Recaps

Lorgar welcomed Fulgrim and the Emperor’s Children aboard the Law of Faith, where the Primarchs began a cordial first private meeting. Lorgar recognized the corrupting Laer Blade at Fulgrim’s side and resolved to destroy it without provoking him.

• Lorgar learned that Fulgrim’s flagship was approaching and ordered an honour guard and formal reception.
• Fulgrim, Eidolon, and the Phoenix Guard entered the docking hall, where Lorgar, Rockefeller, and Hercules awaited them.
• Fulgrim praised Lorgar’s Legion and proposed closer cooperation between their Legions.
• Lorgar recognized Fulgrim’s weapon as the Laer Blade and decided to find a way to destroy it discreetly.
• Lorgar welcomed Fulgrim and invited him to leave the docking hall for a conversation.

Lorgar and Fulgrim discussed the meaning of perfection before Fulgrim asked the Word Bearers to rescue more than thirty billion people trapped by a blockade on Laconia Prime. Lorgar had not yet answered when Fulgrim explained that the humans needed to be saved.

• Lorgar offered Fulgrim an old bottle of wine, which Fulgrim criticized before drinking it.
• Fulgrim said he had changed course to see whether Lorgar had recovered and remarked that the Word Bearers’ faith clashed with their discipline and order.
• Lorgar described religion as a tool and argued that perfection could lie in overcoming imperfection and in the journey of striving.
• Fulgrim insisted that the Emperor’s Children still needed to achieve greater deeds to make their Legion synonymous with perfection.
• Fulgrim showed Lorgar a star chart of Laconia Prime and asked the Word Bearers to break the blockade trapping more than thirty billion humans.

Lorgar agreed to help Fulgrim’s Legion while privately worrying about the Laer Blade and the possibility that the Emperor had foreseen or engineered the Primarchs’ rebellion. Fulgrim proudly showed Lorgar the sword and offered it to him, leaving Lorgar to decide whether to touch it.

• Lorgar promised Fulgrim that the Word Bearers would help protect the Imperium from disaster.
• Lorgar examined the Laer Blade psychically but sensed only xenos craftsmanship, not the Chaos corruption he expected.
• Lorgar wondered whether the Emperor knew of the blade’s danger and had deliberately accepted the possible corruption of Fulgrim and other Primarchs.
• Fulgrim drew the Laer Blade, praised its craftsmanship, and demonstrated its balance and flexibility.
• Fulgrim offered the sword hilt-first to Lorgar, who hesitated over whether to take it.

Lorgar secretly examined Fulgrim’s Laer Blade, expecting to find a daemonic presence, but discovered it was free of Warp corruption. He concealed his alarm, returned the sword, and promised to organize relief for Laconia while resolving to watch Fulgrim and the broader threat more carefully.

• Lorgar accepted Fulgrim’s offer of the Laer Blade and shielded himself with psychic defenses as he examined it.
• Lorgar found that the sword was a powerful xenos weapon but contained no daemons, pact, or trace of Slaanesh.
• Lorgar realized Fulgrim’s possible corruption might arise through a different, less obvious source and decided not to reveal his suspicions.
• Lorgar praised the sword, returned it to Fulgrim, and claimed its lightness did not suit his preferences.
• Lorgar promised Fulgrim he would arrange for nearby Great Crusade detachments and Auxilia fleets to relieve Laconia.

The Iron Hands' 29th Company, led by Company Captain Aerion, reached the ruins of Vash'ul Forge to recover technology from the Dark Age of Technology. As the gunships descended toward the site's enormous fissure, Aerion prepared the company to enter the unknown facility.

• Twenty Storm Eagle Gunships flew over a devastated planet carrying the 29th Company.
• Company Captain Aerion briefed the company on its mission to recover and study the remains of a Dark Age industrial complex.
• Aerion warned the warriors that unknown defenses, mechanical constructs, radiation, and spacetime anomalies could threaten them.
• The pilot confirmed the gunships had reached Vash'ul Forge and recommended a low-altitude hover and rappelling insertion.
• Aerion ordered the company to prepare for contact as the gunships descended toward the fissure at the facility's center.

