Recaps

The Emperor and the Primarchs traveled to Nostramo to meet Curze, greeting him and the people of the planet. The Emperor praised Curze and helped him glimpse a new path, but Curze publicly called him “Uncle,” leaving the gathered Primarchs and Han Mingxuan stunned.

• The Emperor told the Primarchs to travel light, explained that Nostramo’s blue skies reminded him of ancient Terra, and said they were going to meet their brother and uncle.
• Lorgar sensed the Emperor’s humanity and declared that his father was a man, prompting the Emperor to laugh and affirm that he had always said he was no god.
• The Emperor and the Primarchs traveled to Nostramo, where Curze, Han Mingxuan, and representatives of the planet welcomed them at Light-Bathed Square.
• The Emperor praised Curze and touched his shoulder, causing Curze to glimpse fragments of his former future before the prophecy faded and an obsidian set of scales appeared in his consciousness.
• Curze thanked the Emperor and loudly called him “Uncle,” shocking the other Primarchs and leaving Han Mingxuan close to fainting.

Han Mingxuan hosted the Emperor and the Primarchs at a banquet, where the Emperor introduced Roboute Guilliman as his son. Curze challenged Lorgar over the Imperial Truth and religion, leaving Lorgar baffled by Curze’s sudden comparison of animals and rocks.

• Han Mingxuan welcomed the Emperor and Primarchs to a banquet at his home, where Dorn criticized the modest house and the Emperor recognized the old Terra cuisine.
• Roboute Guilliman thanked Han Mingxuan as his uncle, and the Emperor introduced him as his thirteenth son and the Primarch of the Ultramarines.
• Curze introduced himself as Han Mingxuan’s proudest son and prepared to argue with Lorgar after the others exchanged barbs.
• Curze told Lorgar that the Emperor was not a god and challenged him to explain why people worshipped gods and what truth was.
• Curze asked Lorgar whether he knew that animals were allergic to rocks, leaving Lorgar and the other Primarchs confused.

Curze challenged Lorgar’s belief in gods, arguing that people should seek the truth rather than worship what they do not understand. Lorgar accepted the Imperial Truth and reconciled with Curze, while the Emperor left Han Mingxuan to answer another son’s questions.

• Curze explained to Lorgar that apparent divine power came from knowledge of truth, and called blind worship ignorance and cowardice.
• Curze argued that people should oppose those who used secret knowledge to threaten and exploit them, prompting Lorgar to reconsider his beliefs.
• Han Mingxuan gave Lorgar a copy of the Imperial Truth, and Lorgar broke down, apologized to the Emperor, and embraced Curze.
• Lorgar began studying the Imperial Truth and asked Magnus for help, while the Emperor praised him and Han Mingxuan congratulated Curze.
• Curze’s brother asked Han Mingxuan a question, but the Emperor told Curze to answer it instead.

Curze warned Magnus that the Warp had become a dangerous cesspit shaped by the material world’s suffering and excess, and urged him to value wisdom over knowledge. Magnus rejected the warning, and Curze left him with a lesson in Nostraman gang wisdom: the truth could demand more than he could afford to lose.

• Curze agreed to answer Magnus’s questions about the Warp after the Emperor permitted him to share some knowledge.
• Curze called the Warp a giant cesspit and explained that the material world’s misery had corrupted it, making deep study dangerous.
• Magnus defended his research by saying the Warp had revealed accurate visions of the future.
• Curze smacked Magnus on the head and argued that knowledge could mislead him, while wisdom could keep his mind clear.
• Curze warned Magnus that seeking truth through the Warp was like gambling with schemers who would eventually take his soul.

Curze warned Magnus that staying alive mattered more than pursuing truth recklessly, then explained to the Primarchs that good books and shared positive ideals could help resist Warp daemons. Han Mingxuan gave Sanguinius a book titled “Literary Pivot of Splendid Chapters,” and Sanguinius invited him to visit Baal after the Great Crusade.

• Curze took Magnus's grapes, called him rigid and foolish, and warned him that Warp creatures preferred souls to angels.
• Curze told Fulgrim and the others that daemons in the Warp were real, while the Emperor trusted Han Mingxuan to handle the danger.
• The Emperor advised Guilliman to read more, and Curze explained that carefully chosen books and shared hopes could guard against Warp daemons.
• Han Mingxuan gave Sanguinius his condensed Old Terra manuscript, which Sanguinius named “Literary Pivot of Splendid Chapters,” and wrote its preface.
• Sanguinius invited Han Mingxuan to visit Baal, and Han Mingxuan said he might go after the Great Crusade.

