Characters / The Roboutian Heresy Legiones Astartes

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Loyalist Legions

III — Emperor's Children

General

• Back from the Dead: Some marines display a resistance to damage beyond the limits of normal Astartes. This is known as the Mark of Lucius, after the resurrection of Lucius the Reborn during the Bleeding War.
• Berserk Button: The Dark Eldar are a rather sore topic for the Emperor's Children, for very good reason.
• Broken Ace: After being held as prisoners of the Dark Eldar for most of the Heresy, the values of the Emperor’s Children shifted from pride, nobility and the search of perfection to endurance, suffering and self-sacrifice.
• Challenge Seeker: The Emperor's Children constantly improve their skills in combat, to the point that they’re among the best duelists in the entire Imperium.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Post-Dark Eldar, the Emperor's Children have developed a not-so-odd acceptance of pain and hardship. In their eyes, you have to earn perfection, otherwise you wouldn't have the wisdom and honor that makes perfect perfect.
  "We bleed. We endure. And in enduring, we grow strong."
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After the Third Legion was nearly destroyed in the Bleeding War against the Dark Eldar, they finally had their chance at vengeance in the thirty-fifth millennium when the Alpha Legion managed to find a way into Commorragh within the Webway, allowing Primarch Fulgrim and the Emperor's Children to go there and burn it to the ground alongside the Night Lords legion and his brother Primarch Angron with his World Eaters legion. They ultimately failed to destroy the Dark Eldar and even lost Fulgrim to the Webway, but the Dark Eldar had learned to steer clear of the Emperor's Children and the worlds under their protection since then.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Relatively speaking. Despite being unable to participate in the Roboutian Heresy for nearly its entirety due to the Bleeding War, their contributions with the Night Lords at the Siege of Terra in the final hours of the Roboutian Heresy effectively turned the tide and allowed the Imperium to ultimately triumph.

Primarch Fulgrim

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• The Ace: He restored the ecology of Chemos to the point that it is still mostly perfect thousands of years after his disappearance. He took a legion of barely 300 Astartes and restored it in just a few years (there were only 300 Astartes left at the time of Fulgrim's arrival due to a genetic defect known as the blight). He endured most of the Roboutian Heresy being tortured by Dark Eldar, and even managed to save the Emperor from Guilliman at the last possible moment.
• Big Damn Heroes: Fulgrim had been unable to participate in the Siege of Terra even after his legion and the Night Lords arrived to relieve the Imperial forces due to being forced to stay aboard his flagship having all the poisons and wounds the Dark Eldar inflicted on him removed and healed, but he made his contribution count when he managed to get into his armour and teleport into the Throneroom during the final hour of the conflict, right as Arch-Traitor Gulliman was about to finish off the mortally-wounded Emperor, cutting him down with his Fireblade and giving his father the one chance He needed to smite Gulliman with his psychic powers.
• Break the Haughty: The Dark Eldar's tortures and the near-destruction of the Third Legion in the Bleeding War had, like the rest of the Emperor's Children, taught Fulgrim much needed humility with the marring and loss of his once perfect form and the realization of his and his Legion's own mortality. He still maintains his high standards for himself and his Legion, though.
• Broken Ace: His torture at the Dark Eldar permanently damaged his body and left him a shell of his once perfect self.
• A Father to His Men: During his captivity by the Dark Eldar, every time Fulgrim manages to break out of his cell the first thing he does is to try and rescue his own gene-sons in captivity, even if every time it led to him being recaptured by the Dark Eldar. The most tragic part is that most of the gene-sons he tried to rescue were often already dead from torture before he even got to them, though he had no way of knowing that.
• For Want Of A Nail: Librarians of the Emperor's Children noticed the trap in the Laer temple much earlier, alerting everyone to the Chaos corruption in a timely manner. This means Fulgrim never picked up the Blade of the Laer, so it was instead used on Vespasian, who resisted the daemon's corruption until the Thousand Sons could banish the daemon back into the Warp. Because of this, there was nothing to corrupt him and he remained loyal. Later, their encounter with the Dark Eldar, while horrific, taught him much-needed humility and reminded him of his and his Legion's mortality.
• I Was Quite a Looker: He was legendary for his handsomeness until he was captured by Dark Eldar who tortured him until he was covered in scars.
• Never Found the Body: He went missing and was presumed deceased while pursuing Fabius Bile at the climax of the 'Burning of Commorragh'. Angron always had faith he survived. At the Battle of Lupercal's Gate Sanguinius inadvertently confirms to Lucius that Fulgrim is still alive somewhere within the Webway.
• Revenge Before Reason: Fulgrim got lost in the Webway because he ignored the warnings about the imminent collapse of Commorragh's suns while pursuing Fabius Bile.
• Scars Are Forever: His body is still covered in the scars from the torture he suffered at the hands of Dark Eldar during the Bleeding War.
• The Speechless: The Dark Eldar cutting out his tongue and maiming his voice-box had pretty much left him unable to verbally communicate with his once smooth, beautiful voice ever again, though briefly subverted when he was rescued by Sevatar and the Night Lords, where he forced the undamaged muscles of his throat to produce the sounds needed for him to ask what happened to the Imperium while he and his legion were indisposed.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Relatively speaking. Despite being unable to participate in the Roboutian Heresy for nearly its entirety, with his one blow with the Fireblade against Roboute Gulliman in the Throneroom, Fulgrim had effectively won the Civil War for the Imperium and saved Humanity in its Darkest Hour.

Fabius Bile

• Adaptational Badass: In this timeline he is the undisputed master of the Black Legion, able to have astartes of all breeds vying for his approval. To further show just how far he goes in this regard: He is the mastermind behind both a black crusade against Chemos that culminated with the destruction of his legion, has the reanimated corpse of Horus Lupercal as his top henchman, and is the leading force behind the Black Crusade that is assaulting Cadia on 999.M4.
• Body Horror: His experiments, as in canon.
• Crippling Overspecialization: While he’s one of the few individuals in the entire galaxy able to understand the Emperor’s gene-forging skills, his abilities in other fields are far from the same level. This comes back to bite him in the ass after he betrays Thrar Hraldir, who managed to hack his armour and was the one who exposed the insanity of Daemon-Primarch Sanguinius and his deal with Bile, causing the Blood Angels to fracture as a legion and ending the alliance between Bile and the legion.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Fabius Bile finds the Raven Guard’s Apothecaries to be utterly disgusting.
• Hive Mind: The original Fabius Bile is dead, but he preserved his consciousness through clones of himself that share thoughts when close together.
• The Magnificent: Known as "the Clonelord".
• Send in the Clones: Just like his canon counterpart, his speciality is cloning and gene-forging. This version also exaggerates it with the Black Legion, that in this time is composed of a significant numbers of warbands derived from clones and modified astartes.
• Xanatos Gambit: His plan for the fall of Chemos. By putting a copy of his mind in a clone of Fulgrim, he ensures that either Fulgrim comes and Fabius has something to match him, or he doesn’t come, proving to Fabius that he’s dead.

Lucius the Reborn

• Back from the Dead: Multiple times, albeit through different circumstances and means from his canon self, which ultimately earns him the title 'The Reborn'.
  • Lucius is said to have somehow inexplicably came back to life in his cell after he died from the tortures of the Dark Eldar during the Bleeding War.
  • During the climatic hours of the Siege of Terra, guided by visions of his lost comrades (implied to be sent by the Emperor), Lucius is seen being killed multiple times while fighting across the Throneworld, saving the lives of loyal Legions' champions and leaders and felling the ones on the traitors' side, yet always brought back again and again by a mysterious golden light. Eventually he is vaporized by the detonation of a traitor Titan's fusion reactor, and was never seen again.
  • Eventually, Lucius returned again during the Angel War once more, whereupon he is revealed to have become a Perpetual, having been chosen to bear the Mantle of Perpetuity which Vulkan had lost either at ascension or the application of the Fulgurite Spear by John Grammaticus.
• Break the Haughty: Once proud and petulent like his canon self, the Dark Eldar's depredations and the loss of all his comrades during the Bleeding War had shattered whatever ego he had, leaving behind only a Death Seeker who is nevertheless still compelled to fulfill his duty for the Emperor and to avenge his brothers.
• The Chosen One: Twice, first by what is heavily implied to be the Emperor to fight and ensure the survival of multiple loyalist Legions' champions and leaders (and the death of the same of the traitor Legions) during the Siege of Terra, and then by the Mantle of Perpetuity which originally belonged to Vulkan (until it was cast off by Vulkan when he ascended to Daemonhood or by John Grammaticus' usage of the Fulgurite Spear on him during the Heresy), which inexplicably brought Lucius the Reborn back to life ten thousand years after the Siege of Terra.
• David Versus Goliath:
  • One of Lucius' most impressive victories was a case of this, having singlehandedly killed a traitor Titan at the Siege of Terra by cutting through the thin armor of the traitor war-machine by the leg, battling his way through the body until he reached the chest and destroying the controls and safety mechanisms of its fusion reactor, causing it to undergo meltdown and detonate right in the middle of traitor forces. This also happens to be his last victory as he was vaporized along with it...
  • ... At least until he was inexplicably brought back to life in time to participate in the Angel War ten thousand years later, whereupon he one ups it by challenging and battling the Keeper of Secrets Yria in the Underhives of Holy Terra, which outsized him by a considerable margin physically and also metaphorically in terms of age, experience and even skills. The duel ends with a Mutual Kill, but Lucius still wins by default as he landed the killing blow first and was brought back to life by his newly Perpetual state, while Yria was banished back into the Warp.
• Death Seeker: After losing all his squad-mates and enduring unspeakable tortures from the Dark Eldar, Lucius the Reborn had all but reduced to this, only compelled to kept going by his duty as a Space Marine and his promise to Saul Travitz. Problem is, of course, the universe just wouldn't let him die...
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Lucius the Reborn took out the Keeper of Secrets Yria in a Mutual Kill during the Angel War in the Underhives of Holy Terra. Lucius technically won this bout by landing the killing blow first and returning from death once again due to his newly Perpetual nature, while Yria is thoroughly banished back into the Warp. Downplayed somewhat in that Lucius had some help with vengeful ghosts being summoned by a Herald of Prospero of the Thousand Sons arriving at the scene with Imperial reinforcements, distracting the Keeper of Secrets just long enough to deliver the Coup de Grâce.
• Expy: Lucius the Reborn is fast fulfilling the role of being the Doomslayer of the RH-verse, strongly resembling the Scourge of Hell with being nigh-unkillable, fighting daemons and all traitors and Chaos forces with unrelenting determination and hatred, being likely the last of the Emperor's Children legion...
• Fastball Special: Taking advantage of the fact Lucius cannot die, the Thousand Sons present at the Battle of Lupercal Gate towards the climax of the Angel War got him to where he was needed by quite literally throwing him there with their telekinesis.
• Master Swordsman: Lucius remains in the RH-verse as in the HH-verse a swordsman of terrifying skill, compared at various points with the likes of Sigismund, Abaddon, Kharn, Amet and Sevatar in terms of skill, and is capable of keeping up with even a Keeper of Secrets as seen during the Angel War (and that was while using a piece of junk as an improvised weapon for most of the fight).
• The Magnificent: 'The Reborn' (instead of 'The Eternal' as with his canon HH-verse self), having apparently returned to life in his cell after dying under the tortures of the Dark Eldar, and afterwards in the climatic Battle of Terra at the climax of the Roboutian Heresy he was seen fighting and saving the lives of many loyalist Legions' champions and leaders, and was thought to have died multiple times by each of the loyal Legions, only to inexplicably reappear to fight once more. This earned him a posthumous Imperial Sainthood.
• Tranquil Fury: Lucius the Reborn is supremely pissed upon hearing Holy Terra is under attack again by the forces of Chaos when he returned ten thousand years later, and also that no only has the Emperor's Children legion been destroyed by Fabius Bile's Black Legion, but its remnants had been captured and twisted into the monstrous Tithed Ones by the servants of Slaanesh as their shock troops for the Angel War. To the frustration of the Keeper of Secrets Yria, however, Lucius doesn't break out into a berserk rage when it taunts him about that, instead sinking into a cold, focused fury which only made his sword-fighting even more superb.

Brotherhood of the Silent Scream

• The Atoner: The Brotherhood of the Silent Scream cut off their own tongues for their perceived failures, removing themselves from the broader legion structure, staying isolated on a monastery on Chemos and lending their services to inquisitors.
• The Speechless: Every Space Marine in the Brotherhood ritually removes his tongue as a punishment for perceived failures, this tradition was started by Marius Vairosean after being unable to rescue his primarch during the Bleeding War.

