The Roboutian Heresy

by Zahariel

Inspired by the great Dornian Heresy of Aurelius Rex, here is an alternate timeline to the Warhammer 40000 universe, where Guilliman turned traitor instead of Horus, and led half the Legions in rebellion against the Emperor. The Index Astartes are done for all Legions. Now, the Times of Ending have begun ... Also has a TV Tropes page now !

16. Index Astartes : Word Bearers

I do not own the Warhammer 40000 universe nor any of its characters. They belong to Games Workshop.

Inspired by the Dornian Heresy, by Aurelius Rex.

---

Index Astartes – Word Bearers : Heralds of Unwelcome Truths

While the Imperium worships the Emperor as a God, and the Legions who remained loyal remain silent in order to preserve order, the sons of Lorgar remember the words of the Master of Mankind. Like most of their cousins, they do not believe in His divinity, but unlike them, they make no secret of their distaste for the Ecclesiarchy and the Imperial Cult. The reason for this attitude takes its roots in the Legion's distant past, and over the millennia, it has been the source of much conflict between the Word Bearers and the rest of the Imperium. Yet the sons of Colchis remain steadfast in the face of adversity, the Imperial Truth remaining ever foremost in their thoughts. As they did during the Great Crusade, they fight to purge the darkness of ignorance and superstition with the flame of illumination, a spark of pure light amidst shades of gray. Their eyes, unshrouded by blind belief, have exposed more than one traitor hiding behind honeyed words – and none were more foul than the one who almost brought the Imperium down during the infamous Reign of Blood …

Origins : The Wars of the False Priests

Of all the sons of the Emperor, none can be said to have embodied the ideals of the Great Crusade more than Lorgar Aurelian, Primarch of the Seventeenth Space Marine Legion. His heart beat with the melody of the Imperial Truth, his words were charged with its persuasion, and his blows inhabited by its power.

There are few archives concerning the youth of Lorgar that have survived the passing of the years. This might seem surprising, for Lorgar was known for his unflinching loyalty to the Emperor, and one could be forgiven for presuming only Traitor Primarchs would have their history secreted. The reason for this treatment partly lies in the complex, and often conflicted, relationship between the Word Bearers and the rest of the Imperium. But it also exists for the sake of the entire Imperium, for the world of Colchis, where Lorgar was cast off, wasn't always the model of Imperial loyalty and productivity that it is today.

Still, the Inquisition has its own data-vaults, hidden beyond the reach of even the most vengeful Ecclesiarch or fanatical Puritan. In there is recorded the days when Lorgar, son of the Emperor of Mankind, came to Colchis, and what he saw and did there until his father found him. It is a tale of dedication to higher ideals,selfless heroism when confronted to the depths of human depravity, and defiance in the front of impossible odds, all in the name of what a young man believed was right.

Colchis, a planet located in the Segmentum Pacificus and one of the first worlds settled by Mankind during the first wave of human colonization, had not endured the horrors of Old Night well. As the Warp Storms' hold over the galaxy receded with the birth of the Dark God Slaanesh, many traces of their passage remained upon this arid world. The atrocities that had been visited upon the people of Colchis by daemonic hordes and unbound psykers left deep marks within the collective psyche, and the writings left behind by these dark times had become the basis of a faith that held the entire planet in its suffocating grasp. According to the preachers of this belief system, only by offering sacrifices to the powers dwelling in the Sea of Souls could humans be spared from their wrath, and the faithful be rewarded with power, knowledge and immortality. This religion called itself the Covenant, for its priests believed that sacrifices had to be made to appease the great powers ruling the galaxy.

To us, it is obvious that the Covenant was nothing more than a cult dedicated to the Dark Gods of Chaos, its priests traitors to Mankind. But to the people of Colchis, these priests held great power, both temporal and spiritual. Legions of fanatics did their bidding, and some of them were invested of strange, otherworldly powers which they used to keep the population cowed.

However, to the outside eye, there were few signs as to the true nature of the faith. There were no daemons walking the streets, and the sacrifices took place behind close doors. Most of the Covenant's ranks were filled with truly devout men and women, who wanted nothing more than to aid those under their responsibility, be it by offering assistance to the poor, healing to the sick, and spiritual advice to the distressed. But the higher one progressed into the Covenant's hierarchy, the deeper the corruption became, as the true nature of the powers the Covenant prayed to was slowly revealed. The Archpriests, who each stood at the head of their own regional sect of the Covenant, were minor Chaos Lords in their own right, and often waged war against one another, driving their followers before them to die in order to satiate their petty grudges. Every settlement on Colchis had a graveyard filled with the empty graves of those who had fallen in these so-called "holy wars".

These highest-ranking of priests hid the truth from their followers, instead spouting rhetorical nonsense and constant reminders to obey the Covenant in order to maintain their hold over the planet. There is no doubt that, had the people of Colchis be aware of the true nature and allegiance of their priestly masters, they would have risen against their rule long before they eventually did.

The life-pod of Lorgar crashed near one of Colchis' farming villages, far from the great cities and temples to the old gods. The villagers, believing the falling star to be a sign of their cruel divinities, were terrified, and most of them refused to go anywhere near the site of impact. Only an old couple went to investigate, and found the baby that would become the salvation of their people among the wreckage, miraculously unharmed.

We know little of these two humans, not even their names – but what we know is enough. We know that they had had children of their own, who had gone to fight in the wars of rival priests and died without achieving anything. We know that they paid lip service to the bloody rituals of the ruling priests, but did not truly embrace their dark tenets. We know that when they saw the golden child, they vowed to protect him from any who would do him harm.

They brought the infant back with them, and named him Lorgar – the name of one of the great heroes of Colchis' legends, who had fought against the infernal tides during the Old Night. The Covenant had struggled to rewrite the legend of that warrior, to erase the traces of his defiance and make him a figure who had been among the firsts to kneel before the dark powers and offer them worship. But fragments of the truth remained, passed on throughout the generations around fires, where the priests and their cronies couldn't hear.

Lorgar was raised in isolation from the rest of the villagers. The old couple had been slowly ostracised by their brethren – without children to care for them, they would have eventually starved to death. This was not out of callousness, but necessity – on the harsh world of Colchis, where crops were difficult to raise and the taxation from the Covenant was high, there could be no burden to the collectivity.

'Why are you crying, dad ?'
Instead of replying, Lorgar's father rose from his chair and hugged him. Despite his advanced age, there was still strength left in him, but Lorgar was careful not to hurt him nonetheless as he returned the hug. He had learned long ago that he was far stronger than his father.
After a long time, his foster father said :
'I was remembering them. Our children, those who came before you. I was remembering how they died.'
'They were … taken, Lorgar. One by one, taken from us, taken from life. All for nothing, in the end. Just because some priest told them to ...'
'Promise me son,' asked the old man, his voice on the verge of breaking. 'Promise me you will not join them. Promise me you won't let yourself be lied to as they were.'
'I promise,' replied the golden child.

But Lorgar grew quickly – far more quickly than any normal child should, and his adoptive parents soon realized that while they had always suspected his more-than-human origins, they had underestimated just how great the difference was. In just a few years, Lorgar was able to work in the fields, taking care of the harvest and the few goats the old couple still had. Then, on the tenth year, a new holy war was declared by the local archpriest against one of his rivals. Militia troops were sent to every settlement to round up those who were of age.

Mere weeks before the recruiters came to his village, Lorgar's foster parents had died peacefully in their sleep, both going into the afterlife in the very same night. The young Primarch buried them, and then journeyed to the village, where he was found by the recruiters and immediately forced into joining them. Obviously, Lorgar could have resisted, and there wouldn't have been much they would have been able to do – but Lorgar was young, did not know his true strength, and had no reason to doubt their words about the righteousness of their cause. That was until he joined with the gathered army and, for the first time in his life, was exposed to the Covenant when he heard the archpriest speak to the troops he had gathered for his own personal war.

'And so you must fight, my children !' shouted the priest, clad in his rich robes, his voice reaching to the furthest ranks of the assembled soldiers. 'You must fight to prove your value to the Gods, so that you might be rewarded in the afterlife with eternal joy as one of the faithful !'
The crowd roared its unthinking approval, their blood made hot by the words, reacting to a lifetime of conditioning. Only one remained silent – a giant of a man, standing in the very center of the army, wearing a simple tunic and holding a sword that appeared comically small in his hands.
That man stared at the priest, but there was no zeal in his eyes. No burning joy, no submission.
Only horror and anger, battling for supremacy.
The giant started to march forward, breaking the ranks. Before him, the other soldiers parted way instinctively. Soon, he arrived at the front of the army, but he did not stop. He climbed up the small hill atop of which the priest had made his speech, his legs propelling him up with the same momentum of an avalanche. Soon, the priests' guards noticed him, and they raised their spears hesitantly in the direction of this intruder.
The crowd went silent as he brushed the weapons aside and kept going on, not even sparing a glance at the guardians. The priest saw him then, and something akin to terror flashed on his face.
Staring down at the priest, Lorgar looked into the eyes of the old man who had commanded that five thousands young men and women go to their death for the glory of the gods he served. He looked into the soul of the one who claimed to speak for the heavens, and then he spoke a single word :
'Liar.'

Something happened then, though what exactly isn't clearly known. Lorgar ousted the archpriest, and took command of the gathered army instead. What had been just another army to be used as cannon fodder in the endless feuds between the Covenant's leaders instead became the instrument of Colchis' liberation.

On the night following his public humiliation of the archpriest, Lorgar went into the deposed warlord's tent, and there found the books and journals he had kept. Lorgar had never learned to read, but it only took him a few hours before he could decipher the ancient script used in these texts. When he emerged from the tent again, his rage was visible to all, barely contained from exploding. Lorgar had learned the secrets the archpriests kept hidden from the population. He had read the reports of human sacrifices, the hidden motives behind every "holy war", and the true face of the gods the Covenant served.

In a grand speech, Lorgar denounced the Covenant as a fraud, a grand deception orchestrated by enemies of Mankind. He vowed to bring the entire organization down in flames, and purge Colchis of its pernicious influence. He swore that he would see every last temple razed, and every priest either defrocked or slain. And so began the Wars of the False Priests, that would rage across Colchis for several decades.

City after city fell to the rebel army of Lorgar. Some cities were liberated by the words of Lorgar, while in others, he personally infiltrated the local priesthood and exposed their corruption. Others yet fell to strength of arms, the temples cast down in flames with their dark adepts trapped inside. With every city of Colchis that was freed from the Covenant, Lorgar's army grew, as more and more men and women saw the lies of their priestly cast for what they truly were.

Of course, the priests of the Covenant reacted to Lorgar's progress. They roused hordes of fanatics, and used their ancient sorceries to bring forth horrors from beyond the veil of reality. Though these summons were only of weak wraiths, they were still abominations from the Warp, and the mortals fighting under Lorgar's banner almost broke the first time they were unleashed upon them. But the young Primarch fought against the spectral invocations, and with a burst of golden psychic light, he cast them back into the tides of the Aether. This would be the first time Lorgar consciously used his immense psychic potential, as well as the event that would make his people grant him the title of "Aurelian", which means "Golden One" in Colchisian.

The Wars of the False Priests were long, and exceedingly cruel. As the tide turned against them, the lords of the Covenant grew increasingly desperate, and unleashed greater and greater horrors against their own people as well as Lorgar's in an attempt to maintain their power. Eventually, however, Lorgar and his armies reached Vharadesh, the seat of the Covenant's power.

'No god worthy of worship would demand such horror be committed in its name.'
Attributed to Lorgar Aurelian, upon witnessing the sacrificial pits of Vharadesh

Once, Vharadesh had been the greatest city of Colchis. Now, as Lorgar's army breached its walls and poured into its streets, it was revealed as a slaughterhouse. Nearly the entire population had been sacrificed over the course of the war to fuel the sorceries of the Covenant priests, or when they had attempted their own rebellions and been crushed mercilessly. Monsters stalked the ruins, while in the center of the city stood the Spire Temple, where the last priests and their followers remained.

