Chapter Summaries

Sinleech proposed using Han Mingxuan’s power and the Emperor’s sacrifice to give the Warp Gods the ability to die, and Han agreed to help after consulting the Will of Earth. They reinforced the Golden Throne and prepared for the plan to begin when Cadia fell, as the two worlds’ fates started to intersect.

• Sinleech explained that Han Mingxuan could replace part of the Emperor’s essence so the Emperor could survive burning the Dark King and grant the Warp Gods the ability to die.
• Han agreed to help with the plan but first asked the Will of Earth for her opinion; she assured him that he would be safe.
• Han Mingxuan and Sinleech entered the Terra Throne Room, where Han asked for clean water to reinforce the Golden Throne.
• Sinleech discovered that the Ecclesiarchy had tampered with the water, and Trajann Valoris brought Han a clean bowl after Sinleech struck him away.
• Han reinforced the Golden Throne, and Sinleech said they would wait for Cadia’s fall before proceeding, when the Emperor’s power could more strongly affect reality.
• Sinleech explained that the worlds’ fates had begun to intersect and that people and things from the 30k era might cross over under certain conditions.

Xiulikas found a trace of Han Mingxuan in the torrent of fate, prompting the Primarchs and their allies to prepare for his return while dealing with threats on Terra. The chapter ended with the Klein bottle showing the Warp from just before Slaanesh’s birth, leaving Han Mingxuan’s location uncertain.

• Xiulikas found traces of Han Mingxuan, and Night Haunter spread the news to the Primarchs through the Evernight Network.
• The Silent King proposed activating the Celestial Orrery again, and Mortarion agreed to fully accept the Power of Death.
• Slaanesh brought Xarathi to Terra to help with the trouble and received the Shard of Hope from Trazyn.
• Xiulikas exhausted himself after finding Han Mingxuan and left Oll Persson to handle the rest.
• The Klein bottle’s image stabilized on the Warp from just before Slaanesh’s birth, and Slaanesh said it might show a displacement in space and time.

The Primarchs watched visions of the Emperor’s past as Malcador, Old Kamon, and Slaanesh explained Terra’s Unification Wars, the purge of the Thunder Warriors, the creation of the Primarchs, and the urgency behind the Great Crusade. Slaanesh revealed that her birth had briefly cleared the Warp and opened a limited window for humanity’s resurgence.

• The Primarchs saw the Emperor on Terra after Slaanesh’s birth, and Malcador said the Emperor’s Perpetual modification had succeeded.
• Malcador recounted humanity’s decline and the Terra Unification Wars, while the Primarchs learned that the new gene-warriors had purged the Thunder Warriors.
• Old Kamon called the Thunder Warriors’ betrayal a cruel but inevitable sacrifice because their genetic defects were severe.
• Malcador and Grandfather explained that the Emperor used Warp Essence from twenty lesser gods and Erda’s genes to create the Primarchs.
• Sanguinius asked why the Great Crusade had been rushed, and Malcador said humanity had little time to reclaim its vast former domain.
• Slaanesh said her birth had calmed the Warp and enabled travel, creating the brief opportunity that drove the Great Crusade’s pace.

The Night Haunter explained how the Emperor’s attempt to defy destiny led to the original betrayal of half the Primarchs, listing the brothers who fell in that timeline. He revealed Horus was one of the destined traitors, leaving the others to guess who the final traitor was.

• The Night Haunter said the Emperor broke his pact with the Warp Gods, but destiny struck back and made half the Primarchs destined to rebel.
• Oll Persson explained that the Emperor remained a prisoner of destiny, though the Father of Night and the Inquisitor had prevented the Ullanor Triumph and Warmaster appointment from causing disaster.
• The Night Haunter described how the Emperor’s neglect and the brothers’ flaws led Perturabo, the Night Haunter, Angron, Mortarion, Magnus, Lorgar, and Alpharius toward betrayal or ruin in the original timeline.
• Roboute counted seven traitors among the Primarchs and the Night Haunter pointed out that two more were needed to reach nine.
• Lion El'Jonson identified Horus as one of the remaining traitors, and the Night Haunter confirmed that Horus had been the first Primarch to fall.

