Recaps

The Emperor apologized to Celestine for the endless service and rebirths she had endured, then ordered her to prepare a list of dishes before she left. Slaanesh visited the Emperor hoping to become a Living Saint, then invited him to help destroy the place where Khorne forged weapons, prompting the God-Emperor to draw his sword.

• The Emperor stopped Celestine from kneeling, apologized for drawing her into endless service, and reassured her that she had done well.
• Celestine objected to indulging in food, but the Emperor ordered her to prepare a tasting list of at least thirteen dishes and sent her away.
• The Emperor reflected on Celestine's painful deaths and rebirths, while the God-Emperor questioned whether she had safely skipped the usual trial.
• Slaanesh appeared with white wings and asked to become a Living Saint, but the Emperor explained that no body could bear her power.
• The Emperor asked Slaanesh whether the flesh flower had caused his guilt toward Celestine, and Slaanesh accused him of luring an innocent girl into sainthood.
• Slaanesh invited the Emperor to help smash Khorne's weapon-forging site, and the God-Emperor took control and drew his sword.

While Slaanesh and the Emperor's Legion of the Damned fought Khorne, Tzeentch assigned Rokasna to collect an overdue debt. He reshaped Rokasna with power drawn from Emperor-worshippers as Carlos's preparations reached a point of disagreement.

• Slaanesh's daemonic host and the Emperor's Legion of the Damned advanced against Khorne's forge as Tzeentch watched the battle.
• Tzeentch found Rokasna trying to teach an Ogryn to count, then dispersed the Ogryn's soul and gave Rokasna a task.
• Tzeentch handed Rokasna an ancient scroll and ordered him to collect an overdue debt.
• Tzeentch checked Carlos's preparations; Carlos gave conflicting reports about whether everything was ready.
• Tzeentch used power from Emperor-worshippers to pluck Rokasna's feathers and reshape his appearance.

Tzeentch sent Rokasna, disguised with golden feathers and trapped in a mortal body, into a hive city with orders to help its people. Rokasna fought the Emperor-worshipping bandits attacking a crowd, but his weakened powers left him wounded and facing a Hellgun.

• Tzeentch had Carlos replace Rokasna's azure feathers with golden ones, then hurled him through a rift into a human hive city.
• Rokasna found that he had a mortal body and could draw only a trace of psychic strength from the city's rising steam.
• Rokasna discovered a note ordering him to help the mortals, then approached a fleeing crowd with a small fireball.
• More than twenty armed bandits surrounded Rokasna and the crowd, shooting and harpooning people while demanding they offer themselves to The Emperor.
• Rokasna charged the bandits with a steel-rebar spear, killed nine, and sustained wounds from their bombs before a bandit aimed a Hellgun at him.

Rokasna survived a bandit’s Hellgun attack and woke in the care of Celes, a woman with immense holy power who healed him and tested him for corruption. After she introduced herself and left, Rokasna understood that the parchment’s instruction to “Act with her” was his next task.

• A bandit’s repeated Hellgun shots broke Rokasna’s shield, wounded him, and left him unconscious.
• Rokasna awoke in a room with Celes watching over him, then fell asleep again after she urged him to rest.
• A parchment appeared in Rokasna’s dream with the instruction, “Act with her.”
• Rokasna found Celes holding the parchment, and she inspected and healed his wounds with her sacred power.
• Celes tested Rokasna for corruption, told him his injuries were healed, and introduced herself before leaving.
• Rokasna realized that he understood what he needed to do for the Headmaster.

Lin Fan treated the wounded Lamenters after the Drukhari attack while Perturabo repaired their Dreadnought. Seeing how few warriors and how little equipment the Chapter had left, Lin Fan reflected on the vast disparities between Space Marine Chapters.

• Lin Fan felt watched and cold, while Perturabo dismissed his concern and continued repairing a Castaferrum-pattern Dreadnought.
• A poisoned Lamenters warrior cursed Lin Fan and Perturabo, but Lin Fan warned him to stay calm and prepared medicine.
• Lin Fan removed the Lamenters Chapter Master's helmet and gave him the potion, then treated the other severely wounded Lamenters.
• Lin Fan noted that the Lamenters had only 120 warriors remaining and lacked the equipment and resources of more established Chapters.
• Lin Fan considered how Chapters were organized into companies and squads, and how their strength and supplies varied across the Imperium.

Perturabo revived and subdued the Lamenters’ Dreadnought and questioned their Chapter Master, while Lin Fan explained the Lamenters’ cursed history and the disasters that had reduced their numbers. The chapter’s account ended with the Lamenters stationed in the Maelstrom, where the Astral Claws had shown them unexpected kindness.

