THE HORUS HERESY
Aaron Dembski-Bowden
AURELIAN
The Eye stares back
original material provided by Karael
edited by fractalnoise
v1.1 (2012.01)
The Horus Heresy
It is a time of legend.
Mighty heroes battle for the right to rule the galaxy. The vast armies of the Emperor of Earth have conquered the galaxy in a Great Crusade – the myriad alien races have been smashed by the Emperor’s elite warriors and wiped from the face of history.
The dawn of a new age of supremacy for humanity beckons.
Gleaming citadels of marble and gold celebrate the many victories of the Emperor. Triumphs are raised on a million worlds to record the epic deeds of his most powerful and deadly warriors.
First and foremost amongst these are the primarchs, superheroic beings who have led the Emperor’s armies of Space Marines in victory after victory. They are unstoppable and magnificent, the pinnacle of the Emperor’s genetic experimentation. The Space Marines are the mightiest human warriors the galaxy has ever known, each capable of besting a hundred normal men or more in combat.
Organised into vast armies of tens of thousands called Legions, the Space Marines and their primarch leaders conquer the galaxy in the name of the Emperor.
Chief amongst the primarchs is Horus, called the Glorious, the Brightest Star, favourite of the Emperor, and like a son unto him. He is the Warmaster, the commander-in-chief of the Emperor’s military might, subjugator of a thousand thousand worlds and conqueror of the galaxy. He is a warrior without peer, a diplomat supreme.
As the flames of war spread through the Imperium, mankind’s champions will all be put to the ultimate test.
CONTENTS
AURELIAN
The Horus Heresy
CONTENTS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
PROLOGUE
PART ONE
ONE
TWO
THREE
PART TWO
FOUR
FIVE
PART THREE
SIX
SEVEN
PART FOUR
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
PART FIVE
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
The Primarchs
LORGAR AURELIAN, Primarch of the Word Bearers
FULGRIM, Primarch of the Emperors Children
ANGRON, Primarch of the World Eaters
HORUS LUPERCAL, Primarch of the Sons of Horus
PERTURABO, Primarch of the Iron Warriors
ALPHARIUS OMEGON, Primarch of the Alpha Legion
MAGNUS THE RED, Primarch of the Thousand Sons
KONRAD CURZE, Primarch of the Night Lords
MORTARION, Primarch of the Death Guard
The Word Bearers Legion
ARGEL TAL, Lord of the Gal Vorbak
KOR PHAERON, Captain, First Company
The Emperor’s Children Legion
DAMARAS AXALIAN, Captain, Twenty-ninth Company
Inhabitants of the Great Eye
INGETHEL THE ASCENDED, Viator of the Primordial Truth
AN’GGRATH THE UNBOUND, Guardian of the Throne of Skulls
KAIROS FATEWEAVER, Oracle of Tzeentch
‘Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.’
– Ancient Terran proverb
‘I wish, with every fibre of my soul, that I had killed him when I had the chance. That momentary flicker of disbelief and sorrow, that second’s hesitation for the abhorrence of fratricide, cost us more than anyone can measure. Horus leads the Legions into heresy, but Lorgar is the cancer in the Warmaster’s core.’
– The Primarch Corax
‘All I ever wanted was the truth. Remember those words as you read the ones that follow. I never set out to topple my father’s kingdom of lies from a sense of misplaced pride. I never wanted to bleed the species to its marrow, reaving half the galaxy clean of human life in this bitter crusade. I never desired any of this, though I know the reasons for which it must be done.
But all I ever wanted was the truth.’
– Opening lines of the Book of Lorgar, First Canticle of Chaos
PROLOGUE
HERALD OF THE ONE GOD
Colchis
Many years ago
THE ARCHPRIEST WATCHED from the cathedral window as his city burned below.
‘We should do something.’
His voice was a bass rumble, yet edged by a softness that smoothed his words into something almost delicate. His was a voice made to reason, to question, to reassure – not to scream and froth and rage.
The archpriest turned from the window. ‘Father? When will the fires stop burning?’
Kor Phaeron walked across the chamber, his wizened scowl deep-set on his face, like a scar cut into old leather. He busied himself with the scrolls on the central table, his thin lips moving as he read each one in turn.
‘Father? We cannot remain here while the city burns. We must help the people.’
‘You have not spoken since we claimed the Cathedral of Illumination.’ The ageing man glanced over for the merest moment.
‘And your first words after winning this war are to ask when the fires will be drowned? You have just conquered a world, boy. You have greater matters to concern yourself with.’
The archpriest was a young man, beautiful in a way that transcended notions of physical attraction. His tan skin gleamed with tiny tattoos of gold-inked scripture. His eyes were dark without being cold, and he could spend days without smiling, yet never seem sinister.
He turned back to the window. In his mind’s eye, he’d always pictured the crusade’s end in this very place, the avenues of the City of Grey Flowers flooded by cheering crowds, their joyous prayers reaching into the skies, shaking the slender towers of their former rulers.
The reality didn’t quite approach it. The streets were crowded, that much was true, but crowded with rioters, looters and clashing bands of robed warriors, as the last lingering remnants of the Covenant’s defenders fought to the last against the tide of invaders.
‘So much of the city is still aflame,’ the archpriest said. ‘We must do something.’
Kor Phaeron murmured to himself as he read the tattered parchments.
‘Father.’ The archpriest turned again, watching the older priest discard another scroll.
‘Hmm? What is it, boy?’
‘Half of the city is ablaze. We must do something.’
Kor Phaeron smiled, the expression ugly but not unkind. ‘You must prepare for your coronation, Lorgar. The Covenant has fallen, and the Old Ways will be cast down as blasphemy against the One God. You are no longer merely Archpriest of the Godsworn, you are the Archpriest of all Colchis. I have given you a world.’