Chapter Summaries

Ron sailed the Dreamer through the Eye of Terror while searching for a hidden base for his new Chaos faction, then received resources and intelligence from Krasia. He learned that Abaddon’s response to the Savagar raid had plunged the Eye of Terror into wider conflict, giving Ron room to develop in secret.

• Ron guided the Dreamer through the Warp Storm while searching for a defensible base, and the ship emerged into a barren region of the Eye of Terror.
• Krasia contacted Ron to report that she had acquired the Chaos materials he requested, and Ron found that she had supplied far more than they had agreed upon.
• Ron negotiated new trade terms with Krasia and avoided agreeing to visit her palace because Abaddon might be seeking revenge.
• Ron read reports of rumors mocking Abaddon and learned that the Black Legion had begun conquering Chaos worlds, drawing other Chaos forces away from the Segmentum Obscurus battlefield.
• Ron welcomed the resulting chaos as an opportunity to develop his faction in secret and went to the ship’s laboratory.

Ron awaited the Chaos Clone experiment, which succeeded and produced a powerful adult body that would be ready for use after three years of cultivation. Seeking a way to aid the Imperium against the growing plague threat and contact Isha, he sent a concealed message to the last surviving Genestealer mole in Nurgle’s domain.

• Ron reviewed the Imperium’s worsening position, the spread of Nurgle’s plagues, and plans to expand medical aid through the Webway Hub.
• Ron and Tako concluded that Savior’s Territory might be targeted during the Plague War, and Ron considered using a Chaos Clone to reach Isha in the Garden of Nurgle.
• The Biologis Magos reported that the Chaos Cloning Experiment had succeeded, and Ron inspected the powerful clone, which would mature for use within three years.
• Ron entered the Tyranid Psyker Network, searched for Genestealers in Nurgle’s domain, and found one survivor after discovering that the others had died.
• Ron sent the surviving Genestealer a concealed psychic message through their bond of faith.

Bala the Glutton, a Nurgle Genestealer secretly loyal to the Four-Armed Savior, received a mission to report on Nurgle’s Garden and investigate Isha. He set out to gather intelligence and risk approaching her Forbidden Land.

• A Herald of Khorne wandered into Nurgle’s Garden, where Nurgle’s creatures overwhelmed him and dissolved him into the swamp.
• Bala hosted a joyful gathering until Ku'gath arrived and ordered the music to stop.
• Ku'gath told Bala that Nurgle had tasked him with brewing a plague to destroy the Primarch Lord Regent and The Savior, and Bala asked for a sample to taste.
• Bala received a secret message from the Four-Armed Savior ordering him to map the Garden, investigate Isha, and provide plague-virus data.
• Bala planned to revisit the Garden’s paths and approach Isha’s Forbidden Land to gather hidden information.

Bala found a way to pass information from Isha out of Nurgle’s Garden, while Ron prepared to contact her and built a plan to establish his own Chaos force on Black Abyss. Two years later, Nurgle left the Garden, and Isha sent a Nurgling back to Bala with a signal that the time to act had come.

• Bala failed to enter Isha’s Forbidden Land, but later discovered that a Nurgling could carry a simple message out to the Dreamer.
• Ron selected Heavy Genestealers to become his Daemon Genestealer core and arranged for more than three thousand imprisoned Chaos Warriors to crash-land on Black Abyss.
• Bala sent Ron a map of the Garden of Nurgle and plague data, reporting that he could pass messages to Isha through a Nurgling.
• Two years later, Nurgle left his Garden, and Isha released the Nurgling with a signal for Bala to prepare for their meeting.
• Bala welcomed the returning Nurgling, gave it a jar of plague, and excitedly sent a message to the Four-Armed Savior.

Ron tested his newly created Chaos body, then entered the Warp to secretly meet Isha and obtain plague remedies. Isha accidentally trapped him in her garden just as Nurgle returned, leaving Ron hidden with her while Nurgle waited outside with a cauldron of Plague Soup.

