Chapter 3.0 Words from the Author and Recap Summary

Thank you, fellow 40k enthusiast, for reading my humble work. I hope you are enjoying it, regardless as to whether you collect the models, merely enjoy the lore, are involved in public events, or enjoy the hobby privately in the comfort of your own home.

Special thank you to all of you who have favourited or followed the story, and an extra special thanks to those of you who leave positive reviews. Your kind words mean the world to me.

I am but an amateur writer, but I have always enjoyed both hearing and telling stories, so I hope you enjoy this too. This is not my best work, I will be honest. I write these out and do very little in the way of editorial overview so my apologies if it comes across a bit rough. It is both first draft and final copy. It does its job though.

This piece involves many characters popular or beloved by many, particularly the Primarks for fans/players of Space Marine armies so I do hope I manage to do your chapter/legion/faction proud. I do my best to keep the Primarks and major figures fleshed out as real individuals, and have them act in character in changing events, rather than just falling back on tropes or jokes (although a little of that isn't too bad). These Primarks may change in their nature slightly over time and events as they diverge from the original Heresy, but hopefully it happens in a way that is explained by the text and is keeping with the evolution of their base character.

This piece is very much inspired by the finale of the Horus Heresy book series. I started reading the books when they were first released back around 2006-2008. I must admit I dropped out of the franchise for a few years due to real life events, but came back to it around 2016-2017-ish when 40k was having somewhat of a renaissance due to the return of Guilliman. I found I could get all of the books on Audible and spent every penny I could spare on the back catalogue.

Having caught up I listened to the entire Siege of Terra series upon release, counting down the books and days until we finally reached the end. And reached the end we have. The End and The Death Part 3 is an amazing piece of work (in my opinion) with my only complaint being we need more! We need an entire series detailing Guilliman's arrival on Terra, the consequences of the Emperor's interment on the Golden Throne, the Iron Cage.

I have had the ideas I am putting down on metaphorical paper for a long time. Others have done similar stories but this is somewhat of a passion project for me. It's been a difficult time over the past few years, for reasons I won't go into, but this at least is giving me somewhat of relief.

The reason the Horus Heresy books work so well is because they are a tragedy, in the traditional Greek sense. The players are doomed to walk paths that lead to their fall, regardless if they are heroes or not, regardless of whether they are good people are not. The Traitor Primarks end up being the most sympathetic because they usually end up being the most… human. Because to err is to be human.

I am doing my best to capture that in my own works, and whilst I can never hope to match the greats who wrote the Heresy Novels, I can have a shadow, a mirror image which pales to the reality of the original but echoes what makes them great.

There is much more to come. I don't know how far I will get with this work, but whilst it is possible to do so I will continue adding what I can, when I can. The pace may slow in coming weeks/months but I am enjoying it, and I am enjoying other people reading it.

For the purposes of ensuring we can keep track of the changes I have made, below is a timeline of events that have transpired thus far. I don't have time stamps (because this is a bit more than I wish to commit on a fan project, but maybe in the future…) and it is a loose list, but hopefully it will prove useful for reminder of past chapters.

Chapter 1 & 2 Recap Summary

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=== The Ullanor Campaign begins as normal with the Ultramarines, White Scars and Lunar Wolves fighting back against the Ork Hordes.

=== Horus Lupercal is killed on Ullanor by a rogue cell of the Cabal. The Cabal are known to have stealth technology which can bypass Imperial sensors, and some members would likely have access to Athame type weapons capable of killing a Primark.

=== The Emperor attempts to save Horus but due to the Athame weapon cannot save him through acceptable means. The Regent of Terra Malcador, and Sanguinius of the Blood Angels immediately make for Ullanor upon hearing the news.

=== A funeral is held for Horus on Terra, where a Chapel is built on the grounds of the Imperial Palace to house his remains.

=== There is a different gathering of Primarks, on Terra instead of the Triumph of Ullanor. Where Ullanor had [Sanguinius, Mortarion, Magnus, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Lorgar, Rogal Dorn, Horus and Fulgrim], the funeral of Horus has instead [Sanguinius, Roboute Guilliman, Rogal Dorn, Mortarion, Lorgar, Fulgrim, Ferrus Manus, Vulkan, Perturabo, and Leman Russ].

The nature of the funeral and those present fundamentally changes the relationship between several of the brothers, including Roboute and his Dauntless Few, and Lorgar + Vulkan.

=== John Grammaticus leaves the Cabal, which is now in disarray, and begins working with Alpharius to try and find a way to stop chaos in a post-Horus galaxy.

=== Erebus is a bastard, and continues to be a bastard.

=== Konrad Curse goes mad due to fate changing, and his visions no longer being able to come true.

Author's note - Before anyone complains about this, it has been shown that individual groups like the Aeldari can change predicted futures to avoid dangers to craftworlds (especially the Harlequins), so I believe it possible for the visions that Konrad is tormented with would change as a result of a psychically strong invention like one done by the Cabal, rather than just his entire history of visions changes so he ALWAYS sees this new future.

This would definitely send him mad as his entire character is around how fate CANNOT be changed. I'm running with it anyway because it makes a good narrative drive for Konrad.

=== Sanguinius is appointed Warmaster. His Legion, The Blood Angels, are renamed The Sons of Sanguinius. Sanguinius also adopts the Lunar Wolves Legion following the loss of Horus, renaming the The Sons of Horus.

=== Sanguinius adopts Horus' Mournival, but also creates a new one for the Blood Angels, now the Sons of Sanguinius. The members have yet to be fully revealed, but you can probably guess at some of them. There is an upcoming chapter on this.

=== Sanguinius now spends his time campaigning split between the Sons of Horus and the Sons of Sanguinius. When he campaigns with the Sons of Sanguinius, the Red Tear remains his command vessel. When campaigning with the Sons of Horus he transfers to The Vengeful Spirit. During his absences, First Captain Abaddon commands the Sons of Horus, and Captain Raldoron commands the Sons of Sanguinius.

=== The Edicts of Nikaea occur. With Sanguinius as Warmaster, and still secretly mourning the loss of Horus, Sanguinius tries to intervene on Magnus' behalf to lessen the punishment at Nikaea, and possibly retain the Librarius. Sanguinius feels like he must avoid further harm coming to his brothers that remain which drives his decision.

The Emperor still hands down the same decision as in the original Heresy Timeline thus leaving Sanguinius feeling disheartened and discouraged following the Emperor's decision not to explain the dangers of the warp, and Magnus feeling even more frustrated and angry than the original Heresy Timeline due his opinion of being treated unfairly. This also causes a rift between Sanguinius and Russ.

=== Sanguinius forces Russ to accept the Edicts of Nikaea as well, in punishment for causing the entire event in the first place. Rune Priests are banned, and members of the Sons of Sanguinius Legion, and the Word Bearer's Legion are assigned to watch over Russ and his Legion ensure compliance.

====I====

More to come. The Arch-Traitor will soon arise, and the followers of chaos will begin choosing the champions of the 4 chaos gods.