks. Mainly this gives you a smattering of units for a lower cost than buying the boxes and the amount you get in the boxed sets will be slightly less than what you need so there is no overflow... or by the sounds of it might just be easier to buy a second Battalion.

*2 Battalion: 20 Temple Guard, 40 Saurus Warriors, 16 Cold One Cavalry and 24 Skinks. 132£
*The other option: 20 Temple Guard, 52 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry, and 32 Skinks. 152£

Aside: it's a very minor thing, but the Cold One Cavalry sprue has decorative bits that can be used as jungle swarms (2 per 8 CoC, if you can rustle up some bases). So if you want jungle swarms the 2nd Battalion may be better. Also, the excess Cold One Cavalry can be modified into a pair of Scar Vets on Cold Ones. Can give you some cheap hitting power and a way to hit a points limit in your initial games until you figure out what you want to buy to flesh out the army.

Getting a Slann is mandatory. No you can't just say "screw it" even if you never play with it. Not having a Slann will get you laughed at by every neckbeard who hears of your foolishness.

If you want to start an army cheap and build up slowly, buy 1 box of Saurus and convert the 16th one to be something else (eg Scar Vet). This is a small army of about 250 points. After that, buy another box of Saurus unless you want to go all Skink.

===Army Composition===

Some people (you know who you are) think Lizardmen (and specifically Saurus), are a defensive army. This, however, is not true. Take 2 blocks of 30 Saurus, with spears if you're a taker (or have Gor-Rok to lead them). These are your main hitting force. Next, take 2+ units of Skinks. Blowpipes used to be better, but now take Lustrian Javelins. Next, your block of Temple Guard. 20 MINIMUM! No cheaping out here: these bad boys are gonna keep your Slann safe so may as well go all out. Buy a magic standard, Flaming is always handy in a pinch. Then you need to get some support...here is where your aquatic friends come in handy. No Flounder or Sebastian up in this shit, hell no! We got lizards who breathe FIRE (<s>despite being water dwelling reptiles...?</s> they spit acid which goes on fire when it comes into contact with the air) and ones that carry a shotgun of spikes to down insects (bring bug spray to Lustria). Two units of any mix well, however a Razordon is 65 points to a Salamander's 80 points, but now they are S4 so slightly better. Use this to hit the enemy, take ranks and warmachines out. They can also flank charge in a pinch (use them to chase down). Do all you can to make that hammer blow fall hard and fast.

That's your base, now your Slann. Ok here is what you want: Becalming Cogitation, Wandering Deliberations, Reservoir of Eldritch Energy and any other one of your choosing. Make the guy a BSB (hey, if he's so expensive as is, may as well make him worth it) Banner of Discipline ftw!

After that it's entirely up to you what to take. Terradons are a good answer to warmachines yet not as good as Ripperdactyls. Bastiladons in both forms are only worth their points if you have a specific plan for them, it's not a unit you can plop down and expect it to work wonders (i.e. you must actually think harder about your battle plan when using these, ditto for Ripperdactyls). GW again trying to push the newest box by making its model the cheapest. Bloodcrushers anyone?

Just remember if you are only taking units of 30 Saurus in a horde with spears, you won't get any real benefit of the fourth rank so consider taking them 6 across for the added lulz.

===Alternate Opinion===

Let's start with the Slann. Becalming Cogitation and Reservoir of Eldritch Energy are fine. It seems, however, that our friend who wrote the above (and messy) composition forgot about High Magic's Lore Attribute, which allows you to forget a spell of High Magic and replace it with one from any of the Eight Battle Magic Lores. These spells will automatically use their associated Lore Attribute and can always be the Signiture spell as per usual spell generation rules. That means, if you're in a bit of trouble, you can cast a High Magic lore spell, switch to Lore of Life, generate one from there, depending on what it is either keep it or swap it for 5+ Regeneration Signature Spell and then cast that. That not only gives a unit a nice Regeneration save (<S>which I believe counts as a 'Ward Save'</S> there are some differences - vulnerability to fire damage comes to mind) but it also gives the Wizard (or any other character in range) a Wound back. You can do this for any Lore. Wandering Deliberations is also good, as mentioned.

Next, as I am sure the above person knows, your General is automatically the character with the highest Leadership. Since Slann have Ld9, that means they are automatically the Army General unless you have more than one Slann or somehow have another Lord with Ld9 or above. Oldbloods have Ld8. This isn't a problem until you give the Slann the Banner of Discipline, which not only turns it into the BSB but gives it Ld+1. That means the Slann will have Ld10. Amazing for casting the Death Lore Signature spell. <strike>However, the Banner of Discipline also states that the Banner wielder cannot be used for Inspiring Presence. Meaning you have lost the ability to use the Slann to rally. This is a important seeing as many of the Lizardmen units are Ld5-6. Coldblooded helps, but is not always sufficient</strike>. As per the BRB FAQ, a General in a unit with the Banner of Discipline may use his Inspiring Presence with the +1 bonus. This gives any Lizardmen under the eyes of a Slann a 99.8% chance of success for all leadership tests. This is so stupidly good for the price that only an idiot would not take it.

Next, mixing Razordons and Salamanders is a fun idea, but they are both different firing types. Firstly, the Salamanders are Slow to Fire and fire as a Flame Cannon, while the Razordon are Quick to Fire and fire as Grapeshot from cannons. It would therefore be better to keep them separate. Yes, there is the bonus that the Razordons will be able to protect the Salamanders, but it's still a mess.

Bastiladons are worth their price. If you take Jungle Swarms, the Ark of Sotek is useful for a chance on a free base every turn, but the key worth is in the Solar Engine. The gem not only gives every Cold Blooded creature within range +1I (which is <s>stupidly useful</s> does nothing for I1 Saurus on protecting them against Pit of Shades for example) which also stacks with Hand of Glory for a potential +4I (and half of your Magic Phase), it's the Gem's power which is the real useful part of it. The spell is Power Level 3, meaning you need only a 3 to cast it (and your opponent needs only a 3 to dispel it). You've got a 66% chance of doing it with one die. Throw two and you're going to be unlucky to not cast it. The spell itself not only causes 1D3-2D6 S3-6 Flaming Hits, but also a 1/6 chance to reduce WS and BS skill by 1 for a turn. The fact you're going to be forcing your opponent to either accept the chance of the spell being powerful and causing damage OR using a couple of dice to dispel it (this is idiotic, Bound Spells are shit in 8th ed, and easily dispellable even by a lvl2 mage). If they do dispel it, you then simply laugh and use your remaining dice to cast some High Magic or Battle Lore spells which your opponent will struggle to dispel (except that they will use the same or even less dice than you used to cast it, since they get their Caster Level bonus to dispel and you do not get it to cast). The Bastiladon is also the proud owner of the only 2+ Scaly Skin Special Rule, meaning you're going to be resisting plenty of attacks. Yes, its Toughness is terrible (and a surprising number, <s>it should be errated IMO</s> it sucks, deal with it) but imagine a Skink Priest casting Wildform from a Lore of Beast on it, giving it +1S and +1T, or even +2/4T from Lore of Life. Making it the true tank it should be (why not cast it on a Stegadon instead?)

===Magic Items===

Yes the Lizardmen have some of the best okay gear available, unfortunately you will pay heavily for that advantage.

====Magic Weapons====
*'''The Blade of Realities:''' A new version of this and still pricey as hell but now ignoring Ward AND Armour Saves. The only downside is that it now takes up all of a Lord's points for magic items and thus robs you of the ability to take any Ward Saves of your own. As such it should probably be left at home for friendly games. On the other hand, since it means that opponents Lords/Heroes will have to rely on Toughness and Weapon Skill to avoid dying, it means you can use it on an Oldblood to go and destroy a specific target. If you put the Oldblood on a Cold One or Fuck-You-A-Saur, you can get a 1+ Armour Save (4+ Scaly Skin + Shield = 3+ - add the Cold One's or Carnosaur's +2 and you're up to 1+. Light armour can be added in case your mount dies so you stay at 2+). You then head straight for that Lord/Hero and unleash hell. Lore of Life's +2/+4 Toughness will make you even more resilient. Lore of Lights Weapon Skill/Initiative augment means you're going to hit more often. Lore of High Magic Movement/Initiative/Weapon Skill at +D3 is useful, but when you can make it so you improve all three it means your Oldblood and his Mount are going to get there quicker and when they do, they're going to be more likely to hit. +3 Movement will mean 9-10 Movement for the Mounts, +3 Initiative will mean your Oldblood is at Initiative 6 (and 7 if near Solar Gem) and +3 Weapon Skill means hitting at Weapon Skill 9. So, while Elves, Vampire Lords and Chaos Lords will still out-Initiative you (and Elves most likely will get re-rolls too) everything else will be hitting after you or at the same time. With WS9, you're likely to hit (bar specific specific Vampire Lord builds, named Elves and certain Elf and Chaos Lord builds, who will also be around WS9... Also any unit with Fencing Blades) and S5 means you're not too bad when it comes to wounding and since you're packing 5 Attacks, you're very much capable of killing any Lord/Hero in one go (though the likes of Tyrion, it'll be difficult). That's ignoring your Mount and the buff it got from the spells. A T9 Fuck-You-A-Saur is pretty fun. So is one with WS6, especially since it has 5 attacks and each one is D3 Wounds. Being able to smile when you tell your opponent that his Lord/Hero or Special Character can't make any saves would be glorious. The best bit, though, would be against the likes of Malekith, who has a 2+ Armour Save (when on mount) and 2+ Ward Save (against non-magical attacks) or against 1+ Armour Save and 3+ Ward Save Chaos Lords. All those points, wasted as you cleave through them. However, many people won't take named characters or spend so many points on a Lord, so the Blade of Realities has very limited uses in competitive play. However, against WAAC's in friendly games, it's delicious. Try this with a Slann just for the lulz (only once though). Laugh as you chew through tanks and still have a Ward Save!
*'''The Piranha Blade:''' Still a little bit expensive but now getting the bonus of reducing enemy armour. Against monster and Heroes probably a good idea but a hefty price to pay. Although as the Armour Piercing stacks on Impact Hits this item should be used on an Oldblood with the Stegadon Helm on a Carnosaur with Swiftstride. This combo is fucking hilarious, and leaves some points for other magic items.
::Another use is to give it to a Scar Vet on foot and challenge as it allows you to rack up the combat bonus with Overkill. With only 4 attacks you have the potential to get one Wound to kill the champ and the +5 Overkill bonus for a total of +6 to combat res. Pretty good for only 4 attacks. On average you'll get around +4ish which is still like Hitting and Wounding AND having your opponent fail all saves.

====Magic Armour====
*'''Sacred Stegadon Helm of Itza:''' The only Magic Armour the Lizardmen get but what an armour! For its bonus to Toughness and Impact Hits it's fricking cheap and your Saurus can also play mini-Minotaur on a Carnosaur for the lulz. For those who don't know, it gives +1 to Armour Save, +1 Toughness AND +D3 Impact Hits. Impact hits don't benefit from your weapon though. Your weapons stats only affect you when striking with it.

