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"DEATH STALKS THE COWARDS! THE HERETICS WILL BE CLEANSED! NO ESCAPE! NO MERCY!"

— Looping wide-band vox broadcast transmitted from Abominatus, Legio Magna

The Legio Magna ("Flaming Skulls") is a Traitor Titan Legion of the Dark Mechanicum that repudiated its oaths to the Emperor of Mankind and followed the Warmaster Horus into the service of the Ruinous Powers during the Horus Heresy.

There is very little information in Imperial records about this obscure Titan Legion, though it is suspected to have been founded before the Age of the Imperium, during the Age of Strife.

The Legio Magna 's homeworld was located in the Ultima Segmentum, where it originally hailed from the Forge World of Estaban VII. During the Horus Heresy, the Legio Magna was supported by House Morbidia.

It is assumed that this Legion was either destroyed at the end of the Heresy or was driven towards the Eye of Terror along with the rest of the forces of Chaos. If it survived the Heresy, its current whereabouts and activities are unknown.

Legion History[]

During the Great Crusade, the Flaming Skulls were a minor Titan Legion from the Forge World of Estaban VII, known to campaign alongside both the XVIth (Sons of Horus) and XVIIth (Word Bearers) Space Marine Legions.

Their ties with the Warmaster Horus ensured they were amongst the first to march in his name, emerging from the forge cities of Mars clad in bone and accompanied by sinister howls as they laid waste to the Imperium.

Legio Magna Warlord Titan

Legio Magna colour scheme as displayed by the Warlord-class Titan Damnation of Worlds.

Notable Campaigns[]

  • Schism of Mars (005-006.M31) - Later Imperial histories record that the first blow of the Martian civil war unleashed during the Horus Heresy that was known as the Schism of Mars was struck against Magos Mattias Kefra, whose forge in the Sinus Sabaeus region of the Red Planet was housed within the Madler Crater. Titans of the Legio Magna marched from the southern Noachis region and within minutes had smashed down the gates of his forge city. Howling engines daubed in red, orange, yellow and black and decorated with flaming horned skull devices, ran amok within the high walls of the crater, crushing everything living beneath them and destroying thousands of years of accumulated wisdom in a fury of fire. Vast libraries burned and weapon shops that served the Solar Guard Imperial Army regiment were reduced to molten slag as the indiscriminate slaughter continued long into the night.
  • Battle of Ice World Tralsak (011.M31) - The shallow, frozen oceans of Tralsak are flash-boiled to steam by the fury of engine-war as Loyalist Titans of Legio Atarus and Legio Agravides clash with the Traitors of the Legio Magna and Legio Victorum as the 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.
  • Battle of Beta-Garmon, "The Titandeath" (006-013.M31) - The Legio Magna took part in the long and savage Beta-Garmon campaign, which included hundreds of war zones across dozens of worlds. During this conflict, the Legio Magna was supported by the Knights of House Atrax. 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.
  • Siege of Terra (014.M31) - The Legio Magna took part in numerous engagements during the dark days of the Horus Heresy, but its most notable action occurred when they participated in the Siege of Terra and the assault on the Imperial Palace alongside the other Traitor Titan Legions.
  • Third War for Armageddon (998.M41) - The planet Armageddon, lynchpin of the Armageddon Sector, is a polluted wasteland of industrial ash and metal. It is a vital node at the centre of one of the Imperium's key navigational channels and its sprawling munitions factories and busy hive cities supply tanks and arms to thousands of Astra Militarum regiments across the segmentum. The Third War for Armageddon began when Ork Roks -- space-borne mountain-fortresses infested with Greenskins and their war machines -- crashed into the ash wastes. Spearheaded by the Ork Warboss Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, soon the fighting devolved into a thousand different fronts. Taking advantage of the situation to sow bloodshed, misery and terror, the forces of Chaos also flocked to the conflict. Several Traitor Titan Legions, including the Legio Magna, made their way to the industrial Hive World to take part in the slaughter. The Legio Magna attacked the strategically important and vital natural resources of the Netheria Peninsula, which pumped its natural reserves to Imperial facilities. The loss of the Netheria Peninsula would be a disaster for Imperial forces on Armageddon.

Notable Titans[]

