Chapter Summaries

Ra entered a bone gate on a crimson planet and endured its trials to meet four powerful beings who offered him what he wanted in exchange for half his descendants. When Ra proposed a contract, they revealed they did not understand the concept, leaving him to consider whether he could break their deal.

• Ra descended onto the crimson planet alone and found a colossal gate made of bones.
• Ra opened the gate, entered a filthy Special Space, and climbed nine hundred and ninety-nine steps despite the force breaking most of his bones.
• Four enormous faces appeared and offered Ra what he wanted in exchange for half his descendants.
• Ra asked to make a contract, and Tzeentch asked what a contract was.
• Ra realized the beings could not form binding contracts and told them it meant making promises to each other.

Ra returned from the death planet injured and carrying a bone chest containing dangerous materials and knowledge given to him by the Chaos Gods. The Chaos Gods revealed that they expected Ra to break their deal and planned to use the artificial humans he created as their agents in the Physical Universe, partly to watch Orsaga.

• Ra emerged from the death planet on the fifth day, and the crew helped him aboard and treated his injuries.
• Ra told the crew that he had encountered beings he might call monsters and reflected on the unstable knowledge and dangerous materials the Chaos Gods had given him.
• Slaanesh doubted that Ra would keep his promise, and Tzeentch estimated the chance at only 3.6 percent.
• Khorne and Nurgle said the Chaos Gods could take what they wanted themselves and cared only about the outcome of the deal.
• The Chaos Gods explained that they wanted Ra to create powerful artificial humans who could serve as their subordinates and act freely in the Physical Universe.
• The Chaos Gods viewed Ra as an era anchor and planned to use his creations to influence the Physical Universe and observe Orsaga.

Orsaga sensed that one or more of the other Chaos Gods were plotting against him but could not identify who. Decades later on Terra, Ra called for a peaceful and stable place for humanity, but a skeptical resident challenged his claims, leaving Ra sorrowful at how far Human Civilization had fallen.

• Orsaga's precognition warned him that someone intended to harm him, though he could not determine whether one or all four Chaos Gods were involved.
• Decades later, Ra spoke to Terra's struggling residents about creating a peaceful, stable place for their descendants.
• A middle-aged man with a deformed hand and crooked eyes accused Ra of lying about humanity's former abundance and the possibility of everyone having enough food.
• The residents doubted Ra's claims about healthy people, sturdy homes, and plentiful resources, and Ra felt sorrow over Human Civilization's decline.

Ra met the town administrator, Bram Kadur, and learned that he was a surviving Golden Age Human Federation officer who had discovered Ra’s information and several intact STCs. Bram confessed that he had accidentally destroyed them, and after Ra suppressed his anger and urged him to start over, Bram chose the name Makado.

• Ra continued his speech to the town’s residents, hoping to improve their lives and attract the local ruler’s attention.
• A week later, Ra met the administrator Bram Kadur, who knelt and confessed that he had made an irreparable mistake.
• Bram told Ra that he had been a Special Class Psionic and captain in the Human Federation Second Fleet before a Warp Storm stranded him on Earth.
• Bram revealed that he had found Ra’s information and several intact STCs in a sealed reserve room, but had accidentally destroyed them.
• Ra restrained his anger, consoled Bram, and encouraged him to begin a new life for the sake of Human Civilization.
• Bram accepted Ra’s advice and announced that he would henceforth be called Makado.

Years after Terra’s collapse, Ra and Makado discussed the planet’s worsening scarcity and the failure of their efforts to rebuild. Ra decided to change his approach, step into public leadership, and prepare ordinary people to become warriors, while insisting that people see him as a leader rather than a god.

• Ra and Makado surveyed the dark city and agreed that Terra’s lack of resources had made development nearly impossible.
• Ra concluded that Terra needed more manpower and better organization, and that he had to adjust his own conduct to meet the crisis.
• Makado celebrated Ra’s decision to step into the open, recalling their long-running disagreement over who should lead humanity.
• Ra said his Gene Experiment was nearing completion and asked Makado to teach the newly made warriors basic combat skills.
• Makado proposed building public support for Ra, and Ra agreed while warning against presenting himself as a god.

More than a decade after taking power, the Emperor created the first Thunder Warrior, Eric Taranis, to help him conquer Terra. He planned to expand the force despite its flaws and left Makado in charge of ordinary affairs and training while he focused on the laboratory.

