this was made by zahariel
threads/warhammer-40000-prince-of-the-eye-what-if-horus-had-survived-the-heresy.766753/page-25#post-72852467
s/13366753/31/Prince-of-the-Eye
the tech priest started the final video in the trilogy concerning the Cacodominus
The Howling
All eyes turned to Alpharius/Omegon and Corax asked the twin primarchs, "Isn't that the name of one of your legion's signature maneuvers?" The two primarchs looked at each other and shrugged saying, "Yes it is" "But it has" "No relation to" "The Cacodominus."
Maeleum Datum : 405.M34
It would be called the Howling.
Rogal said, "Yes." and Perturabo hit him.
Later, when the dust had settled and the dead had been tallied, the Imperial scholars tasked with writing the secret histories reserved for the eyes of the Imperium's highest authorities would use that name. They would not know that it was also the name used by the Lost and the Damned, if for different reasons.
At the time, however, there was no naming it. No one understood what was happening, except for Sanguinius, who stood at the root of it all; his brothers, damned and loyal alike; and a handful of other beings, such as Eldrad Ulthran.
Lorgar muttered, "I bet Father does on his God-Toilet." The Emperor heard this but did not comment, given his future self had referred to the Golden Throne as such.
When the Angel struck down the Cacodominus, last of its ancient alien breed, its final act was to unleash its full power upon the galaxy in a single psychic death scream.
The Catalexis system itself suffered the worst from the Howling. All life on Catalexis Secundus was wiped out, while the site of the Cacodominus' demise was torn asunder, creating a permanent Warp Rift that spread madness and unreality across the entire world. Sanguinius himself vanished into the Rift, his disappearance felt by every Blood Angel still aboard the fleet. Something that resembled a river as imagined by a mind that had only ever heard of the idea of liquid flowed from that rift, twisting the land into impossible shapes atop which still clung the remnants of the cyclopean cities built by the xenos' slaves. The corpses that covered the world became materials for things that crawled out of the "river". These entities could technically be considered daemons, but they had not been created by any of the Ruinous Powers, instead spawning from the Cacodominus' own tormented thoughts and emotions.
Magnus noted, "This version of the galaxy is riven with Warp Rifts and Warp Storms." The shock of the statement meant that he wasn't punched by Russ. Well, that and Russ was horrified by the Daemons that arose from the Cacodominus.
The Imperial commanders left in orbit, where they had directed the ongoing battle against the Cacodominus' fleet, found themselves suddenly alone. The enemy ships had fallen silent, their crews collapsed at their stations.
The wards that had been carved into the hulls of the Imperial ships to protect them from the Cacodominus' domination had shielded them from the worst of the Howling, though those ships whose wards had been damaged in battle before were now as dead as those of the Cacodominus' slaves. The Navigators had survived, but every Astropath in the fleet was dead, as were most of the sanctioned psykers who had accompanied the Crusade. Re-establishing communication and order took several days, and would have taken much longer if not for the swift and decisive action of a group of Inquisitors and Blood Angels who had put aside their distrust and grown somewhat close during the Crusade.
Angron grinned, for he knew the heat of battle could forge friendships that lasted eternities.
With no way to contact the rest of the Imperium, the leaders of the Crusade could not know the full scope of the Howling, but they suspected that its repercussions would be galactic in scale. Once the immediate aftermath of the battle had been dealt with, it was quickly decided to return to Imperial territory at speed. But the Blood Angels, refusing to believe that their Primarch was dead – a belief which was shared by most of the Crusade, if only for moral purposes – didn't want to leave Catalexis. In truth, many of them had to be prevented from following him by plunging into the Warp Rift, such was their loyalty and dedication to the Angel.
Sanguinius didn't know wether to be proud or disapointed at the lengths his son's loyalty went.
To appease these distraught warriors, it was decided that they would remain behind in Catalexis, tasked with enforcing an ultima-grade Inquisitorial quarantine and to keep watch over the Warp Rift in case Sanguinius ever returned through it.
A voice that none of the room recognized started to talk.
"Seven of us went down. I alone managed to make it out.
There are monsters down there. They took Delila by the throat and ran off with her. By the time we found her … we gave her the Emperor's Peace. It was all we could do, even if Vlad had to die to rescue her.
Our orders were to investigate the portal at the north, and so that's where we went. Our compasses and auspexes had stopped working the moment our gunship had entered the atmosphere, but we could all see the lights.
