The Imperium's resurrection
The year is 285.M43.
Magnus stirred within his silver palace, the Tower of the Cyclops on the Planet of the Sorcerers within the Eye of Terror. For many millennia now Magnus stayed still and vigilant within his tower, scouring the warp for information and lost knowledge. Rare for him to leave or commit any deeds aside from the ancient piece of knowledge for him to learn when he learned of their supposed location. Magnus unconsciously did so perhaps as a self means of torture or punishment to himself for his past actions. He knew he never meant to commit such atrocities, he never did such out of sheer willpower or anger against his father or the Imperium. But what was he to do? His sons were barely distant echoes of the soldiers they used to be, cursed by the dreaded flesh change Magnus later discovered was created by tzeentch. Magnus struggled to come to reality about the past and obsessively wandered the immaterium for something, he never really knew what or when to stop. But Magnus tried to save his father, his empire. Why did that mean so little? Even his brother Russ waged a crusade against him and his sons. He never got along with Russ with how rude and reckless he could be, but did that mean he hated him or wished him to die?
Absolutely not! He still loved Russ and would help him in any way if he ever asked. Russ certainly made fun of Magnus while teasing and bullying him when they were younger for being red and a psyker. No, even his other brothers took part in such revolting things. Why? Their father was a psyker, not just a simple psyker. The most powerful in all recorded history. Lorgar even worshipped their father as a god, which Magnus could understand the reasonings, but such an act was revolting. Why did their father allow Magnus to be bullied simply for being something he was born as, something out of his control? For being the same as their father? He learned that each primarch had degrees of psychic abilities but almost all of them never understood what their abilities were. No thanks to their father refusing to even teach such things to anyone of them. Of all things, he never understood why he was so heavy against psychic abilities. Ironically, he soon learned the reason why, after being tricked by such a thing. No, Magnus was not only tricked by a Daemon, but he was also tricked by a chaos god, by his now unwanted master tzeentch.
He didn't even know at that point that such a horrific being existed, let alone four of them. Why did their father leave them so ignorant of such monstrosities. If we were supposed to lead humanity and protect them, HOW IN THE WARP ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO THAT? WHEN DON'T WE EVEN KNOW WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR? LET ALONE HOW TO KEEP THEM AT BAY?! Even Magnus felt heavily betrayed by his father, as he was sure his other brothers, dead or alive, felt the same. HE CREATED US! FORCED US INTO HIS DESIGNS! FORCED NIGH IMPOSSIBLE JOBS UPON US AND GEARED US FOR ENDLESS WAR! JUST TO LEAVE US IN THE DARKNESS WITH THE MOST IMPORTANT KNOWLEDGE WE COULD POSSIBILY KNOW?
He was barely a father, even Malcador who Magnus had great respect for was a better father figure for the primarchs. Despite his ancient age and rusty skills of caring for others, he knew at least what to do for most situations. Magnus could always tell when Malcador was angry at the Emperor for his uncaring or simply non-existent emotions. Was the emperor unwilling to care for his so-called sons? Or were the Primarchs simply just tools for him? Nothing more, nothing less? Did he believe such a thing was below him or was he incapable of such a deed from the very start? No, nothing about it made sense. Even his brothers knew just how special and favored Horus was to the Emperor. But why did he pretend like the 19 others didn't exist? Or weren't important enough?
Russ was the Emperor's right hand, his so-called Executioner. But that did little to change how Russ was treated or talked to. Horus was picked as war master, almost purely because the Emperor favored him. Horus might not have known that, but every other brother did. Many hated Horus more now, especially their father for such a choice. Sanguineous was the most social primarch but his skills for such intense strategy and crusading were not his forte. No, brother Lion El' Johnson or Roboute were the two best primarchs to pick as the Imperium's war master. Even his fellow brothers knew such truth, but his father simply ignored or cared not. Was it ironic that who would betray the Emperor so greatly was his most favored son, Horus? The one to kill him? In all the furious planning, strategy, and paranoia, why did the Emperor never imagine such a thing to occur? Did he imagine Chaos would never attempt to do such a thing? Magnus could tell not if his father was blinded with ignorance or uncaring for such things. Did his own sons having fallen for Chaos mean so little to him? Or their basic survival?
