The Leonine Heresy

by Sharrowkyn

Inspired by the Roboutian Heresy, this is the tale of Lion El'Jonson's fall to Chaos as he leads half of his brothers (and not necessarily the ones you might think) in rebellion against the Emperor. All Index Astartes entries have been completed, and now we are journeying through the various War Zones of the 41st Millennium.

5. Index Astartes: Word Bearers

Chapter 5: Index Astartes: Word Bearers

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Index Astartes- Word Bearers: Saints, Sages, and Soldiers

All the sons of the Emperor embodied some aspect of him, be it justice or wisdom or strength, but none embody him as completely and none combine his traits quite like Lorgar Aurelian. Once a worshiper of the Emperor, then the advocate of reason, Lorgar's struggles during the Leonine Heresy allowed him to gain balance, unlocking his full potential. Lorgar's legacy has lived on, passed to his sons. For most Astartes, the worship given to the Emperor is a matter of some embarrassment. For the Astartes of the Seventeenth Legion, it's a logical conclusion to worship a higher power, and more sons of Lorgar worship the God-Emperor than any other. Though their father fell during the Scouring, the Word Bearers continue to spread his message of hope, emanating his enlightenment across a darkening galaxy.

Origins: Tharmas

Ten thousand years of service has left the Emperor's many legions bearing little resemblance to how they originally appeared. After the tragic death of the Thunder Warriors after the Battle of Mt. Ararat, the Emperor knew he would need new warriors to help him reconquer the galaxy. To this end, he turned his scientific genius toward creating the Legiones Astartes, armies of super soldiers organized into legions. Each of these legions were recruited from particular regions of Terra, which gave them unique cultures. However, there were a few exceptions, including the XVII Legion. The XVII Legion were recruited not from any particular region of Terra, but from the children of defeated foes. Thus there existed parallels between this legion and the mighty Legio Custodes, the Emperor's personal bodyguards. The Legion was one of the few to receive a name from the Emperor when they were founded, and they were called the Imperial Heralds.

The Heralds fought by the Emperor's side alongside all the other legions. The Emperor had originally intended for the Astartes to be led by beings known as the Primarchs, but this was not to be. The Emperor's sons were stolen in a treacherous act known as the Scattering, and so the legions instead fought directly underneath the Emperor in one large fleet. Later on, when the sons of the Emperor were reunited with their creator, they were granted command of their own fleets and sent out to continue the Emperor's work on their own. The first stages of the Great Crusade traveled in three main directions, each sphere possessing its own fleet and leader. The first and largest fleet was suitably led by the Emperor himself. Horus Lupercal, his favored first-found son, led the second, while Ferrus Manus, the fourth-found, led the third. Legions whose primarchs had not been found were generally assigned to Horus, but such was not the case with the Seventeenth. From the beginning the Imperial Heralds showed particular effectiveness when fighting beside the Master of Mankind, and so they were allowed to remain there.

Despite remaining under the Emperor's personal command, the Heralds were rarely united. The Heralds were to act as the Emperor's emissaries and messengers, to bring news of his enlightened rule wherever they went. Thus they were often split into many groups, deployed against foes steeped in superstition and sent to offer ultimatums: embrace the Imperial Truth or be destroyed. Their loyalty was never in question, for they had been indoctrinated to the point of fanaticism. All the Emperor's Legions were devoted to him, but the XVII took it to the point of zealotry. Such intensity of focus was believed to be a result of their gene-seed, and the Heralds fought with single-minded fury. Though there was no particular moment of glory that marked them as unique compared to the other legions, it did not bother the Heralds, who found it honorable simply to serve the Imperium, or more specifically, the Emperor. Thus the legion already bore its own culture of selfless dedication to their master, and they had less longing than other legions to be reunited with their primarch. The legion was to campaign at his side for around a century, until the day they were finally reunited with their progenitor and learned that even something created in imitation of the Emperor still bore glories all its own.

The Aurelian of Colchis

There is no one quite like the Emperor of Mankind. Even taking away his sheer might and immortality, the Emperor's personality is unique, as much a mystery to the Imperium today as it was when he still walked among mortal men. Even his mighty demigod sons the Primarchs were said to only embody partial aspects of him, singular traits that shaped their outlook and philosophy. Had they been raised by the Emperor himself, perhaps they would have been more complete, more loyal to their father's designs. Such talk is considered heresy, and rightly so, but the Inquisition must needs look into the abyss and consider alternatives if it is to effectively keep watch for signs of darker motives at work. For various reasons, it seems as though those sons of the Emperor who stayed loyal tended to be those most willing to change, while those who spurned their creator and turned their backs on him were more set in their ways. All are familiar with the redemption of Konrad Curze the Martyr, and it is a given that the mighty Russ was changed during his travels. However, no Son of the Emperor, and no legion, changed quite as much as the Word Bearers, and one must look to his origins to find the cause of this.

The gene-pod designated XVII was, like all the others, cast to the Warp by the jealous attentions of the dark gods. Being one of the later pods, it was cast an incredibly short distance compared to others, landing on a world named Colchis. Located to the galactic west of Terra, the world was one of the first settled by the generation ships during Mankind's early space exploration. Colchis was a desert planet five times the size of Terra, a harsh land where days were stiflingly hot and nights deadly cold. The Age of Strife was not kind to this world, and by the time the pod arrived, the world had regressed to a feudal state, a collection of theocratic states built over the ruins of a once great civilization. These states were united in their faith known as the Covenant, a polytheistic religion which spoke of a pantheon at war with itself. Colchis and the Pantheon would only know peace with the arrival of a new god, a golden figure known as the Urizen, who would begin a new age for Colchis.

When the pod made its entry into this backwater, it crashed directly into the largest building on the planet at the center of the city of Vharadesh, the Spire Temple. Some say had the pod arrived at a slightly different angle, if it had spent more time in Warp transit, it would have landed more peacefully. As it happened, the pod crashed through the load-bearing columns of the temple one after the other, and the vast temple, center of the Covenant religion, came crumbling down. The priesthood of Vharadesh was decimated, crushed beneath the shattered masonry with few survivors. One of these priests, a young man named Kor Phaeron, was outside the temple when it was struck, and immediately rushed in to search for survivors. To his astonishment, he found a strange, golden-skinned baby boy, lying unharmed at the center of the ruins. Recognizing this as a sign, Kor Phaeron took the boy into his care, naming him Lorgar, which meant 'rain-caller', in honor of his arrival from the sky.

With the destruction of the Spire Temple, the priests of Vharadesh were forced to become wandering holy men, offering their services as they traveled the towns as mendicants. The people of Vharadesh feared this boy, who grew at an unnatural rate and had caused such devastation, and the boy and his father were both exiled. Raised by Kor Phaeron, Lorgar became an acolyte of the priesthood of the Covenant, growing in wisdom and strength as he and his adoptive father traveled the barren deserts from town to town. Oftentimes they would camp in the ruins of once mighty buildings, where Kor Phaeron would attempt to teach Lorgar the tenets of their faith. The loss of his home made Kor Phaeron reconsider his deep-seated faith in the Covenant, his bitterness and cynicism transformed into a deep-seated humility, and so Lorgar received a rather unorthodox interpretation of the faith compared to what he would have been taught had the temple still existed. Lorgar seemed most taken by the prophecies of the Urizen, and, together with his adoptive father, scoured the ruins for ancient texts and knowledge of the past. Lorgar had a powerful personality and a gift for preaching, and many listeners found themselves drawn to him. The two wanderers attracted a caravan of followers who traveled with them across the vast deserts.

Years passed, and Lorgar's interpretation of the Covenant began to spread throughout the cities of Colchis. The priests of the Covenant had grown decadent over centuries of unchallenged rule, and reacted violently to this new interpretation of the faith. They denounced these heterodox views as heresy, choosing to inflict the traditional punishment of human sacrifice. Any caught professing other views were burned alive as offerings to appease their gods. When Lorgar learned of this, his peaceful nature gave way to wrath, and issued scathing condemnations of those who would deny his message. He called upon his followers to join him in marching on the other cities of Colchis, and many cities simply threw open their gates upon hearing him speak in person. The final city to fall was Vharadesh. The people of Lorgar's hometown rejected him as a false prophet, and a brutal struggle ensued. Lorgar showed himself to be more than just a preacher, and led a successful siege which saw the city walls crumble before him. As Lorgar took possession of Vharadesh, he was now in control of the entirety of Colchis. It was at this moment everything changed.

Lorgar flipped through the sacred texts of Vharadesh contained in the crypts under the ruins of the once grand Spire Temple. He read extremely quickly, absorbing in seconds what it took others hours to learn. His father had always expressed amazement at how quickly Lorgar picked up information, and made no secret of his belief that Lorgar might well be the Urizen, the golden one. Lorgar had always been uneasy at this, a lingering feeling that the prophecies of the Covenant were incomplete, and that more knowledge existed than what was public knowledge, and these texts confirmed it. These tomes, accessible only to the chief priests, spoke of the true nature of the Covenant faith and the true nature of the Urizen. The Urizen was not the savior, but only one part of him, a greater god once whole but now split. But who could it be?

As he finished with the last tome, a loud roar shook the chamber, and Lorgar rushed to the surface to find the source of the disturbance. He looked into the sky, and beheld a golden object, what looked like a ship, but far larger than any of the flimsy wooden boats that plied the shallow seas of Colchis. A crackle of light appeared in front of Lorgar, and from it stepped two figures. The first was a fearsome giant with but one eye, similar to the red ogres of Colchisian legend. The next was a golden man who shined such light as to bring Lorgar to tears. As Lorgar knelt, knowing this was the figure his faith had spoken of, he dared to look up into the face of his new god, and beheld the face of a man with a sad, knowing smile on his face.

The Warp around Colchis was highly uncharted: traders avoided it due to unpredictable currents, and an entire expeditionary fleet had gone missing several decades earlier. Scholars of the Inquisition believe that the frequency of human sacrifice was to blame for this instability, the constant ritual death fueling powerful immaterial currents around the sector. The Emperor had come to the area in search of the missing fleet, and sensed the presence of one of his sons upon Colchis, landing with another primarch, Magnus the Red and members of the Thousand Sons. Colchis was a world steeped in the Warp, though there was a curious lack of psykers. Lorgar knelt in homage to the Emperor, recognizing him as the superior being the legends had spoken of. He had had recurring visions during his years upon Colchis, and they had all pointed to this moment. The Emperor seemed uncomfortable at Lorgar's words of devotion, gently admonishing his son by telling him of the Imperial Truth. He did not speak too harshly though, and Lorgar eagerly swore his allegiance to his father, and received a legion of his own in return.

Great Crusade: Urizen

When Lorgar was reunited with his sons, he pronounced himself well-pleased with the state of his legion. The Imperial Heralds were renamed to the Word Bearers, those who would bring the Word of the Emperor to the stars. Their armor was changed from passionless stone gray to a deep red to symbolize the fire of their devotion, and rituals began to take on increasing importance within the legion. Lorgar's force of personality rendered his sons a receptive audience to these changes, and he found it easy to strengthen their devotion to the Emperor into full-on worship. Wherever the Word Bearers went, massive temples to the 'God-Emperor' were erected, and compliances were followed with indoctrination of the planet. Populations who refused to convert were put to the sword, systematically decimated until they were willing to convert. The worlds the Word Bearers left behind were undeniably loyal, but loyal to the Emperor, not the Imperium.

