Chapter Summaries

Amalaga studied the Warp’s structure and concluded that life sustained its emotional currents, then used the Emerald Tablet to manifest life across his body and nearby missiles. As the T'au fleet attacked the continent, Amalaga’s transformation continued and the battle began.

• Amalaga emerged from a rift near T'au and reflected on how the veil separated the Warp from realspace.
• Amalaga concluded that the Warp’s emotional currents depended on life, while the dead zone beyond them held the accumulated remains of past civilizations.
• The T'au launched massive missiles and raised three hundred layers of energy shields as warships assembled to defend the planet.
• Amalaga touched the Emerald Tablet and spoke the word "Life," spreading pale flesh across the incoming missiles and causing them to explode.
• The T'au fleet commander saw Amalaga’s malformed body and ordered every weapon aimed at him.

Amalaga used the true word “Life” to destroy the T'au defensive fleet and devastate the planet, then sent degraded beings to finish the destruction. He reached the Ethereal Sanctuary and faced its elite honor guard, whose weapons barely marked his flesh.

• Amalaga spoke “Life” and caused the T'au fleet to swell with flesh, fall from orbit, and crash into the planet.
• Amalaga used the Warp core, viruses, and “Process” to create degraded warriors and send them to attack T'au.
• Amalaga stored the Emerald Tablet, descended to the ruined planet, and made his way to the Ethereal Sanctuary.
• The garrison commander rallied the Ethereal honor guard to stop Amalaga from entering the sanctuary.
• The honor guard fired experimental railguns at Amalaga, but the bullets shattered against his flesh.

Amalaga massacred the T'au forces and entered the sanctuary, where he hunted down the fleeing Ethereals. As he captured them, an Ethereal challenged him with a prophecy that had never foretold his arrival.

• Amalaga crushed a T'au warrior, unleashed his enormous left arm, and wiped out thousands while an Earth Caste technician fell to his knees in worship.
• Amalaga’s rampage unleashed malformed Warp creatures that infected battlesuits, and he ordered the sanctuary gates opened.
• Amalaga forced his way into the sanctuary, passed a trembling soldier, and crushed an AI personality storage unit after examining it.
• Amalaga split into hundreds of conscious pieces and hunted the fleeing Ethereals, killing their guards and capturing them.
• An Ethereal asked who Amalaga was and claimed the prophecy of the Primordial Bone had said nothing like this would happen.

Amalaga explored the T'au’s Primeval Sanctuary, where touching an oval sphere revealed a Warp creature that tried to seize his body and soul. A Void Whale swallowed the creature, and Amalaga left with an Enslaver bone plate bearing the true word “Attach” and a large quantity of T'au skin.

• Amalaga killed the Ethereals, examined their memories, and drilled into the Primeval Sanctuary beneath the underground site.
• Amalaga found an oval sphere in the sanctuary and experienced visions of the future when he touched it.
• Amalaga cut open the sphere, and an Enslaver tried to take control of his body and soul.
• A Void Whale appeared and swallowed the Enslaver, restoring Amalaga’s control over himself.
• Amalaga found a bone plate engraved with the true word “Attach,” stored it, and returned to the floating continent with T'au skin.

Amalaga tried to leave T'au but was attacked by the Executioner Dynasty, led by Inamars, who sought to punish his forbidden research. After the Necrons’ forces fell into chaos under Llandu'gor’s influence, Inamars ordered the fleet to drag T'au into higher-dimensional space, leaving Amalaga facing likely annihilation.

• Amalaga failed to open a Warp rift from T'au and recognized that Necrontyr forces had arrived.
• Inamars and the Executioner Dynasty emerged through a hyperspatial gateway and ordered their warriors to destroy and capture Amalaga.
• Necron particle whips and gauss weapons tore apart Amalaga’s continent and his creations, including his Raven Guard gene-seed experiments.
• Amalaga called on Llandu'gor, whose influence disrupted the Necron warriors and turned some against their fellow soldiers.
• Inamars ordered the Executioner fleet to use high-dimensional weapons, and the fleet began pulling the space around T'au into higher dimensions.

Amalaga used the True Word "Death" to destroy the Necron fleet’s pyramid formation and stop T'au from being pulled into higher dimensions, at the cost of nearly all his body. He survived by rebuilding himself from flesh created by "Life" and descended toward the ruined planet as Destroyers continued their extermination.

