The Legio Victorum ("Foe Slayers") is a Loyalist Titan Legion of the Collegia Titanica, one of the military arms of the Adeptus Mechanicus. There is very little information in Imperial records about this Titan Legion's founding, though it is known that it was raised before the start of the Great Crusade.
The Legio Victorum actually grew so large over time that it split into what were effectively three separate Titan Legions based on each of the triple Forge Worlds of the Triplex System, the Legio Victorum I, the original "Foe Slayers," on Triplex Galatia, the Legio Victorum II or "Foe Hammers" of Triplex Phall and the Legio Victorum III, the "Foe Breakers" of Triplex Thule.
In the wake of the events of the Horus Heresy only the Loyalist elements of the Legio Victorum I would survive, retaining the original Legio name and cognomen of "Foe Slayers."
When the Schism of Mars occurred during the opening days of the Horus Heresy, the first Titans of the Legio Victorum were still present on Mars awaiting transport to other war zones within the Great Crusade when the civil war erupted between the Loyalist Mechanicum and the Traitor fabricator-general's Dark Mechanicum forces.
The Legio Victorum fought valiantly on the Red Planet until it was relieved by Imperial forces after Horus' defeat in the Siege of Terra.
Nothing else appears in the historical records concerning this Titan Legion until ten millennia later. When the dire threat of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken threatened the Ultima Segmentum in 992.M41, the Legio's home Forge World of Triplex Phall came under the Great Devourer's shadow. The Legio Victorum survived the onslaught of the Kraken, though it cost was undoubtedly high, as they would later take part in the Third War for Armageddon in 998.M41.
The Legio Victorum has never wavered in its devotion to the Emperor. It revered Him as the Omnissiah, the Machine God incarnate, and as such considers him embodied in the dominating presence of each Titan.
The Foe Slayers' crewmen, through their indoctrination to the Legio, all have one thing in common -- the belief that Mankind has the sole right of existence in the galaxy.
The personnel of the Legio do not tolerate the alien in any shape or form. Their dedication to this goal of eradication has extinguished many species that the Adeptus Terra originally designated as harmless and has left more powerful alien races, such as the Craftworld Aeldari, extremely wary of the Legio's presence in any theatre of war.
The Titans of the Legio Victorum are renowned for the blitz tactics that are capable of shattering armies of a much greater size. In battle, their princeps are adept at working with other Imperial units and coordinating attacks to cause the maximum amount of damage in the shortest possible time.
Typically, the Legio's Titans are armed for medium to long-ranged combat with devastating weapons batteries and super-heavy weapons predominantly featured, though a few princeps have dedicated themselves to assault, arming their Titans with a variety of close combat weapons that very few enemy war machines can withstand.
Legion History[]
Legio Victorum colour scheme as displayed by a Warbringer-Nemesis-class Titan.
Origins[]
Once, the Legio Victorum was counted amongst the largest and most powerful of the many Titan Legions to be found within the Imperium. It consisted not of a single body, but of three linked Legios set within the Triplex System where three separate Forge Worlds provided for its arms and support.
Each of these three shards of the Legio Victorum forged a legacy of its own, first as a brotherhood at the birth of the Imperium and then as rivals in the final days of the Great Crusade.
That rivalry would be their undoing and, in the Age of Darkness that sat at the Horus Heresy's heart, the Legio Victorum would tear itself apart, to survive only as a single broken fragment of a once-proud Titan Legion.
The Legio's origins lie in the long dark years of the Age of Strife -- the first Legio Victorum built for its parent forge a petty empire by the strength of its guns, subjugating those isolated pockets of Humanity it came across and annihilating the xenos marauders that infested that far region of space.
It earned the epithet "Foe Slayers" by the count of the dead left in its wake, for Triplex Galatia and its new-born domain lay at the very edge of the galaxy where the enemies of Mankind were beyond count and each passing day of its existence was bought in the blood of the victors and the foe's dead.
In those grim years the first Legio Victorum became a master of defensive engagements, the unbroken wall that protected the empire of Galatia and kept the flow of resources to the forges steady.
