THE PRIMARCH PROJECT IN WARHAMMER 40000

the primark project i was born after the unification i have only ever known the safety and security of the imperium i say this as i am told in that age before the unification during old night it did not happen we humans had witnessed such horrors that it barely registered amongst the darkness of those times but then the emperor came and he cast the tyrants down and he brought sanity back to terror the cradle of humanity they say strong men made good times i was a product of those good times and you know what they say about good times i was soft we all were and when it happened it was the worst moment in my life whereas it should have been my greatest my brightest memory i froze i was not alone many of us did but i i dishonored myself i am jumping ahead i had worked so hard yes i was aware that had i been born to another family a less salubrious line i would never have had this opportunity but i was and i did and it did not take away from any of my achievement for i had worked hard as hard as any menial harder even i stole night and day never failing never shirking off never dawdling or wasting time i was aware how little i had [Music] for when there are immortals in your midst it makes things come into stark relief my grandfather had been one of the last to surrender to the emperor of mankind though he hated to do so it was clearly the right choice and the emperor has not aged a day since their meeting since the day he accepted my ancestors acceptance of the inevitable they were static points these mortals the rain fell the sun shone the world revolved around the sun and the emperor and his primarks existed they were timeless ineffable infallible they would shield humanity for all the days of our existence they would lead us into a bright new future yet this fact this one little thing seemed to have changed us all somehow we knew how precious life was a lot of time in it because we had something to compare ourselves against the timelessness of the emperor and his sons even his legions his angels of death they seem to be timeless never to succumb to the harsh truth of reality of time the weakening of the body the summing of the mind the creep towards the date which would be our last day they knew it not even they as astartes so it was not difficult to see why they were venerated so we're near worshipped if we were not in an age of enlightenment of logic of progress then surely we would have fallen on our knees and wept at their advent any of them as many forms of trans-humans his custodian guard his marines his primarks or himself it was hard sometimes i heard from others hard to know that no matter what you did how hard you tried how much we strived none of us would ever even come close to their achievements and we had only one lifetime only one they had all of eternity to add to their legend imagine that to be an alexander or a caesar but to be able to pile achievement upon achievement glory and to glory for all eternity never ending never stopping never weakening or becoming frail they had it all as what some said then hushed terms whispered in dark corners of corridors or when the america flowed too freely jealousy even here on terror it was rife but i could not see it that way i could not imagine being a servant of humanity its guardian and protector its general and brightest light but to know that your trials would never end that your role would be forever imagine that i pitted them in a way not in a negative or hollow condescending way never that but i went for their trials for the burden that would seemingly never be lifted from their shoulders and from my perspective it was impossible not to thank them to be beholden to them to know that their superhuman abilities were needed as no mortal man could possibly take on this responsibility without end they were asked to do this forever i know the propaganda when the galaxy is free of the taint of xenos when the stars have been brought to heal when the enemies of humanity have been defeated when the hatred of us has been revenged when we were safe then they could lay down their mantles and only then but i could not compromise this for the galaxy is so large its horror so manifold it's dangerous so multitudinous i saw no end to their duty and in this i mean no disrespect to their abilities their ardor the conviction if anyone could dominate the galaxy then surely it was the emperor and his sons but i had that sinking feeling that they would never be free never be able to say this has been done we can rest now for there are always more enemies always more deviants than xenos in the dark hidden regions of the galaxy always and so i woke each morning with this feeling my drive i would assist them i would aid them i would extol their virtues i would give credit where it was due it was all i had to give but i would give it i would record their deeds i would be one of the core who would witness their hardships would show the rest of humanity what was being done in their name what sacrifices were being made for their protection for their safety i would be a remembrancer and my hard work paid off for this was supposed to be my day there were others of course a score of us had been chosen from the region some poets some singers artists or dancers even i i was a historian and a damn good one for otherwise i would not be in those chosen my exhaustive history of the unspeakable king and his never-born was what took me over the finishing line i believe what made me stand out i was told it was not the thoroughness or detail of my work it was the analysis that i won me the place my parents were so proud we were of a lesser house so to be chosen was a great feather in my father's cap my brother the eldest born would also gain some luster at court due to it and they dreamed of receiving personal messages and updates from the very cutting edge of the crusade i would fill them in on juicy information they could use to further their standing of court for all doted on the reports from the front the glorious litany of victories that constantly rolled into the capital world and were disseminated so loudly it was a time of constant jubilation for despite the hardships and privations we all experienced we knew it was for the right reason for the right cause we were winning the glorious armies of humanity were led by the master of mankind and his transhuman sons they simply could not be defeated in fact with the exception of the dark ears as rang dang xenoscience there seemed to be nothing in the galaxy that could resist our armies our legions our space marines but in all of my study in all of my tireless activity and all of my secret pride at my cleverness i had never once availed myself of the picked viewers i treated it all like an academic task a challenge and despite how much time i devoted to their study how much i thought i knew them their trials their secret travails their hardships i had never once seen one move not once how could i know how but then how could i not know it had a name it was a known condition a realistic and logical reaction identified catalogued and annotated yet i missed that as much as i missed the reality of my own situation i was a fool the day came i was so excited i was fit to burst as always my family tried to relax me to bring out a laugh but not this day the event should be somber before becoming a celebrant it was a reward but one heart earned and there was nothing funny or to be gested about the honor of it all or some i thought that day i was going to receive my papers my mission my status as a remembrancer from one of the sons of the emperor himself one would be there to hand my remit to me i could not believe it i knew i would meet one in my new role but they were all without fighting doing what they were born to do leading the fleets and armies of the crusade but one had come to terror briefly it is true but one had returned and they had been allotted to my ceremony i would see one first hand i thought i was ready i thought the biggest issue i would face would be not gabbling out a million questions trying to wait until i was assigned to a fleet before being able to interrogate one of these beings of light and i was prickly with my family due to the nerves but they knew me so they ceased their prodding they stopped the jibes they just smiled to each other as we processed to our conveyance and i felt like a lord of the imperium when we flew through the ants my new uniform pristine my