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"All I ever wanted was the truth. Remember those words as you read the ones that follow. I never set out to topple my father's kingdom of lies from a sense of misplaced pride. I never wanted to bleed the species to its marrow, reaving half the galaxy clean of human life in this bitter crusade. I never desired any of this, though I know the reasons for which it must be done. But all I ever wanted was the truth."

— Opening Lines of the Book of Lorgar, First Canticle of Chaos
Primarchs Lorgar coverart

Primarch Lorgar leads his Word Bearers during the Purge of 47-16

The Pilgrimage of Lorgar was the spiritual quest undertaken by the Primarch Lorgar of the Word Bearers Space Marine Legion during the Great Crusade of the late 30th Millennium.

Its object was to discover whether Humanity's ancient collective beliefs in supernatural entities were true or whether his father the Emperor of Mankind's atheistic, materialist Imperial Truth was the correct philosophy to guide Mankind's future. In the course of his Pilgrimage, Lorgar learned that the Emperor had lied and that supernatural entities, the Chaos Gods, did exist. Since they were the only deities seemingly in existence, Lorgar believed that they were worthy of Humanity's worship.

Lorgar would spend the next 40 standard years seeking to turn his fellow primarchs to the service of Chaos and was ultimately responsible for setting in motion the events that brought on the cataclysmic Horus Heresy.

History

The idea of "the Pilgrimage," a journey to the legendary place where mortals could directly interact with the gods, was an ancient mythological trope on many Human-settled worlds of the Milky Way Galaxy, including the Primarch Lorgar's and the Word Bearers' homeworld of Colchis. Of course, such a place, the Warp, did exist, and one could discover the "Primordial Truth" of the universe there, i.e. that the Immaterium was dominated by the powerful psychic entities known as the Chaos Gods.

Some 43 standard years before the start of the Horus Heresy, Lorgar was prompted by the Emperor's rejection of his desire to worship Him as a deity to discover whether or not the gods once worshipped by adherents of the Old Faith of Colchis actually existed. Lorgar journeyed with his Word Bearers Legion's Chapter of the Serrated Sun to what was then the fringes of known Imperial space, as part of the 1301st Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade.

At this time, Lorgar had not yet fallen to the corruption of Chaos, though he had turned against the Emperor of Mankind as a deity no longer worthy of his worship after the Emperor and the Astartes of the Ultramarines Legion had personally humiliated him and the entire Word Bearers Legion on the world of Khur only a few solar months before he began the Pilgrimage. The Emperor had come to Khur personally with his regent, Malcador the Sigillite, after ordering the Ultramarines to destroy the Khurian city of Monarchia where the Emperor was worshipped as a god as a result of the teachings of the Word Bearers. He made his displeasure known to Lorgar about the Word Bearers spreading the religion of Emperor-worship to every world they brought into the Imperium, in direct contravention of the rationalist, atheist philosophy of the Imperial Truth. The Emperor forced the entire Legion to kneel against their will through the use of His psychic might and then explained that they were the only Astartes Legion to have failed His purpose during the Great Crusade.

After this humiliation, Lorgar, on the advice of his First Captain Kor Phaeron and the Word Bearers' First Chaplain Erebus, both secret devotees of the Chaos Gods, decided to undertake a Pilgrimage to discover if the gods worshipped by the ancient Old Faith of Colchis were real and worthy of the Word Bearers' faith and allegiance. Lorgar believed that the Emperor was wrong to condemn Mankind's natural instinct to seek out the divine as an unworthy superstition and he intended to discover if there were truly deities worthy of Humanity's respect. To this end, though Lorgar no longer had any love or loyalty for the Emperor, he and his XVII Legion rejoined the Great Crusade but did so only so their efforts could serve as a front for their pursuit of the Pilgrimage.

The Word Bearers were also accompanied on this Pilgrimage by 5 members of the Legio Custodes who had been set by the Emperor to watch over everything the Word Bearers did to prevent them from falling back into error once more. The Word Bearers' pursuit of any scrap of information that could be found on the Primordial Truth or the nature of the place where gods and mortals could mingle ultimately led the 1301st Expeditionary Fleet to the Cadia System near the largest permanent Warp Storm in the galaxy, later known to the Imperium as the "Eye of Terror."

