| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emperor_vs_horus_2.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:The heartbreak that broke the galaxy.]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ->''Bale Rane knew that death would probably hurt. War would probably hurt. Breaking up with your brand new bride and leaving her to go off to war, that would hurt too. Like a bastard.''\ |
| 5 | ''He never, ever, in a million light years, expected treachery to hurt so much.'' |
| 6 | -->--Creator/DanAbnett, ''Know No Fear'' |
| 7 | |
| 8 | The Horus Heresy was the greatest tragedy of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', and the writers at Black Library want the readers to feel as much pain as the characters did. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | '''WARNING: Unmarked spoilers ahead!''' |
| 11 | ---- |
| 12 | * The [[ForegoneConclusion eventual fate]] of the Imperium. The Emperor's attempts to make the nascent Imperium a new exemplar of human art, culture, and philosophy almost makes the Great Crusade sound like a true age of enlightenment, that humanity truly was destined to rule the galaxy - and once upon a time, maybe this was true. But seeing the casual brutality that the Crusade-era Imperium is willing to visit on numerous aliens, independent human polities, and even its own citizens, there's a palpable feeling that maybe the Imperium was doomed from the very beginning. |
| 13 | * ''The Last Church'' is the earliest story in the 40k timeline, which recounts a debate about religion versus reason between a mysterious man known as "Revelation" and the last priest of the last church on Terra, Uriah Olathaire. Revelation argues that religion and superstition has done far more harm than good and supports the Emperor's crusade to eliminate it once and for all, while Uriah stands by his conviction that religion can be a force for good and is an integral part of the human experience. Uriah cites ''himself'' as proof of his stance, saying that before his vision of "God" after surviving a battle against the Emperor's Thunder Warriors, he was a selfish, alcoholic mercenary that lived only for sex, wine and money. The argument intensifies until Uriah loses his patience and demands Revelation to drop the act. Revelation [[AngelUnaware does just that,]] revealing himself to be the Emperor and giving Uriah one final chance to become an Iterator on his behalf while his Thunder Warriors burn the church to the ground. Uriah politely declines, and enters the burning building to pray one final time. |
| 14 | ** Uriah grew up as a spoiled brat and grew into a sleazy, hedonistic hired gun that saw the Emperor as another one of the many tyrants vying for control of Terra. In Franc, he saw firsthand the Thunder Warriors ''[[CurbStompBattle massacre]]'' the rebel army he fought for, passing out after a piece of bone shrapnel nearly pierced his spinal cord. A man, who lived only for himself and thought of himself as invincible, could do nothing but ''watch'' the precursors to the Adeptus Astartes slaughter his brothers in arms like animals even as they threw down their weapons and begged for their lives. After regaining consciousness and seeing nothing but a field of people [[SceneryGorn smashed and pulped]] beyond recognition, Uriah wept, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone realizing]] that all he did in life was hurt people for the sake of his own selfishness. It was then that he saw a vision of a massive, shining figure clad in golden armor, telling him that He was the only truth and the only way. After returning home to find his family tortured and killed by Skandian raiders, his return to alcoholism was stopped by the sight of the Church of the Lightning Stone and the memory of his vision. Uriah devoted the rest of his life to the service of the divine... Only to realize, in the last minutes of his life, that his vision of "God" was in fact the Emperor, that his faith was built on a misunderstanding, that he was the last priest on the planet and the church he called home was to be burned to the ground. All in the name of the Imperial Truth. |
| 15 | ** Before returning to the burning church to pray for one final time, Uriah warns the Emperor that His own subjects will start to worship Him one day in spite of his antitheistic crusade. After the church collapses from the fire, a broken clock, rumored in local legend to herald the End of Days, starts ''ringing''. |
| 16 | * The Fall of Horus: The [[IncorruptiblePurePureness pure,]] [[WideEyedIdealist idealistic,]] and good-natured Horus [[FallenHero becoming]] the BigBad. |
| 17 | ** Worse: he tried to prevent the future when he and some of his brothers would be condemned and forgotten, and his "father" would be worshipped as god, only to cause exactly this by his rebellion. |
| 18 | ** Not so sad in hindsight, as it turned out he was never as pure or good as he wanted people to think. He always saw himself and his brothers as humanity's superiors and their rightful rulers. |
| 19 | * The Razing of Monarchia and the censure of the Word Bearers Legion is a definitive tearjerker. Lorgar and his Legion believed in His divinity. Lorgar even penned a bible dedicated to his God, and the Word Bearers went from planet to planet proselytizing the worship of the Emperor. The Word Bearers built grand statues and cathedrals dedicated to their deity, and Lorgar converted the populations of entire planets into worshipping his father. How did the Emperor reward their faith? By having the city and population of Monarchia [[note]]also known as the Perfect City, and was one of the Word Bearer's crowning achievements[[/note]] burned to ash by Roboute Guilliman and his Ultramarines. The Emperor psychically forces Lorgar and his entire legion to kneel in the ruins of the city, and then admonishing the Word Bearers for their efforts (which had been allowed to occur for the better part of a century)[[note]]Technically speaking, The Ultramarines ordered the people to evacuate the city, gunning down those who resisted. However by the time the Word Bearers arrived to the planet, only seven survivors were found.[[/note]] with the implication that they better straighten up or they would be purged from existence. Whatever your beliefs or philosophies, it's heartbreaking for witness such a devout and pious son be to be slapped down so hard by the figure he believed in with all of his heart. No wonder Lorgar and his gene-sons turned to Chaos! It all just goes to show that the Horus Heresy could have been avoided if the Emperor treated his Primarchs more like people instead of tools for galactic conquest. |
| 20 | ** To add another layer of HarsherInHindsight to this, it's subsequently revealed that Guilliman wanted no part in the punishment, as he considered it excessive and needlessly humiliating. Even when Lorgar attacks him in rage, Guilliman's only response is to tell his brother to return to his ship. Roboute actually felt sorry for his brother, but his fealty to the Emperor resulted in him being on the receiving end of Lorgar's eternal enmity - which would result in many of Guilliman's own worlds suffering the Word Bearers' depredations later in the Heresy. |
| 21 | ** When Guilliman finally catches up with Lorgar in ''Betrayer,'' the look of total, all consuming hatred on Roboute's face makes Lorgar realize that Guilliman never despised him the way Lorgar had always assumed he had. It's not quite a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment, but it speaks volumes that Lorgar feels ashamed that so many of his actions have been led by an entirely false opinion of his brother, and feels a need to try and justify his actions. |
| 22 | ** Another TearJerker tied into this comes from a short story in the anthology ''The Silent War'' where Malcador tells one of his agents that if he could save just one of the Traitor Primarchs from their fall to Chaos, he would've saved Lorgar. Despite Lorgar's intense hatred of the Sigilite (to the point that the seventeenth primarch struck Malcador in the face after Monarchia and threatened to kill him if he ever crossed Lorgar again), Malcador also admits that the Emperor dealt with Lorgar in far too harsh a manner on Monarchia. Had they dealt with some of the Primarchs of the Traitor Legions and their past issues and trauma in a better way (Malcador citing the Council of Nikaea as an obvious example), they might have avoided all this tragedy. |
| 23 | * Most of the scenes involving Argel Tal in ''The First Heretic'', particularly straight before he orders that the Word Bearers fire upon the loyalists on Istvaan. |
| 24 | ** The epilogue deserves a special mention: Argel Tal is sitting in his quarters looking at the data slate that Cyrene was writing when she was killed. Following this, he looks at Aquillon's sword, the very weapon which killed Cyrene. Argel Tal and the Gal Vorbak then killed Aquillon and his fellow Custodes, but not before Xaphen and several other Gal Vorbak are killed. Looking at these memories of the three closest people in his life, Argel Tal reflects that all his brothers are dead. And then comes the absolute bitterest knife twist in the book: |
| 25 | --->'''[[DemonicPossession Raum:]]''' [[FalseReassurance No. I am your brother]]. |
| 26 | * The ending to Creator/BenCounter's Literature/HorusHeresy novel ''Galaxy In Flames'', where Saul Tarvitz stands with the surviving members of the Luna Wolves and loyalist Emperor's Children, having bled the traitor armies so badly that even Horus' incredible hubris has been broken, and Horus orders his fleet to bombard the Space Marines into oblivion rather than defeat them on the ground. Even faced with complete and certain annihilation, Tarvitz and his men ''won''. |
| 27 | * The deaths of Death Guard captain Ullis Temeter and Dreadnought Huron-Fal in ''Flight of the Eisenstein'' are famous - or infamous - for being one of the most heartbreaking scenes not just in the Drop Site Massacre, but in the entire Heresy. |
| 28 | ** After recieving word from Saul Tarvitz that Exterminatus-class weaponry is about to be deployed on Isstvan III, Ullis Temeter immediately orders his men to take shelter in subterranean bunkers. As Temeter flees with his men, he looks up to the sky and asks to himself just who would do something so abominable as to betray their fellow man. |
| 29 | --->''Who betrayed us,'' he asked himself, echoing the aged Dreadnought’s question. ''Why, in Terra’s name, why?'' |
| 30 | ** As the warheads containing the life-eater virus breach Isstvan's atmosphere, Huron-Fal yells at Temeter to get inside the bunker, stating that the virus wouldn't be able to seep into his armor. Temeter refuses, trying to save as many of his battle-brothers as he can. When the bombs detonate and every living being on Isstvan III is reduced to putrefied slurry, Temeter becomes infected with the virus and yells at his fellow Death Guard to close the hatch. As the virus bypasses his armor's filtration systems, lesions begin forming on his skin and his limbs start to dissolve, Temeter can only hope that the bunker was closed in time. Huron-Fal catches Temeter as he falls, and reprimands him for not going in the bunker with the rest of his men. As Temeter discards his now-useless helmet, he discovers that Huron-Fal's chassis had sustained enough damage to render him vulnerable to the life-eater. When Temeter asks Huron-Fal why he lied, the latter simply states that it was his duty as a veteran to put the safety of his unit above his own. |