The battle of the Spire Temple was the most violent of the entire war. Daemonhosts and other infernal creatures fought against the forces of Lorgar, killing his soldiers until he alone remained standing in the Warp-twisted temple. Of the five thousands men and women Lorgar had taken with him into the Spire Temple – veterans of a hundred battles all – while the rest of the army stood watch outside, none returned. Finally, covered in the blood of comrade and foe alike, Lorgar confronted the head priests of the Covenant themselves, led by an old man called Kor Phaeron, the most bitter, corrupt and cruel priest to have ever graced the ranks of the tainted faith.

'No more,' said the golden giant as he marched above the shattered remnants of yet one more monstrosity the old men cowering before his wrath had unleashed against him. This one had been created from the flesh of a child, taken from the streets of Vharadesh, torn from his mother's arms. He had seen it in his mind's eye, and that knowledge had ripped a hole in his heart even as he put the wretched thing out of his misery.
'No more,' he repeated as he continued to advance. His weapon was gone, broken in combat what seemed to be hours ago. Blood flowed from a hundred wounds that refused to close, the scars of which would remain with him until his dying day. He was more than flesh and blood in that moment – he was a vision, a promise of retribution incarnate. The priests knew this, and were rightly terrified of what was coming for them … Except for one, who spat in the face of this avatar of righteous justice :
'You cannot defeat the Primordial Annihilator, freak. The Covenant is what keeps Colchis alive ! We are the masters of this world, by the will of the gods !'
The golden giant recognized the old man. He had faced him several times in the past, but always with an army behind which the coward could hide. Never had he taken to the field in person, even as he drove hundreds of thousands of younger, more deserving of life people to their deaths.
'Kor Phaeron,' Lorgar snarled, something like hatred tainting his voice for the first time in his life. 'You, you of all of them … I will enjoy to watch die.'
The face of the high priest contorted into a hateful grimace, and a wave of sorcerous power left his fingertips, smashing into Lorgar with all the strength the old, rotten man could gather. But the tide of darkness was cast back as the skin of Lorgar began to shine, the inner fire of his soul manifesting in the mortal realm for the first time. Kor Phaeron looked on, horrified, as Lorgar continued his advance, his psychic power finally unleashed.
'And in time,' continued the golden giant, 'I will see your foul gods die too, vanish from memory and be feared no more. Do you hear me, old man ? No more !'

It was barely one Colchisian year – five Terran standard years – after the death of the self-proclaimed "Master of the Faith" that the Imperium made contact with Colchis once more. Leading the detachment of the Great Crusade were the Emperor and Magnus themselves. The Crimson King had sensed the presence of Lorgar, as well as the battles he had waged against the corrupt clergy of his homeworld. Magnus had demanded that he and his father go to Colchis as quickly as possible, fearing for the safety of his brother. When they arrived, however, the war had already ended, though the price Colchis had paid was terrible indeed.

Vharadesh and the Spire Temple had been, at Lorgar's orders, burned to the ground, and the scorched earth salted and declared accursed ground for all of eternity, in order to prevent the corruption of the Covenant from every returning. Many cities had been destroyed in the war, and the reconstruction was barely beginning to show its effects, even with the mind of a Primarch directing its efforts.

Although first contact with Colchis was peaceful, and the reunion between Lorgar and the Emperor went perfectly well, these first days were full of uncertainty. The marks of Warp corruption remained on the planet, and there were those among the Emperor's retinue who argued that the entire world was tainted and had to be purged by fire. The only reason these voices did not also accuse Lorgar of corruption was because he had fought against its representatives, and because he carried the blood of the Master of Mankind, and such accusations were still unthinkable under the Imperial Truth.

Lorgar, however, knew better than anyone that his beloved homeworld was far from healed from the damage the Covenant had inflicted upon it. The Primarch was also wrecked by guilt, as a treacherous part of him whispered that, if he hadn't roused the people of Colchis to rebellion, then the priests wouldn't have had a reason to escalate things to the level they had. The greater, more logical part of him knew that such wasn't the case, that the Covenant alone was responsible for the atrocities it had unleashed. Still, Lorgar was determined to see Colchis reborn, and believed that in order for that rebirth to be complete, it had to be achieved with only minimum interference from the Imperium of which the world was now part.

He asked his father to let Colchis be under his rule and that of his allies, that the people of the world might rebuild their home themselves. He promised that he would lead the armies of the Emperor in His name, that he would spread the Imperial Truth across the galaxy, and do so gladly – all he asked was that he be given the chance to repair the damage wrought upon Colchis. The Emperor, in His infinite wisdom, saw that Lorgar needed to know he could repair and heal as well as conquer and destroy, and granted His son his wish. Then, Lorgar departed Colchis, promising to return, in order to learn what he would need to know to fulfill his oath to his father – and to meet the sons he had never known he had.

The Great Crusade : Harbingers of the Truth

'Too long has Mankind suffered in the grasp of ignorance and zealotry. Too long have our people been enslaved to lies written by men who were either insane enough to believe them or selfish enough not to care the damage they caused. Some might claim that these lies gave comfort to Mankind, than only through the belief in a higher power can the base nature of Man be held in check. And perhaps that was true, once. But no more !
Now we know the truth of the universe. We have unlocked its secrets, mastered the powers that held it together. We march among the stars and dream of building an empire eternal. This, the greatest endeavour in the history of our species, cannot be achieved if we hold ourselves back with superstition and wilful ignorance. We must face the truth of the galaxy, and spread the light of illumination across the darkness of the past.
The Imperial Truth is not a religion. It does not demand blind obedience. It demands conviction ! It demands that we trust in one another, and in the righteousness of our cause. It demands that we believe in ideals, not in an idol. My father knows this, and we shall bring this truth to every human in the galaxy.
It will not be an easy task. Many will resist the changes we will bring to them, clinging to the past like scared children to a blanket. Some will have to be forced into this new age, and we will do so. We will bear the burden of these wars, for it is what we were made to do.
We are the Bearers of the Word, and the lies of the past shall crumble to ash and dust before us !'
Extract from the speech of Lorgar Aurelian upon taking command of the Seventeenth Legion

Looking at the history of Lorgar and the Legion he would rise to command, the parallels are striking. During its creation by the Emperor, the Seventeenth Legion was forged as an instrument of destruction against the religious cults that would oppose the Imperial Truth to the bitter end, fanaticism granting their forces resolve even in the face of overwhelming might. Recruited from the children of defeated foes, the warriors of the Seventeenth were named the Imperial Heralds by the Emperor Himself at their founding, instead of receiving a name later during the Great Crusade.

Their first battles were on the surface of Terra herself, at the end of the Unification Wars. They were deployed against the last religious redoubts on the planet, and while a few of those surrendered when they saw the ranks of grey-armored transhuman warriors advance toward their walls, those who did not were reduced to little more than rubble and weeping survivors. Such was the dedication of the Imperial Heralds to the Imperium's ideals that they sought out every trace of the superstition their foes had previously embraced and destroyed it. Libraries were examined book by book in order to identify those who glorified sorcery, false gods, and irrational beliefs. Temples were razed, often with their priests still inside, and monuments toppled with explosives. The people were given the choice to either accept the Imperial Truth, or be destroyed alongside the shackles of their past.

While the Imperial Heralds were only sent against the worst fanatical holdouts of Terra – places where human sacrifices and witch-kings were common – the extremes to which they were ready to go unsettled many of the Emperor's allies. But so did most of the other newly founded Space Marine Legions, and so had the Thunder Warriors before them. The Emperor, in His wisdom knew that He couldn't unite Mankind under His rule and save it from the darkness of its past without warriors such as these among His servants. And so it was that under the leadership of High Herald Halik-gar, the Seventeenth Legion took to the stars alongside the rest of the Great Crusade's forces.

Several decades later, when Lorgar took command of the Seventeenth Legion, he renamed them from the Imperial Heralds to the Word Bearers, although their colors remained unchanged : grey with silver linings. For his inspired words, the Legion soon bestowed the name of Urizen upon their Primarch. In ancient Terran legends, the Urizen was a being of great wisdom, representing conventional reason and law – a fitting title for Lorgar.

Lorgar knew that without a cause worthy of fighting for, even the greatest soldier was doomed to become a rabid dog or an empty shell, but he also feared that blindly following the Imperial Truth would make his sons little different from the zealots they fought. So he reached out to his brother, Magnus the Red, and asked for his help in making his sons philosophers as well as warriors. Under Lorgar's leadership, the grim and dour Seventeenth Legion became a haven of learning and illumination, whose warriors followed the Imperial Truth not because they had been told to do so, but because they truly understood it and what it brought to Mankind.

Every Primarch inherited an aspect of the Emperor. Horus inherited His drive for conquest, Magnus His psychic might, Mortarion His grim determination to do what had to be done, and Lorgar His conviction and ideals. As such, no other Primarch was as enthusiast as Lorgar was to join the effort of the Great Crusade. His belief in the Imperial Truth eclipsed even that of the likes of Horus or Konrad, though both of them would come to worry about where the strength of his conviction might lead him.

That conviction made Lorgar one of the figureheads of the Crusade, looked up to by the human elements of the Imperium. While the fury with which he prosecuted his war made him a figure of respectful fear, the deep belief he had in the Imperial Truth gave him great prestige and authority in the Imperium. Many Imperial Regiments were willing to go fight in the Expeditionary Fleets under the command of a Seventeenth Legion officer. And when worlds peacefully joined the Imperium after contact with one of their fleets, it was a rare case indeed when there wasn't a substantial army gifted to the Fleet to help bring illumination to other worlds.

Lorgar was also one of the few Primarchs who, alongside Magnus and Mortarion, was aware of the true dangers of the Warp, dangers that the Emperor had decided best Mankind remain unaware. His campaign on Colchis had shown him the true horrors that dwelled within the Immaterium, though he still lacked any knowledge of the Ruinous Powers themselves. At first, Lorgar wanted to reveal all that knew to the rest of Mankind, that they be better prepared to defend against it, but the Emperor commanded him to wait, for He had grand plans that would be ruined by acting too soon. Lorgar chose to trust his father, but still made sure that his own Chaplains were kept aware of the truth.

Because he had fought against the Covenant's leaders with his own psychic powers, Lorgar strived to create a powerful Librarius within his own Legion. He had a great deal of respect for Magnus, who helped him master his previously erratic psychic powers by teaching him the discipline of the Thousand Sons and whose own magus helped the first Word Bearers Librarians master their own abilities.

During the Great Crusade, Lorgar's reputation among his brother was divided. To some, like Horus or Magnus, he was an upstanding champion of the Imperial Truth. But to others, like Russ and Lion El'Jonson, his relentless extermination of all things related to religion was going too far. Russ and Lorgar famously had a terrible dispute when they first met, with Lorgar calling the Wolf King a fool because of the amulets and trinkets his warriors bore in battle and the ridiculous beliefs of his psykers – whom Russ refused to even acknowledge as such, clinging to the Fenrisian folly that their powers were granted by their home world.