IV — Iron Warriors

General

• Artificial Limbs: The mutagenic energies around the Iron Cages have induced mutations on the Iron Warriors, to counteract this they remove the mutated tissue, replacing it with prosthetics or cloned replacements.
• Bizarrchitecture: Some buildings made by the Iron Warriors are capable to defy the laws of physics, or modify themselves to a certain degree. Special mentions go to the walls of the Iron Warriors’ fortress on Hydra Cordatus and the Cavea Ferrum: A structure inside the Imperial Palace of such complexity that even a Primarch’s mind is unable to navigate it.
• Death from Above: Iron Warriors' military doctrine involves very extensive use of heavy artillery and other forms of bombardment to pound the enemy's defenses and resolve into dust, before any major assaults.
• Glory Hound: Like in canon, they used to be this, growing increasingly restless over the lack of recognition and respect for demeaning and frustrating assignments with little glory to be had. Then Perturabo, who is far more mature and humble than his canon self in this verse, took command and taught them his philosophy on war, dispelling such desires and turning them into dutiful Legionnaires as a whole. Ironically, it is subverting this and heroically and loyally defending the Imperium that finally got them the widespread recognition and respect from the rest of the Imperium during and after the Heresy.
• Hold the Line: They are the main force backing the construction and manning of the iron cages: Sector-sized complexes that surround the Eye of Terror and the Ruinstorm. And the legion has been blocking the access of most of the assaults from the forces of Chaos for ten millennia.
• Humble Hero: They care little for recognition or glory ever since Perturabo assumed command of the Legion and taught them that War Is Hell and is something that should only be pursued and ended as quickly and efficiently as possible. At present, they dutifully watch over the Imperium and see to its defense from their countless fortresses across the Galaxy, perfectly fine to let the other Loyal Legions get their share of glory and credit - their Primarch and the Emperor's approval is enough for them.
• Pragmatic Hero: Unlike other Legions, the Iron Warriors don't care for glory or honour in war, and thus are more willing to use less honourable but effective strategies to resolve it as efficiently as possible, like bombing the enemy into submission from afar or let them wear themselves down assaulting their near-impregnable fortresses until they are too weak to defend themselves. This makes for a source of tension between the Iron Warriors and other Loyalist Legions, and one of the original sources of their feud with their presently traitorous cousins the Imperial Fists.
• Tank Goodness: The Iron Warriors makes extensive use of heavy armoured vehicles to spearhead their offensives, often fielding hundreds of them on the field alongside thousands of Iron Warriors legionnaires.
• War Is Hell: A lesson Perturabo drilled into the Iron Warriors' heads upon taking command of the Legion, stopping their then-increasing thirst for recognition and glory in its tracks. For the Iron Warriors, war is considered an unfortunate but necessary evil that must be tolerated and even waged for the defense of the Imperium and all Humankind. It must therefore be treated like a mathematical equation which must be solved as efficiently and effectively as possible, spending as little resources and casualties as possible for maximum effect.

Primarch Perturabo

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• Cincinnatus: He didn't stay the ruler to Olympia after uplifting the world into an utopia, instead quietly retiring into the countryside to be a scholar.
• For Want Of A Nail: Perturabo's hated foster-father died before the Emperor showed up, and having authority and responsibility thrust on him caused him to mature and become a Humble Hero who was content with the Boring, but Practical work.
• Human Popsicle: Due to the amount of wounds that Perturabo has taken in his battles, he now spends most of the time resting in stasis.
• Humble Hero: He took over Olympia not for his own glory, but to give power to it's people. After he had achieved his dream, he retired to a quiet, content life.
• Knight in Sour Armor: After the Heresy ended, Perturabo lost faith in the Imperium’s possible recovery, remarking that they’ll never reach the state that the Imperium had before the Heresy.
• Like Father, Like Son: The Emperor's first words to him was proclaiming him as truly being his son, right after seeing that Perturabo was very happy to let the perfect society he created rule itself.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Lochos aristocracy started causing too much problems to his attempts to bring it into prosperity, Perturabo gathered them together and just slaughtered in rage. After calming down, he became horrified: he just broke the laws of Lochos, and, worse, betrayed the very ideals he oathed to maintain. He gave another oath to himself — never let his anger overcome him again. He would follow that oath until the Siege of Terra.

Barban Falk, the Warsmith

• Back from the Dead: Returning just in time to participate in the Angel War on Mars alongside tens of thousands of GG/Heresy-Era long-lost Iron Warriors.
• The Cavalry: Twice - first by leading thirty thousand Iron Warriors to Mars and aid the Mechanicum loyalists retake the red planet from the Dark Mechanicum during the Schism of Mars. Then by leading those same tens of thousands of Iron Warriors who were caught up with most of him in the spacetime distortion of the Noctis Labyrinth to join in the Angel War after they were reassembled and spat back into reality.
• Literal Split Personality: It is revealed this was what happened with Barban Falk during the Martian War: Thanks to the Void Dragon fragment on Mars, the climatic Final Battle at the Noctis Labyrinth caused a catastrophic fracturing of space-time which caught most of the tens of thousand or so Iron Warriors Barban Falk led to reclaim Mars. Barban Falk was partially caught in it, and like a prism, the fracturing caused him to split into pieces, most of them lost within the fractured space-time around the Labrinyth and leaving one part with the three hundred Iron Warriors survivors who were not caught within the zone of distortion. Recognizing that he's no longer complete, the fragment who escaped the zone called himself the Warsmith from then on. With the death of Moravec by the returned Primarchs and the restoration of the normal space-time continuum around the Labyrinth, Balkan Falks and the rest of the long-lost Iron Warriors are now Back from the Dead, returning just in time to aid in the defence of Mars during the Angel War from N'Kari's forces.
• Not Too Dead to Save the Day: His ghost appears to save Magnus from the Queen during his battle against the forces of the Haydesian Kingdoms. And then the rest of him showed up with tens of thousands of long-lost Iron Warriors during the Angel War on Mars with the destruction of Moravec and the restoration of the space-time continuum which had cast them adrift until that time.
• No-Sell: Thanks to the space-time distortion which they got caught up in at the Noctis Labyrinth, Balkan Falk and his Iron Warriors now possessed a strange aura around themselves with Anti-Magic properties which allows them to resist Warp corruption and disrupt Warp powers, giving them a great advantage against the Daemonically-corrupted/empowered forces of the Keeper of Secrets N'Kari during the Angel War on Mars.
• That Man Is Dead: After returning from the Martian War, he abandoned the identity of Barban Falk, chosing to be referred only as the Warsmith. Though given the latest chapters, he has seemingly reclaimed the identity of Barban Falk once more.

Barabas Dantioch

• Colony Drop: How Barabas dealt with the Imperator-class Titan which the treacherous Imperial Fists used to finally breach Shadenhold's defences during the siege of the fortress and rendered it indefensible. Shadenhold was built into a gigantic stalactite, and to enter the even more enormous cavern it was built into the Imperator-class Titan had to emerge from a lake beneath the fortress. Before Barabas and his defenders escaped, they detonated the demolition charges at the base of the hanging fortress spire and blew it off the roof of the cavern, which promptly dropped itself right on top of the Titan and crushed it along with thousands of other enemy troops.
• Guile Hero: He killed thousands of Imperial Fists troops and an imperator Titan during the siege of Shadenhold, using only the fortress itself and a few marines and human soldiers. The battle ended up costing the traitorous Imperial Fists nearly a tenth of the entire legion before it was taken, and they were even denied that victory when Barabas escaped and his men escaped and destroyed the fortress as they went.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He died activating the Dark Glass station to allow the World Eaters and Word Bearers to escape the Ruinstorm.
• Older Than They Look: As a result of the Iron Warriors' battle with the Hrud, Barabas was prematurely aged by the Hruds' time-bending entropic powers on top of being horribly disfigured. This becomes a problem as the Roboutian Heresy dragged on, culminating in him sacrificing himself to activate the Dark Glass Station and allow both the Word Bearers and World Eaters to escape the Ruinstorm, taking an agonizing but relatively quick and meaningful death getting the two trapped loyalist Legions back to Terra rather than drag everyone else down and eventually succumbing to a prolonged and undignified death.
• Secretly Dying: Barabas was dying from entropic exposure to the Hrud, aging his body prematurely and making him weaker and weaker with each passing moment. This may have motivated him to perform his Heroic Sacrifice so he won't slow everyone down and die a much more dignified and meaningful death.
• The Strategist: Under his leadership and his ingeniously designed Shadenhold fortress, he and the few Astartes and Human soldiers he have under his command managed to hold off a significant portion of the traitorous Imperial Fists legion - which consisted of thousands of traitor Astartes, millions of Human troops and even several renegade Titans legions - for more than a standard Terran year. Even Rogal Dorn's personal leadership was not enough to break the siege, and in the end Barabas costed him a tenth of his entire Legion just to take Shadenhold, and even that victory was rendered hollow by Barabas activating the self-destruct and denying the Imperial Fists their prize, escaping with his men via teleportation.

VIII — Night Lords

General

• Berserk Button: Don't trick the Night Lords into putting down a well-intentioned rebellion or support slavery in front of the World Eaters, unless you want your death and humiliation to be spectacular.
• Big Damn Heroes: They rescued the Emperor's Children from their imprisonment and torture at the hands of Dark Eldar, and later were part of the imperial reinforcements at the siege of Terra.
• Combat Clairvoyance: Librarians of the legion can receive visions of the future, but this gift it's really taxing. This ability also appears on a minority of the normal battle-brothers of the legion, but it's far more dangerous, and eventually pushes the legionary suffering from the visions into a full-on Super-Power Meltdown.
• The Confidant: 'Sin-Eaters' are essentially confidants and therapists who are recruited by the Night Lords to help them cope with the horrors of their jobs. It comes from Konrad Curze having a mother-figure who looked after him and listened to his troubles in his youth.
• Dark Is Not Evil: They are still Terror Heroes but unlike in canon, this is tempered by a strong sense of justice and compassion for the innocent.
• Stealth Expert: They're the best legion at moving through enviroments without being noticed, using both their own abilities and cooperation from the officio assasinorum to maintain this effect.
• Terror Hero: The Night Lords make use a mix of stealth, brutality and terror tactics to intimidate their foes into submission, avoiding excessive deaths. This is so efficient that the mere rumor of a fleet of Night Lords coming to a planet it's enough to stop seditious nobles from trying to rebel against the Imperium. Unlike the canon Night Lords, however, they balance this out with a code of honor, the use of 'Sin-Eaters' to help them cope with the horrors of their jobs, and their respect for human life.

Primarch Konrad Curze

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• Big Brother Mentor: He teaches the necessity of respecting the Godzilla Threshold to his youngest siblings, the twin Primarchs Alpharius and Omegon.
• Defiant to the End: He told Vulkan he would rather die a hero then live as a monster before being killed by the Salamander Primarch.
• For Want Of A Nail: Konrad Curze was raised by a human mother who cared for and loved him, preventing his rise as a psychotic Punisher expy in canon while becoming a noble Batman-like figure who valued life.
• The Good King: Was crowned King of Nostramo after fighting off the Eldar invasion. His reign saw the crime-ridden world become prosperous and stable. Unlike in canon, this change was lasting since Konrad knew to leave it in the hands of his most capable administrators while he was away crusading.
• Momma's Boy: His point of divergence was being found and raised as a child by a woman named Theresa, who did her best to reassure him he wasn't a monster.
• Sacrificial Lion: He is the first Primarch to die in the Heresy, at the hands of Vulkan.
• Why Won't You Die?: Konrad killed Vulkan, who unfortunately is a Perpetual, fifteen times at the Drop Site Massacre before dying.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: He was at both ends of this situation at different points in his life.
  • He first received this encouragement from his mother who used her dying words to reassure him that he was not a monster.
  • He was on the giving end when he convinced Alpharius and Omegon that the two could become more than just ruthless killers.

Jago Sevatarion, the Prince of Crows

• Boarding Party: Jago Sevatarion led one against a ship belonging to the Dark Angels in a battle following the Heresy, and was still aboard with his troops when it was pulled back into the Warp, leaving his ultimate fate unknown.
• Combat Pragmatist: While he was one of the best duelists in the legions, he got an extra edge by being willing to use every trick available to him. One example of this is his duel against Sigismund, that Jago won by headbutting Siginmund after 30 hours of duelling.
• Not Quite Dead: Some believe this to be the case for Sevatar despite him disappearing after the Heresy, especially since he had not been given permission to die from his Primarch, as per Konrad Curze's final orders before his death.
• Take Up My Sword: He was designated as heir of Konrad Curze before the dropsite massacre, and assumed the title of legion master upon his Primarch's death. He is to lead the Legion until he was ordered otherwise, and until he is granted explicit permission to do so, he was forbidden to die.
• The Un-Smile: While he smiles rarely, his smiles are scary to the point of intimidating a Callidus assassin.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After leading the Night Lords during and after the Heresy following their Primarch's death, he disappeared in a battle against the Dark Angels when the traitor ship he and his troops had boarded were pulled back into the Warp with them still on it. While the Imperium assumed him dead, some among the Night Lords believe he is still alive, especially considering that by his Primarch's final command, he is forbidden to die until granted explicit permission to do so from Konrad Curze.

XII — World Eaters

General

• Honor Before Reason: The legion has started conflicts with many institutions of the Imperium, ranging from snobbish regiments of the Astra Militarum to the Inquisition.
• Slave Liberation: The World Eaters utterly despise everything related to the enslavement and abuse of humans. This has resulted in a special hatred for both the Salamanders and the worst examples of imperial nobility.
• True Companions: The Astartes of this Legion share the greatest bonds of brotherhood in any legion, valuing brotherhood first, discipline second and skills at arms third on their list of priorities.
• Right Hand Versus Left Hand: The legion has gotten its fair share of enemies among the Imperium’s ranks:
  • The usage of obedience circuits on Skitarii has put the Adeptus Mechanicus at odds with the legion.
  • After the First War of Armageddon, they stood up against the Inquisition on the matter of the survivors of the war, similarly to the Space Wolves in canon. This has resulted in resentment coming from assorted radical elements inside the Ordos.
  • They use to feud with the more small-minded elements of the Administratum over their treatment of people from existing and newly-conquered worlds, often leading to petty indirect reprisals such as delaying shipment of munitions and various complaints aim at inconveniencing the Legion. Things came to a head when they tried to recall Shipmaster Lotara Sorrin, commander of Primarch Angron's flagship 'The Conqueror', to Terra for various breaches of protocol, leading to Primarch Angron sending Kharn and a hundred other World Eaters to 'Take care of this' at the Administratum outpost which sent the recall order. Whatever they did, the conflict died down from the Administratum's end after that, though they still rub shoulders on some issues such as indentured labour.
  • While they got along wonderfully with many Imperial Guard regiments, the World Eaters disliked if not outright hated many high-born regiments and their aristocratic commanders who look down upon the more 'common' regiments and the people of the Imperium, often to the point of violence. Some high-born leaders 'disappear' during deployment with the World Eaters, allowing their more common-born soldiers and subordinates to replace them, while in more extreme cases open warfare could result which could see entire high-born regiments wiped out, as was the case of the Jantine Patricians at Menazoid Epsilon after they turned on another regiment in the presence of the World Eaters elements which were part of the campaign.

