[X] Yes.
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we'd already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me?"
[X] Yes.
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we'd already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me?"
[x] Yes.
-[x] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we'd already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me?"
I think it's important to mention that after we "won" we became a farmer. That that's what we want. That it's not all death, that the most important things in the wastes are bonds and community.
I think it's important to mention that after we "won" we became a farmer. That that's what we want. That it's not all death, that the most important things in the wastes are bonds and community.
Well, kinda. He did go into market regularly and seemed to have a decent (albeit not super close) relationship with the community. Decent enough to be jealous of how quickly the Emperor got the same or even better respect with a tenth of the effort.
(Also his Death Guard, but they were his brothers in arms, nothing to do with the farmer life)
[X] Yes
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we'd already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me?"
[X] Yes.
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we'd already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me?"
[X] Yes.
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we'd already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me?"
[X] Yes.
-[X] "One by one, I killed the tyrants of my world. Then I became a farmer to rebuilt the ravaged ecosystem. That was how the Emperor found me. He told me of other tyrants on other worlds. My children, will you kill them with me?"
Scheduled vote count started by Maugan Ra on Oct 22, 2023 at 11:07 AM, finished with 127 posts and 95 votes.
[X] Yes
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we'd already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me?"
[X] Yes
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The way we fight is similar too. In this, I have found much promise. The Emperor promised we would kill more. Shall we slay the galaxy's monsters together?"
[X] No.
-[X] Elaborate
-[X] Write-In: "You acclaim me, but you do not know me. Primarch is but a title, I would ask you salute me as Mortation, when you know Mortation, and you know the Death Guard of Barbarus, as I will come to know Rikard Zhar, and the Dusk Raiders of Alba."
[X] Yes
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we'd already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me, my sons?"
[X] Yes
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we had already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me?"
[X] "Good work, sons. Continue our crusade until all tyrants die. Until all the galaxy stands tall, united. Until all rests under a benevolent fist. For the Emperor!"
[X] Yes
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we'd already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me, my Legion?"
[X] Yes
-[x] You have done a wonderful job of freeing humanity form the horrors of the galaxy. But we must continue so all I have to say is kill as many of enemy before you die.
[X] Yes
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The way we fight is similar, too. In this, I have found much promise. The Emperor promised we would kill more. Shall we kill the galaxy's monsters together?"
[X] Yes
-[X] aAaAaAaAaAaAaA DUSK RAIDERS!!!!!!! What do you see looking at me?! A Primarch here to take your command?! A father here to meet his sons?! A son of the Emperor joining you?! An old soldier back on the battlefield?! A farmer plowing battlefields with his sword?! A seed of a new legion sprouting?! I am all of that and more. We do not know each others yet. You will learn of me and mine. And I of you and your legion. Then we tear overlords from their thrones. Meet your kin now and prepare yourselves. Battles will come.
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we'd already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me?"
[X] Yes
-[X] "I expect every warrior here to die in battle, including myself. This is what we dedicate ourselves to; to bleed, and suffer, and spend our lives so that others do not have to. There is no honour in it. No glory. Any who speak otherwise are fools, or wish to deceive you. But as bitter as this work is, until we achieve peace I shall fight on. I do not demand you join me- but any who does will always be welcome at my side."
[X] Yes
- [x] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Babarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we'd already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me?"
[X] Yes
-[X] "One by one, I killed the tyrants of my world. Then I became a farmer to rebuilt the ravaged ecosystem. That was how the Emperor found me. He told me of other tyrants on other worlds. My children, will you kill them with me?"
I am, yes, and for much the same reason. Chalk it up to the Crusade being slower and thus there being more opportunity for them to just never be found before something in the galaxy does them in.
I doubt that only because the Primarchs in canon were hinted as being irreplicable, using both grafts of his own soul and things he unwisely bargained for from the powers of the Warp... and damn well wasn't going to bargain for again. Primarchs were pretty much nascent minor deities by themselves going by what happened when Corax's flesh fell away. The original Emperor was beating the hell out of himself, just for 'fucking hell I got played' reasons rather than human ones.
Here, we presumably are what we are on our face just like the Emperor is what he appears to be: We are magnificently optimized transhuman beings crafted from the old man's blood using everything he scraped together from the Dark Age of Technology. If he really wanted to he could probably just decant more of us and do a better job of it this time around.