Years passed and Galatia grew rich and bloated, one forge city became two and then three as Triplex Phall and Triplex Thule were founded, and the Legio Victorum, its ranks swelled with new war engines, split as well.
The Legio Victorum II ("Foe Hammers") stood sentinel over Triplex Phall, formed of the most veteran of the old Titan Legion's princeps and built around the Apocalypse-class Titan Apex Maxis, while the Legio Victorum III ("Foe Breakers") warded Triplex Thule, its ranks filled by the most orthodox and militant of the tech-adepts of the Triplex System.
Galatia stood unchallenged as the prime power of the Triplex System, and the Legio Victorum I the greatest military force in the Eastern Fringe. Those nearby worlds that could still be reached through the turbulent aetheric seas of the Eastern Fringe were unable to rival its influence, for Gulgorahd's Titans lacked the numbers of the Legio Victorum and Thramas had not the firepower to contend with such omnipotent war machines as the mighty engines of the Mechanicum.
This dominance lasted until the arrival of the Great Crusade, for such was the vast size and power of the Imperial armada that came to the Eastern Fringe that, for the first time, the Legio Victorum was humbled.
It was but one among many legions of Titans bound to hundreds of Forge Worlds, no longer unchallenged in its power or limitless in its reach. Not only that, but with access to the wider Imperium also came the subtle division of the three Forge Worlds of Triplex, with Galatia no longer the only arbiter of their future.
Great Crusade[]
The Legio Victorum II would bind its fate to that of the Warmaster Horus and the Imperium as part of the Great Crusade, taking its strength to the distant stars in the name of the Emperor.
There it would perfect the skills of planetary assault and the deployment of overwhelming firepower, a tactic it favoured above all others and one for which it was well-suited. Outfitted by the wealth of the Triplex System and the spoils of the Great Crusade, the Foe Hammers was composed almost entirely of Battle Titans, with the Warbringer-Nemesis-class Titans being held in particular favour by its princeps for its ability as a siege Titan.
When it took to the field it was a phalanx of steel and cannon, with little pretence at any subtlety or finesse in its assault but only a rolling wall of explosions and death. The Warmaster called upon it only when a foe was to be utterly destroyed, their cities reduced to ashes and armies scattered, and for a time it held a rivalry with the Legio Mortis, who were also a tool he favoured for such brutal work.
Yet, the Legio Victorum, though it relished the glory of battle, could not match the vicious spite with which the princeps of the Legio Mortis made war.
For where the Death's Heads fought for the simple joy of slaughter, counting victory only in the corpses crushed beneath its armoured feet, the Foe Hammers saw battle as a means to gain renown and accolades, a dirty task to be resolved with haste and a finality that brooked no caution in its prosecution.
Each battle was another means for it to erase the memory of those years when it had been little more than servants of Triplex Galatia and the Legio Victorum I, a weakness that Horus used to bind it closely to his service. By means of victory parades and lavish praise he bound the Foe Hammers to him, the Apex Maxis a common sight among his vanguard.
By contrast Legio Victorum I, the Foe Slayers, who had once carved an empire from the Wild Space about the Triplex System, remained in the Eastern Fringe. Distant Mars was keen to keep it from the riches of the Great Crusade and maintain its position as chief among the Forge Worlds of the Imperium, working in the Imperial Court to keep the majority of the Legio Victorum absent from the vast war that was being fought to establish a new galactic empire.
The Foe Slayers would spend the latter years of the Great Crusade as a purely defensive force, fighting to suppress the sporadic raids of xenos swarms and futile rebellions among those worlds that resented the Imperium's control.
Ironically, the Foe Slayers would become expert at operating in urban environments without causing ruinous collateral damage, mastering a restraint that had been alien to it in its early years when it had run rampant across the stars.
Its hallmark was the employment of headhunting tactics, identifying and destroying the leaders of any foe that the remainder might quit the field and leave the battlefield intact. As such its moderati were among the foremost experts in target tracking and identification, and fearsome marksmen with Volcano Cannon and Photon Lances.
