thedornianheresy.pdf

PLACEHOLDER COVER

The Dornian Heresy

Includes

Alternate

Heresy

Index

Astartes

articles

for the

World Eaters

Emperor’s

Children

Raven Guard

Word Bearers

Ultramarines

White Scars

Space Wolves

Thousand

Sons

and

Blood Angels

Introduction & Contents

Welcome to the first issue of the Legio Imprint , an

electronic magazine produced by the Bolter and

Chainsword, the Ultimate Space Marine Resource Site.

The Legio Imprint aims to showcase the best of the

articles and features to be found on the Bolter and

Chainsword, as well as including original content

created especially for the publication.

This premier issue is devoted to chronicling something

a little different; a twisted alternate timeline in which

Warmaster Horus was able to cast off the daemonic

influences that sought to possess him, and where the

Ruinous Powers were instead forced to corrupt Rogal

Dorn to overthrow the Emperor. The Dornian Heresy

is the tale of an alternate universe where choices,

sometimes large, sometimes small, have led to the

familiar primarchs and legions meeting very different

fates. For instance, how different might things have

turned out if Sanguinius had instead been found and

raised by the mutant tribes of Baal, or if Angron‟s first

meeting with the Emperor had been as an honourable

ally against the slavers at Fedan Mhor? Well, read on!

R OGAL D ORN – T HE A RCH -B ETRAYER

The first article – The History and Legacy of Dorn‟s

Betrayal – gives an overview of how different things

are in this alternate timeline, with different aspects of

the story told from the perspective of individual Space

Marine Legions in their own Index Astartes articles.

The Dornian Heresy is such a large undertaking that

we can only present the fates of the first nine legions

here, although the plan is to publish the second half of

the project in a future issue of the Legio Imprint.

Introduction & Contents ..................... 1

The History and Legacy

of Dorn’s Betrayal ............................... 2

Index Astartes: World Eaters ............. 9

Index Astartes: Emperor’s Children... 15

Index Astartes: Raven Guard ............. 21

Index Astartes: Word Bearers ............ 29

Index Astartes: Ultramarines ............. 39

For those of you who have been following the Dornian

Heresy as it has been released on the Bolter and

Chainsword, we have given the articles a polish, added

some amazing original artwork, and have also included

articles for three legions not yet seen on the board – the

Khornate Space Wolves, the soul-bound psychic

Thousand Sons and the plague-infected Blood Angels.

Index Astartes: White Scars ............... 48

Index Astartes: Space Wolves ............ 56

Index Astartes: Thousand Sons .......... 65

So thanks for downloading this first issue of the Legio

Imprint. We hope you enjoy it!

Index Astartes: Blood Angels .............. 73

Aurelius Rex - Editor

Credits .................................................. 81

E laidanath was dying; poisoned and ravaged by the Death

Guard.

The

Dornian

Heresy

It shouldn‟t have been this way.

The Farseer had been there at her birth; seeding the ball of rock with

life. He had watched the Maiden-World of Elaidanath mature over

the millennia into a verdant paradise; a place of peace and

unparalleled beauty. That was, until the arrival of the Death Guard.

He had foreseen the threat too late to avert it, with only a small

group of his companions from the Em'brathar Craftworld arriving

before the webway portals succumbed. Thus, trapped on the doomed

planet, they had done what little they could against the Plague

Marines, but it was clearly a lost cause. Animals lay bloated and

glassy-eyed, awaiting the end; the once-great forests were reduced to

endless swathes of slime-coated tree trunks. The only creatures to

flourish were Nurgle‟s favoured pets; the flies and maggots, but even

that wouldn‟t last. Elaidanath was rapidly returning to the lifeless

rock it had once been. It was such a pointless waste.

With the eastern horizon lightening from black to a deep bruise-

purple, Exarch D‟Larha signalled for them to seek shelter during the

daylight hours in nearby caves. Even before the warriors had

declared the refuge safe, the Farseer had slumped down wearily in

the entrance of the cave. He was tired, worn thin by his wounds, age,

and the heartbreak of what he had witnessed. Within seconds, he had

settled into a fitful, febrile sleep.