The new legion was rebuilt in Lorgar's image with recruits from Colchis, whose people had embraced Lorgar's message years before. So too were the planets conquered by the Word Bearers shaped by the beliefs of Lorgar. All traces of native religions were eradicated: Lorgar used the reformed teachings of the Covenant to create a new book of faith to aid in conversion. Known as the Lectitio Divinitatus, this tome was a comprehensive and rational series of arguments expressing the tenets of Lorgar's faith in the Emperor's divinity. This tome even found its way onto the legion's heraldry, and the Astartes bore the symbol of a book upon their pauldron. The Imperial Truth denied the existence of gods or divinities, and yet one of the Imperial Legions was spreading a new faith.

At Lorgar's side throughout was Kor Phaeron. Too old to become a full Astartes, Lorgar's adoptive father received extensive juvenat treatments and enhancements to become essentially a half-Astartes, the superior of any mortal but still not quite as powerful as a regular Astartes. Phaeron served as First Captain and Master of the Faith, rarely taking the field, preferring to serve as the spiritual heart of the legion as an advisor. Lorgar approved of the Imperial Herald practice of recruiting from the sons of defeated enemies, and so many of the new recruits came from the illegitimate children of the priests of Vharadesh who had spurned Lorgar so long ago. Lorgar seemed to take pleasure in promoting them to positions of authority within the legion. The legion was divided into chapters, each named after constellations of Colchis, and the chapters were sorted into four sections, each associated with a classical element of Colchis. These four sections were headed by the most favored of Lorgar's sons, heroes such as the wise Erebus or the brave Argel Tal, who bore the title of Zoa. Those who were particularly devoted to Lorgar and the Emperor were awarded the title of Chaplain. The Word Bearers called their father the Urizen, after a religious hero of Colchisian myth.

Lorgar's first taste of interstellar warfare took place under the tutelage of his brother Magnus the Red. The two swiftly struck up a friendship, their similar natures leading them to work well together. Magnus helped Lorgar understand his visions, and his sons eagerly recorded the lore found in Colchis's dusty libraries. Lorgar was the fifteenth found, nearly a century after the Scattering, and so his brothers already possessed quite a tally of conquests before Lorgar was allowed to campaign on his own. However, Lorgar seemed to care more about achieving obedience as opposed to compliance. Over fifty years had passed since Lorgar had been found, and the Word Bearers had by far the worst success rate of any legion. His legion would linger over worlds long after they had submitted, departing only after their religious devotion to the Emperor was assured. Such methods led the Word Bearers to have a much slower rate of conquest, as well as high numbers of destroyed systems that were rendered lifeless after refusing to worship. Lorgar's brothers almost universally mocked him for this, calling him weak and unfit to lead a legion, though he paid them little heed. Unfortunately for Lorgar, there was one who did listen to them.

"My worlds are loyal! My legion shapes the most fiercely loyal worlds in your Imperium!" Lorgar screamed. "I've fought for you! I've obeyed your commandments!" All around him Monarchia burned. When Lorgar had heard Khur was under attack, he rushed back with the full might of his legion, only to discover that the interloper ruining his paradise was one of his own brothers, Roboute Guilliman. Guilliman now stood in front of him, a self-satisfied grin on his face as he looked down upon Lorgar and his legion.

+ Their loyalty is misplaced, as is yours. It is not my Imperium, it is the Imperium of Mankind. + The true architect of this atrocity spoke. Not prideful, sneering Guilliman, but the one whom Lorgar had loved more than anything: his own father. The Emperor towered over the kneeling Lorgar and one hundred thousand of his sons, whom he had forced to kneel through his sheer psychic might.

"I speak no lies. You are a god! Say the word and end the lie!"

+ SILENCE. For fifty years I have watched your legion worship me. I had hoped you would grow out of your childish faith, but it seems I was mistaken. I am no god, and you will learn that, one way or another. + The Emperor's words roared through the minds of all upon Khur like a psychic hurricane. Guilliman continued to grin, watching as Lorgar was helped to his feet by Captain Argel Tal. The Emperor frowned at Guilliman but said nothing as the Urizen and his sons marched onto the Emperor's ships as their world burned around them.

The Word Bearer's independence came to an abrupt end amidst the ashes of Monarchia. Throughout the Great Crusade, Lorgar had continually returned to the planet of Khur, to create the perfect world dedicated to the God-Emperor, a world of beautiful shrines and cathedrals. When the Emperor learned of this, he ordered the Thirteenth Legion to make an example of the world, to show Lorgar his devotion was misplaced. Many thought Lorgar would have been returned to his legion after this and left to his own devices, but the Emperor was wise enough to know his son. The Word Bearers were to be kept under close watch by the Custodes, forced into ignominious garrison duty. Lorgar himself was brought to the Emperor's side, and remained there as a bodyguard while the Emperor campaigned. For five years he received the true words of the Emperor. For five years he witnessed his so-called 'god' on a daily basis, privy to all the mundanities that came with human life. Lorgar was forced to realize his beliefs were misplaced, though the revelation broke him. He had lived a lie all his life, and was now forced to confront the truth. The Emperor spoke often with his son, though only they know what was said.

Lorgar emerged from this exile a changed man: he renounced the title of Urizen and its religious connotations, and began to reshape his legion into a more suitable form. The Emperor allowed him to return to his legion once more, and the Word Bearers began to campaign at a ferocious pace, making up for lost time. Any worlds which bore the taint of superstition were eradicated, especially if their beliefs resembled those of Colchis. The first world the rejuvenated Word Bearers faced was a feral world called Davin, whose people were so utterly eradicated that later Imperial settlers found nothing but empty temples when they arrived. The Seventeenth Legion became one of the Emperor's favored, though some still doubted them, none more so than Guilliman and the Ultramarines. Though Lorgar knew his brother had acted under his father's orders, he could tell Guilliman and his sons enjoyed their task far too much, and the Word Bearers refused to campaign with them, a promise they kept for the rest of the Great Crusade. Lorgar's relationship with Magnus had changed as well. Lorgar had become extremely leery of the Warp, and echoed the Emperor's viewpoint in all things. When Magnus tried to establish a librarius within the Seventeenth Legion, he was flatly rejected. Lorgar tried to explain, but his brother seemed resentful and angered, and refused to speak with Lorgar any further.

Though these two brothers were now opposed to Lorgar, the relationships with his other brothers had changed in a positive manner, and many now respected his legion for their overwhelming success rate. The Emperor now clearly favored and trusted Lorgar, and this trust was shown in the Curze affair. Four years after Lorgar had rejoined the crusade, the Emperor called Lorgar, along with his brothers Fulgrim and Rogal Dorn, to his side, telling them he had found another of their brothers, a new primarch. Lorgar accompanied his father and brothers to the darkened world of Nostramo in the Eastern Fringes, and was the first to speak to their new brother who was called Konrad Curze. Curze proved to be brutal and psychotic, and was forcibly recalled to Terra within five years of campaigning. Lorgar knew not what occurred during his brother's exile, though he was sympathetic as he himself had endured similar treatment. Nonetheless he continued the Great Crusade, fighting honorably in the Emperor's name. Lorgar became one of the more popular primarchs among the common folk, for he allowed the Remembrancers a great deal of freedom in recording the battles of the legion and in turn they spread word of the Seventeenth Legion far and wide.

The Heresy: Urthona

By the time of Ullanor, the Word Bearers had grown to be one of the largest legions, and their victories were well-respected. After the events of Monarchia, the culture of the Word Bearers began to slowly shift back towards their original devotion towards the Imperial Truth, though not all of the Legion accepted this readily. Belief in the Emperor was stamped out entirely, though many began to substitute their beliefs with other alternatives. The Warrior Lodges were incredibly widespread among the Word Bearers, and it's estimated nearly a fourth of the legion was involved in such groups. Lorgar paid little attention to these lodges, trusting in his sons to keep their oaths to the Emperor, and his trust was seemingly vindicated by his sons willingness to follow him to hell and back. The Word Bearers became a split legion, each chapter master running things his own way. Such divisions in thinking worried Lorgar, for while he had accepted his father's words, not all of his legion had. Nonetheless, the thought of Astartes betraying their father or the Emperor was unthinkable.

Such division proved to be both strength and weakness. Though they were not unified in belief, the one thing they could rally behind was restoring honor to the legion. Thus every company tried their hardest, and the rate of compliances soared. The Word Bearers made up for lost time, growing both their tally of victories as well as the size of the legion. Indeed, they grew to rival the Iron Warriors or World Eaters in size, surpassed by only their constant rivals, the Ultramarines. Lorgar had rejected his role as Urizen, and his sons now called him 'Urthona' after a legendary figure from Colchis's past, a sage known for wisdom and rationality. The primarch was unsure why his sons felt the need for such titles, and he never used it himself. The symbol of the Lectitio Divinitatus had long since been removed in favor of a serrated sun, symbol of a new day for the legion and the light of the Imperial Truth that they heralded.

Lorgar was one of the nine primarchs present at the Triumph of Ullanor. Though his legion did not personally battle the orks, he swiftly came when the Emperor called his sons for the Grand Triumph which was announced shortly after victory was obtained. He proudly stood by his brothers side, the bonds of brotherhood shining through in a way which would have been unimaginable decades prior. When the Emperor announced he was stepping down, Lorgar was saddened at the thought of his father withdrawing. Nevertheless he eagerly supported Horus's new position as Warmaster. Lorgar remained in near constant contact with Horus through his son Erebus, who led the large contingent of Word Bearers who had been chosen to represent the legion in the Warmaster's Legion Auxilia. Many months later, when the Council of Nikaea occurred, Lorgar was quick to attend. He had originally supported the Librarius project, but now believed Magnus guilty of superstition, favoring the censure of his brother. Thus when the Emperor ruled against Magnus, he was not overly shocked or concerned. A greater surprise to him was the decision to enact the Order of Observance.

Order of Observance

The Emperor knew his sons would be tempted to ignore his ruling on psykers, and so to counteract this, he decreed the Order of Observance. Also known as the Chaplaincy Edict, the Order was an idea Lorgar had discussed with his father when he was still fighting in exile by his side. The chaplains were to be Astartes of upright character, those with devotion to the Emperor and the Imperium as a whole. The Emperor seemed to approve, but seemingly did nothing with the idea. When Lorgar returned to his legion, he sought these individuals out. Generally they were those who were brave enough to openly disagree with Lorgar, similar to the office of Naysmith in the Tenth Legion. They were given the title of chaplain, and empowered to maintain discipline among the line brothers. Thus when the Emperor announced the Order, Lorgar was overjoyed that the Emperor had utilized one of his plans, even if he didn't give him credit for it.

The original Chaplains were from the Seventeenth Legion, and Lorgar personally selected which of his sons were to join up with other legions to help train chaplains of their own. Each chaplain emissary was selected for his flexibility in adapting to the cultures of other Legions, and so when they arrived they attempted to create the office out of a pre-existing structure. Such localized chaplains included the Wardens of the Blood Angels, the Sin Eaters of the Night Lords, or the Interrogators of the Dark Angels.

