Recaps

After the assassination attempt, Guilliman rebuked his sons for blaming one another and ordered them to heed Lox if he fell. The story left him preparing to meet a Word Bearer who still claimed loyalty to the Emperor.

• Lady Euten scolded Auguston for blaming the palace guards and reminded him that Guilliman had also been careless.
• Guilliman apologized to Lady Euten, reassured her, and accepted her care as he recovered from his wounds.
• Auguston demanded that the Victorious Army and palace guard be held accountable, but Guilliman rebuked his sons and urged unity.
• Guilliman ordered his sons to follow Lox’s counsel and commands if he fell, declaring Lox his closest friend and a capable adviser.
• Dracus Glord reported that Captain Ventanus had arrived with a Word Bearer loyal to the Emperor, and Guilliman ordered them brought in.

Ventanus brought Hermit, a restrained Word Bearer who had surrendered during the war on Calth, before Guilliman. Hermit explained that he rejected Lorgar’s path and believed the Emperor’s destruction of Perfect City should have been accepted as a divine trial, then revealed he had foreseen that the betrayal on Calth would strengthen the Ultramarines.

• Ventanus apologized to Guilliman for arriving late, and Guilliman comforted him before Ventanus introduced Hermit.
• Ventanus explained that Hermit had surrendered during the underground war on Calth and claimed to have taken part in the massacre on Isstvan V.
• Guilliman questioned why Hermit had surrendered despite hating the Ultramarines for destroying Perfect City.
• Hermit said war had shown him that the Word Bearers had taken the wrong path and that their faith required them to accept the Emperor’s destruction of Perfect City as a trial.
• Hermit condemned Lorgar as a false believer who worshipped power rather than the Emperor and said the betrayal on Calth would only make the Ultramarines stronger.

The Hermit explained why he had surrendered to the Ultramarines and grieved over the Word Bearers’ betrayal of the Emperor. Guilliman commanded him to live and atone by using his knowledge of the Legion and Warp sorcery, leaving the Ultramarines poised to strike back against their enemies’ schemes.

• The Hermit said he surrendered at Calth after realizing the Word Bearers had turned against the Emperor and helped Chaos destroy humanity’s future.
• Lox and Guilliman recognized the Hermit’s self-destructive guilt and decided to keep him alive for his knowledge of the Warp and the Word Bearers.
• Guilliman declared that the Hermit could atone and ordered him not to seek death before earning the Emperor’s forgiveness.
• Guilliman commanded the Hermit to help loyalists expose the Word Bearers’ plots, and the Hermit pledged to use his religious knowledge against his former brothers.
• Lox asked whether the Hermit could use rituals to summon Warp daemons for intelligence, and the Hermit said he could.

Guilliman and Lox planned to build a Blackstone fortress to summon and enslave Warp creatures, using untouchables to contain them and extract intelligence. The plan depended on finding enough Blackstone, while Lox also raised the possibility of using it to safely restore artificial intelligence.

• Guilliman explained that he wanted to build a Blackstone fortress on a moon of Macragge and have the hermit summon controllable Warp creatures inside it.
• Lox recognized that untouchables could drain the creatures’ essence and help force them into service.
• Guilliman argued that enslaved Warp creatures could provide valuable knowledge and intelligence while the Ruinstorm cut off communication between the Ultima Segmentum and the Sol System.
• Guilliman acknowledged that they needed Blackstone and said the Mechanicum and the fleets of the Five Hundred Worlds were searching for deposits.
• Lox suggested that Blackstone might also create a Warp-safe environment where humanity could use artificial intelligence, and Guilliman deferred judgment until its effects were verified.

Lox visited the imprisoned Word Bearers hermit and told Ventanus that Guilliman had chosen him to lead the Legion’s counter-infiltration work. The hermit described seeing Calth’s dead guided by golden light in the Warp and a cold sun he believed revealed the Emperor’s power, while Lox reflected on his own influence over the timeline.

• Lox found Ventanus guarding the hermit in a heavily secured underground prison cell.
• Lox told Ventanus that he and Guilliman wanted him to take charge of intelligence and counter-infiltration against spies, especially the Alpha Legion.
• Lox explained that a weather-control device and geomagnetic generators would help make Calth habitable again, and said the planet would be rebuilt as a monument to resistance.
• The hermit said Calth’s dead had been guided away from Warp daemons by golden light and welcomed by blazing skeleton warriors resembling Space Marines.
• The hermit described a cold sun in the Warp as a glimpse of the Emperor’s immense power and called Lox the Unpredictable One, beyond the reach of foresight.
• Lox considered how his actions from Isstvan to Terra had changed the original timeline and would continue to shape it.