identification and invitation clutched to my chest so tightly i took what i imagined would be one of my last looks at terror for i would soon be shipped off into the crusade i had to burn the memory of this place onto my mind so i could explain the differences between it and the many myriads of worlds i would see so i could explain to the denizens of the court in words so they would understand i knew i would see splendor and horror beyond the cane of any who remained on terror i was one of the elect we lighted and then slowly walked to the venue's core a summer day the light bright the air as crisp as could be expected on terror it was the perfect day the perfect venue i joined the other candidates direct as we stood before the stage all looking up at the empty podium behind us sat in lines of chairs our families and friends the highborne of terror massed for a moment of glory but that is when it happened the moment i can never take back the moment my life course changed my predicted life ended for they were late all new their pointed moment had come and gone but strangely for an audience who are unaccustomed to waiting for anything there was no background buzz of rising chatter there was no hum of complaint and whispered to and fro betwixt families or those seated close by we were awaiting a son of the emperor a primark no matter the delay we all knew it was for the very best of reasons he was busy so we would wait then it happened perhaps due to the lightness perhaps because this one was not versed in their effect on normal mortals but it happened the curtain on the stage was drawn back but as it did they were already moving such economy of motion such speed such confidence the beings that marched forward were huge armored from head to toe in war plate they towered over all but with the elevated position it only made matters worse there were two astartes on either side of him their armor shone in the morning light their footfalls created such an echo and a polished marble that it sounded around the entire area and there he was in the center a goliath who dwarfed even the space marines at his flanks he was massive his bearing imperius was worldly almost blank and something inside me snapped it was not just the sized armor the intent the wave of aggression that hit us all like a tsunami like a slap across the face but this was only the initial shock it was how they moved impossible their speed it made blurs of their arms as they swung them up and down in the march and they marched at us it did something to most of us i heard screaming i heard chairs flipped over and people backing off in terror but i did not see them i could not even see the people around me not beside me not behind me not even some of the urchins who had snuck into high places to try to snatch a glimpse of the living god we were about to meet all i could see were the marines and their master it consumed me i was stapled to the spot unable to breathe in case it drew their attention i could not scrap my eyes and stop the shattering of my mind my future i just stood there and then it started while the crowd backed away i opened my mouth my eyes wide and a noise came out a whale like an alarm erupting from my stomach through my chest and out of my mouth i just stood there wailing as my urine ran down my shaking legs i had never seen one never how could i know i unmanned myself the titanic being seemed confused for a moment then nodded its head he knew he had been warned who cautioned it seemed but took no note of it when he had arrived she'd been one of the last found of all their number in the days they came after i made a million excuses for him but it did not matter the damage was done he took immediate action he stopped his walk to the podium and outstretched his hands as he then slowly moved forward now his marines stopped by a single hand gesture he spoke slowly he spoke calmly as he then approached the podium and stopped there he began a known and quite lengthy greeting on the behalf of the emperor as we were all highborn we knew the words as familiarity calmed everyone there then he went on and his centaurian tones calmed aw no more screaming no more retreat embarrassed most picked up their chairs again and tentatively sat back down enraptured by his speech he did this so calmly and he turned the event around and he even stayed calm when i continued my whale he merely looked down into my eyes so gently so knowingly and closed them then reopened them slowly and he smiled the warmest smile i have ever seen he smiled at me and nodded then went on to look around the crowd again and i calmed i closed my mouth but i still could not move i was transfixed i was a statue and when the names were called for the remembrances to attend he did not even call mine out we were in order so he knew he knew my name and he omitted it at its end me standing there alone he stepped down from the stage and slowly hooks up very slowly walked toward me with his arms wide and greeting but to all it must have looked like a shepherd trying to calm a terrified grogs i could do nothing but stare as he encompassed my entire vision he smiled at me again but there was a change of sadness in his eyes in the curl of his lips he looked down on me and he spoke to me to me alone his voice was projected so strangely how he did that i never will know be able to talk so softly just to me so personally yet so that all there could hear he told me that i should not be ashamed that he had erred and he apologized to me he apologized he explained that it was a known phenomenon it was called transhuman dread he stated it was not my fault but his he should have been more careful but he also stated that one who suffered from transhuman dread could not be a remembrancer he did his best so knows why he was so unspeakably kind he stated to all that i had been the one he most wished to meet that he had read my treatise and had requested me personally as a remembrancer for his fleet that of all here the elect i was chosen he then said he would send me reports he would send me the deeds and details as none other for i could then spend my days in that which i was most skilled to do to tell the tales he related in a way that the people of the imperium could understand could experience he said it was my most important duty it was not necessary for me to be amongst the crusade to contribute beyond any historian who had ever lived he said i better serve the imperium by remaining here and performing my mighty works and each word crashed down on me like a mountain not because i'd wasted my life not because i had failed at the very last hurdle not because i just shamed my family and myself and i knew despite his pretty words i would never outlive this calmney i was crushed by the weight of his words because they slept from a thing that should not could not be a living god spoke to me my mind collapsed under the weight of it transhuman dread he called it and all i can ever think in my most secret most private moments will i ever imagine when my mind rebels against the need for sleep haunting my everyday my every hour is this how can anyone or anything stand against the power of our armies our marines our primarks they will do it they will conquer the galaxy and not just this one but all galaxies all worlds all stars in the universe for surely none nothing can stand against such sheer unadulterated power welcome gentle listener i am baltimore your faithful servant and i wish to introduce you to the factions forces and faces of the warhammer 40k universe the grim darkness of the far future where there is no time for peace there is only time for war and today we shall be discussing one of the most important projects to have ever been attempted one of the most audacious to ever be realized one that must surely stand up against such titanic events as the creation of dodem gate or the discovery of warp travel it was a project that changed the face of the entire milky way galaxy of course i can only be speaking of the primark project of the emperor of mankind the protector of humanity a good chunk of the entire setting revolves so heavily around those futuristic parodies of 19 shining armor the space marines that it is difficult to imagine the grim darkness without them but it is in the primark project that their genesis is found for not only the legendary 21 demigods of battle were created in the peachy dishes of the savants under the himalayan mountains but through them the legiones astartes the