That isn't really our concern, though. We passed on becoming an expert on human genetics, though it may be peripheral to our worldbuilding work, so we aren't going to be going Fabius Bile here. Our eventual mortality and potentially being the last of our kind isn't particularly uncomfortable to this Mortarion as long as mankind prospers and continues being refined through extreme environments and other selection pressures.
Fair. I was thinking of it more in the sense of things that would still appeal to a creature like him, as divorced to our wants as he is. But it was clumsily written on my part. For the most part its irrelevant except to contrast how things are different here.
Here, we presumably are what we are on our face just like the Emperor is what he appears to be: We are magnificently optimized transhuman beings crafted from the old man's blood using everything he scraped together from the Dark Age of Technology. If he really wanted to he could probably just decant more of us and do a better job of it this time around.
I also think the whole Horus Heresy angle works much better that way. There is no real reason why Horus (or any other Primarch really) couldn't fill the shoes of the Emperor while simultaneously being far more replacable. Though I admit I'm biased, dysfunctional transhuman warrior nobility is just more interesting to me than godlings.
[X] Yes
-[X] "I have been told of your history. That your people overthrew a feared tyrant. The people of Barbarus have as well. The more I was told of the Dusk Raiders, the more parallels I heard with those who'd fought beside me. I find this promising. The Emperor made a promise to me, that there were more monsters in the galaxy like those we'd already vanquished, which I would fight. Will you kill them with me?"
X – The Warmaster
You've never been terribly adept at speechcraft, but then you never had to be. All who dwelled upon Barbarus knew nature of your world and the monsters that claimed to rule it, understood the stakes and the nature of any conflict to come. You demonstrated your good intent through deeds and your capability by taking the head of the next tyrant to seek a harvest, and that was enough. Yet you stand upon Barbarus no longer. This is a new land with new people, and you will either adapt to the change or you will perish in its wake.
You nod to Zhar, and without another word turn and step up before the assembled Legion, allowing them to see you and looking upon them in turn. You left the Death Guard behind for this, coming alone to the surface of Cenotaph to meet with your sons, and no matter how many times you think the words they still do not seem quite real. Your sons. Warriors born of your blood, forged in your own image to wage war across the stars that you only half-believed were real. What do you even say to them? What could any man hope to say, to bridge a gap of that magnitude?
Well, at the very least it would be hard to do worse than Necare. There is a ghoulish sort of comfort to be taken in that, you suppose.
"You know me," you say into the silence of a dead world, "And I know you. On Terra, they told me of Old Albia and her sons. Of courage unbroken, even by death."
The Legion hangs on your every word, red of hand and cold of heart, silent and expectant. You think of the Emperor, and what it must have taken to oppose such a man in battle, to hold him to a stalemate and draw from him an accord.
"In days to come, others will tell of you Barbarus, my home," you continue, uncertain in your footing but pressing on regardless, "Of its people and its wars. Of our foes I will not speak, save only that in tales of unspeakable kings and vile lords I found much that was familiar. Familiar, and promising."
No one speaks. No one moves. You could be addressing a field of statues for all the response your words elicit, and yet you can feel the attention of the legion on you like a weight strapped tight across your shoulders. Watching, measuring, judging. An old and familiar burden.
"Two battles fought, two victories won, but it is not enough. The work yet remains," you press on, thinking of Necare, how your quest for his destruction consumed your life and yet ended without your death. "This, the Emperor has promised me. Monsters to slay, tyrants to drag from their thrones. For this cause, I have pledged myself to his banner – for war unending, until it is done."
This, at last, draws a reaction. Ten thousand hands draw ten thousand blades, raised high and glittering in the dying light, and ten thousand voices roar out the same phrase.
"Until it is done!"
You pause, briefly taken aback, and then nod. You'd not planned on such a call or response, nor on ending the speech there, but better a quick and clean death than a long and torturous end. So you nod, and you raise your fist to the sky, and when the echoes of the chant have faded you turn and make your way back over to the Legion Master.
"Hmm. Not bad. A little dry, perhaps, but I suppose you can't all be Horus," Rikard Zhar says in a neutral tone. You eye him for a moment, wondering what that is supposed to mean, but he is unflappable and in the end you decide not to press.
