Chapter Summaries

Nimrod and William Wood battled the Aeldari Farseer of Mag-Silas while the Imperials looted the Craftworld. William gained control of the Farseer as his first puppet, leaving him with a powerful but difficult-to-conceal prize.

• Nimrod protected five Librarians from a Warp Spider Warlock's attack and killed the Warlock with the Sword of Vaul.
• Nimrod intercepted the Aeldari Farseer as she fled, and William used his paper figures and spiritual threads to support the confrontation.
• The Aeldari Farseer fought Nimrod with her Singing Spear, but he overcame her in their psychic battle.
• Nimrod forbade psychic power, and William tightened his control until the Farseer became his puppet.
• William thanked Nimrod for the gift of Mag-Silas's most powerful Farseer.

Nimrod visited Sanguinius aboard the Blood Tear, where they discussed their Legion’s Librarian casualties and agreed to propose research into Librarian Dreadnoughts. Nimrod left the Marg Sisla ark wreckage in the Cyriolete System for study and learned that the commander of the Sisters of Silence had arrived.

• Nimrod arrived at the Blood Tear with Arsena Dunn, Thierry Vieira, and Per Koschelny, and Azkaellon welcomed them aboard.
• Nimrod and Sanguinius compared their Librarian losses and agreed to jointly send Magnus and Jaghatai a battle report proposing a Dreadnought suited for Librarians.
• Sanguinius proposed throwing the Marg Sisla ark into a star, but Nimrod argued that studying it could reveal useful xenos secrets, and Sanguinius accepted that it would be research only.
• Nimrod ordered the 12th Chapter and the Librarian team to remain in the Cyriolete System to study the ark wreckage.
• Arsena told Nimrod that the commander of the Sisters of Silence had visited the Shadow of the Throne, and Nimrod said he would meet her in his office.

Cleer met Nimrod and learned that Pariahs served under his command, while Nimrod invited the Sisters of Silence to teach them. On Prospero, Hathor reported that the Grael Library had been catalogued and offered its knowledge to Nimrod, as Magnus pursued a new Dreadnought design and envisioned the City of Light spreading across the planet.

• Cleer thanked Nimrod for his aid against the xenos on Marg Sisla and asked where his Pariahs came from.
• Nimrod told Cleer that the Pariahs came from Vissa and invited the Sisters of Silence to teach them, but Cleer said their regulations forbade sharing their secrets.
• Cleer noticed that the Shadow of Order showed little rejection toward Aetsakel as she left the Primarch's office.
• On Prospero, Magnus told Hathor that he had made progress toward a Dreadnought design that could preserve dead Librarians without risking their loss of control.
• Hathor reported that Ankh-Anen had recorded every book in the Grael Library, which Magnus had brought to Tizca, and offered its knowledge to Nimrod for preservation on Alexandria IV.
• Hathor reported the Shadow of Order's development around Tizca, and Magnus declared that the City of Light would spread across Prospero.

Malcador learned that the Emperor had chosen Guilliman and the Ultramarines to punish the Word Bearers for their worship of him. On Kuhl, the Ultramarines evacuated the population and destroyed Monarchia, while Valantyne witnessed the city’s ruin and prayed for justice.

• The Emperor told Malcador that Kuhl and its city, Monarchia, would be destroyed to punish the Word Bearers for fostering worship of him.
• The Emperor rejected Nimrod and Russ as chastisers and chose Guilliman as a standard-bearer of the Imperial Truth.
• The Ultramarines ordered Kuhl’s six billion inhabitants to evacuate, forcing them from Monarchia and the planet’s other cities.
• On the sixth day, Kuhl’s leader sent the Word Bearers a distress call, reporting the slaughter and warning that Monarchia would be destroyed at dawn.
• Valantyne watched fire from the heavens destroy Monarchia and prayed for the atrocity to be judged.