emperor's own angels of death his space marines this was not done all at once there was no straight path from conception to realization for even the emperor and his chosen aides had to make mistakes could not create the finished product the first time out of the gate so let us now delve into the nuances in history of the creation of the primarks and let us ask the most poignant questions to begin our quest for enlightenment and for this we shall take the opposite tack to most historians for them the line is who what when where how and finally why but we shall begin with this question the why of the matter what did the emperor need with such weapons why did the emperor create the prior marks so let us begin for one conscious believes a reason most bulk at the magnitude of it all the sheer scope for the emperor the ultimate human the protector of our entire race he would do nothing less than threaten the very gates of heaven or more to put it the gates of hell all for us it is in his history and his experience that we find the need to drive the very mandate to do as he did for he was born to perform this task the emperor of mankind was a perpetual who was birthed at the very beginnings of civilization perpetuals are a rare form as human that age only up to a certain point then they are effectively trapped in time or mostly they do not age they do not get ill and they do not die of natural causes at the least but more than this should any of them be attacked and slain full and their bodies broken or be destroyed in any other way by only two they will return their injuries will heal their body parts regrow their heart restarts and their lungs snatch out again and they were truly immortal yet they were gifted in other ways as well most were psyches those able to detect touch and manipulate the astral plane the sea of souls the material the warp but as with all things there were those who were more blatantly talented than others and the most talented of them all was the emperor he was so potent that his consort as close to an equal as he ever came described his power as being more than all of the other perpetuals combined that had they rallied all of them and stood against him they still would have been outmatched this is newer information in the law but it does not effectively change anything from my point of view at this present moment for the emperor to me is still the combination of the souls of the shaman of earth they gathered and knew that they were being stalked that humanity had enemies in the ether enemies of the future whose hands stretched backwards in time to this point and they slew themselves as one so they could combine their soul's potent into the one receptacle the one being for they were all gifted as psyches and wise men of women to be called shamans at all the ultimate human to watch over all of the wraith as otherwise their spirits would be taken one by one and humanity would be defenseless to those dark forces in that war hence were the reincarnated souls of the entire shaman class made into the emperor now why square this circle by stating that the souls of most went to the emperor and perhaps the later perpetuals were merely fragments of this ritual that did not quite make it to the whole and of course that one perpetual who came first was just a precursor a couple of souls merged together who couldn't quite wait hence for me the perpetual should always have been drawn to one another as they were always intended to be one the emperor but in any case the perpetuals all met and worked with the emperor at one point or another for he was a leader through and through he commanded respect by action he drove many forward by his will and example alone now this could intimidate and anger those around him for as they would all attest they could not keep up but they also did not agree with him on so many things perhaps it was his enhanced ability intellect wisdom connection to a warp it is impossible to say or perhaps it was to drive from his genesis his reason to live being to protect his race and his inherent knowledge the time was always against him against his plans but he was utterly without doubt as any man of conviction is if they know there is no option but to win no choice whatsoever this came across as arrogance so there were strains with many and wars with some of his perpetual brothers and sisters his fellow immortals throughout time facing one another either as friends and colleagues as adversaries and bitter enemies but he always won out always and he has been lies throughout all of human history regularly if not frequently he has attempted to step in to guide humanity onto his golden path he has been many figures in history who have been teachers and prophets he's attempted to stay mostly in the background but his fingerprints and those of the other perpetuals are littered throughout human history and they all know what he aims at the swift evolution of humanity for he knows it must be done before we are consumed utterly in this reality the grim darkness of the warhammer setting the dark gods thirst for the souls of humanity and three of the four are connected to us far more than any other beings in the universe though the eldar make a superbly sweet treat it is humanity that they wish to make their thralls it is us the last creations of car the last of the old ones the emperor stepped back for many millennia when the race was headed exponentially upward when we were reaching our peak the golden age of technology but when the birth pangs of slanish destroyed the human hegemony by stopping all warp travel he was forced to move in the background he had always been researching always been trying to find the keys to what was needed the very technologies that the old ones used to create us and so many other races across the galaxy the power of genetics the harnessing of directed evolution it was almost poetic why due to his programming or perhaps due to his experience for the emperor had not just been a confucius or a solomon but also a son george he had struck down the void dragon when it rampaged on earth in the dark days of early medieval savagery the emperor knew the power of the dark gods he felt their birth each and every one of them he knew their genesis what had not given the most power perhaps but had given them the most form it was humanity his own race imagine living in a world where magic and summonings and demons are also very real then imagine you witnessed every age of humanity all that had been done in the name of these terrors and that you knew their eyes were set on earth the genocide wars that torture corruption and pestilence unleashed on humanity most times using humanity to perform it this was work as the enemy the dark guards of chaos that is why he was so adamant so rushed so directed so indefatigable he was the only one who could fathom the menace the danger the reactions of herder to her part in the matter clearly show she had not even an iota of realization of the power and threat of the enemy not one eyeoter not really and it was made all too clear to the perpetuals what was at stake when old night settled in or it should have been when the horrors of the age of strife unfolded before their very eyes but i will be brief on this element as we must cover the age of strife and unification wars in more detail at another point let it just be known that of all the wars that have ever been fought in all of the history of the galaxy there are three that stand out the most the war in heaven the hornet's heresy and the unification wars personally i believe that unification wars were far worse than the heresy yet only for the numbers involved as horus's rebellion always touted as the most cataclysmic from my reading of the law the half-hidden truth the scant and oblique references the unification wars were literally held on earth and it was this hell that bred the need for such radical action such an impossible task the dark gods were rife on earth which was then called terror psyches of witch cults of immense power demon princes in their entourages stole the very surface of terror the remains of the most vicious weapons of the previous age were now under the control of mad tech bibarian tyrants all the technology of the age of wonders in the hands of psychopathic barbarians and gene tech enhanced monsters were as prevalent in the armies of those despots as were the unclean of the warp it was hell and somehow he and his allies had to take it all of it before