"Speaking of my brother, I am to meet him here."
Zhar tilts his head for a moment as some hidden system in his armour clicks and whines. Then he nods.
"The Vengeful Spirit just broke warp."
-/-
"It is no light thing to command a Legion," says Horus Lupercal, walking by your side along the Vengeful Spirit's observation deck, "but for all its weight, it is but the first of many burdens."
This is Horus; noble, proud, scarred. There is much of his father in him, yet where the Emperor seemed almost too perfect to be real, there is a rough and rugged edge to Horus that only a fool would dismiss out of hand. His skin is scar-marked and weather-beaten, his eyes wrinkled and dark, his hair shaved clear away to hide any trace of weakness. You know not what trials he has endured to forge him thus, nor do you think he would tell you honestly if you asked, but the work has left its mark.
"I will prove equal to it," you say quietly, finding to your slight consternation that you are taller than Horus at the shoulder and unsure how to handle it, "as I will any other."
"I have no doubt," Horus nods agreeably, giving you a sly and speculative look, "Rogal spoke well of you, when last we met. Not an easy man to please, by any means, but shrewd, and never yet mistaken."
You think briefly of Rogal Dorn, the white-haired brother who spoke with you of Inwit, and hide a smile. It is good to know that he speaks well of you, but until you have given him deeds to match that fine impression you would not care to bask in it.
"We hardly spoke," you reply instead, finding your eyes straying to the wide windows and the glittering stars beyond. The view is so different from the one above Barbarus, and then again from the skies over Terra, but as always, the beauty remains. That might, you think, be the one constant among all this galaxy has to offer.
"You hardly needed to," Horus laughs, stopping to gaze out at the stars with you, his dark eyes flicking gently as he traces constellations new and familiar. "A man's true character is visible in all he does, and your actions speak louder than words ever could."
Is that true? You would like to believe it so, for deeds are a language you find easier to master than any spoken tongue, but some part of you insists that it cannot be that easy. If deeds along could convey intent, then men might have never learned to speak at all.
"I do," your brother nods, smirking briefly as if amused by his own confidence. He reaches out and lays one armoured hand flat against the viewscreen, watching the way starlight twinkles between the span of his fingers. "I have met a thousand times ten thousand men while in my time, and while every one of them is different, so many are the same. There are warriors such as Ferrus, concerned only with excellence and glory, and there are ordered minds like Perturabo who would wish the galaxy into a shape it can not bear. Others seek wealth or power or enlightenment, measure their success and the world around them by caste and creed and title, and all of them will tell you true that theirs is the only measure that truly matters. Rare indeed are the men who can look beyond such singular meanings and grasp the importance of the whole. Men like us, my brother."
You snort, shaking your head. "Will you call us lords next? Rulers of the new age, gazing down from our mountain thrones?"
It is strange. You ought to be offended, to be furious, to be drawing your weapon at the mere implication that you are anything like that caste of monsters who you've left mouldering in their castles turned tombs. Yet when Horus speaks you find it hard to muster up the natural ire, any more than you would if Typhon made a biting comment at your expense. You met him less than an hour ago, but already it feels as if you have been friends for an age.
"Our father conquers the stars and sets his hand to shaping the galaxy entire," Horus laughs, a brief chuckle and a shake of his head, as if the scope of your progenitor's ambition still astounds him, "This is not an age for modest men, my brother, nor for those who would sit and rot atop their thrones while others lead the charge."
"I am a farmer," you shake your head, turning away from the starfield and back to your walk, "not a banner bearer."
"Exactly!" Horus exclaims, stinging your shoulder with a punch that could have shattered stone, "I did not realise at first, but then I read the reports and I realised – you saw what most could not. You saw the monsters on their thrones and the poison in the soil not as the separate threats they pretended to be, but the singular foe they always were. One needs the sword, the other a plough, but they're both part of the same great work. Kill monsters, plant seeds, carve mountains and map the stars… the work will never be done, but with men like you on side, it will grow faster and further than even I had dared imagine."
