Commissioned: Beginning of the Legionary wars M31 001-100
Commissioned
Beginning of the Legionary wars M31-100s
A Lectures series By Geri the LXXXIII
Presented at the University of fenris
Given the capital world of Fenris, the center of the empire of the Wolf's Claw, in M41
M31 is denoted as the start date of The Fall of the imperium of man, it was not a massive collapse it was not a Titanic civil war that ended the industrial and military might that had come to nearly claim the rest of the Galaxy.
It was nothing so bold no the thing that ended the imperium of man was a warp storm and the Emperor of Mankind being lost in this warpstorm. What happened to the emperor is still unknown as all people who were on board the ship disappeared with him what is known is that he never returned from his trip home to Tara after the battles of Ullanor.
Ships disappearing and reappearing from the war is a common thing and there have been for a long time. Procedures for if something like this would ever happen assuming the emperor would fine his way home eventually. However those procedures were thrown out of whack when the primarchs all reported that he may have died. How they knew was hotly contested with many primarchs giving their own interpretation on how they knew, my favorite is the one from our own primarchs Tanya of Russ. "it was as if a presence we had known all our lives had simply stopped existing something we had been connected to forever was gone and we just knew it would never come back."
Chaos would have taken hold but the primarchs asserted control quick enough, though the emperor was gone his Warmaster Horus was more than able to hold things down. Instead of continuing with the crusade he was preparing to launch, he redirected his fleet to the capital of Terra and took control of the throne world.
From there working with the first Lord of Terra Malcador he established himself as the new emperor of the imperium of man planning to hold the empire together in the briefest hope that the emperor was not gone from us and would return one day.
Unfortunately his efforts were not as fruitful as he would have liked for they were forces already in motion too crack the empire, and though their plans would never come fruition anymore the the cracks already created by the loss of the emperor would grow immensely by their machinations.
Horus first move upon Ascension to the throne of the emperor was to call upon the other primarchs to pledge their loyalty to him and show that the empire still stood strong. He trusted his siblings to bend the knee believing that they would understand that the empire needed a solid united front to continue its expansion. The 17 Primarchs other than Horace would ultimately do as he demanded but their actions following this declaration of loyalty would indicate that they were preparing for the worst or to settle old grudges that had built up over the great crusade.
This became no more apparent than the first breakaway state the realm of Ultramar. The Primarch of the ultramarines considered themselves loyal to the emperor and to the dream of a unified humanity but he made himself clear with his first act of statehood that he believed that a centralized government on Terra would be the downfall of the empire as it would not be able to react to threats quick enough. Thus he founded the state of ultramar. At the time of its creation it had no implications of breaking away though most of these states that would come to make up the imperium of the 31st millennium had no implications of breaking away till they finally did.
What followed was sectors of the space creating miniature empires within the imperium of man, the Night Haunter built an empire on the edges of the ghoul Stars claiming that it's distance so far away from imperial center required such a local governance.
Perturabo, who had been one of the more dedicated warriors on the crusade seeing that the empire seem to be on the verge of stagnation possibly a return of the old night claimed the Stars near the Dominion of storms and his homeworld, taking advice of his sister and finally returning to build instead of destroy. And it was a good thing he returned when he did as Olympia was in the process of planning his overthrow, with his return and finally setting about improving his homeworld this potential disaster was stopped. Creating a era of peace that allowed for Perturabo to build up his empire on the edges of the Maelstrom.
However this empire would have an effect on the politics of the region Jaghatai Khan, Fulgrim and Vulkan were worried that Perturabo found that their home worlds were well within striking distance of this new iron empire and form the confederation of the Maelstrom with the squats a counterbalance in case Perturabo let his delusions that others were stealing his credit go too far.
Before the second decade of M31 was over almost all the Primarchs of the Segmentum Ultima had formed their own empires or alliances in fear of each other's prospective empires. The only Primarch's not to make this step was Primarch Angron who wanted nothing to do with his homeworld and wished only to conquer for the imperium more than ever now to be emperor was no longer at the head of the empire. Sanguinius who feared none of his siblings and instead worked on trying to create a diplomatic solution to any problems between the rival governments in the Segmentum Ultima. And finally Magnus who did not seek an alliance with the Maelstrom but searched outside the Segmentum creating a secret pact with our Primarch, Tanya Russ. This pact was one of self-defense in origin, fearing that there may be a fight in the Segmentum Ultima that he didn't want his planet Prospero drawn into any conflict. But just incases He didn't want to have no allies to call upon in an emergency, the first one he thought of was his sister. She agreed on condition that he would devote more resources into teaching his space Marines to use runes instead of letting magic run wild as they did it cheffed him but he accepted the deal.
However this attempt to muzzle the magic of prospero came too late as the first major crack that would send the imperium it shatterpoint came with the council of nicea. In Horace attempting to hold the imperium together by whatever trick he could get had been running into an issue with Mortarion who was claiming that the use of psychics was abhorrent, and would not work with the thousand Suns until they stopped using their abilities or any legion for that matter that attempted to control warp with their liberians.
This sentiment was also shared by Dorn and Corax and fearing those three would form an alliance that would try and succeed from the empire he wished to try and ease the situation by holding the meating on the matter. Those three Primarchs controlled the only space legions in segmentum tempestus, and if they left the entire segmentum tempest this was good as gone as well with the Segmentum Ultima being on the verge of conflict only prevented by sanguinius's negotiating skills he could not risk losing potential within Segmentum Tempestus.
So he called upon all the Primarchs to meet at Nikaea to discuss this issue, Nikaeabeing inside segmentin solar but was on the border of segmentum. Trying to make this a issue for all the legions to take interest in.
