Recaps

Lorgar and Saladin fought fiercely in the Hall, with Lorgar wielding the Emperor’s power despite the damage it inflicted on his body. After Saladin read six possible fates in tarot cards, Lorgar ignored the prophecy and prepared to continue the fight.

• Lorgar advanced through the Hall, killing the remaining traitors as he pursued Saladin.
• Saladin realized the Emperor’s power was flowing through Lorgar, and the two clashed in a blast that wounded them both.
• Saladin appealed to their former brotherhood, but Lorgar called him a traitor and attacked again.
• Lorgar and Saladin exchanged blows until another collision hurled them apart, leaving both badly injured.
• Saladin conjured six tarot cards and described three possible paths for Lorgar’s future.
• Lorgar ignored the cards and told Saladin to continue the fight.

Lorgar and Saladin fought a brutal duel aboard Saladin’s warship, with Lorgar gaining the upper hand through his strength and Purifying Flame. Just as Lorgar prepared to finish him, Saladin transformed into sand and vanished into the ship, leaving Lorgar searching for him.

• Lorgar’s relentless sword strikes overwhelmed Saladin’s defense and shattered one of his scimitars, but Saladin reforged it from sand and metal particles.
• Saladin trapped Lorgar’s Greatsword and launched a surprise thrust at his neck, but Lorgar dodged and struck Saladin’s face with a Purifying Flame-covered punch.
• Lorgar sent Saladin crashing into an Energy Converter and raised his Greatsword for a finishing blow.
• Saladin transformed into golden sand just before Lorgar’s sword struck, and the blade melted the sand into glass.
• Lorgar pulled his sword free and cautiously searched the silent hall, realizing Saladin had merged with the warship.

Lorgar fought to free himself from Saladin’s psychic sand, but Saladin emerged and surrounded him with thousands of indistinguishable sand duplicates. Lorgar was left battling an overwhelming assault while the real Saladin stayed hidden among the figures.

• Saladin’s psychic sand trapped Lorgar’s legs and right arm, but Lorgar used golden flames to halt the sand’s spread and resist its grip.
• Lorgar called Saladin out, and Saladin appeared at the far end of the Hall, explaining that he had chosen a more efficient way to show their difference in strength.
• Saladin animated the Hall’s dust and debris into thousands of duplicates that surrounded Lorgar and obscured the real Saladin from his senses.
• Three duplicates attacked Lorgar, then burst into clouds of hostile sand that stung him and disrupted his perception.
• Over a hundred duplicates charged from every direction, and Lorgar fought them with his Greatsword and flaming fist while the real Saladin remained hidden.

Lorgar and Saladin reached a final clash after gravely wounding one another, while Khorne tried to corrupt Lorgar with promises of power. Lorgar rejected the Chaos god and, gripping the burning Greatsword’s blade with his bare hand, drove forward against Saladin.

• Saladin ambushed Lorgar through the sandstorm, but Lorgar parried the attack and survived a series of lethal strikes.
• Lorgar and Saladin exchanged wounds, leaving Saladin gravely injured and Lorgar with a deep gash across his cheek.
• Both fighters gathered their remaining strength and charged into a final clash with the Greatsword and Saladin’s twin scimitars.
• Khorne tempted Lorgar to accept his power and kill Saladin, but Lorgar reaffirmed his loyalty to the Emperor and humanity.
• Lorgar’s oath strengthened his resolve, and he seized the Greatsword’s burning blade with one hand to force it toward Saladin.

Lorgar and Hercules overwhelmed Saladin, but the dying Primarch escaped by transforming into sand and fleeing through a breach in the warship. Lorgar realized Saladin had merged with the desert planet below and resolved that he would not escape again.

• Hercules broke through the traitors’ defenses, and his Cross’s purifying field weakened Saladin’s psychic sand.
• Lorgar struck Saladin’s shoulder and pinned him down, preparing to finish him with the Greatsword.
• Saladin warned Lorgar about the power within his body and revealed that he had chosen the battlefield for a reason.
• Saladin transformed into yellow sand and used blood-and-sand restraints to delay Lorgar before fleeing through a breach into space.
• Lorgar saw that the desert Planet had come alive and understood that Saladin had merged with it.