Magnus knew he was lucky that he was raised with actual parents, despite their oddities, they at the very least cared deeply for their adopted son. Not many of Magnus's brothers could say the same. When all his brothers were found and brought back into the Imperium's fold, the emperor simply ignored their state of being. WHY?! It should have been so obvious how messed up many of his brothers were with how dramatically their personality and attitude changed. Even Magnus, who spent his life with his nose in a book, could notice such details. Did the Emperor just not care, if his splintered tools worked then that was enough? Many of his brothers who were ruined, scarred, tortured, and raped soon lost their minds, unable to cope with such things and obsessed in devious things to fill that black hole of a void in their heart, as if that would right such wrongs. Fuck, they barely even knew that much about their father in the end. He was as emotional as a robot and a literal tyrant with do or die demands everything be done his way. Did he ever take the time to think about the consequences of his actions?
No, Magnus doubted such a thing he might do. But now their father was dead in every term expect his bound soul. Magnus nearly puked at the thought of the imperium the way that is now, how his father is worshipped so furiously. He never hated his father; he absolutely hated the many ways his father handled things and his general distrust and extreme paranoia even in his own sons. But Magnus never would want to kill his old man, let alone his other brothers. But his father's actions certainly misfired back. At such a point, Magnus wanted very little, let alone anything to do with this universe anymore. It was too much for him, so he wasted his time wandering the warp, keeping his mind off such emotional topics. If anything, his regret was slowly killing him. He had thought of just vanishing within the deep warp, not even the chaos gods dared to venture in there far. He might just be lucky to find something to end his pitiful existence. Who knows, the warp is mysterious that way. Magnus pulled his existence back to his body and left the warp. He was exhausted and walked back into his private bedrooms in the hopes of taking a nap.
After getting comfortable in his own bed and resting for some amount of time, his warp senses were getting hit by something massive! Usually, his dreams consisted of watching the ever-flowing waves of the warp, sometimes perspectives of ongoing scenes on planets he knew not the name. But apparently not this time, no. He found his astral avatar to be inside some incredibly dense forest. Yet no sounds were made or could be heard. Looking around and finally down, Magnus saw something that irked his response. A young human boy with clothes to match a homeless beggar. The boy seemed to be mutilated, covered in countless deep bleeding scars. Despite the appearance, something was certainly off with this boy.
Was it a chaos entity fucking around with Magnus? One of his sons perhaps? But Magnus knew not, the young boy remained a mystery. Until the boy's eyes were blindingly gold, Magnus had a bone deep feeling of who but wouldn't imagine such a thing to be true. The boy pointed at Magnus as he floated up to match Magnus's height as Magnus kept his eyes glued to this boy. The boy spoke," Lost son, Magnus the Red of the Thousand Sons. I came here to deliver a message." Magus frowned and said," Who in the blazes are you? A Messager of Tzceenth? Or one of my vile brothers? Regardless, I do not care for your words. Leave now before I expel you out and tear your soul apart!"
The boy shook his head and firmly said with a louder yet stern voice," I am your father, at the very least a shard of his original psyche. The original shard has many words it wishes to impart upon you. I was informed to tell you that it would speak to you in person, within the palace you called home. It explained that this is a favor to it, that the choice is optional. But if you decide to ignore such an offer, regrets on the sides of the coin will be left unsolved. Forever.
