Prologue
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You talk to me about the Victory at Ullanor. Victory? Victory?
Yes, the largest, most dangerous Ork WAAAGH has been crushed under our heel, the xenos fleeing like the scum they are, while the light of the Emperor shines unchallenged…and that is story you wish to believe, the fable you choose to indulge. The fact is, the Master of Mankind fell with the great beast, and we have only one light left.
-Garviel Loken, Captain of the Luna Wolves 10th company, rebuking iterators
The night has passed, but the bearer of the light fell just before the sun rose.
The Warboss of Ullanor was so powerful, that the Emperor and his favourite son Horus decided to teleport together into the enemy stronghold and slay the Warboss together, with the advantage of fighting a lone enemy with the power of father and son. It should have ended this way.
But when the greatest of mankind arrived in the fortress, they found not one but two fell Ork Warbosses. The thrice-cursed ork had allied itself with the Beast, another foul creature and powerful Warboss, in the face of a common enemy: The Imperium, instead of fighting each other for leadership of WAAAGH Ullanor. The winner of the coming battle will become hegemon of the entire galaxy. Battle was joined in the great chamber, with Custodes and Justaerin facing Nobs, while the two pair of leaders challenged each other.
Only one warrior and his account of events survived the apocalyptic battle: Horus Lupercal. According to him, the Emperor unleashed one final, fatal psychic blast to destroy the Ork Warboss that had mortally wounded him. The Beast, fearful of the Emperor's wrath, escaped by tellyporta. With His last breath, the Emperor placed His laurel crown on the First Primarch, making him Warmaster, before He took to the stars.
The narrative was supported by other signs. The Emperor's laurels was unmistakable; Astropaths and psykers, even fleet sensors, all detected a great psychic surge that originated from Ullanor; no corpse of the three fallen leaders could be found in the room. Repressing his mourning, the Warmaster placated the Legions across the galaxy with his smooth talking, pointing Expeditionary Fleets to new frontiers and managed to have his brothers accept him as the new Emperor. He was welcomed to the Throneworld hailed by all. All was well, apparently.
The passage of power was surprisingly smooth, mostly because of the Sigilite's support, with both the First Lord and the Warmaster leading the restructuring of the Council of Terra, the Imperium's supreme governing body. Proud Fulgrim, the flamboyant Phoenician, has sworn to support his brother and Emperor. Fabius Bile, working with information from Malcador, was removing the complex set of neural implants that is the Butcher's Nails from Angron's head. The Golden Son, Rogal Dorn, consolidated the defences of the Sol system to epic proportions. Lorgar, forever ardent, spread the Imperial Creed in the form of religion throughout his dead Father's Imperium. Last but most importantly, although the Crimson King's dabbling in the forbidden arts incurred popular outrage, support from the Warmaster himself was enough for him to work on the Emperor's most secretive and most glorious project undisturbed.
Yet Primarchs, those beings between men and gods, would not all bow to Lupercal, this first among equals. Ferrus Manus, recognizing the great strength of his brother, chose to bend the knee; Corvus Corax, the Ravenlord, had no significant power base to work off from, so he had no choice. However, Roboute Guilliman, Lord of Ultramar, was busy building up the Five Hundred Worlds as his own pocket empire, not caring who would inherit the throne on Terra; Rogal Dorn, his Father incarnate in many ways, was constantly butting heads with Lorgar, who was determined to spread his version of the Imperial Creed; Leman Russ and Mortarion, isolated by the others and united in their hate of psykers -the Thousand Sons and Primarch Magnus, especially- were determined to take extreme measures "in order to stop the maleficarum"; Lion El'Jonson and Perturabo were as cold and aloof as their usual; Jaghatai and Sanguinius on the other hand, were preparing for another round of campaigns on the other side of galaxy. Wise are the people who can sense the tumult building up amid the illusionary peace, among them Malcador, who have begun to prepare the Council of Nikaea, focusing on the two topics of the Imperial Cult and the sanction of psykers to smooth out tensions between the Primarchs. If only things could have gone as planned.
The Cabal will not watch idly as the Imperium united its fractious princes. They contacted enigmatic Alpharius and gloomy Konrad Curze, showing them the rise of Chaos and the terrible future that would come forth. They thought themselves in control of the situation; they did not expect the Lord of Serpents to fire upon their ships as soon as emerged from hiding, for reasons beyond the Cabal's knowledge, killing many members, including Perpetual Damon Prytanis, in the process. The Alpha Legion claimed the unholy league's ships as its own in the aftermath. On the other hand, Curze stole a weapon that could change the entire situation from the vaults of the Cabal, something he would use to devastate the galaxy.
The other sixteen know nothing about this event. The Nikaea Council began at its scheduled date, but the tensions between Legion delegates already showed ill omens. The twin Primarchs, Alpharius and Omegon, quarrelling openly on sanctioning psykers could be thought of as amusing to some, but things were getting steadily worse: Dorn openly renounced Lorgar's "petty cult", and declared that he will take every necessary measure to ensure that it was put out; Russ and Abaddon were bellowing at the top of their lungs as they argued over the problem of executing the Cyclops; Ferrus and Perturabo, the Iron Lords, arguing over what defines the Pax Imperia was a civilised conversation in comparison. Just as Angron, still recovering from his treatment, stood to speak…
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOOOOOOOOOM.
Explosions engulfed the entire council chamber.