Yet, with the sporadic nature of its engagements, much unlike the constant warfare endured by the Foe Hammers at Horus' side, the Foe Slayers lacked in the tight discipline of its cousins. It was common amongst the Titan Legion for its princeps to feud and intrigue amongst themselves, most often seeking the most beneficial postings and most prestigious Titans to command, and in addition to their skills at war, many were accomplished duellists with pistol and sabre.
Despite this slow descent into decadence, the Titan Legion and the Forge World that maintained it held a reputation as stalwart supporters of the Imperium, a front they worked hard to promulgate as Galatia schemed for its return to glory.
The oft-forgotten Legio Victorum III languished in obscurity for much of these last years of Imperial optimism and conquest. It was barred from the ranks of the Great Crusade by the schemes of both Mars, which considered it a lackey of Triplex Galatia, and Galatia itself which feared the rise of another rival like Triplex Phall.
Lacking the numbers of its cousin Legio and the holdings and wealth of the other two Forge Worlds in its system, the Foe Breakers saw action as dedicated raiders and recon-in-force experts, spearheading the attempts of Triplex Thule to hinder the operations of its many rivals and to claim new territory in the Wild Space beyond the Imperium's borders.
In the dark void the Legio Victorum III operated alone and without support, for it was no official expeditionary fleet of the Great Crusade, and the princeps of its light Scout Titans learned by necessity the brutal tactics of infantry suppression, while the few Reavers and Warlords in its ranks were forced to operate against enemy Titan-class war engines without the advantage of numbers.
Common practise amongst the Foe Breakers was for the larger Reavers to lure enemy war engines into disadvantageous ground where packs of Warhound-class machines could ambush and harry them.
From these arduous conflicts a few princeps earned a reputation for the grim determination they displayed in combat, the Reaver-class Somnus Etema proving the most enduring of these legends after standing its ground against three Aeldari Titan-class engines for 19 long minutes before the arrival of reinforcements.
By the time seven Warhounds of the Legio struck the rear of the enemy formation, the Somnus Etema had been reduced to a shambling ruin with a single operable weapon arm, but it continued to fight until the last enemy machine was pulled down.
Horus Heresy[]
It was a legend that would see a tragic repeat only a few standard years later. For, after its return from the Great Crusade at the command of Horus Lupercal, the Legio Victorum II would bring a new strife to Triplex Thule, landing nearly its full strength to pacify that fiercely Loyalist outpost and prove its loyalty to the approaching Night Lords Legion.
Once again the Somnus Etema met an enemy superior in numbers, holding the primary gate of the Thulian forge-fanes alone against a maniple of the Foe Hammers' finest.
After 19 solar minutes it had once again been reduced to a shattered hulk, but this time no allies were to come to its aid for it had bought precious time for the fleet Warhounds to disperse across the world of Thule where they would continue a bitter and prolonged resistance for several solar weeks more.
Brought to the end of its endurance, the Somnus Etema caught the Foe Hammer Warlord-class Titan Glory of Phall in a final embrace before detonating its atomantic core and destroying both Titans.
It was upon the wreck of the Somnus Etema that the last ragged survivors of the Legio Victorum III would pledge their loyalty to Lion El'Jonson when the Dark Angels liberated the system of Triplex, though fewer than nine Titans of the lightest classes had managed to shelter in the harsh wilderness of Triplex Thule to see their salvation.
These veterans would act as the Lion's proxies in control of those elements of the Legio Victorum II that had surrendered to the Dark Angels and took a savage delight in ordering them into the harshest of battles.
By order of the Lion, the great Apex Maxis was given over to the Foe Breakers, who renamed it the Somnus Perpetua and incorporated the salvaged neural core of the fallen Reaver into its chassis.
Notable Campaigns[]
- Isstvan III Compliance (994.M30) - Fighting alongside the 27th Expeditionary Fleet under Primarch Corvus Corax of the XIXth Legion, the Titans of Legio Victorum participated in the Isstvan III Compliance. The military forces of the indigenous Istvaanians were highly sophisticated and disciplined requiring even the mighty Raven Guard Legion to ask for Titan-support. Alongside of their brothers of the Legio Adamantus, the Titans of Legio Victorum crushed enemy resistance into oblivion and were thus rewarded by a place of honour during the triumph of the Redarth Valley.