Navigating the ruins was not easy. We lost Nera to a collapsing bridge, which folded upon itself into a single point before unfolding back again, with no trace of the tech-priestess. Graeg disappeared while we passed through what looked like an Administratum building : a door slammed close with him on the other side, and the room was empty (and different) when we opened it again.
We saw the river, flowing from the tomb of the great monster. Dominic stared at it for too long, and threw himself into it. I can still hear the sound his soul made when it hit, and no, that's not hyperbole. I am still hearing it, even now. The sound of a soul being broken apart by the current of a god's grief …
All of the room was glad that said sound was not played.
The Angel is not there. That much I know. Wherever he is now, he is beyond Catalexis. But we did see some of his sons, or what were once his sons. They killed Nikolai – or at least, I hope they killed him. He certainly screamed loud enough …
Catalexis isn't a world anymore. It's the nightmare of a dead god. Only our eyes give it the aspect of a planet, because we cannot conceive of its true nature. It has changed in ways we cannot understand, and it changes all those who come to it.
The tech priest noted, "Daemon world minus the Daemon." All of the room knew what he meant and agreed with him.
I know what awaits me, even if I made it out. I saw it in the river, just before Dominic threw himself in it and shattered the image with his dissolved essence.
I am not afraid."
The Emperor knew that tone all too well. It was that of a man who was unafraid because he had accepted the horrible fate that would befall him.
Extract from an investigation team dispatched to the surface of Catalexis Secundus as part of the investigation of the Howling by His Imperial Majesty's Most Sacred Inquisition. The interrogated Acolyte later disappeared in his cell, despite being under constant surveillance while his fate was being decided. Efforts to locate him are still ongoing.
On their way back home, the forces of the Crusade discovered that the other planets of the Catalexis system were graveyards, as was the rest of the Cacodominus' short-lived empire. The Howling had not simply left the slaves of the xenos overlord empty-minded, it had killed them by the billions, in an act of genocide that even the Horus Heresy would struggle to match in speed and efficiency.
The Imperial Family promised to redouble there efforts to find the Cacodominus and utterly annihilate it once this vid file was over.
Eventually, the Crusade fleet reached an Imperial world, and learned what the Howling had wrought upon the galaxy.
It had echoed through the Warp from the furthest fringes of the galaxy to Holy Terra itself, blanketing the light of the Astronomican and the laughter of the Dark Gods for a moment. Billions of astropaths and psykers perished, their minds obliterated. Millions of ships in transit through the Warp were forever lost, thrown off-course or consumed by swarms of ravenous daemons as their Geller Fields failed.
Mortarion didn't know how to feel about that.
The economy of the Imperium, ever a tenuous thing due to the immense distances involved in any true galactic empire, collapsed virtually overnight. Even the prosperous Kingdom of Ultramar, ruled over by Roboute Guilliman for over three thousand years, suffered from this calamity. Famine and anarchy spread to thousands of worlds, while the Adeptus Terra was powerless, unable to send its commands with the ranks of its Astropaths all but annihilated. In the years that followed the Howling, even gathering enough psykers for the Black Ships to keep the Golden Throne going was difficult.
Many Craftworlds suffered greatly from the Howling, their psychically sensitive population seemingly targeted by the ancient xenos' dying curse. The wraith-bone composing their world-ships cracked and corroded, forcing the Eldars even deeper into hiding while they desperately worked to repair their space-faring homes. Even the brutish Orks seemed cowed, with their primitive shamans interpreting the Howling as Gork (or perhaps Mork) screaming in pain (for reasons varying from breaking a teeth to having stubbed their toe).
Jagathai murmured, "Guess that confirms that the old eldar empire was responsible for the Cacodominus."
As psykers succumbed to the Howling, scores of daemonic incursions occurred simultaneously across the Imperium. Mind-blasted psykers became gateways through which the raw power of the Empyrean could manifest. These infernal invasions were not directed by any of the Ruinous Powers, nor by any of their followers among the Traitor Legions.
To Horus, this blatant display of the Warp's true perils was actually a considerable setback. The Prince of the Eye had spent the last two thousand years preying upon the enforced ignorance of Imperial citizens, seeking to turn their faith away from the Golden Throne and toward the poisonous Horusian philosophies. Now, even with the Inquisition's efforts to suppress the truth, evidence of the real nature of Chaos was bound to spread among the Imperial elite, making them much more reluctant to throw off the shackles of Imperial oppression if this was what awaited them.
