History of the Green Men

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.

The Green Men are an infamous Warband of Chaos Space Marines based on the Death World of Arboria in the Eye of Terror. Originally a part of the Life Bringers Legion, they parted ways with their Primarch during the Battle of Rai and have since become a formidable threat to the Imperium in their own right.

Storm clouds gather

To this day historians and Inquisitors alike argue what brought about the betrayal of the Legions that were commonly considered incorruptible back during the Great Crusade. Certain conspiracy theorists point at Uriel Starikov as the diabolical seeder who sowed the seeds of corruption in the hearts of his innocent brothers. As the ultimate proof of their theories they like to mention the Emissarium, a special purpose unit within the XIIIth Legion. For those unfamiliar with the subject matter, early in the Great Crusade, Starikov decided to send a trusted marine as an ambassador or liason to each of the Legions led by his brothers, ostensibly to foster inter-legion communication and help the Primarchs coordinate their actions. Most historians agree that the real purpose of this stratagem was threefold: to establish an intelligence network within other Legions, to earn the friendship of the few Primarchs still suspicious of Uriel, and to ignite and fan the flames of corruption. The latter was probably his primary goal: after all, you can always find a way to control that which is corrupt.

The Emissarius assigned to the Life Bringers was none other than Velzevul Quint, a brilliant Techmarine and a trusted confidant of Starikov himself. In a minor violation of the Emissarium's rules, he took a small retinue with him to Valetudinarium. Although initially the unexpected guests received a fairly lukewarm welcome and were treated with a bit of suspicion, it wasn't long before the strategic prowess and amiable personalities of Starikov's children had earned them the firm friendship of the Life Bringers. Quint and his retinue, in their turn, showed keen interest in the genetic research of their brothers, never tiring of giving compliments to their ingenuity and skills at gene manipulation that almost rivalled those of the Emperor himself. Ever so subtly, they were cultivating hubris in the hearts of the Genetors, pushing them towards the limits of the allowed.

A skilful talker and a master of manipulation, Velzevul Quint soon became a close personal friend of Vrach himself. During their long talks, the Techmarine expressed his fears for Mankind's future in a Galaxy filled with deadly disease. What use was it to reclaim Human worlds from the Xenos, barbarity or the fetters of religion, only to inevitably lose them to an enemy the Imperium keeps downplaying? These tirades were prepared based on a painstaking study of the Primarch's dossier, which included a detailed description of his life and several character studies. And, of course, they did not fail to resonate with Vrach's deepest concerns and suppressed fears. Increasingly absorbed by his insane dream to conquer all disease, the Primarch all but withdrew from commanding the Legion, leaving the warfare matters to Salk.

It wasn't long before the Genetory ceased to be the cradle of life where new, perfected lifeforms were created to better serve Humanity in its struggles beneath the stars. It was now more akin to a hospital, with all of its brilliant minds consumed by studying pathogenic microorganisms and trying to devise better ways of fighting them. People who only recently wouldn't had been admitted to its halls illuminated by ultraviolet lamps, such as Librarians, became its frequent guests. During the course of his research, Sachs became concerned that sorcery may be a grossly undervalued asset in genetic engineering, and so he invited the Legion's psykers to his domain in order to see whether magic would achieve what his nanolancet couldn't. And although many Librarians recognised this as High Genetor's folly, he did find a number of like minded people in the Librarium. People like Vertumnus Alraun, the Chief Librarian of Life Bringers.

Start of the nightmare

Although the Life Bringers never discovered this, it was Velzevul Quint who secretly brought the worrying extent of the experiments undertaken by the Genetors to the Emperor's attention. Although it may seem paradoxical that the man who was in no small part responsible for leading the geneticists of the Twelfth Legion astray would personally present evidence against them to the Emperor, this was a very shrewd and calculated move. Firstly, it further cemented the reputation of the Justicars as the Emperor's ever vigilant secret police, and secondly, and, perhaps, more importantly, it forced Vrach to defy his father's will directly. When the ruler of Mankind ordered his son to wrap up all the dubious genetic research, Johannes was finally convinced that his fears about his father's fatal short-sightedness were completely justified and that open disobedience was the only choice he was left with if he wanted to conquer disease. Although officially the questionable laboratories were closed down, in reality Vrach gave his High Genetor a carte blanche to find the ultimate cure, and Sachs had every intention to use it. Quint kindly agreed to share his expertise in covert operations, teaching the Life Bringers how to hide their forbidden research from the Emperor's prying eyes. Soon thereafter, he and his retinue finally departed from Valetudinarium to reunite with the rest of their Legion, carrying very good news for their Primarch.

Meanwhile, Wilmut Sachs plunged deeper and deeper into bioheresy in his desperate quest to find the panacea his Primarch would be satisfied with. Disillusioned with traditional methods of medicine, he made the hard decision to shed the shackles of medial ethics entirely. Soon, he and his closest adherents experimented eagerly on the kidnapped battle brothers of their own Legion, picking out those who openly stated that the Life Bringers' transformation from a military force to a glorified interstellar hospital was a disgrace to their origins. Valetudinarium became a dangerous place to speak up against the Primarch. And yet, success eluded the Genetors time and again. Constant failure made the once open-minded and curious Sachs into a bitter, callous man who would do anything necessary to bring his research to a successful conclusion. He didn't know yet what exactly was necessary, but he was most determined to find out.

