Recaps

Lin Fan freed Konrad Curze from his cycle of visions and confronted the horrors of a distorted space, which he casually made more orderly. Elsewhere, the Silent King released an observer after its mission and began writing the Outsider’s death record.

• Curze woke beside Lin Fan, realized his prophetic visions and pain had stopped, and took Lin Fan’s offered hand.
• A nightmare lunged from a dark window, but Lin Fan turned it into a sheet of paper and crumpled it, frightening Curze.
• Lin Fan explored the buildings and cleaned a corrupted lamp, making the surrounding space more orderly.
• The Silent King captured a fleeing observer, asked whether it had completed its mission, then released it after it confirmed success.
• The Silent King wrote and drew on a screen beneath the words “The Outsider’s death record.”

The Silent King recalled how the Outsider’s power had broken the Old Ones’ cosmic defenses and decided to preserve the intact C'tan as its madness was erased by the Subjective One. Inside the Outsider, Lin Fan explored and ate the strange surroundings with Konrad Curze before the Silent King arrived and restrained Curze.

• The Silent King reviewed the Outsider’s past power to define and observe reality, then ordered the Triarch Praetorians to guard the C'tan as the Milky Way Collapse Coefficient reached 90%.
• Lin Fan led a reluctant Konrad Curze through the increasingly orderly interior of the Outsider, sampling its leaves and chatting about his odd eating habits.
• Lin Fan told Curze that Slaanesh sometimes cooked and served him her severed tail, leaving Curze stunned.
• A stasis field immobilized Konrad Curze as the Silent King emerged from a hyperspace portal behind Lin Fan.
• The Silent King saw Lin Fan feasting on the Outsider’s madness and judged the unconscious C'tan safer than a conscious one.

The Silent King explained to Lin Fan that creating things with subjective power was much harder than erasing them, and guided him through forming a crude whiteboard and metal sheet from Blackstone. He checked that Holy Terra remained safe, then showed Lin Fan a planet and asked him to describe what he saw.

• Lin Fan wondered whether familiar-tasting things came from his inability to imagine unique flavors, and the Silent King arrived while Konrad Curze remained frozen.
• The Silent King warned Lin Fan that exploring deeper could threaten the Milky Way, then explained the danger of creation by having him reshape Blackstone into a crude whiteboard and metal sheet.
• The Silent King said creating was harder than destroying and praised Lin Fan’s first attempt.
• Lin Fan said Earth was the planet he knew best, so the Silent King checked that Holy Terra still existed and then showed him a planet at the Milky Way’s edge.
• The Silent King asked Lin Fan for his first impression of the planet, and Lin Fan described its seas, trees, clouds, and possible life.

Lin Fan struggled to imagine creating a planet, and the Silent King reassured himself that Lin Fan’s uncertainty limited his power. Observer traced a meteorite’s history to the Eye of Terror, then watched through Kaiser Whitefang as an Adeptus Mechanicus team explored a derelict void city.

• Lin Fan admitted he could not imagine a planet and told the Silent King he did not know what he would do with great power.
• The Silent King said Bai Huan had answered that she did not care, leaving Lin Fan silent.
• Observer followed a meteorite’s history through a macro cannon shell and an Abyss-class Battleship that Chaos Space Marines captured and corrupted.
• Observer traveled through the Warp-wrecked vessel to the Eye of Terror and attached himself to Kaiser Whitefang.
• Wodhaus used beast bones and pale powder to reassure Kaiser Whitefang, who felt something crawling on his back.
• Delenya activated a communications base station in the derelict void city and asked Wodhaus to protect the Adeptus Mechanicus team as they recovered technology.

Observer collected the Deceiver’s payment, a stone Ouroboros, and entered the Formless Wastes to explore the remains of lost civilizations. When the Dark Mechanicum began mining the ruins, Observer killed millions of workers, prompting the Chaos forces to send a Changeling to confront him.

• Adeptus Mechanicus priests scanned the space hulk and found the keel of a warship at least twenty kilometers long while Kaiser Whitefang and the Space Wolves stayed alert.
• Observer left Kaiser Whitefang and met The Deceiver at an altar, demanding payment for his release from imprisonment.
• The Deceiver gave Observer a stone Ouroboros that opened a passage to the Formless Wastes, and Observer used it to travel there.
• Observer explored the ruined civilizations of the Formless Wastes, recording their remnants in a book.
• Observer attacked the Dark Mechanicum’s mining operation with a bombardment of information that killed several million slave laborers.
• Carl Bohar demanded help from his allies, and the Lord of Change sent a frightened Changeling to speak with Observer.