The Word Bearers reluctantly accepted the fellowship of Thousand Sons sent to fight by their side. The two legions had formerly been close, though such bonds were destroyed when Lorgar was forced to remain on Terra. Lorgar had made no attempt to rekindle his friendship with Magnus afterwards, and those legionnaires assigned to them were relegated to garrison duty and largely forgotten about. Lorgar had hoped that Magnus would learn his lesson at the Emperor's side just as he had, and was thus incredibly surprised when he received the missive from Horus declaring them renegade. When Lorgar checked up on the Thousand Sons garrison they had left behind, he was disturbed to see their post was abandoned, the Word Bearers assigned to watch them nowhere to be seen. Lorgar rushed to tell Horus, but was distracted by the news of his brother's near-death experience and what had occurred upon Terra with the Thousand Sons there.

Though he wished to track down Magnus himself, he was more than satisfied with what he would be doing instead, a voyage to Ultramar. He found it hard to hide his satisfaction that he would be sent to hold his brother Guilliman accountable for the silence of Ultramar, and was happy to hear he would be campaigning alongside the Night Lords. Lorgar always felt a special connection to Konrad, and after Ullanor, the two legions had campaigned side by side. Horus explained Lorgar was chosen for his unquestionable loyalty to the Emperor, though Konrad would be there to assure that he did not transcend justice to seek revenge against the brother who had humiliated him decades prior. Lorgar swore he was above such petty jealousy, and quickly gathered his legionaries in preparation for their journey.

The two legions met around the Forge World of Accatran, the closest major world to the Ultramar system. There the two brothers spoke, planning their actions while their legions supplied for the days to come. Lorgar was confused as to why the Night Lords had brought only half of their legion, and Konrad proved evasive, speaking of cryptic visions of impending destruction. Lorgar was uncomfortable with his brother's dark words, but trusted him, for his loyalty was beyond reproach. The two fleets set off for the borders of Ultramar. Their fleets struggled against powerful warp storms for the duration of their journey, and the light of the Astronomican was faint this far into the Eastern Fringe. Many months after they had left Accatran, they arrived within the borders of Ultramar, near the world of Konor. The storms had thrown them much further into Ultramar than they had anticipated, and the Ultramarines were not expecting the might of two legions to appear without warning. The garrison of Konor proved to have no answers for the primarchs, stating only that Guilliman awaited them on Calth, which lay further east. The two legions set off for the Veridia System, though when Lorgar arrived there, the Night Lords were nowhere to be seen.

To Lorgar's annoyance, Guilliman was nowhere to be found at Calth, and in his place stood one of his sons, who introduced himself as Marius Gage, followed by dozens of titles that meant little and mattered even less to Lorgar. The two spoke through their hololith projectors, Lorgar demanding answers as to why Ultramar had ceased tithing and burning with impatience, while Gage droned on in highly elaborate ritualized replies. Gage refused to let them land, speaking of the myriad problems that faced Ultramar, from storms to resource shortages to pirate attacks. Lorgar cared little for his excuses, though was intrigued to hear of an attack from the Thousand Sons. That information took days to wring out of Gage, who seemed to care more about hearing himself speak than getting to the point. By the third day, Lorgar's patience had come to an end, and he demanded to see Guilliman. Curze had still not arrived, and the ship electronics had been malfunctioning. Gage had alluded to solar flares, and Lorgar could believe it. Veridia, the star that Calth orbited, looked almost sickly, waves of radiation creating an aurora upon the void shields of the Seventeenth Legionary fleet which floated in orbit around Calth. Alarms began ringing throughout the fleet as the navigators began to scream as one, and the power failed on Lorgar's flagship as the void shields finally collapsed.

"Restore auxiliary power. Start…" Lorgar began to issue commands to his bridge crew, only to be interrupted by a ringing, the sound of an incoming communique from the hololith system. "Patch it through." He ordered. To his surprise, it was not one of his fleet, or even Gage. Lorgar beheld his brother Guilliman speaking, and from his words he could tell this message was to the entire fleet, not just his flagship. His brother's eyes, once as blue as his armor, were now black and shiny, and his skin appeared unnaturally stretched and taut.

"You are, all of you, beneath me." Guilliman sneered. "Fate has conspired against you. Once you might have been the chosen of the gods. Lorgar the Urizen, you might have been their prophet. Now, you will be an example." As the confused Lorgar wondered at why his brother was addressing them this way, the shadowy figure in the hololith seemed to turn to face him directly. Then the hololith image of his brother began to step outside the confines of the projector. Lorgar's eyes widened, and he ducked as the smoky figure of his brother swung at him, its form distorting into something resembling a skinned dog, a monster straight out of the myths of old Colchis.

"Samus is here!"

The daemon calling itself Samus leapt at Lorgar, slashing wildly while roaring an unnerving chant that it repeated over and over again. Lorgar struggled to dodge its blows, for he was unarmored and the monster's razor-sharp claws rent the metal cogitators of the bridge and the flesh of the bridge crew like they were made of paper. With defense denied to him, Lorgar took the offensive, swinging his mighty crozius Illuminarum, batting aside the beast's claws. A security team of Word Bearers rushed to the bridge and began firing upon it, though the bolter shots did little to its scaly hide. As the beast finally fell, crushed by the powerful blows of Lorgar, it released an ear-piercing screech, and the entire ship shook. As the blast shutters retracted, Lorgar beheld a scene out of a nightmare. A massive fleet of Ultramarines was firing upon his ships, which lay with their shields stripped by the harsh radiation flares. The orbital shipyards around Calth had powered up, and were attacking the Word Bearers from behind. Lorgar swore a solemn oath of vengeance upon Guilliman for his treachery and deception, and ordered his fleet to fire back. The Word Bearers began to fight back, though they were beset on both sides and were without protection as their engines struggled to restart the void shield generators. In addition, many Word Bearer ships reported infestations of creatures similar to the one which had attacked Lorgar.

Though it stung Lorgar's pride, he could tell his fleet was in an untenable position, and gave the order to withdraw. The Word Bearers fleet tender Campanile accelerated to sub-light speeds, and smashed into the shipyards of Calth, creating a massive debris field between the two fleets. Their noble sacrifice was used as a distraction for the rest of the fleet as it began to haphazardly jump out of the Calth system. Despite the temporary respite, many ships were still shot down, crashing upon the world of Calth below. There the Ultramarines swooped down upon the wrecked fleet, hunting the sons of Lorgar who had survived the demise of their ships.

Battle of Calth

Once a verdant agri-world, the atmosphere of Calth was stripped away by the deadly solar radiation created by the Ultramarines in their treacherous assault against the Seventeenth Legion. Those Word Bearers who survived the crash beheld the ships of the Ultramarines descending upon them, hunting them like animals from their dropships. Refusing to accept such a fate, the sons of Lorgar fled beneath the surface of Calth. There they discovered vast caverns, many of which containing entire ecosystems of fluorescent fungi and subterranean lakes. Thousands of Word Bearers made it to the dubious safety of the caves, and there they lured the Ultramarines into traps and pitched battles fought entirely in the dark. The Ultramarines which pursued them were twisted mockeries of Astartes: their cobalt blue armor had been replaced by a variety of garish hues, and their flesh was twisted with hideous mutations.

However, their evil paled compared to the black treachery of their own brothers. A portion of the Word Bearers revealed their true allegiance, turning on their brothers in the darkness. Led by the Zoa, Barthusa Narek, these traitors called themselves the Sons of Fuzon. Named after a spirit of fire from Colchis, these Word Bearers had been those most involved in the Warrior Lodges, and thus these traitors renounced their father and his attempts to reject their old faith. The Sons of Fuzon were later joined by the rest of the lodges, and it is estimated a fourth of the legion turned their backs on the Emperor. Within two years, not a single loyal Word Bearer still lived on Calth. Those who betrayed their brothers gained the name of Apostate, and have remained a thorn in the side of the Word Bearers ever since.

The Word Bearer fleet was no more. In its place was a collection of ships each jumping in essentially random directions with all cohesion lost. However, the Immaterium proved to be no safer than realspace, and the fleeing vessels faced Warp Storms of unparalleled intensity. No ship was able to pass outside the borders of Ultramar: it was as though the Warp had formed solid walls of impossible strength. This they called the Ruinstorm. Morale was at an all-time low: the scattered ships were alone in the Five Hundred Worlds, and none knew how many had survived. In truth over a quarter of the legion fell at Calth, and many more had turned their backs on the Emperor. This ugly truth made itself known as the Sons of Fuzon joined the Ultramarines in hunting their former brothers across Ultramar.

Lorgar himself had arrived above the garden world of Prandium, which lay to the east of Calth. There he brooded, unsure of his course. He dared not activate a waypoint beacon lest the Ultramarines find him, and he had no way to find his sons. Nor had he received any word from Konrad since he had left Accatran. Lorgar's faith in a secular world free of gods and daemons had been sorely shaken by the creatures Guilliman had manifested on his ship. The long-buried desire to pray crept into his mind, but he pushed such treasonous thoughts away. Refusing to give into despair, Lorgar ordered his men to make planetfall upon Prandium. An assured victory would help boost morale, and give his sons a chance to strike back at the Ultramarines.

The drop pods began to rain down upon Prandium. The paradise world had little in the way of defenses, and only a small garrison to defend it. The furious sons of Lorgar clashed with the Ultramarines, though what they saw disgusted them. The once-orderly capital was now a den of monsters: hideous symbols were daubed on every wall, and corpses lay unburied in the streets. Hideous pale creatures with crab claws for hands threw themselves at the Word Bearers, moving unnaturally quickly as they ducked beneath the swings of power swords and the shots from bolters. The sons of Guilliman had changed as well: many were missing pieces of armor, revealing flesh scarred with ritualistic marks and tattoos that hurt the eye to behold. What armor they did wear was no longer blue but a gaudy array of colors, also emblazoned with the same symbols as the walls. Many Word Bearers fell, but in the end they stood triumphant, though the state of their foe left a foul taste in their mouth. They returned to their ships, grimly resolved in their duty. As Lorgar's flagship, the Fidelitas Lex, entered the Warp, it dropped a payload of cyclonic torpedoes behind it. Prandium burned, and so too would every world of Ultramar they could reach. The Shadow Crusade had begun.

The Shadow Crusade: Orq

Lorgar's sons knew little of this, however, scattered as they were throughout Ultramar. These ships were lost in the vastness of space, cut-off and alone. They began to sail across Guilliman's domain, searching both for their lost brothers and a way out. As they traveled, they began to discover small navigation beacons attuned to Word Bearer-specific frequencies: clues left by their father, designed for his sons to find each other. The Word Bearers discovered these beacons, and began to form larger flotillas. These fleets carried out the orders contained within: make the sons of Guilliman pay, and they began to burn worlds just as their father surely did, wherever he may be. While there was safety in numbers, this also made it easier for their foes to find them. Foul sorcerers of the Ultramarines, their adherence to the Edict of Nikaea utterly forgotten, used blasphemous rituals to track the Word Bearers, and many were lost to ambushes and traps.

As time passed, travel became more and more difficult: it was as though the Warp itself was seeping into the realm of Ultramar. New foes presented themselves: whooping Fifth Legion forces began to make hit and run attacks, taking pleasure in leaving Word Bearer ships crippled, easy prey for the forces of the Ultramarines. The Word Bearers faced these new foes with the same stoic hate with which they faced the Ultramarines. They were aided in their task by the arrival of once-lost allies. Scattered forces of the Night Lords began to join with them. The sons of Curze spoke of climactic battles above Macragge itself, after which their primarch had disappeared. More unexpected was the arrival of an Alpha Legion fleet led by their First Captain, who announced they had come to aid the Word Bearers. Together the three legions voyaged across Ultramar, searching both for the two missing primarchs, as well as a way out.