The History

and Legacy

of Dorn’s

Betrayal

This fate was wrong. Not just that of his companions, or even of this

world; the whole galaxy had taken a wrong turn, with The Ruinous

Powers corrupting everything they touched. His thoughts went back,

investigating what could have been… It shouldn‟t be this way… It

needn‟t be this way… If only he could change things, find a different,

better path…

Rather than detaching his consciousness to search the possible

futures, he felt himself being pushed back; moving into the past. He

traced the strands of history back further and further, feeling the

alternate universes flowing together, with even the tiniest choice

causing a division, innumerable streams joining and flowing into the

sea of time. From his view outside of history, the mon-keigh‟s Heresy

was the greatest confluence; the place where a single choice could

have changed the course of history so profoundly. He searched for a

strand where the Death Guard and their ilk had never turned to

Chaos; for a path where this wrong fate, both on this planet and in

the wider galaxy, could be averted.

Aurelius

Rex

Before he could find his utopia, a dark presence slammed him back

into the time-stream, forcing him down into a brutal and twisted

alternate history…

Pre-Heresy:

The Seeds of Destruction

In the closing years of the thirty-first

millennium, the Emperor‟s Great

Crusade to reunite humanity under His

banner was continuing apace. Vast

expeditionary armies, spearheaded by

His primarch sons, surged out across

the galaxy, bringing enlightenment and

compliance wherever they went. The

future seemed assured, and during a

mighty celebration on Ullanor, the

Emperor announced that He would

return to Terra, and that Horus,

Primarch of the Luna Wolves would

command the Great Crusade in His

stead. Some say that this event was

where the seeds of disaffection were

planted amongst the primarchs, with

one of their number being so publicly

elevated above the rest. In truth, the rot

had started long before.

After the Ullanor Declaration, the

cracks began to appear. Bitter disputes

over the use of psychic powers came to

a head at Nikaea, with legions

vehemently split over their use. The

Emperor's final ruling, and the special

concessions he gave to the Thousand

Sons, enraged Russ and his Space

Wolves. They saw Nikaea as a terrible

mistake, and secretly vowed to save the

Emperor from himself.

their snare, the Ruinous Powers turned

their attentions elsewhere.

large part due to Guilliman‟s

organisational skills, and so a suitably

overwhelming force was assembled in

opposition. Dorn summoned the might

of nearly half the Emperor‟s legions to

the task, although offers of forces from

long-time rival, Perturabo of the Iron

Warriors, were pointedly rebuffed.

The ordeal revealed to the Warmaster

the true dangers of Chaos - a power so

great that even he and his fellow

primarchs were not immune to its

corrupting touch. Horus was severely

weakened by the events of Davin, and

out of position to deal with what was to

come. First, Curze of the Night Lords

attacked Rogal Dorn, before going on

the run with his legion. Worse still,

word came from the galactic east that

Guilliman had declared independence

from the Imperium, claiming dominion

over a massive region of space that he

called „Ultramar Segmentum‟.

Such was the size of the task of

bringing the secessionist realm back to

heel that two whole legions were sent

deep into Ultramar Segmentum. The

Alpha Legion, never friends of the

Ultramarines, were to infiltrate and

undermine the rebel worlds, while the

religious zealots of the Word Bearers

used a more direct approach: bringing

the light of the Emperor to the very

core of Guilliman‟s powerbase on the

Eastern Fringe.

Even as the Imperial forces assembled

to confront the Ultramarines, terrible

news came from Prospero that the

Space Wolves had fallen upon the

homeworld of the Thousand Sons.

The first to join the Imperial Fist fleet

outside the Istvaan system were the

Raven Guard and the increasingly

insular and secretive marines of the

Iron Hands. These were closely

followed by the Salamanders, led by

their burned, bitter primarch. Shortly

after came the Emperor‟s Children,

fresh from extinguishing the xenos

threat on the planet Laer. The events of

that campaign had affected Fulgrim

deeply, and on arrival he declared that

his legion had achieved the pinnacle of

the Emperor‟s „Perfection‟. The relish

with which they embraced the chance

to prove their superiority over other

Astartes bordered on the unseemly.

With the Warmaster

having escaped their

snare, the Ruinous

Powers turned their

attentions elsewhere...

They proclaimed that Magnus was

mired in foul sorcery, and sought to

destroy them before they could betray

the Emperor. With the dream of

mankind coming apart at the seams, the

legions came into high orbit around

Istvaan V.

On the feral world of Davin,

Warmaster Horus was struck down by

a mysterious contagion which baffled

the finest of the legion‟s apothecaries.

During his recovery, Horus attended an

initiation ceremony of one of Davin‟s

primitive warrior lodges, after which

the Warmaster‟s condition dramatically

worsened to critical. That a primarch

could succumb to any natural pathogen

should have given a hint that what

happened in the halls of the Knife of

Bone involved the supernatural. It was

in fact an act of possession by a

powerful warp entity, although at the

time the concept of the daemonic was

widely regarded as errant superstition.