• Perturabo restarted the damaged Dreadnought, sedated it, and restrained the Lamenters Chapter Master for questioning.
• The Chapter Master refused to answer Perturabo, so Lin Fan explained that the Lamenters came from the Cursed Founding and faced suspicion, persecution, and Chaos corruption among its chapters.
• Lin Fan described how the Blood Snakes were declared traitors and the Fire Hawks were destroyed after an Inquisitor judged their flames to be a sign of Chaos.
• The Lamenters suffered heavy losses defending Corillia after the Excoriators abandoned them, then vanished in a Warp storm after Ultramarines and White Scars reinforcements arrived.
• The High Lords sent the surviving Lamenters to defend the Maelstrom, where the Astral Claws under Lufgt Huron treated them with kindness.

Lin Fan recounted the Badab War and the Lamenters’ mistaken alliance with Huron, ending with their devastating defeat and hundred-year Penitent Crusade. Perturabo grew furious at the High Lords’ treatment of the Astartes and prepared to take his anger to Terra.

• Huron grew tired of Terra’s refusal to reinforce the Badab Sector, cut off Imperial taxes, and restricted trade to build up his forces, triggering the Badab War.
• Phoros and the Lamenters sided with Huron because they believed the conflict was a misunderstanding and defended themselves without harming their fellow Space Marines.
• The Minotaurs ambushed the Lamenters, captured Storm's Daughter, and left only a little over three hundred wounded brothers alive as Phoros disappeared.
• Imperial interrogators found that the Lamenters had not intended to rebel, pardoned them from Excommunicate Traitoris, and sentenced them to a hundred-year Penitent Crusade.
• After hearing Lin Fan’s account, Perturabo raged against the High Lords and began planning an assault on Terra.

Lin Fan tried to bring the Carcharodons and Lamenters under control after the planet’s unrest was quelled, but the Space Marines remained hostile. He asked Yvraine to make The Emperor manifest so he could persuade them, and she proposed projecting The Emperor’s will through a method used by Chaos Gods and Greater Daemons.

• Lin Fan stopped Perturabo from smashing things and turned the group’s attention to restoring order on the planet.
• Aeldari disguised as priests and nuns searched for capable survivors to help take power while Lin Fan focused on the two Space Marine Chapters.
• Lin Fan and Perturabo entered the hall where 190 disarmed Space Marines stood restrained, and Bashar cursed them before Perturabo kicked him away.
• Lin Fan asked the Lamenters’ Chapter Master his name, learned it was Hope, and placed a hand on his forehead to test whether he could see The Emperor.
• Lin Fan asked Yvraine to make The Emperor manifest, and she said the warlocks could project The Emperor’s will using a method based on the bond between a Chaos God and a Greater Daemon.

Lin Fan and Yvraine forced Perturabo into a ritual that let the Emperor possess him, and the Emperor stopped the Space Marines and Aeldari from fighting. He then faced the Carcharodons and Lamenters, as Hope asked why his Chapter had suffered so much.

• Yvraine described the gods worshipped by humanity and other races, angering the Space Marines, then prepared her Warlocks to bind Perturabo.
• Lin Fan pinned Perturabo down and told him the ritual would let the Emperor possess him, but Perturabo fought back and attacked Yvraine.
• The Emperor appeared within Perturabo, drove back the Warlocks, and suppressed the charging Carcharodons and Lamenters.
• The Emperor halted both Chapters and ordered them to stand properly, while Bashar obeyed and Hope knelt in tears.
• The Emperor helped Hope to his feet after Hope asked what the Lamenters had done wrong to suffer so much.

The Emperor demanded that the Lamenters and Carcharodons accept his command to ally with the Aeldari, despite their hatred and grievances toward them. Lin Fan reframed the alliance as a sacred mission to revive one of the Emperor’s sons and strike at Chaos, leaving the Space Marines kneeling in alarm.

• The Emperor showed Hope scenes of war and peace and demanded that he choose between personal loyalty and protecting others.
• The Emperor ordered Hope and Bashar to accept that the Lamenters were not cursed and declared Lin Fan the voice of his will.
• The Emperor forbade the Space Marines from attacking the Aeldari and declared them allies against Chaos.
• Bashar condemned the Aeldari as enemies, while Hope accused them of tormenting the Lamenters and plundering their gene-seed vault.
• The Emperor challenged the Space Marines to defy his command, and Lin Fan intervened with a sermon about the sacred mission entrusted to them.
• The Space Marines fell to their knees, afraid that their resistance had disrupted the Emperor’s plan.

