Recaps

The Chief revealed that he had created the Black Glass prototype and the Golden Throne as part of a plan to protect humanity and gather human souls without mass sacrifice. His avatar could not explain why the Golden Throne was abandoned, so Lox and the others entered the Old Ones’ treasure vault, leaving the mystery unresolved.

• The Chief explained that the Gold Men had pursued ascension to counter the Warp, then described his plan to build a device that could preserve human souls, refine their power, and access the Webway.
• The Chief revealed that his laboratory near the Catalonia Warp Rift produced the Black Glass prototype, whose need for a powerful psyker led him to develop the Golden Throne.
• The Chief confirmed that he had created the Golden Throne, but said his psychic avatar lost contact with his original body as the device neared completion and did not know why it was abandoned.
• After Lox questioned the Golden Throne’s fate, the Chief’s avatar urged the group to focus on the Old Ones’ inheritance, while privately speculating that the original had abandoned the device after realizing it resembled the End-Products’ methods.
• Lox entered the treasure vault, followed by the Emperor, Malcador, Trazyn, Orikan, and Cegorach, and they found a vast expanse of energy and data shaped like a starry sky.

Lox and his allies entered the Old Ones' treasury, where they discovered its vast psychic archive and encountered Qua, the last surviving fragment of an Old One. Qua entrusted humanity with the knowledge needed to safely retrieve the archive, while the Emperor chose to take only urgently needed technologies for now.

• Lox recognized that the treasury's data stars depicted the galaxy as it had appeared in the Old Ones' age, and he and the Emperor reflected on humanity's struggle to build a better future.
• Trazyn despaired that the psychic archive contained nothing he could collect, but Orikan reminded him that the Necrons had a future; Trazyn then vowed to record the journey and mocked the Aeldari's claim to be the Old Ones' firstborn.
• Cegorach said the modern Aeldari could not absorb the Old Ones' technology, and Lox understood that the god was tactfully leaving the legacy to humanity while preserving the possibility of sharing some knowledge later.
• Lox used the Webway shield-borer to gather the data stars, summoning Qua, who revealed that he was the final fragment of the Old Ones and explained how to safely transfer the knowledge crystals.
• The Emperor decided to retrieve only the most urgently needed technologies and leave the rest in the treasury until humanity was better prepared.
• Qua revealed that the Old Ones had opened the Eye of Terror while fighting the C'tan, apologized for the suffering it caused, and Lox assured him that humanity would carry on the Old Ones' unfinished duty to protect life and restore order.

Lox questioned Old One Kua about the multiverse as humanity prepared to expand beyond its universe and fight Chaos. Kua described neighboring universes and revealed several powerful realms, including one governed by five creator gods.

• Kua praised Lox for accepting responsibility and recalled the Aeldari’s ancient betrayal of the Old Ones, making Cegorach uneasy.
• Lox explained humanity’s plans to assemble an expeditionary force and asked Kua for intelligence about other universes.
• Kua described the Warp as a sea surrounding universes whose differing veils of reality shaped their laws, psychic powers, and vulnerability to Chaos.
• Kua explained how negative emotions empowered Chaos, how the four gods had altered the War in Heaven’s timeline, and how they differed across universes.
• Lox and Kua discussed the Celestial Universe, where the Celestials had divided reality into branches to cultivate combat races while fighting an enemy from beyond the universe.
• Kua warned that a nearby universe could control its veil of reality and said its supreme beings appeared to be five creator gods.