The long preparations of the Chaos have come to their final phase. The stage was set. Seeds
of Chaos landed on fertile soil surrounding Horus Lupercal. The heavy burden of leadership,
combined with a few blunders, had taken a heavy toll on Horus.
Erebus, the man who had already corrupted a primarch, was attempting to do it one more time.
But there was no time nor room for error. Will he be able to accomplish such a daunting task?
Welcome to our series on Warhammer 40k and Horus Heresy, explaining the origins of the Imperium
and Chaos. This third video will explore Horus’s failed campaigns and Erebus's plot.
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While the campaign on 63-19 was reaching its end, Horus's fleet received a distress signal from the
planet 140-20. From there, a small fleet of Blood Angels was sending a series of SOS messages that,
over time, were becoming gradually incoherent until the last signal consisted only of one
sentence "This planet is Murder." The Warmaster sent full force to this seemingly cursed planet
to investigate. Yet Horus wasn't the only one who decided to answer this call for help. Many
other fleets from different legions set out to this star system. The first ones
to arrive were the Emperor's Children, under the command of the lord commander Eidolon.
When he arrived, the situation was looking grim. Planet 140-20, now nicknamed Murder,
was covered in a severe storm that blocked almost all communication and didn't allow
anything to land except drop pods and prevented the deployment of anything other than infantry.
Lord commander Eidolon, after hearing that Horus's fleet was only days away from arriving, decided to
send all of his space marines to the surface, repeating the blunder of the Blood Angels.
Scattered in the atmosphere, small groups of the Astartes landed in a thick, foggy forest of trees
similar to bamboo. Disoriented and lost, they were ambushed by the local species, the Megarachnids.
These insects were extremely fast, and their armored carapace could withstand bolter fire.
Every skirmish with these spiders, each lasting only a few seconds, ended with some space marine
casualties. The largest surviving group was under the command of captain Saul Tarvitz,
a stalwart and principled commander, and captain Lucius, an extraordinary fencer. Eventually,
they uncovered the fate of the Blood Angels, whose bodies were impaled on giant white trees.
Saul Tarvitz decided that letting the space marines rot up there would be a grim indignity,
and thus used all of the company's explosives to destroy that tree. However, this act of honor
had unforeseen consequences. These trees were producing storms in the atmosphere. With it gone,
newly arrived Luna Wolves dropped to the surface to save fellow Astartes.
Over the next six months, several fleets arrived, most notably the Blood Angel fleet
under the command of the primarch Sanguinius and Word Bearer's fleet under the command of
the First Chaplain Erebus. During this bloody and lengthy campaign, the Megarachnids continued to
show up in force, this time with more powerful and larger subspecies, the scariest ones capable
of cutting deep into Titan's armor. Throughout the brutality, one mystery remained. On the orbit
of Murder, xeno satellite was constantly sending indecipherable melodic messages.
Until one day, three enormous spaceships, larger than any Imperial vessel, exited the warp. As it
turned out, they were Interex, a human race that achieved harmony with alien species.
Several years ago, they defeated the Megarachnids and took away their space traveling technology.
They were the ones who left this enigmatic message: a warning to not enter this planet.
The Interex differed a lot from the Imperium in that they were much more peaceful, they sought
collaboration with other civilisations, even xenos, and their technology was more advanced.
While most of the Imperials were eager to destroy this civilization, Horus wanted to integrate them
into the Imperium, because of the recent events on 63-19, where human civilization was destroyed.
Not wanting for that to happen again, he tried his best to persuade the Interex into joining the
Empire. The two factions sat down for negotiations on the planet of Xenobia, but soon, the talks were
becoming unreasonably lengthy. Interex, for some reason, were very cautious around the Imperials.
During the key talks in the residence of the planet gubernator it was revealed that Interex
were afraid that the Imperium was serving the Chaos. Unfortunately, this revelation came too
late. Erebus, unknowingly to everyone, had stolen Anathema, the Chaos sword, from the museum of
warfare. The Imperium was branded as a force of Chaos, and war broke out. After destroying Interex
forces on Xenobia, Horus deemed that they were no longer any threat and left them to exist in their
corner of the galaxy, until some other Imperial fleet would arrive there in an undisclosed future.
After spending almost a year on the field, the Warmaster was overwhelmed with the amount of
requests for his help. It seemed like his brothers were trying to challenge his authority by proving
that he was unworthy of such a title, while officials bombarded him with administrative
requests, mostly regarding taxation. Horus could not understand why taxes had to be collected
so soon, as it would certainly spark rebellions. However, one of these requests sounded reasonable.
Erebus, who helped him in recent campaigns, wanted help for a week-long campaign on the Davin system.
