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"...And the name of the Order shall be the Death Bolts, and their Forge World shall be Esteban VII. The colours of the Death Bolts shall be red over gold. Their banner shall be quartered, gold against chequered blue and silver, bounded red. Their badge shall be a crossbow bolt ordinary, over an inverse triangle gold. The Grand Master of their founding shall be Maxen Vledig, and their motto shall be "nemo mea poena effugit" - None may escape my vengeance."

— From the foundation charter of the Legio Honorum.

The Legio Honorum ("Death Bolts") is a Loyalist Titan Legion of the Collegia Titanica.

The home of the Legio Honorum lies within the Vulcanis System upon the Forge World of Stygies VIII in the Ultima Segmentum, a large moon orbiting a massive ringed gas giant on the outer fringes of the star system.

Legion History[]

Legio Honorum Warlord Titan

Legio Honorum colour scheme as displayed by the Warlord-class Titan Custos Honoris.

Origins[]

Much of the Legio Honorum's history lies with the Great Crusade, for the Titan Legion was founded only three solar decades before the Emperor set foot upon Mars and secured an agreement between Terra and the ancient Mechanicum in the Treaty of Mars.

The founding of the "Death Bolts," to give the Titan Legion the cognomen assigned to it on creation, was driven by the desire held by many on Mars to spread the reach of the Red Planet elsewhere across the galaxy.

It was with this goal in mind that the Legio Honorum was created, not to serve as warders of the Red Planet but rather conquerors of distant stars. Thus, when the Emperor presented His dream of the Great Crusade the Death Bolts were well-prepared to depart alongside His expeditionary fleets.

Though forged on Mars, the Red Planet offered no support beyond that of the legacy it had imparted the Legio Honorum and semi-regular shipments of Titans intended to replenish any losses the Legio suffered.

In this manner, the Death Bolts became an exemplar of a so-called "crusading Legio," a term applied to those Titan Legions that stood not as guardians over a specific Forge World but instead committed the entirety of its strength to expanding the Imperium's borders.

This constant state of warfare proved untenable after solar decades of continuous service, as the attrition of unceasing war threatened to condemn the Legio Honorum to extinction.

After repeated missives to Mars demanding further supplies of god-engines, an alternative was suggested whereby the Legio Honorum was granted rights to stewardship over a planet for every 30 worlds they brought to Imperial Compliance.

Such a method was not without its flaws, and there existed no ratified criteria for measuring the level of participation during Compliance for the individual elements of an expeditionary fleet. This circumstance made the process of assigning feudal rights to the Legio Honorum an arduous process involving extensive reviews of campaign records, dictations and reports from the presiding commanders of each war zone in which the Death Bolts served and judgement of numerous appeals, be those against the awarding of rights or for.

Such political wrangling happened beyond the sight of the Legio Honorum, who cared for little but their duty, an attitude that would gain the Death Bolts great praise from those they served alongside. Indeed, so great were the victories of the Legio Honorum that, by the onset of the Great Crusade, its battlegroups had gained rights to at least four domains, while two more lay pending following assessment of the legitimacy of the Death Bolts' conquest.

In this manner, through the holdings of the Legio Honorum, was the reach of Mars expanded, while providing a network of safe harbours upon which the Death Bolts could construct a series of forge-fortresses capable of sustaining its numbers.

Devoid of a Forge World to call their own, the Legio Honorum made their hearth within the war machine of the Imperium, and it was there, embedded within the workings of the expeditionary fleets, that great changes were wrought upon the Death Bolts' demeanour.

The most notable of all changes became the creed the Titan Legion's princeps soon followed. Though the teachings of the Mechanicum still held strong, and the adherence to the rites and rituals associated with the maintenance of a god-engine never changed, a measure of emotion took root within the ranks of the Death Bolts.

Horus Heresy[]

Legio Honorum Warbringer Nemesis Titan

Legio Honorum Warbringer Nemesis-class Titan Resonare Mortis proudly displaying the Legio's colours during the Horus Heresy.

At odds with the cold, rational logic of the larger Cult Mechanicus, the Legio Honorum became known for its optimism and dedication to the Imperium above all else. This circumstance unnerved many on Mars, with the Titan Legion's more vocal critics claiming the Death Bolts had abandoned oaths to the Red Planet and the Omnissiah in favour of those they fought alongside.