Far from the voyages of his sons, Lorgar fought the Shadow Crusade with his own fleet. Consisting of his flagship, the Fidelitas Lex, as well as two superheavy Abyss class battleships, this small flotilla was a dagger that plunged into the unprotected flanks of Ultramar. Constructed in secret, the Abyss class battleships were completely unknown to the Ultramarines, and together with the Gloriana class flagship, these vessels were all but unstoppable. They were constructed on a scale rarely before seen, with a bridge half a kilometer long, vast hangars for the deployment of entire chapters at a time, and bristling with weaponry of all kinds.

Lorgar had given himself fully to revenge, and each world they razed was a blow struck not only for the Emperor, but for long-lost Monarchia itself. This situation carried on for two years, and thirty-four worlds of Ultramar were put to the torch by Lorgar's hand, two for each city destroyed upon Khur at Ultramarines hands. Lorgar's rampage would have continued longer had it not been for the arrival of the Trisagion, the third and final Abyss battleship, which served as the personal ship of Lorgar's adoptive father, Kor Phaeron. Lorgar met with his First Captain, and took his counsel. Kor Phaeron said he had heard rumors of another primarch trapped within the Ruinstorm, and both agreed that it must be the long-lost Konrad Curze. Perhaps Curze would know how to escape this storm and return to Terra.

The four ships set sail for the far southwest towards the Percepton system. As the flotilla traveled, struggling through the constant warp storms, they noticed a massive flash of light far to the east. Such light rivaled the brightness of the Astronomican itself, though it was in the opposite direction of Terra. The flash drove the Navigators on duty to madness, and the flotilla dropped out of the Warp in response. For many harrowing hours, the legionaries fought running battles across their ships to cleanse them of daemonic taint. Once their ships were free of invaders, the Word Bearers were able to return to the Warp, where they had but a short distance left to travel, and so they braved the storms once more until they arrived at their destination.

Percepton itself had been the site of a battle earlier in the Shadow Crusade, where a chapter of Word Bearers had fought against a force of Ultramarines. The battle had gone well at first, though when the traitors realized the battle was turned against them, they reacted poorly, scouring the surface of the planet with phosphex weaponry. The surface of Percepton still glowed an unhealthy green with the endlessly raging fires on its surface, its former inhabitants rendered less than ash. Such callous cruelty had swiftly become standard practice among the Thirteenth Legion, as though they were saying that if they could not have the world then nobody could. The rapid death of an entire planet left the Warp becalmed around the Percepton system, and so the Navigators were able to find it easily amidst the backdrop of the endless walls of the Ruinstorm. More mysterious was the odd report from the Navigators that the nearby walls of the Ruinstorm seemed to be thinning, as though the Ruinstorm itself was beginning to slow down.

However, further observation would have to wait, as Percepton was not abandoned. Full-scale void warfare was occurring at that very moment. The auspexes registered the twisted presence of the Ultramarines first: not content with repainting their ships, the Thirteenth Legion had begun broadcasting their presence at all times, as though daring their foes to strike at them, an offer which Lorgar had taken up many times in the past two years. Who they were fighting was unknown, and the auspexes picked up a strange vessel that looked as though it was a fusion of Imperial and Aeldari vessels. The ship was blackened and charred, surrounded on all sides by Ultramarine vessels which pounded it relentlessly. Any symbols or devices declaring its allegiance seemed missing, though Lorgar was more focused on crushing the hated Ultramarines than making friends, and so his flotilla entered into combat. The Ultramarines were caught completely by surprise and utterly defeated, and the Word Bearers sent the twisted remains of their foes crashing onto the fires of Percepton below. With victory secured, Lorgar turned his attention to the vessel they had rescued. The Fidelitas Lex hailed the ship, and Lorgar expected to be greeted by xenos.

He was half-right. Moving around in the background of the viewscreen manning the stations were indeed xenos, though Lorgar was surprised to see Astartes in blue-green armor moving about, the tell-tale serpent's head upon their pauldron. More surprising was the figure who greeted Lorgar: a giant of a man with a frost-white beard, wielding a golden spear and an eyepatch covering his weathered, scarred face. Leman Russ stared grimly at his brother, who stared right back in shock. Lorgar was not sure how to react: he had not heard from this brother since Nikaea, which seemed like a lifetime ago. All the doubts of Lorgar's past returned to him at that moment, all of his uncertainties regarding his brothers and the Emperor that had been kept hidden beneath his rage for two years and more. Forcing the doubts down once more, Lorgar reached out to his brother and asked him to come aboard the Fidelitas Lex. For a moment he didn't think his brother would accept, but finally Russ gave a nod, and shuttled over.

The two brothers met in private, Lorgar doing most of the talking while Russ remained silent. Gone was the boisterous, temperamental brother, and in his place stood a sheer wall of ice. Russ spoke little of what had happened to him, saying only Magnus the Red and Lion El'Jonson were to blame. He told Lorgar which brothers he knew to be traitors, and that he had come to free Lorgar from this prison. Lorgar was confused, for the Ruinstorm was as impenetrable as ever. Russ gave him cryptic answers, saying to move forward Lorgar would have to face the past. Lorgar asked his brother what he meant, and in response, Russ activated the navigational cogitators. The holographic screens showed the map of the stars around Ultramar, and Russ pointed to a star system to their north. Lorgar's face drained of all color when he saw where his brother was pointing: the Khur system, where the ruins of Monarchia lay.

The scorched capital of the Word Bearers was located near the edge of the Ruinstorm, but even lost to anger Lorgar knew Guilliman wanted him to return there. Lorgar had avoided the system ever since it had been destroyed by the Ultramarines decades prior, an uncomfortable reminder of his past mistakes, though Lorgar's doubts had returned in full force. Lorgar tried to explain the system was most likely heavily fortified as Guilliman knew its sentimental value and was no doubt a trap. Russ acknowledged this, but was dead-set on going there, and finally Lorgar gave in. The five vessels set sail for Monarchia, and to Lorgar's surprise, the journey through the Warp proved surprisingly swift, as though Russ's mysterious vessel was easing their passage. However, when they emerged, they were not within the Khur system, but within the Armatura system, one of the most heavily fortified fortress worlds of Ultramar. Russ seemed unwilling to say why or how they had been diverted off-course, though such concerns were swiftly forgotten.

Armatura itself was apparently an active warzone, and the auspexes picked up massive fleets in orbit. The battered and damaged ships of the Word Bearers were locked in mortal combat with the Ultramarines, led by the Gauntlet of Power, a ship Lorgar would recognize anywhere as the flagship of Marius Gage. Dotted about were the vessels of other fleets, including the Night Lords and the Alpha Legion. The small flotilla entered the fray, striking straight for the enemy flagship. The three Abyss class ships proved unstoppable, a trident aimed straight for the enemy's heart while the disorganized Ultramarines struggled to react to this new threat. The Word Bearers wasted no time on boarding actions, for they had long since learned the ships of the Ultramarines were filled with unspeakable horrors and debauchery. The Thirteenth Legion broke above Armatura, and began to fall back while Gage roared at his treacherous brothers to stay and fight. Lorgar himself fired the final shot which destroyed the Gauntlet of Power, sending the screaming Gage into the Warp as his engines imploded. With the battle won, the loyalists launched a full barrage into Armatura, shattering the corrupted fortress world. They now had the might of a legion again, and so they set off for Khur once more. Before they departed Armatura, Russ left the fleet, saying only that his fate lay elsewhere.

"But where will you go, brother? If we breach the Ruinstorm, surely Father will need all his sons back upon Terra." Lorgar pleaded with his brother. Russ remained as impassive as ever.

"My wyrd lies elsewhere, little brother. Before I depart I must give you a final warning. Your world is not as it was. Seek the world of ashes. You will face powerful foes, and you must unlock your mægen, your potential if you are to defeat them." His words spoken, Russ turned to leave.

"My potential? What does that mean? Please Leman, tell me. I feel as though I've been lost ever since I arrived at this cursed sector." Lorgar grabbed Russ's hand. Russ turned around, and gave Lorgar a gentle smile, the first Lorgar had seen. For a brief moment his old brother shined through once more.

"You learned too much of Father's ways all those years ago. What we once thought was certain is no more. Just remember: one can be both right and wrong at the same time." With that Russ pulled his hand free and stepped into his gunship, which began to take off. Lorgar watched his brother's ship shrink into the black depths of space, while his mind tried to decipher the cryptic words.

The destruction of Armatura had created powerful tides within the Warp, and the fleet sailed swiftly to their destination. Morale was high among the Night Lords at the thought of finally escaping the Ruinstorm, though the Word Bearers were apprehensive at returning to the site of their greatest failure. When the combined fleet exited the warp, they beheld a truly astounding site. The world of Khur had once been a verdant paradise, though the guns of the Ultramarines had reduced it to gray ash deserts, a world subjected to intense orbital bombardment. Visible from space were the vast ruins of perfectly symmetrical cities, arranged in patterns significant to the culture of the old faith of Colchis. However, what caught the legionaries' eyes the most was not the planet but what surrounded it: Khur was seemingly embedded in the walls of the Ruinstorm itself.

Though primarily a phenomenon of the Immaterium, in many places the Ruinstorm bled through into realspace in massive colorful patches similar to nebulae, especially around the borders of Ultramar, and Khur seemed to be half in and out of one such patch. To the loyalists' surprise, no orbital defenses floated above the world, and the only ships in the system were not Thirteenth Legion but Fifteenth. Lorgar stiffened as he saw the traitor's flagship begin to come closer. It was the Photep, the personal vessel of Magnus the Red. As the fleet drifted closer to Khur, the vessels of the Thousand Sons began to attack, launching devastating blasts of aetheric energy drawn from the Ruinstorm itself. The loyalists fought back, forcing their way into position above Khur while Lorgar journeyed down to the planet itself, accompanied by Argel Tal the Zoa and the Serrated Sun chapter of Word Bearers. Their destination was clear: Monarchia, the Perfect City, which now appeared to have massive lines of light converging on it from across the planet.

As their drop pods and transports blasted past the vessels of the Fifteenth Legion, they began to come under fire from the surface itself, and the Word Bearers began to take casualties as they were struck by sorcerous blasts and the more mundane dangers of anti-air batteries. They slammed into the ground, stepping from their ships to begin making their assault upon the city. Astartes clad in the copper-red of the Fifteenth Legion were everywhere, and the Word Bearers were forced to fight block by block towards the center of the city. The lines of energy visible from orbit proved just as deadly, and those who were unfortunate enough to step on them died instantly, their bodies disintegrating as their armor clattered on the ground. Nonetheless the Word Bearers fought with the single-minded fury that they were known for, pushing the Thousand Sons back and punishing them for desecrating this shrine world with their presence. Lorgar led an unstoppable spearhead smashing through the lines as he rushed towards where he knew Magnus would be. They pushed towards what was once the cathedral, the center of worship in Monarchia blasted to rubble by the ships of the Ultramarines so many years ago and the site where Lorgar had knelt before the Emperor.