Curze discussed Nostramo’s laws and construction plans with his brothers, who learned that Han Mingxuan had created the Evernight Code. The Emperor praised Curze and asked Han Mingxuan to speak to his sons, and Han began by telling them that humanity was not perfect.

• Curze gave Dorn’s construction plans to Guilliman and asked Dorn to help improve them for Nostramo.
• Curze showed Guilliman the Evernight Code and explained that Han Mingxuan had dictated its original version.
• Guilliman guessed that Han Mingxuan was a Perpetual, but Curze explained that he was an ordinary mortal who had raised Curze well.
• Curze told his brothers that people’s achievements and potential made them special, and the Emperor applauded his words.
• The Emperor thanked Han Mingxuan for raising Curze and asked him to teach his sons, so Han invited them to sit and began speaking.

Lorgar became a beacon in the Warp and proposed building a City of Truth on Nostramo, while the Emperor assigned his brothers to help. After arranging Curze’s return to the Imperium, the Emperor privately thanked Han Mingxuan and asked him to help guide his sons, but Han refused.

• As Han Mingxuan spoke about humanity’s hope, Lorgar began shining with golden light that guided lost Rogue Trader fleets in the Warp and burned daemons’ eyes.
• Lorgar told Han Mingxuan that he had used himself as a lamp to guide humanity’s lost compatriots, then asked the Emperor to let him build the City of Truth on Nostramo.
• The Emperor assigned Dorn, Guilliman, Ferrus Manus, and Fulgrim to help build and defend the city, and declared that he would lay its first brick, followed by Horus and Han Mingxuan.
• The Emperor invited Curze to return to the Imperium and placed the Eighth Legion under his command.
• The Emperor privately thanked Han Mingxuan for changing his sons’ futures and said he would not pursue the hidden Thunder Warriors, but asked Han to help set his nephews straight; Han refused.

Han Mingxuan set conditions for helping the Emperor, including protecting Curze and granting Nostramo autonomy, and urged the Emperor to show Magnus the Warp’s truth. The Emperor took Magnus into a Warp Storm, while Trazyn later captured daemons to use as teaching materials for Han Mingxuan.

• Han Mingxuan asked the Emperor to keep Curze from becoming a villain if he died, grant Nostramo and its star system autonomy, and expose Magnus to the Warp’s truths.
• The Emperor promised a chosen human from the 500 Worlds would help Han Mingxuan and left Nostramo with Magnus, while the other Primarchs and the Great Angel remained to assist Lorgar and study Old Terra’s culture.
• The Emperor took Magnus into a Warp Storm, showed him daemons and a soul they had ensnared, and explained how Warp entities tempted people and devoured their souls.
• Trazyn entered the Warp, traveled to the Eye of Terror, and captured a group of lesser daemons in his tesseract labyrinth as teaching materials for Han Mingxuan.
• When a Greater Daemon confronted him, Trazyn escaped the Warp and left it raging behind him.

Curze learned that a Rogue Trader fleet wanted to trade for a planet and the Imperial Fleet intended to take over Nostramo, then ordered the Primarchs to fire two Macro-cannon salvos to deter the newcomers. The chapter left the fleets preparing to attack the ships approaching the Peaceful Star System.

• Futia led an Imperial Fleet toward Nostramo, intending to take over the planet, while a Rogue Trader fleet arrived seeking supplies and trade.
• The Archangel told Horus that Lorgar's guidance had drawn humans, Aeldari, Xenos, and heretics to the system.
• Curze ordered Sevatar to investigate the newcomers, and Sevatar discovered the Rogue Traders wanted to buy a planet while Futia planned to seize Nostramo for the Imperium.
• Curze ordered the fleets of Horus, Roboute, Fulgrim, and Ferrus Manus to fire the first Macro-cannon salvo, followed by a second salvo from the fleets of Lorgar, Sanguinius, and Dorn.
• Curze said they would fire more salvos if necessary, arguing that ruthless force would deter others from approaching Nostramo.

Rogue Trader Captain Ashinu’s fleet was nearly destroyed after approaching the Peaceful Star System, while Nostramo’s Primarchs confronted a fleet sent from Ultramar to take over the planet. Futia was detained and ordered to learn Nostramo’s laws, leaving Guilliman embarrassed and accused of ambition by his brothers.