Lin Fan and The Emperor persuaded the Carcharodons and Lamenters to accept the mission, then The Emperor confronted Perturabo’s soul. Perturabo rejected The Emperor and vented his long-held anger over the humiliations and neglect he had suffered.

• Lin Fan pretended to repent, and The Emperor played along by threatening to choose other warriors for the mission.
• Hope and Bashar apologized, and the Lamenters and Carcharodons swore to obey The Emperor and complete the mission without firing on the Aeldari.
• The Emperor restored the warriors’ resolve, removed Lin Fan’s special effects, and asked how he had acted so convincingly.
• Perturabo mocked The Emperor for using warriors with a false sacred mission and refused to serve the Imperium any longer.
• Perturabo recalled Russ’s insults, the work and recognition he had been denied, and the technology he believed The Emperor had withheld from his Legion.

Perturabo confronted the Emperor over feeling unwanted, but the Emperor soothed him with a head pat, leaving Perturabo delighted and eager to recreate the sensation. The Space Marines joined Lin Fan’s mission alongside the Ynnari, and Perturabo boarded the Lamenters’ damaged warship to repair it and conduct experiments.

• Perturabo demanded to know whether the Emperor needed him, and the Emperor said he wanted Perturabo to live for his own meaning rather than for him.
• Perturabo asked whether the Emperor had treated Dorn the same way, and the Emperor said no, making Perturabo happy.
• Slaanesh secretly helped the Emperor reach out and comfort Perturabo, then watched as Perturabo returned to his body and hurried to build a device that could recreate the head pat.
• Lin Fan and the Wraithbone artisan repaired damage while the Space Marines grew less hostile toward Yvraine and agreed to follow Lin Fan’s orders.
• Perturabo and Lin Fan boarded the Lamenters’ warship, the Mother of Tears, where Perturabo used his robots to repair the ship and planned experiments on the Chapter.

Perturabo examined the Lamenters’ empty gene-seed vault and discovered their brutal, ritualized recruitment and implantation practices. He challenged Hope over the Chapter’s disastrously low surgical success rate, then returned to questioning him as they prepared to carry out their plan.

• The Lamenters explained that xenos had looted the gene-seed vault and killed the Apothecaries and tactical squad guarding it.
• Perturabo scanned the surgical records and found that recruits had to survive three days in a spike-lined Coffin of Mercy before receiving gene-seed.
• Hope described his own trial, explaining that he had endured severe blood loss and fading consciousness in the coffin before becoming a Space Marine.
• Perturabo questioned the Lamenters’ two-thousand-to-one surgical success rate and criticized their pre-surgery trial and missing procedure records.
• Hope called Perturabo “Uncle,” and Perturabo told him to stop changing the subject and answer his questions.

Perturabo exploited Hope’s resentment of the Imperium to persuade him to rebuild the Lamenters into a Legion and secretly purge Terra’s rulers. Hope accepted Perturabo’s claim that the Emperor had given them a hidden mission, and Perturabo named their new Imperium the Second Empire.

• Hope told Perturabo that the Lamenters’ Apothecaries had learned surgery from the Tech-Priests, and Lin Fan explained that gene-seed surgical knowledge had been lost across the Imperium.
• Perturabo offered to teach Hope the complete surgical process and help restore the Lamenters, despite the High Lords’ order against replenishing their ranks during the Penitent Crusade.
• Perturabo stirred Hope’s anger by reminding him of the High Lords’ discrimination and the Lamenters’ losses.
• Perturabo convinced Hope that the Emperor had secretly tasked them with purging Terra’s rulers and rebuilding the Imperium.
• Hope asked Perturabo to teach him, and Perturabo declared that they would establish the Second Empire.
• On distant Macragge, Roboute Guilliman twitched a finger while lying motionless.

Perturabo persuaded Hope that the Second Empire would fulfill the Emperor’s true will by protecting mortals and correcting the Imperium’s abuses. Hope swore himself to Perturabo’s cause, and Perturabo said he would train him to turn the Lamenters into an ironclad army.

• Hope questioned Perturabo about the Second Empire’s government, independence from Terra, and plans to build an army, then compared it to the Badab War.
• Perturabo argued that the Emperor tacitly approved of the Second Empire and challenged Hope to consider whether the Imperium showed compassion toward mortals.
• Hope described the cruelty of some Space Marine Chapters and the exploitation of people across the Imperium, while Perturabo listened and encouraged him to speak.
• Perturabo promised that the Second Empire would avoid the First Empire’s failures and described the new worlds and defenses already being built in the Milky Way.
• Perturabo and Hope discussed plans for improving civilian life and government, and Hope knelt to swear an oath to Perturabo.
• Perturabo told Hope he would first study under him so they could turn the Lamenters into an ironclad army.