The Emperor and Malcador descended beneath Mars to a hidden chamber, where the Emperor briefly awakened an ancient presence sealed beneath chains. He revealed that he had once been called Saint George and decided not to use the imprisoned power, trusting that Lorgar would not need it yet.

• The Emperor and Malcador reached a concealed subterranean chamber beneath Mars, where a chained platform held an ancient presence.
• Malcador asked whether the Emperor truly had to activate the sealed entity, and the Emperor revealed that he had imprisoned it there twenty-nine thousand years earlier.
• The Emperor touched the platform, briefly rousing the presence before suppressing its struggle.
• The Emperor told Malcador that he had once been called Saint George.
• The Emperor chose not to use the sealed power, saying he trusted Lorgar and foresaw that Lorgar would need it someday, but not yet.
• The Emperor and Malcador left the chamber, and Malcador vowed to remain at the Emperor's side.

Lorgar ordered the Imperial fleet to carry out Exterminatus on the planet Saladin had merged with, but realized the bombardment would not kill him quickly enough. He prepared to descend into the destruction himself and confront Saladin at the planet’s core.

• Lorgar summoned the loyal Imperial fleet and ordered it to destroy the transformed planet with Exterminatus.
• Rockefeller launched Vortex Torpedoes from the Law of Faith, and the fleet unleashed a massive bombardment that tore apart the planet’s surface.
• Lorgar sensed Saladin absorbing the planet’s matter and energy to endure the attacks, so he decided to reach the core and sever their connection.
• Lorgar took the Golden Cross from Hercules, then ordered Angron to blockade the planet’s orbital space and prevent Saladin’s escape.
• Lorgar armed himself with his sword and a psychic shield, told Hercules he would settle things with Saladin, and leaped through the breach toward the planet.

Lorgar descended into the Planet’s interior and found that Saladin had turned it into an immense sand world, where he confronted his brother’s colossal sand form. Saladin declared that only one of them would survive, and their final battle began.

• Lorgar’s Cross dissolved Saladin’s sand attacks as he descended through the Planet’s surface and entered its depths.
• Lorgar discovered that Saladin had assimilated the Planet into a living world made entirely of sand.
• Saladin formed a colossal body from the surrounding sand and confronted Lorgar.
• Lorgar took up his Greatsword and Cross, declared that he would stop Saladin, and refused to let more innocents die.
• Saladin challenged Lorgar to a fight to the death and charged, while Lorgar sprang toward his enormous fist.

Lorgar fought Saladin across the Sea of Sand, but Saladin wounded him and trapped him in a cage of sand spears. As Saladin prepared to kill him, an older power awakened within Lorgar, surrounding him and several hundred silent warriors in blazing white flame.

• Lorgar drove the Golden Cross into Saladin's sand wall, then pierced the colossus's face with his Greatsword.
• Saladin used Sand Tentacles to pierce Lorgar's wounded arm and sent sand griffins to attack him and seize the Cross.
• Saladin merged with the Sea of Sand and buried Lorgar inside a spherical cage lined with inward-pointing Sand Crystal spears.
• A blazing white power erupted from within Lorgar, breaking the sand cage and healing his wounds.
• Several hundred flame-wreathed warriors appeared beside Lorgar, and Saladin's soul-fire flickered with horror as Lorgar turned toward him.

Lorgar used the Blazing White Flame and the loyalist Heroic Spirits to break through Saladin’s Sea of Sand and capture the core of his will. Saladin was bound in his original body before Lorgar’s Cross as Lorgar declared that it was all over.

• Saladin recognized Kras among the silent Heroic Spirits and begged him to return, but Kras gave no response.
• Lorgar struck the Sea of Sand with his Greatsword, opening a corridor of Blazing White Flame while the Heroic Spirits fought off Saladin’s sand creatures.
• Kras and the other Heroic Spirits held the enemy back as Lorgar charged toward the center of Saladin’s will.
• Lorgar’s burning Greatsword disrupted Saladin’s psychic links, scattering the sand and exposing the surviving core of his will.
• Lorgar’s flaming chains caught Saladin’s escaping spirit and forced it back into his human form.
• Lorgar suspended the bound Saladin before the Cross, where its flames suppressed his transformations, and told him it was all over.