====Enchanted Items====
*'''The Cloak of Feathers:''' Yes, the same old thing that was in the <S>Codex</S> Armybook for like 10 editions. Still makes a flying Skink but now with a little bonus of some extra Magic Resistance. As it's cheap, you can use it to get the Priest in nice positions for the Arcane Vassal rule to help get in range for the shorter ranged spells a Slann may have.
*'''The Horn of Kygor:''' A musical instrument carved from a long dead dinosaur. When your Hero blows it, all Monsters and Beasts in your army within range, will gain the Frenzy rule for one turn. As it will not affect the riders and is extremely expensive for a One Use Only item that does fairly little, it's best to leave this at home.
*'''The Egg of Quango:''' Again a little dinosaur souvenir, but this still has life in it. You can summon the ancient dinosaur from its egg and with a little luck (on a 4+) he will clobber your enemies. As a One Use Only and requiring quite a bit of luck this should probably be left at home, but when you like dinosaurs (and that's why you're playing Lizardmen) then it's not bad. Although if it doesn't get so lucky, the poor bird inside dies :'( While it's 'fun' it's also rather silly. The whole point of the Quango was that it was some rare, mystical creature which could change the outcome of the War against Chaos, with Mazamundi deciding when it should be opened... He's decided it is now and it doesn't do anything to help the War in terms of fluff. But it is an amusing item.

====Arcane Items====
*'''Cube of Darkness:''' Basically a 5 point more expensive Dispel Scroll that works on a 2+. In addition, you roll a die for each Remains In Play spell on the board (including your own) and on a 2+ it ends. After taking a Dispel Scroll this is a near "must take" (if you can). Be careful as this item, by RAW, can dispel also your spells!
*'''Plaque of Dominion:''' A Bound Spell that makes enemy mages Stupid. If your opponent has his mage parked within range of a General/BSB leave this at home. If not... probably still leave it at home. Dispel Scroll first, Cube second.

====Magic Standards====
*'''Skavenpelt Banner:''' This banner grants the Frenzy and Hatred (Skaven) rules, and all other Skaven gain Hatred when attacking the bearer. As it is more than 50 points this banner can only be used on the BSB, and taking a Magic Banner on a BSB is a shitty idea as he can't take any other magic items for protection. Except the Slann, who can take much better banners at a cheaper price (e.g. Banner of Discipline) and still take magic items. Skip this item as a smart general will have you're unit chasing chaff as they are frenzied.
**'''Alternative Opinion:''' ''Ignore the special person who wrote above this. Put it on your Slann and watch 3 Attack Temple Guard madness roll across the field. You don't need to worry about hording with this shizzle as it is the cheese. And I don't see you ever failing a Leadership test with Cold Blooded and BSB and Stubborn with Reroll so you will never chase units across the field (wrong, their special rule states they ALWAYS have to pursue, unless they have a Skink with them).''
**'''Alternate Alternative Opinion:''' The Skavenpelt Banner will let you have a stupid amount of fun with your Temple Guard with a Slann BSB. However, the mandatory Overrun will screw over your Temple Guard if your opponent has any sort of chaff unit, or even a unit they don't mind feeding to the blender (which I really cannot imagine being fielded by Skaven, /irony). Also, if you lose combat you may not run, but your BSB is now holding 65 Points of Hatred(Skaven). Fun, but certainly not worth it.
*'''Jaguar Standard:''' Just cheap enough to be used by a unit of Temple Guard, the Jaguar Standard gives the unit Swiftstride. It's an OK choice for a banner but there are others that could probably work better. Nice way to make sure that if the Temple Guard run off after a unit due to their Predatory Fighter rule, they catch and kill whatever fled.

====Summary====
The ones to seriously consider are Cube of Darkness, Piranha Blade, Stegadon Helm, and perhaps the Cloak of Feathers. For any serious lists, don't bother with the rest though they have their uses.

----

Remember the BRB also has some nice items.
Let us say you have a Slann, what should you buy it? Well, Banner of Discipline is one option, but that still means 100 magic points left! So, what else to get? Seeing as Vetock nerfed the Discipline that gave Magic Resistance (3) to Magic Resistance (D3) each turn, it would seem as if there was little in the way of magical protection for your Slann.... Except there is! For 40(or 45, I forget) points, you can buy an Obsidian Lodestone, this gives you Magic Resistance (3), guaranteed! This means not only do you not need to spend points on the Discipline (although it's cheaper but vastly inferior) but it means you've always got Magic Resistance (3) and therefore your unit of Temple Guard have it too!

:'''Alternate Opinion:''' ''A Slann already has a 4+ Ward Save, so on a 3+ you get a 2+ Ward against spells. Take Channeling Staff and Harmonic Convergence for Power Dice spam, and have the Obsidian Lodestone somewhere else.''

What else, you ask? Well, it seems as if writers have been slowly changing the way Fear and Terror works. You can now have just one model with the ability and everybody else in the unit has it. Although the BRB says this isn't the case, newer Armybooks are mentioning it. In the case of Lizardmen, it says that models in base contact with a Slann gain the cause Terror or cause Fear rule, so basically the unit causes it. So what does that mean? It means you buy a Shrieking Blade! For a mere 10 points, your Slann now causes Fear, therefore your Temple Guard unit now causes Fear! You could buy the Terror Discipline, but it's way more expensive. This is around 55 points (or 50, as I said, I forgot).

Spend the rest of your points on Cube of Darkness and Dispel Scroll ''(you cannot, just 1 Arcane Item per a character, and you already took the Channeling Staff).'' This means you have a Slann with 3+ Ward Save against Magical Attacks/Spells, which also affects your Temple Guard, but also the Slann causes Fear, making it possible for any unit charging your Temple Guard to be reduced to WS1, allowing your Temple Guard to have an even higher chance of survivability!

===Magic===

Yes please.

Now after the new book, the Lizardmen have gotten High Magic (the High Elf magic) for their Slann. Well not bad at all but the real thing is in the Lore Attribute: Contemplation. It allows you to forget a spell you successfully cast, and generate a new one out of High Magic or any normal Lore. This means you can drop spells you don't need and get new ones. Playing against Daemons? Light magic is there. Fighting against Chaos Knights? There you go: Searing Doom.

With magic, one of the biggest choices is which Lore for the Slann. Generally Life is regarded as the best for Slann as it can prevent Miscasts from nuking your Mega-Toad. Plus, who doesn't like Toughness 6 Saurus? Aside from your opponent, I mean. Generally it's best to take a lore based on your opponent's army. Metal and Shadow are pretty good choices. Heavens is a big NO as you already have Skink Priests to cast that one for you.
Typically, people opt for either Life or Light, with Life being more popular of a choice.

'''Lore of Life (Recommended)''': <strike>With the Loremaster discipline on a Slann, and thus allowing you to get every spell from the lore, this is probably the best choice as Earth Blood, Flesh to Stone, and Regrowth keep your warriors in the battle and help mitigate their relatively small numbers.</strike> Slann can only be a Loremaster in High Magic as of the most recent Armybook. Life is still awesome but Slann can't count on always having the Throne anymore. Throne of Vines helps make your Slann from killing himself and lets Flesh to Stone buff your Saurus to Toughness 8 (as well as buffing the effectiveness of the other spells)! Finally, Dwellers Below is possibly one of the most ridiculous spells in the game and can nuke entire units with no looking back. Generally this is probably the best of the lores to use for a balanced or defensive list. Remember that any good opponent will packing at least 1 Scroll so never depend on your first Dwellers working. In fact depend on it not working.

'''Lore of Light (Recommended)''': Although Life is probably better in a large tournament game Light can be devastating in Saurus-heavy armies with a Slann in the center. Birona's Timewarp and The Speed of Light are probably the best spells as they make up for the Saurus' low Initiative and mediocre Weapon Skill. The Timewarp will also give you an extra Attack and double the Movement, turning the Saurus into something more akin to Ogres in power (that's 3 attacks and 8 movement by the way) . Best of all is that both of them and their little cousin Pha's Protection (an Augment that will help against shooting and getting hit in combat at a -1 To Hit) can all be cast as 12" bubble buffs that can affect all units, allowing an army with a Slann in the center to be twice as effective. On another note the lore has some pretty good utility spells that can clear chaff (and also get a bonus versus the foul Undead and Daemons) and help stop your opponent from getting dangerous flank charges (The Net of Amyntok). All in all probably the second best lore for Lizards. One other thing to note is if you get some lucky rolling you can cast bubble Speed of Light and Phas Protection. The astute among you will notice that means most core (WS4 and lower) will be hitting your mighty Saurus on 6's. This is obviously huge and the fact that more people don't do this makes me sad.

'''Lore of Shadow''': The Lore Attribute is probably the most important part to the use of this Lore for lone Slann. Allowing the Slann to switch with any other character within 24" after a successful casting is a great way of getting him out of combats and switching in an expendable Skink or a fighty Saurus Character <strike>(assuming you are not in a Temple Guard block where you can't leave the unit</strike> 8th Ed book no longer states he must remain or even join TG). On the casting side of things Shadow is the most expensive lore to cast in the game <strike>which shouldn't be a problem for a Slann with the Discipline of Ruination for the extra Casting Die each spell</strike> - no ruination anymore in 8th. Otherwise most of the spells are Hexes that lower the capability of your opponent's units. Now a rundown of each spell:
* '''(Signature) Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma''': Lowering your opponent's WS, BS, LD, or I is great with Saurus as they have poor Initiative and a poor WS for elite troops. This spell allows you to level the playing field and hopefully start hitting on 3's. This Hex can also be used for hilarious effect with Purple Sun in the Lore of Death.
* '''(1) Steed of Shadows''': I guess it's cheap to cast but I've never seen a use for it as a Saurus leader is useless without his unit and Skink Priests and Chiefs have other ways to get flying. It could be lolzy for a flying Carnosaur or switching around with a Death lore Slann in the hilarious dual Shadow/Death Slann list but otherwise it seems to lack any use other than switching for the Sig if you don't have Loremaster (which you should).
* '''(2) The Enfeebling Foe''': Minus D3 Strength is okay for your Saurus but they are probably Tough enough already so they don't really need it. Could be okay versus Monsters and keeping your high Armour Saves.
* '''(3) The Withering''': The true winner of this lore in my opinion. Lowering you're opponents Toughness is one of the best Hexes in this game...

'''Lore of High Magic''': The signature Lizardmen lore, shared with High Elves(the Slann did teach them how to use magic after all). It is a pretty well balanced Lore for Lizardmen and much better suited for them than for High Elves. Hand of Glory gives +D3 Initiative/Movement/Weapon Skill, with its High Casting option giving +D3 to all of the stats, not just one. This counters Lizardmens average Weapon Skill (Saurus, warmachines created to fight, have WS3, unless they're on a Cold One or are Temple Guard, then you have WS4, Skinks have WS2) and Initiative. The Movement buff is just gravy. This is much better for Lizardmen than High Elves, since High Elves are rocking WS4 on their basic troops, and WS5/WS6 on their Rare/Specials. Walk Between Worlds is also useful for Lizardmen, especially for units such as Fuck-You-A-Saurs, Kroxigors, Cold One Cavalry and, most importantly, Salamanders. This allows you to move into perfect flanking positions, allowing your units to dish out some hurt while the opponent is tar-pitted against Saurus. The Salamanders are perfect for this spell as you can have as many as you want, a unit of 5 Salamanders shooting five S4 Flame Cannon Template shots over a horde of something or a tough unit to weaken them for your Saurus, is golden. Vaul's Unmaking is useful for removing powerful magical items from Lords/Heroes, especially named/special ones. I'm looking at you Tyrion (+3S sword, 1+/4++ Magic Armour, Gem) or Grimgor Ironhide (+2S ASF axe) and so on. The final High Magic spell, Fiery Convocation, is useful as it will constantly cause hits on the unit, regardless of how big it is. That 40 block horde? They all take a hit. It can whittle them down for your units to finish them off.

