Recaps

Guilliman brought Lin En into the Throne Hall to meet the Emperor, while the system warned Lin En not to absorb the overwhelming psychic power. At the Golden Throne, Lin En found the Emperor’s face covered by a large red cloak and fell silent.

• Guilliman identified himself at the Silver Gate, and the Custodes let him and Lin En enter the Throne Hall alone.
• Lin En crossed into the psychic mist, received the system’s warning not to activate Psychic Absorption, and suppressed the ability.
• Guilliman walked tensely through the Hetaeron Guards’ security zone as Lin En reflected on how he had misunderstood the Emperor’s earlier words.
• Guilliman and Lin En reached the Golden Throne, where a red cloak covered the Emperor’s face and left Lin En speechless.

Lin En saw the Emperor’s true skeletal form on the Golden Throne, while the Emperor tried to get Guilliman and the Custodes to leave. After Lin En clarified the Emperor’s muddled psychic message, Guilliman withdrew with the Custodes and left Lin En alone with him.

• Lin En used the Eye of True Sight and saw the Emperor’s skeletal remains, the torture-like Golden Throne, and the immense psychic power surrounding it.
• The Emperor psychically told Guilliman to take the Custodes out and leave Lin En behind, but Guilliman only understood that everyone should leave.
• Lin En stopped Guilliman and explained that the Emperor meant for him to stay behind alone.
• The Emperor sent Guilliman a stronger psychic message, which Guilliman partly understood amid chaotic whispers from the Warp.
• Guilliman ordered the Adeptus Custodes to leave the Throne Room with him and wait outside while Lin En remained with the Emperor.

Guilliman and the Custodes withdrew from the inner throne hall after the Sisters of Silence confirmed the Emperor wanted to speak with Lin En alone. While the Emperor and Lin En awkwardly discussed his supposed inability to understand Lin En, Lin En received a rainbow-level ability that made him immune to psychic powers while letting him wield them.

• Guilliman ordered the Custodes and Sisters of Silence to leave, but the Custodes refused to abandon the Emperor until the Sisters signed that he had commanded them to withdraw.
• The Custodes captain ordered his warriors to wait in the outer hall, leaving Lin En alone with the Emperor.
• The Emperor claimed he did not understand Lin En and did not know about the Golden Light screen, while Lin En suspected he was pretending to have amnesia.
• Lin En used his guaranteed draw and won the rainbow-level passive ability tag Psychic Paradox.
• Lin En discovered Psychic Paradox could stack with Group Healing, potentially granting psychic immunity to nearby Astartes and enabling them to use psychic powers.

Lin En discovered that his new psychic immunity trait worked alongside Psychic Absorption, then absorbed enough of the Emperor’s ambient psychic power to raise his Psychic Pool to its limit of 80. The Emperor watched Lin En’s absurd power growth and ended the chapter with Lin En asking him to restore his ability to walk.

• Lin En asked the system whether Psychic Paradox conflicted with Psychic Absorption, and the system confirmed that he could still absorb psychic attacks despite being immune to them.
• Lin En wondered whether Psychic Paradox would protect his soul from damage caused by absorbing too much psychic power, and the system implied that the rainbow-colored trait would help.
• Lin En stored the new SSR trait, left the Consciousness Space, and absorbed the golden psychic mist surrounding the Golden Throne.
• Lin En’s Psychic Pool rose from about 40 to 80 before the system explained that his storage capacity had reached its limit and could be expanded with future traits.
• The system told Lin En that the Emperor would not mind him absorbing a small amount of psychic power, and Lin En asked the Emperor what he had been about to say.
• The Emperor reflected on Lin En’s powers and watched him ask for help getting back on his feet.

Lin En rejected the Emperor’s plan to keep him safely on Terra, explaining that advancing his system and earning Throne Liberation required him to act in the wider galaxy. The Emperor, hoping Lin En could help him preserve both godlike power and humanity, offered him command over a Space Marine Chapter, and Lin En requested several troubled Blood Angels Successor Chapters.

• Lin En explained that time-based card draws alone would not guarantee Throne Liberation, so he needed to pursue plot points, key nodes, and kills himself.
• The Emperor reflected that Lin En’s narrative abilities might offer a way to gain the Black King’s power without sacrificing humanity.
• The Emperor offered Lin En a Chapter to command or an imperial envoy role, and Lin En asked for several Blood Angels Successor Chapters.
• Lin En named the Lamenters, Flesh Tearers, and Blood Knights as the Chapters he wanted.
• The Emperor warned that the Chapters might show signs of corruption, and Lin En said he could purify them.

