EREBUS: The HORRIBLEST HERETIC of them all! | Warhammer 40k Lore

in the oppressive afternoon heat of a distant desert Planet a small child sits in the hard packed dust engaging in the traditional pastime of a certain sort of child pulling the legs off of the local Wildlife but this particular creature is no spider or fly it's a poisonous desert scorpion this Pastime has landed the child in trouble before laid up in the sick bed with a fever even potentially close to death but he keeps doing it anyway thrilled by the feeling of being close to danger and the intoxicating power he holds over the Creature if he succeeds it's a feeling he would continue to chase his whole life with creatures way more powerful than a mere scorpion today we're going to talk about the horriblest heretic of them all the unequivocal biggest bastard in 40K arabus arabus is a dick born into squala he would eventually rise to become one of the most prominent figures of the great Crusade and one of the chief architects of the Horus heresy the first chaplain of the word bearers the hand of Destiny dark Apostle of chaos it was his actions more than any other that laid the ground for the collapse Ms of the nent Imperium and the Galactic Civil War that followed and in the 41st Millennium he remains a significant threat to the Imperium but his actions were never really the result of some grand plan or long-term ambition on his part but a series of opportunities taken and an unwavering belief that he was exactly where he needed to be the child that would eventually become arabus was not born to a prominent family or an ancient martial culture he was in his own words gutter trash born into a poor settlement on the desert planet of culis he had little regard for well anything really he hated the Heat and the poverty and the dust and probably sand too I don't like sand it's coarse and rough and irritating he hated his parents and resisted all their attempts to encourage him to learn a trade or take education he existed in a world of casual violence and Scorpion torture a delinquent until eventually he saw a way out one of the many things he had little regard for was Faith the culture of culis was intensely religious ruled over by a church known as The Covenant who worshiped the old Faith a Pantheon of four great Powers um while it might have been that the Covenant were a Pious and worthy organization in the big cities out in the poor settlements most of the preachers and Priests were corrupt easily swayed by drink fed by the populace and spending the arms they collected on their own appetites and despite not really caring for religion itself our subject thought a life of petty power over the ignorant faithful sounded pretty good and so one night he took his chance he crept up on the settlement star pupil a boy he'd always been unfavorably compared to and strangled him to death stealing his identity he shaved his head like the boy adopted the pious child's practice of inking holy text on his skin dressed himself in the dead boy's clothes and even stole his name arabus Vanishing off into the desert soon he was a novice in the capital city of vades sweeping the floors while learning by rote the words and sayings walking the Walk of the corrupt priests when something unexpected happened in the mirrors of an altar he caught his first glimpse of what truly lie beyond the basis for the old Faith a vision of the chaos Powers I felt a shiver run through me despite the everpresent heat I was a petty thief A minor Speck within the iris of Eternity but I knew I could do things for these presences I felt that had always been there lingering over by minor cruelties the Covenant was their play thing perhaps other institutions could be used and in a similar way faith is an interesting word for what arabus had gained he certainly believed that the chaos Powers were real and powerful and he should serve them but how much of it was his desire to be close to the center of that power to be on the edge of something dangerous is uncertain either way from this point on he dedicated himself to their service trusting that their plans would always make sure he was in the right place at the center and soon the Covenant itself underwent huge changes the primar lar appeared from the desert alongside his foster father the ancient preacher core Faron leading a crusading army and converting the Covenant to a New Faith lar was the prophet of the one true God the master of mankind who arrived soon after and he converted them once again this time to the light of reason and science the Imperial truth the Youth of culis was swept up in the recruitment campaigns of the 17th Legion the Imperial Heralds who were soon to be renamed by their newly found Primark dubbed the bearers of the word and despite this new era of reason it was clear what the word was that the emperor was a God and lar his servant a belief encouraged within the new word bearers Legion even if it was an odd with the Imperium at large but through all this change and turmoil arabus stayed true confident that his chaos Gods had a plan he made sure he was at the center of this new power when lar appeared he outwardly became one of the faithful professing his Devotion to the new Creed in the sure knowledge that the emperor was in truth his enemy when the legion arrived he underwent the trials and surgeries required willingly despite thinking them monstrous Within the legion he distinguished himself not as a commander or a strategist but as a preacher an advisor and became one of the word bearers chaplain preaching the Good News of the god Emperor to the populations the legion subjugated and biding his time until an opportunity arose and that time after Decades of warfare in the name of his enemy was to come after the censuring of the 17th Legion at the hands of the emperor and of the ultramarines 36 years before the Ascension of Horus to warm the emperor summoned the entire word bearers Legion to the planet of Kur a planet originally bought into