they could do ought else they had to reclaim terror for humanity it was in this backdrop that the plans were made for the emperor would not move until the death of the unspeakable king the one man he ever feared but to take terror from such enemies from such horrors it required he made horrors of his own as stated the emperor was trying to create more advanced more involved humans so he was a master geneticist and surrounded himself with more of them at every opportunity and thus he took his long-term plans and he condensed them he made his custodian guard custodies were the most developed humans possible with his craft they were huge larger even than the later astartes yet their manufacturer was too time and resource heavy they were his guard but they could not be his army they simply cost too much so he created his thunder warriors and the template some say they came from the angel the forerunner of the primarks he had to use his own dna that of a perpetual to create all of it but he could not do it alone and had to use the genes of his consort erda the one who had stuck with him throughout the ages so in a very real way the primarks and the astartes were as much the children of urdha as they were his the sander warriors were also huge larger than a marine but not as large as a custodian some reports state but they were things made for a tragic and terrible war the most brutal war of them all their unification wars they were recruited for the most animalistic and terrifying of all the populations that the emperor brought into his imperium he malkador and erda were the prime movers but they had no choice is what he would always tell them and he may have been right but the use of the perpetual dna allowed their creations to be so much more than human so much more than the gene warriors of other warlords because their very beings were resistant to a warp and all of its spawn not proof from but more resistant than any and this was necessary due to the number and power of the hell spawn on tenor it is truly a wonder that the imperial truth was taken up at all with demons and horrors of the warp having been in the very center of the wars but then the war did not take years it did not take decades it took centuries and it took decades after the last flag had fallen before they strode out into the universe with their imperial truth as the core tenet of the crusade well that and revenge the thunder warriors the legion is contiguous they were wild and dangerous themselves but they were loyal to him to him alone their emperor their power was only matched by the instability of their design for they would have heart attacks twist inside out under their skin totally break down at any moment especially during combat but this was the price of speed the corners the emperor may have cut or perhaps he built in this fragility this failing on purpose but in any case they did not last they had nothing of the longevity of the custodies and the later astartes and that grated on them at the time the angel was being of such grandeur it can only have been the precursor of sanguinius but it was so much more its light drove away chaotic influence and beings before it and its ability to slaughter was unmatched it destroyed demons and psyches alike and flew on its golden wings surrounded by a coroner of power directly into the midst of any army it was set against and it destroyed them all alas like the thunder warriors this angel who outshone even the primarks was flawed at the height of its youth it went mad it flew to a city on another planet and destroyed every living thing there all humans it stated they were not worthy of the love of the emperor it then went out in concentric circles slaughtering every city it crossed and it did all of this in a day and the emperor was forced to inter it in a very special trap in a very special place he did not destroy it but it was of no further use to him thus the unification war progressed as the thunder warriors and custodian guard led by the emperor malcolm took empire after empire and their resources grew while his armies did this the research the great work continued and the primark project was begun but this was not just an act of science in gene craft no for the emperor knew that his greatest enemy would ever be chaos their minions would be at war with his for all eternity if he did not forge weapons strong enough to end the deadlock and defeat them once and for all this was always his goal to defeat cows so his sons should be things that would be able to fight the west the dark gods could throw at them and so the emperor used all of his mystic might in their creation a might that some say was not his own was borrowed from the enemy themselves on moloch but we should get to that at another time the emperor used warp power to enhance the primarks it is not entirely known at this point and it may never be known but many believe that the primarks had powerful entities grafted to their all-too-human souls others believe that he bequeathed some small fraction of his own power to his sons to his primarks no matter the source the primarks are not just super soldiers they are beings of light in equal measure they truly are as akin to him as is possible to any who was not born a perpetual each primark was huge powerful and intelligent to a level that was almost impossible they each had specialities their strengths their purposes but all were made for one thing really war they would be the leaders of his armies his legiones astartes each primark was also the genetic template for their legion each marine a tiny copy of their splendor they were not as individually strong or as fast as standard warriors his marines but they were stable both of body mind and spirit and they were effectively immortal they died but not of age or sickness and they were sponges for information on questioning in their duty and loyalty and utterly without fear they would need to be for they would face all of the zenos the alien races of the galaxy and they would be tasked with bringing them all low to free all of humanity across the entire galaxy not just the old colonies of the human hegel many of old no the emperor had seen too much had endured too much even then although there was not a rampant time myopic rabid xenophobia of the age of the imperium the crusade was not gentle to those they met they had been raised on the tails of the traitorous attacks on humanity during old night even previous allies had turned on us and they were not gentle at all and they would defeat all they met but it was most often due to the abilities of the marines not only possibly due to the brilliance of their leaders of the primarks each was a general of astonishing ability and they used their sons their lesions like fine crafted scaffolds perhaps the crusade would have been successful without their inspired leadership perhaps but if they had not existed had not helped had not led then the crusade would have taken millennia if not more they as much as the astartes and the billions of support armies fleets and technical support staff that they took with them they dominated the galaxy almost but it was not as it should have been for the emperor was betrayed he had designed his sons and gifted them his jeans and those of udder he had clothed him in dark power and he had made them homes under the himalayans the emperor's path deeper even than his labs there was a lake and around that artificial lake were villas twenty villas for his twenty sons but the last were twins alfair is an omagon so twenty one of them were made yet they did not enjoy one moment of these villas for they were not raised on terror under the watch or guiding eye of the emperor malcador because the emperor was betrayed erda his consort she took truck with a path that her husband had laid out for them she did not wish the primarks to be weapons of war despite being complicit in every step of the project she told herself that she was saving them from their father that his dreams would use them all up she told herself that she was setting them free when she worked with agents of the dark gods to spread them throughout the universe she knew of the enemy she had witnessed the power of the dark guards was near as old as the emperor himself so she would have known of their birth through him if not from herself she would have walked through all of time seeing crusades and wards and plagues and horrors all performed in their names yet she took her own sons and threw them into