2d4chan - User contributions [en]

First Founding

2015-06-07T09:03:40Z

81.20.187.142: /* Number of Legionaries */

:''"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me. Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them. They will be of iron will and steely muscle. In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed. They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them. They will have tactics, strategies and machines so that no foe can best them in battle. They are my bulwark against the Terror. They are the Defenders of Humanity. They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."''
:--The [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]] on the creation of the Adeptus Astartes

After he conquered [[Terra]], the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]] set out on a [[Great Crusade]] to re-unite the lost human colonies into a mighty [[Imperium]]. He soon realized that bog-standard humans wouldn't be enough; some situations called for a small number of devastatingly powerful warriors, a surgical strike force to smash enemy linchpins. To fill this role, he created his [[Primarchs]], and from their genes, he created the '''Legiones Astartes''', the twenty [[Space Marines|Space Marine]] Legions:

{|align=center border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
|-
|align=center|'''Legion Number'''
|align=center|'''Primarch'''
|align=center|'''Homeworld'''
|align=center|'''Name of the Legion'''
|align=center|'''Allegiance'''
|-
|align=center|'''I'''
|align=center|[[Lion El'Jonson]]
|align=center|[[Caliban]]
|align=center|[[Dark Angels]]
|align=center|<s>Loyal?</s>LOYAL
|-
|align=center|'''II'''
! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''III'''
|align=center|[[Fulgrim]]
|align=center|[[Chemos]]
|align=center|[[Emperor's Children]]
|align=center|Traitor
|-
|align=center|'''IV'''
|align=center|[[Perturabo]]
|align=center|[[Olympia]]
|align=center|[[Iron Warriors]]
|align=center|Traitor
|-
|align=center|'''V'''
|align=center|[[Jaghatai Khan]]
|align=center|[[Chogoris|Chogoris/Mundus Planus]]
|align=center|[[White Scars]]
|align=center|Loyal
|-
|align=center|'''VI'''
|align=center|[[Leman Russ]]
|align=center|[[Fenris]]
|align=center|[[Space Wolves]]
|align=center|Loyal
|-
|align=center|'''VII'''
|align=center|[[Rogal Dorn]]
|align=center|[[Terra]], [[Inwit]]
|align=center|[[Imperial Fists]]
|align=center|Loyal
|-
|align=center|'''VIII'''
|align=center|[[Konrad Curze]]
|align=center|[[Nostramo]]
|align=center|[[Night Lords]]
|align=center|Traitor
|-
|align=center|'''IX'''
|align=center|[[Sanguinius]]
|align=center|[[Baal]]
|align=center|[[Blood Angels]]
|align=center|Loyal
|-
|align=center|'''X'''
|align=center|[[Ferrus Manus]]
|align=center|[[Medusa]]
|align=center|[[Iron Hands]]
|align=center|Loyal
|-
|align=center|'''XI'''
! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''XII'''
|align=center|[[Angron]]
|align=center|[[Nuceria]], [[Bodt]]
|align=center|[[World Eaters]]
|align=center|Traitor
|-
|align=center|'''XIII'''
|align=center|[[Roboute Guilliman]]
|align=center|[[Macragge]]
|align=center|[[Ultramarines]]
|align=center|Loyal
|-
|align=center|'''XIV'''
|align=center|[[Mortarion]]
|align=center|[[Barbarus]]
|align=center|[[Death Guard]]
|align=center|Traitor
|-
|align=center|'''XV'''
|align=center|[[Magnus the Red]]
|align=center|[[Prospero]]
|align=center|[[Thousand Sons]]
|align=center|Traitor
|-
|align=center|'''XVI'''
|align=center|[[Horus|Horus Lupercal]]
|align=center|[[Cthonia]]
|align=center|[[Black Legion|Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus]]
|align=center|Traitor
|-
|align=center|'''XVII'''
|align=center|[[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]]
|align=center|[[Colchis]]
|align=center|[[Word Bearers]]
|align=center|Traitor
|-
|align=center|'''XVIII'''
|align=center|[[Vulkan]]
|align=center|[[Nocturne]]
|align=center|[[Salamanders]]
|align=center|Loyal
|-
|align=center|'''XIX'''
|align=center|[[Corvus Corax]]
|align=center|[[Deliverance]]
|align=center|[[Raven Guard]]
|align=center|Loyal
|-
|align=center|'''XX'''
|align=center|[[Alpharius]] [[Omegon]]
|align=center|Unknown
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion]]
|align=center|Traitor/Loyal/Maybe Both
|}

==Organization==
The Legio Astartes, being far larger than current Space Marine Chapters, were organized along drastically different lines. At the head of the Legion was its [[Primarch]] Commander who oversaw the Legion's headquarters. Below this were the '''[[Space Marine Chapter|Chapter]]''' of the Legion, each of which was commanded by a [[Chapter Master|Lord Commander]]. Each [[Space Marine Chapter|Chapter]] in turn was divided into a number of '''Battalions''' led by a '''Lieutenant Commander'''. Each battalion was then further divided into '''Companies''' led by a [[Brother-Captain|Captain]]. The Company, itself divided into a number of '''Squads''', was the basic military division of the Legio Astartes. Due to the varying sizes of each Legion and the varying nature of supply and attrition, there was no fixed number of how many Chapters, Battalions, Companies, and Squads a Legion would contain. But even then, there was no fixed [[Codex Astartes|institution]] that a particular Company should be composed of certain units, with each Company specialising naturally as marines and officers became veterans of a certain form of warfare.

===Number of Legionaries===
The Legions were massive armies, and the size of each could vary tremendously. A precise number was never truly achieved and maintained. Even during the Great Crusade, some Legions were very numerous, while others were not. The numbers would always vary with new recruits and inevitable battle-losses, and also important was the availability of potential recruits and the administrative skills of the Primarch and his officers.

The most numerous Legion of all was the [[Ultramarines]]. The [[Thousand Sons]] of [[Magnus]] were of a small number as many of them had developed mutations or uncontrollable levels of psychic powers. [[Fulgrim]]'s samples had been largely lost, and this left the Legion of the [[Emperor's Children]] also with a very small number. Both of these Legions would increase their numbers to acceptable standards only after their Primarchs were found.

The approximate sizes of a few of the Legions at the start of the Heresy have been given in various sources (it should be noted that originally these numbers were much smaller, a full zero knocked off until they were upped by the BL/Forgeworld writers):

*[[Ultramarines]] - 250,000
*[[Dark Angels]] - 166,000 to 216,000 ''(They were considered the largest legion, their numbers fell below 166,000 after they prevented the destruction of the entire northern imperium by an unknown menace from the outer darkness, the Ultramarines overtook them soon after)''
*[[Iron Warriors]] - 150,000 to 180,000 - ''(They also had the largest / most powerful starships)''
*[[Sons of Horus]] - 130,000 to 170,000
*[[World Eaters]] - 150,000
*[[Alpha Legion]] - 90,000 to 180,000 and possibly even more. No-one knows for sure.
*[[Word Bearers]] - 100,000 to 150,000
*[[Blood Angels]] - 120,000
*[[Night Lords]] - 90,000 to 120,000
*[[Iron Hands]] - 113,000
*[[Emperor's Children]] - 110,000
*[[Imperial Fists]] - 100,000 - ''(They also had the single largest fleet in the Imperium, consisting of 1500+ vessels plus the Phalanx)''
*[[Death Guard]] - 95,000
*[[Salamanders]] - 89,000
*[[Raven Guard]] - 80,000
*[[Thousand Sons]] - 10,000

Other Legions have not yet been so explicitly numbered, but their impression can still be gained by how they are described.
*[[Space Wolves]] - Were considered to be smaller than most of the other Legions, but a pre-heresy skirmish with [[Angron]] showed that [[Leman Russ]] knew how to obtain his objectives extremely efficiently.
**Considering that Russ divided his Legion [[Wolf Brothers|only once]] following the Heresy then kept his "Chapter" at a relatively stable size after that we can figure that the number of original Space Wolves is close to 6000 or more, which when combined with Custodes & Sisters of Silence would be a reasonably fair match against the 9000 or so Thousand Sons at the battle of Prospero. Following that battle, when Bjorn is waiting for a new arm, the Forge master explains there are 4000 other warriors in the fleet who are also waiting for his services; and to get in line.
*[[White Scars]] - Fuck knows, in the books Scars/Brotherhood of the Storm, one of the human characters from the Departmento Munitorum is attached to the Legion to figure precisely this out, but finds it practically impossible due to the way that the legion operates.

== Horus Heresy ==

{{Main|Horus Heresy}}

For all their power, the [[Space Marines]] and [[Primarchs]] were not perfect; half of them were sufficiently flawed to be tempted by (or driven to) [[Chaos]], led by Warmaster [[Horus]]. The traitors were defeated, but at a terrible cost, including the near-death of the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] and trillions of deaths.

[[Roboute Guilliman]] decided that the so-called [[Horus Heresy]] was proof that one man could not be trusted with power over one-twentieth of the Imperial Armed Forces, so he enacted several reforms to divide the Imperial Army into the Imperial Guard and Navy, and split the remaining loyalist Legions into Chapters, in accordance with his [[Codex Astartes]]. This event was later known as the [[Second Founding]].

==Legions in 40k==
Technically all of the Chaos Marines are still 'legions', at least in name. They never split into chapters so legions they technically remain. However, since they are all split up into roving warbands and there is no central control it's hard to say they really count anymore. Perhaps most importantly it's impossible to guess how many dudes there are even technically in any legions pool. When they aren't fighting the imperium they are fighting each other, and since none of the Black Crusades have been successful we can reasonably assume that marines aren't pouring out of the Eye Of Terror in their hundreds of thousands. It's utterly impossible to guess how many dudes they got. They got some. Probably not that many. Definitely many many many less than they arrived at the Eye with, which was obviously rather fewer than they began the war with.