On the way, Horus became increasingly gloomy. The failure to bring two human civilisations to the
Imperium, the pointless war on the planet Murder, and the ongoing and neverending political struggle
took a toll on his mental health. Consequently, he distanced himself from the Mournival, in favor of
Erebus. On arrival at Davin, it was revealed that this Imperial world had rebelled against
the authority of the Empire. This was the first time such a thing had happened,
but due to the charismatic persuasion of Erebus, Horus himself led his forces onto
the planet’s moon, where the traitors resided. The force consisted of 1000 space marines and
3 titans, with the rear being protected by Imperial Guardsmen. On route to the Moon,
a message was heard in the vox radio. The same voice that was heard on 63-19 spoke ominous
messages. This time, Samus spoke to kneel before Nurgleth, yet before it could devastate morale,
it was isolated on unused radio frequency and its place of origin was tracked, a feat which had not
been possible last time. Subsequently, the army landed close to the signal center. The surface,
which sixty years ago was a cold desert, was now a rotting swamp, emitting gas which created a thick,
toxic fog. During the advance, force started to break formation, due to low visibility.
Suddenly, rotting corpses rose from the murky water. Chaos ensued. The depth of the swamp
began drowning men. All cohesion was lost. The Titans couldn’t do anything until one
of them spotted an unidentified flying vessel and decided to shoot it down. This was friendly fire,
as the ship belonged to civilians who wanted to see the battle, but the burning wreck served as
a lighthouse amidst the treacherous swampy fog. Now rallied, Astartes reached the command post
of the enemy without much resistance. On the surface lay a crashed Imperial ship, left on
Davin as part of a garrison. Titans bombarded the hull, creating entrances for the Space Marines.
Forces were split, to enter the ship from four sides, while two companies guarded the entrance.
Horus rushed directly to the bridge. On the way, the damaged ship started to collapse and flipped
on its side. At this moment, the corpses renewed their offensive, this time bolstered by horned
daemons. The situation was grim. Inside, scattered forces couldn't establish communications,
while on the outside, the soldiers ran out of bullets. The battle was decided on the bridge.
There, Horus dueled and killed the traitor Eugen Temba, but not before being wounded.
In the moment of the traitor's death, all rotten forces lost their lives instantly.
While regrouping in front of the destroyed ship, Horus collapsed, his seemingly small shoulder
wound insistently bleeding, with any attempt to patch it not working. Horus was transported on
his flagship, where hundreds of civilians were waiting for his triumphant return. Instead,
they were met with a stampede of Astartes, who didn't even slow down as they created a path
for the unconscious Warmaster. Even with the full might of Imperial healing, the only thing achieved
was the buying of time. Garviel Loken, with Tarik Torgaddon went to the surface to recover
the blade that wounded Horus. They discovered that it was the blade that was stolen from the Interex,
and that the only person it could belong to was Erebus. Terrified by their discovery, they rushed
back to the ship, only to discover that Horus was not there. While they were absent, Erebus,
founder of the Luna Wolves Warrior Lodge, called an emergency meeting. He convinced the remaining
two members of the Mournival to send Horus to the Temple of the Serpent on Davin’s surface, where
ritual healing could bring even the dead to life. In the next nine days, the fate of the Warmaster
would be known. Behind the closed doors, Horus was being given visions from the Chaos, yet he
had a defender, Magnus the Red, who was confident that he would be able to defeat Chaos influence.
In his dream, Horus saw a beautiful world, full of nature, that was being transformed into industrial
hell. Lost wolves started chasing him, reminding him of his identity as the Luna Wolves primarch.
He then was guided by Sejanus, his dead advisor, who in fact was
Erebus in disguise. Horus was shown visions of the future. Where the Emperor was a god of mankind,
where entire worlds existed for the single goal of worshiping the Emperor. Where beside the Emperor,
only nine primarchs stood, and Horus was not among them. He then was shown a vision of the past. On
Terra, deep inside the Emperor's laboratory he saw the moment of the scattering of the primarchs.
Yet, in the vision, the Emperor caught the infants prior to their abduction and then decided to let
them go, dooming them to a hellish life. After this vision, Magnus caught up. Using sorcery,
he dispelled the illusion of Erebus and begged Horus to not let the temptations reach his heart.
Horus was torn, by using sorcery, Magnus had broken the edict of Nikaea, but
Erebus was no better, duplicitously hiding himself behind the illusion. Neither man’s advice could
be trusted. Ultimately, Horus decided to stand against the Emperor. To lead a rebellion against
the changes that were happening in the Imperium. Magnus, now knowing that Horus was truly lost,
could not allow his rebellion to grow. He decided that the Emperor must be warned. For him,
this information couldn't wait, so he prepared the strongest warp message he could create,
sending a projection of his mind alongside it to break all obstacles Chaos would surely throw on
his way to Terra. The signal was so strong that Chaos gods decided to remove all obstacles on its
way. With full force, it reached Terra, breaching the defenses that the Emperor had set up. It tore
a hole in a fragile construction of the secret project of the Emperor. Daemons could now freely
enter Terra directly from the Warp, without the need of possession or summoning rituals.