Abaddon met with Carl Bohar to secure the Dark Mechanicum’s support and was shown its vast industrial capacity and hundreds of thousands of pale Space Marines. The chapter left Abaddon facing a potential alliance with Carl Bohar and his unsettling friend Amalaga.

• The Observer forced the Changeling and Carl Bohar to move their factories away, and a message from the Black Legion redirected Carl Bohar’s attention.
• Abaddon reviewed the gathered Black Legion warbands at his fortress in the Warp.
• Carl Bohar privately met Abaddon, delivered containers of bolter ammunition and power armor, and gave him coordinates for a meeting.
• Abaddon consulted the Witness, Carlos, who told him Carl Bohar could be trusted, so Abaddon traveled to the supplied coordinates.
• Carl Bohar showed Abaddon hundreds of thousands of pale Space Marines and introduced him to Amalaga, whose presence repulsed Abaddon.

Carl Bohar showed Abaddon the Dark Mechanicum’s mass-produced Degraded Combat Forms and Degraded Titans, hoping to secure a route to Mars. Shocked by their power, Abaddon asked what Carl Bohar wanted in exchange.

• Abaddon accused Carl Bohar of blasphemy after discovering the pale warriors could regenerate, but Carl Bohar surrounded him with troops and Titans until Abaddon stood down.
• Carl Bohar led Abaddon and his veterans through the factory, where they watched death remains transformed into blue-skinned forms and infected with the Obliterator Virus.
• Amalaga explained that the resulting Degraded Combat Forms were less capable than Space Marines but could multiply, mutate, and grow by consuming corpses.
• Amalaga revealed that the factory could already mass-produce Degraded Titans, and Carl Bohar urged Abaddon to use the army to overwhelm the Imperium.
• Abaddon asked what Carl Bohar wanted, and Carl Bohar demanded that he open a path to Mars.

Abaddon agreed to open a route to Mars by destroying Cadia and unleashing the Eye of Terror, but he refused to accept Carl Bohar’s degraded specimens into the Black Legion. Carl proposed forming them into an independent force called the Pale Auxilia, then challenged Abaddon to open a Warp rift directly to Mars instead.

• Abaddon considered how the Black Crusades had weakened the Imperium and prepared for the 13th Black Crusade, which would begin with Cadia’s destruction.
• Abaddon told Carl Bohar that the Black Legion could open a route to Mars once the Eye of Terror poured through the breach in realspace.
• Abaddon refused to accept Carl’s degraded specimens into the Legion but agreed to let them fight as expendable auxiliaries in the 13th Black Crusade.
• Carl suggested creating an independent Dark Mechanicum force called the Pale Auxilia, warning that the specimens could strain the Black Legion’s bonds of brotherhood.
• Carl rejected the need to conquer Cadia first and asked why they could not open a Warp rift directly to Mars.

Abaddon accepted Carl Bohar’s temporary alliance and heard a warning about the defenses the False Emperor might bring to Cadia. After the Vengeful Spirit departed, Carl Bohar took Amalaga to a vast chamber of colossal doors, leaving the purpose of the place unrevealed.

• Carl Bohar predicted that the False Emperor could send the Mountain Array fortress to Cadia by linking the weakened Veils of Terra and Cadia, and said Amalaga could infect the fortress for Abaddon.
• Abaddon agreed to the temporary alliance, received crates of bolter shells, and departed aboard the Vengeful Spirit.
• A sorcerer warned Abaddon to beware the Big Canteen, though he could not explain the message.
• Carl Bohar led Amalaga through a factory where cloned T'au were skinned and ground up, then discussed their goals for the 13th Black Crusade.
• Carl Bohar teleported Amalaga to a chamber with three hundred and sixty colossal doors and a diagram of the Solar System centered on Terra.

Carl Bohar rallied Titan commanders against the Imperium and led them to swear to reclaim Mars during the 13th Black Crusade. Meanwhile, Lin Fan contained The Outsider and left with Konrad Curze to meet his brothers.

• Carl Bohar opened the Omniscience Council and reminded the Titan commanders how The Emperor and the Imperium had betrayed Mars.
• The Titan commanders condemned their former colleagues for yielding to the Imperium and resolved to return to Mars to claim what they believed was theirs.
• Carl Bohar revealed that the Evernight Labyrinth remained on Mars and that the Titan Legion had prepared for its exploration over ten thousand years in the Warp.
• Lin Fan kneaded The Outsider into a defined shape, and the Silent King contained it for the Necrontyr to use as a substitute for rare materials.
• The Silent King sent Lin Fan away with the restrained Konrad Curze to meet his brothers, and Konrad Curze promised them a bloody greeting.

