Based on the Horus Heresy short story of the same name, The Last Church is fan-animated adaptation by Tyler Portoghese, released on YouTube in 2021. While the dialogue has been rewritten and rephrased for legal reasons, the story remains the same:
In the 31st Millennium, the Emperor of Mankind is on the verge of conquering Terra, saving it from a slow and painful death at the hands of warring techno-barbarian tribes. Infrastructure is rebuilt, quality of life improves dramatically and countless tyrants are slain by His genetically-engineered super soldiers: the Thunder Warriors. Building the foundation for the Emperor's greatest gift to humanity: The Imperium of Man. Unfortunately, a big part of the Emperor's plan is the systematic destruction of religion and replacing it with the atheistic "Imperial Truth." Ostensibly to free humanity from ignorance and superstition, but in truth, to starve the gods of Chaos and save humanity from their demonic influence.
Meanwhile, a Christian priest by the name of Uriah Olathaire, the last caretaker of the Church of the Fulgur Lapis, is visited by a mysterious man known only as "Apocalypsis", who wants to know why he refuses to embrace the Imperial Truth...
Though the original video was taken down due to Games Workshop's controversial copyright policies, you can still watch it here.
- Armor-Piercing Question: A lot of them are fired back and forth in the conversation between Uriah and Apocalypsis. Though Uriah's final retort is arguably the most poignant:"Even if it is for the best, are you ever delighted to leave everything behind and be thrust into the unknown? No one is. Life is a gift and our chance to make ourselves into someone before our time in the afterlife. Who would give that up willingly? If you cannot see that plainly, then you are a FOOL!"
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Battle of Gaduere saw five-thousand of the Emperor's gene-crafted Thunder Warriors defend themselves against forty-thousand hastily-assembled rebels. Not a single Thunder Warrior ends up with so much as a scratch while the rebels are ripped apart so quickly that Uriah was left dumbfounded as to how so many people could simply die so quickly.
- Good Shepherd: Uriah is selfless, intelligent, noble and good-humored, preaching about love, acceptance and forgiveness instead of divine retribution or punishment. Sadly, he's arguably the one true example of this trope in the entire 40k franchise.
- I Hate Past Me: Uriah was a spoiled brat as a child and a drunken lech as an adult before the Battle of Gaduere. He's not proud of his past at all.
- Let the Past Burn: The ultimate fate of the Church of the Fulgur Lapis and Uriah himself. Under the Emperor's command, his Thunder Warriors torch the building with heavy flamers. And after a few words of warning to the Emperor about His future, Uriah goes down with the rest of his religion with dignity by returning to the burning church to pray for one final time.
- King Incognito: After their argument, Uriah tries to recompose himself through prayer before tearfully snapping at Apocalypsis, demanding him to drop the act. And he does, revealing himself to be none other than the Emperor of Mankind.
- Meaningful Name:
- "Apocalypsis" is a corruption of the Greek word for "Revelation", his name in the original short story. Considering that this is a story called The Last Church...
- Uriah is named after Uriah the Hittite from the Book of Samuel, an elite soldier in the army of King David.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After realizing he's the only surviving rebel at the Battle of Gaduere, Uriah breaks down in tears as he realizes, all too late, that all he ever did in life was hurt and ruin people for his own selfish desires.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Apocalypsis. Doesn't help that he's a muscular giant of a man.
- Self-Deprecating Humor: When Apocalypsis tells him that nobody came to his midnight sermon, Uriah jokes it's because his own ugliness scared them away.
- Spoiled Brat: Uriah, due to his royal upbringing and his family's poor parenting. A flashback shows him gleefully stealing a bottle of wine and running away from an angry merchant as a kid."Looking back, I realize what a little shit I was."
- Too Dumb to Live:
- The Battle of Gaduere, which had 40,000 soldiers charging against 5,000 of the precursors to the Adeptus Astartes. Uriah barely survived.
- Uriah's first encounter with the Thunder Warriors while piss-drunk has him hurling insults at them while his friends beg him to run away before they leave him to his fate. He gets thrown into the sea.
"I called them many names: Freak. Slave. The minor demons of a greater devil."