Perturabo brought Bashar and Hope to Howens IV to collect the Carcharodons’ blood tithe and recruit people for Hope to practice gene-seed surgeries on. When xenos disrupted the collection, Perturabo prepared to investigate, while Lin Fan revealed that Yvraine had found clues about the missing Craftworld on the planet.

• Perturabo brought Bashar and Hope to Howens IV, where factory owner Ranko promised to deliver the blood tithe within two hours.
• Bashar told Perturabo that Ranko was a capable Imperial servant and that the next tithe was not due for five years.
• When Ranko missed the deadline, Perturabo threatened him, and Ranko rushed in to explain that xenos had appeared in the warehouse.
• Perturabo confirmed Ranko was telling the truth and contacted Lin Fan, who began explaining that Yvraine had found clues about the missing Craftworld on Howens IV before the communication cut out.
• Perturabo copied Ranko’s data chip, then ordered Bashar, Hope, and Ranko to prepare for battle.

Lin Fan summoned Trazyn after the Seers sensed the deaths of Aeldari on Howens IV, where a Necron presence had emerged. Trazyn contacted the planet’s dynasty, leaving the Aeldari startled by the Necrontyr’s unexpectedly frivolous side as the call connected.

• The Seers told Lin Fan and Yvraine that their visions suggested Aeldari had been slaughtered, while a black veil and green flashes appeared over Howens IV.
• Lin Fan used his disk to call Trazyn, who arrived through a hyperspace portal and overwhelmed the Aeldari with his presence.
• Lin Fan greeted Trazyn familiarly, and Trazyn learned that a Necron dynasty was active on the planet.
• Trazyn contacted the dynasty through Dynasty Connect, whose cheerful greeting and hold music made Yvraine struggle not to laugh.
• A Necrontyr noble with a face resembling Trazyn appeared on the connected screen.

Trazyn discovered that the dynasty on Hovens IV had rebelled against the Silent King and went underground with his guard to suppress it. When Lin Fan and Yvraine arrived to rescue him, his forces were crushing the Necron warriors, but unseen attackers began striking his Immortals from behind.

• The dynasty nobles insulted the Silent King during Trazyn's transmission, and Trazyn realized they might be rebelling.
• Trazyn opened a portal to the underground structures of Hovens IV, claiming his guard could handle the rebellion, then called Lin Fan for help.
• Yvraine used Ynnead's power to open a reverse portal, and she led her troops and Lin Fan through it to the planet's core.
• Lin Fan and Yvraine found Trazyn's Immortals and Lychguard slaughtering the Necron warriors in the plaza.
• Lychguard appeared behind several Immortals and destroyed them, while Trazyn aimed his Empathic Obliterator at an empty patch of ground as a stench of rotting flesh filled the air.

Lin Fan, Yvraine, and Trazyn fought the spreading Flayer Virus as the Flayed Ones overwhelmed the Necron forces. Yvraine’s Vortex Grenades sent the attackers into a Great Unclean One’s garden, and the chapter ended with Lin Fan accidentally scratching Trazyn’s back.

• Flayed Ones emerged beside Trazyn, and the Flayer Virus began infecting the Immortals and even his Lychguard.
• Lin Fan charged through the Necron Warriors to reach Trazyn, drawing a growing swarm of Flayed Ones toward him.
• Yvraine and her warriors opened Warp rifts with Vortex Grenades, sending the Flayed Ones into a Great Unclean One’s garden, where they tore through his plants searching for flesh.
• The battle ended with Trazyn’s Immortals destroyed and two Lychguard driven mad by the virus.
• Lin Fan tried to comfort Trazyn, slipped, and scratched Trazyn’s back with his nails.

Lin Fan accidentally scratched Trazyn with Flayer residue, briefly triggering the Flayer Virus before his reassurance restored Trazyn’s control. Trazyn began exploring whether Lin Fan’s beliefs could cure the Necrontyr, then put the idea aside and reminded Lin Fan that he still owed him three favors.

• Trazyn panicked over a scratch on his back and entrusted Lin Fan with his museum, its coordinates, and its Curator’s Key, believing he was infected by the Flayer Virus.
• Lin Fan admitted he had made the scratch, and Trazyn’s symptoms receded as the Flayer contamination stopped affecting him.
• Trazyn tested whether Lin Fan’s beliefs could prevent Necrontyr from contracting the Flayer Virus, but Lin Fan doubted that was possible.
• Trazyn showed Lin Fan a Blackstone device and suggested it could restore Necrontyr souls, but Lin Fan could not explain how to activate it.
• Trazyn put the device away and reminded Lin Fan that he still owed him three favors.

