Editing Battle of Trisolian (section)

==Aftermath==
Already heavily depleted from all the military actions since Prospero, following Trisolian, the Space Wolves were mauled further still, with some companies even being reduced to just a fifth of their strength, and ultimately dropping the effective fighting force of the legion as a whole down to somewhere in the range of just 10 to 15 thousand marines, after having started the battle with around 40,000. While on its face that number of survivors may still sound a tad higher than expected, consider that A, this is all that they had to get them through the rest of the war and the subsequent [[Great_Scouring|Scouring]], and B, they would eventually form an [[Wolf Brothers|ill-fated Second Founding chapter]], also made largely of veterans of the Heresy. Or to put it another way, that means that the Space Wolves [[Grimdark|suffered something like 66% casualties to their entire legion in a single engagement]]. Under most circumstances, those are literally (not figuratively) ''war-ending'' casualty figures, so don't for a second think that they got off lightly. They most certainly did not.

With their Primarch unconscious from his injuries, the remaining Space Wolf commanders have to make a decision of whether to stay together and likely die, or disperse and play no further part in the Horus Heresy. Choosing to remain together to present a viable threat that the traitors would have to divert resources to deal with, they retreat to '''Yarant III''' to make a stand where they are hunted by [[Abaddon|Failbaddon]] but are eventually saved by [[Corax]] following his own gene-seed debacle. At this point, the Space Wolves had effectively ceased to exist as a Legion.

For his part, Horus was [[butthurt|NOT happy]] in the battle's aftermath. Far from gloating, he was sour over the considerable losses his own forces had incurred, but more than that, he was rattled that [[Not as Planned|Russ had bested him]]. Horus hadn't considered Russ his equal even before he fell to Chaos, yet now, even being infused with additional power from the Ruinous Powers, Russ had laid him low and legitimately could have killed him, had <s>the plot not suddenly intervened</s> Russ' feelings not gotten the better of him. Horus spent time ruminating on this, fully acknowledging it to himself and taking it all in, because he clearly did not like the implications of this. It was amidst these meditations that Horus then suddenly began to experience moments of visions, or perhaps glimpses of visions of his conscience, or something to that effect, berating him for betraying his father, becoming a pawn of the Ruinous Powers, and ultimately just doing what he knew to be wrong. It was this last that most unsettled Horus as it had never happened before, and try as he might, he couldn't simply dismiss it; unbeknownst to him at the time, the wound Russ had dealt him had impacted his spirit as much as his body, and the power of the Emperor's light had slowly started to counteract the baleful malaise of the chaos gods. However, it was not enough- Horus seemingly rejected the Chaos Gods, only to choose to continue his campaign with their help anyway. Flustered and annoyed, he then ordered a [[Abaddon|certain armless failure]] to lead a contingent of his forces to hunt down the remnants of the VIth and not return without Russ' head. [[Fail|Disappointmaddon then returned without Russ' head]]. Oh, and without most of the Astartes Horus had given him as well. Abaddon basically starting as he meant to go on.

Horus later fell into a coma at the aforementioned battle at Beta-Garmon as his wound reopened, and [[Lorgar]] attempted a coup. The Urizen believed that Horus' failure to submit to the gods' will while still accepting their gifts would lead them to withdraw their power [[Siege of Terra|when he needed it most]] and cause the war to be lost. A shard of Horus' soul that had been purified by the Spear of Russ would be fought over by the [[Chaos Gods]], requiring the sacrifice of Maloghurst in order to free him (by destroying said purified soul fragment) and Lorgar was expelled from the Warmaster's fleet after his coup failed, with Horus warning that he would kill Lorgar if he ever saw him again; most of the Word Bearers save a detachment led by Zardu Layak consequently departed with their Primarch in anticipation of Horus' defeat. From this point forwards, whatever was left of the old Horus simply ceased to exist. With the last possibility for his redemption denied, all that was left for the Warmaster was a rapid downward spiral into insanity as the power of the Dark Gods destroyed him from the inside out.


{{40k-Timeline}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000 Battles]]