Only with the aid of the psychic might

of the blind Primarch of the Thousand

Sons, and spiritual counselling from

Chaplain Erebus of the Word Bearers,

could the entity finally be cast out. So,

with the Warmaster having escaped

Then, in precise, well-ordered

formation, came Angron‟s World

Eaters. Long-gone was the savage

gladiator mentality of Angron‟s early

years – his first meeting with the

Emperor on the slopes of Fedan Mhor

had seen him reject his former brutality

as the impetuosity of youth. The final

force to break from the warp was

composed of vessels belonging to the

Dark Angels, whose arrival came as a

surprise to those assembled. Lion

El'Jonson himself had sent word that

they would not be able to return in time

from their assignment among the

Ghoul Stars. It was explained that the

force had arrived directly from their

homeworld of Caliban, and Luther, the

Betrayal at Istvaan

Guilliman and the lion's share of his

massive Ultramarines Legion were

identified as being present at his

newest conquest, the fifth planet of the

Istvaan system. This was set to be the

place that the Imperium would crush

the rebellious primarch and his dreams

of an independent domain .

With Horus still recovering after

Davin, Rogal Dorn used his position as

the Emperor‟s Praetorian to take

command of the forces congregating

around Istvaan. The Ultramarines were

by far the most numerous legion, in

The Arch-Betrayer - Primarch Rogal Dorn of the Imperial Fists

legion‟s second in command, was

welcomed into the burgeoning fleet.

in an act of base treachery. In the

greatest betrayal and military disaster

the Legionnes Astartes had then faced,

the Imperial Fists, Dark Angels, Iron

Hands and Salamanders decimated the

survivors of the planet-fall. It was only

the timely intervention of the cruiser,

Eisenstein, which had been

commandeered by loyalists among the

turncoat forces, which allowed even a

small percentage of the ambushed

legions to fight their way back into

orbit, and escape.

in the device, until eventually it

unhinged his mind, and he was claimed

by the Pantheon of Chaos. He was not

beholden to one, but to the glory of

Chaos Undivided.

On the eve of the battle, Dorn went

down to the planet‟s surface under flag

of truce to speak to Guilliman. On his

return, he gravely reported that no

peaceful solution was possible, but that

he had taken the opportunity to view

the defences and had formulated a plan

to crack them wide open. Knowing

Dorn‟s tactical expertise at siege

warfare, no-one questioned the wisdom

of this plan. The Imperial Fists, Dark

Angels, Salamanders and Iron Hands

made planet-fall first. Their stated

intention was to draw an ever-

tightening ring of steel around

Guilliman, so that the Raven Guard,

World Eaters and Emperor's Children

would be able to sweep in from orbit

and land the crushing blow.

Ultramar Segmentum's neutrality in the

Heresy had been bought with the blood

of three loyal legions, and as agreed,

the traitors left Guilliman and his

realm. The Chaos powers had not even

needed to corrupt Guilliman to split

him from the Emperor - his pride and

the need to entrench his position was

enough to ensure temporary

quiescence. The Imperial Fists,

Salamanders and Iron Hands headed to

the Sol system to tighten their grip on

Terra, while Luther and his Dark

Angels went to rendezvous with their

brothers under Lion El'Jonson on

Caliban. What occurred on the Dark

Angel homeworld is unrecorded by

Imperial history, except that it ended

with the utter destruction of the planet.

The Space Wolves that left the ruins of

Prospero and set course for Terra were

a much changed breed. Although they

arrived believing that they were

protecting the Imperium, the ferocity

of their battle with the Thousand Sons

When Horus had slipped from their

clutches, the Ruinous Powers had

moved to groom another for the role of

Arch-Betrayer. True, they had been

able to corrupt other primarchs, but

Rogal Dorn was chosen for his

potential to bring the entire Imperium

crashing down. They preyed upon and

magnified his feelings of jealousy at

being passed over as Warmaster, and

then being withdrawn to Terra while

his brothers were carving a reputation

across the galaxy. Feeling revulsion at

such thoughts, Dorn had sought to

drown out these shameful doubts of his

father‟s judgement in the scourge of

the Pain-Glove. As the pressure

increased, he spent longer and longer

Instead of the pressurised, demoralised

opponents Dorn had predicted, the

second wave found the drop-zones to

be heavily fortified killing grounds,

well-garrisoned by the Ultramarines.

The three legions took horrendous

losses fighting their way to link up

with their allies, only for their

supposed brothers to open fire on them

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