Lin Fan brought Konrad Curze back to Jaghatai and explained that he had defeated the C'tan, while Curze revealed Jaghatai’s Warp nature. After Lin Fan and his companions decided to travel to Cadia, the chapter shifted to Yarrick and the Imperial forces preparing to face Ironhide’s Waaagh!, where Yarrick announced they would retreat.

• Lin Fan pulled Konrad Curze from the portal and told Jaghatai he had crushed the C'tan threatening the T'au Empire's border.
• Lin Fan explained how he had brought Curze back and realized that Warp nature was used to create the Primarchs.
• Curze identified Jaghatai's nature as Dying Thunder, and Jaghatai recalled awakening its power when he defeated Mortarion.
• Lin Fan and the others returned Curze to the Big Canteen and decided to head to Cadia to stop the 13th Black Crusade.
• The Imperial forces discussed Ironhide’s Waaagh! and its heavily shielded Ork battleships as Yarrick prepared to present his plan.
• Yarrick announced that the Imperial forces were preparing to retreat.

Commissar Yarrick persuaded the command room to adopt a retreat plan that would draw Warlord Ironhide and the Orks after the Imperium's core forces. The Inquisitor accepted the plan because he believed The Emperor had chosen Yarrick, though the danger to the sector remained immense.

• The Inquisitor and Astra Militarum generals condemned Yarrick's proposal to retreat from the Orks, until Kor'sarro Khan activated his power sword and Colvin used his jump pack to quiet the room.
• The Archmagos interpreted the Space Marines' intervention as a reason to show them deference, then invoked the machine spirit to explain the intimidation.
• Yarrick clarified that his plan called for the Imperium's core forces to retreat while the rest of the sector's forces held their positions.
• Yarrick explained that Ironhide wanted worthy opponents, and Kor'sarro Khan said the Orks would follow them because he would negotiate with the warlord himself.
• The command room tentatively approved Yarrick's plan, and the Inquisitor said he trusted The Emperor's judgment in choosing Yarrick.

Yarrick reflected on his long life and the soldiers’ growing worship of him, which boosted Imperial morale but left him uneasy about the Emperor’s supposed favor. Remembering the past, he ordered Lede to prepare a transport so the two of them could confront Ironhide.

• Kor'sarro Khan and Chapter Master Colvin reassured Yarrick that the Inquisitor had not threatened him, then departed.
• Yarrick learned that Governor Domisilon had died of old age and mourned that everyone he had known was gone.
• Imperial soldiers from several regiments praised Yarrick as blessed by the Emperor, and stories of his exploits inspired them to fight the Orks.
• Yarrick privately recognized that his extraordinary strength and endurance surfaced especially in battles against Orks, though he told no one.
• Yarrick called his guard Lede, ordered him to prepare a transport, and said they would give Ironhide a lesson.

Bad Tooth, an Ork Loota, was caught in the crash of a Waaagh! tower and confronted by Yarrick. Yarrick sent him back with a message for Ironhide after taking his belongings and two of his teef.

• Bad Tooth lifted a magnet loaded with scrap and headed back toward camp after drinking foul mushroom-and-rust liquor.
• A Waaagh! tower tip flew from the high ground and crashed into Bad Tooth, pinning him beneath his magnet.
• Bad Tooth mistook Yarrick for an Ork until Lede pointed him out, then tried to hide from the legendary Dead-Eye.
• Yarrick hauled Bad Tooth up and ordered him to tell Ironhide that he no longer considered him a worthy opponent and would seek another rival.
• Yarrick made Bad Tooth surrender his possessions, punched him, pulled out two of his teef, and kicked him away.

Bad Tooth headed to the Military Waaagh Department to sell news about his encounter with Dead-Eye, but hunger led him to steal roasted spores and flee the tavern guards. He promised to pay for the food after his visit to the department.