This plan did not go as well as it was hoped. Horus had removed his own vote from the potential count seeing that he had no opinion for or against it and hoping that if there was only 17 votes it would be a fair vote however he had forgotten to count Mechanicum used ancient rights of alliance to be able to vote within the process as well.
The Mechanicum under Kelbor-Hal voted against the continued use of psychers. The Primarchs of the segmentum tempest is all sided with the ending of the use of psychic powers as well so it was not off to a good start for Magnus in the thousand sons.
Tanya Russ spoke of using these Powers with caution and that's they were dangerous but could be well and effective weapons if used properly.
The Primarchs of the Maelstrom alliance Jaghatai Khan, Fulgrim and Vulkan all voted for the continued use of psychic powers.
The Primarch's Ferrus Manus and Lion El'Jonson shared no opinion on the matter though they believe Magnus needed to be censured for being too experimental with these powers ultimately siding with Tanya and that's any effort to use these abilities needed to be well and truly carefully done.
Pertorado was fully against the use of psychic powers deeming them a potential threat to humanity.
Corvus Corax and Sanguinius and Guilliman ended up supporting psychic powers though they saw them as needing restrictions in their own special ways.
Angron was the vehemently against the abilities, And finally Lorgar and Alpharius Omegon the two Primarchs from the Segmentum Pacificus were in favor of psychic abilities.
With all sides making their final arguments It fell to Horus e to make a decision on the matter by rights psychic abilities should have won those not in favor of their use were few in number only five out of 17 Primarchs were against it but the considerations of the situation required a recontextualization that we're made quite clear in the years to come.
Three of those five could form their own empire in an alliance and be a threat to the imperium stability perturabo and angron were not as large of an issue though perturabo could easily form an alliance with the three Primarchs in the segmentum tempestus and create a situation where the Maelstrom felt threatened on both sides.
And there was the factor of the Mechanicum on the taken to consideration they may not have been a Primarch vote but their vote possibly held more power than the Primarchs themselves. Without the emperor to act as their Omnissiah they were just to know allied nation could decide to remove themselves from the alliance at any time this was not something good for a stability of the empire.
Ultimately he chose the third path that was presented by Russ, Lion and Ferris.
He declared that psychic abilities would be allowed but only under heavily monitored librarians and would not be used for combat. This ultimately devastated the thousand suns legions capabilities as so many of them had shown use of psychic abilities that they could not be allowed into combat anymore. Magnus feeling betrayed by his brother reportedly swore him out as no better than the criminals that made up his homeworld being a superstitious and fearful lot.
He probably would have gone on but the reports say that Tanya smacked him across the face and shared words with him that no one to this day knows whatever it is it put him in ease and he finally accepted the judgment of emperor Horus.
Theories on what Tanya has said has rained for millennium though I believe we can be quite easily figured out by looking at the context already presented Tanya Russ was a known strategist throughout the earlier parts of the crusade and fought almost every front. She knew the empire almost as well as Horus and knew the positions of every Primarch and what they were building, no doubt she explained that it was a no don't she explained that this was the mechanicus's fault and not prejudice from Hoeus himself though that is only speculation.
Be that as it May the deal was done and officially psychic abilities were banned for widespread combat use Magnus is legion were in essence restricted to their home world of prospero prevented from taking part in The crusade.
The efforts to prevent the alliance of segmentum tempest from forming we're all for not as that faction would eventually come to be. Ferrus Manus and Lion El'Jonson would ultimately form a similar alliance in Segmentum Obscurus though Russ would not join they're alliance claiming that there was no need for such empire so close to Terra.
Though these alliances did form for a moment there it looked like the imperium was saved. But the corruptive roots of chaos took root within several primarchs heart only waiting to take action.
The First Primach War
As 60 years since death of the emporror passed, Logar had never forgiven the the ultramarines for the destruction of his religious homeworld and had been building up an army to take his vengeance. He was simply looking for an excuse any excuse to have this private war come about and as the realms of ultrimar prospered under the ultramarines rule it became readily apparent they weren't paying as much as they should on their tithes since their empire was growing larger and larger as they would often Ally in world that have been cleared by Jaghatai Khan, Fulgrim and Vulkan who still actively seeked to enlarge the imperium.
Whispering words of whoa he convinced Horus that's the Primarch of the ultramarines was going to ultimately rebel against the imperium declare themselves Independence.
Horus having not spoken with his brother in years ultimately having become too busy dealing with putting out the fires of minor conflicts in the region and suspected that perhaps Logar was right he had noted that of the legions reported numbers the ultramarine seem to be growing at a exponentially larger rate than everyone else is possibly in a plan to build up. The possibility that Guillimanwould betray the imperium and try and take the entire Eastern fringes for himself and form a new empire became more real in his mind as he saw the Curze sign a treaty creating a border of influence between Guillimanand the night hunters realms.
Feeling that he had no choice he told Logar to rally Angron and go to Guilliman asking him to come before Terra to explain the situation.
This operation was meant to be nothing more than a compliance mission make sure that everything was still in order for Horus but for those he had assigned to the operation it was a chance to get a bit of revenge.
Angron carried a grudges against Guilliman for years ever since he had asked for Angron senctyioned for his " lack of conflict resolution abilities." Those two Primarchs wanted a chance to teach Gilliam in a lesson and they had just been given it.
What happened exactly is hotly debated survivors from word bears in the world eaters claim that the ultramarines open fired first attempting to stop them from entering the realm of ultramar.
Ultramarine records indicates something else stating that they fired in response to the destruction of several of their automated defense forts on the way to Macragge. Later events would lean towards Angron and Logar plotting together to destroy ultramarine Legion. But indications of that would come years later as conflicting engulfed the Eastern fringes.
