Editing The Beheading (section)

==The Beheading==
In the mid-32nd millennium a great calamity befell the Imperium: [[The Beast|the WAAAGH! Beast]]. The most vicious rampage made '''''EVER''''' by orkkind drove the Imperium to its knees as dozens of Space Marine chapters were annihilated, the [[Imperial Fists]] were reduced to [[Slaughter Koorland|a single Astartes]], and thousands of worlds were put to the torch. Terra itself was under a state of constant threat during a good chunk of the war.

The reactions of the [[High Lords of Terra]] varied from total incompetence to outright hindrance of the war effort. Special note goes to the Ecclesiarch ([[Heresy|who wanted to WORSHIP the Orks and abandon the cult of the Emperor]]) and the Fabricator-General, who just wanted to loot the Orks' tellyporta technology so the AdMech could teleport Mars out of the way, leaving Terra to its fate (extra stupid points to him since [[Derp|the only reason Mars was in danger was his demand that the Imperial Fists not destroy the Attack Moon so he could get the teleporter technology from it]]), costing more worlds and billions if not trillions of lives.

There was one (later two) exception: Drakan Vangorich, the Grand Master of Assassins himself; and in spite (or perhaps because) of such a grim task, he was a ''bona fide'' patriot. He and ''de facto'' Chapter Master Slaughter Koorland made great efforts and maneuvered to get the filthy complacent asses of the High Lords to work on the threat at hand. It suffices to say the two of them may be amongst the greatest heroes of the Imperium, for without them mankind would have been annihilated or reduced to savagery a la the Age of Strife.

Once the war was over, Drakan realized that should there be another threat of a similar calibre, mankind would be wiped out due to the incompetence of the High Lords. This was especially evident when The Beast sent his diplomats asking for their surrender ([[Skub|yes, Ork diplomats were a thing thanks to the Beast]]); the High Lords were more concerned about their own political power than saving mankind. The final straw came shortly after the final defeat of the Beast, when Vangorich found out that the Fabricator-General had teleported Ullanor away instead of [[Exterminatus]]-ing it as ordered; the planet eventually became [[Armageddon]].

For the sake of the Imperium, the High Lords needed to die, and die they did:

* '''Abdulias Anwar''', Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, was assassinated by a [[Culexus Assassin]] while praying for the Emperor to forgive his failures during the war. His soul was effectively obliterated by the Blank - a fate which his compatriot and political ally '''Volquan Sark''', Master of the Astronomican, shared and easily marking his death as amongst the cruly fates that befell the high lords. Right before his death he asked his Culexus assassin why their ranks weren't seen during the war along with the Silent Sisterhood, which is actually a really good fucking question.
* Paternoval Envoy '''Helad Gibran''' was poisoned by his cousin Dovrian Ofar at the urging of Vangorich and with the approval of the Paternova, who was displeased with the failures of his representative throughout the war. Ofar would subsequently replace Gibran on the High Lords as payment for the assassination. 
* '''Juskina Tull''', Speaker of the Chartist Captains and architect of the disastrous Proletarian Crusade, committed suicide via a laspistol shot to the temple at the goading of her aide, Anastay (secretly an agent of Vangorich and possibly a [[Callidus Assassin]]), who told Tull of the millenia-long human tradition of becoming [[meme|an hero]] after severely dishonouring oneself. While obviously a dick move to be fair she was mainly responsible for a campaign that literally killed billions. So all things considered she had a lot to answer for.
* Lord Commander Militant '''Abel Verreault''' and Lord High Admiral of the Imperial Navy '''Lansung''' were assassinated by a Callidus Assassin in the guise of Master of the Administratum '''Tobris Ekharth''', who posthumously framed the two of them as having murdered one another during a dispute. Ekharth himself was likely disposed of earlier by the Callidus that assumed his identity, who continued to impersonate him on the council. Amongst a few others Abel's and Tobris political scheming likely cost the imperial billions in more lives than necessary and even Lansung atleast managed to score the imperium some victories during the war, though he is far from innocent. The three of them were easily amongst the high lords most deserving of their fate.
* Grand Provost Marshal '''Vernor Zeck''' was killed by the [[Venenum Asssassin]] '''Beast Krule''' (keep that name in mind), who ambushed him outside of an Adeptus Arbites precinct deep within Terra's underhives. Unlike the rest of the High Lords, Zeck [[Awesome|actually gave Krule pause in both words and combat for a minute]] as the heavily-augmented high lord rivaled even Krule (one of Vangorichs best assasins) before ultimately being killed and his head taken to Vangorich as proof of the kill, which would have significant consequences further down the line. However his argument with Krule would ultimately lead him to betray his master which would also have big implications to Vangorichs ultimate fate.
* Fabricator-General '''Kubik''' was forced to take shelter in his palace when attacked by an Eversor, only to be confronted by Vangorich himself, who threatened to unleash a powerful computer virus into the noosphere and [[Rape|essentially re-enact the Death of Innocence on the whole Martian database]] if Kubik did not voluntarily shut himself down. Kubik seemingly agreed, and handed over his intelligence core; in truth, Kubik had (somehow) uploaded a copy of his consciousness to a hidden computer bank beforehand to escape his inevitable death, only for Vangorich to promptly destroy this final bolthole while mocking Kubik's heretical antics. Of all the High Lords Kubik's actions during the war were easily the most selfish and shortsighted. Even secretly planning for the Mechanicus to break away from the imperium using Terra's invasion as a cover and to use the war to get access to the Orks technology. Needless to say the imperium was VERY much better off without him. Kubik's intelligence core was subsequently uploaded into '''Eldon Urquidex''', a tech-priest partly servitorized for refusing to put up with the Fabricator-General's treachery, who masqueraded as the Fabricator-General up until Vangorich's fall.
* Ecclesiarch '''Erekart Mesring''' was already dead prior to the coup - having slowly deteriorated due to Vangorich poisoning him for refusing to use the Ecclesiarchy's resources against the Beast, Mesring lost the last shreds of his sanity shortly after the Attack Moon was busted. After he stormed into the Senatorium, declared the other High Lords heretics, and proclaimed that the Beast should be welcomed and treated as a god instead of the Emperor, he was unceremoniously executed by Koorland, and later replaced by one of Vangorich's puppet Cardinals. Alongside Kubik he was easily the most heretical of the high lords at the time.
* Co-Inquisitorial Representative '''Veritus''' was poisoned by Vangorich several days before the coup, having unwittingly breathed in a gas that became lethal when combined with the chemicals of his life-support system. Although Vangorich initially intended to strong-arm Veritus into working with him via offering small, routine doses of the antidote to the poison, this was later discarded after he committed to the coup. Veritus managed to convince his co-representative to work with Vangorich, and try to prevent civil war by setting up the Ordo Hereticus; that done, he granted her the keys to access Titan and revealed his true identity as '''[[Knights-Errant#Human_Members|Kyril Sindermann]]''' with his last breath. Though Sindermann was definately starting to show his age by the end of the war, and it was clear his millenia in the inquistion had taken its toll, he was still easily amonsgst the most competent in the imperial government and his death was proably amongst the most tragic in the coup.
* Co-Inquisitorial Representative '''Wienand''' was one of the only High Lords to have survived the coup, as Vangorich harboured romantic feelings toward her and considered her one of the few Lords he could work with. Though Wienand hated Vangorich to the point of attempting to convince Thane to return and depose him even before he started overtly going downhill, she willingly worked with him to try and curb the worst of his excesses and paranoia, retaining her position and life.

