Chapter Summaries

Hasik and Togon teleported into the ruins of Tizca to investigate the city despite the Great Khan’s order to wait in orbit. After they fought off Ghost Soul-Eater Bees, an unknown force opened fire on them.

• Hasik insisted that the blockade order required him to enter the city, and he took Togon with him as a witness.
• Hasik and Togon teleported into ruined Tizca and found the city buried in ash and glass dust.
• Hasik used Reaping to reveal and strike the Ghost Soul-Eater Bees’ vulnerable thoraxes, killing one with his glaive.
• Togon used the Bronze Mask to summon a gate and vines that dragged over a hundred Ghost Soul-Eater Bees away, but the artifact left him freezing and weakened.
• Hasik reactivated his Auspex, identified the approaching attackers as neither the Keshig, Thousand Sons, nor Space Wolves, and raised his weapon as bolters fired at them.

Hasik and Togon fought Kharn and the World Eaters on Prospero, then recovered an iron pendant that Hasik sensed held significance. The Black Emperor identified it as the Moon Wolf, a memento linked to Horus and a weakness Nimrod could use against him.

• Togon recognized Kharn leading the World Eaters, and Hasik ordered a retreat while they fought back.
• Hasik shot the Moon Wolf pendant from Kharn and taunted the World Eaters to draw them away as Togon retrieved it.
• Hasik and Togon escaped the World Eaters, and Hasik took the pendant to the Black Emperor.
• The Black Emperor explained that the Moon Wolf had belonged to Horus and that Magnus had used its link to him in an attempt to stop his fall.
• Nimrod realized the pendant gave him a possible advantage against Horus, and memories of Kharn's mission sparked a new thought.

Nimrod ordered Hasik and Togon to rescue Menes Kalliston, a Thousand Sons captain captured by Kharn, and explained Kharn’s devotion to Khorne. Hasik and Togon tracked the World Eaters to a ruined Pyramid, where they fought their way inside and found a chained Astartes.

• Nimrod told Hasik that Kharn had received Khorne’s blessing and ordered him and Togon to rescue Menes Kalliston.
• Hasik returned to Tizca’s library and told Togon about the mission to find Menes.
• Hasik and Togon searched the World Eaters’ trail and discovered their operational base in a ruined Pyramid.
• Togon and Hasik fought through squads of World Eaters as they advanced into the Pyramid.
• Hasik entered a dark chamber and found a naked Astartes bound to a chair.

Hasik and Togon rescued Menes Kalliston from Kharn’s torture chamber and persuaded him to put his Fellowship at Lord Nimrod’s service. Menes agreed to join them in seeking Magnus on Prospero, where Avida’s psychic power opened the sky and revealed the route to the Reflective Cavern.

• Hasik freed Menes from his restraints and identified himself and Togon as White Scars sent by Lord Nimrod to rescue him.
• Menes explained that five thousand warriors from his Fellowship were stationed across three nearby systems and pledged them to Lord Nimrod’s orders.
• Hasik told Menes that Nimrod could offer him a chance to atone for his father’s crimes, and Menes agreed to go with them.
• Hasik said they had to find Magnus on Prospero because part of his soul still lingered there, and Menes agreed to seek answers from his father.
• Menes saw Avida tear open the Aetheric Barrier, and Hasik revealed that Nimrod had told him where the Reflective Cavern was.

Menes and Togon found Magnus’s soul fragment beneath Tizca, where Magnus explained his past and the hopelessness he saw in fate. Togon and Hasik trapped Magnus with sigils and a gate, and Togon began capturing him under Lord Nimrod’s orders.

• Menes and Togon found Magnus among the ruins of the Brass Lens, and Magnus recognized Menes as his son.
• Magnus told Menes that his attempt to warn Terra had brought the Emperor’s wrath upon Prospero, and said neither side offered a hopeful future.
• Togon revealed that he and Hasik had been laying Euclidean Sigils, which severed Magnus and Menes from the Great Ocean and suppressed Magnus’s power.
• Togon and Hasik attacked Magnus, and Magnus struck Hasik before Togon opened a gate and bound him with blue-black vines.
• Togon explained that Magnus’s curiosity had let the trap succeed, then drank a potion as Magnus was dragged toward the gate.

Sulekh Kontep prepared to evacuate Outpost K-39 as more than a thousand Soul-Eater Bees approached, but Hasik Noyan-Khan and Menes Kalliston arrived under Lord Nimrod’s orders to help. After the Thousand Sons opened the sky’s barrier, White Scar forces descended to rescue the survivors, leaving Sulekh wondering why Lord Nimrod had sent them.