Lin En used the Emperor’s scattered psychic power to create Purified Psychic Crystals that could suppress the Blood Angels’ Red Thirst and Black Rage. He began gathering the crystals by hand after the Emperor admitted he could not move them in the real world.

• Lin En asked the system for a temporary way to slow the Blood Knights and Flesh Tearers’ deterioration, and it proposed making Purified Psychic Crystals from the Emperor’s psychic power.
• The Emperor agreed to let Lin En use the psychic mist scattered throughout the Throne Hall.
• Lin En combined his Group Healing and Purification auras, condensing the mist into piles of golden crystals.
• Lin En asked the Emperor to collect the crystals, but the Emperor explained that he could only influence the Warp.
• Lin En started picking up the crystals one by one, thinking of it as helping raise the Archangel’s children.

Lin En arranged for the Emperor’s purified crystals to be collected and sent to Baal, then left with two Adeptus Custodes Tribunes. Before departing, he learned what the Emperor had told Guilliman and asked whether Guilliman was really not seen as a tool.

• Lin En asked the Emperor to have the Adeptus Custodes and Sisters of Silence collect the crystals and send them to Baal, and the Emperor agreed to warn the Inquisition against reckless schemes.
• The Adeptus Custodes entered the Throne Hall, confirmed the Emperor approved of the crystals, and carefully packed them as holy relics while Lin En helped gather them.
• Lin En left with two Adeptus Custodes Tribunes after the Emperor declined his offer to help clear the Webway.
• Lin En asked what the Emperor had told Guilliman, and the Emperor explained that he had called him humanity’s new savior and offered him the Emperor’s sword.
• Lin En asked the Emperor whether he really did not see Guilliman as a tool.

Lin En told the Emperor that the Primarchs and humanity did not simply hate him, and the Emperor hoped humanity would one day no longer need its leaders as tools. On Baal, the Emperor revoked the Blood Knights’ wanted status and restored their honor, while Lin En’s psychic crystals offered relief to the Blood Knights and Flesh Tearers.

• The Emperor asked Lin En whether the Primarchs and humanity hated him, and Lin En said Old Thirteen’s resentment was more like a child’s complaint than an enemy’s hatred.
• Lin En told the Emperor that humanity’s prayers suggested it did not hate him, and the Emperor hoped the day would come when humanity no longer needed him or the Primarchs.
• The Adeptus Custodes and Sisters of Silence arrived on Baal with the Emperor’s orders, restoring the Blood Knights’ status and assigning the Lamenters, Blood Knights, and Flesh Tearers a shared commander.
• The Emperor ordered the Blood Knights and Flesh Tearers to suspend combat and recover on a Baal satellite, with Red Thirst treatment modeled on voluntary blood donations.
• The Custodes distributed Lin En’s Emperor’s Psychic Crystals to the Blood Knights and Flesh Tearers, and Dante learned that the Blood Angels had received crystals as well.

Lin En left the Emperor’s Throne with Custodes escorts and received a battleship from Guilliman for his journey to the Badab System. Before departing, Lin En gave Guilliman a Psychic Crystal containing a recording of the Emperor calling him humanity’s new savior, and Guilliman later gave Lin En a cruiser as a return gift.

• The Emperor assigned Valerian and Carl to protect Lin En and sent a twenty-Custodes squad to escort him toward Sagan II.
• The system showed Lin En a recording of the Emperor’s failed speech to Guilliman and offered it to him as a Psychic Crystal.
• Lin En accepted the crystal and gave it to Guilliman in a golden reliquary without revealing what was inside.
• Lin En went with Calgar to Macragge’s Honour to pack and say goodbye before traveling to the Badab System.
• An attendant told Lin En that Guilliman had given him a Solar Fleet cruiser with a new Warp engine as a return gift.

Lin En traveled toward Sagan II, planning to rescue the imprisoned Lamenters and Mantis Warriors and investigate the Blood Angels’ afflictions. Before he could rest, the warship’s alarms announced that Drukhari raiders had attacked a merchant ship ahead.