• Ashinu’s fleet entered the Peaceful Star System, where black-armored warriors appeared aboard its ships and Bona reported seven Legions’ Battle Barges around Nostramo.
• Macro-cannon salvos destroyed most of Ashinu’s fleet, and Curze allowed the survivors three days to resupply before leaving.
• Futia contacted Curze, claiming she had brought a civil administration from the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar; Guilliman denied ordering her mission.
• The Eternal Night Justiciar Legion detained Futia and her fleet, and Curze questioned her before the Primarchs.
• Futia said the Emperor had ordered her to take over Nostramo, but Guilliman pointed out the parchment only authorized her to assist in governing.
• Curze ordered Cyrion to take Futia away and teach her Nostramo’s laws, while Fulgrim and Lorgar mocked Guilliman’s ambition.

Curze defended Guilliman from suspicion and confined Futia to make her read Nostramo’s Evernight Code. After she finished, Curze brought her to meet Han Mingxuan, who recognized her as the woman from the picture that had brought him to this world.

• Curze reassured Guilliman that he trusted him and warned that Futia’s actions could cause trouble between the brothers.
• Cyrion imprisoned Futia in a sealed classroom and ordered her to read Nostramo’s Evernight Code before she could leave.
• Futia spent several days reading the code, then asked to see the Father of Night.
• Curze let Futia out and brought her to Han Mingxuan’s home, where several Primarchs and Trazyn were present.
• Han Mingxuan recognized Futia from the picture he had saved on his phone, and Futia told him she had dressed properly as an Imperial soldier.

Han Mingxuan tested Lieutenant General Futia’s loyalty and judgment before agreeing to make her his deputy and entrusting her with Nostramo’s command in his and Curze’s absence. Trazyn’s test left Futia unable to distinguish illusion from reality, and Guilliman had to stop her from attacking him.

• Han Mingxuan rejected Futia as a potential governor of Nostramo and explained that he needed a capable logistics leader who could think independently.
• Futia asked Han Mingxuan to teach her, and he had Trazyn test her in a dimensional space against a monstrous creature she believed was a Xenos.
• Futia appeared to pass the test, so Han Mingxuan appointed her deputy, and Curze gave her scales representing authority to command Nostramo in their absence.
• Futia realized something was wrong and attacked the illusion, only to find herself back in Trazyn’s test and unable to distinguish reality from deception.
• Futia mistook Trazyn for a Xenos and attacked him, but Guilliman knocked her sword away and brought her down.

Han Mingxuan settled Futia into ordinary administrative work and continued working under an alias on Nostramo. Fulgrim sought him out for poetry, only to find him laboring at a construction site alongside retired enforcers and Dorn.

• Han Mingxuan removed Futia from her official posts, took her ceremonial sword, and sent her to work as an ordinary clerk.
• Han Mingxuan reflected on the approaching 31st millennium and continued his mining work under an alias to avoid attention.
• Fulgrim asked Curze where Han Mingxuan was, and Curze explained that Nostramo's people took turns doing manual labor.
• Fulgrim found Han Mingxuan resting with laborers at a construction site and learned from contractor Old Kamon that Han would finish work at noon.
• Dorn arrived dressed in work clothes and told Fulgrim that he was a contractor.

Fulgrim joined Dorn at the City of Truth construction site and learned that Nostramo’s workers valued reliable food, pay, and survival more than elegance or culture. After spending the morning working and sharing his lunch with a fellow worker, he learned there would be an event after work.

• Dorn gave Fulgrim workers’ clothes and told him to stop disrupting construction, so Fulgrim changed and entered the site.
• A mortal foreman explained that workers cared more about steady work, income, and food than Fulgrim’s beauty or refinement.
• Fulgrim recognized the workers’ focus on survival, took safety precautions, and began building.
• A scarred woman called the workers to lunch, and Fulgrim learned that their current meals and paid work were far better than life on old Nostramo.
• Fulgrim offered his lunch to a worker, who urged him to eat and mentioned an event after work.

Fulgrim shared food and candy with Nova Spes at the Nostramo construction site, then led the workers and children in making music together. The lively gathering helped him understand his father’s appreciation for humanity, and he called this simple, living experience the most perfect thing humanity could pursue.

• Fulgrim gave Nova Spes some of his lunch, and Nova offered him candy he had saved for his family.
• Fulgrim and Nova split the candy as an act of loyalty, and Nova told Fulgrim that he had learned the word “hope.”
• The workers and children gathered around a campfire, and Fulgrim agreed to make music with them using construction tools and materials.
• Fulgrim guided the workers’ clanging and the crowd’s voices into a brief melody that filled him with wonder.
• Fulgrim reflected that the spontaneous music felt more alive than the refined beauty he had pursued before, and he called it humanity’s most perfect pursuit.