Two months after the destruction of Perfect City, Lorgar confronted Guilliman and Malcador among the ruins and learned that the Emperor had approved the punishment. The Emperor condemned the Word Bearers’ worship and ordered them back to the Great Crusade, while Zadkiel supported the shattered Lorgar as he faced Guilliman’s final command.

• Guilliman summoned the Word Bearers to Monarchia’s ruins, where Lorgar demanded an explanation from him and Malcador for the destruction of Perfect City.
• Malcador revealed that the Emperor knew of the destruction, then summoned him psychically; the Emperor arrived and forced the Word Bearers, including Zadkiel and Lorgar, to kneel.
• The Emperor rebuked Lorgar for making people worship him, declared worship a poison to truth, and ordered the Word Bearers to return to war and serve the Imperium.
• After the Emperor departed, Lorgar collapsed in grief, and Zadkiel helped him rise and return to his warship with Phaelon.
• Guilliman told Lorgar that the Emperor had assigned twenty Custodes to accompany the Word Bearers as observers, and Lorgar refused their presence and warned Guilliman that one day Ultramar would suffer as he had.

Lorgar arrived on Cadia after the Word Bearers discovered a Warp-touched region and met Inger-Sel, who claimed the four gods had summoned him. She said Nimrod had already obtained what should have belonged to Lorgar, then led him into a cavern temple where he found strange murals.

• The Word Bearers reached a Warp Storm that Lorgar named the Scarus Sector, and the fleet lost three warships crossing it.
• Lorgar descended to 1301-12, where he stopped Vendatha from condemning the purple-eyed inhabitants before hearing Inger-Sel call him the beloved son of four gods.
• Inger-Sel identified the world as Cadia and told Lorgar that Nimrod had already obtained what should have belonged to him.
• Lorgar followed Inger-Sel into the Temple of the Great Eye, a cavern complex covered in ancient drawings and runes.
• Lorgar examined two murals depicting a robed figure with a one-eyed giant and, in another image, two towering figures beside a clawed hand and an eye.

Lorgar learned from the Ascendant that the gods were real and saw a future in which his Legion helped unleash a galactic war. After surviving trials on Sar'n'sath, he heard Kairos offer him a choice between confronting Nimrod or Guilliman, but Kairos also directed him toward Andermung.

• Lorgar visited the ruins of the Aeldari craftworld Zulasa on Sar'n'sath and learned that Slaanesh's birth had shattered two hundred thousand souls there.
• The Ascendant showed Lorgar a vision of the Word Bearers fighting the Imperium and urged him to spread faith in the gods across humanity.
• Lorgar returned to Sar'n'sath, defeated Ang'grath the Unbound, and lay gravely wounded in the red sand.
• Kairos introduced himself as the Fateweaver and said he had come to offer Lorgar a choice between Nimrod and Guilliman.
• Lorgar said he sought humanity's enlightenment rather than personal glory, and Kairos named Andermung as the place humanity needed him most.

Arkan Land discovered Binary Star Shadowing in the Cradle of Serpents and advanced to The Astronomer. Nimrod divined a route to the Jingyuan Federation, sent Zadkiel there to undermine its order, and prepared forces for its conquest.

• Arkan Land observed a binary-star phenomenon in the Cradle of Serpents, named it Binary Star Shadowing, and drank the potion that advanced him to The Astronomer.
• Nimrod found that Tzeentch had extended the prophecy cooldown to ten years and used a divination to obtain a star chart to the Jingyuan Federation.
• Nimrod chose Zadkiel for the mission and revealed that Vendatha had stopped a blood sacrifice on Cadia before Argel Tal killed him.
• Zadkiel reported that Lorgar had declared the Four Gods and The Emperor false gods and redirected the Word Bearers toward spreading Chaos worship.
• Nimrod ordered Zadkiel to disrupt the Jingyuan Federation's order and deployed troops and Anakaris for the coming campaign.