Erebus, Warden of the Truth
In a Legion known for its fiery temper, Erebus was one of the few cool heads capable of advising caution and prudence when they were required. Born on Colchis during the Wars of the False Priests, he was among the first selected from that world to become an Astartes. Not only did he take to the implants well, he also displayed an acute mind and a strong will, which marked him for induction in the ranks of the Chaplains. Within a few decades, Erebus had risen to become the First Chaplain of the Seventeenth Legion, and one of Lorgar's own advisers. So valued was his council that even other Primarchs, such as Horus and Perturabo, sought it out. Erebus was known to speak out even when what he knew that what he had to say would not please his commander, even when he knew it would enrage him. For this, Lorgar himself gave him the title of "Warden of the Truth", asking his son to swear always to speak the truth and never say a single lie. Erebus took that vow with great pride, and as far as our records show, he didn't break it until the day of his death.
On the primitive world of Davin, it was Erebus who led the Word Bearers contingent. The Chaplain recognized the tribal markings of the Davinite tribes, having seen them on the walls of the Covenant's temples during the Wars of the False Priests. He warned Horus of the danger they represented, and though he knew that it went against the heart of the Primarch, advised that the entire tribes be wiped out to root out the Warp's corruption. Horus listened to his advice, and it was the Word Bearers who purged the tribes and erased every trace of their culture. It is said that the Davinite campaign marked the first occasion where the now legendary trance-like state of the Seventeenth Legion's warriors was witnessed by outsiders, and it unnerved even the brave sons of Lupercal.

But the one brother with whom Lorgar had the most open feud – a feud that almost erupted into outright warfare – was Roboute Guilliman. At first glance, it seems that the two of them should have gotten along perfectly well, for they were both champions of the Imperial Truth, spreading illumination across the galaxy. And indeed, such was the case in their first meeting, to the point that the two of them chose to join forces for a time, and fight side by side so that their warriors could deepen their bonds of brotherhood and learn from each other. Guilliman thought that his men could learn from the Word Bearers' passion, while Lorgar was sure that his Legion could benefit from the orderly fashion in which the Ultramarines waged war.

In the beginning, this collaboration went incredibly well, and several worlds were added to the Imperium in a record time, some by force and some by diplomacy. Then the two Legions came to the world of Khur, and everything began to unravel.

Khur was planet whose technological level had regressed to the point where it was all its people could do to maintain a few artificial satellites in orbit. Its population was divided in powerful city-states. These pocket kingdoms had been fighting a terrible civil war for the last hundred years, started by the rising of a new religion in some of the cities. This religion had quickly spread to over half the city-states, and eventually, they had declared holy war against all those who had not yet accepted the new faith. By the time the Imperium reached Khur, only one city, Monarchia, was holding out against the new religion.

When contact was made with the local government, the dominant faction, ruled over by a circle of kings with priestly advisers from the new faith, were more than willing to join the Imperium. Guilliman was delighted, and proposed his services to negotiate peace between them and the people of Monarchia – or even evacuation to another planet if the city's denizens could not be convinced. But Lorgar reacted much differently.

The moment the Urizen saw the symbols on the priests' robes, the second he heard the first words of their prayers, he knew them for what they were : descendants of those members of the Covenant he had failed to destroy. Many had fled Colchis when the Imperium had come to Lorgar's homeworld, and it appeared that some of them had found Khur before the Imperium, and seeded it with the lies of their corrupt faith. Lorgar's mind flashed back to the Wars of the False Priests, to all the atrocities he had seen committed by the Covenant in the name of defending its power. There was only one course of action possible.

While Guilliman was discussing with the leaders of the religious coalition aboard his flagship, Lorgar gave the order to all of his troops to begin the attack. Drop-pods rained over the cities of Khur, with only Monarchia being spared. Led by their Chaplains, the Word Bearers sought and destroyed every religious edifice and slew every priest, while the Imperial Truth was being broadcast on all channels. Lorgar would take no chance this time : he had the resources to truly purge Khur from the taint, and he did not hesitate to use them.

When the Avenging Son heard of what his brother had done, his rage was immense, but it paled before his shock. He called to Lorgar, desperately asking what could possibly have motivated his brother to perform such an attack while under the flag of truce. Had the people of Khur deceived him somehow ? Had they been planning an attack ? And if so, why had Lorgar not warned him ? But his queries went unanswered. Lorgar knew that he was not allowed to tell Guilliman of what he had seen on Colchis – the Emperor had forbidden it.

It was hardly the first time a Legion had attacked a planet seemingly unprovoked – the Salamanders were beginning to develop a dread reputation for such assaults. Though it tore his heart, Lorgar believed that it was better for his brother to think him a butcher than to learn of the truth that dwelled in the Warp. Without responding to any more communication from the Ultramarines, the Word Bearers continued their campaign of purification. It took them only a week to be done, and by that point, Guilliman was almost ready to order his fleet to open fire if Lorgar would not answer his calls. But just as he shouted this ultimatum over the vox, the ships of the Seventeenth Legion recovered their transports and departed the system, still not answering Guilliman's pleas for answers.

'There are things you are better off not knowing, brother.'
Last transmission from the Fidelitas Lex before leaving the Khur system, M31

Still, one cannot help but wonder how different history would have been, had Lorgar broken his vow of silence and told Guilliman why he had needed to attack Khur in such a merciless manner. There are even some among the Imperium today who blame Aurelian for the eventual descent of Guilliman into treachery, arguing that if Lorgar had not reacted so violently to the presence of the Covenant on Khur, then the planet could have been purged of its influence slowly and more subtly, in a way that would not have antagonized Guilliman and caused him to lose more faith in the Imperium when Lorgar went on unpunished after the events, despite Guilliman's appeals for his censure.

Soon after the unpleasantness of Khur, the convocation came for all available Primarchs to journey to Ullanor, to celebrate the great triumph over the alien empire of the Orks. While Lorgar was as surprised as his brothers when he learned that the Emperor intended to leave the leadership of the Great Crusade and return to Terra, he was also relieved that such would be the case. In the prior years, the Urizen had noticed a worrying pattern in the Imperium, a growing cult that worshipped the Emperor as a god, despite all His insistence to the contrary. It was Lorgar's hope that with Horus now in charge of the Great Crusade, the flames of this misguided devotion would fade, as it was proven that someone other than the Master of Mankind could direct the Imperium.

Because of this, Lorgar was one of the most fervent supporters of Horus as the new Warmaster of the Imperium. He readily obeyed the commands of his brother, and spread his Legion on the vast fronts of the Great Crusade to support it. At the time, the Word Bearers were one of the most numerous Legions, thanks to the high compatibility rate of Lorgar's gene-seed and the abundance of aspirants from Colchis' booming population. It is estimated that at the time of the Ullanor Triumph, there was as many as one hundred twenty thousands Astartes in the Seventeenth Legion, though such a count is by nature imprecise.

To Lorgar, the outcome of the Council of Nikaea was never in doubt. He knew the horrors that dwelled in the Warp, and he knew that his father knew. How could the Emperor possibly deny His forces the tools they needed to oppose such a threat ? The mere thought of it was laughable. Lorgar didn't attend the Council in person, but he did ensure that Erebus was present to speak on his behalf, and the First Chaplain's fiery oratory helped persuade many of those present that the Emperor's ultimate decision was the correct one. Erebus returned to his Primarch's side with the satisfaction of a task well performed, content to have played his part in helping preserve the Imperium's future.

Then, a few years later, while the galaxy was enveloped by ever more potent Warp Storms, a message came from Terra, and the Word Bearers learned that the future of the Imperium had been destroyed forever.

The Heresy : Lost amidst the Madness

'If they do not kneel, then every single one of the Five Hundred Worlds will burn.'
Attributed to Lorgar Aurelian, upon the declaration of the retribution crusade to Ultramar

When word of Guilliman's treachery at Isstvan III reached Lorgar, the rage of the Primarch was terrible to behold. What few records speak of this fury mention that it was lucky the Urizen was on a planet at the time, for the psychic power he unleashed would have damaged a ship beyond repair. Had the message not also carried Horus' instructions for Lorgar and his Legion, it is doubtless that the Primarch would have taken the full might of the Seventeenth with him to Isstvan, determined to kill Guilliman with his bare hands if he had to. How different things would have unfolded had that been the case, we will never know, for Horus had other plans for the Word Bearers.

Seven Legions were already en route to Isstvan with the task of bringing the traitors to heel, but there was another concern that needed to be addressed. Ultramar, one of the mightiest and richest regions of the Imperium, had been revealed as being under the leadership of a traitor for two hundred years. Knowing Guilliman's strategic acumen, it was very likely that the entire Kingdom of Ultramar had been transformed into a fortress, one that could supply the traitors with weapons, armor, and recruits for decades.

While the Legions dispatched at Isstvan should be enough to destroy those which had broken their oaths to the Imperium, Ultramar needed to be brought to heel. To that end, the Warmaster commanded Lorgar to take his forces and meet with the Twelfth Legion, the World Eaters, led by their Primarch Angron. Together, the two of them were to ensure the continued compliance of Ultramar to Imperial rule by whatever means necessary. Horus' orders were deliberately kept vague, so that his brothers would be able to react to the situation and adapt to whatever threats they encountered, but even he couldn't predict what the two Legions would face.

The meeting of Lorgar and Angron was agitated, but eventually the two of them agreed to journey to Calth first, where the Lord of the Red Sands believed they would find the greatest military target in the Five Hundred Worlds. It was Angron's hope that he and Lorgar could convince whoever Guilliman had left in command to abandon this mad rebellion. This might seem overtly optimistic, but Angron was yet unaware of the true nature of the foe the loyalists faced. Lorgar had attempted to explain it to him, but hearing about the horror of Chaos isn't enough – you have to see it for yourself to truly know why it must be fought and eradicated. Still, Lorgar agreed to the plan, thinking that if they crushed the core of Guilliman's military might in the Five Hundred Worlds, the rest of the campaign would be much easier.

However, both Angron and Lorgar were proven wrong when, at Calth, the Ruinstorm was unleashed, trapping the two Legions out of the rest of the galactic war, but all too aware of what had transpired on the unhallowed sands of Isstvan V. The Battle of Calth was terrible, and cost the lives of thousands of Legionaries, but in the end, they were able to escape the thrice-damned planet, and begin their journey back to the Imperium – an odyssey that would, in time, be known as the Shadow Crusade. Lorgar used his psychic powers to mentally link with every Navigator, Astropath and Librarian in the fleet, and together they guided the fleet through the roiling seas of the Immaterium, keeping the vessels anchored to one another, though many were still lost to the raging Ruinstorm, the fate of their crews best not dwelled upon.

Argel Tal, the Crimson Lord
Born of Colchis, Argel Tal was selected to become a Word Bearer by First Chaplain Erebus himself. His Chapter, the Serrated Sun, took considerable losses during the Battle of Calth. Its entire command structure was decimated, which forced Argel Tal, as the sole surviving captain, to take command of the few hundred warriors who remained. As the battle outside the Ultramarine fortress went on, with the daemonic tides clashing against loyalist lines and the Primarchs still trapped inside, it fell to Argel Tal and Khârn, the Eighth Captain of the World Eaters, to direct their Legions. The two of them fought back to back against the infernal hordes until Lorgar and Angron burst free from the fortress and helped beat back the hordes long enough for an evacuation to take place. By that point, however, Argel Tal had fought for so long and seen so many of his brothers die that his armor was covered in their blood, and he was completely lost to the cold rage of the Word Bearers' gene-line. Only the intervention of Lorgar dragged him back to sanity and convinced him to evacuate with the rest of the Legions rather than remain behind to fight the daemons until he died.
To honor the sacrifice of his brothers, Argel Tal repainted his armor in red, so that their blood would never truly be washed away. This led to him receiving the title of Crimson Lord, and his deeds during the Shadow Crusade are the stuff of legends. He and Khârn developed a deep bond of brotherhood, and fought together against the daemon Egethel, casting down her serpentine form while resisting her lies. In time, Argel Tal rose from being a mere Captain in a minor Chapter to becoming a Lord of the Legion, whose word was heeded by Lorgar and Angron themselves. Together, he and Khârn helped maintain the desperate alliance between the World Eaters and the Word Bearers – it is said that the two of them fought in the World Eaters' fighting pits chained to one another, and took on any challenge. They rarely won, but according to the accounts that have survived, it was only because neither of them took these brawls seriously – on the battlefields, Argel Tal was every bit as deadly as Khârn or any other Legion Champion.
Argel Tal survived three hundred years past the end of the Roboutian Heresy before falling during battle against a Dark Angels warband. The details of his death are unclear, and there are even some accounts that he didn't die, but vanish in the same fashion of his Primarch, and might one day return.