The Night Haunter revealed that Fulgrim had joined Chaos in the original course of fate while Roboute had remained loyal, and explained how Fulgrim’s vanity had begun to grow before he met the Emperor. He then began recounting Horus’s fall, leaving the group shocked by the death of Sejanus.

• The Night Haunter told the Primarchs that Fulgrim, not Roboute, had betrayed the Imperium in the original course of fate, while Roboute had been its most loyal Primarch.
• The Night Haunter and Curze confirmed that Fulgrim would have become Slaanesh’s Daemon Prince, and Fulgrim recalled his growing vanity before meeting the Emperor.
• Roboute asked the Night Haunter to explain what had happened, and Horus asked him to begin with Horus’s own fate.
• The Night Haunter explained that after Horus became Warmaster, the Emperor returned to Terra to pursue the Webway Project, while tensions grew between mortals and Astartes and Horus made poor judgments.
• The Night Haunter revealed that Sejanus had died a year after the Ullanor Triumph, leaving no one to check Horus’s arrogance, and said Garviel Loken later took Sejanus’s place.

The Primarchs learned that Sejanus had been murdered after a diplomatic blunder, but Curze revealed that the Emperor’s guards had already erased Planet 63-19. Curze and another speaker then recounted how Horus was corrupted on Davin, before the discussion turned to the gods’ Sacred Numbers.

• Horus ordered Abaddon to find Planet 63-19 and use Exterminatus after learning Sejanus was dead.
• Curze said the Emperor’s guards had already physically erased the planet in secret, with only the Shadowbat Guard and a small Necron force aware of the operation.
• Curze recounted how Horus was wounded by Eugen Temba’s Cursed Blade on Davin and carried into the temple at Erebus’s urging.
• After Curze paused, another speaker said Erebus performed a Corruption Ritual that lasted seven days before Horus succumbed and began plotting a rebellion.
• Horus denied wanting to become the Dark King, while Curze teased him about his bitter words and Mortarion questioned Grandfather about the seven-day ritual.
• Grandfather explained the gods’ Sacred Numbers: seven for himself, eight for the God of War, nine for Tzeentch, six for Slaanesh, and thirteen for the Emperor.

The Night Haunter explained that the original Council of Nikaea forbade most psychic units, while their current fate allowed them because their father took a gentler approach and Magnus was more flexible. He revealed that Magnus’s original actions had helped prevent the Emperor from acting effectively, and the discussion ended with the Primarchs blaming the Emperor’s stubbornness and the Dark King’s influence for the chaos.

• The Khan questioned why the Emperor had done nothing during Horus’s ordeal, and the Night Haunter said he had been occupied with the flawed Webway.
• The Night Haunter connected the Emperor’s inability to act to Magnus and recalled the original Council of Nikaea, where the Emperor forbade psychic units other than Navigators and Astropaths.
• The Night Haunter explained that in their current fate the Emperor had consulted the Legions, and Magnus had discussed Legion Sorcery rather than psychic power.
• Mortarion insisted that his Numerology was science, and the Night Haunter accused him of disguising his psychic divination to save face.
• The Night Haunter, Oll Persson, and the God of War blamed the Emperor’s stubbornness and the Dark King’s influence for the worsening state of the world.

The Night Haunter explained how Magnus’s warning to the Emperor breached the Webway and how Horus manipulated Russ into attacking Prospero. He revealed that the Sixth Legion, the Salamanders, and Alpharius’s Twentieth Legion were the Emperor’s “Clover Legions,” intended to clean up the Astartes, then left the story as he began explaining how Prospero became a sea of fire.

• The Night Haunter explained that Magnus’s psychic message punched through the Webway barrier and let Daemons flood into the breach.
• The Night Haunter said Horus altered the Emperor’s order, sending Russ and the Sixth Legion to kill Magnus instead of bringing him back.
• The Night Haunter identified the Sixth Legion, the Salamanders, and Alpharius’s Twentieth Legion as the “Clover Legions,” created to clean up the Legiones Astartes.
• Perturabo kicked the Emperor while Sanguinius objected, and Malcador recalled that Old Han had argued for treating Psykers and Astartes well.
• The Night Haunter said Russ was used to turn Prospero into a sea of fire and that the Warp Gods forced Magnus to choose.