There are other viable Lores, such as Fire, but you can't get Loremaster any more, making it a bit of a problem. Even with Lore of Life, you're still only getting 4 spells out of 6.

Heads up people! With the new End times Khaine book, Slann are stupidly strong. If they know one spell from a lore then they know the entire lore now! Meaning the signature spell discipline they can take? Yeah can know all spells from all the basic lores now... And if they are Loremasters of a lore then they get to Reroll Casting attempts of that lore! So you can stick to High Lore and have a higher chance of casting all the spells you need! And ONE MOOOOORE THING!(Shush Uncle!) When the Slann use the High Magic Lore attribute then the moment they get a spell from a Lore they learn the '''Entire Lore'''.
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==Tactics==

There's a school of thought that stipulates that in order to win in WFB you need to be control 2 out of the 4 Phases in a turn. Lizardmen have magic and combat handed to them, so choosing to not take a Slann is really only useful if you're sure that its power as a magic user is unnecessary in the battle to be played. Lizardmen don't have the mobility to control the Movement Phase and we really don't have any truly dedicated ranged units like Elves or Empire.

Because of the lack of mobility on Lizardmen units and lack of long-ranged firepower, one should not play defensively. Imagine if Dwarfs lacked their warmachines and ranged units. No one would play Dwarfs because you could shoot the crap out of them for 3-4 turns and then run around behind them and flank the survivors. Lizardmen can't just stand there and shoot. The whole army needs to grind forward. Grind is really the best word here, if you're doing it right you should be making steady progress and crush anything that tries to stall you.

While some units can really move around compared to your Saurus, those units are all skinks, which means they're dead if you opponent looks at them with raised eyebrows. The exception is Cold One Cavalry which is pretty pricey and therefore will never be fielded in the numbers necessary to play them in a super-effective way.
:'''Alternative view''': ''Cold One cav cost 35 points each whereas Saurus cost 11. Saurus on foot get 2 Attacks whereas Cold Ones riders get 3 and 2 of those are at Strength 5 on the charge. They also have M7, a base 2+ Armour Save and 1 extra WS which helps a surprising amount. The big thing is that with 1" bases you reach critical mass very easily. Basically with 210 points you'll get 12 hits from COC against WS3 at S4/5 on the charge and COC won't die easily. 210 points of Saurus gives you 9 hits or 12 with spears if you run them 6 wide which you should at that point cost. All in all COCs are situationally more point cost effective than Saurus, generally against WS3, S3/4 units. Either way in a standard list run 5 COC to flank charge an existing combat.''

Against mobile armies like Bretonnia, Wood Elves or people who still think cavalry is good, don't wait for the knights or warriors to charge your flanks. Get a Skink skirmisher unit to stand in the way or charge them. Mobile armies will be a pain in the butt, especially if they have ranged cavalry as you will never catch them without carefully noting terrain placement etc.

Tarpits are something to avoid, even though your Saurus units will probably wipe out the offending unit (unless it's a half decent one like a Hammerer dart with a Dwarf Lord running a 1+ rerollable Armour Save and a 4++ in front or sword and board Grave Guard), it wastes time and options. That said if you do get tarpitted, don't worry. 90% of tarpits won't do much to your Saurus and very few have a real chance of beating 40+ Saurus Warriors (you did take a Horde right?). Try to avoid tarpits getting to your Temple Guard as you want them to be free to deal with issues not bogged down playing whack-a-mole.

<strike>Warmachines are the most annoying things for Lizardmen players. You have 2 options to deal with them quickly. Players who rely on warmachines to win are pussy bitches or Dwarfs, and should be mocked as such. Stone Throwers are absolute cunts when they hit and several Bolt Throwers will chew through a unit quickly. Against Dwarfs this is doubly so. In fact during a Dwarf player's Deployment Phase while they look to place their lame ass contraptions play this clip from Community where Senor Chang perfectly describes warmachine-heavy armies: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVneqqeyO2M] </strike>

The most annoying thing for Lizardmen players has to be Purple Sun of Xereus (just ask my mate Jed). You're marching along, merry as can be, when some poncy spellcaster decides to royally fuck up your plans. Bye-bye to TWO-THIRDS OF YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING ARMY IN ONE GODDAMN PHASE. They'll six-dice it every turn, so either fuck them up before they do the same to you or carry a Dispel Scroll and hope the poncy prick shoves his staff where the Purple Sun doesn't shine.

{{Warhammer_Tactics_Races}}
[[Category:Warhammer/Tactics]]

Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Lizardmen

2018-02-14T07:57:03Z

2A02:587:3A0B:B100:E088:4BA2:4059:3AB1:

[[File:Theodorakis.jpg|700px|left|thumb|Mikis Theodorakis, a Slann Lizardman disguised as a human exploiting the regressive obsession of the Greeks with the past glory of ancient Macedonia to restore the old dominance of his race.]]
[[File:Lizardmen race.jpg|700px|right|thumb|And here is an empire determined to overshadow Alexander the Great that the fans of Mikis Theodorakis are so proud of as it emerges in an age when people are too arrogant to understand its threat.]]

==Why Play Lizardmen==
Let's face it, because you like Dinosaurs and you like great looking models.
Lizardmen Core is extremely good. Saurus being tough and hard-hitting, Skinks filling many roles, acting as charge redirectors, harassing, shooting, scouting. Their elite infantry, Temple Guard, are complete murder in large packs and will roll over any infantry except the strongest units of Chaos Warriors. They have diverse and extremely powerful monsters, one of the best spellcasters in the entire game and Saurus characters are perfectly designed to destroy enemy Lords and Heroes in a quick, confusing and bloody fight, all the while riding a T-Rex or a raptor.

Lizardmen used to dominate by sheer magic power, as Slann were incredibly overpowered, stealing the light from the mainstay of a good Lizardmen army: infantry that simply refuses to run away and deals terrible damage.

Most Lizardmen units benefit from one or more of the following awesome special rules:
*Cold-Blooded: All Lizardmen units can roll three dice and choose the two lowest for Leadership tests.
*Scaly Skin: This is an Armour Save of some description, which combines with other armour. Most models have the 5+ version, but a few have 4+. Skinks now do gain a 6+ Scaly Skin which is a nice buff considering they went down in Leadership.
*Predatory Fighters: Most Saurus and Kroxigors gain this new rule which allows them to gain more attacks by rolling 6's to hit. The downside is that these extra 6'es don't generate further attacks and the unit must Pursue unless there is a Skink Character within 6". Luckily they don't have to Overrun so there are very few downsides to this special rule. Thanks blessed Vetock. Be warned that this rule affects Temple Guard, which might drag a Slann Mage-Priest with them into a trap!
*Aquatic: Skinks have Marsh and River Strider, gain the ability to become Steadfast in that terrain, and gain a -1 to hit against shooting. A great way to use the terrain to your advantage for flanking and general disruption while not getting bogged down (I see what you did there) in terrain.

Last but not least, Lizardmen are one of the greatest sights in the game because they usually consist of very colourful units, the minis are great with almost no exception, and the mix of reptilian Aztecs with giant blood-hungry dinosaurs is the tightest shit ever.

==Unit Analysis==
===Lords & Heroes===
====Named Characters====
'''Note:''' Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced. You can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

*'''[[Lord Kroak]]:''' Story wise, he used to be [[God-Emperor of Mankind|the World's greatest magician, but then after a few thousand years or so he became a super-powerful corpse attached to a Magic Throne]]. He has a raft of special rules, including Unbreakable, Causes Fear, a 3+ Ward Save, -1 To Hit for any normal attacks directed at him, and the very powerful spell ''Deliverance of Itza''. However, he's '''400 points''', ''only'' knows that one spell, and is Flammable. Although fluffy and occasionally fun, you're almost always better off with an ordinary Slann (although he can make an awesome [[Counts As]] Mage Priest). Incidentally with The End Times Kroak can now take the Lore of Undeath, since it says that ALL wizards can generate spells from it (and with him being dead himself you can certainly argue he's more in tune with Death Magic than most Necromancers), so now he has a proper lore again! Though this is probably going to be FAQ'd out pretty soon.

*'''Lord Mazdamundi:''' Currently the most powerful Mage Priest, Mazdamundi rides a Stegadon. Like Lord Kroak, he has a massive raft of rules: four Slann disciplines, Stubborn, a 4+ Ward Save, Loremaster in any lore he wants, Always Strikes First with Strength 5 Poisoned attacks, destroys other magic items, owns a Battle Standard, and a mount that has a 2+ Scaly Skin save and grants Mazdamundi a 2+ armor save. If the Stegadon is killed, he can still use his Palanquin to move around. Yes, Mazdamundi ''sounds'' pretty awesome, but he costs a whopping '''780 points''', meaning he's impractical in all but the biggest battles. He also lost some of his godly 7th ed rules such an unlimited amount of dice when casting, a super-powerful spell, and the ability to re-roll Miscasts. Also his supposedly awesome weapon hits at WS2. To make matters worse, Zlaqq, his Stegadon, described as the biggest in Hexoatl (the most militarized City, with entire herds of them) has the profile of a normal Ancient Stegadon. It doesn't even get Sharpened Horns (Impact Hits causing D3 wounds) or Devastating Charge. Overall grossly overpriced for what he does, and this is sad since he is supposed to be one of, if not the, strongest wizard alive.

*'''Kroq-Gar:''' The pinnacle of Saurus carnage, mounted on the pinnacle of giant predators, all this represented by a wonderful model. Fluff-wise, Kroq-Gar is the absolute perfection of the Saurus race. One of the greatest warriors currently alive and simply the one you can trust to protect Lustria against invaders. Among his accomplishments are: fighting an unending horde of Daemons for 1000 years, being 8000 years old and still one of the best warriors of his entire species, being the sole survivor of a destroyed city, being entrusted to lead the crusade against Chaos by Lord Mazdamundi himself, and much more. He rides Grymloq, a massive Carnosaur, and together they pack a 5+ Ward Save. If Kroq-Gar or his mount is killed, the surviving one gets Frenzy. His spear gives him +1S on the Charge and deals two Wounds for the price of one (and he has 5 Attacks). For unknown reasons, despite millennia of fighting and winning against every kind of foe and being the strongest Saurus alive, he is still WS6. His Hand of the Gods is a Bound Spell casting 'Light of Shem' from the Lore of Light. Grymloq is also the only named mount to retain an improved stat line over 'basic' mounts in the Lizardmen book. However, the same problem as Lord Mazdamundi apply: at 520 pts, he is restricted to large battles, and Grymloq cannot have any of the upgrades normal Carnosaurs have. He doesn't even have the Blood Frenzy rule (unending Frenzy after causing the loss of 1 hp) which is standard on the basic version.