Curze watched Fulgrim become a construction foreman and reflected on how Han Mingxuan’s teaching had changed him and other Primarchs. As Curze worked with Guilliman, Horus, and the Great Angel, the Night Haunter warned him that Huangpizi might target him because he had become the most human of the demigods and knew about Horus’s relationship with Huangpizi.

• Curze saw Fulgrim head to the City of Truth construction site, where a couplet Han Mingxuan had put up was helping change Fulgrim’s disposition.
• Curze and Guilliman discussed how Han Mingxuan had influenced Fulgrim and persuaded Dorn to work at the construction site.
• Curze prepared a strategy game and fruit before Horus and the Great Angel arrived, with the brothers splitting between games and government work.
• The Night Haunter warned Curze that Huangpizi valued his human emotions and uncertainty, and that Curze was in great danger because he knew about Horus and Huangpizi.

Curze asked Horus about his relationship with the Emperor, prompting Horus to begin recounting their thirty years together. The brothers gathered for afternoon tea as Horus described how becoming the Emperor’s First-Returned Son shaped their bond.

• Curze recalled his father’s advice to break stalemates through action and decided to address his uncertainty by talking to Horus.
• Curze asked Horus about the Emperor and their other brothers, while Guilliman and the Great Angel realized Horus was about to retell his story of their thirty years together.
• Horus happily agreed to tell the story, believing Curze wanted to understand and accept the Emperor.
• Curze prepared pastries, side dishes, and wine his father had made, and invited Guilliman and the Great Angel to join them.
• Horus described being the Emperor’s First-Returned Son and recalled their thirty years together, the care he received, and the ring the Emperor gave him.

Curze helped Horus confront his fear that he could lose the Emperor’s love and the identity built around his name. He reminded Horus that he belonged to his brothers as well, and Horus’s sense of crisis began to fade.

• Horus spent five hours recounting how the Emperor had named and raised him, and Curze identified his fear of losing his place as the Emperor’s finest son.
• Curze told Horus that the Emperor was a father only after being the Master of Mankind, while Horus’s own father had been a father first.
• Curze shared his father’s view that Horus was exceptional but trapped by his fixation on the nameless child he had once been.
• Horus drank deeply, and Curze, Guilliman, and Sanguinius each added a drop of blood to water.
• Curze told Horus that he and his brothers shared blood and could trust one another, easing Horus’s sense of crisis.

Curze helped Horus ease his troubles with a blood-sealed covenant, while Han Mingxuan prepared Curze and Nostramo’s leaders for the Adeptus Mechanicus’s arrival. The chapter ended with Trazyn interrupting their discussion of the Mechanicus’s importance to Nostramo.

• Curze shared a blood-sealed cup with Horus, who drank it and relaxed among his brothers.
• Han Mingxuan found Curze and his brothers after work, then suggested Horus visit Lorgar at the City of Truth construction site.
• Lorgar felt a chill and briefly saw golden flames, but found no Warp corruption and returned to organizing books.
• Han Mingxuan showed Curze the notice that the Imperial Regent and Huangpizi would arrive with the Adeptus Mechanicus in three days, then met with Angrak and Herbert.
• Curze reassured Angrak and Herbert that the Evernight Code would protect Nostramo’s people and restrict the Mechanicus if they misbehaved.
• Angrak and Herbert argued that the Mechanicus’s technology was indispensable, and Trazyn arrived laughing at their claim.

Trazyn spent half a month eating across Nostramo after raising money by taking valuables from his museum exhibits. Meanwhile, Han Mingxuan received Imperial and Adeptus Mechanicus approvals to move the planet’s development forward, and Trazyn assured him that things had never been better.

• After Han Mingxuan refused to lend him money, Trazyn took valuables from his museum exhibits to fund his food-street spree.
• Trazyn ate through Nostramo’s shops and continued feasting through the night at his residence.
• Han Mingxuan received approval documents from the Adeptus Mechanicus and Malcador, then told Archmagos Angrak and Priest Herbert that Trazyn would handle technological concerns.
• Angrak and Herbert thanked Han Mingxuan and left, while he and Trazyn discussed Trazyn’s voracious appetite and newfound fame across Nostramo.

Ferrus Manus visited the nearly completed City of Truth and found Fulgrim working alongside the construction crew, chatting with a child named Nova Spes. Fulgrim told Ferrus he had become his most perfect self and could feel happiness, then they went to find Lorgar and the others.

