Editing Macharian Crusade (section)

==Novel Series==
And then [[William King]] brought us The Macharian Crusade trilogy. These novels show a more personal look at Macharius (from the perspective of one of his honor guard) and present a different ending to the crusade itself.

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The primary change to Macharius's tale was the end. Gone was the manly ending of not being able to push on. Gone was the ambiguous death en route to Terra. Now Macharius was defeated by a traitor who was one of his greatest generals on one of the Halo worlds (Loki). When Macharius returns, he defeats the traitor but is assassinated by an Imperial Assassin moments later (the trilogy is never quite clear on whether she is just someone who is an assassin, or if she is actually part of the [[Callidus]] temple). For ambiguous reasons, a high ranking Inquisitor wanted Macharius dead despite being his bro for years. However the assassin in his employ kills not only Macharius, but the Inquisitor himself, implying a much larger game was being played. For this reason, the Crusade falls to infighting and the [[Macharian Heresy]] begins.

The trilogy also shows us how frail Macharius was starting to become near the end of the Crusade. His juvenate treatments are failing, and the High Lords want him back on Terra and in forced retirement on suspicion that he is just trying to carve out a piece of the Imperium for himself; many troops followed Macharius because he was amazing, not because he was part of the Imperium. William King allows him to go out with a bang rather than a whimper. He wins one of his greatest battles and dies with a triumphant smile on his face. Does this lessen the man's impact on the fluff? Possibly. On the one hand, the awesome fluff of him wanting to go on to conquer other galaxies is gone, but on the other we have a more definitive ending for the man. It does present a more detailed and personal look than we have gotten, though as it is from another's perspective there is still a good amount of mystery left to Macharius.

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