• After Dead-Eye robbed him, Bad Tooth beat a Gretchin who laughed at his bare backside and made himself a pair of underpants from its scraps.
• Bad Tooth told a gate guard he had explosive news for the Military Waaagh Department, but the guard mocked and shot at him.
• Bad Tooth set off for the Military Waaagh Department in the Giant Waaagh Tower, then stopped when the smell of roasted spores drew him to a tavern.
• When the Gretchin seller refused to give him food on credit, Bad Tooth punched it and ate the spores without paying.
• The tavern guards attacked Bad Tooth, who threw the box at one guard and fled, promising to pay after visiting the Military Waaagh Department.

Bad Tooth reported to the Military Waaagh Department that Dead-Eye had defeated him and was leaving to seek a stronger opponent. Ironhide was devastated by the news and asked where Dead-Eye had died so he could see him one last time.

• Bad Tooth burst into the Military Waaagh Department and told Iron-Tooth Gut-Shaker that he had seen Dead-Eye.
• Bad Tooth described Dead-Eye's strength and said he had stolen his magnet and teef and beaten him.
• Bad Tooth reported that Dead-Eye had called Ironhide a weakling and was taking the humies and tin cans to find an opponent many times stronger.
• Iron-Tooth Gut-Shaker rushed upstairs and told Ironhide that Dead-Eye was leaving.
• Ironhide mourned the news, mistook Dead-Eye's departure for his death, and asked where Dead-Eye had died.

Ironhide learned that Dead-Eye had left to fight stronger opponents and raged until he mobilized the Orks to find him. Yarrick received secret intelligence about the Chaos rebels, while Ironhide reached the abandoned Imperial positions and feared Dead-Eye was gone for good.

• Iron Teeth told Ironhide that Dead-Eye had left because fighting the Orks was boring, and Ironhide exploded in anger, wrecking the tavern and attacking Iron Teeth and Bad Tooth.
• Ironhide ordered the Orks to charge the human positions and find Dead-Eye so he could learn who was stronger than him.
• Yarrick received a sealed reliquary from the Inquisitor containing images and battle records about the Chaos rebels and their warships.
• Ironhide led the Orks toward the Imperial front, destroyed disobedient Speed Freeks with a gravity wave, and found the battlefield silent and nearly free of mines.
• Ironhide called for Dead-Eye, then panicked when he realized Dead-Eye might have left and taken all the mines with him.

Ironhide confronted Yarrick after finding the Steel Legion abandoning their positions to head for Cadia and learned about Abaddon and the destruction caused by the Black Crusades. After Yarrick left, Ironhide crushed a Mega Boss who tried to ambush him, then ordered the Big Meks to build a device that could teleport warships so the Orks could pursue Abaddon.

• Ironhide advanced into the Imperium-controlled zone and found the Steel Legion gathered at a dismantled factory under Yarrick's orders.
• Yarrick appeared in the Fortress of Arrogance and told Ironhide he was leaving to fight a stronger opponent.
• Yarrick showed Ironhide a record of the Black Crusades, and Ironhide recognized Abaddon as a worthy enemy.
• After the Steel Legion departed, Ironhide killed a Mega Boss who tried to ambush him and ordered the Orks to return.
• Days later, Ironhide gathered the Big Meks and ordered them to build a device capable of teleporting warships to Cadia.

Guilliman reflected on his doubts about his usefulness and the burdens he might have faced without his returned brothers, then joined them for a meeting about reforming the Space Marines. Perturabo proposed modeling a mixed Chapter on the Lamenters, where their sons lived together as brothers without distinction.

• Guilliman compared the power of Hope with Macragge's Honour and wondered how difficult it would be to defeat the battleship if an enemy captured it.
• Guilliman told Calgar he felt useless, reflecting on the value of technological progress and imagining the burden of leading the Imperium without his brothers.
• Cato Sicarius informed Guilliman that his brothers wanted to meet with him, and Guilliman went to the meeting room built by Perturabo and Rogal Dorn.
• Fulgrim greeted Guilliman with a hug while Rogal Dorn and Perturabo argued over design principles by arm-wrestling.
• Fulgrim explained that the brothers wanted to reform the Space Marines by creating a mixed Chapter modeled on the Lamenters, and said Perturabo had proposed the idea.

Perturabo proposed creating a mixed Space Marine Chapter inspired by the joint strike system, and Roboute Guilliman agreed to help develop it. The meeting ended with Perturabo announcing their return to the Big Canteen, while Guilliman began imagining a second edition of the Codex Astartes.

