Come learn more about The Great Wolf and his part in the Horus Heresy as we take a look at the Mighty Leman Russ verus Horus!
Today we dive deep into the story of the father of the Space Wolves and what part he played in the fate of humanity during the Horus Heresy.
Via: Lexicanum
Many years passed, and many more battles. Thousands of worlds were reclaimed by the Imperium, but eventually, the golden age came to an end. The Emperor sent Leman Russ and his Space Wolves to deal with Magnus the Red and the Thousand Sons legion, who the Emperor believed to be the true heretics; Magnus had used sorcery to warn the Emperor of Horus after being told not to and nearly ruining his secret project. Horus, seeking to either eliminate or turn the Magnus, manipulated Russ into launching an all-out assault on the Thousand Son homeworld of Prospero as opposed to simply bringing Magnus back to Terra.
In an attempt to find a peaceful solution with the Thousand Sons Russ sent a plea through what he thought was a Hidden One, Kasper Hawser, though in truth he was a Chaos pawn and thus the message was never received. Ultimately Prospero was assaulted and bombarded. Thousands died within days. In the final battle between Russ and Magnus, it is said that Russ blinded Magnus and then broke the Cyclops’s back over his knee, and just as Russ was about to deliver the final blow, Magnus used his sorcery to escape.
After Prospero Russ and his forces were forced into a rout by the Alpha Legion and forced to take shelter at the Alaxxes Nebula. Surrounded on all sides and abandoned by the White Scars, Russ consigned himself to defeat and admitted to Bjorn that blindly serving as the Emperor’s Executioner had been a mistake. Russ pledged to take his own path from now on, and led a desperate last stand against the Alpha Legion, unwittingly battling Alpharius himself who was disguised as one of his Lernaean bodyguards.
However Russ’ forces were eventually saved by a detachment of Dark Angels and he returned to Terra. There, Russ helped Malcador organize the plan to have the Knights-Errant assassinate Horus during the Battle of Molech. He then announced his plans to leave Terra and take the fight back to the traitors. Russ was still on Terra when Jaghatai Khan and his Legion arrived. Upon meeting the brother who had abandoned him at Alaxxes, Russ expressed his seething anger but admitted that Terra needed all the help it could get.
After returning to Terra Russ was changed. He challenged the wisdom of the Emperor openly and expressed regret for being manipulated into destroying Prospero. Thinking that it was his destiny to deal with Horus personally, Russ eventually led the Wolves out from Terra to try and engage the Warmaster personally despite the disagreements from Rogal Dorn and Sanguinius who wished he remain for the coming siege. Thanks to the efforts of the Knights-Errant during the Battle of Molech, Russ was able to track the location of the Vengeful Spirit in order to confront Horus directly. Before moving on Horus however he returned to Fenris to conduct a ritual with his Rune Priests to try and ascertain a weakness in the Warmaster.
The ritual, overseen by Kva, Bjorn, and seven other Rune Priests, saw Russ enter the Underverse through the volcanic cavern known as Syrtyr’s Door. Within the Underverse, Russ entered the Hall of the Erlking, a Warp Entity that collects the Fenrisian souls which die outside of battle. Russ was about to be consumed by the Erlking’s hordes of Wulfen when he offered to complete four challenges in exchange for his soul. The Erlking accepted, and challenged him to first to drink the damned souls Amarok’s bowl dry, next to wrestle an old crone, and finally move the Erlking’s great sleeping wolf. Russ failed in the first three, and his soul wrested on completing the fourth which was to explain what the Erlking challenged him to complete.
Russ revealed that the first challenge symbolized the changing of the seasons on Fenris, the old woman represented the inevitability of age, the unmovable wolf inescapable death. The hall crumbled, replaced by a finely dressed, civilized version of Russ that was revealed to be his fate had he never landed upon Fenris. This Russ revealed the nature of the Spear, that it held a portion of the Emperor’s power and could illuminate the truth to those it pierced. With that, the false-Russ impaled the Wolf King, revealing to him the truth regarding the nature of the Primarch’s. Russ despaired, and the false-Russ revealed that this knowledge would one day see him leave Fenris. Nonetheless Russ had gotten what he was looking for, as he understood that the Spear of Russ could not only wound Horus but change the course of the war.
Russ emerged from Syrtyr’s Door with Bjorn as the only surviving member of his retinue. He announced his intention to confront Horus despite it being suicidal. He allowed all of his Wolf Lords decide if they would follow him or not, but none refused. Using the runes placed aboard the vessel by the Knights-Errant at Molech, the Space Wolves fleet ambushed the Vengeful Spirit as it was docked over Trisolian A4. A vicious battle erupted between the two armadas and Russ boarded the Vengeful Spirit and confronted Horus himself. Russ was disgusted with what had become of his brother, and unsurprisingly rejected his offer to join with him in overthrowing the Emperor. The two engaged in a titanic duel, with Russ deliberately allowing himself to be wounded by Horus’ Lightning Claw to create an opening to impale the treacherous Warmaster with the Spear of Russ.
However Russ hesitated to strike down his brother for a second, allowing Horus to defend some of the blow and turn a fatal strike into a wounding. Nonetheless, Horus was grievously injured and more importantly the power of the spear cleared him of the corruption that he had suffered since Molech. Faced not by a creature of Chaos but by Horus Lupercal, Russ again engaged his brother in battle and this time was badly injured. But before Horus could land the final blow, hundreds of Space Wolves swarmed the Warmaster and gave Bjorn and Grimnir Blackblood to drag the barely-concious Primarch back to the Hrafnkel and flee.
After the fight against Horus, the badly wounded Russ fell into a comatose state. Abaddon pursued the depleted Space Wolves to Yarant, where he besieged them. Russ awoke only when Corax arrived with the Raven Guard, awake long enough to greet the Ravenlord and give Bjorn the Spear of Russ. In the end, the Space Wolves were able to evacuate Yarant with Corax’s aid but Russ remained unconscious.