- Schism of Mars (005-006.M31) - The Legio Victorum found itself trapped on Mars alongside a number of Loyalist forces when the bulk of Imperial armies retreated to Terra to defend the Imperial Palace from Horus' onslaught. The Foe Slayers continued to fight the Traitors of the Dark Mechanicum, and succeeded in holding their positions until they could be relieved by Imperial forces after the defeat of Horus at the Siege of Terra.
- Thramas Crusade (007-009.M31) - During the Horus Heresy the Warmaster Horus sent the Night Haunter, Konrad Cruze, and his Night Lords Legion on a campaign of genocide against the Imperial strongholds of Heroldar and Thramas in the Aegis Sub-sector of the Eastern Fringes, thus protecting Horus' flank and delaying the Dark Angels Legion from reinforcing the Loyalists. Several elements of the Collegia Titanica, including Traitor and Loyalist elements from the Legio Victorum, fought during this bitterly contested campaign, which dragged on for nearly three standard years.
- Subjugation of Triplex Thule
- Battle of Nehren
- Battle of Sheol III
- Battle of Yaelis
- Battle of Bastion-011
- Battle of Bastion-009
- Battle of Crucible
- Battle of Triplex Galatia
- Siege of Thramas
- Battle of Ice World Tralask (011.M31) - The shallow, frozen oceans of Tralask are flash-boiled to steam by the fury of engine-war as Loyalist Titans of Legio Atarus and Legio Agravides clash with Traitors of Legio Magna and Legio Victorum ("Foe Slayers") as Loyalist Shattered Legions and Traitor World Eaters fight across the disintegrating landscape of ice floes. Ultimately, outright victory eludes both sides, and each uses the cover of the world-enveloping fog thrown up by the destruction to extricate their forces and redeploy them elsewhere. Nevertheless, numerous supporting Knights of both sides remain to fight a war in which neither will concede defeat.
- Siege of Terra (014.M31) - The Siege of Terra was the final battle of the Horus Heresy waged upon the surface of the Imperial Throneworld itself against the overwhelming forces of the Warmaster Horus. The Legio Victorum was one of several Titan Legions that took part in the intense fighting that determined the fate of the Imperium of Man and all of Humanity.
- Orphean Salvation Campaign (992.M41) - Following the severe losses of the Imperium during the ill-fated Orphean War, the Legio Victorum has been mandated to help cover the general retreat from the Orpheus Sector. To this effect, the Legio has despatched a full demi-legio to the Segmentum Tempestus.
- Third War for Armageddon (998.M41) - Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka launched a second and even more massive Ork WAAAGH! to conquer the Imperial world of Armageddon in 998.M41. The Legio Victorum was one of the Titan Legions of the Collegia Titanica deployed in defence of this world and is known to have fought upon the Plains of Anthrand and along the South Primus Front.
Notable Titans[]
- Imperious Cathedra (Imperator-class Titan) - This Imperator-class Titan is particularly notable for being one of the few of these avatars of the Machine God which completed construction during the Horus Heresy. The Imperious Cathedra was still in the process of creation when open hostilities broke out on the Red Planet, but its forging continued nevertheless. When the Titan's construction finished, it took to the field to assist its Legion and was able to add its immense firepower to their cause. The unrivaled fury of the Imperious Cathedra's ordnance was one of the reasons for the Legio Victorum's eventual survival.
- Sagax Lania (Warbringer Nemesis-class Titan) - The Sagax Lanio was one of a number of the Legio Victorum I's Battle Titans that was not present in the Triplex System during the Dark Angels' onslaught, instead seconded to the Night Lords' elements engaged in the Siege of Thramas. It remained as part of the Traitors' order of battle for the remainder of the Thramas Crusade, fighting with bitter fury against those of its own Legio that had turned their colours to fight at the behest of Lion El'Jonson, and eventually followed the Night Lords into exile at the end of the crusade. The last known sighting of the Sagax Lanio would be at the walls of the Imperial Palace on Terra, though it appeared to have undergone some malign transformation during its exile, little resembling the clean lines and proud heraldry of its former glory days when it fought under the banner of the Emperor.