Magus yelled out,' Prospero was MY HOME! MY FAMILY! You have no right to make such a claim! YOU SENT MY BROTHER TO KILL ME! YOU KILLED MY REAL PARENTS! FOR ALL OF THE WRONGS YOU HAVE ACHIEVED, YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO HAVE YOUR REGRETS LIFTED! DIE IN ANGUISH FOR ALL I CARE!" The boy lowered back down to the floor and promptly ripped his left arm off. Magnus was startled and was taken aback. The boy dropped the arm, blood gushing down the boy's body. The boy sighed and said, "Yes, I imagined that this would occur. It has informed me that it desperately wishes to speak to you. It is pleading for such a chance…Is it crying? Magnus, It begs for your presence and has offered that if you dislike anything it wishes to say, you may kill him. Please."
Magnus was speechless, utterly. He had no idea what to even say, that his father would promise such a thing or beg to speak to me? WHY? WHY IN TZEENTCH'S BLUE BALLS WOULD HE WANT SUCH A THING? NOW OF ALL TIMES? WHY DIDN'T HE WHEN I TRIED TO WARN HIM ABOUT HORUS? OR WHEN ILEFT FOR PROSPERO? Could he dare to hope for something better to change? Or would he just go there to rub it in his father's face? Taunt his eternal tomb? No, Magnus knew not. For all his knowledge and millennia of experience, he did not know what to do or expect.
After some internal speculation, self-dialogue and thinking, He looked back at the boy. Magnus firmly said," Fine, but I do this not because he's asking me to nor you. I'm doing this for me to see the decrepit state my *father* is in. Boy chuckled and said, it matters not why. Only for what you do. I'll open a portal to the palace for you. Before you continue, I know you can teleport. But blindly jumping to the palace would kill you due the countless wards set up. My portal is a backdoor." Magnus scoffed and said," Fine, I'll go along with your little charade. The boy began chanting in a surprisingly unknown language to Magnus and soon enough a massive dark blue portal appeared. You could fit a castle through it if you wanted to! Magnus stepped into the portal but felt nothing. Numb to any kind of feeling for a split second before reappearing in real space. He immediately fell as the teleport warped him into the air. Whatever the hell that was, he did not enjoy it. He braced himself for the fall and landed on a massive table. He groaned in pain as he hit his head hard against such material. He immediately heard gasping and screaming but was confused. He began to look around after assuring himself his body was whole.
All Magnus could utter was," Fuck". Magnus was regretting his choice already as he landed on a table. Not just a basic table, no of course not. Why wouldn't he just land on the ground or a regular table? Or a damned couch. Of course he had to fall on a table, surrounded by fucking Custodians! Every single custodian already had their halberd guns trained on him ready to fire. He had landed on a strategy hologram table within a large meeting. Of course, things could never be so simple. Could they? Magnus sighed once more and just slammed his head back down against the table in sheer disbelief, and perhaps a little bit of anger. Magnus just grunted and said,' Just shoot me already custodians, I'm already regretting just coming here." But the custodians did no such thing, they kept their weapons trained but did nothing else. Were they expecting him to be lying? Or waiting for him to move?
Quick and yet faint armored footsteps could be heard coming closer, and he heard the meeting room door quickly open with a deep stern voice saying loudly," Damn it guys, DON'T FIRE! Our emperor invited him to be here! Did you guys not get the blasted memo?! Some other custodian chuckled and said,' We were in a meeting brother, not at our terminals." The First voice then said,' Fine, guess we'll need to get some terminals in here then. You guys need to ALWAYS have access to them! Apologies Magnus for the warm welcome, thank you for restraining your power against my comrades. Please come with me then." Another unfamiliar voice spoke up and said," Brother, he didn't even threaten to kill us. He had asked us to kill him instead!" Magnus sighed, still staring at the ceiling, and said," Can I just say I didn't even want to be here? This is honestly embarrassing for me.'
Laughs erupted from countless custodians before Magnus just said," You know I could kill all of you effortlessly, dare I remind you custodians are powerless to psychic abilities? I honestly found that it was always odd why Father made his elite bodyguards susceptible to the warp. Did he just not care about you as well? Just obedient tools for him to use?" The first voice spoke up and said," I'd take that as a threat Magnus but thankfully I was told to expect such a reaction. That may be true we may be just tools, but we have loyally served our lord since our creation! That's more than I can for the failed primarch batch. As a retort, I could always just call in some sisters of silence to dampen your psychic powers. I'm sure that would be fun for you.' Magnus laughed deeply and said,' I like you, very few would say such things and I honestly can't disagree with you. For earning my respect, I'll follow you and leave your brothers alone. I won't even give them bad nightmares." Magnus chuckled after saying that, stood up and jumped off the table while following the larger Custodian standing by the door.
