PART 8

THE UNRECORDED PRIMARCHS

Information even mentioning the two unrecorded Primarchs is limited, and none of it confirms anything about them or their fate. Even the circumstances and timelines for the creation and rediscovery of the Primarchs is not certain because there are several records that provide evidence to contradict the official claims. The rediscovery of Lorgar is listed as 857M30, and yet Argal Tal’s mother was with him when he was recruited into the Word Bearers, on Cholchis, before 005M30… in the first decade of the Great Crusade. 

The Primarchs, 2012, edited by Christian Dunn

He thought, briefly, of his parents – two hundred years dead now.    The Horus Heresy, volume XIV, The First Heretic, p431

Then there is Vulkan and Ferrus Manus. Ferrus stated that he made a weapon for Vulkan around the same time Argal Tal was recruited, 005M30. The comment also suggested Vulkan had led the XVIII ‘Salamanders’ Legion into the Mordant Stars soon after this incident. The official timeline indicates that Ferrus was reunited with the Emperor in 831M30, while Vulkan was recovered two years later.

“I made that for Vulkan two hundred years ago,” said Ferrus, “before he led his Legion into the Mordant Stars.” The Horus Heresy, volume V, Fulgrim, p378

Clearly, the official claims may not be the facts, merely the ‘Imperial Truth’. It is possible that these records are the result of the exaggerations resulting from poetic licence, the inability of mortals to focus and make accurate recordings in the presence of Primarchs, or simply an unplanned and unnoticed error. The entry “slow and clam” on page 297 of Age of Darkness is a good example of such inaccuracies making their way into official records despite rigorous efforts to prevent such mistakes.

A vast tree of myth would sprout from the tiny seed of real experience. There would be different stories and competing legends. All too soon the truth of how it actually happened would be forgotten.  The Horus Heresy, volume VI, Descent of Angels, p274

But there is also a very real possibility that the history of the Primarchs, even the history of the Great Crusade, is comprised of deliberate misinformation and myth. The stories about the arrival of each Primarch, for example, are all very similar, as if the same, rehearsed story were spread on each world. There is also a very real possibility that the claims about Primarchs being the source from which the Astartes were created was wrong, and that the opposite was true.

But some disaster is known to have befallen the Emperor's works on Luna before they were complete. The unborn Primarchs were lost, scattered among the stars. Many stories and legends have risen about the scattering of the Primarchs. Some tell that the Dark Gods foresaw the Emperor's plans and sought to destroy their unborn foes, but only succeeded in dispersing them. Others maintain that it was the Emperor himself who cast the Primarchs adrift on the tides of the galaxy that they might learn to live truly away from the chrome and ceramite of the laboratorium. Other still maintain that it was the nascent Primarchs themselves who chose to depart the Emperor's care, seeking knowledge alone. The Unforgiven: The Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter, Index Astartes I, 2002 The Unforgiven: The Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter, White Dwarf, volume 254

Rogal Dorn himself had clearly indicated that Iacton Qruze had been in service for “centuries” while the Great Crusade itself had only begun two-hundred-and-ten years earlier. The official history of the Thunder Warriors could very well be fabricated based on partial facts - it seems likely they were actually Astartes and the Thunder Warriors detailed in The Outcast Dead may have simply been survivors of a well-deserved cull following some kind of treachery they enacted as Unification on Terra neared completion.

Jugen did not reply at once. Instead, he studied his lord for several long moments. “My lord, you and I have fought together for almost three hundred years now,” he said. The Horus Heresy, volume X, Tales of Heresy, p85

There is no definitive information on the fate of the two unrecorded Primarchs, but what limited information is recorded in official accounts provides enough to form a hypothesis. The Emperor had made it abundantly clear that a number of things would not be tolerated under his reign. The Primarchs and his Legions would abide by the edicts of Compliance. The worship of gods and associated rituals and idolatry, unregulated study and practice of psychic powers and the warp, psycho-surgery, excessive force to supress civilian populations, the use and study of xenos and Dark Age technologies, and unsanctioned affiliation with xenos species were prohibited.

What they did not add, but they all understood, was that they would not make for Terra even if they could. They would return as a smashed Legion, one to be absorbed, its culture forgotten, into the others. The Horus Heresy, volume XXX, The Damnation of Pythos, p43

It makes sense that there was sufficient evidence to suggest the two unrecorded Primarchs violated one or more of these edicts, an act that would result in a fate similar to the one that befell Magnus and the Thousand Sons. There is also sufficient evidence to suggest that not all of the members of the unrecorded Legions were traitors, and loyalists within their ranks were disbanded and reassigned to other Legions. The fate of the tow Primarchs, however, seems very clear.