• Makado watched a nearly 2.8-meter-tall man emerge from a recovery pod, and the Emperor named the enhanced soldiers Thunder Warriors.
• The Emperor explained that the Thunder Warriors had immense strength but suffered from high failure rates, short lifespans, and Warp-related instability, while limitations in technology and facilities prevented him from recreating Golden Age humans.
• Eric Taranis adapted to his new strength, knelt before the Emperor, and pledged his respects; the Emperor privately regarded him as a disposable pawn.
• The Emperor told Makado he would select more volunteers and spend most of his time in the laboratory, leaving Makado to handle the territory and train the Thunder Warriors.

Five years later, Yulim, ruler of Albain on Terra, used an alien ritual to summon the Blood King, Orsaga, hoping to gain power before the Emperor’s forces reached his territory. Orsaga demanded to hear Yulim’s wish and warned that he would charge compensation based on its difficulty.

• Yulim had prisoners and mutated creatures killed, then poured their blood into a ritual pit and added a strange purple potion.
• Yulim chanted prayers from a Golden Age ritual as liquid creatures emerged from the blood and summoned a blood-colored vortex.
• Yulim was pulled through the vortex and cast onto a cold stone floor before Orsaga, the being known as the Blood King.
• Yulim looked at Orsaga’s true form, causing his eyes to mutate into tentacles before Orsaga restored them.
• Orsaga asked Yulim to state his wish and said he would charge compensation according to its difficulty.

Orsaga gave Yulim a new power after learning that he wanted strength to defeat the Emperor, turning him into a potential rival. Yulim discovered that each person he personally killed would permanently add ten percent of their power to his own, and he rejoiced at his chance to challenge the Emperor.

• Yulim told Orsaga that he wanted enough strength to defeat a powerful opponent, and Orsaga saw the Emperor fighting on Terra in Yulim's past Timeline.
• Orsaga decided to give Yulim an opportunity and pierced his skull with his tail, injecting something into his brain before throwing him back to Albain.
• Yulim writhed in agony in a blood pool as his subordinates gathered around him, including some who secretly intended to kill him and take his place.
• Yulim's transformation ended, and he killed a subordinate with psychic lightning before striking down the others whose malice he sensed.
• Yulim received a message explaining that he could permanently absorb ten percent of the power of every living being he personally killed, and he celebrated his new strength.

The Emperor and Makado learned that Albain’s Psionic leader Yulim had been corrupted after a Special Ritual, so they ordered an invasion to eliminate him before he could summon Warp creatures. Yulim grew far stronger by slaughtering prisoners and enemies, and the chapter ended with Thunder Warriors fighting on a vast battlefield.

• Makado told the Emperor that Yulim, leader of Albain, had become bloodthirsty after completing a Special Ritual, leading Makado to suspect Warp corruption.
• The Emperor ordered a swift decapitation strike, and more than a hundred thousand Thunder Warriors and several million auxiliaries marched toward Albain.
• Yulim used his Heart of Slaughter ability to kill prisoners and wage war on surrounding factions, multiplying his strength over several months.
• Yulim confidently believed his new power would let him defeat the Emperor.
• Two months later, Thunder Warriors and ordinary soldiers fought Psionics and other forces across a battlefield strewn with corpses.

Yulim watched the Thunder Warriors fight while anticipating that slaughter would increase his power, but the Emperor arrived and identified his connection to the Warp. When an XLLK-6447 Beam Cannon struck, the Emperor contained its energy, and Yulim ordered a retreat and fled.

• Yulim watched the Thunder Warriors battle and imagined gaining power by killing the many opponents on the field.
• Yulim sensed an attack, escaped its impact, and saw the Emperor emerge from a Spatial Rift.
• The Emperor sensed chaotic psychic energy in Yulim and raised his longsword to kill him.
• An XLLK-6447 Beam Cannon fired from hundreds of kilometers away, forcing the Emperor to contain its devastating energy.
• Yulim ordered his subordinates to retreat and ran, unwilling to risk his other weapons against the Emperor.

Yulim poisoned a banquet and slaughtered rival warlords to create a blood-filled abyss, from which he obtained Flesh Aberration and transformed himself. The Emperor ambushed him and cut him in half, but the new power regenerated Yulim, leaving him ready to face the Emperor.

• Yulim proposed a banquet to raise morale among his allied warlords, then poisoned the food and began slaughtering their forces.
• Yulim killed tens of millions of warriors, and their blood flowed into a hollow abyss that called to him.
• Yulim pulled a mass of flesh covered in eyes and tentacles from the abyss and swallowed it, gaining enhanced power and regeneration.
• The Emperor struck Yulim with purple lightning and cut him in half with a psychic-powered sword strike.
• Flesh Aberration blocked the Emperor's Golden Flames and regenerated Yulim's lower body, giving him confidence that he could confront the Emperor.