• Sulekh Kontep rejected evacuation by road and ordered everyone to leave before the Soul-Eater Bees reached Outpost K-39.
• Hasik Noyan-Khan and Menes Kalliston arrived with another White Scar and told Sulekh they had come under Lord Nimrod’s orders to help.
• Menes warned Sulekh not to follow the White Scars and showed signs of frost caused by the Bronze Mask’s power.
• Sulekh agreed to the plan, and the Thousand Sons Librarians combined their Aether to tear open the Psionic Energy barrier above Prospero.
• A white warship and transport craft descended, and Sulekh boarded a Stormbird to escape the Ash Wasteland while wondering why Lord Nimrod had sent the White Scars.

Nimrod secured Magnus’s soul fragment and arranged for Togon and the Thousand Sons to serve him, while Hasik revealed the Black Emperor’s faith to Togon. The Thousand Sons considered whether to return to Terra or join Nimrod, and Sulekh agreed to meet him.

• Nimrod received the Bronze Mask containing Magnus’s second soul fragment and ordered Hasik to tell Togon how to pray to him and guide the Thousand Sons east.
• Hasik returned to the Qingzha and revealed to Togon that gods existed and Nimrod was the Black Emperor’s earthly identity.
• Togon joined Menes and Sulekh, who discussed whether the Thousand Sons should return to Terra after Jaghatai chose to defend the Throne World.
• Hasik warned that Terra viewed the Thousand Sons as traitors, and Togon argued that Nimrod would trust them and let them fight the traitors elsewhere.
• Sulekh agreed to meet Nimrod with Togon and the others.

Lorgar gathered the Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Word Bearers, and Alpha Legion and declared that they would overthrow the False Emperor. As the Rain of Doom entered realspace near Isstvan V, the Black Emperor assigned four covert agents to guide the coming conflict and save loyalist survivors.

• Lorgar told Perturabo, Konrad Curze, and Omega that the Imperium’s rejection of Chaos left humanity vulnerable and called for a new, faithful human Imperium.
• Jago Sevatarion led the gathered Legions in shouting, “The False Emperor must die,” while Zso Sahaal joined them.
• Alastor Rorschach and Balthasar Quturi shut down the Rain of Doom’s systems and prayed to the Black Emperor aboard the stealth vessel.
• The Black Emperor revealed that the Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Word Bearers, and Alpha Legion had betrayed the Imperium and ordered Akurduana, Balthasar, Alastor, and Zso Sahaal to work together on Isstvan V.
• The Black Emperor tasked Balthasar and Alastor with gathering loyalists and leading them off Isstvan V, while Akurduana and Zso Sahaal were to hunt survivors openly while secretly helping them.

At Isstvan V, loyalist Legions battled Horus’s forces across the Ugor Highlands while Fulgrim urged Akurduana to embrace perfection through killing his brothers. After the traitors began retreating, Ferrus Manus rejected calls to regroup and ordered the Iron Hands to pursue the Emperor’s Children.

• Horus welcomed the loyalist assault as Angron and Fulgrim led their forces into battle, while Ferrus Manus fought through the Emperor’s Children defenses.
• Salamanders, Death Guard, Raven Guard, Sons of Horus, Iron Hands, and Emperor’s Children fought across the highlands as Julius Casolon and Gabriel Santor killed each other.
• Fulgrim praised Julius and Marius as more perfect, but Akurduana questioned whether perfection meant murdering brothers and realized Ferrus was Fulgrim’s intended price.
• Iron Warriors and other allied Legions arrived to reinforce the loyalists, while Ferrus, Vulkan, and Corax agreed that the forces should regroup and resupply.
• As the traitors withdrew, Ferrus refused Corax’s warning, cut off communications, and ordered the Iron Hands to attack the Emperor’s Children.

Fulgrim and Ferrus fought amid the battle, while Balthasar Quturi warned the Raven Guard and Salamanders that they had been betrayed. Fulgrim killed Ferrus under the Laer blade’s influence, and as the voice urged him toward corruption, a roar came from the darkness.

• Fulgrim and Ferrus confronted each other, each accusing the other of betraying their friendship and the Emperor.
• Balthasar Quturi warned the Raven Guard and Salamanders that they were facing traitors, prompting loyalist forces to retreat under fire.
• Fulgrim and Ferrus fought with the weapons they had forged for each other, and both were wounded.
• Fulgrim drew the silver Blade of Laer, whose influence overwhelmed his resistance and drove him to stab Ferrus through the neck.
• Akurduana told Fulgrim that Ferrus was dead, while the voice in the blade promised to erase his guilt and deepen his corruption.
• Fulgrim’s consciousness declared that Ferrus had to understand his perfection, but a roar came from the darkness.