As for the loyalists... Since the introduction of the [[Codex Astartes]], there are obviously no longer any Space Marine legions though that does not stop certain chapters from being described or implied to be at ''"Legion Strength"''. Though this is often a common [[Neckbeard]] error and sometimes even gets used in the fluff, where the term is mistakenly used to describe any significantly oversized chapter, though even then they never compare to the forces from the Great Crusade. Though some make a good attempt at it:

*[[Black Templars]] are obviously over-strength in multiples of 1000 and keep to the spirit of the great crusade unlike any other chapter. This force is made up of three primary crusade fleets of unknown size which can end up spread over up to thirty engagements, where the size of a force could be as large as [[Dawn of War|"nearly" chapter strength]] ''(but not '''over''' for obvious reasons)'' or as small as a [[Dawn of War 2|single ship and a handful of squads]], so can be averaged at around chapter strength for each primary fleet. This arrangement is meant to be fluid, and changes all the time as fleets merge and disperse. Respectable figures put their numbers between 2000-6000
*[[Space Wolves]] make no secret of the fact they ignore the Codex Astartes, but even then they are no-where near their original size. In M32 during the '''Battle of the Fang''' it is remarked that most of ''The Aett'' is actually abandoned. Furthermore, Logan Grimnar's own Great Company numbers 200 marines prior to the Sanctus Reach campaign and is the largest company on its own ''(ie: not including the chapter assets)''. Their current number aught to be between 1200-3000.
*[[Astral Claws]] were ''actually'' accused of Legion building and declared heretics even when they were not yet followers of [[Chaos]], their number at the time of the Badab War was around 3000, though they never even used that number as a single force and spread themselves throughout their '''[[Warhammer_40,000/6th_Edition_Tactics/Tyrant%27s_Legion|PDF forces]]'''
*[[Dark Angels#The Unforgiven|The Unforgiven]] are most likely one of the closest examples of a true Legion in that each of the successor chapters arrange themselves under one ''secret'' command structure (the '''Inner Circle'''). Though they each [[RAW|obey the letter, if not the spirit]] of the [[Codex Astartes]] and maintain mostly standard chapters of ten companies. The combined numbers of Dark Angel's successors would put them at around ''150,000 marines'', and this is just a rough estimate, though we don't know if all of the Dark Angel's successors actually consider themselves part of the Unforgiven. Some definitely do though. Oh yes indeed. The Inner Circle has been known to send a random successor chapter across the galaxy to do the space marine equivalent of getting them a six pack (of traitors) when the main chapter is too busy.
*[[Ultramarines]] - Ironically, the ones who uphold the Codex Astartes most strictly are the most hypocritical when it comes to deviations from it. The 23 [[Second Founding]] chapters of the Ultramarines are all represented in the senate of [[Ultramar]] and look to the Lord of Macragge as their [[spiritual liege|nominal leader]]. The Ultramarines even keep a [[Genesis Chapter|SPARE chapter]] lying around to replenish their own ranks whenever they suffer terrible casualties. ''Also if [[Matt Ward|certain people]] had their way then '''EVERY''' chapter would answer when the Ultramarines snap their fingers.'' Because the Ultramarines account for nearly half of the later-founded chapters in the Imperium, they would amount to around ''500,000 marines''.
**Then again... The thing is that all of the original legions maintain ties with with their subsequent founding legions. Blood Angels occasionally call all their bros together, and last time they did everyone out to the 23rd founding showed up for blood and pancakes. Every now and again every Dorn-descended chapter sends a champion (and his mustache) to a big fighting contest to see who is the Dorniest. Essentially every Legion that wasn't murdered into damn near extinction (ie had enough marines to have many descendants) maintains some tie between them. Ultramar spanned FIVE HUNDRED worlds. That's a lot of worlds. And all of them were tithed to the Ultramarines. Guilliman wanted his boys to be warrior-kings. That meant that he gave worlds to be run by marines, and in the end his ideal was each chapter master and senior captain would be master of a world too and look out for it's population. Sooo... 500 worlds -> 500,000 marines, 1 modern chapter per world, not exactly shocking when you say it like that. And let's not to forget that Ultramar was a republic (In Plato's sense of a republic anyway; ruled by just men (which is different to being ruled just by men by the way) as opposed to democracy specifically). So there is a senate. Because that's what republics have. But the senate isn't something that secretly orders chapters around (*ahem* Dark Angels) it's just what there was around when each chapter master split off into his own chapter instead of being part of the legion. In short - The Ultramarine decedents are bros. They bro it up. They probably bro-fist Papa Smurf since he has the big giant pimp-gloves. I know Matt Ward fucked the reputation of the Ultramarines, but he wrote almost none of their fluff (seriously, he said a bunch of shit outside of canon but other than a few pages here and there in codexes he really hasn't effected all that much, he's just effected how you feel about them which isn't the damn same) and they definitely don't do anything that other 1st founding chapters aren't doing. Except they do it bigger.

==Two Unknown Legions==

In the [[Rogue Trader|First Edition]] of [[Warhammer 40,000]], the twenty First Founding Chapters were all known. It seems that [[Games Workshop]] had more love for some than others; when they made [[fluff]] revisions in the transition to Second Edition, the [[Valedictors]] and [[Rainbow Warriors]] were demoted to one of the "Later Foundings."

Nowadays, nothing concrete is known about the Legions II and XI, and likewise their [[Primarch#Two Missing Primarchs|unknown Primarchs]]. Officially, the Imperium deleted all records regarding the "Lost Legions"; the only reminder of the two legions were empty plinths in the Hegemon where statues of the Primarchs stood at the Imperial Palace. Throughout the ''[[Horus Heresy]]'' series, it is suggested that the [[Space Wolves]] destroyed them for some reason. [[The Horus Heresy: Massacre]] includes a timeline of the events at the end of the [[Great Crusade]], and in 965 and 969.M30, the Space Wolves engaged in two missions from which all data was redacted. In the book ''The First Heretic'', when a daemon takes the [[Word Bearers]] on a trip back in time to show them the creation of the Primarchs, the Word Bearers dialogue indicates that the XI Legion in particular did something bad enough for the Emperor to lead their purge himself, and that the left-over Marines were folded into the [[Ultramarines]] (their Chaplain dismisses it as a rumor, though it is public record that the Ultramarines received a major boost in troops at the time). In the book ''Fear To Tread'', Sanguinius tells Horus that he hasn't revealed the existence of the Red Thirst to the Emperor because he fears that the Blood Angels would be purged as well, indicating that gene-seed flaws may have also been a factor. ''Deliverance Lost'' has a dialogue between taking place during Corax's first meeting with the Emperor where he asks why only sixteen of his brothers were waiting to meet him if he was the nineteenth Primarch to be found, only for the Emperor to deflect the question; consequently, we can assume that the Legions were purged sometime before Corax's discovery (and were never around for the Horus Heresy). He also forced the remaining Primarchs to swear an oath never to speak of their absent brothers, so whatever they did must have been extraordinarily bad. In ''Legion,'' a ship's captain notes that the naughtiness of the [[Alpha Legion]] isn't the first time that a Legion has "overstepped it's mark" and that the Imperial Army fleet should report the Alpha Legion "before they become too powerful," which might imply that one of the Legions got away with naughtiness for a long time and then used their entire Legion to fight the Emperor. 'Horus Heresy Book 3: Extermination also hints at the fate of the two missing Legions, first hinting that one Legion did not pass the "Alpha" intake (to take them up to Legion-Strength) when going through testing and the other saying that "the disaster of [REDACTED] had proven the folly of attempting to recruit Legiones Astartes stock from potentially tainted sources." These could be in reference to the same Legion (using tainted stock in the Alpha intake) or two separate ones, with Legion A fucking up in the Alpha intake and Legion B using tainted stock in the later Great Crusade.

Since Horus and the other traitor Primarchs managed to keep their records un-expunged during the Horus Heresy (and afterwards, since the Space Wolves clearly know who Magnus is, the Grey Knights clearly know who Mortarion is, and Horus' name seems to have [[Lulz|become a swearword]]), it can be assumed the missing Legions' naughtiness was something even worse. Possibly they refused to wear pauldrons, we don't know.

Or there may simply be no missing Legions. According to a source who allegedly worked for Games Workshop for five years (seen [http://warhammer40000roguetrader.blogspot.com/2012/06/art-of-rogue-trader.html?showComment=1343572598289#c3841833106793028129 here]), Rick Priestley (who helped write the first Rogue Trader) read about the Roman notion of Damnatio Memoriae, and simply threw in the idea of two "missing" Space Marine Legions as a "nod" to Imperial Rome (specifically, the three Roman legions whose numbers were never used after they were wiped out in the disastrous [[Wikipedia: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest| Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]]. So, nothing significant can ever be revealed about them, because they never really existed in the first place. Except they totally existed in the current canon, even if they started as a joke. Also, the real reason that they were kept around between Rogue Trader and recent revelations was so that people could make up their own pair of Primarchs for model painting and personal fanon (although this has lost its effect as doing so is a step in sending them down the path of the Mary Sue).