Soon after the Culling of Genetory, the Life Bringers were struck by another major blow from the Emperor, this time in the form of the Council of Nikaea. The Legion's Librarians were infuriated by its outcome, none more so than Vertumnus Alraun. They certainly had a good reason for discontentment: never once have the exemplary Librarians of the Twelfth Legion overstepped the narrow limits set by the Emperor, even when the opportunity called for it. And as a reward for their impressive self-restraint they got stripped of all their powers and forced to feel ashamed of the way they were born. As he was surrendering his regalia to the Legion's Armoury, Alraun cursed both the Black Augurs and the Winged Victory and wished for them to perish to a man to the perils of the Warp. Since his traumatic youth on Clapet, the Chief Librarian had always considered psychic powers a great boon to Mankind that could right many wrongs that ordinary tools were powerless against, and the Emperor's harsh ruling established him as a near-sighted control freak in the eyes of Vertumnus. As he was going back to his quarters, he was suddenly stopped by High Genetor. With sparks of nascent madness dancing in his eyes, he told the former Librarian that perhaps his powers could serve Humanity at least one more time. Intrigued by Sachs' enigmatic proposal, Alraun followed him to his new secret laboratory.

Wilmut Sachs, it turned out, had carefully studied the logs of the Council of Nikaea. What really drew his attention was the evidence presented by Darius Cyaxares against the Black Augurs. It included detailed descriptions of the dark rituals the sorcerers of the Fourteenth Legion purportedly used to establish contact with powerful sentient entities inhabiting the Immaterium. One name that kept coming up was that of some Master of Disease, a godlike entity with seemingly absolute control over all sorts of plague and pestilence. Sachs was determined to contact this entity and strike a deal with it that could help him find a universal cure that his Primarch so desired. For a price, of course, but High Genetor was long past the point of caring about the price.

And so, using the notes from the protocols of the Council of Nikaea, Alraun and Sachs managed to step by step recreate the forbidden rituals of the Black Augurs and summon forth an evil spirit of the Warp, paying for this privilege in blood of several battle brothers too critical of their Primarch's new course. A bloated, repugnant creature truly worthy of the title of Plaguefather looked back at them from their amateurishly drawn pentagram. The creature introduced itself as Ku'Gath, a beloved grandchild of the Master of Disease himself. Although it was apparently delighted to be summoned by the Life Bringers, as it had a fondness for making new friends, it stated that they were unworthy to speak to his divine grandfather. That honour belonged to their Primarch, and to him alone. With these words, the entity departed the occult chamber, leaving only a repugnant smell in the air and a pool of diseased slime on the floor as sole reminders of its visitation. Although both Space Marines were most impressed by the profane spectacle they had witnessed, their opinions on it varied drastically. Wilmut Sachs was elated by long-overdue progress; finally, after years of wallowing in failures, a glimmer of hope for success shone in his eyes. Vertumnus Alraun, on the contrary, was shocked and appalled by the creature he personally had summoned. He now understood perfectly what the Black Augurs had been punished for, and he was honestly surprised that the prodigal Legion was allowed continue to exist after the revelation of its dark dealings with profane entities.

Enter the Green Men

Meanwhile, this was not the only breakthrough that happened abroad Valetudinarium on this fateful year. Nikephoros Galen, the most talented of all of High Genetor's pupils, kept working on his own projects even as the rest of the Genetory was plunging into madness. Like his colleagues, he searched for an ultimate cure that would make disease a thing of the past. There was a very important difference, though - Galen only worked with plants. His ultimate goal was to create crops that would be immune to all disease, and he knew he was within reach of achieving it. Finally, several months after the news of the Council of Nikaea had reached the Life Bringers, he could finally let out a sigh of relief and proudly look upon his opus magnum - a plant completely impervious to all kinds of known afflictions. It took Galen years to craft its immune system, both a marvel of science and a work of art. Filled with enthusiasm, he rushed to the laboratory of his teacher Wilmut Sachs to show him the fruit of his labour. But Sachs, consumed by his experiments with geneseed, openly ridiculed his pupil and his achievement. He called his breakthrough negligible and useless to the Legion; unless, of course, Galen knew of a way to turn humans into plants. Everybody present in High Genetor's laboratory laughed at this joke; everybody save for Galen and his friend Alraun.

Although Galen's visit was merely a minor annoyance for Sachs, for Nikephoros this was perhaps the most dramatic event of his life since the departure from Monsanto. His labour of love that he had dedicated his entire life to was met with derision by the person who he considered his teacher and the Galaxy's ultimate authority in gene engineering. Galen was so distraught that he took Sachs' cruel joke to the heart. High Genetor wanted him to turn humans into plants? Then this is what he would get. And so Nikephoros embarked on a new project - trying to put his perfect immune system for plants into humans. And although this task seemed insurmountable at first, the moral support of his friends Bercilak and Alraun kept him going. They dubbed their project 'Green Men' and were entirely convinced that they could beat the arrogant Sachs to the creation of a panacea and have the last laugh on him. Alraun was especially interested in humbling High Genetor, for he knew what powers Sachs had bargained with to gain his new insights into the nature of disease.

