Alexandri of Rosskar

Alexandri of Rosskar
Title/Honours	Emperor of Rosskar [Surrendered], the Unifying Dictator, Greatfather Rosskar.
Discovered (world)	Rosskar
Discovered (period)	c.855.M30
Legion	Twenty-fourth
Heraldry/Sigil
Distinguishing Traits	Cautious, Pragmatic
Flaws	Callous, Ambitious
Horus Heresy role	Loyal. His Legion fought in more battles than any other in the Great Scouring
Disposition	Assassinated

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

Alexandri of Rosskar was the Primarch of the Twenty-fourth Legion; the Silver Cataphracts, known for their dour attitudes and utter lack of pride. Through him countless worlds were conquered in the Great Crusade, and reconquered in the Great Scouring. His potential to seize power in the shattered Imperium led to his assassination by the upper echelons of his Legion and Gaspard Lumey.

Appearance

Regal best describes the towering progenitor of the Silver Cataphracts. A huge, flowing brown beard that goes down the front of Alexandri's power armour can be seen even when he is on the battlefield. Having spent most of his formative years in regular clothing, Alexandri prefers when aboard his flagship the Tongoeska when away from the front line to be wearing his signature robes. Alexandri wears a smile on his face most of the time but this for show, to be polite. In reality the years of ruling Rosskar forced him to age when his brothers have not. Dark circles have burrowed in deep into his eye sockets and many lines have formed on his face. Even specks of grey and white have touched his beard. All this only adds to his appearance as the iron-fisted ruler of Rosskar.

Youth

During the first few years on Rosskar's surface, Alexandri did not wander the wilds as a savage or toil beneath the oppression of slavers. His life was not to be some savage or some grueling mongrel who did not know the beauty of enlightenment. He was raised in a quite wealthy family due to his quick grasp of mathematics and the arts. Orphans with capability were rare, and a good investment made by adopting them to help the family legacy grow was a common practice by the Rosskan aristocracy. Rosskar itself was a cold, frigid place where one had to be prudent and decisive.

Alexandri learned of his true origins fairly early, but it did not phase him. His was a life of luxury, his duties in the family were rewarding. But soon a fire grew within him. A burning passion to rule. The pointless wars fought for momentary gain were detrimental in the grand scheme of it all! This insanity was mutual among all of the techno-feudal lords controlling the fractured cities. People froze to death in the streets while men marshaled more levies to battle. The incompetency fueled the flames of Alexandri's ambitions. He would end the wars with a single war, a war by the people for the people. This would be his mandate, that if power came from the citizenry he could never fail.

His intelligence and strength marveled all of his peers, making it easy to craft a following from thin air. The rebellion in his home city was swift, causing the deaths of more than a hundred aristocrats, but no one else was harmed as a result. Bribes, planning, and powerful speeches pacified all those who would have arisen to defend the aristocrats. For all his life up until this point, Alexandri had experienced nothing but success and praise. His family, the only aristocrats to survive, were repulsed by his actions and behavior. He did not understand, why did the people who had loved him and cared for him not see this was for the good of all? That he was the best person to rule Rosskar?

Alexandri spent years building up his armies. His was to be a quick, brutal push that would see Rosskar taken by storm. With a lightning speed his elite Strelky rushed out, the army of the people. The hordes of well disciplined troops stunned the levies and techno-lords at their heads, with forces switching sides in the middle of battle being a hallmark of this time. Mercenaries the world over were contracted to betray their employers with great sums of wealth being secured by these hired guns. More than half of the planet in the course of a month belonged to Alexandri. But the cities of the Central Plain would not surrender that easily. These seven cities had banded together on the even of his movement, solidifying their internal power base and steeling themselves for assault. No progress was made assaulting them.

Worse yet, Alexandri stayed young and healthy while his family began to die around him. A great depression overtook the ruler which had him seek the society of witches upon his world, the Covens of Rosskar. Here he gained knowledge of both sorcery and the pragmatism that would dictate the rest of his life. A new, bloody and efficient doctrine still in use by the Cataphracts was employed to bring the capitulation of the remaining cities. Men would hide for days in the snow, picking off sentries. Factories were bombed, apartment complexes leveled. Alexandri lost all care for the loss of life he'd caused, seeing the need to end the costly losses caused by his failed attacks upon the sturdy defenses of the Central Plain Cities. After suffering months of devastating attacks with no major battle fought, just indiscriminate slaughter, the cities surrendered finally. The Primarch named himself 'Emperor of Rosskar' in honor of the victory.