The expeditionary fleet's master of astropaths advised Lorgar that unusual "voices" in the Warp were heard in the vicinity of the great Warp rift, voices that spoke directly to the primarch as well, which were the voices of the Chaos entities within the Immaterium. It was in the Cadia System that Lorgar would learn that his suspicions had been correct and that the shape of all of the religions across the galaxy that possessed so many similarities to the Colchisian Old Faith were not artefacts of Mankind's collective unconsciousness, but expressions of worship in the universal truth that was Chaos.

The decision was made to hold orbit over Cadia and for the 1301st Fleet's elements to make planetfall on the unknown world, designated as 1301-12. The landing force was comprised of Imperial Army, Word Bearers, Legio Custodes and Legio Cybernetica elements. The landing party, led by Lorgar, was greeted by a large number of barbaric Human tribes, people described as "dressed in rags and wielding spears tipped by flint blades...yet they showed little fear." Most notable were the barbarians' purple eyes, which reflected the colour of the Eye of Terror itself in the spectrum of visible light. Despite the Custodian Vendatha's protests and request to execute the heathens, the Word Bearers approached the natives. A strange woman emerged from the crowd and addressed the primarch directly, calling him "Lorgar Aurelian" and welcoming him to Cadia.

This woman, the Chaos priestess Ingethel, would ultimately lead the primarch down a path of spiritual enlightenment that actually marked the beginning of Lorgar's fall to heresy and Chaos. Later, Ingethel of Cadia would initiate a ritual that would see her transformed into the Daemon Prince known as "Ingethel the Ascended," and then lead the 1,301st Expeditionary Fleet's scout vessel Orfeo's Lament into the Eye of Terror.

Within the Eye of Terror, the Serrated Sun Chapter of the Word Bearers Legion witnessed the failure of the ancient Aeldari Empire first hand in the form of the Crone Worlds that had been scoured of all life that littered the Eye's region of space. Ingethel, of course, lied to the Word Bearers about how the Chaos God Slaanesh had truly been born and warned that the Aeldari had failed as a species and suffered the Fall because at the moment of their ascension they were unable to accept the Primordial Truth, i.e. worship Chaos. They gave birth to a god of pleasure, yet they had felt no joy at her coming. Their new god, Slaanesh, had awoken to consciousness in the 29th Millennium to find its worshippers abandoning it out of ignorance and fear, and from the Prince of Pleasure's grief was born the endless storm of the Great Eye (the Eye of Terror), an echo of the birth-screams of the Aeldari's new and rejected god.

The nature of the Primordial Truth was revealed to the Word Bearers in the ashes of the Aeldari Empire, and Ingethel warned them that in order for Humanity as a species to survive they must not commit the same sins the Aeldari did, and must instead accept the worship of Chaos.

The surviving Space Marines of the Word Bearers' Serrated Sun Chapter eventually returned to Cadia and related to Lorgar all that had happened and all that they had learned within the Eye, the place where mortals and gods could meet. These Astartes had been forever changed by their experience, for they had all become fusions of mortal and Daemon while within the Eye, and came to form a new unit of the Word Bearers known as the Gal Vorbak.

Following the visits into the Eye of Terror, Lorgar ordered a cyclonic bombardment of Cadia, wiping out the Cadians and leaving the planet abandoned so that no others could stumble upon the secret of the Primordial Truth that had been entrusted to him alone by the Chaos Gods. However, the planet's extremely strategic location meant that it would prove useful to the Imperium and in the 32nd Millennium Imperial colonists were dispatched to resettle the world, becoming the ancestors of the present-day population of Cadians. Perhaps as a result of the Eye of Terror's proximity this later population of Cadians also soon developed the unusual violet-coloured eyes that had marked the first Human inhabitants of the planet.

Shanriatha

Aurelian

The Primarch Lorgar stands triumphant over an Eldar Avatar of Khaine deep within the Eye of Terror during his Pilgrimage.