- Primus Malachi (Reaver-class Titan) - This Reaver Battle Tita was the first God Machine of the Legio Victorum. It took part in the Schism of Mars and since that time, ten millenia later, continues to fight against the enemies of the Omnissiah.
Notable Personnel[]
None listed in current Imperial records.
Legion Homeworlds[]
The Triplex Sector was dominated by swathes of barren star systems, largely uninhabitable and empty.
It was a wasteland of ore-rich worlds among old, dying stars and a few scattered clans of Abhuman miners and prospectors, which was far from any established trade route and cut off from the more populous sections of the region by fierce Warp Storms.
At its heart was the system of Triplex, its triple Forge Worlds the centre of all industry in the sector and the greatest prize in the Eastern Fringe.
With Triplex, a general might control the entirety of the eastern half of the Imperium of Man, for it rivalled great Anvillus in power, and many aspiring warlords cast their gaze upon this prize as the Horus Heresy erupted.
Triplex System[]
The Triplex System (Galatia/Phall/Thule)
The Triplex System located in the Triplex Sector was the beating heart of the Eastern Fringe at the time of the closing years of the Great Crusade. This system was considered one of the greatest industrial hubs in the entire Imperium, rivalling even great Mars and Anvilus in the capacity of its forges.
By its labour had the Great Crusade won the distant stars of the east, and it was by the products of their manufactoria that civilisation was sustained in those hostile systems that sat at the very edge of the galaxy.
Home to the three-fold Legio Victorum and several hundred militant taghma, the system was also one of the greatest concentrations of military force in the east.
The few inhabited worlds and scattered mining colonies in the sector were held in thrall to Triplex by the threat of its anger and the necessity of its protection in the face of the terrors that lurked in unknown space.
It was a nascent power that strained at the bonds of the Emperor's law and the dictates of distant Mars, one that saw in Horus' rebellion a chance for their own ascent even as they professed their loyalty to the newly-founded Imperiem.
Triplex Galatia[]
The Forge World of Triplex Galatia was the first of the triple Forge Worlds to be established, its birth long since lost to history in those ancient days when the Explorator fleets of the Mechanicum set forth blindly into the void, seeking fertile new lands in which to grow and expand.
For long centuries, it would reign as the overlord of local space, its dominion assured by the strength of the Legio Victorum I, the Foe Slayers, and the sheer proclivity of its tech-priests.
It would only be with the arrival of the Emperor that it would stumble and fall behind its sibling forges, for Mars took a hand to curb the power of this new rival and petitioned the Emperor to take only the Legio Victorum II for His Great Crusade, sealing the remaining two slivers of the Legio to the defence of Triplex.
This would see Galatia cut off from the riches of the Great Crusade, which would flow instead into the hands of Phall. Denied the glory of war and the spoils of victory, Galatia turned inwards and its tech-adepts began to walk forbidden paths in search of power, paths long forbidden by the decree of both Mars and Terra.
So it was that when the representatives of the Warmaster Horus and of its brother forge, Triplex Phall, sought to turn them to their cause they found a ready ally, one more than prepared to throw off the shackles of the Imperium.
With the promise of rich rewards from the Warmaster himself, Galatia began to slowly stockpile weapons of war built to new and fearsome specifications, shipping the more orthodox examples of their craft to the Imperium in order to keep up the pretence of loyalty that had been thrown across the system like a shroud.
History has often suggested that Galatia, despite its new hidden allegiance, did not take a hand in the death of Thule and kept its warriors and Titans absent from the fratricidal conflict.
Yet, it remains guilty of the lesser sin of standing by as the Legio Victorum III and the warriors of Thule died, and of stripping bare the corpse that remained of its brother Forge World, unleashing at last its Heretek hosts once the battle had been decided in order to seal its pact with the Traitors.
Galatia's triumph would be short-lived. For though the bones of Thule would nourish its industry and fuel the construction of new armies and voidcraft in anticipation of the Traitor conquest of the Eastern Fringe, the arrival of Lion El'Jonson and his Dark Angels would seal the fate of the darkened forge of Galatia.