Burning the bridges

Fortunately or not, they failed. Johannes Vrach himself gave his approval to the experiments of Sachs and personally spearheaded High Genetor's research. Progress that would have normally taken decades of trial and error was made every day, and soon Vrach and Sachs presented the first outcomes of their research to the Legion - experimental creatures known as Sym-Biomes, permanently diseased yet theoretically immortal half-living monsters. Very few knew how the Primarch managed to achieve such impressive results so quickly, and Alraun was amongst them. Desperate in his hopeless quest to find the ultimate cure, Johannes Vrach agreed to summon the Master of Disease, who revealed himself to the prodigal Primarch as the Plague God Nurgle. As a patron of life in all of its forms and manifestations, Nurgle refused to give Vrach the panacea that would cure all illnesses - indeed, why would he give anyone a horrible weapon capable of killing billions of billions of viruses and bacteria who have the same right to live as humans do? Instead, he offered the Primarch a deal. He would shield a select few from disease, but only if they offered their bodies as hives to billions of his smallest grandchildren, by which he meant pathogenic microorganisms. With a heavy heart, Vrach agreed, thus cursing himself and his entire Legion for all eternity. Immediately thereafter, a dark ritual was conducted, during which several of Nurgle's high-ranking daemons possessed Librarians of the Life Bringers. With help from those repugnant advisers, the prototype Sym-Biomes were ready in no time at all.

Vrach realised perfectly well that this dark act had placed him firmly beyond his father's forgiveness. And so, when a messenger arrived from his brother Hektor with a proposal to join his rebellion against the Emperor's tyrannical rule, Johannes had no choice but to agree. As a test of their loyalty to their new cause, Hektor assigned the Life Bringers an important role in the Isstvan Blitz that he had planned, nowadays commonly known as the Isstvan Massacre. The children of Vrach were to exterminate the stubborn Entombed, who wouldn't betray the Emperor even if death was the only other option. Although the Primarch was less than enthusiastic about this mission, preferring to keep the casualties on both sides as low as possible, Sachs saw this as a great chance to finally put the talents of his Genetors to a proper use. He ordered them to create the deadliest weapons they could think of, which were to be field tested on the Entombed. Ever the creative type, Galen devised a multitude of devilishly inventive plant-based weapons. The Lash of Torment was a thorny vine that could be used as a whip; its thorns constantly secreted an acidic venom that softened ceramite and made the lash effective even against heavily armoured targets. The Death Belcher was a parasitic mushroom that was planted on a suit of power armour and constantly emitted clouds of acidic spores, making its bearer a machine of death in close combat. But the most notorious of his inventions was the dreaded Brambleseed Gun. The bullets it fired each contained a seed of a diabolical parasitic plant. Once inserted into a living organism, it took root in its intestines within seconds and, with startling speed, started growing thorny vines similar to organic barbed wire that tore its unfortunate victim from within. To this day, this gun remains one of the most feared weapons wielded by the Traitor Legions; its mere mentioning is sometimes enough to make whole regiments of the Imperial Guard desert.

When the day of the Isstvan Massacre had come, all of these instruments of death were put to test and all of them passed it with excellence. Although the Entombed fought valiantly and sold their lives for a very high price, they stood no chance from the very beginning: a combination of Hektor's strategic brilliance, wicked treachery and the technological superiority of the Life Bringers had spelt their doom before they even landed on Isstvan's barren surface. It was there that Wilmut Sachs first showcased his Plague Marines - bloated, oozing walking cadavers crawling with disease who could soak up a hail of bullets without as much as flinching. As impressive as they might have been, they met their match in the stout Entombed, and so almost the entire first batch of High Genetor's pet monsters was slaughtered on this day. As a final gesture of contempt to a fallen enemy that had caused him so much trouble, Sachs unleashed his dreaded genophage virus on the broken ranks of the Entombed and watched with wicked glee as his unholy creation was unmaking their geneseed. The fact that several Life Bringers were also affected by the virus bothered him not; they were left to rot on the scarred planet together with their defeated adversaries.

It should be noted, though, that not all of the sons of Vrach fought as dishonourably as High Genetor. The Company lead by Tribulus Bercilak and outfitted entirely with Galen's plant-based biological weapons proved most successful in routing the enemy without resorting to dirty tricks. Galen himself oversaw the combat testing of his creations, while Alraun saved Bercilak's vanguard from a flank assault by the heavy vehicles of the Entombed by summoning forth a plague of vines that entangled the heavy tanks and pinned them to the ground. As a recognition of their overwhelming success, Johannes Vrach announced the creation of a special elite detachment within his legion which was to include the soldiers who fought under Bercilak on that day. Unsurprisingly, they called themselves the Green Men, painted their power armour green and adorned it with vines to show their respect to the true architect of their impressive victory - Nikephoros Galen.

There was now no coming back; all the roads led to Holy Terra.

