"If you can't defeat the Dark Gods — become a Dark God yourself". The Emperor of Mankind, convinced by Lorgar, chose to betray everything he fought for, betray Humanity itself, to ascend as the fifth God of Chaos. Half of Primarchs have followed him into damnation.
But Warmaster Horus and his allies stands in his way, determined to stop the Imperial Heresy and save the humanity from its fallen master.
The "alternate Heresy" fic, written and published on 4chan subforum /tg/. It can be accessed here
, with epilogue available here.
Tropes
- Adaptational Heroism: Horus' rebellion still happens, but this time, it happens because it's Horus who tries to stop his father who went evil. Most original rebels becomes (relatively) good, with exceptions of Lorgar (who's still a prophet of Chaos) and Fulgrim (who's still a Slaanesh worshipper), both of which now sides with the Emperor. Luther and his followers are also now explicitly defecting from the bad guys, not the other way around.Abaddon: Horus was strong. Horus was brave. He single-handedly faced the False-Emperor, and died trying to stop him, saving Humanity from an eternity of damnation.
- Adaptational Name Change: Those who remained loyal to the Emperor are now called "imperialists", with the term "loyalists" being used by Horus' rebels and the elements of imperialist Legions who chose to side with Horus, as now the term refers to their loyalty to the Imperium and its ideals, not the Emperor.
- Adaptation Origin Connection:
- Unlike canon, here, Grey Knights are Successor Chapter for Thousands Sons. While they're indeed related to the Thousands Sons in canon (as a former member of the Legion became the key figure in creating the Grey Knights), they never were a Successor Chapter to any Legion.
- Several canon Successor Chapters still gets created, but with other Primarchs as their progenitor.
- The Nova Legion and Star Phantoms were both created from the gene-seed of the Sons of Horus, instead of the Ultramarines and Dark Angels, respectively.
- The Doom Legion and Silver Skulls (both from the Ultramarines) are now related to Death Guard.
- In canon, the Blood Ravens don't know their Primarch, although there're many hints towards Thousands Sons. Here, they are explicitly a Thousands Sons Successor Chapter.
- The Mortifactors are a Successor Chapter of the World Eaters instead of the Ultramarines.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- The Emperor Himself turns to Chaos. It's called the Imperial Heresy for a reason.
- Most original loyalists remains loyal to the Emperor (now, they're called "imperialists"), and, thus, becomes evil and corrupt when he falls to Chaos. The only exception is Vulkan, who's too pro-human to stay with someone who uses humans as the sacrifice to Chaos, so he sides with (now-good) Horus instead.
- In canon, Eisenstein is used to evacuate surviving loyalists elements during the purge on Isstvan III. Now, it's used by traitorous elements of loyalists Legions during the battle on Isstvan V to evacuate surviving forces of Emperor-aligned Raven Guard, Iron Hands and White Scars, preventing their complete extermination.
- Apologetic Attacker: Horus, after killing Sanguinius, says "forgive me", as, no matter what he had become, this is still his beloved brother.
- Arch-Enemy:
- The Raven Guard (who became Tzeentch worshippers on their own initiative) are now mortal enemies with the Night Lords, and frequently clash with them.
- Ten thousand years after the Heresy, the Blood Angels are still after the Sons of Horus, whose Primarch had killed theirs.
- An Arm and a Leg: Abaddon had lost both hands, replacing them with bionics. One of them was cut by Jaghatai Khan himself, who's now a Daemon Prince.
- The Atoner: Luther has leaft after the Heresy, as he received way too much blame for failing to show up for Siege of Terra. It's believed that he's wandering around the galaxy, trying to redeem himself.
- Back from the Brink: There were 80 000 Salamanders before the Heresy. After the Heresy, there remained around 400. They managed to rebuild and eventually even create successor Chapter (the Black Hoods) only by M33 (although, in this fic, Chapters are ten times bigger than in canon).
- Batman Gambit: Horus lowers the shields of his flagship, Vengeful Spirit, expecting that the Emperor wouldn't resist temptation to slay him personally. It works.
- The Berserker:
- Under Sanguinius, the Blood Angels fell to Khorne and became mindless berserkers, spilling blood for their Blood God.
- The Imperial Fists have fractured after the Heresy. More sane ones followed Sigismund and turned into the Black Templars, while others turned Khorne worshippers and formed the Crimson Fists.