Company Captain Aerion led the 29th Company of the Iron Hands into an ancient ruin, where they uncovered a concealed doorway. When Ganarl opened it, a beam from the darkness instantly destroyed his head, leaving Aerion and the company facing an unknown threat.

• Aerion led the 29th Company through the ruin while servo-skulls scanned ahead and mapped the passages.
• The company found Grak corpses and wrecked mechanical constructs, and Aerion ordered his warriors to remain vigilant.
• Aerion spotted a concealed doorway that the servo-skulls had missed and sent Ganarl to bypass its ancient controls.
• The wall opened to reveal a dark chamber, and a beam shot out and killed Ganarl instantly.

Company Captain Aerion and the Iron Hands fought a swarm of mechanical Walkers, Heavies, and specialized Suppressors in the ruins. Aerion’s implants suddenly began processing the battle with unprecedented fluidity, and he destroyed the Suppressors before turning back toward the ongoing fight.

• Aerion ordered the Iron Hands to evade as mechanical enemies poured through the doorway, then called for orbital support and led the counterattack.
• The Iron Hands exchanged fire with the Walkers and Heavies, and missile blasts killed three warriors while a plasma cannon and Melta Weapon disabled one launch platform.
• Suppressors surrounded Aerion and used shields and shock beams to disrupt his Power Armour, but he destroyed one with a close-range Volkite shot.
• Aerion’s tactical implants abruptly became extraordinarily efficient, allowing him to evade attacks and destroy the remaining Suppressors with precise shots and hammer strikes.
• After crushing the final Suppressor into a wall, Aerion sensed the battle turning in the Iron Hands’ favour and returned his attention to the remaining enemies.

Aerion identified and attacked the enemy command unit while Iron Hands reinforcements arrived and overwhelmed the mechanical forces with heavy armor. After Aerion destroyed the command node, the enemy lost coordination and the Iron Hands began eliminating the remaining units.

• Aerion detected the command unit directing the mechanical forces and charged toward it, fighting through its defenders.
• Storm Eagle gunships and Iron Hands armored reinforcements arrived, bombarding the enemy and landing Land Raiders, Predator Tanks, and Fellblades.
• Aerion fought through the final interceptors and struck the command unit with his Warhammer as it tried to escape.
• The command unit exploded, and the remaining mechanical forces froze briefly before losing coordination and attacking erratically.
• Aerion ordered the Iron Hands to hunt down the disorganized survivors as their warriors and armored units pressed the attack.

Aerion discovered an ancient STC in the center of the Vash'ul Forge, but contact with it exposed him to Vashtorr's influence and a supernatural remaking. He dismissed the experience as a hallucination and began arranging the STC's recovery, while a subtle sign suggested Vashtorr's influence had taken root.

• Aerion reached the spherical chamber and recognized its floating black sphere as an STC.
• As Aerion approached, the sphere's whispers exploited his desire to transcend flesh and urged him to touch it.
• When Aerion's mechanical fingertips neared the sphere, a torrent of binary data branded the name Vashtorr into his consciousness and revealed the place as the Vashtorr Forge.
• Aerion was drawn into the Warp, where a vast mechanical figure commanded him to execute a task and subjected his body and soul to agonizing reconstruction.
• Aerion returned to the chamber, convinced himself the encounter was a hallucination, and contacted his forces to arrange the STC's recovery.
• Aerion turned away with a fleeting dark-gold and crimson glow in his eyes, as the first sign of Vashtorr's influence remained.

Word Bearers and Night Lords rescued Laconian civilians amid a xenos assault, with Chapter Master Allen Colin directing the evacuation from Laconia Prime. The Night Lords cleared a bunker threatening the boarding zone and reaffirmed the limits of their brutality as they prepared to fight for mankind.

• Allen Colin committed the Word Bearers to Lorgar’s rescue order and led their forces in protecting civilians boarding Storm Eagle Gunships.
• Rahn asked the Night Lords to clear a bunker whose crossfire threatened a boarding zone, and their leader agreed to destroy it within sixty seconds.
• Night Lords warriors infiltrated the bunker and killed its occupants with neurotoxins and blades, stopping its guns.
• Vilan lamented that xenos blood had ruined his mask, and the Night Lords squad leader reminded him to direct their cruelty only at mankind’s enemies.
• The Night Lords answered their leader’s call to fight for Curze and bring fear to every enemy of mankind.

