Sor Talgron

Centurion Sor Talgron of the Word Bearers, circa 006.M31

Sor Talgron was a member of the Word Bearers legion of the Adeptus Astartes. Originally a line soldier, he later became a Dark Apostle of the legion during the Horus Heresy, after the legion had turned traitor and he had suffered ravaging wounds from phosphex. He was a native of Colchis, the homeworld of the XVII Legion's Primarch Lorgar. During the Battle of Terra at the end of the Heresy, Talgron was struck down by the Loyalist defenders of the Imperial Palace. He was then interred within the cybernetic sarcophagus of a Chaos Dreadnought and became known as The Warmonger. The Warmonger ultimately met his fate 10,000 Terran years later in the late 41st Millennium during the Battle of Boros Prime when he was responsible for the death of the Necron Lord known as The Undying One.

History

Great Crusade

"His face was square and hard. Brutish. It was not the face of a scholar or a statesman. A lifetime of battle had flattened his features, and ugly scarring criss-crossed his face and scalp. His own role in the universe could not be mistaken. He was a warrior, a soldier, a killer."

— Ancient Remembrancer description of Sor Talgron

Inception

Sor Talgron was born on Colchis, the home world of the XVII Legion, the Word Bearers, and their Primarch Lorgar Aurelian. He was incepted into the Legion as a youth, and rose through the ranks during the Great Crusade, becoming a member of the Legion's Perpeptual Spiral Chapter, a chapter dedicated to garrison and honour guard duties. Within the Legion, his mentor was a Terran officer, Volkhar Wreth, a firm believer in the Godhood of the Emperor. Talgron was a dour, pragmatic and cold figure, with little concern for the religiosity of his brother-legionnaires and dressed in stark Mark III "Iron" Armour. Despite his disbelief in the God-Emperor, he nevertheless was present at the XVII Legion's admonishment at Monarchia on the world of Khur by the Emperor in 964.M30. There the Emperor had rebuked the Primarch Lorgar and the entire XVII Legion for their slowness in bringing worlds into Compliance and their violation of the Imperial Truth by spreading their misguided faith in the Emperor's divinity. Forty years later, in 006.M31, the pain of it still festered within him, though he had never been a devout soul by any regards.

Forty-Seven Sixteen

Later, the Perpeptual Spiral was attached to the 47th Expedition. By this point, Talgron was the centurion of the 34th Grand Company. He took part in the Imperial campaign to bring the world of Forty-Seven Sixteen into Imperial Compliance. The humans of this world appeared to venerate a titanic colossus known only as the "Storm Lord." The XVII Legion did not have the time necessary to convert the ignorant heathens to the Imperial Truth, and since their profane beliefs were deemed incompatible with the atheistic doctrines of the Imperial Truth the world of Forty-Seven Sixteen was doomed. The Word Bearers could not refuse to obey the Emperor's orders for a second time. Less than 24 hours later, over 98% of the planet's population had been put to the sword. Only one city, the seat of the planet's governance and centre of its blasphemous worship, survived the 12-hour-long orbital bombardment. The world's profane palace-temple was protected within a bubble of coruscating energy. Five full companies of the XVII Legion were deployed to the planet's surface to finish the job. Spearheading the assault was Sor Talgron and his 34th Grand Company. Battling through masses of artificial intelligence-guided machines that defended the temple, Sor Talgron and his Word Bearers eventually forced their way inside. Within the dome of the temple were gathered hundreds of human survivors of the Imperial bombardment as well as the political leaders of the people of Forty-Seven Sixteen.

Sor Talgron spoke with the head priest and discovered, much to his shock, that these people worshipped the Emperor as a God, and that they wanted to join the Imperium. Talgron immediately felt terrible guilt for the genocide that had been committed by his Legion because of a simple misunderstanding. Informing the Primarch of what had transpired, the First Captain Kor Phaeron and a cadre of 100 Terminators teleported down to the surface, materialising inside the dome, their weapons trained on the human worshippers. Then Lorgar and First Chaplain Erebus materialised, making their presence known. The Primarch dismissed the fact that the people of this world worshipped the Emperor as a God much like the Word Bearers had and that they somehow possessed a copy of the Lectitio Divinitatus written by Lorgar himself. Lorgar informed Talgron that he had been penning a new magna opus, something that would make everyone forget the Lectitio Divinatus. This work would become the infamous Book of Lorgar. The people of Forty-Seven Sixteen were still condemned, for ignorance was no excuse for belief in superstitions and falsehoods. The Primarch explained to Captain Talgron that sometimes sacrifices had to be made, and with a signal to his First Captain, the survivors of Forty-Seven Sixteen were massacred in a hail of Storm Bolter rounds. Captain Talgron ultimately complied with his Primarch's wishes, though he was reluctant to do so at first.

The Primarch's Favour

Following Forty-Seven Sixteen, Lorgar took a special interest in Captain Talgron. Talgron was regularly summoned to the Fidelitas Lex in the following months. The favour Talgron enjoyed rankled his superior, the zealous Chapter Master of the Perpeptual Spiral, Balas Silak. Realising this, Lorgar decreed that Talgron would lead about half of the chapter, including most of the 34th Company, to garrison Terra. It was seen by some Remembrancers as a political gesture as Talgron, "already noted for his disregard of the Legion's excessive reverance of the Emperor, was living proof that the Word Bearers had taken to heart the concerns expressed so forcefully at Monarchia."