the warp into the very clutches of the dark guards they were scattered across the galaxy so in one manner she was right but the results of her actions the influences that changed them not being raised as brothers not being raised by the emperor malcolm erda as had been planned it was the footstep of doom to the entire human race and everything that has happened since all of the pain misery and slaughter that came later every last inch of it is on her it is erda's fault she was too weak and listen to the blandishments of chaos she betrayed one man she knew was fighting them the one man who could possibly win against them her companion of tens of thousands of years the emperor but it was her children the primarks who paid the price the terrible terrible cost of her meddling he had no choice usually a reunification was a thing of joy a moment of triumph the son of the emperor had been found the whole of humanity was enriched by the news celebrations will be declared that will last for weeks all across the stars all of mankind would come together for a lost primark had been found but not that day but not that time not for him the red angel not for the lord of the twelfth not for angran i was there i had been rotated into close proximity many times that leg of the crusade the emperor once stopped as he processed past me and just leaned in and whispered in my ear you are my lucky talisman on this expedition stay close i was honored and bemused in equal measure for it seemed so unlike him not to talk to one of us for he spoke to us all individually we were his and he talked with us not at us more than any i had ever witnessed but possibly malcador of course even his sons it always struck me as odd the complexity of their relationships the father and his sons the king and his generals the master craftsmen and his tours depending on how you look at things depending on who you asked when where and why but i was with him like a shadow that campaign for it troubled me luck talisman these were not his usual fare what harrowed my lord so what disrupted his calm nothing untoward happened for months battle after battle world after world i was his shadow and i only knew why he turned and looked at me that time the moment when he knew he wanted one person just one to know to understand for he summoned me on the night before it happened just the two of us spoke others were present of course but he only spoke with me he was somber he looked the same but there was a depth to his sigh a resignation in his stars he started by telling me of an aquatic animal of ancient earth how it perpetually hunted how it could never rest and if it did if it ever stopped moving hunting staying it would die not out of hunger not out of thirst not out of age it would die of inactivity it would die as its only reason to live was to hunt [Music] he then spoke to me a time of hurry or the consternation of the slowness of our progress he spoke to me of knowing what was happening out there in the dark beyond the fringes of the imperium beyond the reach of our crusade the terror and horror that was being inflicted on humanity the pain that was rife in the dreaming the anger he felt at what was still to be done the errors and mutilations that could have been prevented if he had only been faster it was one time i ever heard him doubt regret so much so much pressure was on him to be able to see into the void of space and hear the cries of your own people to be able to cast your mind into those places and bear witness to the tyranny inflicted on us i am custodians i am master of my emotions but i am also trained by my lord the master of mankind to know them to acknowledge them to experience them for we are human we cast all these far more than the legionaries and i near wept for the desolation i saw in the reflection of his eyes [Music] he could not would not weep i was concerned for him that perhaps just perhaps the wars had taken their toll that this one night was the beginning of potentially many was i to be his counselor as those closer to him were his considium that no it was the next days that proved he needed me to know what happened he needed one person alone to truly understand angran we found him perplexed at the readings from the screens we looked for corners he had obviously gained command of an army yet he had not dominated his world he was outnumbered and maneuvered the next morning he would be dead amongst his vastly outplayed foes we looked on aghast near mind numbing was this news to all of us it made absolutely no sense he was a primark [Music] then he met angron the master of mankind met him and saw what they had done to him these barbarous butchers they had cut into his brain and left a cybernetic death sentence a set of nails that drove down into his very mind he was broken they had destroyed him the people on this world had taken a primark child and twisted it into a killing machine it was an abomination and he had not prevented it and god now had an expiry date a timeless being had a time later investigation merely proved what he and we custody suspected it was permanent and it was ongoing and the emperor had to make a choice be it to protect the return on investment or protection of a mutilated son he did the only thing he could to elongate his existence he let him hate he gave anger on reason to carry on hating him how it must have hurt the emperor if he were a normal man it would break him break any to be hated so much but he did it for his son he did it for number 12 some would have said it but he had no choice because that night he was speaking of his son he had seen it all was during our very conversation trying to come to terms with what he already knew they had destroyed his son number 12 angry and he could either aid him in his rebellion and then take his men and women into the stars as brand new astartes but that that would have taken so much of angran's hate his only reason to live the thing that was keeping him going his hatred and his pain so to save his son who could not be saved to just buy him some more time perhaps to permit him to make at least something of a mark on the galaxy the perhaps might be remembered he allowed his son to hate him so much so much that he would be so low hanging fruit ready to be plucked from the branch by any who would offer him a chance at revenge the emperor allowed this allowed 12 to exist where a swift blow to the neck with a glaive would have perhaps have been kinder he did this not two twelve not two angron but for him and it is something i despise from the bottom of my soul for he will ever be verified for an act so loving so selfless that he risked all for his son for the broken andron and when he gave the order when that word passed to the teleport tarum and angram was robbed of his last battle with his founding family the emperor looked deep into my eyes and he saw he saw it he saw that ayah understood as others looked at him blankly obeying but not able to condone his harshness i nodded to him i should a tear for him for his son for what would come for how this would seem and i was unused he never singled me out again not until the dark days of the webway and despite how much i loved being near him i did not begrudge it for we had shared too much so we have discussed the why we have discussed the when we have discussed the what now let us discuss that which many find the most gripping element let us discuss the who the emperor went out into the universe at the head of his legions of space marines and as they conquered one by one the primarks were found for they all landed on human populated worlds as if by design chaos we shall do this not in order of the primarks by number but by the order of being found for this in itself is fundamentally important so one can understand the dynamics that were created between them i shall be brief in my rundown as the characters are so important that each and every one will require their own larger videos but do know that i have covered both rogueldorn and fulgrim should your interest be peaked today horus lupercal the first to be found was horus lupercal the 16th primark he was found so early in the crusade that he spent decades with the emperor as his lone understudy and protege the emperor grew to trust him so much to love him so much that he later gave him the title of war master when he returned to terror to move on his webway project he elevated this first found sun over all others so horus was left in charge what i believe