Sasebo Tezuka joined Lord Ramsey’s assault on the Jingyuan Federation’s spherical dry dock, where the Shadows of Order exploited the enemy’s linked social network to keep changing weapons faster than it could respond. After ten cycles of adapting to their attacks, the network still could not identify bolter fire, and the dockyard assault continued.

• The 10th Battalion fleet reached the Jingyuan Federation’s dry dock, and Lord Ramsey ordered the Honor Guard to teleport aboard and seize it.
• Sasebo Tezuka used Spirit Sight to spot the Power Warriors as the Shadows of Order emerged from concealment and killed them.
• After the linked social network detected the deaths, Ramsey ordered the attackers to use captured Thermal Ray Guns, then Gravity Rifles, and then bolters as the network adapted to each weapon.
• The Shadows of Order broke into the control room, and after ten sets of ten seconds the social network still could not identify the bolter attacks.

Nimrod inspected the Jingyuan Federation’s captured dry dock and learned that its homeworld was protected by a planet-spanning energy shield. Rather than destroy the dock and lose the Federation’s vast store of knowledge, he approved Zadkiel’s plan to disrupt the planet’s social network, leaving Zadkiel in command of the campaign.

• Nimrod arrived at the dry dock, where Ramsey reported that the control center and its giant instrument had been captured intact for Archmagos Arkan and Anacharis to study.
• Zadkiel presented scans showing that energy towers across the planet powered an artificial ice shield comparable to a Bastion-class Energy Shield.
• Nimrod recalled that the Space Wolves had been blamed for destroying the Federation’s fifteen-thousand-year store of civilization when they used the dry dock as a battering ram.
• Zadkiel proposed uploading a virus into the Federation’s social network, and Arkan and Anacharis confirmed that the plan was feasible but required a surprise raid on its central Cogitator.
• Nimrod ordered Arkan and Anacharis to assist Zadkiel and placed him in full command of the campaign.

Arkan Land, Anacharis Scoria, and Zadkiel carried out a mission to upload code into the Jingyuan Federation’s social network while its orbital defenses were under attack. The upload began near an energy tower, but the team was discovered and surrounded by Power Warriors and Super Power Warriors.

• The Shadow of Order and the Scions of the Quill bombarded the Jingyuan Federation’s artificial ice shield, while Nelson flew Arkan Land, Anacharis Scoria, and Zadkiel through a gap in it.
• Arkan and Anacharis argued over mechanization and the power of their respective approaches as Zadkiel kept the discussion focused on the mission’s requirements.
• Zadkiel established that they had only two minutes and twenty-four seconds between detection and the end of the upload, then Nelson landed the Stormbird near an energy tower.
• Zadkiel sent the coordinates to Wilshire and placed markers while his twenty guards formed a defensive line around the team.
• Anacharis’s electronic familiars began uploading Arkan’s code, but alarms sounded and thousands of Power Warriors, including towering Super Power Warriors, surrounded them.

Anacharis, Arkan Land, and Zadkiel fought off the Jingyuan Federation’s Super Power Warriors while Anacharis’s code disrupted their network. As orbital forces approached, Arkan’s electromagnetic interference confused the Lantern Turrets and kept them from firing.

• Anacharis used his Mechanical Arms and Strategist Array to bombard the Super Power Warriors, while Zadkiel’s guard and Arkan Land’s starlight attacks cut down more enemies.
• A massive blue, two-headed Super Power Warrior ambushed the Word Bearers, and Zadkiel charged it, striking through its armor and destroying one of its heads.
• Anacharis unleashed the Wodiah Scepter, tearing through enemy forces and the ice, but the Jingyuan Federation’s Lantern Turrets began targeting the group.
• Zadkiel raised prisms to deflect the turrets’ energy beams, and Arkan Land used electromagnetic interference to disrupt their targeting signals.
• The Lantern Turrets swept blindly instead of firing, and Zadkiel saw that the Second Legion was about to arrive.