Lox questioned a hermit who warned that the Emperor favored him and that the Chaos Gods had noticed him, then wandered Macragge and saw how his reforms were improving ordinary lives. He resolved to preserve not only humanity but its civilization for future ages.

• The hermit told Lox that he bore the God-Emperor’s favor, was crucial to a plan, and should keep The Book of Rowell with him.
• Lox left the prison with Ventanus, who warned that the Word Bearers would hunt the hermit if they learned he had abandoned the Warp.
• Lox used his projection to travel to a civilian district on Macragge and walk among its residents.
• Lox observed falling food prices and reflected on how synthetic food, cheap electricity, and free education were changing life on Macragge.
• Lox concluded that preserving humanity’s civilization and cultural spirit mattered as much as passing on its flame.

Captain Gantula and the White Scars arrived in Macragge’s orbit and were stunned by the immense metal structure that served as a planetary shipyard. Their fleet docked at Hera Space Dock, where Gantula led his battle-brothers inside to explore.

• Gantula’s fleet approached a metal satellite more than 3,400 kilometers across, which the Ultramarines’ navigator clarified was not the smaller battle planet Amattra.
• Gantula and Kliver marveled at the giant structure and its enormous spaceports as their ship passed through its energy shield.
• The fleet was guided into a berth at Hera Space Dock, where the ship’s engines were shut down and its reactor output reduced.
• The navigator welcomed the visitors, then departed in a small craft, leaving them to move about freely.
• Gantula led the White Scars from their ship and into the planetary shipyard.

Gantula and the White Scars and Iron Hands warriors toured the vast Hera Planetary Dockyard, marveling at its automated repairs and star-powered facilities. Lox, Roboute Guilliman’s trusted mortal adviser, met them and offered to show them a new warship under construction.

• Gantula and the others watched automated machines rapidly dismantle and repair warships with a process that fused their hulls into exceptionally strong structures.
• A Servitor explained that the Hera Planetary Dockyard had been built in two Terran years by the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Mustafar Forge World on Roboute Guilliman’s orders.
• Gantula asked about the dockyard’s main purpose, but the Servitor refused to answer because he lacked authorization.
• Gantula and Cliver saw the dockyard’s hollow central structure and its stellar mirrors channeling energy to a furnace, while the Iron Hands warrior admired the automated facility.
• Lox met Gantula at a space elevator, exchanged greetings with him, and offered to show the group a new warship under construction.

Lox consulted veteran White Scars and Iron Hands officers about the warships he planned to produce at the vast Hera shipyard. After Gantula argued that speed was central to the White Scars’ naval doctrine, Lox invited the group to inspect the ships under construction at Shipyard Three.

• Lox oversaw the Hera planetary shipyard’s preparations to build new warships for Roboute Guilliman’s fleet.
• Lox met Captain Gantula and other White Scars and Iron Hands officers to seek their advice on Imperial warship design.
• Lox outlined the Imperium’s battleships, strike-craft carriers, and void fortresses, and contrasted their strengths and weaknesses.
• Gantula recommended fast, highly mobile battleships, citing the Stormblade and its role in breaking the Alpha Legion’s encirclement at Sondax.
• Lox led the officers toward Shipyard Three to inspect the warships under construction.

Lox showed Gantula and the White Scars the enormous planetary-class warship under construction in Dockyard Three, explaining that its design prioritized speed and that he privately called it Thundercloud. The unfinished vessel was intended to outpace every Imperial warship and strike enemy forces with its powerful energy weapons.

• Gantula asked Lox how many similar conversations he had held and realized Lox was speaking through a projection rather than his real body.
• Lox led Gantula and the White Scars to Dockyard Three, where they saw a colossal warship under construction.
• Lox explained that the warship used a widely available, self-repairing alloy instead of adamantium and would exceed one hundred kilometers in length.
• Lox said the vessel would be faster than the White Scars' Blade Storm and every other Imperial warship.
• Lox revealed that he called the planetary-class warship Thundercloud and described its Exterminatus-level main cannon and role in dividing and striking enemy forces at high speed.