to be the emperor's most dire era was this decision and i suspect it was due to the last vestiges of his humanity that he did this because as i will attempt to show in the future he left taurus in charge as it would have broken his heart above all others to have anyone elevated above him yet horus was not strong enough and he eventually went over to chaos and in this one decision the war masters treachery the galaxy burned his lesion was initially called the lunar wolves but were later renamed the sons of horus due to the singular honor of being made warmaster horus was slain by his father on the bridge of his capital ship the vengeful spirit but he crippled the emperor in return and forced him to be entered upon the golden throne horus led the sons of the sixteenth legion lehman russ the wolf floored the sixth primark he was found on the world of fenris a cold ice plant with more than an echo of the norse myths about them their waters were filled with krakens their hands were trolls and wolves and bears the cold was an enemy the world itself an adversary but he managed to dominate the tribes of his world when found he and the emperor had a drinking then an eating then a fighting contest the emperor won and from that day onwards the wolf lord has been his most ardently loyal hunter he and his legion have been executioner as well not only on fenris when neiman russ broke the back of his brother magnus but before lehman stayed true during the heresy but his rage near killed him he took his fleet and boarded the very flagship of the war master and here slew horus but his humanity stopped him and in that moment of weakness his chance was lost he was rapacious during the scouring hounding the traitors out of reality into the eye of terror then one day he went into the stars and was seen no more his sons have been searching for him since his legion was called the space wars they were the sixth legion redacted the second pie mark but nothing remains of his tales but half truths and lies all record of his life and his legion were removed by order of the emperor himself his name was removed from the annals and his statue taken down there are hints of his activities but that is for another day ferris manus doughty ferrous manus was found next the 10th primark he was raised on a volcanic world and dueled a being of metals that can only be found in necron design thus his arms were made silver coated in the necrodermis of this defeated foe melted in lava known as the gorgon an epithet gifted by his closest brother his friend fulgrim the two were closer than any of the siblings until the very end less is known of freyrus and many of the other primarks as he was saying so early in the heresy but his sons took the blow hard this legion was long the recipient of a curse of madness performed an evil in the warp for they despised their own bodies considering the flesh as weak but this would not have been the wish of ferrous matters for he was not an ignorant general he was just single-minded he did what he did for the benefit of humanity for his race for his father for himself he saw the good in it all and when fulgrim went to turn feathers from the emperor he stood firm he would always be loyal and later in the ergo depression of estevan he paid his life for it he led the iron hands they were the tenth legion fulgrim the palentine phoenix he was the third primark he landed on a planet who were regressing to death stagnation was everywhere but he grew to understand the machines and then to improve on them and in mere years he turned the entire planet around acted as a leader he transformed their society and brought them back into the light a patron of the arts as much as the mechanics of production he elevated all around him he was one of the first found and thus he should have been one of the most successful he had the talent and drive he had the vision but his legion did not exist accidents and issues had eliminated the gene seed of his army so he had to build it slowly over time and live in the shadow of others while doing so never able to shine he was great friends with first manners but he was well liked by many ribbed too much perhaps as he overstepped he had classic small legion syndrome but in the end it was not his lack of love for the emperor that took him to the side of chaos it was a cursed blade that bewitched and twisted him slowly gaining power over him until he stuck his own brother's head off his shoulders then he gave up and permitted the demon full control of his body but of all of the falls to evil his was not a choice even horus had a choice all of them had one but fulgrim for chaos feared him as much as the angel so they destroyed him pilgrim went on to become a demon primark to hold their theme that struck down gilman it was today and has been spotted in real space he led the emperor's children they were the third legion vulcan the largest of body warmest of heart the 18th primark falcon was found on the world of nocturne and he was challenged by the emperor they took to a hunt for mighty worms salamanders of fire that were as large as leaden but when the emperor threw his catch down to make a place for vulcan to land he saved him despite losing the proof of his victory vulcan was brought over to the lord of humanity enthusiastically he was a man of patience pity and craft erring the fires of the forge if not the fires of battle he made many great artifacts but he was also a perpetual from his father he had been gifted the life of a true immortal the only one of his brothers to receive this he was saying again and again by the traitors after being taken at estheran but he endured he came back and then he escaped he returned through many difficult ways but he made it to terror to be there at the end of the heresy ever the most humane of the primarks his priority was always the safety of the people not the destruction of his enemies he led the salamanders they were the 18th legion rogul dawn the left hand of the emperor and the praetorian of terror he was the seventh primark rogue was always taciturn and serious yet his heart burned with a cold anger that few could face he was asked to fight against not only his older most cherished brother horus but all of those brothers who had cast in their lot with horus he had assistance from jagatai and lehman at points had a final moment with his brother sanguinius but for the greater part of the heresy he fought them all alone he is the rock on which the imperial defense was set and his tireless work was all that kept the dark guards from smashing down the walls of the imperial palace near a decade before they actually got there he fought so hard for so long but he could not stop what was written in the sands of time he could not stop the destruction of the emperor's body he was ever the most loyal of all of the sons of the emperor he went missing during a boarding action against the first black crusade bedella whispers rogel led the imperial fists they were the seventh legion rubut gileman the avenging son he was the thirteenth primark when the emperor met reboot it was to find him in charge of a growing empire in the stars he had brought peace to his world then set out to the local region he had brought prosperity efficiency and health to all of his growing realm and he greeted the emperor as a lost family member from there reboot evra the consummate administrator and planner was given the command of his legion he went on to be one of the most swift and efficient of all the crusade forces his army was supplied perfectly and his marines outnumbered near all of the others after the rang dancing aside their numbers even surpassed those of the now shattered first reboot would be the only primark not to engage in the scouring he and his ultramarines were left to protect the imperium from outside influences xenos foes while the rest destroyed the traitor legions he was one of the last to fall as well his life put on hold when he was cut by a chaos cursed blade in the hands of his fellow primark but now deemed corrupted fulgrim but it was also reboot who has returned fast he was placed in stasis after his wound but taken from it nearly ten thousand years later and he is now the lord protector of the imperium the only loyalist primark active he led the ultramarines they were the settings legion magnus the red the crimson king he was the 15th primark he met the emperor before ever the master of mankind he even stepped foot on this world of his exile for magnus