- As in canon, the World Eaters still used butcher's nails, with all the "nice" effects on their sanity. Unlike canon, they never fully embraced massacre for the sake of massacre, and, after the Heresy, ditched using the butcher's nails completely (and even managed to remove the ones already installed), specifically to not repeat the fate of Blood Angels, in whom they saw their possible future if they would allow their wrath to overwhelm them. Those who never dealt with their rage (like Angron himself) have left to the Eye of Terror to continue fighting Chaos.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- The Chaos Gods' attempt to corrupt Horus on Davin still happens, but it fails due to intervention of Magnus, Curze and Alpharius, who are now aware of dangers of Chaos.
- Horus saves Perturabo when he's about to be killed by Sanguinius during Siege of Terra.
- The Cavalry: Due to successfully dealing with Space Wolves attack on Prospero, the Thousand Sons manages to assist in defending Mars, arriving just in time to stop the imperialists from releasing the monstrosities hidden deep below.
- Cavalry Betrayal: The first three Legions to attack Horus and his forces on Isstvan V (the Sons of Horus, Death Guard and World Eaters) are the Iron Hands, White Scars and Raven Guard. The rest of the forces (the Dark Angels, Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and Alpha Legion) attacks next... and sides with Horus, resulting in imperialists being massacred, and only escaping due to help of traitors amongst rebel forces, who provided them with one of their ships.
- Cavalry Refusal: The Ultramarines don't bother with going to aid the Emperor on Terra, preferring to wait till both sides weaken each other, likely with intentions to finish off the survivors. It results in the Alpha Legion and Thousand Sons attacking them first.
- The Corruptor: Lorgar made the Emperor vulnerable to temptations of Chaos by telling him that he can better protect Mankind if he becomes a god himself.
- Dark Lord on Life Support: The Emperor was put on the Black Throne after the failure of Heresy, and now Lorgar tries to spill enough blood as a sacrifice to Chaos to make him ascend as a new Chaos God.
- Deal with the Devil: Corvux Corax had to make a deal with Tzeentch to help rebuild his Legion. It resulted in Raven Guard turning into "winged nightmares".
- Death by Adaptation:
- Mortarion dies fighting the Emperor, but damages his armour enough to let Horus land a hit later.
- Perturabo (presumably) gets killed at some point after the Heresy. It's believed that he was killed by Dorn, by then a Daemon Prince already.
- Defector from Decadence:
- Luther and his part of the Dark Angels are now explicitly defecting from the bad guys, not the other way around.
- Some elements of imperialists Legions chose to turn loyalists. In particular, the Space Wolves had enough such turncoats to even make a successor Chapter, the Solar Wolves, led by Bjorn the Purehanded. It has since vanished, however, and their fate is unknown.
- Doomed Hometown:
- Averted with Prospero; unlike canon, the Thousand Sons do manage to protect their homeworld against the Space Wolves, due to Horus warning them about attack, and them preparing adequate defenses.
- Cthonia was destroyed during the Heresy; having thus lost their homeworld, the Sons of Horus now are now based on Cadia.
- While it's safe to assume that all Imperialist homeworlds were purged during Long War, the Purging of Fenris is mentioned specifically, as the event which led to scattering of the Space Wolves and the disappearance of Leman Russ.
- The Dragon: With the Emperor embracing Chaos and following Lorgar's temptation to start pursuing godhood, Lorgar became not just the prophet of Chaos, but the prophet of Emperor specifically, whom he praises as the fifth Dark God, despite him being yet to ascend.
- Dragon Ascendant:
- Lorgar became the most trusted servant of the Emperor, spreading the Word of Chaos in the Emperor's name. After the Emperor's defeat, Lorgar continued leading the Black Crusades, with the explicit purpose of spilling enough blood to fuel Emperor's ascension.
- With Rogal Dorn's whereabouts unknown, Sigismund formed the Black Templars to continue crusades against the New Imperium. Those who didn't follow him formed the Crimson Fists instead.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Curze sees the Imperial Heresy in his visions, and warns Horus.
- Dwindling Party: Every five hundred years, the veterans of the Siege of Terra come to honour the memory of heroes who died to put down the Imperial Heresy — Horus, Mortarion and Malcador. Every time, their numbers dwindles; ten thousand years later, Abaddon is the last one still alive.
- The Engineer: After the Heresy, the Iron Warriors used their expertise to not only fortify both Terra and Cadia, but also reform the Mechanicum.
- Face–Heel Turn: The Emperor gets corrupted by Lorgar and decides that there's no hope to defeat Chaos, so he may as well join it and become the Chaos God himself.
