Chapter Summaries

Adam and his Iron Men overwhelmed the Iron Warriors aboard their warship, using battlefield resources and nano-swarms to counter their weapons before reaching the command bridge. Adam killed Warsmith Vol Braun, and the Imperial forces prepared to continue their advance.

• Adam ordered the Iron Men to replenish their ammunition by using nano-robots to consume the warship's metal and manufacture supplies.
• Adam's forces advanced through the darkened compartments, while nano-swarms neutralized many Iron Warriors' shells and laser attacks.
• Adam planted a teleportation beacon, and the Imperial Fists arrived to follow behind the Iron Men.
• Adam and the Imperial Fists reached the command bridge, where Warsmith Vol Braun chose to stand and fight despite knowing the ship was lost.
• Braun destroyed two Iron Men with his power hammer, but Adam severed Braun's arms and then beheaded him.
• The Iron Men burned Braun's corpse to ashes after Adam declared that they were truly steel within and without.

Adam helped the Imperial Fists defeat the Iron Warriors, then confronted Perturabo, who appeared through the dead Warsmith Braun’s helmet and dismissed his sons’ deaths as proof of their weakness. Perturabo became fixated on Adam and intended to claim him as a replacement for his Iron Circle automata.

• Adam’s speed and superior construction astonished the Imperial Fists as he fought the Iron Warriors.
• After Warsmith Braun died, the Iron Warriors’ attack faltered, and Sigismund ordered the fleet to destroy ships fleeing into deep space.
• A hologram of Perturabo appeared from Braun’s helmet and said Braun’s death had been expected because the Warsmith was weak.
• Perturabo insulted his dead sons and described their deaths as sacrifices that would help him earn greater favor from Horus.
• Adam challenged Perturabo’s definition of sacrifice, calling the deaths of his soldiers a consequence of his stupidity.
• Perturabo laughed at Adam’s rebuke and decided he wanted to take Adam for himself.

Adam taunted Perturabo by exposing his vanity, grievances, and betrayal, while Perturabo tried to recruit him. The exchange ended with Adam crushing the helmet projecting Perturabo’s image.

• Perturabo admired Adam’s intellect and combat skill but revealed his possessive desire to study and claim him.
• Adam identified Perturabo’s physical discomfort, and the Imperial Fists laughed at the primarch’s embarrassment.
• Perturabo threatened Dorn and offered Adam a place at his side, but Adam rejected him and praised Lox and Rogal Dorn.
• Adam provoked Perturabo by citing Fulgrim’s betrayal, Calliphone’s death, and his buried desire to be a creator rather than a general.
• Adam called Perturabo and his sons the Rusted Cowards and crushed the helmet projecting Perturabo’s hologram.

Perturabo was stunned and enraged when Adam exposed his past during a confrontation with the Imperial Fists. After destroying the Iron Warriors vanguard, Sigismund’s fleet withdrew, and the Imperial Fists welcomed Adam as a brother while preparing for the wider campaign against the rebels.

• Perturabo was caught off guard when Adam publicly revealed his embarrassing history, leaving the Lord of Iron furious and speechless.
• Phrix reflected on the Iron Warriors’ fractures and feared that Perturabo’s tyranny was driving the Legion toward ruin.
• Sigismund’s Imperial Fists destroyed the encircled Iron Warriors vanguard, then began their retreat after suffering heavy losses.
• The Imperial Fists apologized to Adam for their prejudice and embraced him because he had openly humiliated Perturabo.
• Sigismund said the Imperial Fists would send Dorn a recording of the confrontation and noted that the fleet had achieved its strategic objectives.
• The Imperium prepared to exploit the rebels’ bridgehead with ambushes and defensive lines stretching between Pluto and Terra.

After the Battle of the Twin Gates, Terra’s commanders reviewed the defense strategy and Sigismund reported how Adam had humiliated Perturabo. The Eldar seer Usran arrived with Craftworld reinforcements, whose fleet gathered above the Moon.

• Dorn approved the plan to destroy the Twin Gates and bleed Horus’s forces through successive defensive lines toward Terra.
• Adam returned to Terra with Sigismund and eagerly greeted Lox in the conference hall.
• Sigismund played footage of Adam verbally attacking Perturabo, drawing suppressed amusement and praise from the assembled commanders.
• Adam explained that Perturabo had lost the trust of his own followers, earning Jaghatai Khan’s approval.
• Usran told Lox that he had brought Craftworld Eldar reinforcements, and Lox saw their gate of light unfolding above the Moon.