| 31 | --->His hand flailed at the metal flank of the Dreadnought and traced a runnel of dark fluid. Even through the pain, Temeter understood. There was a small fracture in the old warrior’s ceramite casing, not enough to have slowed him on the battlefield, but more than the virus needed to reach inside the Dreadnought’s hull and savage the remnants of flesh inside. |
| 32 | --->"You… lied." |
| 33 | --->"Veteran’s prerogative," came the reply. [[TogetherInDeath "We’ll go together then, shall we?"]] |
| 34 | ** As the virus rapidly consumes Temeter's body, Huron-Fal asks the dying Captain if he wants to die together with him. Temeter nods, and Huron-Fal carries him away from the bunker. As Huron-Fal breaks down and Temeter's body melts in his arms, the Dreadnought's last words defiantly state that their end will not be at the hands of those who betrayed them. |
| 35 | --->'''Huron-Fal:''' This death is ours. We choose it. We deny you your victory. |
| 36 | ** Before the virus bomb fully claims them, Huron-Fal self-destructs, the explosion enveloping Temeter and granting the both of them an honorable end. The way James Swallow describes the Dreadnought's ''coup de grâce'' is equal parts sad and beautiful. |
| 37 | --->With a single burning nerve impulse, the mind of the warrior at the heart of the Dreadnought uncoupled the governor controls on his compact fusion generator and let it overload. For a moment there was a tiny star on the battered plains outside the Choral City, marking two more lives lost within a maelstrom of murder. |
| 38 | ** Three simple words: "We are betrayed." |
| 39 | *** Rogal Dorn, who has always been seen as the most hardened and stoic among the Primarchs, basically going through disbelief, rage, despair and finally mourning as he faces Horus' betrayal; he rages against Garro and Qruze and confronts Keeler, but as the image stream of Oliton's memory is presented to him, he finally realizes and admits the truth. Keeler drives further the power of the scene later, as she sums it up perfectly: The truth has broken Dorn's heart, and killed the memory, admiration, loyalty and love he had for his commander and brother, forever. |
| 40 | *** Nathaniel Garro's entire situation in ''Flight of the Eisenstein''. Betrayed by his primarch and legion, forced to kill former brothers and endure the horrors of the warp in order to get back to Terra and warn the Emperor of Horus' betrayal. Then once he finally encounters loyalist Imperials he's pretty much called a liar and thrown in prison. His conversation with Halbrecht pretty much sums it up: |
| 41 | ---->'''Halbrecht''': These orders are given to preserve the security of the Imperium. If the price of that is a wound to your honour, then I hope you will see it as a small one. |
| 42 | ---->'''Garro''': My kinsmen have betrayed me. My master has turned traitor. My honour brothers are dead, and my Legion is on the path to corruption. My honour, Captain Halbrecht, is all I have left. |
| 43 | ** Qruze's conversation with Garro after the Eisenstein's warp drives have been jettisoned, where he asks why Garro chose to not punish Voyen for nearly shooting him. After some prodding, Garro admits that he doesn't want to lose any more of his men, nor does he want the name Death Guard to become synonymous with betrayal. In response, Qruze sadly looks down at his own armor - which still has the Sons of Horus colors - and sadly wishes him luck, knowing that it's already too late. |
| 44 | ** Honestly, the fate of the entire Death Guard legion could qualify as one giant tearjerker. Calas Typhon strands his traitorous brothers in the warp and offers them up to Nurgle, whose blessings made a mockery of their vaunted immune systems. Several of the Death Guard loyalists became founding members of the Inquisition, arguably one of the reasons why life in the Imperium sucks as much as it does. |
| 45 | * In ''Galaxy In Flames'', the last parting of Loken and Tarvitz. Tarvitz says that it may be they will not meet again; Loken says he thinks there's no maybe about it. . . and then, in the scene described above. Tarvitz had desperately gotten to the Emperor's Children so that he could [[DyingAlone die with]] his brothers, in defiance of the breaking of brotherhood that Horus had imposed on them, but at the end, he looks about the survivors -- Emperor's Children, Luna Wolves, World-Eaters -- and realizes that he knows all their names, and that men who had been only faces to him had [[FireForgedFriends become his brothers]]. |
| 46 | * ''Descent of Angels:'' Zahariel, the hero of the Dark Angels' first battle as a legion, is sent back to Caliban with Luther while his cousin Nemiel stays with the main force due to their Primarch's distrust of psykers. Anyone who knows their fluff knows what happened at Caliban... |
| 47 | ** As of the novella ''The Lion'', the nightmare scenario of cousin fighting cousin has been averted, but what actually ends up happening is arguably ''worse''. During his time in the Crusade, Nemiel became a Brother-Redemptor, the predecessor of the modern Dark Angels' Interrogator-Chaplains. Nemiel is charged with upholding the Edict of Nikaea banning Librarians. When El'Jonson's flagship gets pulled into a warp-rift and Daemons begin to swarm the ''Invincible Reason'', the Lion revokes the Edict of Nikaea's hold on his legion after a former Librarian breaks the Edict and uses his powers to effortlessly destroy warp-spawn. Nemiel, charged with upholding the edict, raises his weapons when all of a sudden, the Lion beheads Nemiel in a split-second. When the ''Invincible Reason'' escapes the Immaterium and returns to Caliban, there's little doubt that Zahariel will learn that his cousin was killed by their own gene-father. |
| 48 | *** After killing Nemiel, the Lion says that they'll mourn him later - almost as as if he didn't mean to kill his son. Lion is one of the most Chaos-resistant individuals in the galaxy, having read heretical texts and come out untainted. Despite his percieved immunity to the Ruinous Powers, the sea of souls got to him for just a split second, and it cost him two of the most loyal Astartes in his service. One of the Lion's key character flaws is that he's very bad with people, dealing with social situations, or understanding the perspective of others. He immediately realizes that killing Nemiel was a mistake, but it doesn't matter. The deed was done. |
| 49 | * The short story ''After De'shea'', where Angron is so furious over being taken from his band of rebel gladiators he can't properly form a coherent sentence. You know that this guy goes traitor and becomes the leader of the most psychotic group of warriors in an army of psychopaths, but when he's struggling with his loss over his friends, his brothers and sisters, you don't see the Daemon Prince who will burn seventy sectors or doom Armageddon... you see someone who just lost the only family he ever knew. It's really sad. |
| 50 | * The entire plotline of ''Prospero Burns'' and ''A Thousand Sons.'' Despite the Edict of Nikea barring the usage of psychic powers in the Legiones Astartes, Magnus The Red was one of the most loyal Primarchs, and he wholeheartedly believed in the ideals of the Emperor's Great Crusade. However, when he breaks through the psychic wards on Terra in a misguided attempt to warn the Emperor about Horus' betrayal, Magnus' folly results in the Emperor ordering Leman Russ and the Space Wolves to bring Magnus in for questioning. However, Horus, whose betrayal was yet to be publicly revealed, intercepts the Emperor's missive and alters it so that Russ is ordered to kill Magnus. Despite Magnus dismissing the Emperor's Executioner as a loutish, superstitious brute and Russ dismissing the Crimson King as a naive, untrustworthy witch, both brothers cared for each other in their own secret way - but Daemons, distrust, and Horus' machinations result in the paradisiacal world of Prospero being utterly razed, and the Thousand Sons falling into Tzeentch's embrace. The scene of Russ pleading with Magnus to stand down and surrender amidst the carnage is one of the most sobering scenes in the Heresy. |
| 51 | ** However, Magnus's MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment is one of the few moments in the story that is somehow even sadder than the one described above. In order to warn the Emperor of Horus's treachery, Magnus uses a powerful spell fuelled by his most potent sorcerers and their thralls to shatter the psychic wards in the Imperial Palace. This was to be Magnus' greatest triumph, his proof to his father that his final verdict at Nikaea was wrong, psychic powers could be used for good - and it all goes awry in the worst possible way. Magnus appears in the Imperial laboratories as a monstrous abomination, and when he and the Emperor's minds touch does Magnus realizes that he has ruined His plans beyond repair. His folly had destroyed the delicate wards holding back the Immaterium and sundered any chance for the Emperor to complete His greatest work; his treachery had closed off a future where He was to use the awesome might of the Golden Throne to help humanity rule the stars without relying on the Warp. It dawns on Magnus that his legion is to be hunted down and destroyed by the Space Wolves for their defiance of the Emperor's will. Upon returning to his corporeal body, he flees to his chambers and destroys them in a guilt-wracked rage, before [[RedemptionEqualsDeath beginning to lay out the plans to render Prospero defenseless]]. |
| 52 | ** The deaths of Phosis T'kar, Auramagma, Uthizzar and many of the Thousand Sons during the Burning of Prospero are all tearjerkers, but T'kar's death deserves special mention. He butchers his way through a horde of Space Wolves and Sisters of Silence, only to come face-to-face with Captain-General Constantin Valdor of the Custodes, who calls him a monster. T'kar sees his reflection in Valdor's armour and realises that he has completely fallen to the flesh change. Before he dies, he closes his eyes, sheds a tear and responds to Valdor's insult with ''"I know."'' When Ahriman is told of this, he realises that he did indeed consider T'kar a friend, and he is hurt that it took his death to realise that. |
| 53 | ** As if the Burning of Prospero wasn't tragic enough, Leman Russ actually tried to ask Magnus to surrender through Kasper Hawser, a remembrancer that the Vlka Fenryka believed to be am Thousand Sons spy - only to find out that he was aligned with Chaos. Only after Prospero's destruction did the Space Wolves learn the truth, but it was far, far too late. |