Primarch Angron

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• The Berserker: Defied. While many have said that Angron could be the best warrior among the Primarchs if he let himself fight without restrain, Angron has never let his wrath overcome him. As a result of this restraint, he prevents Khorne from taking him under his influence.
• For Want Of A Nail: Eldrad ordered the Eldar not to attack the baby Angron when he crash-landed, suspecting the orders came from Chaos-corrupted Farseers. As he was not injured, Angron was not captured by Slavers and given the Butcher Nails, saving him from becoming purely driven by rage and falling into Chaos; instead he was raised by peasants who taught him to despise pointless war.
• Nice Guy: Angron had a much brighter past as a free man, leading him to becoming a noble, genial figure who pretty much everyone who saw the value of compassion got along with. His Legion follows his example.
• Tranquil Fury: Angron constantly restrains himself while he fights.

Kharn the Bound One

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• Bring It: In Nagrakali, the name Skalathrax means “place of ending”, “ judgement'' and “destruction”; Kharn gave this name to one of the recruitment worlds of the World Eaters. This world has seen a disproportionate amount of attacks, including the one that would kill Kharn himself centuries down the line.
• King in the Mountain: The World Eaters have a legend that Kharn is not dead, merely sleeping, and that he would return to lead the World Eaters in battle when they need him the most.
• Noodle Incident: An Administratum outpost sent a recall order for Lotara Sorrin, the Shipmaster of the World Eaters' flagship 'The Conqueror', citing various breaches of protocol and etiquette which they want to hold her accountable for as part of the Administratum officials' petty reprisals for various conflicts with the World Eaters which had been festering during the Great Crusade. In response, Kharn and a hundred World Eaters were sent to that outpost by Primarch Angron with specific instructions to "Take care of this". While apparently no one died or was even hurt, whatever Kharn and the World Eaters sent did resulted in the Administratum never bothering the World Eaters again. The World Eaters claim to still know the specific details of the story and recount them to new recruits to their collective amusement.

XIV — Death Guard

General

• Anti-Magical Faction: The Death Guard are the only legion that doesn't use librarians. They have the Sisters of Silence instead, and then a number of anti-Psyker exotic weapons and Pariah mutants when the Sisters become less available.
• Berserk Button: They have two: Never try to blow up a planet if the Death Guard thinks it can be saved. And never tell a Death Guard marine they take in survivors from their purges - They don't leave survivors.
• Dirty Business: They’re called in when entire worlds have to be purged.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: The entire legion sees death as just another part of life, and a mercy compared to what the enemies of mankind can do.
• Doomsday Device: The Death Guards have a TONNE of these in storage, exotic and dangerous weapons confiscated from Xenos and others they fought/wiped out which even the Inquisition and Mechanicus would had balked at, and often used in their extermination campaigns when even their normal weaponry isn't enough.
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: While the Death Guard often mourns having to Mercy Kill Human worlds, they by contrast positively REVELS at wars of extermination against Xeno empires, wiping out alien civilizations on the fringes of Imperial space which must be purged before they become a threat to the Imperium, since to them there is no moral ambiguity or crises of conscience which comes with having to end Human life, only the assertion of Human supremacy in the galaxy. This goes to the point that there is a rotation involved with the Death Guards' Great Companies where they would spend time killing Xenos after a period of Human exterminations, since killing aliens for them comes as stress relief for their other duties.
• I Did What I Had to Do: The Death Guard destroys planets for the greater good, though they still feel horrible about it despite knowing it must be done.
• Implacable Man: The entire legion has one of the greatest endurances among Astartes.
• Mercy Kill: The populations that they destroy usually would consider extermination by the Death Guard a mercy compare to whatever Fate Worse than Death they had received by the time the Death Guards arrived.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The Death Guard use weapons of mass destruction dangerous and powerful enough to scare even the Iniquisiton and Mechanicus, and would had been completely forbidden for the rest of the Imperium to use.

Primarch Mortarion

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• Defiant to the End: Mortarion was offered the chance to join Chaos as he was dying at the hands of Vulkan, he still rejected it.
• For Want Of A Nail: Mortarion escaped from the Witch-Lord earlier and chose to live among normal humans peacefully for a time, causing him to value life more. More importantly, unlike in the HH timeline, the Witch-Lord actively attacked and killed everyone in Mortarion's village that he had grown close to. His need to avenge his family gave him a resolve and motivation that he lacked in the original timeline, and allowed him to kill the Witch-Lord himself where he would have failed in the canon timeline. As a result, the Emperor never took the kill from him, and there was no resentment between him and his father, even when the Emperor later ruled in favor of the Librarius at the Council of Nikaea, a decision that Mortarion was adamantly opposed to but ultimately respected (it helped that he was given the Sisters of Silence to compensate for a lack of a Librarius).
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The incident that triggered the campaigns of extermination against the Witch Lords of Barbarus was the extermination of the village that had accepted Mortarion.
• Staking the Loved One: He spent the entirety of the Siege of Terra making sure that Jagathai Khan was permanently dead, and that the Khagan wouldn't be able to ever use his body again.

XV — Thousand Sons

General

• Animated Armor: Those Astartes that are unable to survive the Rubric are reduced to dust, with their souls trapped inside their armor.
• Arch-Enemy: With the Space Wolves. Even before the Heresy began.
• Body Horror: As in canon, the Thousand Sons suffered from a high mutation rate that exploded after the heresy (here the explosion blamed on Tzeentch's wrath). Ahriman's Rubric put a stop to it...at the cost of killing most of the legion and trapping their souls in their armor as Rubrics. In-universe, this is treated as the right decision as it at least ended up saving who could be saved.
• Cursed with Awesome: The Rubric of Ahriman shields every marine from direct corruption by Chaos and increases their psychic abilities beyond ordinary librarians. However, only a minority of the aspirants actually survive the process, the rest become Rubric Marines.
• Inverse Ninja Law: Justified. Besides the fact that Magnus' geneseed only works with psykers, the Thousand Sons have to combine the implantation with the incredibly dangerous Rubric of Ahriman to stabilize the implantation. The very few who survive were already the toughest psykers around, and Magnus' power makes them even more so. Also averted, as the Sons usually fight with their personal detachment of the Imperial Guard, the Spireguard, backing them up.
• Magic Knight: Every single legionnaire of the Thousand Sons is a psyker, and they're just as talented at fighting as other Astartes. However, a combination of their lack of numbers and their specialized skill set forces them to use human reinforcements known as the Spireguard to be able to operate at their fullest.
• Remember the Alamo: When they fight against the Space Wolves, their battlecries are in remembrance of the burning of Prospero, along with promises of revenge.

The Heralds of Prospero

• I See Dead People: The first signal an Astartes of the sixteenth legion receives of his transition into a full-fledged Herald is the ability to see the ghosts of the wrongfully slain.
• That Man Is Dead: When a Herald starts his pilgrimage to Prospero, his brothers mark him as dead on the legion's rolls of honor.
• Vengeful Ghost: After the awakening of Vindicta, the Heralds of Prospero that die remain as spirits and conduits of Vindicta. They’re known as The Vengeful Ones.

Primarch Magnus the Red

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• Barrier Maiden: To defend his sons from the flash-change, Magnus shielded them with his own power during the Great Crusade. When he’s cast down by Sarthorael, the flesh-change comes back.
• Fatal Flaw: Wrath. Unlike Rogal Dorn, however, Magnus reigns himself in to be the leader his men and the Imperium as a whole need after coming back from his absence.
• For Want Of A Nail: When Magnus was purging Prospero of the Psychneunn, he encountered a "Psychneunn Prime", which could nullify his psychic powers and nearly killed him. The creature also wounded him, destroying his right eye, and Magnus only managed to kill it by body-slamming it to the ground and pummeling it to a pulp. This implicitly taught him that psychic powers and the Warp weren't everything, and that things are more than they seem (the Psychneunn Prime was frail physically, but it certainly didn't stop it from briefly dominating Magnus). This would later allow Magnus to see Tzeentch for what he was (the Lie), and by literally turning his back on Tzeentch in the Warp, broke his hold over the legion (the Flesh Change). Much later, in the Council of Nikaea, Magnus remained silent throughout the proceedings rather than join the pro-psyker camp as expected, which is implied to have been a factor in the Emperor's final decision being to not ban the use of psyker powers, ensuring that psykers, while still feared, are treated with more respect than in canon.
• Freak Out: Immediately after stumbling upon and rejecting Tzeentch, a hysterical Magnus ran to the Emperor, babbling about abominations hiding in the Warp, and only calmed with the assurances that the Emperor planned to destroy said abominations.
• Genius Bruiser: Due to his battle with the Psychneuein Prime (the biggest specimen of a species that feeds off psychic energy), Magnus learns that physical strength can have as much use as psychic might in battle. He later transmitted this lesson to his legion.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Subverted. After he confronted and rejected Tzeentch in the Warp, Magnus rushed to see the Emperor at once, extremely distraught by what he had learned. Fortunately, the Emperor personally checked Magnus for taint, and after swearing Magnus to secrecy, he reassured Magnus by telling him that he had a plan to deal with it.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Right after reuniting his soul and his body, Magnus decides to replace his father on the Golden Throne as the main tool directing the Astronomican.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: After looking into the heart of Tzeentch, Magnus denounces him as a lie and rejects him and Chaos entirely.
• Worf Had the Flu: During his first battle with Sarthorael the Ever-Watcher, Magnus was weakened by warding his entire legion against the Flesh-Change, to the point where Sarthorael was able to curse him and trap his soul into the warp.

Ahzek Ahriman

• The Atoner: He has been looking for a cure to the adverse effects of the Rubric for thousands of years.
• Back from the Dead: After sacrificing himself to rip away Sanguinius' glamour, he works with Lady Morgana to resurrect himself as a Rubric Marine. This is both to administer justice upon himself for consigning so many of his brothers to the fate of being Rubric Marines, and also so that he can continue his duties even beyond death.
• Dying Curse: To Sanguinius, ripping apart his Glamour.
  Ahriman: You are no Angel. May they all see you for what you really are.
• The Magnificent: Known as "Keeper of the Lore".
• Heroic Sacrifice: Tricks Sanguinius into stabbing him with his sword, allowing Ahriman to use the connection to shred the Angel's own Glamour and singlehandedly break his forces by forcing them to confront the Humanoid Abomination he really is.

Iskandar Khayon

• Dented Iron: Ten millennia of constant battle against the enemies of mankind has left Khayon’s face a scarred mess.
• The Magnificent: Known as "the Black".
• Red Baron: His alternative title is "Scourge of the Wolves", gained from being a staunch enemy of Leman Russ and the Sixth Legion, the Thousand Sons' collective Arch-Enemy.

XVI — Sons of Horus

General

• Arch-Enemy: By the Warmaster, do they have a long list of them...
  • The Black Legion, which they share with the Emperor's Children on account of it being created by the Arch-Renegade Fabius Bile, the Clone Lord in this universe. The Sons of Horus is especially pissed at Bile for daring to desecrate Horus' corpse and memory by creating clones of him (and Fulgrim) from their genetic materials during the Clone Wars. And that's not counting that time Bile planted a gene-infiltrator among their ranks who would kick-start the 'War of the False King' which decimated their Legion...
  • The Blood Angels and their Primarch Sanguinius. It was Sanguinius who killed Horus at the gates of the Imperial Palace towards the climax of the Siege of Terra, drinking his blood and transforming into the Daemon Prince of Slaanesh. After Sanguinius was defeated and banished by the Mournival, it was the Blood Angels who made off with the Warmaster's desiccated corpse, allowing it to be desecrated by Fabius Bile for his blasphemous research and cloning projects.
• Broken Ace: The Sons of Horus were and are still acclaimed across the galaxy as the greatest of all Space Marines, their glories innumerable and victories unrivalled by all other Legions. Unfortunately, they are still haunted by the loss of their Primarch Horus ten thousand years on, and constantly afflicted with terrible misfortunes which blemishes that record and fills them with grief and shame, along with an ever-growing list of grudges and oaths of vengeance that remains unfulfilled against a large gallery of arch-enemies.
• Demonic Possession: Invoked with their Exorcist Marines, who had endured a Daemonic possession and then fought it off (often at their own volition with the aid of Radical Inquisitors in hopes of replicating the experiences of their Primarch and emerge from it with the same revelations as he had). Those who survive with their souls and bodies intact become practically immune to daemonic influence, filled with absolute loathing for Chaos, and become some of the most skilled warriors in the Imperium available to fight them even among Astartes (short of the Grey Knights and the Thousand Sons' sorcerers).
• Fatal Flaw: Their passion is their greatest strength, but it is also their greatest weakness, causing them to poison their minds and souls holding onto and brooding over millennia-long grudges and shames, as well as leading some of them astray into the arms of Chaos or at least into internecine conflict with each other and other Legions and Imperial authorities.
• For Want Of A Nail: As they were no Poor Communication Kills between them, The Sons of Horus did not exterminate the Interex after both sides were able to clear up any confusion between them with the latter helping the former prevent Horus from being corrupted. Sadly, the Interex are still killed off by an unknown force after the Sons of Horus were forced to leave their new allies when the Roboutian Heresy began.
• Shocking Defeat Legacy: The Sons of Horus never truly recovered from Horus' death at Sanginius' fangs, with the fallout apparently going down to the metaphysical level. While they stayed the greatest of all loyal Space Marines, they also ended up receiving almost as much bad luck and misfortune as the freaking Lamenters.