Lorgar survived his battle with Saladin but was left gravely wounded, while Saladin remained imprisoned on the burning Cross. After awakening in a Medical Pod aboard the fleet, Lorgar began recovering as the rebellion appeared to have ended.

• Lorgar limped away from the Cross, leaving Saladin chained and burning as Saladin begged him to end his life.
• Angron and the Word Bearers found Lorgar, and Curze ordered them to rush him to the warship for treatment and secure Saladin with the Cross.
• As Lorgar lost consciousness, he saw the spirits of fallen loyalists led by Craston say their task was complete and vanish.
• Lorgar awoke in a Medical Pod and accidentally snapped an adamantium medical restraint while trying to move his arm.
• The Archmagos ordered the Sages to increase Lorgar’s treatment and notify Rockefeller that he had awakened.

The Emperor arrived to judge Saladin after his stasis prison was opened. Saladin confessed his remorse and begged to die, and the Emperor executed him with a golden Greatsword.

• Lion El'Jonson left to carry out the Emperor's order to annihilate the Rangdan Xenos empire, while Angron and Curze guarded Saladin and Lorgar recovered.
• The Emperor arrived aboard a colossal vessel with Malcador, the Adeptus Custodes, and the Sisters of Silence.
• Malcador dispelled Saladin's stasis field, and Saladin awoke before the Emperor, his brothers, and Lorgar.
• Saladin addressed the Emperor as Father, asked what he had done, and begged to be killed for his sins.
• The Emperor formed a golden Greatsword and executed Saladin.

After suffering grievous wounds in the victory over Saladin, Lorgar returned to Colchis to recover and found the vast, orderly realm he had built still thriving under his authority. He reunited with his trusted governor Senatis and General Burn, who welcomed him with their assembled honor guard.

• The Word Bearers suspended their Great Crusade advance while Lorgar recovered, and Lorgar chose to return to Colchis with Seras, elite warriors, and Hercules.
• Angron and Curze departed with their fleets to carry out their orders.
• Lorgar's transport arrived at Colchis, a highly organized Star System of a hundred trillion people whose government, economy, faith, and defenses operated under his influence.
• Governor Senatis and General Burn led Colchis's officials and honor guard in welcoming Lorgar at the capital's landing pad.
• Lorgar descended the ramp, surveyed the kneeling assembly, and told everyone to rise.

Lorgar toured Colchis and learned about its volunteer military and the elite Crusaders before visiting the Holy Word Army. He healed Baldwin’s face and urged him to continue fighting for humanity, then left for the cathedral altar.

• Lorgar walked through the City of Holy Edict as General Burn explained Colchis’s volunteer army and its three service tiers.
• Burn described the Holy Word Army, whose tens of billions of devout Crusaders fought in the expedition’s most dangerous battles.
• Lorgar entered a cathedral where hundreds of Holy Word Army officers knelt, and he helped a young officer rise.
• Baldwin approached Lorgar and explained that a xenos Virus weapon had destroyed the muscles and nerves of his face.
• Lorgar touched Baldwin’s mask and healed him, allowing Baldwin to remove it and reveal his restored face.
• Lorgar told Baldwin to continue his duty and fight for humanity, then walked toward the altar with Seras, Hercules, and General Burn.

Lorgar returned to the Colchis system and found himself faced with a mountain of urgent administrative work. He enlisted Seras to help review the matters and began working, while Hercules left and Senatis withdrew.

• Senatis presented Lorgar with a towering stack of urgent dossiers and a Dataslate containing the Colchis system's pending decisions.
• Lorgar accepted the workload and asked Seras to help him handle the affairs, while Hercules departed.
• Lorgar told Senatis to report again in five days unless something extreme happened.
• Lorgar and Seras began reviewing the pending matters as Senatis organized the staff and quietly closed the door.