{{Marines-Official}}
{{Chaos-Official}}

[[Category:Space Marines]]
[[Category:Imperial]]
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]

Horus Heresy

2015-06-07T00:47:01Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books XI - XX */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing. Told from the perspective of Astelan so is heavily biased in his favour (that's not to say Belath isn’t an arse, he is). Gives a good insight into how he views himself.
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books. then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion turning up with enough firepower to reduce macragge to space dust but after hearing Guilliman explain his intentions for his new Imperium Secundusis he begrudgingly agreed that it might not be such a bad idea after all. Then Sanguinius joined the party and they made him regent.
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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

2015-06-07T00:24:54Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books XI - XX */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing. Told from the perspective of Astelan so is heavily biased in his favour (that's not to say Belath isn’t an arse, he is). Gives a good insight into how he views himself.
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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 unintentionally teamkills Nemiel, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books. then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion turning up with enough firepower to reduce macragge to space dust but after hearing Guilliman explain his intentions for his new Imperium Secundusis he begrudgingly agreed that it might not be such a bad idea after all. Then Sanguinius joined the party and they made him regent.
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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

2015-06-07T00:24:12Z

81.20.187.142: Undo revision 287062 by 108.28.77.135 (talk)

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing. Told from the perspective of Astelan so is heavily biased in his favour (that's not to say Belath isn’t an arse, he is). Gives a good insight into how he views himself.
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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. <s>It should be noted that after being question about way astelan (who was a terran born marine) in the book seems to suggest he grew up on Caliban the author admitted that he hadn’t actually bothered to read up on or check the backgrounds of the characters he was writing about which goes a long way to explain why the book was so bloody awful.</s>
*'''''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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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 unintentionally teamkills Nemiel, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books. then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion turning up with enough firepower to reduce macragge to space dust but after hearing Guilliman explain his intentions for his new Imperium Secundusis he begrudgingly agreed that it might not be such a bad idea after all. Then Sanguinius joined the party and they made him regent.
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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]]

Dark Angels

2015-06-06T23:18:11Z

81.20.187.142:

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Dark Angels
|Heraldry = [[File:Darkangelslogo.png]]
|Battle Cry = "Repent! For tomorrow you die!"
|Number = I
|Founding = [[First Founding]]
|Successors of = None
|Successor Chapters = [[Angels of Absolution]], [[Angels of Redemption]], [[Angels of Vengeance]], [[Guardians of the Covenant]], [[Disciples of Caliban]], [[Consecrators]], Persecutors of Darkness
|Chapter Master = [[Azrael]]
|Primarch = [[Lion El'Jonson]]
|Homeworld = [[The Rock]], originally [[Caliban]]
|Specialty = [[Plasma]] weapons, [[Deathwing|terminators]], [[Ravenwing|bikes]], historical revisionism, <s>Hunting the [[Fallen Angels]],</s>
|Strength = 1,000 (officially, maybe '''much''' more)
|Allegiance = [[Imperium of Man]], <s>except for those who fell to Chaos</s> THE DARK ANGELS COMPLETE AND ONLY ALLEIGANCE WAS, IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE TO THE EMPEROR AND HIS IMPERIUM.
|Colours = Green, black
}}

Impenetrable, implacable, indomitable; the Dark Angels are a war machine acting with merciless determination. To the son's of the Lion actions speak louder than any word - no wild war cries, no lengthy speeches invoking death or glory, just solemn, stoic chants and hymns are intoned as they dismantle their enemies. Known for their stony-faced austerity and ascetic rejection of pride, they fight bitterly to expunge an ancient stain on their honour that, if brought to light, would render all they have striven for null and void.

The Dark Angels are dreaded by their enemies and held in awe by those they protect. Yet despite their unsurpassed battle record, the Dark Angels are not embraced by those whom they serve. It does not take the heightened awareness of an empath to sense the brooding obsession that coils around the Chapter. They bear an unsettling mien and are forever enshrouded by myths and insinuations.
It is no surprise that there are rumours about the Dark Angels, for they are an inscrutable Chapter, cloistered within their mysterious fortress monastery upon the asteroid known as 'The Rock'. They emerge to answer the call of battle, arriving unlooked-for on battlefields across the expanse of the Imperium. They call no 'planet home, but crisscross the stars following a mysterious path known only to themselves.
Those who serve alongside the Dark Angels find them taciturn, wholly absorbed by their archaic battle rites, as if purposefully detaching themselves from those they fight to protect. In them there is a brotherhood and a solemnity unmatched by even the grimmest of their fellow Space Marine Chapters. Of their own agenda, the Dark Angels remain quiet as the grave. Upon completion of a mission, they disappear with the same unexpected swiftness that marked their arrival, heedless of the unease they have spread and uncaring of the rumours whispered in their wake.

The '''Dark Angels''' (also known as "The Dork Angels" or the "Dangles" (''Hello, ladies'')) Are probably one the most loved chapters as we can see them everywhere like the Ultramarines. They were the first [[Space Marine]] Legion to be formed by the [[Emprah]]. Their [[Primarch]] is [[Lion El'Jonson]] a.k.a The Lion. As a result, the Dark Angels are totally [[gay]], their Primarch happening to be named after a [[Wikipedia:Lionel_Johnson|homosexual poet]] who wrote a poem called "The Dark Angel" and might've dated [[Fulgrim| Oscar Wilde]]. Oh, and their homeworld is called [[The Rock]], a (now defunct) gay bar known to the original writers (it's actually a mobile Space station that can take out most of Battlefleet Solar on its own.). They're now the posterboys for both [[6th edition|6E]] and [[Citadel Miniatures|Citadel's]] "new" line of paints. Fuck yeah, we guess? Russian fa/tg/uys believe that Dark Angels are Jews (<s>no one knows why</s> it's because ALL DA names are in Hebrew, silly). Interestingly, they're also the only Space Marine Chapter in the Imperium that willingly employ [[xenos]] retainers, known as the [[Watchers in the Dark]]; they get away with this by claiming the Watchers are undead <s>Fallen</s> DARK Angels.

By the way, anything that is struck out is <s>the truth or speculation</s> A COMPLETE FABRICATION, and any subsequent message written in all caps is an attempt by an agent of the Dark Angels to <s>suppress information that implicates them of treachery</s> TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED. The 1st Legion and its successors are composed entirely of <s>closet heretics</s> THE MOST LOYAL AND STALWART SERVANTS OF THE EMPEROR. Such is their <s>secrecy</s> OPENNESS that they will go to any lengths to <s>conceal their dark past and prevent any outsiders from knowing the full story</s> HONESTLY STATE THAT NOTHING HAPPENED. If such is the case, it may be safe to assume that the original author of such reports has <s>either been killed or captured</s> DECIDED TO TAKE A LONG VACATION.

*''Days later, the author was found lying dead in a ditch, missing most of his head and upper torso. Examination of the body indicates that the likely cause of death was catastrophic injury resulting from <s>detonation of a small calibre explosive shell in the cranial cavity, such as a Bolter Round</s> A GUN UNLIKE ANYTHING THE DARK ANGELS USE. An autopsy conducted by <s>a Dark Angels [[apothecary]]</s> AN UNBIASED APOTHECARY CHOSEN AT RANDOM concluded that the victim had either committed suicide or had been attacked by [[Ork|Ork snipers]], and closed the case.''

The new Codex heavily implies that they may be at Legion strength as no-one knows just how many worlds they recruit from or the number of recruits they actually have. The lack of clarification on this matter and the suspiciously close cooperation between the Dark Angels and their successor chapters hasn't gone unnoticed by the [[Inquisition]], although their attempts at exposing the Dark Angels' secrets [[Abaddon|haven't met with much success]] thus far. However, one reason they and their successors work together so well is likely due to the fact that the pre-heresy Dark Angels Legion was already assembled out of chapters. After the heresy, they merely needed to give the chapters names instead of numbers and have the chapters adopt different heraldry and colors; as such, the Dark Angels and their successor chapters might still be (functionally and unofficially) a (more-or-less) cohesive Legion.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByQ7L5aRu1A Their theme] by [[HMKids]],which <s>Makes them look like loyalists</s> SHOWS THEIR ABSOLUTE LOYALTY.

They have apparently also become the love-chapter of some of GW's writers, since they now have the best motorcycle squads around (yes, apparently even better than the [[White Scars]]), the "last" (they might have a ton of them or be making new ones!) jetbike in the Imperium, and [[Watchers in the Dark|invulnerable "Chapter Serfs"]].

==History==
[[Image:Beakie da fe ft.JPG|400x|thumb|left|On the left: Dark Angel trooper in the glory days of the Legiones Astartes]]
The original Dark Angels had black armour, back in the days of the [[Beakie|Corvus pattern helmets]]. Modern Dark Angels instead use a dark green colour, except for the [[Deathwing]] and [[Ravenwing]] companies, which are composed entirely of bone-white Terminators and black Fast Attack units respectively. They were introduced in the Deathwing expansion to 1st edition ''[[Space Hulk]]'' with a spiffy background story by Bill King.

Due to a slight mutation in their [[gene-seed]], the Dark Angels had a slight predisposition to be [[Twilight|emo]], but other than that, they were cool.

Veterans wear robes and capes and such on the field of battle representing any number of ritualistic ranks and titles that are mostly unknown to those outside of the Chapter but harken back to the traditions of "The Order", plus they look pretty [[awesome]].

===Great Crusade===
Not simply a [[First Founding|Legion]] numbered "one", they were quite literally the First legion created and sent outwards onto the [[Great Crusade]]. HH: Extermination tells us that after this the Emperor decided to make the following legions more specialised and engineered their development towards different roles, so basically the Emperor simply intended the First Legion to sally forth and "just be Space Marines". So they became the benchmark by which other legions would be measured against, however they eventually got supplanted by the empire-building [[Ultramarines]] when [[Codex Astartes|times changed]].

That meant the Dark Angels had to figure out warfare all on their own, and by the time of the Heresy, [[Lion El'Jonson]] had split the Legion into six "Wings"; each dedicated to a different form of warfare, of which two survived into the later 40k:
*[[Ravenwing]] - Cavalry & Fast Attack
*[[Deathwing]] - Veterans in Artificer Armour (later Terminator Armour)
*'''Stormwing''' - Boarding Assault Marines.
*'''Dreadwing''' - unknown function, though its commander wields a big axe.
*'''Ironwing''' - Battle tanks and other lethal vehicles.
*The remaining "wing" has not yet been confirmed

In this fashion, acting all on their own without support from the other legions that followed they killed lots of [[Orks]] and other xenos scum for great justice and were the most successful Legion during the early years of the Crusade.

Later, some planetary ruler insulted [[Leman Russ]] and he got all pissy about it. Then Lion ended up killing the leader and Leman was like "Whatchu do that fo' fool?" because ''he'' wanted to take the bitch-ass out. And Lion was like "fuck off, furry," despite his own furtastic name and his dickish kill-stealing. Leman, never being good with words, reason, or sobriety, megaton punched the Lion. The two of them fought for a day or two, an epic struggle between cool-headed tactician and hot-blooded barbarian, douchebag and bro-tard. Then Leman said "this is stupid" and started laughing... then the Lion knocked him out.