Eldrad Ulthran brought an Aeldari fleet to Terra to support an alliance with humanity, despite the other Craftworld Farseers’ distrust and fear. After the fleet was welcomed and Ulthran embraced Lox, the Aeldari were told the Emperor wished to meet them and forge a closer alliance.

• Ulthran secured support from Iyanden and Alaitoc, along with Harlequin emissaries, and led more than a hundred Aeldari warships into the Solar System.
• The Imperial Fists prepared to engage the arriving fleet, but Rogal Dorn ordered them to stand down and identified the Aeldari as allies.
• Lox invited Ulthran and the Aeldari representatives to Terra, where they sensed the Emperor’s powerful presence and entered the Imperial Palace under Custodian guard.
• Lox and Ulthran embraced as the Aeldari pledged to answer humanity’s call, while a Harlequin sketched the moment.
• Lox told the Aeldari that the Emperor wished to see them and build a closer alliance with their people.

Uslan and the Aeldari delegation entered the Imperial Palace, where the Emperor recognized their aid against Chaos and offered a formal pact of mutual assistance. The Emperor's blood sealed humanity's promise not to exterminate the craftworld Aeldari unless they gravely harmed humanity's interests.

• Uslan sensed the primarchs' terrifying Warp essences, while Leman Russ's presence frightened the Aeldari delegation into greater obedience.
• Lox used the primarchs' presence to push the Aeldari toward cooperation as equals with humanity.
• As the delegation approached the Emperor, Uslan sensed that the Emperor's power shielded them from Slaanesh's gaze.
• The Emperor welcomed the Aeldari, promised that humanity would remember their aid, and called for both races to face Chaos together.
• The Emperor placed a drop of golden blood on a radiant token, establishing a sacred oath of mutual aid and protection for the craftworld Aeldari.

Usran and the Emperor established an agreement limiting attacks between humanity and the Aeldari, while Usran hoped to unite more of his people against Chaos. The Harlequins presented a cryptic performance before the Emperor, but nobody understood its meaning, and Mortarion’s storyline was about to begin.

• Usran solemnly accepted the Emperor’s promise and described the agreement under which humanity would not attack Aeldari except the Drukhari, while the Aeldari would stop harming humans without reason.
• Usran reflected that he could represent only Ulthwé, Alaitoc, and Iyanden, and resolved to persuade more Aeldari to join the alliance against Chaos.
• Usran announced a gift from the Aeldari, and Sylandri, the Veilwalker, and the Harlequins appeared before the Emperor.
• The Harlequins performed a vision of a tormented soul facing a plague and showed two outcomes: surrender to its source or endure and escape with the aid of a green light.
• The Harlequins ended their performance and bowed, but Lox, Usran, the Primarchs, and the seers could not decipher its message.

The Harlequins’ performance led Jaghatai Khan to identify Mortarion as its subject, and Sylandri revealed that Nurgle had trapped Mortarion and the Death Guard in his domain. She said the information came from Isha, the Aeldari goddess of life, who was also imprisoned there.

• Russ challenged the Harlequins to explain their cryptic performance, but Sylandri refused to provide a hint.
• Jaghatai Khan recognized Mortarion in the performance and explained that the Death Guard’s absence from the Sol System, along with the Harlequins’ number, pointed to him.
• Sylandri confirmed the Khan’s guess and revealed that Calas Typhon had led Mortarion and the Death Guard into Nurgle’s domain.
• Sylandri said Mortarion and his legion were resisting Nurgle’s corruption, which was why they had not joined Horus’s forces in the Sol System.
• Sylandri revealed that Isha, the goddess of life worshipped by the Aeldari, had supplied the information from within Nurgle’s domain.

Lox learned that Isha, the Aeldari goddess imprisoned in Nurgle’s garden, had revealed Mortarion’s plight through the Laughing God. The Primarchs resolved to stop Mortarion’s corruption and capture him, but Lox asked Sylandri what price Isha’s help would demand.

• The Veilwalker explained that the Aeldari had shared the warning because their alliance with humanity had grown closer, leaving the decision to act to Lox and his people.
• Lox considered the danger of fully ascended Primarchs and the threat Angron posed, and the Primarchs unanimously agreed to stop Mortarion’s corruption and bring him to account.
• Lox asked Sylandri how the Aeldari could help, and she explained that Mortarion and the Death Guard were trapped in Nurgle’s garden while Nurgle slowly broke his resistance.
• Sylandri revealed that Isha secretly tested Nurgle’s brews on herself and gave mortals ways to resist their plagues, and that she could intervene against Mortarion’s corruption.
• Lox asked Sylandri what price Isha would pay to help Mortarion.