Trazyn and Lin Fan investigated a minor Necron dynasty overrun by Flayed Ones and found its overlord broken by the dynasty’s ruin. As the overlord’s mind collapsed, he cursed the great dynasties and lunged at Trazyn, transforming into a Flayed One.

• Lin Fan agreed to help Trazyn find the energy core needed to activate a relic, and Trazyn investigated why Flayed Ones had appeared in the dynasty.
• Trazyn led the group through the ruined palace and confronted the overlord seated on a Blackstone throne.
• The overlord blamed the great dynasties for abandoning his people after their stasis crypts failed and their resources were exhausted.
• The overlord recalled the life his people had lost, then described how his surviving subjects had become identical, mindless machines under his control.
• The overlord cursed the great dynasties, his mind collapsed, and he lunged at Trazyn as the Flayer curse took hold.

After defeating the Overlord, Trazyn questioned whether the Necrontyr could truly recover their souls and bodies without also reviving their old diseases and social conflicts. He reflected on the despair and inequality of his civilization, ending with a bleak observation that individuals had little value.

• Trazyn and the Lychguard destroyed the Overlord, and Trazyn wondered whether restored Necrontyr would also regain their cancers and dynastic conflicts.
• Trazyn recalled how the Necrontyr dynasties had once held independent power and considered how nobles and commoners had struggled over wealth and authority.
• Trazyn remembered Solemnace's grand royal district and the stark exclusion zone that separated nobles from commoners.
• Trazyn recalled the commoners' disease-ridden lives, the rudimentary homes in other dynasties, and the mass conscription and executions that preceded war.
• Trazyn feared returning to a body that could be crippled by cancer and lamented that new people quickly replaced the dead.

Trazyn, Lin Fan, and Yvraine’s Ynnari elites fought Flayed Ones attacking a factory and rescued its surviving workers. Perturabo reported that the Flayed Ones had fled with Ranko, whom Bashar and Hope had failed to protect.

• Trazyn found a book among the remains of the tomb’s overlord, preserved it in a stasis field, and left with Lin Fan to check on the surface settlement.
• Lin Fan froze molten iron as he entered a factory where Flayed Ones had massacred workers and overwhelmed the security personnel.
• A Flayed One tore off a worker’s calf, but an unknown rescuer injected him with medicine as Yvraine’s Ynnari elites and Lin Fan fought the attackers.
• The Flayed Ones fled into another dimension, and Lin Fan reassured the surviving workers that the Imperium would destroy them.
• Perturabo told Lin Fan that the Flayed Ones had escaped with Ranko and scolded Bashar and Hope for failing to protect him.

Ranko’s deal with the Flayed Ones ended when Lost Lord Valgull had him killed, revealing the vast flesh-trading network he had built across the Ghoul Stars. Valgull celebrated the slaughter of five Tyranid hive fleets and announced that the gathered biomass would fuel a ritual.

• Ranko protested that the Flayed Ones had killed his stored food, but Valgull declared their agreement terminated and tore off his head.
• Valgull explained that governors across the Ghoul Stars supplied living meat to Drazhar under threat, while the Flayed Ones replenished their stores through teleportation arrays.
• Valgull observed that Flayed Ones from different Necron dynasties had gathered on Drazhar, then joined the nobles feasting on fresh meat.
• Valgull toasted the harvest from 150,000 planets and thanked the Silent King for sending the Tyranids.
• A projection showed the Flayed Ones harvesting the bodies of five Tyranid hive fleets that had escaped the Silent King’s interception.

Valgull forced an Alaitoc Farseer to endure a grotesque feast before giving her a Blackstone prism containing the locations of the missing Biel-Tan and Iyanden Craftworlds. The Farseer left with the map and new tomb-world coordinates, determined to rescue the lost Craftworlds and warn the Imperium.

• Valgull welcomed the Alaitoc Farseer and her Rangers with a feast made from Aeldari bones, flesh, and Soul Stones.
• Valgull forced the Farseer to eat a piece of Aeldari meat before handing her a Blackstone prism.
• The Farseer activated the prism and saw the locations of the missing Biel-Tan and Iyanden Craftworlds, along with numerous Necron tomb-world coordinates.
• The Farseer resolved to rescue the Craftworlds and warn the Imperium before leading her people back through the Webway.