As part of the garrison host on Terra, Talgron became positively acquainted with a member of the Legio Custodes, Tiber Acanthus. He also grew to know the Imperial Fist officer Archamus, master of Rogal Dorn's Huscarl retinue. Whereas he respected the former immensely, he thought of the latter negatively as pompous. During his garrison duty, he unknowingly earned the respect of Rogal Dorn himself. Talgorn's garrison duty was an effective cover for the captain's more secretive orders. In the Sol System, he and his Company took part in acts of sabotage, orchestrated in part by his company's chaplain, Jarulek, and enacted in the main by its recon sergeant, Loth. The 34th planted special charges at a number of locations that would result in the severance of the Sol System in the Astronomican from the rest of the Imperium. They also communicated with Lorgar's allies on Mars. Finally, in the last two months of their duty, they enacted an insidious act on the Shrine of Unity, which would come to bear when the comet-shrine re-entered the solar system several years away. The prime purpose of the company's duty, however, was frustrated when in 006.M31, Talgron was summoned to meet with Rogal Dorn. There Talgron and the 34th, in an act of trust by the Primarch, were sent to join his punitive fleet of 8 Legions en route to Istvaan V to punish the treasons of Horus Lupercal and his allies, revealed by Nathaniel Garro. The traitorous blade in orbit of the homeworld of the Imperium that was the 34th and their Strike Cruiser was sent away, but its sabotage had already been successful. As a final act, a daemonhost was created on Terra from Talgron's old mentor, Volkhar Wreth, now a member of the Crusader Host, released in secret by Dorn to Talgron's custody. Talgron and the 34th Chapter would leave Terra and reunite with the rest of the XVII, but despite his appearance of loyalty to the Emperor and his respect of men like Dorn and Tiber Acanthus, the Captain and company joined their brethren in rebellion.

Horus Heresy

Captain of the Perpeptual Spiral

After the Warmaster Horus's betrayal at Istvaan III was matched by a further four primarch's rebellion, including that of Lorgar, the Word Bearers proclaimed their allegiance to Horus's cause. As the Word Bearers made their worship of the Chaos Gods known, Sor Talgron continued to lead the 34th in the Shadow Crusade, the purging of the 500 worlds of Ultramar. Eventually he led a campaign to the Perception System, leading his ground troops on the planet. What should have been a quick campaign was prolonged by the skilled defense of it by the 17th Chapter of the Ultramarines. Eventually the Ultramarines' Chapter Master, Aecus Decimus, deigned to use phosphex to win a scorched earth victory against the Word Bearers. A ruined surviving XIII Legion vessel in orbit, the Righteous Fury, unleashed twenty-four Modalis-class atmospheric missiles onto Perception before its final obliteration by the XVII Sanctified. The cold fire crept across the planet, consuming the remaining defenders and the attackers. A full two-thirds of the 34th Chapter of the Perpeptual Spiral were lost on the planet, including Talgron, who was burned beyond all recognition before being saved by two Cataphractii-armoured soldiers, only one of whom (Kol Badar) survived.

Captain-Apostle

Captain Sor Talgron as a Dark Apostle during the Horus Heresy

Following his dire wounds from phosphex on the surface of Percepton Primus, Captain Talgron died - asking bitterly to not be interred in a dreadnought. However the rites he had performed with Jarulek two years earlier in making Volkhar Wreth a daemonhost allowed Talgron in fact to incomprehensibly survive death by seizing the warp-afflicted heart of Wreth in the aether. His corpse, burned beyond all recognition, opened its mouth and spoke. Subseqeuntly the members of his Chapter built a new body for him - one of bionics, pistons, gears and synthetic organs. All that remained of Talgron's old self was his charred and broken face, inset with new bionic eyes, enhanced by his own prayers, exhortations and dark blessings.

In this itineration, Talgron had embraced the dark faith of the XVII. The Book of Lorgar was affixed to his breastplate, displaying litanies and catechisms of defilement. He wore a helmet with the likeness of a leering skull. And he carried a giant Crozius. Finally he carried a warp flask with the heart of Wreth which had saved him. In Talgron's own thoughts, he had gained from his death at Precepton "Clarity. Purpose. Belief. Faith."

Talgron and the remnants of the Perpeptual Spiral fought with his Legion during the Battle of Terra and laid siege to the Imperial Palace at the climax of the Heresy. There the soldier suffered the wounds that crippled him and required his interrment within the armoured shell of a Dreadnought. Though his body was utterly ruined, he was destined to live on within the tomb of his new shell, and became known as The Warmonger.

Post-Heresy

A Word Bearers Chaos Dreadnought like The Warmonger

While the other Chaos Dreadnoughts of the Legion slowly succumbed to the madness and raving insanity that usually afflicted the devotees of Chaos who were entombed within a Dreadnought's shell, the Warmonger retained much of his lucidity. It was his faith in Dark Gods and the willpower this generated, Erebus remarked, that kept Talgron from slipping into his fellow dreadnoughts' madness. However, during combat the Warmonger sometimes forgot where and when he was and began to relive moments from the siege of the Imperial Palace where he believes he is once against fighting alongside his Primarch during the Horus Heresy. The Warmonger was ultimately slain during the Battle of Boros Prime when he successfully killed the Necron Lord known as The Undying One, though the explosion following the Necron's death also finished off the already-wounded Dreadnought. The Warmonger's shell next housed the broken form of the daemonically-possessed Word Bearer named Burias Drak'Shal.

Sources

• Horus Heresy: Visions of Death (Art Book) by Alan Merrett
• The Purge (Novella) by Ben Counter
• Dark Apostle (Novel) by Anthony Reynolds