Editing Alpharius (section)

===But Wait!===
The above account is considered the most well-known by fa/tg/uys and the gaming community in general, but "[[Games Workshop|recorded]] [[Forgeworld|facts]]" tell varying different stories. The [[Horus Heresy]] series of books suggests that the above origin story is a lie and gives <u>three more</u> discovery tales about Alpharius, then goes on to assert [[Meme|that they are all lies too]] but that they contain grains of truth that could lead to an even greater secret.

These are:
# Growing up on a dead world with absolutely no-one to raise and educate him, only escaping by commandeering a Xenos vessel that had landed to plunder the planet's ruins, he then left to discover who made him. But this story is a lie.
# Landing on a human world and living amongst them for ten years, but the planet is then attacked by the [[Slaugth]] who kept him as a curiosity and killed the remainder of the population. Alpharius would be saved by the Emperor directly but kept him hidden from public knowledge for many years while his son was rehabilitated. But this story is a lie.
# Alpharius was not fully completed at the time of the scattering of the primarchs, thus was spared '''OR''' some part of him remained behind ''(potentially [[Omegon]]?)''. Either way he remained at the Emperor's side at the beginning of the Great Crusade and acted as His hidden agent until the time was right to reveal him. But this story is a lie.

In ''Alpharius: Head of the Hydra'', the author uses ALL of these, to one degree or another. Alpharius was found on Terra and raised in secret, because the Emperor wasn't sure how many primarchs had survived the scattering (3). He spends much of the Great Crusade waging a shadow war against the enemies of the Imperium, until he hears about a warrior that sounds like a primarch and goes to investigate, anonymously, under the pretense of helping [[Lion El'Johnson|the Lion's]] bid for the position of the Warmaster during the [[Rangdan Xenocides]] (and the story of how [[Alpha Legion|the XXth]] met the Lion, of course, contradicts the account written in the Dark Angels novels). The warrior, revealed to be Omegon, is trapped on a dead, Slaugth-infested world (2); however, he hasn't been tortured or corrupted by the Slaugth. That world was previously killed by the Rangda, Omegon tells Alpharius that he wound up on a Dead World and escaped by hijacking some space pirates when they came to loot the place (1), before getting trapped on this planet while killing Slaugth.

Eventually, the two decide to go introduce themselves to Horus, and Omegon proceeds to attack the ''Vengeful Spirit'', infiltrate it, and reveal himself to Horus as Alpharius. Therefore, EVERY Alpha Legion "origin" has some level of truth. Well played, Black Library. On top of that, it was Alpharius who had the slate-grey armor and infiltrated each of his brothers' legions when they were introduced to their fathers while Omegon was the one in the Pythian Scales with the Pale Spear when Alpharius found him. The fact that the prologue and the epilogue both feature Alpharius stating "I am Alpharius", followed by the statement "This is/was a lie", makes it even more confusing as to which twin is which. Indeed, it's entirely possible that the entire novel is a lie. It probably means that the protagonist of the novel is Omegon recounting stories told to him by Alpharius (since it is Omegon who is now the public face of the Legion after Horus met him), however Alpharius might have lied to Omegon or Omegon might have seeded some lies in the story himself... it gets ''confusing'' very quickly.

What this suggests, if all the stories are true and taken into context is that the twins were separated at the scattering, with one landing on a separate planet ''(the human world becoming the dead world when the xenos arrived)'' and was then raised by Xenos, but escaped ''(or was rescued)'' and attempted to search for his creator, finding Horus. While the one grew up in secrecy with the Emperor and accounts for much of the actions of the [[Alpha Legion|XXth legion]] LONG before the Primarch's "official" discovery.

This is supported in both the short stories, ''First Legion'' and ''The Last Council'', real subtle use of the Alpha Omega troupe GW. In the former an individual calling himself ''"Alpharius"'' from the XXth Legion comes to the aid of [[Lion El'Jonson]] during the [[Rangdan Xenocides]], nearly 90 years before Alpharius was ''officially'' discovered and the [[Alpha Legion]] was given its name. In the latter, Alpharius informs Horus about Malcador's plan to commit damnatio memoriae on one of the [[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs_.7C_The_Forgotten_.26_The_Purged|2nd or 11th legions Primarchs]]; but considering that both of the [[Primarch#Two_Missing_Primarchs_.7C_The_Forgotten_.26_The_Purged|the 2nd and 11th]] were dead and condemned by 963.M30, and Alpharius didn't (officially) join the Great Crusade until 981.M30. Granted in each story neither of the individuals may been one of the twin Primarchs and the Primarch simply took the name after they were eventually recovered. But it shows that someone called "Alpharius" was active before his official discovery, certainly adding fuel to the fire that one of the twins was in the service of the Emperor long before his counterpart was picked up at the end of the Great Crusade.

The fact that one of the twins is loyal to the Emperor while the other isn't, is supported in ''Vengeful Spirit'' by Graham McNeill, during a conversation between Malcador and the Emperor, Malcador reveals that the Dark Angels had come to the aid of Leman Russ and the Space Wolves against the Alpha Legion, to which the Emperor replies: ''"Alpharius...my son, what chance did you give my dream?"'' indicates that the Emperor is either unaware that Alpharius Omegon is actually two twin Primarchs, which seems unlikely given his whole creation of them using parts of his godlike power and psyche (however we do not know if the Twins formed in the gestation pod or the Warp has duplicated their pod somehow and sent both to different places), '''or''' that he IS aware of their dual nature but knows that the other twin would never turn on him. This is practically confirmed in the short story ''The Board is Set'' where in the allegorical game of strategies used to represent the outcomes of the Primarchs' destinies there were two pieces for the "Twins"; [[Team Fortress 2|one red and one blue]], representing their chosen side in the conflict. It also showed that at least some of the actions of the Emperor were done in order to ensure that the blue Twin did not switch sides and cause an overall Chaos victory. This means that the Emperor and Malcador were both fully aware of the nature of the Twin Primarchs if not their exact whereabouts and activities, as well as knowing that they were at odds with one another and striving to ensure that one of them remained loyal.