The only thing that was known and those early days of the conflict was that they were fighting between three space Marine legions in the Eastern fridges and two of them were claiming that the third had gone rebel.
This did not sit well with Horus as he assumed that his two brothers were telling him the truth and immediately ordered our Primarch Tanya Russ to join with Logar and Angron and bring compliance the the realm of ultramar.
Following the orders of her brother she packed up half her legion and sailed through the Stars though she would take her several years to get to the conflict zone due to the distances required and the warp acting abnormally uncommon at that time. When she arrived 10 years of war had passed and the realm of Ultramar had declared official independence from the imperium citing the attack as evidence that Horus had gone mad with power.
But unbeknownst to her things had changed quite differently on the other side of the imperium. Magnus the Red had been exploring too deep into the psychic powers and had believed he'd come across a plot to destroy the imperium, wanting to warn Horus of the coming storm he had attempted to send a message through his psychic powers to Terra this unfortunately triggered a catastrophic failure of a device hidden in the basement of the imperial Palace allowing creatures of Wap to well up and attack the homeworld of the imperium of man.
Not knowing why his brother had unleash the demons upon him, too busy working with his sons the lunar wolves and the custodies dealing with that situation he ordered Mortarion take action against Magnus, to bring him in chains to Terral to fix the situation or at least feel judgment for his attack on Tara.
Mortarionun fortunately had no plans to do that as he saw Magnus is just another psycher, a mad King like his adopted father that needed to be brought down. And so he set about with a plan to lay siege to the world bringing forth and fleet to destroy prospero and kill the one-eyed King.
This did not come to pass as unbeknownst to Mortarionthe space wolves had a contingent of rune priest on prospero teaching them they're safer methods of using the warp in hopes of bringing them into a position where they could join the crusade once again.
As Mortarion's death guard began to fall onto the planet a second fleet arrived in Orbit a smaller fleet but who we're used to punching above their weight class. The siege of prospero was broken within a week as Mortarion's fleet was never able to gain a aerial superiority as the wolves of fenris hunted the sky of prospero.
Magnus who had gone into a depression after his failure to worn Horus about what was coming took stock of the situation and realized that, with his sister Russ's wolf's guard fleet over his world there was no way to protect fenris as long as they were separated there we're at risk of being destroyed in detail as the fleet would have to be called back to fenris if Mortariontried to strike there.
So he broke the treaty of nikea and used his immense pyker abilities to teleport Prospero to the Fenris system. It was not a pretty thing and several of his thousand sons had to die in the effort but Fenris in and Prospero became neighbors for a Time allowing the well trained fleet of the space wolves to protect both without issue and and his thousand sons fleet could work as a support unit until the situation was cleared up.
However all Horus knew of the situation was Magnus had retreated from Mortarion to the Fenris system and Wolves of Fenris's had defied the orders of the emperor, his orders.
Assuming that Tanya had ordered this action he declared her a traitor a fact she would only learn as her troops were deploying to make camp with the army of Logar and Angron. They would find out this information first and waited in until the last moment to reveal it committing the massacre of the Wolf.
The exact events of the massacre of the wolf have been lost to time it is known that of the sixth great companies taken with her 75% were destroyed and a majority of the fleet as well, the remaining 25% were able to escape as well as the Primarch badly injured but alive. Angron is noted as being severely wounded in the conflict as well this caused the world eaters to not give Chase. Logar sent some of his fleets after the wolves but they used trails through the wheel of fire that only veterans of that campaign would know and lost them amongst the Stars.
Word of the massacre of the wolf and the prospero ravaging spread quickly, the Maelstrom alliance which had been more worried about a war with pertrabo allied with him declaring themselves independent of the imperium and unaffiliated with either sides of the conflict.
Mortarion slinked back to Segmentum Tempestus there he began building up a force to try and take Fenris and Prospero for himself, attempting to get corporatetion Coevex in Dorn to Ally with him in the effort.
But before efforts to unite the front could be fully brought about Dorn was called away to Terra to help in the handling of the demon situation. Corex was out of the system tempest at the time on campaign in the segmentum ultramar, he didn't hear about the conflict with Magnus nor was he realy t aware of the ultramarines possible betrayal or the current compliance action going on the first he heard about was when the fleet of the Wolf Primarch Ross stumbled across there expeditionary fleet. The wolves of fenris not having more details than what they was privy to, they informed him about the betrayal of the world eaters and the word bears assuming that this betrayal as they doubted horus would order Tanya murder. shocked by this betrayal and wondering what had happened to Tanya he learned that she was in currently recovering in a medical induced coma as she had been forced to use to untamed warp to try and break a path out for the space wolves to their drop ships and was currently recovering from the damage that had received her body.
Seeing this situation as pretty bad he offered them aid in return to Fenris but they turned him down saying that his place was finding out how deep this betrayal went.
He would agree to this though he wished to ask where they were going he knew that it was best that he didn't, as what he did not know could not harm either one of them.
With this knowledge secured he set sail for his homeworld in the tempest to find out what was wrong with the imperium.
The Siege of the Fenris and falling of Segmentum Obscurus
Whatever damage had been done to the device beneath the imperial Palace was bad but thankfully it was not as bad as if it had been active and on the eldar machine was eventually shut down and the demons prevented from entering anymore the situation was secured with the help of Dorn and Horus could finally take a look at the situation around the Galaxy seeing that the imperium was on the brink of falling apart.
The first thing was first dealing with the rebels closest to Tarra the the space Marine legions of the Wolf and the thousand Suns must be dealt with was this determination he called upon Mortarionand the lion to work together to bring down the fenris system. The lion was a long time rival of the Wolf and was not in favor of the destruction of the legion but saw that they had betrayed the empire and would not let their loyalty be questioned. Their fleet eventually met up with Mortarionand who then made a assault on Fenris however the Fenrisian fleet supported by the Prospering ships were able to expertly defend the sector of space. Using hit and run in gorilla tactics they drained the resources keeping the two fleets from ever accomplishing any major logistical goals that would allow them to maneuver onto Fenris.