All hope forlorn

The way to Holy Terra wasn't a pleasant journey for Galen. As if brutal clashes with those he used to call his brothers, such as the bloody Battle for Rosskar, weren't enough to sour his spirits, he also had to witness the ongoing corruption of his beloved Legion. With each passing day the influence High Genetor exerted over the Primarch grew, the ranks of the abominable Plague Marines expanded exponentially, slowly but steadily replacing the battle brothers, and the worship of Nurgle became commonplace. From a scalpel that mercilessly sliced off the tumours that plagued the Imperium, the noble Valetudinarium turned into a morbid filthy prosectorium choking with the very same disease the Life Bringers once vowed to exterminate. But no matter how much Nikephoros resented his former teacher and the malignant influence he had become on the Legion, he bided his time until project 'Green Men' was ready - then he could present his beloved father with a real cure from all disease and crush the demon-worshipping quack by the name of Wilmut Sachs like a pustule. Thanks to the now routine skirmishes with his fellows Space Marines, Galen had an almost unlimited supply of subjects to experiment on, and yet the project was merely crawling forward. His initial idea of creating symbiotic creatures akin to the Orcs fell through, as he found them too crude and primitive. Another solution had to be found, and he was desperately searching for it.

Not all of his brothers had the patience of Galen. Edentis Pneuren, the Chief Apothecary of Life Bringers, was just as appalled by the actions of his former friend as Nikephoros was. He openly took the lead of the opposition to Sachs and his Genetors, trying to bring the Primarch he used to be so close to to his senses. Pneuren's faction was soon joined by his long-time friend Gaius Martinus Vira, better known as the Reaper. Although the two were counting on Bercilak joining their ranks, the Green Ghost preferred to stay by Galen's side and out of the politicking. The clashes between the followers and adversaries of Sachs became more and more frequent, some of them even resulting in fisticuffs, yet no side could clearly gain the upper hand. Centuries later, Vira said with regret that if only Galen and his Green Men could shed their damned neutrality and join his faction, Sachs and his vile clique would be crushed and the Legion would still have a chance at redemption. Unfortunately, Nikephoros didn't think much of Chief Apothecary and his primitive methods. He needed the triumph over Sachs to be his, not Pneuren's, and so he refused to join their cause.

It all culminated in the infamous Great Sacrifice at Vischmauz. On this planet, a massive Loyalist force was assembled in order to try and stop the advancement of the Life Bringers towards Terra, or at least slow it down. Sachs, however, saw them as less of an adversary and more of a generous sacrifice to his divine patron. Deep in the recesses of his laboratory, now flooded with blubbering filth and crawling with organic overgrowth, he prepared the greatest pest yet to see the light of day - the infamous Unmaker Plague. But as he was preparing to unleash it upon the doomed loyalists, he was finally directly confronted by his once-friend Edentis Pneuren. The Chief Apothecary tried reasoning with the mad doctor, recognising that it was daemonic influence that drove him to such ignobility. He reminded Sachs of who he used to be, and who he could still become if only he denounced Nurgle and repented for his sins. Seemingly moved by Pneuren's speech, High Genetor showed repentance and invited him to share a brotherly embrace. But as Chief Apothecary embraced his old friend, firmly convinced that he was on the road to redemption, Sachs injected him with a strain of the Unmaker Plague and watched, giggling and making notes in his notebook, as Pneuren collapsed into a pile of formless flesh. When Chief Apothecary was done for, Sachs set his unholy creation lose upon the Emperor's forces on Vischmauz, all the while singing praises to the Plague God.

With Pneuren dead and High Genetor's Plague Marines openly hunting down his followers, Vira and his Plague Doctors saw no better option than to escape from the spaceship that once was their home, but has now turned into a horrible death camp. The last bulwark of opposition to Sachs's reign of terror had now been crushed. Galen watched these events unfold with a grim satisfaction, for now the stage was clear for him to enter.

The Scourge of Sud Merica

Galen's moment of triumph came when the Life Bringers' fleet was nearing Holy Terra. After months of constant experimentation, after thousands of captive Space Marines killed, tortured to death or turned into slobbering lusi naturae in his laboratory, after countless humiliations at the hands of Wilmut Sachs and his clique of incompetent quacks, his life's work was done. Without any assistance from the Ruinous Powers, through sheer perseverance, scientific rigorism and willingness to use any means to his ends, he finally managed to successfully merge human and plant into one that was more than the mere sum of the two. Of course, the first Green Men looked rough and monstrous, with branches and foliage protruding from their bodies, mouths that opened like flowers and vegetation sprouting from all their orifices. Their strange habits like sitting in a single pose for hours and spreading mud over their bodies also didn't help. However, their eerie appearance did little to discourage their creator: Galen viewed these grotesque monsters as mere prototypes, whose appearance could be perfected after the False Emperor was pushed down from his ill-gotten throne.