- For Want Of A Nail: After Nikaea (where usage of psychic powers was forbidden, like in canon), Magnus sees the Emperor's judgement as mistake, and gives an oath to himself to prove it. Thus, he remains on guard and, when Horus gets hit on Davin, in Lorgar's attempts to corrupt him, Magnus is able to save him and prevent his fall to Chaos. Horus now being his ally results in Magnus being warned about attack of Space Wolves, and repel it.
- Godhood Seeker: Lorgar convinces the Emperor that he may become a fifth Chaos God. His attempt to do that — and Horus' to stop him — replaces the original Horus Heresy; Lorgar still tries to achieve that result for him even long after the Heresy.
- Good Counterpart: As the Custodes went evil along with their master, they were replaced with new group, the Golden Aquilias, who are tasked with protecting the rebuilt Palace.
- Hero Killer:
- Roboute Guilliman kills Alpharius during conflict in Ultramar. Presumably.
- The Emperor kills Mortarion and Horus during the Siege of Terra.
- Rogal Dorn supposedly killed Perturabo during the Sixth Black Crusade.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Ollanius Pius, a humble Imperial Guardsman, dies in attempt to protect Horus, who's about to be killed by the Emperor, but it buys Horus just enough time to strike his father down.
- Malcador the Sigillite sacrifices his life to close the Warp portal on Terra.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: The World Eaters have improved after the Heresy, and ditched usage of the butcher's nails, but it did little to improve their reputation. Their successor Chapters seems to be more lucky in this regard.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: The main forces of the Word Bearers gets distracted from the Siege of Terra, being too busy fighting the Night Lords, who attack them from the shadows only to retreat before they can do anything.
- Hufflepuff House: Not all Imperialist Legions receives as much attention as the others, but the Space Wolves gets it worst. The only two conflicts involving them which gets mentioned are the battle for Prospero (which they lose) and the cleansing of their homeworld, both barely described; the only thing known about their current state is that they're Nurgle worshippers.
- Humanoid Abomination:
- Just before his defeat at the hands of Horus, the Emperor was enhanced with the powers of the Warp, making him into something truly monstrous, both in terms of power and in terms of how ugly he'd became.
- Jagathai Khan and Rogal Dorn both have ascended into Daemonhood, becoming Daemon Princes.
- Human Sacrifice: The massacre of Terra's population still happens, but now it's the Emperor who does that, as a sacrifice to Chaos to ascend as a Chaos God.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: Angron vanished in the Eye of Terror after the Heresy, explicitly to hunt down his brothers who've sided with the Emperor.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- The purge of the rebels' homeworlds still happens (this time, specifically by the Word Bearers), as the Imperium's reaction to Horus' rebellion, before the Heresy even ends. In particular, they destroys Chthonia, Horus' homeworld.
- The Codex Astartes analogue still gets written — by Magnus; it's called the Codex Secundus.
- Breaking the original Legions into Chapters still happens, although those Chapters are larger than in canon (ten thousands marines in each, instead of one thousand). In particular, the Blood Ravens and Grey Knights are explicitly successor Chapters of the Thousand Sons.
- It's All My Fault: Vulkan blamed himself for his "weakness" due to doing "too little" to save the populace of Terra, and eventually disappeared to places unknown after the Heresy.
- Killed Off for Real: Sanguinius is the only Chaos Primarch confirmed to be dead; he didn't return even after the Heresy, and his own legion believes that he's dead, and seeks to avenge him.
- Kill the Ones You Love: It's told that slaying Sanguinius (turned Daemon Prince of Khorne) broke Horus' heart, and he whispered "forgive me" while doing this.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Vulkan has to be persuaded to not rush to Terra to save its populace right now, before the rebels gets ready to besiege it.
- Mutual Kill: After killing the Emperor, Horus succumbs to his wounds and dies. However, later it turns out that the Emperor wasn't ''truly'' killed yet, and instead sits on the Black Throne in the Eye of Terror, which prevents him from dying at the cost of blood which spills during the Black Crusades.
- Never Found the Body:
- No one knows what has happened to the Alpha Legion after the Second Black Crusade; it's presumed that it was wiped out by either the Ultramarines or the Word Bearers, and Alpharius is presumed to be killed by Guilliman, but, as with anything that has to do with the Alpha Legion, the truth is uncertain. Abaddon still refers to finding twins, plural, meaning that he didn't lose hope, and the legends about indigo-plated marines who appears in the time of need to help Imperials are persistent.
- Perturabo vanished during the Sixth Black Crusade, believed to have been killed by Rogal Dorn (by then, already a Daemon Prince). But no one knows for sure what has happened to him (or Dorn, for that matter).