| 54 | * In ''Know No Fear'', Venatus realises that the Mechanicus server has blood on her sleeves, realising that someone died, cradled in her arms. |
| 55 | ** Later, Tawren reveals the identity of the man who died in her arms with the following words: |
| 56 | ---> He was, I suppose, my husband. My life partner. The Mechanicum does not think in such old-fashioned terms, and our social connections are more subtle. But yes, captain, we were close. A binary form. I miss him. I do this for him. |
| 57 | ** Magos Uldort’s unsung sacrifice also counts. She volunteered to remain at a command center that was about to be overrun by the enemy, fully aware that it was a death sentence. She nonetheless performed her duties diligently and directed all possible reinforcements to help Tawren and Venantus. Because of her, Tawren was able to retake control of the Calth defense grid, which in turn saved the remaining Ultramarines and their Primarch. The reader never sees her final moments, nor will they ever see her speak a single line. But the bittersweet triumph at Calth will ultimately be owed to her. |
| 58 | ** Even before the bolter shells start flying and Lorgar's treachery is revealed, there's a distinct melancholy to the interactions between the Ultramarines and Word Bearers for anyone who knows how the Shadow Crusade went. Guilliman is trying to be not only a magnanimous host to Lorgar and his legion, but to genuinely try and reconnect with his brother. Guilliman and Lorgar had never gotten along, and after Monarchia, the former probably resigned himself to never being forgiven by the latter. When Lorgar seemingly accepts Guilliman's offer, Guilliman is clearly happy and relieved that they might finally be able to reconcile, never even considering that Lorgar was plotting his doom the entire time. |
| 59 | * By virtue of being named after the first Primarch to kill another Primarch and ascend to daemonhood, the novel ''Fulgrim'' contains several tearjerkers. |
| 60 | ** Fulgrim's MyGodWhatHaveIDone right after killing Ferrus Manus, his most beloved brother Primarch. Fulgrim realizes that everything that he took as a slight towards him from Ferrus were well-meant jests and that he had doomed his Legion to heresy the moment he had taken the blade from the Laer temple. |
| 61 | *** While standing over Ferrus' body, Fulgrim realizes what he and the Emperor's Children have become, and begs the Daemon in his sword to end his pain. The Daemon proceeds to possess Fulgrim, forcing his mind into a painting of Fulgrim on the ''Pride of the Emperor''. For the better part of five years, the fandom assumes that the Daemon was responsible for Fulgrim's subsequent atrocities. When the novella ''The Reflection Crack'd'' was released, the fandom discovered that Fulgrim was able to forcibly swap places with the Daemon sometime after the Drop Site Massacre. However, during the time his soul spent bound to the painting, he has gone completely insane, fallen into Slaanesh's embrace of his own accord, and relishes having killed Ferrus Manus. Seeing Fulgrim, a once-noble figure who empathized and wished to lift up the poorest dregs of society, become a hideous, revolting monster hammers home the fact that no one who has touched Chaos can ever escape it. |
| 62 | ** Solomon Demeter's fate, while nowhere as large in scale and scope as his Primarch's fall, is no less sad. He is defending the Precentor's Palace and finds his fellow Istvaan loyalist Lucius fighting a squad of Emperor's Children marines. Solomon rushes in to kill them, which the two of them do easily. Only once they are dead does he realize that they too, were Istvaan loyalists. Lucius was the real traitor all along, and he fatally wounds Solomon before the latter could react. Lucius twists the knife in Solomon's back one last time by declaring him, Tarvitz, and all the other loyalists to be fools, and that he will not die with them. Solomon sheds a single tear as he dies and sees the skies begin to rain. |
| 63 | ** Serena D'Angelus's subplot is one long BreakTheCutie TearJerker with sides of NightmareFuel. A kind and gentle painter who is friends with Ostian Delafour, she is one of the Remembrancers sent down to the Laer homeworld after the conquest. Serena only goes after Ostian convinces her to, and she ends up getting infected by the Laer Temple's Slaaneshi taint. The corruption preys on her already existing low self-esteem and convinces her that her extremely good work is sub-par and that she is a fraud. She slowly begins going mad, and when Ostian attempts to help her, she insults him for his pity. This results in him severing ties with her, and when he leaves she begs him not to. After this, she seduces another Remembrancer and brings him to her room, sleeps with him, and murders him at the climax, using his blood and other bodily fluids for paint. After a long period of blankness, where it is implied she did this a lot more, the corruption fades and she seeks out the one person she thinks might be able to help her, only to find that Ostian has already been murdered and that he was only trying to help her. With nothing left, Serena declares that she loves Ostian but is too afraid to tell him. She then kills herself by driving herself onto the same marble blade that Ostian is impaled on, marking the end of a tragedy that shows just how insidious the taint of Slaanesh is. |
| 64 | * This bit of MentalWorld [[TheReveal dialogue]] between [[JerkassWoobie Kai Zulane]] and the Emperor in ''The Outcast Dead'': |
| 65 | ---> "But you're going to die." |
| 66 | ---> "I know." said the Emperor. |
| 67 | * The confrontation between Sanguinius and Alotros in the beginning of ''Fear To Tread''. Alotros has succumbed to the Red Thirst, which, unlike the Black Rage, predates the Horus Heresy and has slowly begun to emerge among the Blood Angels Legion. Alotros is drinking the blood of fallen Nephilim, and Sanguinius tries to reason with him, hoping against hope that he can bring his gene-son from the depths of insanity. Alotros stares at his Primarch for a moment, then attacks him, forcing Sanguinius to kill him in self-defense just as much as it was giving Alotros [[MercyKill the Emperor's Peace]]. For years fans have speculated that Sanguinius's presence might be able to bring Blood Angels back from the depths of the Flaw. As of ''Fear To Tread'', that theory is {{Jossed}} with extreme prejudice. |
| 68 | ---> '''Sanguinius:''' My son... step back, if you can. Step back from the abyss and return to us. I will save you. This is my fault. I am to blame. But I will amend this, if you help me. Will you help me, Alotros? |
| 69 | ** Really, the entire prologue, showing Horus and Sanguinius talking as loving brothers, with Sanguinius even trusting Horus enough to tell him about the flaw in the Blood Angels legion, and confiding that he's afraid his legion is going to be wiped from Imperial history. It really shows that these two brothers genuinely loved each other. Those well-versed in 40k's lore know that Horus kills Sanguinius, and he doesn't make it quick or painless. And when their final confrontation does take place, it is absolutely agonizing to read about. |
| 70 | ** The fate of Meros is also pretty damn depressing even by 40K standards. Most {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s are at least merciful enough to kill you. Meros's, however...death would probably be preferable. |
| 71 | * Despite his mercurial nature and insufferable bitterness, Perturabo is shown to be so much more than what anyone ever perceived him to be. He had a genuine capacity for kindness and a desire to improve human society, something that was never displayed to the greater Imperium. Perturabo sums up his misery in a quote to Fulgrim in ''Angel Exterminatus'': |
| 72 | -->[[HiddenDepths You don't know my dreams, brother.]] Nobody does. Nobody ever cared enough to find out. |
| 73 | ** His actual dreams are equally sad. His ideal world is one where he's designed beautiful, functional cities that are the center of culture, learning, and every other civilized virtue. He doesn't even want to rule over these cities. And Perturabo knows that it will never come to pass. |
| 74 | -->'''Calliphone:''' What happened to the man I knew who wished for no more war? The boy who drew such wonderful things? |
| 75 | -->'''Perturabo:''' Nobody wanted them. |
| 76 | ** The events of ''Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia'' are the last straw that ensures that Perturabo shall never realize his dreams of creating beautiful, utopian cities for his people. After brutally crushing a revolt on his homeworld and killing his adoptive sister in a fit of rage, Perturabo has a devastating HeelRealization that lasts for hours until his gene-son Forrix finds him. Perturabo almost breaks down in front of him completely, and knowing that the Emperor would never forgive him for what he'd done, Perturabo finally decides to join Horus' side. Perturabo goes so far as to call himself worse than [[AxCrazy Curze]], stating that the Night Hunter's heinous deeds can at least be explained by his insanity. The Lord of Iron has no such excuse. |
| 77 | * The state Vulkan is in after ''Vulkan Lives''. Captured by Konrad Curze, it was discovered during his torture that Vulkan was a Perpetual, who could not die. Enraged that he couldn't kill him, Curze repeatedly killed Vulkan, destroying his mind. By the time he managed to find his hammer ''Dawnbringer'', which had a built-in teleporter, he was devolving into a raving maniac. The teleport function allowed him to escape the ''Nightfall'', but he teleported into Macragge's atmosphere, where he burned up on reentry. Unfortunately, when discovered by the Ultramarines in ''The Unremembered Empire'', the constant deaths had driven Vulkan completely insane (even by 40k's broad definition of the word) trying to attack everyone he saw. The Cabal, the group responsible for the Alpha Legion's defection to Horus, wanted Vulkan killed to prevent him from returning to Terra and helping the Emperor, but Eldrad Ulthran told John Grammaticus that by using a fulgurite spear imbued with the Emperor's psychic lighting could heal Vulkan's mind instead of kill him. Grammaticus stabbed Vulkan, but it failed and Vulkan died. We get a brief HopeSpot where Guilliman and a group of Salamanders maintain that Vulkan merely needs time to heal (one Salamander thinks he heard a heartbeat) until we learn the name of the preservation capsule containing Vulkan's body: The ''Unbound Flame'', the last and most mysterious of the Artefacts of Vulkan that the Salamanders believe their Primarch left for them to find when he departed. However, the tragedy was fortunately averted in ''Deathfire'' and ''Old Earth'', as Vulkan came back to life, with his sanity restored. It did take him longer than usual, and his body got stolen for a bit before he was returned to Nocturne, where he revived. |
| 78 | * ''The Wolf of Ash and Fire'' |