But Lorgar's enlightenment was not yet done. Having heard the report of what the Astartes of the Word Bearers' Chapter of the Serrated Sun had experienced within the Eye of Terror, Lorgar was determined to meet with the gods of the Primordial Truth himself. Forty-three standard years before the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, Lorgar took flight on a Stormbird gunship into the Eye and stepped onto the surface of the Crone World of Shanriatha.

He was accompanied in his search by his Daemonic guide Ingethel the Ascended. The creature inquired why the primarch had chosen that world to investigate. Lorgar replied that he had seen the ruins from orbit, a city drowned in the rust-red dust plains that reminded him of the surface of Mars. The primarch wanted to know what kind of creature Ingethel was, to which the Daemon Prince replied that Lorgar knew what she was. But to Lorgar's psychically attuned eyes, he could see nothing in the core of the entity's being -- a creature incarnated without a soul. Ingethel explained that in the realm of flesh, sentient life was born ensouled. In the realm of raw thought, the Immaterium, all life was soulless.

Both were alive -- the "Born" and the "Neverborn," on both sides of reality -- and were destined for symbiosis and union if the Chaos Gods had their way. The world that they now stood upon was where the realm of flesh and spirit met. Physical laws meant nothing there. There was no limit on what might be. That was the nature of Chaos -- endless possibility. Ingethel informed Lorgar that he was unique amongst the Anathema's sons, for all of his brother primarchs were whole. Only he was lost, for his brothers had mastered their gifts since birth. Lorgar's own mastery would only come with understanding, but when it did he would have the strength to reshape entire worlds on a whim.

Lorgar than inquired as to what was the name of the world that they now stood upon. Ingethel informed him that the "soulbroken" (the Aeldari) called it "Ycressa" before the Fall of the Aeldari. After the birth of Slaanesh, it was named "Shanriatha," which in the Aeldari Lexicon meant "never forgotten."

Ingethel explained to Lorgar the reason the Aeldari were called the "soulbroken" amongst the servants of Chaos had to do with the birth of the Lord of Pleasure. In her genesis, brought about by the Aeldari's worship, she claimed the souls of the entire species. When any self-aware mortal dies, its soul drifts into the Warp. But when the Aeldari die, they are pulled right into the maw of the goddess they betrayed. She thirsts for them, for they are her children. She drinks them as they die.

Lorgar commented that what Ingethel mentioned matched the teachings of the Old Faith of Colchis, for it was said that upon death, the unshackled souls drifted into the Infinite, to be judged by thirsting gods. Ingethel replied that the Primordial Truth was deeply embedded in Humanity's blood. All of Mankind knew innately that something awaited them after death. The faithful, the loyal, would be judged kindly and reside in their gods' demesnes within the Realm of Chaos, while the faithless, the unbelievers, would drift throughout the Aether, serving as prey for the Neverborn. Though the Immaterium represented the Heaven promised in most Human faiths across history, it was also the same Hell Humanity had always feared.

As the Daemon guide and the primarch moved on with their exploration they came upon vast ruins. These ruins were not the remains of a city, but the remnants of Craftworld Zu'lasa, which had attempted to flee the birth of Slaanesh, but escaped too late and fell from the void to bury itself in the world's lifeless dust. Two hundred-thousand souls within the craftworld had died at the moment of Slaanesh's birth. Unguided, with madness rampant in its own living core as the Prince of Pleasure devoured its souls, the craftworld had fallen.

Investigating further, Lorgar sensed something within the ruins. As he inspected the remains of the massive spacecraft with his psychic probing, he felt something stir beneath, burrowing upward. Something broke the surface, in what first appeared to the shocked primarch as the statue of a dying god that dragged itself from a grave of scarlet soil.

Ingethel informed Lorgar that it was an Avatar of Kaela Mensha Khaine, the former war god of the Aeldari. Ingethel wanted Lorgar to understand the abject lesson -- that even a divine being could fall. Almost pitying the pathetic creature, Lorgar strode forth and raised his Crozius mace and then struck the construct, ending its pathetic existence. Lorgar demanded to know what the future held. The Daemon informed the primarch that it would end as it had began. It would end in war. Lorgar ordered the Daemon to show him.