[[File:Cataphractii_Pattern_Deathwing_Terminators.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Cataphractii Deathwings.]]

In true [[anime]] fashion, after Leman regained consciousness and was less-inebriated, the two eventually became best buds and treated it as water under the bridge; their respective chapters still carry on the friendly rivalry, a pair of champions engaging in sacred and [[Derp|non-fatal]] honour duels whenever the Dark Angels and [[Space Wolves]] meet. And a couple of light years away, the [[Tyranids]] eat a planet while two of the most important Space Marine chapters waste time on this Nerf-chainsword-duel-honour-bullshit because ''that's how they roll''.

[[File:Luther.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Luther, the Clint Eastwood of the 31st millennium]]

=== Horus Heresy ===
:''++Much of the history of the First Legion during the events of the Horus Heresy are largely unknown to the Imperium at large, thus you will find that <s>there are conflicting perspectives </s> WHAT THE DARK ANGELS TELL YOU HAPPENED IS THE TRUTH.++''

During the [[Horus Heresy]] Lion El'Jonson rushed to come to the aid of the [[Emperor]], fighting his way through the [[Night Lords]], [[Death Guard]] and [[Lost and the Damned|traitor guard]] to reach [[Terra]]. Stopping off at [[Macragge]] to kick [[Roboute Guilliman]] out of inaction and start actually paying attention to the Horus Heresy. In fact, despite all of the mystery surrounding the intentions of the First Legion, the Emperor still had complete faith in them. A discussion between Him and [[Malcador the Sigillite]] during [[Graham McNeill]]'s Vengeful Spirit proves that even the Emperor expected Guilliman to procrastinate and start building his own Empire and they were somewhat relieved when Russ told them that the Lion had intervened.

Despite all this he didn't make it to Terra in time and afterwards returned home to [[Caliban]] only to find that <s>to his shock his closest friend [[Luther]] had turned to Chaos, converting the garrison force with him</s> EVERYTHING WAS A-OK. The Lion <s>fought his way into his own fortress</s> KICKED BACK and <s>dueled Luther for the fate of the legion</s> HAD SOME BREWSKIS. When daybreak came Caliban was nothing more than an asteroid field, a result of <s>the Dark Angels loyalists bombarding their own planet so mercilessly</s> SOMEBODY LEAVING THE GAS ON IN THE FORTRESS MONASTERY. When Dark Angel forces reclaimed the void shielded remnants of their headquarters they found that <s>Luther was a gibbering wreck, and Jonson was nowhere to be found</s> THE LION WENT OUT FOR SOME SMOKES HE'LL BE BACK IN A MINUTE. Oh, and the surviving Dark Angels painted their armour green <s>to distinguish themselves from their Chaos worshipping former Brothers</s> BECAUSE GREEN IS THE EMPRAH'S FAVOURITE COLOUR AND THE DARK ANGELS ARE THE MOST LOYAL OF ALL CHAPTERS. This rather stressing turn of events caused one Dark Angel to comment "I hate [[Mondays]]".

Because Caliban was far away from many Imperial Worlds, the core leaders of the Dark Angels known as the "Inner Circle" decided to cover up <s>[[Luther]]'s treason</s> THE COMPLETELY RANDOM ACCIDENT INVOLVING SOME FUCKTARD FIRING A FULL SALVO OF ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT CANNONS ON THE PLANET and mask it as an freakish warp accident. The Imperium's not exactly sure what happened to Caliban as anyone who investigates about this matter, even [[Inquisitor|Inquisitors]], <s>disappear faster than Candlejack snatching away a victim after saying Ca</s> TAKE A HOLIDAY

Ahem, to carry on where my predecessor left off after his <s>mysterious</s> COMPLETELY UN-SUSPICIOUS disappearance, the Dark Angels became the most obscure chapter in the millennium following the Horus Heresy. Where as Imperial officials can try to order around chapters like the Space Wolves and Black Templars, the Dark Angels can never be approached because they can't be found 90% of the time. They are known for mysteriously appearing out of nowhere to aid Imperial forces and disappear just as fast, even if the forces they were aiding were still in need of their help. This has led to much complaint from Imperial commanders, who are often understandably pissed off.

==After the destruction of Caliban==
Ever since that fateful day ten thousand years ago, the Dark Angels have striven to prove to the Emprah and their Primarch that they are still cool guys to hang around with, despite <s>their earlier [[Heresy]]</s> HAVING THE FLASHIEST BITS OF ANY CHAPTER. To this end they have acquired toys like plasma cannon jetbikes, more suits of Terminator Armour than most chapter can shake their chainswords at, and a mini-[[Wikipedia:Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp|Gitmo]] in a flying chunk of planet to torture <s>the Fallen</s> ENEMIES OF THE EMPEROR FROM THE NINE TRAITOR LEGIONS, in order to prove that they are still loyal, and to attempt to disprove the rumour that that they are flaming homosexuals.

[[Luther]] himself is kept within a special cell equipped with stasis fields (both to keep him from escaping and to prevent him from dying of old age before some kind of confession can be extracted from him). He's still barking mad from <s>Chaos withdrawing its influence from him</s> HIS OVERWHELMING LOVE FOR THE EMPRAH! But his ramblings have occasionally assisted the Dark Angels in <s>apprehending the Fallen</s> FINDING NEW WAYS TO IMPRESS [[Hot Chicks|CHICKS]] and locating lost relics within the Rock. Recently, he's been claiming that the time for the Lion to return and <s>absolve the Chapter of its past</s> SHOW HOW AWESOME THE DARK ANGELS ARE is growing closer...

Unknown to the Dark Angels, Lion El'Jonson is alive and well- after <s>his duel with Luther</s> TRIPPING OVER A POWER SWORD THAT LUTHER FORGOT TO PUT AWAY, <s>the Watchers in the Dark</s> AFORMENTIONED LITTLE HUMANS IN CLOAKS brought him to a hidden chamber in the depths of the Rock so he could be healed of his wounds. He has long since healed now, and now all that is needed for the last loyal Primarch to return is for the Emperor to give him the signal to do so.

==The Unforgiven==
[[File:DA-Scouts.jpg|340px|thumb|left|Their scouts are never to be underestimated. Also this is probably the best scout artwork so far. and it's not new.]]
After the Horus Heresy, the remaining Legions were forced to split into chapters of around 1000 men according to [[Roboute Guilliman]]'s brand new [[Codex Astartes]] and the Dark Angels followed suit mostly because they had no Primarch to disagree; not that it mattered by this point anyway.

Where [[Rogal Dorn]] [[RAGE|RAGED]] against the idea of splitting his legion, but eventually relented on the threat of civil war, the Dark Angels quietly split themselves up but maintained in [[Just As Planned|covert]] contact with each other. Keeping the same chain of command as before, and mostly the same traditions and expectations. Particularly with <s>co-operation in the hunt for the [[Fallen Angels]]</s> CHILLIN' OUT MAXIN' RELAXIN' ALL COOL, but they also refer to each other as "brothers" in arms. ''([[Kaldor Draigo]] noted that the correct terminology for different chapter is "[[Gene Seed#The Tithe and New Foundings|cousin]]" and resolved to have a word with [[Azrael]] over it)'' and the Supreme Grand Master of [[The Rock]] is deferred to as the [[Spiritual liege|highest authority]] on the secrets of the newly formed Inner Circle.

Therefore the Dark Angels still function unofficially as a Legion, and this gets the [[Inquisition]] particularly worried, though they can't prove anything, since from the outside, each chapter has its own distinct chain of command and adheres to [[Codex Astartes|codex]] requirements.

So far ''(and for ten thousand years)'' these indiscretions have passed as little more than quiet rumours, since the unforgiven go to [[Ophidium Gulf Crusade|extreme lengths]] to protect their honour, plus they mostly keep to themselves so no-one knows what they're actually up to.

However, if the Inner Circle ever decided to go rogue they could cause an impressive shitstorm for the [[Imperium]]. [[Deathwatch (RPG)|Statistics]] indicate that the Dark Angels successors make up around 15% of the total space marine chapters at large in the Imperium, and while this does not seem like a massive amount ''([[Ultramarines|Ultrasmurfs]] make up around 50%-60%)'', the fact that [[Games Workshop|GW]] doesn't have any divergent rules for the successor chapters or implied anything other than the tight-knit brotherhood of the unforgiven fluffwise, leads us to conclude that the entire Unforgiven ''(around 150 chapters. That's atleast 150,000 marines, assuming they're all at full strength.)'' function as a SINGLE, UNIFIED unit across the entire galaxy; This is further compounded when you factor in the unknown size of the [[Deathwing]] and [[Ravenwing]], possibly meaning at each of those chapters is '''much''' larger and better equipped ''(with such relics as [[Terminator]] Armour)'' than a [[Codex Astartes|codex compliant]] chapter.

Given all this (and not forgetting the small matter that they're the only loyalist chapter whose Primarch is [[Awesome|still alive]]), it seems fair to conclude that no-one should be able to stand against them if they [[Get shit done|put their minds]] to it. Thankfully they're on the Imperium's side.