• Valerian told Lin En that the ship would reach the outskirts of Sagan II in one Terran standard day.
• Lin En reviewed the Lamenters’ and Mantis Warriors’ imprisonment and decided to rescue them so they could survive their Penitent Crusade.
• Lin En learned that the Blood Angels’ sacred Psychic Crystals appeared to suppress the Red Thirst and Black Rage, and he hoped to find a way to treat their genetic mutations.
• Lin En asked the system for a trait that could cure genetic diseases, but it went silent after he called it a wishing machine.
• Lin En settled down to sleep, but the warship’s alarms sounded and the crew reported that Drukhari raiders had attacked a merchant ship ahead.

Lin En stopped an Imperial warship from firing on a Drukhari raider so he could take control of it himself. He rescued the civilian transport and left the raider disarmed, while the Imperial crew wondered who Lin En really was.

• The captain prepared to fire on the Drukhari raider, but Lin En stopped him and said he would handle it himself.
• Lin En used Machine Spirit Resonance to seize control of the Drukhari ship.
• The raider stopped cutting into the civilian transport, allowing Lin En to rescue it.
• Lin En forced the Drukhari ship to shut down its weapons, while the captain and crew watched in awe.

A Drukhari raider attacked a merchant ship, but Lin En’s unidentified Imperial warship arrived and disabled it. The merchant ship escaped safely as the stranded Drukhari crew panicked over their unresponsive vessel.

• The captain and crew prayed in despair as the Drukhari cut into their merchant ship.
• A black Imperial warship arrived, answered the merchant ship’s distress call, and told its crew to hold position.
• The Drukhari raider abruptly stopped moving, and the captain told his crew that they had been saved.
• Lin En’s communications officer told the merchant ship to withdraw to the nearest Imperial starport for a damage assessment.
• The merchant ship diverted its reserve power to its drives and fled while the Drukhari aboard their disabled raider struggled to regain control.

Drukhari Archon Lax’s raid on a human merchant ship was interrupted when an unknown psychic power disabled his warship and took control of its weapons. Lax identified a human on a black Imperial vessel as the source and moved to confront them despite his crew’s warning.

• Lax assigned the captured humans to the Haemonculi, the arena, and the black market, then ordered his raiders to keep the young ones alive.
• As the Drukhari prepared to board the merchant ship, Lax’s warship lost engine thrust until its reactor shut down and the vessel went powerless.
• The weapons systems shut themselves down, while communications failed and the crew could not restore control.
• Lax spotted a black Imperial warship nearby and saw a human aboard raising a hand toward his ship.
• Lax realized the human’s psychic power had disabled his vessel and pressed his hand against the porthole as his crew warned him not to use psychic powers.

Drukhari Archon Lax attacked Lin En with psychic power, but Lin En nullified and absorbed the blasts while stopping the Custodes from retaliating. Lin En encouraged Lax to attack again, leaving the Custodes and the captain astonished by his apparent immunity.

• Lax broke the Drukhari taboo against psychic powers and fired a Psychic Blast at Lin En from his raider.
• Lin En nullified the attack and absorbed part of its energy, while Valerian and Carl prepared to strike back.
• Lin En stopped the Custodes and told them he wanted to let Lax attack so he could absorb more psychic power.
• Valerian warned that Lax was gathering power again, and Lin En taunted the Drukhari while insisting that the Custodes move away.
• Lax fired a second, stronger blast, which Lin En also endured without harm.
• The Custodes and the captain wondered whether Lin En was truly mortal.

Lin En used the Drukhari Archon’s psychic attacks to refill his power before the Imperial Navy arrived. Major General Wills took command of the encounter and ordered the disabled raider destroyed, leaving its crew dead in the explosion.

• Lin En let the Drukhari Archon’s psychic attacks restore his energy until his psychic pool reached 80, and the Archon collapsed from exhaustion.
• Valerian told Lin En that the Imperial Navy was already responding to the merchant ship’s distress call.
• The Imperial Navy fleet emerged from the Warp, and Major General Wills identified his flagship as the Unyielding Sword.
• The captain explained that the raider was disabled and introduced the Night Goddess and Lin En’s mission; Major General Wills saluted and accepted Lin En’s recommendation to destroy the enemy ship.
• After confirming there were no civilians aboard, Major General Wills ordered the fleet to fire on the Touch of Pain.
• The Imperial Navy’s weapons blew apart the raider, killing the near-death Archon Lax and the Drukhari aboard.