Alexandri now was able to push his people away from war. Production was marshaled to create machines to help life on Rosskar. The newly crowned Emperor sought to adapt the people away from superstition, helping them cope with their unforgiving world. Sadly this is frankly impossible. You cannot change fundamentals about a planet and it would take more than a few generations facilitate meaningful progress among the culture. Alexandri faced many attempts on his life by fanatic groups who believe this ridiculous change could only be brought about by his death. Life on Rosskar was harsh, the sheer possibility of someone being able to change everything filled them with such a fire they crowned a man Emperor of their planet! And now he was unable to deliver on his promises.

Killing Alexandri proved to a monumental task. His super-human vitality and reflexes made personal attack nearly impossible. Bombs left him hardly scratched as his hyper-healing kept him going. The resistance movements then decided to target people they could kill easily; his family, which had grown large and influential thanks to his guiding hand. Dozens of his nieces and nephews were butchered by malicious attacks. This led him to form the Secret Police, which eventually led to a purge of five million people who were part of radical organizations or affiliated to them in some degree.

Even with all this death and misery, Alexandri's time at ruling Rosskar was only beginning.

The Coming of The Emperor

At first the Emperor's coming was met with glee and celebration. Alexandri himself was glad that there was a man he could call an equal, someone to ease the weight of ruling off his shoulders. He had no idea what the Emperor's actual position was, more akin to Alexandri's youthful days as a unifying warlord. This made Alexandri make the fateful remark that he'd be happy being nothing more than a Regent, managing the Imperium in the Emperor's Name, not his own. This brought a smile to his Father's face. A knowing smile.

This happiness did not last for long however. Upon learning of the Covens existence, the Emperor immediately acted without consulting his son in any capacity. Time was short, the decision had to be made without hesitation. The Custodes were quick to expunge every trace of the societies from Rosskar. When it turned out that some were being hidden from the Emperor by the Secret Police, more purges continued this time in the hearts of Rosskar's cities. A great many deaths were caused as the Silent Sisters joined the fray, to null the effect of the witches' sorceries.

Alexandri would never forgive his Father for this act, but he understood the necessity of accepting it. Rising up to oppose him was pointless, he was a being above him. Disappoint and failure were two things strong in Alexandri's mind. This time would be no different.

The Great Crusade

Never once did the Silver Cataphracts refuse the call to arms when summoned. Due to the massive population of Rosskar the Legion's ranks swelled to the brim, and then spilled over. It was never clear if the Alexandri even once told the truth of the actual size of his Legion. To further add to this blatant growth of Astartes numbers, millions of regular human soldiers were introduced as part of the Legion as the Rosskar Strelky. The Strelky served as a valuable source of support during the Crusades, fighting as an auxiliary force to the Cataphracts main operations.

When not helping the Emperor or his fellow Primarchs however, Alexandri was eager to expand the realms of the Imperium on his own. Using envoys and trusted functionaries, a small portion of his Legion would act in the Emperor's name but obviously make sure certain worlds favored Rosskar as their destination of tithe payment. He searched for worlds either with unrealized industrial potential or low population, high resource worlds. A huge warmachine was forged form the tiny fiefdom he claimed to help fund his ever expanding Legion and auxiliary force. When rumors of a rising amount of Librarians in the Cataphracts came to light, along with reports of witches serving in the auxiliary, it became clear that Alexandri had great ambitions that might upset the balance of order in the Imperium. Still, even if Alexandri broke regulations, he was always loyal to humanity, understanding the Imperium's way was the best way. The Imperial Truth just needed, bending.

His actions created great controversy as sometimes Alexandri would made ridiculous deals to secure peaceful surrender, and others he would be mercilessly swift in destroying whole planets. At a glance his decisions might be decided upon whim, but in fact it was all carefully calculated in his mind. In his mind, all that mattered was occupying planets with the least amount of loss. That is, overall loss. If a planet needed to be taken by brute force, it would be. If a planet could be talked down and negotiated with, it would. Alexandri's liberal approach to dealing with Xenos made some question his methods even more. But a few demonstrations of his disregard for alien life made it clear to all this was not another Aubrey the Grey.