Rogal bluntly stated, "That makes sense" and was hit by Perturabo.
Other Traitor Legions were far more willing to take advantage of these circumstances.
With the light of the Astronomican fading, entire warbands of World Eaters departed the frontlines of the Radiant Crusade in the Eye of Terror and sailed the aetheric currents. While many were lost to the Warp, thousands of Berserkers emerged amidst Khornate incursions, fighting alongside the daemons of the Blood God and reaping harvests of billions of skulls. These warbands eventually coalesced into a Slaughtertide under the leadership of one of the Eight warlords Horus had once appointed as leaders of the Twelfth Legion, Ba'ar Zul.
The butcher nails bit into Angron, and he took an ibuprofen.
Warriors of the Emperor's Children, seeking to partake of the banquet of carnage on offer, also left the Eye in unprecedented numbers. Without anyone in overarching command, these sons of Fulgrim simply rampaged on Imperial worlds already suffering from Slaaneshi daemonic incursions.
Fulgrim was disgusted by the things his sons had become.
Though the Eighth Legion had been reunited under the command of Konrad Curze after the Darkness War and was formally allied to the Prince of the Eye, its more corrupt elements seized the opportunities presented by the Howling. Members of the former Dread Lord faction called upon the powers of Chaos to manifest on daemon-haunted worlds, feasting on the terror of Imperial citizens and driving them to commit terrible sins in fear and desperation. Eager to make up for the losses of damned souls caused by the Cacodominus' disturbance, the leadership of the Night Lords encouraged these actions, bending the infrastructure of Kerlazium to provide the akhrali needed to fuel the portal-opening rituals.
Konrad muttered, "That is not justice."
On Sicarius, the Dark Council decided that the Howling was a sign of the Pantheon. Orders were sent to the agents cultivated by the Seventeenth Legion. All over the Imperium, powerful magi drew upon the eldritch energies unleashed by the Howling to tear reality asunder, opening immense Warp Gates through which entire War Hosts of the Word Bearers could cross. Thousands of Chaos Marines were dispatched, tasked with the destruction of Imperial holy sites whose existence was seen as an affront to the Primordial Truth by the Dark Apostles.
Lorgar was conflicted. He hated the creed he had inadvertently made, but he hated the gods of the Old Ways more.
Hidden in the Webway, the Dark Eldar had escaped the Howling virtually unscathed, with only a few raiding parties that were in realspace at the moment of the Cacodominus' demise lost. As the Imperium slid into darkness, the lords and ladies of Commoragh were quick to take advantage. Long forced to prudence while planning their raids by the watchful eyes of the White Scars, they dispatched forces to scores of worlds, abducting billions and dragging them to the Dark City, there to be subjected to unspeakable fates to fuel that nightmare realm's endless thirst for suffering.
The tech priest observed, "As usual, those knife eared assholes escape there just punishment."
On the fortress-world of Cadia, Rogal Dorn witnessed all these events, and turned his gaze upon the Eye of Terror. Surely, thought the Praetorian, now would be the time for the hordes of Chaos to attack. Not only was the Imperium thrown into disarray, Sanguinius himself, the only Primarch who could hope to match Horus in combat, was missing.
Yet no such attack came. In the Eye of Terror, Horus was too busy hunting down the conspirators responsible for the Cacodominus' awakening and the Howling that came from it. His plans had been ruined, and would need to be remade from scratch. The Prince of the Eye still believed that he could ultimately turn the Howling to his advantage, but he would not forgive such interference in his grand design. Even as other Traitor Legions preyed upon the weakened Imperium with renewed fervor, the Warmaster of Chaos focused all his attention on the Eye of Terror.
The Emperor noted, "I WOULD BE DISAPOINTED IF HORUS, ANY HORUS, COULDNT COME BACK FROM A MASSIVE SETBACK."
Mighty war fleets departed from Maeleum, their course charted by Horus. As the rivals of the Horusians braced for attack, these forces completely ignored them, instead striking with overwhelming strength at seemingly insignificant targets : minor outposts and abandoned mining operations, temples to Chaos that had been destroyed by summoned daemons, and other backwaters. Yet in truth, these locales were Alpha Legion strongholds, where the ever-elusive Twentieth had set up bases of operations. Scores of such outposts were destroyed by Horus' envoys, with captured Alpha Legionaries being dragged in chains to Maeleum, there to be interrogated by the Warmaster himself.