*'''Chakax:''' Once upon a time, Chakax choked a Daemon Prince with his bare hands, fought hundreds of wild jungle creatures for 2 days straight, guarded his unconscious Mage-Priest for weeks in the middle of the jungle, etc. When both he and a Slann are in a unit of Temple Guards, the whole unit becomes Unbreakable (until one of the two is killed). At the beginning of the Close Combat Phase, his mace forces the enemy to reveal all their Magic Items, and if he hits with it, he destroys a random one on a 5+ (only one roll per turn, alas). When fighting in a Challenge his Key grants him a 5+ Ward Save and afflicts his opponent with the Always Strikes Last rule, but since he shares it too (his weapon being basically a magical Great Weapon) and is only I3 he is not very likely to hit first, while his Mask prevents enemy Scouts from being placed within 20" of Chakax, and forces the enemy to revealed all hidden units when they are within 20" of Chakax (Skaven assassins, Night Goblin fanatics, etc.). Best used for defense, but unfortunately not very useful otherwise. Overall the worst named character in this book.

*'''Gor-Rok:''' Gor is his name, Gore is his game, and oh Old Ones, he Rocks at it. If you're making a model of him and at least one half of him isn't drenched in blood, you are doing it wrong. He is Stubborn, rerolls failed To Hit rolls (generating Predatory Fighter attacks on a 5+) and can ignore Killing Blow, Heroic Killing Blow and Multiple Wounds on a 2+, losing only 1 Wound if successful. Units charging him have to take Dangerous Terrain tests with a -1 modifier. At a new and improved cost of 185 points, he is interesting even in small games where he can hold your main line, while he can make a pack of Saurus really fearsome in larger battles. This is a character you want to put in a larger unit and wait for the enemy to charge. Very resistant, with T6 and an Armour Save of 2+, he is the perfect guy to take and hand out Challenges. However, he only has 2 Wounds, making him too frail to fight strong characters by himself. A lesser Gor-Rok can be emulated by spending 40 points on Sacred Helm of Itza on a Scar-Vet or Oldblood.

*'''[[Tehenhauin]]:''' The cheapest Lord the Lizardmen have (at 230pts), he is a Level 3 Wizard who uses the Lore of Beasts, is Immune to Poison, Unbreakable, has Poisoned Attacks, gains +1S on the turn he charges, has a 5+ ward save, and he makes all Skinks (and only skinks, not Mounts, Kroxigors in Skink units, etc.) hate Skaven. He rides a Tide of Serpents but can ride an Ancient Stegadon with an Engine of the Gods (for a bonus 280pts) like any normal Skink Priest. Though of little interest in most scenarios, he is a must-have in an all-Skink army or when fighting a Skaven army.

*'''Tetto'Eko:''' The only Skink Priest to ride a Palanquin, he is a Level 2 Lore of Heavens Loremaster. He can be accompanied by Skinks like Slann with their Temple Guard and can predict the future. In short, a buffed-up Skink Priest but without the upgrades or mount. When he is present, he lets you roll a D6 at the start of your turn: on a roll of a 1 you have to reroll all your 6's when casting, 2+ lets you reroll all 1's when casting. Not only do your casters get to reroll their 1's, this also affect the magic machines carried by Stegadons and Bastilladons, which improves them ten-fold. After deployment but before determining who gets the first turn, you may Vanguard D3 of your units because of his ability to predict the future. This may allow you to get your Stegadons and Carnosaurs into your opponent's face right off the bat, possibly avoiding a round of artillery fire. If Tetto'Eko successfully casts the spell ''Comet of Cassandora'', you may re-roll the dice at the start of each player Magic Phase to see if the comet arrives. His Palanquin gives him a 5+ Ward Save. In short: he is the missing link between the Skink Priest and the Slann. In larger battles, a Slann is more interesting, but because he is a Hero you could run both. His very reasonable point cost combined with always useful abilities make him (arguably) the best named character in the book.

*'''Tiktaq'To:''' A silly name, but a balanced character. Anyone shooting at him or his unit suffers an additional -1 To-hit, he has a 6+ Ward Save and Magic Resistance (1) as protection. His blade ignores Armour Saves and the unit he is with can perform a sort of Deep-Strike. He is as useful as a Skink special character can get. He can also upgrade a unit of Terradon Riders to have Ambush. However, thanks to the 8th Edition BRB, Flying Characters CANNOT join Flying Units, so he's fucked. In 7th, there was a special rule for Terradons allowing Characters to join Flying Units. It's no longer there. One can assume that it's changed in 9th (and thus written as such) or was assumed he could join but others could not (his special rule says him AND his unit benefit from it. He can join units).

*'''Oxyotl:''' Fluff-wise, like Kroq-Gar, Oxyotl belongs in the incredibly tough 8000 years survivors category, as he spent millenia in the Chaos Realms assassinating Greater Daemons before finding his way back to the normal world. On the tabletop however, he is nothing impressive. His only tricks being Sniper and a blowpipe that fires 3 times a turn instead of 2. He may be the cheapest Special Character the Lizardmen have at 160pts, but he is still only useful in small battles, where he is in fact devastating. In larger games, he does not perform anything a unit of normal Chameleons cannot do.
::'''Alternative''': ''No- what about VS VCs and TKs? Then the Sniper rule comes into play. Level 4 Necromancer- stay still then, at 6" shoot 3 shots- these need 4s to hit and are Poisoned on 5+. Watch your opponent cry as this orange devil runs around sniping characters until they waste time in killing him- like normal Skink but better.''
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====Generic Characters====
''Note:'' While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

*'''[[Slann]] Mage-Priest:''' Big Pappa Toad, the core of most armies.
**The good: a Slann is a powerful Level 4 caster with an in-built 4+ Ward Save and can be both general and BSB at the same time. It has the ability to ignore terrain and is never considered on foot while still being Infantry, has five Wounds, the ability to swap spells with other Slann and to cast trough friendly Skink Priest models. He also has a lot of synergy with Temple Guard: units joined by a Slann are Stubborn, Immune to Psychology, and allow the Slann to auto-pass Look Out Sir! Additionally, since he is fielded in the second rank rather than the first he is never going to be involved in actual combat and can cast spells even while his unit is busy fighting in melee. A choice of Disciplines (see below) helps to make Slann one of the best generic wizards of the game.
**The bad: being the BSB means he drops dead if his unit flees from combat. Thankfully in a TG block and with the Banner of Discipline this is highly unlikely to happen.
**The ugly: sporting a pricetag of 300 fucking point vanilla, he is expensive as all fucks and Magic Items and Disciplines only worsen the situation. Mind you, he still does repay every single point you invest on him if you are careful not to make sub-par decisions.
::'''Another take''': ''300 is a lot of points but think about it, he has two of things as standard most characters don't have:''
::*''4+ Ward built in (45 points from the rulebook) ''
::*''lv4 as standard (roughly a lvl3 character is roughly the 185 mark so adding 35 points to them makes them with no gear 220 points)''
::''See? We are already at the 265 mark without accounting for his palanquin (counting as on foot but not on foot for Pit of Shades, etc which is amazingly good) and his ability to cast spells out of Skink Priest models. This plus his statline is why I think he is a relatively good purchase for 300 points.''

*'''DISCIPLINES'''
** Reservoir of Eldritch Energy: Can carry over an extra Dispel Dice on the roll of a 2+ to next Magic Phase. Nifty and cheap at 20 points. Though not a first pick, it is a close second.
** Soul of Stone: Can add or subtract 1 to the Miscast Table results. Will save your life sometimes but not that awesome. Still, it is only 25 points.
** Becalming Cogitation: Re-rolls its first failed dispel attempt in each Magic phase. Cheap at 25 points and good pick.
** Wandering Deliberations: Can learn Signature Spells from all 8 battle lores. Can't use with the Loremaster one. The eight signatures are nothing to sneeze at and each of them benefits from the Lore Attribute. It is kinda sad that we need to spend 30 points on this while a level 2 High Elf Lord with Combat Lord stats has it by default, though. If playing The End Times just fucking take this, I repeat, TAKE THIS IN END TIMES because with the new rules it will allow your Slann to know every spell of the eight battle lores (confirmed for the Loremaster of Hoeth so no reason to doubt it will work for the Slann). Yes, you heard right: for 30 points you get 64 spells (7 from each lore + each of the End Times spells for the BRB lores) and 4d6 dice from the powered-up Winds of Magic rolls. This is immense! Just remember it works only if you have the The End Times book.
** Harmonic Convergence: Roll two additional dice whenever attempting to Channel Power or Dispel dice. Nothing impressive until you notice the existence of Channeling Staff: suddenly you are Channeling three times a turn on a 5+. 30 points (plus 15 for the staff) rarely tasted so good.
** The Harrowing Scrutiny: Slann causes Terror. Meh... 30 points of overpriced garbage. Take the Shrieking Blade for 5 points and get Fear instead.
***'''Alternative Opinion''': ''This can be very good when facing low LD armies, as it means they might run away and not bog down your TG bunker - Still situational, mind you.''
** Transcendent Healing: Roll a d6 for each wound Slann has lost. On a 6 he regains it. Not bad, but not reliable enough to be good at 30 points.
** Unfathomable Presence: Can get Magic Resistance D3 each Magic Phase. Skip this one. If you are willing to spend 30 points on this you'd better pay the same 30 for MR2 with Obsidian Amulet and get the 2+ Save against spells, unless you truly need that Dragonbane Gem on your Slann.
** Focus of Mystery: Becomes a Loremaster in High Magic. Can't use with the Signature Spell one. 35 points are worth it? High Magic is a great lore that can do a bit of everything. Has two Signatures (you get both of them with this Discipline, obviously) so you get a grand total of eight spells. Great synergy with the Lizardmen army and don't forget its awesome Lore Attribute, Contemplation, that lets you forget a High magic spell after you cast it and roll for a new one on any other lore, which carries its Lore Attribute with it and can be swapped for the Signature. You can swap your less useful spells and tailor your list to better suit the situation during the game, so yes, it is fucking worth it. Overall one of the best Disciplines, even more so now that Slann can't Loremaster any other lore.
** Higher State of Consciousness: Slann becomes Ethereal and Unstable but can't join units. Costs as much as two other Disciplines, clocking in at 60 points, so take it only if you are absolutely positively sure about what the fuck you are doing. Used to be popular in 7th edition, but has not been seen around much lately. Can be deadly to your Slann, as losing combat will cause unsaveable Wounds.

*'''Saurus Oldblood:''' Killing machine. Can ride a Cold One or a Carnosaur. Can be tooled up to either assassinate Lord characters and Daemons, or solo regiments of infantry. Given how expensive a Slann is, he shows up in smaller battles as a general or in larger battles as a second Lord choice. Old Bloods have a 4+ Scaly Skin by default and a lot of Attacks before you buy any upgrades. However, these upgrades are expensive: the Carnosaur alone costs almost as much as a naked Slann (and the figurines themselves are not cheap either). The main downside is how hard it is to use both an Old Blood on Carnosaur and a Slann, because of their cost. One bad cannonball and you're down around 400 points. A very powerful build for the Old Blood is giving him the Armour of Destiny and the Fencer's Blades. This means he gets 6 S5 attacks at WS10. The build also gives him great survivability with a 2+ Armour Save and 4+ Ward. Guaranteed to make opponents rage, especially in smaller point games (such as 1000). The drawback to this build is that it cannot be a mounted Oldblood due to using two hand weapons so no extra armour from a Cold One or Carnosaur sadly.