Such accusations were denied by the Legio Honorum, and great efforts were made to repair bonds with the Titan Legion's ancestral home. To this end, the opening years of the 31st Millennium saw a delegation of Legio Honorum commanders return to the Red Planet to reaffirm the vows they had once taken and show solidarity to the Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal's cause.

With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that the invitation extended to the Legio Honorum to return to the surface of Mars was a calculated one, for it coincided with the outbreak of civil war on the Red Planet with the Schism of Mars.

No records speak of the motivation behind the targeted attack upon the Legio Honorum, though it no doubt stems, at least in part, from the belief that the Titan Legion was tied too greatly to the Great Crusade and the Emperor.

Regardless of the driving impetus behind the betrayal of the Legio Honorum by the Dark Mechanicum, it was one the Titan Legion felt keenly. The assembled might of the Death Bolts' god-engines were arrayed on the parade fields of Mars, under the pretence of an inspection by the fabricator-general himself, when the "Death of Innocence" began. Mere solar hours later, those fields had been transformed into a grand robotic graveyard filled with fallen god-engines bearing the livery of the Legio Honorum.

The treachery on Mars dealt a grievous blow to the Legio Honorum, for it was its most honoured and ancient commanders that had travelled to swear allegiance to the fabricator-general, including the commanding grand master of the Death Bolts himself.

Despite this, much of the Legio Honorum's strength lay elsewhere, embedded with various expeditionary fleets which, by serendipity, remained firmly loyal to the Emperor.

Indeed, the true fate of its commanders was not revealed until after the Warmaster Horus' fall, for the Red Planet was blockaded by the Loyalists and all contact, at least through means available to the surviving Death Bolts, severed. Presuming the worst, the command structure of the Legio Honorum was reorganised and adapted to the new war engulfing the galaxy.

As with the Great Crusade, much of the Death Bolts' war efforts were focused on maintaining constant movement, committing to war zone after war zone as they moved to liberate worlds from the Warmaster's yoke.

As the conflict progressed, the continued success of the Legio Honorum saw its foes unleash their wrath upon the Death Bolts' holdings, levelling three forge-fortresses with orbital bombardments and denying the Titan Legion the means to replenish their number. In response, the Legio Honorum was to assemble in its entirety and lay siege to the Forge World of Stygies VIII, the founding world of the Legio Vulcanum I and Legio Vulcanum II. This was unusual, as even before the Horus Heresy it was very rare for a Forge World to be home to more than one Titan Legion.

Though well-defended, much of the Legio Vulcanum's strength was scattered throughout the Warmaster's armies and the Forge World fell quickly to the overwhelming might of the Legio Honorum.

Of all the victories achieved by the Death Bolts during the Horus Heresy, the conquest of Stygies VIII was perhaps their greatest, yet it was not without loss, for the subjugation of the Forge World marked the end of the Legion Honorum as a crusading Titan Legion, anchoring them to a single world ever since.

Notable Campaigns[]

