Editing Lorgar (section)

==Poor Lorgar?==

Pre-Retcon? Of course. Even though he had to have known he was breaking the Imperial Truth it's not like any of his actions were to the detriment of the Imperium. If you don't know why you can re-read the sections above.

But that wasn't [[Edgy|edgy]] enough, so GW swooped in with retcons. Post-retcon? Not so much. While Lorgar still peacefully brought worlds into fanatical compliance, he also had no issue committing atrocities against worlds which refused Lorgar's religion. It's not like Lorgar was any more heavy-handed than his more militarily efficient brothers, but at this point he was also doing the very things the Imperial Truth was made to prevent in the first place. The retcon also (clearly) add that Lorgar received multiple warnings by Big E prior to Monarchia to change course. Lorgar would ignore much more explicit instructions for a century before Big E's hand was forced at Monarchia. Of course, that doesn't mean that Big E couldn't have handled Monarchia much differently, or that the Imperial Truth was actually a sensible plan. Lorgar basically drank his own kool-aid and would suffer the consequences of not following basic instructions - likely because a highly religious Primarch will not turn atheist if you tell him to. Lorgar would go from doing the Emperor's bidding to the bidding of entities known for [[Khorne|destruction]], [[Slaanesh|degeneracy]], [[Nurgle|disease]], and [[Tzeentch|deception]]. Even worse, he did so even after being shown what would happen if he followed said entities.

BUT

Within the various novels it's made perfectly clear that, prior to Monarchia's destruction, Lorgar was NOT given any explicit instructions to cease his religious activity - apparently the Emperor expected a man raised on a religious planet, who lived his life as a preacher, and was receiving religious visions which came true, to turn atheist via osmosis (because a Primarch changing his personality after joining the Imperium was a common event, after all). It's also stated equally clearly that, prior to his chastisement, Lorgar's crusades were the most peaceful and diplomatic out of all of them. Think about it for a second. He was more peace-loving than the likes of Vulkan, Sanguinus, or Fulgrim. One could also argue that Lorgar was doing exactly what the Great Crusade was originally intended to do - unifying the disparate human civilizations, instead of turning them into smouldering ruins or populations ready to rebel at a moment's notice. Not to mention that the worlds brought into compliance by his actions were just that - compliant. No rebellions, no dissatisfaction, no popular uprisings. Just a content population, unified by the love for their new Imperium and their new God-Emperor.
 	
Let's also not even get into the topic of Lorgar being probably the first Primarch to actively combat Chaos cults, back on his own homeworld, even if he did it for different reasons than the 40K Imperium, thus being Patient 0 for the case of "you can combat Chaos with a different faith".
 	
TL;DR: Lorgar <s>took the Emperor's propaganda seriously, and was punished for it</s> <s>is the example that if someone really wants to find excuses, he can always find them</s> is living proof that covering your eyes and ears and pretending that a problem doesn't exist isn't the way out.