*'''Saurus Scar Veteran:''' A lesser Old Blood at an affordable price. He can now even ride a Carnosaur. It still dishes out that Saurus melee butchery that makes people cry and it can ride a Cold One if you want him mounted but don't have enough points to take a Carnosaur. If your Slann is not your BSB, a Scar Vet can and take a magical banner. In larger games where you can afford a few Scar Vets (or a a couple of them and an Old Blood), equip them and use them like missiles: send a kitted-out Scar Vet after one thing and watch it get maimed. In smaller games they're more useful sitting in Saurus units to chew through infantry. Solid choice as a General at low level games and good in larger battles for supplementary killing power. If you take a Slann and a Scar Vet, you can have a very nice combo: a Carnosaur and your magical toad!

*'''Skink Chief:''' Cheaper now and with more mounted options this guy is a little more viable. Only take this guy mounted as he's way too soft compared to the Saurus characters, and Skinks in general suck as proper ranked units. Can take Stegadons, Ancient Stegadons and Terradons as mounts, which is what you should be doing. On a Terradon it can do some good character hunting and screw warmachine crews, as well as provide a Leadership buff to that Terradon unit, but it means your general should be someone else. Not a solid General choice but nice as a supporting character and a means to getting another big dinosaur on the table. Like the Scar Vet, he can be the BSB. You could use him against an opponent for tying down a monster- 5 dead Skinks a turn isn't much and tying down a 250pt model for 4 turns is surely worth 145 points (20 Skinks + Chief).

*'''Skink Priest:''' Good low-level Wizard. Can act as a range extender for Slann allowing them to send Magic Missiles or Direct Damage spells as if the Slann was where the Priest is standing. Can take the Engine of the Gods if mounted on a Stegadon, which makes a combination of a killing machine, maximum safety for the character and very powerful support to nearby units. They're limited to the Lores of the Heavens and Beasts but they have enough Magic Items to maximize their usage. They support the Slann or are used in large numbers to spam spells down the enemy's throat. Do not underestimate them as they have access to Comet Of Cassandora and Lizardmen are the only army that can reliably spam that spell. Wyssan's Wildform is a spell tailor-made for making Lizardmen rape machines.

===Core Units===
*'''Skinks:''' Cheap and spammable light infantry. Kroxigors can be taken in the second rank of the unit and are allowed to attack normally over the front rank of Skinks. This gets some heavy hitters in there. Overall, Skink units are a good place to put these thugs. They have a higher Ld and pass on the effect of causing Fear to the unit. Despite weak (native) Leadership and terrible Toughness, Skinks can be surprisingly effective against non-elite infantry and cavalry for one turn, in part thanks to their relatively high Initative. Stand and Shoot combined with the Poison rule enables their shooting attacks to auto wound. However, Skink Cohorts can be upgraded to have Poisoned melee attacks. Cohorts are not bad with this as Javelins can be <s>shot</s> thrown before going into melee. The price you're paying is incredibly low for what they can do.
*'''Skink Skirmishers:''' Always take javelin and shield. Blowpipes are useless on a mobile unit as you'll be needing 7's to hit after -1 Long Range, -1 moving, -1 Multiple Shots which means no poison! Javelins are Quick to Fire, so hit on 5's if you move with them and shoot from Long Range. Blowpipes are for the higher BS Chameleon Skinks. They keep their poison AND you gain a 5+ 6++ in close combat, which makes them infinitely better against chaff. ('''alternative opinion''': ''+1 Armour Save isn't much. As a small unit of artillery hunters with blowpipes are brilliant - march for 2 turns then shoot at close range. Blowpipes have 12" range, and since you can opt out of Multiple Shots, you can just use them as extra range javelins'')Skinks can be great for kiting enemy units and being an all-around thorn in their sides. Put simply, if the Skink Skirmishers manage to inflict wounds on any unit, your opponent will be compelled to either shoot at it, commit a unit to charge it, or try to ignore the damage they're doing. The first option is bad because damage spells and shooting units are overkill against Skink units that size, making it a waste of resources when other, more dangerous units, are around. The second option is bad because most close combat units are significantly more costly than Skinks and are much better suited to stopping/slowing your Saurus bricks from smashing through the battlefield. This gets even worse if the Skinks are able to shoot at the unit prior to the melee and inflict wounds. However, with cheap units like Skaven Clanrats, this is less of an issue, except that large Clanrat units shouldn't chase down half a dozen Skinks, and no one fields those kinds of units with an equivalent cost to your Skinks. With elite units, the problem is further exaggerated because any damage done to the Skinks is pointless. <strike>Most elite units cost close to 30 points a model,</strike> [[Derp]], '''maybe''' really powerhouse heavy cavalry, but most Elite Infantry runs from 12-16 points, which means that more than 2 ranged casualties is a lose-lose tradeoff at best. Ignoring the Skinks, as some players do, is even more stupid because that leaves them free to pick off other skirmishers, violate war machine crews, and chip off wounds from other important units or characters. In summary, Skink Skirmishers are suicide units that force bad tradeoffs for the enemy. They'll die when they're attacked, but it's a lose-lose situation, and in the wider context of the battle this leads the opponent to be inefficient with his units.
::'''Alternative Opinion''': ''Actually, Skink spamming is considered to be a particularly tasty form of [[powergamer|cheese]], since you can literally flood the battlefield in cheap, fast moving, little units with an array of poisoned weapons redirecting, shooting, and irritating your opponent's units to a not-quite-metaphorical death. If you can get Walk Between Worlds and Hand of Glory off on these, it's funny as you don't technically move them, but go 20" forward- then shoot at BS6 with blowpipes needing 3s to hit- on a unit of 20, 40 poisoned shots brings [[lulz]]''
*'''Saurus Warriors:''' The backbone of any Lizardmen army, Saurus Warriors pack a 5+ Scaly Skin save, shields, spears/hand weapons, 2 base Attacks, are Cold Blooded, and are WS3, S4, & T4. When rolling To Hit have a chance of generating more Hits, and they must pursue unless near Skinks. While the unit has some great stats for a hand-to-hand unit, their god-awful Initiative of 1 ensures that they don't leave combat unscathed, and their cost per model, spears included, is higher than just about any other rank-and-file core choice. These two key issues are mostly irrelevant though, because Saurus Warriors are the best fucking brick infantry in the game. Chaos Warriors may be better per model, but they cost a good bit more. Besides, no other faction can field R&F infantry as effective as yours without crippling their army size. Units that engage Saurus Warriors that have the misfortune of getting flanked by another unit of them might as well have never been deployed. Saurus Warriors either smash straight through the enemy lines, or end up in a slow grinding combat that leaves either half a unit of Saurus or a few dazed and bloodstained enemies left, ready to be swept away by the rest of your army. They can realistically tarpit any infantry unit short of Dragon-Ogres and the like, and even they still won't [[Anal Circumference|get through cleanly or untouched]].

===Special Units===
*'''Jungle Swarms:''' 35 points per base, minimum 2 per unit. Previously core units, they were rarely seen. They have now been moved to Special and given a few bonuses making them an interesting if specific choice. The great thing about these is that whenever some Jungle Swarms are in base-to-base contact with an enemy unit, all other Lizardmen units fighting this same unit get Poisoned Attacks! Suddenly your Saurus's 6's auto Wound while still generating new attacks through Predatory Fighter. A Shadow lore Slann casting Okkam's Mindrazor on the Jungle Swarms, making their Strength the same number as their Ld value, makes them devastating as they have 10: this gives them 5 attack S10 per swarm base with Poison Attacks.

*'''Temple Guard:''' Improved Saurus. They get light armour and halberds. When combined with a [[Slann]] (who is no longer forced to join them), they automatically pass Lookout Sir tests, become Immune to Psychology, Stubborn and cause Fear. These guys are easily a must-have if you have a Slann in your army, and are often worth taking even if you don't have a one. They cost a lot more than the Saurus warriors but hit much harder. Remember that due to the way Temple Guards and Slann rank-up, they get relatively few attacks and most combats against rank-and-file will be a slow grind unless you can break the enemy's morale. Lizardmen list usually field at least a pack of 20 TG along with a block of Saurus, and these serve as the main hitting force or tarpits of the army. You can really cheese out your opponent here, because a BSB Slann with Banner of Discipline and another Magic Banner is +3 Combat Resolution - a Horde of 30 is another +2, another +1 for Charging and so on - hey 10X10 Skavenslave unit, fancy a combat? (don't do this, you will never ever break them, and the Skaven will remain Stubborn forever)

*'''Cold One Cavalry:''' Lizardmen cavalry mounted on buffed raptors. They currently get no love because of their high price, making them one of the less cost-effective cavalry option this edition. Cold One Cavalry is in a weird place even regarding their abilities: the rider has a Temple Guard profile with a better Armour Save, as he has no light armour but gets +2 armour points from being mounted on a Cold One. He has no halberd but his spear gives him a +1S on the turn he charges, after which he fights with a normal Saurus Strength but still with better armour than a TG. The Cold One itself has the same profile as a normal Saurus, which means a Cold One rider and his mount are basically a Saurus and a weird TG, cause Fear and move at double speed while having a Stupid mount (which is not too much of a problem thanks to Cold Blooded). Point-wise, they are 30 each without spears, at which point a single one costs more than 2 TG but gets an intermediary profile between 2 Saurus and 1 Saurus + 1 TG. This price factor overshadows anything they can bring to the table as you will generally want more TGs or more Saurus instead of cavalry. They can be extremely useful, but will shine only in specific situation where their speed makes them the perfect hammer to a Saurus unit's anvil. Most people disregard COC entirely and will bring either more infantry or another monster, but these guys are not bad in themselves. A general who knows what he does might decide to field a few of them. However, this will be at the cost of the overall size of the army. Where COC excel is when serving as a delivery system for one or several Scar Veterans or Old Bloods armed to the teeth with magic weapons. They are solid enough to hit hard, soak up damage, and mounted Saurus characters are terrifying. They also provide a flanking unit that can withstand damage.

*'''Terradon Riders:''' Excellent for harassment tactics: hunting warmachine crews, isolated models and skirmishers. Their ability to drop rocks is also handy for softening up something tough before the Saurus or TG can deal the real damage. The ability to drop rocks and the Bola upgrade are interesting and give some punch to a unit which is otherwise quite weak.

*'''Ripperdactyl Riders:''' Competing with Terradon Riders for about the same role on the table, they are 40 pts each (5 more than Terradons) and more combat-oriented: they have Frenzy, but being flying cavalry means you get a free reform at the end of their movement to make sure they point in the direction of something you want to charge anyway. With Armour Piercing and 2 Killing Blow Attacks they are an interesting choice. The Lustrian Bloat Toad allows you to select one enemy unit per Ripperdactyl unit in your army. Against the chosen enemy unit, any Ripperdactyl unit will get an additional D3 Attacks per model generated by Frenzy. Mind you, the Skink riders have WS2, which means they will hit nothing. This make the spear of Rippderdacyl riders a bit useless: the mounts will be dealing the damage.

*'''Bastiladons:''' First unit to receive a 2+ Scaly Skin Armour Save, the Bastiladons only get T5 and will go down quite easily in combats against large infantry blocks. However, Bastiladons are exactly similar to tanks in that you want to use them as support for blocks of infantry. Their true power is in trotting alongside a big block of warriors, protecting their flanks. The +1I bonus of the Solar Engine is nice but only brings normal Saurus to I2, which is not enough to be a game changer. The Chotek spell, however, can really bring some hurt and deals flaming damages, forcing the enemy to either waste dispel dice on it or endure potentially heavy damage. Their second option, the Ark of Sotek, can shoot a weak projectile even when moving or marching, and can generate additional swarms in any Jungle Swarm unit in a 6" radius, which can go beyond the starting number. This is a funny ability but not critical unless you have a good number of swarms.