  • Abominatus, "Despoiler of Worlds" (Imperator-class Titan) - Abominatus of the Legio Magna is one of the most terrifying of all the servants of the Blood God. Abominatus is the hellish union of an Imperator-class Titan and a Greater Daemon of Khorne. When it walks, the ground shakes beneath its steel-shod feet and the enemies of the Blood God quail in fear. This Chaos Titan wields fire and steel against its foes, with flames and gun smoke flickering from each casement and embrasure in its massive body, while its soul burns with the unquenchable fire of a Daemon's hate. Abominatus carries a veritable arsenal of weapons built onto its body. Its primary armaments, a Hellstorm Cannon and Plasma Annihilator, along with its main battery function in an identical fashion to its Imperial counterpart. However the weapons on its main fighting platform are quite different. This Chaos-possessed Titan also has a Scorpion Cannon, a lethal multi-barrelled weapon used for close assaults that is normally mounted on Daemon Engines of Khorne. It possesses Manglers, huge battle claws which can sweep aside battle tanks and flay enemy Titans to twisted metal. As Abominatus is part daemon and part machine, this makes it particularly resistant to psychic attack as well.
  • Damnation of Worlds (Warlord-class Titan - The Damnation of Worlds was a Warlord Battle Titan that fought during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. The princeps of the Legio Magna revelled in the chaos of battle, preferring to plunge headfirst into the enemy line and break them apart with brutal assaults. Armaments such as those utilised by the Damnation of Worlds were common amongst the Flaming Skulls, allowing them to engage their foe directly while retaining the power needed to slay the largest of Titan-class enemies. Warlords of Legio Magna would advance swiftly on the enemy line, unleashing unrelenting storms of plasma and bolt shells until little more than smouldering rubble and rended flesh remained, the sinister howls of Princeps and machine spirit both echoing across the battlefield.
  • Hatred Unbound (Reaver-class Titan - The Hatred Unbound was a Reaver-class Titan that fought during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. Configurations tailored towards close-quarters warfare, such as those utilised by the Hatred Unbound, were frequently utilised by the Legio Magna, their carapace weapons capable of stripping shields from afar before tearing apart armour with close-ranged bursts. Such Titans often bore a single weapon more commonly suited to long-ranged warfare to augment their killing potential. These weapons were often co-opted for use in their spearhead assaults, with Legio Magna Reaver Titans unleashing their Volcano Cannon within the confines of enemy Void Shields, heedless of the potential collateral damage against their own god-engine if it meant the death of their target.
  • Consuming Flame (Warhound-class Titan) - Consuming Flame was a Warhound Scout Titan of the Legio Magna that fought during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. Having spent much of its time campaigning alongside the Word Bearers and Sons of Horus during the Great Crusade, Legio Magna proved a firm ally to Horus when the time came to turn against the Imperium. Though their main strength remained embedded within the expeditionary fleets, portions of the Legio Magna's numbers were ferried to Mars in preparation for its conquest by the Traitors, tasked with enacting wholesale slaughter upon any who defied the fabricator-general. Armed with fire and plasma, Warhound Titans such as Consuming Flame were responsible for the indiscriminate destruction of thousands of standard years of accumulated knowledge and the death of untold numbers of Mechanicum servants loyal to the Emperor during the Schism of Mars.

Notable Personnel[]

None listed in current Imperial records.

Legion Allies[]

Knight Houses[]

Space Marines[]

Legion Appearance[]

Legion Colours[]

The colours of the Legio Magna are red, orange and black.

Legion Badge[]

The Legio Magna's badge is a flaming, horned skull centered in front of an orange sun on a field of black. Below the skull is a red letter "V", and below that are three skulls lined up besides one another in a v-shaped pattern.

Canon Conflict[]

The Traitor Flaming Skulls Legion are revealed in Imperial Armour Volume One to be the Legio Magna.

The Legio Magna, however, appears in several other sources as fighting on the side of the Imperium -- they are mentioned to have taken part in the Angevin Crusade, defended the world of Orask from a Tyranid splinter fleet, and, most recently, participated in the Third War for Armageddon.

It is unknown if part of this Legio remained loyal during the Horus Heresy and has survived into the 41st Millenium maintaining its old name, or whether this simply is a mistake on the part of Games Workshop.

Sources[]

  • Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Rulebook (Specialty Game), pp. 17, 74
  • Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Titandeath (Specialty Game), pg. 95
  • Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: The Defence of Ryza (Specialty Game), pg. 38
  • The Horus Heresy - Book Four: Conquest (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 99
  • Horus Heresy: Collected Visions, pg. 356
  • Imperial Armour Volume One, pg. 8
  • Imperial Armour Volume Two - Second Edition, pg. 22
  • Imperial Armour Volume Two - Second Edition: War Machines of the Adeptus Astartes, pg. 150
  • Imperial Armour Apocalypse II, pg. 79
  • Mechanicum (Novel) by Graham McNeill
  • Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook (6th Edition), pg. 193
  • White Dwarf 108 (UK), " 'Eavy Metal", pg. 76
  • Codex Titanicus (1st Edition) Titan Legion Colour Schemes
  • Citadel Journal 13, "Abominatus, Despoiler of Worlds Chaos Titan" by Adrian Wood & Gav Thorpe, pp. 41-44
  • Dark Heresy Timeline by Alan Bligh, pg. 2
  • Third War for Armageddon Worldwide Campaign - The Netherian Peninsula Sector News
  • Warhammer Community - The Titan Legions of Ryza (20 July 2020)
  • Warhammer Community - The Defence of Ryza: Your First Look (31 Mar 2020)

Gallery[]

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