After five days of reviewing administrative work, Lorgar delegated routine matters to Chapter Master Rockefeller and discovered a popular tabletop wargame through Hercules. He quickly mastered the game, defeated everyone at the Mansion, and spent the following days playing.

• Lorgar finished reviewing important files and directed Senatis to send routine administrative work to Chapter Master Rockefeller aboard the Law of Faith.
• Hercules showed Lorgar a tabletop wargame called Great Crusade and its detailed miniature armies.
• Lorgar learned the rules quickly and defeated Hercules, Seras, Burn, and the other challengers at the Mansion.
• Lorgar continued playing tabletop games over the next several days, briefly recording his concern that he had abandoned his plans.

Lorgar secretly explored the prosperous Colchis he had helped build and reflected on the people whose lives he had improved. After catching a pregnant woman who collided with him, he quietly left her wondering whether she had truly encountered the Holy Son.

• Lorgar walked incognito through the City of Holy Edict and observed how its order, prosperity, and faith had grown under Senatis and others.
• Lorgar reflected that he could not save everyone, but believed the people of Colchis had gained a future worth protecting.
• Mrs. Anger accidentally collided with Lorgar, dropping nutrient paste and baby clothes as she lost her balance.
• Lorgar caught Mrs. Anger, gathered her scattered belongings, and walked away without revealing himself.
• Mrs. Anger remained stunned by the encounter until the shopkeeper returned the cloth she had forgotten, and she wondered whether she had truly seen Lorgar.

Lorgar watched young people enlist in the Colchis Auxiliary Army, where recruitment officers sorted them into roles according to their abilities. He left the station reflecting on the sacrifices that sustained the Imperium’s endless war.

• Lorgar observed a recruitment advertisement urging Colchis’s young people to join the Auxiliary Army.
• A burly applicant with excellent physical fitness but poor academic scores was assigned to an infantry regiment.
• A woman with strong spatial skills and a civil aviation qualification was accepted into the Army Aviation Attack Wing.
• A frail, highly gifted applicant was recommended for the Colchis Star System Officer Candidate School.
• Lorgar watched the recruits leave and considered the human cost of the war before departing into Colchis’s streets.

After an exploration team vanished on Yriel's World and an unknown energy pulse came from the planet, Lorgar led an expedition to investigate. The team traced the signal to a strange mountain and prepared to blast an entrance into it.

• An official told Lorgar that the exploration team on Yriel's World had lost contact and that an unknown energy pulse had emerged from the planet.
• Lorgar postponed his Forge World inspection, ordered a company of space marines to assemble, and summoned Hercules.
• Lorgar, Archmagos Berick, Hercules, and the Word Bearers landed on Yriel's World and advanced into the jungle toward the missing team's last known location.
• Berick detected that the energy signal had come from beneath a strangely regular mountain, where the exploration camp had disappeared without a trace.
• Lorgar ordered the Techmarine and heavy weapons specialists to plant high-explosive charges on the mountain.

Lorgar and Hercules descended into an immense underground artificial ruin, where they found the frozen Colchis Expedition Team and were attacked by strange green energy. Lorgar resisted the assault and identified the attacker as Trazyn the Infinite, who emerged from a spatial rift as Lorgar faced him.

• Lorgar ordered the Word Bearers to demolish the mountainside, exposing a deep, unnaturally smooth shaft that resisted his psychic probing.
• Lorgar leaped into the shaft, followed by Hercules and the other Word Bearers, and discovered a vast metal chamber buried underground.
• Lorgar found members of the Colchis Expedition Team frozen in place beneath a pillar, and an eerie green attack froze Hercules while Lorgar shielded himself.
• Lorgar destroyed a green energy cube with his psychic-powered Greatsword and recognized the attacker as Trazyn the Infinite.
• Trazyn emerged from a spatial rift and fixed his gaze on Lorgar and the burning Greatsword.

Lorgar confronted Trazyn after catching him trying to escape through a portal, forcing him to release the frozen survey team and explain his presence. Trazyn revealed that he was searching for a human superweapon called Superstar, capable of destroying a star.