The lion reveled in The challenge of it all while Mortarionand saw this as some sick game that needed to be brought to an end. But before the conflict could be decided. Ferrus Manus is declared himself independent of the imperium.
Ferrus Manus reasons for this change in loyalty was simple, his long friendship with Fulgrim showed him that there was a other option than to blindly follow Horus who seem to have lost control of the situation. The being his homeworld was located to the north of Tarra he was not exactly going to be able to join the Maelstrom alliance.
So with the help of Luther of the dark Angels he set up his own alliance declaring both their worlds unaligned the conflict. This resulted in some unpleasantness spreading up between the Primarch of the dark Angels and those who guard his home world. The lion withdrew from the siege of Fenris sector and made all haste home where information becomes spotty as to what exactly happened.
It is claimed by the iron hands that Ferris Manus tried to negotiate the conflict attempting to prevent it to go any further. The lion was so infuriated and enraged though that he drew his sword on Ferris Manus. The dark Angels claim that Luther ordered his orbital defenses to fire on their fleet while during the negotiations it is possible that both happened as neither side came out of this conflict telling a coherent story.
All that is known was the dark Angels were were forced to withdraw from their homeworld Ferris Manus was forced withdrawal from the system as well and the planets of caliban terribly bombarded but stood at the end of the conflict under Luther's rule.
By this point it was clear then that the imperium of man was no longer a solid front each Primarch had carved out their own empire or alliances each seeking their own goal. The most peaceful being the malstrom alliance in the center of the Galaxy with every other corner being in some conflict or another the ultramarines fought the word bears and the world eaters in the Eastern fringes. The space wolves and the thousand Suns fought the death guard on their front step the dark Angels fought Northern alliance of the iron hands caliban home guard.
Mars was as loyal as ever to horus who had issue direct orders to not supply Primarchs that were an open rebellion meaning only the world bears the world eaters the dark Angels the lunar wolves, the Imperial Fist, The Raven guard and the death guard blood angels we're still getting supplied officially with a new equipment of imperial make.
The space wolves had long since built a redundancy system into their sector getting minor forge worlds built that that value their alliance with the space wolves more than their loyalty to the empire so they continue to produce equipment for the space wolves and now the thousand Suns.
The iron hands were well and truly Smith's of their own so they built equipment for themselves becoming independent of all supply lines over the coming decades.
Maelstrom alliance deepin their connections to the squats creating a independent system for military equipment structure fully free of Martian influence.
And the ultramarines built their own resource system being that they had a large empire to call upon for this task.
The only faction that did not have a fully independent system that was declaring itself to be an empire within the empire was the night Lords and the night nigh hawnter. they had stayed out of the conflict for the majority of the years it had rained seeming to care not about wars instead more focused on building up there own empire with planets looking for safety in the coming conflict. That changed when Tanya reappeared in in the night lord domain.
She had been missing for a decade almost since the massacre perpetrated by the word bears and the world eater. And those in the know we're wondering if perhaps she had not made it to safety and her ship had been struck by warpstorms.
But her reaprances came with an official change in stance of the night lords as they declared official alliance with the wolves of fenris. And declared on the word bears and world eaters, this had a massive effect on the strategic situation of both conflects currently raging. The night Lord's empire created a secure point for a transfer from fenris of resources to the edges of the empire and ultramar as long as of course the angel of ball stayed out of the conflict as he had done so far.
This start a massive move as the night Lords split his army in three one portion would stay in his empire to maintain control so that it could not be toppled by internal conflicts another portion smaller though it may be was sent to fenris bolster the defense is there against the death guard in their constant assaults. The final and largest portion went with the night Lord himself and wolf king of fenris to the aid of the ultramarines.
As the end of the 31m 100s came it was clear that the imperium was a dead dream replaced by assorted empires claiming kinship with each other and descended from the imperium but independent and moving on their own. Goals and dreams of what the empire should be though dreams were aligned others were to be not. The dawning of the 31m 200s it was quite apparent that not all of these empires would survive and that it was by simple luck and miracles that no one had managed to kill a Primarch yet things were going to change though things were going to change rapidly as being 31m 200s came forward and the war for the Eastern fringes lit up in ways that had not been seen since old night.
Becouseds the war of theprimarks would rage for 100 years as each side negotiated their own problems in the conflict. Dorn and covid, would withdrawal from much of the imperium in that time and Horace would cut ties with the word bears the world eaters and the death guard seeking to build a solid core in the area of Segmentum Solar. Sanguineous would still attempt to negotiate some sort of piece between the siblings while alpha and Omega wood withdrawal into solitude disappearing from history though rumors abound about them having influences on certain events that came to pass.
Everything the emperor builds up over 300 years to make the imperium of man fell apart into its component kingdoms within 100. And the conflicts that were to come would see those 18 Kings become fewer and fewer as war engulfed the Galaxy…
For Mackenzie Buckle
Writing prompt
"the idea is a non-canon Omake for, The Saga of the Runt
called, Beginning of the Legionary wars
in a lecture series format like The secret history of the Mandalorians (Rwby/Mando)
after something happens to the Emperor, the Imperium goes into a Diadochi warlike period where the 18 Primarchs/legions divide up the imperium."