| 79 | --> "I was there," he would say, right up until the day he died, after which he spoke only infrequently. "I was there the day Horus saved the Emperor." |
| 80 | ** In hindsight, this entire story counts as a TearJerker - not necessarily because what happens in it is tragic, but because the events of the story will never happen again. Out of all the primarchs, Horus was the Emperor's. most beloved son, and at the end of the story they set course for the place where it all begins to go wrong - Ullanor. It's heartbreakingly sad seeing these two so close, knowing that the Horus we're seeing now shall be gone forever. |
| 81 | ** Before the NightmareFuel that was Istvaan III, we also get to see Tarik Torgaddon and Hastur Sejanus joking with each other over strategy, Horus Aximand being the voice of reason, and Abaddon striving to make his Primarch proud. [[NothingIsTheSameAnymore They shall never be like this ever again.]] |
| 82 | * ''Legion of One'' |
| 83 | --> I have no brothers. Only traitors remain. I am a Legion of one and I will kill you all until death comes to take me! |
| 84 | ** The scene where Cerberus (who fans of the series will already have recognized as Gavriel Loken) returns to the place where he was nearly slain and speaks to his long-deaf brother. He is a broken, tormented thing, trapped in a literal hell, unable to die and unable to remember what happened to him. Every time he tries to remember, he suffers beyond imagination, and yet he tries, again and again, desperate to understand what happened - yet the memories of the Drop Site massacre are so horrible that his mind breaks trying to even comprehend them. |
| 85 | * ''Deathfire'': Numeon's mental breakdown and suicide at the end. His despairing thoughts and having just enough strength left to end his own life, and in the belief that others will be better for it, will be sadly familiar to readers who've been in the same boat. |
| 86 | --> A darkness pulled at him, a deep well of grief from which he could not escape... Despair gnawed at his resolve, but he had enough will left for this. |
| 87 | ** When Sanguinius is confronted by Konrad Curze, the Angel sees first-hand how broken the Night Haunter is through his hellish childhood on Nostramo, [[WretchedHive a world filled with the worst of humanity that slid right back into depravity after Curze tried to 'save' it.]] Sanguinius learns of Curze being constantly bombarded by visions of his death and how miserable the galaxy is going to become. Curze always believed his brothers hated him because he was eerie and hard to be around, a fact that Sanguinius knows isn't true and tries to tell him, but Curze is too far gone to listen. The entire scene shows that underneath his monstrous qualities, Konrad Curze is somebody who tried so damn hard to be a better person, but could never quite reach that goal. |
| 88 | * The standout tearjerker of ''Pharos'' is the [[FireForgedFriends short-lived brotherhood between Barabas Dantioch, an Iron Warrior Warsmith, and Alexis Polux, an Imperial Fist Captain.]] Them learning to trust, cooperate, and understand each other despite the legendary rivalry of the IV and VII Legions demonstrates that there had once been a chance, no matter how small, of the Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists putting aside their grievances and working together to help build a better future for all of humanity. |
| 89 | ** Before the defense of Sotha, a small band of Loyalist Iron Warriors led by Dantioch are defending the planet of Lesser Damantyne from the traitor forces. After a standard Terran year, the Loyalists are overrun and forced to evacuate their stronghold through a network of subterranean caverns. One of Dantioch's men is the Venerable Dreadnaught Vastopol, who opens up a rock wall so that his brothers can pass through and proceed to the extraction point. However, due to a stairway collapsing and a rocket barrage from the traitors, Vastopol is critically injured and can no longer proceed. Unwilling to leave him behind, Dantioch orders his men to rip out Vastopol's remains from his Dreadnought and cram him into an ancient suit of Mark III Power Armor, knowing full well that Vastopol would die no matter what they did. Vastopol ends up ''wrenching his own casket open with his power claw'' so his fellow Iron Warriors can drag his ruined body to safety. |
| 90 | *** Eventually, Vastopol truly passes on, surrounded by Dantioch and his men. Tauro Nicodemus, a Tetrarch of Ultramar who had accompanied the Iron Warriors during the entirety of the siege, tries to console Dantioch to no effect. During the passage below and the ones that come after, Dantioch just sounds so tired and hollow. |
| 91 | --->[Vastopol] was our chronicler, and carried with him our remembered triumphs. Once, on Gholghis, he told me that such stories of the past ground us in the challenge of the present, like a fortification or citadel built upon foundations of ancient rock. I have none of his skill – crafting in iron and stone what he would in words. I live to tell the tale, however, of the Iron Warriors’ final victory: the last loyal triumph of the Fourth Legion. He would want the story to go on. Alas, his story, like that of our Legion, is at an end. |
| 92 | ** The Pharos is a Necron device that can instantaneously teleport matter across great distances, and direct spacecraft in the same vein as the Astronomican without using the powers of the Warp. Since the Pharos is directed by the emotions of those using it, Polux inadvertently opens a wormhole leading to his Primarch, Rogal Dorn. Polux begins desperately crying out "My Lord! My Lord! Hear your son!" before the vision vanishes. The last thing he shouts before Dorn disappears from his sight? ''"Father!"'' The text notes that he is near to outright tears. |
| 93 | ** Despite their allegiances, the fates of Night Lords Kellendvar and Kellenkir, who are biological brothers, are still very sad. Kellenkir becomes tainted through contact with a Daemon Weapon and ends up being mercy-killed by the little brother he once protected when they were children. Kellenkir dies wishing he'd killed his younger sibling years ago. The act destroys Kellendvar inside, which leads him to accept that his Primarch was right - there is no such thing as hope. When the Ultramarines corner Kellendvar, the Night Lord simply stands up and lets them kill him. |
| 94 | ** During the Battle of Sotha, Dantioch [[HeroicSacrifice banishes Krukesh the Pale and his Night Lords by overloading the Pharos' beacon]], sacrificing himself to save Polux from their torture. When the dust settles and a heavily injured Polux recollects himself, he finds Dantioch's broken, bleeding body and cradles him in his arms. Blinded by the light of the Pharos and dying from his myriad injuries, Dantioch tells Polux that, despite the animosity between their legions, the galaxy wreathed in the flames of heresy, and only befriending Polux during the darkest and bloodiest of times, the old Warsmith is glad to have known him. |
| 95 | --->'''Dantioch:''' Listen to me. I saw such things in the light. This war is only the beginning…the beginning…[[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 of the end]]…but I am glad, Alexis. [[ItHasBeenAnHonor I am glad to have been. I am glad to have known you.]] It is something that friendship can exist at all in this universe of terror and betrayal. |
| 96 | --->'''Polux:''' Quiet now. You must save your strength! |
| 97 | --->'''Dantioch:''' I have no strength left. I have done my duty, and I am no longer ashamed [...] All hail the Emperor of Mankind, still beloved by all. May His dream be saved, even if we cannot. |
| 98 | --->'''Polux:''' Barabas! Barabas! [[SwornBrothers Brother!]] |
| 99 | ** When the Ultramarines happen upon Polux, they are momentarily stunned at the sight of an Imperial Fist weeping over the body of an Iron Warrior, and are shocked when they realize that Polux had been mourning for ''three whole hours''. When the funeral bier for Dantioch is transported in by the Ultramarines' Suzerain Guard, Alexis refuses to let anyone lift Dantioch's body but himself. |
| 100 | ---> "No," said Polux, softly but dangerously. "None shall touch him. I will carry him, for he was my brother." |
| 101 | *** The Warsmith's funeral is a major TearJerker, but it doubles as a Heartwarming moment since Dantioch is declared a Hero of the Imperium and the Ultramarines give him a 21-bolter salute. |
| 102 | --->The sky darkened. The pyre of Barabas Dantioch bathed his comrades in heat and light. The last rays of the sun struck the Pharos, red beams glowing in the cave mouths of flank and peak. No return light shone in reply, and nor did it ever again. The song of the mountain was done, and night fell on Imperium Secundus for true. |
| 103 | ** Guilliman's awesome speech about Sotha never falling again to an enemy is ''heavily'' undercut by the knowledge that the Pharos' activation had caught the attention of the Tyranid Hive Mind, leading to the Great Devourer descending upon the galaxy. Even as Guilliman gave his speech, the planet was already doomed. |
| 104 | *** There is a small moment in Guilliman's speech that makes the aforementioned speech much harder to swallow. While praising the actions of the 199th "Aegida" Company, he awards them a new company badge: Twin scythes. The 199th Company are the Ultramarines who will form the Scythes of the Emperor, the Space Marine chapter which lived on Sotha, and is dying out now that the Tyranids have destroyed their homeworld and most of its battle-brothers. And as of ''Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work'', the last remaining Firstborn Space Marines of the Scythes have been killed by the ravenous Tyranids. |
| 105 | * ''Angels of Caliban'': Sanguinius finds out through Curze's foresight that he is destined to be killed by Horus. Despite this revelation, Sanguinius accepts that if the price for the continued existence of the Imperium is his life, then so be it. |
| 106 | --->"To die at Horus's hand is a fate I gladly accept, if it means that the Emperor yet lives and fights for mankind, I would speed to this confrontation on the swiftest of wings if it means the enduring reign of the Emperor." |
| 107 | * ''The Path of Heaven'' features the heroic sacrifice of Stormseer Targutai Yesgeui. With the White Scars trapped by the Death Guard and the Emperor's Children, Yesgeui inters himself inside the Dark Glass, a scaled-down prototype of the Golden Throne that was part of the Emperor's plan to gain control of the Webway and remove the need for the Warp. Yesgeui activates the device to allow his Legion and his primarch to escape to Terra, knowing full well that will die in the process. His last act before the machine consumes him is to telepathically say goodbye to his three closest companions: Revuel Arvida (a Thousand Sons Loyalist), Ilya Ravallion (a White Scars Remembrancer), and his primarch, Jaghatai Khan. |