Ferrus Manus’s death birthed the King of Sapphires, who cursed the Iron Hands into rejecting their humanity as they fought on Isstvan V. Amid the Legion’s desperate battles, Lorgar defied Kor Phaeron and Erebus, unleashed his suppressed psychic power, and spread it across the battlefield.

• Ferrus Manus’s death gave rise to the King of Sapphires, who fed on the Iron Hands’ grief and branded them with the belief that flesh was weak and machines would ascend.
• Cadmus Tyro fought beside Ullach Brandon and the Iron Hands in a desperate knife charge against the traitors on Isstvan V.
• Cassian Vaughn destroyed a Predator with his Pyre Serpent Cannon and continued fighting after it ran out of power.
• Lorgar Aurelian recognized that Corax was drawing enemy fire to help the Raven Guard escape, while Corax slaughtered Word Bearers and destroyed a Gunship.
• Lorgar rejected Kor Phaeron and Erebus’s demands to follow fate and rushed toward Corax, releasing his suppressed psychic power across the battlefield and his sons.

Lorgar fought Corax and was gravely wounded before Curze intervened, allowing Corax to escape. Alastor Rorschach and the Raven Guard ambushed the Night Lords, while Balthasar Quturi ordered Alastor to withdraw and stayed behind to aid the Raven Guard.

• Corax attacked Lorgar, tore open his abdomen, and struck him down after declaring his loyalty to the Emperor.
• Curze held Corax long enough for Lorgar to rise, insulted him, and pursued him as Corax fled across the black sands.
• Alastor Rorschach infiltrated the Night Lords' position and used flesh bombs to kill several of them.
• Alastor emerged from a Flesh Cloak and killed the Raptor Master, while Nykona Sharrowkyn watched from the shadows.
• Balthasar Quturi told Alastor to withdraw after the Raven Guard broke through the traitors' blockade, but said he would stay to help Father and the other Raven Guard.

Cassian Vaughn and the battered Salamanders fought their way through the Night Lords while Zso Sahaal confronted Tova Thor inside a psychic dream. After Balthasar Quturi broadcast an evacuation order, Cassian led the loyalists toward safety as Zso Sahaal secretly helped them escape.

• Tova Thor defeated Cassian Vaughn and attacked the Salamanders, but Cassian struck Thor and Zso Sahaal’s dream left him vulnerable.
• Zso Sahaal accused Thor of murdering servants, and Thor charged him before collapsing in the psychic dream.
• Balthasar Quturi ordered loyalist Warriors to evacuate, and Cassian led the Salamanders along the route shown on his tactical display.
• Zso Sahaal followed Cassian through the darkness and watched him hold off the Night Lords while repeatedly trapping them in dreams.

Akurduana accepted Fulgrim’s order to hunt the Iron Hands and secretly sent Ferrus Manus’s relics back to his ship. At Fish-Shaped Valley, the Emperor’s Children ambushed Ullach Brandon’s Iron Hands with sonic weapons, and Cadmus Tyro fought to protect Brach as they tried to escape.

• Akurduana took Ferrus Manus’s Fireblade and Silver Hand, then told Lavash Kallio to store them in his armory before planning the hunt with Solomon Demeter.
• Ullach Brandon led the Iron Hands’ 65th Company into Fish-Shaped Valley while pursuing the Emperor’s Children.
• Marius Vairosean and other Emperor’s Children attacked from the cliffs with sonic weapons, killing Iron Hands and destroying a Dreadnought.
• Brach ordered a retreat as the sonic barrage claimed more of his company.
• Cadmus Tyro shielded Brach from an attack, then charged the Emperor’s Children with only a combat knife and struggled onward through the sonic blasts.
• As Cadmus stared toward the valley exit, a purple-gold flash crossed his eyes.

Akurduana killed Marius Vairosean and cut down the Noise Marines, then allowed Ullach Brandon and the Iron Hands to leave. Ullach led his battered survivors toward the nearest evacuation point to regroup and seek vengeance.

• Palatine Blades charged the Noise Marines, while Ullach Brandon warned Cadmus Tyro that the traitors might be plotting.
• Marius Vairosean attacked Akurduana with his Sonic Blaster, but Akurduana advanced through the blasts and reached him.
• Akurduana cut the Sonic Blaster’s strings and amplifier, and Vairosean’s mutated body exploded.
• Akurduana killed more Noise Marines, then ordered Ullach Brandon and the Iron Hands to leave.
• Ullach Brandon led the Iron Hands toward the nearest evacuation point to regroup and seek vengeance.