• Amalaga used Rys's Page and the Emerald Tablet to pronounce a degraded version of the True Word "Death," annihilating himself and everything caught in its expanding sphere.
• The death effect destroyed the pyramid ships and interrupted T'au's ascension, while Inamars pulled the fleet into the Error Zone and vanished with it.
• Amalaga gradually regained control of flesh created by "Life," formed a primitive body, and put away Rys's Page to protect himself from its power.
• Amalaga fashioned a shell and jet nozzle, used gases from decomposing flesh to propel himself toward T'au, and found the planet reduced to powder as Destroyers continued their work.

Amalaga summoned a T'au rescue fleet to the ruined planet, hoping to escape the Necron purge. After a Destroyer attacked the rescue team, T'au battlesuits arrived and opened fire on it.

• Amalaga repaired himself, built a signal generator beneath the Tu-Xiaowake Institute, and broadcast a distress call.
• A T'au fleet reached the shattered planet, and rescue teams descended through the storm clouds to search for survivors.
• Rescuers found Amalaga, who pretended to receive treatment and warned them that skeletons had destroyed T'au.
• A Destroyer ambushed the rescue team, killed the Fireblade captain and dozens of Fire Warriors, and pursued Amalaga.
• Amalaga used a secret Aeldari Empire device to evade the Destroyer and ran toward arriving T'au forces.
• T'au battlesuits attacked the pursuing Destroyer, which began targeting the living attackers.

A Necron Destroyer massacred T'au ground forces while the fleet commander struggled to understand how to fight it. After Amalaga revealed that the Necrons had taken the Ethereals, the T'au rallied around the accompanying Ethereal’s appeal to protect T'au, while Amalaga planned to seize a ship and escape.

• The Destroyer attacked T'au aircraft and troops, killing them with gauss weapons and its claws while sustaining minor damage.
• The Destroyer repaired itself and killed Pathfinders who tried to ambush it.
• The fleet commander learned that the T'au forces had barely damaged the metal constructs and questioned how they could continue fighting.
• Amalaga told the command room that skeletons from the northern star sector had destroyed the planet and taken all the Ethereals.
• The accompanying Ethereal rejected orbital bombardment, and the T'au commander renewed his vow to defeat the Necrons.
• Amalaga decided to seize a ship and escape as another batch of T'au troops was sent to the battlefield.

Amalaga seized control of a T'au warship, destroyed other vessels with overloaded Warp engines, and headed toward the Ghoul Stars to make a deal with the Drazak Bone Kingdom. Meanwhile, Emperor Inamars and Rotaros became trapped in the Error Zone until Emperor Bennis arrived to recover them and their fleet.

• The accompanying Ethereal panicked as Amalaga ate a T'au corpse, then attacked him with a scepter.
• Amalaga revealed that he had infected the ship's T'au and machinery, and he took control of the Guardian warship and the accompanying Ethereal.
• Amalaga used a ghost signal to overload experimental Warp engines aboard other warships, tearing open Warp rifts and destroying them.
• Amalaga set course for the T'au's northern colonies and the Ghoul Stars, intending to harvest biomass and contact the Drazak Bone Kingdom.
• Inamars complained about the Error Zone while Rotaros contacted the Error Dynasty for help.
• Emperor Bennis arrived, recovered Inamars, and roughly reassembled the shattered fleet.

Inamars reported to Bennis that a dangerous enemy had disturbed an Enslaver progenitor’s grave, and Bennis sent him to the Silent King’s gathering in the Odysseus Quadrant-15 spatial dimensional rift. Inamars arrived before Szarekh and the assembled Necrontyr nobles as the Silent King began to address them.

• Inamars told Bennis that an enemy had played with the Creator’s words, allied with the God of Death, and dug up an Enslaver progenitor’s grave.
• Bennis warned Inamars to use erroneous weapons sparingly and sent him to the Silent King’s meeting in the Odysseus Quadrant-15 spatial dimensional rift.
• Bennis and Error folded spatial paper to transport Inamars and his fleet into the rift.
• Inamars arrived with his fleet, took up his enormous scythe, and went to pay homage to the Silent King.
• Inamars and the assembled Necrontyr nobles rose when the Silent King commanded them through Mesophit and Haptara, then listened as the gathering began.

The Silent King ordered the Necrons to destroy life beyond their domain but preserve humans, prompting a Phaeron to argue against keeping them. When Trazyn was asked to defend humanity, he dragged Orikan into the discussion, leaving Orikan under the hall’s attention.