• Trazyn greeted Lorgar and flattered him, but Lorgar remained suspicious and threatened him with his burning Greatsword.
• As Trazyn tried to leave through a portal, Lorgar destroyed it with a psychic blade and demanded that Trazyn free the others and explain his objective.
• Trazyn snapped his fingers and restored time, freeing Hercules and the survey team, who soon collapsed unconscious from the effects of being removed from the normal time stream.
• Trazyn told Lorgar that the entire structure was his objective: Superstar, a human-built superweapon capable of destroying a star.

Lorgar accepted Trazyn’s schematics for the Superstar armory, then survived Trazyn’s attempted stasis trap and destroyed his body. Trazyn escaped in a replacement shell with a strand of Lorgar’s hair, which he had secretly collected during their confrontation.

• Lorgar recognized the Superstar armory’s potential to destroy an entire Stars system and resolved that its knowledge must not fall into anyone else’s hands.
• Trazyn gave Lorgar a projector containing selected armory schematics, and Lorgar accepted it before ordering Trazyn to leave.
• Trazyn offered a symbolic handshake, but he and Lorgar attacked simultaneously: Trazyn deployed a spacetime-stasis Cube while Lorgar thrust his sword at Trazyn’s wrist.
• Lorgar’s sword destroyed Trazyn’s arm and metal body, while his psychic barrier stopped the Cube from reaching his wrist.
• In his private collection space, Trazyn activated a replacement body and revealed that he had secretly collected and preserved a strand of Lorgar’s hair.

Lorgar discovered that the ancient vessel he had hoped might be a powerful weapon was once a luxury sightseeing ship called the Superstar. After its recording revealed that its attraction was detonating stars, he was left stunned by how far the Imperium’s technology had regressed.

• Lorgar ordered the Word Bearers to evacuate the unconscious Hercules and survey team while he investigated the hall alone.
• Lorgar used his psychic senses to locate a hidden passage and broke through its concealed entrance.
• Lorgar followed the dust-covered passage, finding faded decorations and features that suggested it had once served an entertainment purpose.
• Lorgar broke into a control room and activated its console, bringing an old promotional recording onto the main screen.
• The recording advertised the Superstar as a luxury vacation ship whose nightly attraction was a star-destroying fireworks display.

Lorgar learned that the ancient Superstar was a 1,200-kilometer megastructure capable of housing twelve million people and containing a star-destruction device. He reimagined it as a mobile fortress for his secret military plan and granted the Adeptus Mechanicus exclusive research access while awaiting the Emperor’s judgment.

• The Adeptus Mechanicus decoded 87.4 percent of the Superstar’s structural schematics and showed them to Lorgar.
• Lorgar interpreted the vessel’s accommodations, ecological systems, logistics network, and transit routes as military infrastructure for armies and crusades.
• Lorgar recognized the vessel’s stellar destruction device as a strategic annihilation weapon and envisioned the Superstar as a mobile orbital fortress.
• Lorgar ordered a comprehensive survey of the core systems and said he would report preliminary findings to Terra before Mars received a decision.
• Lorgar granted the gathered Adeptus Mechanicus sages exclusive authority to study and test the ruins until the Emperor issued a decree, prompting them to praise his generosity.
• Lorgar looked toward the Superstar and planned to give it a new name and military purpose as the first step in his secret blueprint.

Lorgar encountered an ancient machine that recognized him as an authorized human descendant after it attacked the Mechanicus scouts. The vessel’s administrator then sealed him in a corridor and demanded his identity before starting a purge procedure.

• A three-metre-tall machine destroyed several Servitors and Servo-skulls, then identified Lorgar as a sanctioned derivative of human lineage and welcomed him aboard.
• Lorgar told the senior priest to replace heavily augmented scouts with mostly biological personnel and withdraw armed Servitors and combat Servo-skulls from the front line.
• Lorgar sensed that the dark corridor was watching him and asked the control room whether it had activated any local systems; the Archmagos denied doing so.
• A burst of interference cut communications, and heavy sealing doors shut around Lorgar, trapping him in the corridor.
• A human-looking figure appeared beside Lorgar, identified him as an intruder, and gave him ten seconds to explain himself before the purge procedure began.