Primarch Horus Lupercal

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• For Want Of A Nail: Horus developed a slightly more positive and grounded view on his father as a result of how their first meeting went, allowing him to see that beneath the glamour and power the Emperor is just a very old and very tired man who truly want the best for Humankind. The Emperor was also less blunt and a much nicer person than in Canon, so he was able to put his son's concerns and questions at ease when he withdrew from the Great Crusade and made Horus the Warmaster. Horus was also helped by his more compassionate and diplomatic brothers in shouldering his duties as Warmaster so he was not overwhelmed by the burdens of his position, and was encouraged to soften his approach to make things easier, leaving him less doubtful of himself and less obsessed with his achievements. Last but not least, when he was incapacitated by the Kinebrach blade, Ahzek Ahriman from the Thousand Sons contingent attached to the Sons of Horus was able to help the Mournival rescue their father from the spiritual attacks and corruption of the Chaos Gods.
• Moment of Weakness: Not one, but two such moments ended up killing him.
  • Despite the fact as Warmaster he was supposed to stay at the back and command the war effort, seeing the horrors and depravities being inflicted by the Blood Angels legion upon the populace of Terra as the Siege dragged on proved too much for him to ignore, and in a rage he left the command post and go up to the ramparts personally to slay traitors personally, calling for Sanguinius to come and face him.
  • When Sanginius did answer him and Horus had him on the ropes in their subsequent duel at (the future) Lupercal Gate, seeing Sanginius' look of horror and despair as he raised his Worldbreaker for the Coup de Grâce stayed his hand for a fraction of a second as he remembered his brother for who he was. This proved to be a fatal mistake as Sanginius completely gave in to despair and Slaanesh in that moment, pouncing on and killing Horus by biting his neck and drinking his blood, transforming into a Daemon Primarch in the process.
• The Paragon: He was considered the greatest of the Primarchs, was loved by virtually all of his brothers (even the more Jerkass ones), and was the Emperor's favorite, just like in canon before the Horus Heresy. And unlike the HH timeline, he stayed loyal and true up until the very end.
• Undying Loyalty: To his father and to the Imperium, as unlike in Canon he never developed the reasons nor had the circumstances ever pushed him towards treachery.

XVII — Word Bearers

General

• Berserk Button: Like their Primarch, ANYTHING to do with Chaos and Religion in general is one for them.
  "Burn their idols, lay down their tainted temples, slay their fell priests. We will not leave this world until every single Chaos worshipper is dead!"
  — Chapter Master Harzhan of the Word Bearers Legion, before the 'Purge of Oceania'.
• The Hermit: Once the Word Bearers were acclaimed by the Imperium for their dedication to the Imperial Truth during the Great Crusade. After the Heresy, however, this dedication led to them willingly separating themselves from the rest of the Imperium, fighting against the enemies of Humanity on the fringes of Imperial space, in order to avoid conflict with other Imperial authorities and populations which might result from their adamant refusal to accept the Imperial Creed and the faith in the God-Emperor which had grown in the aftermath of the galactic civil war.
• Nay-Theist: Despite the Heresy and the rise of the Imperial Creed and faith in the God-Emperor, the Word Bearers still adamantly dedicate themselves to the Imperial Truth, refusing to acknowledge the Emperor as a god just as they refuse to acknowledge the Ruinous Powers as anything more than Warpborne reality-cancers masquerading as false gods.
• Tranquil Fury: The Word Bearers are known for a mutation in their geneseed, which when triggered - such as by the presence of Chaos or sufficiently horrific atrocities committed against Humanity - would cause them to sink into a trance-like state of absolute cold fury, whereupon they are driven to cold, ruthless and merciless annihilation of their foes by any means possible. Some never leave this state after sinking into it and become 'Iconoclast Marines', still intelligent but becoming little more than automatons turning on hatred, who would for example think nothing of killing a thousand civilians just to get one Chaos-worshipping priest among them or dying horribly if it means destroying the enemy. These 'Iconoclasts' are placed in special units separated from the rest of the their Chapters in the Word Bearers Legion, considered effectively good as dead by the rest of their battle-brothers, and are often sent either to conduct purges where it is vital absolutely nothing of who/what needs to be purged escapes, or suicide missions where their survival is slim - none of which they ever objected to.

Primarch Lorgar Aurelian

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• Awesome Moment of Crowning: At the prompting of Lucius of Reborn, the victorious survivors of Holy Terra at the end of the Angel War acclaimed Lorgar Aurelian as Warmaster of the Imperium.
• Berserk Button: Religion in general, but especially ANYTHING to do with Chaos, after his experiences on Colchis and the 'Wars of the False Priests'. When he found the Covenant had taken root on Khur, he forego negotiations that his brother Roboute Guilliman wanted and immediately invaded with his Legion to wipe them out. When he heard Roboute Guilliman and some of his brothers had turned against the Emperor and threw their lot with Chaos, he was so enraged that he unleashed enough psychic powers to cripple a starship had he been on it, and were it not for orders from Warmaster Horus to help the World Eaters Legion subdue Ultramar he would had taken his entire Legion to Isstvan to fight the traitors, determined to kill his brother with his bare hands if he had to.
• Big Good: While all of the returning Loyalist Primarchs could arguably qualify as this in their own ways following the Emperor's death, Lorgar is arguably the biggest or at the very least most prevalent example to the Imperium as a whole thanks to his crowning as Warmaster following the Angel War.
• Cool Sword: He is the current owner of The Sword That Was Promised. Yes, that's an expy of Excalibur. It is the incarnation of the greatest ideals of mankind. Andit has such power that it's capable of perma-killing daemons, and i such as Daemon Primarch Sanguinius, and at full-power it can even scare and injure freaking SLAANESH.
• For Want Of A Nail: On Colchis, Lorgar grew up as part of a family in Colchis that directly suffered under the Covenant's oppression. Instead of becoming a religious zealot, when he grew up he became the Covenant's worst enemy and the most ardent supporter of the Imperial Truth, as well one of the most anti-Chaos Primarchs in the entire Imperium.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Multiple times across the Roboutian Heresy, and a specialty of his between his absolute abhorrence of the Ruinous Powers and his unique psychic powers allowing him to harm and banish Daemons.
  • At the second Battle of Khur where he disappeared, he singlehandedly took on four Greater Daemons (each from one of the Dark Gods in a rare display of unity between the fractious Ruinous Powers) and banished them back into the Warp, stopping their Daemonic invasion in its tracks. Unfortunately it resulted in him being dragged into the Warp, where he would be locked in battle against the forces of Chaos for the next ten thousand years.
  • At the climatic end of the Battle of Lupercal Gate and the Angel War, wielding the Sword That Was Promised together with Ephrael Stern, Lorgar managed to do what should be impossible: brought into and confronted by Slaanesh hirself in an interstice between the Materium and Immaterium at the moment they cut off Daemon Primarch Sanguinius' head, they swung the sword at its full power at hir and managed to not only frighten Slaanesh into retreating from the Sol system, but inflict a small wound upon one of hir hands/claws, marring hir 'perfect' visage forever and leaving Slaanesh unable to do anything but howling in pain and apopleptic fury.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Subverted. Lorgar's reaction to the 'Primordial Truth' is to put everything he has to its destruction.
  "No god worthy of worship would demand such horror committed in his name."
  — Lorgar Aurelian, upon discovering the sacrificial pits of Vharadesh
• Kill the God:
  • Lorgar vowed to destroy the Ruinous Powers and everything related to it, having seen the horrors and evils they and their worshippers wrought on Colchis.
  • To put his father out of his misery, Lorgar used The Sword That Was Promised to euthanize the Emperor of Mankind on the Golden Throne and allow him to pull his final gambit against Chaos, effectively killing the very god the Imperium had come to worship.
  • It's implied thanks to his father's Heroic Sacrifice, the Sword That Was Promised and a 'catalyst' in the form of Ephrael Stern's unique soul, Lorgar and his allies can now actually pull it off agains the Dark Gods themselves.
• Nay-Theist: Lorgar Aurelian is a very fervent defender of the Imperial Truth, not because the supernatural don't exist, but because they DO exist in a fashion and are such deceitful and monstrous ancient evils they needed to be cast down and destroyed.
• The Paragon: Unlike his canon self, who was the first traitor Primarch, Lorgar of the RH-Verse became the ultimate embodiment of his father's ideals and a living, breathing avatar of the Imperial Truth, dedicated to lifting Humankind from the darkness of superstition and ignorance as well as battling the monstrous false-gods of the Warp which prey upon Humankind and other races' superstition and ignorance. This led to him being acclaimed Warmaster of the Imperium at the end of the Angel War, inheriting the place of his brother Horus, who was also this trope.
• Psychic Powers: All Primarchs are Psykers to a degree, and in Lorgar's case he can unleash an aura of golden light which could banish daemons back into the Warp, drag his gene-sons out of their trance-like fury and heal grievous wounds. In this sense, he is like a D&D Cleric (Except he is not and would vehemently deny being one). His erratic psychic abilities were honed with help of his brother Magnus the Red, and is noted to be potent enough that had he unleashed his full might aboard a ship in orbit he would had crippled it beyond repair.
• Replacement Goldfish: He was adopted by a couple who lost their biological children to the depraved priests. Hearing about his elder siblings' fate - misled and being sacrificed in the petty wars of the Arch-Priests of the Covenant - led to Lorgar spotting the Covenant for the lying monsters they really are and starting the Wars of the False Priest to cast them down in a righteous rage.
• Secret-Keeper: Lorgar was one of the few Primarchs who know about the threat of Chaos and wanted to spread knowledge of it to his siblings and the entire Imperium in order to better fight against it. His father told him to wait, however, as he has plans against Chaos that would be ruined if the truth was revealed too soon. Lorgar would agree to keep it a secret, though still told his most trusted gene-sons and confidants about them just in case. This secret-keeping however would be turned against both him and his father at Khur, when he was forced not to explain that he attacked the planet that Roboute wanted to negotiate a peaceful annexation with because survivors of the Covenant had fled there and taken root upon the civilizations there.

XX — Alpha Legion

General

• The Chessmaster: The Alpha Legion are infamous for being this, being meticulous planners and unconventional strategists of the highest caliber. To wit, they are likely the only loyal Legion to be an even match with the Tzeentch-aligned Dark Angels.
• Epic Fail: Being supreme planners and strategists, their plans rarely falters, but it's noted on the rare occasions they do, they fail spectacularly.
• Hero-Worshipper: The Alpha Legion practically idolized the Ultramarine Aeonid Thiel, an unconventional strategist censured by his own superiors who in the RH-verse became the leader of the Red-Marked Space Marines which survived the betrayal at Isstvan and even managed to escape, organizing a guerilla force which fought against and caused untold amounts of damage to the Traitor Legions across the galaxy. When the Alpha Legionnaires found his armour in his abandoned ship towards the end of the Heresy, upon which Thiel inscribed all the strategems and tactics he developed and used against the traitors, one of the Alpha Legion team which found it commented that if even a fraction of his wisdom is recorded on it, the armour alone is a prize equaling that of a Primarch.
• Properly Paranoid: The Alpha Legion, like their Primarch, are paranoid to the extreme and make preparations and plans for virtually any kind of situations - to wit, resentment between the Primarchs aside, they were already suspicious of the Ultramarines and had established secret outposts around their Realm of Ultramar to keep an eye on them. Given the Roboutian Heresy and all the threats and horrors the Imperium would end up facing, this paranoia proved more often than not justified.

Primarch Alpharius Omegon

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• Angsty Surviving Twin: Losing Alpharius was such a trauma to Omegon that he sunk into a week-long Heroic BSoD and only roused himself to help after being commanded by the Emperor.
• For Want Of A Nail: While Alpharius and Omegon don't have enough of a canon backstory to to state where the divergence was, Curze gave them both a What the Hell, Hero? moment that reminded them there's a point where I Did What I Had to Do stops being a justification for the means. One thing that change with canon was their relationship with the Cabal. Unlike their canon counterparts, the Alpha Legion didn't join the Cabal but destroyed them as both the Chapter and ex-Cabal members like Eldrad Ulthran learned the organization was infiltrated by Chaos agents and unknowingly serving for Chaos.
• Handicapped Badass: In spite of Omegon being physically and psychologically weakened after the loss of his twin, he nevertheless avoids dying or going missing like all the other loyalist Primarchs, staying active for ten thousand years and having many an Offscreen Moment of Awesome between uncredited victories over hidden threats to the Imperium.
• Manly Tears: Omegon breaks down and sobs into Lorgar's shoulder when the Emperor passes on.
• Single-Minded Twins: They were suspected to be one mind that happened to have two bodies, and one dying permanently weakened the other.
• Twin Switch: Even their gene-sons didn't know how to differentiate them.

Traitor Legions

I — Dark Angels

General

• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Invoked with the Broken Ones, Imperials captured by the Dark Angels who became so broken by their torments under the Dark Angels they are left hollow shells who would either betray each other and the Imperium if it meant avoiding further suffering, or driven mad and sent in battle as Cannon Fodder by the Dark Angels, where they charge the Imperials partly out of the desperate hope the Imperials can end their suffering.
  • Even those who managed to escape the Dark Angels are no longer trusted by the Imperium, as it is very conceivable even if they are not deliberately sent in as The Quisling for the Dark Angels, the fact they managed to escape at all could be all part of a complex scheme by the Dark Angels against Imperial forces, with the escapee being an Unwitting Pawn.
• Complexity Addiction; Between the amount of layers in their hierarchy, the fact that some operatives have secret orders from the Grandmasters (or Lion El'Jonson Himself), and the constant change of meaning in the titles of any given rank. Only the Alpha Legion can keep up with the constant changes.
• I Reject Your Reality: The entire legion suffers from this as a result of their wholehearted embrace of Tzeentch, as it means they don't have to face the truth that they had been played like a fiddle by the 'Architect of Fate', that they not only betrayed the Imperium and failed to avert the Bad Future that prompted their betrayal in the first place, but actually made it happen because of their actions. None embraced the lie more than Primarch Lion El'Jonson himself, to the point that he's frequently described as little more than a puppet of Tzeentch. Justified in that the Chaos God they embraced is basically an incarnation of Humanity's, if not all sapient life's capacity for self-deceit.
• Conflicting Loyalty: In canon, the Dark Angels both before and after the Heresy were afflicted with this trope from so many contradicting loyalties that they harbor, leading to no small number of complications. In the Roboutian Heresy, due to their fall and allegiance to Tzeentch, this was made deliberate by design and taken up to eleven, leading to unending scheming and backstabbing amongst themselves and their 'allies' in damnation even to their detriment. All Just as Planned for the 'Architect of Fate', of course.
• Manipulative Bastard: Due to their allegiance to Tzeentch, this is to be expected. Their tactics can be confusing at first sight, with the full consequences only being revealed centuries after the campaign’s end.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Under Azrael, the Dark Angels work together with the Space Wolves, led by Logan Grimnar, for the Siege of Terathalion. From the dialogue between Azrael and Grimnar, it's abundantly clear that they really don't like each other, with Azrael secretly having attempted to assassinate Grimnar multiple times, but their hatred of the Thousand Sons is outweighing their hatred for each other.
• Torture Technician: One of the tasks of the Interrogator-Chaplains is to have the imperial prisoners broken with torture, and then released back to the battlefield, either as infiltrators or with the purpose of damaging morale.