The Eternity Gate

Eternity Gate

The Eternity Gate - portal to the Emperor's inner sanctum

The Urizen found himself suddenly transported before the Eternity Gate located within the Emperor's Imperial Palace on Terra. This was the ultimate barrier that was the portal to the Emperor's innermost sanctum, where the Emperor kept His personal genetic laboratory sealed away from His sons and servants.

Ingethel refused to explain how they had been transported through space and time to appear there. Some truths could not be contained by the mortal mind. She instructed Lorgar to look upon his surroundings with an immortal's sight. Shocked by the sudden revelation, Lorgar was granted a vision of the future Siege of Terra. The primarch was surrounded by thousands of phantasmal Astartes fighting and dying at his feet. Foremost in the thick of the fighting were the yellow-armoured Astartes of Rogal Dorn's Imperial Fists Legion. They fought fiercely against an entire Legion unknown to Lorgar, clad in cardinal red.

Lorgar finally recognised the crimson-clad Astartes for who they were -- his own Word Bearers, their slate-grey battle plate replaced by power armour the colour of fresh blood! Ingethel informed the primarch that he was correct. The Legion's old colours had been cast aside to herald the changes taking hold of Humanity. They were no longer the Bearers of the Emperor's Word. They were the Bearers of Lorgar's.

Lorgar continued to look on, witnessing a larger-than-normal Astartes transform in the midst of battle into a gargantuan, Daemon-possessed Astartes. In this Daemonic form, it appeared quite powerful and was significantly larger and taller than the primarch.

The vision showed the Possessed Heretic Astartes going on a bloody rampage through the ranks of an Imperial Fists squad before finally dying at the hands of the Primarch Sanguinius at the threshold of the Eternity Gate. In disbelief, Ingethel informed Lorgar that this champion was none other than his most blessed son, Argel Tal, and that this was how he would die.

Skeins of Fate

As Lorgar attempted to step forward he suddenly found himself shifted to a nameless world. He had seen all that needed to be seen. Enraged, Lorgar tired of being led around by the nose into the Daemon Prince's prepared lessons. Ingethel warned the primarch to watch his tone when addressing one of the gods' chosen. Lorgar replied that he was only there by his own choice and that he would leave there by the same virtue. Calming himself, Lorgar knew that he was there to learn the truth of the gods and that Ingethel was there to show it to him.

He wanted to know why he had been summoned there and why he had been shaped since birth to be brought to this place. Ingethel replied that Lorgar had been summoned because his life had been engineered to ensure this moment took place. He was here, now, because the gods wished it. In the tangled skeins of time's web, Ingethel had seen innumerable possible futures where Lorgar had never come to them.

Yet Lorgar wanted to know why was he brought there. Why not his brother Horus or Roboute Guilliman? They were the generals that he would never be. Why not Sanguinius or Rogal Dorn? Why not Magnus the Red? Especially Magnus, for he was the most powerful of all the primarchs, without a shadow of a doubt.

Ingethel replied that the Crimson King was already a servant of the Chaos Gods, whether he admitted it or not. He came to the Ruinous Powers without needing to be summoned, and without ever considering the notion of faith. He came for power, because that was why all things of flesh came to the powers of Chaos.

And in five short solar decades, when the galaxy began to burn, Magnus would come to the Eye of Terror himself. With this revelation, Ingethel revealed one final vision, more than forty Terran years in the future.

Final Vision

Daemon Primarch Lorgar 2

The Primarch Lorgar of the Word Bearers Legion.

With a gesture, Lorgar found himself staring at an uneven skyline that he knew instantly, for he had studied there for almost a solar decade, living among its people and coming to adore them as almost as much as he loved the people of Colchis. He was in the silver city of Tizca, the capital of the Thousand Sons' homeworld of Prospero.

Upon further inspection, Lorgar saw the utter devastation; cracked spires, broken pyramids, shattered glass and fallen city walls turned into so much rubble. Lorgar inquired as to the cause of the madness that he beheld. Ingethel informed the primarch that Tizca would burn in the crucible of the coming war, for it must come to pass. Lorgar swore that he would not allow it, but Ingethel warned him that it must. For this was to be the final incident in Magnus the Red's illumination -- betrayed by the Emperor, by his own brother primarchs, he would bring his city to the Warp in order to escape final destruction.