By the time Lorgar reached the temple ruins, he was the only one of his force left, the rest of his sons either dead or dealing with the forces of the Thousand Sons. The site itself was covered by a storm of crackling energies above, while the energy lines formed a circle around the perimeter which Lorgar had to leap over. He swiftly slew the guards, and beheld his foe: a red giant with curling bone horns and massive multicolored wings that shimmered with ethereal energies. Magnus the Red floated several meters above the ground, his legs crossed and his eye closed as he focused in concentration. Lorgar roared a challenge to his brother, who opened his one hateful eye in a fearsome glare at the one who would disrupt his ritual. Lorgar wasted no time, rushing at his brother, and the two demigods entered into mortal combat.

The battle was completely one-sided. Lorgar never even got close to Magnus, smashed into the ground or flicked away with contemptuous ease time and time again by his brother's psychic might. Magnus floated serenely at the center of his ritual circle, his attention back on his tomes as he toyed with his brother. Lorgar shouted at the cyclops, and to his surprise, Magnus looked at him.

"The power, Lorgar. You have no idea the sheer power this world possesses."

"Father was right to censure you. You're a monster."

"I can see why you were called to this world Lorgar. It has been bathed in the endless energies of the Empyrean and subjected to the might of the Anathema. Two forces, so similar and yet so opposed, have merged upon this world, and I will take it for myself, and neither Lion nor our father himself will be able to stand against me." Magnus raised a hand, and Lorgar was transfixed in the air, his limbs splayed and held securely while his brother gloated in front of him. He struggled to move, utterly helpless.

"Perhaps you could have wielded this power yourself, in another lifetime. The warp shows me many things, and I have foreseen this moment play out many times. Your feeble attacks were utterly predictable, and now you will pay the price, as your life will be used as the fuel which will bring me to godhood." Magnus unsheathed his khopesh, the bronze blade flickering with foul energies as it drew closer and closer to Lorgar's exposed neck. Lorgar closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable. Suddenly Magnus screamed.

Lorgar opened his eyes to see a blade of red iron pierced through Magnus's throat. Behind him stood Argel Tal, his armor battered and damaged while his power sword hissed as the blood of a demigod boiled around its energy field. The Crimson King roared, a mental scream rippling out, and he swiftly threw Argel Tal back in rage. The two began to fight while Lorgar knelt on the ground, still unable to move. He watched helplessly as his son was quickly overpowered, no match for a primarch, his thoughts racing as he tried to think of some way out of this. Argel Tal was thrown to the ground, overshadowed by the great wings decorating Magnus's armor as he lay impaled to the ground by a blade larger than him. The sight of his favored son butchered by one he called brother sent Lorgar into a rage. Lorgar began to glow gold as his long-repressed psychic might came to the fore.

Suddenly he understood Russ's words: the Emperor was both right and wrong. The visions of his past, which had ceased ever since his time with the Emperor, returned to him. The ground around him began to glow as well, the flickering echoes of the Emperor's presence drawn to this avatar. Lorgar roared, and a flash of light erupted from him in a blinding halo. Magnus was thrown to the ground, blinded by the sheer radiance of his brother. The Crimson King screamed as his ritual unraveled, the lines of psychic power fading into nothingness. With his future sight blinded and his chance at godhood removed, Magnus swore vengeance upon the Word Bearers, and teleported away. Lorgar's eyes glowed a brilliant gold, and he embraced the broken body of his son, while all around them the Word Bearers knelt in homage to their father.

Siege of Terra and the Scouring: The Saint

With the destruction of Armatura and the defeat of Magnus, the Ruinstorm began to dissipate at a greatly increased rate. Though Konrad was still nowhere to be found, they could not afford to wait around searching for him. Therefore with heavy heart Lorgar ordered the fleet to make for Terra at full speed. The forces of the Word Bearers made up the bulk of the fleet, though barely a third of the legion had survived since Accatran. The Serrated Sun had taken horrendous casualties upon Khur, and barely a company remained. However, those who had survived were filled with wondrous power, a gold outline visible to those with even a hint of psychic power. At the heart of their ship the body of Argel Tal lay in repose, and swiftly became a place of pilgrimage for the chapter. As a reward for their heroism, the Serrated Sun were renamed to become the Gal Vorbak, which meant 'blessed ones' in the language of Colchis. Lorgar himself recognized that this power that suffused him and his sons was clearly psychic in nature, and although he felt guilty for breaking the Edict of Nikaea, they were in no position to refuse additional aid. The primarch spent most of the journey back to Terra in the astropathic chambers, acting as a psychic beacon to speed the fleet's path back home. Accompanying the Word Bearers were the remains of the Night Lords fleet, perhaps twenty percent of the legion that acted as a vanguard, as well as the small fleet of Alpha Legion. Together the armada rushed across the length of the galaxy back to Terra, praying that they would not be too late.

Yet theirs was no easy journey. Though the Ruinstorm had dissipated enough to allow transit, vast storm fronts still wracked the galaxy. The loyalist fleets were forced to drop out of the Warp several times as the pressure on the Gellar fields became too much to withstand. Each return to Realspace brought new dangers, for the traitors had left ambushes. Whether from sorcery or fate, it seemed as though the enemy always knew when and where the fleet would arrive, and many ships were lost in these encounters. Yet Lorgar's faith never wavered, his psychic might acting as a miniature Astronomican that allowed the navigators of the fleet to stay close by so that the fleet never scattered. The armada arrived within the Solar System like a bolt of lightning from above, smashing through the massed traitor fleet from behind. The Night Lords vanguard had already struck the traitors, disorienting them, and the second and larger fleet of the Word Bearers completely scattered the unprepared traitors. Lorgar directed his fleet as they clashed with the disorganized foes, and was dismayed to hear from Vulkan and Ferrus how close the traitors had come to reaching the Emperor himself. As much as he wished to join the battle below, Lorgar knew he would do more good in orbit, and so he remained there, high above the carnage below. As the fleets clashed, more loyalist ships began to arrive, the remnants of Battlefleet Solar, and the tide began to turn in the loyalist's favor. He received word that the traitors were falling back en masse, and he ordered his ships to focus their fire upon ships attempting to escape, reaping a bloody tally on the backs of fleeing foes. Far below them, the near constant explosions began to lessen in intensity, until there were hardly any left. Once the last few traitor ships had left orbit, Lorgar tasked his sons to finish clearing the skies as he took to a drop pod, launching towards where he sensed the Emperor. As Lorgar stepped out, he beheld a sight which broke his heart: the long-missing Konrad Curze lifeless in the arms of the Emperor. Lorgar reached down to the Emperor's body, and felt his mind touched by the presence of his father.

The dusty crater in which the two of them had been was no more, replaced by a rocky temple perched at the edge of a cliff. Lorgar beheld his father as a common man in simple robes, seated in a pew and staring wistfully out into the darkness, lit by the torches lining the walls of the temple.

"Father, I have returned. What is this place?"

"So you have. What you see here is the Church of the Lightning Stone, the last bastion of faith upon Terra. A memory, of course, from just before the start of the Great Crusade."

"Forgive me, father. I broke the Edict. I wasn't able to return in time." As Lorgar spoke these things, the vision flickered, and for a second he thought he viewed the true face of the Emperor before the vision reasserted itself.

"It's alright, my son. None of that matters now. You must take my body below the Palace to the Golden Throne. Vulkan will show you the way."

"But father…"

"It's too late now Lorgar. You must be the light in the darkness, to keep Mankind from the darkness, from the return of…" As the Emperor spoke, the vision shattered, and Lorgar found himself back in the crater once more. Lorgar wept.

Lorgar lifted both the Emperor and Konrad and carried them out of the shattered remains of the Lion's once mighty fortress. The sheer destructive force from the battle had broken the bunker from within, and its defenders had long since fled. The golden light of the Emperor utterly suffused this area, and the ground itself was faintly glowing, saturated with psychic residue. The Gal Vorbak were the first to reach their father, followed soon by the forces of First Captain Sevatarion of the Night Lords. The sons of Curze were stoic, saying only this had been foreseen, and they took their father's body away. Meanwhile, Lorgar bore his father's unconscious and dying body, while his sons and the Custodes formed an honor guard as he marched off to journey in his transport into the shattered remnants of the Imperial Palace. There Lorgar met Vulkan, who emerged from his sanctum to view Lorgar carrying the broken body of the Emperor with tears running down his face while a nimbus of gold energy surrounded them. Vulkan led Lorgar down into the depths of the Palace, past endless hallways piled with the bodies of the slain. Lorgar barely noticed them though, focused intently upon carrying the Emperor throughout, and when they reached the Golden Throne, he did not even acknowledge the presence of Mortarion.

After placing the body of the Emperor upon the Throne, Lorgar knelt before leaving the room, returning back to the surface. Many had seen the primarch carrying his burden, and felt the weight of his presence, and so mortals began to whisper amongst themselves. Lorgar swiftly became known as the Saint, and his deeds took on extraordinary proportions. Many hailed him as the Savior of Terra, his father's most favored son. Lorgar himself did not feel this way: rather, he was eaten away with doubt on the inside, consumed with guilt and desperately trying to decipher his father's final words. Nonetheless he did not let this show, and busied himself with the logistics of recovering Terra. He kept himself secluded within the inner palace, directing others and visiting the Golden Throne every day. This continued for many months, until he was approached by one of his sons, High Chaplain Erebus. Erebus had not seen his father in many years, having been part of the Mournival Majoris. After catching up, Erebus indicated he had something to show his father, and so Lorgar followed the High Chaplain up to the Blessed Lady, Argel Tal's old ship. When he entered his deceased son's personal chambers, he stood before an ancient crone, who stared at him with the milky eyes of the blind.

"What is this, my son? Who is this elderly woman?"

"This, my lord, is Cyrene Valantion. She is the last survivor of Monarchia, recovered by Argel Tal after the events of that terrible day. He instructed me to reveal her to you should something happen to him." Erebus explained. Lorgar felt the blood drain from his face, and he knelt down in front of the woman. Erebus tapped the woman on the shoulder, and she reached withered hands out, feeling the contours of Lorgar's face. The woman smiled.

"You haven't changed at all, Aurelian. I saw you once, when I was just a girl, and I've never forgotten your face." Lorgar began to silently weep, though his voice remained steady.

"I am sorry for your blindness. My misguided worship led to the destruction of your home, one of my many mistakes." The woman frowned at Lorgar's words.

"You may have made mistakes, Aurelian, but your life has been one of true purpose."

"I care not for purpose. All I ever wanted was the truth."

"The truth is your father loves you, Aurelian. You among all his sons were the most like him. You were designed for a purpose, and everything has been according to his designs. Though his plans may remain hidden to even you, always know that the God-Emperor has watched over you and will do so always."

At the woman's words, Lorgar felt the presence of his father once more, and all the doubts and rage that had clouded his mind since Monarchia began to slip away. Lorgar's very skin began to glow gold, and his long repressed psychic powers which had started to manifest upon Khur were unleashed. Lorgar felt as though his true nature as a primarch had been revealed to him, and he was imbued with purpose once more. When Lorgar returned to the surface, he told Vulkan and Malcador that he was venturing out to join the other primarchs in the Scouring. Vulkan was shocked to see his brother's transformation, though Malcador gave him a knowing smile. Lorgar gathered his sons, and ventured out to wage war. To the believers of the Lectitio Divinitatus, the Emperor was a god, and Lorgar was his avatar, an avatar of war. His presence inspired his sons, and no traitors could stand before their righteous fury. Lorgar led from the front, his psychic powers imbued with the golden light of the Emperor as he cast down all foes.