- Old Soldier: Abaddon is still alive even ten thousand years after the Heresy, the last living Space Marine from that age, outliving all his old friends, rivals and those who were both, now too old to continue active service, but remaining as one of the Imperial generals on Cadia (supported by General Creed). Most of his body is now replaced with bionics, including both hands.
- Pro-Human Transhuman: The Salamanders sides with Horus, remaining protectors of Humanity first and foremost. During the Siege of Terra, they specifically dedicates themselves to protecting civilians from the rampaging Emperor's Children, which costs them enormous casualties. Nowadays, they're often called "the Angels of Mercy".
- Put on a Bus:
- Luther vanished after the Heresy, seeking redemption for his failures during the Heresy.
- Some Primarchs are still active. Some have died. Some... just disappeared:
- Leman Russ vanished after the Cleansing of Fenris; this was the last straw for the Space Wolves, who fractured afterwards.
- Rogal Dorn disappeared after (presumably) slaying Perturabo, and no one knows where he is and what's with him.
- Konrad Curze left to the places unknown after the Heresy.
- Angron left to the Eye of Terror to hunt down fallen Primarchs.
- At some point after the Heresy, Vulkan disappeared; Abaddon mentions that people are still searching for him.
- Alpharius and/or Omegon (one of them was or wasn't killed by Guilliman) disappeared after the Second Black Crusade; Abaddon still believes that they're alive and need to be found.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The Emperor's Children have degenerated into hedonism, only leaving the Eye of Terror in seek of slaves or just blood to spill for their own sick pleasure.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The major motivation for the Blood Angels' attacks is to avenge Sanguinius, their Primarch who was killed by Horus.
- Role Swap AU: It's not just the Heresy being done by different Primarchs; the Emperor himself turns evil, so Horus (who never goes evil) has to pull a rebellion to stop him. As result, the key events like the Dropsite Massacre and the Siege of Terra are portrayed positively, rather than as atrocities. Additionally, it's Lion El'Johnson who stays on Caliban and Luther who attacks him, with Luther being the victor.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Guilliman gets mortally wounded by Angron, and is then put into stasis.
- Shocking Defeat Legacy: Mortarion's death deeply affected the Death Guard, leaving a "curse" on their entire Legion, although details aren't explained.
- Social Darwinist: The Iron Hands "justify" their murderous campaigns as "purging those too weak to live".
- Spared By Adaptation: Conrad Curze continues fighting for the greater good of Mankind, never gets killed by an assassin, and eventually disappears to pursue goals known only to himself.
- The Starscream: Heavily implied with Guilliman, who doesn't bother with assisting the Emperor during the Heresy, awaiting for results of the Siege of Terra to see who will come out on top, while dedicating this time to reinforcing his own empire. After the Heresy, he manages to preserve Ultramar, instead of running away to the Eye of Terror, albeit Guilliman himself is mortally wounded by Angron, and the Ultramarines have pledged themselves to... Malal.
- Talking to the Dead: Years after the Heresy, Abaddon has a habit of talking with coffins installed on Terra — Horus, Mortarion and Malcador's, retelling them what's going on without them. He doesn't know why he's doing so, but feels that he has to.Abaddon: I still remember the promise I made to you, old friend, all those years ago. The Grand Imperium is still safe, its people still protected. They still try, you know, after all this time, our fallen brothers. They try to get out of the Eye, but we keep beating them back in. Great Crusade after Great Crusade they try, but still we fight the Long War and hold them back.
- Terraforming: Terra's ecosystem was restored after the Heresy, once again making it the blue planet we know.
- Token Evil Teammate: Angron and the World Eaters are part of anti-Chaos alliance now, but otherwise remain mostly the same as their canon pre-Heresy counterparts. They only ditched their berserker ways after seeing what they can become in the Blood Angels, who turned to Khorne.
- Uncertain Doom:
- No one knows what has happened to Leman Russ after the Purging of Fenris; he just vanished..
- No mention is made of what has happened to Lion's half of the Dark Angels after the battle for Caliban and the planet's destruction by Lion.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: No mention is made of Fulgrim's or Ferrus Manus' fate during or after the Heresy.
- Winged Humanoid: The Raven Guard aligned with Tzeentch, which resulted in them growing actual wings (and, knowing their patron deity's speciality in wild mutations, likely the other raven-like features).
- You Are in Command Now:
- Abaddon was forced to take over as new leader of the Imperium after the Emperor's defeat. He eventually stepped down due to old age.
- Luther, consumed by the sense of guilt, leaves to pursuit his personal redemption, and leaves Zahariel in charge of Dark Angels.