| 108 | ** To Arvida, Yesgeui asks him to hold back the flesh-change threatening to consume him long enough to get the White Scars safely back to Terra, as he is the only one who can. |
| 109 | -->'''Yesgeui''': They will need a guide, brother. The way will be dark and only you have the Sight. |
| 110 | -->'''Arvida''': Where are you? |
| 111 | -->'''Yesgeui''': Navigators will be no use. You will need to control the sickness a little longer, I think. |
| 112 | ** Yesgeui tells Ilya that she was TheHeart of the legion, and says she shouldn't mourn him for doing what a Space Marine should. |
| 113 | -->'''Yesgeui''': I would have sheltered you, if I could. You, above all, for you were our soul. [...] Do not grieve. We were made to do this, ''[[AffectionateNickname szu]]''. We were made to die. |
| 114 | ** Not that Ilya's response doesn't hit hard as well: |
| 115 | -->"Not you!" [Ilya] screamed out, incoherently, twisting one way then the other, as if she could see him still, standing over her as he had done on Ullanor, invincible, smiling. "Not You! Anyone but you!" |
| 116 | ** To the Khan, Yesgeui asks his Primarch not to let the Legion slip into despair and hatred like their enemies, and to keep them safe and together in the battles to come. Jaghatai desperately begging his old friend and mentor not to do it makes this final goodbye even more painful. |
| 117 | -->'''Yesugei''': In the beginning, [[MeaningfulRename I was Shimaz]]. Remember that? You named me. |
| 118 | -->'''Jaghatai Khan''': Do not do it. This is my command. Do not do it. |
| 119 | -->'''Yesugei''': The deep ways are perilous, and yaksha will thrive in it. You are their protector. |
| 120 | -->'''Jaghatai Khan''': Targutai, this will end you. Do ''not'' do it. Return to the ship. |
| 121 | -->'''Yesugei''': [[ItHasBeenAnHonor Know that I would have followed you to the end, my lord. I would have stood beside you on Terra]]. When I am gone, do not let them forget. Do not let them become that which is hateful. |
| 122 | -->'''Jaghatai Khan''': Come back... |
| 123 | -->'''Yesugei''': ''You are their protector.'' |
| 124 | -->'''Jaghatai Khan''': [[PleaseDontLeaveMe I still need you]]. |
| 125 | ** When Yesugei is wrenched out of existence, Revuel and Ilya are both wracked by pain and grief, and Jaghatai unravels entirely. The fires of war have consumed the lives of his sons, and the life of his closest companion on Chogoris. The primarch staggers and drops to one knee, before [[SkywardScream crying out to the sky]] [[DeathWail in absolute despair]]. |
| 126 | -->The Khan cast his head back, his imperious reserve broken open. He clenched his fists to the heavens, and howled out his rage and his grief, and for a sparse moment there were no more sounds, no more thoughts – only the black thunder of a primarch’s mortal fury. |
| 127 | ** An understated bit of FridgeSadness kicks in when in real life, Yesugei was the name of Genghis Khan's father. So not only was Targutai Yesugei the closest companion of Jaghatai, he was probably the closest thing the latter had to a paternal figure. |
| 128 | * ''Angron: Slave of Nuceria'' delves into Angron's backstory on Nuceria, and really hammers home his status as a TragicVillain. His very first interaction with other humans was them shooting him full of tranquilizers and selling him into slavery, without even saying a word. He's then thrown straight into a sadistic "game" with other slaves where he's forced to kill them just to survive, and he's clearly frightened and confused the entire time. Note that he's, at most, a few days old at this point. |
| 129 | ** The first "game" bears further mention, because it shows just how much the Butcher's Nails utterly ''ruined'' Angron. By the time of the Heresy, Angron is a bitter, nihilistic, misanthropic killer who will slaughter anyone, including his own sons, and he only gets worse. But as a child, he shows nothing but empathy and innocence. He isn't even a CreepyChild like some of the other Primarchs, including good guys like Corax, were shown to be when they were found. Thrown into a sadistic game, it's shown that he can't even ''begin'' to comprehend the cruelty of the game's designers, and it deeply upsets him. When he's forced to start killing his opponents, he hates it, and does his best to kill them as quickly and painlessly as possible. When the flashback ends and we see modern Angron, he just seems pitiful. |
| 130 | ** Later on, we see Angron shortly after the Nails were forced into his brain. He's locked alone in a dark cell, where the implants are constantly tormenting him because he has nothing to fight. And just to torture him further, the guards tell him that his father figure Oenomaus, only of the only people to show him kindness, was killed in battle... by Angron himself. He can't even remember doing it because of the Nails, but he knows it's true, and he can do nothing but let out an animalistic howl of hopeless despair that lasts for ''days''. |
| 131 | ** The ending. We know it's coming, but having ''seen'' Angron's backstory just hammers in home how badly the Emperor betrayed his broken son. It would have been effortless for the Emperor to save Angron's rebellion from its LastStand; he had the entire World Eaters Legion at his beck and call. He could have ''joined'' Angron's cause, toppling the evil aristocrats that ruled Nuceria and given justice to all the victims of their decadent cruelty. The reason he didn't? Because the lords of Nuceria had already agreed to give the Emperor what he wanted: their loyalty, and Angron's life, without risking the planet's infrastructure. Even then, the Emperor could have demanded leniency for Angron's allies as part of his terms; he had the upper hand. But he didn't. Because Angron's rebellion, and the suffering and compassion that motivated it, meant '''nothing''' to him. He just ordered Angron to abandon the only family he had ever known and come with him -- and then, when Angron refused, he teleported Angron away in the middle of the battle, leaving Angron's army to die. No wonder Angron feels betrayed! No wonder Angron declares he would have rebelled against the Emperor anyway, Heresy or no! |
| 132 | ** Early on in the book we get a look at the last moments of a Kataphron Battle Servitor, in which she briefly remembers her final moments as a human - being dragged screaming off to [[UnwillingRobotization reprocessing]] as her weeping children are torn from her arms. It's a sobering reminder of just how horrific and inhuman the Mechanicus and their servitors can be. For an extra Fridge Tearjerker, remember [[BadBoss Kane's promise that the Mechanicus will harvest their workers to provide battle servitors for the Webway incursion]] earlier in the novel - how many times did this scene repeat itself offscreen? |
| 133 | * The Death of Innocence in ''Mechanicum'' is at once [[NightmareFuel horrifying]] and tragic: the Mechanicus has discovered a device capable of re-gaining all of Humanity's lost knowledge, which would launch them into a new golden age. The Imperium and Mechanicus are right on the cusp of something amazing, something beautiful- and it all comes crashing down in less than a day. Twenty thousand years of knowledge is turned into howling nonsense, forge-cities burn, and millions die in minutes. When next you open a 40k novel and read "So much has been forgotten, never to be relearned again." This is what it's referencing. |
| 134 | ** In the same novel, the Akashic Reader's destruction and Adept Zeth's death. A device capable of accessing ''all'' of humanity's knowledge, past, present, and future without it being tainted by the Warp - and it burns into nothing, along with the Adept who built it. This is the moment mankind's hope for a golden future dies in fire: |
| 135 | --> Three hours after Adept Koriel Zeth unleashed doom upon her forge, the Magma City finally sank beneath the great inland lake of lava. The last of its towers were cast down, Zeth’s inner forge filled with lava, and all her great works were destroyed as thoroughly as though they had never existed. |
| 136 | -->And with their destruction, all hope of lifting the Imperium into a golden age of scientific progress, not seen since humanity set forth from its birthrock, was lost forever. |
| 137 | * In ''Wolfsbane'', we see a tragic confrontation between Leman Russ and Horus. Russ manages to wound Horus with the Emperor's Spear, which temporarily purges him of Chaos corruption and seems to show him the truth of his actions. Russ desperately pleads with Horus to stand down, and Horus has enough clarity to give a small apology... but ultimately, he's too far gone, he regains his Chaos power, and brutally attacks, forcing a heavily wounded Russ to flee in shame. In the end, the Space Wolves have been decimated, losing nearly two-thirds of their numbers in the battle, and Horus, in the final scene of the novel, is shown to be haunted by the vision the spear gave him, which shows him that he could have avoided all this bloodshed. |
| 138 | * The ending of the short story ''Blackshield'' certainly counts. The story follows a former member of the Deathshroud, Mortarion's bodyguard, who became jaded from the Death Guard when Mortarion started using sorcery and Daemons. Since it went against all Mortarion had preached before, he left the Death Guard and took back his old name, Khorak. He runs into a Blackshield named Morturg who also used to be a Death Guard, but was supposedly killed on Istvaan III. At first, it seems like the two of them might team up, but one of Khorak's men shoots Morturg who doesn't die. Khorak, still hating sorcery, assumes it's because Morturg is a psyker when in reality it's because Morturg is mostly cybernetic. Despite Morturg trying to explain everything, Khorak still tries to kill him, but he gets killed by Morturg's squad. The whole tragedy could have been avoided if Khorak had been willing to listen, but instead, the hatred that was drilled into him by Mortarion led to his death. |
| 139 | * ''Warhawk'', more than any other book in the Siege, shows the moment fans have been expecting for years: the death of the Imperium as the Emperor had envisioned, and the birth of the Imperium as we know it in Warhammer 40,000. |
| 140 | ** It's revealed that Euphrati Keeler has begun rallying the refugees in the Palace by sending them out to ZergRush the advancing traitor forces armed with nothing but industrial tools, reasoning that even if they lose two hundred people to kill a single traitor Space Marine it's a worthy trade. Amid all the madness of the Siege, people ''willingly'' go out and do this in the knowledge there isn't enough space in the refugee camps for all of them, picking up skulls as icons to take into battle with them. |
| 141 | ** Loken notably is utterly horrified by what Euphrati's become and what she's stirring up, countering her suggestion of 'a universe full of [Sigismunds]' by answering that after all he's seen, he thinks the enemy will rejoice at that; not the lackeys, but the ''[[GodOfEvil masters]]''. And as the famous text states, indeed, in ten thousand years there will be only the laughter of thirsting gods. |