• Perturabo gave the Primarchs documents outlining his plan to develop mixed Space Marine forces after the joint strike system inspired him.
• Fulgrim and Roboute Guilliman discussed the Deathwatch, and Guilliman recounted the odd behavior and battlefield skill of its mixed squads.
• Perturabo proposed using the Lamenters as a model for a mixed Chapter and asked Guilliman to provide blood for its gene-stock.
• Guilliman agreed, considering how a mixed Chapter could combine the strengths of different gene-lines and help shape a second edition of the Codex Astartes.
• Perturabo announced that the meeting had brought them back to the Big Canteen, as he had planned.

Guilliman discussed sector cooperation with Oedmeir, then explored the Big Canteen and tried its local food with his warriors. Meanwhile, Lin Fan brought Konrad Curze back to the Big Canteen, where Curze escaped his prison after landing.

• Oedmeir gave Guilliman documents on sector union, T'au trade, and factory regulations before leaving for reconstruction work.
• Guilliman read the documents and toured the Big Canteen with Calgar and the others, who noticed the locals showed Space Marines little reverence and Cato Sicarius disliked the T'au.
• Guilliman bought Stone Blood snacks from a T'au vendor and ordered Calgar to eat the portion he gave him.
• Lin Fan teased Konrad Curze during their journey by recounting his history and relationships with his brothers.
• The Void Phoenix Fighter landed at the Big Canteen, and Lin Fan freed Curze from his prison, allowing Curze to vanish.

Konrad Curze escaped and set out to punish those he believed had betrayed humanity by cooperating with xenos. He attacked Oedmeir, but she overpowered him and dragged him away to question his brothers.

• Lin Fan and Jaghatai worried about what Curze might do, and Lin Fan argued that Curze still believed in justice.
• Curze prowled through the city and decided that the planet’s leaders were guilty for cooperating with xenos.
• Curze followed Oedmeir from the administrative headquarters and attacked her, grabbing her head and cutting at her clothes with his power claws.
• Oedmeir broke Curze’s finger, then used a gravity wave and a strike to subdue him.
• Oedmeir broke Curze’s remaining fingers and dragged him away with a gravity wave.

Oedmeir captured Konrad Curze and brought him to his returning brothers, where Fulgrim welcomed him despite Curze’s reluctance and the others’ awkwardness. After Curze refused Roboute Guilliman’s offer to help rebuild the Imperium, Lin Fan and Oedmeir discussed the next campaign, while Lin Fan explained how Curze’s brutal childhood shaped him.

• Oedmeir used the global surveillance network to locate Konrad Curze, captured him, and brought him to the laboratory.
• Fulgrim apologized to Oedmeir for Curze’s attack, then embraced his brother and welcomed him back.
• Roboute Guilliman asked Konrad Curze to help rebuild the Imperium, but Curze refused to help anyone.
• Lin Fan told Oedmeir that the T’au Empire was stable and discussed traveling to Cadia with enough troops to seal the Eye of Terror.
• Lin Fan explained Curze’s childhood on violent Nostramo, and the leader departed to uphold justice.

The chapter recounted Curze’s descent into madness and the destruction of Nostramo, then Oedmeir and Lin Fan discussed how to help him after Lin Fan severed the prophecies tormenting him. They left Curze free to stay peacefully or join Fulgrim, and decided to show the Primarchs cartoons.

• Curze’s visions and Nostramo’s return to depravity drove him to hate his Legion, himself, and the Emperor, and he eventually destroyed Nostramo.
• After Curze foresaw the Horus Heresy, he attacked Dorn and was imprisoned until the other Primarchs could judge him.
• Oedmeir reflected on Curze’s suffering, and Lin Fan explained that he had severed the prophecies tormenting him.
• Lin Fan let Curze choose whether to live peacefully or stay with Fulgrim.
• Oedmeir suggested making cartoons for the Primarchs to watch, and Lin Fan agreed.

Oedmeir and Lin Fan prepared an animated series for the Primarchs, who gathered to watch it together. As the film introduced magical ponies and their princesses, Perturabo paused it to question its claims about raising the sun and moon.

• Oedmeir accessed Rebecca's database and created an animation and a film projector for the Primarchs.
• Lin Fan set up the projector and left the Primarchs together to watch the film.
• The Primarchs watched the colorful ponies sing, and Jaghatai and Roboute Guilliman mistook them for psychic xenos while Fulgrim admired their appearance.
• Jaghatai suspected the song's references to magic pointed to Tzeentch, while Fulgrim guessed Slaanesh because the ponies were adorable.
• After the narrator introduced Ponyland's princess sisters, Perturabo paused the film to condemn its claim that they raised the sun and moon, and Dorn agreed.