Writers notes
AU AU AU this AU just want to make that clear folks, as for the sturcker of the AU, everything is the same except the things around Tanya I changed already… that is basically it. Had some fun creating a possible future, if changes take full effect, but also didn't other than that… no idea have fun trying to make sense of this : P
Beginning of the Legionary wars M31-100s
A Lectures series By Geri the LXXXIII
Presented at the University of fenris
Given the capital world of Fenris, the center of the empire of the Wolf's Claw, in M41
M31 is denoted as the start date of The Fall of the imperium of man, it was not a massive collapse it was not a Titanic civil war that ended the industrial and military might that had come to nearly claim the rest of the Galaxy.
It was nothing so bold no the thing that ended the imperium of man was a warp storm and the Emperor of Mankind being lost in this warpstorm. What happened to the emperor is still unknown as all people who were on board the ship disappeared with him what is known is that he never returned from his trip home to Tara after the battles of Ullanor.
Ships disappearing and reappearing from the war is a common thing and there have been for a long time. Procedures for if something like this would ever happen assuming the emperor would fine his way home eventually. However those procedures were thrown out of whack when the primarchs all reported that he may have died. How they knew was hotly contested with many primarchs giving their own interpretation on how they knew, my favorite is the one from our own primarchs Tanya of Russ. "it was as if a presence we had known all our lives had simply stopped existing something we had been connected to forever was gone and we just knew it would never come back."
Chaos would have taken hold but the primarchs asserted control quick enough, though the emperor was gone his Warmaster Horus was more than able to hold things down. Instead of continuing with the crusade he was preparing to launch, he redirected his fleet to the capital of Terra and took control of the throne world.
From there working with the first Lord of Terra Malcador he established himself as the new emperor of the imperium of man planning to hold the empire together in the briefest hope that the emperor was not gone from us and would return one day.
Unfortunately his efforts were not as fruitful as he would have liked for they were forces already in motion too crack the empire, and though their plans would never come fruition anymore the the cracks already created by the loss of the emperor would grow immensely by their machinations.
Horus first move upon Ascension to the throne of the emperor was to call upon the other primarchs to pledge their loyalty to him and show that the empire still stood strong. He trusted his siblings to bend the knee believing that they would understand that the empire needed a solid united front to continue its expansion. The 17 Primarchs other than Horace would ultimately do as he demanded but their actions following this declaration of loyalty would indicate that they were preparing for the worst or to settle old grudges that had built up over the great crusade.
This became no more apparent than the first breakaway state the realm of Ultramar. The Primarch of the ultramarines considered themselves loyal to the emperor and to the dream of a unified humanity but he made himself clear with his first act of statehood that he believed that a centralized government on Terra would be the downfall of the empire as it would not be able to react to threats quick enough. Thus he founded the state of ultramar. At the time of its creation it had no implications of breaking away though most of these states that would come to make up the imperium of the 31st millennium had no implications of breaking away till they finally did.
What followed was sectors of the space creating miniature empires within the imperium of man, the Night Haunter built an empire on the edges of the ghoul Stars claiming that it's distance so far away from imperial center required such a local governance.
Perturabo, who had been one of the more dedicated warriors on the crusade seeing that the empire seem to be on the verge of stagnation possibly a return of the old night claimed the Stars near the Dominion of storms and his homeworld, taking advice of his sister and finally returning to build instead of destroy. And it was a good thing he returned when he did as Olympia was in the process of planning his overthrow, with his return and finally setting about improving his homeworld this potential disaster was stopped. Creating a era of peace that allowed for Perturabo to build up his empire on the edges of the Maelstrom.
However this empire would have an effect on the politics of the region Jaghatai Khan, Fulgrim and Vulkan were worried that Perturabo found that their home worlds were well within striking distance of this new iron empire and form the confederation of the Maelstrom with the squats a counterbalance in case Perturabo let his delusions that others were stealing his credit go too far.
Before the second decade of M31 was over almost all the Primarchs of the Segmentum Ultima had formed their own empires or alliances in fear of each other's prospective empires. The only Primarch's not to make this step was Primarch Angron who wanted nothing to do with his homeworld and wished only to conquer for the imperium more than ever now to be emperor was no longer at the head of the empire. Sanguinius who feared none of his siblings and instead worked on trying to create a diplomatic solution to any problems between the rival governments in the Segmentum Ultima. And finally Magnus who did not seek an alliance with the Maelstrom but searched outside the Segmentum creating a secret pact with our Primarch, Tanya Russ. This pact was one of self-defense in origin, fearing that there may be a fight in the Segmentum Ultima that he didn't want his planet Prospero drawn into any conflict. But just incases He didn't want to have no allies to call upon in an emergency, the first one he thought of was his sister. She agreed on condition that he would devote more resources into teaching his space Marines to use runes instead of letting magic run wild as they did it cheffed him but he accepted the deal.
However this attempt to muzzle the magic of prospero came too late as the first major crack that would send the imperium it shatterpoint came with the council of nicea. In Horace attempting to hold the imperium together by whatever trick he could get had been running into an issue with Mortarion who was claiming that the use of psychics was abhorrent, and would not work with the thousand Suns until they stopped using their abilities or any legion for that matter that attempted to control warp with their liberians.
This sentiment was also shared by Dorn and Corax and fearing those three would form an alliance that would try and succeed from the empire he wished to try and ease the situation by holding the meating on the matter. Those three Primarchs controlled the only space legions in segmentum tempestus, and if they left the entire segmentum tempest this was good as gone as well with the Segmentum Ultima being on the verge of conflict only prevented by sanguinius's negotiating skills he could not risk losing potential within Segmentum Tempestus.
So he called upon all the Primarchs to meet at Nikaea to discuss this issue, Nikaeabeing inside segmentin solar but was on the border of segmentum. Trying to make this a issue for all the legions to take interest in.