| 142 | ** This same mentality of soulless self-sacrifice taking hold in Sigismund and his Templars hits even harder when we see it from Kharn’s perspective. Kharn, a hollowed-out ravening berzerker by this point (and mostly at peace with it) looks at this warrior who was once the closest thing to a genuine beloved brother he had left in the universe and sees nothing but a mindless killing machine. The trauma of his realization is so bad that Kharn starts having an existential crisis just imagining what an Imperium of hollow things like that would be like. Before he is killed (he gets better), Kharn gives Sigismund this dying response: |
| 143 | --->'''Kharn:''' [I'm] Not...as...damaged...as...you... |
| 144 | ** The Emperor admitting to Diocletian that no matter how the Heresy goes now, Chaos has won and humanity is doomed to a slow agonizing extinction. The dream he had was beautiful and he knows now that because of one idiot's ignorance and another's childish petulance, humanity will never escape the grip of Chaos. It becomes even worse when he admits at the very end that he doesn't know what to do next, this almost-god who has always known what he needs to do next and what must be done is blind. |
| 145 | * ''The Master of Mankind'' features one of the saddest moments in all of the Heresy. Forced to enact the [[GodzillaThreshold Unspoken Sanction]] in response to the Daemonic incursion in the Webway, it is revealed that this is the moment when the Imperium begins [[PoweredByAForsakenChild sacrificing psykers to the Golden Throne to keep it active]]. Gathering a thousand psykers to be sacrificed (a duty that even the Sisters of Silence don't enjoy), these poor souls are hooked up to the Golden Throne and used to fuel it so that the Emperor can leave its confines for a single day. The reader sees this through the eyes of Skoia, the first psyker to die. |
| 146 | ** What little we see of Skoia's life is nothing short of ''harrowing.'' When we first see her, she's fleeing from the Sisters of Silence, her parents telling her to run and never look back. She is eventually captured by the Null Maidens, dragged into their Black Ships, and shuttled away from her home planet, towards Holy Terra. Locked inside an unventilated coffin and connected to the Golden Throne, Skoia can only scream and cry and trash, knowing that all of her efforts are futile. Claustrophobic readers beware: |
| 147 | --->She breathes in, managing only a shallow mouthful of air. Her heart beats slowly, so slowly. |
| 148 | --->She presses her hands to the thickness of the vision panel, knowing instinctively that it isn’t for her to see out, it’s for her captors to look in. To see her, to see if she’s still alive. |
| 149 | --->Her next breath is harder than the first. She has to fight to suck it in, and it scarcely gets past her throat. Already the edges of her vision darken to grey. She beats her fists against the window, making the coffin sway gently, the motion no different from a rocking cradle. |
| 150 | --->Her third breath barely comes at all. In that moment she cries out – not with her mouth but with her mind. She screams for the spirits to come to her. She beseeches them for their aid. She curses them for their silence. Panic drives her past holiness into blasphemy, and still she screams. |
| 151 | ** In Skoia's final moments, she hears with perfect clarity the last thoughts of those around her - whether it be beseeching whoever would listen for help, begging to be let out, religious exultation, or prayers to the Emperor. All of their dying thoughts coalesce into a psychic scream of pure agony and suffering as the eternal choir of the Golden Throne receives its first member. |
| 152 | --->She is fading now. Her breaths no longer come, and that only amplifies her silent cry. |
| 153 | --->She slumps forwards, cheek pressed to the unbreakable glass, her lips trembling, her eyes wide and shivering. The stiller she becomes, the darker her sight falls, the louder she screams inside her skull. |
| 154 | --->And now, only now, does she hear the melody of the other souls of the one thousand sharing the same fate, suffering what she suffers. Their screams and prayers and panic and fears entwine, unseen by all, and form one sound, one impossibly perfect note. Those outside the coffins may yet hear it, but its true purity is unheard by any but the dying souls themselves. |
| 155 | --->It is the very first note in a song that will last ten thousand years, and perhaps beyond. |
| 156 | --->She, Skoia, is its first singer. |
| 157 | * ''Echoes of Eternity'' ends with the ''Vengeful Spirit'' disabling its shields. While the loyalist forces have no idea why, the reader is shown a message from Guilliman that the traitors intercept - a plea to Sanguinius to hold on just a little longer because the Ultramarines are only a week away. It makes the events that are about to unfold even more tragic: had the message been received, the defenders of Terra may have hunkered down for that last week, but instead they throw everything into one last desperate gambit, and Guilliman arrives too late to save his father and brother. |
| 158 | -->''Sanguinius.\ |
| 159 | What transpires on the surface of the Throneworld, I cannot say. What horrors you have endured, I cannot imagine.\ |
| 160 | All I know for certain is this: I am mere days from the system’s edge, and within a solar week, I will be in the skies above Terra.\ |
| 161 | With me I bring the entire might of the Thirteenth Legion, and I am not alone; word has reached me from Russ and the Lion, at the vanguard of the Sixth and the First. Our numbers are enough to cleanse the heavens and tear the world from the Arch-traitor’s grip.\ |
| 162 | Hold on to hope, brother. That is all I ask. Can you give me that? Can you stand your ground for these last, ultimate hours? Those elusive twins, Victory and Vengeance, are coming. This war ends the moment I reach Terra.\ |
| 163 | Hold, in the name of the Emperor and the Imperium we have built together.\ |
| 164 | I will be with you soon.'' |
| 165 | * The second message that Guilliman sends ''moments'' after the doomed Anabasis gamble is enacted in ''The End and The Death Vol. I'' only makes the first message even more heartbreaking. |
| 166 | --> ''...Repeat, we are nine hours out. Nine hours out. Deploying now to wide formation assault positions, inbound.\ |
| 167 | Terra Control, do you receive?\ |
| 168 | Terra Control, can you respond?\ |
| 169 | Repeat, we are nine hours out. Terra Control, respond. We need immediate tracking guidance. Light your beacons.\ |
| 170 | We are extending to wide assault formation. Terra, hold your positions.\ |
| 171 | Remain in secure defensive alignment. Hold your positions. That's all you need to do. Just hold.\ |
| 172 | Repeat, we are nine hours out. Terra Control, respond.\ |
| 173 | Acknowledge. Hold your positions and light guidance now. Terra Control, this is Guilliman… '' |
| 174 | * ''The End and the Death Vol. I'' features Malcador taking the Emperor's place upon the Golden Throne so He can take to the battlefield directly. The Sigilite's final sacrifice to humanity is a hard reminder as to why the Emperor valued the Sigilite as much as He did. |
| 175 | ** Sanguinius, Dorn, Vulkan and the Custodes try to help Malcador walk up the steps of the Golden Throne's dais, knowing full well that he will never walk down from them again. When the Emperor stands up from the Throne, Malcador is momentarily overwhelmed by His sheer psychic might, and he nearly cracks his head on the steps. Sanguinius and Rogal get him back on his feet, and Malcador asks them to forgive his old legs. Seeing the second-most powerful psyker in the Imperium truly act like the decrepit old man he usually pretends to be is sobering. |
| 176 | ** When Malcador finally reaches the top of the Golden Throne, him and the Emperor have one last psychic conversation before the Sigilite takes His place. Their exchange is short, poignant, and a reminder that [[HumanoidAbomination no matter how powerful the Emperor of Mankind is,]] part of Him will always be human. The Emperor tells Malcador that He is ''afraid'' that the two of them will never talk to each other again. He tells Malcador that He will miss the years they spent together discussing the unification of humanity, the logistics of the Great Crusade, and mankind's future as the rightful rulers of the galaxy. It's one of the Emperor's most humanizing moments, because all-powerful psychic tyrant or no, [[PreSacrificeFinalGoodbye one of the most painful things any human being can do is to say goodbye to a friend you will never see again.]] |
| 177 | --->'''Malcador (to the Emperor):''' Don't be sad. |
| 178 | ** As the Emperor guides Malcador to his final resting place, he whispers to the former not to mourn him. Malcador admits to himself that he is giving himself up not for humanity's sake, [[TrueCompanions but for the sake of his friend, the Master of Mankind.]] |
| 179 | --->There is nothing else to say. After centuries of conversation, in which we have dissected and shared everything, there is nothing left to say. Just a look from one friend to another, an unspoken understanding of everything that has passed between us, and the debts we owe each other. This act is my final, everlasting gift to mankind, to the future, to the plan painted on the wall. |
| 180 | --->But in his eyes, I can tell he knows that I am only really doing it for him. The greatest, most universal acts are always born from the personal. |
| 181 | --->I am old. I am tired. |
| 182 | --->[[HeroicSacrifice I sit upon the Golden Throne.]] |
| 183 | ** Notice in the excerpt above that Malcador refers to the Emperor using uncapitalized pronouns (he/him), instead of capitalizing them like everyone else does (He/Him). A subtle reminder that Malcador was the Emperor's closest confidant, and that the two of them shared a mutual respect and familiarity that the Emperor will never have with anyone ever again. |
| 184 | * While the Unspoken Sanction is horrifying enough to read about in ''The Master of Mankind,'' the sheer tragedy of people being sacrificed to the Throne is best illustrated in volume II of ''The End and the Death''. |
| 185 | *** Vulkan is ultimately the one to initiate the Sanction and commence the sacrifice of hundreds of people to the Golden Throne. Vulkan is so appalled by what he has to do that ''he can't even bring himself to order it verbally.'' He resorts to using the Silent Sisterhood's handsigns to command them to start bringing in the first batch of psykers - to quote Vulkan's own words, it is only right that an unspoken sanction not be voiced. The Lord of Drakes, renowned for his kindness and his legion's empathy for the common man, is forced to send a thousand people to their deaths with thousands more to follow. When Malcador temporarily regains his mental faculties before being consumed by the throne, he acknowledges that Vulcan's actions will haunt him for the rest of his life. |