Lox negotiated with Sylandri, who revealed that the Aeldari sought humanity’s help rescuing Isha from Nurgle when conditions were ripe. Lox accepted the bargain, leaving humanity committed to a future mission into Nurgle’s domain.

• Lox considered what the Aeldari might demand and learned that Sylandri wished to negotiate with the Emperor, who entrusted the matter to Lox.
• Sylandri burned a card stamped with a golden clown, allowing the Laughing God to possess her and speak through her.
• The Laughing God asked humanity to help the Aeldari rescue Isha from Nurgle when the time was right.
• Lox warned that rescuing Isha from Nurgle’s garden would be extraordinarily dangerous, but Sylandri argued that Isha’s return would benefit humanity by weakening Nurgle’s influence.
• Lox accepted the deal.

Lox and the Aeldari agreed to help Lilith contact Aisha and attempt to rescue the goddess from Nurgle. The chapter then revealed Mortarion resisting corruption aboard the Endurance in the Plague Garden, where an unknown woman offered to help him.

• Lox pledged humanity’s support for rescuing Aisha, and Sylandri agreed that the Aeldari would help Lilith reach the Goddess of Life.
• Sylandri explained that Lilith’s homeworld, which worshipped Aisha, had been destroyed by the followers of the Prince of Pleasure.
• The Aeldari brought Lilith forward and began preparations to contact Aisha, while Lox accepted that their attempt might fail.
• In the Plague Garden, Nurgle’s corruption consumed the Endurance and its crew as Mortarion continued resisting with Silence.
• An unfamiliar woman spoke to Mortarion and offered to help him.

Mortarion struggled against Nurgle’s corruption aboard a starship until Isha, the imprisoned Aeldari life goddess, intervened. After she revealed that his supposed numerology drew answers from Nurgle and warned he would be assimilated in seven days and seven hours, Mortarion set aside his hatred and asked her for help escaping the garden.

• Mortarion fought the flesh-moss around him as Nurgle’s corruption altered his body and filled his mind with whispers.
• A woman’s voice used pale green energy to weaken Nurgle’s influence and restore Mortarion’s strength.
• The voice warned Mortarion that his numerology relied on Nurgle’s power and that he was a powerful Psyker.
• The woman identified herself as Isha, the imprisoned Aeldari life goddess, and said Mortarion would become Nurgle’s prince in seven days and seven hours.
• Mortarion swallowed his hatred of Isha and begged her to help him escape the garden before he was corrupted.

Mortarion learned from Isha that he was a Psyker and that his numerology had secretly drawn answers from Nurgle, while Isha prepared a cure to help him escape. As Nurgle’s attention turned elsewhere, a Tzeentchian army assembled to attack the garden, prompting Nurgle’s forces to defend it.

• Mortarion pleaded with Isha to save him and his suffering Death Guard sons from Nurgle’s corruption.
• Isha explained that she was trapped in Nurgle’s garden and secretly created antidotes by testing his diseases on herself.
• Isha revealed that Mortarion’s numerology was psychic divination that had long let Nurgle guide his decisions.
• Mortarion recoiled at learning he was a Psyker and had unknowingly sought answers from a Chaos God, while Isha warned him not to despair and attract Nurgle’s attention.
• Isha prepared a cure for Mortarion while sensing that Nurgle’s attention was elsewhere.
• A Tzeentchian Lord of Change led an army toward the rotting garden, and Nurgle’s daemons gathered to defend it.

Tzeentch distracted Nurgle with a massive assault on the Plague Garden while secretly provoking Khorne and Slaanesh to attack as well. With Nurgle besieged by three Chaos Gods, Isha hurried to finish Mortarion’s antidote.

• Ku'gath and Rotigus led Nurgle’s forces against the invading Tzeentchian armies in the Plague Garden.
• Nurgle confronted Tzeentch, who concealed his true purpose and kept the Plague God occupied.
• Tzeentch revealed that he had helped the Laughing God learn of Isha and Mortarion’s plight, hoping Isha would gain time to act.
• Tzeentch activated planted nails that sent Nurgle’s daemons into Khorne’s Brass Arena and Slaanesh’s Sixfold Silver Palace.
• Khorne and Slaanesh took the incursion as a declaration of war and sent their legions to attack Nurgle’s Plague Garden.
• Isha sensed Nurgle’s growing crisis and accelerated her work on the antidote as Mortarion neared his limit.