After escaping Calth, the fleet was soon drawn to the world of Armatura, the tides of the Warp conspiring to push the vessels to this system. Once, the planet had been a recruiting ground for the Ultramarines, where a billion soldiers had been garrisoned and entire generations of Legionaries had been raised. Now it was an infernal pit, ruled over by an entity Lorgar was all too familiar with : Kor Phaeron, the Master of the Covenant's Faith, whom he had slain two hundred years ago on Colchis. Somehow, the spirit of the old, cruel man had been spared dissolution in the Sea of Souls and returned to some abhorrent half-life by the Ruinous Powers to destroy the one who had defeated him in life.

The ghost of an old man stood upon the bridge of the Emperor's Hand, staring at Erebus with a burning gaze.
The First Chaplain knew that face. He had seen it painted on the holy books of his youth, in a city that had been at war with Lorgar's revolt against the Covenant. This was the face of Kor Phaeron, the Master of the Faith, supreme leader of the Covenant, who had been slain by Lorgar some two hundred years ago.
'Lorgar should have been ours,' said the apparition, 'but he denied us. The Gods will never forgive him his defiance. But you, my brother … You can still be redeemed. Join us. Embrace the power of the Primordial Truth, and you will never need to kneel before anyone again !'
Images filled Erebus' mind of all that he could accomplish if he but accepted the spectre's offer. He saw himself standing before rows upon rows of kneeling figures, statues in his image raised on a thousand worlds, billions of throats chanting his name. He saw the Word Bearers reborn as agents of the Primordial Truth, setting worlds aflame and being covered in gifts in return for their devotion. He saw himself wielding power greater even than that of Lorgar, shaping worlds with but a thought, twisting destiny to his will with a sweep of the hand.
All this and more could be his. All he had to do was to order his ship to open fire on the Fidelitas Lex. The shields of the venerable vessel were down, brought low by the volleys of Armatura's planetary defences. Just one order ...
Then he remembered something. Something he had seen as a child. One of his very first memories.
He remembered seeing his siblings crucified by the Covenant's priests as a sacrifice to the Pantheon, to gain victory against the forces of Lorgar.

'No,' he whispered, then shouted : 'No ! I will never be the Dark Gods' pawn, and this Legion shall not be their slave !'

Erebus ordered that his ship, the Emperor's Hand, set a collision course with Armatura's surface, right in the center of the psychic entanglement that trapped the Word Bearers and World Eaters in this system. The ship detonated, shattering the surface of the planet and causing it to break apart in several smaller fragments, still orbiting around their diseased star to this day, each the domain of a Dark Mechanicum arch-heretek.

With the heroic sacrifice of Erebus, Argel Tal rose to become Lorgar's second in command of the Seventeenth Legion, and the Shadow Crusade continued. The destruction of Kor Phaeron's daemonic aspect broke the spell that held the combined fleet captive in Armatura, and the ships departed, though their journey did not last long until they were stopped once more – and this time, the daemon lord anchoring them was much more powerful.

Angron was dying.
His brother was lying down before him, losing blood from a dozens wounds, each of which would kill him given time. In the distance, the great beast that had so wounded his brother was roaring its hatred of the universe, while dozens of World Eaters' Terminators were fighting against it, holding it in place so that it could not reach their Primarch. More of the Devourers were dying with each passing second, but they would not give up, they would not break. They could not break.
Tears flowed down Lorgar's face at the sight of such courage, such devotion. He placed his hands upon his brother's torn chest, and called upon the power that had been bestowed upon him by the Emperor. Golden light poured from his hands, and the wounds of Angron began to close, the breathing of the Lord of the Red Sands becoming more regular.
With his brother's life stabilized, Lorgar looked at the great beast again, and knew what he must do. He opened a vox-channel, raising the Fidelitas Lex in orbit, and gave a simple order :
'Fire.'
Seconds later, a column of fire descended from the heavens as the Gloriana-class warship opened fire on the location transmitted by the Devourers' beacons, accompanied by the rest of the fleet. The earth of the accursed world cracked under such power, and Doombred, the antediluvian prince of the Dark God Khorne, was banished from the mortal universe once more – taking with him the lives of three hundred of the noblest human warriors who had ever lived.

This pattern of journeying ever closer to the edge of the Ruinstorm while true salvation remained out of reach continued for years. Time inside the storm had little meaning, and some survivors claimed that to them, the entire ordeal had lasted mere months, while others had trouble remembering anything before it. Always the fleet would emerge from tumultuous tides into a more peaceful enclave, and always they would need to slay the local daemonic overlord in order to be able to leave once more. The names of the slain daemons adorn the records of the Seventeenth Legion : Samus, Doombreed, Skarbrand, Zarakynel, Aetaos'Rau'Keres and a dozen others. The Word Bearers and the World Eaters both earned the eternal enmity of many lords of the Warp during the Shadow Crusade, while also gaining an expertise in fighting them that has transcended the generations.

We do not know for certain how the two Legions finally escaped the Ruinstorm. The truth of the Shadow Crusade has long since faded into legends, especially since most of those who survived it repressed their memories of it to avoid descending into madness. Ancient, fragmentary texts, refer to a device that was "cast into the shadow of the Warp by the plots of foolish, selfish men" and of "a great sacrifice, unlike any other in the galaxy, yet only the herald of another, greater one".

'Barbaras !' Lorgar vociferated over the vox. 'Do not do this !'
'I have to, my lord,' replied the voice of the old war-smith. He sounded so, so tired. Ever since the fleet had found him on Armatura, Barbaras Dantioch's body had been growing weaker even as his mind grew sharper and sharper. 'I have to. Terra needs you and your brother. The Imperium needs you … Your father needs you.'
'There has to be another way !' pleaded the golden Primarch. 'Please, Barbaras. You have given so much to the Imperium already … There must be another way !'
'Maybe, but what will every second spent searching for it cost ? No, my lord. This must be done. Please, tell my father that in the end … I died with dignity.'
Deep within the twisted remnants of Dark Glass station, a lever was pushed, and an old man sat upon a throne of torment and ruin. Lorgar roared in sorrow and pain as the Warp around the fleet flared with light. Even over the unimaginable distances of space, he sensed Dantioch's agony as the device consumed him entirely …
… Then the madness of the Ruinstorm was gone from the occulus, replaced by the blackness of space, with the distant lights of stars.

But regardless of the significance of these words, the combined fleet of the Word Bearers and the World Eaters did emerge from the Ruinstorm. For all the sacrifices they had paid to escape, the war raged still, and they were still determined to play a part in it. The traumatized crews of battered ships set to work to repair what was needed, the Navigators set a course through the tumultuous Warp, and the fleet began its way back home – to the Throneworld, where the fate of Mankind would be decided.

Yet despite all their efforts, the Twelfth and Seventeenth Legions arrived too late. Their imminent arrival had forced Guilliman into a final, desperate gambit that had ultimately cost the Arch-Traitor his life, but had also taken the mortal existence of the Emperor away. Lorgar marched through the ruins of Terra and into the Imperial Palace, and fell to his knees before the enthroned figure of the Emperor.

Despite the stasis field and the power of the Golden Throne, Lorgar knew that, for the second time in his life, he had lost his father.

Post-Heresy : Keepers of the Flame

'We are still here. Though our empire is broken, though the oaths of our brothers lie in ruin at our feet, we are still here. Though unspeakable horrors were unleashed upon us, though reason and order have departed the universe and left only cruelty and madness in their wake, we are still here.
We are not defeated. We are not broken. And we remain untainted.
Even now, as the ink of my words dries on this page, the degradation of the Imperium continues. The ideals of the Great Crusade are forgotten or cast aside in a desperate need to find a way to make sense of the galaxy once again. Human minds are too weak to bear the weight of the horrors we now know to be true. If only we had had more time -one generation, two at most, born and educated as my father intended, imbued with the power of the Imperial Truth … But that will never be now. It is too late. Too late …
… but we are still here.'
From the writings of Lorgar Aurelian, post-Heresy

After the end of the Siege and the banishment of the Traitor Legions to the Eye of Terror and the Ruinstorm, a dark mood fell upon Lorgar. Everything he had fought to build was slipping away as the Imperium slowly turned away from the Imperial Truth. His sons watched, helpless, as their father descended further and further into melancholy – until news reached them that a host of daemons had broken through the Iron Cage surrounding the Ruinstorm and were wreaking havoc on the worlds of the Ultima Segmentum.

As soon as he heard the astropathic calls for aid, Lorgar appeared to be revived, fire returning to his eyes. He called the full might of his Legion to him, and went to meet this daemonic horde, determined to cast back the horrors of the Warp to the hell that had spawned them. Four terrible Greater Daemons led this daemonic incursion, one for each of the Chaos Gods – a display of unity unseen since the days of the Heresy, and that portended dark times for the Imperium if they were not stopped.

It was on the world of Khur, where Lorgar and Guilliman had first turned against one another all these years ago, that the Word Bearers brought the infernal legions to battle. So numerous were the daemons that they blackened the skies, but still the Word Bearers attacked. In the confusion of battle, Lorgar became separate from his sons, and it was all they could do to watch, helpless to intervene, as the four Greater Daemons revealed themselves around the Primarch. Then, the tides of the battle obscured the Urizen from sight, and when next the Legionaries could see where he and the infernal princelings had stood, they found nothing but scorched earth.

Lorgar Aurelian was gone, as were the four great daemons.. Without its leaders, the daemonic horde soon turned against itself, and the threat to the Imperium was stopped at the cost of one of its few remaining princes.

Four they were, terrible and powerful beyond the ken of mortal men. Each was a lord among its kin, a fragment of the dread god it served. In most circumstances, they would have turned against one another in a heartbeat. But here and now, they were united in their hatred of the one who had dared to defy their masters.

'You have failed, golden one,' croaked a bird-headed Lord of Change.

'Your father has fallen, son of Colchis,' burped a bloated Great Unclean One.

'His pain feeds us,' hissed a Keeper of Secrets, trembling with delight at the wounds it had inflicted and suffered alike.

'His blood,' grunted a colossal Bloodthirster, 'and that of his little empire will flow for ten thousand years.'

There was a moment of silence, broken only by the distant sounds of battle being waged between the Word Bearers and the infernal legions that had come to this world. Then there was a soft chuckle.

'I know you,' declared the demigod whom the daemonic lords had brought to his knees. 'I know you all. I know what you are. Daemons, fallen, tengu … In the end, there is only one name that truly defines you : liars.'

Lorgar Aurelian, son of the Emperor of Mankind, rose to his feet, Illuminarium held firmly in his hands, and stared defiantly at the abominations before him.

'I name you deceivers and falsehoods,' continued the Primarch, his voice gaining in strength with every word, 'broken promises and empty shells. You have no power over me !'

Something in his gaze, in his words, made the daemons scream in fury, and the champions of the eternal war between Order and Chaos charged ...

After the disappearance of Lorgar, Chapter Master Argel Tal rose to the rank of Legion Master, and led the Word Bearers for a further three hundred years before his own death. A new Legion Master was chosen, and the Seventeenth Legion continued its long war against the many enemies of Mankind. By choice, they remained far from the Imperial centres of power if at all possible, trying to avoid stirring up internal conflict between the Legion and the rest of the Imperium.

Then, in the early thirty-sixth millennium, came the Age of Apostasy, a period of turmoil and conflict that almost destroyed the Imperium. Several Black Crusades erupted from the Eye of Terror and the Ruinstorm, throwing the Immaterium out of balance. The resulting Warp Storms engulfed entire Sectors, leaving their inhabitants at the nonexistent mercy of the daemonic incursions that ravaged their worlds. Taking advantage of the confusion, Ork Warbosses led their own Waaaagh ! across the galaxy, while the Dark Eldars left their shadowy realms in unprecedented numbers to prey upon the people of the Imperium. Even threats from the Imperium's own distant, all but forgotten past re-emerged, such as Thrar Hraldir, the leader of the infamous Wolf Brothers. The Plague of Unbelief his actions triggered near the galactic border took most of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Legions to purge.