| 186 | --->Vulkan observes the process of every death. He owes them that decency. He wishes there was the time and means to record their names. History should remember these sacrifices, every one of them.\ |
| 187 | But it will not. |
| 188 | *** As Malcador's body burns away and the Golden Throne's psychic radiance incinerates the dais and its immediate surroundings, the Custodes, Sisters of Silence, and other Imperial personnel in the vicinity immediately back away from it. Not Vulcan. He draws as close as he can safely be to the Golden Throne, beseeching Malcador to keep his body and mind together for as long as he can. |
| 189 | --->He stares up at the tiny, immolating figure on the Throne, squinting against the glare. |
| 190 | --->"Hold on," he whispers. "Hold on, I beg you. Hold on with whatever will you have left. Just a little longer, Sigillite. That’s all he needs. You heard him too, didn’t you? I know you did. You heard him too." |
| 191 | ** The second volume of ''The End and the Death'' also heralds the events preceding the page image - the final meeting between Horus and Sanguinius, and the death of the Great Angel. [[DoomedByCanon Despite Sanguinius' fate being known by everyone, including the audience,]] it is absolutely gut-wrenching to read when it finally arrives. |
| 192 | *** When Sanguinius boards the ''Vengeful Spirit,'' he happens upon a ghostly apparition of Ferrus Manus. Sanguinius believes him to be some kind of daemonic illusion or warp entity, while Ferrus claims that Horus snatched his spirit from the afterlife to demonstrate just how powerful he has become. Before guiding Sanguinius to the Warmaster, Ferrus' apparition has one last exchange with his brother, confirming the Angel's fate in the process. |
| 193 | --->[[HumanHeadOnTheWall "The bastard has my skull,"]] Ferrus says. "Fetch it back. I don’t much like being a trophy." |
| 194 | --->Sanguinius nods. |
| 195 | --->"Until we meet again." says Ferrus Manus. |
| 196 | *** Despite the death and madness that has resulted from the ugliest civil war in human history, Sanguinius' myriad injuries, and Horus being fully and directly empowered by the Chaos Gods, the two brothers admit that they're glad to see each other again. |
| 197 | *** Not wanting to kill his favorite brother, Horus proceeds to offer Sanguinius one last chance to join his cause. Sanguinius, wracked with sadness for how far Horus has fallen, rejects the offer. Their final clash ensues shortly, and at first, Horus refuses to employ the arcane boons that the Chaos Gods have granted him in hopes that maybe, just maybe, he may yet convince the Angel to join him. However, the duel comes to a head when Sanguinius scores a near-fatal hit on Horus and incapacitates him. Sanguinius prepares to deliver the killing blow, but he hesitates for just a second out of pity for his brother. Horus seizes the moment to deflect the attack, and before Sanguinius can fly away, Horus defies time and space itself to grab his brother by the ankle and smash him into the deck hard enough to crush one of his wings and break most of the bones on the right half of his body. Sanguinius keeps fighting, but Horus hits him with Worldbreaker so hard that he's launched across the room and crashes into Horus' chapel to the Chaos Gods. There, surrounded by hundreds of human skulls, a horrified Sanguinius comes face to face with a large, pristine skull with the numeral X imprinted on its forehead. |
| 198 | --->"Manus." It’s the only sound he’s uttered since [Horus] began to kill him. |
| 199 | *** Horus proceeds to drag Sanguinius out of his chapel, leaving a large trail of blood in his wake. When Sanguinius desparately claws at Horus' face, Horus drops him to the floor and whirls down on him. In one final act of defiance, Sanguinius tries to stand up one last time. |
| 200 | --->Sanguinius falls onto his knees, jarring every wound, then topples onto his side. He tries to rise, trembling, weak. He wants to be on his feet when it happens. He wants to be standing when- |
| 201 | *** The beating that follows is nauseating, horrifying, and tearjerking, all in equal measure. Horus beats Sanguinius in an animalistic frenzy, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown bringing down Worldbreaker on his battered body again and again and again and AGAIN]]. |
| 202 | --->Worldbreaker catches him before he is even back on his knees. The clubbing blow breaks his left shoulder, ribs and left femur. He collapses, trying not to scream from the pain, and failing. Horus starts to bludgeon him, beating him repeatedly like a disobedient dog. There is no art in this any more. No martial skill. No patience. Worldbreaker shreds armour and flesh. It pulverises both collarbones. It ruptures a lung. A fine drizzle of blood fumes the air around the two figures, the brutal, beating giant and his prey. The sixth hammering impact twists Sanguinius’ head around, shattering his jaw, and transmitting such force that the skin on the left half of his face, from brow to chin, is flayed loose. It flutters, then drapes back like a slack mask. |
| 203 | *** The entire time the fight was taking place, Sanguinius could feel the eyes of the Chaos Gods on him, waiting expectantly for one of humanity's greatest paragons to die by their champion's hand. Sanguinius' defiance in the face of insurmountable odds, the knowledge that he will ''not'' escape his fate, and his refusal to lay down and die truly makes you feel for him. Befitting the second-to-last book of the ''Siege of Terra'' series, [[Creator/DanAbnett Dan Abnett]] wrings out as much misery from the reader as he can, short of making the reader ''beg'' for Sanguinius to give up and stop fighting. |
| 204 | --->He can feel the gaze of the Old Four on him, staring from the shadows with eyes as bleak and wicked as the one adorning his brother’s breastplate. They have come to witness this, this and everything that will follow. They mutter to each other excitedly and, around them, the numberless legions of their spawn gibber and whisper in delight. Sanguinius can feel the sheer size of them, the mass of the Dark Gods. [[DoNotGoGentle He will show them the defiance of mankind to his last breath.]] |
| 205 | *** When Horus' final blow comes, it's surprisingly understated, which somehow makes it even sadder. Horus stabs his brother with his Talon and raises his mangled body into the air, until the both of them are face-to-face. Horus expects the noblest, most beloved of the primarchs to have some last words or heroic declaration to herald the end of his life. However, Sanguinius is drowning in his own blood, and can no longer speak. Horus takes in the gurgling, pathetic ''thing'' that Sanguinius has been reduced to, and he sighs in disappointment before crushing the Angel's body in his grasp. |
| 206 | --->The claws close. There is a double crack of spine and neck. |
| 207 | --->Horus waits. Blood drips. [[TheHeroDies It’s done.]] |
| 208 | * Befitting its status as the GrandFinale of not only the Siege of Terra, but the entire [[Literature/HorusHeresy Horus Heresy,]] ''The End and the Death Volume III'' is an absolute cavalcade of tearjerkers. |
| 209 | ** [[MindRape Sanguinius' death causes a massive psychic shockwave]] to emanate from the ''Vengeful Spirit'', and every single Blood Angel is immediately overcome with the [[UnstoppableRage Black Rage]]. Blood Angel battle companies break ranks and viciously maul anyone they can, be they enemies, allies, or even their fellow battle-brothers. Not only have the Ninth Legion - the most esteemed and noblest of the Loyalist Legions - lost their Primarch to Horus, but they are now doomed to slowly and painfully devolve into violent, cannibalistic savages that begin to see anyone and everyone amid battle as Horus himself. |
| 210 | ** The Emperor and Horus' final confrontation aboard the ''Vengeful Spirit'' is one of the most iconic moments in all of 40k. The many artistic depictions of this particular scene (the page image is one such example) make it easy to forget that this is a scene of a father losing His most beloved son. |
| 211 | *** When the Emperor boards the ''Vengeful Spirit'' and arrives at Lupercal's Court, He sees Sanguinius' lifeless, crucified body. The Ruinous Powers have claimed two of His greatest sons - one of which was seduced by powers beyond his understanding, the other killed for defending a species an unholy pantheon considers nothing more than food. Despite the Emperor casting off most (if not all) of His emotion to prevent His ascension into the Dark King, the anger and sorrow in His psychic reaction to seeing Sanguinus' corpse is palpable. |
| 212 | --->'''The Emperor:''' +Take him down.+ |
| 213 | *** When Horus slithers out of the shadows to confront his father one last time, The Emperor glares at the Warmaster and seemingly asks Horus why he killed His son. After Horus gleefully mocks the Emperor and His failings as a father and ruler, the Emperor only repeats one word in response: '''+Why?+'''. After Horus tries to explain that he offered Sanguinius a place by his side and that he refused, once again the Emperor asks: '''+Why?+'''. Horus then realizes that even though the Emperor is facing his direction, He is not talking to him. The Emperor is directly talking to Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Slaanesh, who have come to witness the end of the Imperium and are looming behind the Warmaster. A crestfallen Horus realizes that his father already considers him dead. |
| 214 | ** The real story behind the myth of Ollanius Pius, the guardsman who gave his life defending the wounded Emperor from Horus, has been theorized by the fanbase for a long time. Most people believe that Ollanius truly existed, and was a Guardsman. Some speculate that it was a Space Marine who sacrificed themselves to the Warmaster. Others argue that only a Custodian could've been aboard the ''Vengeful Spirit'' during the final duel of the Heresy. In truth, [[TheReveal all three of these theories are true - a Guardsman, a Space Marine, and a Custodian stand in Horus' way during his climactic battle with the Emperor,]] and each of their last stands are heartbreaking in their own way. |
| 215 | *** The Custodian is Caecaltus Dusk, and the first to sacrifice his life in defense of the Emperor. He arrives to see Horus impaling the Emperor with his Talon and dragging Him towards a crude throne of Chaos, intent on nailing Him on it and having Him serve as the Warmaster's eternal slave. Dusk throws himself between the two, sacrificing himself so that Leetu can tear the Emperor free. After failing to atomize Caecaltus' body with an energy beam from the Serpent's Scales, the Warmaster recites [[IKnowYourTrueName every one of Dusk's six hundred and ten names]] to obliterate the Custodian from existence. |
| 216 | --->'''Dusk:''' The Imperium defies you! |
| 217 | --->'''Horus:''' [[ArmorPiercingResponse With what?]] |