• Ron endured the Space Fortress forces’ attacks, defeated Carter, and ended the test of his Chaos body.
• Ron learned that his preparations were complete, entered the Warp, and followed Bala’s information toward Nurgle’s Garden.
• Ron contacted Isha through an illusion, received her plague research and treatment knowledge, and gained more of her Life Authority.
• As Ron tried to sever the connection and escape, Isha embraced him and sealed the garden with vines.
• Nurgle returned and found the garden closed; he waited outside, cooking Plague Soup to apologize to Isha.

Ron escaped Nurgle’s garden after Ka'bandha’s attack and a Holy Ash Bomb drew Nurgle’s attention, then fought his way out of the Eternal Battlefield and returned to his original body. He prepared to issue a fourth total-war directive as a new war threatened humanity.

• Nurgle brewed a plague in his garden while Ron and Isha waited for a chance to escape before Nurgle discovered them.
• Ka'bandha invaded Nurgle's garden, and Ron detonated the Holy Ash Bomb, prompting Nurgle to focus on the explosion and order more forces to support Ku'gath.
• Ron withdrew from the garden with Isha's help, while Ka'bandha mistook another fleeing figure for a possible sign of the Demon Eater and continued fighting.
• Ron crossed into the Eternal Battlefield, fought through hordes of Chaos beings, and eventually returned to his Chaos Body in the Eye of Terror.
• Ron had his Chaos Body repaired, returned his consciousness to his original body, and summoned Tako and the others to prepare a fourth total-war directive.

Ron convened a major mobilization meeting, ordered Savior’s Territory to prepare for total war against Nurgle, and set a five-year deadline for developing a plague-treatment serum. After issuing the war decree, he returned to the Eye of Terror to recruit Chaos Warriors and received startling intelligence about Ka'bandha.

• Ron demanded a timetable from the Plague Research Institute, and the Changeling Physician agreed to develop the Healing Serum within five years after Ron doubled its resources.
• Department heads reported plans to expand the armies, strengthen fleet readiness, improve medical services, and repair the Webway as the territory prepared for war.
• Ron issued a decree placing Savior’s Territory under total war mobilization and left the detailed implementation to Bayev.
• Ron returned to the Dark Demon Palace near Black Abyss Planet, intending to recruit Chaos Warriors and later use them to raid Nurgle’s rear.
• Bael sent Ron new intelligence about Ka'bandha, and Ron reacted with surprise.

Ron learned how Ka'bandha had risen from defeat to become the Warp’s foremost Greater Daemon, while Bael helped him evade Khorne’s order to attack Savior’s Territory by steering him toward other targets. Ka'bandha prepared to exploit Nurgle’s plans in Ultramar as Ron received fresh faith and arrived at Black Abyss Planet.

• Ron read Bael’s intelligence about Ka'bandha’s victories over Orks, Drukhari, Tyranids, Necrons, and the forces of the Chaos Gods, and sent scouts information about Trazyn’s tomb.
• Ka'bandha returned to Khorne’s realm with an enormous display of trophies, humiliating Ang'grath and dismissing his challenge; Ang'grath departed to seek victories and surpass him.
• Ka'bandha offered Khorne 8,888 rare skulls and accepted orders to seize territory, but Bael advised him to avoid Savior’s Territory by targeting other opportunities.
• Bael told Ka'bandha that Nurgle’s daemons planned to attack Ultramar, and Ka'bandha listened closely to his plan.
• Ron received more power of faith from the daemons, removed the Chaos-matter tubes from his body, and arrived at Black Abyss Planet.

Gorlat and the other Servitors feared the return of the Black Star as Ron arrived on the planet and confronted the stranded Chaos Warriors. Ron armed and bound hundreds of them to his service, then reshaped Boudica’s unfinished palace into a Demon Palace as he prepared to expand his forces for the coming Plague War.