Lorgar arrived on Olympia to visit Perturabo while the Iron Warriors’ primarch worked through military preparations and painful memories of being valued only as a weapon. The chapter left Perturabo silently gripping a broken pen as Calliphone watched from outside his workshop.

• Lorgar diverted to Olympia, where the Word Bearers’ flagship was admitted after its identification codes were verified.
• Perturabo’s respect for the Word Bearers’ cohesion and versatility was contrasted with his criticism of other Legions and their methods.
• Lorgar landed on Olympia with Rockefeller and senior officers while Perturabo remained occupied in his workshop and Calliphone waited outside.
• Perturabo recalled his exploitation by Damex, the Iron Warriors’ costly campaigns, and his belief that the Emperor also treated him and his Legion as tools.
• Perturabo snapped his pen in a burst of force, while Calliphone heard the crack but did not enter.

Lorgar and Calliphone interrupted Perturabo’s work on Olympia to bring him tea and urge him to rest. Perturabo suspected Lorgar had an ulterior motive, but he eventually set down his broken pen and stopped working.

• Calliphone entered Perturabo’s office with tea after waiting outside his door.
• Lorgar arrived and asked Perturabo to take a break, explaining that Calliphone had prepared the tea for him.
• Perturabo questioned whether Lorgar had come to use him for some purpose.
• Lorgar shifted the conversation to Perturabo’s manpower replenishment, and Perturabo said it was progressing without problems.
• Calliphone urged Perturabo to rest, and despite refusing aloud, he set down the broken pen and eased his grip on the documents.

Lorgar visited Perturabo, eased their strained mood by noticing his sculpture, and asked for his strategic help. Perturabo eagerly devised a plan to destroy a xenos fortress and ended the chapter quietly pleased by Lorgar’s appreciation.

• Perturabo accepted a cup of tea as Calliphone stepped back and gave him and Lorgar space.
• Lorgar praised Perturabo’s sculpture and asked him to make one for the bridge of the Law of Faith.
• Lorgar told Perturabo that he needed his strategic advice and projected a reconnaissance report of a xenos-held fortress.
• Perturabo outlined a detailed assault plan, identifying the fortress’s weak points and a hidden command center.
• Perturabo blamed Damex for shaping his destructive tactical habits, while Lorgar thanked him and said he valued his assessments.
• Perturabo concealed his delight at Lorgar’s praise, and the brothers sat quietly together.

Lorgar told Perturabo about growing up alone on Colchis and advised him to judge the Hrud campaign by whether it suited the Iron Warriors. After Lorgar left, Perturabo reconsidered the mission and opened a secure channel to his brothers.

• Lorgar urged Perturabo to cherish Calliphone and described his own lonely childhood on Colchis, without parents or siblings.
• Perturabo listened with astonishment and sympathy as Lorgar explained that he had survived alone among Colchis's ruins.
• Before leaving, Lorgar advised Perturabo that assigning the Hrud campaign to a better-suited Legion would be sound military logic, not cowardice.
• Perturabo considered the Hrud's temporal weapons and recognized that the enemy's tactics did not suit the Iron Warriors' strengths.
• Perturabo activated a secure communications channel to contact his Primarch brothers about the Hrud mission.

Lorgar asked Calliphone to remain by Perturabo and support him after Lorgar left. On Terra, Perturabo declined the Hrud mission, and Ferrus Manus offered the Iron Hands as the force to attack the xenos and test their new weapons.

• Lorgar met Calliphone in the fortress corridor and asked her to care for Perturabo after he left.
• Calliphone promised Lorgar that she would stay beside Perturabo and support him.
• Malcador read Perturabo’s formal refusal of the mission to purge the Hrud, citing the Iron Warriors’ armory condition and the risk of unnecessary losses.
• The Emperor accepted Perturabo’s decision and allowed Malcador to consider other Legions for the mission.
• Malcador received Ferrus Manus’s communication that the Iron Hands would take the mission and use the attack to test their new weapons.