Primarch Lion El'Jonson

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• For Want Of A Nail: Kairos Fateweaver drove Lion'El Johnson mad through voices in his head, ultimately luring him to Tzeentch's side. This had the side effect of making Luther and his Fallen the Loyalists instead.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: While rupturing the Webway allowed him to hunt Cypher personally, it also let Lorgar escape from the Chaos Gods and take the Sword that was Promised.
• Orcus on His Throne: Lion El'Jonson hasn't left Cysgorog since the end of the Heresy.
• Wild Child: Just like his canon counterpart, he spent his first years of life alone in the forests of Caliban.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: The wound he got fighting Luther never fully healed even after Luther's demise.

Grand Master Azrael

• The Magnificent: Known as "the Lord of Lies".
• Multiple-Choice Past: Azrael's memories have been constantly modified by Tzeentch's will since the moment he became a Grand Master.
• Hero Killer: He murdered Khalida to allow the Black Crusade to enter into the fortress of Ahat-iakby.
• Unreliable Narrator: In scenes presented from his perspective he will regularly contradict himself as Tzeentch rewrites his memories and motives depending on the dark gods whims.
  Azrael carefully maintained a neutral face. He had already tried to have Logan killed three times since the rendezvous in deep space, sending daemons to slay him and making sure they could not be traced back to him... How foolish did the Old Wolf think he was ? They were here to destroy the Fifteenth Legion once and for all. This was far more important than any other plot – this was the will of Tzeentch himself written large upon the galaxy. To sabotage it was unthinkable. He would not turn on his allies until Magnus was dead and Terathalion destroyed – why, he had even held back from trying to have Logan removed during the trip, knowing that without the Old Wolf, the Space Wolves elements of their fleet would disperse.
• Villainous Breakdown: Sarothiel’s defeat and True Death at the hands of Magnus proved too much for his constantly-rewritten mind to justify or explain as a victory in their favour, resulting in him going into a screaming hysteria as the magic clouding his mind start tearing at his soul from the weight of too many contradictions, even as he kept fighting out of instincts.

Grand Master Belial, the Lord of Whispers

• Anti-Magic: Belial wields the Sword of Silence. This blade projects a field around him that nullifies psychic phenomena.
• The Magnificent: Known as "the Lord of Whispers".

Asmodai, the Lord of Redemption

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• Attack Its Weak Point: Has a unique talen in locating weak spots in the bodies, minds and souls of those in his tender mercies to break people most effectively by apply 'pressure' to them, as well as use the same weak spots tp push others still into heresy.
• Boom, Headshot!: Courtesy of Cypher with his plasma pistol.
• The Corrupter: Known and respected for his ability to corrupt and manipulate others into the worship of Tzeentch as much as his ability for torturing people.
• The Dragon: Is believed to be the second-in-command of Grand Master Azrael himself.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Never succeeded in 'redeeming' any of the nine Fallen he or others captured, but is convinced to be part of a trial to harden his resolve for capturing Cypher - which would eventually end in failure, along with his life.
• Large Ham: Asmodai all but practically chews the scenery in his appearances, especially when he finally confronts Cypher - who responded by blowing his head off.
• Undignified Death: After so long in service of the Lion and Tzeentch and so much time and effort trying to hunt down Lord of the Fallen, when he finally confronts his quarry, Asmodai had his head unceremoniously blown off by Cypher before he could even finish announcing himself.
  Asmodai: CYPHER! I am your judgment, sent by the Lion and Tzeentch! I am the Lord of Redemption! Asmo -
  [Gets headshot by plasma pistol]
  Cypher: I don't care who you are.
• The Unfettered: Completely without guilt or shame, having long ago reconciled with himself over his role as an Interrogator-Chaplain.
• Torture Technician: Is an Interrogator-Chaplain like in Canon, and stands out among them as being cruel and evil even by their standards.

Cypher, Lord of the Fallen, Zahariel El´Zurias

• The Atoner: His current mission of carrying Luther’s sword to Terra was undertaken after a previous failure. He was supposed to be on Caliban and help Luther in the battle against Lion El’Jonson, however. He was baited by the Tuchulcha Engine into searching for his cousin aboard the Dark Angel’s flagship, and by the time he snapped out of it and rushed back to Caliban, it was too late.
• Barrier Maiden: As the last of the original Fallen, his life is the only thing stopping Lion El'Jonson from recovering his full power. With his death, this position goes to Luther's daughter Morgana.
• Bond One-Liner: Gave one after he blows Asmodai's head off while he was still announcing himself.
  Cypher: I don't care who you are.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He and Luther went to the core of Caliban and killed - not banish, KILLED - the Ouroboros, the closest thing the RH-verse has for the Devil (as its presence and actions screwed up the Warp and causing the birth of Chaos) However, a fragment of it survived, which was embedded into Cypher and granting him Resurrective Immortality up until it was destroyed at the end of the Terran Crucible (Part 1).
• For Want Of A Nail: If Cypher made it back to Caliban as he was supposed to after destroying the Tuchulcha, instead of raging and rampaging for a time onboard Invincible Reason after being baited by the daemon over his cousin's fate, he would had been able to help Luther in his battle against Daemon Prince Lion El'Jonson as planned. Luther might had survived, and Lion might had been killed. Cypher would spend the rest of his existence making amends for his failure to do so, on top of everything else he's burdened with.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The Sword that was Promised is anathema to all Daemons. By passing it to Lorgar, he purges the Ouroboros's shard from his body, dying in the process.
• The Magnificent: Known as "Lord of the Fallen".
• Resurrective Immortality: The Ouroboros heals Cypher's wounds every time he dies.
• That Man Is Dead: As far as he cares, Zahariel died fighting against Luther.

Luther, Master of Caliban

• Charles Atlas Superpower: While Luther wasn't even a full Astartes, by the time of Lion's arrival on Caliban he was strong enough to match the Daemon Primarch's might, while suffering from previous wounds and without Cypher's help.
• The Magnificent: Known as the "Master of Caliban". His alternative title is "the Arch-Betrayer".
• Worf Had the Flu: The damage that Luther sustained during the battle with the Ouroboros resulted wounds that hadn’t fully healed by the time of Lion’s arrival to Caliban. Cypher speculates that, had Luther been at his full might during his battle, he would have been able to kill Lion El'Jonson permanently.

V — White Scars

General

• Arch-Enemy: They wants to destroy Nostramo as revenge for destruction of their own homeworld, Chogoris. They also hates Alpha Legion (who participated in the same battle), but don't know what to target, so concentrates on Night Lords first and foremost.
• Badass Biker: As in canon, they are known for heavy use of jetbikes in their assaults — to the point that loyalists gradually stops using them precisely because they're so heavily associated with White Scars. Lack of infrastructure to build or maintain them, however, forced them to restrict those to only elite cadres. Some White Scars outright makes the pacts with daemons to merge with their bikes and gain even more power and speed.
• Glory Hound: After Heresy, as if compensating for lack of acknowledging prior to it, they became obsessed with gaining infamy in the Imperium, enjoying the fear of their prey when they realise that they're about to be attacked by White Scars (of which White Scars readily informs them just before attack, to break their morale).
• It's All About Me: It's stated that one of the reasons for them losing the battle for Chogoris is their inability to unify even when facing common enemy and defending their own homeworld, resulting in some Khans being too busy salvaging to fight, shooting at each other due to not even bothering with teamwork, or outright running away. Had they tried to fight as the legion, they might have stand a chance, even against combined might of Night Lords and Alpha Legion.
• The Necromancer: They practice resurrecting fallen Astartes (traitor and loyalists alike) as the undead minions. It's stated to be one of the few things capable of damaging moral even of the Space Marines, since they know that no amount of faith in the Emperor can protect them from such fate even after death.
• Spare a Messenger: They usually spares some survivors of their attacks, specifically so they would spread the news and reinforce White Scars' horrible reputation.
• Tautological Templar: White Scars believe that anyone who lives under the aegis of the Imperium is guilty of cowardice, otherwise they would rebel. Thus, it's not that the White Scars are "enslaving" anyone, just "changing who the masters are."
• We ARE Struggling Together: They have tendency to lose the wars because of their habit of killing each other as part of their power struggle even in the middle of the battle.

Primarch Jaghatai Khan

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• Demonic Possession: On Chondrax, he was possessed by a Greater Daemon Khagan, which twisted his body into some abomination made of living shadows.
• For Want Of A Nail: Jaghatai Khan was found by the Palatine (who turned out to be a Chaos worshipper) instead of the tribes, exposing him to the corruption of Chaos early and allowing the Warp Storms at Chondrax to whisper into mind and corrupt his heart, and giving him a fundamental distrust of anyone who called themselves Emperor, causing him to become even more isolated than in canon.
• Make an Example of Them: When conquering Chogoris, standard practice was to murder everyone in the cities which resists and gather their skulls in huge piles.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Palatine thought that if he finds the child first and takes as his own, he would prevent the prophecy about that child eventually taking his life and destroying his empire. But him lying to Jaghatai about the truth of his discovery, and later further antagonising him and even outright trying to backstab, resulted in Jaghatai defecting to Talskar and later razing Palatine's empire and claiming his life.

VI — Space Wolves

General

• Arch-Enemy:
  • They still blame Thousand Sons for everything bad that happened to their legion.
  • They really hates Dark Angels, because they're directly responsible for the loss of their Primarch.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Post-Heresy, each Great Company is led by Wolf Prince, and consists of warbands led by Wolf Lords. Wolf Lord can challenge his superior Wolf Prince to a duel, and Wolf Prince can't decline; whoever wins, would lead the Great Company. Attempts to cheat by any means results in the winner being killed by the angry Space Wolves.
• Believing Their Own Lies: The Space Wolves as a whole since before the Heresy - their canonical denial that Rune Priests have anything to do with the Warp is amplified into believing that they are not even psykers (when in canon Rune Priests privately admit that one needs psychic potential to communicate with the spirit of Fenris in the first place), and after Fenris was destroyed, now they're divided evenly between Tautological Templars who believe that somehow Fenris still exists somehow within them, and those who have plummeted past the Despair Event Horizon and admit the truth - but in the same breath blame the Thousand Sons for their current state.
• Even Evil Has Standards: They shows up of both sides of this trope:
  • Space Wolves have formal procedure of changing the leader of the Great Companies, explicitly to preserve what little order they have left and not collapse entirely. Amongst the other things, it's completely unacceptable to cheat in duels for the Wolf Prince position; whoever tries, gets torn apart even if they win, because everyone recognises how important it is for their survival.
  • The other Traitor Legions considers their rampant use of xenos technology and allies to be blasphemous, deserving only painful death as a punishment.
• I Reject Your Reality: The Space Wolves still adamantly believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that there is a difference between the psychic abilities they call upon the World-Spirit of Fenris (which is long destroyed by this point), and psychic abilities used by the Loyalist Thousand Sons and other non-Fenrisians, which they arbitrarily classified as 'maleficarum'. One notable character who displays this trait is the Deluded Rune Priest - believing the Fifteenth Legion has 'hidden' the truth from the rest of the Space Wolves somehow with some curse, he is determined to find traces of the Fenris World-Spirit among the surviving Fenrisians, and is willing to go as far as to literally cut apart and flay the souls of as many of them as it takes if it means finding it.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: They never were very popular prior to the Heresy, and it didn't change a one bit after it, with even other Traitor Legions seeing them as outcasts. They're openly hostile with Dark Angels (for what they did to Leman Russ), while other legions sees them as fools, who were tricked firstly by the Emperor, and then by Lion El'Johnson, and despises their dedication to finding Russ, which they sees as foolish. When they do try to work alongside someone, both sides have to watch over their troops to prevent infighting.
• Never My Fault: They do acknowledge that they did the unforgivable and turned to evil, but puts the blame for that on everyone but themselves — Magnus, who "cursed" them in revenge for burning of Prospero, and who lied to Emperor; the Emperor, who lied to them and turned them on himself by his actions; the entirety of Mankind for "betraying" them and throwing away, for which it must be punished...
• Tautological Templar: The Space Wolves still believe themselves to be loyal to the Emperor, but that he was deceived by Magnus and his supporters into accepting maleficarum as a useful tool of the Legions. As a result, the Space Wolves embracing maleficarium to oppose the Thousand Sons is the fault of the Thousand Sons.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Under Logan Grimnar, the Space Wolves work together with the Dark Angels, led by Azrael, for the Siege of Terathalion. From the dialogue between Azrael and Grimnar, it's abundantly clear that they really don't like each other, with Azrael secretly having attempted to assassinate Grimnar multiple times, but their hatred of the Thousand Sons is outweighing their hatred for each other.
• Trauma Conga Line: Ever since Lion El'Johnson tricked Leman Russ into joining the rebellion, the things never goes well for the Fifth Legion. They followed the Lion, and lost their Primarch. They went to Terra, hoping that Russ would return to them there — and got decimated, because they refused to run until literally all hope got lost, still believing that their father would come to aid them. They retreated to Fenris, hoping to wait for Leman Russ to return, holding for more than a century — only to destroy their home by themselves when the enemy essentially conquered it, and dissolve into countless warbands.
• Undying Loyalty: Just before his disappearance, Leman Russ had promised that he would return to his sons when the "Wolftime" would come. The Space Wolves believed that he would reunite with them on Terra, and continued fighting even when the other traitors realised that things goes south and, started fleeing. Only when they remained as literally the last ones to run, did Space Wolves realise that their father would not return, and fled — but for most of them, it was already too late. Even after that, they didn't lose hope and remained in Imperial space to hold on Fenris, believing that their Primarch would find them here — which they did for more than a century, until it was attacked by overwhelming joint forces of Thousand Sons and Sons of Horus, resulting in Bjorn nuking Fenris in attempt to take out as many foes as possible. Even that event didn't kill the faith in eventual return of Russ completely.
• We Have Reserves: During the Great Crusade, Space Wolves gained infamy amongst Imperial forces for complete disregard for their mortal allies' lives, to the point that those allies would rather wait for months and receive someone else than ask Space Wolves for help.