• Gorlat and the Servitors saw the Black Star return, recalling how its previous appearance had brought meteors and enslaving Outworld Warriors.
• Kron gathered his Chaos Warriors to confront Ron’s landing force, but they halted when Dark Thunder Custodes and Daemon Genestealers emerged and overwhelmed their weapons and numbers.
• Ron subdued the Chaos Warriors and offered their crippled Dreadnought pilot a new body; the warrior accepted Ron’s Blood Pact and entered a powerful Chaos Dreadnought.
• Ron offered Kron and the others weapons and armor in exchange for accepting his Blood Pact, and hundreds of Chaos Warriors submitted to the Nameless Daemon.
• Ron transformed the construction site into a Demon Palace, where he planned to recruit more Chaos Warriors and contest the Chaos Gods during the coming Plague War.

Ron built up Black Abyss Planet as a Chaos recruiting base, offering warriors Blood Pacts, powerful blessings, and full equipment. With the planet’s forces assembled and an Ark of Omen nearing completion, he prepared to launch an expedition and attract more Chaos recruits.

• Ron organized the Dark Thunder Custodes as his trusted core team, refused Carter’s request for Dark Blessing, and received word that more Chaos Warriors were arriving.
• Chaos Warriors flocked to Black Abyss Planet after seeing the equipment and benefits offered by the Dark Prince, and Kron led them to seal Blood Pacts and receive gear.
• A Broken-Horn Khorne Warrior regained Terminator armor, while a damaged Chaos Dreadnought crawled toward the Demon Palace hoping for a replacement body.
• Mao reported that a Mechanicus City was under construction, and Ron ordered him to speed up production of Chaos Engines while explaining why he had moved dangerous research facilities to Black Abyss Planet.
• Cawl arrived with an unfinished Ark of Omen and claimed he could complete it in two years, so Ron ordered him to report his hidden dark-forging research to the Inquisition.
• Ron returned to the Demon Palace and planned to send his newly equipped Chaos Warriors on an expedition as more Chaos transport ships approached Black Abyss Planet.

Ron created Diablo, a fabricated Warp god anchored to his dark-side power, and used a new faith to bring Black Abyss Planet’s Chaos Warriors under control. Kron led the well-equipped Fear Warriors to crush a Khorne warband, then offered its defeated champion a chance to follow the Lord of Terror.

• Ron used Pontiff Dony’s faith-spreading plan as a framework, then had Chaos Chaplains adapt it into a doctrine for Diablo, Lord of Terror.
• Ron anchored Diablo to the dark side of his Little Sun and granted dark power to believers, while planning to expand his forces ahead of the Plague War.
• Kron rallied the Chaos Warriors beneath Diablo’s statue, and Ron blessed them before they departed for battle.
• Gorlat, a former Servitor working aboard a Chaos Warship, passed a Chaos Warrior without being harmed and credited Diablo with protecting him.
• Kron’s Fear Warriors overwhelmed the Eightfold Blood Scab Warband with superior weapons, heavy vehicles, and a Chaos Titan.
• Kron defeated the Khorne champion but spared him, offering him a bloodflame Power Axe and urging him to follow the Lord of Terror.

Kron recruited a defeated Khorne champion into the Legion of Fear with a Blood Stone, and the legion expanded by conquering Chaos warbands and promising lavish rewards. Its recruitment campaign destabilized the Black Legion, prompting Abaddon to vow to crush the new rival.

• Kron persuaded the defeated Khorne Chaos Champion to swallow a Blood Stone, transforming him into a Fear Chaos Champion and offering him armor and a future duel in the Colosseum on Black Abyss Planet.
• Broken Horn and the Legion of Fear routed the Eightfold Blood Scab Warband, captured or recruited its warriors, and went on to plunder more than a dozen Chaos Warband strongholds.
• The Legion of Fear's generous treatment and recruitment notices spread through the Eye of Terror, making Chaos Warriors resent the equipment and supplies they received from their own factions.
• Abaddon watched a Legion of Fear recruitment hologram that mocked the Black Legion's defeats and showcased its own power, then destroyed the device in anger.
• Abaddon learned that recruitment propaganda and defections had worsened the Black Legion's supply crisis and ordered his forces to find and crush the Legion of Fear.

Abaddon located the Legion of Fear and launched a massive punitive expedition, while Ron expanded his forces on Black Abyss Planet and planned to raise Diablo’s reputation. The chapter ended with Ron turning his attention to preparing the Legion’s defenses against the coming attack.