compliance by the word bearers and now fanatically religious the capital city monarchia was known by them as the perfect city a city of great Cathedrals and monuments to the god Emperor it was in Ruins after years of troubling reports the emperor had decided to act constant slow progress by the legion as they took the time to indoctrinate their conquests and the evidence that they had continued to worship the Emperor as a god went directly against the tenets of the Imperial truth and as the great Crusade was coming to an end enough was enough the emperor had descended to C alongside the ultramarines legion who had emptied the perfect City and then annihilated it from orbit when the word has arrived they were forced to kneel in the dust of monarchia and were rebuked by the emperor he was not a God and their worship must stop the intention here was to serve a warning and teach a lesson the emperor thought that the word bearers were still redeemable that lar could still be brought round and the choice of the ultramarines was a deliberate one the ultramarines were also Empire Builders and governors leaders who aimed for a future of unity and their secular Empire of Ultramar was both Forward Thinking and fast growing but lurar didn't take this as a warning he felt humiliated and his faith was shattered without Direction he went into seclusion and in this moment of weakness arabus made his move by this point arabus have risen high in the legion he was first chaplain a confidant to the primarch and the in lettering had long been replaced with tattooed scripture from the book of lar across his scalp it was arabus alongside keron who reminded lar of the old faith of culis arabus and coron the primark's adopted father and now first captain of the Legion never really got on too often Rivals for the primark's attention but they both knew of the old faith and they both witnessed evidence of its variance as they'd fought the great Crusade versions of the old Faith or things similar to it being found on a multitude of worlds in their path if the emperor truly was no God maybe lar would be interested in some real Aldrich Powers it was arabus and coron who organized the pilgrimage lorgar's Quest into the eye of Terror for proof of the chaos powers and when he had that proof it was arabus and cor Faron who slowly corrupted the entire Legion to the worship of chaos over the next few decades now able to act somewhat openly the word bearers were on paper still loyal but the Galaxy's a big place arabus was able to put more plans into action he journeyed to the recently conquered world of Davin and finding the ruins of an ancient chaos worshipping Society there ordered the locals to start rebuilding their old temples foreseeing that they might come in handy one day over the next few years lar would send out emissaries to many of the legions under the guise of spreading the role of Chaplin but also with instructions to create alternate power structures throughout them the warrior lodges is so common in the late Crusade as first chaplain arabus was dispatched to the Luna Wolves as chaplain to Horus himself and he quickly became well known throughout that Legion a confidant of the warm and a regular in the training cages sparring against the Luna Wolves captains it was from that position again close to the center of power that he was able to make his next most fateful move during a diplomatic visit to a rediscovered human civilization known as the interx arabus stole an ancient demon weapon the anath prompting a war when the interx discovered its loss he passed this aname in secret to Eugen tber the new governor of Davin who was eventually corrupted by it and turn traitor against the Imperium when news of this reached the warm arabus stoked horus's need for vengeance since Davin had first been brought into compliance by the Luna Wolves in a meeting on the surface he framed tber as betraying not just the Imperium but Horus himself leading Horus to go after tber personally the resulting Jewel on the moon of Davin saw Horus wounded by the demon weapon and struck into a deep coma whereupon arabus convinced the now sons of Horus captains to allow him to seek a spiritual cure sequestering the war Master away in the serpent Lodge on Davin the same one he'd ordered reconstructed a few years before in the warp arabus had the priests of Davin project him into horus's Consciousness where he enacted his true Masterpiece corrupting Horus to the side of chaos he showed him visions of a nightmare future where horus's contributions were forgotten he framed the Emperor as a liar and a murderer and played on horus's sense of wounded Pride at being left to run the Crusade on his own by the end Horus was resigned to Rebellion how much of all of this was like meticulously pre-planned is impossible to tell arabus had a habit of putting things in motion and then waiting to see how they could be best turned to the service of his Masters though the intention was obviously to corrupt taus eventually just like with the corruption of lurar it's likely that arabus just waited until an opportunity presented itself and then took it trusting that with the theft of the anathem events could be manipulated to his favor but however it was planned Horus did eventually fall during the early heresy arabus stayed by the side of the warm planning the culling of the legions isan 3 and later being instrumental in the Betrayal at the dropsite massacre on isan 5 but after the dropsite massacre he rejoined his Legion as they journeyed to the Eastern Fringe and participated in the Battle of Cal eventually declaring the Betrayal of the ult Marines and the millions dead at Cal a great sacrifice to the dark gods and raising the ruin storm a vast warp storm that would keep the Eastern Galaxy and the loyalist Legions active there isolated from events on terror and unable to intervene from there arabus joined his Primark lar and the world eaters Legion on the shadow Crusade rampaging through the world of