The Space Marines Legions were more stretched out than ever combating these various threats, as were the Imperial Guard, the Imperial Navy, and all other military organizations of the Imperium. It was during that period that, on distant Terra, rose one of the greatest monsters of the Imperium's long and bloody history, a man whose name would become a curse for thousands of years to come : Goge Vandire.

The details of Vandire's rise to power, his rule and subsequent downfall, are unfathomably complex. Here is the simplified version, which is also the only one historians agree upon without their debates degenerating into academic feuds that even the most seasoned Inquisitors are wary of.

Vandire was the incarnation of every flaw in the Imperium. Through political intrigue, blackmail and back-stabbing, he had risen to become the Master of the Administratum, earning a seat among the Twelve High Lords of Terra. His rule over the monolithic organization was already brutal and merciless, to the point that other High Lords began to raise concerns. Before they could act on them, however, Vandire made his move to claim even more power for himself.

At that time, the Ecclesiarchy had risen to unprecedented levels of influence, taking advantage of the fear spread across the Imperium by the many threats that had arisen to the Imperium. A terrified population turned to the priests of the God-Emperor for salvation, and the Cardinals used them for their own political gains while the armies of the Master of Mankind fought and died against the hordes of the traitor, the alien and the heretic.

Even as entire Sectors set all their resources to supporting the war efforts, other regions of the Imperium were crushed by increased tithes for the construction of grand temples and extravagant palaces. Before, the threat of retribution from the Word Bearers and their allies among the other Legions had kept the worst excesses of the Ecclesiarchy's high representatives in check. But now the sons of Lorgar were too busy fighting the enemy without to concern themselves with the enemy within, and the armies of the Frateris Templars were one of the few military forces remaining inside the Imperium's borders.

Vandire played to the other High Lords' fears of the Ecclesiarchy's hubris, by waging an open campain against its influence. Many saw him as a counter-force to the unchecked power of the Ecclesiarch, but even them did not foresee Vandire's true plan. In 200M36, when the incumbent Ecclesiarch died under mysterious circumstances – some say that Vandire convinced the Grand Master of Assassins to eliminate the man – his successor, Paulis III, was elected with Vandire's backing. A foolish and decadent man, Paulis III would not have been the worst Ecclesiarch to have sit the chair, but he did not rule for long.

Mere days after Paulis III's elevation, Vandire stormed the Ecclesiarch's palace on Terra with several Regiments' worth of Imperial Guards. He then denounced Paulis as a heretic, and summarily executed him by his own hand. He then claimed the title of Ecclesiarch for himself, vowing to purge the Emperor's church from corruption. The Cardinals who opposed him, fearful of his power, fled Terra in a massive fleet, but they were caught in a Warp Storm mere weeks after departing the Sol system and were never heard of again. Claiming that this was a sign of the Emperor's favouring him – while in truth, it was either a coincidence, or a move by the Dark Gods to weaken the Imperium from within – Vandire secured his hold over the Ecclesiarchy, replacing the lost Cardinals with his own cronies before beginning his true, bloody, terrifying work.

Perhaps Vandire was truly motivated by the desire to cleanse the Imperium of the Ecclesiarchy's undue influence, but if that is so, he lost his way on the path to accomplishing that goal, and became a greater threat to the Imperium than anyone since Guilliman himself. His rule as both Master of the Administratum and Ecclesiarch is recorded in Imperial archives as the Reign of Blood, and trillions of souls were lost to his madness and atrocities.

Vandire began his reign by ordering purges of the Ecclesiarchy and declaring several Wars of Faith, sending billions of the faithful to bolster the ranks of the Imperium's defenders on the frontlines. Though these hordes were useful for little more than cannon fodder, the gesture made the Imperial military commanders more ready to accept his holding of two High Lords' offices at once. It also allowed him to send many of his potential enemies to their doom as they were granted the "honor" of leading these crusaders. While cold-blooded and cynical, such a move was little more than a display of cunning among the High Lords. It's what happened after that granted Vandire his place in the Imperium's annals of infamy.

Within months of his ascension, Vandire went truly mad. Perhaps it was due to all the power he possessed, perhaps it was because of the pressure of his responsibilities in an Imperium that was still facing multiple crises at once. Perhaps it was the result of some plot of his rivals among the High Lords, or a scheme by any of the many enemies of Mankind. Despite centuries-long investigations, we still do not know for certain. The possibility that maybe Vandire was just acting like a normal human is, to most Inquisitors, too disquieting to contemplate.

With most of the Imperial forces busy on the frontlines, Vandire's Frateris Templar and other military assets could impose their will upon the Imperium unopposed. Entire worlds were purged by flame as Vandire denounced their population as heretics for all manner of sins, from refusing to bow to his will to not paying their tithes fast enough. Over time, even these small justifications were abandoned entirely, and the ships under the tyrant's command did not question their orders as they destroyed entire star systems. On other worlds, horrifying pogroms were committed, based on the slightest genetic difference to what Vandire, in his madness, considered to be the "perfect human form".

All the while, on worlds terrified of being the next on the tyrant's list, great monuments were built, dedicated not to the Emperor, but to Vandire's own glory. These acts of heresy, however, paled compared to how Vandire deceived a religious sect known as the Daughters of the Emperor into becoming his personal bodyguards and servants. By faking a miracle through the use of his stolen Ecclesiarch's Rosarius, he convinced the all-female, isolated order that he was blessed by the God-Emperor, and spoke with His voice. Renamed as the Brides of the Emperor, these sister-warriors would become one of the most dangerous agents of Vandire's will. They notably purged the Holy Synod when the Cardinals attempted to have Vandire deposed, their loose standards and morals finally being breached by Vandire's atrocities.

The reign of Vandire lasted for seven decades, and would doubtlessly have lasted much longer if not for the heroic actions of a few individuals. A group of Inquisitors had secretly come back to Terra from the battlefield, seeking access to the archives of the Ordos on the Throneworld. On their way, they witnessed the horrors Vandire had unleashed in the name of the Emperor upon His own people. When they arrived to Terra, they were determined to cast down Vandire, but he was too powerful in his domain to be defeated with the means at the Inquisitors' disposal. The polar fortresses of the Ordos had been all but emptied to support the war effort, and what few Stormtroopers and agents remained would never make it through the Brides of the Emperor's watchful guard.

Instead, the Inquisitors resolved to send an astropathic message powerful enough to pass through the Warp Storms clouding the galaxy. After a daring raid on the Astra Telepathica's headquarters to secure the astropaths required, the psykers in their retinues amplified the transmission's power, and the message was sent. Its contents were a condensation of all the information they had accumulated on Vandire's many crimes and heresies. Its destination was the edge of the Ruinstorm, where the Word Bearers were fighting against a Black Crusade led by two of the infamous Ultramarines Tetrarchs.

The message reached the sons of Lorgar just as they had finally pushed back the tide of traitors and daemons. With the help of Ordo Malleus Inquisitors and a brotherhood of Grey Knights, the Tetrarchs had been banished, and a coordinated strike had slain the remaining leaders, breaking the Crusade's backbone. The fleet of the Seventeenth Legion was busy repairing the damage it had endured and recovering its warriors when the astropathic call breached through the tumult of the Warp. Such was its strength that when it finally reached its intended destination, every astropath, psyker and Librarian in the solar system received the full content of the message at once.

'We Inquisitors like to believe that we know the meaning of righteousness. That by our very calling, our souls are imbued with the Emperor's will, guiding our actions. When wrath takes us as we witness the horrors visited by the enemies of Mankind upon their victims, we delude ourselves into thinking that it is a righteous, inspired rage. But we are wrong. The human mind is designed so that all rage feels righteous. It is both our gift and our curse, a potent weapon and the source of countless damnations. But the Word Bearers, they know true righteous fury. It is written into their very genetic code, the legacy of their Primarch – and when the message echoed in our minds on this blasted, ruined, nameless world, I saw it.
It is impossible to describe what I felt from them, because no human has ever felt such an emotion. There are no words in any of the myriad languages of Man to do justice to the cold, blazing fury, the utter certainty of purpose, the obligation – not the desire or the need – to travel to Terra and end the life of the madman who had usurped power there. The hatred they had displayed for the heretics and traitors we had fought before paled compared to their reaction to Vandire's atrocities.
It was as inspiring to behold as it was terrifying, and on the journey to Terra, I found myself wondering if the Imperium wouldn't be saved from Vandire's clutches only to be destroyed by the righteous judgement of the sons of Lorgar.'
Excerpt from Fighting alongside the sons of Lorgar : Loyalty over Faith, by Inquisitor Jaeger

Once the shock had passed, the Word Bearers prepared to return to Terra, determined to bring Vandire to justice regardless of who or what stood in their way. They did not attempt to hide their wrathful coming, instead sending astropathic messages before them in the Warp, demanding that Vandire surrender his power and await the judgement of the Emperor's Angels of Death. Enraged, Vandire denounced the Word Bearers as heretics, finally revealed as being no better than the traitors they had claimed to fight. In his madness, the High Lord convinced himself that the sons of Lorgar had actually always been in collusion with the forces of Chaos, and plotting against the Ecclesiarchy to weaken the Imperium from within. That Vandire himself had once opposed the power of the Imperial Cult was something he had long forgotten by that point. The Word Bearers were opposing him; therefore, the Word Bearers were heretics.

Vandire gathered almost all the forces at his disposal in an immense fleet under the command of his most trustworthy lieutenants and sent it to meet and destroy the armada of the Seventeenth Legion. Hundreds of ships of all classes were massed in this fleet, though the quality of its commanders was sorely lacking, as all the experienced officers of the Imperial Navy had been sent to the frontlines long ago. Still, it was a force to be reckoned with, and should it have met the Word Bearers, the resulting void engagement would have been both epic in scale and devastating to any victor who had emerged.

But the fleet never reached the Word Bearers. Soon after they left the Sol System, the ships sent by Vandire were caught in an incredibly violent and localized Warp Storm that removed them from the galaxy entirely. To this day, this storm rages still, and is known in Imperial maps as the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath. Indeed, it is believed that the storm was sent by the Emperor Himself from the Golden Throne, as a punishment to those who had desecrated His empire and as aid to His true agents. Unaware of the fleet's fate – unaware that it had even been sent against them – the Word Bearers continued their journey to Terra. But they were not the only ones to finally move against the mad tyrant.

Long before the Inquisitors returned to Terra and discovered what had become of the core Imperium in their absence, another power opposing the bloody rule of Vandire had risen in the Segmentum Obscurus, on the world of Dimmamar. A young priest named Sebastian Thor had publicly denounced the Ecclesiarch as a traitor and a heretic, and through the sheer strength of his conviction and charisma, the entire planet had soon followed him into his defiance of Vandire. Even the Governor had bent knee before the young man, and placed the entire military forces of Dimmamar under his command.

Thor left Dimmamar and began to make his own journey toward Terra, stopping at every human world he passed to preach passionately to the population. Every world he so visited turned against the rule of Vandire and his cronies, often violently overthrowing those in power. Soon, Thor was at the head of an alliance of planets and forces known as the Confederation of Light. The name had once belonged to a sect of the Imperial Cult that preached self-sacrifice, moderation, and generosity, but had been crushed ruthlessly by the dominant faction of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor in the early days of the Ecclesiarchy. Dimmamar, the homeworld of the sect, had been ruthlessly purged, but the teachings of the Confederation had survived, and been resurrected by Thor and his allies.

