Banished by the Emperor and avoiding arrest, Magnus disappears. When seen again he had risen to the status of Daemon Prince of Tzeentch.
Today we are going to explore how Magnus went from outcast to one of the most powerful Daemon Princes in the galaxy.
Via Lexicanum
Returning Home:
Magnus returned to Prospero, intent on pursuing his sorcerous experiments in secrecy. He peered into the Warp, and saw a vision of Horus’ revolt and roles all the legions would play, except his own. Entering the mind of his brother while it was under a Chaos ritual initiated by Erebus and Cultists on Davin, Magnus attempted to persuade his brother away from heresy and remain loyal to their father. However, when that failed, Magnus decided to warn the Emperor via an astral projection spell rather than the much slower mode of astropathy.
As his disembodied spirit blazed through the Warp, he came across a Webway corridor that led to Terra. Unbeknownst to him, this particular corridor was constructed by humans, a part of the Emperor’s secret Webway project. Magnus tried in vain to breach the wall of the corridor, but then an anonymous voice from within the Warp offered Magnus the extra power he needed, and the overconfident Magnus accepted without question.
Magnus tore a breach in the wall and followed the corridor to Terra, bursting through the portal beneath the Golden Throne. The breach allowed daemons to invade the Webway and ruin the Emperor’s Grand Work. Enraged, the Emperor did not listen to Magnus’ warning and banished him from his presence. The breach inside the Webway went on to become known as Magnus’ Folly.
The Burning of Prospero:
The Emperor dispatched Leman Russ and his Space Wolves to arrest Magnus and bring him to Terra. On the way to Prospero, Leman Russ received new orders from the now-corrupted Horus who changed the order to read that the Emperor had changed his mind and wished the Thousand Sons destroyed.
In the ensuing Burning of Prospero, Magnus watched in horror as the great libraries and arcane archives he had worked so hard to create were burned to the ground. Engaging Leman Russ in combat, just as the Space Wolves Primarch was about to strike the final blow, Magnus and his forces disappeared into the Warp thanks to a ritual he had helped prepare with Ahriman. There, Magnus found what he had wanted: unrestricted psychic powers and an opportunity for vengeance. Eventually giving himself to the forces of Chaos, Magnus took all that he had from Prospero, from the Imperium, into the Warp forever.
Magnus’ physical form had been destroyed in battle against Russ, and now existed as a being of corporeal Warp energy in the Eye of Terror alongside his legion. Magnus later appeared as an ethereal projection on the ruins of Prospero to Jaghatai Khan and told his brother it was time to finally choose a side in the conflict. Magnus again appeared on board the Salamanders Battle Barge Charybdis, this time as a mental projection.
There, Magnus conversed with Captain Artellus Numeon, asking him what he would sacrifice to see Vulkan restored and seemingly helping the ship through the Ruinstorm. Magnus’ words to Numeon eventually were the catalyst for the Salamanders Captain to sacrifice himself to resurrect Vulkan.
Post-Heresy
After the failure of the Horus Heresy, the newly-formed commune joined together with Ahriman to find a way to stop the mutation caused by their allegiance to Tzeentch. They cast a mighty spell to counter the corruption. The Planet of Sorcerers, the new world of the Thousand Sons, was arcing with violent blue and yellow streaks of lightning. They would strike down every Marine until Magnus had to intervene. Their mutations had been halted, but at a terrible cost: their bodies turned to dust and their armor sealed tightly shut.
Magnus summoned Ahriman and his council and railed at them for what they had done. When Ahriman protested, Magnus fought and gained the upper hand. Ahriman, no match for his Primarch, was struck down. But just as Magnus raised his fist to kill him, Tzeentch itself spoke: “Magnus, you would destroy my pawns so readily?” then Magnus knew that his master had planned for all of this. So he spared Ahriman and banished him and his council on an eternal quest to understand Tzeentch. They still wander the galaxy, looking for relics of a former time of psychic prowess and control. It is said that Ahriman even attempted to access the Eldar webways, although this is unconfirmed.
Despite knowing Tzeentch’s plans had led to this fate, Magnus was beyond enraged to see that the Legion he had sacrificed so much for, his legion of scholars, had been reduced to automatons who could no longer even think. With his homeworld lost and his legion in ruin, Magnus ascended to the top of his tower and vowed, as Horus had, that he would see the galaxy burn.
Later, seeking revenge against the Space Wolves for the Burning of Prospero, Magnus would lead his Thousand Sons in an assault against the Space Wolves’ homeworld of Fenris in what became known as the Battle of the Fang. In the many years since the Heresy, Magnus has become increasingly aloof and detached from his legion and the happenings of the Materium. He spends much of his time in the Warp, waging the Great Game of the Dark Gods.[8]
Sometime later in the 41st Millennium, Ahriman attempted to cast his second Rubric on the Planet of the Sorcerers to cure his Legion. However a rival group of Thousand Sons Sorcerers discovered the Rubric would result in the destruction of Magnus, and the Primarch ended up hijacking the ritual to assimilate with even more lost shards of himself. Magnus became near-complete, but the shards that were lost were those that represented his most noble qualities.
War Zone Fenris
Magnus would make his return to the Materium in the closing years of the 41st Millennium upon the snows of Fenris, homeworld of his greatest enemy the Space Wolves. Magnus had been preparing for the invasion for many centuries: seeding the corruption of the Wulfen across the Chapter, tainting the Wolves’ gene-seed in the Battle of the Fang, and using the Changeling to manipulate an Imperial attack on the world. Magnus’ invasion was ultimately bested by an Imperial coalition and he was banished back to the Warp by Logan Grimnar wielding the Axe of Morkai. This in turn, however, was irrelevant as he had succeeded in his ultimate goal: Using the sacrifice of Midgardia to transport the Planet of the Sorcerers over Prospero and creating a gigantic Warp Rift.