  • Schism of Mars (ca. 005.M31) - During the opening days of the Horus Heresy when the civil war known as the Schism of Mars erupted on the Red Planet, Titans of the Death Bolts became the targets of the opening volleys of the conflict. Along the borders of the Lunae Palus and Arcadia regions, a previously heated war of words between Mechanicum factions erupted into true warfare when Princeps Ulriche of the Legio Vulpa unleashed his god-engines upon the fortress of Maxen Vledig's Legio Honorum. Caught by surprise, the Death Bolts lost 19 Titans in the first solar hour of battle, before withdrawing into the frozen wastes of the Mare Boreum and seeking refuge in the dune fields of Olympia Undae. Their calls for reinforcement went unanswered, for all of Mars tore itself apart as the cancer of civil war spread across the Forge World in a raging firestorm.
  • Battle of Beta-Garmon, "The Titandeath" (006-013.M31) - The Legio Honorum took part in the long and savage Beta-Garmon campaign, which included hundreds of war zones across dozens of worlds. Even before the greater armies of the Warmaster Horus reached the star cluster, the battle lines had long since been drawn, and fighting had been going on for many Terran years. It was a cauldron of battle that would consume millions of lives before its end and see the demise of entire Titan Legions, earning this campaign the dire moniker of the "Titandeath." The Beta-Garmon Cluster, also known as the gateway to the throneworld of Terra, was the last hurdle that the Warmaster Horus' forces had to overcome before they reached the Imperium's capital world. Heavily fortified by the Loyalists, Beta-Garmon would become one of the greatest and bloodiest battles of the Horus Heresy, as well as one of the longest-lasting. During the Battle of Beta-Garmon, the Legio Honorum was supported by the Knights of House Vornherr.
  • Defence of Ryza (012.M31) - When the Dark Mechanicum moved to capture Ryza, one of the Imperium's foremost Forge Worlds under siege during the latter years of the Horus Heresy, several notable Loyalist Titan Legions, including the Legio Honorum, were called upon to help in its defence. The Loyalists could ill-afford to lose this valuable Forge Worlds as Ryza was second only to Mars in power and prominence. The Traitor force's main goal was the knowledge of Plasma Weapons and engines that Ryza held, for with this information, coupled with the daemonic pacts of the traitor Tech-Priests, Horus' power could be unmatched. The Warmaster cared little as to how his allies achieved their goals and while the Arch-Traitor desired only that the world be crippled beyond recovery, the Dark Mechanicum held more sinister ambitions for Ryza, seeking the creation of a new Hell-Forge for their profane experiments.
    • Treachery of House Ioeden (012.M31) - With the fall of Ryza Secundus the way to the Forge World was open, yet it did not stand unguarded. Across the surface of the world orbital defences were spurred into life, their barrels turned upwards to the skies in anticipation of the impending invasion. The loss of Ryza Secundus had left Ryza isolated from the wider galaxy but it had not left the world unprotected. Initial forays by the Traitors were easily repelled, many of the landing craft blasted from the sky and what remained proved easy pickings for the Loyalist forces stationed across the world. Once more, when direct methods proved untenable the Traitors moved to more duplicitous means, calling upon those whose allegiances were not as they appeared. Loyalist forces waited for the the opportunity to exploit the vulnerable Traitor forces. Such an opportunity presented itself at Conveyance Terminus Nine-Omega, an expansive spaceport located on the southern continent. A vital hub of transport and storage, Conveyance Terminus Nine-Omega was the largest of its kind on Ryza, used as both a centre of export and a staging ground for military forces, capable of supporting vast legions of troops should it be required. At the time of invasion, Conveyance Terminus Nine-Omega was garrisoned by a battlegroup of Legio Honorum Titans and the Knights of House Ioeden, a minor House known for their actions as raiders. When insurrection saw the fall of a forge-fane near Salvation Isthmus, the threat was deemed considerable enough to require the attentions of Legio Honorum. Led by the Princeps Seniores Galxexu, the Titans of Legio Honorum moved to recapture the forge-fane, safe in the knowledge that the orbital defences of Conveyance Terminus Nine-Omega, in conjunction with the Knights of House Ioeden, would ensure the spaceport's safety in their absence. It was only upon returning to the spaceport, as a cacophony of warnings announced the impending descent of the Traitors upon Conveyance Terminus Nine-Omega, that Galxexu released his mistake, one that would ultimately prove fatal to himself and much of Ryza.
  • Imperial Muster at Beta-Garmon (012-013.M31) - For reasons only understood later in the war, the Ruinstorm that had been invoked by Lorgar, primarch of the Word Bearers, several standard years earlier during the Battle of Calth, began to abate across vast swathes of the galaxy. Loyalist high commanders were able to utilise the potent astropathic relay at Beta-Garmon to contact and recall formerly lost or stranded forces from across the war-torn reaches of the northern Imperium. The Imperial Muster at Beta-Garmon rapidly escalated into the largest gathering of Loyalist might since the early years of the war, a concentration of forces so mighty that the Traitors had to respond in kind. The resulting clash of arms would become known as the Great Slaughter, a theatre of war of such scale that it would encompass the "Titandeath" and the Sea of Fire campaigns, each major campaigns in their own right. By its end, both sides were so badly bled that their only remaining option for ultimate victory was to force a final, decisive confrontation. As history related, the final battle would be fought at Terra, but only after the weighty butcher's bill of the Great Slaughter was paid in full.
  • 13th Black Crusade (999.M41) - The Legio Honorum was one of many Imperial Titan Legions to deploy in defence of the Cadian Gate during the final assault of Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade.

