Archtraitor, Warmaster, Lupercal, What name do you know him by? Come see the background and history of the most notorious character in 40k; Horus.
Via our friends at Lexicanum
Horus (also named Lupercal) was one of the twenty Primarchs created by the Emperor in the earliest days of the Imperium, just after the end of the Age of Strife. Like the other Primarchs, Horus was sucked from Terra by the Gods of Chaos (see Primarch Project for further information) and was placed on a far-away world in an attempt to prevent the coming of the Age of the Imperium. The favored son of the Emperor, he was eventually corrupted by Chaos and initiated the Horus Heresy against the very Imperium he helped create.
Rediscovery
Horus was the first Primarch to be rediscovered by the Emperor during the early Great Crusade. Because of this early discovery, Horus grew to be the most powerful among the Primarchs as he had grown up from a child to an adult at the side of the Emperor. For a long time he was the only Primarch to have been discovered. Friendship between the Emperor and Horus grew rapidly and the Emperor eventually trusted him enough to give him command of the entire force of the Imperium. The Emperor had saved Horus’s life at the siege of Reillis as they fought back to back. At another battle, Horus repaid this debt when he hacked the arm off a frenzied Ork as it tried to choke the life out of the Emperor on the planet of Gorro.[5]
The Great Crusade
Horus and his brother Fulgrim during the Great Triumph after the Ullanor Crusade.
As the Emperor and the Great Crusade marched on, Horus proved himself to be a tactical genius. He knew precisely which force to send and where to send it, showing no mercy to those that opposed the Emperor but sparing the innocent from unnecessary bloodshed. After the Ullanor Crusade, in which an Ork empire was defeated, the Emperor, considering the crusade to be Horus’ greatest victory yet, saw fit to partially transfer control of the Great Crusade to Horus, raising him to the rank of Warmaster, the highest official beneath the Emperor himself, and granting him command over any and all Imperial forces, as well as other rights and honours. This strained Horus’ relationship with several Primarch’s, most notably Angron, Perturabo, and Konrad Curze, who felt either they deserved the title or simply didn’t want to take orders from their brother. Leman Russ and Lion El’Jonson meanwhile openly accepted the decision but were clearly embittered by it, Roboute Guilliman, Jaghatai Khan, and Ferrus Manus supported the decision simply because of duty. But Fulgrim, Mortarion, Sanguinius, Lorgar, and Rogal Dorn all supported Horus’ ascension to the point where they bowed their heads and meant it, and Horus grew closest to these brothers.
In these, the last years of the Great Crusade, Horus would encourage the other Primarchs to compete against each other in order to discover the strongest and most able of his companions and to improve their fighting abilities, as well as lead his own personal forces into several notable campaigns. It was after one of these campaigns – the first contact with the Interex – that Horus chose to exercise his right, granted by the Emperor, to rename his personal legion: The Luna Wolves were renamed the Sons of Horus.
The Betrayal
Horus during the Heresy
Unknown to Horus, his brother Lorgar, along with his entire legion of Word Bearers, had secretly fallen to Chaos and conspired to make Horus the Ruinous Powers champion against the Emepror. For many years before acting openly, the Word Bearers usurped loyalist hold on their Legion’s by establishing Warrior Lodges.[11] The full conspiracy finally manifested during a mission on the Feral World Davin, Horus was wounded in battle by a blade of Nurgle wielded by the Chaos-corrupted Eugen Temba. Falling unconscious, under the advice of Word Bearers First Chaplain Erebus, the natives of the world helped to heal him. However unknown to the desperateMournival, the healers and Erebus himself had all since become corrupted by Chaos and were orchestrating the entire series of events. Having his dying body moved to the Serpent Lodge, Horus was soon subjected to an ancient Chaos ritual by the Davin priests, while Erebus entered his mind disguised as the deceased Hastur Sejanus. This image of Sejanus showed Horus horrifying visions of the future, where the Emperor ruled as a god and had discarded the Primarchs once they had outlived their usefulness. Erebus also told Horus that the Gods of Chaos were peaceful beings with little interest in the Materium, and it was the Emperor that was intent on destroying their realm on his quest for godhood. Most disturbing for Horus, he was told that the Emperor had used the powers of the Warp to create the Primarchs. Despite realizing early on that this Sejanus was but an impostor, Horus nonetheless accepted these revelations and his bitterness towards the Emperor, already growing from his fathers isolation and Secret Project on Terra as well as the formation of the Council of Terra (essentially subordinating the Primarchs to mortal humans), finally manifested in outright hostility. The only attempt to stop the conversion of Horus came from his brother Magnus the Red, who entered Horus’ mind but was unable to interfere with the powerful rituals of the Davin Cultists or convince Horus to remain loyal to the Emperor.