Lin En arrived at Sagan II to take custody of the imprisoned Lamenters and secured an extended Adeptus Custodes escort for the handover. He met Minotaurs Chief Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi, whose testimony had helped spare the Lamenters and Mantis Warriors, and Enkomi welcomed him nervously.

• Lin En reached Sagan II aboard the Night Goddess, where the Minotaurs maintained a temporary orbital spaceport and detention zone.
• The Adeptus Custodes squad commander asked to extend the escort because Sagan II was hostile and the Minotaurs had a poor reputation; Lin En accepted their offer.
• Lin En and the Custodes descended to the landing bay, where Lin En planned to confirm the Lamenters' condition, location, and numbers before arranging their release.
• Lin En approached the Minotaurs' officers and learned that Chief Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi handled their diplomacy while Chapter Master Moloc pursued the Astral Claws.
• Lin En greeted Enkomi with respect, recognizing that his testimony had helped keep the Lamenters and Mantis Warriors alive; Enkomi welcomed him nervously.

Lin En arrived at Sagan II to take command of the Lamenters and inspected the conditions of their imprisonment. He found only 311 survivors among roughly 400 captured brothers, and the Lamenters learned that their new commander had come after the Emperor pardoned them.

• Lin En met Priest Enkomi and asked to inspect the Lamenters before signing the transfer papers.
• Priest Enkomi explained that the Lamenters had been imprisoned without their armor, equipment, medicine, or adequate living conditions for two months.
• Lin En saw the wounded survivors and the neatly arranged bodies of brothers who had succumbed to the Black Rage and been executed.
• A Minotaur guard illuminated the cell, revealing its blood-scratched walls and the Lamenters' severe physical and mental deterioration.
• The Minotaur guard announced that the Lamenters had been pardoned and pointed them toward Lin En, prompting one survivor to ask whether the Emperor had pardoned them.

Lin En entered the Lamenters' cramped cell with two Custodes and prepared to meet the Chapter after their disastrous assignment. The Lamenters saw the Custodes guarding him and began to suspect their new commander was an Emperor-blessed figure.

• Lin En reflected on the Lamenters' loyalty, their isolation over their Gene-seed, and their history of punishment and catastrophic misfortune.
• Lin En asked Priest Enkomi to open the compartment door so he could introduce himself to the Lamenters.
• Priest Enkomi ordered a Minotaurs warrior to open the door, and Tribune Valerian and Carl entered first with Lin En behind them.
• The Lamenters formed ranks behind their iron railings as the door opened, enduring the stench, thin air, and bright searchlight without moving.
• The Lamenters recognized the two black-armored Custodes and saw more Custodes waiting outside, then wondered whether Lin En was an Emperor-appointed holy representative.

Lin En healed and purified the imprisoned Lamenters, whose survivors knelt and wept as they insisted they had not betrayed the Emperor. On Terra, an Inquisitor Lord reviewing evidence that supported the Lamenters was stabbed by his trusted deputy.

• Lin En entered the cell and used his auras to heal the Lamenters, Minotaurs, Chaplain Enkomi, and Adeptus Custodes while purifying the prisoners’ minds.
• The Lamenters felt the Emperor’s Gaze, and their Apothecary and the rest of the survivors knelt, crying that they had not betrayed.
• The Inquisitor Lord reviewed records and testimony showing the Lamenters had been misled into battle and had remained loyal.
• The Inquisitor Lord’s deputy stabbed him in his office on Terra.

The chief Inquisitor was secretly corrupted by Tzeentch after his deputy stabbed him with a daemon blade, but he attended the High Lords Council meeting on the Badab War without revealing what had happened. As the High Lords debated the Lamenters' and Mantis Warriors' punishment, he raised an unaddressed question before the vote.

• The chief Inquisitor discovered that his deputy bore Tzeentch's signs of corruption and that a daemon blade had marked his soul.
• The chief Inquisitor lost consciousness, then later entered the Senate Grand Chamber with his deputy for the High Lords Council meeting.
• The chief Inquisitor presented the Badab War records and the surrender and casualty details for the Lamenters and Mantis Warriors.
• The High Lords debated the Chapters' punishment, weighing faith, gene-seed, military strength, and the Maelstrom's resources.
• The chief Inquisitor praised the High Lords' arguments and said the Council had overlooked a fundamental question that he had to raise before the vote.

The High Lords approved the destruction of the Lamenters and Mantis Warriors, declaring both Chapters Excommunicate Traitoris. On Sagan II, Lin En freed the Lamenters and prepared to take them away with their fallen brothers’ bodies.