• The Silent King announced that a great enemy was approaching and ordered the Necrons to exterminate life while keeping humans captive.
• Phaeron Dovetlan argued that humans were primitive, wasteful creatures unworthy of a place under Necrontyr rule.
• The Silent King sensed an unusual disturbance in the network and called Trazyn forward to explain his different view of humanity.
• Trazyn asked to have a colleague introduce humanity alongside him, and the Silent King agreed.
• Trazyn named Orikan, whose snickering stopped as the hall’s attention turned toward him.

Trazyn defended humanity before the Necron rulers by comparing its achievements and creativity to those of the Necrontyr, prompting debate over how humans should be treated. As several nobles considered preserving humans as pets, servants, or military-game pieces, Trazyn warned that they were celebrating too soon.

• Trazyn cautiously agreed that humanity was backward but argued that humans showed remarkable creativity and had risen to power through technology and will.
• The Silent King protected Trazyn from the other nobles' anger and allowed him to continue speaking.
• Trazyn cited Orikan's enjoyment of human music and theater, forcing Orikan to explain how human performances differed from the Necrontyr's vast War in Heaven plays.
• Phaeron Inyamas considered keeping humans as toys, while Trazyn praised his human servants and Szeras the Illuminor proposed breeding humans for different purposes.
• Imotekh the Stormlord suggested using humans as characters in military simulations, but Trazyn cautioned that they were celebrating too soon.

Trazyn reminded the Necrontyr nobles of their accord with the Subjective Ones and recounted how Bai Huan had helped them defeat the C'tan during the War of Furious Revenge. The story left the universe facing erasure as the Fundamental God began reversing existence.

• Trazyn warned the nobles that humanity could not be carved up freely and reminded them of the dynastic accord with the Subjective Ones.
• Trazyn recalled how the Necrontyr had been turned into soulless metal bodies and later launched a final assault against the C'tan.
• The Necrontyr used weapons made from Old One bodies, Tesseract Labyrinths, and multidimensional locks to shatter and imprison many C'tan.
• The Necrontyr found Bai Huan, who used her subjective consciousness to pierce galaxy-sized C'tan and help break their forces.
• The C'tan's despair awakened the Fundamental God, who began reversing life and history until the universe faced a return to before the Big Bang.

After Bai Huan destroyed the Fundamental God, the Necrontyr learned that a second Subjective One had appeared and debated how to keep him from awakening. The Silent King ordered them to protect humanity and avoid actions that might reveal the new Subjective One’s nature, while he led a group beyond the galaxy for another mission.

• Bai Huan smashed the Fundamental God into twelve fragments, and the Necrontyr later entered the Great Sleep as the Aeldari Empire rose.
• Trazyn told the Necrontyr nobles that a second Subjective One had appeared and was immersed in the role of an Imperium of Man soldier.
• Trazyn and Orikan explained that the new Subjective One was less powerful than Bai Huan and warned the nobles against provoking him or harming humanity.
• The Silent King ordered the dynasties to observe the Subjective One Awakening Protocol, protect unawakened dynasty worlds, and avoid harming human inhabitants.
• The Silent King summoned several Phaerons, Trazyn, and Orikan to accompany him beyond the galaxy, where Orikan asked Trazyn about the all-knower experiment.

Lin Fan’s group investigated the Warp rifts in Damocles Gulf and discovered that looking at them caused suicidal mental corruption. He restored Farsight, O'Vesa, and Shadowsun with slaps and told them to repeat their faiths to resist the Warp.

• Trazyn told Orikan that Bai Huan could create things from her thoughts, but her creations were incomplete and monstrous.
• Rebecca reported that the fleet had reached Damocles Gulf, where numerous Warp rifts had appeared, and Shadowsun linked them to Director Yongtan’s plan.
• Lin Fan took Farsight and Shadowsun with him to inspect the rifts aboard a shuttle with O'Vesa, Rebecca, and Sister Delia.
• The group observed the rifts’ dead, still appearance, and O'Vesa, Farsight, and Shadowsun became mentally corrupted and tried to kill themselves.
• Lin Fan slapped the three to bring them back to their senses and told them to repeat “For the Emperor, for the Greater Good” to resist the Warp.

Lin Fan asked Slaanesh to repair the Warp rifts in Damocles Gulf, but The Emperor intervened with golden light before Slaanesh completed the work. After the rifts were sealed, Lin Fan helped Farsight, O'Vesa, and Shadowsun recover from Slaanesh's corruption.