Alastor Rorschach reported that Raven Guard, Salamanders, and Iron Hands forces had escaped the traitor ambush, and Nimrod planned to recruit them while pursuing Ferrus Manus’s discoveries. Nimrod then learned that Zagreus Kane had made progress seeking support to retake Mars, but the Emperor had assigned him to a secret war.

• Alastor reported that 5,260 Raven Guard and 1,980 Salamanders had escaped with him, along with 1,370 Iron Hands led by Ullach Brandon, Fret Samatica, and Sabik Wieland.
• Nimrod considered recruiting the Iron Hands and acquiring the Sisypheum’s assets, including Kryptos and the Primogenitor, while searching for the Vault of Mimir and confronting the King of Sapphires.
• Nimrod ordered Alastor to take the surviving forces to the eastern region of the galaxy.
• Nimrod summoned Kion, who reported that Zagreus Kane was seeking Terra’s support to reclaim Mars but had recently reduced his activity.
• Nimrod told Kion that the Emperor had ordered Kane to join a secret war, and decided to wait until Kane had exhausted his options before offering help.

After the Dropsite Massacre, Horus rallied the traitor forces and gave Perturabo the location of Dorn’s trapped Punishment Fleet. Perturabo instead chose to return to the western galaxy to secure an ancient xenos Void Bastion that Lion had also discovered.

• Nimrod ordered the Sigillite and Terra Guard to hunt rebel Legion members and sent agents to find Fel Zharost, whose expulsion from the Night Lords had led him back to Arabi.
• Fulgrim presented Horus with a mutilated head and the Skull-Breaker Warhammer as trophies from Isstvan V.
• Horus rallied his forces and announced that they would attack the Emperor’s fortress and prepare the way to Terra.
• Horus gave Perturabo the coordinates of Dorn’s Punishment Fleet, which had been trapped in the Phall System.
• Perturabo told Horus that he would return to the western galaxy to retrieve an ancient xenos Void Bastion, which Lion was also pursuing.

Horus planned to invade the Colonid Sector with a vast force while Mortarion moved to blockade Carium Gate. Nimrod learned of the attack and ordered efforts to recruit Night Lords defectors, but told Akurduana to keep his presence hidden, trusting Flamini to hold the sector.

• Horus chose the Colonid Sector as the next campaign target and ordered Mortarion to block Carium Gate and restrict fleets passing through it.
• Nimrod ordered Zso Sahaal to persuade Mosax and Cassati Nuang to join the fight against the rebels.
• Akurduana presented Nimrod with the Fireblade, and Nimrod removed its silver hand before returning the sword to him.
• Akurduana reported that more than 150,000 Astartes, including the Sons of Horus and part of the Death Guard, were heading for Colonid.
• Nimrod told Akurduana not to reveal himself, saying Flamini could hold back the rebels.

Dementyeva infiltrated the Planetary Governor’s residence on Tibilisi to reach the governor and punish the world for refusing to submit to Lord Nimrod. After the guards turned against one another and attacked her, she used her powers to spread a deadly disease through them and continued forward.

• Pezzella and Maria Kournikova discussed Tibilisi’s refusal to pledge allegiance to Lord Nimrod, and Maria sent Dementyeva to punish the holdouts.
• Dementyeva ordered five Witches of Joy and thirteen Witches to strike Tibilisi while an Instigator urged Upper Hive workers to rebel against Horus’s nobles.
• Dementyeva used her Charm ability to persuade the Hive Spire guards to escort her toward the Planetary Governor.
• When Planetary Governor’s family guards opened fire, several Hive Spire guards turned on their comrades, and Dementyeva released Disease against the defenders.
• Dementyeva’s disease weakened the guards as she advanced, leaving the wounded guard captain watching them fall around her.

Dementyeva infiltrated the Hive Spire on Tibilisi, killed Planetary Governor Khvicha, and displayed his corpse above the city. In Merseyside, Gonzalo learned that more systems had joined Nimrod, but trusted the Warmaster’s promised relief fleet to save Akum-Sothos.

• Khvicha’s guards failed to stop Dementyeva, whose Spider Silk and Psionic attacks overwhelmed their defenses.
• The guard captain attacked Dementyeva but was killed, while Khvicha fled toward his shuttle.
• Dementyeva cursed Khvicha through her mirror, killed him, and hung his corpse from a Gothic Spire.
• Gonzalo learned that fifteen star systems had declared allegiance to Nimrod and that Khvicha’s death had prompted ninety-two more to surrender.
• Gonzalo heard that Howard Fender’s First Chapter had arrived and ordered the cluster to surrender, but relied on the Warmaster’s relief fleet to hold out.