Elated by his triumph, Nikephoros rushed to meet Vrach, accompanied by the first batch of Green Men. A group of Plague Marines tried to bar their access to the Primarch's private quarters, so Galen simply ordered them killed. Over the bodies of his dead battle brothers, he stepped right into Vrach's great hall to present his greatest discovery to him. With pride ringing is his voice, he introduced the Green Men to the slightly confused Primarch and described their exceptional qualities, including complete immunity to all disease. Even though Vrach was clearly taken aback by Galen's brash conduct, he was most impressed by the fruit of his labour. Seizing the opportunity, Nikephoros demanded that his superior Green Men replace the foul Plague Marines, that the Legion is purged of Nurgle worshippers and that Wilmut Sachs is immediately drawn and quartered for treason. These demands were clearly a miscalculation on his part, as the Primarch was not ready to approve such a radical purge, especially not on the eve of the Siege of Terra. Instead, he told Galen to retreat to his quarters and await his ruling on the matter.

Vrach's ruling left both parties discontent. Recognising the superiority of the Green Men, he nevertheless admitted that his Legion's alliance with Nurgle had already paid in spades and had not nearly exhausted its usefulness. Therefore, he announced a contest between the two factions: the one that would prove more effective during the Siege of Terra would take over the Legion, the other one would be purged. Though this was clearly not the ruling Galen and his adherents had been hoping for, they accepted it nonetheless. As a symbolical gesture of confidence, Nikephoros and all the Life Bringers loyal to him injected themselves with the Green Man compound, thus severing what little ties they had left with humanity and transforming into vile plantmen. Although it is now impossible to say for certain what effects this transformation had on Galen's mind, it must have affected him in a most dramatic way. Most Inquisitors studying the Green Men agree that it was his injecting himself with the imperfect, experimental Green Man genetic compound that finally turned Galen from a merely misguided scientist too obsessed with his dream project into the heartless, inhuman monster that the Imperium has come to fear and revile in equal measure.

During the Siege of Terra, the Life Bringers did not fight at the forefront of the assault; instead, at the behest of Hektor, they spread all across the globe in order to tie down the scattered groups of Terra's defenders with battle and prevent them from reinforcing the defenders of the Imperial Palace. The Green Men in particular fought the Sand Keepers in the accursed wastes of Sud Merica. Galen's plan was to turn this lifeless cesspit of pollution into one of his infamous Seas of Corruption, thus introducing life back to the withered husk of Mankind's cradle. This way he would not only fulfil the Life Bringers' mission of restoring dead worlds to their bygone verdant grandeur, but also give his troops an enormous strategic advantage, for the Sand Keepers could hardly fight effectively in a toxic jungle, unlike the Green Men. Fortunately, his diabolical plan fell through when the Sand Keepers conjured great sand storms that chocked the sprouts of toxic fungi before they could grow. Infuriated, Galen ordered a full-on assault on the enemy ranks. In spite of the Life Bringers' numerical advantage, it was eventually repulsed by the loyalist forces, who then initiated a highly successful counter-attack. It is not clear whether it was due to the Green Men still learning to control their new vegetative bodies or sheer heroism of the Sand Keepers, but the result stays the same: the Green Men were soundly beaten by the sons of Cyaxares.

And so the Green Men's baptism by fire ended in their total defeat. The only thing that sweetened the pill for Galen was that the Plague Marines of Sachs were similarly crushed by Scions of Europa in the Battle for Untark Teed. But the worst news were yet to come: mighty Hektor Cincinnatus, the leader of the rebellion, was slain by the Emperor in his own throne room. Worse still, rumours reached the remaining Traitor leaders of several Loyalist Legions rushing for Terra, eager to bring judgement upon their wayward brothers. Seeing no point in risking their lives for a failed cause, the Traitor Legions haphazardly evacuated the remainder of their forces from Terra and journeyed into the impenetrable darkness of Space, each one to its own damnation. The Life bringers were no exception. And although Galen resented having to fight side by side with Sachs again, he still hoped to win the Primarch for his cause, and so he decided not rebel for the time being.

Homecoming

Johannes Vrach was lost in contemplation. Although he had very high hopes for Hektor, the failure of his rebellion was essentially just a minor setback for the Life Bringers. Their true mission, the complete eradication of disease in all of its forms, had not yet been compromised, and the Primarch had the full intention of resuming it as soon as he had a base of operations. After some deliberation, he chose Rai, his homeworld. It had to be purged of all life due to a dangerous xenovirus buried on it, but now the Primarch had the means of restoring life to it and a Legion of warriors immune to all disease at his disposal, so he decided it was about time to come home.

Much to Vrach's chagrin, the Loyalist Legions turned out to be much more vengeful than he had hoped. As his fleet rushed to Rai, Loyalist forces were hot on his heels, led by the irrepressible Entombed. Sons of Golgothos swore never to rest until the last Life Bringer is dead and buried, and they had every intention to turn Rai into their graveyard. Irked by the importunate perseverance of the Entombed, Vrach decided that they had to be wiped out once and for all before the benevolent work of his Legion could resume in peace. With this intention, he ordered his Genetors to turn the whole planet of Rai into one enormous biological weapon that would grind the bothersome Entombed to dust that they were so fond of. As much as they resented this order, Galen and Sachs had to work together on the fortification of Rai, each one trying to top his bitter rival's wicked ingenuity.