• Zaraphis’s attempt to learn about Diablo through the Lord of Change failed, but he and Moriana identified the region where the Legion of Fear was hiding.
• The Tzeentch adjutant found the Legion’s detailed coordinates in a recruitment projection, and Abaddon ordered a punitive expedition after the images embarrassed him.
• Abaddon dispatched more than thirty thousand Chaos Warriors, over six hundred warships, and two Chaos Lords to crush the Legion of Fear.
• Several Chaos Warriors in the Black Legion secretly planned to defect during the war and join the Legion of Fear on Black Abyss Planet.
• Ron's Blood Point exchange system encouraged Fear Warriors to spend their rewards on equipment and flashy trophy accessories, while Ron considered a publicity battle to boost Diablo’s reputation.
• Ron sent the publicity plan to The Savior’s Propaganda Department, then began reviewing the Legion of Fear’s defenses.

Ron accelerated the completion of the Abomination Warship, powered and claimed it as the Heart of Fear, then sent it toward the battle at Planet Darked. As the Legion of Fear counterattacked the Black Legion, one Black Legion warrior revealed a Recruitment Notice and claimed he had joined them.

• Ron ordered Cawl to finish clearing the Arks of Omen within a week because the Black Legion fleet was approaching Black Abyss Planet.
• Ron connected himself to the ship's Soul-Guiding Pillar, powered its systems with Fel Energy, and used Daemon-Steel Nerves to bring its machinery and Machine Spirits under his control.
• Ron renamed the transformed Arks of Omen the Heart of Fear and sent it from the shipyard, then received treatment from the dark Biologis Magi after exhausting himself.
• At Planet Darked, Lu Yang judged that the Legion of Fear's forces had reached their planned positions, and Kron ordered a counterattack and boarding assault against the Black Legion fleet.
• During a boarding action, a Black Legion warrior struck down two of his own comrades and showed the Fear Warriors a Recruitment Notice, saying he was one of them.

Eli and other Black Legion warriors defected to the Legion of Fear, helping it seize ships and turn the Punitive Fleet’s forces against one another. Ron’s Heart of Fear destroyed a command ship and secured victory, while Abaddon misread fragmentary reports and welcomed volunteers eager to reinforce the supposedly struggling fleet.

• Eli swore loyalty to the Legion of Fear, received a candidate badge, and led its warriors through a side passage toward the Bridge.
• A wounded Nurgle warrior survived a Black Legion attack, found his way to the captured Bridge, and gained a chance to join the Legion of Fear.
• The Legion of Fear seized a Chaos Warship and fired on the Black Legion fleet as defectors helped turn the ground battle against the Black Legion.
• The Heart of Fear arrived, disrupted communications, and destroyed a Black Legion command ship after Ron failed to recruit its Chaos Lord.
• Ron ordered the battlefield sealed and worried that Abaddon would retaliate once he learned the Legion of Fear’s strength.
• Abaddon received incomplete reports suggesting the Crusade Fleet faced resistance, then felt encouraged when Black Legion warriors volunteered to reinforce it.

Abaddon sent a vast, well-equipped reinforcement fleet toward Black Abyss Planet, while Erik’s Warband secretly planned to defect to the Legion of Fear. Ron learned that the Plague War had erupted in Ultramar and ordered his forces to mobilize, as the arriving fleet’s Chaos Warriors revealed they shared the same plan to join the Legion of Fear.

• Abaddon armed a reinforcement fleet with much of the Black Legion’s remaining supplies and sent it toward Black Abyss Planet to destroy the Legion of Fear.
• Erik and his Warband’s trusted followers chose to seize their ship and defect, and Erik used the Forbidden Relic to warn Eli that the reinforcement fleet was coming.
• Eli received Erik’s warning and brought it to Ron, who learned that the Plague War had engulfed the Stars of Calamity and threatened Ultramar.
• Ron decided to send the Legion of Fear toward the Ultramar war zone in a month, then ordered it to mobilize after learning that the Black Legion’s reinforcements were several times stronger than before.
• Inside a Warp Storm, Erik and his Warband prepared to attack nearby Black Legion warriors, but the warriors struck at the same time and discovered that they all intended to join the Legion of Fear.