Notable Titans[]

  • Custos Honoris (Warlord-class Titan) - For much of the Great Crusade, the Legio Honorum worked in conjunction with Mechanicum Explorator fleets, venturing beyond the edges of the known Imperium in order to secure the interests of Mars upon newly-discovered worlds. This role saw many Death Bolts Titans, Custos Honoris amongst them as depicted above, avoid the carnage that heralded the beginning of the Horus Heresy, though their most experienced leaders were slain upon Mars during the opening salvos. Devoid of both supplies from Mars and a centralised leadership, the disparate elements of the Legio Honorum found themselves in need of new allies to ensure their survival. For Battlegroup Pradaius, consisting of 11 Legio Honorum Titans commanded by the Warlord-class Titan Custos Honoris, their new path led them to Ryza, serving as protectors to that Forge World as compensation for supplies and god-engines to bolster the Death Bolts' numbers.
  • Resonare Mortis (Warbringer Nemesis-class Titan) - Though originally designed to act as a designated fire support platform adept at destroying Titan-class targets, some Titan Legions, the Legio Honorum amongst them, often placed their Nemesis-class Warbringers on the front line, trusting in their survivability to march alongside the Legio's Battle Titans. Depicted above during the Siege of Vrardi in 974.M30, Resonare Mortis bears a loadout commonly seen on Legio Honorum Warbringer Nemesis Titans, balancing the destructive potential that made it especially dangerous to both fortifications and enemy Titans with the need for close-ranged defence. Legio Honorum Warbringer Nemesis Titans became infamous for leading maniples of Reaver Titans in punishing assaults capable of breaking the back of all but the most determined of defences.

Notable Personnel[]

  • Maxen Vledig - Vledig was the founding grand master of the Legio Honorum and was present on Mars during the opening days of the Horus Heresy when the Schism of Mars began.
  • Thordun Ranxey - Thordun Ranxey was a Legio Honorum grand master.

Legion Specific Wargear[]

  • Basilius Throne - The princeps of the Legio Honorum make use of modified command thrones that allow a great passage of knowledge between those Titans under their control, so long as the princeps can filter the vast torrent of information.

Legion Strength[]

Definitive numbers as to the total strength of the Legio Honorum are difficult to assert, a circumstance largely derived from the disparate nature of its battlegroups, deployed as they were within multiple expeditionary fleets.

It is known, within a confident margin of error, that the two principal crusading arms of the Legio Honorum contained between 15-25 god-engines each.

By applying this data to the other six crusading arms of Legio Honorum, presuming lesser numbers in these, the estimated strength of the Legio Honorum can be placed at 110-120 god-engines prior to the losses inflicted upon the Death Bolts on Mars.

This number is consistent with the Titan Legion's Secundus grade, as recorded within the centralised archives of the Divisio Militaris.

Muster reports taken before the conquest of Stygies VIII state that 42 god-engines were gathered.

Legion Allies[]

Knight Houses[]

Legion Appearance[]

Legion Colours[]

The colours of the Legio Honorum are red and black with gold trim.

Alternating patterns of red and black chevrons are often painted on the various portions of their god-engines.

Legion Badge[]

The Legio Honorum badge consists of a deep red circlet with a black delta (triangle) centred upon it. A golden crossbow, formed from a ram's skull, is centred within, pointing upwards.

A more elaborate version of this central icon is centred upon a cog icon, which represents the Adeptus Mechanicus.

The original badge of the Legio Honorum was a crossbow bolt centred on an inverted gold triangle. The field behind it was quartered in tan and a blue and white checkered pattern. On the lower-left of the tan quartered-panel was a white skull.

Canon Conflict[]

In the Adeptus Titanicus: Rulebook (1st Edition), it stated that following the Horus Heresy the Legio Honorum relocated to the Forge World of Esteban VII.

More recent canon from the Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy edition of the game now places the Legio Honorum on Stygies VIII.

Sources[]

  • Adeptus Titanicus (1st Edition), pp. 28, 42
  • Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Loyalist Legios (Specialty Game), pp. 128-133
  • Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: The Defence of Ryza (Specialty Game), pp. 11, 29-31, 72-73
  • Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Titandeath (Specialty Game), pp. 91-95
  • Codex: Titanicus (1st Edition), pg. 18
  • Titan Legions (2nd Edition), pg. 18
  • Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy, pg. 8
  • Mechanicum (Novel) by Graham McNeill
  • White Dwarf 108 (UK), " 'Eavy Metal", pg. 76
  • Warhammer Community - The Titan Legions of Ryza (20 Jul 2020)
  • Warhammer Community - The Defence of Ryza: Your First Look (31 Mar 2020)

Gallery[]

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