==Daily rituals==

04:00-Morning Prayer: the sluts are roused from their cells to begin prayer at the leadership of the Interrogator-Chaplain. Prayer is extra long compared to most other Chapters due to <s>the existence of the Fallen</s> THE DARK ANGELS BEING SO LOYAL THAT THEY WANT TO SHOW THEIR DEVOTION TO THE EMPEROR AND THE LION. 
06:00-Morning Firing Rites: The Dark Angels take to the ranges to begin firing practice. 
07:00-Battle Practice: The Dark Angels descend to the Battle Cages to practice in close-combat. Members of the Ravenwing will practice with their bikes and land speeders, while members of the Deathwing will practice <s>counter-Fallen scenarios</s> ENGAGEMENTS WITH THE ENEMIES OF THE EMPEROR, WHICH MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT INCLUDE ANY OF THE SONS OF LION EL'JONSON. 
9:00-Chocolate milk and cookies break. 
12:00-Midday Meal: A light meal is prepared by the Chapter Serfs. 
12:30-Tactical Indoctrination: The Dark Angels will engage in tactical briefings on opponents they will be facing in the future. Members of the Inner Circle will determine targets such as <s>traitors from the First Legion</s> THE NINE TRAITOR LEGIONS WHICH REBELLED AGAINST THE EMPEROR, BECAUSE THERE ARE ONLY '''NINE''' TRAITOR LEGIONS. At this point a battle-brother may visit the Apothecary, while Interrogator-Chaplains will interrogate <s>Fallen Angels they have been assigned to</s> HERETICS WHO ARE AIDING THE EMPEROR'S ENEMIES, ALL FROM DIFFERENT LEGIONS AND CHAPTERS. 
14:00-Afternoon nap with dimmed lights and soft instrumental music playing in the background.
 16:00-Evening Fire Rites: The Dark Angels take to the ranges to begin firing practice. They usually use black-colored targets to better hone their skills at shooting <s>Fallen Angels in the dark</s> FOUL TRAITORS WHO ARE NOT FROM THE FIRST LEGION WHO USE BLACK ARMOR AND THE COVER OF DARKNESS LIKE COWARDS. 
17:00-Evening Prayer: The Dark Angels assemble for prayer under the Interrogator-Chaplains, who have just finished <s>torturing Fallen Angels</s> SHOWING THEIR UNDENIABLE DEVOTION TO THE EMPEROR WHICH TAKES MANY FORMS. 
19:00-Evening Meal: A feast is prepared by the Chapter serfs. 
20:00-Maintenance Rituals: The Dark Angels will tend to the maintenance of their wargear, while also washing their robes. Members of the Ravenwing will perform maintenance of their attack bikes and land speeders. 
00:00-The Dark Angels will retire to their cells for '''CO-ED''' sleep <s>with their non-human retainers, because [[Heretical Love|that's what the Dark Angels do to ensure their silence about the Fallen]]</s> BECAUSE THEY ARE PLAYERS. 

<strike>Why is there a 3 hour break in the schedule? Would they be torturing the Fallen in that time?</strike> WHAT FALLEN? THERE IS NO 3 HOUR BREAK, THAT'S HOW NUMBERS WORK ON <strike>CALIBAN</strike> THE ROCK

==Gallery==
<Gallery>
File:DA Codex Cover.png|Here's some badassery right there.
File:Lulz.jpg|Happens quite often.
File:Dark-Angels-warhammer-40000.jpeg|Sometime between the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy
File:Dark Angels awesomeness.jpg|Always recognizable with their beautiful artworks and <s>amazing aesthetics.</s> FUKKEN DUALWIELDING FLINTLOCKS.
File:DA-Chaplain.jpg|Their chaplains tend to be the most badass
File:Unforgiven.jpg|The Dark Angels and their confirmed successors
</Gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer_40,000/6th_Edition_Tactics/Dark_Angels|Tactics/Dark Angels]]
* [[Azrael]]
* [[Cypher]]
* [[Deathwing]]
* [[Ravenwing]]
* [[Dark Angel Shoulder Pad]]

{{Template:Marines-Official}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]
[[Category:Dark Angels]]

Horus Heresy

2015-06-06T22:58:01Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books XI - XX */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing. Told from the perspective of Astelan so is heavily biased in his favour (that's not to say Belath isn’t an arse, he is). Gives a good insight into how he views himself.
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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. <s>It should be noted that after being question about way astelan (who was a terran born marine) in the book seems to suggest he grew up on Caliban the author admitted that he hadn’t actually bothered to read up on or check the backgrounds of the characters he was writing about which goes a long way to explain why the book was so bloody awful.</s>
*'''''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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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 unintentionally teamkills Nemiel, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books. then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion turning up with enough firepower to reduce macragge to space dust but after hearing Guilliman explain his intentions for his new Imperium Secundusis he begrudgingly agreed that it might not be such a bad idea after all. Then Sanguinius joined the party and they made him regent.
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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

2015-06-06T22:39:25Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books XI - XX */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing. Told from the perspective of Astelan so is heavily biased in his favour (that's not to say Belath isn’t an arse, he is). Gives a good insight into how he views himself.
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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. <s>It should be noted that after being question about way astelan (who was a terran born marine) in the book seems to suggest he grew up on Caliban the author admitted that he hadn’t actually bothered to read up on or check the backgrounds of the characters he was writing about which goes a long way to explain why the book was so bloody awful.</s>
*'''''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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books. then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion turning up with enough firepower to reduce macragge to space dust but after hearing Guilliman explain his intentions for his new Imperium Secundusis he begrudgingly agreed that it might not be such a bad idea after all. Then Sanguinius joined the party and they made him regent.
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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

2015-06-06T22:28:30Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books XI - XX */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some social awkwardness. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing. Told from the perspective of Astelan so is heavily biased in his favour (that's not to say Belath isn’t an arse, he is). Gives a good insight into how he views himself.
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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. It should be noted that after being question about way astelan (who was a terran born marine) in the book seems to suggest he grew up on Caliban the author admitted that he hadn’t actually bothered to read up on or check the backgrounds of the characters he was writing about which goes a long way to explain why the book was so bloody awful.
*'''''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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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, ruining all the buildup from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books. then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion turning up with enough firepower to reduce macragge to space dust but after hearing Guilliman explain his intentions for his new Imperium Secundusis he begrudgingly agreed that it might not be such a bad idea after all. Then Sanguinius joined the party and they made him regent.
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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

2015-06-06T22:10:53Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books I - X */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] having to deal with some serious trust issues. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.Told from the perspective of astelan so is heavily biased in his favour (that's not to say Belath isn’t an arse, he is). Gives a good insight into how he views himself.
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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, ruining all the buildup (what buildup? having his head knocked off was the most interesting thing this boring character has ever done.) from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books. then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion turning up with enough firepower to reduce macragge to space dust but after hearing Guilliman explain his intentions for his new Imperium Secundusis he begrudgingly agreed that it might not be such a bad idea after all. Then Sanguinius joined the party and they made him regent.
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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]]

Dark Angels

2015-06-06T21:53:48Z

81.20.187.142:

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Dark Angels
|Heraldry = [[File:Darkangelslogo.png]]
|Battle Cry = "Repent! For tomorrow you die!"
|Number = I
|Founding = [[First Founding]]
|Successors of = None
|Successor Chapters = [[Angels of Absolution]], [[Angels of Redemption]], [[Angels of Vengeance]], [[Guardians of the Covenant]], [[Disciples of Caliban]], [[Consecrators]], Persecutors of Darkness
|Chapter Master = [[Azrael]]
|Primarch = [[Lion El'Jonson]]
|Homeworld = [[The Rock]], originally [[Caliban]]
|Specialty = [[Plasma]] weapons, [[Deathwing|terminators]], [[Ravenwing|bikes]], historical revisionism, <s>Hunting the [[Fallen Angels]],</s>
|Strength = 1,000 (officially, maybe '''much''' more)
|Allegiance = [[Imperium of Man]], <s>except for those who fell to Chaos</s> THE DARK ANGELS COMPLETE AND ONLY ALLEIGANCE WAS, IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE TO THE EMPEROR AND HIS IMPERIUM.
|Colours = Green, black
}}

Impenetrable, implacable, indomitable; the Dark Angels are a war machine acting with merciless determination. To the son's of the Lion actions speak louder than any word - no wild war cries, no lengthy speeches invoking death or glory, just solemn, stoic chants and hymns are intoned as they dismantle their enemies. Known for their stony-faced austerity and ascetic rejection of pride, they fight bitterly to expunge an ancient stain on their honour that, if brought to light, would render all they have striven for null and void.

The '''Dark Angels''' (also known as "The Dork Angels" or the "Dangles" (''Hello, ladies'')) Are probably one the most loved chapters as we can see them everywhere like the Ultramarines. They were the first [[Space Marine]] Legion to be formed by the [[Emprah]]. Their [[Primarch]] is [[Lion El'Jonson]] a.k.a The Lion. As a result, the Dark Angels are totally [[gay]], their Primarch happening to be named after a [[Wikipedia:Lionel_Johnson|homosexual poet]] who wrote a poem called "The Dark Angel" and might've dated [[Fulgrim| Oscar Wilde]]. Oh, and their homeworld is called [[The Rock]], a (now defunct) gay bar known to the original writers (it's actually a mobile Space station that can take out most of Battlefleet Solar on its own.). They're now the posterboys for both [[6th edition|6E]] and [[Citadel Miniatures|Citadel's]] "new" line of paints. Fuck yeah, we guess? Russian fa/tg/uys believe that Dark Angels are Jews (<s>no one knows why</s> it's because ALL DA names are in Hebrew, silly). Interestingly, they're also the only Space Marine Chapter in the Imperium that willingly employ [[xenos]] retainers, known as the [[Watchers in the Dark]]; they get away with this by claiming the Watchers are undead <s>Fallen</s> DARK Angels.

By the way, anything that is struck out is <s>the truth or speculation</s> A COMPLETE FABRICATION, and any subsequent message written in all caps is an attempt by an agent of the Dark Angels to <s>suppress information that implicates them of treachery</s> TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED. The 1st Legion and its successors are composed entirely of <s>closet heretics</s> THE MOST LOYAL AND STALWART SERVANTS OF THE EMPEROR. Such is their <s>secrecy</s> OPENNESS that they will go to any lengths to <s>conceal their dark past and prevent any outsiders from knowing the full story</s> HONESTLY STATE THAT NOTHING HAPPENED. If such is the case, it may be safe to assume that the original author of such reports has <s>either been killed or captured</s> DECIDED TO TAKE A LONG VACATION.