Aisha treated Mortarion with an antidote after making him swear that he and the Death Guard would stop hunting Aeldari unless attacked first. Mortarion recovered from Nurgle’s illness, but the cure left him with breasts.

• Aisha teased Mortarion about his lack of unity with his brothers, then finished preparing the antidote.
• Aisha withheld the medicine until Mortarion swore in the names of the Warp and the Emperor that he and the Death Guard would not hunt Aeldari unless they attacked first.
• Aisha drank the antidote herself, explaining that she had to process its divine power before giving it to Mortarion.
• Mortarion drank the bitter medicine and recovered from his illness as the fungal plaques vanished and his body returned to its gaunt form.
• Mortarion noticed a soft, elastic growth on his chest and discovered that he had developed breasts.

Mortarion was transformed into a female Primarch as Isha’s life-giving power balanced Nurgle’s influence. Isha restrained Mortallian and offered her the choice to leave the Garden of Decay while Nurgle was distracted.

• Mortarion discovered that his body had developed female characteristics, his male traits had vanished, and his hair had grown long.
• Isha explained that her power had unified the forces within Mortarion and that the transformation had occurred as her power balanced Nurgle’s.
• Mortallian screamed in outrage and tried to attack Isha with Silence.
• Isha bound Mortallian with emerald vines and told her that she could either fight pointlessly or escape to the material universe.
• Mortallian suppressed her anger and recognized that leaving the Garden of Decay might give her a chance to reverse the transformation.

Isha restored the minds of thousands of Death Guard and helped Mortarion escape Nurgle’s Garden aboard a strike cruiser. Nurgle’s attempt to stop them drew the Chaos Gods into a renewed clash as Mortarion’s surviving sons fled.

• Isha’s power halted the corruption of around two thousand Death Guard and restored their consciousness aboard the Endurance.
• The Death Guard condemned Calas Typhon as a traitor, killed corrupted Legion members, and found Mortarion transformed into a female primarch.
• Mortarion gathered around four thousand surviving Death Guard aboard the Barbarus Sting and ordered them to abandon the Legion’s old rules about seven and three.
• With Isha’s help, Mortarion activated the strike cruiser and pulled it free of Nurgle’s Garden.
• Nurgle tried to seize Mortarion, but another Chaos God restrained him, sparking a clash among the gods as Mortarion escaped with her sons.

The Chaos Gods fought over Mortarion and Isha, but their clash hurled Mortarion’s damaged ship back into realspace. On Terra, Lilith finished praying as the Emperor sensed the Warp’s upheaval and suspected that something had happened to Mortarion.

• Slaanesh, Khorne, and Nurgle turned on Tzeentch after discovering that he was steering Mortarion toward his Crystal Labyrinth, and their battle sent her ship back into realspace.
• The Barbarus Sting crash-landed in a remote part of the Obscurus Sector, leaving Mortarion with fewer than four thousand Astartes and a badly damaged ship.
• Mortarion vowed to honor her promise to Horus, ordered her Legion to seize a nearby human world for repairs, and planned to head for the Solar System.
• On Terra, Lilith finished praying as Magnus screamed from the Golden Throne, and the Primarchs pretended not to hear him in front of the Aeldari delegation.
• The Emperor sensed the Chaos Gods’ battle disrupting the Warp, lost sight of Mortarion’s fate, and stopped Lox before he could question Lilith.

Mortarion returned to realspace with four thousand Death Guard after escaping the Plague Garden, while the Chaos Gods continued fighting over Nurgle’s power. Ahriman learned that Magnus was on Terra and faced Amon’s challenge to examine whether he truly wanted to save their primarch.

• Mortarion led the remaining four thousand Death Guard back into realspace, leaving the other Astartes to be assimilated by Nurgle’s garden.
• The Blood God, the Changer of Ways, and the Prince of Pleasure seized some of Nurgle’s territory before fighting among themselves over the spoils.
• Ahriman awoke from meditation and told his battle-brothers that his divination placed Magnus on Terra.
• Ahriman explained that the Thousand Sons could not break through Rogal Dorn’s defenses alone and would have to wait for Horus and Perturabo to breach them.
• Amon asked Ahriman whether he truly wanted to save Magnus, shocking the Thousand Sons gathered in the meeting chamber.