Nimrod’s forces defeated the Jingyuan Federation’s defenses and seized its industrial facilities and data, though they lost hundreds of soldiers and several three-legged Walkers. Arkan Land and Anacharis declared the recovered technology a major discovery, while Zadkiel advanced to Mentor of Chaos after drinking the Black Emperor’s potion.

• Anacharis and Arkan Land maintained False Astrology as three-legged Walkers attacked the Jingyuan Federation’s turrets, whose new Void Shields made them far more resilient.
• Wilshire arrived as the Walkers and Legion forces destroyed the turrets and defeated the Federation’s blue and silver warriors, while some Walkers were lost.
• Zadkiel drank the Black Emperor’s potion, meditated on the collapse of the Federation’s order, and became a Mentor of Chaos.
• Arsena Dunn reported to Nimrod that the Legion had suffered 461 deaths, lost 25 three-legged Walkers, and preserved nearly all the captured towers and dry dock.
• Arkan Land and Anacharis told Nimrod they had transferred the Federation’s data and technical findings to the Tech Sergeant team, calling the discovery the Great Crusade’s greatest technological breakthrough.

Nimrod used the Dice of Prophecy to choose Dacinta as a target, hoping its technology could help him build weapons of extinction himself. At Dacinta, Ramsey and Sasebo Tezuka discovered the world’s machines were forbidden artificial intelligences, foreshadowing conflict over the Imperium’s restrictions.

• Nimrod recalled the Luna Wolves’ difficult campaign on Dacinta and decided its technology could help him counter Lady Hera.
• Nimrod used the Dice of Prophecy to obtain a star chart to Dacinta, then summoned the First Chapter, the Second Legion, the 7th Legion, the 10th Battalion, and Gabriel.
• Ramsey led Sasebo Tezuka and the 10th Battalion to ruined city number five on Dacinta.
• Sasebo Tezuka used Spirit Sight to confirm that the attacking machines contained no living organs, while Ramsey determined they had no souls.
• Ramsey explained that Dacinta’s artificial intelligences violated the Crimson Protocol and that dissent among Mechanicum members made conflict inevitable.

The Shadows of Order tested their new individual Protective Field adjustment technique while fighting Smart Machines in Dacinta, then joined forces with the 7th Legion to advance toward the city center. Their assault stalled when an Overseer appeared and inflicted heavy losses.

• Ramsey and the Shadows of Order attacked Smart Machines, and Ramsey's Archaeotech Pistol pierced one machine's energy shield.
• Ramsey ordered the battalion to switch its Protective Fields to thermal-ray protection mode, and the Shadows of Order adjusted their armor through Thought Impulse control.
• The Shadows of Order destroyed the disabled Smart Machines with Thunder Hammers, while two of their members fell to the machines' attacks.
• The 7th Legion's Pyromancers and Catachan Wolves joined the assault and helped the two legions advance toward the multicolored tower.
• A massive Smart Machine identified as an Overseer appeared, shattered Storm Shields, killed Shadows of Order, and smashed Catachan Wolves.

Ramsey and the Shadow of Order battled the Overseer while Perturabo's Steel Hammer Bunker descended on Ruined City No. 4. Yaxin and the Second Company overwhelmed the Smart Machines, and Yaxin brought down the damaged Overseer, though the bunker’s missile launcher was destroyed.

• Ramsey used shadow control to restrain and crush the Overseer, then ordered the troops to recover it and the Smart Machine wreckage for his lord.
• Sasebo Tezuka spotted Perturabo's Steel Hammer Bunker descending toward Ruined City No. 4.
• The bunker landed amid the Smart Machines and fired Super Frag Missiles, destroying a vast swath of them.
• Yaxin led the Second Company out of their Drop Pods and captured Smart Machines for the Black Emperor.
• The Overseer blasted the bunker and the Second Company's formation with green plasma, destroying the bunker's central Missile Launcher.
• Yaxin used his power to hinder the Overseer, then struck its head with a golden fist and toppled it into the ruins.