After his experience on Davin, Horus agreed to align with the powers of Chaos in order to overthrow the Emperor, which he had become convinced was a corrupt dictator bent on achieving godhood and forsaking his sons in favor of mortal rulers. The Warmaster soon introduced the taint to the Legions under his direct command, converting Angron of the World Eaters, Fulgrim of the Emperor’s Children, and Mortarion of the Death Guard to his cause. Eventually, Horus was also able to secretly recruit Konrad Curze of the Night Lords,Alpharius Omegon of the Alpha Legion, and Perturabo of the Iron Warriors. Horus also converted Fabricator-General of the Adeptus Mechanicus Kelbor-Hal, founding the Dark Mechanicum, as well as many units of the Imperial Army.
Heresy
Horus moved, along with several other secretly traitor legions, to Isstvan III, seemingly in order to suppress a rebellion and reinstate Imperial control. Once he arrived however, he sent down specially selected troops from all four of the legions with him, sending down all those he knew would never join him in open rebellion. Once they were on the planet he proceeded to virus bomb the entire world and killed billions of inhabitants in seconds, along with hundreds of space marines, and a ground war eliminated the remainder. The psychic shock wave from this event was said to be louder than theAstronomican. Horus then redeployed his forces to Isstvan V where he was met by seven Space Marine legions sent to bring him to Terra to face an inquest into his actions on Isstvan III. Four of these seven legions proceeded to rebel against the Emperor. It now became obvious that Horus had massive power as he hunted down the three legions that had stayed loyal. Only a few Space Marines managed to escape his forces and make it back to Terra, and among those killed was Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands.
Horus prepares to battle the Emperor.
Horus then set a course to fight his way through the Imperium in an attempt to reach Terra and, ultimately, to kill the Emperor and place himself on the throne. After much fighting, death and betrayal (see Battle of Terra for further information), Horus realised he would have to hurry his attacks in order to secure Terra in time for him to set up the defences sufficiently to prevent the arrival of two loyal Space Marine legions which could potentially turn the balance back in the favour of the Emperor. To this end, Horus ordered the void shields of his flagship dropped to entice the Emperor aboard for one final conflict. Somehow, the loyalist forces arrived scattered throughout the ship, and Sanguinius, Primarch of the Blood Angels, appeared before Horus, who offered him riches and power if he denounced his allegiance to the Emperor. Sanguinius refused and attacked. Horus killed him and was found standing over his broken body when the Emperor entered the chamber
Horus battles the Emperor
The Emperor and Horus fought with a power that would have eviscerated any mortal man dozens of times over with each blow. The Emperor held back for much of the battle, remembering Horus as his beloved son and not wishing to believe that he had turned so utterly to Chaos. This allowed Horus to inflict crippling mortal wounds on the Emperor, since nothing short of the Emperor’s full power would be sufficient to defeat him. At the critical point in the battle, a lone Adeptus Custode guard entered the room (while others state the lone warrior to be Ollanius Pius, an Imperial Army soldier). Horus flayed him alive with but a look and in that instant the Emperor realised how far his favoured son had fallen. The sacrifice of the Custodian bought the Emperor time to deliver a finishing blow to Horus. With iron resolve, he gathered his full strength and delivered a massive psychic blow that killed Horus almost instantly and obliterated his very soul. In his final moments, the powers of Chaos were driven from him and the Emperor sensed his favoured son’s return to sanity for a fraction of a second before he finally died.
Horus’s body
After the battle, the warship was won back by the forces of Chaos led by Ezekyle Abaddon, Captain of the 1st Company. Abaddon found Horus’s body and ordered the retreat into the Eye of Terror. The body of Horus is said to have been put on display in a temple, the Sons of Horus revering the Warmaster even in death. At the end of a series of inter-traitor wars, the fortress of the Sons was destroyed, and the body of Horus stolen by the Emperor’s Children. To the disgust of the Sons, the body was used to create at least one clone of Horus (see also Fabius Bile). The Sons, renaming themselves the Black Legion subsequently attacked the cloning facility and destroyed Horus’s body and clone[7]. Horus’ famous Talon of Horus was taken by Abaddon and is the only part of the Warmaster remaining
About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.
Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls.
Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.
Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.
With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