Utterly destroyed by the Dark Angels' Dreadwing, it would stand as a warning of the fate of Traitors and a token of the I stLegion's wrath that Phall could neither forget nor ignore.
Even by the end of the Horus Heresy, it remained largely unvisited, for few wished to risk calling down the I stLegion's censure upon themselves despite the riches and secrets that lay buried in the ruin of Galatia's pride and ambition.
Triplex Phall[]
Triplex Phall was the second of the Triplex System's great Forge Worlds, and the only one that would survive the ravages of war in the Eastern Fringe. Though it had begun as little more than an adjunct to Galatia, its parent forge, Triplex Phall had grown swiftly during the years of Old Night, developing both an impressive industrial base and a significant martial tradition.
Driven by a stubborn pride and a desire for greatness, Phall had long stood at the forefront of Triplex's wars, defending it from the threat of xenos invasion and expanding its small domain across the sector.
By the time of the Emperor's arrival, the Legio Victorum II, the Foe Hammers, had grown to rival that of Galatia and would win the honour of representing Triplex among the armies of the Great Crusade.
The spoils of their victories as part of the Emperor's vanguard would see Phall grow to eclipse its erstwhile brethren, gaining resources and glory from across the galaxy and catching the eye of the Warmaster Horus himself. Indeed, Phall would become one of the main shipyards for the vast fleets of the Great Crusade outside of the Sol System itself.
Under Horus' patronage they would become the foremost power in Triplex and the Eastern Fringe, assuming a belligerent and prideful air in their dealing that brought about the ire of Mars, which had once favoured them.
The archmagi of Mars would work to isolate Phall and Triplex, denying them access to technology and influence within the strange network of the Omnissiah's servants as they sought to ensure that none could challenge their dominion amongst the ranks of the many Forge Worlds.
It was this quiet campaign waged against them that would set Phall to the research of technologies forbidden to them by the dictates of Mars, aided by Horus and representatives of those scattered forges that had struck bargains with the Warmaster, as the magi of Phall sought advantage in their struggle against the Martian ascendancy.
In retrospect, this seems one more gambit orchestrated by Horus, seeding rebellion and dissent across the Imperium that he might later wield as a weapon. What might have become of it had it been left to fester can only guess but, with their research incomplete and ambitions not fully realised, Phall and Triplex would be brought to heel by the Dark Angels.
Phall was spared the full extent of Lion El'Jonson's wrath only so that it might repay the hurt it had done the Imperium with the labour of its manufactoria and the life-blood of its warriors; a price it was bound to pay were it to avoid the fate meted out upon fallen Galatia.
Its vast wealth and grand armies were bled dry in the prosecution of the Lion's campaign against his brother, the once-magnificent halls bedecked with trophies of the Great Crusade reduced to soot-stained assembly lines for the Loyalist cause.
The proud archmagi of Phall were humbled and set to labour under the oversight of Dark Angels forge masters, their work examined for any sign of treachery or deviance, while the princeps and Titans of the Foe Hammers were sent into the most dangerous warzones of the war to pay their penance in death.
By the end of the Thramas Crusade, Phall was much reduced in power and strength, its mere survival such a struggle that it posed no further threat to the political dominance of distant Mars.
After the Horus Heresy, the Triplex Phall became the primary homeworld of the Legio Victorum. From there, the Legio Victorum started to amass an enviable Roll of Honour as its ranks swelled with newly constructed Titans.
Though the Legio has had losses in its ten thousand year history, it is a matter of some pride that the oldest of its Titans, the Primus Malachi, is still fighting against the enemies of the Machine God.
Triplex Thule[]
The smallest of Triplex's three Forge Worlds, the tale of Triplex Thule is born and ended in tragedy. It was founded by tech-magi cast out of Galatia in its early days for the practise of an extreme branch of Mars' orthodox doctrine that abhorred and condemned even the primitive servo-automata still in production amongst the Mechanicum's scattered worlds.
Their obsession with the purity of mechanical devices and the subtle blending of man and machine in the form of servitors and MIU links put them at odds with the rulers of Galatia, who trod an increasingly deviant path in their research and lust for power.