*'''Kroxigors:''' Giant crocodile-men. They are strong but not numerous enough, and Saurus warriors are a better option as they can absorb more wounds and deal more attacks. That said, they're not a dead unit but will usually serve as support, not as the main hitting force. With a Scaly Skin save of 4+, they're basically in Heavy Armour + Shield and they have S5 and Great Weapons, so that they hit at S7. Kroxigors have 3 Wounds each, 3 Attacks each and cause Fear. Because they are Monstrous Infantry, they can use all 3 of their attacks from the second rank. They can be combined with a Skink Cohort and occupy the second rank, dealing all their attacks. Unfortunately, they can also be attacked even if there is a first rank of Skinks, which means you cannot use the Skinks as shields for them.

*'''Chameleon Skinks:''' Your only Scouts option and great warmachine hunters. Their higher Ballistic Skill allows them to still get Poison on their blowpipe shots, unlike any unit of Skinks which moves. Regular Skink skirmishers require 7's to hit anything outside 6 inches if they move which means no Poison. They have their place in any thematic or fine-tuned army but unfortunately they suffer from the competition of the other Specials which are almost invariably better.

*'''Stegadon:''' The main Lizardmen monster. Few lists do not include a Stegadon, or even several of them. Stegadons are crewed by 5 Skinks who man the Giant Bow (a ballista in all but name), which can shoot even while moving. The Stegadon causes Terror and benefits from a handful of nice rules plus all the things which come with being a Monster.

===Rare Units===
*'''Ancient Stegadon:''' You thought the above was awesome? This guy is tougher, hits harder in combat and does 4D6 blowpipe shots! Again you will see infantry die with this angry old bastard. Then there is the special version mounted by Skink Priests...
**'''Engine of the Gods:''' In the previous book you were only able to take these as a mount for a Skink Priest, however they can now be taken in the rare section. It has 3 different effects:
***1. it gives all your units within 6" a 6+ Ward Save. This means you can go with spears on your Saurus, and still have a 6+ Ward Save.
***2. it can cast a Bound Spell, that does D6 S4 Flaming hits to units within 4D6. Mostly used for clearing chaff, but is just a nice thing to have in the back pocket although it's murder vs Dryads.
***3. each magic phase you can choose 1 lore from the main rulebook, and the Casting Values of all spells in that lore goes down by 1. Nice in a Beast lore Skink Priest spam list, because it will allow you to have an easier time casting Wysans Wildform on your Saurus.

*'''Salamander Hunting Packs:''' This unit can do some serious damage, and it's good for stopping Regenerating faggots. The salamanders got changed quite heavily with the new book. First of all they can no longer march and shoot, meaning you probably wont be shooting first turn anymore. Second they no longer give -3 to Armour Saves with their shooting attack, but it instead got strength 4. These guys are absolutely amazing! They can halve a unit's size with a single shot. These things work miracles!

*'''Razordon Hunting Packs:''' Each of these are able to make an Artillery Die amount of shots with a range of 18" each turn. They can move and shoot but they can no longer march and shoot. They are pretty terribad at hitting, so unless you have a Slann able to buff them with Hand of Glory you won't be hitting with many of the shots. However since they put out such a large amount of shots, at least some of them will hit. Now that there is no limit to the amount you can pack into a single unit, you could take a unit of 8 and just stick them into your enemies face and just dare them charge these guys. Even if he does he will surely come to regret it. Keep in mind that for both hunting pack units, the Skink handlers cannot be targeted by attacks but can dish out a couple of weak attacks back, which has a couple of situational anti-character uses.

*'''Troglodon:''' What a piece of shit this thing is. 200 points for a good looking model that can't do anything well. It's designed to be useful in any phase but M7 isn't anything to to write home about. Its Magic support is an upgrade you have to pay for that lets the Skink rider channel and it has the same rule that Skink Priests have, Arcane Vassal (Slann can cast through them.). The shooting attack is the lamest attempt to make its point cost: 1 S5 poisoned shot with D3 Wounds, with a short range and BS3... You might hit once or twice a game if lucky. In combat it will wilt faster than an erection after seeing goatse: 3 attacks from the beast and 1 from the Skink. The monster is only S/T 5 with a 4+ Scaly Skin save so any S4 infantry can kill it before the Thunderstomp comes. Its Primeval Roar is the only possibly useful thing this unit brings (but you aren't bringing it are you?). Once per game the Troglodon roars and boost all Predatory Fighters within 12" to get extra attacks on a 5+ instead of 6+. Best fielded 4' off the ground in a display case.
::'''Alternative Opinion:''' ''What I believe this guy MEANT to say was: TROGLODONS ARE AWESOME! M7? Awesome: I'm in your face turn one with Arcane Vassal spells (btw take this, and take the Discipline that grants you all the Signature Spells on your Slann and laugh as you snipe your opponents general with Lore of Death turn one). Its shooting is craptacular yes, but why are you shooting with it? Charge flanks with it and when crunch time comes, drop the Roar and watch your Saurus RIP AND TEAR the opponents a new pie hole. This, if enough punch is delivered, will knock seven shades of crap out of most armies, even giving Warriors of Chaos a run for their money. All this pain train for 200 points, oh and its Aquatic for extra lulz.'' (ONLY TIME IT'S SEMI SCARY is when it runs up on a suicide charge into the most populated spot and Lord Kroak channels through it. Otherwise it sucks, go with the original opinion)
::'''Original Opinion:''' ''I am pretty sure the "Alternative Opinion" was posted by Vetock himself. The Troglodon is terrible. Absolute fail in every phase. He seems to think the Arcane Vassal is good when in fact most spells don't even need it. As for his genius tactics of charging flanks with it, well I have been playing Warhammer for years and I can tell you now that it will never survive long enough to hit a flank in combat. As for the 5+ Roar thing: again, your opponent wont really care. Its just 200 points of pure fail. Take an ancient Steg instead.
''

==Building Your Army==
===Buying Your Army===

As always, the Battalion Box is a good start. It comes with 10 Temple Guard, 20 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry and 12 Skinks.

After that you will need to buy probably 2 more Saurus Warrior boxes unless you're going light on Saurus due to crippling fear of victory. Also the Skinks you get aren't really enough to run more than a single unit of skirmishers, so buy box of Skinks. The TG are also undersized so you might want to get another box to get them up to strength. This gives you a total of 20 Temple Guard, 52 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry and 32 Skinks. Mainly this gives you a smattering of units for a lower cost than buying the boxes and the amount you get in the boxed sets will be slightly less than what you need so there is no overflow... or by the sounds of it might just be easier to buy a second Battalion.

*2 Battalion: 20 Temple Guard, 40 Saurus Warriors, 16 Cold One Cavalry and 24 Skinks. 132£
*The other option: 20 Temple Guard, 52 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry, and 32 Skinks. 152£

Aside: it's a very minor thing, but the Cold One Cavalry sprue has decorative bits that can be used as jungle swarms (2 per 8 CoC, if you can rustle up some bases). So if you want jungle swarms the 2nd Battalion may be better. Also, the excess Cold One Cavalry can be modified into a pair of Scar Vets on Cold Ones. Can give you some cheap hitting power and a way to hit a points limit in your initial games until you figure out what you want to buy to flesh out the army.

Getting a Slann is mandatory. No you can't just say "screw it" even if you never play with it. Not having a Slann will get you laughed at by every neckbeard who hears of your foolishness.

If you want to start an army cheap and build up slowly, buy 1 box of Saurus and convert the 16th one to be something else (eg Scar Vet). This is a small army of about 250 points. After that, buy another box of Saurus unless you want to go all Skink.

===Army Composition===

Some people (you know who you are) think Lizardmen (and specifically Saurus), are a defensive army. This, however, is not true. Take 2 blocks of 30 Saurus, with spears if you're a taker (or have Gor-Rok to lead them). These are your main hitting force. Next, take 2+ units of Skinks. Blowpipes used to be better, but now take Lustrian Javelins. Next, your block of Temple Guard. 20 MINIMUM! No cheaping out here: these bad boys are gonna keep your Slann safe so may as well go all out. Buy a magic standard, Flaming is always handy in a pinch. Then you need to get some support...here is where your aquatic friends come in handy. No Flounder or Sebastian up in this shit, hell no! We got lizards who breathe FIRE (<s>despite being water dwelling reptiles...?</s> they spit acid which goes on fire when it comes into contact with the air) and ones that carry a shotgun of spikes to down insects (bring bug spray to Lustria). Two units of any mix well, however a Razordon is 65 points to a Salamander's 80 points, but now they are S4 so slightly better. Use this to hit the enemy, take ranks and warmachines out. They can also flank charge in a pinch (use them to chase down). Do all you can to make that hammer blow fall hard and fast.

That's your base, now your Slann. Ok here is what you want: Becalming Cogitation, Wandering Deliberations, Reservoir of Eldritch Energy and any other one of your choosing. Make the guy a BSB (hey, if he's so expensive as is, may as well make him worth it) Banner of Discipline ftw!

After that it's entirely up to you what to take. Terradons are a good answer to warmachines yet not as good as Ripperdactyls. Bastiladons in both forms are only worth their points if you have a specific plan for them, it's not a unit you can plop down and expect it to work wonders (i.e. you must actually think harder about your battle plan when using these, ditto for Ripperdactyls). GW again trying to push the newest box by making its model the cheapest. Bloodcrushers anyone?

Just remember if you are only taking units of 30 Saurus in a horde with spears, you won't get any real benefit of the fourth rank so consider taking them 6 across for the added lulz.

===Alternate Opinion===

Let's start with the Slann. Becalming Cogitation and Reservoir of Eldritch Energy are fine. It seems, however, that our friend who wrote the above (and messy) composition forgot about High Magic's Lore Attribute, which allows you to forget a spell of High Magic and replace it with one from any of the Eight Battle Magic Lores. These spells will automatically use their associated Lore Attribute and can always be the Signiture spell as per usual spell generation rules. That means, if you're in a bit of trouble, you can cast a High Magic lore spell, switch to Lore of Life, generate one from there, depending on what it is either keep it or swap it for 5+ Regeneration Signature Spell and then cast that. That not only gives a unit a nice Regeneration save (<S>which I believe counts as a 'Ward Save'</S> there are some differences - vulnerability to fire damage comes to mind) but it also gives the Wizard (or any other character in range) a Wound back. You can do this for any Lore. Wandering Deliberations is also good, as mentioned.

Next, as I am sure the above person knows, your General is automatically the character with the highest Leadership. Since Slann have Ld9, that means they are automatically the Army General unless you have more than one Slann or somehow have another Lord with Ld9 or above. Oldbloods have Ld8. This isn't a problem until you give the Slann the Banner of Discipline, which not only turns it into the BSB but gives it Ld+1. That means the Slann will have Ld10. Amazing for casting the Death Lore Signature spell. <strike>However, the Banner of Discipline also states that the Banner wielder cannot be used for Inspiring Presence. Meaning you have lost the ability to use the Slann to rally. This is a important seeing as many of the Lizardmen units are Ld5-6. Coldblooded helps, but is not always sufficient</strike>. As per the BRB FAQ, a General in a unit with the Banner of Discipline may use his Inspiring Presence with the +1 bonus. This gives any Lizardmen under the eyes of a Slann a 99.8% chance of success for all leadership tests. This is so stupidly good for the price that only an idiot would not take it.