Post-Heresy: The Crusade Renewed

However, the galaxy was a vast place, and it took many years to root the traitors out. In between battles, Lorgar wrote of the revelations he had received, detailing everything from visions to battle strategy in a vast tome known as the Book of Lorgar. Copies of this tome were taken back to Terra, as well as shared with the other loyal primarchs, who were surprised at how much military wisdom it contained. As the traitors were pushed back during the Scouring, the Imperium gradually recovered, and new institutions began to spring up, some planned, others unintentional. One such unintentional institution was the transition from the Imperial Cult into the Church of the God Emperor. This church took as its holy scripture the Lectitio Divinitatus, Lorgar's original work. The Word Bearers had initially tried to suppress this cult, but after his meeting with the Blessed Lady, Lorgar had ordered his sons to leave the church alone. Lorgar spoke with his brothers of the need for a symbol to rally humanity behind once they were gone, and used his oratorical skills to convince them of the necessity of it, issuing an Edict of Toleration in 113 M31. With the passing of this Edict, official persecution stopped, and the church began to swiftly grow in numbers, and the Word Bearers swiftly took on a place of prominence with this church, directing its growth in positive ways in support of the Imperium. Schisms were forcibly repressed, and the new Ecclesiarchy grew in a unified manner.

Within a century, most of the traitor fortresses had been toppled, and their dark inhabitants forced to flee into uncharted space. Now that the issue of the church had been dealt with, there remained one major threat left before the Scouring could be concluded: the former Jewel of the East, Ultramar. By this time the Word Bearers were the largest loyal legion in the Imperium, and they had led the Scouring since the death of the Warmaster several years before. The Imperium closed in upon Ultramar from all sides, forcing the Ultramarines back across the sector. The Ruinstorm had long since dissipated, though its effects, combined with the twisted monuments erected by the Ultramarines, led most worlds to be subjected to exterminatus after victory. A vast cordon was erected, and the entire sector was declared off-limits, including Khur, which the Word Bearers turned into a bastion world. From Occluda to Prandium, the taint of the Thirteen Legion was expunged, though many ships escaped past the blockade, and the last reports from loyalist pursuit indicated they had entered the Maelstrom, the massive warp storm located at the center of the galaxy.

However, Lorgar could sense his brother had not fled the ruins of his kingdom, and so the loyalists gathered for the final assault. At Lorgar's side was his foster father Kor Phaeron, while Erebus remained upon Terra. As father and son they faced the final world at the heart of Ultramar: Thessala. This world had bathed in the corruption of the Warp far longer than others, and it was as though the corruption expunged from other worlds had flowed to this central location. Surrounding the planet was a field of asteroids, each rock carved into obscene shapes which honored the Ultramarines' dark patron. When the Imperial armada entered the system, a psychic wave rippled out from the planet, bearing a message from Guilliman himself, inviting Lorgar to join him upon the planet below. However, this message of parlay was as false as its speaker, containing a hidden psychic compulsion which led many mortal troops of the Imperial Guard to go utterly mad. As the Astartes put down these unfortunates, Lorgar retorted with a massive golden beam of psychic force, striking the field directly and annihilating the monuments to excess in their path. As the loyalist fleet engaged with their Ultramarine counterparts, Lorgar led the assault upon Thessala itself, seeking to send his brother back to the hells of the Warp where he belonged.

Thessala was a world of nightmares, and in many ways it reflected the descent of the Thirteenth Legion. The once-orderly cities that spanned this world were now twisted ruins, haunted by daemons and defended by the Evocati, the elite warriors who had fought the Word Bearers throughout their confinement within the Ruinstorm. Lorgar's presence steeled his men against such horrors, though they took heavy losses as they pierced through the city's defenses. Their goal was clear: a massive ringed temple stood upon the highest of the six hills which this city was built around, a dark mirror of the Temple of Hera which once crowned Macragge Civitas before its destruction. Orbital bombardment had proven ineffective, and so it fell to ground assault to destroy it from within. The Word Bearers fought their way up the sloping streets, killing their debauched cousins and toppling their works as revenge for the destruction the Thirteenth had wrought upon Khur, Terra, and so many other worlds. The Ultramarines fought back with poisoned blades and foul sorceries, and many brave Word Bearers fell that day. The battle began to tip towards the Ultramarines once more, until the arrival of Imperial reinforcements: the Space Wolves had arrived, led by Leman Russ. With their help, the Word Bearers surrounded the dark temple as the heavy artillery began to pound its defenses with renewed vigor while Russ rushed towards the temple to find his brothers.

Lorgar knew Guilliman's pride would keep him at the highest point in the city, and so had quickly made his way towards the temple shortly after the beginning of the battle, accompanied by the Gal Vorbak and Kor Phaeron. Though the temple was large from the outside, it was truly massive on the inside, for the warp saturated this place and made a mockery of the laws of physics. To the loyalists' surprise, there were no Ultramarines within this place, only myriad chambers dedicated to all manner of horrific decadence. Yet the Temple appeared deserted apart from a few daemons. Lorgar led his men to the center of the temple, where they beheld a truly horrifying sight. In the middle of the chamber lay a large reclining sofa, upon which lounged a massive armored giant, twice the height of an Imperial Knight. The giant turned to face the intruders, and removed his helmet to reveal the smirking face of Roboute Guilliman. Guilliman's features were utterly flawless, and even the Gal Vorbak seemed transfixed by his unearthly beauty.

Only Lorgar and Kor Phaeron seemed unaffected by Guilliman's aura, which repulsed and nauseated them. Every sense seemed heightened to a revolting degree, and every impression of the daemon was a new affront upon decency itself. Guilliman had long been one of the most human of his brothers, yet now it was in all the worst ways: pride so intense it was tangible, vanity reflected from the many mirrors filling the room, and arrogance so thick you could cut it with a sword. Lorgar's psychic aura flared, driving the cloying incense away from his sons, and the Word Bearers attacked as one, firing their bolters at the Daemon Primarch. The time for talking had long since passed, and all that remained was to remove the taint which had once been Lorgar's brother. Guilliman calmly rose from the sofa, and began to leisurely walk towards the Word Bearers. As the Gal Vorbak began firing, Guilliman's slow walk suddenly accelerated into unearthly speeds. Lorgar's sons began to die one by one, crushed beneath the massive Gauntlets of Ultramar or thrown into walls with incredible force. Finally, only Kor Phaeron and Lorgar were left, both bleeding heavily from many wounds while Guilliman himself remained immaculate, every wound healed by the sorcery of his foul deity. The giant which had once been his brother seized Lorgar in his massive hand, swatting away Kor Phaeron before bringing Lorgar up to eye level, speaking for the first time.

"I tried to warn you, brother. They ask for so little: just let them rule you, and you can have everything you want." Guilliman gloated. Lorgar's helmet had been knocked off in the melee, crushed by the massive Gauntlets of Ultramar covering Guilliman's hands which were now coated in the blood of his sons. Lorgar glared defiantly into his brother's eyes.

"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered I have fought my way here. I abjure thee, monster, for my will is as strong as yours. You are no brother of mine, and have no power over me." Lorgar spat into the face of his hated foe, his acid spit leaving a brief burn before being healed by the daemon's unnatural vigor. Guilliman roared, enraged at this affront to his appearance, and he threw Lorgar full force into the nearest wall. Lorgar looked up to see the bloodied form of Kor Phaeron, who had plunged his weapon into the monster's heel while he was distracted. Guilliman turned around, and seized the First Captain with both hands, and pulled. Lorgar gazed into the eyes of his adoptive father one last time before he was ripped in half and thrown to the ground to be stomped into a bloody pulp by his brother's insane rage.

Lorgar picked himself off the marbled floor, and let loose a mighty roar. As he did so, a golden light erupted from him, striking Guilliman from behind in the wound Kor Phaeron had left. Guilliman was thrown forward, bellowing as his essence was forcefully unraveled by his brother's psychic might, the Gauntlets of Ultramar clanking as they fell to the ground as their bearer shrank with every portion of his essence returned to the Warp. Lorgar rushed his brother, now barely three meters tall instead of eighteen, and swung his mighty mace at his brother's face, seeking to end the battle and avenge the death of Kor Phaeron. Too late did he notice the hateful grin on his brother's bloodied face, and look down to see his brother was not quite unarmed. The Gladius Incandor, a twisted scimitar with moaning faces along the length of its blade, pierced Lorgar's chest at the same time as Illuminarum smashed into Guilliman's head, banishing the daemon screaming from the material plane. Lorgar collapsed with the Blade piercing through his hearts, both physical as well as emotional sensations draining as the poisons of the warp warred with his primarch physiology. Thus fell Lorgar the Saint.

When Russ entered the central chamber of the temple, he found only the body of his brother, wounded nearly unto death, which he swiftly carried back to his ship. The body of Lorgar was swiftly placed into a stasis field, though without the healing powers of the Emperor, he may as well have perished. With the death of their father as well as the First Captain Kor Phaeron, the command of the legion fell to Erebus, for he was both High Chaplain as well as the most senior Zoa named by Lorgar. Erebus ordered their primarch's body, as well as the bodies of all the fallen, brought to Khur, where a new city called New Monarchia had been established several years before. Lorgar was entombed in the city which he had loved so much, and a vast mausoleum was created in the heart of the legion monastery built over the ruins of the original temple. The Word Bearers withdrew to Khur, beginning a period of mourning for the legion, and his surviving brothers came to pay their respects. When news of this spread, Lorgar was swiftly beatified as the foremost saint in the Imperium, overshadowing his brothers as the most important servant of the Emperor. Lorgar's body was placed on display, and Khur swiftly became an important site of pilgrimage.

By virtue of his rank as High Chaplain and the senior Zoa, Erebus found himself in command of the Seventeenth Legion, a position confirmed by Russ and the High Lords of Terra. However, Erebus never desired command, and swiftly set up the other remaining Zoa, Zardu Layak, as his equal in commanding the legion, and after their deaths, the Word Bearers continued this tradition, and have had two legion masters since then, both named Zoa. The Word Bearers had suffered heavy losses, though they gradually began to rebuild. With the support of the Inquisition, they set up a cordon around the dead worlds of the Ultramar Sector, renamed to Sector XIII, which remain devoid of human life to this day. However, these worlds have refused to stay silent, and the cordon has been tested in recent years. Monstrous daemonic entities, echoes of the past, and Ultramarine assaults have all assaulted the fortress worlds, but the Word Bearers still defend it with the same intensity that they always have. More recently, an unexpected threat has emerged, a new alien empire, that of the Tau. These naïve xenos seek to breach the Word Bearer defenses to access the worlds beyond, unknowing of what tainted horrors still lurk in those accursed worlds. To help deal with this threat, the Word Bearers have called upon other legions such as the Raven Guard, though the state of the Imperium means any aid is few and far between.

Much of the Word Bearers attention is devoted to managing the Ecclesiarchy. Once a small cult centered upon Terra, the Ecclesiarchy rapidly grew after the Edict of Toleration and the death of Lorgar in 115 M31. Many worlds which had been conquered by the Word Bearers before the Emperor's intervention still nurtured faith in the God Emperor despite the best efforts of Imperial Governors to snuff it out, and these worlds were quick to adopt the new faith. Such worlds became known as Cardinal Worlds, those planets which were wholly devoted to the Faith. Terra remained the most holy site in the galaxy, though the world of Ophelia VII quickly grew to prominence.