Untold horrors were unleashed upon Rai. Sachs crafted the Sea of Woe, which was filled not with water, but with countless colonies of pestiferous bacteria. Its shores were stalked by megamoebae, pathogenic germs the size of a Land Speeder that constantly oozed diseased slime. More conventional plagues were also crafted in anticipation of the Entombed, such as Red Scythe that turned the erythrocytes in the blood of its victim into miniature needles, thus turning his blood vessels into barbed wire, or Strongman's Bane that caused all of the muscles in the body of the diseased to contort to their maximum extent until they ripped his body apart. Galen, in his turn, carefully designed and planted the deadliest jungle ever to exist, more of a deadly obstacle course than a real forest. Moreover, he connected the roots of all the flora he planted into a gigantic neural network, turning the planet's biosphere into essentially an enormous organic computer, programmed to destroy any enemies of the Life Bringers.

Eventually, the trap for the Entombed was set, and the Life Bringers began waiting for them to come. Surprisingly for them, more guests arrived than the table was served for: sons of Golgothos were joined in their vengeance by Void Angels, led by Antoine Antonelle. Seeking redemption for their late arrival to the Siege of Terra, Void Angels were resolved to cleanse the Galaxy of the foul Traitors. Distressed by this unfortunate turn of events, Vrach ordered the Green Men to deal with the Void Angels, while the Plague Marines would settle their score with the Entombed. Galen didn't doubt for a second that this order was made under the influence of Sachs, for it pitted the Green Men against a much larger force. At last Nikephoros began to see how deeply High Genetor had managed to corrupt his Primarch. He had started to feel that his attempts to sway Vrach to his side had all been in vain.

Nevertheless, the Green Men made an impressive stand against the Void Angels. Backed into a corner, they didn't hesitate for a second to employ every dirty trick they still had up their sleeves against the enemy, and yet this wasn't enough to counter Antonelle's tactical skill and the resolve of his troops. Correctly identifying the poison jungle as the primary source of the Green Men's tactical advantage, the commander of Void Angels ordered it burned. The skies over Rai blazed up in a fierce aerial battle, as the Thunderhawks of Void Angels carrying promethium bombs strove to get past the air blockade set up by Green Men. Eventually, they managed to reach their objective through skilful manoeuvring, and the toxic weald was set ablaze. Galen wept tears of chlorophyll as he watched hungry flames consume his beautiful creation. Shouting hysterically into the vox communicator, he promised exquisite genetic modifications to whoever managed to punish the one responsible for this. Antonelle's Strike Cruiser Endurance came under fire from nearly all of the Green Men spacecrafts within reach, blowing it to smithereens. Luckily, he managed to leave the doomed vessel at the last moment, landing on Rai to personally lead the assault from the front lines. His presence greatly boosted the morale of Void Angels, who rejoiced to see Papa Antoine fight side by side with them. But this newfound enthusiasm was not to last long, as Antonelle's squad was soon encircled by Green Men and the legendary warrior was brutally slain by Bercilak, who pumped him full of Brambleseeds and watched with sadistic glee how the razor-sharp vines tore his enemy from within. Much to his fury, the Void Angel's face didn't flinch an inch as he lay dying.

The news of the Legion's beloved mentor's death spread like a forest fire through the ranks of Void Angels, causing confusion and discouragement. Green Men were quick to seize this advantage and began pushing the assailants back. This counteroffensive had lasted until the word of his friend's demise reached Fabrice Diallo. Cold fury became him as he reached for a vox communicator and addressed his Legion in what has now become a classical philippic included in most rhetoric textbooks, the Colossus Has Fallen speech. In this address, he called not for vengeance, but for a just payback to those responsible for this irreparable loss, and told his soldiers to turn their grief into righteous fury. This speech marked a turning point in the battle, as Void Angels, filled with grim determination, regrouped and started advancing with an irresistible force, more akin to a rank of immortal killing machines than to human soldiers. In panic, Green Men started throwing everything they had at the foe, unleashing every secret weapon upon them, but all was in vain, as Void Angels merely shrugged off their foul biomancy and continued advancing, fully determined to wipe out every single Green Man.

It wasn't long before it became clear to Galen that his forces faced a very real prospect of total annihilation at the hands of the enemy. Then a realisation dawned on him: why should he waste the lives of his precious Green Men to assist Wilmut Sachs and hopelessly deluded Vrach, led astray by High Genetor's lies? He wouldn't shed a tear if all the Plague Marines and their incompetent, daemon-worshipping creators were wiped out on that day. The only thing important to him was the survival of the last vestige of the real Life Bringers, his Green Men; the rest of the Legion could go to Warp where they belonged. And so, at his command the Green Men hastily boarded their spacecrafts and fled from the planet, leaving their Primarch to deal with two Loyalist Legions at once. Void Angels didn't expect such pathetic cowardice from their foe, and so they failed to pursue them, instead shifting their focus to the forces led by Vrach. With no pursuers in tow, Galen set the course of his fleet for the only place left for him to go now: the Eye of Terror.