Within the Eye of Terror, Magnus would forge a bastion for the war to come. A war Lorgar would begin, but never lead. The war to bring all the truths of Chaos to the Imperium. Lorgar had come to find the gods. He had found them, as they always intended for him. Their eyes were now turned towards Mankind.

The Chaos Gods had said to Argel Tal, as they now said to Lorgar; Humanity must embrace the truths of divine reality, or suffer the same fate as the Aeldari. With resolute clarity Lorgar realised that the Chaos Gods sought a symbiosis with life; a conjoining of the Ensouled and the Neverborn in natural harmony. The gods needed Humanity, for they could not claim the material realm without them. Their power was strangled when there were no mortals to offer prayers or deeds in worship. This was why the spread of the Emperor's atheistic Imperial Truth presented such a terrible threat to them.

Lorgar felt that the Chaos Gods had chosen poorly. He was pleased and proud to have discerned the Primordial Truth, feeling honoured to be chosen by beings powerful enough to be considered divine by the truest meaning of the word. But he would struggle to bring their light to Humanity. He could not win a war against the Living God that sat upon the Terran Throne. Ingethel informed Lorgar that he would strive, and eventually he would succeed. Lorgar retorted that he only possessed 100,000 warriors, far too few to make planetfall upon Terra and overthrow the Emperor. The Daemon responded that in the future Logar would attract more faithful followers, as he liberated world after world. It was written that after he sailed away from the Eye of Terror, his Legion would no longer spend standard years crafting perfect words venerating the Anathema as the God-Emperor.

He would crush resistance beneath his armoured boots, and draw fresh, faithful Humans into his service. Some would be slaves in the bowels of the Word Bearers' warships. Others would be Lorgar's flock, to shepherd them toward enlightenment. Many more would be taken into the ranks of the Word Bearers and bred into new Astartes. Uneasy with these revealed truths, Lorgar asked again why he had been chosen as the gods' champion. Ingethel replied that it had to be him. Each of the other Legions would die for their primarchs, and lay down their lives for the Imperium. But the Imperium was the cancer killing the Human species. Even when some of Lorgar's brothers turned against the Emperor, they would fight to command the Imperium.

Only the Word Bearers would die for the truth, and for Humanity itself. Faith and steel must now be joined. If Humanity became an empire instead of a species, it would fall to alien claws and the wrath of the Chaos Gods. It was the way of things. What had happened before to the Aeldari would happen again. More than forty standard years in the future, mere solar days after something Humanity would come to call the Fall of Prospero, Magnus had fallen victim to his own arrogance, and now resided in the tallest tower of his broken city on a new world prepared for him within the Eye of Terror by Tzeentch. He lamented the destruction of his Legion and the death of his hopes. He intended only the best, but his curiosity saw him damned in the eyes of the Emperor. He had looked too deep, too long, into ideals the Emperor did not hold.

Lorgar informed Ingethel that he would speak to the Crimson King. But the Daemon warned the primarch that he would not be allowed to stand before Magnus. Heedless of his guide's warnings, Lorgar made his way towards Magnus' tower. As the Urizen ascended to the top of the tower and finally looked upon his brother, Lorgar reconciled logic with emotion, for though he looked upon the face of Magnus -- the face of Magnus was solar decades older. In forty years, the Crimson King had aged more like a hundred.

The future Magnus was not surprised by his brother's presence, for the world in which he now resided held endless surprises. He wondered what incarnated hallucination he was addressing this time. Magnus thought his fellow primarch was a poor simulacrum of the true Lorgar, for his eyes did not burn with the fire of faith only he and his sons understood. Nor did he bear the same scars. Lorgar tried to explain to Magnus that he was no mere apparition, for he was truly his brother on the final night of his Pilgrimage. Growing weary of the encounter, Magnus banished Lorgar from his new realm with a thought.