The Temple of the Saviour Emperor
After the end of the Roboutian Heresy and the sacrifice of the Emperor, many sects rose that worshipped Him as a god. In time, these sects would unite to become the Imperial Creed, preached across the Imperium by the Ecclesiarchy. But this process was far from peaceful. Terrible wars of religion tore the worlds of the Imperium apart, until the Imperium put an end to it by enforcing the power of the Ecclesiarchy, who would ensure the application of the Imperial Creed as the one true and only faith in the Imperium. Even those High Lords and Legion Masters who did not believe in the divinity of the Emperor were forced to accept the creation of the Ecclesiarch's office, seeing a unified religion as the only way to stop the endless and bloody religious conflict.
One of the sects who became the foundation of the Ecclesiarchy was known as the Temple of the Saviour Emperor. It was the most powerful and influential of all, with entire fleets and planets under its direct control. When the Ecclesiarch's seat was established, it was one of their own who first sat it – and they kept things that way for five thousand years. Over time, however, the Temple changed from being a genuine religion into becoming a tool of power for its leaders. The Ecclesiarch was, in their eyes, the one true ruler of the Imperium by divine right as the voice of the Emperor. This led to the tensions between the Ecclesiarchy and the other High Lords, until eventually Goge Vandire used the situation to become master of both the Ecclesiarchy and the Administratum. Under his Reign of Blood, the members of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor became even more unhinged after the last honest men among them were purged by the insane High Lord.
After the death of Vandire, the members of the Temple were hunted down by the Word Bearers and the Night Lords. While Sebastian Thor reformed the Ecclesiarchy from within, the two Legions purged the last traces of Vandire's blasphemy. However, not all of them were found. The Temple of the Saviour Emperor was a powerful sect, with allies and assets in many places. Several of its leaders escaped justice, and reappeared decades later hidden among local Ecclesiarchy's hierarchy under false identities. Known as the Temple Tendency, they are heretics all, who seek personal power and wealth above the well-being and spiritual purity of their followers. They desire the revocation of the Decree Passive, and the restoration of the immense Armies of Faith that were once theirs to control. The Ordo Hereticus considers it one of its primary missions to destroy the Temple Tendency and all its offshoots.

If not for the far direr threat posed by the Word Bearers, Vandire would doubtlessly have sent his fleet to eliminate Thor and those who followed him. But with the fleet destroyed by the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath, the two forces, one made of transhuman warriors and the other of mere mortals, arrived to Terra at nearly the same time, from two opposite directions of the galactic plane. For a terrible moment, the Word Bearers believed the fleet Thor had gathered to be under Vandire's control, and their ships' lances prepared to fire and rip their perceived enemies to pieces. But Thor managed to contact the Legion Master in time, and explained that, like the sons of Lorgar, he and his followers had come to bring down Vandire and restore the rightful rule of the God-Emperor to the Imperium. Though the Word Bearer commander chaffed at being associated with any scion of the Ecclesiarchy, he acknowledged Thor's loyalty. Together, he and the human priest launched their attack on Terra – the first battle the Throneworld had seen since the terrible events of the War of the Beast, and before that, the Roboutian heresy itself.

Unwilling to repeat the destruction these conflicts had inflicted upon Terra, the attackers decided to limit their efforts to Vandire's own palace, standing within the continental spread of the Emperor's own. But the shields of the Imperial Palace were still up, as they had been for more than five thousand years. A direct assault would require a preliminary bombardment – something neither side of the precarious alliance was willing to even consider. All attempts to contact Vandire and get him to surrender without further bloodshed had been met only with more insane ramblings, most of which seemed to be directed at persons who were not present. It is unclear whether or not Vandire was even conscious of the presence of the Word Bearers and the Confederation of Light.

But while the Word Bearers and Thor's military council were planning their next move, they received a communication from the surface of Terra. This message came from the leader of the Brides of the Emperor – who had now renamed themselves Daughters of the Emperor again – Alicia Dominica. In the hololithic projection of the strategium of the Fidelitas Lex, she appeared tall and resplendent, holding in her hand the head of Goge Vandire.

While those present were shocked silent by what they saw, Alicia explained that she had been granted an audience with the Emperor Himself by the Custodes, and seen the error of her ways in helping Vandire. She and her coven had turned against their former master, seeing him as the heretic and usurper that he really was. Alicia herself had slain the renegade Ecclesiarch, though by her own admittance, she doubted he had even noticed her presence when she struck, so lost was he in his delusions. Then, she knelt, throwing herself at the mercy of the sons of Lorgar, son of the God-Emperor, awaiting judgement for her part in Vandire's atrocities.

Reactions among the Word Bearers varied. Some were pleasantly surprised, others disgusted that it had taken so much before the Daughters had turned against the tyrant, while others were still calling for the attack, claiming that they needed to seize the occasion to purge the Imperium from the Ecclesiarchy once and for all. But Thor spoke quickly and eloquently, and the Word Bearers renounced both to their assault and to inflicting any punishment on Alicia and her sisters.

The death of Vandire ended the Reign of Blood, but it was far from being the end of the Age of Apostasy. Hundreds of worlds had broken way from the Imperium during his reign, or been lost to various invaders who had slipped beyond the Imperial forces on the frontlines. Thor, now the new Ecclesiarch, had to reform the Holy Synod, and then travel across the entire Imperium in order to restore order. This pilgrimage lasted for a hundred years, and ended with the death of Thor himself soon after he returned to Terra for the first time, his body exhausted beyond the help of juvenat treatments by his endless work – or, some suggest, slain by the hands of jealous members of the Ecclesiarchy.

Before his death, Thor and the other Hight Lords instated the Decree Passive, a commandment that forbids the Ecclesiarchy to "gather, train, promote, sustain, or in any way command any force of men under arms". However, the Daughters of the Emperor, being an order made entirely of women, were not concerned by the letter of that law, and so they became the Adeptus Sororitas. Thor believed that while the Ecclesiarchy's previous military might had to be curbed, the faith still required warriors to defend it.

Though the storms in the Warp had receded with the death of Vandire and the defeat of the Imperium's foes – at least for a time – several other tyrants had taken advantage of the confusion to build their own empires, and they too needed to be brought to heel. Greatest of them was the Apostate Cardinal Bucharis, who took advantage of his world's isolation to preach that Terra had fallen, and that he was the new leader of Mankind. Bucharis preached that only the strong deserved to live, and the weak – which included the poor, the sick, but also the old and the young – didn't have a place in the galaxy. Every human should fight for himself, and follow his own desires : only that way could Mankind as a whole prosper, free from the burden of the weak in its ranks.

His empire quickly expanded from the planet of Gathalamor, in the Segmentum Solar, to include almost fifty worlds, some conquered by force, other exposed to the same spiritual decay to which Cardinal himself had succumbed. With their resources, Bucharis built great monuments in his honor, and built up the military forces under his control.

Eventually, however, news of Bucharis' heresy came to be known, reached the ears of the Word Bearers. Barely a few years had passed since the death of Vandire, and the Word Bearers were still reeling from the scale of that betrayal. Yet they had been denied the chance to bring Vandire to justice by the intervention of the Custodes and the turning of the Daughters of the Emperor. The Legion's blood still ran hot, and when they heard of Bucharis' treachery, the leaders of the Seventeenth saw both a righteous cause and an opportunity to appease the tempers of their brothers. The still-gathered might of the Legion came upon Bucharis' empire like the wrath of the Emperor.

Within a few months, almost every world conquered by the Apostate Cardinal had been reclaimed, Bucharis' forces broken to pieces everywhere they met the Word Bearers in combat. Finally, the Legion came to Gathalamor itself. The planet had never been rich in the past, but the plundered wealth of Bucharis' empire had been used to make it a fortress as well as a luxurious capital. But the greedy generals of the Cardinal were no match for the tactical acumen of the Legionaries, and the planet fell in a mere five days. As the Space Marines descended from the skies, several popular revolts also rose from within, led by an elderly confessor named Dolan Chirosius. By the time the champions of the Seventeenth Legion tore through Bucharis' palace, located the fleeing Cardinal and killed him, they were being cheered by streets packed with rebellious citizens.

Order on Gathalamor was swiftly restored, as a fleet of Imperial reinforcements emerged from the Warp in the Word Bearers' wake, carrying officials and diplomats. The Word Bearers took advantage of the slight delay before their arrival, however, to violently purge every supporter of Bucharis they could find, regardless of their rank or possible use to the Imperium in the future. This prevented the people of Gathalamor from descending into mob justice, but also left a mark upon the Word Bearers' records that they carry to this day.

With the death of Bucharis and the destruction of his empire of lies, the Age of Apostasy finally came to an end. But the Imperium had been terribly wounded by enemies both external and internal, and the losses suffered during that dark age are yet to heal.

The Wars of Vindication
Another aspect of the Age of Apostasy, the Wars of Vindication were waged within the ranks of the Ordo Assassinorum, but they also involved the Twentieth Legion. They erupted soon before the death of Vandire and continued for a period of at least several years.
After claiming control of the Ecclesiarchy, Vandire still wanted to extend his power further. He especially desired the office of Grand Master of Assassins, for he saw the Officio Assassinorum as the only remaining threat to his power. However, the incumbent Grand Master was impervious to all of Vandire's attempts to bribe him or threaten him to his side. So, instead, Vandire cultivated a network among the Officio, turning dozens of assassins and other agents against the Grand Master. Leader of this conspiracy was Tzik Jarek, a member of the Callidus Temple. The plan was that Jarek would kill the Grand Master, then use his shape-shifting abilities to take his place and command the Officio without anyone outside the circle of conspirators being aware of the change.
Vandire died before the plan could be carried out, however. Fearful of retribution being directed at him for his part in the tyrant's reign, Jarek immediately put the plan into action. Though the assassination appeared to be a success, the Grand Master had seen the betrayal coming, and ensured that information about it reach the proper ears. Upon his death, both his own loyal servants and the Alpha Legion received detailed reports on Jarek and his allies within the Officio.
What followed was a brutal succession of skirmishes across the entire galaxy, as the sons of Alpharius teamed up with the loyal Assassins to purge the Officio of the conspirators. Little of it is recorded in the Inquisition's archives, and what we know comes only from the Assassins who took part in it. Weapons that had been locked away in sealed vaults since the time of the Heresy were wielded once more, and entire worlds were lost in cataclysms whose source was never uncovered. In the end, however, Jarek was slain, and the Officio returned under the control of the Imperium.
For all the secrecy of the Wars of Vindication, they did come to the attention of the reformed High Lords of Terra. After things had calmed down, it was decided that the power of the Officio needed to be collared, in the same manner as that of the Ecclesiarchy had been. From this point onward, every assassination carried out by the Temples would require a vote among the High Lords, and the Temples would be scattered across the galaxy, rather than focused in a single location where corruption could spread more easily. The foundation of the Ordo Sicarius was also ordered, to keep watch over the Officio in the future – and, according to rumour, on the secretive Alpha Legion as well.

It was in the aftermath of this bloody Age that the Ordo Hereticus was founded. The corrupt priests and rebellious leaders of the Age of Apostasy had revealed the importance of keeping the spiritual shepherds and political leaders of the Imperium under watch, and the heirs of the Inquisitors who warned the Word Bearers of Vandire's true nature became the first members of this new Ordo. Over time, its purview would grow to include every form of heresy, including those inspired by Chaos, leading to the members of the Ordo Hereticus receiving the nickname of "Witch Hunters".

Now, five thousand years after the death of Goge Vandire, the events of the Age of Apostasy have faded into legend for most Imperial citizens. But the High Lords of Terra still remember how the sons of Lorgar did not hesitate for a moment to sail toward the Throneworld in the intent of killing everyone in charge there. According to many savants of the Inquisition, this has had both positive and negative consequences, as it encourages the High Lords to do their best to avoid drawing the ire of the Seventeenth, while also making the most ruthless among them plot the destruction of the entire Legion.

