Editing Thramas Crusade (section)

==Aftermath==
It is clear that Tsagualsa was the turning point in the war: if Curze had not paused to goad his brother, the Lion would have likely still been contained for the duration of the Horus Heresy. It was also the point where Konrad Curze lost much of his authority and the Cross of Bone faction were in the ascendance, causing all manner of fuck-ups later on.

Ultimately, the Night Lords were separated from their Primarch and broken as a Legion. They had lost nearly 40,000 men by the end of the battle of Sheol IX, and this number does not include those members of the Cross of Bone culled by Sevatar in the wake of the campaign, and then lost even more when the Dark Angels again ambushed them at Qetesh.

The Dark Angels had taken merely a fraction of that number, with no more than 10,000 slain in total. The Night Lords also lost a significant number of their capital ships over Sheol IX, with around fifty being purposefully crippled and later captured by the Dark Angels with the intention of adding them to the loyalists strength.

By demolishing a Traitor Legion, the Lion had won a significant tactical victory for the Imperium, but the delay alone was something Horus had accounted for. The Night Lords primary aim in waging the Thramas Crusade had not been to keep the Traitors supplied or for the acquisition of territory. It was instead to keep the Dark Angels and the Lion as far away from Terra as humanly possible, and preferably long enough for the '''Ruinstorm''' to manifest. When Horus launched his assault on the Imperial Palace, he didn't want the Lion anywhere near his area of operations, and so had been counting on Curze and the Night Lords to keep him occupied. At the end of the Thramas Crusade, the Lion had been occupied for nearly two years and was now trapped on the wrong side of the '''Ruinstorm''', along with the [[Ultramarines]] and [[Blood Angels]] Legions who had been similarly set aside by Horus. What is more is that the destruction left in his wake and the savage barbs of Curze wounded the Lion's ego significantly, which would lead him to other problems further down the line, particular in his dealings with his brothers during [[Imperium Secundus]].

Whether Horus had factored on losing the Night Lords to achieve this goal is another matter entirely, as the breaking of the Night Lords and removal of their Primarch was perhaps the single largest loss of assets the traitors suffered in the entire Horus Heresy prior to the [[Siege of Terra]]. However, it is doubtful that Horus thought the unruly Night Lords would be able to outright defeat the Dark Angels, who had the single most powerful void fleet in the entirety of the Legiones Astartes, access to tremendously powerful Dark Age weaponry, and one of the most sterling records of conquest out of all the Legions. Therefore, given his [[Creed|tactical and strategic brilliance]], it is highly unlikely that Horus would have counted on having the Night Lords be of use elsewhere.

Additionally, Horus and his co-conspirators made the mistake of underestimating the Dark Angels remaining forces, as while the Lion was occupied, the greater bulk of his legion were spread throughout the galaxy putting up an unexpectedly strong resistance, having spent much of their history operating independently of their Primarch. These forces denied the Traitors an easy victory early in the war. Horus had succeeded in keeping the Lion out of the war, but had failed to keep the First Legion from the fight.


{{topquote|Horus' first gambit had failed. Terra remained outside his grasp and the First Legion stood ready to show him the terrible cost of his ambition|The close of the Thramas Crusade, Horus Heresy: book 9}}

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[[Category: Warhammer 40,000 Battles]]