Thousands of them invaded Terra through this hole. Millions died before Terra was cleansed.
The Emperor had to sit on the Golden Throne, a contraption that allowed him to control
his project, to close the gap. If he rose from the throne, the hole would open again.
Thus, the overlord of humanity became chained to his seat, not allowing him to participate in
the upcoming conflict. The Emperor was enraged at Magnus, who destroyed key infrastructure,
let in daemons on Terra and disregarded his pledge to never use powers of the Warp again.
The Legion of Space Wolves, under the command of the primarch Leman Russ was dispatched to punish
Magnus. Realizing what he had done, Magnus decided to passively await the coming punishment from the
Emperor. In the end, warnings of the dangers of the Immaterium, warnings that head completely
disregarded, were true. He ordered his fleet to disperse and leave his homeworld, Prospero.
When his legion was on the planet, he cut his planet from all communications with the outside,
including methods that used sorcery. While on the way to punish Magnus, Leman
Russ received help from Horus, who gave him 5000 Astartes and a message saying that Magnus wouldn’t
surrender. This convinced the Space Wolves to prepare for the assault. On arrival, Leman Russ
decided to give one last chance to the Thousand Sons. He sent a messenger to treat with his foes,
yet the person he chose was a Chaos agent and did not deliver the message. After receiving no
response, orbital bombardment started. This resulted in genocide, for the population of
the world was slaughtered, along with most of the Legion. Only one key city remained,
the capital Tizca, that was shielded by sorcerers. Despite it all, Magnus was still ordering his
soldiers to stand down and accept the punishment, but his forces didn’t want to die. Ten thousand
Thousand Sons, hundreds of whom were psykers, and three titans prepared to make a final stand.
The landing force, led directly by Leman Russ, consisted of seventy three thousand Space Wolves,
five thousand Sons of Horus, forty thousand Imperial Guardsmen and twelve Titans. They
were supported by three thousand Sisters of Silence, the anti-psychic warriors and
one thousand Adeptus Custodes, personal guards of the Emperor. As soon as they landed, the
massacre started. Civilians were shot on sight, buildings were burned. Seeing this brutality,
the civilians started forming a militia. Despite their numbers reaching hundreds of thousands,
their military value against attacking Space Marines was marginal. The defenders started
digging themselves in destroyed buildings upon seeing that the Custodians instantly attacked
to prevent a drawn-out city battle. Despite their incredible martial prowess, they were
vulnerable to psychic attacks. Suffering losses, they maintained pressure, until Sister of Silence
arrived, disabling sorcery, forcing Thousand Sons to retreat. The first line of defense was broken,
yet an ace from the sleeve was pulled. The Titans, shielded by a team of psykers,
could freely attack without any damage being dealt in return. Space Wolves that
were too eager to chase retreating forces were struck by both psychic attacks and titan fire.
The Defenders were losing too much ground in their retreat, but if they could hold out for a little
longer, Magnus would join the battle and maybe even save them. To that end, the wedge formation
with Leman Russ had to be stopped. Daring attacks were made, and powerful spells were slung,
but primarchs were resistant to these sorts of attacks. In the end, the counter-offensive was
crushed. To make matters worse, overusing powers of the warp, already weakened by the presence of
Sister of Silence, brought Chaos powers into Thousand Sons' sorcery. Soon psychic augmented
machines started malfunctioning, the most devastating being the explosions of the Titans.
With the Titans destroyed, all remaining forces retreated to the pyramid where Magnus resided,
and all civilians were evacuated. Finally, in the last moment of battle, Magnus joined the
fight. His powerful sorcery killed hundreds until Leman Russ arrived. Even resistant to sorcery,
he felt the impact of Magnus’s attacks. After a fierce duel, Leman broke Magnus’ spine.
Dying on the floor, Magnus heard the call from the Warp. The voices of chaos promised that he
and the remainder of his legion would survive if only he would pledge his servitude to the
Chaos god Tzeentch. Magnus agreed, saving just over a thousand Space Marines, mostly sorcerers.
This event, known as the Burning of Prospero, was one of the greatest misunderstandings in
the history of the Imperium. An entire planet was executed, and sixty thousand Thousand Sons died,
with the rest joining the Chaos. All of it started with Horus' fall to Chaos. Misunderstanding and
the machinations of Chaos had already corrupted three primarchs. How many more would fall? Find
out in the next episode. Our series on the Warhammer 40k: Horus Heresy will continue,
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