This plan did not go as well as it was hoped. Horus had removed his own vote from the potential count seeing that he had no opinion for or against it and hoping that if there was only 17 votes it would be a fair vote however he had forgotten to count Mechanicum used ancient rights of alliance to be able to vote within the process as well.
The Mechanicum under Kelbor-Hal voted against the continued use of psychers. The Primarchs of the segmentum tempest is all sided with the ending of the use of psychic powers as well so it was not off to a good start for Magnus in the thousand sons.
Tanya Russ spoke of using these Powers with caution and that's they were dangerous but could be well and effective weapons if used properly.
The Primarchs of the Maelstrom alliance Jaghatai Khan, Fulgrim and Vulkan all voted for the continued use of psychic powers.
The Primarch's Ferrus Manus and Lion El'Jonson shared no opinion on the matter though they believe Magnus needed to be censured for being too experimental with these powers ultimately siding with Tanya and that's any effort to use these abilities needed to be well and truly carefully done.
Pertorado was fully against the use of psychic powers deeming them a potential threat to humanity.
Corvus Corax and Sanguinius and Guilliman ended up supporting psychic powers though they saw them as needing restrictions in their own special ways.
Angron was the vehemently against the abilities, And finally Lorgar and Alpharius Omegon the two Primarchs from the Segmentum Pacificus were in favor of psychic abilities.
With all sides making their final arguments It fell to Horus e to make a decision on the matter by rights psychic abilities should have won those not in favor of their use were few in number only five out of 17 Primarchs were against it but the considerations of the situation required a recontextualization that we're made quite clear in the years to come.
Three of those five could form their own empire in an alliance and be a threat to the imperium stability perturabo and angron were not as large of an issue though perturabo could easily form an alliance with the three Primarchs in the segmentum tempestus and create a situation where the Maelstrom felt threatened on both sides.
And there was the factor of the Mechanicum on the taken to consideration they may not have been a Primarch vote but their vote possibly held more power than the Primarchs themselves. Without the emperor to act as their Omnissiah they were just to know allied nation could decide to remove themselves from the alliance at any time this was not something good for a stability of the empire.
Ultimately he chose the third path that was presented by Russ, Lion and Ferris.
He declared that psychic abilities would be allowed but only under heavily monitored librarians and would not be used for combat. This ultimately devastated the thousand suns legions capabilities as so many of them had shown use of psychic abilities that they could not be allowed into combat anymore. Magnus feeling betrayed by his brother reportedly swore him out as no better than the criminals that made up his homeworld being a superstitious and fearful lot.
He probably would have gone on but the reports say that Tanya smacked him across the face and shared words with him that no one to this day knows whatever it is it put him in ease and he finally accepted the judgment of emperor Horus.
Theories on what Tanya has said has rained for millennium though I believe we can be quite easily figured out by looking at the context already presented Tanya Russ was a known strategist throughout the earlier parts of the crusade and fought almost every front. She knew the empire almost as well as Horus and knew the positions of every Primarch and what they were building, no doubt she explained that it was a no don't she explained that this was the mechanicus's fault and not prejudice from Hoeus himself though that is only speculation.
Be that as it May the deal was done and officially psychic abilities were banned for widespread combat use Magnus is legion were in essence restricted to their home world of prospero prevented from taking part in The crusade.
The efforts to prevent the alliance of segmentum tempest from forming we're all for not as that faction would eventually come to be. Ferrus Manus and Lion El'Jonson would ultimately form a similar alliance in Segmentum Obscurus though Russ would not join they're alliance claiming that there was no need for such empire so close to Terra.
Though these alliances did form for a moment there it looked like the imperium was saved. But the corruptive roots of chaos took root within several primarchs heart only waiting to take action.
The First Primach War
As 60 years since death of the emporror passed, Logar had never forgiven the the ultramarines for the destruction of his religious homeworld and had been building up an army to take his vengeance. He was simply looking for an excuse any excuse to have this private war come about and as the realms of ultrimar prospered under the ultramarines rule it became readily apparent they weren't paying as much as they should on their tithes since their empire was growing larger and larger as they would often Ally in world that have been cleared by Jaghatai Khan, Fulgrim and Vulkan who still actively seeked to enlarge the imperium.
Whispering words of whoa he convinced Horus that's the Primarch of the ultramarines was going to ultimately rebel against the imperium declare themselves Independence.
Horus having not spoken with his brother in years ultimately having become too busy dealing with putting out the fires of minor conflicts in the region and suspected that perhaps Logar was right he had noted that of the legions reported numbers the ultramarine seem to be growing at a exponentially larger rate than everyone else is possibly in a plan to build up. The possibility that Guillimanwould betray the imperium and try and take the entire Eastern fringes for himself and form a new empire became more real in his mind as he saw the Curze sign a treaty creating a border of influence between Guillimanand the night hunters realms.
Feeling that he had no choice he told Logar to rally Angron and go to Guilliman asking him to come before Terra to explain the situation.
This operation was meant to be nothing more than a compliance mission make sure that everything was still in order for Horus but for those he had assigned to the operation it was a chance to get a bit of revenge.
Angron carried a grudges against Guilliman for years ever since he had asked for Angron senctyioned for his " lack of conflict resolution abilities." Those two Primarchs wanted a chance to teach Gilliam in a lesson and they had just been given it.
What happened exactly is hotly debated survivors from word bears in the world eaters claim that the ultramarines open fired first attempting to stop them from entering the realm of ultramar.
Ultramarine records indicates something else stating that they fired in response to the destruction of several of their automated defense forts on the way to Macragge. Later events would lean towards Angron and Logar plotting together to destroy ultramarine Legion. But indications of that would come years later as conflicting engulfed the Eastern fringes.
The only thing that was known and those early days of the conflict was that they were fighting between three space Marine legions in the Eastern fridges and two of them were claiming that the third had gone rebel.