If his memory was correct, that unique armor set. This must be the Captain General of the Custodians Valdor if he still lived. The two quickly left and Magnus followed the Captain General through many nigh infinite hallways, just as frustratingly long as he remembered. He even had made it a game with Corvus every so often of hide and seek within the palace. Dorn would always be the first one found and to lose, why did he think a tall barricade would be the answer? Sanguinius couldn't hide if his life depended on it with his massive wings, always giving himself away so easily. We'd often see his wings and pretend we didn't see him to give him a chance. Vulkan was too damn tall and couldn't hide anywhere. He'd always just stand out in the open encouraging the seeker. Jaghatai cared not for the game, he'd just sprint around like crazy, and no one could catch him. Hilariously he almost always won. Come to think about it, where the hell was Dorn anyway? I've never heard any news of his death and Roboute was the only loyalist primarch alive trying to keep the dying imperium alive. If his brother was still the same before that damn war, he'd give him major respect for doing such an insurmountable task.
Magnus continued following him for hours until they reached the dreaded massive golden gates, his father's tomb. The captain general stopped and said,' This is as far as I go Magnus. As much as it pains me, I've been told to stand by here and only allow you inside. Please do not make me regret this decision. Magnus shrugged his shoulders and said,' I'll try not to I guess.' Magnus opened the monstrous sized gates and walked in after closing the gates behind him. He walked further in and saw what had become of his father after all. A literal rotting corpse hooked up to an unimaginable amount of ancient technology on that damn golden throne. Memories of what his father looked like and now, this was just a god's damn nightmare to look at. Magnus did a double take when a large chair appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the room, close to his father. Magnus softly whispered,' No, no…. no no no, this can't be real.' Magnus walked towards the chair and sat down, surprised how comfortable it was despite his wings and armor, while admiring the chair's architecture.
He waited a while after sitting down, for what? No idea, but something was going to happen. Almost on cue, Magnus's senses were being shocked, all he could was a loud banshee like wail increasing in volume per second. Magnus's eyes widened when he realized what was happening, how in the warp was he accomplishing this? Father's corpse began to move slowly, one limb at a time as the body bulked up in size with the sounds of ancient bones creaking and cracking with every move. The large red eye lens on his father's skull lit up an ominous bright color, like father like son huh? The body began to stir more and move around on the throne as if he had just woken up from a long nap.
Magnus was being assaulted with just how immense his presence was, it felt like Magnus was standing next to a sun! Fuck, was he always like this? The skull operated on its own without muscles yet did so anyway as it opened and spoke with the same strong voice of his father when he still lived,'' Magnus, I'm thankful you decided to come here." A small portal with a myriad of swirling countless colors appeared close to the throne and what popped out, almost send Magnus mad. All he could hear before he nearly blew a gasket.
" Alritey then, WHERE IN THE HOWLIN FUCK AM I?!"
Okay, before we get into Chapter 2, I wanted to get some info out.
I'm not an experienced writer nor have I read every 40K book. I have read some and other sources, but I am learning more of the lore to use.
This story isn't strictly cannon, there will be some slight differences, so I warn you now, so people won't have a heart attack.
This story will be a long one and my material has it looking to be 100+ chapters long. The story is expanded from several perspectives that soon crosses each other with major multiple plots throughout the story. So, if you like long stories, this one is for you. I am working on keeping a balance of wholesomeness and grimdark for the story.
And yes, I am currently fighting with this websites aggressive formatting features. I'm trying to learn what makes it tick so I can keep my writing readable.
Okay, that should be it for now, back to the story.