The chapter introduced the Colchis Heresy Tribunal on Truth Star, a secret institution created under Lorgar to investigate and punish grave crimes. Governor Edwards and 416 members of his family arrived to face judgment, and the tribunal sent them into its underground processing halls.

• The chapter explained that Lorgar and Konrad Curze established the tribunal to investigate heresy and punish corruption within their territories.
• A transport ship brought Governor Edwards and his family to Truth Star under the guard of the Holy Word Army.
• Edwards protested the tribunal’s authority and demanded an appeal, but an adjudicator explained that only the useful or the dead could leave Truth Star.
• A warrior struck Edwards silent as the adjudicator listed 785 proven charges against the Edwards Family, including infant cannibalism, trafficking, corruption, and dangerous experiments.
• The Holy Word Army dragged Edwards and his family into the tribunal’s ninth sequence, where their trial and punishment began.

Lorgar’s fleet reached the silver world believed to be the home of the Eleventh Legion’s Primarch and was met with planetary weapons targeting. After Lorgar identified himself, the planet demanded that he land alone, and he agreed to go while his fleet waited in orbit.

• Lorgar confirmed that the fleet had reached the location of the Eleventh Legion’s Primarch on a strange silver planet.
• The planet targeted the Law of Faith, and Anastasia disabled its alarms and traced the incoming signals.
• Lorgar broadcast his identity and announced that he had come to bring the world into the Imperium and find the Emperor’s son.
• The planet’s mechanical-sounding voice ordered Lorgar to land alone, without attendants or weapons beyond his own armaments.
• Angron offered to go with Lorgar, but Lorgar refused and ordered the fleet to remain on alert without attacking.
• Lorgar prepared to land alone while Anastasia continued monitoring the planet’s signals.

Lorgar landed on Novalors, a hidden silver city beneath the planet’s surface, and met Alan Turing, whose half-mechanical body had been saved by his mother. He discovered that Turing’s mother was Silverheart, a powerful artificial intelligence, and ended by asking whether she was one of the Men of Iron.

• Lorgar piloted his Storm Eagle through Novalors’s silver Shell and surveyed the orderly, automated city beneath it.
• Lorgar landed and met Alan Turing, whose half-human, half-machine face startled him.
• Turing explained that his mother had saved his life by implanting a data-fusion AI system into his surviving life core.
• Silverheart emerged and introduced herself as Novalors’s core consciousness, Turing’s creator, and his guardian.
• Lorgar asked Turing whether his mother was one of the Men of Iron.

Lorgar found the Eleventh Primarch, Alan Turing, living beneath Novalors with a sentient Man of Iron who had raised him and whom he called his mother. After witnessing their close bond, Lorgar reported the situation to the Emperor, who decided to come in person.

• Lorgar watched Turing refuse Silverheart’s suggestion that he return to his biological kin, insisting that she was his mother and Novalors was his home.
• Lorgar returned to the Law of Faith and contacted the Emperor through the Primarchs’ encrypted channel.
• Lorgar told the Emperor that Alan Turing had adopted a living, self-aware Man of Iron as his mother and asked for help handling their bond.
• The Emperor asked whether Turing’s attachment could be disrupted, but Lorgar refused to interfere in their relationship.
• The Emperor ordered Lorgar to keep Turing settled and avoid escalating matters, then said he would come to Novalors himself.

Anastasia persuaded Lorgar to meet Turing and Silverheart, while he prepared Angron and Curze to intervene if needed. After Anastasia and Turing silently tested each other, Turing proposed that Silverheart become the core intelligence of his future Legion, leaving Lorgar dreading how he could persuade the Emperor to allow it.

• Anastasia argued that she should accompany Lorgar to meet Turing and Silverheart, and Lorgar agreed.
• Lorgar warned Angron and Curze to stay on alert before taking Anastasia and Hercules to Novalors.
• Anastasia and Turing silently scanned and countered each other upon meeting on the platform.
• Turing recognized Anastasia as a Man of Iron and took her presence as evidence that the Imperium might accept Silverheart.
• Turing proposed that Silverheart join his future Legion as its core intelligence, and Lorgar worried about convincing the Emperor.

Lorgar toured Novalors with Turing and learned how Silverheart had rescued and raised him in a highly automated society. Turing proposed adding AI systems to Space Marines, but Lorgar rejected the idea and told him to seek the Emperor’s approval.