The Emperor and Makado fought Yulim, whose growing strength and life force had kept him in a stalemate with the Emperor. After Makado ambushed him and joined forces with the Emperor, Yulim was killed and cremated.

• A shockwave from the Emperor and Yulim's battle swept hundreds of thousands of mortal auxiliaries into the air, and Eric Taranis resumed fighting rather than risk interfering.
• Makado suspected that Warp Space might have intervened to accelerate Yulim's growth, but initially judged that the Emperor still held the advantage.
• When Yulim began growing more vigorous, Makado crossed the battlefield and used his Psionic power to disrupt Yulim's cranial nerves.
• The Emperor struck Yulim with golden flames, forcing him to tear off the burning part of his body, and then coordinated with Makado to attack from two directions.
• The Emperor severed Yulim's head, and Makado caught it and electrocuted it to charcoal, ending the Terra Warlord's life.

After defeating Yulim, the Emperor planned his next steps for humanity while Makado worried about the Thunder Warriors’ fate. Decades later, the Emperor inspected the developing Primarchs as Space Marines and Adeptus Custodes also advanced toward readiness.

• The Emperor assured Makado that his shattered right arm would heal, while Makado reported that the battle had destroyed most nearby warlord forces.
• The Emperor said he would visit Mars and the Moon, advance the Space Marine plan, and later use the victory’s resources; Makado recognized that the Thunder Warriors were expendable to him.
• Erich Taranis spotted a strange, many-eyed piece of flesh on the battlefield, but it vanished before he could strike it with psychic lightning.
• Decades later, the Emperor examined twenty Primarchs in a Himalayan laboratory and considered their role in humanity’s revival.
• The Emperor’s Space Marines had matured, and he had created Adeptus Custodes by activating the inherited Golden Men traits of elite human descendants.
• After confirming that the Primarchs were developing normally, the Emperor left the laboratory to attend to other matters.

The four Chaos Gods scattered the Emperor’s twenty incubating Primarchs across the galaxy, while Orsaga chose not to interfere. Ten years later, Thunder Warrior commander Eric Taranis led his Legion to victory at Mount Ararat and, expecting their eventual retirement, prepared his troops for the Emperor’s nearby celebration banquet.

• The four Chaos Gods used their power to destroy the Emperor’s secret laboratory and scatter the twenty incubation pods across the Milky Way.
• Orsaga reviewed the Timeline, realized the Chaos Gods intended to guide the Primarchs, and decided to wait rather than intervene.
• Eric Taranis grew concerned that the Emperor was strengthening the Space Marines and Adeptus Custodes while neglecting the Thunder Warriors.
• Eric led the Thunder Warriors to capture Mount Ararat, marking the end of the Unification Wars, and concluded that the Legion would soon be eliminated because of its instability and short lifespan.
• A young Thunder Warrior told Eric that the Emperor was holding a celebration banquet, and Eric ordered his troops to change and tend their wounds before attending.

Eric Taranis and the Thunder Warriors were ambushed and massacred at the banquet under orders claiming they planned to usurp the Emperor. As the last survivor, Eric accepted a mysterious voice’s offer of power and was destroyed by the final bombardment, leaving a strange tentacled, eye-covered remnant behind.

• Eric Taranis noticed that the banquet site was unusually deserted as fully armed Space Marines and Adeptus Custodes arrived.
• The Imperial Guard Commander declared that Eric and the Thunder Warriors intended to usurp the Emperor and ordered their extermination.
• Space Marines and Adeptus Custodes ambushed the lightly equipped Thunder Warriors, killing nearly the entire Legion despite Eric’s protests.
• After Eric’s deputy died asking why the Emperor had betrayed them, Eric broke down and swore revenge when a mysterious voice asked if he hated.
• The voice offered Eric power in exchange for loyalty, and Eric accepted before a bombardment blasted him apart, leaving a small piece of flesh with eyes and tentacles.

Orsaga completed Eric Taranis’s Ascension to Demon Ritual, transforming him into a powerful Demon Prince who devastated the forces on Terra. Eric then flew to the Thunder Warriors Legion’s camp, where he absorbed the dead Legion’s resentment and grew stronger.