Ultramar but it was here that he started to overstep his Mark with both his own Primark and with the warm seeing himself as the true hand of the Gods he became more and more arrogant attempting to corrupt a third primarch he pushed for the deployment of the blood angels and their primarch sanguinius to signus Prime something lar strongly disagreed with and during the shadow Crusade experiencing Visions from his patrons he murdered argal tal leader of the word bearers galak and one of lorgar's favorites when he saw that Aral toal's friendship with khah of the world eaters would stop Khan becoming the chosen of the chaos power Korn this on its own led to a narrow Escape when he found himself fighting for his life against khah in the world e as jeweling pits he narrowly managed to escape through the use of dark magic but it wasn't the last wound he was going to suffer from an ally when he returned to the war Master's side and found that the plan to corrupt the blood angels had failed he raged at Horus himself blaming him for the failure of his plan Horus using arbus's own Athan dagger flayed the chaplain's tattooed flesh from his skull and banished him from his sight for his insolence he was now somewhat removed from the center of power unwelcome in the court of Horus or at the side of lar but for the rest of the heresy arabus continued to manipulate events to the benefit of the dark Gods turning up at various pivotal moments to be a bastard all over the place LED only by his visions and his use of athane daggers to cut through SpaceTime sometimes in disguise and sometimes making use of allies within the trait Alle Legions he dispatched word Bearer forces to Trayaurus under valre Elias to acquire the ultimate McGuffin of the heresy the fulgurite an ancient artifact that he foresaw could be used to kill a primarch he eventually betrayed Elias giving the fulg Gite to the cabal agent John grammaticus in the hope that it would be used to kill Vulcan but for plot reasons that didn't work out during the early solar War he appeared under the gu of a dark Apostle known as the unspeaking which is different to the chapter of the unspeaking also in the word bearers and worked with Aran of the Thousand Sons to create the warp Rift that allowed the traitor forces to bypass the defenses of the solar system and assault Terror directly once the siege of Terror was underway he then sought out and killed erder the reclusive Perpetual who helped the emperor create the primarch in the first place and then followed the trail of her thoughts to attack the companions of of all person on the walls of the Imperial Palace trying to prevent them from reaching and helping the emperor he was stopped by acti formerly siry valan of the word bearers and buried under the rubble of the Imperial walls but he popped up again to fight alongside abadan in the final hours using his dark powers to prevent Constantin valdor and his custodians from reaching lupac car's Court to Aid the emperor and then finally after the defeat of Horus as abadan and his company took possession of the vengeful spirit and attempted their escape he killed garval loan the last loyal Luna wolf creating a cycle of events in the warp that would lead to the creation of the demon Samos and the start of the heresy in the first place and all because of like evil or something of course after the heresy the vengeful Spirit alongside the rest of the surviving traitors was hounded back into the eye of Terror the word bearers Legion took possession of the Demon World of sarius deep in the eye of Terror though lorgar himself went into seclusion to meditate with the chaos Powers arabus as the leading dark Apostle of the Legion became a member of its ruling dark Council often locked in a permanent power struggle with the other members such as core Faron over the legion's next actions as they continued the long war against the Imperium for the following 10,000 years at least of real SpaceTime he was rarely seen though the word bearers were a major force in the 13th Black Crusade where arabus led a vast Fleet against kadia itself in the aftermath of the fall of kadia and the spread of the Great Rift the word bearers LED fleets across the Galaxy attempting to corrupt the Imperium to their old Faith though the exact location of arabus is still a mystery and this is the interesting thing about arabus as a whole he was always something of an opportun unist throughout his long lifetime of self-serving betrayal there were definitely plans or plans within plans designed to hasten the fall of the emperor a nudge here a small corruption there that might be useful in the future but much of the time the great events he set in motion seem to be almost random with arabus confident that his Visions from the gods the twisting tides of fate and his own ability to be at the center of things would allow him to be wherever his patrons needed him to be to steer events in their favor was Horus always meant to fall specifically to Eugen tber or did arabus just trust that something would come up was garval Lan's death really the one thing that was needed to cement the Horus heresy or just another action that might prove meaningful in the warp betrayal has a meaning in and of itself and so arabus will always be there surv riving the wroth of primarch utterly dedicated to his own role as hand of Fate standing behind someone with a knife in his hand ready to further the aims of his dark Gods what a bastard and if you'd like to hear more about the lore of 40K there should be a video just popping up to the right and if you'd like to support the channel click all the usual buttons or there's a link to patreon in the thing below if you join up you can get early access to videos participate in the tale of 4 Gamers and occasionally vote on the next book for our book club see [Music] you

Channel: Arbitor Ian

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Length: 20min 14sec (1214 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2024