Next, mixing Razordons and Salamanders is a fun idea, but they are both different firing types. Firstly, the Salamanders are Slow to Fire and fire as a Flame Cannon, while the Razordon are Quick to Fire and fire as Grapeshot from cannons. It would therefore be better to keep them separate. Yes, there is the bonus that the Razordons will be able to protect the Salamanders, but it's still a mess.

Bastiladons are worth their price. If you take Jungle Swarms, the Ark of Sotek is useful for a chance on a free base every turn, but the key worth is in the Solar Engine. The gem not only gives every Cold Blooded creature within range +1I (which is <s>stupidly useful</s> does nothing for I1 Saurus on protecting them against Pit of Shades for example) which also stacks with Hand of Glory for a potential +4I (and half of your Magic Phase), it's the Gem's power which is the real useful part of it. The spell is Power Level 3, meaning you need only a 3 to cast it (and your opponent needs only a 3 to dispel it). You've got a 66% chance of doing it with one die. Throw two and you're going to be unlucky to not cast it. The spell itself not only causes 1D3-2D6 S3-6 Flaming Hits, but also a 1/6 chance to reduce WS and BS skill by 1 for a turn. The fact you're going to be forcing your opponent to either accept the chance of the spell being powerful and causing damage OR using a couple of dice to dispel it (this is idiotic, Bound Spells are shit in 8th ed, and easily dispellable even by a lvl2 mage). If they do dispel it, you then simply laugh and use your remaining dice to cast some High Magic or Battle Lore spells which your opponent will struggle to dispel (except that they will use the same or even less dice than you used to cast it, since they get their Caster Level bonus to dispel and you do not get it to cast). The Bastiladon is also the proud owner of the only 2+ Scaly Skin Special Rule, meaning you're going to be resisting plenty of attacks. Yes, its Toughness is terrible (and a surprising number, <s>it should be errated IMO</s> it sucks, deal with it) but imagine a Skink Priest casting Wildform from a Lore of Beast on it, giving it +1S and +1T, or even +2/4T from Lore of Life. Making it the true tank it should be (why not cast it on a Stegadon instead?)

===Magic Items===

Yes the Lizardmen have some of the best okay gear available, unfortunately you will pay heavily for that advantage.

* '''Magic Weapons'''
**'''The Blade of Realities:''' A new version of this and still pricey as hell but now ignoring Ward AND Armour Saves. The only downside is that it now takes up all of a Lord's points for magic items and thus robs you of the ability to take any Ward Saves of your own. As such it should probably be left at home for friendly games. On the other hand, since it means that opponents Lords/Heroes will have to rely on Toughness and Weapon Skill to avoid dying, it means you can use it on an Oldblood to go and destroy a specific target. If you put the Oldblood on a Cold One or Fuck-You-A-Saur, you can get a 1+ Armour Save (4+ Scaly Skin + Shield = 3+ - add the Cold One's or Carnosaur's +2 and you're up to 1+. Light armour can be added in case your mount dies so you stay at 2+). You then head straight for that Lord/Hero and unleash hell. Lore of Life's +2/+4 Toughness will make you even more resilient. Lore of Lights Weapon Skill/Initiative augment means you're going to hit more often. Lore of High Magic Movement/Initiative/Weapon Skill at +D3 is useful, but when you can make it so you improve all three it means your Oldblood and his Mount are going to get there quicker and when they do, they're going to be more likely to hit. +3 Movement will mean 9-10 Movement for the Mounts, +3 Initiative will mean your Oldblood is at Initiative 6 (and 7 if near Solar Gem) and +3 Weapon Skill means hitting at Weapon Skill 9. So, while Elves, Vampire Lords and Chaos Lords will still out-Initiative you (and Elves most likely will get re-rolls too) everything else will be hitting after you or at the same time. With WS9, you're likely to hit (bar specific specific Vampire Lord builds, named Elves and certain Elf and Chaos Lord builds, who will also be around WS9... Also any unit with Fencing Blades) and S5 means you're not too bad when it comes to wounding and since you're packing 5 Attacks, you're very much capable of killing any Lord/Hero in one go (though the likes of Tyrion, it'll be difficult). That's ignoring your Mount and the buff it got from the spells. A T9 Fuck-You-A-Saur is pretty fun. So is one with WS6, especially since it has 5 attacks and each one is D3 Wounds. Being able to smile when you tell your opponent that his Lord/Hero or Special Character can't make any saves would be glorious. The best bit, though, would be against the likes of Malekith, who has a 2+ Armour Save (when on mount) and 2+ Ward Save (against non-magical attacks) or against 1+ Armour Save and 3+ Ward Save Chaos Lords. All those points, wasted as you cleave through them. However, many people won't take named characters or spend so many points on a Lord, so the Blade of Realities has very limited uses in competitive play. However, against WAAC's in friendly games, it's delicious. Try this with a Slann just for the lulz (only once though). Laugh as you chew through tanks and still have a Ward Save!
**'''The Piranha Blade:''' Still a little bit expensive but now getting the bonus of reducing enemy armour. Against monster and Heroes probably a good idea but a hefty price to pay. Although as the Armour Piercing stacks on Impact Hits this item should be used on an Oldblood with the Stegadon Helm on a Carnosaur with Swiftstride. This combo is fucking hilarious, and leaves some points for other magic items.
::Another use is to give it to a Scar Vet on foot and challenge as it allows you to rack up the combat bonus with Overkill. With only 4 attacks you have the potential to get one Wound to kill the champ and the +5 Overkill bonus for a total of +6 to combat res. Pretty good for only 4 attacks. On average you'll get around +4ish which is still like Hitting and Wounding AND having your opponent fail all saves.

* '''Magic Armour'''
**'''Sacred Stegadon Helm of Itza:''' The only Magic Armour the Lizardmen get but what an armour! For its bonus to Toughness and Impact Hits it's fricking cheap and your Saurus can also play mini-Minotaur on a Carnosaur for the lulz. For those who don't know, it gives +1 to Armour Save, +1 Toughness AND +D3 Impact Hits. Impact hits don't benefit from your weapon though. Your weapons stats only affect you when striking with it.

* '''Enchanted Items'''
**'''The Cloak of Feathers:''' Yes, the same old thing that was in the <S>Codex</S> Armybook for like 10 editions. Still makes a flying Skink but now with a little bonus of some extra Magic Resistance. As it's cheap, you can use it to get the Priest in nice positions for the Arcane Vassal rule to help get in range for the shorter ranged spells a Slann may have.
**'''The Horn of Kygor:''' A musical instrument carved from a long dead dinosaur. When your Hero blows it, all Monsters and Beasts in your army within range, will gain the Frenzy rule for one turn. As it will not affect the riders and is extremely expensive for a One Use Only item that does fairly little, it's best to leave this at home.
**'''The Egg of Quango:''' Again a little dinosaur souvenir, but this still has life in it. You can summon the ancient dinosaur from its egg and with a little luck (on a 4+) he will clobber your enemies. As a One Use Only and requiring quite a bit of luck this should probably be left at home, but when you like dinosaurs (and that's why you're playing Lizardmen) then it's not bad. Although if it doesn't get so lucky, the poor bird inside dies :'( While it's 'fun' it's also rather silly. The whole point of the Quango was that it was some rare, mystical creature which could change the outcome of the War against Chaos, with Mazamundi deciding when it should be opened... He's decided it is now and it doesn't do anything to help the War in terms of fluff. But it is an amusing item.

* '''Arcane Items'''
**'''Cube of Darkness:''' Basically a 5 point more expensive Dispel Scroll that works on a 2+. In addition, you roll a die for each Remains In Play spell on the board (including your own) and on a 2+ it ends. After taking a Dispel Scroll this is a near "must take" (if you can). Be careful as this item, by RAW, can dispel also your spells!
**'''Plaque of Dominion:''' A Bound Spell that makes enemy mages Stupid. If your opponent has his mage parked within range of a General/BSB leave this at home. If not... probably still leave it at home. Dispel Scroll first, Cube second.

* '''Magic Standards'''
**'''Skavenpelt Banner:''' This banner grants the Frenzy and Hatred (Skaven) rules, and all other Skaven gain Hatred when attacking the bearer. As it is more than 50 points this banner can only be used on the BSB, and taking a Magic Banner on a BSB is a shitty idea as he can't take any other magic items for protection. Except the Slann, who can take much better banners at a cheaper price (e.g. Banner of Discipline) and still take magic items. Skip this item as a smart general will have you're unit chasing chaff as they are frenzied.
***'''Alternative Opinion:''' ''Ignore the special person who wrote above this. Put it on your Slann and watch 3 Attack Temple Guard madness roll across the field. You don't need to worry about hording with this shizzle as it is the cheese. And I don't see you ever failing a Leadership test with Cold Blooded and BSB and Stubborn with Reroll so you will never chase units across the field (wrong, their special rule states they ALWAYS have to pursue, unless they have a Skink with them).''
***'''Alternate Alternative Opinion:''' The Skavenpelt Banner will let you have a stupid ammunt of fun with your Temple Guard with a Slann BSB. However, the mandatory Overrun will screw over your Temple Guard if your opponent has any sort of chaff unit, or even a unit they don't mind feeding to the blender (which I really cannot imagine being fielded by Skaven, /irony). Also, if you lose combat you may not run, but your BSB is now holding 65 Points of Hatred(Skaven). Fun, but certainly not worth it.
**'''Jaguar Standard:''' Just cheap enough to be used by a unit of Temple Guard, the Jaguar Standard gives the unit Swiftstride. It's an OK choice for a banner but there are others that could probably work better. Nice way to make sure that if the Temple Guard run off after a unit due to their Predatory Fighter rule, they catch and kill whatever fled.

'''Summary:''' The ones to seriously consider are Cube of Darkness, Piranha Blade, Stegadon Helm, and perhaps the Cloak of Feathers. For any serious lists, don't bother with the rest though they have their uses.

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Remember the BRB also has some nice items.
Let us say you have a Slann, what should you buy it? Well, Banner of Discipline is one option, but that still means 100 magic points left! So, what else to get? Seeing as Vetock nerfed the Discipline that gave Magic Resistance (3) to Magic Resistance (D3) each turn, it would seem as if there was little in the way of magical protection for your Slann.... Except there is! For 40(or 45, I forget) points, you can buy an Obsidian Lodestone, this gives you Magic Resistance (3), guaranteed! This means not only do you not need to spend points on the Discipline (although it's cheaper but vastly inferior) but it means you've always got Magic Resistance (3) and therefore your unit of Temple Guard have it too!

:'''Alternate Opinion:''' ''A Slann already has a 4+ Ward Save, so on a 3+ you get a 2+ Ward against spells. Take Channeling Staff and Harmonic Convergence for Power Dice spam, and have the Obsidian Lodestone somewhere else.''