The tech priest noted, "Ok, who didn't see the Alpha Legion being behind this coming?" No one responded, not even Rogal.
With the assistance of Ahriman, who had plucked the knowledge from daemons that had previously been summoned on Sortiarius while Antiochos made his report to the Crimson King, Horus had learned that the Alpha Legion had been involved in the unearthing of the Cacodominus. Now Horus wanted to know the motive behind such an act, but the divided nature of the Hydra made it difficult for him to capture a son of Alpharius who had actually been involved in the plot.
Eventually, as the hunt for answers seemed to approach a point where it might re-ignite the Legion Wars, answers came to Maeleum on their own. A single mortal showed at the gates of Lupercalia and asked to be taken to Horus. Normally, such an arrogant mortal would have been either laughed at or executed for their insolence, but this was no mere Horusian pilgrim : this was Moriana, whose Declaration had sundered the Crimson Accords at the end of the Legions Wars.
Most of the room's reaction was some variant of "Her again?"
Somehow, the ancient prophetess had returned to Maeleum undetected. The Sons of Horus hastily brought her to their sire, who asked her why she had come.
Moriana revealed that it was she who had orchestrated the awakening of the Cacodominus, with assistance from the Alpha Legion. She had foreseen that the alien godling would eventually be discovered, but that such a thing would occur centuries from now, in a time when both the Imperium and the Traitor Legions were too weakened from fighting each other to oppose it. In order to prevent the Cacodominus from enslaving the galaxy – a fate none of the powers competing for its control wished for – she had arranged for the archaeological expedition that had unearthed it.
The Emperor realized a lot of his own actions had a similar rational behind them. This troubled him greatly.
When he learned this, Horus' fury was great. No matter Moriana's reasons, that she had dared to interfere with his plans was not something the prideful Prince of the Eye could forgive. In a voice cold as the abyss between stars, he asked the witch why she had come before him, knowing what punishment would surely befall her for her transgression.
a direct video of the confrontation played.
Moriana smiled. There were not many who could have done this while faced with the wrath of Horus – even his brothers would hesitate when confronted with such a dreadful sight.
"You will do as you must, Great One," she said softly, and then the sorcery ran out, and a doll of carved bone and wood fell on the floor.
Horus' furious roar echoed all over Maeleum, before brutally ending as the Prince of the Eye stumbled, hand to his side, blood dripping between his fingers.
Horus did not know if he should be troubled by his counterparts wound.
Outside the Eye of Terror, it seemed for a time as if the Imperium would collapse, crushed under its own weight while bled to death by a thousand cuts. But as Humanity had proven before, it was a resilient species. Slowly, contact was re-established between Holy Terra and distant worlds. The Space Marine Legions restored order and rallied scattered armies and fleets. The Slaughtertide of Ba'ar Zul was broken at the Battle of Nine Suns, the Chaos Lord of the Eight slain in single combat by a champion of the Iron Hands. The Hosts of the Word Bearers were challenged by Chapters of Ultramarines, with Guilliman himself leading them out of Ultramar. Unable to resist the opportunity to face their old foes once more, the sons of Lorgar fell for Guilliman's traps and were defeated.
The room smiled at this, knowing that humanity would endure.
Yet even in victory, the Imperium could not catch every Chaos Marine that had taken advantage of the Howling to escape the Eye of Terror. Hundreds of renegade Legionaries vanished in the galaxy's shadows. Many of them quickly formed new networks of cults, using these to make contact with their Legions back in the Eye and plan the next stage of the Long War.
The smiles were gone.
The time of anarchy that followed the Howling was later marked into the Imperial histories as having finally ended in 505.M34. Then, one hundred years after the destruction of the Cacodominus, almost to the day, Sanguinius reappeared. The Great Angel was found on Baal, his Legion's homeworld, wounded and exhausted, but alive. He would not speak of what had happened to him after the death of the alien overlord, even to the Imperial dignitaries and Legion envoys that flocked to his bedside while he recovered. All he said, before departing Baal and vanishing once more on his errant quest across the Imperium, was an order to send a message to his brother Guilliman in the galactic east.
The contents of that message would only ever be known to the Angel and the Avenging Son.
The video ended on that potentially troubling note.