Lox offered the White Scars the first planetary warship, explaining that their piloting skills made them ideal for testing and improving the vessels. He reassured Gantula about the ships’ Machine Spirits and revealed a transforming mech as a new boarding option.

• Gantula was captivated by the planetary warship and asked Lox why he had chosen the White Scars instead of the Ultramarines.
• Lox explained that the vessel was the first of many and that the White Scars would pilot it and provide data for future designs.
• Gantula questioned whether the warships would rely on Abominable Intelligence, and Lox described their protected, loyal Machine Spirits.
• An Iron Hands warrior supported Lox’s assurances, and Gantula accepted that the Machine Spirits might be safe to use.
• Gantula asked about boarding torpedoes, and Lox described beaconless teleportation before unveiling the Tengu Mech, which could transform between fighter and bipedal Knight forms.

Lox introduced the White Scars to the Tengu Mech, a fast-transforming war machine from the Age of Strife, and the warriors eagerly scrambled to claim it. Their excitement gave way to grief when Gantula explained how Eidolon had killed Qin Xia, and the White Scars vowed to join the Five Hundred Worlds in hunting the traitors.

• Lox introduced the hovering Tengu Mech and explained its speed, weapons, and difficult-to-control Machine Spirit to Gantula and Cleaver.
• Lox transformed the Tengu into a fighter in less than a second, and the White Scars rushed to climb aboard and fight for the cockpit.
• Gantula restored order, then found Qin Xin clinging to the mech's underside and scolded him for his reckless behavior.
• Lox asked about Qin Xin's connection to Qin Xia, and Gantula explained that Eidolon had killed Qin Xia with a surprise sonic attack during the Battle of the Kalium Gate.
• Gantula said the White Scars would join the Five Hundred Worlds in an eternal hunt against the traitors.

Guilliman summoned Lox to investigate a mysterious corpse that had fallen through Macragge’s atmosphere and landed on the planet. Lox traveled to the secret fortress where it was being held, while Guilliman remained troubled by an unexplained sense of connection to it.

• Guilliman told Lox that a meteor had fallen on Macragge and asked Hero Valentius Dorlo to explain what he had found.
• Dorlo reported that the meteor had been a naked humanoid corpse, burned and shattered on impact, which had appeared without breaching Macragge’s defenses.
• Dorlo secured the corpse in a secret base, called in the Chief Librarian and Untouchables for help, and kept the Adeptus Mechanicus uninformed.
• Guilliman asked Lox to identify the corpse because he felt it was connected to him, and Lox agreed to investigate.
• Lox gathered precision equipment and went with Dorlo to the fortress, where the corpse remained unidentified and witnesses had been detained.
• Guilliman stayed in his office, unsettled by the corpse, and accidentally blotted a parchment with his ink.

Lox investigated a charred corpse that had fallen through the atmosphere, using an untouchable squad and Legion Apothecaries to examine it. Scans revealed a giant with a Primarch-like frame, and Dorlo identified the reconstructed face as Vulkan.

• Lox followed Dorlo into the fortress, where Dulles Vanlentin and two other untouchables were waiting with two Legion Apothecaries.
• The Apothecaries reported that the corpse’s outer tissue and genetic material had been badly damaged by intense heat.
• Lox ordered a full-body scan of the nearly three-meter-long corpse.
• The scan showed an exceptionally large, dense skeleton, and a reconstruction depicted a figure over four and a half meters tall.
• Valentinus Dorlo recognized the reconstructed face as Lord Vulkan.

Lox and the Ultramarines discovered that the charred corpse inside the meteor was Vulkan, the presumed-dead primarch of the Salamanders. Lox sealed off the remains and set out to tell Guilliman, leaving the body untouched until Guilliman or the Salamanders could claim it.

• Lox and Dolor realized that the corpse recovered from the meteor was Vulkan, though their instruments detected no signs of life.
• Lox ordered Dulles and the other Apothecaries to keep the discovery secret and remain at the medical chamber.
• Lox suspected Vulkan had teleported to Macragge after Pharos lit, but something had gone wrong.
• Dolor evaded responsibility for informing Guilliman, leaving Lox to deliver the news himself.
• Lox allowed Dulles and the other Apothecaries to leave, then ordered the medical chamber sealed and Vulkan's remains left untouched.