Curze described how the Thousand Sons and the Night Haunter fell in the original course of fate, then recounted how Fulgrim was nearly corrupted by the Laer Blade. Fulgrim learned that Han had helped him resist the blade and set him on a path toward hope.

• Curze told the others that Magnus sacrificed his body and split his soul to save the Thousand Sons, but became a Daemon Prince after the legion was defeated.
• Curze explained that his prophetic visions drove him mad and led him to join the rebels before his death as the Night Haunter.
• Curze recalled that Fulgrim’s obsession with perfection led him to take the Laer Blade, where a Greater Daemon tried to corrupt him.
• Slaanesh said Han had won their wager by helping Fulgrim resist corruption, and Fulgrim remembered the box and couplet Han had given him.
• Curze explained that Han had sent Fulgrim to work at a construction site to help him repent, and praised him for making good use of that chance.

Curze recounted the betrayal at Isstvan III, where Horus’s rebels sent loyalists to their deaths, while loyal warriors’ actions helped many survive and carry warning to Terra. The Night Haunter then returned to Fulgrim’s increasingly irreversible fall, leaving Fulgrim uneasy as he insisted on continuing the story himself.

• Fulgrim joined Magnus to listen as Curze explained how Fulgrim’s perfectionism, a Daemon’s influence, and his respect for Horus led him to join the rebellion.
• Horus’s forces deployed one hundred thousand loyalists on Isstvan III and attacked them with Virus Bombs, killing billions of mortals and forty thousand Space Marines.
• Saul Tarvitz, Garviel Loken, Torgaddon, and Nathaniel Garro helped the loyalists survive and carried news of the rebellion toward Terra.
• Angron descended to Isstvan III to punish the surviving loyalists, unintentionally prolonging the fighting and gaining Terra time.
• The Night Haunter said the rebels resumed their advance as Terra learned what had happened, then returned to Fulgrim’s fall despite Fulgrim asking him to let Curze tell the story.

The Night Haunter recounted the doomed Isstvan V campaign and revealed how Fulgrim killed Ferrus Manus in the original course of fate. Ferrus Manus collapsed after hearing that the daemon in Fulgrim’s sword had controlled him and cut off his head.

• The Night Haunter explained that the loyalist forces gathered for Isstvan V were betrayed by traitors within their ranks.
• He described the campaign’s terrible consequences for the Salamanders, Raven Guard, and Ferrus Manus.
• Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus learned that Fulgrim had secretly tried to recruit Ferrus Manus, who had refused and later defeated him.
• The Night Haunter revealed that the daemon in Fulgrim’s sword took control of him and killed Ferrus Manus.
• Ferrus Manus collapsed, and the Night Haunter asked Lord Chancellor Ma to wake him because his story was not over.

The Night Haunter recounted more of the Emperor's Children's original fate, including Fulgrim's fall and the horrors Lucius became, while the Primarchs listened in shock. Fulgrim fainted after learning he had nearly sacrificed Perturabo to attain Daemonhood, and the others prepared to wake him so the story could continue.

• Malcador woke Fulgrim, who grabbed Ferrus Manus's hand and realized they had avoided their original fate.
• The Night Haunter described Fulgrim's soul being imprisoned and tortured in a daemon painting, prompting Fulgrim to try to cut his own face before Curze stopped him.
• The Night Haunter recounted Lucius's betrayal, death, resurrection, and transformation into Lucius the Eternal.
• The Night Haunter praised the Emperor's Children's loyalists and described Fabius Bile's belief in the Imperial Truth and his Primarch clones.
• The Night Haunter revealed that Fulgrim had attained Daemonhood in the original fate and nearly sacrificed Perturabo to achieve it, causing Fulgrim to faint.
• The Night Haunter ordered Lord Chancellor Ma to wake Fulgrim, while Vulkan asked Curze to stop if the story became too cruel.