Showdown in the Eye of Terror

Fairly soon the Green Men found a suitable world for their base of operations, an arid world of dust creeks and carnivorous dunes populated by wheel-worshipping warthog men. The Space Marines mercilessly wiped out all the existing life on the planetoid, after which their rebuilt its ecosystem in accordance with their twisted tastes, turning it into a maze of deadly jungles stalked by quadrupedal carnivorous plants . It was from this world renamed Arboria by its new masters that Nikephoros Galen started planning his next move. Galen's plan was as simple as it was maniacally delusional: to kill Johannes Vrach, seize his geneseed and rebuild his hopelessly tainted Legion from scratch as the Green Men, just as the Life Bringers of old would rebuild dead worlds poisoned to the core by pollution. And then, even a second shot for Terra could be a possibility - this time without the incompetence of Chaos-tainted fools that doomed Hektor's endeavour. Already completely insane, Galen had come to see himself as a benevolent god of life and his Green Men as the natural next step of evolution for Mankind that needed to be forced upon the unappreciative fools clinging to their outdated flesh. The combination of flora and fauna was clearly superior to both of them in the eyes of Galen, so it had to replace them entirely, no matter if it essentially meant wiping out all of the existing life in the Galaxy.

But first, Vrach had to be dealt with. Anticipating his impending arrival in the Eye of Terror, Galen started preparing a welcome celebration for his father. First of all, the Green Men attacked and enslaved two minor Traitor warbands stationed in the vicinity of their new homeworld - the Ghastly Talons, a coven of the Black Augurs, and the Ifrits, one of the multitude of shards left from the Sons of Fire. Those two were assigned the suicidal task of tying down the main forces of the Life Bringers, while the Green Men would flank them and deliver a decisive blow. Those who would manage to survive this bloodbath were promised a modification into Green Men. Galen's forces mercilessly raided the armouries of their thrall warbands, leaving them with only the barebones equipment that would prevent them from being wiped out before their usefulness is exhausted.

Just as the rogue Genetor calculated, the Life Bearers' fleet soon entered the Eye of Terror, visibly battered by their encounters with the Loyalists on the way there. Still, it dwarfed what little forces Galen had managed to gather, but the Genetor was primarily betting on his strategic skills and the superior equipment of his men to win the battle. Just as Valetudinarium approached the trap laid out for it, the Ghastly Talons' naval forces emerged from an asteroid field nearby, their terrified pilots kept at a gunpoint by their Green Men overseers. Meanwhile, the Ifrits' flotilla left the dark side of a planet next to the asteroid field and started ramming the Life Bringers' fleet in a display of insane recklessness so typical of the successors of Sons of Fire. As the forces of Vrach were busy repelling this unexpected assault, the Green Men fleet approached them from the back and took them by surprise in a swift boarding action.

As his men infiltrated Valetudinarium, Galen considered the battle won. Unfortunately for him, this was just the beginning. He wasn't the only one who was preparing for this rendezvous: his bitter rival Wilmut Sachs had also been busy devising ways to get rid of the Green Men once and for all. Plagues and toxins he preferred to work with had no effect on the insidious plantmen, so the Hight Genetor came up with something new - a herbicide. Just as the Green Men began taking over Vrach's flagship, Sachs ordered to pour his herbicide into the ventilation system. Harmless for his Plague Marines, it had a devastating effect on Galen's mutants: their verdant bodies started withering, leaking and falling apart when they were enveloped by clouds of the toxic gas. Those few left alive made a quick escape to their ships and headed back to Arboria to lick their wounds. To their luck, the Life Bringers were far too exhausted to pursue their treacherous brethren.

A new purpose

This crushing defeat at the hands of his arch-rival almost broke Galen. His ambitious plan had been thwarted before it could even begin, his formidable warband was in shambles, all ties to his Legion had been firmly severed. All that was left for him to do was to tremble in fear in his treepalace on Arboria, waiting for his Primarch to find him and punish him for his insolence. To take his mind off these grim matters, he participated in the Legionary Wars, although he had nothing to gain, captured several minor planets and rebuilt their biospheres to suit his twisted taste, created scores of nightmarish plant creatures and tortured countless captives to death in his laboratory. But while he was forgetting the nature of his new home, its true masters did not forget about their new tenant at all.

As he was plunging deeper and deeper into the recesses of insanity, voices started appearing in his head. First quiet and gentle, akin to mere fleeting thoughts, they gradually grew in confidence and eventually turned into a vile chorus of whispering. They all spoke in different tones and volumes, yet their message was always the same. They whispered that a great visionary like Galen did not deserve such a fate, that his genius was a gift to the Galaxy that he had no right of throwing away. The voices told Galen that he could still make his dream a reality, if only he had strong partners by his side. Forces that always helped the bold and the daring, forces that constantly strove to tear down the obsolete status quo and change the world for the better.

Completely insane, Galen did not recognise these voices as belonging to the creatures who corrupted Sachs and Vrach, and, honestly, he no longer cared. He was offered a second chance to make his dream of complete rebuilding of all life in the Galaxy come true, and he was ready to do anything not to let it slip this time. The voices told him that he needed to prove his worth before he could hope for their assistance, prove that they wouldn't be wasting their time on him. And Galen set about devising a diabolical plan that would forever put his name in the annals of history, a campaign of pure terror which would show everyone the true extent of his capabilities once and for all.