Organization

'From the darkness of ignorance, the flame of truth shall spring, and bring forth the age of illumination.'
Inscription on the prow of the Fidelitas Lex, the Gloriana-class flagship of the Seventeenth Legion (translated from High Gothic)

Since the loss of their Primarchs, the Word Bearers have been led by a Legion Master. Such centralized command was made necessary by the isolation from the rest of the Imperium that afflicts the Seventeenth : if the sons of Lorgar did not stand together, their hidden enemies would have been able to plot their destruction long ago. At the same time, this unity has made their dissenters even more nervous, as they fear that the one rising to this station might one day be corrupted, and turn the full might of the Seventeenth Legion with him against the Imperium.

The Legion Master operates from the Fidelitas Lex, one of the last Gloriana-class ships left in the Imperium from the days of the Great Crusade. This magnificent vessel, twenty kilometers long, is both a fortress and a weapon. Under his direct command are several of the Legion's Chapters, in which the rest of the Word Bearers are divided. Word Bearers' Chapters are the equivalent of other Legions' Great Companies, averaging a thousand warriors in total. Every Chapter is named after a constellation of Colchis' night sky, and each name has been in use since the days of the Great Crusade. Because of the relentless conflicts in which all Astartes are thrown, there are always several names without a corresponding Chapters, as losses become too great to replace. But always new warriors are forged, and eventually, a new Chapter is born, bearing the name and heraldry of one of the fallen ones.

Each Chapter is led by a Chapter Master, answering only to the Legion Master. It is them who, when the Legion Master dies, must choose a new one from among their number. They are counselled by a group of Chaplains, Techmarines and Captains, but their command is undisputed. The discipline in the Seventeenth Legion is known to be the strictest of all loyal Legions, which is no small feat. While Chapters operate separate from one another, the Legion as a whole is generally present in a single one of the galactic fronts, its forces kept more dense than those of any other Legion.

The Iterators
During the Great Crusade, almost every Expeditionary Fleet was accompanied by men and women gifted with great oratory skills. Their task was to help the soldiers of the Imperium negotiate the peaceful integration of human worlds into the fledgling empire. Each of them had been selected by a process even more rigorous than that of an Astartes Aspirant, for while it is said that only one youth out of a hundred might become a Space Marine, only one soul in a million had the qualities required to become an Iterator. Philosophers of the Imperial Truth, diplomats without peer and demagogues supreme, it fell to them to truly unite conquered worlds with the Imperium.
When the Heresy ended the Great Crusade, the Iterators were disbanded, becoming simple diplomats once more. Only the Word Bearers maintained this office, selecting humans with the appropriate talents and having them trained in the great universities of Colchis. To this day, their forces are accompanied by these individuals, who act as intermediaries between the Legionaries and the rest of the Imperium. While their primary task is to maintain the relationship between the Word Bearers and the greater Imperium, they are still charged with the same duties as their forebears on the rare occasions where a human world is rediscovered after being cut off from the rest of the galaxy.

Combat Doctrine

'Burn their idols, lay down their tainted temples, slay their fell priests. We will not leave this world until every single Chaos worshipper is dead !'
Chapter Master Harzhan of the Word Bearers Legion, before the Purge of Oceania

Because of their unique beliefs, the Word Bearers are often forced to fight without the support of the other branches of the Imperium's warmachine. This has made them adepts at all styles of warfare, though it has also reinforced their main strategy of launching massive assaults against several target points at once, each thrust having the same strength behind it and capable of tilting the balance if it is successful.

In the millennia since the Age of Apostasy, the Word Bearers have worked more closely with the agents of the Ordo Hereticus than any other Legion. Today, as more and more heretics and traitors reveal themselves each year in the Imperium, some motivated by greed, others by ambition and yet more by misplaced ideals, the work of that Ordo is more important than ever. The Word Bearers know it, and are willing to dedicate most of their forces to the assistance of the Inquisitors in defeating those threats they have failed to prevent from coming to fruition. Out of all the loyal Legions, the Word Bearers are perhaps the one with the highest human body count of all, as they are regularly called upon to put down rebellions against the rule of the Emperor.

When deployed against a human population corrupted by Chaotic influence, the Word Bearers are relentless in their prosecution of the conflict. It is far more frequent for them to enter the state of trance-like fury they are infamous for in these wars than in any others, but even if they retain all their faculties, they are still terrible to behold. Using their extensive knowledge of the Archenemy's ways, they will strike at his weakest spots, seeking to destroy his leadership in order to ensure their foes turn against each other. But even if the enemy side descends into civil war, they do not simply step back and watch the forces of Chaos destroy themselves – instead, they push forward, ready to take losses to ensure none of the heretics take advantage of the confusion to escape. Even after military victory is achieved, the Word Bearers will not stop until every trace of heresy has been destroyed. They know from bitter experience that if even a single heretical icon remains unfound and unbroken, it can lead to the birth of another cult, starting the whole process again and damning potentially millions of souls in the process.

The Iconoclast Marines
The wars waged by all Space Marines require them to be detached from humanity, for they would not be able to withstand all that they witness and commit otherwise. Their training and the transformations of their physiology ensure that they can kill as their function dictates without suffering from the psychological effects such an existence inflicts upon any normal, sane human mind. Even the Astra Militarum, whose recruits have spent their entire lives being told that to die for the Emperor is the greatest honor, suffer from psychological damage after battle, and require the care of priests and medical officers. The Space Marines only need Chaplains for the most disturbing of battles, such as fighting against daemons or a weaker, defenceless human population who must nonetheless be purged for its corruption.
But the Iconoclast Marines, as they are called by those who know of their existence, do not even require such spiritual care. They are those who, after entering the zealous fury that is Lorgar's gift to their bloodline, never return to normal. While still intelligent and capable of using tactics, they now act against any enemy in the same way as they did against those who triggered the rage in the first place : cold, ruthless, merciless annihilation, completely uncaring of the cost of the methods employed. No cure has ever been found to this affliction, though there are legends that Lorgar was able to drag his sons back into sanity, and that Imperial Saints also have this ability – although how the Word Bearer in question could have gotten close to one is a difficult scenario to imagine. Whenever a warrior enters this state and does not return at the end of the current campaign, he is immediately stripped of his former rank, his armor is repainted in crimson, and he becomes a Iconoclast Marine. Every Chapter has a few such warriors among its ranks – usually no more than a squad or two, though circumstances can lead to that number increasing dramatically. These individuals are generally kept away from the rest of the Chapter, ostensibly to prevent possible contagion, but in reality, because no son of Lorgar wants to see a permanent reminder of what he might become – little more than a machine turning on hatred.
Iconoclast Marines are only deployed when it is vital to ensure no enemy escapes. They care even less for their lives than normal Astartes, and can be outright callous in the pursuit of their objectives. An Iconoclast Marine will think nothing, for instance, of killing a thousand civilians in order to ensure the death of the heretical preacher hiding among them. In single combat, they are even more formidable than their brethren, but they lack the true brotherhood and synchronization other Astartes do not even notice they have. Because Iconoclast Marines are entered into the Legion's archives of the dead when they succumb, they are also sent on suicide missions, to which none of them have ever objected.

Homeworld

Unlike some of the other loyalist Legions, the Word Bearers have restricted their base of operation to a single planet – Colchis, the world of their Primarch. However, they have established compacts with forge-worlds all across the galaxy, exchanging their protection for resources. They have also made alliances with powerful Rogue Trader bloodlines, who are more open-minded than the rest of the Imperium. A Rogue Trader who secures an alliance with the Seventeenth Legion gains a powerful ally, and one who will always keep its word, but must also now contends with the wrath of the Ecclesiarchy. Still, it is a deal many Houses are willing to make, and one that has profited most of them.

Colchis has changed greatly since the day Lorgar landed upon its surface. Millennia of careful terraformation have turned the planet into a more habitable world, though it is still hot and dry by any human standard. Great facilities are dedicated to the recycling of water, while cities are shielded from the merciless sun during Colchis long, slow day by immense panels of reflecting glass. These panels can also be used to focus the light of Colchis' sun into burning beams, a weapon that has been used several times in the planet's history. Most of Colchis' population either work in the great farms that keep the planet fed, or in the industrial complexes that produce the weapons and armor the Word Bearers need to prosecute their wars. The cities of Colchis have grown around the Legion's fortresses, where the relics of the Word Bearers are preserved and the next generation of Astartes are selected and trained.

In orbit around Colchis are a lot of orbital platforms and shipyards, used to maintain the fleet of the Seventeenth Legion. Thanks to the good relationship between the Word Bearers and the Adeptus Mechanicus – the tech-priests of Mars care little for the sons of Lorgar's lack of faith in the divinity of the Emperor – these shipyards are some of the most advanced in the Imperium. It is also said that the Martian priests who work here are among the less traditional of their order, and rumors abound of new types of ship weapons and even ship designs being developed in Colchis' orbit.

Yet despite all these advancements, Colchis still struggles with the ghosts of its unhallowed past. The Covenant's Legacy still tries to return to power on the planet, with Chaos cults launching massive invasions with almost clockwork regularity. Few of those ever get pass the orbital defenses of Colchis, but enough to get through that the people of Colchis never forget how to fight them, or why they must be fought in the first place. Beyond these outside attacks, there are also the home-grown cults to deal with, for despite ten thousand years of seeking and destroying them, there are still cells of the Covenant active on the planet. In the last millennia, however, the Word Bearers' alliance with the Ordo Hereticus has allowed them to gain the aid of the Inquisition in that matter, and the influence of the Covenant has much weakened on Colchis.

The Covenant's Legacy
Even after the annihilation visited upon it by Lorgar himself, the marks of the Covenant's influence have yet to truly vanish from Colchis. Despite the best efforts of the Primarch, not every priest was slain or made to renounce his foul gods during the Wars of the False Priests. A few managed to escape judgement, and they hid among the population, vowing to one day avenge their order's destruction. When the Imperium came to Colchis, they seized the opportunity to spread to other, less prepared worlds. These first-generation survivors took disciples of their own, and ensured that the foul lore gathered by the Covenant over the centuries did not vanish entirely.
During the Heresy, many of the Chaos Cults Guilliman who rallied beneath Guilliman's banner had been founded by such heirs of the Covenant. Though they were little more than cannon fodder when pitted against the might of Legiones Astartes, they still inflicted untold damage to human worlds before the death of the Arch-Traitor and the Scouring of the Imperium. But even the Scouring wasn't enough to truly root out this evil, and in the ten thousand years since, many more cults have been traced back to the Covenant's Legacy. Its members follow ancient prophecies from the days of the Old Faith on Colchis, claiming that at the times of ending, a great champion of their gods will rise and unite the entire galaxy with the primordial powers of the Warp. There have been many candidates to that role in the past, but none of them have succeeded – and, the Emperor willing, none ever will.
It is feared by some members of the Inquisition that the remnants of the Covenant might have, in recent years, made contact with those of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor, and entered into a blasphemous alliance. If this is true, then the threat each of these heretical factions pose to the Imperium could increase exponentially as the fell knowledge of the Covenant combines with the resources available to the Tendency. According to Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, such a compact was behind the heretical effort to contact the Chaos-corrupted xenos known as the Saruthi and recover the Necroteuch, an infernal grimoire from Mankind's ancient history.