Primarch Leman Russ

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• Does Not Like Magic: The source of his conflict with Magnus is Leman's fundamental mistrust towards anything involving sorcery (he vehemently denies that Rune Priests are Warp users, too). When Emperor, unlike canon, does not ban the use of psychic powers, Leman Russ decides to "prove" him wrong. The end result is destruction of Prospero and damnation of the Space Wolves and Russ himself.
• For Want Of A Nail: In addition to some rather deep personal tragedies (especially the loss of his wolf-siblings), the Emperor's decision to allow psychic powers greatly angered Leman Russ, who became obsessed with proving to the Emperor that psychic powers were evil. This led him and his legion to obsessively search for xenos evidence to prove his point, destroy Prospero (a loyal world) of his own accord, break the Webway in an attempt to assassinate Magnus, and fully turn traitor through Lion El'Johnson's influence.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: He never came along with other Primarchs, save for Horus (whose battle prowess he respected), and Lion (with whom he got along after initial hostility). Comes Heresy, and Horus became his enemy, while Lion chose to manipulate and then outright sacrifice him.
• Uncertain Doom: After Lion used him as a sacrifice, it's ambiguous wether he perished or somehow survived; not even Lion knows for sure. And if he did survive, he might have ended in any place and even time.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: On the dead Eldar world, he learned about origin of Slaanesh, and started fearing that if Magnus succeeds at elevating humans into psychic species, it would result in another similar catastrophe. His solution? Burn Prospero and kill Magnus.

VII — Imperial Fists

General

• Arch-Enemy: They hate the Blood Angels with passion due to the broader conflict between Khorne and Slaneesh.
• Blood Knight: Naturally, after pledging their allegiance to Khorne, they've became this. Rogal Dorn in particular is the most violent of them all, his moods constantly switching between explosive rage and icy fury.
• Might Makes Right: Being dedicated to Khorne, martial strength and skill is the measure of all things in the Imperial Fist legion, and their recruits had this drilled into their heads during their initiation process. Disputes of leadership and slights are resolved by duels and little else, often to the death.

Primarch Rogal Dorn

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• Fatal Flaw: With the destruction of Inwit deeply scarring Rogal Dorn's psyche and soul, all his worst traits are brought out. His unresolved rage over it and other slights and grudges later on became his biggest flaw, one which eventually dragged him and his soul to damnation. His bitterness over the perceived weakness of men and his notorious bluntness also combined with his rage to alienate him from not only his more humane brothers but also eventually others like his own father the Emperor himself.
• For Want Of A Nail: Large armies of Orks found Inwit before the Emperor did while Rogal Dorn was in command, ultimately resulting in the destruction of Inwit, an event which would haunt Rogal Dorn and bring out the worst aspects of his personality.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: The narrator of the Imperial Fists' entry acknowledged that the traumatic losses Rogal Dorn experienced in Inwit's doomed war against invading Ork WAAAGHs may had most likely pushed the Imperial Fists Primarch down the path of treachery. But then the narrator pointed out that other Primarchs had endured similar horrific losses and remained loyal. Though his Start of Darkness is a significant contributor to his downfall, at the end of the day it was still Rogal Dorn's own decision to rebel and eventually join the forces of Chaos, and that alone made it inexcusable.
• Hobbes Was Right: During the war for the Inwit Cluster from the Orks attacking it, many of his Human subjects of the star empire he built revolted as the war dragged on and conscription requirements and living conditions worsened to intolerable levels, forcing him to waste resources harshly suppressing them at the expense of the war effort. This left him bitter over the perceived weaknesses and perfidiousness of men and made him believe the Humanity must be protected and led only by those strong in leadership and martial might, with or without their consent. This led to him clashing with his more humane brothers when they find offense in his excessively harsh measures (such as executing even soldiers and civilians who surrendered for resisting compliance), and the perceived weakness of the Emperor, the primarchs loyal to him and the Imperium at large in the face of a hostile galaxy was what allowed Guilliman to convince him to join his rebellion.

Sigismund the Destroyer

The champion of Dorn during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, Sigismund was the first captain of the Imperial Fists and leader of the Templars, and widely considered the most skilled duelist in all eighteen Space Marine Legions. While he loyally followed his primarch into treachery and Khorne worship during the Heresy, for reasons which remain unclear to the Imperium at large, following the Heresy and the battle of the Iron Cage he would turn on his own legion and break it into pieces, before fleeing the wrath of his now Daemon Primarch as the head of the Black Templars warband. As the Destroyer, he is now the foremost mortal Champion of Khorne himself, a force of nature on the battlefield with his sword and fury.

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• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: After ten thousand years as Champion of Khorne, freeing the Seventh Legion from Guilliman's control and paving the way for both the Imperial Fists' reunification and an 'Age of Blood', Sigismund is rewarded with Daemon Princehood at "The Cadian Apocalypse Part II".
• The Chessmaster: As it turned out, everything he did as the Destroyer from the Breaking of the Imperial Fists, earning his Primarch's eternal ire, all the way to launching the greatest Black Crusade to date against Cadia with Bile's Black Legion and the Dark Angels was to break his Primarch and Legion free from Guilliman's control, after realising during and right after the Heresy the pact Dorn made with Khorne with Guilliman's help allowed him to pull a More than Mind Control on Dorn and allow him to manipulate the Seventh Legion as a tool.
• Back from the Dead: Though Dorn finally kills him during "The Cadian Apocalypse Part II", his act of starting the greatest Black Crusade to date, offering uncountable quantities of blood and skull throughout ten thousand years as the Champion of Khorne, freeing his Primarch and the Seventh Legion from Guilliman's secret More than Mind Control and paving the way for it to be reunited earned enough of Khorne's favour to allow him to be resurrected as a Daemon Prince like his Primarch. By his own admission, even he was honestly surprised at Khorne's generocity.
• The Dreaded: Sigismund the Destroyer is known and feared as the greatest champion of Khorne in the galaxy short of Daemon Primarch Rogal Dorn himself, and is shown as less an incredibly bloodthirsty and powerful warrior and more a bloody force of nature who could tear through all but the greatest imperial defences in existence like wet paper.
• The Fundamentalist: Instead of being a religious zealot for the Emperor in canon, Sigismund the Destroyer is one for Khorne in the RH-verse, keeping his canon counterpart's Ax-Crazy tendencies and taking it up to eleven. His introductory monologue for the second part of "The Cadian Apocalypse" offers an insight into his martial fanaticism and dedication to bloodshed.
• Red Baron: "The Destroyer", both for destroying the Seventh Legion as a united force but also for countless other feats of unbelievable bloodshed and carnage as the main Champion of Khorne.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sigismund's breaking of the Imperial Fist legion unintentionally paved the way to Rogal Dorn's ascension to Daemon Princehood, due to Dorn's sheer rage at his betrayal. Given recent revelations, however, it may or may not been part of Sigismund's plan.
• The Reveal: The true reason for his Breaking of the Seventh Legion and countless other actions over ten thousand years as the Destroyer was far more than just bloodshed in the name of Khorne: Sigismund realised that Dorn's and the Imperial Fists' pact with Khorne, facilitated with Guilliman's help, allowed the Archtraitor to secretly pull the strings on Dorn and through Dorn the Imperial Fists, enslaving them to his will to be used as he sees fit. This pissed off Sigismund, who broke the Legion and turned his Genesire's ire upon him to deny Guilliman full control and effective utilisation of the legion, then made a pact with Khorne where he would spent ten thousand years plotting to bring about an 'Age of Blood' across the galaxy even as he slaughtered his way across it as the Champion of Khorne in exchange for Khorne breaking Guilliman's hold over his Primarch and the Seventh Legion.

IX — Blood Angels

General

• Arch-Enemy: They really do not get along with Imperial Fists because of them being aligned with Slaanesh, who is utterly opposed to Khorne, and vice-versa.
• Glamour Failure: Blood Angels can suffer from this, which they don't like at all. A big example of this is the beginning of Ahzek Ahriman's confrontation with Rafen the Kinslayer, the leader of the attack on the Black Library. Ahriman briefly is lured by the angel's unholy beauty, but quickly remembers all of the atrocities committed by Sanguinius and the Blood Angels. This realization immediately destroys the Glamour, which reveals Rafen's hideous true form and sends him frothing with rage.
  • Ahzek Ahriman not only repeats but magnifies this feat a hundredfold by sacrificing his own life to destroy the Glamour of Sanguinius himself, causing him to be exposed as the monster that the truly is and transforming his army from an organized force into a chaotic mess of mutated and bloodthirsty savages.
• Humanoid Abomination: Thanks to glamours, all of the Sanguinary Marines appear as beautiful and charming as their Primarch, to the point where everyone would be completely distracted and weep at their beauty. However, if someone manages to tear off the glamours and reveal the Sanguinary Marines' true selves as eldritch, horrific-looking monsters, they'll get mad.
• I'm a Humanitarian: They are obsessed with the Thirst, which drives them to consume the flesh and drink the blood of sapient creatures.
• Psycho Party Member: Even among Traitor Legions, they stand out. The Red Thirst runs rampant within its ranks and their Primarch has become so insane from his grief/regret-fueled delusions that he doesn't even realize they've turned traitor.