Lox told Guilliman that Vulkan had arrived on Macragge, but the primarch had been killed and burned into a charred corpse. Guilliman vowed to avenge him and decided to keep the news from the surviving Salamanders until the situation stabilized.

• Lox visited Guilliman's office with a Victrix Guard and told him that Vulkan had arrived on Macragge.
• Lox revealed that the meteor and charred corpse Guilliman had seen were Vulkan, who had died.
• Guilliman struggled with grief and anger, then vowed to avenge his brother.
• Guilliman wondered what had happened to Vulkan and the Salamanders, and kept vigil in silence for ten minutes.
• Guilliman ordered the news of Vulkan's death sealed so the surviving Salamanders would not rush into vengeance.

Lox told Dantioch that Guilliman had survived an Alpha Legion assassination attempt, loyalist Legions had gathered on Macragge, and Vulkan had fallen to his death. Lox and Dantioch then agreed to expand the search for Blackstone into the unexplored galactic fringe using automated exploration vessels.

• Dantioch grew alarmed when Lox revealed that events on Macragge concerned the Iron Warriors.
• Lox explained that Alpha Legion Space Marines had badly wounded Guilliman, but that he had survived, and loyalist Legion forces had gathered on Macragge.
• Lox told Dantioch that Vulkan had fallen from Macragge's atmosphere and that only his remains had been found; Dantioch denied any involvement.
• Lox reported that Macragge's search for Blackstone had yielded little and proposed widening the search into the galactic fringe.
• Dantioch supported Lox's plan, and Lox decided to build automated exploration vessels in Sotha to survey the region.

Lox’s Seed Project launched unmanned exploration vessels from Sotha to map the galaxy and search for Blackstone, while Dantioch warned of the risks of xenos capture. Lox then provoked Dantioch by mentioning that Alexis Pollux had been put in charge of Macragge’s defenses.

• Lox established a mobile shipyard in Sotha’s asteroid belt to build five-hundred-meter exploration vessels for the Seed Project.
• The vessels set out from Sotha without Warp engines and would send back star charts and reports, with transmissions arriving at intervals of decades or centuries.
• Dantioch warned that xenos might capture an exploration vessel, and Lox explained that captured ships would transmit their final logs before self-destructing.
• Lox told Dantioch that Guilliman had appointed Alexis Pollux to oversee Macragge’s orbital defenses and security measures.
• Dantioch protested that he did not care about the Imperial Fists, then hurried back into Pharos as Lox laughed.

Alexis Pollux and Auguston inspected Macragge’s orbital defenses, while Pollux objected to Barabas Dantioch’s control of the Pharos. Pollux then identified the nearby spaceport as a major flaw in the defenses, and he and Auguston ended in a tense confrontation.

• Pollux questioned Auguston about entrusting the Pharos to the Iron Warrior Barabas Dantioch, but Auguston defended Dantioch’s loyalty and refused to reveal classified details.
• Auguston asked Pollux about his cloned arm, and Pollux said it was healing well and should be usable in a week.
• Pollux skimmed the inspection report and criticized Macragge’s orbital defense preparations as inadequate.
• Pollux pointed to the nearby spaceport and Orbital Platform as a major security flaw threatening Macragge.
• Auguston confronted Pollux over his criticism, and the two men stood face to face in a tense standoff.

Auguston and Pollux argued over Macragge’s defenses until Auguston accepted Pollux’s stricter proposals. Auguston claimed credit for the plan and listed Pollux as its second author, while Pollux remained focused on getting the defenses built.

• Auguston defended Macragge’s existing defenses, but Pollux argued that its starports and civilian infrastructure made them vulnerable.
• Pollux proposed transforming Macragge’s defenses, restricting warships, adding transfer stations and void shields, and expanding orbital surveillance.
• Auguston acknowledged Pollux’s recommendations and said they should be adopted, though he noted that enemies could still arrive by teleportation or drop pods.
• Auguston claimed he should be listed as the plan’s proposer and Pollux as its second author.
• Pollux accepted the arrangement, and Auguston patted him on the shoulder before inspecting the next location.

Fafnir Bloodbond confronted Guilliman over reopening the Librarius, bringing the Space Wolves close to violence. Lox moved the gathering to a garden feast, where the wolves relaxed and shared Fenrisian songs and mead.