Guilliman sits back. The seat flexes to support his armoured bulk.  He is shaped like a man, but he is far more than that, far more than even the transhuman giants of his Legion. He is a primarch. There are only seventeen other beings like him left in the universe. The Horus Heresy, volume XIX, p37

If the two unrecorded Primarchs were still alive, they were no longer in the same universe as the Emperor and their brothers, and that left only one other place – a place like the regions inside the Ocularis Malifica, Maelstrom or Perdus Anomaly. The purpose for Fulgrim’s campaign with the Emperor’s Children into the Perdus Anomaly becomes suspect under these circumstances, especially since he was under the influence of Slaanesh at the time, and the surrounding region would one day be dominated by the Tau Empire.

"I will not be responsible for the erasure of the Blood Angels from Imperial history. I will not have a third empty plinth beneath the roof of the Hegemon as my Legion’s only memorial!" The Horus Heresy, volume XXI, p43

The comments made by Sanguinius concerning the genetic failure suffered by members of his Legion, as well as the spontaneous mutation of the flesh change that afflicted the Thousand Sons, suggests a fear of something that had happened before, and had resulted in two empty plinths “beneath the roof of the Hegemon”. The term abomination is applied to those afflicted by the flesh change, but also to the Contagion of Ganymede, so it would seem the two unrecorded Legions met a similar fate.

“We cannot disband a First Founding Chapter!” Orloc was aghast. “We know the history of the Astartes. It has happened before,” insisted Seth, “we can take the men among the Successors, spread equally. As you said, Lord Orloc, we are all kindred beneath the armour…” Blood Angels: the second omnibus, James Swallow, p154

If one of the two unrecorded Primarchs had access to the Emperor’s knowledge concerning genetics, as well as Mechanicum technology or something even darker, it is possible this corruption was a deliberate act of sabotage or desperate act of survival. There are suggestions that ‘daemonic’ possession had occurred before and it seems Fabius Bile’s knowledge of cloning and genetic experimentation began to become and obsession and improve in the wake of the campaign on Laer, when the Legion travelled into the Perdus Anomaly. Fabius Bile may have learned much of what he knew from records gathered on that unrecorded Primarch.

“You were prosecuting a campaign throughout the Perdus Anomaly. Is the region compliant already?” “What worlds we found there are now compliant” The Horus Heresy, volume II, False Gods, p366

The very thought of an obsessed Primarch raised in the culture of the Mechanicum using biological expertise to clone rival legionnaires and unleash ‘abominations’ as needed, or even release a pandemic on populations to create uncontrolled, spontaneous mutation to ‘justify’ and attack on the Squat Leagues is unsettling, but would explain a great deal. Such a Primarch might also go as far as using his abilities to ‘enhance’ his legionnaires by the application of similar methods, especially if his treachery were revealed and the Emperor ordered the Wolves to do as they would do to the Thousand Sons decades later.

“I am Fabius,” he said, stroking Cassander’s scarred chest. “And this is my chamber of wonders.” “Wonders? It is a place of abomination,” hissed Cassander, struggling once again at his bonds. The Horus Heresy, volume XXIII, Angel Exterminatus, p147

Evidence clearly indicates that the Thousand Sons were not alone in violating the Emperor’s edicts, elements of no less than four other Legions clearly ignoring orders on various practices: Emperor’s Children, Night Lords, World Eaters, and Word Bearers. Of the five Legions, the Emperor’s Children lone chose to tamper with their biology in the misguided pursuit of perfection, and quickly escalated from the study and experimentation of the xenos samples they captured to doing the same with humans and Space Marines, and even blending these. 

It is entirely possible that Fabius Bile was simply repeating what had been done before, attempting to replicate research from whatever fragmented records the Emperor’s Children had managed to recover from some conflict with one of the unrecorded Legions. What Fabius created was referred to as ‘abomination’, a word used to refer to whatever fate befell Ganymede, and one that Captain Amit of the Blood Angels would also claim should be replaced with another when referring to refer to a warp entity - daemon.

“Still we speak of ‘abominations’…” The words were a growl, and some of the warriors moved aside to see who had spoken. Captain Amit moved forwards into the middle of the arena to face his primarch. “Why do we not call it what it is, my lord? Can we not say the name?” “Remember your place, Flesh Tearer,” warned Azkaellon, but Amit did not acknowledge him. “I will say it if you will not,” he continued, his eyes never leaving those of the Angel. “Daemon.” The Horus Heresy, volume XXI, Fear to Tread, p338

The meaning of the term ‘abomination’ is, therefore, unclear and dependent upon circumstance. Given Fabius Bile was tampering with the genetic code of the Space Marines, and even incorporating xenos genetic material within individuals, it could be used to refer to hybrids rather than just warp-entities. The experimentation of the Dark Mechanicum seems to have been similar to that of Fabius Bile, once again suggesting a link to a theoretical Primarch raised on a Forge World, and a civil war within the Imperium during the Great Crusade.