You smile at that. The expression feels strange and unnatural on your face, but you cannot help it. Here at last is someone who gets it, someone who understands. Oh not entirely, Horus' life has been far too different for him to grasp the full scope of your vision and your world with total precision, but he is close and getting closer even after an hour or less. To have at least one of your brothers who truly sees what you mean, who can communicate that same understanding back to you and then onto others, is a greater balm than you had imagined.
"And what of you?" you ask instead, allowing yourself the satisfaction, "Men like you and I, you said."
"Hah. Where shall we begin? My Wolves have claimed a list of victories greater than any other, my word is respected above all save our father, and my ambitions, well…" Horus chuckles, his eyes gleaming with something very much like hunger.
"Mm. And yet you're here, holding my hand," you say dryly.
"I am here to witness your first steps," Horus corrects, as easily as he seems to do everything, before gesturing to the room ahead, "On which note, let us speak of Galaspar."
You had thought your walk a meaningless one, a simple stroll in a brother's company wherever your feet might take you, but this it seems was Horus' plan all along. The chamber beyond is clearly built for strategy, with map-charts and hololithic display tables and a thousand instruments for simulation and communication. Presently it is filled with agents and representatives of every major Imperial body you've met and a few more local ones you can only identify by inference, and all of them turn as you and your brother enter the room.
"The Galaspar Cluster consists of eleven stars and roughly twice as many worlds, colonies, enclaves and outposts," Horus gestures to a map that hangs against the far wall, lines etched in shining crystal alongside a myriad of cartographic data-points, "A conservative estimate places the human population at approximately fifty billion, two thirds of which are concentrated on the capital world, temporarily named Galaspar Prime."
To measure in such numbers still feels alien and unreal, but you are quite used to pushing past discomfort to focus on the task at hand. You sweep the chamber with your eyes, spotting and internalising a thousand facts and figures in that moment, refusing to linger on any single datum until you have a feel for the whole thing.
"Eleven stars… an independent power, then?"
Horus knows the answer, you can tell that immediately, but instead of answering he nods to a robed man with unnaturally long fingers waiting in the wings. "Master Belisarius, if you would?"
"The Galaspar cluster lies within a natural depression in the immaterium," the robed man says in a sonorous voice, and after a moment you place the name as belonging to one of the Navigator Houses you were told of back on Terra. They were never of particular interest to you, but you learned their names and signs all the same, and Belisarius is noted as being one of the most prominent. "That aetheric propensity, combined with a set of exquisitely detailed navigational charts handed down since their founding, allows the cluster's shipping to rest on a handful of predictable, reliable routes. They reached the limits of these resources some five centuries ago and have not attempted to expand further."
The Navigator sounds dismissive of such limited ambitions, but you find you have some sympathy. Everything you have learned of the immaterium makes it sound as perilous as Barbaran highlands to traverse, a feat best not attempted without serious thought to risk and reward. If they had all they needed within their little valley, why should they attempt to expand further?
"It was a Belisarius navigator who first charted the route to this cluster, aboard the rogue trader vessel Midnight Promise," Horus explains briefly, nodding to another man currently leaning back against the far wall. "Captain Darius here was in command, and in accordance with his mandate opened negotiations."
The captain is a rangy looking fellow with sallow skin and a truly spectacular moustache that reaches almost to his waist, but you're more interested in the gilt lettering upon his weapons, the silver embroidery on his jacket. This is not a man content to let mere necessity or virtue drive him – he values coin and wealth in a fashion you are still getting used to, and though he clearly feels nervous in such fearsome company, the fires of ambition in his eyes give him the strength to speak cleanly.
"Galaspar is ruled by a cult of bureaucracy, one that took power after the primary system suffered ecological collapse," he says, inclining his head to you and your brother even as he strokes his absurd moustache for comfort. "They call themselves 'The Order', and they control everything in the cluster down to the smallest detail. Where you are born, your school and what you study, where you live and work and eat… and, when you're too old to be of use anymore, where you get the little pills that will stop your heart."
You frown darkly at his words, your hands balling into fists. Such a level of control is something that not even the Overlords could have managed… or perhaps they simply did not wish to. What did it matter to them how their livestock organised themselves, after all, so long as they were fat and ready in the valleys when the time came for a harvest?
"Fifty billion… that is too many for law alone to control," you say tersely, burying your surging feelings beneath a mask of attentive care, "How do they manage it?"