The Night Haunter revealed how Fulgrim used Morgott's Stone to absorb Perturabo's essence and ascend to Daemonhood, while the Primarchs watched the events of their original fate. His revelations about Fulgrim and Ferrus left Fulgrim, Horus, and Ferrus unconscious, and Vulkan smashing the Throne Room floor.

• The Night Haunter said Horus had ignored the Daemon possessing Fulgrim because Fulgrim was strategically valuable, then described Fulgrim leading Perturabo to Idriss in search of the Angel Exterminatus.
• Perturabo realized that Morgott's Stone was the key to Fulgrim's plan.
• The Klein bottle showed Fulgrim using Morgott's Stone to absorb Perturabo's essence, before loyalists shattered the stone and Perturabo struck Fulgrim with his hammer.
• Fulgrim transformed into a serpentine Daemon resembling the Laer, and the Night Haunter revealed that Fulgrim's tail had become his sexual organ.
• The Night Haunter described Fulgrim repeatedly beheading Ferrus's clones and Horus biting Ferrus's severed head, causing Fulgrim, Horus, and Ferrus to faint.
• Ferrus moved Fulgrim beside the steps, while Vulkan smashed the Throne Room floor with his hammer.

The Night Haunter recounted the Battle of Calth, explaining how Horus exploited the breakdown in communications to bring the Ultramarines and Word Bearers together. He praised Aeneid Thiel’s foresight and questioned Guilliman about his legion’s hypothetical enemies, leaving Curze and Pusilock comparing their assessments.

• The Night Haunter began describing the Battle of Calth, where Horus ordered the Ultramarines and Word Bearers to assemble after the Isstvan III incident.
• The Night Haunter explained that the Ultramarines sought to mend relations after Monarchia while the Word Bearers came seeking revenge.
• The Night Haunter described how the Word Bearers concealed their betrayal beneath friendly banquets and eerie radio transmissions at Calth.
• The Night Haunter praised Aeneid Thiel for proposing that the Ultramarines treat other Legions as hypothetical enemies, and asked Guilliman which Legions Thiel had identified.
• Guilliman admitted that Pusilock usually assessed other Space Marine Legions as hypothetical enemies, and Pusilock defended his expertise.

The Night Haunter recounted Erebus’s role in the Horus Heresy, including the corruption of several legions and the attack on Erda. After placing Lorgar’s burning sceptre beside Grandfather, he teased Sanguinius about being emperor of Imperium Secundus.

• The Night Haunter described the Word Bearers’ surprise attack at Calth and named Kor Phaeron and Erebus as its planners.
• The Night Haunter said Erebus helped corrupt Lorgar, tried to destroy Horus, and used sacrifices and the Warrior Lodge to advance Chaos.
• The Night Haunter explained how Erebus failed to turn Sanguinius, led Calas Typhon toward Chaos, and helped bring about the XIV Legion’s fall.
• The Night Haunter said Erebus helped kill Erda and later ambushed Garviel Loken, then revealed that Erebus had stolen his name and fate.
• Lorgar placed his burning sceptre beside Grandfather, causing its psychic flames to flare.
• The Night Haunter called Sanguinius emperor of Imperium Secundus, leaving the others startled by the revelation.

The Night Haunter described how Calth became a radiation-blasted hell world and how Lorgar and Angron devastated Ultramar in the original fate. He revealed that Nuceria’s slave owners retained their power, leaving Angron furious as the story continued.

• The Night Haunter said the Ultramarines stopped Calth’s sun from going supernova, but radiation turned the planet into a hell world and a hundred thousand Ultramarines died.
• The Night Haunter explained that Roboute’s logistical strength let the Ultramarines replace their losses, and Roboute and Lion El'Jonson discussed the Legion’s administration and Nostramo’s wartime capabilities.
• The Night Haunter said Lorgar and Angron attacked Ultramar’s Five Hundred Worlds to gather sacrifices for a spell, and the populations of a hundred worlds were slaughtered.
• The Night Haunter explained that Angron’s Butcher’s Nails worsened, prompting Lorgar to take him back to Nuceria to attempt to free him.
• The Night Haunter told Angron that nothing had changed on Nuceria and that its slave owners still held much of their power.