was the most gifted cycle of all of his brothers he conversed with the emperor by telepathy many years before he was physically reunited with the crusade and his advent his return to the imperium was the very salvation of his sons for his lesion were being twisted due to a mutation and his very genes were thought to have saved them to stabilize them but this was not the case he brought his knowledge of magic and right with him into the crusade magnus also worked with yagatai and sanguinius to form the librarians the psycho space marines who could use the warp as a tool and a weapon but magnus was tricked he was laid down wrong paths by the greatest liar of them all for the dark godz set his eye upon magnus from a very early age it was the god who had cured his men of the mutations it was the dark gods who would then save him when his father sent lehman russ magnus had been so loyal to his father that even broke the rules which banned wizardry all in an attempt to warn the emperor of the betrayal of horus he had tried to stop horus falling but he could not so he warned his father but the spell he sent to smash through the walls of the defenses of the pass on terror it went too far he went too far and he broke the wards but in so doing he acted on the behalf of the dark gods and broke the bubble in the web ways that his father had made it was the emperor's greatest work so the emperor sent demon rust to bring magnus to explain himself horus intercepted this communique and changed the orders and lehman russ killed magnus at the last zinc stepped in and took magnus's spirit and his sons to the warp he is a demon primark now having given himself over utterly to zinch he led the thousand sons they were the 15th legion sanguinius the angel he was the ninth primark in many ways he was the ultimate son he was so alike to his father even reboot commented on this when he gave him command of the imperium secundus a blatant mutation was all that barred his perfection but it was a hearkening back to the angel of prototype he had huge white wings coming from his shoulders strong enough to carry him even armored into the skies and he was a psycho and a warrior par but it was in his warm way his ability to always see the best in his brothers in humanity that made him so like his father and his wrath it was a thing to behold for it was akin to their fathers again he was possibly the most dangerous of all primarks possibly but in the end analysis he was most powerful as a package yet he saved his legion from a life of savagery and being sneered at and he turned them into arguably the most noble legion of them all but he died so his father could live so he could be victorious for in the last moments of the heresy it was sanguinis who got to the bridge first it was sanguineous who was tempted one last time and it was sanguineous who then fought horus so hard so valiantly that he made a [ __ ] in his brother's armor he gave his life so horus had a weakness when he faced the emperor and the worst of it is that he knew for he was a precognitive and he saw it before he even made the decision to go with the emperor in their last full-on hope on the attack his songs were cursed by corn previously and his death shattered their psychic stability leading to the curse of the black rage where his sons see through his eyes see the battle on eventual spirit sanguinius led the blood angels they were the ninth legion lionel johnson the lion the first primark an instinctual tactician like an alexander but he never met his match in battle in a duel yes but not in battle the lion was raised on caliban a feral world of knights and monsters but these monsters were born of the warp and their balance had been delicate when the emperor arrived on caliban the lion had dominated it as had near all his brothers he had gone into the woods and forests delved the darkest corners of his world and he had expunged all that was there he had destroyed the warped beasts when the emperor took him into the imperium he gave to him command of his sons the first they were the legion that had fought with the emperor the longest they he trusted more than any other they had weaponry that others had not been granted as much as the rus was the executioner of the emperor the lion and his first legion were also a threat so they were the largest for so long the most numerous only second to horus's victories for the lion roared and swept through the galaxy conquering at a frightening rate until the ranked hands cena signs but none others could stop them two had already tried and failed so the emperor said the first and he diminished their numbers though it exalted them in glory perhaps he should have been war master for he made all of the others instinctively wary cowered many and he was brilliant but he always liked grace he act finesse he could not motivate the hearts of his brothers the lion now sleeps beneath the shattered remains of his world of caliban in the rock for he was injured bitterly when he returned from the scouring and his second luther had turned to chaos they dueled and he was wounded none know of his presence but all pray that one day he will return for of all of the sons of the emperor he was perhaps the one most feared by chaos he led the dark angels they were the first legion perturbo the lord of iron the fourth primark oddly aware of things as instinctive knowledge landing on a cut-throat world of cunning and deceit perturbo was self-raised until his services were of value then he became a commodity he was cursed in more than one way only the twisted would say blessed for he was aware of the eye of terror at all times he felt it looking down on him like a premonition a fixed watcher and he did not build bonds on that world for he knew the plays that were taking place he read the people around him like an open book and saw their selfish intent but made him bitter and very resentful and when he was met by the emperor and gifted his legion he decimated it not for failure not a cowardice but for not reaching their potential he broke his lesion to his will as he broke every situation every enemy or challenge to his will he was unstoppable but this led to him being left in unwinnable wars of attrition so adapted he formed such harsh recruitment replenishment that he could sustain the losses but he was irked by the special treatment the lording of his siblings when horus came to him it was easy and perturbo served as a tactician of horus especially during the siege of terror but even then he did not gain his due he was chased from reality like his brother traitors he became a demon primark but none had seen him since his apostosis he led the iron warriors they were the fourth legion mortalian the pale king the fourteenth primark he was raised in a harder a world a smog cloud covered planes worse the higher you went and atop the highest peaks there were ancient evils beings of warp power and spell and hate they dominated the humans and it was they who raised mortalian he rebelled against these twisted overlords but in the last he could not stay his surrogate father the being who had raised him the being that these things called king but then the emperor arrived and did what he could not he slewed the last king of these ancient liches even when he was taken into the imperium as a primark mottorian was always outside of the groups always he was the one to hate the new liberius he hated the xenos he hated even sometimes his brothers not even his father the emperor and this was what made him pass over to horus he was tricked by his subordinate typhus and relented to nurgle to save his men he cursed them too he led the death guard they were the 14th legion lorga the aurelian the 17th primark he was raised on cultures and in a devout culture as with others he took control of his world sometimes by word and philosophy personality and wit but also with the sword if need be he prepared for the coming of the emperor he did not know until later on that he too was a psycho amongst his brothers but he had premonitions of the emperor's coming but he thought this would be a god when the emperor stated the terms of the imperial truth logan nodded his head he agreed outwardly that there were no gods but in his heart he defied the emperor his legion stalled in its advance it was soon discovered the logar had been proclaiming the emperor as a god and it even burned those who would not convert had slaughtered them all the emperor and the thirteenth rebuked gulemon