Trial of the Gods

An'Ggrath the Unbound & host

An'ggrath the Unbound, Guardian of the Skull Throne.

Lorgar once again found himself on the Aeldari world of Shanriatha. When he picked himself up from the sand he saw that his Daemonic guide Ingethel appeared to be dying. The Daemon Prince had used its already diminishing strength to rescue Lorgar from the sorcery of Magnus the Red. Lorgar wanted to know why his brother would not speak with him. Ingethel informed him that Magnus was a tool of Tzeentch, the Changer of the Ways. Magnus was a creature of his own ignorance, manipulated at every turn, yet he believed that he was the manipulator.

Some of Humanity's leaders could be lured to the service of the Chaos Gods by offers of ambition and dominance, while others like Magnus the Red had to be manipulated until they were ready to witness and accept the truth. Lorgar inquired as to which kind of leader he was. Ingethel told the primarch that he was the chosen of the pantheon, for he alone had come to Chaos out of idealism, for the betterment of his species. In this, as in all things, he was selfless.

Convinced by the Daemon's prescient vision, Lorgar demanded to know his fate in the true war for Mankind's future yet to come. Ingethel told Lorgar that once the betrayal broke across the galaxy, there were countless moments in which he might meet his end. Some were likelier than others. The Daemon warned Lorgar that no being may know its future written out before it; yet, on a world named Shrike, if Lorgar interceded in an argument between Magnus the Red and Leman Russ, there was a concordance of possibility that he would be slain in their duel. If he ever drew a weapon against his brother Corvus Corax, in a battle he could never win, then he would almost certainly die.

Pushing aside information about choices he would not have to make for many years, Lorgar asked why they had returned to the dead Aeldari world. The dying Ingethel explained that she did not intend for it to be so, for the Daemon had used up the last of its power dragging Lorgar from Magnus' chamber with crude force, not guile. It was not her intention to show this world again. Something else had returned them there. Something powerful.

It appeared that one of the Chaos Gods desired to test Lorgar's worthiness to serve as the mortal champion of Chaos. Ingethel chided Lorgar for believing that the chosen of the pantheon might be allowed to leave the Realm of the Gods without first passing their test. It had been decided that the Chaos Gods would collectively choose one representative to pass judgment upon the primarch's worthiness to serve them. Yet the Chaos Gods were ultimately fickle, selfish beings and one of the gods broke the agreement that all four had made, wishing to test Lorgar against one of his own servants instead.

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Kairos Fateweaver, the Oracle of Tzeentch

With a bestial roar, An'ggrath the Unbound materialised. The Blood God Khorne had violated the temporary accord the Chaos Gods had forged concerning Lorgar and sent forth the mightiest of his Bloodthirsters, the Guardian of the Skull Throne, to test Lorgar's mettle. With no choice, Lorgar was forced to defend himself and duel the mighty creature, and he eventually proved himself the victor, though he was sorely wounded during the duel.

Collapsing in the aftermath of his stunning victory, the primarch struggled to stay alive, breathing blood-wet air into weak lungs. He then heard a single voice and then another, similar to the first, but somehow flawed. Lorgar looked up at the sudden appearance of another winged figure -- a grotesque avian creature with withered wings and two vulture's heads.

The creature informed Lorgar that it was the representative of all the Chaos Gods that had been sent to judge the primarch. The avian creature identified itself as Kairos Fateweaver, the Oracle of Tzeentch. The Lord of Change had come to bring the chance for a final choice: Lorgar could have personal glory or divine destiny. This moment of truth would come many solar decades in the future, during the infamous Battle of Calth.

It would be there that Lorgar had to make the most momentous decision of his life: to fight his brother Roboute Guilliman, where he would succeed in killing him and by doing so, achieve a sense of satisfaction and the respect of his brother primarchs. Yet by doing so he would also lose the coming war. However, if he chose to turn his back on personal glory and let Guilliman live, he would taste bitter defeat in his personal quest for the destruction of Guilliman and his XIII Legion that had so insulted the Word Bearers on Khur. But the chance for him to succeed in the illumination of Humanity would be greater.