• Lin Fan called on Slaanesh to close the Warp rifts, and her presence drove Shadowsun, Farsight, and O'Vesa into frenzied mutations.
• Slaanesh recognized Delia from a dream and embraced her, but Lin Fan dispelled the mutations she caused.
• Slaanesh began repairing the rifts, and The Emperor's golden light isolated the combined fleet from Damocles Gulf.
• The Emperor's miracle prompted Imperium crews and some T'au to pray, while Farsight Enclaves technicians tried unsuccessfully to record the Warp power.
• Slaanesh finished repairing the rifts, kissed Lin Fan and Delia, and left after saying she was preparing a gift for Lin Fan.
• Lin Fan separated the corrupted T'au and slapped them until they returned to their human forms, then slapped them again when they remained dazed.

After the T'au Empire collapsed and its Ethereals died, Shadowsun and Farsight worked to establish emergency rule and contain the chaos. The chapter left the T'au allied with the Imperium and fighting the Ork invasion, while preparations for the Tyranids still loomed.

• Lin Fan led the human and T'au fleets across Damocles Gulf and they found the Mechanical Ark of Kaos devouring a frozen asteroid.
• Shadowsun learned that the T'au Empire had been destroyed and all its high-ranking Ethereals had died, leaving its regions in disarray.
• Shadowsun and Farsight spent months restoring order in the western region, then established a military government and relaxed some caste restrictions.
• Shadowsun and Farsight used propaganda to portray the conflict with the Imperium as a misunderstanding and presented the two empires as friendly allies.
• The Space Marines helped the T'au hold back the Orks, while Farsight and his Seven Heroes fought the hordes and Delia and O'Vesa exchanged technology with T'au technicians.

Masha attended a Human-T'au seminar on the Warp, where strict religious rules and warnings about supernatural effects unsettled the technicians. Priest Delia began a demonstration comparing a prayed-over lasgun with an unblessed T'au pulse rifle, and Wodhaus prepared to show what happened when the weapons were tested.

• Masha and Yio discussed the seminar and the T'au Empire's alliance with the Imperium after the Empire's near-collapse.
• Servo-bees ordered the technicians to put away their holopads, write on sacred parchment, and pray to the Emperor, allowing T'au to add “for the Greater Good.”
• Masha watched the Re-education Department soldiers and wondered how they had turned his dissatisfied friends into supporters of the alliance.
• Priest Delia introduced the seminar and presented a lasgun whose user prayed to its machine spirit alongside a sealed, unblessed T'au pulse rifle.
• Priest Delia asked Wodhaus to assist with the demonstration, and he said he expected to regret it.

Lin Fan and Krippman demonstrated the Warp to the T'au by provoking and capturing a daemon, leaving Wodhaus alive and the technicians terrified. At the following week's research meeting, the T'au treated Imperial religious practices with reverence, while the Traveler's history with them was briefly recounted.

• Wodhaus exposed his soul to the Warp, allowing a daemon to corrupt him and terrify the T'au technicians.
• Masha joined Yio in praying, then repeatedly wrote “For The Emperor” as the daemon's presence overwhelmed the hall.
• Lin Fan subdued Wodhaus and beat the daemon phantom while Krippman trapped it in a thorn cage and gave it physical form.
• Lin Fan revived Wodhaus with Selina's blood, and Wodhaus said the ordeal had deepened his understanding of the Warp.
• Lin Fan postponed the research conference for a week and assigned the Inquisition and Re-education Department to watch the shaken T'au while he guarded the daemon.
• At the next week's meeting, the Earth Caste technicians wore scriptures and holy icons, and Masha treasured a parchment bearing a new saying from The Emperor.

Delia demonstrated how blessed weapons damaged demons more effectively than stronger unblessed weapons and explained how the Imperium consecrated and maintained its arms. She advised the T'au to have soldiers perform devotions and awakening rituals for their weapons, while Magos Kaos’s dealings with the T'au and the Doom Scythes were also mentioned.

• Delia compared lasguns and pulse rifles against ceramite, while Magos Kaos arranged to trade iridium isotopes with the T'au Empire and prepared to produce plasma weapons using xenos technology.
• Delia fired a pulse rifle and a blessed lasgun at a demon, showing that the blessed lasgun inflicted effective damage while the unblessed pulse shot did not penetrate its flesh.
• Delia wrote out rules comparing blessed and unblessed weapons and explained that even heavy weapons needed blessings to harm demons.
• Delia showed the Earth Caste technicians the consecrated inscriptions on Imperium shells and described how priests, soldiers, commissars, and tech-priests maintained weapons through production and service.
• Delia advised Yio to have T'au soldiers perform devotions and awakening rituals for their weapons, and Masha recalled Fire Warriors’ reports that pulse-rifle machine spirits were gentler than those of lasguns.