Angron learned how badly Nuceria had fared in his original fate, attacked the Emperor, and mourned the world he had failed to save. The Night Haunter then recounted how Angron became a Daemon Prince and Lorgar’s ritual plunged the eastern galaxy into disaster before revealing that Sanguinius, Roboute, and Lion El'Jonson were tied to Imperium Secundus.

• Angron heard that Nuceria’s slaves remained oppressed in his original fate and blamed the Emperor for abandoning them.
• Angron attacked the Emperor, then grieved beside Curze, while Corax and Perturabo also struck and condemned him.
• The Night Haunter described Lorgar’s ritual, which used sacrifices across a hundred worlds and the World Eaters’ Legion to make Angron a Daemon Prince of the Blood God.
• Lorgar’s spell isolated the eastern galaxy with Warp Storms, undoing two hundred years of the Great Crusade’s achievements.
• The Night Haunter confronted Sanguinius, Roboute, and Lion El'Jonson about their connection to Imperium Secundus, and the Khan began to understand.

The Night Haunter recounted how Roboute used the Pharos Device to gather the scattered forces of the eastern galaxy in Ultramar, prompting accusations that he had planned to create a Second Imperium. He revealed that Lion El'Jonson brought the Night Haunter himself to Macragge, leaving Roboute alarmed by the danger of a traitor's arrival.

• The Night Haunter described Roboute's original plan to found Imperium Secundus, and Malcador explained that the Emperor had foreseen that fate.
• The Night Haunter said Roboute put the Necrontyr Pharos Device to use, drawing refugees, fleets, and loyalist Space Marines toward Ultramar.
• Lion El'Jonson and ten Space Wolves arrived, with the Wolves sent by Russ to verify Roboute's loyalty.
• The Night Haunter revealed that he was the secret Lion El'Jonson had brought to Macragge, and Roboute feared the consequences of his arrival.

The Night Haunter recounted his original fate, including his attempt to assassinate Lady Euten and the Eighth Legion’s role in the Warmaster’s plan. He began to explain what happened to the Eighth Legion after Shen asked, but had not yet given the answer.

• The Night Haunter told Guilliman that Fulgrim had poisoned him in the original fate, leaving him trapped in a Stasis Field, and Guilliman punched Fulgrim over the Night Haunter’s plan to assassinate Lady Euten.
• The Night Haunter revealed that Trazyn had collected Lady Euten, who was still alive, and explained that the Warmaster had ordered the Eighth Legion to massacre worlds and intercept the First Legion.
• Sevatar asked about the Eighth Legion’s use of fear, and the Night Haunter explained that terror had been his method of pursuing extreme justice.
• The Night Haunter explained that Sevatar had been called the Prince of Crows because he wore rotting human skin, while the current Sevatar had become the Chief Juror.
• Shen asked what had happened to the Eighth Legion in the original fate, and the Night Haunter admitted that he had failed his Scions before Cyrion pressed him for an answer.

The Night Haunter described how Nostramo’s corruption and the Eighth Legion’s decline drove him to destroy his homeworld, while Sevatar and the others challenged his excuses. He apologized to Shen for failing to heed him in the original course of fate, but Shen rejected responsibility for those events and warned him not to take advantage of him.

• The Night Haunter recounted surviving alone on Nostramo, ruling it through extreme punishment, and admitted to Sevatar that dark prophecies had tormented him.
• Sevatar and Roboute condemned the Night Haunter for avoiding responsibility, and he conceded that he had been cowardly.
• The Night Haunter explained that Nostramo’s nobles had sent criminals into the Eighth Legion while keeping its best recruits for their own forces.
• After discovering that his Scions were criminals, the Night Haunter said he lost control and ordered Nostramo destroyed, with Sevatar carrying out the order.
• The Night Haunter apologized to Shen for failing to listen when Shen tried to stop the destruction, but Shen said the past was not his responsibility and threatened to slap him if he took advantage of him.