Beliefs

'They call us faithless, because we refuse to believe in the lie that they use to maintain their control over the Emperor's dominion. But they do not even understand the true meaning of faith.
To truly have faith in something, you must know it. Understand it. Not just blindly believe it true because someone else told you so. All it takes for that is wilful ignorance, and that is not faith – it is oppression, masquerading as faith. The stifling of human passion under the weight of dogma. The Ecclesiarchy breeds fanatics, not faithful, and the god they claim to revere is a twisted parody of the beliefs for which the Emperor fought.
We of the Seventeenth have faith. Faith in one another, faith in the ideals of the Great Crusade, faith in the vision of the Emperor for Mankind. Faith in the teachings of our Primarch, now lost to us amidst the tides of war. Faith that Humanity is worth fighting for, worthy of ruling the galaxy, worthy of simply continuing to exist in a universe that has turned to nightmare after Guilliman's betrayal. For we know that, no matter the machinations of Chaos and the petty ambitions of mortal men, there is one thing our species will never lose …
Hope.'
From the writings of Argel Tal, Legion Master of the Seventeenth Legion, post-Heresy

The Word Bearers do not believe in the divinity of the Emperor, like most of the loyal Legions. But they are the only one to actively oppose the worship of the Master of Mankind, as prescribed by the Imperial Creed. To them, the Ecclesiarchy is a mockery of the ideals of the Great Crusade and of the Emperor Himself. The Word Bearers believe in the rightful rule of the Emperor, and do believe that He lives still, and watches over Mankind in spirit, His immense psychic power directing the light of the Astronomican and preventing the downfall of the entire species into the ravenous claws of Chaos. But they refuse to call Him a god, and do not offer prayers to Him – instead, they dedicate themselves to His ideals by their actions on the field of battle. In their eyes, fighting the enemies of Mankind is the one and only service He demands of them, the purpose for which they have been forged.

The sons of Lorgar also remember what happened on their homeworld ten thousand years ago, when the cruel rule of the Covenant all but bled the planet dry. To them, religion is a tool that can be all too easily hijacked by the Dark Gods, and which, even in its most inoffensive aspects, blinds Mankind to the truth of the universe and shackles their potential. The events of the Age of Apostasy have only reinforced that belief. On the rare occasions when the Word Bearers have fought alongside the Adeptus Sororitas, it has taken all the diplomatic skill of their Iterators to prevent the eruption of outright conflict.

Over the centuries, several Inquisitors belonging to the most extreme Puritans philosophies have decried the Word Bearers as heretics. Most often, these members of the Ordos come from the Ecclesiarchy, and were selected as Acolytes by an already Puritan Inquisitor. But the allies of the Word Bearers among the more reasonable members of the Holy Ordos (and, since its founding, most members of the Ordo Hereticus) have always ensured that such denunciations are never followed by any true action. From a purely theoretical point of view, the Word Bearers are, in the Ecclesiarchy's eyes, heretics, for they do not believe in the divinity of the Emperor. But so are most loyal Space Marines, and the Imperial Cult has long since come up with excuses and special exceptions for the Angels of Death where the Master of Mankind is concerned. One of the most commonly used is that Astartes are closer to Him through the blood that courses through their veins, and therefore, unlike mere mortals, cannot understand the true greatness of His power and benevolence.

Though they have no love for prophecies of any kind, the Word Bearers do also believe that their Primarch still lives. Theories abound as to his current fate, with the most prominent among the sons of Lorgar being that he was drawn into the Sea of Souls alongside the four Greater Daemons he fought on Khur, and is still fighting against Chaos in its own domain. There is even a theory that, if the hold of Chaos over the galaxy is weakened enough, its power in the Warp will also diminish and allow Lorgar to escape and return to the material plane. Of course, even if that were true, the power of Chaos has only been rising in the last millennia, despite the many setbacks heroic defenders of the Imperium have inflicted upon it. Still, the Word Bearers cling to this hope, and dream of the day their Primarch returns to lead them once more.

The Heralds
All Legions use Chaplains to maintain morale and watch over their Legionaries' mental well-being. But in the ranks of the Word Bearers, those who carry the crozius have another role. The office of Chaplain itself originates from their Legion, for it was at the dawn of the Great Crusade that the first black-clad, skull-helmed warriors appeared among the Astartes of the Seventeenth Legion. Only those who had shown the most devotion to the Imperial Truth were selected for that role, and it was their duty to go to those who refused to join the Imperium because of religious beliefs. Alone, a black-armoured warrior would journey to the gates of his enemies, and give them a warning of the futility of their resistance and the erroneous nature of their beliefs. Unlike the Iterators, who were used when negotiations were possible, these Heralds were only sent to those too lost to the trappings of faith to even consider accepting the Imperial Truth. Though the Heralds' dreadful aspect sometimes convinced the opposition to lay down arms and surrender, it was far more common for the envoy to be attacked, and to fall in battle after slaying hundreds of his foes.
Today, the tradition of the Heralds has remained in the Seventeenth Legion. When facing an enemy whose very existence doesn't invite destruction – such as the population of a recently rediscovered human world, an Imperial planet rebelling against incompetent leadership, or even, in some occasions, the Eldar – a Chaplain will go, alone, and give them a chance to surrender. It is rare for these offers to be taken, but the death of the Herald always makes the rest of the Legion fights harder, and in the rare cases where he succeeds, losses of Legionaries are prevented.

Recruitment and Geneseed

The gene-seed of Lorgar is marked by a single genetic flaw. Those who bear it are afflicted with an unbalance in the complex hormones that direct their emotions, leading to excesses of zeal and passion that, to them, seem perfectly normal, but are utterly terrifying to outsiders. What triggers these bursts of righteous fury can vary from one individual to the next, though it is known that the Reign of Blood triggered a Legion-wide case. When in that state, the Word Bearers care nothing for whom they might offend or how their actions might appear to the eyes of anyone else. All that matters to them is the enemy and the death they must inflict upon them. That is not to say that they lose their calm and become berzerkers – quite the opposite, and their cold, ruthless practicality is far more frightening than any outburst of rage.

Almost every Word Bearer was born on Colchis. While being the recruiting ground for a Legion is generally seen as a mark of honor, Governors are nervous about allowing the sons of Lorgar to take the children of their worlds. They fear the wrath of the Ecclesiarchy, mostly materialized through mysterious, unexplained increases in tithes for the planets who let the Seventeenth Legion recruit on their soil. Still, there are times when the Word Bearers will find a promising youth while operating on an Imperial world, and take him under their protection, pending testing by the Apothecaries for genetic compatibility. Fortunately, it is quite easy to find matches for Lorgar's gene-seed, though the population of Colchis sometimes requires new blood to compensate for the tithe it pays to the Legion. Refugees from worlds destroyed by war are regularly brought to the arid world, and although life on Colchis is far from easy, the protection of the Word Bearers is a great comfort to these poor souls.

Warcry

The Word Bearers do not wage war in silence. Their conviction demands to be expressed, and they shout their warcries over the battlefields with the full strength of their three lungs, in a wall of sound that is known to have, on occasion, broken the ranks of lesser foes. Typical battle cries include 'We bring the Word of Lorgar !' and 'Ave Imperator !', but many more exist, adapted by the Chaplains prior to the battle to the current foe.

When they enter their zealous rage, however, the only battle-cries shouted by the sons of Lorgar are promises of retribution to their foes, swift and merciless. The utter certainty in their tones as they bellow their vows over the battlefield has been known to shatter the morale of lesser enemies, and unnerve even Traitor Marines when they are faced with a charge of the Seventeenth.

The flame struggles against the darkness.

Everywhere, shadows gather, growing ever stronger. They press against the flame, hungering for its extinction. They want to snuff it out, to at long last return their realm to the darkness.

But the flame still fights back.

Despair, arrogance, bloodlust, perversion, all sins feed the power of the darkness and weaken the strength of the light. War eternal presses on, threatening to end hope itself, promising only endless torment or merciful oblivion. Even that promise is a lie, for the dread lords of this infernal realm have no pity in them – only cruelty.

And yet, the flame still shines. Because it remembers. Because it knows.

There is a greater fire yet awaiting to be kindled. And the day is coming, when the spark, preserved for ten thousand years, is called upon to light up this grand blaze.

This is his promise. And so he keeps fighting. Over and over, throughout eternity, until the final hour.

Darkness will not triumph. So he has sworn. So it shall be.

---

AN : 'Ave Imperator !'

Here they are, the Bearers of the Word, carrying the flame of truth in a galaxy built upon lies. Theirs is an unkind fate, yet still they defend Mankind, and will do so until the end.

Who doomed Lorgar ? Who whispered lies into his mind, and pushed him down the path of damnation ? Who is responsible for everything the Imperium has become ?

Many point to Erebus, for he was the one to poison Horus, the one to engineer the downfall of the Warmaster. But he was nothing but a pawn of the Dark Gods. The one to blame, the one who poisoned Lorgar's soul, is Kor Phaeron. A bitter old man, who would rather see the galaxy burn that allow his ambitions to be thwarted.

And so I have given this incarnation of Lorgar other role models. People who are wise rather than cynical, people who love rather than hate, people who have always been victims rather than monsters. And from this, and the absence of the visions, everything else flows naturally.

Now, onto the notion of his atheism. To me, it is one of the two natural reactions a being such as Lorgar could have to Colchis' culture. When confronted with the worse aspects of human religion, a man like him, imbued with an instinctual knowledge of good and evil, of right and wrong, could not possibly accept it. He would have to bring down this religion of evil, and cast down the idols of the past. Lorgar does that in canon and in the RH, because that's the right thing to do, and no matter what happened to him in the end, in the beginning, Lorgar was a kind and righteous soul. That's what makes his tale so tragic.

But the *how* is what's important here. In canon, Lorgar chose to replace the Old Ways of Colchis with his own belief in the divinity of the Emperor. He believed that the visions that plagued him were a sign of a coming god. My Lorgar doesn't have these visions. And so, without an outside source convincing him that there are beings who perhaps deserve worship more than the gods currently praised by Colchis' priests, he reacts in a way that I believe is understandable :

He comes to the conclusion that all religion is inherently evil, a tool for oppression and deceit. It might not be the truth, and it certainly isn't my own belief, but given his environment, what other conclusion could he reach ? What had he seen that could make him think otherwise ? And so he set off to free Colchis from the shackles of the Dark Gods, unaware that he was even doing so, but no less determined for it.

Another thing : in this timeline, Bucharis begins his revolt against the Imperium much sooner. The timeline in canon is imprecise as hell, but I thinks more than a few years at least passed between Vandire's death and the Apostate Cardinal's heresy in canon. Here, though, things happened differently.

Also, I am aware that events in the Age of Apostasy didn't change much from canon. I am sorry about it, but there are only so many ways to have a mad tyrant rise to command of the Imperium without it collapsing entirely.

For the Iconoclast Marines ... Yes, I created something that is the polar opposite of the Death Company ! And in the Word Bearers no less ! Do you know why ? Because there is a flaw in Lorgar's gene-seed. It is discussed in Betrayer that there is something in their genetic code that makes them obey Lorgar unquestionably, and more generally, follow orders with less ability to question them. That struck me as entirely the wrong trait for this incarnation, and as I was reading the Forge Worlds Horus Heresy books on the Word Bearers, I saw that they had once been nicknamed "the Iconoclasts" by the other Legions, and everything just clicked into place.

I am aware that I said the next chapter of the Forsaken Sons would be up next, but I really wanted this chapter to go up today. As many of you might now, today is a special day in my country, and this is my personal tribute to those we honor today. Rest assured that the next chapter of the Forsaken Sons will come ... though I admit I am having some difficulties. I am thinking about scraping all that I have written so far and starting over, to be honest.

As usual, if you see inconsistencies, please mention them as soon as possible so I can correct them or prepare a way to deal with them in following chapters.

Thanks to Jaenera Targaryenfor beta reading this. If you want to see more of the Roboutian Heresy, go to her story, Blood of Ignorance. Also, remember to check Nemris' page on deviantart for his superb artworks of this series. Thanks to the two of you, your support is really appreciated !

Thanks to you all for following/favoring this story. You are more and more numerous, and in fact, the number of view for this story surpassed those for Warband of the Forsaken Sons sometimes between the last chapter and this one !

Don't forget to leave a review if you enjoyed this chapter, have a question, or a suggestion for what remains to be written. The Salamanders are next - finally, I will be able to write some true monsters. Beware the wrath of the Dragon ...

Zahariel out.