brought lorga to menarchia his perfect city of faith and cathedrals and the emperor made his entire legion kneel and watched as the ultramarines destroyed their city they watched its smokes and lugar was again told he was an error the emperor was not a god but rogar needed one so he was the first primark to form to chaos as his first and most trusted marines of his home planet were already chaos worshippers and they corrupted him and lugar opened the door to the horus heresy he eventually became a demon primark and has spent the last 10 000 years in seclusion in meditation and prayer he led the word bearers they were the 17th legion yagatai khan the warhawk the fifth primark he was always an outsider his sons considered barbarians as was he as he was raised on planes on a world of horseback archers and raiders the tribes of the great plains like the great khans on earth they ward and raided and lived their lives from horseback yet yagatai was a primark and swiftly he grew and he too dominated his world but when he was taken into the imperium he was not always well received his men had been outriders and stalked the dark of the galaxy ahead of the crusade's main thrusts but they were deadly the great khan's fleet was the fastest in the crusade and possibly one of the best commanded and when the heresy came he was courted by both sides neither knew the result until the last but it was not out of love that he chose but out of duty out of honor for he loved his brother horus more than most but he swore an oath of failty to the emperor and it was his hand his men his legion that stood on terror with the imperial fists of only two until the coming of the angel and the blood yakitai was prominent in the scouring despite not beaming to the vengeful spirit with his lord and his brothers he chased and hunted the traitors across the stars until they were forced into the eye of terror then he went on a pathway of revenge he disappeared into the webway after ducary raiders and has not been seen since he led the white scars they were the fifth legion conrad curse the knight hunter the eighth primark and he was insane there was no better way to put it but in fact he was crushed by his own abilities raised on a world of evil he was feral for most of his youth living like a wolf taken from the herd when needed but he abhorred what he saw for nostromo was a nightmare world of might making right where all were all us unfaithless so conrad set out to change that he would bring order and justice but he was indiscriminate any break of the law was to be punished and his savage dream prosecuting his vengeance was designed to instill fear it worked within a scant few years he had cowed the entire planet none dared to resist his regime or he would appear in their homes destroying them publicly but the crime rate was practically zero it was this that he brought to the crusade he took command of his legion and made them into weapons of terror they had already been so but they were only enhanced by his arrival when he met the emperor and some of his brothers on that first day he saw how they would all die and he understood now how he would die the visions he had throughout his life his gift expressed itself with the seeing of others deaths and his own conrad descended into a nightmare as his war went on his legion went with him he was declared rogue even before astavan so he too was easily turned he died at the hands of an assassin sent by the imperium of course he had seen it a million times but he did not resist the strike that ended him he commanded the night lords they were the eighth legion engron the red angel the twelfth primark angron landed on a world of true spite they had gladiatorial rings that killed hundreds and he was large strong aggressive but young so they took him when they cut open his head and inserted an archaic device they dubbed the butcher's nails they destroyed the nerves making the only pleasurable experience combat and pain these nails ground into the brain and inflicted constant intense pain the more when inactive the more inactive the worse it became and they destroyed despite this he grew to adult size and rebelled but he was not what he should have been and they were about to be destroyed in one last battle his rebellion over the emperor arrived and he met with engram then he had him teleported onto his ship and did not permit angrom to save his friends on the planet angro never recovered from this he always hated the emperor as a tyrant he hated the master of mankind and he was easily turned to the side of horus he had truly been looking for an excuse anger on ascended to demon hood and he rampaged across armageddon and even now he prepares his forces in the war to assail real space in the name of the blood guard he led the world eaters they were the 12th legion corvus corax the raven the nineteenth primark corvus corax landed on deliverance an old mining facility but he was raised favorably compared to many of his siblings he was discovered by the emperor and quickly took his lesion and retrained them they would out fight as he did they would master the shadows his forces were effective but the brutal frontal charge so favored by some was not his choice it brought him into direct confrontation with horus but this was as nothing compared to the betrayal of estevan the dropsite massacre his legion his sons were destroyed he and so few others escaped he tried to rebuild his legion so they could fight again he went to the emperor and was gifted insight and information he accelerated the process but the alpha legion struck again and again his sons were dead or mutated warped and twisted he joined in the scouring but when it was over the dower son of the emperor could not live with his actions could not allow the betrayals to stand so he went into the warp and has been hunting for the demon primox ever since and now he is akin to a thing of horror himself for he has changed within that dire realm he led the raven guard there was a 19th legion redacted the 11th primark was expunged from the imperial records his statue was taken down by order of the emperor but there are rumors some say that he is not a dead but incarcerated below the imperial pass on terror and that the custodies guard him even now alfarious oh my god the twins the 20th and 21st primarks it is not firmly known where the twins landed if they were separated if they remained on terror if they were captured by malign xenos the tales are all a rules smoke to prevent mirrors shining a direct light on any fact about these primarks they were versed in espionage terror tactics fermenting insurgencies counter-intelligence infowar and few understood them some of the other legions and primarks derided their doctrines cowardly inhumane of the coming all were used to describe the brothers alpharius and omargon and their tactics they were approached by the cabal a secret sect of races that fought against chaos and the cabal tried to give them a choice they could side with the emperor but this would end in a dark future and the likely victory of chaos or they could side with horus in his heresy and help him win to defeat the emperor and then humanity would consume itself in horus madness and sorrow at his destruction of everything he had made and chaos would lose in the end it is said that alvaria sided with horus and brought the lesion into the side of chaos but that omigod may have remained loyal we may never know the truth one was killed by rogul dawn most believe it was arfarius but two this day the alpha legion charged into battle shouting for the emperor none can predict if they are servants of chaos or humanity or neither alphareus and omegon led the alpha legion they were the twentieth legion no matter what you do today do try to make some time for fun two glue

Channel: Baldermort's Guide to Warhammer

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Keywords: Warhammer 40000, Warhammer Lore, Warhammer History, Warhammer Stories, THE PRIMARCH PROJECT IN WARHAMMER 40000, Games Workshop, Horus, Lorgar, Fulgrim, Dorn, Leman Russ, Vulkan, Perturabo, Alpharius, Sanguinius, Ferus Manus, Magnus, Jaghatai, Lore, Mortarion, Angron Lore, Angron, Lion El Johnson, Corvus Corax, Guilliman, The Emperor Lore, Perpetuals Lore, Warhammer 40K lore, Baldemort, Guide to Warhammer, Warhammer for beginners, Basic Warhammer Lore, Yo momma, Audio drama

Id: pNslxFW4iuA

Length: 92min 53sec (5573 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 16 2022