Primarch Sanguinius

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• An Arm and a Leg: Inflicted this on both his brothers Omegon and Lorgar during the Battle of Lupercal Gate (the climax of the Angel War), cutting off an arm and a hand respectively.
• Beyond Redemption: Lorgar comes to this conclusion when he realizes that Sanguinius was faking his delusion - there's nothing, not even Lion's own ambivalence about his fate, that could lead him to reject Chaos. He doesn't even realize how far he's fallen
• The Chessmaster: In his guise as the Sanguinor, Sanguinius had rallied multiple Blood Angels and Slaaneshi warbands, arranged several Keepers of Secrets and other daemons of Slaanesh to be on or to get to the Sol system, and persuaded Slaanesh to release the Laer from their afterlife punishment, to attack Holy Terra and the Sol System at the moment the Emperor made his 'Hail Mary' against Chaos, kickstarting the 'Angel War' while the Imperium is still reeling from the Emperor's death and giving Slaanesh a shot to either destroy the Imperium at its heart, or failing that cripple it.
  • The whole event served another purpose altogether involving Daemon Prince Sanguinius and Slaanesh' court whether it succeeds or fails - by sacrificing six Chaos Lords of Slaanesh, he completed a ritual that allowed Sanguinius to be summoned into realspace near Mercury.
• Cloudcuckoolander: After losing his sanity Sanguinius lives in an imaginary world where he never betrayed the Emperor. Subverted, it turns out he's Crazy Sane and perfectly rational when it comes to strategy.
• Crazy Sane: His true post-corruption personality. While utterly solipsistic and still somewhat delusional (he thinks he's the Emperor's heir and he will do anything to make that fantasy a reality), he is an extremely rational and cunning Manipulative Bastard and strategist.
• Deader than Dead: Thanks to the efforts Lucius the Reborn, Epharel Stern and Primarch Lorgar Aurelian, Daemon Primarch Sanguinius is not only dead, but his essence has been outright OBLITERATED, ensuring he will never come back.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Subverted compared to even Slaanesh, which became very important when the Emperor pulled his final 'Hail Mary' against Chaos. Being Human or Human-like once, Sanguinius and most likely the Sanguinor, despite their corruption, still retained some Humanity in them which allowed them to comprehend some of the Humans' actions. While the very inhuman natures of the Chaos Gods, including Slaanesh, as selfish and monstrous reality cancers meant they would not be able to see the Emperor's final gambit coming, Sanguinius could anticipate something like this due to whatever Humanity remaining within him. This drove him to arrange for the 'Angel War' to erupt in the Solar System the very moment the Emperor hit the bucket, so to take advantage of the chaos to either conquer Sol and destroy the Imperium of Man at its heart for Slaanesh while it was still reeling from the Emperor's death, or failing that cripple Imperium enough that it cannot take advantage of the Emperor's sacrifice when it fully comes into play, buying time for Slaanesh and the rest of the Chaos Gods can regroup and deal with it and its consequences.
• Evil Plan: His ultimate objective with the Angel War is to sit upon the now empty Golden Throne and become the new 'emperor' of Mankind following his father's death. This is a VERY bad thing as with the Golden Throne's connection to the Astronomicon, doing so would allow him to taint the Astronomicon's light with the corruption of his patron Slaanesh, exposing everyone everywhere to hir visage completely unprotected and unfiltered. This would corrupt all of Humanity across the galaxy to Slaaneshi worship and give Slaanesh the power-boost needed to win the Great Game over hir fellow Dark Gods and conquer/corrupt the galaxy, dooming Humanity and all other races.
• Face Death with Dignity: At the climatic battle of the Angel War, mortally-wounded and faced with his own imminent defeat and demise before Lorgar and Ephrael Stern wielding the Sword That Was Promised (which has the power to not only kill his corporeal form but also destroy his incorporeal essence, ensuring he would be Killed Off for Real), Daemon Primarch Sanguinius surprisingly did not break down as much as one would expect from a now irredeemably solipsistic monster, instead merely responding to it with bitter amusement and lamenting that his 'reign' would have been 'better' compared to all the other horrors the other Daemon Primarchs would bring about should they and/or their patrons win, right as they cut his head off.
• For Want Of A Nail: Rather than raising him as one of their own, the nomadic Baalite Human tribe which found Sanguinius instead gave him to a sealed vault shelter populated by pureblood Baalites in his youth, where he was raised to despise the mutant and deviant even more than in canon, which also planted a seed of doubt in his own purity considering his wings along with all other differences between him and other pureblood Humans. When the flaws of the Blood Angels started to afflict his Legion, he was even more obsessed in finding a cure for it out of fear of his Legion degenerating and that the Emperor would have him and his Legion purged for his deviancy. Ultimately, in his desperation, he would accept a pact with Slaanesh offered by the Keeper of Secrets Kyriss the Perverse at Signus Prime to free the Blood Angels of their flaws, damning them all.
• Hero Killer: He slew Horus during the Siege of Terra. This ended up psychologically breaking him, to the point where, like canon!Fulgrim, he would constantly clone Horus in the hope that he could have his beloved brother by his side. Unfortunately, since all of Horus's clones have the mental capacity to remember who killed the original, Sanguinius would kill him, and would repeat the process again, and again, and again...
  • During the Angel War it turns out that murdering Horus over and over again was the point - by doing it repeatedly, he was trying to remove the last elements of doubt from himself.
• I Reject Your Reality: Sanguinius started developing delusions to cope with killing his beloved brother Horus at the Gates of Eternity. After growing desperate enough to accept a bargain with Slaanesh to save the Blood Angels, only to have it backfire in the worst possible way, he became so delusional following his ascension as a Daemon Prince that he went completely insane, unable to face the horrible reality of what he had done, as well as what he and his legion became. The scene depicting the moment of his final downfall explicitly noted he embraced this trope when he took it, stating that he "turned his back on the truth, and embraced the lie". By the time of the Angel War, he's convinced himself he was always heir apparent to the God-Emperor, and feels that everything he's done was necessary to inherit the Throne.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Part of the reason for his fall was that because of his different upbringing, Sanguinius never found the strength to confront and conquer his own physical and character flaws like he did in Canon, having grown up too fearful and doubtful of his own imperfections to do so. This hidden pride and deep-seated insecurity gave Slaanesh an opening to corrupt him and his Legion, until it all but consumed him and turned him into a delusional, narcissistic monster by the time of the Angel War with all the nobility he once had gone.
• It's All About Me: While believed to have become completely delusional, Daemon Prince Sanguinius has in truth became a completely solipsistic narcissist who no longer gives a damn about anyone or anything but himself and his desires after becoming fully-corrupted by Slaanesh following his defeat by Daemon Prince Rogal Dorn at the War of Woe. To note, his Sanguinary Guard captain Azkaellon had devoted his entire existence following the Horus Heresy to him throughout his stay on his Daemon World in the Eye of Terror out of Undying Loyalty, yet when Azkaellon was mortally-wounded by the leader of the Grey Knights towards the climax of the Angel War, Sanguinius didn't even spare him a glance. Daemon Prince Sanguinius in fact didn't cared that his legion had degenerated into a splintered mob of hedonistic vampires and didn't even bother calling them to join him in his attack on Holy Terra at the Angel War.
• Killed Off for Real: At the climax of the Angel War, at the Battle of Lupercal Gate, Daemon Primarch Sanguinius was finally slain by the combined efforts of Ahzek Ahriman, Lucius the Reborn, and then Epharel Stern and Lorgar Aurelian together using the Sword That Was Promised, his essence obliterated so utterly that he will never come back.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Ever since Rogal banished him, he was fully corrupted by Slaanesh, and no longer needed to hide behind his delusions to remain rational - he just kept up his Cloudcuckoolander behavior for thousands of years because it allowed him to order around the Sanguinior without anyone interfering.
• Orcus on His Throne: Exploited. By pretending to be completely insane and insensate, Sanguinius was able to quietly plan for millennia by using the Sanguinior as a proxy, knowing nobody suspected the truth.
• Tragic Villain: He made a treaty with Slaanesh not for his personal gain, but to save his Legion. It cost the Blood Angels their humanity, and him his sanity. By the time of the Angel War, even the same compassion for his sons has been destroyed by Slaanesh.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Has an epic one when Ahriman pulls a gambit which destroys his Glamour, revealing the ugly monster he truly is/became for everyone as well as breaking his hold over his own forces. Sanguinius is left frothing in a narcissistic fury screaming about how he was going to make everyone on Terra suffer and die for this offence, before Epharel Stern and Lorgar Aurelian caught his attention.
  • Surprisingly subverted with his actual defeat and demise when Epharel and Lorgar manage to mortally wound him with the Sword That Was Promised. He merely faced his end with bitter amusement and remarked that his reign 'would had been better' than that of the other Daemon Primarchs.

The Sanguinor

• Humanoid Abomination: Even more so than the pure Sanguinor in canon, on account of the Sanguinor being a Daemonic being of Slaanesh.
• Made of Evil: One of the theories behind the Sanguinor is that he is a fragment of Sanguinius which is both sane and embraced his corruption fully.
• Pieces of God: Or rather, Daemon Prince. The Sanguinor is hypothesized by both the Inquisition and the Blood Angels to be one of Sanguinius' fragments, one which is both sane and wholly evil from fully embracing his now corrupted nature. They're more right than they know - he's actually an avatar of the completely rational Sanguinius, who was essentially used to do things the Daemon Primarch needed for his plans without letting his Obfuscating Insanity facade drop.

X — Iron Hands

General

• Robot War: Unlike the other homeworlds of the Traitor Legions, Medusa was destroyed not by Imperial forces seeking vengeance, but by the enemy that came from within — the uprising of the old machines, which slaughtered all human population of the planet. Feeling insulted, Ferrus Manus had sent his Legion to deal with them, resulting in planet being devastated to the point that it became unsurvivable even for a fully armoured Astartes, and Legion suffering crippling casualties. Those few who're aware of this conflict, calls it "the Forgotten War".

Primarch Ferrus Manus

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• The Dragon: Ferrus Manus to Roboute Guilliman during the Heresy.
• For Want Of A Nail: Where most Primarchs had one, Ferrus had two.
  • Ferrus Manus failed to kill Asirnoth the first time they encountered each other, leading to a whole Human tribe being slaughtered and later more robotic monsters which haunt the wastelands of Medusa to be awakened to terrorize the Human inhabitants. While he managed to deal with them eventually, this plants a seed of doubt in Ferrus' mind over his flaws and weaknesses and led to him doubling down on his beliefs in strength, to the point of becoming as asinine about it as the Iron Hands in the modern day of the canon timeline. Despite this, he's unable to let go of his failure, which created a chink in his spiritual armour for malignant forces to exploit...
  • After his/her attempt to corrupt the Emperor's Children through the Laer failed, Slaanesh collaborated with Nurgle to bring Ferrus Manus and the Iron Hands to Nurgle and to lure the Dark Eldar to attacking Fulgrim (and indirectly claim vengeance for refusing Slaanesh's corruption). Their collaboration led to Ferrus Manus and his Iron Hands being exposed to Nurgle's Rot on the world of Pandorax, which being both spiritual as well as physical in nature managed to infect Ferrus due to the above-mentioned chink from his deep-seated doubt, followed by the rest of his legion. Desperation to cure the Warp-borne plague (which has no cure) made Ferrus susceptible to the persuasion and lies of the Arch-Traitor Roboute Guilliman, pushing Ferrus to join him in treachery.

XIII — Ultramarines

General

• Blind Obedience: The Isstvan purge ensured that Primarch Guilliman's authority went from unquestioned to absolute, his words not just authoritative but outright gospel. Deconstructed in that predictably this led to his Legion crippled and shattered with Roboute's seeming death at the end of the Heresy, with no one having the initiative or ability to unify the Legion into a capable unified fighting force.
• Evil Feels Good: Ultramarines often commit atrocities because it pleases them.
• Fallen Hero: Before the Heresy, they were paragons among Astartes. Now they are devout worshippers of the Dark Gods.
• No True Scotsman: The Ultramarines view their Evocatii troops with utter contempt, seeing them as pale imitations of true Astartes and indeed also derogatively called them 'Palebloods'. This is due to the fact that Evoctii, being made for mass-production, only carry a small fraction of a true Astartes' physiology, often one or two organs, with the rest of them being substituted by various means from cybernetics to alien tissue to who knows what else.

Primarch Roboute Guilliman, the Avenging Son/the Dark Master of Chaos/the Arch-Traitor

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• Arch-Enemy: Two following his Face–Heel Turn: The Emperor of Mankind, naturally, and Be'lakor, the Master of Shadows, who was responsible for his downfall in the first place.
• The Caligula: The Avenging Son's corruption by the Chaos gods and being trapped in an utterly-agonizing state between life and death for ten thousand years in stasis while his mind is fully exposed to the Warp, pretty much all but reduced Roboute Guilliman from the noble ruler he once was into a cruel, petty, scheming and insane tyrant. By the time he resurrected he is all or less driven wholly evil by all his corruption and torments.
• The Determinator: Lampshaded by Aeonid Thiel as the one trait which Roboute Guilliman kept both as the Avenging Son and the Dark Master of Chaos: No matter what torments, failures and adversities he faced, until he finishes what he started, Guilliman would never, ever give up.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Roboute Guilliman loved and missed his own murdered adoptive parents, even after he was corrupted by the Chaos Gods and became the Arch-Traitor. He had statues of them dotted all over important locations in Maccragge, and following the birth of the Ruinstorm and the Heresy had a whole bridge made from the manifested and solidified tormented souls of all the traitors and rebels responsible for their deaths made linking both the region of Illyrium and the mega-city of Macragge called the Bridge of Cold Torment, where they would suffer for all eternity or at least until it was destroyed in the Battle of Macragge to prevent Tyranids released by Marius Gage's Black Crusade from reaching Macragge proper. When his adoptive parents' souls were released from Be'lakor after he banished him following his resurrection, their presence and words were the only things which nearly make him break into emotions and consider a Heel–Face Turn, despite being driven far more insane and evil than he was even back in the Roboutian Heresy from ten thousand years of tormented stasis - Though sadly, even that is not enough in the end to turn him away from remaining the Arch-Traitor in the end.
• For Want Of A Nail: Be'lakor stirred up war in Macragge that led to the deaths of the two people Guilliman considered as parental figures, and years later Guilliman furiously pursued Be'lakor into the Warp and exposed himself to the corruption of the Ruinous Powers.
• Red Baron: He would carry canon!Horus's title as "the Arch-Traitor" this time, as well as taking the tittle of "Dark master of Chaos" from Be'lakor.
• Never My Fault: Being Not Quite Dead, he is profoundly disappointed with how his Legion had degenerated in his absence following his Heresy, to the point he considered his secret mortal infiltrator agents to be superior to them. It never occurred to him that by purging his own Legion of anyone who can think for themselves at Isstvan (because they have enough brains to question his orders and therefore defy his betrayal against the Imperium), and after his internment into stasis ruthlessly manipulated the warbands into killing each other so he could consume their souls when they die to regenerate himself, he ensured they turn into the blindly-obedient fratricidal idiots they had been reduced to.
• Redemption Rejection: When the released spirits of his adoptive parents offered him a Last-Second Chance after his resurrection, telling him he could still break free from the Dark Gods and reclaim his destiny as the Avenging Son, Guilliman turned them down.
  "I know my destiny," said Roboute, his voice almost breaking with emotion. "And nothing will turn me away from it. Not even you."
• Surrounded by Idiots: His opinion of his own degenerated, blindly-obedient and fratricidal Legion post-Heresy, to the point he considers his own mortal infiltrator agents in the Imperium to be stronger and better than they are. Never mind the fact that he was the one who caused it in the first place.
• Villainous Breakdown: He is all but reduced to screaming in impotent fury upon learning Aeonid Thiel, the Lord of the Red-Marked had planted and detonated a Warp-bomb powerful enough to blow up Macragge while they were fighting and too distracted to notice at the climax of the Battle of Maccragge, not only taking away the first world Guilliman had conquered but also ruining all the plans and preparations he had been making for his return in the last ten thousand years and forcing him to run with his tails behind his legs.
• Where I Was Born and Razed: Unlike the other homeworlds of the Traitor Primarchs, Ultramar wasn't destroyed by Imperial forces seeking vengeance; it was destroyed by Guilliman himself, who offered his entire domain as a massive sacrifice to the Dark Gods, even before the Siege of Terra.