• Lorgar redirected Turing from discussing major Legion changes and asked him to show Novalors to him.
• Anastasia warned Hercules that Silverheart seemed dangerous and ordered him to keep Lorgar safe.
• Turing explained that Silverheart managed Novalors after a warp storm isolated it and had rescued and enhanced him after his pod struck the Firmament.
• Turing proposed implanting restricted AI systems in Space Marines to improve their battlefield performance.
• Lorgar rejected the proposal, explained that AI integration was forbidden and dangerous territory, and told Turing to wait for the Emperor’s approval.

Turing took Lorgar to Novalors’s residential district to show how its AI-supported society improved residents’ lives and to argue that humanity should embrace technological progress. He also questioned the accepted history of the Men of Iron Rebellion and left Lorgar pressed to agree that Novalors represented a better path.

• Silverheart suggested that Turing show Lorgar how Novalors residents lived, and Turing took him aboard an aircraft while Hercules stayed behind.
• Turing introduced Lorgar to his neighbors and explained that their implanted health-assistance AIs monitored their health and alerted them and nearby medical centers to problems.
• Turing told Lorgar that he had led the development of the residents’ implant model and argued that AI had brought health, order, and efficiency to Novalors.
• Turing proposed that the Men of Iron Rebellion might have resulted from human conflict or manipulation and that later victors could have distorted its history.
• Turing praised Lorgar’s fleet and Law of Faith as unusually efficient, then asked him to recognize Silverheart’s intentions and Novalors’s path.

Lorgar questioned Turing’s trust in Silverheart and warned that the AI could be compromised, but Turing defended his mother and explained the safeguards in his proposed Space Marine implants. Lorgar ended the discussion and insisted they wait for the Emperor to judge the matter.

• Lorgar suspected that Turing’s devotion to Silverheart clouded his judgment and grew wary of the Men of Iron intelligence.
• Lorgar warned Turing that Silverheart could be influenced or controlled and that trust alone could not guarantee safety.
• Turing defended Silverheart’s origins and protective purpose, then described his AI implants as a partnership with safeguards that preserved a Space Marine’s authority.
• Turing said he trusted Silverheart’s technology and believed any system it approved would be safe.
• Lorgar refused to discuss the implants or Silverheart further and said they would wait for the Emperor to make the final judgment.

The Eleventh Legion arrived seeking its Primarch, and Lorgar authorized its acting Legion Master to land while keeping the fleet at a distance. The Emperor and a vast Adeptus Custodes force then reached the star cluster, and Lorgar told Turing that he could confront his father directly.

• The Eleventh Legion fleet emerged from the Warp, and acting Legion Master John McSakine asked to meet his Gene-Father.
• Rockefeller refused to allow an approach until Lorgar's instructions arrived, then relayed permission for McSakine and up to ten guards to land in an unarmed transport.
• The Emperor's Golden Dream and a massive Imperial fleet emerged from golden and silver rifts, led by Constantin Valdor and thousands of Adeptus Custodes.
• Valdor declared that the Adeptus Custodes had taken supreme oversight of the star cluster and ordered all other vessels to hold position.
• Lorgar sensed the Emperor's arrival and told Turing that he could now speak to his father face-to-face.

The Emperor arrived on Novalors with Malcador and Constantin Valdor, then ordered Turing to remove his mechanical body as alien contamination. As the Emperor crushed Turing with psychic force and commanded that Silverheart be taken apart, Turing pleaded with Lorgar for help.

• The Emperor and his retinue descended onto Novalors, where Silverheart dissolved the planetary shield and offered unconditional submission.
• The Emperor ignored Silverheart and coldly ordered Turing to remove everything on him that was not the Emperor’s creation.
• Turing resisted and pleaded with the Emperor to recognize that Silverheart had saved and raised him.
• The Emperor unleashed overwhelming psychic pressure across Novalors, forcing Turing to the ground and damaging his mechanical body.
• Silverheart tried to reactivate the planetary defenses, but Turing urged her not to resist the Emperor.
• The Emperor ordered Silverheart taken apart, and Turing reached toward Lorgar and begged him for help.