Rise of the Primarch
During the Terran Crusade Magnus again reemerged, this time at the head of a Thousand Sons fleet in a massive craft resembling the Great Pyramid of Tizca. Magnus orchestrated a ritual that saw the expedition of the reborn Primarch Roboute Guilliman trapped in the Maelstrom. However, in truth, Magnus had already foreseen their escape from this trap and again appeared to meet Guilliman’s forces inside the Webway. Magnus’ plan was to trick Guilliman’s Harlequin allies into opening up a portal to Terra, allowing his own forces to spill through. However, Guilliman saw through the scheme and instead arrived at Luna.
During the subsequent Battle on Luna, Magnus and Guilliman battled one another. Magnus had the upper hand until Sisters of Silence arrived from Terra, weakening Magnus’ powers enough for Guilliman to stab him through the chest. Magnus was forced back through the Webway Portal and his Thousand Sons across Luna vanished with him.
Dark Imperium
Magnus later appeared at the head of a great Tzeentchian host in the Invasion of the Stygius Sector. He reappeared on Prospero shortly after the end of the Indomitus Crusade, intent on harnessing recently discovered portals on the world to summon an army of Daemons. However, his plans were foiled by the Space Wolves. At the height of the battle, Magnus is distracted by Lukas the Trickster, who offered him the needed spell of unlocking which in truth was just a useless piece of paper. The distraction allowed Lukas and the last remaining Wolves to escape.
Since the opening of the Great Rift Magnus intends to succeed where the Emperor failed and elevate Humanity to a truly psychic race. Projecting a sorcerous aura from the newly relocated Prospero, he intends to create a foothold for Tzeentch within the Materium. His aura accelerates mutation while luring Psykers to the Planet of the Sorcerers. He attempted a ritual to achieve this during the Psychic Awakening but was foiled by the Imperium in the Assault on Sortiarius.
Abilities and Wargear
Magnus was above all else a supremely powerful Psyker matched in the Imperium only by Malcador and surpassed only by the Emperor. Magnus was capable of changing his size and form at will, dispatching scores of enemies simultaneously with psychic assaults, and single-handily battling Titans. His psychic foresight allowed him to predict and foresee most events. Magnus’ power was such that it was speculated that the Emperor intended to use him to power the Golden Throne, a task that quickly killed even Malcador. Magnus’ own appearance is a byproduct of his psychic power, with Lorgar stating that nobody has ever seen his true form.
Magnus usually relied on his immense psychic power for battle but was equipped with regular weaponry. He was typically seen wielding a massive Khopesh known as the Blade of Ahn-Nunurta and an energy weapon dubbed the Psyfire Serpenta. He wore an ornate suit of Power Armour with many engravings and wardings known as the Horned Raiment. By the 41st Millennium, the Daemon Primarch Magnus was equipped with the Blade of Magnus and Crown of the Crimson King.
Shards of Magnus
Following his near death at the hands of Leman Russ on Prospero, at least a part of Magnus was scattered into several “shards”. These psychic phantoms have their own personality and ideals. They seemingly act independently of each other and most were re-combined with Magnus by the cabal of Ahriman during the Horus Heresy. Known shards include:
- The Crimson King, the shard of Magnus on the Planet of the Sorcerers and the “primary” Magnus.
- The shard of Prospero. This shard urged Jaghatai Khan to choose a side in the war and seemed neutral to both Horus and the Emperor. Destroyed by the Khan
- The shard of Kallista Eris, found in the urn of Kallista Eris’ ashes carried by Lemuel Gaumon while imprisoned in Kamiti Sona.
- The shard of Aghoru, representing Magnus’s warrior aspects, found on Aghoru
- The shard of Kadmus, representing Magnus’s quest for lost knowledge, found on Terra deep within Mount Cithaeron in the past. Ahriman had to travel into the past to reclaim the shard. This shard came to the aid of Salamanders First Captain Artellus Numeon aboard the Fire Ark and guided the vessel, which was carrying the remains of Vulkan, through the Ruinstorm and to Nocturne.
- The shard of Nikaea, representing Magnus’s feelings of betrayal, found on Nikaea.
- The shard of Terra, representing Magnus’s noble virtues, was kept by Malcador the Sigillite on Terra, and the reformed Magnus declared that they would aid Horus’s assault on Terra to recover it. Meanwhile, this shard stalked the Imperial Dungeon and was eventually sealed into the body of Revuel Arvida by Malcador. The ritual did not go as planned and a new being emerged, neither Arvida or Magnus, known as Ianius.
- The shard of the Athenaeum of Kallimakus, representing manipulation, secrets, and change, which attached itself to the Athenaeum to plant the seed of a second Rubric in Ahriman’s mind.
- A shard representing Magnus’s rage and anger that transformed into a Daemon-like entity, but was quickly consumed by Magnus after the Second Rubric.
- The shard of Ahriman, which unbeknown to its host lived inside his mind palace.
The next time Magnus was seen in physical form, he had gained the status of Daemon Prince of Tzeentch. Magnus eventually joined forces with the Traitor Astartes led by Horus, taking part in the Siege of Terra as vengeance against the Emperor for betraying him.