*''Days later, the author was found lying dead in a ditch, missing most of his head and upper torso. Examination of the body indicates that the likely cause of death was catastrophic injury resulting from <s>detonation of a small calibre explosive shell in the cranial cavity, such as a Bolter Round</s> A GUN UNLIKE ANYTHING THE DARK ANGELS USE. An autopsy conducted by <s>a Dark Angels [[apothecary]]</s> AN UNBIASED APOTHECARY CHOSEN AT RANDOM concluded that the victim had either committed suicide or had been attacked by [[Ork|Ork snipers]], and closed the case.''

The new Codex heavily implies that they may be at Legion strength as no-one knows just how many worlds they recruit from or the number of recruits they actually have. The lack of clarification on this matter and the suspiciously close cooperation between the Dark Angels and their successor chapters hasn't gone unnoticed by the [[Inquisition]], although their attempts at exposing the Dark Angels' secrets [[Abaddon|haven't met with much success]] thus far. However, one reason they and their successors work together so well is likely due to the fact that the pre-heresy Dark Angels Legion was already assembled out of chapters. After the heresy, they merely needed to give the chapters names instead of numbers and have the chapters adopt different heraldry and colors; as such, the Dark Angels and their successor chapters might still be (functionally and unofficially) a (more-or-less) cohesive Legion.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByQ7L5aRu1A Their theme] by [[HMKids]],which <s>Makes them look like loyalists</s> SHOWS THEIR ABSOLUTE LOYALTY.

They have apparently also become the love-chapter of some of GW's writers, since they now have the best motorcycle squads around (yes, apparently even better than the [[White Scars]]), the "last" (they might have a ton of them or be making new ones!) jetbike in the Imperium, and [[Watchers in the Dark|invulnerable "Chapter Serfs"]].

==History==
[[Image:Beakie da fe ft.JPG|400x|thumb|left|On the left: Dark Angel trooper in the glory days of the Legiones Astartes]]
The original Dark Angels had black armour, back in the days of the [[Beakie|Corvus pattern helmets]]. Modern Dark Angels instead use a dark green colour, except for the [[Deathwing]] and [[Ravenwing]] companies, which are composed entirely of bone-white Terminators and black Fast Attack units respectively. They were introduced in the Deathwing expansion to 1st edition ''[[Space Hulk]]'' with a spiffy background story by Bill King.

Due to a slight mutation in their [[gene-seed]], the Dark Angels had a slight predisposition to be [[Twilight|emo]], but other than that, they were cool.

Veterans wear robes and capes and such on the field of battle representing any number of ritualistic ranks and titles that are mostly unknown to those outside of the Chapter but harken back to the traditions of "The Order", plus they look pretty [[awesome]].

===Great Crusade===
Not simply a [[First Founding|Legion]] numbered "one", they were quite literally the First legion created and sent outwards onto the [[Great Crusade]]. HH: Extermination tells us that after this the Emperor decided to make the following legions more specialised and engineered their development towards different roles, so basically the Emperor simply intended the First Legion to sally forth and "just be Space Marines". So they became the benchmark by which other legions would be measured against, however they eventually got supplanted by the empire-building [[Ultramarines]] when [[Codex Astartes|times changed]].

That meant the Dark Angels had to figure out warfare all on their own, and by the time of the Heresy, [[Lion El'Jonson]] had split the Legion into six "Wings"; each dedicated to a different form of warfare, of which two survived into the later 40k:
*[[Ravenwing]] - Cavalry & Fast Attack
*[[Deathwing]] - Veterans in Artificer Armour (later Terminator Armour)
*'''Stormwing''' - Boarding Assault Marines.
*'''Dreadwing''' - unknown function, though its commander wields a big axe.
*'''Ironwing''' - Battle tanks and other lethal vehicles.
*The remaining "wing" has not yet been confirmed

In this fashion, acting all on their own without support from the other legions that followed they killed lots of [[Orks]] and other xenos scum for great justice and were the most successful Legion during the early years of the Crusade.

Later, some planetary ruler insulted [[Leman Russ]] and he got all pissy about it. Then Lion ended up killing the leader and Leman was like "Whatchu do that fo' fool?" because ''he'' wanted to take the bitch-ass out. And Lion was like "fuck off, furry," despite his own furtastic name and his dickish kill-stealing. Leman, never being good with words, reason, or sobriety, megaton punched the Lion. The two of them fought for a day or two, an epic struggle between cool-headed tactician and hot-blooded barbarian, douchebag and bro-tard. Then Leman said "this is stupid" and started laughing... then the Lion knocked him out.

[[File:Cataphractii_Pattern_Deathwing_Terminators.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Cataphractii Deathwings.]]

In true [[anime]] fashion, after Leman regained consciousness and was less-inebriated, the two eventually became best buds and treated it as water under the bridge; their respective chapters still carry on the friendly rivalry, a pair of champions engaging in sacred and [[Derp|non-fatal]] honour duels whenever the Dark Angels and [[Space Wolves]] meet. And a couple of light years away, the [[Tyranids]] eat a planet while two of the most important Space Marine chapters waste time on this Nerf-chainsword-duel-honour-bullshit because ''that's how they roll''.

[[File:Luther.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Luther, the Clint Eastwood of the 31st millennium]]

=== Horus Heresy ===
:''++Much of the history of the First Legion during the events of the Horus Heresy are largely unknown to the Imperium at large, thus you will find that <s>there are conflicting perspectives </s> WHAT THE DARK ANGELS TELL YOU HAPPENED IS THE TRUTH.++''

During the [[Horus Heresy]] Lion El'Jonson rushed to come to the aid of the [[Emperor]], fighting his way through the [[Night Lords]], [[Death Guard]] and [[Lost and the Damned|traitor guard]] to reach [[Terra]]. Stopping off at [[Macragge]] to kick [[Roboute Guilliman]] out of inaction and start actually paying attention to the Horus Heresy. In fact, despite all of the mystery surrounding the intentions of the First Legion, the Emperor still had complete faith in them. A discussion between Him and [[Malcador the Sigillite]] during [[Graham McNeill]]'s Vengeful Spirit proves that even the Emperor expected Guilliman to procrastinate and start building his own Empire and they were somewhat relieved when Russ told them that the Lion had intervened.

Despite all this he didn't make it to Terra in time and afterwards returned home to [[Caliban]] only to find that <s>to his shock his closest friend [[Luther]] had turned to Chaos, converting the garrison force with him</s> EVERYTHING WAS A-OK. The Lion <s>fought his way into his own fortress</s> KICKED BACK and <s>dueled Luther for the fate of the legion</s> HAD SOME BREWSKIS. When daybreak came Caliban was nothing more than an asteroid field, a result of <s>the Dark Angels loyalists bombarding their own planet so mercilessly</s> SOMEBODY LEAVING THE GAS ON IN THE FORTRESS MONASTERY. When Dark Angel forces reclaimed the void shielded remnants of their headquarters they found that <s>Luther was a gibbering wreck, and Jonson was nowhere to be found</s> THE LION WENT OUT FOR SOME SMOKES HE'LL BE BACK IN A MINUTE. Oh, and the surviving Dark Angels painted their armour green <s>to distinguish themselves from their Chaos worshipping former Brothers</s> BECAUSE GREEN IS THE EMPRAH'S FAVOURITE COLOUR AND THE DARK ANGELS ARE THE MOST LOYAL OF ALL CHAPTERS. This rather stressing turn of events caused one Dark Angel to comment "I hate [[Mondays]]".

Because Caliban was far away from many Imperial Worlds, the core leaders of the Dark Angels known as the "Inner Circle" decided to cover up <s>[[Luther]]'s treason</s> THE COMPLETELY RANDOM ACCIDENT INVOLVING SOME FUCKTARD FIRING A FULL SALVO OF ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT CANNONS ON THE PLANET and mask it as an freakish warp accident. The Imperium's not exactly sure what happened to Caliban as anyone who investigates about this matter, even [[Inquisitor|Inquisitors]], <s>disappear faster than Candlejack snatching away a victim after saying Ca</s> TAKE A HOLIDAY

Ahem, to carry on where my predecessor left off after his <s>mysterious</s> COMPLETELY UN-SUSPICIOUS disappearance, the Dark Angels became the most obscure chapter in the millennium following the Horus Heresy. Where as Imperial officials can try to order around chapters like the Space Wolves and Black Templars, the Dark Angels can never be approached because they can't be found 90% of the time. They are known for mysteriously appearing out of nowhere to aid Imperial forces and disappear just as fast, even if the forces they were aiding were still in need of their help. This has led to much complaint from Imperial commanders, who are often understandably pissed off.

==After the destruction of Caliban==
Ever since that fateful day ten thousand years ago, the Dark Angels have striven to prove to the Emprah and their Primarch that they are still cool guys to hang around with, despite <s>their earlier [[Heresy]]</s> HAVING THE FLASHIEST BITS OF ANY CHAPTER. To this end they have acquired toys like plasma cannon jetbikes, more suits of Terminator Armour than most chapter can shake their chainswords at, and a mini-[[Wikipedia:Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp|Gitmo]] in a flying chunk of planet to torture <s>the Fallen</s> ENEMIES OF THE EMPEROR FROM THE NINE TRAITOR LEGIONS, in order to prove that they are still loyal, and to attempt to disprove the rumour that that they are flaming homosexuals.

[[Luther]] himself is kept within a special cell equipped with stasis fields (both to keep him from escaping and to prevent him from dying of old age before some kind of confession can be extracted from him). He's still barking mad from <s>Chaos withdrawing its influence from him</s> HIS OVERWHELMING LOVE FOR THE EMPRAH! But his ramblings have occasionally assisted the Dark Angels in <s>apprehending the Fallen</s> FINDING NEW WAYS TO IMPRESS [[Hot Chicks|CHICKS]] and locating lost relics within the Rock. Recently, he's been claiming that the time for the Lion to return and <s>absolve the Chapter of its past</s> SHOW HOW AWESOME THE DARK ANGELS ARE is growing closer...