Even though the loyalty of Alexandri was at times questioned, the Emperor knew the nature of his son from the few meetings they had. He was loyal, for he understood a civil war would bring too much needless ruin. And that the Emperor was the right being to unite humanity, just as Alexandri was the right man to unite Rosskar.

The Heresy

It seemed Hektor had not considered that.

Alexandri spent most of the Heresy away at the very edge of Pacificus, protecting newly-conquered Imperial sectors from a series of massive incursions from the foul xenos known as the Yaotl. When word came of Hektor's betrayal, the Regent abandoned his attempts to push back into Yaotl space and sped straight towards Rosskar. There he would gather up his strength and move towards Terra, deciding along the way who held the interests of humanity more. The Emperor's decision at Nikaea had put some serious doubts in the Master of Mankind. But along the way to their homeworld word came of the assault upon it, which decided the Primarch's loyalties.

The planet was reduced to smoldering ash but there was still hope. It was there he met with Roman Albrecht who came to aid him with his own Legion. Together, the Regent and The Duelist raced towards Terra fearing they would arrive too late to save their ill-fated Imperium. And they were right. Arriving at the same time as the Void Angels led by the ever critical Gaspard Lumey. The Emperor was near fatally wounded. Kleisthenes was dead. The golden crown of the galactic realm, the birthplace of humanity, was left in ruins. Billions were dead, sacrified for nothing more than Hektor's hubris.

To the end of his days, Alexandri considered not arriving to Terra sooner to be his greatest failure.

Post-Heresy

During the Great Scouring all saw Alexandri's skills as a general. With the backing of his brother Roman, the Steel Marshals and Silver Cataphracts demolished the shattered Traitor Legions in a whirlwind of galaxy spanning assault. Feeling immense guilt over his late arrival, Alexandri pressed his Legion harder than any other. So much in fact that the tremors of his decisions echo in their very genetic coding thousands of years later. The Traitors would be swept away, and peace would reign supreme once more. But the Imperium never quite recovered from the Heresy, from the Scouring. Everything was geared towards war, and for good reason. On all sides the Imperium faced dire threats, which never ceased in their ferocity or severity.

Before he could make serious changes with the help of Roman, Sebastion Rex had to be dealt with. His hate for the man had intensified a thousand-fold over his neutrality in the Heresy. His Legion attacked him with a zealous fury, Alexandri taking to the field himself which was seldom done. Together, him and Roman faced down their masked brother. In his last act however, the Hidden Rex took the Duelist with him in a suicide attack. The warp shockwave produced by Rex's bomb horribly scarred Alexandri, leaving him physically a withered shell of himself.

Alexandri had lost half of his entire family in the Heresy, but this did not stop him from pushing the remaining members to fulfill their ambitions. Or what he said their ambitions were. Soon his kin spread out into multiple high-ranking positions in the aftermath of the Scouring. One even arose to the position of a High-Lord which immediately alerted Gaspard Lumey of the danger that Alexandri posed. The Regent made no allusions to his actions, purposely inviting several Marshal-Generals aboard his flagship to discuss matters of the future. Whole sectors soon saw that perhaps having not an Emperor, but someone to rule the Imperium in his stead, may be a wise decision. Alexandri would make sure he carried the backing to be worthy of this idea.

The Silver Cataphracts would have followed Alexandri into hell, not out of admiration, but out of the logic that Alexandri would only go into hell only if it was the best option. Now? But now he was being driven by dreams and fancies, not by reality. An attempt to seize power would only bring further death. With the blessing of Gaspard Lumey, one of the last remaining Primarchs, First Captain Sergei eliminated Alexandri subtly. The assassination was made to look as if the age old Rosskan rebels had finally got him. After living through the trials of his own world's conquest, and everything in between during to the end of the Scouring, Alexandri of Rosskar died from a coward's bullet.

Unremembered, unnoticed the Primarch went. A short golden age after the Scouring came, when the Traitor Legions were too busy tearing themselves apart and the numerous threats to arrive later had not yet come. No one wanted to press for details, fearing what might come if they looked for them. Gaspard, even if he did not desire it, had brought peace through his sole rule.