Nimrod led an assault on Ruined City No. 1 and captured the Great Machine Lord and two Overseers. Considering the Great Machine Lord as an Alchemist potion ingredient, he weighed possible recipients and left the choice between Rosicky, Gabriel, Belisarius Cawl, and Anakaris for later.

• Nimrod ordered an airborne deployment to Ruined City No. 1 and assigned Gabriel and Wilshire to study and control the Smart Machines.
• Nimrod spotted the Great Machine Lord and jumped from the Stormbird to confront it and its Overseers.
• Nimrod used Entropy Energy to bend the machines' beams back at an Overseer, age and weaken the machines, and bind the Great Machine Lord and two Overseers with Imprisonment.
• Nimrod considered whether the Great Machine Lord's potion should go to Perturabo or Rosicky, then decided Perturabo needed a different pathway to address his flaws.
• Nimrod considered Rosicky, Gabriel, Belisarius Cawl, and Anakaris as candidates for the Alchemist pathway and postponed choosing among them.

Nimrod ordered the Legion’s losses from the Dacinta war to be inflated to conceal its true strength, while Arsena Dunn worried that the deception was becoming harder to maintain. He then inspected Gabriel’s prototype Smart Machine and set a goal for fielding improved models in nine years.

• Arsena Dunn reported that the Legion had lost 5,249 warriors in the war against the Dacinta Smart Machines, with the 10th Battalion suffering 3,481 deaths.
• Nimrod ordered the War Council to be told that 30,840 had died, and Arsena arranged for investigators to create a cover story and hide the Legion’s movements.
• Nimrod reassured Arsena that he would not need to conceal the Legion’s growing strength in less than thirty years, then went with him to the Forge Deck.
• Gabriel demonstrated a prototype Smart Machine assembled from salvaged parts and equipped with a Thermal Ray Gun, which destroyed several Target Dummies.
• Wilshire explained that a notarized contract collar bound the machine to obey the Shadow of Order and protect its people; Nimrod urged Gabriel and Wilshire to prepare improved models for combat deployment in nine years.

Meriel Astelan joined Luther after warning him of a conspiracy on Caliban, and Luther restored Meriel to his post while preparing to move against the plotters. The chapter ended with Luther entrusting Zahariel and Urian Bendreg to watch the suspects and setting out with a disguised Shadow of Order.

• Merian urged Meriel Astelan to lead a revolt against Luther, arguing that Luther and his allies had displaced the Terrans and the old Legion officers.
• Meriel agreed to convene officers who controlled troops, then secretly warned Luther that Merian and Nereus were plotting against him.
• Meriel declared that he wanted to resist Lion El'Jonson and swore loyalty to Luther, who restored him as Chapter Master after dealing with the traitors.
• Luther told Zahariel and Urian Bendreg to keep watch on Merian and Nereus, while admitting he could not fully trust Meriel.
• Luther prepared to leave aboard the Shadow-pattern Stormbird with a Faceless One of the Shadow of Order disguised to look exactly like him.

Nimrod convened the Shadow of Order’s leaders and committed 270,000 troops to conquer the Ark Fringe Cluster, assigning the 11th Chapter to lead operations in five star systems. After the war council, he ordered Luther to recruit Merian and Nereus when Luther returned to Caliban.

• Nimrod used the Dice of Prophecy to project a star map and brought the Heliosa intelligence to the Primarch’s Palace.
• Nimrod reviewed how the Word Bearers, Space Wolves, and Thousand Sons had become bogged down fighting across the Ark Fringe Cluster.
• Nimrod decided to send 270,000 Shadow of Order troops to the cluster and assigned the 11th Chapter to reconnoiter and lead conquests in five star systems.
• After the council, Luther reported what Meriel Astelan had told him, prompting Nimrod to recall Meriel’s motives and the timing of his pledge.
• Nimrod told Luther he would grant him power soon and ordered him to win over Merian and Nereus after returning to Caliban; Luther accepted eagerly.