History Literature / HorusHeresy

* SinisterMinister: In the backstory, Cardinal Tang, who is [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] in the distant past/far future of the 29th Millennium. Any given Chaos cultist might also qualify.

[[caption-width-right:300:''The death of the body. The death of the spirit. But above all, the death of hope.'']]

* ''The End and the Death: Volume 1'', by Dan Abnett
* ''The End and the Death: Volume 2'', by Dan Abnett
* ''Garro: Knight of Grey'' by James Swallow (novella)

'''Upcoming titles are:'''

* ''Heirs of the Imperium'', a fourth anthology collecting the previous three in the sub-series,with five new stories.

* The series also received a series of rule and army books from Forge World, allowing 40k players to build and play armies from the Horus Heresy.

* LastStand: ''Galaxy in Flames'' has a pretty epic one courtesy of Imperial loyalists on Istvaan III. It wasn't supposed to go down this way - Horus wanted to virus bomb the life out of loyalists - but then Angron got bored or angry and went down to kill them the old-fashioned way.

* HiddenDepths: Perturabo turns out to be surprisingly cultured and artistic for a guy who once ordered his legion to decimate itself and specialises in knocking down fortresses.
** The White Scars are fond of pastimes such as poetry, calligraphy, and playing Go, and consider them integral to a true warrior's life.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:''Battle For the Abyss'']]. A BittersweetEnding, by Literature/HorusHeresy standards; at least the loyalists stop the traitors.

* TheConsigliere: The Mournival is pitched as this to Loken when he is first inducted, being an in informal quartet of trusted captains whose job is to give honest, unfiltered advice to the Warmaster, unadulturated by the political biases that can pollute the normal chain of command. Though as he discovers, the Mournival can itself be used as a political tool by the Warmaster.

* AnAxeToGrind: As within the AnachronismStew example, axes and chain-axes are still fairly prevalent.
** Namely, Space Wolves like to use axes in combat
** World Eaters prefer to use chain-axes.
** Angron has made several master-crafted axes that have become Legion heirlooms. One was gifted to Lorgar, but lost on the Furious Abyss. Another two, the twin axes Gorefather and Gorechild were used, until he lost Gorefather and "gave" Gorechild to Kharn.

** ''Master of Mankind'' features the final battle of the War Within the Webway, with a host of daemons assaulting the ruins of an Eldar city held by the Legio Custodes and Silent Sisters, supported by a host of skitariis and a Titan Legio. The Emperor himself steps into the fray and demonstrates his might by engulfing a whole section of the Webway with psychic flames that destroy most of thƒe daemons.

** ''Mechanicum'': The Dark Mechnicus doesn't get their hands on Magma City's technology, and the Void Dragon has a new guardian in Dalia. However, the majority of the protagonists are dead, any chance of regaining humanity's lost knowledge through the Akashic Reader is gone for good, and Mars is left to its own devices, with the Mechanicum and the Dark Mechanicum fighting a bitter war against each other[[note]]And even ''that'' won't last forever, as it's all but confirmed that Mars falls to the traitors in the end[[/note]].

** ''Master of Mankind'' features the final battle of the War Within the Webway, with a host of daemons assaulting the ruins of an Eldar city held by the Legio Custodes and Silent Sisters, supported by a host of skitariis and a Titan Legio. The Emperor himself steps into the fray and demonstrates his might by engulfing a whole section of the Webway with psychic flames that destroy most of the daemons.

* ''Echoes of Eternity'' by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

'''Upcoming titles are:'''

* LifeOrLimbDecision: Kapser Hawser is forced to cut off Bear's arm to save him from the [[spoiler: daemon's magic fire.]]

** A mild example would be that of [[GoodShepherd the Priest]] in the short story "The Last Church". He openly defies [[spoiler:the Emperor]], willingly choosing death rather than embrace the new ideology of the Imperium. This is an old man, alone in the last Church on Terra. He is surrounded by psychopathic proto-astartes. After this Imperial representative has spent the last hour trying to destroy the priest's faith via argument, he defies [[spoiler:the Emperor]] to his face. It's hilariously ironic given [[spoiler:it was the Emperor who unintentionally inspired him to turn to faith in the first place]] in the aftermath of a failed rebellion in which the Priest took part as a young man, and therefore not even [[spoiler:the being he thought was {{God}}, telling him not to believe,]] could break his faith.

* ''The Horus Heresy Trading Card Game:'' A spin-off of the previous 40k TCG. The card artwork was later collected in the artbooks ''Collected Visions'' (which used the card art exclusively) and ''Visions of Heresy." (Which interspersed the card art alongside artwork from the book covers and previously released art from the Warhammer 40k base game.

* ''VideoGame/TheHorusHerseyLegions'', a CCG with characters and units based on the series.

** Faith. The series explores the nature of faith, both as a negative and as a positive, all over the place. All the humans have been raised to believe in the Emperor of Mankind and his secular, atheistic, rationalistic, materialistic philosophy called the Imperial Truth. However, the presence of Chaos, and a long look at the Emperor's policies and behavior, cause many to question and reject that worldview. The Horus Heresy is a time when virtually all humanity undergoes a CrisisOfFaith, questioning what they've been taught and having to decide for themselves what they believe. Some cling to the ideals of the old Imperial Truth. Some turn to the gods of Chaos. Some turn to the nascent-but-growing religion that worships the Emperor as a god.

* ''The End and the Death'', Volume 1, by Dan Abnett

* ''The End and the Death'' by Dan Abnett

* IAmSpartacus: All the Alpha Legion are Alpharius. It makes the scheming and unconventional warfare easier when the non-Legion don't know who's who. Taken UpToEleven by the fact that apart from Alpharius himself, not even the Alpha Legionaries are aware which one of them is Alpharius at times.