This did not sit well with Horus as he assumed that his two brothers were telling him the truth and immediately ordered our Primarch Tanya Russ to join with Logar and Angron and bring compliance the the realm of ultramar.
Following the orders of her brother she packed up half her legion and sailed through the Stars though she would take her several years to get to the conflict zone due to the distances required and the warp acting abnormally uncommon at that time. When she arrived 10 years of war had passed and the realm of Ultramar had declared official independence from the imperium citing the attack as evidence that Horus had gone mad with power.
But unbeknownst to her things had changed quite differently on the other side of the imperium. Magnus the Red had been exploring too deep into the psychic powers and had believed he'd come across a plot to destroy the imperium, wanting to warn Horus of the coming storm he had attempted to send a message through his psychic powers to Terra this unfortunately triggered a catastrophic failure of a device hidden in the basement of the imperial Palace allowing creatures of Wap to well up and attack the homeworld of the imperium of man.
Not knowing why his brother had unleash the demons upon him, too busy working with his sons the lunar wolves and the custodies dealing with that situation he ordered Mortarion take action against Magnus, to bring him in chains to Terral to fix the situation or at least feel judgment for his attack on Tara.
Mortarionun fortunately had no plans to do that as he saw Magnus is just another psycher, a mad King like his adopted father that needed to be brought down. And so he set about with a plan to lay siege to the world bringing forth and fleet to destroy prospero and kill the one-eyed King.
This did not come to pass as unbeknownst to Mortarionthe space wolves had a contingent of rune priest on prospero teaching them they're safer methods of using the warp in hopes of bringing them into a position where they could join the crusade once again.
As Mortarion's death guard began to fall onto the planet a second fleet arrived in Orbit a smaller fleet but who we're used to punching above their weight class. The siege of prospero was broken within a week as Mortarion's fleet was never able to gain a aerial superiority as the wolves of fenris hunted the sky of prospero.
Magnus who had gone into a depression after his failure to worn Horus about what was coming took stock of the situation and realized that, with his sister Russ's wolf's guard fleet over his world there was no way to protect fenris as long as they were separated there we're at risk of being destroyed in detail as the fleet would have to be called back to fenris if Mortariontried to strike there.
So he broke the treaty of nikea and used his immense pyker abilities to teleport Prospero to the Fenris system. It was not a pretty thing and several of his thousand sons had to die in the effort but Fenris in and Prospero became neighbors for a Time allowing the well trained fleet of the space wolves to protect both without issue and and his thousand sons fleet could work as a support unit until the situation was cleared up.
However all Horus knew of the situation was Magnus had retreated from Mortarion to the Fenris system and Wolves of Fenris's had defied the orders of the emperor, his orders.
Assuming that Tanya had ordered this action he declared her a traitor a fact she would only learn as her troops were deploying to make camp with the army of Logar and Angron. They would find out this information first and waited in until the last moment to reveal it committing the massacre of the Wolf.
The exact events of the massacre of the wolf have been lost to time it is known that of the sixth great companies taken with her 75% were destroyed and a majority of the fleet as well, the remaining 25% were able to escape as well as the Primarch badly injured but alive. Angron is noted as being severely wounded in the conflict as well this caused the world eaters to not give Chase. Logar sent some of his fleets after the wolves but they used trails through the wheel of fire that only veterans of that campaign would know and lost them amongst the Stars.
Word of the massacre of the wolf and the prospero ravaging spread quickly, the Maelstrom alliance which had been more worried about a war with pertrabo allied with him declaring themselves independent of the imperium and unaffiliated with either sides of the conflict.
Mortarion slinked back to Segmentum Tempestus there he began building up a force to try and take Fenris and Prospero for himself, attempting to get corporatetion Coevex in Dorn to Ally with him in the effort.
But before efforts to unite the front could be fully brought about Dorn was called away to Terra to help in the handling of the demon situation. Corex was out of the system tempest at the time on campaign in the segmentum ultramar, he didn't hear about the conflict with Magnus nor was he realy t aware of the ultramarines possible betrayal or the current compliance action going on the first he heard about was when the fleet of the Wolf Primarch Ross stumbled across there expeditionary fleet. The wolves of fenris not having more details than what they was privy to, they informed him about the betrayal of the world eaters and the word bears assuming that this betrayal as they doubted horus would order Tanya murder. shocked by this betrayal and wondering what had happened to Tanya he learned that she was in currently recovering in a medical induced coma as she had been forced to use to untamed warp to try and break a path out for the space wolves to their drop ships and was currently recovering from the damage that had received her body.
Seeing this situation as pretty bad he offered them aid in return to Fenris but they turned him down saying that his place was finding out how deep this betrayal went.
He would agree to this though he wished to ask where they were going he knew that it was best that he didn't, as what he did not know could not harm either one of them.
With this knowledge secured he set sail for his homeworld in the tempest to find out what was wrong with the imperium.
The Siege of the Fenris and falling of Segmentum Obscurus
Whatever damage had been done to the device beneath the imperial Palace was bad but thankfully it was not as bad as if it had been active and on the eldar machine was eventually shut down and the demons prevented from entering anymore the situation was secured with the help of Dorn and Horus could finally take a look at the situation around the Galaxy seeing that the imperium was on the brink of falling apart.
The first thing was first dealing with the rebels closest to Tarra the the space Marine legions of the Wolf and the thousand Suns must be dealt with was this determination he called upon Mortarionand the lion to work together to bring down the fenris system. The lion was a long time rival of the Wolf and was not in favor of the destruction of the legion but saw that they had betrayed the empire and would not let their loyalty be questioned. Their fleet eventually met up with Mortarionand who then made a assault on Fenris however the Fenrisian fleet supported by the Prospering ships were able to expertly defend the sector of space. Using hit and run in gorilla tactics they drained the resources keeping the two fleets from ever accomplishing any major logistical goals that would allow them to maneuver onto Fenris.