Aeonid Thiel, the Lord of the Red-Marked

• Beyond Redemption: For Aeonid Thiel, seeing Guilliman turning down his adoptive parents' pleas to turn away from the Dark Gods and banishing their mournful spirits finally proved that the Dark Gods had corrupted him too deeply and that Guilliman was beyond saving.
  Aeonid Thiel: "You actually did it. I thought … some part of me thought that maybe, just maybe, there was something left in you of the man I admired. But I guess I was wrong. That was your parents, you bastard. Your last chance to turn back from the path you were set upon by their lies … your last chance to choose, Roboute. But … there is nothing left, is there? The Dark Gods have taken everything. You really are just a monster now."
• Booby Trap: Before he vanished from history, he rigged one to his own Space Marine power armour, upon which he inscribed every tactic and strategem he developed and used against the Traitor Legions during his and his Red-Marked's guerilla war against the Traitor Legions, with grenades wired to blow if the armour is improperly moved which are neatly hidden behind the legs. It is implied Thiel did this to ensure that if the armour is ever found and recovered, it would only be by those who are loyal to the Throne and clever enough to spot the trick - which just so happens to be the loyalist Alpha Legion. Suffice to say, the Alpha Legionnaires sent to find and recover him were impressed to no end.
• The Determinator: Lampshaded by Aeonid Thiel himself as one thing he shares with his gene-father - no matter the odds or their circumstances, both of them never, ever give up.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: His final and greatest blow against his gene-father and the forces of Chaos - detonating a Warp-powered super-bomb based on the device Titus, the Wrath of Khorne found on Graia and BLOW UP MACRAGGE. While that failed to stop the resurrection of Guilliman or kill him, he still managed to take out all the assets the Dark Master of Chaos had accumulated over ten thousand years and completely screw up all of the Arch-Traitor's plans post-resurrection, which is implied to have even changed fate and give the Imperium a fighting chance to win the Final Battle.
• Hero-Worshipper: On the receiving end of this from the Alpha Legion, who consider him one of the greatest strategists/tacticians to ever live and consider his armour alone - upon which Thiel had recorded all the strategems and tricks he ever used against his foes - to be a prize worthy of a Primarch. Given that the Alpha Legion hated the Ultramarines with a passion, that speaks volumes of just how much respect they have for him.
• The Strategist: Aeonid Thiel was an unconventional tactical genius of the high caliber, perhaps short of the Primarchs themselves. He was censured for running simulations on how to fight and kill Astartes, and during the Isstvan Atrocity he and his loyalist holdouts used cunning strategems and daring tricks to achieve kill-ratios unheard of during the Great Crusade and even during the Roboutian Heresy. After escaping Isstvan, he reorganized both his fellow Astartes survivors and others from both loyal and traitor Legions which later joined up into a potent fighting force, the Red-Marked, who waged a guerilla war against the Traitor Legions for the rest of the Roboutian Heresy, causing immense damage and casualties to the Traitor war effort.
• Token Good Teammate: One of the betrayed Ultramarines at Isstvan and the last one standing, remaining loyal to the Emperor and the Imperium, and one of the few to actually survive well into the 41st millennium, until the Battle of Macragge.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In-universe, the fate of Aeonid Thiel following the Heresy is unknown, having disappeared from history after he and his Red-Marked fought a Final Battle in space against an Ultramarine force sent to destroy them to mutual annihilation, leaving only his empty suit of power-armour for the Alpha Legion to find and recover, upon which he inscribed every single strategem he ever used against his foes. We finally find out in the Battle of Macragge arc, where it was revealed at the climax that Marius Gage, the Sacrificed Son, was none other than a mysteriously-empowered Aeonid Thiel in disguise, having engineered the whole Black Crusade against Macragge to try and kill Guilliman before he resurrected, and failing that, destroy Macragge with a specially-designed Warp-bomb to completely screw up the returned Arch-Traitor's plans and give the Imperium a fighting chance in the Final Battle to come.

Titus, the Wrath of Khorne

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• Ax-Crazy: Like many who have embraced Khorne and unlike his more composed HH-verse counterpart, he is this, often screaming at the top of his lungs slaughtering all in his way. This is explained in part as due to having his mind unhinged by the torturous experimentations conducted on him by the Ultramarines even as he is being made one of them, leading to him developing an all-consuming wrath and hatred which is directed to the entirety of the Thirteenth legion.
• Anti-Magic: In a Shout-Out to Captain Titus' own inexplicable Warp-resistance in the Space Marine videogame, Titus, the Wrath of Khorne's status as a champion of Khorne among the Ultramarines is attributed to be responsible for his resistance to the touch of the Warp in this verse.
• Blood Knight: He is marked by Khorne, making him inevitably this.
• Boomerang Bigot: Despite being an Ultramarine, he hated the entire legion with a burning passion, wishing to destroy it all for all the pains and tortures he went through when he was made into one. This went to the point that learning Marius Gage, the Sacrificed Son was in fact none other than the Ultramarine loyalist renegade Aeonid Thiel in disguise, far from stunning him or making him reconsider his loyalties, only reinforced his decision to join the Black Crusade against Macragge.
• Defiant to the End: Titus suffered a mortal blow courtesy of the Slaanesh-worshipping Ultramarine Chaos Lord Cato Sicarius in the Final Battle Black Crusade against Macragge, but rather than dying immediately, he spun around - ripping Cato's own sword out of his hands in the process - and still impaled, eviscerated Cato Sicarius from shoulder to hip with his chainsword before falling to the ground dead. Cato only survived it by virtue of having assimilated the powers of a Keeper of Secrets earlier in the Black Crusade.
• Expy: A Mirror Universe counterpart of Captain Titus of the Ultramarines Second Company from the Space Marine videogame.
• Killed Off for Real: The Wrath of Khorne died fighting the other three Chaos Lords/champions who accompanied the Sacrificed Son in his Black Crusade against Macragge, preventing them from attacking Marius Gage - then revealed to be actually Aeonid Thiel in disguise - when commanded to do so by a resurrected Roboute Guilliman whilst they were dominated by the Primarch's will. Potentially subverted in the future since it had been noted by readers that he actually had the upper-hand throughout the whole fight and by all considerations could had kept fighting and killed them all - which would had won him great favour from Khorne - but the Slaanesh-worshipping Cato Sicarius manages to stab him In the Back while he was distracted fighting Uriel Ventress, and Cato only survived being eviscerated by Titus before he died thanks to the power of a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh he assimilated - all of which would had REALLY pissed off Khrone, leading to some wondering if it might be enough for Khorne to make an exception and bring him Back from the Dead to settle the score in the future.
• Immune to Mind Control: Titus' fury and hatred for the Ultramarines, combined with the boons he received from Khorne, was such that during the climax of the Black Crusade against Macragge, he manages to break free from a resurrected Roboute Guilliman's control over his psyche, allowing to him to take on the other three Ultramarine Chaos Lords/champions whose will had been dominated by the Arch-Traitor before they could move to attack Aeonid Thiel.

XVIII — Salamanders

General

• Despotism Justifies the Means: Salamanders are obsessed with obtaining power over lives of other sentient beings and will do everything to hold it.
• Dragons Are Demonic: They play this completely straight as their motif. Whereas canon!Salamanders embody the Delightful Dragon trope, RH!Salamanders embody dragons as greedy, violent and domineering creatures of evil.
• Evil Laugh: A very callous and terrifying one.
• Evil Overlord: Unlike canon!Salamanders, these guys are cruel and tyrannical Super Soldiers who rule over their minions through strength and brutality.
• Greed: Most Salamanders hold the acquisition of treasures as their highest priority, this tendency comes from Vulkan. Who only felt at peace when he owned artifacts of great value as symbols or treasures.
• Humanoid Abomination: Dragon Warriors, being Warp-mutated Draconic Humanoids.
• Immortality Seeker: All of them, like their Primarch, seek to become undying immortals so they could rule forever over their treasures and slaves. You can't keep your stuff when you're dead, after all.
• Jerkass: The entire Legion, but Vulkan takes the cake. Nearly every Salamander is a remorseless sociopath obsessed with plunder and domination who revel in their superiority over those weaker than they are, and none of them would hesitate to turn on their brothers if it suits them. Some of them like the Dragon Warriors take this to the point they don't even see Humans or even their fellow Salamanders as sapient on the same level as they are.
• Might Makes Right: As the entry itself noted, the Salamanders believe might doesn't just make right, it makes EVERYTHING, and one is nothing without power in the galaxy. Even their infamous greed and pursuit of immortality has their origins in their obsession with power: they don't actually care about all the treasure in their hoards beyond the fact that someone else valued them and they have the strength to take AND keep them, and they all seek to become immortal like their Primarch as they would lose all their power if they die.
  Salamander Motto: Power is the only thing that matters.
• Necromancer: Like the White Scars, the Salamanders' pursuit of immortality had driven them to pursue means to revive and control the dead, finding or developing several ways to do so. This is rooted in Vulkan and his sons' greed: they don't even want death to keep the servants and subjects they dominate and own from escaping them.
  • The Cult of the Dragon - mortal worshippers of Vulkan across the galaxy - who manages to contact Vulkan and the Salamanders often given dark blessings in the form of the ability to seemingly resurrect the dead, in order to bamboozle the masses into believing in their greatness or cow them into submission. Emphasis on 'seemingly' - many of their feats are little more than having daemons possess the corpses of the dead and pretend to be their original selves to fool their loved ones only so long as it is necessary to keep up with the ruse.
  • The Draconite Inquisitors are a heretical faction of the Inquisition who became corrupted by the desire to attain the powers of immortality and/or resurrection in emulation of the Perpetual Vulkan. Many of them became this trope either in service of Vulkan or following their own twisted ambitions and goals.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: Many of the Salamanders followed their Daemon Primarch in becoming master blacksmiths, forging all manner of weapons, tools and artifacts to further their causes of conquest, domination and plunder across the galaxy, from trinklets which could hollow out those forced to wear them into obedient, mindless 'Pactwraiths' to weapons like daemon-possessed blades, soul-burning flamers, artillery pieces firing shells embued with the terror of all who ever perished from artillery strikes reflected to the warp, and even ,according to the Salamander's Legion Annex, a planet-sized superweapon with the power to devastate entire star systems which they plan to use one day to spear-head their ultimate conquest of the galaxy.
  • The Forgefathers, former tech-marines of the Salamanders, are members of the Legion whose interest went into forging rather than conquest, keeping to themselves in their workshops and lairs with their slaves and servants designing and making weapons and artifacts of such quality and capabilities they are said to make even members of the Dark Mechanicum envious. They often only go out to field-test their finished products, attaching themselves to Salamander or other Legions' warbands to do so, or lead expeditions of their own sacking whole worlds and civilizations in seeking out knowledge and lore with which they could plunder to enhance their work.
• Kick the Dog: Salamanders, when capturing a human planet, turn its population into mindless slaves via the Branding Ritual and force them to work in hellish conditions. Then, when the Imperium tries to take back the planet, Salamanders sabotage all the remaining infrastructure and escape, leaving countless slaves to die from starvation.

Primarch Vulkan, the Black Dragon

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• Ambition Is Evil: The reason of his fall to Chaos. Vulkan wanted to get as much power as possible and be invincible.
• Faux Affably Evil: Vulkan acted like that before the Heresy.
• For Want Of A Nail: Instead of being found by humans when he landed in Nocturne, Vulkan was found by a salamander who raised him only to attack him when he grew older, which emotionally scarred him forever and led to him and his legion being one of the cruelest and most brutal, instead of one of the compassionate.
• Godhood Seeker: Vulkan wants to become the Chaos God of Greed and Tyranny, and it might be possible that the Black Dragon has already achieved this goal.
• Hero Killer: He slew Konrad Curze and Mortarion.
• It's All About Me: He's probably the biggest egoist among all Primarchs, and counts his personal gain and advancement as the most important thing in the universe.
• Mortality Phobia: One of Vulkan’s reasons for his goal of eventual godhood is a fear of eventual death, even as a Daemon prince. He has had this fear since the attempt on his life by John Gramaticus during the Heresy.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The only time he ever regretted anything was when he killed his own brother, Konrad Curze during the Dropsite Massacre. He genuinely thought that he was going to regenerate and get back up again like he was (and thus come around to his way of thinking), and was quietly horrified when Konrad didn't. He simply resolved to never do anything that he would regret.
• Raised by Wolves: Once he landed on Nocturne, he was adopted and raised by a Salamander. However, because Salamanders do not maintain any emotional connection to their young once these grow up and consider their adult offspring to be simply more competitions and threats, his "mother" attacked and killed him once he grew too old; this was largely responsible for a lot of his emotional issues.
• Red Baron: Known as "the Black Dragon" for his dark skin and his ruthless cruelty.
• Scary Black Man: He didn't get the nickname "the Black Dragon" without any proper reason.
• Start of Darkness: Vulkan's For Want Of A Nail is when he was found not by the native Humans of Nocturne, but by a Nocturne Salamander, which adopted and raised him. While this might not sound like a bad thing on paper, Vulkan does not possess a Nocturne Salamander's natural instinct to get out of their parent's den when they mature to go their own way, after which their parents would instinctively treat them as a threat to them and their next children. The trauma that followed after Vulkan got mauled and burnt to death by his own adoptive beast-mother — and his resurrection afterwards — went a long way in turning him into a sociopathic, domineering, conquering tyrant he is in the RH-verse instead of the compassionate, protective champion of Humanity he was in canon.

XIX — Raven Guard

General

• Body Horror: The Raven Guard frequently dabbles in this, as a result of their fleshcrafting obsession. This is particularly pronounced in their Spawn Marines, mass-manufactured clone Space Marines with utterly warped features.
• Dark Is Evil: They're the only legion to currently wear full black armor, and they are the most sinister among all the Legiones Astartes.
• The Dreaded: The other traitor legions regard members of the Raven Guard with suspicion and mistrust, and even daemons treat them with some degree of caution.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Their apothecaries, who manage to disgust even Fabius Bile.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Whatever it was that drove the Raven Guard off the deep end.
• Humanoid Abomination: All Chaos Space Marines from the Raven Guard are either living conduits of Warp energy (purebloods) or misshapen clones (Spawn Marines).
• Outside-Context Problem: The Unkind are from the warp, but their nature is different of the rest of the Daemons and they're only related to the Raven Guard.
• Send in the Clones: After entering the Emperor's laboratories on the Bucephalus, Corax started the practice of cloning to acquire recruits for the legion. While the original clones were created in clean and careful conditions, the Spawn Marines created during and after the Heresy are far from the originals in terms of quality.

Primarch Corvus Corax, the Ravenlord

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• For Want Of A Nail: Instead of being raised by the prisoners of Kiavahr, Corvus Corax was handed over to the Tech-lords to be tortured and experimented on, which played a huge role in his corruption. It also didn't help that when the Emperor arrived to recover him, he had to hide any emotional attachment to Corax and instead pretend that his interest in him is purely that of an amoral scientist wanting to recover his creation simply because he had a use for them, even to the point of referring to Corax as "it"... and poor Corax was conscious enough to hear that, leading him to draw the worst possible conclusions about the Emperor.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: From the prisoner of tech-lords of Kiavahr to a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: His travels to the center of the Eye of Terror destroyed whatever remained of Corax's sanity. He can also cause this on others with his mere presence.
• Invisibility: One of his innate psychic powers, like in canon.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Corax would later inflict an extremely cruel fate on the same tech-lords who tortured and experimented on him since childhood, by binding their souls to their bodies, destroying their brains, and torturing them until his sorcery could no longer resurrect them. While it may have been horrible if done to anyone else, the tech-lords deserved what came to them.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Corax wants to unite the Materium and the Immaterium and turn humans into perfect hybrids of flesh and Warp. Needless to say, his goal means destruction for anyone who doesn't agree with him.

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