With epileptic screams of "THIS EMPIRE NEEDS NO EMPEROR", Konrad Curze, Dominus Nox, emerged from the shadows. Driven mad by visions of brother killing brother, the Night Haunter decided to solve this problem once and for all by killing all of his brothers first himself. The council, already gathered upon tense terms, immediately saw open battle as every participant wished to defend himself. Perturabo, builder of the amphitheatre, fired in rage at the Night Lords, killing Captain Saul Tarvitz by misfire; the Wolf-King of Fenris beheaded Magister Apophis of the Thousand Sons with Helwinter; the tip of Sarrisanata emerged through Omegon's chest; Vulkan, Primarch of the Salamanders, who did not bring Dawnbringer on grounds of courtesy, was left powerless as a result when the Night Haunter drove the Fulgurite through his hearts, becoming the first son of the Emperor to die in this bloody game.
Despite Konrad Curze announcing that he was the one responsible for the attack, none bothered as all killed in a desperate attempt to stay alive. Asides from Primarch Vulkan, Lord Commander Eidolon of the Emperor's children, Captain Tarik Torgaddon of the Luna Wolves Second Company, Triarch Golg of the Iron Warriors, Chapter Master Marius Gage of the Ultramarines, Master Merir Astelan of the Dark Angels and Erebus of the Word Bearers all died upon bloodstained Nikaea along with over ten thousand Marines from every Legion. The Thousand Sons, responsible for guarding the amphitheatre, suffered the most. The Red Council, with its "Edict of Blood" destroyed all hopes of the Primarchs' conflicts being solved peacefully, with every single one who left the battlefield preparing for total war.
Amid the storm of chaos, there was still one good news: Magnus has completed the Webway project, his power spanning the galaxy with the amplification of the Golden Throne, pushing back the Dark Gods' touch. There was one little problem, though. In order to keep the Golden Throne running smoothly and to maintain the exertion of protecting mankind across ten thousand light-years, the father of the Fifteenth is effectively trapped on the Golden Throne. The hand of Chaos will not be mangled in the coming game, but it will not be any less bloody than if it had did.
King of the Golden Throne, Terra and people, Overlord of the Five Segmentae, Warden of Space Marines, Warmaster Horus announced that the Legions of Russ, Mortarion and Curze were enemies of the Imperium, calling all other Primarchs to swear fealty to him and exterminate the rebels. The Emperor's Children, World Eaters, Iron hands and Word Bearers have taken up arms to defend the authority of their liege along with the Warmaster's own Luna Wolves. Alpharius, enigmatic as ever, also swore fealty, bringing the head of one who he claims to be his twin as proof. With six Astartes legions sworn to him, Lupercal is capable of launching another great Crusade, despite the Ravenlord's flight from Segmentum Solar.
Rogal Dorn, Lord of the Phalanx and Praetorian of Terra, claimed the Golden Throne as his by right of the Emperor's true heir. Hard-lined and strict to all, only the Raven Guard have joined the Imperial Fists, but many were under his command. Among his ground forces was the Emperor's Champion, Sigismund the Fearless; in SPESS, he holds the greatest fleet among all Primarchs, the Retribution Fleet he assembled under the pretense of bringing the Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth to justice. Faced with prospects of war, he utilized the broadcasts of Imperial Saint Euphrati Keeler much to his own resent, while also taking forces from Imperial Armadas and Rogue Traders, to further bolster his void fleet, already the greatest of all the factions. Though handicapped by relatively few numbers of Astartes, he commanded his sons to establish Iron Cages, fortress groups upon important Warp routes, to protect his vast but disparate domains in Segmentum Tempestus, to keep strategic superiority with a chokehold on Warp travel so long as he fought on home soil. At the same time, the Raven Guard spread out to acquire help from all worlds that have yet to join the banner of the Warmaster, especially Forge Worlds.
Lion El'Jonson WHO'S LOYALTY IS BEYOND QUESTIONING, Warden of Caliban and Defender of the North, struck an alliance with the Mad Architect with Ordinati and other weapons seized from Forge Worlds loyal to the Warmaster. They agreed, among other things, that Horus and Malcador seek to claim all of the Emperor's legacy as their own; Russ and his Rout were troublemakers; and thus, they must all be purged with absolute LOYALTY in order to restore peace and glory to all mankind. The First and the Fourth, united, was already a formidable force and the Son of the Forest secured a mysterious xeno device after slaying Calas Typhon of the Death Guard; finally, one claiming to be Omegon, who should have died by his twin's hand on Nikaea, met with the two Primarchs in secret, joining the two Legions with part of the Alpha Legion.
Battle-king in the East and Lord of Macragge, Roboute Guilliman declared the establishment of Imperium Secundus as the true empire of humanity after he activated the ancient xenos artefact called Pharos with secret help from Warsmith Barabas Dantioch, who left Olympia after being swept aside by his enemies in the Legion. As his delegation to Nikaea recovered Vulkan's body, the Salamanders swore themselves to his cause; his own ideals and diplomatic manoeuvres won over many separate companies from the other Legions. Finally, despite Sanguinius declining the seat of Emperor in the East, the Great Angel and the Great Warhawk allied themselves with the Ultramarines; in appreciation of these great powers, the Five Hundred Worlds took the renegade Thousand Sons, led by Ahzek Ahriman, under its wing, and kept the Librarius.
Wolf-King of Fenris, Leman Russ, was not one to simply accept fate, either. Even though the two did not trust each other fully, the Lord of Death managed to secure his alliance with the Great Wolf on their common stance of dealing with "witches and thieves". Unexpectedly, First Captain Sevatarion, who was leading the Legion when Curze decided to go on his killing spree, brought his Legion to the Wolf-King's cause. Those disagreed or expressed doubts about the Legion Master's decisions were mostly purged, like Krukesh the Pale, by the Atramentar. The late captain's seat among the Kryoptera was taken up by Malcharion, War-sage of the Tenth Company.
The Board is set.