• Ferrus Manus realized he missed Fulgrim and asked Curze where his brother was.
• Curze told Ferrus that Fulgrim had been working at the City of Truth construction site with Dorn and Lorgar.
• Ferrus found Fulgrim chatting with workers and Nova Spes, whom Fulgrim introduced as his dear friend.
• Nova praised Ferrus's forging skills, and Ferrus offered him candy while Fulgrim laughed with them.
• Fulgrim told Ferrus he felt he had become his most perfect self and could feel happiness.
• Ferrus and Fulgrim went to find Horus, the Great Angel, and Lorgar.

The Emperor arrived on Nostramo with Malcador to celebrate the completion of the City of Truth, where Malcador was astonished by Lorgar’s transformation and Curze’s hidden power. After Han Mingxuan laid the final brick, the City of Truth’s psychic force lit Lorgar’s First Lamp in the Warp.

• The Emperor brought Malcador to Nostramo, where the blue planet moved him deeply and the Adeptus Mechanicus recognized the system’s unusual technology.
• The Emperor and Malcador joined the ceremony at the City of Truth, and Malcador discovered that Lorgar had abandoned his scriptures and embraced the Imperial Truth.
• Malcador met Konrad Curze and found that golden light concealed part of the Primarch from his psychic sight.
• The Emperor laid the first brick, followed by Horus and Han Mingxuan, who declared the City of Truth complete.
• The three bricks released a psychic fluctuation that Lorgar directed into the city’s lighthouse, lighting his First Lamp in the Warp.

The Emperor crowned Lorgar in the name of truth, while Horus resolved to protect his younger brother. On Nostramo, Curze’s armour presentation became a public declaration of the planet’s laws and Han Mingxuan’s bond with his son, ending with the Eternal Night Justiciar Legion’s oath.

• The Emperor crowned Lorgar with a silver laurel, and Horus vowed to protect him as his younger brother.
• The Emperor presented Curze with armour in recognition of his position as lord of the Eighth Legion, and Curze went to the Adeptus Mechanicus ceremony attendants.
• Curze cited the Evernight Code to arrest the Adeptus Mechanicus members for their ceremonial prayers, and the Emperor publicly backed Nostramo’s right to enforce its laws.
• Curze arranged for Archmagos Angrak and Tech-Priest Herbert to bring the Power Armour to Han Mingxuan, who helped Curze put it on and told him he was proud of him.
• Han Mingxuan gave Curze a sword he had forged, and Curze led the Eternal Night Justiciar Legion in an oath to humanity, the Emperor, and the Father of Night.

After the ceremony, Malcador met Curze and praised Han Mingxuan for raising him well, while Curze and his brothers celebrated by drinking Han Mingxuan’s wine. Meanwhile, Old Kamon asked Trazyn to help his brothers fight again for the Father of Night, and Trazyn awakened his old friend Logia to seek her expertise.

• Han Mingxuan introduced Curze to Malcador, who gave Curze an Aquila pendant and invited him to ask for help in the future.
• The Emperor and Malcador praised Curze, and Han Mingxuan took them home for a meal after Curze left to celebrate with his brothers.
• Sevatar and the others admitted they had taken nearly all of Han Mingxuan’s wine, then chased after Sevatar when Han Mingxuan arrived at their base.
• Old Kamon asked Trazyn to optimize his brothers so they could fight again for the Father of Night, explaining that they sought redemption.
• Trazyn opened a phase portal to Logia’s Tomb World, activated its awakening protocol, and introduced himself to the newly awakened Logia.

Trazyn brought Jia to Han Mingxuan to discuss her resurrection, then reunited with his rival Orikan, who praised Han as the Necrons’ Reviver and warned the Emperor and Malcador not to treat him as a tool. The Silent King, Szarekh, was still traveling toward the galaxy as Han prepared to receive another guest.

• Jia learned through Trazyn’s protocol that he had returned to life, then attacked him for withholding hope of the Necrons’ revival.
• Trazyn told Jia that Old Han had two resurrection slots left and had reserved the final one for Orikan; Jia agreed to meet Han and secure her own slot.
• Trazyn took Jia to Nostramo, where Han Mingxuan, the Emperor, and Malcador discussed the possibility of future relations between humanity and the Necrontyr.
• Orikan arrived and berated Trazyn for keeping the prospect of the Necrons’ revival to himself, then praised Han as the race’s Reviver.
• Orikan warned the Emperor and Malcador that Han was entering humanity’s Sea of Destiny and must not be used as a tool.