| 218 | *** Oll Persson is the Guardsman, who teleports into the ''Vengeful Spirit'' alongside John Grammaticus after Horus critically injures the Emperor, anatheme blade in hand. As he futilely tries to fend off Horus, Oll is ''pleading'' with the Emperor to stand back up. Oll promises that if He gets back on his feet, he will serve the Emperor once more, reminding Him of the great dream He sought to accomplish. Oll's final act is to defiantly fire at Horus with his lasrifle, even as the Warmaster turns him into a fine red mist with his Talon. |
| 219 | --->'''Oll:''' We had a plan. Remember? You had a plan. A great big plan. It still matters. I’m going to help you with it. You asked me to. Do you remember that? You asked me to help you get it right this time. Advise you. Keep you true. Keep you moving in the right direction. And I will. I will, this time. I promise you. Not like before. I’ll stand right beside you, and I’ll help you to make it work. For everybody’s sake. All you’ve got to do is get up. Please, friend. My old friend. Please. |
| 220 | *** Finally, the Space Marine is Garviel Loken, but this sacrifice ends up being subverted. Appealing to his pride, Garviel tells Horus that he has triumphed over the Emperor, and that he no longer needs the Chaos Gods' blessings. The Emperor deliberately chose not to drink from the Immaterium and ascend to godhood; If Horus truly wanted to prove himself the Emperor's superior, he should give up his power and kill Him as a primarch, or else he'd be no better than his father. Horus proceeds to rescind the foul blessings of the Chaos Gods before crushing the Emperor's head with Worldbreaker. However, it turns out that Horus merely destroyed an apparition of his father; and it was not the only one. 'Loken' is revealed to be a psychic illusion created by the Emperor. Before draining Horus of his warp power and commencing the final duel of the Heresy, the Emperor declares that his son truly is lost. |
| 221 | *** A small and quite literal tearjerker occurs when Horus first witnesses Loken. Despite his gene-son swearing that he shall forever be an enemy of the Warmaster and will oppose him no matter what, Horus becomes teary-eyed when he sees Garviel again after all this time. |
| 222 | ** The Emperor launches one last desperate assault on Horus, and He finally overpowers him by shining the reactivated light of the Astronomican directly into Horus' eyes. An agonized Horus tries to draw the breath of the Immaterium once more like he's always done, but he realizes that Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh are deliberately withholding their power from him. It dawns on Horus that he has become fully dependent on the Old Four; and now, they are treating him like a master would treat a disobedient slave. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone The Warmaster realizes just how far he's fallen, the sheer magnitude of what he's done, why the Emperor despised Chaos the way he did, and that he's condemned the human species to a slow, agonizing extinction. Despite all the power the Chaos Gods have given him, Horus was and always had been a mere pawn in the Great Game.]] This realization, alongside his connection to the Immaterium being substantially reduced and the Astronomican's brilliance clearing his mind, ends up reverting Horus to normal. However, the Warmaster asks his father to kill him before the Ruinous Powers take hold of his mind once more. Despite His initial hesitation, the Emperor obliges, imbuing Oll's anatheme blade with all of His remaining power before using it to kill His most beloved son. [[GoOutWithASmile As his soul is erased from existence and his body is reduced to an ashen skeleton, Horus smiles sadly as he fades away.]] |
| 223 | ---> [[DyingAsYourself Horus smiles. The smile vanishes. Then so does flesh, lips and mouth, revealing another smile, a rictus grin of teeth, a mask of bone. There is no redemption, for the time for that is long passed. There is only resignation.]] |
| 224 | ** Despite their cryptic nature, the Emperor's final words to His first-found son is nothing short of heartrending. |
| 225 | ---> '''+I wait for you, and I forgive you.+''' |
| 226 | ** With Horus dead, the daemons forced back into the Warp, and the Heretic Astartes retreating, the Blood Angels are freed from the Black Rage remembering nothing of what happened. When the surviving Blood Angels on the ''Vengeful Spirit'' make their way to Lupercal's Court, they find Sanguinius' corpse waiting for them. |
| 227 | --->'''Dorn:''' Raldoron. When last we met, you were the wild beasts Constantin describes.\ |
| 228 | '''Raldoron:''' When last we met, Lord Praetorian, we were in the Palace of Terra. Whatever madness overtook us, it has passed. It has been replaced by this.\ |
| 229 | ''(Raldoron looks at the dying Emperor and Sanguinius' corpse)''\ |
| 230 | '''Raldoron:''' (whispering) I would rather that madness than this.\ |
| 231 | '''Dorn:''' I do not doubt it. |
| 232 | ** As one of the main POV characters during the first three books of the series, Garviel Loken was, for many readers, the gateway character to the events of the Literature/HorusHeresy. His final fate is nothing short of an agonizing gut punch. |
| 233 | *** As Dorn, Leetu, Raldoron, and the surviving Loyalist forces recover Sanguinius' and the Emperor's bodies and prepare to teleport back to Terra, Loken decides to [[IChooseToStay remain in Lupercal's Court so he can stand sentry over his gene-father's corpse.]] Dorn yells at Loken to hurry up and join them, but Loken simply makes the sign of the aquila as they fade away. Left all alone on the ''Vengeful Spirit'', Loken kneels beside Horus, puts his hand on the Warmaster's shoulder, and [[ManlyTears breaks down sobbing.]] |
| 234 | --->'''Loken (to Dorn):''' Someone must watch over him, my lord. Someone must stand vigil here. [...] He was Horus Lupercal. And he was my father. I am the only one left who cares. |
| 235 | *** While the wreckage of the ''Vengeful Spirit'' breaks up and burns around them, Loken recites one last soliloquy to his father's corpse, mourning the man he used to be before Chaos took hold of him. As the ship starts to get dragged down into Terra's atmosphere, Loken resolves to die alongside his primarch, in one of the most moving passages in the novel. |
| 236 | --->[[CallBack I feel the hand of the ship upon me. You know that expression, father? Of course. You will have heard it many times.]] There was always that bond between us all. I miss those days. That’s why I stood where I stood. I make no apologies, and expect no forgiveness from you. But I stood where I stood to fight for what we used to have. It was a fine thing. The finest. It should never have been lost. So I fought for it. I fought for you.\ |
| 237 | [[UndyingLoyalty It’s true. I fought for you. Am I not a Luna Wolf? I fought for you, for the you that used to be.]] [[WasOnceAMan The father I loved, not the thing you became. I fought to get you back. I don’t know if you became what you became willingly, or if it was forced upon you.]] A little of both, I fear. I mean no recrimination. I have seen the other side of this world now. Like you, I have looked into eternity. I know that Chaos merely takes what we already are and uses us.\ |
| 238 | You, father, you were strong, you were proud, and you were fierce. So that’s what it made from you. And no, I do not think I am better than you because I resisted where you did not. Father, the Old Four never came for me the way they came for you. You were Warmaster. You were always the prize worth stealing. So I fought for you, which meant I fought against you. I kept the oaths you broke. I fought to bring you back. I was fighting for you all along.\ |
| 239 | And you did come back, didn’t you? Just for a moment. Just for a second. You saw it all, just like me. So… you understand. The old you, I mean. For that at least, I am thankful.\ |
| 240 | [[DeathSeeker I do not think it will be long now. Not long at all. We can go together.]] [[TogetherInDeath I have nothing left to fight for, and you shouldn’t go alone.]] |
| 241 | *** Abbadon and his personal guard happen upon Loken weeping over Horus' body; utterly exhausted by everything they had gone through, the two remaining members of the Mournival talk as brothers one final time. Loken pleads with Abaddon to surrender, promising that he will defend and speak on behalf of Abaddon and their battle-brothers before Dorn, Guilliman and the other loyalist Primarchs. Abaddon considers it, and it seems like there might be a ''chance'', even at this very last moment, to end the war with some semblance of peace...[[BackStab before Erebus comes out of nowhere and kills Loken by stabbing him in the back.]] The last loyal member of Horus' Mournival was there to witness the rise and fall of his gene-father, his Emperor, and the Imperium he'd sworn to protect, and how is he rewarded? By being put down like a dog by the man who orchestrated this apocalyptic war in the first place. |
| 242 | *** To rub extra salt in the wound, Erebus goes on to state that acts of betrayal and treachery are instrumental in the creation of Chaos daemons. Loken's death is heavily implied to result in the creation of the daemon Samus, creating a StableTimeLoop that renders the events of the Horus Heresy inevitable. |
| 243 | ** With the Emperor trapped in a perpetual state of undeath on the Golden Throne and His realm irreversibly destroyed by the biggest, most awful civil war in history, the great dream the Emperor had for humanity has died - alongside nine of His sons and innumerable human lives. [[CrapsackWorld What remains of the Imperium is an oppressive, paranoid, monstrous, abominable hellhole]] [[LastStand doomed to die a slow, painful death at the predatory hands of Chaos daemons and xenos forces.]] The Imperium's ideals have been lost and the human race is damned; while the death of the Imperium will take an eternity, it ''will'' happen, [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 for in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.]] |
| 244 | --->[[ForeverWar It is the end of a war, yet the death of peace. From here, the long slide begins, the terminal plunge into a grim darkness where the only constant will be war, and the only truth will be pain, and the only living will be suffering, and the only end of suffering will be death itself.]]\ |
| 245 | [[HopelessWar War is now only ever the sequel to war. War will beget war, and so down through time, generation after generation, and so on thereafter, into a far future where war becomes its own definition, and an end unto itself, where death becomes the reason for war, and war becomes the reason for death, worlds without end.]]\ |
| 246 | [[TheBadGuyWins And in that future, the Old Four will come to delight, for the quick death and sudden end they strove for here, and were denied, will be drawn out forever instead across the infinite architecture of the galaxy in one eternal act of worship to the powers they represent.]] |
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