The primarch had to choose whether he would stand amongst his brother primarchs as an equal, with vengeance as his goal, or work in the name of the Chaos Gods, tasting shame in return for a far greater victory. While Fateweaver's two heads normally made two predictions, one being the truth and the other a lie, in this one instance the Greater Daemon explained that both of his heads had told the truth. Leaving the bemused primarch with this perplexing conundrum, Fateweaver then disappeared back into the Aether.

Daemon Primarch Lorgar 1

The Daemon Primarch Lorgar, the Bearer of the Word.

Left alone once more with the dying Ingethel, Lorgar demanded to know how much of what he had seen was true. The Daemon replied, "All of it. Or none. Or perhaps something in between." The Daemon Prince had shown him what the Chaos Gods demanded that he bear witness to, now he wanted Ingethel to show him what he wished to see. Ingethel agreed, for it was permitted. Lorgar had seen what he must do to ensure victory. He had seen the fate of the galaxy if the Emperor's lies were not challenged. Now, the primarch wished to walk other worlds in the Eye of Terror. If this was the gateway to the Heaven and Hell of Human myth, he wanted to be shown more of it. Lorgar wished to see the possibilities in these mutable worlds, to be shown what the Warp could offer Humanity, if they conceded to the merging of flesh and spirit.

Ingethel replied that she could do all of this. But Lorgar had one final wish before he returned to the Imperium, for there was one last thing he must see above any other -- what would happen if the forces of Chaos lost the coming war? The vision he saw next left no doubt in Lorgar's mind that the future of Humanity required it to embrace Chaos and the merging of reality with the Warp.

The Primordial Truth

This "truth" changed Lorgar and the Word Bearers Legion forever as they were exposed to the Ruinous Powers of Chaos and slowly corrupted, the first of the Legiones Astartes to worship the Chaos Gods and become Traitors to the Emperor in their hearts.

Lorgar and the Word Bearers spent the remaining years of the Great Crusade attempting to enlighten Humanity about the true spiritual nature of Creation, ultimately resorting to manipulation and deception to sway nine of the primarchs to the cause of Chaos as their gods demanded, the most notable being the Warmaster Horus.

When it became clear that Mankind could not be enlightened by Chaos without first being forcibly weaned at a great price in blood from the Emperor's false Imperial Truth, Lorgar willingly helped orchestrate the terrible Battle of Isstvan III and the Drop Site Massacre at Isstvan V as well as the larger Horus Heresy itself.

All in the name of the Chaos Gods -- and the Primordial Truth that they offered and that Lorgar had first grasped during his infamous Pilgrimage.

Videos

Warhammer_40,000_Grim_Dark_Lore_Part_16_–_The_Perfect_City

Warhammer 40,000 Grim Dark Lore Part 16 – The Perfect City

Sources

  • The First Heretic (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
  • Aurelian (Novella) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
Raven Rock Videos
Warhammer 40,000 Overview Grim Dark Lore Teaser TrailerPart 1: ExodusPart 2: The Golden AgePart 3: Old NightPart 4: Rise of the EmperorPart 5: UnityPart 6: Lords of MarsPart 7: The Machine GodPart 8: ImperiumPart 9: The Fall of the AeldariPart 10: Gods and DaemonsPart 11: Great Crusade BeginsPart 12: The Son of StrifePart 13: Lost and FoundPart 14: A Thousand SonsPart 15: Bearer of the WordPart 16: The Perfect CityPart 17: Triumph at UllanorPart 18: Return to TerraPart 19: Council of NikaeaPart 20: Serpent in the GardenPart 21: Horus FallingPart 22: TraitorsPart 23: Folly of MagnusPart 24: Dark GambitsPart 25: HeresyPart 26: Flight of the EisensteinPart 27: MassacrePart 28: Requiem for a DreamPart 29: The SiegePart 30: Imperium InvictusPart 31: The Age of RebirthPart 32: The Rise of AbaddonPart 33: Saints and BeastsPart 34: InterregnumPart 35: Age of ApostasyPart 36: The Great DevourerPart 37: The Time of EndingPart 38: The 13th Black CrusadePart 39: ResurrectionPart 40: Indomitus
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