He set his mind on the Durnovarian Subsector, Sector Victrix, Segmentum Obscurus. Its relative proximity to his base in the Eye of Terror certainly played an important role, but it was hardly the main reason behind Galen's decision. This subsector filled with numerous Forge Worlds and Mining Worlds had long since won the fame of the Steel Heart of Victrix. The colossal factories of its worlds were constantly busy producing equipment of all kinds and purposes for the whole Segmentum as well as great clouds of soot and rivers of industrial sludge for their own poor planets. It was, therefore, little wonder that hardly any of the subsector's inhabited planets could sustain any kind of life. This place was the antithesis of everything Galen stood for, and so he decided to make a grim example out of it to show what happens to the fools who arrogantly deem themselves the masters of Nature. With these considerations in mind, the Green Men embarked on their wicked crusade against the industry.

Few educated people in today's Imperium don't know about the dreaded Great Sowing; its unspeakable horrors and unimaginable atrocities have since become textbook examples of the inhuman cruelty of the Traitor Legions. The merciless Green Men subjected all of the worlds they could lay their hands on to a biospherical reconstruction with all their inhabitants still trapped on the surface; but this was probably the best fate one caught in the Durnovarian Subsector during the Great Sowing could hope for. Even after the millennia that have passed, the descriptions of the perversely imaginative deaths the vile plantmen put their prisoners to could turn one's hair grey. Worse still, forces of the Imperium failed completely to stop this madness. An entire Successor Chapter was completely obliterated there, the first one to perish such since the Second Founding, and another one was crippled and later disbanded. Only the belated interference of the Silver Cataphracts could put an end to this horror, but by that time it had been far too late: every single inhabited world in the subsector had been turned into a verdant hell that could only be purged by a viral bombing. The Durnovarian Subsector was declared lost to the Imperium, and its demise delivered a massive blow to the defensive capacity of Segmentum Obscurus.

Far beyond redemption

The masters of the Eye of Terror have been watching the Great Sowing with wicked glee that they hadn't experienced in ages. Ultimately, they all agreed that Galen deserved a great boon for his feat, and so on the way back to Arboria he ascended to Daemonhood. His skin turned into rough bark, a pair of wing-shaped branches sprouted from his back with leaves in place of feathers, horn-like gnarls adorned his head, his hair became moss and his nails and teeth turned into venomous thorns. But this was far from the full extent of the transformations Galen was destined to undergo. Once he landed on Arboria, instead of celebrating his great victory he went to relax and contemplate his next move to his favourite poison pond. As he sat there, looking at the pond's mirror surface, he felt a wave of wonderful peace and tranquillity wash over him. For days he sat there without as much as moving an inch, looking at the pond and savouring his peace of mind. Eventually, his wooden legs took root in the soil, and branches started growing haphazardly out of his body. Foliage ensnared him, and the jungle's residents built nests in his canopy. After a week, the transformation was complete - what was once Nikephoros Galen had turned into the Tree of Woe. To this day this enormous daemonic tree keeps growing, already the size of a mountain, with its branches piercing Arboria's atmosphere and its roots wriggling in the planet's magma.

With their irreplaceable leader and spiritual liege gone, Tribulus Bercilak took the reins of the warband. Under his leadership, it cemented its position as an implacable threat to the Imperium, the Traitors and the Xenos alike. He personally spearheaded countless raids modelled after the Great Sowing that turned many a prosperous Forge or Hive World into a forsaken jungle with no place for humans. Raiding, however, is hardly the extent of their operations. The Druidic Circle, led by Vertumnus Alraun, for the most part occupies itself with the cultivation of blasphemous cults worshipping Daemon Prince Galen as the God of Plants on the Imperium's Garden and Agri-Worlds. Arguably, their activity has been even more damaging to the Imperium than Bercilak's raiding, for there will never be a shortage of fools willing to stoop down to human sacrifice to ensure a bounteous harvest. In the worst case scenario, the cultists of Galen even plant seeds given to them by the Druids on their planets, thus setting off a chain reaction bound to eventually transform their world into a Death World.

Although the loss of Galen was a devastating blow to the warband's research capabilities, it still employs a number of talented Genetors, several of whom have worked with Galen back in his Life Bringers days. Lately they have shown a keen interest in Eldar biotechnology, which led to several Green Men raids on Exodite worlds, as well as the destruction of the Craftworld Aleolan, once known as the Garden of Isha. This has certainly been a very welcome development for the Imperium, and one that a number of radical Inquisitors have intentions to build on.

Their rivalry with the Life Bringers remains as bitter as ever, with several unsuccessful attempts at the life of Wilmut Sachs undertaken by Bercilak's forces. On a number of occasions they have even joined forces with Gaius Martinus Vira and his Plague Doctors, although Vira makes no secret of the fact that he only considers Galen and his spawn marginally better than Sachs. Another long standing feud of the Green Men is that with the Void Angels, who have never quite forgotten Antonelle's sacrifice. Of all of the Emperor's chosen, it is the sons of Lumey and their numerous successors that are most willing to fight the green pest.