Erik and the Chaos Warriors defected to the Legion of Fear, but their search for offerings led them to raid Black Legion ships during a Warp storm and escape the reinforcement fleet. Ron’s forces welcomed hundreds of defecting warships at Planet Darked, while a stranded Slaaneshi commander realized most of the fleet was gone.

• Erik and the Chaos Warband leaders found that nearly everyone aboard their ship wanted to defect, leaving them without enemies or spoils to offer the Legion of Fear.
• Erik planned to attack Black Legion ships during a Warp storm, but another Tzeentch warband struck his ship first, and the two groups joined forces to raid the fleet.
• The allied Chaos warbands seized ships and supplies, then split up and escaped the storm, leaving the reinforcement fleet scattered.
• The Slaaneshi commander discovered that most of his warships had rebelled and fled, and he ordered the surviving ships to approach Planet Darked in secret.
• Ron held fire when the approaching Chaos fleet showed no sign of hostility, then welcomed the ships as they confirmed their loyalty to the Legion of Fear.

The Legion of Fear grew into a major force on Black Abyss Planet while Ron prepared to join the Plague War, and Abaddon chose to rebuild the Black Legion instead of attacking. Ron returned to Earth Planet to confront the worsening crisis, where an emergency message reported that a plague had struck Savior's Territory.

• Ron oversaw the Legion of Fear's armament and sent ten thousand Fear Warriors toward Ultramar's Five Hundred Worlds.
• After two Black Legion fleets defected, Abaddon fainted amid the humiliation, then abandoned plans to attack the Legion of Fear and ordered a purge and rebuilding of his forces.
• Ron reviewed Abaddon's decision, finalized the Legion of Fear's preparations, and returned to his body in the Palatine District to prepare for the Plague War.
• Ron looked over the prosperous Earth Planet and reflected that Nurgle's assault threatened its peace and order.
• Ron received an emergency message reporting that a plague had struck Savior's Territory.

Ron coordinated Savior's Territory’s response to Nurgle’s spreading plague and visited the Plague Research Institute, where a promising experimental drug failed. He decided to have the Changeling Physician seek help from Tzeentch, offering to accompany him and protect his soul.

• Tako reported that Savior's Territory had activated its emergency defenses and was containing outbreaks across its planets, while the Holy World of Ers remained protected by the Holy High Towers.
• Ron ordered more medical supplies sent to the Lord Regent and expanded the search for the plague’s source as Nurgle’s attacks continued to kill millions.
• At the Plague Research Institute on O'Neil, the Changeling Physician told Ron that the latest drug experiment had failed against Nurgle’s Chosen, one of whom transformed into a Plague Herald.
• Ron told the Changeling Physician to seek knowledge from a greater wisdom, prompting him to confess that Tzeentch had been tempting him with forbidden knowledge.
• Ron reassured the Changeling Physician that he would not be punished and said they would contact Tzeentch together, with Ron protecting his soul.

Ron built a blasphemous altar to contact Tzeentch and entered the Crystal Labyrinth with the Changeling Physician to find knowledge that could help make a plague cure. Baru guided them through a VIP route to the Library passage, where Ron encountered Zaraphiston at the first Golden Archway.

• Ron had Tzeentch cultists construct and activate a sacrificial altar, summoning the Lord of Change and opening a path into the Warp.
• Ron met Tzeentch in the Crystal Labyrinth and secured access to the Library in exchange for helping hinder Nurgle’s plague.
• Ron and the Changeling Physician struggled through the shifting labyrinth, where lost pilgrims faced deadly illusions and distorted time.
• Ron called on Tzeentch’s promise and recruited Baru, a Fateweaver mole, to guide them through the labyrinth and past its guardian.
• Baru led Ron and the Changeling Physician through the passage toward the Library, explaining that they had to pass nine Golden Archways.
• At the first Golden Archway, Ron failed to understand its riddle, and Zaraphiston recognized him as the one who had raided the Black Legion’s stronghold.