"Several methods, but I believe Magos Mu-6 has the most pertinent answer," Horus nods, gesturing now to a heavyset figure swathed in red robes, and you hide a scoff at how transparently everyone in this room waits for your brother's prompting before they speak.
"Analysis of foodstuffs recovered from the primary world indicate the presence of significant narcotics in the daily intake of foodstuffs and liquid nutrients," Mu-6 explains in a pleasant baritone, all detail of their body hidden beneath the heavy red robes and a silver death-mask. "Labour units were made compliant and resistant to fatigue, militant units were calibrated for higher aggression and so forth. The quantities degraded the subjects' physical forms at an accelerated rate, but withdrawal would likely be fatal."
You grunt, resisting the urge to spit lest you damage the machinery. The use of poisons to control a captive populace – yes, you know this strategy well, if not the specific form it takes here. Before Horus can interject or guide the conversation on, you turn back to Captain Darius and fix him with a gimlet glare.
"This 'Order' – are they friend or foe?"
"I, ah, well," the rogue trader swallows, before steeling himself, "They seemed open to limited trade, if agreed in advance and funnelled through a specific entry port, but the idea of joining the Imperium was… well, they nearly shot us for even mentioning it. Whether they could be brought around is, uh…"
"A question of imperial policy, not for the captain to decide," Horus intercedes, gracefully providing cover for the explorer before he can soil himself beneath the weight of your displeasure, "By the authority of our father and the mandate of the War Council, the question of Galaspar is for you to answer, Mortarion. Invasion, negotiation, conquest or compromise – so long as it ends with the Aquila flying proud, any means are acceptable. I will assist you as best I may, but our path is yours to choose."
Article:
Choose your path:
[ ] War
- [ ] Of Liberation. You object to how the Order treats its subjects, and you have the might and self-proclaimed right to intervene on their behalf.
- [ ] Of Conquest. Galaspar has refused all possibility of peaceful unification, and so they will be brought into the fold by force.
- [ ] Of Destruction. The Order offends you on a personal, moral level, and so it must be destroyed, torn out by the root so that no trace of it remains.
[ ] Peace
- [ ] Specify your bargaining position, offers and demands etc (Write-in)
Note that these paths are not necessarily exclusive. If you commit to war you may end with a negotiated peace or conditional surrender, and if negotiations fail you will be free to declare war.
[X] War
- [X] Of Liberation. You object to how the Order treats its subjects, and you have the might and self-proclaimed right to intervene on their behalf.
- [X] Open with an ultimatum: if they end their system and work with the Imperium to reverse the damage it has caused, then they may enter its ranks peacefully. If they refuse, you will force them to do so.
- [X] Have scientists immediately, before the ultimatum is even given, researching what can be done to help the people, whether there's a way to slowly wean them from the drugs or find a replacement. Just as with the soil of your home, there must be a solution even if it is not perfect.
So, first question should be: what is our objective with this? What is it we're actually looking to achieve? Just bring the Order into the Imperium? Reform them? Wipe out all traces of their current system?
Personally, I think we need to stamp out the currently leadership (or whoever else is behind the pills), and then come up with a way to wean the rest of the population off the drugs (or preferably figure it out even before we bring them in). Smaller doses, some sort of replacements, blockers, etc. Which I don't see as being possible peacefully, but I'd be open to leading with an 'offer' of negotiation.
Which is to say, give them terms, and the option of either agreeing voluntarily or being forced to agree.
Therefore:
[X] War
- [X] Of Liberation. You object to how the Order treats its subjects, and you have the might and self-proclaimed right to intervene on their behalf.
- [X] Open with an ultimatum: if they end their system and work with the Imperium to reverse the damage it has caused, then they may enter its ranks peacefully. If they refuse, you will force them to do so.
[X] War
- [x] Of Liberation. You object to how the Order treats its subjects, and you have the might and self-proclaimed right to intervene on their behalf.
Seems pretty clear cut based on our speech. They will welcome us as liberators, surely.
[X] War
- [x] Of Liberation. You object to how the Order treats its subjects, and you have the might and self-proclaimed right to intervene on their behalf.
Seems pretty clear cut based on our speech. They will welcome us as liberators, surely.