• Fafnir Bloodbond accused Guilliman of violating the Edict of Nikaea by reactivating the Librarius, and the Space Wolves formed an attack stance around Titus Praetor.
• Guilliman defended the Librarius, arguing that the rebellion’s Warp enemies made the old edict obsolete, and his anger quieted the wolves.
• Lox suggested moving the feast to the rear garden, and Guilliman led the guests outside.
• Lox arranged a bonfire and grox-meat barbecue, making the Space Wolves more comfortable in the open air.
• Fafnir thanked Guilliman for the hospitality, and the wolves sang Fenrisian ballads and shared mead around the feast.

At a moonlit banquet, Guilliman used Fenrisian mead and a debate over Rune Priests to challenge the Space Wolves’ accusations against the Ultramarines. Fafnir realized the Wolves would need to explain why they condemned other Legions for psychic powers while their own Rune Priests wielded similar abilities.

• Fafnir offered Guilliman Fenrisian mead, and Guilliman drank it despite its dangerously corrosive ingredients.
• Guilliman asked Fafnir about the Rune Priests, who the Wolf King described as drawing power from Fenris’s World Spirit.
• Lox questioned how Rune Priest abilities differed from psychic powers, and Fafnir rejected the comparison.
• The Chief Librarian testified that a Rune Priest he had fought used psychic power and summoned a raven-shaped manifestation.
• Guilliman proposed a hypothetical about shamans who claimed to borrow power from a World Spirit, exposing the contradiction in the Space Wolves’ accusations.
• Fafnir sobered up and sweated as he recognized that he needed to defend the Wolves’ use of Rune Priests.

Lox and Guilliman challenged Fafnir over the Space Wolves’ use of rune power, then Guilliman turned the dispute into a drinking contest and pressed him to share Fenrisian rune secrets. Fafnir ended the chapter drunk and imagining Guilliman as a monstrous Kraken.

• Lox and Guilliman questioned Fafnir about how Rune Priests’ powers differed from Librarians’ psychic abilities.
• Fafnir defended rune power as safe and distinct, but Lox argued the Ultramarines could use it if their powers were equally reliable.
• Fafnir ended the debate by agreeing to leave the Edict of Nikaea aside and let the Allfather and Russ decide how to deal with Guilliman.
• Guilliman toasted Fafnir and forced him to drink another wineskin of Fenrisian mead.
• Guilliman praised rune power and urged Fafnir to reveal Fenris’s rune secrets, while the drunken Fafnir saw Guilliman as a giant Kraken.

After the wolf feast, Guilliman and Lox discussed adapting the Space Wolves’ Rune Priest methods into safeguards for the growing Ultramarines Librarius. They resolved to pursue more knowledge from Fenris and the White Scars as they worked to make Psychic training safer.

• Guilliman recalled defeating Fafnir Bloodbrother in a drinking contest and reflected on the Space Wolves’ formidable appetite.
• Lox noted that Fafnir’s hunting pack had lacked Rune Priests, while Guilliman said the Librarius had to develop its rules step by step.
• Guilliman and Lox concluded that Rune Priests used Warp-based Psychic power through a disciplined rune system that could help protect Librarians from losing control.
• Guilliman reported that the Ultramarines had more than two thousand Librarians, prompting Lox to consider how quickly the Legion had rebuilt and expanded.
• Lox and Guilliman discussed seeking further instruction from Fenris and studying the White Scars’ Stormseers and their Path to Heaven.

Guilliman and Lox finalized the Ultramarines' Librarius training charter before Lady Yottan pressed Guilliman to accept the Second Imperium and its throne. Guilliman resisted but yielded to the inevitable, leaving him to face his coronation on Macragge the next day.

• Guilliman thanked Lox for offering to replace the destroyed cogitator that had belonged to King Konor.
• Lady Yottan entered Guilliman's office and urged him to declare the Second Imperium and take its throne.
• Guilliman argued that founding a Second Imperium would betray the Emperor's dream and make his ambition appear genuine.
• Lox reminded Guilliman that he was the only living primarch available to lead, while Guilliman wished a loyal brother could take the burden instead.
• Lady Yottan told Guilliman that Macragge's governors and ministers would gather the next day to crown him Emperor of the Second Imperium.
• Lox jokingly rehearsed the coronation greeting, and Guilliman silently accepted what was coming.