• The Imperial Guard Commander ordered his troops to destroy the ritual as corpse parts formed a burning circle and countless mouths whispered in hatred.
• Orsaga named Eric Taranis a Demon Prince, and a blood-red beam activated the ritual, transforming Eric into a four-meter-tall daemon.
• Eric endured the Space Marines’ and Adeptus Custodes’ attacks, then unleashed a roar that devastated the battlefield and killed the Imperial Guard Commander.
• Eric flew to the Thunder Warriors Legion’s camp and burned the remaining Space Marines and Adeptus Custodes in a wave of psychic flames.
• Eric called upon the dead Thunder Warriors’ resentment, absorbing their power and growing to five meters tall as their hatred fueled him.

Eric Taranis attacked the Emperor and Makado, devastating Terra as the battle escalated. After the world forced him into Warp Space, the wounded Emperor ordered the Imperium of Man’s coronation in half a year and urged preparations for the coming end of the Warp Storms.

• The Emperor and Makado sensed danger and fought Eric Taranis after his strike carved a vast chasm through Terra, killing millions of civilians and auxiliary troops.
• Eric Taranis’s hatred fueled the God of Growth’s gift, making him increasingly powerful as he attacked the Emperor and Makado.
• Over several days, the battle devastated nearly half of the North American Continent, and Eric Taranis gained the upper hand.
• As his time in the Physical Universe ended, Eric Taranis was forced into Warp Space after vowing to kill the Emperor and destroy his empire.
• The wounded Emperor told Makado that they would hold the coronation ceremony in half a year and use the coming period of peace to build up the Imperium of Man.

Eric Taranis vowed to avenge himself on the Emperor while Orsaga planned to use him as a pawn. Meanwhile, the Adeptus Mechanicus joined the Imperium of Man after recognizing the Emperor as the Omnissiah, helping the Imperium begin reclaiming the Solar System.

• Eric Taranis wandered through Warp Space, searching for a way back to the Physical Universe so he could take revenge on the Emperor.
• Orsaga decided Eric Taranis would make a useful pawn and considered assembling more enemies of the Emperor into a Demon Prince squad.
• After Terra unified, the Adeptus Mechanicus sent an exchange team to meet the Emperor, and the two sides reached a preliminary cooperation agreement.
• A prophecy spread among the Adeptus Mechanicus that the Omnissiah's incarnation would descend on Mars.
• More than ten years later, the Adeptus Mechanicus recognized the Emperor as the Omnissiah, joined the Imperium, and took responsibility for repairing and manufacturing equipment.
• With machinery from the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Imperium began campaigns to reclaim the planets of the Solar System, forcing local warlords and scattered groups to join the Emperor's forces.

The Art Sanctuary’s archbishop began preparations to bring believers into Crimson Heaven, while Cody Kosler led the Eldar Fourth Fleet to destroy the Novok Dynasty. Months later, the God of Art opened planet-sized Space Doors and began pulling more than a million Eldar planets into Warp Space.

• The archbishop used his psychic power to shift several stars into the God of Art’s symbol and bathe nearly half of Eldar territory in blood-red light.
• Cody Kosler prayed at the sight of the red light, then ordered the Eldar Fourth Fleet to accelerate its attack on the Novok Dynasty.
• The Eldar Fourth Fleet destroyed the Novok Dynasty after exploiting its weaknesses, leaving only the Crimson God alive to be sacrificed to the God of Art.
• Months later, the Art Sanctuary raised gigantic relief sculptures across more than one million planets, and planet-sized Space Doors opened above them.
• Chains extended from the Space Doors and began pulling the planets into Warp Space, astonishing Eldar who had never witnessed such power.

Several years after the Eldar Empire began losing territory and evacuating, Slaanesh awakened in the Warp and unleashed a devastating wave of power across the Eldar domains. After consuming the souls of trillions of Eldar, Slaanesh arrived at the Pantheon and confronted the Eldar evil gods.

• Asuryan warned the Eldar evil gods of an approaching threat, while the Awakened Faction prepared evacuations and the Fallen Sect grew more reckless.
• Slaanesh awakened in the Fortress of Excess, and his yawn swept through Warp Space, destroying Warp creatures and scattering Warp Storms.
• Slaanesh's power struck every Eldar territory where the Fallen Sect lived, nearly destroying the Eldar Empire and killing countless Eldar.
• Slaanesh consumed the souls of tens of trillions of Eldar, then crossed the distance to the Eldar Pantheon.
• Slaanesh opened the Pantheon doors and told the Eldar evil gods that they would be his main course.