At Cavor Sarta, Wayland and Sharrowkyn had capture an Unlingual Cipher host – one of the so-called ‘Kryptos’ – a hybrid abomination creature of the Dark Mechanicum that had previously kept the enemy’s code network a cryptographic impossibility to break. With the Kryptos, loyalist commanders could now access the traitor’s coded communications. The Horus Heresy, volume XXIII, Angel Exterminatus, p156

Aside from the references to ‘abominations’, there are also references that suggest the Thousand Sons were not the first to stray and break faith with the Emperor’s edicts on the matters of Enlightenment and Compliance. It is easy to assume the use of the word ‘others’ refers to Konrad Curze and Magnus in regards to these betrayals, but it seems more likely it implies the two unrecorded Primarchs. The comment made by Redknife about the Crimson King seems to add to this, an addition rather than clarification of who has strayed.

Redknife bowed his head. “My brothers came here to watch you, my lord. On the Wolf King’s orders, in the Sigillite’s name. To report if you were to stray, as others have strayed.” He looked up. “As the Crimson King has strayed.” The Horus Heresy, volume XXI, Fear to Tread, pp340-1

Then there is the incident Perturabo recalls of his meeting with the Emperor the day he took his oaths to do as the Emperor wished and unite humanity under the Imperial Truth during the Great Crusade. It suggests some Primarchs failed whatever assessment of their personalities to which they were subjected by the Emperor. While his memory does not name those who failed, or the consequences of failure, the idea that those who failed may have included – or been – the two unrecorded Primarchs is a very real possibility.  

He thought back to his ascent up that polished marble spire, the night before leaving Terra for a life of war. Each step had required a superhuman effort of will, determination and courage. It was no simple screw-stair, but a challenge to the heart and intellect, a psychic communion with the Emperor himself that tested the very boundaries of a warrior’s endurance. Not all of them had passed the test. The Horus Heresy, volume XXIII, Angel Exterminatus, pp333-4

All of these incidents add to the theory that the two unrecorded Primarchs were somehow involved in the civil war that occurred in the middle of the Great Crusade, an event that was later expunged from official records just as the records of the two unrecorded Primarchs were deleted. It not only appears that both were on opposing sides of the conflict – in defiance of the Emperor’s orders – but that one or both Primarchs and their Legions were somehow corrupted and elements considered abominations.

There is also strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that one of them did, indeed, have unique knowledge of anatomy, some of which was recovered by Perturabo and Fulgrim after whatever conflict resulted involving the two Primarchs and their Legions. The source of the anatomical diagrams of Primarch physiology was probably one of the two unrecorded Primarchs while the individual that compiled the material was the other. The theory that seems to have the most support is therefore founded on these ideas.

The first unrecorded Primarch was located on a world that formed part of the Squat League of Thor. The other came from one of the worlds that formed the Auretian Technocracy. The hostilities between the Mechanicum and Squat Guilds ultimately resulted in open conflict that dragged the Imperium into civil war. The unrecorded Primarchs were instructed to end the conflict by forcing their adopted cultures to cease hostilities and restore their populations to Compliance.

Instead, perhaps both turned against the Emperor to honour oaths to their own adopted cultures. The Mechanicum, under the direction of the second unrecorded Primarch, conducted experimentation on captives to do as Fabius would do during the Horus Heresy and created abominations. These were used to justify their attack on the Squats with claims their enemies were in league with xenos in violation of the Emperor’s edicts. It is also likely they cloned some of their enemies, and managed to capture the Primarch of the Squat Leagues to conduct their anatomical research, either killing him or reducing him – or a clone of him - to an abomination.

The treachery of the second unrecorded Primarch was eventually uncovered, and he used the same techniques to enhance his own troops in a forlorn effort to defend against Imperial forces. It is entirely possible that one or both unrecorded Primarchs somehow escaped and vanished. The Squats may have rescued their own and then retreated into their territories, Imperial forces unwilling to violate the treaties that ended their conflict, while the second may have used his ability to create clones to avoid capture much as Fabius Bile would do since the end of the Horus Heresy – it is entirely possible he even killed and assumed the identity of the real Fabius Bile.

PART 7

PART 9