What else, you ask? Well, it seems as if writers have been slowly changing the way Fear and Terror works. You can now have just one model with the ability and everybody else in the unit has it. Although the BRB says this isn't the case, newer Armybooks are mentioning it. In the case of Lizardmen, it says that models in base contact with a Slann gain the cause Terror or cause Fear rule, so basically the unit causes it. So what does that mean? It means you buy a Shrieking Blade! For a mere 10 points, your Slann now causes Fear, therefore your Temple Guard unit now causes Fear! You could buy the Terror Discipline, but it's way more expensive. This is around 55 points (or 50, as I said, I forgot).

Spend the rest of your points on Cube of Darkness and Dispel Scroll ''(you cannot, just 1 Arcane Item per a character, and you already took the Channeling Staff).'' This means you have a Slann with 3+ Ward Save against Magical Attacks/Spells, which also affects your Temple Guard, but also the Slann causes Fear, making it possible for any unit charging your Temple Guard to be reduced to WS1, allowing your Temple Guard to have an even higher chance of survivability!

===Magic===

Yes please.

Now after the new book, the Lizardmen have gotten High Magic (the High Elf magic) for their Slann. Well not bad at all but the real thing is in the Lore Attribute: Contemplation. It allows you to forget a spell you successfully cast, and generate a new one out of High Magic or any normal Lore. This means you can drop spells you don't need and get new ones. Playing against Daemons? Light magic is there. Fighting against Chaos Knights? There you go: Searing Doom.

With magic, one of the biggest choices is which Lore for the Slann. Generally Life is regarded as the best for Slann as it can prevent Miscasts from nuking your Mega-Toad. Plus, who doesn't like Toughness 6 Saurus? Aside from your opponent, I mean. Generally it's best to take a lore based on your opponent's army. Metal and Shadow are pretty good choices. Heavens is a big NO as you already have Skink Priests to cast that one for you.
Typically, people opt for either Life or Light, with Life being more popular of a choice.

'''Lore of Life (Recommended)''': <strike>With the Loremaster discipline on a Slann, and thus allowing you to get every spell from the lore, this is probably the best choice as Earth Blood, Flesh to Stone, and Regrowth keep your warriors in the battle and help mitigate their relatively small numbers.</strike> Slann can only be a Loremaster in High Magic as of the most recent Armybook. Life is still awesome but Slann can't count on always having the Throne anymore. Throne of Vines helps make your Slann from killing himself and lets Flesh to Stone buff your Saurus to Toughness 8 (as well as buffing the effectiveness of the other spells)! Finally, Dwellers Below is possibly one of the most ridiculous spells in the game and can nuke entire units with no looking back. Generally this is probably the best of the lores to use for a balanced or defensive list. Remember that any good opponent will packing at least 1 Scroll so never depend on your first Dwellers working. In fact depend on it not working.

'''Lore of Light (Recommended)''': Although Life is probably better in a large tournament game Light can be devastating in Saurus-heavy armies with a Slann in the center. Birona's Timewarp and The Speed of Light are probably the best spells as they make up for the Saurus' low Initiative and mediocre Weapon Skill. The Timewarp will also give you an extra Attack and double the Movement, turning the Saurus into something more akin to Ogres in power (that's 3 attacks and 8 movement by the way) . Best of all is that both of them and their little cousin Pha's Protection (an Augment that will help against shooting and getting hit in combat at a -1 To Hit) can all be cast as 12" bubble buffs that can affect all units, allowing an army with a Slann in the center to be twice as effective. On another note the lore has some pretty good utility spells that can clear chaff (and also get a bonus versus the foul Undead and Daemons) and help stop your opponent from getting dangerous flank charges (The Net of Amyntok). All in all probably the second best lore for Lizards. One other thing to note is if you get some lucky rolling you can cast bubble Speed of Light and Phas Protection. The astute among you will notice that means most core (WS4 and lower) will be hitting your mighty Saurus on 6's. This is obviously huge and the fact that more people don't do this makes me sad.

'''Lore of Shadow''': The Lore Attribute is probably the most important part to the use of this Lore for lone Slann. Allowing the Slann to switch with any other character within 24" after a successful casting is a great way of getting him out of combats and switching in an expendable Skink or a fighty Saurus Character <strike>(assuming you are not in a Temple Guard block where you can't leave the unit</strike> 8th Ed book no longer states he must remain or even join TG). On the casting side of things Shadow is the most expensive lore to cast in the game <strike>which shouldn't be a problem for a Slann with the Discipline of Ruination for the extra Casting Die each spell</strike> - no ruination anymore in 8th. Otherwise most of the spells are Hexes that lower the capability of your opponent's units. Now a rundown of each spell:
* '''(Signature) Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma''': Lowering your opponent's WS, BS, LD, or I is great with Saurus as they have poor Initiative and a poor WS for elite troops. This spell allows you to level the playing field and hopefully start hitting on 3's. This Hex can also be used for hilarious effect with Purple Sun in the Lore of Death.
* '''(1) Steed of Shadows''': I guess it's cheap to cast but I've never seen a use for it as a Saurus leader is useless without his unit and Skink Priests and Chiefs have other ways to get flying. It could be lolzy for a flying Carnosaur or switching around with a Death lore Slann in the hilarious dual Shadow/Death Slann list but otherwise it seems to lack any use other than switching for the Sig if you don't have Loremaster (which you should).
* '''(2) The Enfeebling Foe''': Minus D3 Strength is okay for your Saurus but they are probably Tough enough already so they don't really need it. Could be okay versus Monsters and keeping your high Armour Saves.
* '''(3) The Withering''': The true winner of this lore in my opinion. Lowering you're opponents Toughness is one of the best Hexes in this game...

'''Lore of High Magic''': The signature Lizardmen lore, shared with High Elves(the Slann did teach them how to use magic after all). It is a pretty well balanced Lore for Lizardmen and much better suited for them than for High Elves. Hand of Glory gives +D3 Initiative/Movement/Weapon Skill, with its High Casting option giving +D3 to all of the stats, not just one. This counters Lizardmens average Weapon Skill (Saurus, warmachines created to fight, have WS3, unless they're on a Cold One or are Temple Guard, then you have WS4, Skinks have WS2) and Initiative. The Movement buff is just gravy. This is much better for Lizardmen than High Elves, since High Elves are rocking WS4 on their basic troops, and WS5/WS6 on their Rare/Specials. Walk Between Worlds is also useful for Lizardmen, especially for units such as Fuck-You-A-Saurs, Kroxigors, Cold One Cavalry and, most importantly, Salamanders. This allows you to move into perfect flanking positions, allowing your units to dish out some hurt while the opponent is tar-pitted against Saurus. The Salamanders are perfect for this spell as you can have as many as you want, a unit of 5 Salamanders shooting five S4 Flame Cannon Template shots over a horde of something or a tough unit to weaken them for your Saurus, is golden. Vaul's Unmaking is useful for removing powerful magical items from Lords/Heroes, especially named/special ones. I'm looking at you Tyrion (+3S sword, 1+/4++ Magic Armour, Gem) or Grimgor Ironhide (+2S ASF axe) and so on. The final High Magic spell, Fiery Convocation, is useful as it will constantly cause hits on the unit, regardless of how big it is. That 40 block horde? They all take a hit. It can whittle them down for your units to finish them off.

There are other viable Lores, such as Fire, but you can't get Loremaster any more, making it a bit of a problem. Even with Lore of Life, you're still only getting 4 spells out of 6.

Heads up people! With the new End times Khaine book, Slann are stupidly strong. If they know one spell from a lore then they know the entire lore now! Meaning the signature spell discipline they can take? Yeah can know all spells from all the basic lores now... And if they are Loremasters of a lore then they get to Reroll Casting attempts of that lore! So you can stick to High Lore and have a higher chance of casting all the spells you need! And ONE MOOOOORE THING!(Shush Uncle!) When the Slann use the High Magic Lore attribute then the moment they get a spell from a Lore they learn the '''Entire Lore'''.
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==Tactics==

There's a school of thought that stipulates that in order to win in WFB you need to be control 2 out of the 4 Phases in a turn. Lizardmen have magic and combat handed to them, so choosing to not take a Slann is really only useful if you're sure that its power as a magic user is unnecessary in the battle to be played. Lizardmen don't have the mobility to control the Movement Phase and we really don't have any truly dedicated ranged units like Elves or Empire.

Because of the lack of mobility on Lizardmen units and lack of long-ranged firepower, one should not play defensively. Imagine if Dwarfs lacked their warmachines and ranged units. No one would play Dwarfs because you could shoot the crap out of them for 3-4 turns and then run around behind them and flank the survivors. Lizardmen can't just stand there and shoot. The whole army needs to grind forward. Grind is really the best word here, if you're doing it right you should be making steady progress and crush anything that tries to stall you.

While some units can really move around compared to your Saurus, those units are all skinks, which means they're dead if you opponent looks at them with raised eyebrows. The exception is Cold One Cavalry which is pretty pricey and therefore will never be fielded in the numbers necessary to play them in a super-effective way.
:'''Alternative view''': ''Cold One cav cost 35 points each whereas Saurus cost 11. Saurus on foot get 2 Attacks whereas Cold Ones riders get 3 and 2 of those are at Strength 5 on the charge. They also have M7, a base 2+ Armour Save and 1 extra WS which helps a surprising amount. The big thing is that with 1" bases you reach critical mass very easily. Basically with 210 points you'll get 12 hits from COC against WS3 at S4/5 on the charge and COC won't die easily. 210 points of Saurus gives you 9 hits or 12 with spears if you run them 6 wide which you should at that point cost. All in all COCs are situationally more point cost effective than Saurus, generally against WS3, S3/4 units. Either way in a standard list run 5 COC to flank charge an existing combat.''

Against mobile armies like Bretonnia, Wood Elves or people who still think cavalry is good, don't wait for the knights or warriors to charge your flanks. Get a Skink skirmisher unit to stand in the way or charge them. Mobile armies will be a pain in the butt, especially if they have ranged cavalry as you will never catch them without carefully noting terrain placement etc.

Tarpits are something to avoid, even though your Saurus units will probably wipe out the offending unit (unless it's a half decent one like a Hammerer dart with a Dwarf Lord running a 1+ rerollable Armour Save and a 4++ in front or sword and board Grave Guard), it wastes time and options. That said if you do get tarpitted, don't worry. 90% of tarpits won't do much to your Saurus and very few have a real chance of beating 40+ Saurus Warriors (you did take a Horde right?). Try to avoid tarpits getting to your Temple Guard as you want them to be free to deal with issues not bogged down playing whack-a-mole.

<strike>Warmachines are the most annoying things for Lizardmen players. You have 2 options to deal with them quickly. Players who rely on warmachines to win are pussy bitches or Dwarfs, and should be mocked as such. Stone Throwers are absolute cunts when they hit and several Bolt Throwers will chew through a unit quickly. Against Dwarfs this is doubly so. In fact during a Dwarf player's Deployment Phase while they look to place their lame ass contraptions play this clip from Community where Senor Chang perfectly describes warmachine-heavy armies: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVneqqeyO2M] </strike>

The most annoying thing for Lizardmen players has to be Purple Sun of Xereus (just ask my mate Jed). You're marching along, merry as can be, when some poncy spellcaster decides to royally fuck up your plans. Bye-bye to TWO-THIRDS OF YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING ARMY IN ONE GODDAMN PHASE. They'll six-dice it every turn, so either fuck them up before they do the same to you or carry a Dispel Scroll and hope the poncy prick shoves his staff where the Purple Sun doesn't shine.

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[[Category:Warhammer/Tactics]]