Thule would grow only slowly, starved of resources and shunned by their siblings, having reached the lowest grade of Primaris-ranking by the time of the Imperium's arrival at Triplex.
Driven to struggle against their brethren for every last shipment of ore and batch of new subjects, Thule had long engaged in a hidden war with the other Forge Worlds of Triplex, one fought by a small Taghmata of heavily-modified servitors and the agents of the Malagra sect rather than by the Titans of the Legio Victorum III, the Foe Breakers.
It was a conflict that would only intensify after the Emperor inducted the warriors of Phall into His crusade and gave it access to all the riches of the wider Imperium.
As it had always done, Phall held its newfound wealth at arm's reach from the tech-magi of Thule, both a taunting reminder of the power Phall held and a mocking promise of what they might enjoy should they bow before Phall as Galatia had chosen to do.
Stubborn and convinced of the rightfulness of their cause, the rulers of Thule refused to buckle beneath the growing influence of Phall. When the emissaries of the Warmaster Horus came in secret to offer them Horus' favour for their loyalty, the archmagi of Thule spurned them as servants of Phall and its sneering Hereteks.
The hidden war then took a more savage turn, with bombs and data-phage infections wreaking havoc on outposts of both Forge Worlds as well as upon Thule itself.
It would be Thule's retaliation, the assassination of a Phallian archmagus by a trio of Malagra adepts, which would set the pyre for the final tragedy of Thule's tale. In the opening months of Horus' rebellion, open war would arrive in the Triplex System as Triplex Phall took up arms against its least sibling, setting the Legios Victorum I and III to open battle.
As with any war between brothers it was fought with a vicious and unrelenting spite, with no mercy offered or expected, and by the time of the Night Lords' arrival in the system, there would be little but ruins left of the once-proud Forge World of Thule.
Legion Allies[]
Knight Houses[]
- House Attakama
- House Beophane
- House Shan Mor
Space Marines[]
- Night Lords (Traitor)
- World Eaters (Traitor)
Legion Strength[]
Taken collectively, the Legio Victorum would be recorded as one of the largest Titan Legions in the Imperium by the waning years of the Great Crusade, with almost 200 engines of varying classes in its order of battle.
However, the Legio was far from a unified whole, and individually its various branches varied widely in their capabilities and arsenals. By far the most powerful was the Legio Victorum II, the Foe Hammers, whose long service during the Great Crusade had brought with it the spoils of a galaxy and the favour of the Warmaster himself.
In total, the Legio Victorum II could field perhaps a little more than a hundred Titans, most of the Warlord-class and a few of the far rarer Apocalypse-class Titans, and their princeps held by far the most battle honours and kill-markers.
By contrast, the Legio Victorum I had control of only a slightly lesser count of war machines, mostly Warlord and Warbringer-class god-engines, but its warriors could not match the veterans of the Foe Hammers in experience.
Confined to the marches of the Triplex Sector, the Foe Slayers had been limited to defensive operations in protection of Galatia's numerous fiefdoms and outposts, and though far from inexperienced, it had not witnessed the crucible of the Great Crusade as had the Legio Victorum II.
The Legio Victorum III lacked the numbers of either of the larger Titan Legions, mustering less than half the total war engines of either of its two siblings, and these were mostly lighter, faster machines of the Reaver and Warhound classes.
However, the Foe Breakers had long been experts at sudden raids and hit-and-run warfare, their few princeps skilled at making the most of the capabilities of their war machines.
In terms of transport craft and the vast drop-vaults required to deploy war machines of the sheer size of a Titan into battle, the Legio Victorum II maintained a large and well-equipped fleet as befitted its role in the Great Crusade, while the lesser Legio Victorum III held claim to only a small number and as such was far less strategically mobile.
The Legio Victorum III would be destroyed prior to the start of the Thramas Crusade, set upon by the massed forces of the Legio Victorum II which had returned from the Great Crusade with Horus' blessing to prepare the Triplex System for the coming war.
Overmatched and outnumbered, the Foe Breakers were all but annihilated in a battle of such bitter fury that the victors captured none of the defending war engines intact, each of the Foe Breakers' princeps fighting on so long as one of their weapons still drew power.