Ophelia VII

The world of Ophelia VII is a testament to the influence of the Ecclesiarchy. Ophelia VII was originally conquered by the Emperor of Mankind in the days of the Great Crusade during the time when Lorgar still fought by his side. When the Edict of Toleration was announced, the people of Ophelia VII were quick to remember the two legends who had brought their world into the Imperium, and due to its advantageous trading position, the world became one of the richest in the entire galaxy. This wealth meant it was chosen to host the Synod Magistra, the body of religious officials that governs the Adeptus Ministorum, which is the official name of the Ecclesiarchy.

The Adeptus Ministorum is run by the Ecclesiarch, a position which, as the church's influence spread, came to have a position among the High Lords of Terra itself, and many cardinals from Ophelia VII have held this prestigious position. Of particular note was Cardinal Pacella, who took the name of Benedin IV when he became Ecclesiarch, and moved the Adeptus Ministorum to Ophelia VII from Holy Terra, a testament to Ophelia's wealth and power. However, this move was swiftly undone by his successor, and the seat of the church was moved back and forth several times across M33-M34. Each of these transitions cost the Imperium untold sums of wealth and resources to keep doing this, and it eventually resulted in the Great Schism, where two and later three Ecclesiarchs existed, all claiming dominion over the church. This schism was mended by force by the return of the Word Bearers, who returned from active campaigns to assault Ophelia and cast down their candidate in favor of the more legitimate Terran Ecclesiarch, and the position has remained on Terra to this day. No Cardinal of Ophelia VII has been elected as Ecclesiarch since then, and many Inquisitors believe them to be biding their time until they can regain their authority once more.

The history of the Word Bearers is inextricably tied to that of the Ecclesiarchy. When the sons of Lorgar are able to focus their attention on the church, it flourishes, and wise and just Ecclesiarchs guide the faithful across the galaxy. When the church flourishes, so too does the Imperium flourish, as the fervor of the faithful leads to increases in Imperial Guard regiments and more crusades to take or retake systems. When the Word Bearers are forced to turn their attention elsewhere for too long, be it against Chaos incursions or xenos attacks, the Ecclesiarchy correspondingly suffers, as greedy cardinals begin to take advantage of the citizens. Some Inquisitors have suggested the Word Bearers be required to permanently manage the church more closely, but such suggestions are swiftly shot down, as the Astartes are meant for war, not for governing.

The Word Bearers for their part recognize their influence upon the Ecclesiarchy, and have tried many times to guide the church's beliefs to line up more closely with those of their primarch, a herculean task that they have only partially and occasionally succeeded in. However, the Word Bearers continue to fight tirelessly to maintain the light of their primarch's example through both space and time, and remain honored by all.

Heralds of the Word

The Ecclesiarchy is incredibly byzantine and unwieldy, even compared to other Imperial polities. To closely govern it would take an entire legion, and the Word Bearers simply cannot afford to govern the church. To rectify this shortcoming, the Seventeenth Legion created a new role, the Herald.

Similar to the Chaplaincy, the role of the Herald focuses on maintaining spiritual purity. However, the Heralds require much more vigilance, for their charges are not superhuman Astartes, but mere mortal men and women. The Herald is generally taken from the ranks of the Chaplaincy, and seconded to particular worlds of the Ecclesiarchy much like veterans are sent to the Deathwatch. Once there, the Herald is given free rein to conduct investigations on the morality of the particular church body. Any suspected deviancy or taint is subjected to rigorous and repeated interrogation. Those found innocent are returned to their flock, but the guilty or suspicious are turned over to the Inquisition for further questioning.

Being the dominant faith, and indeed only accepted faith of the Imperium, the Ecclesiarchy has a good many churches, and many go for centuries without receiving a Herald into their midst. Nonetheless, the Heralds have uncovered many plots across the millennia. Both greedy prelates and Chaotic infiltrators have felt the wrath of the Sons of Lorgar, and the church is in a better state because of their tireless work. Their dedication is seen only as duty by the legion itself, though the Ecclesiarchy has named several as Imperial saints in gratitude.

Homeworld, Recruitment, and Gene-seed

The Word Bearers are one of the largest legions in the Imperium, which they have maintained since the days of the Heresy. Their battles in Ultramar and the Scouring cost them dearly, but they have rebuilt themselves many times, and the legion remains around one hundred thousand strong. The legion recruits primarily from Colchis and Khur, though many aspirants are taken from worlds owned by the Ecclesiarchy, who are eager to donate their citizens to the Host of Saints, as the Seventeenth is informally known. The gene-seed of Lorgar is highly compatible, and the Word Bearers have taken full advantage of it, keeping many centers of recruitment across the Imperium. Unlike many legions, the Word Bearers do not specifically recruit from death worlds or other worlds with harsh living. Physical strength can be trained, but moral fortitude, those with the strength of character to do the right thing, those are the recruits who would best uphold the legacy of Lorgar. The legion correspondingly places less emphasis on hypno-indoctrination than other legions, reasoning that their primarch would have wanted the convictions of his sons to be their own. The gene-seed each aspirant receives produces no unusual effects, and the Word Bearers have no distinguishing traits compared to others such as the Raven Guard or Salamanders. The only possible defect is a slight predisposition to single-minded intensity, especially in the heat of battle. The Word Bearers were known for their focus in battle even before the Heresy, fighting with cold rage against any foe, as well as extreme devotion to their primarch. This focus still exists in the Legion today, though the focus upon their primarch has been replaced with an emphasis on obedience to superiors.

Unlike other legions, the Seventeenth possess two official homeworlds. The first is Colchis, a desert world located to the west of Terra. Colchis is located right on the border of Segmentums Solar, Obscurus, and Pacificus, though these borders are merely administrative lines drawn under the influence of Lorgar himself after the Heresy. This placement was intentional, as Lorgar wished for his sons to have the freedom to operate in any of the three sectors as the need arises. Colchis itself is a dry, feudal world five times the size of Terra, though barely a handful of people live there compared to the teeming masses of the Throneworld. There are no pilgrimages to Colchis, as the entire world is under the direct control of the Legion, who have kept the world much as it was during the time their primarch lived there. Thus there are no hives, only small cities along the coastline, and technology remains a rare commodity there. Most citizens live as their ancestors did, mining and trading under the watchful eye of the Word Bearers, who are honored as the representatives of the Emperor. The people of Colchis honor Lorgar as a wise leader and revered founder, but he is not worshiped as a saint here. Indeed, faith in the God-Emperor is highly rare here, a secret kept hidden from the Ecclesiarchy by the Word Bearers.

Built over the former city of Vharadesh near the Euxine Sea lies the Fortress-Monastery of Aia. Though mostly surrounded by farms, the nearby Likhi Mountains and Trapezus Desert provide suitable locales in which to test the new recruits, who are trained extensively in survival techniques. Located just outside of the walls of the Monastery itself lies the only spaceport upon the desert-world. A grand space elevator rises up to the massive shipyards that surround the world, whose ships go to support the legion in the northern segmentums. After completing their basic training, recruits are trained in aerial and void warfare, and mock battles are often fought in the halls of the orbital stations around the shipyards. This Monastery and the shipyards are overseen by one of the two Zoa, those sons of Lorgar who direct the legion. When Erebus divided the legion, he gave control of Colchis over to Zardu Layak, while he took command in the east.

Zardu Layak

Better known as the 'Crimson Apostle', Zardu Layak was born upon Terra and was part of the legion since its earliest days. He was part of the Ashen Circle, an elite group of Imperial Heralds tasked with destroying cultural relics that went against the teachings of the Imperial Truth. Layak had never been comfortable with the direction the Legion was headed after reuniting with their Primarch, and he and many other Terran legionaries regained their place of prominence after the events of Monarchia. He fought honorably for many years, eventually rising to become a chapter master, and was asked to join Erebus in lending his company to become the Word Bearer detachment that was sent to join the Warmaster's Legion Auxilia.

He fought by the Warmaster's side throughout the Heresy, including on Terra itself, where he came face to face with the traitor primarch Sanguinius before the intervention of Horus drove him away at the cost of his First Captain. Layak was deeply saddened by this, for he and Abaddon had become close friends during their time in the Legion Auxilia, having saved each other in battle countless times.

After the Siege, Layak returned to Colchis to meet with the rest of the legion, and Lorgar granted him the status of Zoa. When his primarch fell, Layak and his chapter took it particularly hard. After Lorgar was entombed upon New Monarchia, Layak and his followers swore a solemn oath to never remove their helmets in the presence of anyone outside their brotherhood.

Layak served honorably for many more years before his death in battle during the First Black Crusade. Until the day he died, he kept his oath, as did the rest of his chapter, who were known as the Unspeaking. This legacy of faith and service has been passed down to his successors, and the Word Bearers of Colchis are notably more likely to maintain the Imperial Truth and reject the concept of higher powers. Though such beliefs risk the wrath of the Ecclesiarchy, the Word Bearers of Colchis stand firm in their belief that this is what their father would have wanted.

In stunning contrast to backwater Colchis is the second official homeworld: Khur, a massive ecumenopolis also known as New Monarchia. Located in the Ultima Segmentum, the world of Khur once housed the perfect cities of the Word Bearers until they were destroyed by the Ultramarines under orders from the Emperor. Through ten thousand years of rumors and the growth of the Ecclesiarchy, the Emperor's role in the destruction came to be left out, until the razing of Monarchia came to be known as an unprovoked attack by vile traitors who sought to deny the divinity of the Emperor. After the Heresy, a small fortress was built upon the ruins of Khur, designed to protect the sites of power left over by the Emperor's psychic influence. This small fortress began to grow, and after Lorgar's stasis coffin was returned here, the world became a site of pilgrimage for the faithful across the galaxy. Vast hives sprung up across the world over the ruins of other cities, and Khur was unofficially renamed to New Monarchia, where the second Legion Monastery remains to this day.

New Monarchia is the lynchpin of Word Bearer efforts across the Eastern Fringe, and is the central hub from which they maintain the cordon around Sector XIII. The world is covered in massive cathedrals and holy sites, and pilgrims believe the world is suffused in the holy energies of the God-Emperor and his most important son, the Saint. This world was originally under the command of High Chaplain Erebus, who held both the Chaplaincy as well as command of half the Legion as Zoa Thiriel. After his death, however, the Chaplains elected their own leader, and so the offices became split once more, though the Word Bearers of New Monarchia have more chaplains than their brothers in the West. The fortress monastery is surrounded by massive cathedrals to Lorgar as well as the God-Emperor, and belief in the Imperial Truth is very rare there. The locals believe strongly that Lorgar is only asleep, and that in the Imperium's time of need, he will awake and set things right once more. Such legends are denied by the legion's leadership, but many line brothers still hold out hope that one day their father will return.

New Monarchia has come under threat much more often than Colchis has, especially in recent years with the arrival of the Tyranid threat from the Eastern Fringes, where New Monarchia bore the brunt of the first attack. The teeming masses of Hive Fleet Behemoth passed right through the dead worlds of the Ultramar Sector and came to the inhabited systems which lay on the other side in search of biomass, first arriving at the hapless world of Tyran. Many worlds were left lifeless before Behemoth was broken by the defenders of New Monarchia, who scattered the xenos menace at the cost of nearly two thousand Word Bearers and countless mortal auxiliaries. The Tyranid threat has plagued the Word Bearers for nearly a millennium, and the Word Bearers have become quite proficient in hunting the beasts, and have worked alongside the Deathwatch on many occasions.