Unknown to the Dark Angels, Lion El'Jonson is alive and well- after <s>his duel with Luther</s> TRIPPING OVER A POWER SWORD THAT LUTHER FORGOT TO PUT AWAY, <s>the Watchers in the Dark</s> AFORMENTIONED LITTLE HUMANS IN CLOAKS brought him to a hidden chamber in the depths of the Rock so he could be healed of his wounds. He has long since healed now, and now all that is needed for the last loyal Primarch to return is for the Emperor to give him the signal to do so.

==The Unforgiven==
[[File:DA-Scouts.jpg|340px|thumb|left|Their scouts are never to be underestimated. Also this is probably the best scout artwork so far. and it's not new.]]
After the Horus Heresy, the remaining Legions were forced to split into chapters of around 1000 men according to [[Roboute Guilliman]]'s brand new [[Codex Astartes]] and the Dark Angels followed suit mostly because they had no Primarch to disagree; not that it mattered by this point anyway.

Where [[Rogal Dorn]] [[RAGE|RAGED]] against the idea of splitting his legion, but eventually relented on the threat of civil war, the Dark Angels quietly split themselves up but maintained in [[Just As Planned|covert]] contact with each other. Keeping the same chain of command as before, and mostly the same traditions and expectations. Particularly with <s>co-operation in the hunt for the [[Fallen Angels]]</s> CHILLIN' OUT MAXIN' RELAXIN' ALL COOL, but they also refer to each other as "brothers" in arms. ''([[Kaldor Draigo]] noted that the correct terminology for different chapter is "[[Gene Seed#The Tithe and New Foundings|cousin]]" and resolved to have a word with [[Azrael]] over it)'' and the Supreme Grand Master of [[The Rock]] is deferred to as the [[Spiritual liege|highest authority]] on the secrets of the newly formed Inner Circle.

Therefore the Dark Angels still function unofficially as a Legion, and this gets the [[Inquisition]] particularly worried, though they can't prove anything, since from the outside, each chapter has its own distinct chain of command and adheres to [[Codex Astartes|codex]] requirements.

So far ''(and for ten thousand years)'' these indiscretions have passed as little more than quiet rumours, since the unforgiven go to [[Ophidium Gulf Crusade|extreme lengths]] to protect their honour, plus they mostly keep to themselves so no-one knows what they're actually up to.

However, if the Inner Circle ever decided to go rogue they could cause an impressive shitstorm for the [[Imperium]]. [[Deathwatch (RPG)|Statistics]] indicate that the Dark Angels successors make up around 15% of the total space marine chapters at large in the Imperium, and while this does not seem like a massive amount ''([[Ultramarines|Ultrasmurfs]] make up around 50%-60%)'', the fact that [[Games Workshop|GW]] doesn't have any divergent rules for the successor chapters or implied anything other than the tight-knit brotherhood of the unforgiven fluffwise, leads us to conclude that the entire Unforgiven ''(around 150 chapters. That's atleast 150,000 marines, assuming they're all at full strength.)'' function as a SINGLE, UNIFIED unit across the entire galaxy; This is further compounded when you factor in the unknown size of the [[Deathwing]] and [[Ravenwing]], possibly meaning at each of those chapters is '''much''' larger and better equipped ''(with such relics as [[Terminator]] Armour)'' than a [[Codex Astartes|codex compliant]] chapter.

Given all this (and not forgetting the small matter that they're the only loyalist chapter whose Primarch is [[Awesome|still alive]]), it seems fair to conclude that no-one should be able to stand against them if they [[Get shit done|put their minds]] to it. Thankfully they're on the Imperium's side.

==Daily rituals==

04:00-Morning Prayer: the sluts are roused from their cells to begin prayer at the leadership of the Interrogator-Chaplain. Prayer is extra long compared to most other Chapters due to <s>the existence of the Fallen</s> THE DARK ANGELS BEING SO LOYAL THAT THEY WANT TO SHOW THEIR DEVOTION TO THE EMPEROR AND THE LION. 
06:00-Morning Firing Rites: The Dark Angels take to the ranges to begin firing practice. 
07:00-Battle Practice: The Dark Angels descend to the Battle Cages to practice in close-combat. Members of the Ravenwing will practice with their bikes and land speeders, while members of the Deathwing will practice <s>counter-Fallen scenarios</s> ENGAGEMENTS WITH THE ENEMIES OF THE EMPEROR, WHICH MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT INCLUDE ANY OF THE SONS OF LION EL'JONSON. 
9:00-Chocolate milk and cookies break. 
12:00-Midday Meal: A light meal is prepared by the Chapter Serfs. 
12:30-Tactical Indoctrination: The Dark Angels will engage in tactical briefings on opponents they will be facing in the future. Members of the Inner Circle will determine targets such as <s>traitors from the First Legion</s> THE NINE TRAITOR LEGIONS WHICH REBELLED AGAINST THE EMPEROR, BECAUSE THERE ARE ONLY '''NINE''' TRAITOR LEGIONS. At this point a battle-brother may visit the Apothecary, while Interrogator-Chaplains will interrogate <s>Fallen Angels they have been assigned to</s> HERETICS WHO ARE AIDING THE EMPEROR'S ENEMIES, ALL FROM DIFFERENT LEGIONS AND CHAPTERS. 
14:00-Afternoon nap with dimmed lights and soft instrumental music playing in the background.
 16:00-Evening Fire Rites: The Dark Angels take to the ranges to begin firing practice. They usually use black-colored targets to better hone their skills at shooting <s>Fallen Angels in the dark</s> FOUL TRAITORS WHO ARE NOT FROM THE FIRST LEGION WHO USE BLACK ARMOR AND THE COVER OF DARKNESS LIKE COWARDS. 
17:00-Evening Prayer: The Dark Angels assemble for prayer under the Interrogator-Chaplains, who have just finished <s>torturing Fallen Angels</s> SHOWING THEIR UNDENIABLE DEVOTION TO THE EMPEROR WHICH TAKES MANY FORMS. 
19:00-Evening Meal: A feast is prepared by the Chapter serfs. 
20:00-Maintenance Rituals: The Dark Angels will tend to the maintenance of their wargear, while also washing their robes. Members of the Ravenwing will perform maintenance of their attack bikes and land speeders. 
00:00-The Dark Angels will retire to their cells for '''CO-ED''' sleep <s>with their non-human retainers, because [[Heretical Love|that's what the Dark Angels do to ensure their silence about the Fallen]]</s> BECAUSE THEY ARE PLAYERS. 

<strike>Why is there a 3 hour break in the schedule? Would they be torturing the Fallen in that time?</strike> WHAT FALLEN? THERE IS NO 3 HOUR BREAK, THAT'S HOW NUMBERS WORK ON <strike>CALIBAN</strike> THE ROCK

==Gallery==
<Gallery>
File:DA Codex Cover.png|Here's some badassery right there.
File:Lulz.jpg|Happens quite often.
File:Dark-Angels-warhammer-40000.jpeg|Sometime between the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy
File:Dark Angels awesomeness.jpg|Always recognizable with their beautiful artworks and <s>amazing aesthetics.</s> FUKKEN DUALWIELDING FLINTLOCKS.
File:DA-Chaplain.jpg|Their chaplains tend to be the most badass
File:Unforgiven.jpg|The Dark Angels and their confirmed successors
</Gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer_40,000/6th_Edition_Tactics/Dark_Angels|Tactics/Dark Angels]]
* [[Azrael]]
* [[Cypher]]
* [[Deathwing]]
* [[Ravenwing]]
* [[Dark Angel Shoulder Pad]]

{{Template:Marines-Official}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]]
[[Category:Dark Angels]]

Horus Heresy

2015-06-06T21:03:28Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books XXI - XXX */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] as having some serious trust issues. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.Told from the perspective of astelan so is heavily biased in his favour (that's not to say Belath isn’t an arse, he is). Gives a good insight into how he views himself.
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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, ruining all the buildup (what buildup? having his head knocked off was the most interesting thing this boring character has ever done.) from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books. then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion turning up with enough firepower to reduce macragge to space dust but after hearing Guilliman explain his intentions for his new Imperium Secundusis he begrudgingly agreed that it might not be such a bad idea after all. Then Sanguinius joined the party and they made him regent.
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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

2015-06-06T20:48:19Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books XI - XX */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] as having some serious trust issues. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.Told from the perspective of astelan so is heavily biased in his favour (that's not to say Belath isn’t an arse, he is). Gives a good insight into how he views himself.
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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, ruining all the buildup (what buildup? having his head knocked off was the most interesting thing this boring character has ever done.) from the previous two <s>Dark</s> Fallen Angels Books. then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion failing to sort out Guilliman as his new Imperium is starving resources from Terra (In fact the Lion sides with the Imperium Secundus. So does that make the Lion a double traitor?).
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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

2015-06-06T20:38:21Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books XI - XX */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] as having some serious trust issues. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.Told from the perspective of astelan so is heavily biased in his favour (that's not to say Belath isn’t an arse, he is). Gives a good insight into how he views himself.
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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, ruining all the buildup (what buildup? having his head knocked off was the most interesting thing this boring character has ever done.) from the previous two Dark Angel Books. then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion failing to sort out Guilliman as his new Imperium is starving resources from Terra (In fact the Lion sides with the Imperium Secundus. So does that make the Lion a double traitor?).
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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

2015-06-06T20:23:51Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books I - X */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] as having some serious trust issues. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.Told from the perspective of astelan so is heavily biased in his favour (that's not to say Belath isn’t an arse, he is). Gives a good insight into how he views himself.
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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 (and the Lion teamkills Nemiel, ruining all the buildup from the previous two Dark Angel Books), then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion failing to sort out Guilliman as his new Imperium is starving resources from Terra (In fact the Lion sides with the Imperium Secundus. So does that make the Lion a double traitor?).
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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

2015-06-06T17:56:57Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books I - X */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] as having some serious trust issues. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.Told from the perspective of astelan so is heavily biased in his favour. Gives a good insight into how he views himself.
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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 (and the Lion teamkills Nemiel, ruining all the buildup from the previous two Dark Angel Books), then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion failing to sort out Guilliman as his new Imperium is starving resources from Terra (In fact the Lion sides with the Imperium Secundus. So does that make the Lion a double traitor?).
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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

2015-06-06T17:54:15Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books I - X */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] as having some serious trust issues. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''Call of the Lion:''''' Half of the Dark Angels are dicks, the other half are not. Totally not foreshadowing.Told from the perspective of astelan so is heavily biased in his favour. Gives a good insight into how he views himself (he is always right and everyone else is wrong/ if things go wrong its always someone else’s fault)
** '''''[[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.
** '''''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.