In at least one occurrence recorded by the augur logs of a Foe Slayers Titan, a Foe Breakers Warhound, reduced to little more than a shambling ruin by Volcano Cannon fire, continued to fight by ramming enemy Titans to hold them in place for artillery bombardments to topple them.
Only three maniples of the Foe Breakers are known to have survived, these being stationed on isolated posts across the sector, including a single group on the distant world of Thramas.
The Legio Victorum II would suffer a similar fate not long after when the Dark Angels assaulted Triplex. As a fighting force it would largely cease to exist, with a few engines taken as spoils by the I stLegion and scattered maniples stranded in garrison posts across the Triplex Sector.
These last few outcast princeps would either die at their posts in doomed last stands or join one of the other Renegade Legios operating within the Eastern Fringe, and in time would be absorbed into those hosts.
The Legio Victorum I suffered a less total loss, losing perhaps a third in combat with the Dark Angels and surrendering the bulk of the survivors to the Loyalists after the destruction of Galatia.
While several demi-Legio forces stationed outside of Triplex remained at large and fought for the Traitors for the rest of the campaign, the bulk of the Foe Hammers was attached to the Dark Angels fleet and made war at Lion El'Jonson's orders, their pledge given in exchange for Phall's safety.
In the wake of the Thramas Crusade, the Foe Breakers would stay with the Dark Angels, fighting at the forefront of the I st Legion's later battles to atone for the sins of their homeworld.
In the last years of the Horus Heresy, the few Titans of the extant Legio Victorum fighting for the Loyalist cause would be consolidated into a single Legio, bearing the heraldry of the now defunct Legio Victorum I, but the epithet of the Legio Victorum II.
These reborn Foe Slayers would take to their new loyalty with a vicious determination, hunting down and slaughtering those of their Legio that had fallen into chaos and madness.
Legion Appearance[]
Legion Colours[]
The Legio Victorum's Titans have dark blue hulls, lined with a rich gold.
Armour plating on the extremities of weapons is typically of a bright yellow, though the more ancient Titans may use bronze instead.
Kill markings are usually displayed as stars on banners slung between a Titan's legs.
The oldest Titans originally constructed on Mars have silver metals beneath their armour plating, whilst those built on Galatia are far duller, due to the different minerals present on the two Forge Worlds.
Legion Badge[]
The Legio Victorum's Legio badge consists of a golden gauntlet clenching an upside down open-framed triad (triangle).
On each of the points of the triad, are three circlets with the High Gothic numerals 'I', 'II' and 'III', indicating the three separate detachments that made up the whole of the Legio Victorum.
A green laurel surrounds the bottom of the central symbol which is crowned with a half-cog icon, symbolising the Legio's ties to the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Canon Conflict[]
Imperial Armour Volume One lists the Legio Victorum's home Forge World as being Triplex Phall, located in the Segmentum Ultima, although older publications describe it as being Galatia in the Segmentum Pacificus, as well as providing a moderately detailed overview of the world.
It was unknown if the information pertaining to Galatia had any relevance in regards to Triplex Phall, or whether another Titan Legion now called Galatia home.
However, recent lore revealed in The Horus Heresy - Volume Nine: Crusade indicates that the Legio Victorum's homeworld was all three Forge Worlds of the Triplex System (made up of Triplex Phall, Triplex Galatia and Triplex Thule).
Sources[]
- Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Rulebook (Specialty Game), pp. 14-17
- Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy, pg. 8
- Imperial Armour Volume Twelve - The Fall of Orpheus, pg. 40
- The Horus Heresy Book Nine: Crusade (Forge World Series), pp. 24, 46, 76, 77, 136-139
- Titan Legions (2nd Edition), pg. 50
- Deliverance Lost (Novel) by Gav Thorpe, pg. 14
- Third War for Armageddon Worldwide Campaign - Forces Disposition, Imperial Forces: Legio Victorum
Gallery[]
![Legio Victorum Lucius Pattern Reaver-class Titan]]](/wiki/File:VictorumReaver4.jpg "VictorumReaver4.jpg (57 KB)")