• The Lord Inquisitor argued that the Lamenters and Mantis Warriors must be destroyed for treason, regardless of their intentions.
• The High Lords voted six for, four abstaining, and two against the sentence, then signed and issued the edict declaring both Chapters Excommunicate Traitoris.
• The Inquisition dispatched teams to carry out the executions of the imprisoned Lamenters on Sagan II and the Mantis Warriors in the Endymion Star Cluster.
• Chaplain Enkomi told Lin En that the Lamenters’ transfer orders had been issued and that their Battle Barge, armor, and supplies were untouched.
• Sanguinary Priest Calix led the Lamenters out of their cell as they carried the bodies of their fallen battle-brothers, while Lin En blamed Tzeentch.

Lin En took custody of the Lamenters and their recovered Battle Barge and equipment after the Minotaurs completed the handover. The Lamenters were now under his command, but still awaited the High Lords Council’s judgment for their role in the rebellion.

• The Lamenters boarded the damaged Mother of Tears and retrieved their battered Power Armor and equipment, grateful that the Minotaurs had preserved them.
• The three hundred and eleven surviving Lamenters disembarked in formation, and Lin En struggled to face the handwritten messages on their heart-emblazoned armor.
• Chaplain Enkomi met Lin En, confirmed the handover was in order, and asked him to share any findings about the Lamenters’ Gene-seed contamination.
• Lin En signed the handover documents, officially taking command of the Lamenters as the Minotaurs prepared to leave.
• The Lamenters recovered their flagship and equipment, but remained subject to the High Lords Council’s ruling on their rebellion.

Lin En accepted responsibility for the Lamenters and planned to seek a shared Penitent Crusade for them and the Mantis Warriors. He accompanied the Lamenters as they cremated their fallen brothers and placed their ashes in the Mother of Tears’ chapel.

• Lin En recalled choosing the Lamenters, the Flesh Tearers, and the Blood Knights, and resolved to help the Lamenters face their punishment for their past actions.
• Lin En planned to ask Guilliman to include the Mantis Warriors in the Lamenters’ Penitent Crusade under his command.
• Calix asked Lin En to let the Lamenters hold funerals for battle-brothers who had died after succumbing to the Black Rage, and Lin En agreed.
• Lin En, Valerian, and Karl witnessed Calix mark the fallen Lamenters with his blood and speak prayers over them before they were cremated.
• The Lamenters gathered the ashes into boxes and placed them in the Mother of Tears’ chapel among relics left in empty niches.

The Inquisition and Grey Knights received the High Lords Council’s order to exterminate the Mantis Warriors and Lamenters, then prepared to carry it out. The Inquisition chose to target the Lamenters first and set course for Sagan II, where the Minotaurs guarded them.

• The chief inquisitor ordered the Inquisition station to suspend interrogations, seal its rooms, and shut down all external communications.
• The chief inquisitor’s aide notified the Grey Knights, and Grand Master Diago dispatched the 7th Brotherhood Squad under Squad Leader Arik.
• The inquisitor chose to deal with the Lamenters before the Mantis Warriors, judging them the easier target.
• The inquisitor ordered the force to reach Sagan II, present the edict to the Minotaurs, and transfer and screen the Lamenters for corruption.
• The Inquisition’s Hammer of Truth and the Grey Knights squad confirmed their rendezvous in Sagan II’s orbit.

The Lord Inquisitor discovered that the Minotaurs had transferred the Lamenters under Terra’s orders, so he requisitioned Grey Knights to purge them and erase the Emperor’s envoy’s memories. The Grey Knights disguised themselves as Minotaurs and approached the Lamenters’ ship, where Lin En noticed their return and sensed danger.

• The Lord Inquisitor found only the Lamenters’ ship and an unmarked warship near Sagan II, then contacted Chaplain Enkomi.
• Chaplain Enkomi told the Lord Inquisitor that the Lamenters had been transferred to their new commander under Terra’s orders and that the Minotaurs had withdrawn.
• The Lord Inquisitor requisitioned a Grey Knight squad to purge the Lamenters, detain survivors, and erase witnesses’ memories.
• The Grey Knights disguised themselves in Minotaurs armor and used their ship to approach the Lamenters without raising suspicion.
• Lin En watched the disguised Astartes disembark and prepared to activate his Eye of True Sight.