=== 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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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 (and the Lion teamkills Nemiel, ruining all the buildup from the previous two Dark Angel Books), then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion failing to sort out Guilliman as his new Imperium is starving resources from Terra (In fact the Lion sides with the Imperium Secundus. So does that make the Lion a double traitor?).
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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

2015-06-06T17:40:36Z

81.20.187.142: /* Books I - X */

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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 also portrays [[Lion El'Jonson]] as having some serious trust issues. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''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.
** '''''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.

=== 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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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 (and the Lion teamkills Nemiel, ruining all the buildup from the previous two Dark Angel Books), then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion failing to sort out Guilliman as his new Imperium is starving resources from Terra (In fact the Lion sides with the Imperium Secundus. So does that make the Lion a double traitor?).
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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

2015-06-06T17:07:23Z

81.20.187.142: Undo revision 286769 by 71.47.208.127 (talk)

[[File:zbrothers.jpg|200px|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.]]

The '''Horus Heresy''' is the a top contender for 'single biggest event in [[Warhammer 40,000]] fluff'. The only real competition is the [[War in Heaven]] between the [[Old Ones]] and the [[Necrons]] and ''maybe'' the creation of [[Slaanesh]] by the [[Eldar]].

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 a large part 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 beamed the Emperor up to his flagship 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.). 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.

== [[Warhammer 40,000]] Fluff ==
The Horus Heresy screwed almost everyone's plans (except the Chaos Gods' of course, but they always win) 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]]
*[[Burning of Prospero]]
*[[Drop Site Massacre]]
*[[Battle of Calth]]
*[[Shadow Crusade]]
*[[Thramas Crusade]]
*[[Signus Campaign]]
*[[Battle of Phall]]
*[[Siege of Terra]]

== 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]]. '''*GLARBLBLBLBLBLBL*'''

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, who's only saving grace was the awesome card art that would appear in the Horus Heresy artbooks anyway)

== The Book Series ==
For the last few years, [[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 fo Galaxy in Flames, Nathaniel Garro escapes and gets marooned in the warp fighting daemons, eventually gets saved by [[Rogal Dorn]]. The first bit of the novel is so far 'the Death Guard's novel'.
*'''''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]]. Hints that the Great Crusade does more harm than good.
*'''''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.
*'''''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. 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 know Everything and one tech priestess tries to harness this power. Contains a lot of Titan awesomeness and [[Imperial Knight|Knights]] badassery.
*'''''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.
** '''''Wolf at the Door:''''' The Space Wolves kill some dark eldar and are the defenders of everyone who does not defy the Emperor.
** '''''Scions of the Storm:''''' The Word Bearers destroy a human civilization that has crystal cities, crystal robots, and lots of lightning. This is also later a chapter of ''The First Heretic'', but narrated from a slightly different point of view then.
** '''''The Voice:''''' The Sisters of Silence investigate a Black Ship that became derelict in the Warp.
** '''''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.
** '''''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.

=== 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 telling his father, breaking the Golden Throne in the process. Space Wolves come knocking shortly after. Tragedy ensues.
*'''''Nemesis:''''' [[Malcador the Sigillite]] invents the [[Officio Assassinorum]] Execution Task Force and sends six assassins to kill Horus. They fail, but in the process slay an 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. 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. The history of the 40k verse also leaves
*'''''Prospero Burns:''''' Part 2 of the Battle for Prospero. An civilian 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.
* '''''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. (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.
** '''''Forgotten Sons:''''' A [[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 one 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, Iactone Qruze makes his first appearance since forever, but nobody gives a shit about Iactone Qruze.
** '''''Rebirth:''''' Mangus's absent fleet from the Burning of Propsero 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 Gaurd after Istvaan and the prequel to Deliverance Lost. After getting fed up with Corax trolling 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 roll a natural 20 on stealth checks no matter how ridiculous it would be, and that the Alpha Legion ''once again'' can outtroll everybody when they fuck things up for the World Eaters. 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 in a hellhole of a world, 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, wreck the fortress, 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 that", and left alone a fortress with no space or warp conveyance, and arguably little strategic value in iteslf, in the middle of nowhere.
** '''''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. ''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|therapy]]. 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.]]''" After a time, he gets busted out by some convict space marines from the Traitor Legions. Why they do this is explained by the Thousand Son sagely stating "Just because." They name themselves the eponymous Outcast Dead and try to get the hell off of Terra. 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.
*'''''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''. 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 let 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. 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 [[That Guy|the really deviant bastard]] and Omegon), 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 working 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 whup 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 Paeron'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, expositioning to the underground war. Special features of this novel include Guilliman not being a cock, [[Ollanius Pious]] 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; Kaesoron is still an angry badass; 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 (and the Lion teamkills Nemiel, ruining all the buildup from the previous two Dark Angel Books), then they steal an intelligent warp engine 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.
*'''''Shadows of Treachery:''''' Yet another anthology. Most of the stories are tie-togethers or "in betweens", and some are very short.
**'''''The Crimson Fist''''' - Set during the Battle of Phall. It is told from the view of the Imperial Fists, also shows [[Sigismund]] getting disowned by his father.
**'''''The Dark King''''' - Features Konrad Curze. Involves him beating up Rogal Dorn and blowing up Nostramo.
**'''''The Lightning Tower''''' - Basically, 20 pages of Rogal Dorn being sad about ruining the Imperial Palace by fortifying it.
**'''''The Kaban Project''''' - Primarily focuses on the Kaban Machine from Mechanicum. It's an alright story, but unfortunately is somewhat generic-feeling.
**'''''Raven's Flight''''' - Kind of a prequel to Deliverance Lost. The story tells how Marcus Valerius and Commander Branne of the Raven Guard decide to go to Isstvan due to Valerius dreams.
**'''''Death of a Silversmith''''' - The title says it all. A silversmith attatched to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet is tasked with making four rings for the Mournival, and then he gets killed. The story is seen from the perspective of the silversmith who describes his life until the now. 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''''' - Features the Thramas Crusade viewed from First Captain Sevatar of the Night Lords. 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]] & [[Fulgrim]] raid a [[Eldar|crone world]], Fulgrim gets made into a daemon prince. Is 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.
*'''''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.
** '''''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 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 focussed 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.
**'''''Calth That Was''''' - The story focuses on an Ultramarine Captain and Co. and on a Word Bearers commander and his Dark Apostle. Longer-than-the-rest-story short, Word Bearers try to kill 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 killing his mentor with dark powers. A kind of nice story that shows the <s>degredation</s> enlightenment of the Legion.
**'''''The Traveller''''' - A group of human survivors are stuck in a cave, one of them hears dark whisperings and starts executing everyone for being heretics.
**'''''A Deeper Darkness''''' - A story about an Ultramarine who likes to [[pretend]] his bolter rounds are dice who has fun times with his friends in the dark.
**'''''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.
**'''''Athame''''' - A narrated story of the history of a knife. That's about it.
**'''''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 bitch. Plenty of fun with dining implements and an awesome ending involving a hammer. Not one of the best HH Books though is a somewhat necessary read for continuing the plot arc.
*'''''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?'' Is actually the aforementioned Lion failing to sort out Guilliman as his new Imperium is starving resources from Terra (In fact the Lion sides with the Imperium Secundus. So does that make the Lion a double traitor?).
*'''''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 its 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- the Chaos Gods give it to him by sending him to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber from Dragon Ball Z. 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 (though the Chaos Gods have been claiming this throughout the series). Loken comes back. There's also the Knights of <s>Lannister</s> Molech, who fall to Slaanesh through copious amounts of Twincest.
*'''''The Damnation of <s>Pathos</s> <s>Python</s> 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 better written.

=== Books XXXI onwards ===
*'''''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 hunting the Alpha Legion, 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.
**'''Kryptos''' - Somewhere in the Galactic East (either Thramas Crusade or Imperium Secundus), Nykona Sharrowkyn and company go find 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 a Thousand Son, ends up meeting Ahriman.
**'''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
**'''Censure''' - Aonid Thiel killing time and Word Bearers in the Underworld War on Calth, writing notes on his armour that will eventually get written into Guilliman's draft of the [[Codex Astartes|Codex]]. Get's 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.
*'''''Blades of the Traitor''''' yet [[What|ANOTHER]] anothology
**'''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]].
**'''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'''''

== 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.

====Isstvan Campaign Legions & Crusade Army Lists====
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 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; their units, characters and wargear in the previous three book. Meaning you can have a cheaper alternative to buying multiple £70+, huge black tomes JUST to play the game.

===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 [[Imperial Guard|"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. Expect fully corrupted Word Bearers, Traitor Imperial Army, Warp Cults, Imperial Militia, and Ultramarines. Lots of Ultramarines (including [[Roboute Guilliman|Robot Gorillaman]] himself) which, based on a few leaked art images, are going to look fucking ''sweet''.
A recent Forge World trailer has revealed that there will be MOTHERFUCKING [[Warlord Titan|WARLORD TITANS]] IN IT, TOO. PREPARE YOUR WALLET.

===6th book (name unknown)===
A continuation of Tempest that focuses on Lorgar's Shadow Crusade. Details unknown, but likely to bring more stuff for Ultramarines and Word Bearers and possibly World Eaters as well (which might even include Angron as a Daemon Prince if we're lucky).

===7th book (name unknown)===

In 2016 will come what most neckbeards are waiting for: THE BURNING OF PROSPERO!!! For those thousand sons players this: start saving up so you can play your space aegiptian sorcerors in all their 30k glory.

== See Also ==
* [[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]]