Vangorich himself was left top dog of the High Lords and had much of the council replaced with impostors and puppets (barring Inquisitorial Co-representative Wienand, Captain-General Beyreuth, and the psychic adeptae - the last of these losing their places entirely), effectively making him sole ruler of the Imperium which he led for about one hundred years.

Vangorich's intentions were good and at first even the few who'd realized what he'd done were okay with it, as the War of the Beast had left the Imperium in shambles and strong leadership was exactly what was needed. Initially, the Imperium thrived and remained strong and united under his rule, recovering well enough to sustain the Fourth Founding and restoring planets that had been ravaged by the Orks. Vangorich paid attention to rebuilding the Imperium's armed forces and was one of the biggest behind-the-scenes sponsors of the [[Deathwatch]] in order to ensure no xenos threat could ever threaten mankind that direly again.

Sadly enough, [[Grimdark|no good deed remains unpunished in the 40k universe.]] As time went on, Vangorich's rightful concerns about xenos threats and the Imperium backsliding into the state it had been during the War of the Beast turned into fear; fear turned to paranoia and paranoia eventually turned into complete lunacy. The latter part of his reign was marked by [[Grimdark|massacres, vicious reprisals, harsh punishment, and increasingly totalitarian control]], enough to make even the Inquisition nervous. Near the end of his reign Vangorich's paranoia and the stress of keeping the Imperium together eventually drove him to the point that he was giving insane orders such as randomly ordering mass planetary purges, assassinations, and massacres with no real reason and bankrupting entire sub-sectors to build increasingly grandiose monuments and vanities on Terra. While once Vangorich was ever so cautious on how he weiled authority by this point he had even given up any pretense of checks on his power, further alienating any remaining non-lacky supporters in the imperium.

In addition his increasingly erratic behaviour was finally starting to threaten the very stability that he had striven so hard to achieve, with even [[Eldrad]] foreseeing that Vangorich's continued rule would lead the Imperium to eventual decay and destruction with no [[Roboute Guilliman]] to fix things. Terra finally grew sick of living in constant fear of their single ruler; momentum began building to effect another coup.

The Astartes and Inquisition, agreeing on a unified goal for a change, decided that it was time to remove Drakan Vangorich from office. Every other department in the Imperium (barring the Assassinorum, of course) stepped aside to let them do it.