Combat Doctrines and Organization

Though divided and scattered across the galaxy, the Word Bearers fight with the same intensity as their predecessors did during the Great Crusade and Leonine Heresy. Each son of Lorgar is a master of all forms of combat, extensively trained through many years of warfare. Though all the legions maintain their own fleets, it is the Seventeenth that is by far the largest. Both Colchis and New Monarchia possess massive shipyards, and the Word Bearers have never lacked for vessels to carry them to their battlefields among the stars. Each half of the legion controls one of the two remaining Abyss-class vessels. The Furious Abyss itself was lost during the Battle of Thessala, and its ruins were taken back to New Monarchia to serve as part of the legion monastery there. The Blessed Lady, once the flagship of Zoa Argel Tal, has become the flagship of the Word Bearers of Khur, serving the Legion Master to this day. Meanwhile, the Trisagion, once the vessel of High Chaplain Erebus, has been inherited by the Word Bearers of Colchis, and is currently operating in the Cadia Sector, aiding in the defense against the forces of the Thirteenth Black Crusade.

Word Bearers are direct in combat, utilizing direct strikes and overwhelming force to break their enemies before sweeping into their shattered ranks to reap a bloody toll in close combat. When faced with overwhelming numbers or locations that need a garrison, the Seventeenth Legion calls not upon the Astra Militarum as most legions do, but to the warriors of the Adeptus Ministorum. The Ecclesiarchy has many soldiers at its disposal, though none are more effective than the Adepta Sororitas. Also known as the Sisters of Battle, these warriors of the faith are an elite fighting force composed entirely of women, and were founded after the events of the Age of Apostasy.

Age of Apostasy

As it grew in influence between M32-M34, the Ecclesiarchy began to recruit their own private armies to defend their Shrine and Cardinal worlds from the depredations of Chaos and xenos threats alike. By M35, the Word Bearers were stretched thin on the fringes, and the greedy cardinals began to fight with each other once more, and millions died in pointless squabbles. The Ecclesiarch at that time, a man by the name of Sebastian Thor, began demanding larger and larger tithes from the faithful, and used his position as a High Lord of Terra to order the assassination of his fellow clergy. After nearly seventy years of these excesses, Thor's rule had come to be known as the Reign of Blood.

In response to this, a local preacher upon the world of San Leor in Segmentum Obscurus began to denounce the excesses of the Ecclesiarchy, and his words inspired many to follow him, especially women. This preacher, a man by the name of Goge Vandire, caught the attention of the Word Bearers Legion Master, who traveled from Colchis to meet this firebrand. Suitably convinced, the Word Bearers of Colchis gathered in force, along with thousands who had flocked to Vandire's side, and together they made for Terra. When Ecclesiarch Sebastian heard of this fleet calling itself the Confederation of Light, he fell to madness, denouncing them as traitors and rebels, and sent a massive fleet to stop them as they gathered near the edge of Segmentum Solar. As the fleet of the Ecclesiarchy jumped into the Warp in the Calixis Sector, a massive warp storm erupted, swallowing the entire fleet. With his minions lost, Thor descended into utter madness, barricading the Ecclesiarchal Palace.

When the Word Bearers and the forces of Vandire breached the Palace, they executed the mad Ecclesiarch, and Vandire was put in his place over his protests. Once in office, Vandire reformed the church, abolishing the decrees of Thor, and banning the Ecclesiarchy from possessing men at arms. This wording was intentional, as it allowed the Ecclesiarchy to recruit women as soldiers, and the first of these were the Brides of the Emperor, who would become the seed of what would later become the Sisters of Battle.

The Word Bearers are split nearly evenly between Colchis and New Monarchia, though they remain a unified legion. Both halves of the Word Bearers fight in the same groupings of ten companies to a chapter, ten captains under a chapter master, and several dozen chapter masters that report to a Zoa. Originally there were four Zoas, each representing a classical element of Colchis. During the Heresy, the Zoa of Fire, Barthusa Narek, rebelled, fully a fourth of the legion followed him into damnation, and have since been the Word Bearers most hated foes aside from the Ultramarines. The title of Zoa Fuzon was removed from use due to Narek's treachery, as was the title of Zoa Utha after the heroic death of Argel Tal and the Gal Vorbak. Thus only two Zoa remain, each in command of half of the legion. The legion master in command of Colchis and the west bears the title of Zoa Grodna, while his counterpart on New Monarchia is called Zoa Thiriel, representing earth and air respectively. Each Zoa is the undisputed master of the legion in his own domain, prosecuting campaigns as he sees fit. Every fifty years the two will meet to discuss matters that concern the legion as a whole. The two Zoa are generally polar opposites in terms of their philosophies, though they are united by their devotion to the Imperium. The current Zoa Thiriel is Eliphas the Inheritor, an impulsive warrior who made the rare move of leaving the Chaplaincy to become a regular captain instead. Such a career change has its precedence in early legion history with Zoa Argel Tal leaving his mentor Zoa Erebus behind to become a captain, and many believe Eliphas to have a bright future ahead of him. In contrast to his hot-headed nature is the mysterious Astartes known only as the Anchorite, whose past before becoming Zoa Grodna has been hidden even from his fellow legionaries. These two have worked well together, balancing each other out, and achieved a notable victory in the Lithesh Sector. Upon the mountainous world of Kronus, the Word Bearers fought against the mysterious xenos known as the Necrons, crushing the robotic foe and destroying their strange tombs deep below the surface while fending off opportunistic attacks from Orks, Aeldari, and Chaos alike. On these rare occasions when the two Zoa come together, the Gloriana-class Fidelitas Lex, flagship of Lorgar himself, is allowed to see battle, and little can withstand the combined firepower of the vessel along with the two Abyss-class ships joining in.

The Seventeenth Legion remains the staunch defenders of the Imperium that they always have. The Word Bearers of New Monarchia are very close with the Ecclesiarchy and the Sisters of Battle, and have fought on many battlefields together. They are also close with their fellow Astartes in the Raven Guard Legion, who share a similarly widespread belief in the God-Emperor. In contrast, the Word Bearers of Colchis are more distant with the Adeptus Ministorum, instead prioritizing relations with other Astartes Legions, especially the Night Lords. This alliance was a result of the two legions' shared experiences in the Ruinstorm during the Heresy. Both halves of the legion maintain good relations with the Imperial Guard and the High Lords of Terra. The Seventeenth has a more strained relationship with the Adeptus Mechanicus, who view the sons of Lorgar as all too human, prone to the weaknesses of the flesh and emotion. The Seventeenth Legion fights the forces of Chaos more than they do xenos, and none are more hated than the Ultramarines. These two legions have an eternal rivalry, and the Maelstrom is ringed by Word Bearer outposts, who monitor the storm for signs of their foe. Many times have the Thirteenth attempted to break out of the Maelstrom to return to Sector XIII, and though they often fail, those that do receive dark power from their wicked patrons, and have become incredibly dangerous. Likewise the Word Bearers of Colchis patrol the systems around Cadia, wary of the monsters that occasionally spew from the Eye of Terror. Heretics and traitors in general are their most common foe, though the Tyranid threat has become ever more common in recent centuries. All sons of Lorgar stand united against the Sons of Fuzon.

Beliefs and Warcry

Those of the Seventeenth Legion who hail from New Monarchia are much like their father as he was when he was first found. They are warriors of faith, utterly convinced of the divinity of the God-Emperor and that their father was the closest primarch to the Emperor. Every battle is prosecuted under the watchful eye of the Chaplains, who bellow litanies of hate as they inspire their brothers by their example. They hold that Lorgar embraced his divinity, and argue for a more figurative and mystical reading of their primarch's words. Some even so go far as to postulate that through prayer and dedication, one can achieve union in spirit to become more like the Primarch. In contrast, the Word Bearers of Colchis are much more subdued. The Emperor is honored as the pinnacle of humanity, and Lorgar was an inspiration and a hero but not a demigod. They believe that they uphold their primarch's philosophy that the Emperor is not perfect but that he is still worth fighting for and is the best option for Humanity. Such contrasting beliefs are both derived from a contested verse in the Book of Lorgar. One would think these opposing beliefs would lead to strife, but the Imperial Church is well used to differences of opinions. For example, the tech priests of Mars honor the Emperor as the Omnissiah, while on more primitive worlds, he may be a simple sky god. The Word Bearers embody this tolerance through their differences in faith, though both halves are united in honoring their father's legacy of defending the Imperium, as well as an unshakeable conviction that Monarchia was a test of faith and something to be learned from.

The Word Bearers have gone through multiple legion armor colors. Their original paint scheme was stone gray, which was changed to a deep crimson red after finding their primarch. This reverted to gray once more after Lorgar renounced his devotion to the Emperor, and so the Word Bearers of Colchis maintain this tradition, and thus they bear the same stone gray. These colors are inverted in the half of the legion hailing from New Monarchia, where they hold that the crimson is a testimony to their faith. Both halves of the legion bear the symbol of the Book of Lorgar upon their shoulders. The legion has many cries when entering into battle, many depending on which half of the legion that the Astartes hails from. The Word Bearers of New Monarchia most often have their chaplains bellowing litanies and verses from the Book of Lorgar in a call and response where the chaplain will begin and is then answered by his battle brothers. A standard litany will generally contain phrases such as, "For the God-Emperor and his Chosen," or, "We bear the Word". Word Bearers of Colchis do not use battle-cries as much, preferring to fight in silent focus, though they, like other legions, will roar, "For the Emperor". When facing the forces of the Ultramarines, all Word Bearers will shout "Remember Monarchia!"

Torquill Eliphas knelt on the floor of his quarters, flickering candlelight illuminating the darkened room. In front of him hung an icon of his namesake, the original Eliphas, whose name Torquil had inherited when he assumed command of the Ark of Testimony chapter. On the ground beside him lay a deck of cards of the Emperor's Tarot, another relic passed down from chapter master to chapter master. Though Eliphas was no psyker, as a son of the Aurelian he still felt a deep connection to the God-Emperor and his father the Saint. He flipped the first card over.

The howling cadaver of the God-Emperor stared up at him. This card normally speaks of unexpected hope, yet Eliphas had drawn it inverted, a dire portent of war and death. He grimaced, and flipped the next card over. The inverted Knight, the first card of the deck, which represented the return one thought lost. He flipped the final card over. The swirling depths of the Great Eye stared back up at him. Generally the Great Eye meant the Eye of Terror, but with the conjunction of the other cards, perhaps it referred to something else entirely. These were bleak omens indeed, yet Eliphas was unsure how they connected. Eliphas stood, leaving the cards where they lay, and strode out of the room back to the bridge. The captain on duty turned to him.

"We've arrived at Cadia, sir. The forces of the Destroyer have already begun their assault."

A/N: This entry was by far the most difficult to write so far, and I'm not sure why. In other heresies, Lorgar is either super religious or super atheist, and not only did I not want to copy other authors, I also think it's something of a false dichotomy. Despite being beyond human, most primarchs seem to act like robots and cliches, stuck in one way of thinking or acting, and I'm not really a fan of that. Thus my version of Lorgar is capable of thinking and growing as a person, of changing his mind. I absolutely love the over-the-top religiosity of the 40k setting, and Kor Phaeron has always interested me more than Erebus, thus he is now the wise master he could have been. Anyway, please feel free to comment what you did or did not like, and next up is the Sons of Horus, which is by far the largest index written thus far.

Sharrowkyn, out.