The lion reveled in The challenge of it all while Mortarionand saw this as some sick game that needed to be brought to an end. But before the conflict could be decided. Ferrus Manus is declared himself independent of the imperium.
Ferrus Manus reasons for this change in loyalty was simple, his long friendship with Fulgrim showed him that there was a other option than to blindly follow Horus who seem to have lost control of the situation. The being his homeworld was located to the north of Tarra he was not exactly going to be able to join the Maelstrom alliance.
So with the help of Luther of the dark Angels he set up his own alliance declaring both their worlds unaligned the conflict. This resulted in some unpleasantness spreading up between the Primarch of the dark Angels and those who guard his home world. The lion withdrew from the siege of Fenris sector and made all haste home where information becomes spotty as to what exactly happened.
It is claimed by the iron hands that Ferris Manus tried to negotiate the conflict attempting to prevent it to go any further. The lion was so infuriated and enraged though that he drew his sword on Ferris Manus. The dark Angels claim that Luther ordered his orbital defenses to fire on their fleet while during the negotiations it is possible that both happened as neither side came out of this conflict telling a coherent story.
All that is known was the dark Angels were were forced to withdraw from their homeworld Ferris Manus was forced withdrawal from the system as well and the planets of caliban terribly bombarded but stood at the end of the conflict under Luther's rule.
By this point it was clear then that the imperium of man was no longer a solid front each Primarch had carved out their own empire or alliances each seeking their own goal. The most peaceful being the malstrom alliance in the center of the Galaxy with every other corner being in some conflict or another the ultramarines fought the word bears and the world eaters in the Eastern fringes. The space wolves and the thousand Suns fought the death guard on their front step the dark Angels fought Northern alliance of the iron hands caliban home guard.
Mars was as loyal as ever to horus who had issue direct orders to not supply Primarchs that were an open rebellion meaning only the world bears the world eaters the dark Angels the lunar wolves, the Imperial Fist, The Raven guard and the death guard blood angels we're still getting supplied officially with a new equipment of imperial make.
The space wolves had long since built a redundancy system into their sector getting minor forge worlds built that that value their alliance with the space wolves more than their loyalty to the empire so they continue to produce equipment for the space wolves and now the thousand Suns.
The iron hands were well and truly Smith's of their own so they built equipment for themselves becoming independent of all supply lines over the coming decades.
Maelstrom alliance deepin their connections to the squats creating a independent system for military equipment structure fully free of Martian influence.
And the ultramarines built their own resource system being that they had a large empire to call upon for this task.
The only faction that did not have a fully independent system that was declaring itself to be an empire within the empire was the night Lords and the night nigh hawnter. they had stayed out of the conflict for the majority of the years it had rained seeming to care not about wars instead more focused on building up there own empire with planets looking for safety in the coming conflict. That changed when Tanya reappeared in in the night lord domain.
She had been missing for a decade almost since the massacre perpetrated by the word bears and the world eater. And those in the know we're wondering if perhaps she had not made it to safety and her ship had been struck by warpstorms.
But her reaprances came with an official change in stance of the night lords as they declared official alliance with the wolves of fenris. And declared on the word bears and world eaters, this had a massive effect on the strategic situation of both conflects currently raging. The night Lord's empire created a secure point for a transfer from fenris of resources to the edges of the empire and ultramar as long as of course the angel of ball stayed out of the conflict as he had done so far.
This start a massive move as the night Lords split his army in three one portion would stay in his empire to maintain control so that it could not be toppled by internal conflicts another portion smaller though it may be was sent to fenris bolster the defense is there against the death guard in their constant assaults. The final and largest portion went with the night Lord himself and wolf king of fenris to the aid of the ultramarines.
As the end of the 31m 100s came it was clear that the imperium was a dead dream replaced by assorted empires claiming kinship with each other and descended from the imperium but independent and moving on their own. Goals and dreams of what the empire should be though dreams were aligned others were to be not. The dawning of the 31m 200s it was quite apparent that not all of these empires would survive and that it was by simple luck and miracles that no one had managed to kill a Primarch yet things were going to change though things were going to change rapidly as being 31m 200s came forward and the war for the Eastern fringes lit up in ways that had not been seen since old night.
Becouseds the war of theprimarks would rage for 100 years as each side negotiated their own problems in the conflict. Dorn and covid, would withdrawal from much of the imperium in that time and Horace would cut ties with the word bears the world eaters and the death guard seeking to build a solid core in the area of Segmentum Solar. Sanguineous would still attempt to negotiate some sort of piece between the siblings while alpha and Omega wood withdrawal into solitude disappearing from history though rumors abound about them having influences on certain events that came to pass.
Everything the emperor builds up over 300 years to make the imperium of man fell apart into its component kingdoms within 100. And the conflicts that were to come would see those 18 Kings become fewer and fewer as war engulfed the Galaxy…
For Mackenzie Buckle
Writing prompt
"the idea is a non-canon Omake for, The Saga of the Runt
called, Beginning of the Legionary wars
in a lecture series format like The secret history of the Mandalorians (Rwby/Mando)
after something happens to the Emperor, the Imperium goes into a Diadochi warlike period where the 18 Primarchs/legions divide up the imperium."
Writers notes
AU AU AU this AU just want to make that clear folks, as for the sturcker of the AU, everything is the same except the things around Tanya I changed already… that is basically it. Had some fun creating a possible future, if changes take full effect, but also didn't other than that… no idea have fun trying to make sense of this : P
