The Emperor: Nimrod's Worship of the Shadow of Order Exceeds That of His Father

The Realm of Father and Son

964.M30.

The heavy doors slowly closed, and the Sigillite, staff in hand and black robes draped over him, walked alone into the throne room of the Imperial Palace.

Malcador's weathered face looked especially sorrowful today as he walked toward the sovereign he served.

The underground fortress was several times larger than the cold lake he had passed beside the primarchs' villas on his way here, and it was packed with all kinds of machines:

Endless lengths of steam pipes, and tangled cables that covered the floors and walls.

Towering rows of equipment stood arrayed, interspersed with countless panels and gauges.

Pistons that never stopped moved back and forth at the farthest end of the cavern, making the floor tremble without cease.

Thousands of oil-smeared Servitors maintained the machines under the supervision of Tech-Priests in red-and-black cloaks.

At the geometric center of the vast cavern stood a golden construct.

Its immense, towering dais rose several kilometers high, its entire body inlaid with silver rune circuits.

A Gordium network of cables and conduits drove every machine from top to bottom, pouring inexhaustible energy into the mysterious core.

Malcador walked on until he arrived before the Golden Throne.

This machine had been excavated from lost ruins deep beneath the deserts of Terra. It had revealed many of the mysteries of the Aeldari Webway, and within it were Dimensional Suppressors and Void Buffers of unimaginable complexity.

His lord's magnificent plan rested upon this strange device of the alien.

It carried the future of the Imperium and the human race.

An invisible psychic barrier rose in silence. The conversation between him and his lord could be heard by only the two of them.

"My lord."

"After they won the final victory, they still lingered for years on the world